Protector of the Flight (12 page)

“Lladrana
can be tough on hair color,” Marian said.

“I
like being blond.”

“Hey,
another reason to stay here.” Alexa grinned. “No dumb-blonde jokes.”

That
just reminded Calli that her father thought her stupid and cowardly. She
tensed. The other women noticed, of course.

“Sore
spot? I’m sorry,” Alexa said, squeezing her into a tighter hug. The woman’s
grip was like iron.

“I
definitely need to get to bed,” Calli said.

“Right.”
Alexa withdrew and marched to the door.

The
short walk was silent, but the quiet between them was easy. Calli hadn’t had
good female friends since high school. Nice to be part of a girl crowd.

Alexa
opened the outer door of Calli’s suite and kissed her cheek, so did Marian.

“Thanks,
guys.” Calli’s voice was hoarse with appreciation, weariness. She entered a
narrow security corridor and turned left until she found another door, a tiny
entryway and a third door, and finally got into the bedroom. Soft light glowed
with the radiance of a summer evening from what looked like little suns on
torches. Pulling off her boots and stripping, Calli slid into cool sheets. The
lights went out and Calli fell into welcoming darkness.

She
woke to hail pounding against the curved tower windows in the middle of the
night and shot straight up in bed—a big four-poster bed with
curtains.
Weird.

She
was still in Lladrana. Carefully, she stretched, and found her muscles in prime
working order. Wiggling her hips, she tested her pelvis. Fine.

Oh,
man.

Did
she even want to wake up at home? At least the problems here were new, didn’t
seem as crushing as fighting her father for her home and her vision of the
ranch. That would take a lot of money and effort to win. More money to fix up
the ranch the way she wanted.

If
she
was
stuck here, what had she gotten herself into with that damn
Choosing and Bonding ceremony? Dare she trust the “magic” to find her a man
who’d match her? What
was
she thinking. Was she totally crazy?

But
those Marshalls—Mace and Clua—had been the most
married
couple she’d
ever seen. Like Marian and Jaquar, they’d die together. She trembled. Could she
possibly want that much connection?

That
much love?

Yes.

This
need to give and receive love came from deep inside. As if all the love she’d
poured onto her father over the years had bounced off him and come back to her
and she had this great store.

Getting
up, she found her clothes washed and folded on a chest at the end of the bed
and just stared at them. Someone had been in her rooms? Who had the key?

Surely
it would only have been Alexa or Marian checking on her. Still, the sooner she
had her own rooms and key, the better. Next to her things was a stack of
underwear. In her size. Must be magic, there, too—she touched her old clothes,
noticing the texture of denim and cotton. Alien to this world.

She
turned, staggered back at the sight of a small neon-blue volaran hovering near
the corner of one of the bed’s foot posts. The animal was only about a foot
long.

She
pressed a hand against her pounding heart. “My God, you startled me!” She knew
this…person. The energy of the being was familiar. There was her sixth sense
again and she disliked how much she was depending upon it.

I
am Sinafinal, the feycoocu.

Of
course she was. Staring at the creature, she realized she’d seen it before. As
a hawk. As
the cat.
Calli sat on the chest.

You
are not crazy. You
are
on Lladrana. You
should
go through the Choosing and Bonding ceremony.

“And
I should listen to you, too, huh?”

Yes.
The volaran
loop-de-looped a couple of times, leaving a bright blue trail behind her.

“Why—”

You
should stay here on Lladrana. Here you will have a love of your own, children,
land, a home.

“Guaranteed?”
Calli infused great sarcasm into the word.

Sinafinal
fluttered up to within six inches of Calli’s eyes and hung there.
Yes,
guaranteed.

Calli’s
stomach clutched.

Everyone
wants to be loved. Why do you see your big heart as being a fault?

Because
Dad never valued love? This introspection was getting too damn intense. She
didn’t like it. She preferred action.

By
this time tomorrow night you will be sharing a big bed with a lover, a man
drawn particularly to you.

“Uhn.”
That idea was so good it hurt. Made Calli’s chest ache.

When
you both awake the next morning, you will choose your land. You will have
enough zhiv from the land and an annuity as an Exotique that you will never
want for any material thing for the rest of your life. Enough to build the
perfect stables and training grounds for horses and volarans.

The
little volaran was sure spinning a sweet story.

In
three weeks you will have adopted a child.

Calli
flopped back, banged her head on the wooden footboard behind her. “Ouch! Dammit
all!”

Sinafinal
zoomed over and perched on her head, Calli could feel four little hooves, and
goose bumps covered her body. With two flaps of the magical being’s wings,
Calli’s headache was gone. Oh, boy. She rubbed the back of her head anyway.
“Why are you being so insistent about this?”

Because
without you, the volarans will not bond as much as needed with humans. They
won’t be ready for the great, final fight.

Calli
swallowed. “Who won’t be ready? What final fight?”

There
will be much more loss of life.

“I
don’t want to hear this.”

That’s
why I am telling you.

I
don’t want to believe you. Though she hadn’t said the words aloud, the feycoocu
answered her anyway.

I
know.

“Hell.”

The
neon-blue volaran examined one of her wingtips.
If you do not believe me and
do not continue with the Choosing and Bonding ritual, I will convince everyone
that you should consult the Singer for a Song Quest. Perhaps a strong vision
direct from the Song will be powerful enough to convince you of your worth
here.

Ooooh.
Zinged several hot buttons all right. “Damned if I do, damned if I don’t,”
Calli muttered. “This had better be a dream.”

It
isn’t. You will awake here.
The little blue volaran’s muzzle stretched in an
unnatural smile.

“Go
away. I’m planning on waking up in my own bed on the Rocking Bar T.” But it
sounded weaker and weaker to her.

Sinafinal
circled the room.
All the Exotiques will have companions. Alexa has me.
Marian has Tuckerinal. You have Thunder.

Calli
snorted. “Sidekicks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m going to bed. I hope
not
to
see you in my dreams.”

Sinafinal
dipped a wing and flew through a closed window into the night.

Calli
looked out at the darkness below—no lights. She looked at the moon and
star-bright sky. Not Earth’s sky, not even from the southern hemisphere, too
many stars for that. She shrugged. When she woke she’d either be home or not.
If she was here, the day would be packed with fateful events from the moment
she opened her eyes.

9

C
alli woke and
stretched luxuriously. The bed was wonderful, too bad she was alone in it. She
must be treating herself to a good hotel near the next competition…everything
rushed back.

She
was in Lladrana. Or at least she
wasn’t
in her own bed back at the
ranch. What was written in those old-time black-and-white movies?
“Meanwhile,
back at the ranch…”
A hollow laugh rasped from her. What little peace she’d
felt when she woke up vanished.

But
there were compensations. She walked from the bedroom to the den where she
could see the Landing Field. A couple of volarans and riders were already out,
lifting their wings and soaring. Her breath caught at the beauty.

That
could be her…flying into the dawn. She watched until they diminished into
specks and she became aware of standing naked in a strangely furnished den—with
books and scrolls in an alphabet she couldn’t read.

Her
breath came in short bursts and she felt the way she did just before a race,
scared and excited and determined. She’d get through this day and the one after
that…Back in the bedroom, she dressed near the windows. The only person who’d
see her would be riding volaran-back and she’d see them first.

Lladrana.
Fabulous flying horses. Horrible monsters. Nobody had talked much about the
monsters she’d be expected to fight. Trying to keep the really bad downside of
this life low key. Her stomach clenched. As if they could. As if she hadn’t
seen wisps of them in Alexa’s mind, in Bastien’s and Jaquar’s and in Marian’s—a
man with tentacles on his face reeking of evil power. Yeah, she had inklings.
Enough that it made her pace, unready to open the door and explore on her own.
Silly, but with a day full of such strange and magical experiences as the day
before, she intended to be cautious.

Meanwhile,
back at the ranch
…what
would her dad be doing? Thinking she’d run somewhere, no doubt. He wouldn’t gloat.
That would take too much emotion, show too much an investment in her, which he
didn’t have.

The
doorharp rippled, and Marian’s projected tones said, “Calli, ready for
breakfast?”

Calli
didn’t answer.

“Think
she’ll drink a language potion this morning?” Marian asked.

“Not
a chance. Besides, if she doesn’t back out of that Choosing and Bonding
ceremony, she’ll get the language transfer in bed.” There was a lilt in Alexa’s
voice.

Calli
decided she didn’t like being talked about. The two women were probably not
going away. She opened the door. Standing before her, looking perfectly fresh,
were Alexa and Marian; near their feet were two small greyhounds.

Salutations,
Calli,
said one. Sinafinal.

Salutations,
Calli,
said the other.
I am Tuckerinal.

“Tuck’s
my ex-hamster,” said Marian. “He’s a feycoocu like that one.” She pointed to
Sinafinal.

I
have given her my name so she can call on me at any time,
said Sinafinal,
my mated name.

Marian
grinned and kissed Calli on the cheek. “Good morning. You should know that only
a few people know Sinafinal’s name. Only Alexa and Bastien of the Marshalls.
Only Jaquar and I of the Circlets.”

“Huh,”
Calli said. Two minutes on the threshold of her room and stuff was overwhelming
her again. Magical hamsters. Sheesh.

“You
really are in a different dimension.” Alexa looked sympathetic. “You slept.
Let’s go eat.”

“Try
not to drop too many more bombs on me, huh?” Calli said. Alexa opened her
mouth, closed it, but Calli figured they were probably thinking the same thing.
In circumstances like these she’d be getting hit with strange problems every
hour.

She
ate in the richly paneled Marshalls’ Dining Room, set up like one of the
fanciest restaurants she’d ever seen—pastel tablecloths on round and
rectangular tables, embroidered in rich colors, with matching napkins. Crystal.
Fine china.

She
had a great breakfast of a cheese omelette, bacon and fluffy croissants, and
chuckled to herself. Something French she
was
addicted to, the cowgirl
loved croissants, one of the ways she chose her restaurants on the rodeo
circuit. She’d eaten everything from preprepared, frozen, grocery store-bought
croissants to flaky ribbons of pastry steaming from the oven.

These
were prime.

“I
guess we should tell her about the men,” Alexa said to Marian.

“Thank
you, but I’ve learned about men all by myself.” Calli didn’t look up from her
meal.

“What
about men?” Marian sounded puzzled.

Calli
caught Alexa’s gesture from the edge of her vision. She could
feel
the
Marshalls’ gazes boring into her, their curiosity surging around her. The chief
honcho, Thealia Germaine, sat at the long table a few chairs down from them,
watching, as if trying to puzzle out their conversation. Calli knew if she
bolted, Thealia would be on her and have her hog-tied in an instant. The Marshalls
took a deep interest in her, the Chevalier Exotique.

“Lladranan
men, like Faucon and Luthan,” Alexa said.

As
she recognized the handsome Chevalier’s name she’d seen before, Faucon, a
thrill zipped down Calli’s spine. Would she be in bed with him by the time
night fell? “And I think I’ll know a lot about Lladranan men by tomorrow
morning.” Did she actually say that?