Mistweavers 01 - Enchanted No More (17 page)

“How’s the bed?” Aric asked.

Jenni nearly choked, coughed. She smiled at him. “Really nice.” She leaned back in the cushioned chair that almost seemed to conform to her body. “It’s nice being a Princess of the Lightfolk.” One more glance. “Though I don’t think this will be my home for long.”

“It could be,” Aric said.

“No.” She forked up some chicken in a delicate white sauce. “I love Denver, and Mystic Circle.”

“You’ve done an excellent job there, balancing the elements. One of the reasons the Eight decided to locate their corporation there, I think. The whole city has felt your influence, is more balanced than any other human city.”

“Thank you.”

Aric lifted and dropped a shoulder. A corner of his mouth tilted up as he asked, “What do you think of the Meld Project?”

She raised her brows. “You know I find it very intriguing.”

“I know.” He opened the dusty bottle of fine wine and poured two glasses. “We would be proud and honored to get you, perhaps even put you in charge of the project…. You’d like to work on it.”

“Yes.”

He hesitated, and huffed a breath. “You can talk to me about the mission.”

She stirred the food around on her plate. “I’ve been unconscious and I’m sure calculations have been revised for the next—last—bubble event.”

His body relaxed. Must be difficult for him being her liaison, torn between the Eight and her—his soon-to-be lover again. And even if that relationship was what he’d hoped for, even if that was what the Eight had planned, it wasn’t easy on Aric. She could see that.

“The experts think that the last event will be within a month.” He gave her a steady look over the wine. “And if you visit the area, balance near where we believe the bubble will be released, the bubble might arrive sooner.” His mouth quirked as his eyes warmed and he lifted his glass to her. “It all depends upon you,” he said softly.

HER CHICKEN NEARLY GOT CAUGHT IN HER
throat. Her life hadn’t been boring…precisely. But now that she was working on this mission—a
real
mission as opposed to those she wrote for Fairies and Dragons—it was exciting. Between the terrifying moments.

She was now a Lightfolk Princess and respected. Who’d have thought it? She took her own wine, let the taste lie on her tongue. The thought of being important in the Lightfolk world was sweet. Something her family had always yearned for…and if things had gone right during that last mission, something her family would have received. Fifteen years overdue.

But she was only important for the moment, and wondered how often she would have to prove herself. She drank and cleared her throat. “Where will the next bubble appear?” She wasn’t as casual as she sounded and Aric’s eyes sparkled, making him look like the young man she’d known.

“Northern California.”

“Earthquakes.”

“That’s right. We believe…I have been informed…that the event might take place at the Mendocino Junction.”

“Huh?”

“It’s where three tectonic plates rub together.”

“Oh.” She frowned, trying to visualize the Northern California coast. She’d been to Aric’s sequoia home, but the geography was all jumbled together in her head. “Near you?”

“Close enough,” he replied with the same false note of casualness that she’d used.

“Why are you so excited?” she asked.

He tilted his head, glanced around the suite. “Still clean of any listening spells, though the dwarves stated they should have some here in case Kondrian returned.”

Jenni leaned forward. “Tell me.”

His smile widened and he leaned over the table, too. “You saw how the main bubble exploded and some smaller ones floated away.” He lowered his voice. “Those would be special and precious, too. Who knows what blessings such small ones might contain? Perhaps they could be directed to help my Treefolk.”

“Who knows how strong they are, how long they last?”

“But the general area out there—” he gestured toward Yellowstone “—benefitted from your balancing, from having the sheets of elemental energies summoned, from the bubble that popped. Sure, most of the energies were split in five directions, but not all the magical particles were caught by our various wills. There was plenty of ambient magic remaining even that night to convince the human tourists that they witnessed nothing extraordinary. It took only very minor magic to bend their minds, much less than usual.”

“Oh.”

“So the area will get magic, spreading out, even if the Eight perform a ritual to direct it.”

Jenni winced as she recalled the Queen of Earth creating a ritual that didn’t happen. “Uh, how is the writing of that ritual going?”

Aric raised his brows. “I am not fully in the Eight’s confidence. But the Mendocino Junction event may be at sea. So the Water Queen is crafting the ritual.”

“I like her,” Jenni said, dishing out some more vegetables.

“Everyone loves her, and she’s very strong, which is why her consort is such a jerk.”

Jenni choked, looked around the suite again. “You’re sure we can’t be heard.”

“Pretty much.” He stared at her some more, said, “Ah…”

“Yes?”

“We have been asked to visit the Lightfolk who holds the estate where the bubble is anticipated to burst.”

“Holds how?”

“Owns. She owns the land and strip of rocky beach fronting the ocean. It’s part of the lost coast of California. Eighty miles of country so rugged that there aren’t any roads close. She has a helipad for the ridge house, but probably has an underwater palace, too.”

“A merfem?”

“Yes.”

“And we’ve been ordered there. Me to check out the place and balance, and you to recon the area for a good place to do the ritual dance?”

“Yes.”

“What’s the weather like there?” Jenni asked.

“Cold and rainy. Mud.”

“Can’t be as bad as Northumberland.”

“No.” Now Aric cleared his throat. “I should tell you that Rothly has left the Earth Palace, returned home.”

Jenni should have felt her brother absenting himself, but hadn’t. The Eight probably sent him home because he wasn’t of any more use to them. She sighed. “Oh.” Then she shrugged and sighed again. “Not my problem…anymore.”

Aric reached out and took her hand. “I’m sorry he continues to hurt himself and you.”

“I am, too.”

Aric lifted her fingers to his lips. “I’m very glad that you are…reconciling with the past.”

“I am, too.” She met his eyes. They were the dark green of the deep forest. She inhaled. “But you have not reconciled with yours—the emotional aches of your childhood.”

He dropped her hand, bristled. She could imagine pine needles quivering with affront. “I have.”

She propped her elbows on the table, put her chin in her hands. “I had a happy childhood, but since then I’ve been through a lot.” She looked past him at a huge tapestry showing flying horses dancing in the air, tried a smile, but it was more sad than happy. “I’m working on forgiving myself…and you. I think there will always be a piece of guilt-grit in me. And you’ve dealt with the events of fifteen years ago at the portal opening very well. Much better than me.” Another deep breath and she met his eyes again. This time they were more brown of anger than quiet green. “But you’ve never dealt with your childhood.”

“I beg your pardon. I’ve come to accept my mother, the flighty dryad.”

“But you’ve never released the anger and resentment of your father’s abandonment.”

Aric stood. “I don’t need to hear this.”

Jenni snorted. “We’ve exchanged places.” He was irritated enough that he was heading for the door. So much for sharing sex and loving tonight.

He stopped with his hand on the knob. “We’ll leave for California in the morning.”

Putting her napkin on the table, Jenni stood and nodded. “Fine.”

Once more he hesitated, Jenni was feeling an inner pull from him to come together, maybe he was feeling the same.

“My father was not a good father.” Aric’s jaw flexed, and Jenni realized that he was a mixture of two natures, facile air elf and solid dependable Treeman…and the “flighty dryad” contributed to his character, too. When he was younger he’d been so much easier in manner. He continued his explanation, and his knuckles had stopped being white on the doorknob. “Many elves raise their sons. Many are not ashamed of them.”

“Many Folk—human and Lightfolk and Treefolk—don’t know how to relate to or raise children.”

“Unlike your parents,” he said. The wistful look on his face caught Jenni, had her throat closing. Another old expression she’d seen time and again when he looked at her parents, her family.

“Yes, I had a loving family from the day I was born. They died a terrible death, too soon. I hope they would be proud of me now. They would not have been proud of me last week, but they would have understood. Perhaps if more of us had lived we could have helped each other better through the grief.” She shook her head hard enough that her hair was flung in her face, and she had to smooth away the strands. “But they died and never saw me as an adult.” Not that she felt too mature. “They died and years of love and understanding and disagreements and arguments vanished. But your father is still alive. Perhaps you could relate to each other better now, as men.”

Aric’s face clouded, set into a hard carving. “Jenni, the elf loves nothing and no one but himself.”

“You’re wrong.”

Aric’s face cracked into shock.

Jenni shifted her balance. She felt as if she were walking on the crusty ground near one of Yellowstone’s hot pools, any minute she could fall through and be boiled. “He’s a well-known bard.” In fact, she thought the elfman had adapted well enough to the current era that he had works out from the old wax cylinders to the latest music tech…under different names, of course. “He loves music.”

“He lives for admiration.”

“He loves music.”

Aric’s jaw and fingers tightened, but he hadn’t opened the door. “He lives for admiration and loves nobody but himself.”

Jenni let her breath sift from her. “Maybe that’s true, but when was the last time you saw him…spoke to him?”

“I saw him about seven years ago and turned and walked away before he saw me.”

“Aric,” Jenni said softer than human ears could hear. “You helped…are helping…me understand and get through the events of the worst time of my life. Let me help you.” She moved her hand in a tentative gesture. “You aren’t whole, aren’t the entire man you could be without reconciling your feelings about the elfman who gave you life.”

Aric grunted. “You’re right, his seed produced me, that doesn’t make him a father.”

“No, but you are still being hurt by him. It’s a splinter, a thorn, in your spirit.” Her smile was grim. “You’ve been making me pick out my thorns to heal.”

They stared at each other.

Chimes rippled through the air and Jenni blinked away first, scanned the room for the crystal ball.

“Calling Princess Jindesfarne Mistweaver Emberdrake,” said a female voice as rippling as the chimes, with an extra lilt of joy.

Aric’s shoulders lowered, releasing some tension. “Mother. She always had good timing.”

He moved away from the door and waved toward an étagère that held art…and a glowing ball that Jenni hadn’t noticed before. As she walked to it, Aric’s mother began to hum, blithely anticipating that Jenni would answer her call. Jenni had never had a call from her before, only met her about three times.

She shouldn’t have been nervous, tree dryads were about the easiest beings to be around, but this was Aric’s mother and Jenni had lived in the human world a long time. She tapped the ball that was at eye level and stared into Leafswirl’s greenly smiling face.

“Hello, Jenni,” the dryad caroled.

“Hi, Leafswirl.”

She beamed. “It’s so
good
to see you!”

Jenni figured Aric’s mother wasn’t sure how long it had been since they’d interacted last…about sixteen years.

“My son is with you? Of course he is! I’m so pleased that you’re a princess, Jenni! You deserve it.”

Leafswirl had no clue. People she liked deserved the best from life and that was that.

“Thanks.”

“And how is precious Rothly?”

“He’s healed.” At least his arm and magic.

“How wonderful! May I speak with Aric?” Leafswirl’s gaze went past Jenni as Aric stepped near.

“Darling seedling!”

Aric flinched.

Suppressing a snicker, Jenni walked away from the ball…and caught the tiny browniefem whisking away the remnants of dinner. She smiled. “Thank you.”

The brownie bobbed and the dishes continued to be stacked on the tray faster than Jenni’s eyes could follow.

“And thank you for helping me get out on the…balcony.”

“Ledge!” the woman squeaked. The tips of her ears quivered again.

“Ledge,” Jenni agreed. “It was very gracious of you.”

For the first time there was a slight clatter of china. The browniefem looked appalled, whipped her hands up to cover the whimper coming from her mouth. She’d made noise! And when someone was conversing on a crystal ball. Her whole body shook.

Jenni went as close to her as she thought the woman would allow, made her voice the soothing of slow flames in a low, comforting fire. “You must know that I am a halfling, and not accustomed to having a personal brownie look after me.”

“Hartha, Pred…” The browniefem had stopped trembling, glanced at Jenni sideways.

“I think of them as belonging to my house…or the house belonging to them.” After their first night, Hartha and Pred had proven to be strong and practical Folk. “I’m glad you’re here, and that you helped me.” More and more Jenni figured that the browniefem wasn’t usually assigned to the suite.

“Mud clothes on you.” She began whisking the plates around again.

One of the brownies who served in the halfling fems’ dormitory? “Thank you for that, too,” Jenni said. “I’m glad you were here to care for me.”

“Halflings good!” The woman’s dark brown gaze was defiant.

“Some of us.”

“Thanks to you, too. Even short time here in suite me rises status.” The dishes, serving domes and brownie vanished.

Courtesy done, Jenni hesitated, wondering if she should let Aric and his mother have some privacy.

“…and Brightacorn had a lovely dwarfling child!”

One of Aric’s sisters. Apparently he was hearing news of his family.

“That’s nice,” Aric said.

“And since you and Jenni are coming to California, I want to see you! It’s been ages!”

“It’s been two months.”

“And there’s news! Somehow the shadleeches can’t enter the grove anymore!” The dryad twirled around, dancing. Her long leaf-hair swung with her, filling the crystal ball. Then her happy face was there again. “Somehow you did it, didn’t you? My clever son!”

Aric grunted.

Leafswirl tilted her head in a mannerism that Aric had gotten from her. Her lips curved slyly. “And the Eight would like to know how a grove is protected from the shadleeches, wouldn’t they?”

She’d gotten him there, Jenni figured.

He ran a hand through his hair. “Yes.”

“Well, I won’t tell you. You have to see for yourself. Come to me tomorrow!” Again the chiming note in her voice and the crystal ball merged as she ended the call.

“Congratulations,” Jenni said. “Results from the bubble here in Yellowstone already.”

Aric stretched, releasing tension in his shoulders, shook out his arms. “Seems like.” He glanced at her, but didn’t meet her gaze. “And it seems like we should visit my mother. Midmorning tea time?”

Dryads loved their little herbal tea parties. Jenni had nearly forgotten. No dryads in the game she worked on. She crossed to Aric and touched his arm. “Sounds lovely. You should be proud.”

He grunted again. “I am proud.” But his voice said he was resigned. Since they were now dealing with his maternal parent, Jenni decided that the issue of his father had been tabled—for a while. Maybe even until after the California bubble event. She actually had a sense that her relationship with Aric might last a while. That would be good. For both of them.