They flew over her estate…and all the volarans, including Dark Lance, rose to accompany her…. Calli? came Marrec’s startled mindcall at the sight.
I am Summoned to Volaran Valley.
She felt surprise from him, a flash of envy, and she was human enough to smile. I’ll be home tonight.
They don’t need you for the expedition planning?
No.
I’ll see you later.
Volaran Valley was gigantic, an oval crater-like depression in the continent, ringed with mountains and showing a rich verdancy of grasses and flowers. The wild herd, though, was smaller than she expected. She circled down, sighing as the kiss of volaran Power—a magical shield—slid against her skin.
When she landed, a young mare trotted up, stared at her, swiveled her ears and dipped her head in greeting.
Salutations, Calli said in Equine.
Welcome.
She dismounted from Thunder and staggered. The beauty of the valley itself was near perfection. She was drunk on volaran Song.
The herd circled her. No, not as large as expected…especially if this was all of them. Narrowing her eyes, she scrutinized them. The younger ones seemed smaller than the older ones and there were slight signs of inbreeding—color, conformation, the closeness of one Song to another.
The alpha stallion, a compact, muscular black, came up to her and she felt the strongest mental probe she’d ever had from him.
You were brought here to tell us of this Flight to the Dark’s nest, as the stallion projected the concept in Equine—a huge black hole with a writhing tangle of snakes—a shudder ran through the mass of the herd. Younger volarans flung their heads back, rolling their eyes, and galloped away. When they came back, they stood at the edge of the crowd around her, protected from her and the dire news she brought by their elders.
The young ones have not fought any horrors yet, a calmer, more resonant mind-tone said. Calli sensed it was from a mare, the alpha probably, but she didn’t step forward. She left Calli to the one running on testosterone.
The people believe this is your task, the stallion said.
Calli unfastened her waterskin from her side, unplugged it, swigged a little cool, minty water, then said, “Yes.”
The stallion nodded, a larger gesture than Calli expected. As if he spoke loudly to someone who didn’t know his language well. It irritated her, but perhaps her mastery of Equine wasn’t as good as she thought it was. And perhaps she should get over her nerves at the beauty of the scene and pay attention to the visual cues he was giving her. Concentrate on the alpha male. Yeah, that might be good if she didn’t want to get kicked.
Ears flicking, the stallion eyed her. We, too, believe this is your task.
Her mouth dried. She bowed. Thank you for that information. How can I do it?
Trust yourself and Thunder and the Song.
In other words, he didn’t know or wasn’t telling.
There is something else… said the female voice.
Yes?
The Song has been unclear, but you smell so good and look so good. A small, older white mare came forward, extended a long tongue and licked Calli’s arm. Taste good. She tilted her head one way, then the other. Your Song…it makes me want to Sing.
Calli simply closed her eyes.
The ambience of the valley sank into her, ancient Songs imbuing the mountainsides, the vitality of the winged horses. When she opened her eyelids, only the mare remained with her, and Thunder was eating and watching a few feet away.
Stay as long as you want, return whenever you want, the mare said.
Thank you.
The mare fluttered her black-etched wings. We would all like to greet you. To smell. To touch and be touched.
Ayes.
Some would like to fly with you.
Calli pulled her handkerchief out of her pocket and wiped her eyes.
She spent the day with the volarans. This was the one essential task that she must fulfill, she thought, to bond with each of the wild ones, know their character. Sing with them. Fly with them.
It was after dark before she left. Wholly content.
Her pleasant mood was shattered as she began the descent to her home. Don’t bother to land, Marrec said. The Marshalls want you back at camp. The expedition to the Dark’s island leaves at dawn.
She hesitated, but before she could insist Thunder alight, he shot off toward the encampment.
33
Calli shared tea with Alexa before dawn, letting her squire pack for her. Since her eyes felt rolled in dirt from sleeplessness, she was glad for his help.
“Everyone wants to survey the island.” Alexa grinned.
Calli’s heart jumped. She didn’t. This was not a beautiful flight with her volaran. This was a flyover of the enemy’s headquarters. An enemy that had been sending unlimited monsters across the borders of Lladrana for centuries.
“Good. That’s good,” she mumbled.
“But we’re limiting it to twenty. The strongest Marshalls and Chevaliers. We had trials while you were gone yesterday.” Alexa slid a look at her. “Volaran Valley pretty cool?”
“Nothing in two worlds is as cool as Volaran Valley,” Calli said sincerely.
Alexa sniffed, looked at her from the corner of her eye. “If you’d been here yesterday, we could’ve put up some barrels. You’d have won.”
Calli laughed. “I guess so.”
Sobering, Alexa said, “Marian and Jaquar are coming, too. I don’t know how many others of the Tower Community might show up—probably a few now and then along the way, bringing and taking reports and suchlike.”
The interlude of peace was over. Calli glanced around the camp. “We’re leaving this here?”
“Yes. Packing lightweight camping equipment only.” She pulled a face. “I never cared for camping. Hiking, yes. Camping, no. I hate bugs.”
“I can do that. I traveled more than one rodeo circuit. Did about sixty-five rodeos one year.”
Alexa stared. “You must have been on the road all the time.”
“Yes.” And she wouldn’t do it again.
Clearing her throat, Alexa said, “Will Marrec be coming?”
Calli’s smile was bitter. “Despite his shocked and loving attitude a couple of days ago, we are currently not speaking. I don’t think so.”
Alexa rubbed her face. “The, um, orders to be here this morning, huh?”
“I’d say that was the last straw, yes.”
“It’s only for a little while. One task.”
“One more task. One big task. That could kill me, and he’d die, too, right?”
“Oh. Yeah. I’m sorry.” Since Alexa’s hair stood straight out from her head with Power and tension, Calli guessed she meant it. Alexa shook her head. “It’s like riding a tiger. And I don’t guess I ever knew what that really meant ’til I came here. Rare that you get any breaks.”
“Ayes.” Calli put her teacup down and stretched her aching body. She’d flown with about twenty wild volarans in the valley the day before and every muscle ached. Concentrating on her breathing, she let her mind rest. “But even though Marrec and I aren’t getting along, I have him, a wonderful—sometimes—jerk of my own.”
Alexa snorted a laugh.
“And beautiful land of my own.”
“And great children,” Alexa said quietly.
Calli stared at her. “Do you mind not—”
Alexa shook her head. “No, not really. I’m pretty much obsessed with fighting the Dark. And Bastien. Well, not fighting Bastien, but being with Bastien. You know what I mean.”
“Yeah.”
“Leaving in ten minutes!” Thealia’s Powerful voice rolled over the camp.
“Guess we’d better get along,” Alexa said.
“Guess so.”
Even with Distance Magic, it took the Chevaliers and volarans time to fly northward. Marrec did not accompany them. Oh, he made the first couple of camps—as many as four, and Calli went home to vis
it after the first couple of camps—then the distance was too far. The skies outside Lladrana seemed heavier, as if Amee kept most of the magic in the world concentrated in Lladrana. And the Dark’s existence and its use of the area—breeding camps for the horrors—layered an additional danger.
Three weeks later the expedition camped on a gentle sweep of land that curved closest to the island. They weren’t in Lladrana anymore, hadn’t been since the first couple of days, but this land had always been claimed by the Dark. No one lived here.
Though it was cool so far north—maybe like Greenland or Iceland—the freshwater inland sea could have been dotted with settlements. All was barren of human life, and had very skittish, very limited animal life. The Chevaliers and Marshalls mostly subsisted on food they brought with them. No way could an army come this route. Not even all the Marshalls and Chevaliers who partnered with volarans.
A small strike force, maybe, and Calli nearly choked on her dry bread as she reckoned who’d be the main part of that strike force. Exotiques. Six in the next two years. It made sense.
The passage of time had crept up on her, the plans she tried to forget, and the next day was the flyover of the island.
Her mouth flattened. Even with the strongest steed, the greatest merged will of man and volaran, Marrec wouldn’t be able to reach her—them—in time to join her. All that concern of his for her back at the camp, and he was not here to support her. It was like a festering sliver. Nevertheless, she requested Tuckerinal take a message to him. Maybe with feycoocu magic, Marrec could arrive in time.
He’d want to know if she was putting her life in danger, if he was going to die at the same time. Morbidly she wondered how that worked, if fate caused an accident to happen, like a beam falling on him, or he just gave out of heart failure or something.
And didn’t that sound whiny and self-pitying and depressing? But all the time they were on the journey, her skin had itched. Actually, under her skin had itched, as if her nerves were tweaked every moment or so.
Sleep had been elusive. Often the most she got was when she grabbed some in the saddle in flight, but she, like everyone, bedded down early and quietly tonight.
Once again they rose before dawn. Calli shivered as her squire helped her on with her dreeth leathers and mail. They could only pray that whatever the Dark’s nest threw at them would not be lethal. They hoped for stealth. Whether they would succeed in that, she didn’t know.
Expression serious, Alexa walked over to Calli. “You aren’t going with us.”
“What!”
Alexa let out a breath. “We—” she gestured to Bastien and Marian and Jaquar who were clumped together a few feet away “—don’t think that this expedition will be successful. We think the Dark knows us all, has a force field that none of us can penetrate. You’re our secret weapon. So we want you to stay back, just in case.”
“Why don’t I ride with you and just go on if the rest of you can’t?”
“Because we’ll attract attention. They might mobilize, we don’t want you going in alone after we’ve alerted the nest as a sitting duck—volaran Pair.”
Calli gulped. “Good thinking.”
“We can save you for later, send you in alone as a surprise. Tomorrow morning. Just as the sun rises.” She appeared as dubious as Calli felt about that statement.
“Okay, I’ll stay.” She drew off her gauntlets.
Alexa smiled. “Right. Keep the home fires burning.” She grinned. “Or make breakfast for our return, or something.”
“I’m sure I’ll occupy myself. Maybe rereading the Lorebook of Exotique Alexa.”
“It’s very entertaining.” Alexa smiled. “Can’t go wrong.”
“And the Lorebook of Exotique Marian.”
“Not at all as fun.” Alexa kissed her cheek. “See you later.”
“Bye.” Calli sat under a stunted tree and watched them fly away.
A couple of hours later, the Marshalls and Chevaliers straggled in and fed the campfires. Calli knew from their faces that they’d had no luck—not the Marshalls, nor the Circlets, nor anyone else. Alexa was the only one who showed any emotion beyond weariness. She strode into the circle around the largest bonfire where they all congregated. “It was just like everyone said,” she grumbled. “I couldn’t get through.”
Marian frowned. “They must be able to set specific spells against us.” She shivered a little. “I was there, so they know my…let’s say DNA pattern…for simplicity.”
Alexa folded down to a cross-legged position, grabbed a spitted bird they’d saved for this meal, swore at the heat and munched. Around a bite, she said, “Yeah, I’ve always considered DNA the utmost in simplicity.”
“Smart-ass,” Calli said. That phrase meant the same in Lladranan and English. She tried to keep the tone light, as if it wasn’t a problem that she’d be the only one flying over the island tomorrow morning.
“But where would they have gotten your pattern, Alexa?” Marian asked.
“Dunno.” Alexa frowned. “Maybe the sangvile that attacked me. But, no, we killed that one.”
“We’ve been operating with the belief that the horrors aren’t telepathic, but have a group mind—what one knows, all know,” Marian said.
“Scary thought,” Calli said.
“Yes,” Marian agreed, “but I think it’s right.” She stared at Alexa. “They have your pattern somehow.”
“Looks like.” Alexa shrugged. “I’ve been here longer than you two. Fought in many battles. If one of the beasts or something was on the battlefield to, uh, take samples from me, not a problem. If the Dark bases its pattern on a DNA level, only a drop or two of blood would be needed.” She ran her forefinger down the scar on her cheek.
“Blood magic,” Calli murmured. “Sounds Powerful.”
“It is.” Marian glanced away from the fire and into the sky where the sun had just set.
“I’ve fought, too,” Calli said.
“But you haven’t lost as much blood or bone.”
“None of us have lost bone, thank the Song,” Alexa said.
Calli leaned forward to tap her fist on the end of a log.
Marian stared at her.
Her face warmer than just from the heat of the fire, Calli said, “Superstitious, knock on wood.”
“Huh,” Alexa said and did the same. “Never know what magic works here, do you?” She aimed a smile at Marian. “Simple charms might work, couldn’t they?”
“A simple protective charm to ward off danger. Maybe,” Marian said, and rapped a piece of wood near her. “The old Master probably got some blood from me, too.”
“Old Master?” Calli asked.
Marian cleared her throat. “There is a definite power struggle for the position as intermediary between the Dark and the invading monsters.”
“Not exactly a job I’d want,” Alexa said. Then scowled at Marian and Calli. “And no lawyer jokes.”
“That never occurred to me,” Calli said.
Marian kept silent.
“Huh,” Alexa said, then turned her attention back to the food. “I really could go for some coal-baked potatoes.”
Groaning, Marian said, “Why did you remind me? I love potatoes. There are none here.”
“’Cause you were thinking of lawyer jokes,” Alexa said.
Calli stifled a chuckle.
They ate and grew quiet. Whatever bravado they’d mustered until now vanished.
Thealia stalked around the camp. “We are tired, our plan futile. But there must be something we can do to help Calli.”
Her Shield leaned on his quarterstaff and whispered in her ear. Her face cleared, eyes brightened and she nodded sharply. “Ayes. Listen.” Her voice projected over the camp and everyone turned to her. “We will place Calli in the center of the camp, then initiate a Ritual. Of Security. Of Peace. We—and especially Calli—will rest in a strengthening trance all day. The feycoocus will guard us.” She bent a hard look at them. “They assure us that we will
be safe.”
Murmurs and nods followed the pronouncement.
Almost reluctantly, Calli took her place in the center of the circle, as did Thunder, watched as people joined hands, and the volarans clumped behind the humans.
Then she slept.
Alexa shook her awake. “Time to get up.”
The knowledge of what she had to do chilled Calli. She dressed in dreeth leathers and armor, helmet and gauntlets as she had done the day before. Took crystal recording stars. She didn’t eat.
Far too soon she was mounting Thunder for the flight.
34
They lifted off and soared, rising ever higher, and even though Calli knew she flew into certain danger to scout the island and map it, the tension she’d felt at camp dropped away.
She was flying.
She was free.
She had all the magic of a dawning day surrounding her.
Let’s go, she said to Thunder, firmly inside his mind, holding fear at bay.
He sent her a wave of love.
Truly, she was blessed.
They flew over the sea between the continent and the island. The enormous island of only one mountain.
The island that was really the nest, the home of the Dark that preyed upon Lladrana. Calli rolled her shoulders, set her teeth, this was it. Her true task. Once this was over, no more pressure.
Just do it, get it done, go back to her real life with Marrec and her children. Raising and training horses and volarans, making a family.
Even though her real life included incredible things that she’d never imagined.
They drew closer to the great mountain spearing out of the sea, snow and ice near the bottom, rising to black-encrusted lava and glowing red around the lip. Light and heat pulsed from it in ghastly intervals as if it was the Dark itself.
All the hair on her body prickled, her skin quivered. A susurration rose like water dripping on a red-hot surface and Calli’s heart lurched. The Dark’s heart? The sound liquefied her bowels.
She concentrated on viewing the mountain. The crags showed folds and crevices where Calli was sure evil horrors lurked. Dreeths, small and fire breathing, or large and vicious. Farther down the mountain black mixed with the white of snow and ice.
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