Echoes in the Dark (31 page)

The
ritual was solemn and touching, Luthan officiated as the “representative” of
the Singer, though it was an open secret among them that he no longer
considered himself so. The children cried and Raine found tears slipping down
her own face. Pascal and Marwey would be good parents, but the invasion—the
stealth mission—loomed like a shadow over them all.

After
the ceremony Alexa and Bastien livened the Temple by providing tables of
excellent food and sweets to buzz the kids.

Studying
Alexa, considering her personal Song, Raine realized that the woman truly
believed that the Dark would be destroyed and some would survive. Alexa knew
the odds were long that she and her husband, Bastien, would live since they
were the premier fighters of the land, but she was willing to put all her effort
into the task. Her innate optimism matched her husband’s and being with them
eased Raine’s own fears. Maybe she
was
a weenie.

So
she talked and laughed and watched the feycoocus paddle as ducks in the sacred
pool. Her spirits lifted and she paid attention to the little hum at the back
of her mind. A trickle of melodic notes that had always been there when she was
in the Temple. But now, after her time on the ocean and practicing her own
unique Power, she could hear them better.

Frowning,
she drifted around the huge room sectioned off by fancy wooden screens until
she stood before the huge silver gong.

Of
course.

She
studied it again and listened hard. Over the last week she’d been working with
the navigation stones—the compass point gems and the hematite Power spheres.
Corbeau had taught her how to tune them, infusing them with Power.

She’d
set them to frequencies that corresponded to magnetic north and south, the
great plinths east and west of Lladrana. She’d become accustomed to hearing
certain humming in the back of her mind, feeling it slide against her skin.

The
gong had the same effect on her, had since she’d first heard it. It hummed with
some sort of navigational Power. As the builder and captain of many ships, she
recognized a navigational instrument when she saw one.

Light
burst inside her head. Giddiness claimed her. She laughed and it rippled the
chimes and vibrated the gong itself.

“Raine?”
asked Faucon, standing by the buffet table.

She
turned in wild joy. No one she’d prefer to celebrate with more. She ran and
flung herself at him. He caught her weight and only stepped back. Good, solid
man. Tough guy. Noble warrior Chevalier.

“I’ve
got it,” she shrieked and it echoed throughout the Temple, plucking notes from
the chimes. Crystals in the beams flared bright, reflected glorious colors on
the stained-glass windows. Raine remembered Archimedes in his bathwater.
“Eureka!” She squeezed Faucon on the shoulders. Kissed him hard on his sculpted
mouth. Man, what a zing that was!

He
grinned. “What?” As if he felt her joy, he whirled her around.

The
others crowded in a circle.

“What?”
The word came from the Exotiques in unison.

Raine
squeezed the top of Faucon’s shoulders, then wriggled so he’d put her down. “I
know. I know.”

“Know
what?” asked Bastien.

“Know
what the Dark wants!”

That
quieted the room. Raine would be concerned, too, after the joy of discovery—of
fulfilling one of her tasks—diminished and she settled down.

Marian,
the Circlet Sorceress, swept up in a long robe. “Congratulations.” Her lips
were curved. She, as a scholar, would understand the rush of a problem solved.
“What does the Dark want so much that it has been invading Lladrana for centuries
to retrieve it?”

Raine
threw out a fist and caught the gong square in the center. It reverberated
through the room, perhaps through the Castle and the town below, perhaps even
through the land.

Luthan
stepped forward, saying quietly, “Sometimes when the gong is rung the Dark
sends horrors to invade.”

She
sucked in a short breath. “Oh, no!”

But
Faucon slipped his arm around her. “If there’s an invasion, we’ll handle it, as
usual.”

“The
Dark wants the gong?” asked Jaquar, Marian’s husband, another Circlet-Sorcerer-Investigator-of-the-Great-Unknown.
He studied it, brows down, ran fingertips close to the surface of the huge
circular piece of silver. Or silvery-colored metal. “Odd,” Jaquar said. “It
doesn’t feel like silver.”

“It’s
not.” Raine stood tall, proud. “What it is, is a navigational tool.”

“The
Dark has a transdimensional ship?” Jaquar scowled.

Raine
shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. This could be a compass.”

Marian
said, “So this might be a tool the Dark uses to traverse the Dimensional
Corridor whenever it wants. To wherever it wants. A compass and a key,
perhaps.”

“It
isn’t only this planet, Amee, it wants to have as its own,” Luthan added.

“It
wants everywhere.” Alexa bared her teeth.

“Everything,”
Marian said.

“Naturally.”
Bastien crossed his arms. “Big, predatory, greedy evil always wants total
dominion.” He flashed a charming smile. “It’s up to us to make sure it’s
destroyed.”

The
alarm klaxon blasted: Northern invasion of horrors.

Bastien’s
smile widened. “That’s our cue.” He swung an arm around Alexa’s waist and
lifted her to him, loping from the Temple into the courtyard, where the sound
of wings of dozens of volarans landing came.

“Shit,”
Raine said.

Faucon
turned to her, laid a heart-pounding kiss on her mouth, brushed her temples
with his lips. “I’m on rotation.”

Raine
stiffened her spine, released his hand. “Go.” She sounded choked, but that was
too bad.

He
tilted up her face, his eyes intent. “Stay in my apartments.” A corner of his
mouth lifted in a smile. “I’ve had a new wardrobe brought in, rearranged the
space so you can look out the window if you work at the drafting table.”

He’d
had a drafting table brought in, had noticed she liked it close to windows.
Rising to her toes she kissed him. “Go.”

Hesitating,
he met her eyes. “A new bed, a while back.”

She
hadn’t thought of that important fact. Elizabeth had shared his bed here in the
Castle. “Thank you for telling me.”

Taking
her hand, he lifted it to his lips, then tugged her along as he ran outside,
calling for his squires and his second team of Chevaliers.

Bastien
and Alexa were already in battle gear, on volarans. The Swordmarshall met
Raine’s gaze, then Alexa raised her voice. “We’ll meet again as soon as we get
back.” She tilted her head to listen to the repeating pattern of the alarm.
“Sounds like we need to reinforce the line on the northwest coast.” She turned
in her saddle to Bastien beside her. “I told you that one fence post was weak,
didn’t I tell you—”

He
leaned over and kissed her words gone, then said, “Ayes, you did.” Nodding at
the rest of them, he said, “I anticipate that we’ll be back in two hours at the
latest. We’ll see the rest of you then.” They rose, following other waves of
Marshalls and Chevaliers flying northward, waving the newest Marshalls, their
previous squire team, behind them protectively.

Numb,
Raine nodded. She’d already been nudged aside as squires dressed Faucon for
battle. His volaran trotted up, and then there was one last press of his lips
on her own before he took to the sky with his team.

After
all the warriors left and only dust stirred in the yard, Raine gave in and
clenched her fists. “I did this. I…awakened it…called it…something,” she said
to the remaining Exotiques.

“No
harm done.” Jaquar patted her on the shoulder. His voice was considering, his
eyes looked like ideas were zooming in his mind a thousand miles an hour. “The
incursions have been getting smaller. We haven’t had a casualty for weeks.”

Marian
said, “As if the Dark knows a final showdown is coming.”

Thunk.
Back to reality. Being here at the Marshalls’ Castle would always do that. She
shifted her shoulders. She felt a lessening of a burden. One of her tasks that
kept her on Lladrana was fulfilled.

Then
Faucon disappeared from sight.

Castleton

R
aine just couldn’t
stay in the Temple or the Castle. With Enerin trotting beside her as a
miniature greyhound, Raine walked with Calli and Marrec and their children to
their suite at Horseshoe Hall. They invited her in, but she declined, too itchy
under her skin to be with them.

Faucon
hadn’t flown to battle since they’d been lovers. She wouldn’t have wanted him
to stay—hell, yeah, she wanted him to stay—but she wouldn’t want him to forsake
his duty, couldn’t ask him to do that. That unquestioning attendance to his
responsibilities was something she deeply admired.

But
she didn’t like him gone to battle.

He
will be fine,
said Enerin.

Raine
stopped in her tracks on the way to the stables, stared down at her companion.
“Do you really
know
that or are you just being sympathetic?”

Enerin
sat down and scratched her ear with her hind leg, tilted her head, gave a puppy
grin.
I really know that.

Letting
out a pent-up breath, Raine said, “Thanks.”

“You’re
welcome. Where are we going?”

Raine
hesitated. “Back to the house in Castleton.”

“Good.”

“I
have stuff there.”

“Ayes,”
Enerin said.

Blossom
was waiting and nuzzled Raine, greeted Enerin with a whuffle, and the two-mile
flight to the house was quick.

I
will stay at the end of the street instead of going to my stable,
Blossom said.
Since
we will be returning to the Castle.

Everyone
expected that Raine would be in on the discussion of the gong, and of course
she would, but she sighed.

When
she walked through the house to her bedroom everything seemed different. It
wasn’t the house, this beautiful place crafted for the City Exotique…Bri,
before she found her own home in a local tower. Raine knew it was herself.

She
looked at the house differently.

No
longer was it a refuge from the awful months of living like the lowest of the
low. Nor was it a prize, a symbol that she was someone special, an Exotique.

In
the few weeks away, she’d changed.

This
was no longer home. A beautiful house, but not her home. She sat on the bed and
looked out the window to the pretty park, the lovely houses surrounding the
greenery, the passersby cheerful and prosperous.

Looked
around at the room with the pitifully few personal items she could call her
own. Atop the handcrafted dresser was her cowboy hat—“the Exotique gang”—that
could still make her smile. On the desk was a stack of books, all the others’
Lorebooks, including a copy of Elizabeth’s book. She’d read it and it hadn’t
revealed many of Elizabeth’s feelings for Faucon. It was more a factual account
than anything else, and focused on the plague and the Chevalier’s sickness that
she and Bri had to whip. But one thing was for sure, Elizabeth’s actions had
changed Raine’s life, even though they’d never met in person.

If
Elizabeth hadn’t been in the picture, would Faucon have loved Raine? Raine
thought so. He had an innate attraction to Exotiques, and heaven knows, Raine
was attracted to him. But Elizabeth had made Raine’s and Faucon’s coming
together more difficult.

Sitting
in the lovely house, Raine realized that was no bad thing. Because Faucon’s
heart was tougher now, wasn’t it? He’d believed Raine when she’d said she would
return home to Earth, as he hadn’t believed Elizabeth.

Home
to Earth. She thought of her little cottage and the boats she’d made and how
she’d been dissatisfied with her family and her work. She’d had an offer from a
French firm….

But
she was no longer that Raine Lindley. She had grown far beyond that young
woman, and she didn’t know now if the cottage could remain her home.

She’d
lived several places on Lladrana. A few inns, ever closer to the sea until she
stayed at the Open Mouthed Fish on a pier where she’d gotten a job as a potgirl
through the kindness of the gruff female owner. A night at Faucon’s deckhouse,
then a room in the Marshalls’ Castle, finally this beautiful house.

But
not one of them was home.

The
image of her rooms in Faucon’s castle came—that was the closest place that had
actually
felt
like home.

She
went to her desk, opened Elizabeth’s book, looked at the medical doctor and her
new husband. Obviously Elizabeth loved that man, had had an affair with Faucon
on the rebound from a previous breakup. Had gone back to Earth where her love
was. Bri, Elizabeth’s twin, had stayed with her love, Sevair, as had all the
other women. They’d made lives here on Lladrana.