There he loved her, slowly and tenderly, and afterwards he held her near and tried not to think how close he'd come to losing her, and how that loss would have shattered him.
24
After they had bathed and loved, Alexa dozed in Bastien's arms. What a miserable two days! That horrible pterodactyl, Bastien's Testing, which had disturbed her dreams, the Song Quest, then the attack this morning.
Being crushed and smothered by the pterodactyl was bad enough, being smothered and drained of magic by that sticky-black-hideous monster was infinitely worse. With mordant humor, she wondered if it was her fate to be smothered. Probably better than dying fighting. Maybe. Well, if so, she'd wish it would be accidental, in bed, with a feather pillow when she was a tiny, old woman.
She breathed deeply, filling her lungs, just to know she could. It felt good.
Bastien snored softly next to her on a cushioned pallet in the private bathing room. She craned to see his face. It was peaceful, yet he looked stronger, more mature. Was it from his becominga Marshall and choosing a baton? Or his first use of Power as a Marshall, saving her? She didn't think any infusion of magic from Sinafin would make him look more adult. Alexa opened her senses, seeking the feycoocu. Sinafin rested on a pillow on Alexa's bed in her muff form.
Alexa smiled. It was good to have friends. She quested for the Marshalls and found them still meeting in their Council Chamber. She should be there, and so should Bastien, but it wasn't as if she could contribute anything. She'd enjoyed getting to know the Marshalls, learning their quirks. Soon they would be fast friends, like family. Irritating at times, but beloved anyway. Her family. Her home. She'd made a place for herself here.
They were probably dissecting the attack on her instant by instant. Sinafin had seen and recorded it; they wouldn't need any input from her. They had probably learned from the Lorebook by now that it was sentient. Alexa shuddered, remembering the caressing fingers, the hissing voice—
She jerked up, stumbled to her feet, glanced wildly around for her clothes. When she found them, she pounced, and dragged them on.
Bastien groaned. Opened one eye. "What?"
"The thing. The webmonster. It told me something. The monsters are invading!"
"The horrors are always invading." He patted the pillows beside him, smiled seductively. "Come back."
Alexa flung back her wet hair. "They invade in little bunches, the small evils and creepers first, then the larger monsters. We've been able to ward them off. In general."
Bastien sat up. "In general."
"The thing said something about amassing an army. What could we do against an army of the things?"
He opened his mouth. Shut it. Got up. "We don't have enoughChevaliers, enough Marshalls, enough magic to stop a concerted effort." He got up and dressed rapidly too.
"How many do you think we could handle?"
"No more than five hundred, and with that we could lose most of our fighters. Makes sense to field an army now, before you've reset the boundaries. Even if you find the answer to renewing the fenceposts, by then we'll have monsters throughout Lladrana."
Bastien held out a hand to her. "The Marshalls are still in session."
They ran all the way. When they reached the Council Room door, Alexa smiled as she read the script on the door: Lladrana Marshalls. Lovemaking with Bastien sure put her into a great mood. Even in her own head, she was babbling. She had to get a grip, had to present a case to the Marshalls.
Bastien flung open the door and strode through. She followed.
Reynardus looked up with irritation. Some of the other Marshalls brightened.
Thealia smiled and waved toward their seats. "Welcome, and sit."
"I have news. I recalled something the thing said to me as it tried to kill me." Alexa couldn't bear to sit, not with the fear rumbling through her.
Reynardus snorted. "Horrors don't think. Don't speak."
Alexa set her shoulders. "This one did." She repeated his words.
The Marshalls looked stunned.
"It can't be," Faith said.
"How many?" snapped Mace.
Alexa placed a hand to her temple, trying to remember the shades and shadows of the beast's mind. "It's more than a few. More than a hundred. Maybe a thousand."
"There aren't that many," Reynardus scoffed.
"How do you know!" Alexa's temper heated. "You only have theLorebooks, and the Lorebook of Monsters was wrong about the thing that attacked me. You haven't sent any explorers North to find out where the monsters come from or why, or how many there are."
"We haven't sent spies to their deaths for a century." Mace's smile was wintry. "We lost ninety good Chevaliers, magical, noble, powerful, and twelve Marshalls that way. I know because my family line was nearly wiped out. It is against our family rules to volunteer to go North."
"Inconceivable. This idea of yours," Reynardus said. He steepled his fingers. "Do you wish to distract us from the fact that you have failed in the task for which we Summoned you?"
Anger surged through her blood. She kept her voice even. "I fully intend to fulfill my purpose and discover how to make the fenceposts. But I am telling you we must prepare for an army of monsters, for a huge battle." She looked at Thealia.
The older woman just shook her head. "They've never come more than five at a time—except the minor demons."
"And we haven't had dreeths for a century either. Or the web-thing," Bastien said.
Alexa looked each one in the face. "You don't believe me." It hurt. Wrenching. She'd thought they had accepted her. Perhaps to a point, and to a point they considered her a friend. But not enough to believe her. "You don't believe me and you don't trust me, and you don't trust my judgment."
"You were near death, attacked, being drained of magic, easy prey for a lying insinuation. That is what must have happened." Thealia smiled sympathetically.
"Why would it lie as it was killing me?"
"It's evil."
Shaking her head in disbelief, Alexa stared around the table. "I know it told the truth—"
"As it knew it to be. Why should it know of this, and how, if it's been in Lladrana for weeks?"
"As if a monster can think!" Reynardus exclaimed.
Alexa set her baton down on the table very, very softly. The emotional pain was overwhelming. She'd never been more than a tool to them. Definitely not an equal to be heard or listened to.
"I can't sit here in the Castle and do nothing. I stood by when you told me not to worry about the creature in the Town. I will always regret that. There are deaths on my head for that. I can't wait to see which of us is right." Tears stung behind her eyes, tears of pain and horror, making her voice raspy. "Bastien, can we build an army of Chevaliers?" She looked up at him.
"I knew it would come to this!" Reynardus pounded both his fists on the table. "I knew she would never work with us. Never was acceptable as a Marshall. Now she will pander to those discontented, rebellious Chevaliers and split our forces!"
Bastien spoke softly. "By telling the Chevaliers there is a mass of monsters coming? And you will deny it, all of you? You have never wanted others to have information, the bespelled weapons in your armories, the powerful battle spells of the Lorebooks. You have kept them for yourselves—and what do we have now? Fenceposts failing, the defensive border disappearing, dreeths and web-things attacking."
On the table her baton had faded to the color of light green jade. Alexa stroked it with her finger. "The Jade Baton of Honor. I can't, honorably, stand aside and watch people die when I can prevent it." She shook her head, forced her tears to dry. "Not possible."
She felt the touch of Bastien's fingers on the small of her back.
"Go gather your things. Get Sinafin. We'll leave for our estates shortly," he said.
Nodding, she opened the door and left. Left the Marshalls she'd begun to think of as family or friends. Left her baton.
Bastien closed the door behind her. Looked at the Marshalls. "How did thi
s happen, that you can't trust her, or yourselves, or the Song?" He shook his head. "A Sorcerer from the Tower could stand here and foretell an army of evil and you wouldn't listen."
He picked up the Jade Baton. The shock of energy—Alexa's energy—was strong, pleasurable. He spun it into the air and caught it. "I'm taking this. Be assured, we won't call ourselves Marshalls. Those Marshalls who originally made the fenceposts, they were more, as Alexa is more. Guardians. She is a Guardian. The Guardian of Honor." His smile cracked. Whatever was in store for them, they were shaping it by themselves, for themselves. "And I am Shield Bastien. Shieldchevalier Bastien." He flipped the baton again, stuck it in his belt and swaggered off.
No sooner was he gone than Reynardus said in soft spell-voice, "We will not speak of this. Never to anyone not in this chamber now."
Thealia felt the command settle uncomfortably upon her. It did not fit. "She must be wrong," Thealia said, hoping beyond hope that it was true.
Faith blinked rapidly. "I can't think she could be right. How could she be right? The evil ones have never come in more than four or five. No noble with lands bordering the North has reported any unusual conglomeration of beasts."
"Beasts," Mace grunted. "We've always been plagued with beasts. Not thinking-talking creatures. What was that thing this morning, anyway?"
Reynardus sat. "Should we care?"
"It got away," Mace said.
They'd fallen into their old habits already, Thealia thought. When presented with the inconceivable, they couldn't accept it. How had they come to be so blind? So inflexible? As hidebound as a Lorebook?
She didn't know. And she didn't know what to do. These were the people she was the closest to, bonded to until death, by blood-bonds of the creatures they'd killed. She could not break that link, not even if it was right to do so.
The Marshalls were still a fighting force to be reckoned with, a team of fighters strong in magic, in training, blood-bonded as no other force. She could not afford to smash that force, especially if Alexa was right. Bile rose in Thealia's throat. She didn't like her actions, her thoughts, her conclusions. She didn't like what she was. She didn't like herself. She felt tears in her own eyes.
Under the table, Partis stroked her thigh, kept his hand on her knee. He'd said nothing during the final confrontation and she didn't know exactly how he felt, but he was by her side, touching her, offering support.
No one had spoken, as if they all were as wrapped in their own thoughts as she. She didn't want to look around the table and see doubt or anger, so she kept her gaze fixed on the closed door.
"It's time to consult the Tower, the Sorcerers and Sorceresses," Thealia said. She matched stares with Reynardus. His lips tightened, then twisted in a sneer. "Perhaps one will come when called. Perhaps not. And perhaps they will inform us why our very expensive Exotique did not perform her duty and mend the fenceposts."
Johnsa made a protesting noise, but shut up under Reynardus's withering look.
"I suppose you intend to say 'I told you so,' Reynardus," Thealia continued smoothly. "But before you do, I shall point out that we might have been much further along, might have convinced Alexa to stay with us, had you not made Alexa's stay here so difficult. I hold you responsible for this."
Before they could continue to pick at each other, Partis said, "Iagree we should call in the Tower now, with all the safeguards for the one who comes. Who says nay?"
No one did. Partis nodded to Johnsa. "Johnsa, an image for Summoning, please."
Swordmarshall Johnsa inhaled deeply, steadied herself until her energy aura pulsed rhythmically. "We call the Tower." The image formed of the first Tower ever built by a Sorcerer on the islands off the coast of Lladrana. No one inhabited it now, but the Call would be heard in every Tower.
They Sang the ancient tune of Summoning for a Sorcerer or Sorceress, and looked to the lower left corner of the room, where one would appear if he or she chose to be Summoned.
A high pure note rose, deep red haze swirled, solidified into a tall, rangy man with wide streaks of silver at both temples, wearing a maroon robe. Despite the fact his features were slightly different from most of Lladranans and his eyes blue—both indications of old Exotique blood. Jaquar Dumont was a handsome man. He flung back his head to clear the long black hair that tangled before his eyes, and strolled to the seat of the Representative of the Tower, continuing to stand.
Amusement danced in his eyes, irking Thealia. She knew it irritated the other Marshalls as well.
"We wondered when you Marshalls would Call on us regarding the Exotique. I congratulate you, it has taken this group longer than all the rest. And usually we are Summoned only when something dire has occurred."
He read it in their faces. "What has happened? All was well at dawn." His eyes narrowed. "The Exotique still lives, only is not to be found at the Castle. Interesting."
Reynardus stood. "First we want your oath that you will disseminate this information freely and to all of your colleagues."
Jaquar flashed a grin but his eyes were watchful. He ostentatiously scraped back the chair and lounged into it, then waved a hand. "Done. You have my Word that I will tell all Sorcerers and Sorceresses of what transpires here, fully and impartially. My first report will go to the most powerful of us all, the ancient Bossgond."
Thealia licked her lips. That was not a name any of the Marshalls felt comfortable whispering. "We have questions."
"Naturally. Anything regarding an Exotique will raise questions, their Power and unpredictability being so much different and usually more than ours. It is reasonable that this is so. They would be powerful in their own land. Bring them through the Dimensional Corridor and they will accrue Power there, especially if they have to face a Test, as Alyeka did."
Blood drained from Thealia's face as she recalled they'd lost Alexa for a few seconds during the Summoning. Alexa had not been safe! Why hadn't she told them of the first attack? Because, with the Tests immediately following, she must have thought the first too was of the Marshalls' making.
Jaquar sat straighter in the chair, his eyes and voice cool. "You are much more ignorant than we suspected. Alyeka fought a render between our worlds."
Partis put his hand on Thealia's fisted fingers. She didn't recall having tightened them.
"So what transpired this morning?" asked Jaquar.
Faith cleared her voice and called her Lorebook of Monsters, which appeared with a harder thump than usual on the table before her. The pages flipped until they reached a picture of the creature they had thought was the pest plaguing the Town along Alexa's journey. "We thought we were dealing with a tournpench, a lesser evil."
"Watch," Johnsa said, and unrolled the events that Sinafin had shown them.
Garbled swearing came from the Sorcerer as he saw the man-thing poise above Alexa. He gave a sigh of relief when he watched the monster's defeat.
They sat in silence for a moment after the retelling.
"Fools." Jaquar's eyes snapped. With a whistle, a book three times the size and weight of Faith's banged hard before him. The pages zipped by too fast to see, then stopped. "It's a sangvile. More dangerous than a dreeth, which we've also heard has been found in Lladrana lately." His lips thinned. He placed his hand on the book, lifted it. Copies of the pages rose, floated over to Faith's book and wove themselves into it.
Jaquar continued. "In my considered opinion, the Exotique is now the only being capable of killing it. With the Power from the sangvile, cleansed by the feycoocu, added with feycoocu trace magic and the inflow of magic from her Pair mate, she is stronger than Bossgond. You have created an awesome warrior."
He inclined his head mockingly. "You also let the sangvile escape and alienated Alyeka." He swept a glance around the table, a nasty smile curving his lips. "The sangvile is too weak to follow her, which means it will linger in the Castle, trying to drain the magic from the most powerful person, turn that one into dust. That would be me. I'm leaving. All the Towers must he
ar of this as soon as possible and I do not want to broadcast from here."
Jaquar rose and scooped up his book.
"What do you want for that book?" asked Faith.
He looked down his nose at her Lorebook of Monsters. "I agree, an abridged version is not terribly useful." Cocking his head as if listening, he waited a moment, then said, "It is now even odds that the Towers will need our own Exotique to fight this growing evil. However, we do not cooperate well, and to form a bond strong enough for us to Summon our Exotique would take years. Something big is happening. None of us has years. On behalf ofthe Towers, I offer to provide eight spellbooks such as this one, of the greatest use for your Marshalls, if you Summon our Exotique for us. Bossgond will provide you with the qualities necessary for our Exotique by tomorrow night."
His nostrils flared. "We know the next moonmoment and alignment of the Dimensional Corridor is a month away, but speaking for myself, I don't want to make another visit to you idiots before that time. We will communicate by crystal ball." Plucking a maroon sphere from his robe pocket, he rolled it onto the table.
Reynardus stood. "Easy to snipe at us who have less Power—"
"You have always found it so, no?" Jaquar said.
"—but we have fought, hand to hand, these monsters to destroy them. I've not seen you fighting. As for the Exotique, she has not fulfilled her purpose. She has not revived the borders or shown how to make the fenceposts. As far as I know, even the Tower does not know how to do those things."
"The last one who had that knowledge was killed before imparting it. As for the Exotique, it is not yet time. She must bond with our world, the Amee-soul—and how quickly can one do that? The Singer was here last night. Why did you not ask her that question about Alyeka?"
Reynardus was silent.
Jaquar barked laughter. "I see. Your last Song Quest was that fearsome." He waved a hand, met the gaze of each Marshall. "Review your Song Quest where you asked for advice and heard of the Summoning. It will tell you when Alyeka will be ready, will find the knowledge you seek to defend Lladrana. It is difficult magic to gauge, magic relating to the Snap."
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