Echoes in the Dark

by Robin D. Owens

  With a tiny peck-kiss, Enerin said, Even though it’s too big, it’s ready to sail to the Dark’s Nest.

  All Raine’s peace vanished.

  The “large pool” made Raine’s eyes widen. It was a map of the northern part of the world, land carved and set into the pool from the north pole to the southern border of Lladrana.

  But Raine’s gaze arrowed to the island of a single volcano that was the Dark’s Nest. She stared, then realized it didn’t match the maps she’d seen. That had been Calli’s task, to map the island. There weren’t any good harbors, especially not for a ship the size she’d designed. So the invasion would take place on volaranback, God help them all—beautiful winged horses and the crazy, determined people who flew on them.

  Then Raine noticed that the pool and the growth looked old. She glanced at Faucon, who was using a long stick as a pointer to indicate his northern estate. “How is it that you have this?” A tingle went down her back. It was so very much what she needed.

  He shrugged. “I had a couple of Circlets in my ancestry. One of them made this. He said never to fill in the pool and was respected enough that we didn’t.”

  The group of the Exotiques were standing around the north end of the pool, staring at the ovoid shape of the island. A man who looked a lot like Faucon, except thicker around the waist and shorter, stood tugging at his lower lip. From his roughened face and hands, Raine recognized him as someone who’d spent time on the sea, a fisherman once if not now. A Seamaster now. One of the loose guild-masters of that calling.

  “You really think we’ll raise the Ship at our northern place,” Faucon’s cousin asked, obviously uneasy.

  “I do,” Faucon said. “It’s the best place.”

  Raine looked at the tiny U-shaped building sitting on the northern edge of the easternmost peninsula of Lladrana, Creusse Landing—the manor house where this man and his family lived. He had a new baby, didn’t he? No wonder he was concerned.

  “Not one of the Circlets’ islands?” the man persisted.

  “We’ll discuss this later,” Faucon replied with an underlying tone of command.

  Alexa swaggered around the west of the pool, hand tilting her baton sheath. “Don’t worry, Seamaster, we’ve replaced all the northwestern fence posts. No horrors will come through.”

  “The monsters can manifest the farthest south any one of them has come with Power,” he said doggedly.

  Alexa’s brows lifted. “We have not experienced that phenomenon of retrousse since the old master of the horrors died and a new master took his place. We believe it was a skill of the old master’s and either the new one doesn’t know it, hasn’t learned it yet, or doesn’t have the Power to do it.” Her words were clipped and carefully enunciated. Though Alexa was the first, she was still the one who had the most difficulty with Lladranan.

  The man reluctantly nodded.

  “Where’s my ship model?” Raine asked.

  Faucon’s cousin jerked straight from his slouch and aimed a penetrating look at her. He bowed. “Seamistress.” Raine nearly smiled at the respect in his voice, something he hadn’t shown Alexa, who was so much more dangerous than Raine. “Your Ship is brilliant, absolutely brilliant.”

  Warmth washed through Raine. “Thank you.”

  “Raine, Exotique Seamistress,” Faucon said formally, “please let me introduce you to my cousin Corbeau.”

  Raine dipped her head, “Pleased to meet you.”

  “And I, you,” he said fervently.

  Alexa rolled her eyes at Raine, stepped back into the group of Exotiques.

  “Your Ship’s over here, on the estate pond.” Faucon moved to the left of the continental pond, to the north.

  Raine followed. “Estate pond?”

  “Ayes.” His smile curved, reaching his eyes, and once more she was distracted by his charisma. Then she saw a long rectangular pond that showed a portion of the western coast of Lladrana. She caught her breath. The southernmost edge was Seamaster’s Market, where she’d been Summoned. She swallowed. She saw the tiny village where she’d lived and nearly died.

  Then Faucon was by her side, hand under her elbow. “Easy,” he said, and Raine realized she was hyperventilating. She steadied her breathing with a long inhale.

  Her ship was there, rocking in the pond, massively out of proportion.

  “It belongs in the Creusse Landing pool,” Faucon said.

  “Hmm, a series of ponds showing Lladrana and your estates,” Jaquar, the Circlet Sorcerer and Marian’s husband, said. “Wonderful.” The rest of them had followed Faucon, and Jaquar glanced back at the other pool. “All the islands are correct, and the largest, Bossgond’s, has good detail.”

  “Should have, one of our female forebears lived there,” Faucon said.

  His cousin stood tall. “Our family has contributed members to every segment of society.” His voice took on a note of awe. “We even had a Singer, once, ages ago.”

  “The second of the Creusse name,” Faucon said. “He was Powerful in Song.” Faucon slid his gaze to Alexa. “Which is another reason I should be allowed to go on the expedition. We know our responsibilities to Lladrana, have contributed much to the country. We love her.”

  “You test and are in the top twenty and you go,” Alexa said absently as she studied the new pond. Then she shrugged. “We should be studying the other pond, the one that shows the Dark’s Nest. It helps a lot to see it like this, in land and water to understand the dimensions.”

  “We will return to that pool,” Faucon said. “As soon as we show Raine how the Ship will be built,” he said softly.

  “She doesn’t know?” Jaquar stared at Raine.

  “Ttho.” She lifted her chin. “I’ve asked Marian a few times but never got a short, straight answer.”

  Everyone looked at Marian, who flushed. “Pardon,” she muttered. “I get caught up…didn’t realize.” She drew in a deep breath as if readying herself for a lecture. You could take the prof out of the school, but not the school out of the prof.

  Faucon smiled charmingly. “I think it would be better to demonstrate.” He gestured to his cousin. “Corbeau?”

  Corbeau was staring at Raine, his mouth slightly open. He glanced at her model. “You did all that without knowing exactly how a ship is built?”

  “Ayes,” Faucon responded with a pride that surprised Raine. “She is the Exotique Seamistress. You should see her on the water.” Now everyone was staring at Faucon. “Pure magic and Power.” He winked at Raine, nearly made her jaw drop. The sexual sizzle between them was back, greater than before.

  Alexa made an approving noise. She wasn’t the only one. Raine glanced at the clump of Exotiques and their men.

  “Must we—you—always travel in a pack?” Raine asked

  “Well, I haven’t ever seen a ship raised, either,” Alexa said cheerfully. “Not even built the regular way. Anyone else?”

  “I saw one raised here,” Marian said. “During research—”

  “Of course you did,” Alexa said, grabbing her bondmate’s hand and pulling Bastien faster than his usual saunter. Bastien, too, winked at Raine. It wasn’t the same.

  Alexa continued. “We’ll get out of your way tomorrow and you can be all alone with the man.” She winked.

  Raine felt her cheeks warm.

  “Coming, Raine?” Faucon said.

  “I will not pick up that straight line,” Marian murmured.

  “Thank you,” Raine said weakly and hurried to Faucon. Obviously all the others sensed the sexual tension between herself and the noble Chevalier. Also evident was that they approved. She should return with them in the morning.

  She caught the scent of the sea, a wisp of Power sent in the air from it, and knew she wouldn’t. Didn’t want to be very far away from an ocean ever again.

  No physical constraint this time, but emotional. Seaside was her place.

  The next series of pools showed three places—Faucon’s northern estate, the one here, and, of course,
the one she’d been offered. She stared at it—she’d been told it was empty.

  “We divested ourselves of that piece of land a while back. The owner to the north wanted it.” Faucon shrugged. “Eventually her family had financial troubles and it came back on the market just a few months ago. We hadn’t quite decided to buy it back—”

  His cousin grunted.

  “—when Marian suggested it would be a good place for you.”

  Raine looked at Marian and she said, “It has a shipyard.”

  “Does now,” Corbeau said. “The village is smaller on this reckoning. Features haven’t been kept up here.” Another frown as he strode to the northern estate where he lived. “This isn’t quite right, either.”

  “I’ve been fighting,” Faucon said, “you haven’t been down.”

  “No quarreling,” Marian said. She held out her hand to her husband, Jaquar, then took Faucon’s gesturing hand, then sent a grin to Raine. “This will be like my training. Form a very detailed image in your mind of the land, Corbeau.”

  He took Faucon’s hand and Jaquar’s, forming a small circle of Power, the lines of his face deepening in concentration.

  “Gonna be fun,” Alexa said to Bastien, who was at her back, his arms around her. She wiggled in excitement.

  “Later,” Bastien said.

  Raine’s mouth did fall open as she watched. She could tell through her link with the other Exotiques that Corbeau was providing the image, backed by Faucon. Jaquar was keeping the link between them all clear and steady…and Marian was shaping the land with wind and the wave of the pond. It was like watching the forces of nature carve the estate over years. Raine had seen the Exotique Circlet do mundane spells, and some esoteric ones Raine couldn’t grasp, but this was the first time she saw Marian work her true craft.

  Awesome.

  Corbeau grunted. “We have more sandbars.”

  The land was raised in certain places, pulverized to sand.

  “Wow,” Alexa said.

  “That’s it, I think,” Faucon said. “Blessings of the Song.” He dropped his hands, shook them as if ridding himself of energy. Sparks flew from his fingers. Corbeau yelped, stepped back and then sank into his balance, studying the result. His mouth curved. “Ayes. Perfect. Good job.” He looked at Marian and Jaquar and shook his head. “Consorting with Circlets.”

  “We don’t bite,” Marian said.

  “Later,” Jaquar said.

  Raine snorted.

  But Corbeau was walking out on the peninsula, jutting into the pool’s waters. He pointed to a particular spot. “I think this would be the best place to raise a ship.”

  The continued use of raise finally clicked in Raine’s brain. They couldn’t possibly mean…

  But Enerin, as a seabird, cawed as she dropped a stick that looked suspiciously like a rudder on the place Corbeau had indicated, then fiddled with it a bit until her parents came with more twigs. It looked as if they were setting up a ketch.

  Raine bit her lip. “You actually raise the ship like a—”

  “Barn,” Marian confirmed. “A person in the local community sends word out that he or she needs help for building a boat, the materials are laid out, others come and a circle is formed around the boat and it is ‘raised.’”

  “By magic,” Raine said, shaking her head in disbelief.

  “Let’s show her,” Faucon said, and the birds lifted to Alexa’s, Marian’s and Raine’s shoulders. Once again she welcomed the light weight of her companion.

  You will see! warbled Enerin.

  Faucon splashed into the shallow water and held out both hands to his cousin. They positioned their linked arms around the planks and bit of cloth that was the outline of a ketch.

  Sinafinal, the original female feycoocu who came for Alexa and was her companion, dropped a tiny hematite sphere in the bow. She sprinkled gem chips on the outline—one in the bow, one where the rudder stick would be and one for the rudder itself.

  Corbeau began a rolling chant that matched the rise and fall of a boat on deep waves, then the Song quickened as if it were coming to shore, the waves more shallow, with a hiss of surf.

  Raine stared as the “planks” rose, formed, snapped together with…Power? Small bits of twine unfurled and set themselves in minuscule blocks and tackles, the sails straightened. The ketch tottered on the piece of land, then lifted from it and moved to the “sea,” bobbed there, complete and functional. Raine couldn’t believe it. She stared.

  Alexa sloshed into the pool and dunked it, the little boat righted itself and bobbed back up. “Incredible.”

  Sinafinal chirped in satisfaction on Alexa’s shoulder.

  She scooped the boat up, held it at eye level, examined it from every angle, including upside down. “No teenie-weenie nails. No glue. Huh.” She jumped through the pond to Raine and handed it to her. “You look.”

  “Smooth lap construction. Very smooth,” Raine’s voice squeaked with surprise. “But no glue.”

  Faucon raised his brows. “Power.”

  Corbeau came over, took the little boat from Raine, studied it himself. “A good job.” He glanced at Faucon. “We do good work together.”

  “Always,” Faucon said.

  Setting the boat back into the pond, Corbeau gave it a small push. The little round Power stone took it to magnetic north.

  “I want one,” Alexa said. “I want my own boat. A prettier one.” She fixed her gaze on Raine.

  Faucon met Raine’s eyes with a challenge. “Let’s try it again, with Raine.”

  16

  “Ayes!” shrilled Enerin, an actual word instead of mind-talk. She shot off to nearby bushes and began scruffing about in the underbrush, muttering to herself. “Too thin, too long. Look, look, a cord for rigging!”

  They all stared at the little bird.

  She is a feycoocu, Sinafinal said. If she wishes to speak aloud, she can do so.

  Raine shared glances with the other Exotiques. Just what were the limits of feycoocu Power? They all knew the magical beings could move a lot faster than volarans or even Bri’s roc. They looked at Marian, who said, I ask questions but am mostly ignored. I will not experiment on them.

  Of course not! Raine’s shock was echoed by the others.

  Tuckerinal, Marian’s ex-hamster, flew to her shoulder as Sinafinal went to help Enerin gather appropriate shipbuilding materials. Raine shook her head at that thought.

  I do not know all that I can do, Tuckerinal sent to them. I surprise myself. His head cocked and beak clicked. I cannot heal as well as Bri, I cannot revive dead things. He gazed northward. There are very few of us feycoocus and we cannot defeat the Dark by ourselves. It falls to humans for that.

  “Raine!” Enerin’s cry was piercing. She was standing next to the outline of a boat.

  With a little shock, Raine realized that some of the “planks” had been colored, and if she visualized the boat in 3D, it would correspond to the last boat she’d built for herself—the one that had splintered when she was sucked to Lladrana.

  A great wave of homesickness rolled over her.

  Then Faucon was next to her, hand on her shoulder. He murmured, “I asked Koz about your mirrors. He’s finished them and has been to Bossgond’s island. He’ll soon arrive here.” Faucon made a sweeping gesture to the arrangement of sticks, cord, tattered triangles of cloth and a tiny hematite sphere.

  Alexa lifted her chin. “My boat!”

  “Snot,” teased Marian.

  Alexa just smiled. “I never had a toy boat.”

  She’d been the most financially deprived of them all.

  “Neither did I,” Calli said, sauntering over to watch the raising.

  “Neither did Elizabeth or I,” Bri said.

  These women, like sisters she’d never had, understood Raine more than her brothers ever had, lifted her spirits. Along with Faucon’s touch. Their connection was steadier, stronger, since they’d shared the sail.

  She smiled up at him. He looked startled,
took his hand away and walked toward the “boat.”

  Raine shrugged and followed, took Corbeau’s hand, then held her free one out to Faucon.

  “Maybe we—” Alexa started.

  “Not now, Alexa. We don’t know the Song,” Marian said.

  Raine glanced at them. “I don’t, either.”

  “Of course you do,” Corbeau rumbled. “Better’n Faucon or me. You’ve been building ships all your life.”

  She met his eyes, so like Faucon’s chocolate-brown.

  “It’s in your blood and bone and Song,” Corbeau said.

  Faucon took her hand and she felt a zip of energy go around their closed circle. There was the attraction between her and Faucon, which they both ignored. She heard Corbeau’s personal Song better, sounding much like her brothers’ would. A solid, practical man who loved the sea.

  Dragging in a breath, she put away her feelings and stared at the sticks arranged slooplike on the ground. The three of them surrounded it.

  “Focus,” Corbeau said.

  He meant magic, Power, of course, but she heard the echo of her brothers’, “Concentrate, Raine, don’t let your mind wander.”

  Then Corbeau began the ship-raising Song again, and she did know it. The notes she should Sing came bubbling to her lips and fell from her mouth droplet by droplet without thought. From her link with the men, she learned the words. Words that referenced the ocean and waves and wind and sail and the Power of working on and with the sea. Words she recalled hearing when she was a potgirl…but not often. Those who frequented that tavern were more interested in drink and sex and games, the occasional story.

  The men’s strong tones pulled her from that depressing memory, brought her to the here and now.

  She heard the distant bustle of people in Faucon’s castle, preparing food and chambers for guests. She heard the first trio of stars blink brightly into the deepening blue sky.

  She heard the Songs of people who cared for her enveloping her.

  Raine ended on a high note, a little sad that their melody was done.

  Both Corbeau and Faucon squeezed her hands. “Look,” they said at the same moment.