“A gift! From whom?” In her mind she saw a young man hopping from foot to foot, perhaps even a boy. The Turquoise House might think he was a mature adult, but he simply wasn’t. Not in human terms and especially not in sentient dwelling terms.
She leaned back on a pillow.
Tell me, tell me, tellme! The excited demand shot to her mind faster than words could be said.
“I was given the piece by the Fam, Mica. Camellia Darjeeling’s Fam, before Camellia married Laev T’Hawthorn.”
“A Fam!” TQ’s voice was back and a near squeak. Tiana hadn’t spent much time in the company of Raz Cherry, the actor who’d given TQ his voice, but she’d never heard him squeak like that. Hadn’t ever heard a grown man squeak like that. Maybe TQ needed some remedial voice lessons . . . but, oddly enough, right here and now, sitting in the sun on a wonderful bed, she didn’t want to share the House with her Family . . . not even her best friends.
Right now, this moment, she was alone in a House as she’d never been alone before. No other resident—human resident—living with her. And she liked it. Who knew?
“You are telling me all this too slowly,” TQ grumbled.
“I’m teasing you a little.”
“Oh.”
“And where your floor plan came from originally is a mystery to me, too. Now settle yourself in patience and I will continue.”
“All right.”
“I was given the gift not quite a year ago by Mica, who found it for me when my friends and I attended the Salvage Ball—that party where one brings items one doesn’t want and leaves them for others as a price of admission.”
“Ooooh!” TQ said.
“Mica found Camellia a carved cat, gave my friend Glyssa a beautiful leather wallet engraved with gold, and showed me the scroll of a floor plan that was revealed to be yours.”
“A cat sculpture that had once been made by Laev T’Hawthorn to Camellia Darjeeling. A wallet created by Jace Bayrum for Glyssa Licorice, and my floor plan to you.” Now TQ’s spoken words reminded Tiana of a pounce . . . and the thread of logic was a little scary. Camellia had married Laev, and Glyssa had wed Jace. “Mica said it smelled, or felt, or something, like me.” Tiana stood. “I mounted and framed it for my sitting room at—”
“BalmHeal Residence,” TQ ended. “I know all about that.”
“What?”
“It was here within my walls that it was determined that BalmHeal had awakened and needed a Family of caretakers.”
“Really? I never knew that!”
“Yes. I was BalmHeal’s first House friend!” Pride throbbed through TQ’s voice, and once again Tiana couldn’t help but compare him to that other intelligent Residence. She’d nearly had to beg for a wooden frame for TQ’s floor plan from BalmHeal. Then she’d had to refinish it. This morning the Residence had wanted it back.
BalmHeal Residence had always loved Tiana’s sister, Artemisia, the best.
Looking out the window at the modest land around TQ, Tiana ached in homesickness for FirstGrove, but not so much for the Residence itself. TQ was so very accommodating.
“It is a wonderful item to have on my walls,” TQ said with satisfaction. “Thank you. You seem pensive. Would you like more to eat or drink?” A small click came and a no-time door opened from the wooden cabinets next to her table in the sitting room.
“Cocoa?” asked TQ.
The smell steamed and had her mouth watering. Cocoa in the middle of the day, easily obtainable, easily offered.
“You are rich, indeed.”
“Yes. I have been lucky in my friends and in my occupants.”
When Tiana crossed from bedroom to sitting room to get the large pottery mug full of the beverage and topped with white mousse, a floorboard creaked under her foot.
“Yes, TQ?”
“I would be very grateful if you performed some rituals in my HouseHeart. I have not had renewal rites like the other Houses and Residences for some time.”
“How long?” she asked as she went back to the corridor and moved through the House, opening the doors and leaving them open, a smile spreading on her face as the notion of pure freedom filtered through her body. The doors were always closed at BalmHeal Residence, and she liked them open . . . and hadn’t known that until now.
“Ah.” There came a tiny creak. “Sixteen years.”
Tiana simply stopped, staring out the window to her left that looked out on the back grassyard. “Sixteen years!”
“Yes.” TQ rushed into speech. “Naturally I had the Sandalwoods from GreatCircle Temple come and do rituals before and after the medical experiment, but they have not been in my HouseHeart for years. I wanted . . . I was waiting . . . I wanted someone special.”
“Oh. I’m honored that you consider me special.”
“You are the best priestess.”
Tiana gasped. “Me!”
“You live in BalmHeal, who is My Good Friend and Mentor. He loves you.”
“Not as much as Artemisia.”
“That is because BalmHeal has always been a Healer household,” TQ said.
“And you?” she asked, amused at herself and TQ and the whole conversation.
“I have had many tenants, and I have let several people into my HouseHeart, and Artemisia has been my Fail-Safe person to know of my HouseHeart. Before.”
Tiana frowned. “Before?”
“Before you. I want you, a priestess to be my Fail-Safe person until my Family comes.”
All she could do was to repeat what she’d said with all the depth of feeling that she had. “I am honored.”
Felonerb appeared, smelling incredibly bad. He pranced around. I got it. I got it. That terrible sewer rat. I got him and I killed him and I ATE some of him and left the rest for the ferals, to show that I am STILL RATKILLER!
“Fabulous,” Tiana said, breathing through her mouth. It didn’t help a lot.
“Yesss,” her Fam said, trotting with pride. She studied him. He left little bloody smears and tiny bits of . . . stuff . . . fell from his claws as he walked. But as she watched, the floor seemed to absorb it.
Perhaps you would like to clean yourself in the HouseHeart, TQ offered.
The cat stopped in his tracks; his ears pricked straight up, his eyes went large. “Yesss.” This time it sounded like a soft, hesitant breath.
You are almost to the staircase into my HouseHeart. I would like to show it to you.
Tiana hesitated. “How much time do we have before the witnessing?”
“Sufficient, I believe,” said TQ aloud, then went back to telepathy. I will alert you when it would be good for you to begin your cleansing waterfall. My HouseHeart will soothe you, and I would love for you to see it.
I have never been in a HouseHeart! Felonerb said, then actually emitted a squeak of delight. I NEED to see one.
I would like to see it, too, Tiana said. This would be her second, for she’d been in BalmHeal Residence’s, of course. She thought of Antenn Blackthorn-Moss and the ones he’d experienced, and wondered if TQ’s had been one of them.
Look! TQ said, and a piece of the carpet, the entire floor, lifted. My stairs. My entry room is very large and now has a standard illusion. I am thinking on its final configuration. My Family MUST have something especially made for them.
“All right,” Tiana said out loud. She reached the stairs, a tight stone spiral like nothing she’d ever seen before, and on one side darkness and depth loomed. No railing.
Ooooh! RatKiller exclaimed, and zoomed down the staircase.
Tiana summoned a bright spellglobe to illuminate her way and took the steps slowly. Once down, she stepped into a summer’s day in a deciduous wood, with tall, thick-boled trees and sunlight slanting through them, dappling lower bushes, the occasional flower, and leaves that covered the ground in a thick layer. She dissipated her own spellglobe.
“I had a cave with stalactites and stalagmites,” TQ said. “But I outgrew it.”
“Oh.”
; I LIKE this. Felonerb took off, slithering between the trees.
TQ said, “It is beautiful, isn’t it? I copied it from several vizes and records of Earthan forests that the Ship Nuada’s Sword sent me.”
“Very pretty. From Earth, you say.” She took a deep breath but smelled only woods and green growing things.
“Yes.”
“And there is a path to your HouseHeart?” She squeezed sideways between a couple of trees and swore bark scratched her skin. “How large is this entrance area?”
“Yes, there is a trail. You are smart, you will find the path! And the moles got carried away.”
“The moles.”
“They helped me with my HouseHeart. It was originally small, but they wanted to teach their pups to communicate telepathically and work with other sentient beings, and I volunteered.” A pause. “Most of the other Residences were too stuffy.”
“I understand.” She had found a track, probably from Felonerb’s passing, and tramped down it.
“As I said, this is mostly illusion.”
“It’s very well done, including all the senses.” She heard birdsong she didn’t recognize that was probably Earthan, too.
“Thank you. I liked making the spellglobe sun. I tried several different sizes.”
“Um-hmm.”
“I have an entrance rhyme that must be chanted nine times,” TQ said, and told her it. So she began the chant.
Felonerb raced back to her, grinning. Follow me!
She was glad to do that.
“Will you want me to do a ritual in this space?”
“No, I think in the HouseHeart, and upstairs in the MasterSuite or MistrysSuite, and perhaps you will celebrate some rituals and holidays in my back grassyard.”
“That sounds fine.”
“The High Priest and Priestess say you are the best at writing rituals.”
“Thank you,” she mumbled, irritation flickering that she’d be treasured for a desk job instead of leading circles.
“You can always write rituals for me and celebrate them here,” TQ said.
I am a Fam now, I get to go to human rituals. They will let me in special holiday circles when accompanied by a human. I like those. They have food.
Tiana laughed. “Yes, mostly they do.”
Do you have food in your HouseHeart, TQ?
“Yes, FamCat.”
Ooooh. Special food!
“Some is special, some is regular,” TQ said. “I have a most beautiful HouseHeart and most modern.”
“I’m sure,” Tiana murmured, then saw a large rectangular metal door a few paces before her, and she hurried and followed her Fam in.
The first thing she saw as the door closed behind her was a large holo mural of Maroon Beach, surf ebbing and flowing in ceaseless wondrous pattern. So she faced west. Good to know.
“If you will sit on the hearth, Felonerb, I will waft some cleansing smoke at you.”
Felonerb hissed.
“And we will feed you,” Tiana said, removing her shoes and liners, unsurprised to see that thick and richly patterned Chinju rugs layered the floor. Light emanated from the walls in a dim and comforting glow.
“My cat-smoking cleanser is a new tech and well regarded.”
Her Fam sidled toward the thick sandstone slab of the raised hearth.
“It has several scents,” TQ continued. “Including lavender, sage . . .”
A sniff. I don’t like those.
“And some herbs that might not smell nice to a cat, but attract prey, such as celtaroons.”
Felonerb’s eyes widened. REALLY?
“Yes,” TQ said.
The tom hopped onto the stone, kept to the edge as fire flickered into flames.
Tiana said, “I think Felonerb, who just kill—triumphed over great prey, should not need any celtaroon pheromones or whatever, right now, TQ.”
Her Fam scowled.
“I’ll need your support in a while,” she said. “I’d prefer to have you pleasant smelling.”
Felonerb lifted his nose, twitched his whiskers. For you, I will have a different smell.
“Thank you.”
“I have a range of fragrances,” TQ said. “I shall demonstrate.”
They settled on the scent of flatsweet dough. While TQ billowed the cleansing smoke smell over Felonerb, Tiana took the time to scrutinize the room. Roughly six meters square, murals graced two walls. The north showed a lush jungle garden with thick-trunked trees and ferns growing around a turquoise pool fed by a narrow waterfall over rock. As she stared, figures moved in the trees and came to face her, raised hands as if greeting her, and either lingered at the side of the mural or walked back into the tree shadows.
People she’d seen at GreatCircle Temple now and then such as Mitchella D’Blackthorn, Tinne and Lahsin Holly showed up. She blinked when her sister and brother-in-law, Artemisia and Garrett, sat on a stone bench near the pool, smiling at each other, then at her.
A boy peered at her from under shaggy hair, expression stormy, keeping close to a fern frond as tall as he was.
Tiana stared. “That looks like Antenn Blackthorn-Moss, but much younger.”
“Yes. He has not come back for a long time. But he’ll be here today. In under two septhours!” TQ’s voice lilted with pleasure. “I’ll be glad to see him.”
“I’m sure.” The sight of the boy hurt her inside. Surely he’d been here at TQ not long after he’d lived in the slums Downwind. He looked distrustful, wary. Needing love.
Had her image been taken at the same age, she’d have been happy, sure in the love of her Family. And despite all they had lost, they hadn’t lost the love they held for each other. She was truly blessed in that.
She glanced at the wall with Maroon Beach and the surf again, the mural of the garden—surely somewhere in the southern continent—then looked at the wall holding the door, walked over to touch the pale-yellow silkeen wallpaper, smooth under her fingers. The pattern showed curving lines of light-green leaves and stylized crownlike blooming flowers of blue with two red lower petals. The same pattern as a room in BalmHeal Residence. Near each corner stood weeping willow trees.
“I have a Fam here, too,” TQ said. “Look closely.”
Twenty-four
Tiana did and saw a small gray and white tabby with black stripes painted on the wall, though there seemed to be an added holo dimension to it. It was difficult to see since it blended with the wallpaper.
“A cat!” She slid into a cross-legged position on the floor. “How pretty it is!”
“She,” said TQ. “She lives off my energy, but I have enough to spare for her, and with all the visitors yesterday, she has enough to move a little, see?”
A tiny “mew” came, and then her right ear angled slightly.
“Oh, lovely!” Tiana cooed and reached out and touched the green spot between the cat’s equally green eyes. A tingle brushed her fingertips with Flair, but she sent some of her edginess to the cat and almost thought she received a vibration of appreciation in return.
Felonerb harumphed from his place on the hearth and leapt toward Tiana with a draft of sweetness. “Do we have sugar flatsweets here?” she asked.
“Of course. In my no-time as part of the altar.”
Her mouth watered, and she got one. When she turned to ask Felonerb if he needed more food, she saw that he sat a few centimeters from the cat on the wall, tail flicking, staring at the small gray tabby. I think she needs some imperfections, he said, jealousy rippling from him, surprising Tiana. She’d thought he’d treasured every scar of his.
“No,” said TQ. “She is as perfect and beautiful just as she is. When we have enough energy for her to come out of the wall is soon enough for her to look different. I like her very well as she is.”
Tiana’s Fam stood and ostentatiously turned his back on the cat, walking toward the no-time.
She has FLOWERS tinted on her, Felonerb said.
Tiana thought she saw the wall cat blink.
Felonerb sat on Tiana’s foot and purred loudly.
“She likes her red and blue and green and yellow tinting,” TQ said. “We like her tinting. You are not to be listened to in this matter.”
I will have some shredded furrabeast steak, the tom said.
Tiana stared down at her. He grinned, then added, Please.
“TQ?”
“Of course Felonerb Mugwort can be fed. But he is not allowed to disparage my Fam.”
“No. You understand, Felonerb?” She got out a small dish of food.
He stood and his back rippled. I will say nothing bad about stup—about Wall Cat. He began to gulp down the food.
The interchange and the wonderful ambience of the place relaxed Tiana so she stilled for a moment. Lived.
Moved by the sound of the surf, the tinkle of wind chimes, she drifted to the center of the room and grounded herself, breathed deeply, cleared her mind, and let her cares fall away, her body ease.
Here, between quiet breaths, the slight tease of whirling air, she felt the Divine. So she lifted her arms and uttered a quiet, peaceful prayer, drawing in energy from that which was greater than she, and releasing it into her surroundings, to enrich the atmosphere and sink into the Turquoise House.
Felonerb rumbled a purr, and when she opened her eyes, his eyes appeared brighter, his fur slightly sleeker, his bones less prominent.
A low humming permeated the air, and she understood it came from the House itself. On a whisper of a wind chime, TQ whispered, “Thank you very much. I have not often had such an experience. You blessed me.”
She had. “The One who came through me, blessed you.”
“Yes.” Breeze soughing through trees—the trees of the murals? The ones outside the door? Archetypical trees?—replaced a sigh from the House. “I thank you now, and I thank you for all the rituals you will perform for me in the future.” TQ hesitated. “I am sorry to say that you have twenty minutes before beginning your ritual cleansing for the regression.”
Just that easily, she found her teeth clenching. “Thank you.” Scooping up Felonerb, she hustled out the door, threaded through the woods and up the stairs. She lay down on the new bed for a quarter septhour and relaxed every muscle she had in sequence until the timer rang to tell her that she must prepare for her ordeal.
Heart Fire (Celta Book 13) Page 21