Sorceress of Faith (57 page)

“Eat,”
Andrew said, “and I’ll tell you how this will work.”

Marian
smiled, was able to pick up her fork again and eat. The omelette should have
been tasty, but it was much like the ones she’d eaten with Bossgond. Still,
like Andrew, she ate automatically, for fuel.

Andrew
said, “I’ll get ready to travel. I think we should leave from your apartment
again.” He looked around. “This house should sell pretty quickly, especially if
I keep the price reasonable. I’ll pull out money from my account and convert it
to—what do the Lladranans use as currency?” He grinned. “No use going there a
pauper if I can help it.”

“You’re
sure you want to do this?”

“Of
course.” He chuckled. “I’m the risk-taker, remember? You’re the cautious one,
trying to get things perfect before you make a move.”

“I’m
doing better at that,” she mumbled.

He
tilted his head. “I think you are. Those Lladranans taught you more than magic,
didn’t they?”

She
managed a smile. “I had a lot of challenging experiences.”

“You’ll
have to tell me the whole story, from beginning to end—or at least the middle.
We haven’t reached the end yet.”

“You’ll
really return with me.” She searched his face and found his eyes steady.

“You’re
the one with the destiny. I’m the one with no future…here. We’re family. Where
you go, I go.”

Tears
rolled down her face. She reached for the paper towel she had used for a napkin
and wiped her eyes, blew her nose.

He
began eating again. “And you’ll have to tell me about the man, too.”

Her
chest tightened. “The man.”

“I
felt him. But that can wait, it’s all about me first. I’m not going over poor,
and there is definitely other stuff I want to take with me. What do they use as
currency, gold?” He winked.

“Uh,
I don’t know. I dealt mostly in trade.” She frowned, trying to remember Alexa’s
experiences. “Jewels, Alexa had a ruby—no, a red spine.”

“Even
better.” Andrew rose and took his plate to the sink, washed it and his fork,
frowning. “I didn’t get that stuff about Alexa. Who is she?”

Marian
finished the last bit of omelette, then walked up and gently jostled Andrew
away from the sink so she could wash and put away her own dishes. She looked up
at him with a twinkle in her eye. “Alexa was the first Exotique.”

His
goggle-eyed look was satisfying.

35

T
he following
days Marian spent with Andrew were some of the most satisfying in her life. His
symptoms eased and he became the vital, intelligent man he was when in
remission. He delighted in Marian’s small displays of magic, forged ahead in
settling his affairs, closing his business and selling the house. In that, they
worked well together. Andrew liquidated his holdings and bought gold and gems
while Marian dealt with the paperwork of their disappearance.

They
flew back to Denver by private jet a couple of days before they were to be
Summoned.

On
the night Marian’s other self was thrown into the Dark’s nest, Andrew took her
to an expensive restaurant and kept her mind occupied by making her tell him stories
of Lladrana. But her underlying fears remained and her body betrayed her by
twitching until Andrew grabbed her and held her close.

The
morning of the Summoning, Marian moved the two cots she and Andrew had slept on
to the building’s storage unit and left them. She returned to a clean
apartment, bare except for the items they would need for the Summoning. Andrew
had placed his night gear in his pack, put on the music. He stood outside the
scarlet-taped star and circle looking thoughtful. Their packs lay in the middle
of the star.

“You
know, this is going to look awfully strange to the property manager when he
walks in.”

“This
is Boulder,” Marian said tensely, reviewing her notes. Anxiety that her mind
would go blank bit deep. “Besides, I’m going to leave the door unlocked. Maybe
they’ll think someone else laid the tape. I’m sure the brass incense burner and
the mini music system will be stolen by the time someone in authority gets
here.”

Andrew
patted her shoulder and shook his head. “I think they’ll know you did it.
Everyone knows you’ve always been weird, Marian,” he teased.

Marian
chuckled weakly, scanned his face, rubbed her throat. “Ready? You’re sure you
want to go?” They’d taped the pentacle together. Andrew had practiced the
chant, too.

“Like
the other ten billion times you’ve asked me—yes, I want to go. This is a real
adventure.” He adjusted his hat to a rakish angle. He wore a full leather suit
of pants, vest, heavy jacket and an Indiana Jones-style hat. The hat reminded
Marian of the hideous hat that Jaquar wore and she felt her heart pump faster
at the knowledge she’d soon see him. For him, it would be a mere two days since
she left, but for her it had been weeks.

He’d
know that and factor it in when he pressed for a renewal of their relationship.

Marian
wore her underwear and her purple robe. She’d packed a silk pantsuit and
several pairs of jeans. She had some in Alexa’s size, too, and was bringing a
package of Tuck’s favorite hamster treats. She had new electronic “nuts” for
him—encyclopedias, books and music.

She
set her shoulders. “Let’s do it.” She glanced down at her notes, shoved them
into the center to consult.

“Easy,”
Andrew said as he caught her left hand in his right one.

His
fingers didn’t have tension running through them, his body was relaxed, Marian
noted with envy. His right hand held the tiger’s eye full of energy that Jaquar
had given her.

She
looked at her watch. “We’re running a little ahead of schedule.”

“All
to the good. Let’s start.”

“I
don’t know…”

“You
must believe we can do it,” Andrew said.

“What
if it’s not right?”

He
just chuckled. “I can’t think that magic spells are so precise that there is no
room for mistakes, can you?”

She
didn’t know, but it couldn’t hurt to be as perfect as possible.

So
they began the Ritual tailored to Earth Song and magic that Marian had crafted.
They lit the incense together, closed the Circle, began the chant. Andrew’s
voice was low, deeper than Marian had ever heard, fervent-sounding.

He
wanted to do this. The knowledge should have relaxed her, but it didn’t. She
was strung tight as a piano wire.

Mother
Earth’s Song rose from the ground through her feet, surged through Marian like
a benediction. Andrew’s fingers clamped over hers.

They
chanted the final note.

A
sizzling firebolt hit between their feet.

Andrew
jerked. Marian gasped.

They
shot into the Dimensional Corridor even as Marian was thinking that the
property manager wasn’t going to like the singed carpet and it was good she’d
reconciled herself to not getting her deposit back.

“Marian?”
Andrew shouted over the winds roaring around him.

His
eyes stared as if he didn’t see what she did—a shining, nearly translucent
portal across the hall from them. Through it she could see a huge Circle of
Marshalls, Circlets, Scholars, Chevaliers…. But it wasn’t the Temple at the
Marshalls’ Castle!

The
incised pentacle was the one at Parteger Island—a place she never cared to see
again.

“Marian!”
Andrew shivered as if the winds buffeted him.

No
breeze stirred the bottom of Marian’s robe.
She
was in control here.

With
a slight tug on Andrew’s hand, she led him to the portal, and through it.

They
dropped about four feet to the gray stone. Marian steadied Andrew as the breath
jarred from him on landing.

Amee’s
Song flooded her, held her transfixed. Earth’s Song diminished, left with a
farewell of distant thunder, the image of a gray sky over the Boulder
Flatirons, and the scent of ozone after a storm. Marian blinked back tears to
see Andrew gawking around them, swaying.

Power
sizzled through her—from the midmorning sunlight, the hot stone beneath her
feet, the triumphant cry of Amee at the arrival of another warrior. Wind
whirled around her like a thousand blessings, stroking her with love, from
Amee—and from Jaquar?

His
dark sapphire gaze fixed on hers, he stood linked between Alexa and another
Marshall. Determination and promises flowed to her from him, through the
emotional link that widened as their gazes locked. He nodded, then turned his
head to look at Andrew. His eyes softened, a smile close to pity curved his
lips.

Marian
scowled. How dare he pity her brother!

“First
question,” Alexa called in English as soon as the last word of the Summoning
chant ended. “Did you bring potatoes? You know they don’t have fries here.”

Marian
laughed and Andrew grinned.

Lady
Knight Swordmarshall Thealia Germaine cut the Ritual Circle by withdrawing her
hands from those on each side of her and humming an atonal note.

Alexa
strolled toward them, smiling at Andrew. “Hi, you must be Andrew. I’m Alexa.”

Andrew
took a step, wavered. Marian reached to brace him, but he shrugged her hand
away and paced forward steadily, holding out his hand. “Andrew Reston.”

Marian
and Andrew had just stepped from the center pentagram to between the star-points
when a screaming
whoosh
sounded behind them.

The
shriek came from a thin, weedy young Circlet who yelled, “The maw opened.
Danger. Danger! I saw it. An immense pulse of Darkness straight here—carrying
horrors.” He crumpled.

Wing
beats and cries came from above. Volarans had risen to scream challenge to a
dreeth, diving at it, clamping teeth on the fragile wings.

Marian
whirled to see monsters pouring into the confined circle of the stands,
trapping the Lladranans and her and Andrew—hulking renders, slayers ruffling
their spines, the soul-suckers with twisting tentacles. Five black splotches of
manlike sangviles glided toward them. She stood petrified.

But
Lladranans fought in three dimensions.

Alexa
whirled and ran to Bastien. He shrilled a whistle and a mighty volaran dipped
near to the ground. Bastien threw Alexa onto the steed, then jumped on behind
her. An egg-shaped force field snapped around them. They whipped out their
batons and Bastien yelled a war cry as they flew straight for the dreeth’s distended
belly.

Their
Chevaliers, Pascal and Urvey, Koz and Perlee and others called their volarans
and followed.

The
Marshalls coalesced into Pairs, then into a team, stripped their robes from
their armor and waded into the fight, faces grim. A Powerful Song of
destruction vibrated from them in low tones.

Most
of the Circlets and Scholars stood as frozen as Marian. Bossgond wielded a
staff that sent invisible energy, frying a slayer.

Sinafin
in hawk-form flew over Marian and dropped a brithenwood branchlet on her head,
screaming,
Fight!
That jolted Marian from immobility. She caught the
branch before it fell to the ground, held on hard. To her surprise, the twigs
melded into the main stem, the forks came together, and she had a strong,
beautiful wand that Sang of life.

Others
were dying. Marian saw a male Chevalier Pair fall beneath five renders, ripping
them apart.

Fight.
It was a
whisper inside her that had to grow fast, that had to stir her body into
action. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know how. She had to try.

Jaquar
ran to them, his telescoping staff the size of a wand. His lips were pulled
back in a grin. He’d torched a sangvile and yelled in triumph.

Behind
him followed a soul-sucker, and another speeding sangvile. “Watch out—” She’d
meant to warn him, but he caught Andrew in a football tackle and draped him
over his shoulder, running for the dubious safety of the deserted Tower.

Cold
fingers encircled her ankle. Power stilled in her, began to drain. She looked
down in horror to see a sangvile move its head to her calf, lips protruding.

Fight!
Fire! Fire
killed these things. She was the Mistress of Lightning. Fight before she died!

The
Massster sssends his greetingsss
, the evil thing hissed in her
mind—violation enough to enrage Marian.

She
pointed her new wand at it and shouted, “Fire!” Summoning Power from the anger
of Amee in the ground beneath her. She allowed it to sear through her to free
her wits, roll down her arm and charged from the wand to strike the sangvile
and shrivel it to ash.

Her
first kill.

She
felt no remorse, only dedication to the cause of freeing this planet from the
Dark that sought to claim it. She wouldn’t stand aside. She’d learn to fight.
This was her home now, these people her family as much as Andrew. She would
defend them to her death.