Heart Fire (Celta Book 13)

by Robin D. Owens

“And I am honored,” she replied, curtseyed, and sat again.

  T’Ash’s face looked carved from stone, expressionless, but eyes hurting. Whatever else he felt had his HeartMate, Danith D’Ash, moving from her chair to his lap.

  “I understand losing everything to a firebomb,” he said.

  Tiana spoke gently, trying to move him from that hideous moment in his own past. “But you saved your Residence and rebuilt your home, and have a loving HeartMate and four children.”

  His stiff form relaxed. “Yes.”

  Then he smiled, a feral one. “After I followed the Vengeance Stalk, killed most of the Flametrees and the Rues.” He shrugged his massive blacksmith shoulders. “Got the rest of them sterilized and banished from Druida City for life.” One jerk of a nod as if he liked the job he’d done.

  Again his stare met hers. “And I know what it feels like to have a Family member not fight for you.”

  “My parents—” she began, but he stopped her with a raised palm.

  “Even though she was a HeartMate, my mother chose to die with my father instead of live for me, help me for a year, her child.”

  D’Ash made a little noise and hugged her HeartMate tighter. “I can’t say—”

  He stroked her hair. “She wasn’t as strong as you are. You would never have abandoned a child of our own. And you would have fought for his title, his wealth, his estate.”

  This was not going at all the way Tiana thought it would.

  T’Ash said, “I will fight for you, for your estate, against the stupid politicians and sly enemies who took it from you. I will be there to back you up when you file your complaint. We will meet you at NobleCouncil in half a septhour.” He stood, his small HeartMate cradled in his arms, nodded at Tiana’s openmouthed, wide-eyed self, and strode out of her chambers. She thought either he or D’Ash opened the doors with Flair. Her mind scrambled at the thought of actually taking the complaint approved by the general JudgementGrove clerk and handing it to GraceLord T’Equisetum.

  The time had come.

  Before she’d caught her breath, Antenn propped himself against Tiana’s doorjamb, tucking his thumbs in his trous pockets. “T’Ash makes a statement.”

  Tiana squeaked. That wasn’t what she’d tried to say. Reaching for her cup that held a last swallow of cocoa, she slugged some down since her mouth was still open.

  Felonerb jumped up on her desk and sat purring, a grin on his face. We are allied with the great ZANTH! I will go tell him.

  Choking, and risking her fingers, Tiana grabbed her cat by the scruff of his neck, seeing blood in their future if she didn’t restrain him. “No! You know how, uh, prideful Zanth is. He challenges new toms he meets . . . and, uh, you are, uh, RatKiller. Leave the old tom—”

  Antenn rolled his eyes, no doubt knowing Zanth personally, but Tiana continued fast-talking. “—alone. He is no match for you and it would be pitiful to watch his defeat.”

  Felonerb preened. Very well. It’s time for My morning sitting in sun, anyway. There is some sun in the other room. He strolled into her sitting room and Tiana heard a plop and grunt.

  “Nice save,” Antenn said. He stared at her and she wanted to be alone with him, back in her bed in TQ.

  But what he said was, “You’re allies with T’Ash?” His voice held incredulity.

  “I, uh, yes, I think.”

  “You, personally. Not your Family.”

  She rubbed her temple. “I don’t know.”

  Antenn pushed against the jamb, walked into her office, and took the chair D’Ash had been sitting in. “It will all shake out,” he said.

  “I do feel shaken. Things are moving so fast.” She wanted to just sit and stare at this man who was her lover—would be her lifelong mate—but this was work. “How’s the cathedral coming? I heard that the starship Nuada’s Sword lent machinery.”

  His jaw flexed. “Touch and go this morning when Apex Mage Builders backed out.” His gaze bored into hers. “I think GraceLord T’Pulicaria is with GraceLord T’Equisetum and the Traditionalist Stance folk.” Then Antenn’s gaze went to the window and one side of his mouth lifted. “I listened to a report of the press conference. Good job.”

  “I didn’t say much. I didn’t have to.”

  His eyes flicked back to focus on her. “Good job.”

  “Thank you.”

  He glanced at his timer. “We’re working hard to get the foundation in. We’ll have some stone blocks of foundation ready to cast the spellshields on by the time the ritual starts this evening.”

  “Good, though I haven’t often done spellshields.”

  “I have, my father has, the other FirstFamily Lords and Ladies, and even lesser Nobles have raised them, as well as the professional whom the Intersection of Hope hired to do the spell. He’s not too pleased with the idea of taking part in a ritual, but he’ll do it. And he wants a copy of the ceremony, now.”

  “So you came to pick that up,” Tiana said, reaching for a papyrus from the stack to her left and handing it to Antenn.

  He smiled. “No, I came because I haven’t been able to get you out of my head and I needed to see you. Otherwise I’d’ve asked TQ to give me a copy, or the Temple itself. You had them both make dozens.”

  “Yes.” Her exhalation was shaky, this time due to rising desire.

  Taking the sheet, he stood. “I can’t stay here. I can’t touch you, or all reason will drain from my head.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Yeah, yeah. After you serve that complaint on T’Equisetum, come look at the foundation going in for a little while. It’s a beautiful day and it’ll take your mind off the man.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Later.” But he walked around her desk, bent and brushed her cheek with a kiss, and vanished. Leaving her aching for him. But their bond had grown in circumference and strength. A regular mental, emotional bond. Not the HeartBond. She’d known him for only three days and wondered how long it would be before they would HeartBond.

  Probably before she knew all his flaws.

  Or he learned hers.

  A scary thought, that they might be propelled by fate into linking their lives together without good consideration.

  She stood and picked up the complaint, weighed the thick, rich papyrus in her hand, stared at the red seal. A move she couldn’t take back. Like learning who her HeartMate was.

  But she’d already committed, had filed the petition, had T’Ash, of all people, at her back. Lady and Lord.

  Felonerb trotted in, let out a belch, and said, Let’s go to see the nasty man. I will bite him. On the ankle. Maybe on the ear. Is he a tall bad man? He shook his head. No, not the ankle. I do a mighty LEAP and bite him on the ear. Claw his head. Maybe go for his nose. No, his EYES. Yes, yes, YES!

  She stared at her wonderful Fam—her wonderful violent Fam—and nodded. “Yes, I would very much like you to come with me and support me.” She sucked in a big breath, through her teeth even, with a rude noise, but no one but Felonerb could hear, and he stared at her in admiration. “We’ll go, and perhaps you can stay outside the door—uh, guard it in case he might escape.”

  YES! I can do that! I am EXCELLENT at sitting at miceyholes! He grinned widely and she saw that his teeth looked better. With one of his mighty leaps he landed on her shoulder, settled his still-bony rump, gave her ear a lick, and said, We go now. D’Ash is waiting for us. I like looking at her.

  “Ah,” Tiana said. D’Ash was the animal Healer in Druida City, a rare trait, and the person who usually assigned Fams since they were drawn to her, no doubt by the Flair that even influenced Felonerb—a free spirit if there ever was one. Tiana didn’t see him changing much as her Fam companion.

  Though she believed, to the recesses of her heart, that her HeartMate and she would change each other over time and naturally, as all well-married people changed. She sniffed. Felonerb smelled better. He’d been accepting smoke and other cleansing. Not because he cared, but because she did. So she
was wrong to think he wasn’t changing.

  She’d been, too. She stared at the complaint, balanced the large papyrus on her palm. Would she have filed this last week?

  Before her review and promotion? No.

  And even if she lost any upward momentum in her career . . . the High Priestess and Priest had been right. She’d wanted to prove herself because of what had happened that night in her childhood home. Handling it in a different manner might ease that inner need.

  She turned to the door, minding her step so she wouldn’t jostle Felonerb unduly, and saw High Priestess D’Sandalwood studying her. Her gaze dropped to the complaint Tiana held.

  “We haven’t spoken to you about the ramifications of this action,” High Priestess D’Sandalwood said.

  Tiana braced herself.

  “Which we, all of us, your previous counselors, the High Priest and I, have seen as a failure on our parts.”

  Tiana stared, then lowered her gaze.

  “We have little excuse for not helping you sufficiently, though it appeared to us that since your Family . . . ah . . . seemed to have recovered well, we did not understand the weight it had on your heart and your emotions. And you have learned serenity well, are an excellent priestess and counselor yourself, so we ignored the damage your past might have inflicted on you.” She sighed, and Tiana looked up again.

  “We three—you, me, and the High Priest—will have some heavier sessions in the future, but not until the Hopeful cathedral project is done.”

  Holding the complaint up, Tiana said, “I think that this action will resolve some of my issues.” She was sure none of them wanted more heavy counseling sessions.

  “Perhaps. And perhaps we should have encouraged you to file that complaint the first year you were with us.” The High Priestess shrugged. “But that is in the past.” Slowly she smiled. “Your transport to the CouncilHall awaits at the eastern door.”

  We must go tell the bad man he is bad, Felonerb added. See you later, Holy Lady.

  The High Priestess chuckled. “Yes, later.” She stepped away from the door and Tiana curtseyed before she walked through, then picked up speed as she nearly ran to the eastern entrance. Once there she stopped, felt her mouth simply drop open. People crowded around a huge and empty FirstFamily glider. With T’Ash’s arms on the side.

  The vehicle chimed as she neared, and then the back door rose. Flushing, Tiana slid into the glider, feeling underdressed. She skimmed her gaze around but didn’t see Lucida Gerania. Though it appeared that Tiana’s status might have shot up among her colleagues in the last few minutes.

  Felonerb squealed with delight and hopped around the benches in the glider as the door closed and the vehicle accelerated. I smell him. I smell Zanth. And other Cats and a fox!

  Throughout the short drive to CityCenter, Felonerb continued to jump around, sniffing. Tiana watched his every movement in case he contemplated marking the vehicle. Apparently, rubbing his head against the floor and the benches was sufficient. That took her mind off the trip until the glider pulled up to the new CouncilHall and the portico that could handle large gliders like the Ashes’.

  The response at the CouncilHall wasn’t quite as goggling as GreatCircle Temple, but a few people stopped to see who emerged from T’Ash’s new Family glider. Felonerb swaggered out, crossing to the huge armorglass doors, tail up and waving. Tiana thought she heard suppressed laughter. Wanting to hurry, but knowing, as always, that she wore priestess robes, she remained calm outwardly, not harried or rushed. With a soft smile, she left the glider and entered the hall.

  Her nerves returned when T’Ash and D’Ash flanked her, and sweat from her palm sank into the complaint she held. The walk down the long marble halls, past the doors to the Commoner Council chamber to the NobleCouncil, passed in a blur. None of them said anything.

  Then T’Ash curled his fingers around one of the door handles and nodded to her, ready to open it at her gesture.

  Danith D’Ash picked up Felonerb and he purred outrageously. “You will stay out here, right?”

  To guard the door in case he tries to escape. Yes! Tiana’s Fam said.

  T’Ash snorted. “We’ll prop the door open with Flair to watch.” He glanced up and down the corridor. “Guards are coming to witness and for other legal reasons I don’t know.” Then he rolled a shoulder and opened the door.

  Tiana took a big breath and walked in.

  People stopped talking—arguing whatever was on the agenda of the day. All gazes of the Nobles sitting in the tiered seats turned to her, and Tiana used all the calm she’d gathered over the years of her career to proceed in a serene manner and without flushing.

  “Greetyou, FirstLevel Priestess,” stated a man behind an elegantly carved heavy wooden lectern, no doubt the Captain of the NobleCouncil. She should know his name but her mind had blanked.

  “Greetyou,” she said, continuing to move toward him, and then she realized that GraceLord T’Equisetum was in the front row, behind another lectern as if he’d been speaking on a matter. Well, the timing hadn’t been hers, after all, T’Ash had finessed it—or another person told him.

  “What is your purpose here?” the Captain of the NobleCouncil asked.

  She dipped a slight curtsey to him, turned, and did the same to the rest of the chamber. “I am FirstLevel Priestess Tiana Mugwort, of the once GraceNoble house of Mugwort. I am here to deliver a criminal complaint—my criminal complaint to GraceLord T’Equisetum.”

  “A criminal complaint!” GraceLord T’Equisetum bridled, then strode from behind the lectern. “What am I supposed to have done to you . . . illegally, little Mugwort?”

  Rude, confrontational, forceful, but none of that ruffled her as it had that morning. She’d been staring at him from the moment she’d entered, and she tried to sense him as she would a person to be counseled. His spiritual health seemed . . . very off . . . as if he couldn’t access his inner self who could connect with the divine.

  Continuing to assess him, she tilted her head. “GraceLord T’Daisy was right about your Flair this morning, wasn’t he, about how you might fail for a Testing as a GraceLord in Flair? And I’ve been wrong all along; I did not trust the Lady and the Lord. Those events you instigated years ago, here in the NobleCouncil and with your cuz Arvense, have worked on you, threefold, haven’t they?”

  She offered the complaint. He ignored it.

  With narrowed eyes, she said, “Your Flair is suppressed. Quite odd.”

  She pitied him. He saw it and lashed out.

  He struck her.

  Thirty-three

  T’Equisetum sent Tiana crashing into the lectern, then suddenly Danith D’Ash had her arm around Tiana’s waist, helping her stand. Sucking in a breath, Tiana put her hand to her aching face and drew off the heat and the pain, murmuring a standard Healing spell. Occasionally people she counseled became violent, and she knew what to do.

  Danith D’Ash stepped up to T’Equisetum. “So you’re a proponent of the Traditionalist Stance movement, are you? You wouldn’t let people like me Test and rise from Commoner to Noble anymore, huh?” She tilted her head. “Well, since you don’t think my Flair is acceptable. I guess I’ll take your Family off my list of people to receive animal companions. Not that I would give one to a man who’d strike someone weaker than he.”

  T’Equisetum bared his teeth, lifted his hand again.

  The hiss of a sword being drawn froze most. T’Ash stalking in with an unsheathed blade immobilized everyone else. Tiana smelled fresh urine.

  “Bad enough that you strike a priestess, for nothing, T’Equisetum,” T’Ash growled. “Wouldn’t want to be you when High Priest D’Sandalwood shows up at your door for some penance ritual you can’t refuse. Don’t you use that hand on my HeartMate or you will lose it. Now take the lady’s complaint, ’cuz Lady and Lord know, you are guilt—”

  “Stop, T’Ash,” Danith said. “Legal rules. He is innocent until proven—”

  T’Ash grunted, his gaze still
fixed on T’Equisetum, who, though motionless, flushed bright red.

  “Bad health. Nasty temper.” Now Danith tsked. “Yes, this one needs counseling. Or punishment, though from my point of view, I can see the rule of three has acted upon him. His misdeeds have come back thrice.”

  She turned to face the other Nobles in their tiered seats. “Just who among you is of the Traditionalist Stance and saying I’m not good enough to sit in this chamber if I wanted to? Because you have the right to your beliefs and the consequences thereof. And I have the right not to place Familiar companions in the hands of stupid, shortsighted, idiot—”

  “Danith.” Her name was spoken softly. The same voice said, “T’Ash, please put the sword away. We don’t want any feuds called in hotheaded impulse.” A tall, scholarly-looking man who carried himself with authority strode up and put his hand on T’Ash’s shoulder.

  “Hi, Walker!” Danith beamed at the rising star of the NobleCouncil, Walker Clover, who’d been a Commoner like her.

  “Merrily met, Danith,” Walker said, smiling and giving her a short bow. He glanced at T’Ash, who sheathed his weapon. “Always interesting times when the Ashes are involved.” Walker’s gaze swept the assemblage. “I suggest you all remember that. Now, T’Ash, you are here to witness the proper service of the complaint?”

  An unbending and a muscular presence, T’Ash said, “I support FirstLevel Priestess Tiana Mugwort in her claims.”

  Walker Clover’s jaw flexed. His eyes cooled as he stared at T’Equisetum. “Ah. I suggest you take the complaint, GraceLord.”

  “No,” T’Equisetum said between choppy breaths.

  “Guards,” Walker Clover said.

  Two guards in uniform strode in. One was Chief Winterberry. He paced up and stood next to T’Equisetum, facing in the same direction. The other man, who looked as if he usually had a cheerful manner, came up and ranged himself beside Tiana.

  He nipped the complaint from her fingers, cleared his throat, and stated in a voice that rolled through the chamber, “I, as a duly sworn member of the Druida City Guard, a subsidiary of the Celtan Planetary Peace Keeping Force, do stand as proxy for Tiana Mugwort, who has a complaint vetted and approved by a legal clerk of JudgementGrove against Hyemale T’Equisetum, do serve this upon that person—”