by Robin Owens
The next morning she awoke before dawn as usual and thought of Raz’s behavior the night before. He’d had a few shocks. Hell, so had she, viewing that murder scene. Murder brought this mess of thefts and vandalism to a whole other level. Not much she could do but be careful and protect her own.
Her own Fam, her own man.
Just how long he’d be her man, she didn’t know, but she knew enough that she was going to have a very hard time walking away from him.
But she had tentative plans for a compromise . . . maybe. Where could they live that would please them both?
She hadn’t seen the HeartGift she’d given him. What did it show as Raz’s perfect home?
What if it revealed something in Druida?
She didn’t know. Maybe she could get something from Healers to help her live in the city, or the starship Nuada’s Sword might have a remedy, but she flinched at the thought.
Wouldn’t a HeartMate’s home be a place where she could live, too?
She didn’t know. Maybe HeartMate love didn’t mean living together, but would stretch to living in different places, or one being on the road and the other in a city. The thought made her feel hollow.
She didn’t know what would happen when they went back to Druida City, either. The more time she spent there, the more she felt like a spring was winding tight inside her, ready to snap. This trip had loosened it a bit, and a two-day glider ride through countryside would help, but a heavy dread waited.
Raz woke then and opened his eyes, they went from blurry to sharp as he smiled with a sweetness that made her clench. Surely he would come to love her like she loved him? Maybe not; she loved him so intensely it felt as if it had sunk into her very bones, never to be removed.
Never wholly her own self again.
Thirty
They had nearly recovered their previous easiness by the time they took a waterfall together—and made love again—and dressed, preparing to leave Gael City.
Del packed her duffle, swept the room with a practiced glance to see she hadn’t left anything. Knew she had left a lot of herself here: her quiet satisfaction at being alone with Raz; her innocence before she got involved in a murder; much of her hope that she and Raz would live together as HeartMates. “Ready?”
“Wait,” he said, adjusting his cuffs, then taking something from his trous pocket. She wore her good leathers, he wore a fashionable linen trous and shirt suit with minimal blousing of the sleeves and legs. He’d always be the better dressed of them.
He set a circle of papyrus about five centimeters wide above her left breast, tapped it. Del felt a warmth as whatever design on the sheet was transferred to her leathers. With a grin, Raz took her fingers and led her to the mirror. “Look.”
The ancient symbol of the theater—a happy white mask and a sad black one—was now inscribed on her leathers. Raz circled his finger around it. “You’re now a lifetime member of the Theater Guild.”
Turning over the hand he held, he pressed more circles of papyrus into her palm. “For all your leathers.” He cleared his throat. “I like the looks of it.”
“I do, too. A wonderful gift, thank you.” Her own voice was husky.
Rosemary and Shunuk trotted into the room; they’d been wandering, “out looking for a last wild nibble.” Both appeared satisfied.
Time to go? A new ADVENTURE, glider ride home! Rosemary said.
“Time to go,” Raz agreed. Once more he scanned the room. “I’ve done the best I can for this place.” He shrugged. “I’ll let my sister and parents take care of the rest, make it what they want.”
Del got the feeling that he’d crossed some inner threshold, that whatever place this house and estate had had in his life had changed forever. She recalled the holo murder scene and figured that would affect anyone.
He glanced at her. “I don’t think others of my Family will have to view that holo. I’m glad.”
Because this was their place more than his. “I’m glad, too.”
They did a tour of the house and estate, left before WorkBell dawn.
To Del’s surprise, Raz had already arranged transport for her stridebeast to Druida and stabling in the city.
As soon as they reached the outskirts of Gael City, tension dropped from Del like a heavy load off her back. She sighed and thinned her window to open air. Raz thinned the roof.
Rosemary hopped up and down in her web sling with glee. Go, go, GO!
Raz did. He drove faster than any glider on the road, not that there were many. They headed out on the standard route of hard-packed earth toward Druida. Del shut her mind to the destination and lived in the now.
They would travel over plains and foothills and camp in one of the mountain valleys tonight, then take the new airship and glider route through Fairplay Canyon the next morning. At the speed they were going, they’d cut several septhours off the usual glider trip. More than she’d anticipated.
Soon Raz put the glider on auto and they tilted their chairs back and snacked. The small food storage no-time held exotic cocoa and caff drinks and Del admitted that this particular glider travel was superior to stridebeast.
Raz was an easy traveler. He took enough breaks that kept Del and the Fams happy with stretching and play, and lunch was cheerful with food and a game. As the day progressed, they rebuilt the foundation of their relationship that had crumbled the night before, but Del was all too aware that the peace between them was fragile. Life could so easily break them.
There was a looming dread that she wouldn’t be able to make it come out right. If Raz wasn’t willing to make it come out right, too, it was hopeless.
They entered the Hard Rock Mountains late in the afternoon and turned off the main glider road. A few miles later they came to a verdant valley and the glider began to slow.
Raz turned to her with a smile. “I’ve always liked this place—Verde Valley. You can see that abandoned resort from the road and air.”
Del squinted as the estate came into view and memory clicked in. There was a medium-sized house that had been there since she’d started her career. A few years after that someone had built a larger hotel and billed it as a spa resort, so it must have hot springs. There were other outbuildings, barns, and stables for stridebeasts and horses.
Both a river and small lake graced the property. “Not a wise investment. Too far away from Gael City and Druida.”
“About halfway.” Raz’s forehead wrinkled. “But I don’t think that’s too far.”
Del shrugged.
He did, too, at the same time. They laughed together. He said, “But we made the trip by glider at least once a season, by airship, too.”
“Beautiful valley.” Lush and green with hills in the foreground and towering mountains in the back. She narrowed her eyes. “This will be the main gliderway to the new Fairplay Canyon route.”
“Yes.”
“Hmmm.” The house was a sprawling one-story building with a large half-round sunroom of many-paned glass facing the lake. “Charming,” she said. She was never one for a totally straight-walled building.
“Yes,” Raz said. “Slow to minimum PublicGlider speed through Verde Valley.” The place came into greater focus. “You know”—he scanned the estate—“the Family that owns this might be able to make it work again if they sank some gilt into it, what with our new route. Good place to spend the night. Luxuries, you imagine?”
“Well, spa—hot springs, probably. Large inn building, excellent quality . . . but plenty of noble Families have estates in the south near Gael City, nothing special to bring them here.”
“But on their way there and back . . .” Raz shook his head. “It was a thought. Lovely house and inn.”
Shunuk gave a lusty sniff. He’d stuck his head out his window, but the rest of him was in a webshield. Lots of good smells, good game, good hunting.
PRETTY! Rosemary said.
Raz rolled his shoulders and pulled the driving bar from the console. “The opening to Fairplay Can
yon isn’t that much farther, three kilometers or so. I thought we’d camp there tonight.”
“Sounds good.”
“Dad said there was one of the new four-rod pavilions stowed in this vehicle.”
“Huh,” Del said. She glanced back, saw four hand-length tubes under Rosemary’s portion of the ledge.
The kitten grinned at her, bounced in her sling. OUT soon.
“For sure.” Del nodded. It had been a good day, spent with Raz and the Fams. Lively with talk, but with some nice quiet periods of like-minded silence or throbbing jazz that filled the vehicle. She cherished the time together.
They stopped in the shadow of the mountains just before the entrance to the narrow canyon.
The pavilion went up with a chanted four-line rhyming spell, the hand-sized rods lengthening until they were over Raz’s head, and the protective shields curving around it in a sphere. They’d made the area spacious, about as large as Raz’s bedroom.
All the bugs and small animals were driven from the sweet, high grass under the watchful eyes of Shunuk and Rosemary. Del thought Raz had given the prey a helpful, Flaired “push to escape” since both Fams pounced several times and missed.
Raz set out mats, a large one for Del and him, a smaller one for Shunuk, and Rosemary’s new feather pillow . . . properly bespelled to keep clean.
Del made the fire and brought raw kebabs from the no-time in the glider, set them cooking.
The night was incredible, eating and laughing with Raz, watching the sun set and the sky deepen into black studded with stars that were all the brighter for not being in the city. Sitting cuddled with Raz in the silence of the wild . . . crickets and birdsong and the rush of wind in the whispering aspen.
Perfect.
Until they realized Rosemary was gone.
Raz’s fingers clamped on Del’s fingers as fear spurted through him. He’d been drawing her away from the fire and to the pavilion for sex under the stars. He’d glanced at Rosemary’s pillow and she was gone. Not anywhere in the safe area.
Calm! Del said mentally, but her body had tensed and her pulse was racing. You have a bond with her, you would have known if anything happened.
Nausea and panic had him fumbling for his small connection with Rosemary. He hadn’t known her for that long, but he loved her. A thin thread. Tiny, really, as small as a blue gray kitten that would blend in with the shadows in the night.
Yes! There it was. She was all right. Curious, but not exploring. He couldn’t tell how far away she was.
His grip eased on Del’s hand; she bumped his shoulder in friendly support. After a couple of regulated deep breaths, he called, Rosemary! You are not on your pillow.
No answer. Anger surged to replace the panic; he slapped it down.
Rosemary?
The kitten didn’t respond and his link with her wasn’t strong enough for him to understand what she was feeling.
His link with Del was another matter. Her panic had fled, too, and now she was amused.
“I can’t locate Rosemary from my link.”
“Shunuk isn’t with her but knows she’s fine. He wants to hunt, won’t be any help.”
Another big breath. Raz rolled his shoulders to loosen them, brought Del’s fingers to his mouth for a kiss. Then he said, “You must have a small bond with the kitten, too, and you’re used to Fam links. With your help, I’m sure we can find her.”
“Of course.”
Suddenly it was open, that bond between them, the HeartMate bond that scared him so, but he was willing to use it to find his wayward Fam. Del was willing to give, as always, and Raz hesitated. She’d been so generous, he’d taken so much from her, though he was certain that she’d searched for him. But his kitten journeying alone in the wild took precedent now.
He joined both hands with Del and the Flair rolling between them doubled. Closing his eyes, he traced his link with Rosemary until he could tell what direction she’d gone . . . about three kilometers to the southwest, longer by glider.
She was at the abandoned estate!
Del sighed beside him. Not surprising for a curious kitten. Shunuk and I have been this way before, so he has explored the place. Naturally, I did not.
Naturally not.
Best if we walk; how’re your shoes?
He thought of his elegant half-boots and knew brush would ruin them.
There can be marsh here, too.
“Oh, joy,” he said aloud.
A wisp of smile curved her lips then disappeared, along with her dimples.
“You think we can get onto the estate?” he asked.
“We’ll find a way or lure Rosemary into the open where we can see that nothing is around her and—”
“Teleport her.” Raz’s free hand fisted. “This isn’t good.”
“She’s just a baby,” Del said matter-of-factly.
“We’ll have to set behavior parameters.”
“Good luck,” Del said and started walking.
It wasn’t too long before they reached the boundary of the estate, though Raz’s appreciation of the landscape had deteriorated as he walked through brush, a patch of marsh, and stumbled over a few rocks.
A thin spellshield rose before them. Raz frowned.
Del said, “Won’t keep much out, probably the larger animals haven’t tested the space lately, but when they do, there will be trouble. You know who owns this?”
“No.”
“Neither do I. I’ll ask at the Guildhall when we get back and notify them.” Del’s blond curls, silver in the waning twinmoonslight, lifted in the breeze when she shook her head. “We may trigger an alarm.”
There is a hole in the spellshield. Shunuk appeared before them, grinning, his plumy tail waving. Even storyman can get through.
Raz knew then that his whole travel suit was ruined, as well as his boots. He sighed. “Lead us to it.”
After another half septhour of walking, they reached the gliderway to the estate where it branched from the main road. Raz shivered at the thought of his kitten wandering this far.
The “hole” was a thin place in the shield as it collided with the spellshield of the public gliderway that had been put up by the local council. Shunuk hunkered down and wiggled through, so did Del, and the view of her butt was the nicest thing that had happened so far. Her leathers didn’t have a mark on them.
He lowered to the ground and inched through on his belly, feeling the threads of his shirt and trous catch and pull.
Then they were inside the estate and his breath caught.
“There’s something about this place,” Del whispered. “Special.”
He was better with words than she, but he was speechless, too. A breeze carrying the heady scent of flowers prickled across his skin.
Del had marched down a crushed white gravel path that glinted as bits of mica caught the moonslight. She stood staring at the house, hands on hips. “There’s a lot of Flair in this land. Why, I’m not sure. Might have been an old settlement or something, though I didn’t know about it.” She shrugged. “Another bit of research. Definitely a spring infused with Flair nearby. No wonder someone thought a spa would be a good investment.”
She sniffed, turned to where her nose pointed.
Nice pond in that direction. No fish, though. Much Flair, Shunuk said.
“Now that you’re here, would you mind leading us to Rosemary, please?” Raz asked.
Shunuk trotted toward the house. Raz followed, then realized that Del still stood, staring in the direction of the hot springs. She must be accustomed to soaking in hot springs on the trail, and for a moment the notion tempted . . . Del and him naked in hot springs together, playing, exploring . . .
Shunuk yipped and Raz was grounded from his fantasies. But, damn, he was going to talk to Rosemary when he got his hands on her.
Raz proceeded slowly, glancing over his shoulder until Del reluctantly came after.
They found the kitten curled up and sleeping in a small enclosed gard
en at one end of the house. She was tucked under a wooden bench that circled a tree. Raz would have never seen her, but Shunuk poked his nose at her.
“Rosemary,” Raz said in tones of doom.
The kitten froze. Then she pranced out, head tilted up at an ingratiating angle, eyes big. Greetyou, FamMan.
His hands itched to pick her up and pet her, so he crossed his arms and glared down at her. “You are not on your expensive pillow. You are not in the pavilion. You are not in the camp. All of which you promised to be.”
She shifted from paw to paw, looked aside, licked a patch of shoulder fur but still watched him.
“No caviar for a year.”
The kitten hopped to her feet then into the air. A YEAR! I will be OLD!
“And since you don’t like to stay with your pillow, I am going to take it away until I can trust your word.”
She hunched in on herself, looking pitiful.
Del walked up.
THEY cried and they called and I had to come, Rosemary said.
“What?” he and Del asked in unison.
Rosemary sat up straighter but kept her eyes wide and round, not hard to do in the low light. I thought they were KITTENS.
“Kittens?” Raz looked around.
Shunuk barked with a note of scorn. No kittens here.
Raz had the uncomfortable feeling that at one time Shunuk considered kittens as food.
Del was frowning and prowling, lifting her feet as if feeling something through the ground. Raz snatched Rosemary up; she wiggled, then caught his stern look and went limp. He set her on his shoulder with a “stay” spell. Closing his eyes, he sent his awareness around him. Now his anxiety about Rosemary had eased, he felt the full effect of this place. It felt . . . old. . . .
“Kittens,” muttered Del, then shook her head. “Nope, I don’t sense anything like ‘calling and crying kittens.’ Do you, Raz?”
He opened his eyes. Saw the world in shades of black and gray and silver. “No.”
They are right under THERE! Rosemary insisted, kneading his shoulder with paws and snagging her claws on his shirt. Despite its name, this suit did not travel well. They are SAD, they have been ABANDONED. They CRY. Rosemary thrashed around on his shoulder.
