Keepers of the Flame (3 page)

The
chanting stopped. “Well, how about that,” said an accented voice. “Two for the
price of one. And they brought
spuds
! Did we get this right, or what?”

Elizabeth
hung on to Bri, who was trembling as much as she was. The chimes continued to
rise and fall, touching her inside—her chakras if she was to believe
Bri—stirring her. Everything echoed in her head: her thumping heartbeat—and her
twin’s?—her ragged breath, whimpering.

Blinking
again and again, Elizabeth saw a large circle of people surrounding them,
holding hands. There seemed to be four different groups. Some obvious couples
were dressed in matching colored tunics over chain mail and had a weapon at
each hip. Others had silver or gold bands around their foreheads and wore long
robes. A third group wore leather clothes and sheathed swords, a fourth bunch
wore colorful pants and shirts or dresses. Most of the people appeared Asian.
Golden skin, black hair with slightly different colored highlights, brown eyes.
Silver or gold streaks in their hair at one or both temples. Beautiful
features. Beautiful people.

I’ve
got a bad feeling about this.
Bri’s voice came in Elizabeth’s mind!
She stared in shock at her sister.

Bri!

What!

I
can hear you in my mind.

Me,
too
.
A whisper.

“Welcome
to Lladrana,” a woman said.

The
gong sounded again and it was as if a surgeon clasped her beating heart. She
and Bri screamed and swayed.

“It
sounds as if they’re hurting. It’s not supposed to hurt that much, is it? I
don’t recall. Marian!”

Elizabeth
focused on the different voice. She saw a blue-eyed blond woman in leathers
staring worriedly at her and Bri.

“Ohmygod,”
Bri said thickly, turning her head. “Lladrana. I didn’t do it, twin!” Childhood
words of utter truth tore from her.
My itchy feet didn’t bring us here!

The
chimes ran up and down the scale, once, twice…seven times. Noises wrung from
Elizabeth merging with Bri’s. After the last tone reverberated, they huddled
together on cold stones.

Bong!
The final thump
on the huge silver gong had them twitching.

Silence.

Shoving
her sweaty hair away from her eyes, Elizabeth stared at the people again.
They’d unlinked their hands.

Three
women came to stand near them, outside a glowing green circle around a star on
the floor. These three were Caucasian, though the tall, voluptuous woman with
red hair and blue eyes appeared to have an Eastern European heritage.

She
gestured and the green circle surrounding them subsided. “I’m Marian Harasta
Dumont.” She touched a golden band around her forehead that showed lightning
bolts and clouds, whorls that looked like wind, curvy waves. She, too, had a
large streak of white in her hair. “I’m a Sorceress, called a Circlet of the
Fifth Degree.”

“Welcome
to Lladrana, another dimension. We have Summoned you here on behalf of the
Cities and Towns. A strange fatal illness has come and they requested medicas—doctors.”

Bri
sat up straight, glowered at them, crossed her arms. Elizabeth kept her mouth
shut.

The
smallest person there, a woman with silver hair and wearing chainmail and hip
sheaths spoke. “I’m Alexa Fitzwalter, come from Denver last year. I was an attorney.
Here in Lladrana I am a Swordmarshall and use the Jade Baton of Honor.” She
pulled out the baton. It flared green and silver and bronze. The flames atop it
turned from metal to real.

Impressive.

Does
her name sound familiar to you?
Elizabeth asked Bri.

No,
but attorney…would Uncle Trent have said something about her?

Maybe
I want them to do all the talking, though,
Elizabeth said.

Good
plan.

The
willowy blond cleared her throat. She wore a leather outfit. “I’m Calli Torcher
Guardpont. I am the Volaran Exotique.” Her brief smile lit her face. “Flying
horses.” She inclined her head to others dressed as she was, “and the knights
who ride them, Chevaliers.”

I
think I hit my head on the stones,
Bri said.

Elizabeth
turned to her and sent her fingers roaming over her sister’s skull. Without
thought she
drew
power into herself, sent it flaring around Bri’s head,
checking for any damage.

Breaths
caught in gasps around them.

“You’re
a doctor?” Alexa asked.

Neither
of them answered.
You’re fine. You have a hard head,
Elizabeth said.

I’m
having massive hallucinations.

You
aren’t the only one
.

“We
know this sounds crazy, but it’s true,” Marian said. “We can prove you’re in
another land. A place that needs you very much.” She pulled a stick about as
long as her hand from her pocket. It grew and shaped into a wand. Then as
Elizabeth watched, the piece of wood lengthened and thickened until it was a
staff.

“They’re
not believing us.” Marian sighed.

“It
takes a while,” Alexa muttered.

“Yes,
but it should be
easier
with a welcoming party like us,” Marian said.

Bri
snorted.

“Neither
one of them looks like the woman we’ve been having those intense dreams about.”
Alexa shrugged, peered at them. Then said, “How long are you going to sit there
and let us stare at you and talk about you?”

I
vote forever
,
Bri said to Elizabeth.
Hallucinations have to end sometime. Someone will
find us in the elevator.

Elizabeth
chuckled.

The
blond woman’s, Calli’s, eyes narrowed. “Do you get the idea that they’re
mentally talking to each other?”

“Twins,”
said the short one, Alexa, philosophically. “And they’re very Powerful, you can
hear
the strength of their Songs. Telepathy might be the first thing
they notice.”

Good
guess
,
Elizabeth said to Bri.

They’re
all sharp. And now that she mentioned it, I, uh, hear tunes coming from
everybody
.

Elizabeth
tilted her head. She was concentrating on her own vital signs, her pulse, her
breathing, and Bri’s, but beyond that she
could
hear small tunes
emanating from each person. Sometimes it was comprised of more than one melody.
She focused on Marian’s and discovered the tune became less of a string and
more of a woven rope—and led to a black-haired, blue-eyed man standing behind
her.

Bri
had followed her thoughts.
Interesting
.

“Time
for plan B,” Alexa said. She gestured to a tall man with powerful shoulders
dressed in gray raw silk shirt and trousers. He gave them a half-bow. His
expression was serious, his eyes haunted. He left.

Bri’s
fingers twined in Elizabeth’s.
That bad feeling is back.

Yes
.

“The
baby thing worked for me,” Alexa said conversationally. “Twice.”

I
definitely don’t like where this might be leading,
Elizabeth said.

“Children
worked for me, too, in a different way,” Calli said softly. She held out her
hand and a man came up and stood with her. A definite couple. Their Song
spiraled out and snagged Elizabeth, so strong and loving and tender that she
had to block it out because it reminded her of what she’d lost with Cassidy.
She turned away from the sight of them.

Bri
squeezed her hand.
They look very married, and he’s definitely a native.
Marian’s guy, too.

Elizabeth
shivered. At that moment the large door opened and the man wearing gray strode
back in. He held a small, limp body in his arms.

“Oh,
no!” Elizabeth and Bri said.

He
walked straight up to where they sat and carefully laid the boy of about three
before them. The man’s expression was stark. “Mortee.”
He dies
.

3

E
lizabeth and Bri
went to opposite sides of the boy, reached for him. His breath wheezed, his
face was pale and grayish compared to the golden-peach complexions of the
healthy adults. He opened his eyelids. A horrified noise escaped Bri at the
milky film covering his eyes.

“Do
you recognize these symptoms?” Bri asked, staring at her sister. She pushed the
boy’s limp hair back from his forehead, gently turned his head to look in his
ears, opened his mouth. His tongue showed a white coating too.

“Um,”
Elizabeth unbuttoned the boy’s shirt, put her hand on his chest. “Erratic and
thready.”

“Don’t
give me doctor-speak comparisons. Do you recognize
this?
”

“You
never left people without hope,” Elizabeth muttered.

“Twin,”
Bri said, “there’s magical energy all around us.”

“Illusion.”
Elizabeth glared. “He needs a hospital.”

“We’ve
already tried everything. People are dying every day.” Tears dribbled down
Calli’s cheeks. She and the other two women who spoke English kept close.

“We
can help him with our healing gift!” Bri said.

Elizabeth
lifted her palms from the small boy. “I can’t do anything without my
instruments. Antibiotics, drugs!”

Alexa
shifted her weight, looked at Elizabeth, met Bri’s gaze. “We’ve done all we
could.”

Elizabeth
folded her arms, held her opposite elbows tight. “Everything’s too strange,”
she whispered. “Magic doesn’t work.”

With
a set mouth and steady stare at Elizabeth, Bri stretched her arms, flexed her
fingers, placed her hand on the boy’s forehead and groin. She blinked as the
air around her glowed, hummed.

Bri
looked at Elizabeth, neat and tidy. It would be so much easier with her sister
helping. Too bad. She’d have to fling herself into the healingstream alone, as
usual. Elizabeth hunched her shoulders, glanced away. She wasn’t used to
working outside a clean hospital, depending on the healingstream and herself.
Focusing on the boy, Bri opened herself to the healingstream. Only complete
dedication would save the boy’s life. She
grabbed
for the current.

Energy
slammed into her, through her. She thought she heard Elizabeth gasp. Bri’s
hands turned fiery with green flames. The boy’s body arched and jumped. Oh,
God, oh, God, she’d killed him.

She
flung herself back. Her legs tangled. Her head hit hard stone. Commotion
erupted around her. Her mind spun, she was afraid to look at her hands. Her fingertips
must have blackened from the force of what she’d taken hold of.

She
was used to a stream of healing energy, not a raging river. Awesome.

Fearsome.

Her
heart stopped thundering the same time her vision cleared—or she had enough
sense to blink. She stared up at a circular room, with windows high in the
wall. Stained glass alternated with clear. Rough beams were studded with opaque
white crystals. Stones that held energy like batteries. Too many crystals to
count. She’d plugged into a huge power source.

Would
any place on Earth have such a potent psi-magical energy current? Doubt gnawed.
The more she ignored it, the stronger it became.

The
flow had held a tang of
otherness
. Usually she’d tap into the
healingstream, taste what she only knew as Mother Earth. A current of energy
straight from the core, smelling like molten lava, tasting like the richest
soil. Those sensations had been absent, other sensual cues had come instead.

“Twin,”
she croaked, and turned her head.

Elizabeth
didn’t look at her. She was on her feet, next to the man who’d scooped up the
boy. Bri felt her mouth drop open. The kid was squirming like any healthy and
active youngster. Ohmygod.

The
boy’s eyes were wide open, bright and brown. His skin looked rosier than most
everyone else’s. Pale and trembling, Elizabeth had turned doctor and was
lifting her hand from his forehead. Then she stuck out her tongue at him and he
returned the gesture. Appeared red enough to Bri.

Ohmygod.

Not
God, you,
Elizabeth said stiltedly in Bri’s mind.

Bri
swallowed and watched her twin trail her fingers over the boy’s cheek. Now well
hydrated, almost chubby.

Elizabeth
shuddered.
You saved a life.
Slowly, she met Bri’s gaze, her own full of
shocked disbelief.
You saved a life with…with….

Healing
hands.
She glanced down, they weren’t black.

The
man holding the boy said something and the redhead—Marian—translated the
twisted French-like words. “There are other sick outside in the cloister walk.
We brought everyone from Castleton, fifteen sick. One died before you came.”