Heart Fire (Celta Book 13)

by Robin D. Owens

  “But afterward, you didn’t try to get things back, did you?”

  She felt his heart pound faster in his chest beneath her cheek. “I presented document after document, petition after petition. Clerks lost them. Nobles never heard of them. People who we thought were friends didn’t speak with us. People I sent messages to said they never received them.”

  Garrett nodded slowly. “Nothing shows up in any official records that you tried to get your home and holdings back.”

  Her father shrugged. “I tried every avenue I thought of to file such petitions.”

  “Then I panicked,” Quina said. “We were disenfranchised. Nobody. Easy prey for those who might want us to disappear—all of us, even my babies. No one would care. So I took another name and worked at AllClass HealingHall. We moved often. We stayed beneath notice of anyone who might pursue us.

  “We decided to leave Druida, change our names, and move to a smaller town,” Tiana’s father said.

  Her mother lifted her chin. “Healers are always useful.”

  “Then came the offer to stay here, to mind the estate, and to care for the Residence.”

  And I thank you, said the Residence. You have been a good and true and honorable Family.

  Tiana leaned back and stared at her father’s worn and lined face, met his steady eyes. “You did try.”

  “It was my home. I loved it. Yes, I tried. But I failed.”

  “You never told us.”

  “Who likes admitting they’re a failure? And there was plenty to do here. There was nothing for us outside in the city.”

  She was nearly too distraught to phrase things correctly. “I need to know. I needed to know then.”

  He nodded. “I guess you did. Your counselor and I spoke about having you help with the petitions, but I was against it. She was in favor.” He grimaced. “I was wrong then, too.”

  “So you worked for a year on the petitions . . .”

  He shifted under her. “For about five months. I was angry and impatient, too. I pushed when I should have waited. My Family home . . .” He shook his head. “Then we were preoccupied keeping you children safe and hiding and just surviving. Then this place . . . such a boon, such a blessing.” Meeting her eyes, he said, “I gave up.”

  “All right.” She’d learned what she needed about the past. It wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but it wasn’t as bad as she’d believed.

  Garrett cleared his throat. “Did you keep copies and notes of the petitions you filed, or handed off to someone? Maybe we can find out, even at this late date, what went wrong.”

  Her father’s face went stony. “Of course I kept them. But—”

  “Tiana and I filed a petition today. I didn’t tell you, wasn’t sure you wanted to know because you have withdrawn so much from the world. But your previous notes can help. There’s a good chance we can get your title back. Probably not the estate, but the title and your wealth and the back NobleGilt.”

  Garrett stared at Tiana and said in her mind, You look wiped. You want me to tell them about the witnessing and complaint and everything?

  You haven’t told anyone?

  Nope, busy day, not even Artemisia. I’ll handle this and let you rest.

  I should not let you do this for me.

  You look wiped. Rest. Nothing you can say about the complaint that I don’t know. Garrett jerked his head toward the doorway. “Come on, all, let’s confabulate, plan our attack.”

  Tiana’s father squeezed her tight. “Life here has been good, easier than battling. But this must be done.”

  And that brought Tiana back to the notion that they should have fought when the house had been firebombed and mobbed. But they didn’t know how to fight, or how to fight effectively and with minimum casualties. If they’d been the Holly warrior Family . . . but they weren’t. And here they would never have to fight, either. The best spellshields on the planet took care of that concern.

  Her father slid her to her feet and rose himself, took a step to stand next to his wife. Tiana finally noticed that though her own tears had dried, they now trickled down her mother’s face, silent tears. Quina took her HeartMate’s hand and they looked the way they did when they were communicating telepathically.

  They both bowed to her. “We ask your forgiveness for not being candid with you, for unknowingly causing you hurt, and for not being able to Heal you from that hurt,” they said in unison.

  New tears spurted from Tiana’s eyes and she wiped them away. “You’re forgiven.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Are you staying the rest of the night, dear?” asked her mother.

  “I don’t know. I’ll sit here a while.”

  Her mother kissed her temple. “It was a lovely ritual. Thank you for that, too.”

  Tiana nodded.

  Before she could settle in, BalmHeal Residence grumbled at her mentally. I suppose you’re going to return to that upstart Turquoise House. What a name. All this coming and going, teleporting in and out. I don’t like it. YOU don’t need to do it. The Residence gave her a little mental jab, one she was accustomed to . . . and she caught her breath.

  That wasn’t the first nudge she’d felt from a sentient House tonight! She remembered now. Recalled the HeartBond she’d visualized, the whisper in her mind that she should HeartBond with Antenn. She’d withdrawn from that notion.

  And immediately afterward awakened to see Antenn examining her. Had TQ prompted him to do something, too? She gasped, fury whooshing through her like a cyclone. “Yes, BalmHeal Residence.” She bit off the words. “I am teleporting right now to TQ. Be so kind as to thin your shields.”

  “They are down for Garrett.” The Residence creaked disapprovingly.

  With the energy of her anger, she remembered everything about the teleportation pad she’d left a few minutes ago, checked that it was unoccupied, and returned to TQ.

  “TQ!” she shouted. It felt good.

  “It was all my fault.” The young House rushed into words. “All. I’m sorry, Tiana. I’m so sorry.”

  Thirty-seven

  What, exactly, did you do?” Tiana demanded.

  The whisper she remembered came, along with music that shivered over her skin. “You want to HeartBond.”

  She should have been able to roll with the revelation, accept, forgive. Instead she said tightly, “You wanted us to HeartBond when we weren’t ready.”

  A creak that sounded more like a cringe than anything else.

  “We are allowed to . . . suggest.”

  “I will want to see a list of whatever rules there are.”

  “Residence Ethics.”

  “Yes. You can ask GreatCircle Temple to have a copy made for me and placed on my desk.”

  “Yes, Priestess.”

  She bit off more words, stopped the sigh. “It’s Tiana, TQ. I love you, but I don’t like you much right now.”

  “That is contradictory.”

  “No, it isn’t. And it’s something for you to think about.” She paced back and forth, realized her arms were wrapped around herself and she’d hunched over. So she straightened. “I don’t want to be here right now.”

  “Are you going to make me ask BalmHeal Residence to let down its shields so you can teleport into the estate. Again?” The House sounded staunch but with an undertone of pitiful.

  “No. I love you, but I am running out of energy.” A sigh puffed from her. “I am usually more forgiving and accepting. It’s been a . . . trying . . . week. There are always people in GreatCircle Temple, and I have floor pillows that will do well enough for me to sleep on. I will see you tomorrow morning for breakfast. Since Felonerb adventures tonight, he should return to his closet and keep you company. Good night.”

  “Good night . . . Tiana. I will think on what you said,” TQ said humbly.

  With a nod she checked a couple of staff teleportation pads at the Temple before she found one free, then returned to the place she’d thought of just days ago as her main sanctuary. Some
time in the last two days, her emotions had switched that security to TQ, and he’d hurt her.

  Stupid to be so fragile that every damn little thing hurt her. Antenn, her parents, BalmHeal, TQ. She’d sleep and Heal and be fine tomorrow morning.

  * * *

  TQ brooded. First Antenn, then Tiana left. Because Turquoise House had been sneaky. And nudged them when he shouldn’t have. Now he knew all his thinking at the time about whispering to his Family, his couple who weren’t quite a couple yet, had been rationalizations.

  TQ had contacted GreatCircle Temple to make sure the female part of his Family was safe, and that entity had said she appeared to be staying the night in her office.

  The Temple winkled what had happened out of Turquoise House and had been kind and stated that all sentient beings made mistakes. And had called TQ “child.” Which TQ hated, even though he was centuries younger than the FirstFamily Residences.

  He hurt, and from his own stupidity. Was embarrassed . . . and, even worse, fell into his bad habit, and began to glow.

  * * *

  Before Tiana could settle down into the makeshift bed of floor pillows, a rapping came at her outer chamber door. She rose and opened it to a smug Lucida Gerania, who had finished officiating a Nameday ritual. Lucida flinched with fake surprise. “I didn’t think you were here.”

  “No? The High Priest and Priestess, the GreatCircle Temple Archives, and the PublicLibrary wanted my thoughts on the ritual I wrote and which was conducted tonight at the Intersection of Hope cathedral.” Truth, though Tiana had planned on considering it more deeply before doing such a report because she thought it would be a long document.

  That seemed to derail Lucida’s thoughts for a moment; she frowned, then she rallied. “You do know that odd House you’re living in, that Turquoise—”

  “—House becoming a Residence? Yes,” Tiana smiled. “I know it well.”

  Lucida’s dimples fluttered as she laughed lightly. “Do you? Then you know it is glowing, bright enough to light up that whole neighborhood.” She raised her brows. “Don’t you think you should do something about it?”

  Tiana met the woman’s eyes, then shook her head. “Maturity comes in fits and starts. No, I don’t think I should do something about that right now. I’m sure this isn’t the first time it’s glowed, nor will it be the last.” With that, she closed the door gently in Lucida’s face.

  And once it was shut Tiana paced back and forth through her chambers, holding her elbows. Feeling all sorts of things and not knowing, really, what she should do.

  Eventually, though she wanted to throw herself onto the floor pillows, she knew they’d scatter under her, so she lowered herself to them and thought of every-damn-thing that had happened that day. Dissecting it.

  * * *

  The Turquoise House tried to tone down his glowing—there’d be complaints, there always were, but he struggled with his emotions . . . and then something . . . someone passed through the range of one of his back grassyard cameras. The man had tubes and bottles, rags in them, and a firestarter. TQ’s innermost, smallest timbers quivered. He’d seen something like this when he’d reviewed Tiana’s memorysphere. The prowler prepared firebombs.

  TQ had the best spellshields in Celta. But he was afraid.

  And wished he weren’t alone.

  * * *

  An itching sensation between Tiana’s shoulder blades had her tossing and turning. Perhaps a premonition.

  Something was wrong! Felonerb? He hunted, paid no attention to her tug on his link. Antenn? He sparred fiercely with a . . . Holly? Yes, Tinne Holly, Tiana had seen that man before. Quickly she checked her parents, Artemisia, Garrett . . . all fine.

  Trouble stalked TQ.

  She reached for her connection to the House. TQ?

  There’s a prowler on my grounds.

  Tiana jolted. What?

  There is a man walking in my back grassyard, TQ said. If he touches me. If he touches my gates that I can control, I can shock him. But I do not control all of my grounds. My cameras can’t even see all of my grounds.

  Do you want me to call the guards?

  Silence hung for a moment, and then TQ said, I think that would show me as a weak being. I am not weak.

  That was a male being for you.

  But, Tiana, he has firebombs.

  What? I’m calling the guards. And coming there.

  Do not.

  I WILL fight for you, she snapped. She paused only to tersely scry the guards and, now using fear, teleported back to the MasterSuite. She lunged for the wardrobe, where she’d seen a blazer. She bet she could use a blazer.

  I have locked the doors, Tiana. You must stay safe.

  “Don’t you do that to me, TQ. Don’t. You’ve already tried my patience once tonight.”

  Silence.

  “TQ?”

  “I have unlocked the front door.”

  She ran.

  * * *

  Antenn felt TQ scream. In rage, not hurt. “What’s going on?” he demanded, aloud and telepathically with the House.

  Everyone around him stopped where they stood or lay, probably experiencing his spike in Flair, his sense of true danger.

  An intruder. In my back grassyard! Firebombing ME!

  “Firebombing!” he shouted.

  “Where?” asked three voices, one of them Vinni T’Vine’s.

  “Turquoise House.”

  “Fligger, I don’t know that place well anymore, the light and such,” Tinne Holly said, expression grim.

  “I do,” Antenn said, wondering how it was so, but it was, a combination of his spatial architectural Flair and TQ’s Flair and presence in his mind. “Link hands.” He held out his hands, and Tinne Holly slapped his callused one into one and Draeg did the same into his other. “On three, let me visualize for us.”

  “Getting gliders,” someone shouted. “Pile in.”

  Depend upon me for your teleportation visual, TQ said, hard-voiced as Antenn had never heard. My spellshields hold, for my walls, but my north sideyard BURNS!

  “Counting down,” Antenn repeated roughly. “One, Antenn Moss, two Draeg Blackthorn, three!” He meshed his vision with TQ’s, noted the exact spot where the House wanted him to teleport, and they arrived.

  The first thing he saw was Tiana Mugwort running toward a man holding a lit bottle. She wore a light dress that could easily burn.

  Antenn lost it. He roared and shot through the air in a leap-teleportation-something and took the man down. They both grunted as they hit the ground.

  “Got the bomb,” Draeg said.

  “Contacting the guards,” Tinne Holly said, coolly.

  Panting, Antenn pummeled the man until Tiana put her hand on his shoulder and said, “Stop.”

  She knelt near them, and all Antenn’s instincts throbbed to protect her.

  “You’re Arvense Equisetum,” she said in a genuinely calm voice. “You look much older than I recall.”

  He lunged to spit at her but didn’t move much under Antenn’s hands, and the slobber hit Arvense’s own cheek.

  “The younger Mugwort girl. Got your complaint served on me today. You ruined me! You’re taking my estate away after I worked hard for it for my fliggering cuz. After I slaved to make it profitable.” An edge of gleeful madness shone in his eyes and his smile. “And because we like to watch fire burn.”

  “We?” snapped Antenn.

  Arvense’s chest rose and fell with shaking laughter. “We. We experiment with fire. We watch it. We love it. That puny stupid Cross Folk ritual that supposedly set spellshields in the fliggering church foundation blocks? Can it keep our fire out?” With a sneer he shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  Jumping to his feet, Antenn grabbed the first two people’s hands he could. Tiana. Of course she could be with him. Should be with him. And—Vinni T’Vine? Didn’t matter. “I’m teleporting to the cathedral site on three. Keep still and let me handle the action.”

  “I will. You’re the onl
y one who knows that land well,” Vinni said.

  On the ground, Tinne Holly demanded of Arvense, one villain already caught, “Who else is in this?”

  “My cuz Elatum. When you bring down T’Equisetum, the fligger, you bring down the whole Family.”

  “Every individual in a Family is not bad—” Tiana began, and then her voice cut off as Antenn ’ported them to the cathedral site.

  He lit well, as did Tiana and Vinni. They stared at the massive cut stones in the nearest trench. Antenn let out a ragged breath. “They hold. The spellshields hold.”

  “For the cathedral.” Vinni’s whisper was raw. He lifted a pale hand and pointed. “Not for the whole of the Varga Plateau. Cave of the Dark Goddess, what has he done?”

  Thirty-eight

  A long line of flickering yellow-orange flames stretched across the plain as far as Antenn could see. A man threw bottles lighting the winter-dried plains grass that caught quickly and rolled hot in the wind, torching brush and bushes.

  “The ecosystem!” Tiana gasped.

  “Druida City,” Antenn said tightly. He ran for the firebomber, Vinni keeping pace. As he did, great alarm klaxons pulsed from the far city. A stream of lights shot toward them, flashing. Gliders on emergency mode.

  “All the mages who best work with the elements: fire, air, water, earth,” Vinni said. “They come.”

  “We’re here!” called Custos. He and the other three Chief Ministers joined in the hunt.

  Younger ran with a speed none of the rest of them could match.

  The villain must have seen him coming, but Elatum’s stance didn’t alter. He stood as if mesmerized by the conflagration. Younger tackled the man, took him down. Foreman put him out and broke his jaw with a punch.

  Antenn, Vinni, and Tiana found Elatum’s tools and neutralized them. Tiana and the Chief Ministers cleaned the foundation stones of accelerant, did other chants and blessings.