Vinni rose and inclined his torso. “It’s a pretty drive to Gael City and I can check on our town estate there.” He frowned. “If Bicknell and Perna don’t wish to house Avellana and me, there are plenty of other places we can stay. I have friends who will give us houseroom if the cottage is unavailable.” He wasn’t sure whether he’d like to actually sleep in the Gael City house . . . It wasn’t a Residence and couldn’t warn him and Avellana whether some sort of trap had been set.
This request didn’t feel like a trap . . . not with a casual “drop in sometime,” nothing specific enough to set up an attack . . . he didn’t think.
“Good night, T’Vine.” Lauda curtseyed, then walked away, spine straight, and from her flowed relieved satisfaction. A feeling that his own grin echoed.
He believed that sending out the warm feelings during dinner had encouraged Lauda to speak with him, and now he had a purpose to add to his travels. Not simply “get away,” but “get away and act as Oracle to a new Vine.”
His chest expanded as if he breathed in life itself. A new Vine.
He loved acting as Oracle.
As he lay in bed that night, he traced the small bond he had with Lauda to find the thread leading to her brother, Bicknell, and then the wisp to Perna. Then he concentrated on discovering how soon the babe might come. He’d had plenty of experience in determining the time of birth.
Within the week, for sure.
He fell asleep with a smile, but as bad dreams and worse visions threatened, he slept lightly.
When he awoke at TransitionBell, doom hovering black around him, he yearned for his HeartMate.
Avellana? he whispered along their bond.
I am here, Muin, she replied a little sleepily. Rhyz left a moment ago to hunt. She sighed.
He shouldn’t ask her . . .
What, Muin?
Come to my small tower rooftop teleportation room, please?
A long pause and he sensed her checking out their bond. She sighed, then sent, More dark dreams, Muin?
As usual, he replied.
I will come, though if we spend much time together we may not be as physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared as we should be for a formal matchmaking consultation.
Saille T’Willow won’t care, and he’ll take that into account. Vinni found himself smiling. It doesn’t matter if I’m battered and exhausted, I will always love you and know you’re my HeartMate.
She paused and he thought she sniffed wetly at his declaration. Thank you. I love you, too, Muin, my HeartMate. I will be there shortly.
Good. He paused. I do have SOME good news.
But she didn’t answer, and he rolled out of bed and dressed in light trous and shirt, took the stairs to the rooftop, and opened the door for her after she’d arrived.
She wore a too-thick nightrobe. Probably underwear, too.
“Your amulet and personal armor stone?” he demanded.
“I have the stone on my person and I can initiate the spell with a Word or gesture. I also have my amulet.” She patted her chest and Vinni swallowed. That chain and stone would be between her breasts.
Ignoring his half arousal, he took her hand and led her past the fern-shadowed hot tub to the wall and pointed out the few bright lights of Multiplicity in the distance. She sighed, this time sounding contented, and leaned against him as he encircled her waist with his arm.
Then he told her of Bicknell and Perna Vine and acting as Oracle, and Avellana lifted her face to look at him with shining delight.
Trapped. Net. HEAD in NOOSE in net! HELP! Rhyz sounded frantic. Vinni heard the echo of choking.
Avellana gasped. I must go!
Vinni grabbed her, both arms around her waist. He felt her surge of power, how she visualized the teleportation closet in her new house.
“Wait a damn minute!” he shouted, aloud next to her ear and in her mind. Pulsed red danger warning from his being to hers through their link. She sagged against him at the assault on her senses.
“I must go,” she whimpered.
STOP STRUGGLING! Vinni mind-shouted at Rhyz. We are coming as fast as we can. Struggling hastens your death. He didn’t know for sure but figured a bespelled noose might constrict faster with thrashing around.
Avellana cried out.
“Your promise. Personal armor,” he reminded.
With a finger flick, she snapped it around her. Gritting his teeth, he set his arm near her waist, felt the field of the spell, squeezed tighter.
“Counting down!” she cried.
“Wait! You and others have been lured before.” He struggled to put his strong feelings into words, grasp the tenuous logic. “You’ve been moving and arranging furniture today, haven’t you?” he asked her, to help calm them both down for a bit while they thought.
“Yes, you know that, Muin.”
“You’re ’porting to the teleportation closet.”
“Of course.”
“Where you know the light. Because you haven’t stayed at the house through the night yet.” And, Lord and Lady, he wanted to be with her the first night she did. The notion went straight to his cock and he banished the sexual tingle. Not the time for that.
But she’d relaxed in his arms. “You think someone put a piece of furniture in the teleportation room.”
“Your tiny closet. Yes, I do.”
“But my personal armor . . . it should bounce me away?” she insisted.
“Big furniture versus teleporting person? Who the fligger knows?” he snapped.
Rhyz wailed again, the sound holding pain and terror.
“Take us to the Cathedral,” Vinni ordered. “You know teleportation rooms there.”
“Yes!”
In an instant, they’d arrived. She flung open the carved wooden door and raced through the empty space toward the southeast exit. Not the one closest to the new village. He caught up with her, took her hand, sucked in a breath. “I might be able to translocate the sport vehicle . . .”
She gasped, stopped, stared at him an instant. “With my help.”
He hadn’t thought of that. “Yes.”
“No,” she said, then grabbed his hand and began to run again. “We can borrow one of the gliders outside.”
“The Hopefuls have gliders?”
“Someone should be here. They are not fast.” Her breath caught and he saw tears in her eyes, felt the echo of more pain from her Fam.
“I will kill whoever did this to him.” The vow spouted from his lips.
She didn’t stop. “Do not say this.”
His mind scrambled to get to the place fast, latched on to something he should have thought of first. He yelled mind-to-mind with all his might, Mortal emergency! Antenn to me. Cathedral plaque!
Antenn had built the Cathedral, knew it in all its forms. The Hopefuls had erected a plaque to him that was the pride of the man’s life.
“Here!” a groggy voice called. Vinni heard stumbling steps.
Avellana reversed her path and sped toward the plaque. Vinni saw the bare form of his friend, took off his jacket, and translocated it to the man’s feet.
When they reached him, he still stared at the jacket. “Mortal—”
Looking into his eyes, Avellana shouted, “Rhyz is in my house, dying!”
That snapped Antenn’s head up. He grabbed Vinni and Avellana, and before Vinni could draw in breath to say anything, they landed on Avellana’s porch, impressing Vinni.
She hit her palm against the wooden door. “Open!” It slammed against the inner wall.
M . . . e . . . w, came to Vinni’s mind, then faded.
Twenty-nine
Rhyz,” shrieked Avellana, racing up the stairs, a wordless wail streaming from her. Then her voice broke on a sob. “Rhyz.”
“Lights!” Antenn ordered.
Brightness blinded Vinni as he scanned the first floor from the middle. He looked up and saw a swinging noose, then Avellana collapsed holding a limp orange cat. Vinni’s heart seemed to stick in his throat, then pulsed in a pounding beat. Surely she wouldn’t try to revive her Fam, use that deadly primary Flair of hers. She’d drain herself, and him, and Antenn, and all her neighbors . . .
He ’ported to her, touched the cat, felt a tiny breath expel from his lungs. “He lives.”
“What?”
Bending and putting his arms under her, he teleported them to the animal Healer, Danith D’Ash, and once again mentally yelled, Mortal emergency.
Danith, dressed in flannel pajamas, appeared on the pad before them, stepped up, and put her hand on Rhyz.
“I’m funneling Flair from you both to Rhyz,” she stated, and Vinni felt the drain.
They stood there long moments as Danith D’Ash worked on Rhyz, the three of them linked closely enough that Vinni received impressions of her Healing . . . fixing the cat’s throat and airway and the pumping of Flaired energy for him to breathe easily and deeply; the more delicate repair of the brain damage . . . Avellana began heaving with great sobs.
“I’ll take him into exam room one,” Danith said, deftly removing the cat from his FamWoman, and vanished.
Avellana shook against Vinni, and he pulled her close to his body so she would feel him, steady and supportive for her.
Waves of emotion poured through their link from her, her vague remembrance of her own brain being healed when she was a toddler, the knowledge that Rhyz had faced death before as a victim of the Black Magic Cult.
“Shh, shhh.” He made more comforting sounds as he rocked her. She threw her arms around him and clamped them tight enough that he felt her terror-damp palms through the linen of his shirt. “Rhyz is safe. We’re safe.”
“Someone tried to kill him! That spell of the net-becoming-noose is evil!”
Vinni had to unclench his jaw so more words would emerge. “Yes, it is.”
Avellana wept, right there on the teleportation pad, until they heard the chipper voice of Rhyz. I am all better, and I got good nip, and I had an adventure.
“Grrr,” Avellana growled. She let loose of Vinni and whipped around and the examination room door opened and Rhyz swaggered out, whiskers twitching in a cat grin. “Males!”
“Hey!” Vinni said.
She took the long step down from the thick teleportation pad, then sank down onto the floor as if her knees had given way. “Oh, Rhyz!” She opened her arms.
He hopped into them and revved up his purr.
Danith D’Ash leaned on the doorjamb to the examination room. She appeared a little wan, as if the adrenaline bump, then a huge use of Flair, then the relieved crash had hit.
Taking inventory of himself, Vinni realized providing the Flair for three teleportations within a half septhour made him feel a trifle shaky, too. He walked to Avellana and drew her to her feet, then inclined his head toward Danith. “Our deepest thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” she said simply, then added, “I never like to see Rhyz return to my Healing office.”
Bad man left bad spell that GOT Me! Rhyz projected, then hissed.
Danith straightened, surprise showing in her eyes. “What!”
“Are you sure it was a man?” Vinni asked.
Rubbing her face, Danith said, “I don’t think I can handle a conversation like this tonight.” One hand moving so she could peek around it, she muttered, “Is this something you’ll have to talk to my husband, T’Ash, about?”
He cleared his throat. “Not right now.”
With a large sigh, Danith turned to the examination room and said a cleansing couplet, then came over and hugged Avellana, then him. “You can speak with him tomorrow. Now I’d like to get a little sleep until the next emergency.”
“Of course,” Vinni replied.
“Thank you so much,” Avellana said. “I have authorized a transfer of funds from my bank to you.”
“Fine,” Danith said. She tapped Rhyz on the nose. “As for you, be more careful.”
His tongue swiped her fingers. “Yesss,” he enunciated.
“My glider is on the way to take us—” Vinni began.
“Me to D’Hazel Residence, and Muin home,” Avellana finished. “We will leave now and walk down the gliderway to the gate to await the vehicle.”
“Of course,” Danith said. “Merry meet.”
“And merry part,” Vinni and Avellana said at the same time.
“And merry meet again.” Danith smiled brilliantly. “But hopefully not in my office for Rhyz.”
“Or Flora,” Avellana said.
“Or Flora.”
“We were at my house in Multiplicity,” Avellana continued. “Have you toured the new village?”
A gleam came to Danith’s eyes. “No. I understand it is a private community.”
Avellana bobbed a curtsey. “I will tell the gates that you must always be admitted.”
Danith raised her brows. “Thank you.”
“You are welcome. We will go now. Thank you again for Healing Rhyz.”
And thank you for the nip, Rhyz said, his tongue licking close whiskers.
They walked out into the night, Vinni’s arm around Avellana’s shoulders, and her carrying a Rhyz who would prefer to strut around himself. Now that the danger had passed, the Fam, in cat fashion, had pretty much forgotten his fear.
Vinni could still smell his own sweat and caught the fragrance of Avellana’s gown as a fresh herbal spell activated, drawing away her perspiration.
I want down now, Rhyz projected.
Reluctantly, Avellana placed him on all four paws. Tail waving, he led them to the courtyard where the glider would arrive. Then he sat and began grooming himself.
Vinni cocked his head as he reported his telepathic conversation with Antenn to Avellana. “Antenn is reporting this latest incident to Garrett Primross, who is in charge of the investigation into the assaults on you.”
“On us,” Avellana stated.
Vinni hesitated, then agreed. “On us. Antenn, of course, is furious that his brand-new town—”
“Our brand-new community,” Avellana continued to correct. “I am in partnership with him.”
“Yes,” Vinni replied softly. He took her hand, felt the trembling of her fingers. “I’m sorry.”
“And I am ready,” she stated.
“What?”
“I did not wish to leave Multiplicity and my new home so soon, but I do not want any more violence to besmirch this new place. I am ready to leave with you and travel.” Her voice broke, and it sounded as if she swallowed a sob. “Again. Some more.”
More adventure! Rhyz sent, then hopped to his feet and came over and stropped her ankles. We are together, all of us.
A tiny voice came to them. I am not there! Flora whined. But I can be there, soonest. I know how to teleport to the animal Healer.
Avellana cleared her throat but replied mentally, That is not necessary, Flora.
Vinni added, We will pick you up before we leave. He paused and rethought that. I will send a glider for you.
I get to ride in a glider All By Myself!
He smiled. Yes.
Antenn, who’d been quiet as he spoke to Primross, sent more information to Vinni, who relayed it to Avellana. “We made a fine mess of the net-noose spell and it disintegrated before Primross arrived and left no trace. As a matter of fact, there doesn’t seem to be any vestige of the intruder, so the villain didn’t leave much trace, was in and out.”
Avellana sighed. “I did include blueprints of my home, and several others, in the holo promoting Multiplicity that plays in the observation tent.” Her tone hardened. “I will modify that—”
Vinni put in, “Primross has confis
cated that holo and Antenn will replace it with another that doesn’t detail the insides of the homes.”
“We prepared several promotional holo murals,” Avellana stated.
“Antenn found your teleportation closet full of furniture. A wardrobe set atop the pad—”
Avellana made a choked-sob noise, but he continued. “A huge armchair up against the wardrobe, a dining table against that, and, in the room and the doorway, a stack of two chairs.”
He tried to keep his voice even, but fury began to roil inside him.
“Whoever did this was determined that I be . . . hurt,” Avellana said.
“That’s exactly right.” He sucked in a breath. “It appears that the furniture was translocated, somewhat ineptly, leaving scars on your wood floors. After Primross and the guards finish their investigation of your home, Antenn will refinish the flooring.”
“I will ask that my ministers do a ritual cleansing while we are gone,” Avellana said.
“Good idea. Primross told Antenn that he does not need to speak with us but would like to question Rhyz.”
Rhyz hopped around. I have not spoken with the man who can communicate with all animals and Fams. He preened a little. The Primross will find that I am much better than those ferals he usually talks to. I am smarter and have a better memory.
Vinni didn’t know about that. “Neither Antenn nor Primross nor Vensis Betony-Blackthorn—”
“He is there?” Avellana questioned.
“Yes. Apparently he woke during the disturbance we made, then came over. Though he isn’t as good at tracking as T’Blackthorn, he does have a gift.” Vinni didn’t know the younger man very well. “Both Antenn and Primross respect his Flair and welcome his help.”
Avellana’s mouth compressed, then relaxed, and she nodded. “Tell Antenn that all of those men are welcome in my home at any time.”
“Anyway, the men think that both traps were set by Flair, little physical moving involved.”
“Someone has a good amount of Flair to do that,” Avellana said.
“Yes.” And Vinni had a horrible feeling that the perpetrator was a Vine.
Heart Sight Page 29