“Not quite.” Instants away, a heartbeat or two.
And the worst guilt crawled up her throat and spewed out in a rasp. “I killed our fertility. Everything is my fault.”
No, said Rhyz. Your crying awakened Me from my nap. He emerged from under a bush, stretched long in the sun, then trotted up. We all did this together. And I did not want any kits. He sniffed and added, Any more kits.
So tight, her chest, her head, wrapped in the pain of unreleased emotions. She thought she would choke, or her heart might stop. She had wanted children.
Flora hopped over and sat on Muin’s feet. I love you, FamWoman.
“I love you, too, Flora,” she croaked. Something should break. Soon.
No, she had already broken them all.
She could not breathe.
The flung door banged against the wall and she gasped in a breath. T’Ash stalked into the courtyard. Seeing the big, older man with rougher features than Abutilon Gwydion made shudders rack her body. More air went in and out and in, hard, hard.
She moaned, air out.
“Lady,” T’Ash said softly, then came over and touched her cheek with a large, callused, hot finger.
Perhaps she shivered, not shuddered.
“What disturbs you?” the GreatLord asked softly.
“I killed everything!” she wailed, wrapping her arms around her abdomen and her own sterility.
“Not all of everything,” the man replied.
“Not . . . not the Ash World Tree?”
His blue eyes blazed. “Do you think I would care if you had? My son or the Ash World Tree in the center of the labyrinth?” He made a cutting gesture, then dipped to one knee before her. “You saved my son, and I can never thank you enough for that.” He reached inside his pocket, pulled out a gold token with an Ash tree etched on the face, put it in her palm, and curled her fingers over the piece. “It is rumored that you cost your GreatHouse a gold token.” His chin jutted. “Let it also be known that you earned a gold token for your Family.”
“Ah, ah, ah.” More strangled breath, then the hurt shattered within her and sobs ripped from her, heavily, and tears flowed from her eyes until only the sensations of T’Ash’s large, tough hand under hers, and Muin’s solid presence, anchored her to reality.
The men provided silent support for the minutes it took for her body to shake out some of the grief. “I killed everything.” She repeated her whisper.
“Not all of everything,” T’Ash replied once more.
She felt Muin sit tall, then a softleaf scented like him dabbed her cheeks. Something dropped in her lap, and she saw a pomegranate—brown and gray, caught in her long tunic skirt. “From the Great Labyrinth.” Her breath caught.
“That’s right,” T’Ash said, then picked the dead fruit up, wrenched it open with his hands. A multitude of dry or brown and rotting seeds fell to the ground. Avellana flinched.
“But it only takes one, D’Vine.” He plucked aside a bit of thick protecting rind to reveal a tiny, perfect, glistening red seed.
He touched her abdomen. “It only takes one.”
Muin’s arms clamped convulsively around her. “Can you ask T’Willow to visit us?”
“Surely,” the GreatLord said. “After I send the retired Healer, T’Heather, to check on you. I don’t trust his daughter, Ura.”
T’Ash drew a flat jewelry box from a tunic pocket, stepped forward, and dropped another protective amulet over her head, his face serious. “I want you to have this as you recover.” Digging into his trous pocket, he handed her another stone. “This is from D’Yew, to replace your personal armor that failed during the blight. She said she wouldn’t charge you for it since the storm affected it.”
Avellana swallowed. Her throat felt sore . . . open but sore. “We should not tell her the truth.”
“No,” T’Ash agreed. He bowed to her, pivoted and bowed to Muin, then teleported away.
Avellana sighed and leaned against Muin. She looked at the dappled grass and flowers, the sunlight and shadow. She would always regret what she had done to the Great Labyrinth. She had thought to take a small amount of energy from every plant, but had caused so much more damage.
Because she could never practice her Flair without dire consequences, and she would never use that primary Flair of hers again. She would not be able to bear the consequences.
“Ah, it’s back.” Muin’s voice lilted with satisfaction.
“What?”
“Our bond. We’ve Healed a bit, you and I.” He tucked the golden token that T’Ash had given her into a tiny fancily embroidered pocket of her tunic, made more for show than holding any item.
She closed her eyes, the better to scrutinize their bond. Yes, a strong, thick, golden HeartBond, throbbing with emotions cycling between them.
The door creaked open and Muin stiffened.
A spell whooshed through the garden and lit upon her, paralyzing her but also dizzying her mind so that she couldn’t teleport.
Muin? she asked, but his name echoed in her mind, did not reach him.
Terrible, evil spell. She couldn’t even raise her lashes, and tears leaked untended from her eyes, trickling down her cheeks.
Fear flooded Muin, streamed icily to her.
Forty-one
Vinni stared at Arcto, and the deadly blazer in his hand pointed at them.
“Isn’t this cozy,” the man sneered. He waved a hand and Vinni’s numb lips warmed. “I won’t let you move, but I’ll let you speak.”
Vinni tried out his voice. “I should have known you wouldn’t have left Druida City.”
“No, not before I finished this business,” Arcto agreed. “You will have already noted that you cannot speak telepathically to anyone, nor can you teleport away.”
“Those are old, secret, and illegal spells,” Vinni said.
Arcto smirked. “We who live in ancient Residences have archives of all sorts of fascinating spells.”
Vinni would have to remember that, bring it up with the FirstFamilies.
If he got out of this.
“You’re going to have to let Avellana move a little,” Vinni said. He’d gotten used to sounding calm while suppressing rage.
“I don’t think so.”
“Her eyes are shut and she’s weeping.”
“Weak!” Arcto sneered. “Too weak and strange and mutant for us. I knew that from her First Passage. We must not have her in the Family.” His lip curled.
“She is in distress and is wearing a protective amulet. At a certain point, the amulet will teleport her to Intake here.”
He could have kept his mouth shut, but he wanted her active and operational, not so vulnerable, huddled up on him.
He wanted her able to say the Word that would activate her personal armor.
“I know her protective amulet triggered and brought you and her here. Waste of energy saving her. And she wouldn’t be fitted with a new one here.”
“T’Ash just visited and gave Avellana a recharged amulet.”
“T’Ash . . .” Arcto’s upper lip lifted and his neck pulled back as if he smelled a foul odor. “T’Ash started this whole deterioration of values by marrying a Commoner.”
“Danith D’Ash tested as a GrandLady.”
“Lies!”
Vinni figured that Arcto labeled anything he didn’t want to believe a lie.
Stepping around to see Avellana—who still sat sideways on Vinni’s lap—Arcto still kept the blazer in line with Vinni’s love.
Distract, distract, distract. Vinni scrutinized the man. At some point, Arcto had succumbed to an edge of madness that had gone unnoticed by every-damn-one.
Maybe because though Arcto hadn’t sworn a Loyalty Oath to Vinni, he lived within the Vine Family, considered himself a Vine, but had to hide his true nature from most of t
he Family.
Lying to himself and others, believing his own lies, might be a way to cope.
Could Vinni tip him over into true madness and losing control? He didn’t fliggering care about the man’s health.
Vinni’s mind spun with plans. He could not call telepathically. Didn’t think the spell would let him even yell loudly. But he had bonds with other members of the Family . . . and Avellana sent him blessed energy and Flair through their HeartBond.
Vinni had Flair as a FirstFamily GreatLord, a man who commanded others. He began gathering that inner power, that command presence around him. He should be able to use that to influence Arcto.
“So.” Vinni tried to look interested and not contemptuous. “You committed—that is, took over the leadership of the Traditionalist Stance movement—you were the leader, weren’t you—”
“I am the leader. We will never be defeated because our cause is just.”
Good thing Vinni couldn’t snort or break out in derisive laughter.
“You must have more members than I think. Hard to tell when you all hide.” He let his tone lower in disapproval.
“We work from within.”
“You betray from within, as you have me,” Vinni pointed out.
“You betrayed the Family first by choosing a mutant girl as a wife.”
“My HeartMate. And we’ve HeartBonded.”
Arcto’s nostrils widened. “I know. You will perish now, when she is . . . terminated. But I can raise another child, the baby Floricoma, to be GreatLady D’Vine, as I brought you up.”
“Her parents might have something to say about that, and the whole Druida City guards and Vine guards know of your villainy,” Vinni said.
An icy smile. “The other Vines can be . . . handled. Have an accident, perhaps. ‘Facts’ can be . . . massaged.”
“I always thought you were more interested in power than in the Family. Lord and Lady forfend if you had to put the Family before your own goals.”
Yes, Flair built around Vinni and he pushed it out to subtly affect Arcto, whose stare fixed on Vinni. Since the man hadn’t released them from the spell, Vinni knew Avellana’s muscles would be trembling and cramping just like his, but her amulet would carry her away. Away from here to one of the Primary HealingHall Intake teleportation pads. Out of danger.
Rhyz stood on all paws, hair raised, mouth in a snarl and showing fangs. He’d leap and attack Arcto the second the paralysis spell released.
Flora crouched, ready to run, and she yearned to trip up the mean man.
Vinni didn’t know the strength of the spell, but figured too many factors worked against Arcto, and Vinni’d take the man down. The sweetness of anticipation coated his tongue. He’d get justice for those Arcto had wronged.
The man blinked, rocked back to his heels.
Time to start talking again. Spear the tutor with truth.
“You. Kill.” Vinni let his words hang in the air, then moved on to the terrible accusation. “You kill Family to accomplish your own personal goals, to gain power within and without the Family.”
“No!” Immediate denial, but darkness shaded Arcto’s gaze.
“You set up your lover as the Traditionalist Stance leader, then killed her.”
“She didn’t matter!”
Vinni opened his Familial link with Fera, the Vine guard and Arcto’s latest lover. He might not be able to send telepathic thoughts, but he could sure use the Family bonds to contact Fera and let her know he and Avellana were in danger. Fera would feel his anguish, his fear, maybe even get echoes of the conversation. “None of your lovers matter?”
“No!”
“Not even the guard, Fera Vine?”
“Only as information and to mislead you. Have you focus entirely on the guards.”
“Yes, the Family guards. You use people and Family members: Fera, Plicat, Armen. That’s sure helping the Family and not your own selfish quest for power.”
“No! My goals are the correct Family goals. They are the same.”
“What’s good for you is good for the Family?” Vinni’s stationary muscles ached from the spell. He couldn’t even breathe in a different rhythm than he’d been when it had taken hold. “What’s good for you is good for the Family,” he repeated. “That doesn’t sound like logical reasoning to me. Not something my tutor would have said. But you aren’t that man anymore, are you? When did you start going bad?”
A cry erupted from Arcto. “I did not go bad. I realized the danger of your mutant HeartMate to the Family during her First Passage quest.”
Push, push, push against the spell with his own, stronger Flair.
“Ah. A long time for your mind to deteriorate, then. I rather thought so, since you deliberately avoided taking the Loyalty Oath at that time, when I was thirteen. After Avellana’s First Passage. And you must have been deep in the fanatical movement when the lost starship Lugh’s Spear was found.”
Arcto stood taller. “Many followed my orders. I commanded, not you.”
“Uh-huh.” Vinni decided against lulling the man, liked the idea of stripping his control better. “Tell me, Arcto, what benefit would come to the Vine Family from sabotaging the Lugh’s Spear excavation? Or worse, from murdering children? Like Marin Holly—a child of a FirstFamily? Or—”
“Keeping the high status of the Vines!”
“Oh, yes, having a murderer in our Family would impress every other Family on the planet.” But his sarcasm was nearly absentminded. Anger and determination washed to him from Fera Vine. She was on the move.
Not quite under his breath, Vinni whispered, “Soon, Avellana,” and he began a countdown. “Five, four, three, two . . .”
Arcto dropped his immobilization spell. Avellana croaked, “Shield.” Her armor encased her. Rhyz yowled, leapt, missed. Flora hopped, tipped over.
“Coward!” Vinni yelled, lurched to his feet.
Arcto shot, but Avellana was already flinging herself in front of Vinni. The blazer stream deflected off her armor and she tumbled to the grass and bounced.
Arcto’s gaze followed her.
Vinni shot him.
Flora screeched as the man fell near her.
Avellana yelled as she vanished.
The door burst open and several other blazer shots hit Arcto—fired by Duon, Fera, and a Holly guard.
Convulsing, Arcto died.
The Captain of the Guards, Ilex Winterberry, raced into the courtyard, followed by others. Avellana stumbled through the open door and Vinni moved to block her view of Arcto. T’Heather, the great Healer, wrapped an arm around her waist, his hand spread over her abdomen.
Even in the midst of noisy explanations, Vinni heard her mental question to T’Heather. Can I have children? They stopped strolling. No more than one, the man replied telepathically. T’Heather stared at Vinni, then sent to him and Avellana, Vinni’s sperm count is low, too, but we Healers can ensure that you can have that child.
He dropped his arm from her waist, and the matchmaker, Saille T’Willow, took her arm and their auras impinged and Vinni saw what he’d hoped to. In T’Willow’s future, his daughter still married Vinni’s son.
People gathered around the body, and T’Heather stomped forward, hunkered, though Arcto had lost half his head.
A moment passed before Vinni said, “It’s finally over.” He cleared his throat and raised his voice, “Primary HealingHall?”
“Yes, T’Vine?” the intelligent building answered.
“Do you have audio and viz capabilities?”
“Yes, T’Vine, I have a recording of the immediately preceding events.” The door creaked a little. “I am sorry, but I was not paying attention to your situation until Fera Vine and Duon Vine teleported into my walls. I do not have movement capabilities in the walls surrounding this courtyard yet, so I could not intervene phy
sically.”
By throwing a rock or stone.
Vinni shrugged, let it become a long, hard stretch. He reached out to Avellana, who did the same. His fingers slid off her armor.
She smiled and banished the spell, then took his hand.
After a sigh, Vinni said, “We’ll make our final official reports in this matter, then I will take my HeartMate home.”
Forty-two
As they returned to T’Vine Residence, pursuant to custom, the newly HeartBonded Lord and Lady walked from the bottom of the gliderway up the hill, holding hands. Avellana’s FamCat, Rhyz, strutted beside them, tail waving, as if accepting accolades now that he was moving into this castle. Flora sat on an invisible Flair shelf on Muin’s far shoulder, ears perked.
They checked in at all three gates before proceeding through the gardens, then stopping at the flagged main courtyard.
The whole Family had lined up in front of them.
Avellana had anticipated this, but her nerves twinged at the formal proceedings to come. Rhyz settled next to her, yet straight and proud, tail curled around his paws.
Muin, T’Vine in truth, let quiet settle over the area, until she could hear the slight scuff of a shoe as someone shifted.
Then he began, coolly, “Three members of this Family tried to kill my HeartMate, and in doing so, would have killed me.”
A shuddery ripple ran through the crowd.
His next words came out gritty. “As I requested earlier this week, those of you who cannot accept Avellana or me as your Lord and Lady, your Heads of Household, can leave. Now.
“The Divine Couple, the Lord and Lady, ensured that Arcto and Armen, who lived by violence, died by violence. The consequences of breaking the Vow of Honor that is the Loyalty Oath worked on these Family members.
“Plicat has been found guilty of attempted murder; fitted with DepressFlair bracelets, which nullifies his Flair; and banished to the island for criminals.”
Sobs broke out.
“As we all know, criminals with DepressFlair bracelets on that island rarely live long.” Muin paused. “I am giving you three minutes to renounce this Family, your station and career in this Family, me as GreatLord and Avellana as GreatLady, and leave.” His voice seemed to thunder, trapped between the high walls of the fortress towering above them.
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