Protector of the Flight

by Robin D. Owens

  Seeing, feeling her home, was illuminating. The land rejoiced that she’d returned, Sang of her—as did the house and the barn and the stables. As her father did not. The man was a dry stick, whatever emotion he had focused on his new wife. A woman that was a small flickering candle flame to Calli’s incandescent star.

  What was the most incredible thing was that Calli needed him. Here at her home as much as, or more than, in Lladrana. The man and woman stared at his different skin and hair and features, and he finally recognized the small hum of wariness that had been in Calli’s Song from the moment they’d met. She was not Lladranan and every person there—except Alexa and Marian—had stared at her. No wonder she strove to please. No wonder she cherished the other two Exotiques.

  After breakfast, they went back up to her room and she headed straight to a low wooden cabinet and opened it, pulling out a small brown tooled-leather bag. She flipped through it, face pale. Then she just shook her head and met Marrec’s eyes. She lifted the bag. “This is a purse. It’s a standard joke of our culture that no woman leaves her home without her purse.” Her smile trembled on her lips. “But here it is. And though I think Dora went through it and took my money, everything else is still here.” She shook her head. “My father…” She lapsed into silence, but Marrec knew her thought. Her father had not cared enough about her disappearance to wonder about the bag.

  She opened a panel in the back of the cabinet door and took out a white paper envelope, looked at a stack of green pieces of paper. Dividing it in half, she gave him some and told him it was zhiv and explained the denominations. Then she studied him, hard, before asking again in simple English whether he wanted to ride to town.

  He had agreed, but thought she meant they’d ride horses. Instead, it was in a wheeled metal vehicle that sent any Song he could hear of nature or even between himself and his mate into random notes. With white knuckles and stiffened body he suffered through the minutes until they arrived. He was out of the “car” in an instant. Mastering the door handle had been easy.

  There weren’t a lot of people on the white walks near the buildings or in the streets.

  “It’s still early yet, but the mercantile will be open,” Calli said, then repeated the phrase in English.

  Yet everyone in town stared—at his clothes, at his face. Calli had told him that this was a small town but the center of local government, “county seat.” It was as large as Castleton, but appeared much, much stranger. The first thing they did was go into a shop and buy clothes for him. That morning Calli dressed in some of her old clothes. He changed behind a curtain and Calli bundled his dreeth leathers into a bag of thin, slick, noisy composition.

  The only thing he liked was the hat and boots. He’d admired Roy’s and Will’s hats and boots and was glad to get his own. The hat was gray and sturdy, the boots black with intricate white stitching.

  They walked down the street. But Calli stopped at a huge glass shop window. “This is new.”

  Inside showed a multitude of colorful items, all glittery and colorful except for a thin, white scarflike wrap with gleaming silver beads and silky fringe at the ends of the sleeves and the hem.

  Calli sighed, shook her head. “Who would put a world import shop in Bellem?”

  Her gaze once again shifted to the scarf-robe, pristine amongst the bold reds, blues and gold.

  Marrec gestured at the door. “In.”

  “No.” She met his gaze steadily. “We don’t know what the future will bring. We may need all our assets.”

  His jaw clenched. Just as in Lladranan, here the assets were Calli’s assets. That fact had gnawed at him, even though she’d let him handle the zhiv.

  But she read him like no one else, and stepped closer to him. “Marrec, I’m so glad you’re with me. I’m so glad you’ve always been with me. I couldn’t have—You have helped me so much and continue to do so.” She brushed his cheek with a kiss. They stood there for a while, and people walked around them, giving them curious glances.

  The moment crystallized for him, the look of her and everything else in this strange world, the smells, the way the breeze slid against him, the underlying Song. He knew that somehow if he was trapped on this place forever, he could survive.

  Then they went to an imposing building where Calli wanted to check on the ownership of the ranch.

  Marrec decided to wait in the corridor. The more he heard the language, and from a variety of throats, the more he understood it. Many concepts might be lacking, but if the people were talking about something simple, “kids,” “lunch,” “horses,” Marrec could winkle out the meaning.

  A young couple came in holding hands. The man wore strange black-and-white garb, the woman a long white dress. Smiles greeted and followed the couple as they walked along the hall. Marrec frowned. An image tickled his memory and he patiently tracked it down to something he’d seen in Calli’s mind during the first few minutes of the heady rush of the bloodbond. It wasn’t a real recollection of hers, but a dream, a visualization. Of herself wearing such a gown. The image had had a lot of yearning associated with it. She’d wanted it badly.

  He rose and sauntered after the couple. They turned into a doorway, and he heard the young man’s excited voice. “We have an appointment with the Honorable Judge James.” The woman giggled nervously and said, “He’s going to marry us!”

  Marrec walked closer, until he could see into the doorway. A gray-haired woman stood behind a desk, smiling. “I can see that,” she said and looked down at a book with very white pages, little lines and handwriting. “You’re his second couple today. John Anderson and Rebecca Schmitt, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you bring anyone else?”

  “Witnesses? Uh, no!” the man said. He shared an anxious glance with the woman, who clutched the little bunch of flowers so tightly that Marrec saw a drop of green juice hit the floor.

  “You aren’t required witnesses for the marriage,” the woman soothed. “But it’s nice to share the occasion, and we have a lovely marriage certificate as a memento in that case. No charge.” The young man swallowed and sent glances all around, then caught sight of Marrec.

  “Uh, sir, could you…uh, we’d ’preciate you joining us to witness the marriage, I mean, see us married.”

  The repeated word of “marriage” made the definition finally sound in his mind. Bonding. Pairbonding. The man was wearing two sets of long sleeves, so Marrec didn’t think that it would be a bloodbond. This might be interesting. He used one of the few words he knew. “Yes.”

  The door to another chamber opened and they went in. A man Marrec’s age glanced at the couple, and stared a few seconds at him as the older woman closed the door behind them. Then the man inclined his head. Marrec already knew people of authority didn’t have streaks in their hair to show it here, but he sensed the man’s status all the same.

  The ceremony was interesting. And short. It only took a few minutes and Marrec listened hard to the vows, trying to set every word in his memory. This is what he and Calli would have done if they’d both been of this world.

  Marrec didn’t know how to sign his name in English. Something he’d have to ask Calli. So he took the writing instrument awkwardly in his hand and signed in Lladranan. The young man shook the judge’s hand, then held his out to Marrec. Marrec did the same. The young woman threw her arms around him and stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Thank you. Thank you!”

  He said what the others had. “You’re very welcome.”

  “This doesn’t look like Japanese or Chinese or Korean,” the older woman said, studying the official parchment.

  “No,” said the judge. “More like Arabic, but not that, either.”

  The bride shifted. “Can we have it now?”

  “Of course.” The judge handed her the paper. She grabbed her husband’s hand and they hurried out.

  The older man studied Marrec. Uneasiness pricked his nerves and he said what Calli had told him. “I’m with Call
i Torcher.”

  “The Rocking Bar T? I hadn’t heard she was back,” said the woman.

  “Yes,” Marrec said.

  The man considered him another moment, offered his hand. “Good job.”

  Marrec shook his hand and said, “Thank you,” then bowed and left.

  Calli was waiting for him outside the room she’d gone in. When she saw him, her expression eased. “There you are. Is everything okay?”

  Since he’d heard the latter English sentence even on Lladrana, Marrec said, “Yes.”

  She linked arms with him, as if to make sure he wouldn’t stray. “Good.”

  “Yes.”

  Her manner was restrained. He sensed she didn’t have nearly as nice a time as he’d had. Must have been the distressing news she’d anticipated. But they didn’t go back to the ranch. Instead, they sat on a bench in a well-groomed green area that looked like the squares townsfolk made in Castleton.

  “Dora moved in fast. From what I heard from Roy, she’d only been in town a couple of weeks before she met Dad. They were married—and she was named co-owner of the ranch—after another two weeks.” Calli made a disgusted noise, then blinked hard. “I never would have thought he’d fall for a gold digger.”

  “Gold digger?”

  “A greedy woman only out for what she can get.”

  Marrec put his arm around Calli, scooted her close. “There seems to be affection between them. I don’t think she will run out on him.” He’d heard violent whispers between Calli’s father and his new wife—all about how Calli’s mother had left and then how Calli had “run out.”

  “No. Her life isn’t too hard. Beautiful land. Adoring husband. Future for her son. After I get out of the way.”

  Marrec stroked her hair, her lovely, lovely hair, more common here than in Lladrana but still unexpected to him. He touched her face, turned it so he could see her eyes. Damp blue eyes. “You have an adoring man.”

  Her chin wobbled. Her eyes closed, then opened, and tears trailed down her cheeks. “Thank you. Thank you for being here with me. It would have been so hard on my own.” She brushed his lips with hers. “Thank you for being you.”

  He frowned.

  She smiled. “Thank you for being the kind of man you are. Strong. Supportive.”

  “Adoring.”

  Again she closed her eyes, shook her head, then settled into the curve of his arm. They sat together, thigh by thigh, and Marrec made no suggestion to leave this place. Instead, he closed his eyes, too, and listened. He heard the babble of English, footsteps slow and brisk, but beyond that, he could hear the Song of this world. So rich. So vibrant. So strong. Unlike Amee’s.

  He was glad Calli hadn’t said they’d had the same simple life that Dora had found. That they would have it again—somewhere, somehow. They’d fight and fight again to return to Lladrana, but what happened when years passed? Would they adopt more children, different children? A shaft of pain so deep lanced him at the whisper of the thought that he cast it aside. Calli wrapped her arm around his waist.

  They sat for a while, until the peace of the land infused them and their own human problems diminished. Calli sniffed and disentangled herself from him.

  He asked what he’d wanted to know all morning. “Calli, am I your husband?”

  Her smile was slow and beautiful. “Yes. Yes, you definitely are.”

  They sat for a few minutes in silence and he found the world beautiful.

  She straightened and kissed him on the cheek. Determination was back in her eyes. “The bank is opening. I want to check on my money, see how much I have and get records for the last few years.” Her lips twisted. “For my personal account and the ranch’s. It will be interesting to see if my father took me off the ranch’s account.” She took a deep breath. “If he did—well, I’ll leave it for now, but will come back if we don’t get what we want. Will you wait here?”

  He sensed her roiling emotions. She didn’t want to believe that they would have to stay in this world, but she was planning as if they had to.

  “Yes,” he said, tried more words. “I’ll wait here.”

  With a smile and a nod, she walked to another stone building. He waited until she was inside before he hurried to the shop with the white robe.

  That afternoon, Calli and Marrec stood on the hillside, hands joined. She smiled up at him and took a deep breath. “Here goes.”

  Together they placed the palms of their opposite hands to the crystal. A jolt of electricity sizzled through her. She hissed out a breath and kept her hand flat.

  38

  “Alexa!” Calli and Marrec shouted in unison, mind and heart and Song.

  Nothing.

  “Marian!”

  No response.

  Calli clunked her head against the crystal. The hard, unyielding crystal. “I guess this proves that it only opens when the Marshalls do a Summoning ritual.” Her voice was thick.

  “I guess so.”

  “How will we ever know? If we go away—and we’ll have to—how will we—”

  “Shh.” He took her in his arms. “Let’s not worry about that now.”

  She snuffled, cleared her throat. “All right. Let’s not cross that bridge until we come to it.”

  “A good saying. We’re Chevaliers. We won’t quit fighting for the life we want.” His lips twitched up in a smile. “We’re Chevaliers, though I haven’t spent as much time as I wanted with those fascinating horses here. They are much more intelligent and sensitive than the ones on Lladrana. English I am beginning to understand. Equine I still know.” He took her hand and led her down the path. “Earth Equine has additional nuances not known to their kind on Lladrana, and not used by volarans. Another, quite beautiful, language.”

  That notion distracted her. “You’re right.”

  “I also now know why you use so much body language and cues—the effort to speak mind to mind is considerable.”

  “Also true. I wonder if it will get easier, or if there’s some way to boost it.”

  “A question worthy of Marian.”

  She tensed behind him, realized she couldn’t go on ignoring references to their life then. “Thank you.” But they both lapsed into silence until they reached the corral where Will and Roy were with the horses. To Calli’s amazement, she actually thought she saw relief in Will’s eyes. The horses were greener than he’d anticipated when he’d bought them, and neither one of the men were good trainers.

  Between herself and Marrec, they had the horses trusting them within an hour.

  “Looks like Calli’s been teaching you that natural horsemanship deal,” Will said.

  “Yes. She is an exceptional woman.”

  Roy narrowed his eyes. “I’ve heard of that natural stuff. Never paid much attention to it, but you guys…” He shook his head. “What a display of horsemanship. Horsewomanship. Those horses actually follow you around now.”

  Marrec bowed and said, “Thank you.”

  Calli said, “These are the basics. I’ll have to brush up on my skills to work them to be cutters.” Then she heard what she’d said, caught the glance Roy and her dad exchanged, and rushed on, “Just for a little while.” And felt stupid.

  Taking her hand, Marrec lifted her fingers—which smelled like horse—and kissed them. “Until we move on. I need a shower.”

  “Yes,” Calli said.

  While they cleaned up and changed for supper, clouds rolled in, the wind whipped up and the sky darkened to leaden gray. Summertime in the Rockies.

  Dinner was a stiff and silent meal. Dora had poked and poked at Calli until Roy turned red and refused to look at Calli or Marrec, clearly unsettled by his mother’s rude behavior. The older woman finally asked point-blank of Marrec what his and Calli’s plans were. He looked at her coolly, then replied that they were still considering.

  At that point, Calli pulled out Marrec’s new wallet from his equally new jeans and put a hundred-dollar bill on the table. “This is for our room and board for the rest
of the week.” Surely they’d be back on Lladrana by then.

  Roy choked on a bite of food, her dad’s expression went stony, that she was paying for hospitality that should have been free. It was an insult, but Calli reckoned they’d be mercenary enough to take the money and ignore any hurt feelings. Dora burst into tears and fled upstairs. Calli and Marrec remained behind but didn’t speak.

  When the storm rolled over them, she could almost think it was there to relieve her own tension. The sky was darker, the network of lightning huger than she’d ever seen. She’d heard of boiling clouds, but had never believed in the phrase until now. The wild wind puffed up curves of black clouds then tore them apart. She shouldn’t be standing at the large plate-glass windows of the living room.

  Beside her, Marrec said, “Beautiful.”

  “Yes.” She frowned. Both her father and Roy were upstairs—with the hundred bucks—soothing Dora. “I think we should check the stables. Let’s make sure the horses are fine.” She pulled the curtains to protect the room from flying glass if the window broke. She’d look in the storage shed to see if her dad still had large pieces of plywood there.

  A crack of thunder, the pelleting of rain against the window, had her hurrying to the mudroom. She pulled on her slicker and boots in record time, while Marrec took her father’s coat.

  They ran through a pummeling deluge to the stable, grinned at each other when they were dry. Together, they checked each stall. The horses were nervous, but a touch of the hand, a murmured word soothed them.

  Calli opened the door wide enough for her and Marrec to look out at the downpour.

  “Let’s wait a little!” he shouted over the pounding rain.

  She nodded, then glanced up at the hillside. Lightning struck the hill again and again as if drawn to it.

  The crystal! Their way back home!