Keepers of the Flame (5 page)

Once
again Bri followed Elizabeth, and they began to establish a balance to handle
the cycling energy. Elizabeth learned to open herself, Bri learned to limit and
direct the healingstream. Marian stood behind Bri with her hands on her
shoulders, steadying, supporting, but unable to join them.

By
the time they’d helped six, Bri began to feel the whole jet-lagged incredible
event-packed day wearing upon her and moved by rote, summoning the
healingstream, sending it into sick bodies. She felt the shadow of Elizabeth’s
thoughts as she studied and dismissed different diagnoses. Nothing was familiar
about this sickness.

Somewhere
between two hours and infinity they were finished and Bri was swaying on her
feet. Elizabeth stood with the straightness of a woman refusing to give in to
exhaustion then swung an arm around Bri’s shoulders and they were drawn to a
moonlit opening to the courtyard. The cloister had been dark, too dark to work
in, why had they?

“Light
hurts the sick’s eyes,” Marian said, and Bri realized she and the other woman
had shared enough of a bond for the Sorceress to pick up on her thoughts, even
if they weren’t linked anymore. Dangerous.

“No,”
said Marian. She bowed deeply, keeping her gaze on them. “I promise I will
never hurt you. Either of you.”

“Huh,”
said Bri. She started to lean on the edge of the stone door opening and missed.
Was falling. Something oddly shaped set against her and pushed her upward. In
the brief contact, she felt a different sort of energy wash through her,
tingling from top to toe, clearing her mind, giving her own energy—and
Elizabeth’s—a boost.

“Thank
you—” She turned to her savior and gawked. A horse stood there, eyes huge and
liquid and gleaming with…with…with
magic
? It whinnied and stepped back.
Others like it stood in the courtyard. The smell of resinous amber crumbling
into perfume wafted to Bri.

“They’re
curious.” Calli walked past them into the stone courtyard and rubbed the
horse’s nose. “They say you’re using Power they only dimly sensed and didn’t
know how to access. One has gone to report to the alpha pair in Volaran
Valley.” She pointed. Bri followed her finger to see a white horse. With wings.
Soaring over the buildings on the opposite side of the courtyard and off into a
night sky that held too many stars.

Impossible.

Elizabeth
stiffened into rigidity.
Impossible.

Another
whicker came and Bri looked to the horse that had propped her up. Slowly it
opened wings at its sides, spread them—huge feathery things.

Ohmygod
, Bri said.

Ohmygod
, Elizabeth
said.

“Ohmygod,”
she and Elizabeth said together.

“You’re
not in Colorado anymore,” Alexa said.

4

E
lizabeth was
holding onto sanity as if it was the unraveling edge of a ratty blanket. Too
much strangeness. Everything—the people, the humid air, the sky showing too
many stars, and most especially the winged horses.

One
was still rubbing against Bri in mutual admiration.

Sevair
Masif, the man who’d come from Castleton, was ensuring the care and comfort of
his people with efficient orders to soldiers and servants. The knot of the more
ostentatiously dressed people—including two of the three Coloradan
women—attracted his attention. He gave one last order and joined them, crossing
his arms and raising his chin.

“We
agreed that should the Summoning of the medica be successful and if she
fulfilled our great and desperate need, she would stay here at the Castle
tonight. The ladies are tired. Why are they not being led to their quarters?”
The soft translation came to Elizabeth’s ear and she turned her head to see
Calli smiling at her.

Calli
lifted a shoulder, sighed. “They argue. Sevair’s a good man, just obsessed with
frinks.”

“Frinks?”
Elizabeth asked.

“Metallic
worms that come with the rain. The dark sends them, too.”

Elizabeth
wished she hadn’t asked.

“One
of your tasks will be to smooth the way between the City and Town segment of
society and the rest.”

Elizabeth
shook her head, looked at Calli, then at Bri who was examining one of the
horse’s wings. She seemed familiar with the animals, at least was probably
familiar with wingless ones. Another change. Somewhere, sometime Bri had
learned about horses. No doubt she’d traveled where a horse was still
considered a necessity. Elizabeth gestured to the horse and Bri. “Why aren’t
you supervising?”

“You’re
sharp,” said Calli. “Remembered that I’m the one who was Summoned for the
volarans and Chevaliers.” She followed Elizabeth’s gaze. “I can see auras, you
know.”

“No.”
If she denied all this it might go away

“Yes.
Most folks here depend upon their ears and their Power to hear Songs. I hear
the Songs, but auras are easier for me. Thunder is a curious volaran, and it’s
difficult to ignore the fact that the horses have wings. Not something you’d
see on Earth. Thunder is giving your twin sister some energy.” Calli narrowed
her eyes. “Some of that is passing into you.” Nibbling on her lip, Calli
continued. “It takes a while to become used to Lladrana. We, the other
Exotiques and I, hoped to make your transition easier. It didn’t seem to work.”

Elizabeth
raised her eyebrows. “With sixteen people in the throes of sickness needing
medical help?”

Calli
winced. “I suppose that would have been the equivalent of me riding most of the
Castle volarans.” She met Elizabeth’s gaze steadily. “I’d apologize, but I’m
not sorry. The townspeople are desperate. None of the medicas in Lladrana have
found a cure for this new disease and people are dying.” Calli squinted at Bri,
then back at Elizabeth. “You and your twin had a basic similar layer of green
in your auras when you came but different upper layers. That’s interesting. But
the bond between you two when you arrived wasn’t nearly as strong as it is
now.”

Elizabeth
didn’t want to hear any of this.

A
man dressed in such an understated and tailored style of leathers that
proclaimed him wealthy joined them. He bowed, then looked expectantly at Calli.

“This
is Faucon Creusse, a nobleman and Chevalier.”

“Chevalier?”

“Knight,
like I said.”

Faucon
said something, and Calli translated. “An impressive display of Power by the
new Exotiques, as usual.”

Before
Elizabeth could answer, the discussion between the leaders got heated.

An
older woman snapped something, and Calli delivered the words but didn’t match
the tone. “Of course we have plenty of space, but we only prepared for one and
it’s evident that they will not want to be separated.”

Masif
stood solid. “We townspeople have many places where the Exotiques can stay. We
paid to have them Summoned. They are our—” he glanced from Elizabeth to Bri,
who were both watching him, nodded in acknowledgment and finished “—guests.
They should stay in the city.”

“Not
tonight,” said the woman.

Calli
added, “That’s Lady Knight Swordmarshall Thealia Germain, she’s the head of the
Marshalls and runs everything.”

Faucon
gave another half bow to Elizabeth then turned and stepped up to the group. “Of
course the sisters would prefer to room together. Which is why I requested a
suite be prepared in Alyeka’s tower for them.”

“I’d
like to keep them in
my
tower,” Thealia said. The streaks of gold at her
temples were so wide they nearly reached the middle of her head. A sign of
nobility? Both Faucon’s temples showed swaths of silver.

At
that moment a horrendous siren went off.

Elizabeth
jumped.

Bri
stumbled as the volaran she was leaning against hopped away.

The
courtyard was full of people and now every one of them was moving. Some were
racing away to a point Elizabeth couldn’t see; the healthy townsfolk had
stepped back to crowd the cloisters. Volarans alit in the courtyard and the
Chevaliers—those in leathers—jumped on their backs, along with some of the
younger people who had a sheath on each hip.

Thealia,
the older woman, turned and scrutinized the action like the head of the
hospital checking the emergency room in a crisis, and Elizabeth’s stomach
tightened as she sensed there was a disaster in progress. “What?”

“I
wondered.” Marian, the sorceress, circlet, whatever, reached Calli at the same
time as Bri. She looked at Calli, jerked her head to the small white-haired
woman who joined them. “Four Summonings. Four times the Dark has attacked very
soon after.”

“Connected,”
the small woman, Alexa said. Her serious gaze watched the refined chaos and her
left hand went to the cylindrical leather sheath at her side.

Bri
had linked arms with Elizabeth and she could feel nerves thrumming through her
twin.

A
slightly shorter, muscular man who moved with grace whirled Alexa up in his
arms. “Let’s go!”

“We
fight? It’s not our rotation,” Alexa said.

“I
have a bad feeling. I don’t want Pascal and Marwey to lead the youngsters.
We’ll do that.”

Alexa
met Elizabeth’s gaze, then Bri’s. “Later. This is my husband, Bastien, by the
way.”

Elizabeth
wanted to call them back.

“Must
you?” cried Bri.

But
Alexa and Bastien merely waved.

“They’ll
triumph, as usual,” said Marian.

“Yes,”
added Calli.

But
both women’s faces showed anxiety.

“How
many will we lose?” murmured Calli. “Who will we lose?”

Elizabeth
stepped closer to Bri. Again she thought she should offer to do something—what?

Bri
said,
What in God’s name could we do? We know NOTHING about this place.
But they shared flickering along their nerves as if they should spring into
action, too.

The
activity in the courtyard separated into patterns—those who flew away and those
who stayed.

Thealia,
the leader, snapped out a few orders and said something to Calli and Marian.

“Another
interminable war council in a few minutes,” Calli said.

Bri
flinched beside Elizabeth, and Elizabeth finally let herself realize what she’d
sensed all along—these people had many reasons for Summoning them, and the
primary one was because of a war.

A
disease was one thing, a war quite another. She didn’t want to be here.

As
if she’d read Elizabeth’s mind—could they do that?—Marian said, “They don’t fly
to fight other humans. They fly to fight monsters and save a world. A world we
need your help to save, too.”

Worse
and worse.

B
ri leaned
against one of the fancily carved columns of cloister “windows” opening onto
the courtyard. The stone was cold and hard and had the unmistakable feel of
reality. She much preferred being propped up by a winged horse and tingling
with energy, stuff of dreams.

Calli
kept up a running commentary and translation.

At
that moment the man in the white leathers appeared carrying the cooler they’d
left in the huge, circular room. Atop the chest the sacks of potatoes were
neatly stacked. Elizabeth’s bag’s strap crossed his chest, and the loop of
Bri’s big backpack was over his shoulder. He carried them all easily.

Calli
frowned at him. “Luthan, you’re not fighting?”

His
jaw clenched and he nodded, showing no emotion. “I have instructions from the
Singer to remain at the Castle or in the town for the first two weeks after the
Exotiques arrive.” His voice gave nothing away, but a ripple of shock passed
through the others.

“She
said two would be coming?” asked Marian, seeming to throb with irritation and
curiosity.

Luthan
said, “She said at least two.”

Silence
draped the cloister. He let the statement hang, then bowed—with cooler—to
Elizabeth and Bri. “I am Luthan Vauxveau, brother to Bastien, the pairling of
Exotique Alyeka. I am also the representative of the Singer, the oracle of
Lladrana, to the Marshalls. I sit on their councils to inform her what
transpires here.”

“It
would be good if she kept us equally informed,” Thealia said.

“The
Singer is the Singer,” Luthan said.

“Not
the same as the rest of us, that’s for sure,” Calli muttered. She caught Bri’s
eye. “A prophetess.”

The
leaden weight of exhaustion was ready to flatten Bri. Despite the spurts of
adrenaline since she’d arrived, and the various sources of energy that poured
into and through her, there was only so much a body could take. Except for a
quick nap at Elizabeth’s that afternoon, she’d been going nonstop for too many
hours.

“Where
do I put this chest?” Luthan asked expressionlessly. From the faint sheen of
sweat on his forehead, Bri thought he was under a mental or emotional strain.
His hands were sheathed in gauntlets.