A little comforting, maybe a lot comforting as he thought on it. But face to face. He rubbed his own face. Face to face, plain scary.
They’d been right, the Marigolds, the Hollys, his Family of Blackthorns.
Because seeing Cal had shredded Draeg.
* * *
Loridana went through the motions of her duties. Today she inventoried the same huge and crammed attic storeroom she did once every spring. She reported to the Residence the items in the trunks, the discarded furniture, the antique clothes hanging in several wardrobes. They were supposedly checking for stuff to discard, but, as usual, the Residence wanted to keep it all, so she renewed a lot of preservation spells. She didn’t think anyone in the Family would care if moths ate the clothes, but she obeyed and kept quiet.
She didn’t think Zus had told anyone—except maybe bragging to his sister—that he’d killed Baccat. No pretense of grief needed, though she didn’t think the Residence would care if Baccat had died. The house must sense her love for her animals, for her Fam, but it wouldn’t understand love. Love wasn’t as important as appearances.
Mostly, Lori thought of Draeg. He didn’t want to come with her. Perhaps he could be convinced. She had sprung the question on him; perhaps she should give him the benefit of the doubt. Their bond had narrowed considerably during their little conversation that morning, yet she still felt wave after wave of disturbance, hurt, coming from him. He didn’t seem as flexible as she’d thought.
But she had no doubt that he’d try to talk her out of it first. Fight for her rights or something, despite what she’d already told him.
She didn’t want that discussion. She wanted to revise her plans. Get out of here no later than the night after next. Excitement fizzed through her and she quashed it ruthlessly before the Residence sensed it. Finally, finally, she’d go!
And her moods swung up and down, dread and incipient grief at telling Draeg good-bye. Freedom at last!
We are done, Loridana Itha, and since you are paying little attention to your training, I dismiss you, the Residence scolded.
“Thank you, Residence,” she said humbly.
I suppose you wish to examine your horses. Have you any recommendations as to whether we should breed them?
“Ah, no. I’d like them to be in better health before discussing that matter with you.”
Very well, you may go and continue their training and seeing to their care. Animated beings need a great deal of care, the Residence grumbled.
Lori believed she—and the Family—spent double the time and energy in a year caring for the Residence than she did for all her herd. “Thank you again, Residence.” She hurried down to the ResidenceDen to file the inventory, then to her rooms to change into her riding clothes. Checking her link with Draeg, she frowned. Apparently he walked along the river, not quite within the estate boundaries.
Ah! He’d needed someplace else, somewhere not-so-familiar, to think. Her lips curved. They had that in common. He probably practiced some of those patterns, too. She thought she felt a physical ache as well as mental turmoil.
She sighed with relief, unready to talk to him again, simply too sensitive to subject herself to rejection.
Now she could go to the stables and prepare her animals for the journey, once more. Inform them that it would be one or two nights away. She wouldn’t have to hide her excitement, and they would feel that, the excitement, and most of all, the love as they traveled together to freedom.
Her mouth set. And today she’d go into Druida, to look at the route, and perhaps to say farewell to the city she knew so little.
Thirty-one
Draeg had picked up a limp. His knee had hit a stone when Cratag had knocked him out, so he strode back to the Yew estate slower than he’d planned.
He must convince Lori to stay. He’d better damn well figure out what kind of legal rights she might have. Maybe convincing her to press those rights might sway her to stay.
He paused his walk by a small, eddying pool. Maybe he should soak his head. Rubbing his knee, he muttered a Healing spell. He hadn’t wanted to because this day was shaping up to be a bad one and he might need the Flair. Healing spells needed more energy from him to work and weren’t as effective. Not a skill of his.
Kneeling, he dipped his hands in the frigid water, splashed his face, wiped the back of his neck, and massaged his scalp to dry his fingers and promote thinking. It cleared his mind. A little.
What would make Lori stay? Beyond him and his loving, because from what she said, he figured she’d ask him to go with him, and Draeg Hedgenettle would have. Maybe even Draeg Betony-Blackthorn would. His shoulders tightened again. No. Draeg Betony-Blackthorn would always fight. Even a losing battle? Cave of the Dark Goddess, he hated so much damn thinking!
He could understand why she’d take her animals with her. From what he saw, she didn’t dare leave the animals she loved behind to be slaughtered, to be tortured, if she left. Though that was another thing Draeg couldn’t wrap his mind around.
She must have had to revise her plans when Smyrna and Ragan came so she could take them with her¸ too.
Lori loved animals . . . if he could get her one more, one perfect horse, one thoroughbred that she might want to breed, and here on this land instead of taking it away from civilization to the wilds of a small estate and village in the south . . . maybe she would stay.
It hurt to think she might stay for an animal and not him. Forget that.
A new horse, a thoroughbred, perhaps a stallion at the edge of her skill, could delay her trip once more.
Delay with the stallion, then convince her to fight for her rights. Draeg had a plan.
Despite his wash in the river, Draeg felt dirty.
He put his plan into effect immediately by teleporting to The Green Knight Fencing and Fighting Salon. He found Tinne Holly, the owner, at his desk in his office, grumbling at some accounting work.
“What?” asked Tinne, scowling up at Draeg.
“I need a stallion, an excellent, somewhat challenging horse. Immediately.”
Tinne’s gray eyes widened. “What?” This time he sounded surprised.
Draeg dropped into a client chair and, as his ass hit the cushion, he realized how lacking in comfort the chairs in his stable apartments were.
“That’s what I said. What. Lori is planning on leaving the estate.”
Tinne shrugged, fiddled with a writestick. “So?”
Draeg quit grinding his teeth. “Abandon her Family and her estate. Head for some puny Valerian estate in the south and take up living there. I need her here.”
The writestick fell from Tinne’s fingers. “Leave her Family?”
“Inconceivable to you, too,” Draeg muttered.
Tinne kept shaking his head in denial.
“She’s taking all her animals with her. Six stridebeasts and the two horses we introduced to the estate. Another horse—a fractious stallion—would keep her here longer while I figure out what else is going on.”
“That’s one option,” Tinne said.
“You got any other?” Draeg shot at him.
“In the thirty seconds of thinking time you’ve given me? No.” Leaning forward, Tinne locked his gaze on Draeg’s own. “You truly believe this.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“I don’t think—”
But Draeg cut him off. “Didn’t your very own wife run away from T’Yew Residence? Didn’t she plot and plan to leave and carry out her plans and succeed?”
“She wasn’t the Head of the Household.”
“Neither is Loridana. She has little power in the Residence, none with her Family.” Draeg couldn’t stay seated; he got up to pace. With a smoldering glance at Tinne, Draeg said, “Her Family isn’t like ours. Isn’t irritating but lovable, with bonds we can’t break—don’t want to break. She’s ready to leave, has only been waiting for the weather to warm.”
“So the arrival of the horses would have set her back.”
�
��That’s right. It did. Lord and Lady, we had luck there.”
“I figured out a while ago she was your lover,” Tinne said drily. “I understand why you’re concerned about her.”
“My HeartMate.”
“Cave of the Dark Goddess,” Tinne swore.
Draeg flicked a hand. “Yeah. I gotta figure out what I’m going to do.”
“Especially since we both think something is rotten in the Yew Family, yes?”
“Yeah.”
“And you don’t want to leave your Family or the Yew estate or this mission or Druida, do you?”
Draeg hesitated. “I’d rather not.”
Sucking air between his teeth, Tinne said, “You have problems.”
“That’s right, and I’m trying to solve them.”
“Ah, you wouldn’t ask her to stay here, with you?”
Draeg slanted him a disbelieving look. “What do I, a stableman, have to offer her?”
“She’s asked you to come with her.”
“Yes. I’m thinking on what I’ll do.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “How long I can keep up the pretense I’m a stableman? And when she finds out—”
“Doom,” Tinne said.
Draeg swallowed. “Yes, I doubt she’d give me a chance to tell the whole story.” He shook his head. “From her point of view, it’s practical, having me on the trip, giving me a place on her estate.”
“Cave of the Dark Goddess. No way you can talk her out of this?”
“I’ll be thinking of things, but right now we need something solid and tangible to keep her here.”
“Like a challenging stallion.”
“Yes.”
“We’re going to have to come up with an excuse to give her an expensive horse.”
“I’ve thought of that. An old debt, now being repaid. The man heard she liked horses, had purchased some from the Sallows, and wanted to give her one.”
Tinne picked up the writestick again, tapped it. “That could work. None of her Family would confiscate the horse? Resell it?”
“Something so valuable? I don’t know. They might want to placate her; she’s restless and I’m sure they’ve noticed that. And if they sold the horse, they might think that could totally alienate her, and they don’t want that, I don’t believe.”
“A lot you don’t know.”
“Tell me about it.”
“All right,” Tinne said. “Who’s the man with the debt?”
“FirstFamily GreatLord Saille T’Willow. They should believe that. Old T’Yew wasn’t happy with Willow’s MotherDam’s matchmaking. And Willow isn’t known to be very political.”
“He’s on our side,” Tinne said.
“Yes, he is, but quietly on our side.”
“And he doesn’t like the Yews.”
“No. Like everyone else who dealt with them, they annoyed him.” Draeg frowned, shifted his shoulders. “Might be something more there, but I don’t know what it is.”
“All right. I’ll talk to the Sallows, and to the Ashes—”
“The Ashes?”
“Danith D’Ash and Gwydion Ash, the animal Healers, might have some horses. And I’ll discuss this very expensive debt with Saille T’Willow.”
Draeg stiffened. “I can purchase the horse. I have the gilt.”
Tinne waved that away. “We’ll figure that out later. Now we must find a horse.” He raised his brows. “And you are here in the middle of the day.”
“Yeah, my Fam is covering for me, but I gotta get back. I’ve been gone long enough.” But he sure wasn’t going to tell Tinne that he’d met Tinne’s reincarnated G’Uncle and Cratag Marigold.
“I think I’ll need today to set this up,” Tinne said.
Draeg frowned, shrugging. “All right.” With a nod to him and a grunt, Draeg returned to his rooms in the stable.
Corax flew in the window. Lori here, then gone. At house now. All the animals excited.
“Great.” Disappointment mixed with relief.
* * *
In her bedroom after a late tea, Lori let herself pace her room . . . twice.
Baccat had informed her that he couldn’t be with her that day and evening, and she didn’t press for a reason since he stated it was his private business. She had to admit a thrill had zipped up and down her spine at the thought of being by herself if she wanted to head into Druida City. And she did.
Since the ritual for Last Quarter moons that she would lead later that night occurred when the twinmoons rose in the middle of the night at FourBells, everyone had ostensibly gone to rest before dinner.
Lori couldn’t, just couldn’t, since excitement filled her at the thought of going into the city just before the shops closed for the evening all by herself!
Yes, she would trace the route, but after she looked around a bit. Heady freedom.
The Residence and the Family thought she took time to meditate in a pavilion at the far edge of the estate overlooking the river. She kept the building a little run-down on the outside and comfortable inside. Like most other places she used by herself, the rest of the Family left it alone as unimportant.
Her fingers trembled as she opened the secret compartment in the bedsponge frame. Unlike the massive and heavily carved generational frame in the MasterSuite, this simple one didn’t look as if it contained a hidden niche. She thought even the Residence was unaware of it, but she had skimmed the house’s awareness to determine whether it spied on her from the crystal in the room before sliding her fingers over the panel.
The bed frame had been her father’s and she’d found his memory spheres in it. She had copied those and put them in the library. Maybe the Family wouldn’t destroy the copies when they found them . . . ages after she left, she hoped. After all, he’d been a member of the Family even though she thought all the use they’d had for him was simply to impregnate her mother.
She fingered the few pieces of gilt inside the cubby hole, then pulled out one of the small pouches fat with silver slivers. She wasn’t sure if or what she might buy, but wanted money, no matter how little, jingling in her pocket.
Thinking of which, she pulled out some old clothes that Vi had put in the deconstructor just this week but that she’d saved because she knew they’d only be a little big. From the few people she’d seen on the street, and in the vizes she watched, her garments would look like Noble hand-me-downs and out of fashion, but respectable. She was tired of wearing her own old casual garments with stains and frays that made her appear poor.
Quickly dressing in the clothes, then checking herself out in a mirror, she nodded. She stuck the little pouch into her upper trous pocket instead of her long, square tunic sleeves.
Good to go! And go she did, teleporting out of the Residence.
* * *
Cave of the Dark Goddess!” Draeg swore. Loridana had just left the estate, teleported away somewhere. Dammit. He hadn’t even imagined she knew a place within the city that she’d feel comfortable teleporting to. You usually had to understand the light at all times of the day and night, all times of the year; how could she do that?
But she had, and he sensed through their bond that she’d arrived in an upscale Noble neighborhood and headed toward CityCenter.
Dammit.
He couldn’t leave the animals half tended and fed, a couple of the stridebeasts and Smyrna unexercised. Cave of the fliggering Dark Goddess.
Baccat wouldn’t be with her; the Fam was on a mission for Garrett Primross, who was handling the real investigation of the violent fringe of the Traditionalist Stance. He was probing the backgrounds of everyone at the gatherings Draeg had pinpointed that the Yews attended. As far as Draeg knew, those people were under observation. By humans and by Primross’s feral animal informants.
Draeg’s own Fam, Corax, was seriously working on his nest at T’Blackthorn estate, another Fam activity Draeg shouldn’t intrude upon.
Draeg tested his bonds with his Family, trying to find someone free to help him—first the
man he trusted the most, his adoptive father, Straif T’Blackthorn. Who sat impatiently in some late FirstFamilies council meeting. Draeg ran through his adopted brothers—all busy. Then his sisters, equally occupied. Dammit, he’d never realized until now how active his Family was!
Grimly, he cycled through his bonds with his friends. The one best able to help—lounging in a park in CityCenter waiting for his father to come out of that same FirstFamilies meeting—was Nuin Ash, AshHeir.
Draeg winced, but the man four years younger than he was in the right place at the right time. Though, really, the last person of his friends he’d trust to be unobtrusive and reasonable was Nuin Ash. Unlike all the other Ashes, especially his parents, Nuin was a hothead.
Still, Draeg needed assistance in keeping an eye on D’Yew.
Nuin! Draeg sent a sharp thought, catching his friend’s attention. He sensed the guy sitting straighter on the bench. Yeah, just like someone had spoken to him mentally. Sure, a wonderful person to tail D’Yew. Not.
Yeah, Draeg? Nuin asked.
Unsure of how much Nuin knew about the attacks, Draeg said, I need someone to watch out for Loridana D’Yew.
Thirty-two
Excitement zoomed from Nuin. What! Now?
Sighing inwardly, Draeg replied, Yes, now. She looks like this. He sent Nuin a visualization of Loridana as he usually saw her, long blondish hair pulled back and falling beyond her shoulders.
Pretty girl, Nuin said. I like the freckles. Hardly any girl shows her freckles. He paused. What IS she wearing?
Stable clothes, Draeg answered.
Oh, Nuin said doubtfully.
You have horses and stridebeasts, Draeg replied.
I am not one of the animal Healers in my Family, Nuin returned.
Draeg sensed him shaking his head. Terrible taste in clothes. Only to be expected in a Yew, I suppose.
Not bothering to call Nuin on his anti-Yew sentiment, with a frown Draeg checked on Loridana. She moved more rapidly than at a walk; a public carrier, then. He set down a grid of the portion of the city where she was, fixed the image in his mind, and spurted the map to Nuin, who’d jumped to his feet.
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