He dropped his head an instant as he lifted her fingers to his lips, to arrange his expression, but kissed her fingers fervently.
“Tell me what happened.” His tone sounded only a little rough.
Avellana blinked. “I got a scry from Antenn to meet him at the ridge before the project started this morning.” Her lips pressed together.
Antenn, get to Primary HealingHall Noble Room One NOW! Vinni roared to his friend.
Fifteen
Brows down, Avellana fretted the edge of her blanket with the hand Vinni didn’t hold. “No.” She paused. “I do not think so.”
“What?” Vinni asked.
“What!” Antenn demanded as he flung open the door.
He stopped on the threshold, sucked in a breath, and stared at Avellana with goggling eyes. “Avellana.” He surged forward. Vinni stepped in front of him and pushed him away.
“No.” Avellana’s voice came thin. “I do not think Antenn scried me.” Her gaze went to Antenn. “I do not think he requested I meet him on Lookout Ridge above our prospective community.”
Taking a step sideways so he could see Avellana, Antenn said, “No. I didn’t. We’d agreed that the final walkthrough would be me and my subcontractors this morning at WorkBell. No investors, including you—especially you as we are keeping your partnership secret from the public. Some secondary roads will be constructed, nothing much to watch.” He flicked a glance at Vinni. “WorkBell is well after dawn at this time of year. And the raising of the homes won’t start until tomorrow morning. Then you can come, along with other homeowners.”
“Yes.” Avellana nodded. Her lips pursed. “I think I was the victim of a repetition spell. He did not call me ‘Avellana.’ He did not respond to my questions, he merely demanded I meet him on the ridge. Impatiently.”
Anger licked through Vinni. “You tend to obey demands.” He—and her Family—had taught her that.
“Yes. It will be different in the future.” Avellana lifted her chin. “I determine more of my own actions now.”
“I didn’t scry her,” Antenn snarled. He appeared fully dressed in professional architect clothes. Actually too nice for a raw site visit, Vinni thought, but Antenn knew all about the image he wanted to project, paid more attention to that than Vinni did. Something she and Antenn must have found they had in common.
“Hey, Vinni.” Antenn held out his arm to grasp.
Vinni did. “Greetyou, Antenn.”
“Why don’t you give me details on what happened?” Antenn’s gaze went back to Avellana. Stepping lightly, he moved to the other side of Avellana’s bed.
With a spellword, she raised the bedsponge until she sat. “I received a scry that I thought came from you.” She frowned. “The scrybowl water showed Turquoise, the color of your Residence.”
Antenn touched her on her shoulder and, when she looked at him, said, “I will only call you on a perscry from now on.” His smile showed strain. “I can’t afford to lose my partner.”
A shade in his tone made Vinni believe he spoke the truth. “If you need gilt—” He stopped, but knew the damage had been done.
Antenn’s face hardened as he turned to Vinni. “No.” Antenn drew himself to his full height, some centimeters less than Vinni, his shoulders straightened with pride. “If you could think for even an instant that I would harm Avellana—”
“Of course not.” Vinni let his mouth twist. “I was frightened for Avellana. I do not act well when someone threatens Avellana.” He met her eyes. “Not for years.”
Antenn let out a gusty breath, one side of his mouth kicked up. “Yeah, I’m like that with Tiana.”
His calendar sphere appeared and pinged. “I need to head out to my first meeting for a walk around on the community land, double-check the roads before we lay them today, do a final survey before we construct tomorrow.”
“Can you teleport there?” Vinni asked.
“Yeah, I can. I’ve had my eye on that property since I finished the Cathedral, and been there nearly every day for the last two years.”
“Can anyone else teleport there?” Vinni asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe some of the surveyors, some folk from my office. More likely the assailant came by glider or stridebeast. I put in the main gliderway from the road from Druida City to Gael City right away, as soon as I decided on the plan and bought the land.” He patted Avellana’s shoulder again. “When I sent the rumor out about founding a new town and asked for investors or people interested in buying plots, this lady was the first one to get back to me—about a year ago. We really didn’t get rolling with the plans of each lot and selling the parcels and designing the houses until four months ago.”
Vinni said slowly, “It’s someone who knows Avellana is a silent partner in this venture.” He glanced at his love.
She frowned. “I do not think I told anyone. Rhyz knew, of course, but I did not tell my Family or you.”
“I know that,” Vinni said with awful politeness.
“The artists on Mona Island are all very happy with their own well-established community, so I did not speak of Multiplicity. I am sure my banker, T’Reed, knew—”
Antenn snorted. “Uptight guy, wouldn’t unpress his thin lips to spill a word.”
“No, he wouldn’t,” Vinni agreed. He stared at Antenn.
“Ah. Hmm. Well,” Antenn said, “most everybody in my office knew, an open secret. I don’t know who my people would have told.” He shrugged. “Maybe some of the contractors knew, particularly since we discussed Avellana’s home most because it is slated to go up first thing tomorrow afternoon.”
Avellana said, “Antenn referred a couple of people to me regarding buying into the community, Tica Daisy and Arbusca Willow Paris, and we met.” She glanced at Vinni and away. “My former nanny and best friend, Aralia Clover, fronted for me, but . . .”
“An open secret, with those involved in the design and construction areas,” Vinni repeated.
“Yeah,” Antenn confirmed.
Vinni nodded. “That is yet one aspect to keep in mind, and also it’s unlikely that someone who owns land in Multiplicity teleported ahead of her and ambushed Avellana.”
Antenn grunted. “I’d call that scenario unlikely. In fact, I’d say it would be risky for anyone except me to ’port there. I haven’t seen anyone at the site except me without land transportation.”
“We should ask Rhyz whether he saw or heard a glider or stridebeasts, or even the rare horse,” Avellana said.
“Yes,” Vinni said.
Avellana cleared her throat, and they looked at her.
“Thinking back, I am not sure whether the voice on the scry was Antenn’s. It was low and rough and sounded impatient. I concentrated on the content.” She lifted and dropped her shoulders.
“So not someone who recorded me secretly and used my words in a repetition spell.” Antenn sounded relieved. “I didn’t miss observing that. Good.”
“But a man,” Avellana said.
“Or a woman who used a spell to alter her voice,” Vinni pointed out. “Still, good info to know.”
“Yes,” Avellana and Antenn said in unison.
Avellana hesitated, frowning. “I am quite sure a male attacked me, and he seemed to be the size and shape of the man on the dock.”
“What man on what dock?” Antenn asked.
“Later,” Vinni said.
“All right.” Antenn’s calendar sphere alarmed again. He glanced at Avellana. “Do you intend to show up and watch the construction tomorrow?”
“Of course. It will be exciting!”
“Good. I’m glad. Not sure how much crowd we’ll have, but at least one owner of every house that’s going up will be there. Maybe not both of a couple, but one.”
“My neighbors!” Avellana beamed. “I have not met all of them yet.”
&
nbsp; “Right,” Antenn said. “We will have an observation tent.” He shared a quick smile with them both. “Including good food and drink throughout the day. Not on Lookout Ridge, but on a gentle hill across the valley.”
“Sounds great,” Vinni said.
Antenn waved a hand at them. “Later.” He vanished.
Vinni made a circuit of the room, pacing and thinking.
After a minute, he heard a telepathic stream in his mind from Rhyz.
I am Healed. Danith D’Ash is WONDERFUL. I am ALL GOOD NOW.
Avellana answered telepathically on the channel between all four of them, Vinni and his Fam, her and Rhyz, I am very glad. I love you, Rhyz.
I love you, too. I come to you soon. I get food here before I ’port.
I am at the HealingHall, Avellana projected.
I know, the cat said, and Vinni got echoes of slurps. He checked on Flora, who slept through this interchange.
When he turned back toward Avellana, she plucked at the covers again and wouldn’t meet his eyes. He came over to sit next to her, took one of her hands, and sent her reassurance through their bond. “What’s wrong, love?”
She met his gaze, then glanced away. Her cheeks pinkened. “I am mortified. I told you I could protect myself, but I did not. I did not even question the scry.”
“It came to your home scry bowl, which meant someone has your bowl locale, but perhaps not your perscry image and tune.”
“Yes.”
“Now we know that, you can change your bowl locale, forward scrys that come to your personal scry bowl to the general scry at D’Hazel Residence and to one of my bowls.”
“I can do that.” Her fingers twisting under his, she admitted, “Before he struck me, I did not see the man. Did not even sense him.”
“You’ve told me more than once that you have learned to live in other places, with other people due to our separation.”
She cast him a look from under lowered brows.
“During the times I sent you away,” he admitted. He rolled his shoulders at the tingle of warning that had lodged along his spine. “I have learned to be more . . . wary. To sense danger better.”
“Sense danger.” She said the words as if testing them. Her gaze met his. “A physical sense? Not linked to your prophetic Flair?”
“More like developed as I lived here. Druida City has been a dangerous place to some lately.”
“Not to you!”
He shrugged. “Who knows? Some people will always resent the FirstFamilies, those who remain at the top of the society—with centuries of wealth and Flair.”
“You said a physical sense,” she repeated.
“Also developed as I continued with my fighter training.”
“Oh. It may be a male thing. I believe Rhyz has such very good senses.”
Vinni didn’t think gender mattered, but training and attitude. The females closest to him hadn’t developed that acute warning system—Avellana and Flora. His female relatives were more attuned to the politics within the Family than outside T’Vine Residence. At least, he thought so, except for the guards.
The room brightened as sunlight hit the lowest edge of the window. Avellana looked at the timer. “Breakfast in three-quarters of a septhour at home.” She glanced at Vinni. “We should be there.”
“Yes.”
“You’ll come, too.”
“We’re a unit, Avellana. Best show everyone that.” He’d be damn sure that everyone in the whole city knew the consequences of any threat to Avellana.
She slid back her bedcovers and Vinni averted his glance from her womanly body barely covered by the thin HealingHall robe. From the corner of his eyes he watched her stand with no trembling. Good.
“Where are your clothes?”
“I bled on them. I cannot dress in clothes I bled in!” Her voice rose.
“Of course not,” he soothed. The Healers would have sent her clothes to professional cleansers, then they would be donated to the temple charity. “Just translocate some clothes.”
“Yes.” She frowned as if considering her outfit. Glancing at the timer, she said, “Clothes for breakfast with my Family, then working at the Cathedral on my murals.”
He cleared his throat. “I want to get this decision out of the way. When you go to Multiplicity tomorrow morning—”
“I am leaving one septhour before WorkBell so I can observe the construction from the first to the last.” She paused. “Until we must leave to prepare for leading the First Quarter Twinmoons Ritual.” She lifted her brows. “Will that be late afternoon or evening?”
“We decided on EveningBell, though I wish it had been Last Quarter Moons and midnight.” He smiled sharply. “I know being up at night bothers you no more than it does me.”
She nodded solemnly. “You will always be called out during odd hours because of your profession. I must become accustomed to that to be a good HeartMate since we will share a bed.”
He really wished she hadn’t said that, and that she wasn’t standing so close to a bedsponge in a thin covering. He could bespell the suite for privacy . . .
But her lips curved with a small smile and she dipped her head in agreement. “I like the night.”
More words that had his body reacting. Reluctantly, he cooled his blood.
“So if the erection of the homes tomorrow lasts until sundown, we can observe it all.” Why had he said erection?
“Yes. That is good. I am very involved in the undertaking.”
“Back to my point. I will pick you up tomorrow morning in my glider and we’ll go to the site together.”
“All right.”
“Promise me you won’t teleport anywhere you don’t know in the future.” That came out more rough and demanding than he’d intended, but he didn’t care.
She looked at him. “I promise.”
“After breakfast today, I will take you to the Cathedral.”
“All right.”
“And we’ll be relying on Rhyz’s instincts for danger.” Until Vinni could figure out something—several options—to protect his love. Definitely an amulet that would translocate her here to the HealingHall if she was hurt. Personal armor, Rhyz’s instincts. How to stimulate Avellana’s instincts?
Avellana raised her arms. “Clothes to me, now!” Underwear and a very nice tunic and trous appeared on the bed—the blue of Avellana’s eyes, trimmed in a Celtic knot pattern in metallic thread of Hazel green-brown and a pale green shade the Vines used as one of their tints-of-green colors. That she wore his color touched him.
He turned his back as she donned pantlettes and breastband—of emerald, another Vine shade—that he’d told her looked particularly good against her skin. To focus on something else, he said, “A good choice of clothes. Very traditional cut.”
“I like the style of my childhood better than current fashion. I prefer a tunic below my knees and cut up the sides and really full trous gathered at the ankle. I think it is more elegant than short tunics and narrow legs.” She paused. “I plan on wearing a tunic-and-trous set like this tomorrow, also. You think it will make an appropriate statement for a person who is having her own house built in Multiplicity?”
“The person of the highest status?” he asked.
After sighing, she said, “Yes.”
He turned. She’d put her hair up in a simple coronet, not overly fancy braids. “I think you look great.”
Her mouth softened. “You always do.” Her brows came down. “You are not dressed for breakfast or any appointments you might have this morning. What is your schedule?”
His mind went blank. He had to look down at his clothes to see what he wore. Hadn’t he slept nude as usual? He couldn’t recall. But standard, good, walk-around-the-Residence trous and tunic clothed him, not night stuff, thank the Lady and Lord. Had he clothed himsel
f during teleportation? He shouldn’t have been able to do that . . . but it had happened once or twice in the past when he’d feared for Avellana. A secret he’d told no one.
Lifting his foot, he stared at a sturdy, well-worn work boot that didn’t match the rest of his garb. Wiggling his toes, he found he even had knit liners under the boots.
“Will you do a Whirlwind Spell to cleanse and dress yourself?” she asked.
“I hate those.”
“Everyone does.”
With a sigh, he visualized clothes of elegant cut and material, obviously heavily spelled. He would open the top of his new two-seater glider and they would travel through the main part of town. He definitely wished to indicate to all who saw them today, and all who watched the building of Multiplicity tomorrow, that he, GreatLord Vinni T’Vine, supported his HeartMate. Cross him at your peril.
“Whirlwind Spell!” he ordered, and suffered through the scouring of himself, including his sensitive bits, and found himself dressed as he’d imagined in under a minute.
“Very nice.” Avellana came up and took his arm.
The door to the chamber opened and Rhyz swaggered in. Vine glider is here. We will get home in time for breakfast. He licked his whiskers. When I tell everyone what a hero I am, I will get EXTRA GOOD food. He aimed a glance at Avellana. I want furrabeast cubes, not shredded furrabeast.
“Oh, all right,” she said. They moved to the door, following the FamCat. “We’ll be relying on your instincts for danger.”
I know. I FELT that when you talked through our bond. He put an extra flick in his tail. I sense danger good. I have learned that. Then a darkness flooded his thoughts, terrible images that Vinni couldn’t see clearly.
Avellana dropped her hand from Vinni’s and picked up her heavy tom, cradled him against her breasts, and said telepathically, I love you, Rhyz.
I failed my first FamMan.
Vinni sent love to the cat down their bond. You didn’t know danger threatened him.
And you were very young. You did not know how to help him, Avellana pointed out.
Heart Sight Page 14