The thunder of hooves came closer and closer.
Then stopped.
Her eyelids flew open. A volaran was inches from her—face-to-face. She stumbled back and was shoved to her feet by a long head hard in her back. “Uhn!”
All around her volarans laughed, mentally, rolling their eyes, and making noises that had bubbles coming from their noses and drool dripping from their mouths. Disgusting.
Marian laughed, too.
Alexa was about to huff out some comment, when the horses parted in front of her, forming an aisle for a small gray mare to glide toward them. The mare lowered, then raised her head. Well done, Exotiques. Standing your ground.
“I guess she’s the alpha. They have alphas, don’t they?” Alexa squeezed Marian’s hand.
I am Lead flier, the mare said, coming up a little too close. Alexa figured volaran personal space and American-woman personal space was different.
“Right,” she said. “Good.”
You are concerned that we are not Summoning the Volaran Exotique and the Lead Mind-speaker back.
“Lead Mind-speaker is Marrec,” Marian clarified.
The mare nodded. Indeed.
Alexa wanted to put her hand on her baton, but instead she lifted her chin. “Ayes. We are concerned that you do not Summon Calli and Marrec.”
And you spread that concern to Gray-Clouds-That-May-Rain-Or-Thunder-Or-Clear and One-Who-Will-Be-The-Dark-Lance-At-Evil and other younglings. She bent her neck back and forth around the circle, scolding in her gaze. Some of the volarans rustled their wings and sidled back.
The names made Alexa realize just how out of her element she was. “Oh, boy.”
I will answer your questions.
Marian cleared her throat, and when she spoke it was with words and mind. “We know that Calli had a…portal to and from Exotique Terre.”
The mare swished her tail. The crystal mountain. The Singer’s crystal. It has been destroyed—from Exotique Terre.
Alexa stepped forward into the mare’s space, narrowed her predator eyes on the front of her face and looked at the prey eyes on the side of the head. “Destroyed! Is Calli—”
We would know if the Volaran Exotique and the Lead Mind-speaker were harmed, even on such a backward place as Exotique Terre. They are well.
“Backward?” murmured Marian.
Exotique Terre has no volarans.
Now Alexa cleared her throat. “Good point.”
“You know of the crystal portal?” asked Marian.
Of course. The crystal portal shaped the one who would become the Volaran Exotique.
Alexa knew that the crystal had been on Calli’s ranch. How many others could it have worked upon? How did it work? She decided to let Marian consider those questions. For her, this was getting way too mystical.
“And you said it’s destroyed.” Marian turned in place and Alexa followed her, looking at the herd. “It’s my understanding that when the Snap comes, a person is returned if they are not willing to live in Lladrana.”
The mare lifted her lips to show her gums. It looked like a smile—sort of—to Alexa. Maybe a snide one.
Exotique Circlet, you proved that wrong yourself. Or did you? You found a way back…if the yearning and the need is great enough…
“Back to ruby slipper time,” Alexa muttered. “Just give us the bottom line. Are you folks…uh…volarans going to Summon them back or not?”
Perhaps at the proper time we will form a circle and Sing.
“When—” Marian started.
With a quick turn, the mare reversed. She kicked up clods of dirt that landed on their boots, then cantered away. The volaran circle surrounding them broke up into clumps. Alexa waited until she thought they were all out of earshot before saying, “Well, this was a futile trip.”
“Not necessarily,” Marian said. Alexa thought she meant to sound calm, but a tightness around her eyes gave away her irritation. “Negative data can always be informative.”
“Huh. Sounded more like a ‘Patience, grasshopper’ situation to me.”
Marian laughed, flung her arm around Alexa’s shoulders and hugged. “Good one.”
“Thanks.” Alexa let out a relieved sigh, stroked her baton and looked around. “But it wasn’t a total waste of time. This place is absolutely beautiful. Think we can squeeze out a little more time to walk and observe, maybe talk to the anim—volarans? There are a lot more here, appearing a little different than those at the Castle.” She took off at a good clip to the sunny side of the valley toward a bunch of volarans who raised their wings, then moved off. Marian kept up.
“I think it depends upon the volarans,” Marian said.
Pounding hooves attracted Alexa’s attention. Their mounts were running toward them. “Doesn’t look like we’re real welcome.” A wistful sigh escaped her. “Calli said in her notes that she was invited to stay as long as she wanted, right? And to return whenever she wished?”
“Correct. But neither of us are Calli.”
“Got that right.” Still, just because, and just for fun, Alexa unsnapped her baton sheath, took out the jade baton and threw it up into the sky. She watched it sparkle as it tumbled end over end, the symbol of her life, herself, here in Lladrana. Caught it with a light smack in her palm. “You got that right. But we have our own places.”
“Indeed we do.”
“And if they don’t get Calli back, we will. Somehow.”
“That’s right.”
Bastien and Jaquar were waiting for them when they descended toward the Landing Field. Actually, the men were two figures separate from a large group. Alexa noticed the colors of no less than twenty Marshall Pairs, and high-ranking Chevaliers such as Lady Hallard and Faucon Creusse. Oddly enough, Luthan wasn’t there. Alexa reckoned that was significant, but decided to let Marian deduce the significance. The Singer already knew the results? Had known before they’d left? Closemouthed old biddy.
Bastien had a certain tilt to his head. “Oh, man, he’s gonna make me pay,” she said to Marian.
Marian sighed. “Jaquar’s not too happy with me, either.”
“I’ll offer him a sex game. One sex game.”
Marian sent her a startled glance. “A sex game?”
“Beats long, long minutes of tickling.”
“Is that so?” She looked thoughtful. “Sex-game payment works for you.”
Melty heat warmed Alexa. “Oh, yeah.”
Marian nodded decisively, a smile hovering on her mouth. “I think I’ll give it a try.”
They touched down. Bastien lifted her from the saddle, kept his hands on her waist. “What did you learn?”
“Not much.” Alexa rubbed her butt. “It’s been a long ride. Marian will lay it all out better than I can.”
“Thanks, former lawyer,” Marian said. Definitely a long ride if Marian was being sarcastic.
“Alexa…” Bastien started.
She tapped her forefinger three times over his heart. One sex game of your choice.
He was suitably distracted and began lowering his mouth to hers, when Jaquar’s superior tone cut through Alexa’s haze of desire.
“While you were gone, Bastien and I worked a few spellsongs of our own.”
“So?” Marian had crossed her arms under her breasts. Jaquar looked at them with a twinkle in his eyes, but said, “We found out that Calli and Marrec were ‘helped’ a little back to Exotique Terre during her Snap, by Power. ‘Magic’ as you would say, of the highest order.”
Marian’s eyes widened, her lips parted, Jaquar basked in her fascinated attention. “What magic?”
Bastien chuckled and squeezed Alexa as she waited for the punch line.
“Singer’s magic.”
That was a punch, all right.
After they cleared up the supper dishes and before her dad and Dora and Roy left the kitchen, Marrec said, “We wish to speak with you about the future of the ranch.” His English was careful, lightly accented.
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Dread swirled around the room, tightening faces. No one wanted the confrontation, but it, like the storm last night, could not be avoided and the land would be better for it after it passed.
Roy tensed. His shoulders tight, he shrugged, tried a half smile that was just a mask. “Not my business. I’ll be upstairs, studying.”
“All right…” Her dad’s voice was rusty and he reached for Dora’s hand. They stood together.
“In the living room, then,” Dora said.
Calli looked at them, understood that if she had faced this unit of her father and another woman months ago, she might have been emotionally damaged beyond repair. She was stronger now.
Dora and her dad left first, then Marrec pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly. She leaned against him, felt the tensile strength of him, glad of the physical support that so mirrored his emotional backing. Then they went into the living room.
Her dad and Dora sat on the new love seat, Calli and Marrec went to the sagging couch set at a right angle.
Calli looked at her father steadily. Though he sat holding his new wife’s hand, his aura and hers mingled with love, there was nothing of love for Calli in his eyes. She wondered why. Because she was too much like her mother? Too much like him? Had given him all her love freely? She didn’t know, and she was coming not to care and that was good.
Dora’s mouth tightened. “Give her a check for a quarter of the place, Will, then let them be on their way.”
“Half,” Marrec said in his careful English. “Calli and I went over the figures last night. She gave a lot of money to her father. Worth half the ranch.”
Not quite, and Dad had done all the upkeep, all the work.
Gasping, Dora put her hand to her plump bosom. “You can’t believe that!”
Marrec nodded. “Yes.”
“You’re nothin’ but a greedy—” She stopped her bitter words when Will looked down on her. She clutched his arm, simpered up at him. “Oh, Will, all your hard work. You love the land so!”
Did he? A shadow dimmed the bright blueness of his eyes. He did. He might have not known when he’d taken out the reverse mortgage, might have only discovered it when Dora and her son had come into his life, but he knew now.
Calli stood. “I have tallies of the rodeos I competed in, and my winnings. I’ve spoken a little to Jim at the bank. He knows the value of the place better than I do, but wants to talk to all of us if we disagree on what my fair share is.”
Dora frowned. Calli bet she knew the worth of the ranch down to the last penny, had known it before she’d married Will. She wouldn’t want fair. She’d want more.
“I’d like to keep this between us. Quick and clean.” And get somewhere they might be able to go back to Lladrana. “I don’t really want everyone else in town to know that I mean to fight you for this place.”
Dora wouldn’t like that. Right now the town had a favorable opinion of her and her son. It was pretty evident that Calli and Marrec would leave, and Dora, Roy and her dad would live with whatever gossip came of this whole thing.
“Give Calli what she put in and we will go,” Marrec said. “This place will be yours.” He laid his hand on her thigh in support. He knew she loved the land, would want it more than money, would have fought for it. This was her concession. She linked fingers with his.
Will grunted and named a figure. It was a lot less than half, not as much as Calli had put into the place, but higher than the final price she and Marrec had decided to accept, still they would need as much as they could get to start their own ranch.
Marrec leaned forward. “Let’s talk about this.”
Calli wanted to shift in her seat, to squirm, but knew that would be showing a weakness and like it or not, she couldn’t be weak in front of her dad and Dora. There was only one person in this world she thought she could be vulnerable before.
The bargaining lasted a whole lot longer than she was comfortable with, but the men were involved and Dora sharply followed the discussion. Calli kept her teeth gritted and her mouth shut. Marrec fumbled, pretended less comprehension of the language than he had.
Finally, finally a price was agreed to. Something she wouldn’t have been able to reach with her dad. She leaned back against the couch and Marrec’s arm draped around her shoulders as she watched her dad, still expressionless, walk stiffly across to the desk, pull out the ranch checkbook and write out a draft.
Still silent, he returned to them and handed Marrec the check. Calli was glad to see her dad’s hand didn’t tremble.
Marrec glanced at it and passed it to Calli. She read the figure and her eyes stung. She’d never wanted money for this place.
But her home here was gone and any claim she had to the land was past. She nodded and stood, slipping the check into her jeans pocket. “Good.” Clearing her throat, she angled her head toward the computers on the desk, and said, “Marrec and I would like to take a look at real estate on the Web.”
With a tight-lipped smile, Dora said, “Of course.”
Calli and Marrec settled in front of the computer, while Dora turned on the TV.
Calli’s skills were a little rusty, so she went slow, explaining to Marrec as she went along in a mixture of English and Lladranan. With a glance at her father and Dora, who were engrossed in TV, Calli pulled up Web sites on Boulder, where Marian had lived and had been Summoned to, returned from and went once more to Lladrana. Marrec stared at the photos, going so far as to touch the screen showing the university campus and the Flatirons in the background. “I don’t think…” He frowned, exhaled. “A place of Power, yes, but not for us. It…it…has few notes in common with the crystal on the hillside.”
“You remember that melody?” Calli stared at him.
He rolled a shoulder. “Well enough.”
She let her breath out. “Oh-kay.”
They looked at Berthoud Pass. Alexa had been Summoned from that area, but, again, they didn’t know specifics. Calli frowned, something teased at her memory, but it faded away. Dammit! If they ever got back, Calli would make sure the women damn well added directions of where they’d been Summoned from.
Touching her hand on the mouse, Marrec said, “It’s time we look for land. We can’t stay here for long.”
She bit her lip and went to a horse properties Web site. Marrec looked to her dad and Dora and back, then ran his fingers over the small images on the screen, shook his head.
Calli nodded and tried another site. On the sixth Web site, Marrec tapped the computer. “Here.” His voice was low and strained. “Here is our best chance.” His lips pressed together tightly, then he gazed at Calli. “It resonates a little like the crystal, a few notes of my own Song, a little of Diaminta’s. But much of you…and Jetyer the most of all.”
Her heart gave a hard thump in her chest. “You think we could form a good ritual there?”
His gaze stayed firm, calm. “I think it’s our best chance.”
Sighing, Calli pulled up the particulars, winced. “A big piece of property, just a trailer for housing, stables for six horses. It’s costly.”
“Beautiful mountains.”
“Yes.” She clicked on various views of the place. The scenery did call to her. It wasn’t here and it wasn’t Lladrana, but…
“Yes.”
The rain came in the night, clouds opening with huge washes of fat, pounding raindrops and rolling thunder. Alexa sat in the tiny pavilion of the Brithenwood Garden at the Castle, watching the storm, cradling a cup of hot tea in her hands.
A huge crack of sound smacked her. Lightning struck two feet from her, then Marian stood where the blue-white light had seared the ground. Alexa choked on her tea, coughed.
Marian strode into the small structure and thumped her on the back.
Alexa gasped, “Some way to travel. You really will have to teach me how sometime.”
“How about now?”
A squeak escaped Alexa as second thoughts rushed into her head. She noticed Maria
n’s grim expression, reached for the teapot on the table.
“Actually, I’d rather have brandy.” Marian lifted a window seat and pulled out a decanter and snifter and went about pouring herself a stiff drink.
“What’s wrong?” Alexa’s hand went to her baton.
“The children are gone.”
“What!”
“Calli’s. Children. Are. Gone.”
“Ohmygod!”
Marian slugged down some liquor, shivered. “We were all at Bossgond’s Tower. Bossgond and Jaquar and I were trying to locate Calli’s ranch through the cross-dimensional telescope. The children were only a floor below.”
Still stunned, Alexa blinked rapidly, trying to wring some sense to this story. “But…but Bossgond has Powerful Shields around his Tower. No one of evil intent can enter. At least I didn’t think so….”
“Exactly right.” Marian’s mouth went flat. “There was no sound from the kidnapper. No outcry by the children. Naturally, as soon as we discovered they were gone we did a ‘Find’ Song. To no avail. Then we did a ‘Who Was Here Songspell.’” She pulled up a chair and sat.
“And you found out?”
“Luthan took the children.”
Alexa hopped to her feet. More and more fantastic. “Luthan!”
Marian’s lip curled. “We couldn’t reach him. He’s at the Singer’s Abbey. Jaquar’s at home, still trying to contact the Singer.”
“Luthan took the kids to the Singer’s Abbey?”
“We think so.”
“Why?”
Shrugging, Marian said, “Who knows.”
“That damn sneaky old bitch of a Singer.” Alexa paced. She wanted to hop on the nearest volaran, take to the stormy skies and fly to the Singer’s Abbey. But the oracle of Lladrana scared her spitless. “Hell.” She glanced out at the sky full of wind and sleeting rain and distant shards of lightning. “You really want me to ride the lightning with you?”
“We’re—Bossgond and Jaquar and I—aren’t sure what to do. We thought we had a line on Calli’s ranch. But someone should go to the Abbey tomorrow.”
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