Twiceborn

by Marina Finlayson

  “I can smell the smoke now,” he said.

  I nodded, uneasy. It could be nothing, of course. Often Sydneysiders smell smoke when the fires are a hundred kilometres away—it depends which way the wind is blowing. On the other hand … again I thought of Garth, out in the bush somewhere. Had he found Valeria’s people? Not that I should care if he ran into trouble or got caught in a fire. Stupid dog.

  A car came down the driveway from the house—another four-wheel drive. Seemed to be the car of choice among the supernatural set. This one didn’t look as if it spent any time off-road, given the gleaming shine of its hubcaps in the glare of the gatehouse lights.

  The guy who got out looked equally well-cared for, tall and slim in a tailored suit which flattered his slenderness without making him look like a drainpipe. If it hadn’t been for the bright green hair he could have been a model for Young Businessman of the Year. His aura glowed a greenish brown, like khaki.

  “Lucinda,” he said, “how lovely to see you again.”

  He made no move to open the gate, despite his welcoming tone.

  “Hello, Adam. Aren’t you going to invite us in?”

  “I’m not sure that would be in my lady’s best interests.”

  “Why?” Her gesture took in the three of us. “Do we look so threatening?”

  “Your reputation precedes you, my dear, even if we hadn’t had … ah … previous experience. Lady Alicia is not in the habit of entertaining the intimates of her rivals.”

  Luce folded her arms. “Perhaps Lady Alicia isn’t aware my patron is dead.”

  “We did hear a rumour to that effect,” he admitted. “One wonders what your purpose could be, if so, for coming here.”

  “Perhaps if one opened the gate one might find out.”

  Ben stepped forward and indicated the two of us. “We’re heralds. We claim right of entry.”

  Adam arched one green eyebrow. “Show me your heraldic insignia.”

  I lifted my charm out of my shirt and held it out. Ben did the same. He squinted at them for a long moment. What did he see, apart from a simple silver charm?

  “They appear to be genuine.” His voice betrayed a hint of surprise. I suppose we did look a suspicious bunch.

  “Let us in, Adam,” Luce coaxed. “We’re unarmed, and we’re on your side.”

  “One moment, please.” He turned away and spoke into his phone, explaining the situation to someone on the other end. Alicia, perhaps? I couldn’t hear the reply.

  “The heralds may enter,” he said when he hung up, “if they have a letter or geas to deliver. Unfortunately Lady Alicia is not able to offer hospitality at this time to Ms Chan.”

  “Lady Alicia won’t be offering anything to anyone if she doesn’t see me right now,” said Luce.

  “Threats will make no difference,” he said.

  “It’s not a threat. You don’t know what’s coming, Adam. I’m trying to help you.”

  He ignored her and turned to Ben. “Do you have a letter?”

  Ben threw Luce a look that said I told you so plainer than words. “No. The message is verbal.”

  Adam spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “Then I’m afraid I can’t admit any of you. I must ask you to leave the area immediately.”

  The gate guard stepped forward, his hand resting on the gun holstered at his side. His meaning was plain.

  Luce ignored him, her attention focused on the green-haired man. “Adam, if you value your Lady’s life, you have to let us in.”

  He shifted uneasily, unnerved by her intensity. “Tell me what you know and I’ll speak to her.”

  “No. I have to speak to her myself.”

  “My lady won’t allow that. How can she be sure this isn’t some trick to gain access? We only have your word Leandra is dead.”

  “Is Alicia so craven a lone wyvern terrifies her?”

  “Lady Alicia sees no point in taking unnecessary risks.”

  Luce held his gaze with hers. “Trust me, Adam, this one’s necessary.”

  He shrugged. “Then there’s only one thing to be done. You’ll have to swear to Lady Alicia.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “What kind of creature is Adam?” I asked a short time later. Was the green hair natural? I was prepared to believe almost anything at this point.

  He’d left us in a room with one wall floor-to-ceiling glass, overlooking a cleared, park-like area at the side of the house full of flowering shrubs and fruit trees. It was lit by powerful floodlights, making the scene almost as bright as day. Inside two leather lounges faced each other in front of a massive fireplace that probably saw heavy use in the colder months. At the moment it boasted an artful arrangement of pine cones and native blooms.

  The short ride up the driveway had passed in tense silence. No one had spoken since Luce agreed to his terms, and the silence was making me twitchy.

  “A leshy,” Luce said. She gazed out at the floodlit gardens, her back to the room. “A kind of forest spirit. Alicia has several in her employ. They like it up here in the bush.”

  “I’ve never met one before.” Ben joined Luce at the window. “Are they always so tall?”

  She shrugged. “Unlike the rest of us, they can take any size or shape they please. In Europe they used to run with wolf packs a lot, or hang out with bears. They’re sociable creatures. But yes, their natural humanoid form is long and lean.”

  Rather like Ben himself. Next to Luce he looked like a giant. She barely came up to his armpit and looked more like a kid standing next to her dad than a grown woman.

  He looked down at her. “What’s involved in this swearing business? She’s not going to make you a thrall, is she?”

  “No. Only humans can be enthralled.”

  “But?”

  I’d sensed a “but” there too. The look of shock on Adam’s face when she’d agreed to his terms of entry told me he’d only offered because he was sure she’d refuse. And then the shock had changed to triumph, and I knew Luce had let herself in for something bad. Her face now was expressionless, as usual, but something in the way she stood, a certain sag to the shoulders, hinted at her unease.

  “But by swearing to Alicia I bind myself to her and her cause for life.”

  That didn’t sound so bad. I mean, betrayal seemed to be in fashion among shifters. Loyalty for life only meant as long as you wanted it to.

  “Can’t you cross your fingers while you swear or something?”

  She frowned at my flippancy. “Dragons aren’t stupid enough to rely on your word. The swearing involves a binding magic that will kill me if I go against her. It’s an old ceremony seldom used any more. Most people won’t agree to give up such power to anyone.”

  “Then why would you?” Ben looked horrified. “You don’t even like her. Why didn’t you tell Adam about Valeria and leave it to them to deal with? You don’t have to get involved.”

  She turned. Her face was its usual mask, but her spine was rigid. “I’m already involved. This is personal now. Alicia’s been hiding up here since the proving started, waiting for the others to kill each other off. She’s got no idea what Valeria’s capable of. They’re not prepared. Valeria will chew them up and spit them out, and I can’t let that happen.”

  “You’d spend the rest of your life tied to Alicia just to stop Valeria winning the proving?”

  “Not to stop her winning.” Her face twisted into a feral grin. “To destroy her. To get that stone back and avenge Leandra.”

  “But Leandra’s dead. She doesn’t care if you avenge her or not.” I couldn’t see why it mattered so much to her that she’d take such a drastic step. Unless something was forcing her? “You’re not doing this because you were bound to Leandra first, are you?”

  She shot me a contemptuous look. “Of course not. No one but Alicia would dream of asking such a thing. Besides, even if I had been bound to Leandra, bindings are severed by death.”

  Adam returned with a drink tray, ending the conversation.
Ice clinked in tall glasses of water flavoured with lemon slices. About to take a sip, I slammed the glass down on a handy table instead, seized by a sudden unreasoning terror. I sank on to the nearest lounge, lost in a memory of terrible pain. I saw a glass, and Jason’s smiling face. Last time I’d drunk something like that … last time I’d died. My stomach cramped in sympathy.

  “Are you all right?” Ben sat next to me, a worried look in his dark eyes. “You’re shaking.”

  Adam and Luce stared at me in surprise. Heat rose into my cheeks.

  “I’m fine.” A half-hearted smile didn’t seem to reassure him, funnily enough. You’re not dead, you idiot. Snap out of it.

  Several other people entered, creating a welcome diversion. Three of the men looked as though they could have belonged to the same basketball team as Adam and had the same khaki-coloured aura, so I figured them for leshies too, though none sported Adam’s outrageous hair colour. One carried a tray with an odd assortment of objects—a white cloth, an ugly, malformed bowl and a small knife. The others were human, as far as I could tell—no glowing auras, at least. They were built along the same muscular lines as Garth, probably bodyguards for the woman who followed them.

  She was supermodel good-looking and made the most of it in a clingy black dress slit up the side to show off shapely tanned legs. Long hair foamed over her shoulders in a dark cloud. Her aura blazed red, far brighter than Jason’s had been. This must be Alicia, dragon queen-in-waiting. She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, and I hated her on sight.

  She paused inside the door and surveyed the room, one hip tipped forward, leg jutting out the slit in her dress. How to Make an Entrance 101: be sure to stand in a way that shows off your assets. Check.

  Were all dragons this full of themselves? She and Jason would make a pretty pair—though there might be a fight for the mirror.

  When I finally dragged my gaze up as far as her face, I found something strange lurking in her expression. Nerves? A touch of fear, even?

  She stared at Luce. From the intensity of her expression she probably hadn’t even noticed Ben and I were in the room.

  “Is everything prepared?” The question was clearly directed at someone else, but she didn’t take her eyes off Luce. The man with the tray stepped forward.

  “Ready when you are, my lady,” Adam said, coming to his side. I wondered about Adam’s job description. Butler? Bouncer? Bed toy?

  Alicia glided further into the room and took the knife from the tray. The blade was only short, but it looked sharp. Strange symbols were carved into the hilt, but I only caught a glimpse as Alicia’s long fingers closed around it.

  “Come, Lucinda,” she said.

  Luce stepped forward, her body relaxed now, despite her earlier doubts. She’d made her decision.

  A fierce protectiveness welled up inside me. She looked so small standing in front of the willowy Alicia. I knew she was stubborn and strong-willed, but even for her this was a drastic step. I hoped she knew what she was doing.

  Alicia drew the blade across her own forearm. For a moment it seemed nothing had happened and the room held its breath. Then blood began to well from the cut, and Adam caught the drops in the ugly little bowl.

  It looked like some blind potter’s first attempt, and I wondered why the elegant Alicia suffered such a deformed piece in her house, until it began to glow softly. Right. It must have some magical significance.

  “My blood for you,” said Alicia.

  No one moved as Adam set the bowl back on the tray and picked up the cloth. The sound of tearing was loud in the silence as he ripped it in two and used one piece to bind Alicia’s arm.

  With her blood still coating the knife Alicia took Luce’s hand and sliced a deep cut across Luce’s arm in the same place.

  “My blood for you.” Luce’s voice was calm and strong as she watched her blood drip into the bowl to join Alicia’s. The glow about the bowl intensified.

  Adam bound her arm with the other half of the cloth then offered the bowl to Alicia, who raised it to her lips and drank.

  Eww. Gross. Luce drank next, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, leaving a smear of blood across her face. Nobody else moved, eyes locked on the two in the centre of the circle.

  Alicia watched Luce, hunger in her eyes. The glowing bowl lit their faces from below, casting weird shadows. The atmosphere was so tense you could have heard a pin drop. What were they all waiting for?

  Then the light from the bowl died and Luce’s blue aura shivered and flashed bright red, the exact colour of Alicia’s. I drew in a shocked breath and Alicia glanced my way, as if noticing me for the first time. A millisecond later Luce’s aura shone its usual soft blue hue. I would have thought I’d imagined that flash of red except for the smug smile now plastered on Alicia’s face. Clearly she’d been waiting for it.

  She sank into an overstuffed armchair and crossed her fabulous long legs as the leshy with the tray disappeared. The bodyguards took up positions on either side of her chair as she inspected each of us in turn, settling on Luce with a sneer that still held more than a trace of smugness.

  “The famous Lucinda Chan,” she said. “My sister’s vaunted security chief. Perhaps I was lucky after all, that you resisted all my offers to tempt you away from Leandra’s entourage. I could have been the one killed on my own grounds.”

  Luce’s jaw moved, as if she was clenching her teeth, but her voice remained calm. “That could still easily happen.”

  The bodyguards moved as one, their hands reaching into their jackets for the guns holstered there.

  “Are you threatening me?” Alicia asked, her tone amused. She waved one elegant hand and the bodyguards relaxed their ready stance. “You know you’re physically incapable of harming me now.”

  “Not at all. Merely pointing out you’re in grave danger. Valeria has this property surrounded and cut off. We believe she means to burn you out.”

  “She’s welcome to try. We’re completely bushfire-proof here.”

  In the air-conditioned comfort of her house I couldn’t smell smoke any more. But that didn’t mean we were safe. The view out the window told me nothing. Floodlights showed fruit trees separated from the house by a wide expanse of grass, clipped short. A sensible precaution in a bushfire-prone area. There should be nothing the fire could latch on to close to the house. But beyond the lights loomed the bush: a dark, amorphous mass. No stars shone through the heavy cloud cover. Who knew what lurked out there?

  “You may be bushfire-proof,” I said, “but are you dragon-proof?”

  Alicia laughed, a mocking sound. “And you would be one of the supposed heralds?”

  “There’s nothing supposed about it,” Ben said.

  She eyed him as if he were a bug she’d like to step on. “Whoever heard of a herald delivering a verbal message? I’ll grant you the charms were real enough. Perhaps you stole them. I’m sure my mother will be thrilled to hear the whole story. She takes a rather dim view of people messing with her precious heralds.”

  “That didn’t stop Valeria from kidnapping us,” I said.

  She turned the bug-squishing look on me. “That’s a big hole you’re digging for yourself there, accusing a dragon of interfering with the heralds. Though I suppose it’s no more ridiculous than suggesting she would break the oldest taboo.”

  Some of her leshies tittered dutifully, though Adam didn’t seem to share their amusement. His gaze kept straying to the window, a worried crease between his green eyebrows.

  She directed a megawatt glare at Luce. “I don’t see what you hope to achieve by coming to me with this outrageous story.”

  “Your ship is about to go down,” said Luce, “and you can’t even see the iceberg. Valeria is winning. Is that what you want?”

  “According to your own story, my house is surrounded and cut off. What would you have me do?”

  “Fight. The time for running and hiding is over. Valeria means to end it here, right now.”


  Alicia tossed her hair over one magnificent shoulder. “Valeria is not the only one with plans. Don’t underestimate me, Lucinda.”

  The door banged open. A leshy rushed in, bringing a whiff of smoke with him. “My lady, there’s fire sweeping up the north valley.”

  Obviously this wasn’t the north side of the house—the view remained unchanged. But wait … those clouds hung awfully low over the trees.

  Not clouds. Smoke.

  “Start the pumps and get the men out with the hoses.” She stood up. “Everyone to your assigned positions.”

  “Where do you want me?” Luce asked as the room emptied.

  “Go with Adam. He’ll show you what to do.” She looked at Ben and me with calm indifference. “You can wait in the library. I’ve lived up here a long time. We’ve dealt with plenty of bushfires before. It’s quite the spectacle, but nothing to be afraid of.”

  She waved a dismissal and we followed Luce and Adam out. Alicia acted as if she were offering us a treat—a ringside seat at a bushfire! Yeehaw. That was one spectacle I could have happily done without.

  ***

  Most days, the library’s huge picture windows probably boasted a magnificent outlook across a valley carpeted in the dusty green of gum trees. Right now the view was lost in smoke and darkness. A great pall hung over the valley, lit from below by an ominous red glow.

  “No sign of flames yet,” said Adam, watching his fellow leshies rush around outside. Someone had turned on a roof sprinkler system, which gave the bizarre impression of rain, as water trickled down the enormous pane of glass in front of us and droplets spattered the ground outside. A team of leshies stood ready with hoses and shovels, presumably to deal with any embers which flew in ahead of the fire front. Embers were usually the cause when a house went up, often landing on the roof out of sight and starting fires inside roof cavities.

  I swallowed and inched closer to Ben. Despite Alicia’s confidence, Adam seemed uneasy. I was with him—this wasn’t something to treat so casually.

  “We should get out there and help,” I said. I felt like a sitting duck behind that vast expanse of glass. “Don’t you have fire shutters for these windows?”