Protector of the Flight (49 page)

“Pleasure.”
He smiled, slowly. Some woman must have told him he had a killer smile. It was
nice enough, especially combined with twinkling eyes and handsome features, but
it had no effect on Calli. “I would be honored to provide you with pleasure.”

She
pulled her arm from his. Didn’t look his way when she replied. “I’m
Pairbonded.” Though she still wanted to amble, she picked up the pace.

“I’ve
never heard that Pairbonding was completely exclusive. And your Pairling leaves
you so long, so often.”

Widening
her eyes, she said, “No? Exclusivity is definite. It said so in the Lorebook of
Pairbonding.” She didn’t even know if there was such a book.

His
totally blank look amused her. “There’s a book on it? And you
read
it?”

The
exchange was beginning to energize her, or the rapid walk. “Of course I read
it. We Exotiques are given
lots
to read, and since I wanted to know
about the Choosing and Bonding—the ritual and all.” Sounded good to her.

Within
sight of the corral, she quickly scanned what volarans idled there, reaching
out with her mind to discover which one would best match her mood. Her squire’s
volaran was fresh.
May I fly your volaran,
she sent to man and steed.
Her squire bowed, the volaran neighed in delight. So she walked up to the young
stallion and smoothed his neck, noticing her hand shook.
Let’s fly high and
free and play!

The
volaran lifted his head, twitched his ears, then eyed her companion. Pulling
his top lip up in a smirk, he made a short hop to just in front of them,
kicking up dust. Calli had had just enough warning to hold her breath.

Raoul
doubled over coughing.

They
were off and into the blue, soon away from the camp. Her body shook in
reaction. She’d managed to fend it off as long as she had duties to perform,
but now…Now shudders ripped through her. The volaran murmured in her mind, more
than one, Singing, soothing. On one turn, he said,
Look,
angling his
head.

Marrec
and Dark Lance zoomed toward them.

Tears,
pulled deep from her heart, flooded her eyes until she could barely see her
Pairling.
Marrec,
she whispered mind to mind.

I
mounted within minutes of receiving your message from the feycoocu.

He
hadn’t known. She hiccupped, slumped in the saddle, reached in her pocket for a
handkerchief.

The
blow hit her hard, toppled her forward, sideways. Darkness edged her vision.
The volaran screamed, dropped. He’d been hurt, too! Another hit, backed by
malevolent hatred, and pain exploded in her head. She fell. Saw thin mist below
her, the gray tossing sea.

She
was going to die.

Marrec
and Dark Lance were there. He Sang, leaned far out from Dark Lance’s saddle.
Grabbed her.

Air
whipped around them, plucked Marrec from his volaran. The winged horses
screamed but were lost from sight.

He
and she fell together. She wrapped herself around him. So this was how
bondmates died. Together. Complete and utter despair shrouded her. They were
orphaning their children.
I love you.

I
love you.
His arms wrapped tighter.

They
didn’t plunge into the sea.

Another
wind sucked them, buffeted them, into a gray place of mighty winds.

The
dimensional corridor.

The
Snap had come.

35

H
olding each
other, they spun to a portal on the far side of the corridor and hung
suspended. In the wide, wide door, the Rocking Bar T spread before her with all
the lush richness of summer. Her heart tore. She loved that place. If she could
have transported it back to Lladrana, she would have. The view telescoped and
she saw her father near the corral. He was smiling, whistling, talking to a
handsome younger man who had more city on him than cowboy.

Calli
thought she whimpered, but the screaming tornadoes around her took her voice.
She knew she trembled because Marrec squeezed tighter, nearly stopping her
breath. At least that’s why she thought her chest constricted so. The only time
she’d seen her father smile in recent years was when she won a race and when
she handed over money. He looked happy.

That
she was gone? He sure wasn’t grieving. She blinked her eyes, sent her gaze away
from the man and back to the land, the fields and pastures, the trees, the
gorgeous mountains, not nearly as threatening as those north of Lladrana. Then
she turned her head into Marrec’s shoulder. She loved the place, but she loved
him, their children and Lladrana more.

The
winds seemed to calm and they drifted back to a closing window on the other
side of the corridor, down to where a new portal was opening…ground level near
the encampment.

A
high-pitched note and glass shattering hit her ears. The whirlwind picked up
again, took them. Thrust them toward Earth, through the door.

She
saw where they were coming out. “Cliff!” she screamed, sent mentally with all
her might,
Side by side! Narrow path.

Calli
stumbled out first, staggered to the side and kept her fingers linked tightly
with Marrec’s and her body angled so that when he plunged through, she slowed
his forward momentum. She grabbed him and forced him back against the wall of
the hillside, away from the cliff. The ledge was pretty wide here, over a yard,
but for a tall man running that was only a pace.

Trembling
at the quick succession of danger, her breath rasped in and out in shudders.
“Shit, I’m home,” she said in English and her eyes stung. That was so wrong.
Her home was on Lladrana. A more verdant, older ranch than this one.

But
seeing the land, the beauty of her native home, made her throat burn with
unshed tears.

Then
he was steadying her—and standing perfectly still, as if probing for danger
with all his senses. “This is not Lladrana,” he said flatly.

“No.”
She gulped in one last shaky breath, determined to get ahold of herself. “This
is—was—my home on…on—” The scents were so familiar, the colors of mountains and
sky and ground achingly beloved. Once. All her emotions tumbled inside her at
being…here.

“Exotique
Terre,” he ended for her.

“Yes.”

Slowly
his gaze encompassed the panorama.

The
clashing of wants, of needs, stopped in Calli. She loved this ranch, but not as
much as she loved Diaminta and Jetyer. She flung herself at the crystal,
pounded on it. “Let us in. Let us
in.
” She thought she screamed it…in
Lladranan. Frantically, she peered into the depths of the shadowed layers, and
saw nothing. No sign of the world she’d fallen into.

Marrec
covered her fists with his hands, pulled them away. Her hands were red and
scratched, but that didn’t matter. She gasped out words. “I came through here.
Right here. That morning. I came through
here!
Why can’t I get back?”

“It
was the Snap.”

“I
know what it was! But I didn’t want to return. I didn’t.” To her horror, tears
dribbled from her eyes, her nose started running. “And even…even…if I ha-had
come back, it shouldn’t have t-taken you, should it have? I was
sup-posed
to stay.
We
were s’posed to stay.” Fear fluttered like a panicked bird
inside her chest. “Why are we here? Why aren’t we
there?
”

“I
don’t know.”

“How
are we going to get back?”

“I
don’t know.”

“Jetyer!”
she screamed. “Diaminta!”

He
shook her. “Calli. Stop. Stop this now!”

Wildness
beat inside her, then she focused on his face. His golden-skinned, Lladranan
face, alien to Earth. “Oh, God,” she moaned in English, dropping her head.
“I’ve lost it.”

“Calli?”

She
was too ashamed to meet his eyes. All these emotions rolling through her like a
freight train. An English comparison. She switched to Lladranan. “I panicked.
I’m sorry. I’ve never been so scared.” And now, in the cool shade of the
mountains, she was cold. Shivering. Shock.

He
gave her a handkerchief and she wiped her face, buried her nose in it to catch
the scent of Lladrana, the faint odor of their children was on that piece of
linen. She clutched it close. He set her back against the rough hillside, then
stepped in front of the crystal. Tested it himself with large, firm hands.
“Whatever doorway was here is now closed.”

Calli
hiccupped. “Can you see any shades of Lladrana, any volarans?”

“No.
It is but crystal to me. Would you have returned without me?” Marrec said
conversationally.

That
shocked her out of her grief. “Of course not. You shouldn’t have come,” she
said and knew she was speaking Lladranan again.

“Shouldn’t
I?” His tone was that mild one he used to hide deep hurt. Their Songs were only
a whisper.

She
looked up at him, gulped and pressed her lips together hard to keep from
breaking into deep sobs. She wanted to be home, in Lladrana. She wanted to be
here. If it had been at all possible to transport this slice of land to
Lladrana, she’d have done it, swapped the place in Lladrana for this one.
Foolishness. Despite all the strange and wonderful magic she’d experienced in
the last couple of months, that could never be.

But
most of all, she wanted this man and her children, her beloved children.

She
framed his face in her hands. When she could speak, she said, “I would not have
torn you from your home. From your children.”

“It
is our home and our children.”

Her
chin wobbled. She set it. “Yes.”

Once
again, he turned to survey her old home, hands on hips. Every movement of his
was outwardly casual, but very, very deliberate. She couldn’t hear much of his
Song here. Hell, she couldn’t hear any of her own, but she sensed he was using
the skills he’d developed over a hard life to keep himself from giving in to
the panic she’d already succumbed to. He glanced at the clouds gathering over
the mountains. “I don’t think we will be able to stay here on this ledge
indefinitely.”

She
cleared her throat. “No.” She patted her face on one small corner of the
handkerchief, knowing she wouldn’t want to wash any scent of Diaminta away.

He
stared at her, and she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Their bond had all
but vanished. She cast aside gibbering fear. That sure wouldn’t help anything.

“Neither
of us are Circlets, with knowledge as to how to open any portal between
worlds.”

“The
dimensional corridor,” she said and couldn’t prevent one last, racking shudder.

“Ayes.
I read Alexa’s and Marian’s stories.”

She
hadn’t known that. She tried for a watery smile. “Then you know as much as I
do, which isn’t very much.”

A
rumble of thunder punctuated that remark and made her feel even more helpless.
“We have to get off the mountain.”

“Ayes.”

She
steeled herself. “It’s ‘yes’ here. Ayes. Yes. How good are you at languages?”

His
eyes were dark, fathomless. “Good, I think, with dialects at least, and once I
went to Krache in northern Shud. I know some of that language. But Calli, you
forget, we bloodbonded. I think I will pick up your Ang-lish quickly.” He
smiled but it had no humor. “It’s in my blood.”

“I
suppose so.” With a deep inhalation that told her once again she was back in
Colorado, she held out her hand to him. “Let’s go.”

“Together.”
He nodded.

That
started her eyes swimming with tears again. Her lips quivered as she smiled.
“At least we
are
together.”

He
grasped her fingers and lifted them to his lips and she heard the faintest wisp
of Song. “I would not let you leave without me.”

She
closed her eyes, opened her lids slowly. “Thank you.”

“Say
that in Ang-lish.”

“
Eng
lish.
Thank you.”

This
time she tried to wipe her eyes on her leathers, but they were dreeth and
useless for absorbing anything.

“Why
aren’t you using my handkerchief?”

She
gulped, whispered. “It smells of Diaminta.”

He
flinched.

“Still,
wouldn’t you rather be alone in Lladrana with our children instead of with me?”
she asked.

“We
have grown apart.”

She
opened her mouth, but he raised a hand. “Both our faults. I would rather we
both
be on Lladrana. But we are a Pair. Pairbonded. We will always belong together.”
His breath jerked out. “We can only hope our children will be cared for.”

“Alexa
and Marian would never let our children be abandoned.” That was one thing she
was sure of. “Never. They will raise Diaminta and Jetyer themselves, if
necessary.”

He
stared at her. “You trust them.”

“Yes.”