Echoes in the Dark

by Robin D. Owens

It took more exertion than she expected to climb up the story and a half, but she was still cold and shivering when she went through the hatch and slipped onto the main deck. Through chattering teeth, she Sang a spell that dried and warmed her.

  For long minutes she stood still and soaked up the sounds of the sea, the quiet creaking of the boat, decks newly formed and smelling fresh, the movement of the rope rigging, the whisper of the sail.

  Her toes curled at the gentle rocking under her, the feel of the deck under her. One of the best feelings in the world, standing on your own ship, ready to sail away.

  Others had helped, but without her, The Echo would not exist. She’d done this, designed and built this beautiful ship, the greatest achievement of her life.

  Slowly she walked the length of the ship, staring at the wonderful detailed carving of the inside, scrolls and garlands she’d half recalled from ships on Earth and those the sailors and Deauvilles had wanted.

  Peeking out from a wooden leaf an eye seemed to wink at her. She went closer.

  A gargoyle! And not just any gargoyle. This one was a caricature of Bastien, a sly smile on his face. The carving was fabulous, with a delicacy that she didn’t think the Deauvilles had. Then she knew. Sevair Masif, the Townmaster and Bri’s husband. He was a stonemason, but obviously could also work his craft in wood. Blinking to make out details in the shadows and silver of the moonlight, she looked for others, continuing aft past the cabin to the poop deck reserved for the volarans.

  And she knew they were all here. Every Chevalier, every Marshall, every volaran, with blank spaces ready to be carved for the sailors.

  The Echo was a visual testament to those who sailed her to destroy the Dark.

  She gulped down tears, put her clasped hands over her heart and heard the bump, bump, bump. How could she let someone else captain this ship?

  Drawing in a clearing breath, she took the ladder up to the volaran’s deck, for them to lift off and land. The winged horses had made it clear that they would be rotating who would sail and who would fly. The Echo would make faster time except at night.

  More decoration here, with Chevalier and Marshall figures.

  She wondered if Sevair had carved her, the designer, and where her figure might be, what expression she might have.

  “Raine.” Another whisper of sound, almost lost in the breeze, a caress wafted to her.

  But she knew the soft call, the personal Song of the man splashing quietly below in the water.

  She hurried down the ladder to the main deck, to the access portal, and looked down to see Faucon swimming in the water. “Raine.”

  Water slicked his hair back from his face and once again her heart squeezed as she felt the attraction of him, her lover. More beautiful than the ship.

  “May I come aboard?” he asked.

  “Ayes.”

  With widened eyes, she saw him easily swing up the ladder. He was nude.

  Not shivering, either, which meant he had some sort of swimming-warming spell that she didn’t know about.

  The quiet within her now changed to thrumming anticipation.

  He was simply gorgeous, in shape and in movement.

  When he reached the deck, he looked around with awe.

  “There is nothing like your Ship on all of Amee,” he said, striding forward to take her hands, then lifted them to his lips and kissed each finger. “You must be so proud of your triumph. I’m so proud of you.”

  When had anyone from her family said that to her? She’d had to see in the mirrors how much they valued her skill.

  All her insides wrenched.

  And wind that was not of Amee whistled around her, slapped the sails. The air shimmered again, not a natural phenomena, then a hole opened, showing a corridor.

  The Dimensional Corridor, the dimensional winds.

  The Snap!

  Faucon’s eyes went bleak, his face expressionless after a flash of agony. He let go of her hands, stepped back, said nothing. Just stared as the winds of the Dimensional Corridor whipped around her.

  Her heart broke at the sight of him. As if he’d known all along this Snap was inevitable and that she’d leave, though she hadn’t mentioned going since they’d become lovers.

  She knew he’d shouted for Elizabeth to stay. He said nothing to Raine, but kept his gaze locked on her, surely that meant something?

  He’d never said he’d loved her.

  Slowly the winds turned her and the Corridor solidified more around her. She caught a blur of movement from a balcony of the manor house, knew it was Jikata. Did she see the Dimensional Corridor? Even as the thought went through Raine’s head she saw in a different manner.

  Home.

  The house she’d shared with her father and brothers, had grown up in. Herself there, celebrating Thanksgiving, laughing, surrounded by love. It was noisy and active, as it had always been. Children surrounding her, a couple of them hers. The vision shifted and she saw two buildings, facing each other. One was the old shipyard where they all worked, the newer one was smaller, sleeker, as were the ships docked near it. The sign read Raine Lindley Racing Yachts. A glimpse inside the door showed photos of grinning men and women holding trophies. One of the guys was blond and handsome with a charming smile and bright blue eyes and her heart squeezed, knowing that he’d be her husband, her love on Earth.

  She had what she had wanted there, she knew. A prestigious reputation for building the fastest, the most modern ships, a good life with a husband and children to come. A wonderful, fulfilling, easy life.

  She looked back at the man who loved her now. His shoulders were stiff, his biceps bunched, his hands fisted.

  His gaze burned with intensity and she knew that no man would ever love her the way this man did, no man would ever love her more. She wouldn’t love that guy on Earth as deeply as she could love Faucon.

  If they lived.

  She’d already suffered for Lladrana, for Amee, already paid for whatever they’d given her with tears and blood and sweat and fear. The ship below her…she couldn’t feel the ship, the lovely rocking on the Lladranan seas so different from Earth. Glancing down, she saw the gleaming deck, but she wasn’t truly in Lladrana anymore, she was hovering here until she chose.

  She could ask Faucon if he loved her. She opened her mouth. That wasn’t fair, to make him prove his love and return.

  Her decision. The man, this man who would not draw back from the last battle against the Dark. He could die soon, so could she if she stayed. She knew that as well as she knew she’d be the preeminent yacht designer on Earth if she left Lladrana.

  What was love in this moment worth?

  She hovered. Heard the strong Song of him, of her own, of the oceans of Lladrana, of Amee.

  More than simply love, the richness of this life, the intensity of this life was such that she didn’t want to forsake it. With focused vision, she now saw the carving of herself set in the prow. No caricature at all, but a sculpture of her, eyes distant but haunted, a model of the ship in her hands. Surely if she returned to Earth, some small droplet of her blood would yearn for Lladrana the rest of her life. Her long, lovely life.

  She returned her gaze to Faucon. His eyes were wet. Still he said nothing. Offered nothing, but his Song was ragged with an agony that tore at her.

  “I’m staying!” she yelled, and her world went dark an instant, the vision of her loving family disappeared, the familiar scent of home and ocean that she hadn’t even known she was smelling, vanished. A last beat of charging rock and roll she hadn’t known was running through her head stopped.

  She dropped and clunked on the deck.

  Faucon’s eyes went wide. He shuddered and gasped, then he grabbed her. Held her tight. “I love you.”

  “I love you,” she said.

  They lowered to the deck under the throb of their emotions, her clothes stripped away. His body was slick under her hands…sea spray and sweat. Then his mouth covered hers and all his urgent movements swept her away, too.
Her clothes disappeared. She needed the scent of him, the feel of him on her, in her. Needed his hard hands stroking her breasts and between her legs. Needed the throbbing words of love, his breath in her mouth that they’d share.

  Needed life.

  She loved him, but was terrified of the future.

  She didn’t want to die.

  Worse, she didn’t want to see him die. She clutched him as their loving turned fierce. “I love you.”

  Jikata found rough, cold brick against her back and realized she’d retreated from the rail of the balcony to the wall of the house. She breathed shallowly and wiped a hand across her eyes.

  So that was the Snap. She had no doubt what she’d seen. Everyone had been discussing Raine’s Snap out of the woman’s hearing, speculating whether she would return home to Earth or stay here in Lladrana. Jikata hadn’t heard it all, but something had gone wrong with Raine’s Summoning. The odds had been seventy percent that she’d leave.

  Alexa and Bastien and Bri had all wagered she’d stay. They’d been right.

  Jikata shouldn’t have been able to see it, not Raine on the Ship at this distance. But she had. Closely, brightly, too, as if it had been day instead of a moonlit night. Tendrils of damp iridescent mist, reflecting all colors, had gathered around Raine. Different than the mist before Jikata’s eyes that signaled a coming vision. But something that Jikata half recognized, something that had her shivering in the summer night. Dimensional Corridor misty winds.

  Jikata had seen what Raine had—a family dinner, a successful business, a loving husband and children, a long and fruitful life. Jikata still didn’t know why Raine hadn’t returned. Because Raine, like Jikata, had seen the blank emptiness ahead of her here on Lladrana. Hadn’t she?

  Yet she’d stayed anyway.

  A quiet almost-sound, a sigh, alerted Jikata to the presence of someone in the darkened room behind her. She jolted, but stopped herself from whirling, knowing it was Luthan.

  And how much had he seen?

  With a firm step she walked back into the room, saw his shadowy form silhouetted black.

  “Raine’s Snap has come and she has stayed,” Luthan said.

  “Yes,” Jikata said, deliberately using English.

  His chest emptied of another sigh and he shook his head. “Amazing what people will do with just a little hope…and love.”

  The air thickened around them and Jikata was aware of an ache she had to hold him, be held by him.

  “My Snap won’t come until after the battle with the Dark,” she said matter-of-factly, but the truth of it began to nibble at her self-control. She’d have to fight and survive before she could leave.

  “All of the Exotiques fought and faced death before their Snaps came.” He answered her thought, not her words, strode across the room and took her in his arms.

  She looked up at him. “Not Raine—”

  “Not recently, but she was abused, and the English word is ‘stalked’ before we found her.”

  “Found her?”

  “You’ll hear the whole story sometime.” He bent and brushed her lips, she opened her mouth for him.

  He tasted anxious, matching his Song. He hadn’t liked whatever he’d seen during Raine’s Snap.

  Then came a shout, running footsteps, banging doors, a wordless yell.

  The moment broke and Jikata breathed easier, there was reality to deal with.

  Luthan snorted, his teeth showed white in a grin. “Alexa rarely bothers to be quiet and discreet.” He gave her a last tight hug, then indicated the balcony and they went out on it, holding hands. Just in time to see Alexa sprinting across the sand, yelling. “The Snap, the Snap came for Raine!”

  Bastien sauntered behind her, bare-chested and with the drawstring of his casual pants untied.

  Alexa dove into the water and thrashed to the Ship.

  Faucon withdrew from Raine, rolled them over and cleaned them up with a quick songspell. He was panting. Even after the explosive release of sex, his nerves seemed wire-tight. His face was wet and though he’d like to think it was sweat and sea spray, he knew there were tears, too.

  His woman had stayed.

  Had stayed for him.

  He hadn’t pleaded with her as he had Elizabeth, hadn’t even believed in his heart of hearts that she would ever stay after what she’d already experienced. Hadn’t told her he loved her.

  Yet she’d stayed.

  A frisson of fear drained away the heat of loving. She’d stayed. That meant she might Sing the terrible spell to destroy the Dark. How could he keep her safe?

  He hadn’t thought he’d keep himself safe. Hadn’t thought he’d have much to live for except to destroy the Dark with his last breath.

  Everything had changed.

  She had changed their futures, and he didn’t know how much of a future they had.

  Thumps and curses came as Alexa climbed up the rope ladder. Her shouts had warned him that there would be no resting and gazing at the stars with Raine, any tender words after loving.

  He wasn’t overly modest, but wished for pants.

  Alexa plunged through the access hole and halfway across the width of the deck.

  “Raine!”

  Raine sat up beside him. He put a hand on her thigh to keep contact, though the way their Songs had fused together in incandescent heat, he didn’t think they’d be totally separate ever again. More fear would come, more dread. He shut it away.

  “Geez, Alexa, why don’t you wake the entire country.” Raine sounded aggrieved, pushed her fingers through her hair as if to straighten tangles. That didn’t work.

  “Raine!” A happy cry, now. “You stayed.”

  “Yeah, and I’m rethinking that decision right now. Umph!”

  Alexa knocked her over.

  The women flopped around together a little, hugging and separating, and Faucon was glad that his spell had included a perfume that dispersed the scent of sex. Not that he would have minded, but Raine would have.

  “That’s a nice sight,” Bastien said, coming so quietly onto the Ship that he startled Faucon.

  “Ayes,” Faucon said.

  The women were upright and hugging and crying, talking in fractured English. Faucon wiped his arm across his face.

  Bastien crouched down beside Faucon. “Might not want to do a bloodbond with her.”

  “No!” It was nearly too loud, and he hadn’t thought it completely through, but Bastien was right. Such bloodbound couples would die together. Much as it would have hurt for Raine to return to Earth, at least then she would have lived.

  Bastien said wistfully, “You want to keep her safe.”

  “Ayes. And you want to do the same with Alyeka.”

  “No way to do that.” A sad half smile. “Can’t keep her out of this fight. We’ll survive or go down together taking the Dark with us, Song willing.”

  “Maybe—”

  But Alexa had jumped to her feet and grabbed Bastien’s hands, pulling him to his feet so she could throw herself into his arms. “Raine has stayed after the Snap!” She tugged him to dance around with her. “You know how much zhiv we’ve made?”

  Raine slanted Faucon a wary look that he read. He lifted his hands. “I didn’t bet.”

  Then Sinafinal and Tuckerinal and Enerin were there, three peacocks. Enerin was obviously following her mother’s example of disregarding sex for beauty. Sinafinal spread her fan, walked toward Raine, ducked her head and spoke.

  35

  Thank you for staying, Exotique Seamistress. The Ship needs such a fine Captain, Sinafinal said.

  Raine appeared a little startled. “I’ve already had a good idea for the Captain—”

  Jean will step aside, as he should. You have increased our chances greatly against the Dark.

  “Thank you,” Raine said.

  She loves us! Enerin trilled.

  Faucon rose, stepped over to Raine and picked her up, then whistled for his volaran. “We won’t talk of battles tonight.” Not anymor
e. “We have something wonderful to celebrate, another Exotique has decided Lladrana is her home!”

  Cheers came from Bastien and Alexa, some volarans who’d landed near them, and shouts from the shore and house.

  Raine smiled, and it seemed that some of the shadows that had dimmed the brightness of her eyes had vanished. She put her arms around his neck and triumph surged through him. Nothing he’d done in all of his life, no joy he’d felt before, equaled what flowed through him now.

  He set her bareback on his volaran, and swung up behind her and they rose to more cheers.

  People dotted the beach, and all the lights in the house were on.

  The flight was short, but reminded him all the same of the first night he’d met her. A dazzling light burst in his head and heart as he finally allowed himself to love her without believing she would leave him.

  She was supple and wonderful in his arms, and though danger and death loomed, before they reached that last instant, he would cherish her in every moment.

  They stopped at the stables where Faucon could snatch some old trousers for himself and a long tunic for her. His volaran pranced out to discuss the events with the rest of the herd. The status of his winged steed had just increased because Faucon was the mate of a permanent Exotique. Blossom, Raine’s volaran, was also trotting around, head high.

  He gathered Raine up, feeling more and more like she was a prize, and took her to his bed. There he loved her again, gently, tenderly, and she fell asleep in his arms.

  His selfish wish had come true and now he was torn, rejoicing and regretting. She was here, she loved him enough to stay with him despite all that had happened to her. That was the greatest gift he’d ever had in his life. She loved him enough to Captain the Ship through the dangerous waters to the Dark’s Nest.

  He hoped she loved him enough to stay behind, safe on the Ship, when he went into battle. But he thought she had a different definition of their love—love mixed with responsibility and duty. Other, sisterly love—that would have her going to battle with him. Going further to unite with the other Exotiques and Sing the City Destroyer spell.

  The spell that would destroy the Dark and might destroy them all.