Taken by Storm V3

by Cyndi Friberg

  Darkness.

  Turquoise smoke.

  She couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe. Desperately tilting her head back, gasping for breath, she felt the smoky mud ooze into her ears, fill her mouth…

  Charlotte sprang up in bed, panting and shaking. Her head pounded in time with her heart. She told the lights to brighten and scooted until her back pressed against the wall. The room was small and perfectly square, each wall a bright primary color. “I feel like I’m trapped in a Rubik’s Cube,” Charlotte whispered, and then chuckled, resting her head against the yellow wall.

  Thank God for Dro Tar. She hadn’t known where else to turn after the fiasco with the TSC, but Dro Tar had welcomed her without hesitation.

  She swung her legs over the side of the bed and took two steps toward the door before she remembered it was the middle of the night. Returning to the bed, she stared up at the dark blue ceiling but thought of a bright blue sky.

  * * *

  “You have a visitor,” Dro Tar said from the open doorway.

  Charlotte reclined on the Ontarian version of a couch in Dro Tar’s version of a den. Plants cluttered every conceivable surface and hung from hooks in the ceiling. One entire wall became a viewing screen for a variety of entertainments. Charlotte wanted only to relax so Dro Tar programmed the wall to resemble a white sandy beach at sunset.

  “Male or female?” Charlotte asked. “If they’re male, send them away.” Dro Tar was the only female she knew on Ontariese so they both knew it was a silly question.

  “This particular male isn’t an Aune. Does that change your answer?”

  “Not if he’s a Joon.”

  Dro Tar laughed. “Nope. Do you want to keep guessing or should I just let him come in?”

  Charlotte sat up and shoved her hair out of her eyes. Dro Tar had sent a message to the Symposium requesting a direct connection for Charlotte. Had they contacted Vee or had she inadvertently broadcast her emotions? “If I refuse, he’ll just pester me telepathically. I guess I’ll see him.”

  The Mystic glided into the room and rested his hands on the back of the sofa before Dro Tar could tell him Charlotte’s decision.

  “I only entered your mind uninvited because there was no other alternative,” he reminded her.

  He hadn’t really been uninvited either, just unwelcome.

  “Do you realize how hard it was to find you?” Vee asked, impatiently commanding his hair over his shoulder. “Tal Aune is quite perturbed.”

  “I decided to see if I could use the catalyst to strengthen my own abilities,” she muttered.

  “Well, your shields are impenetrable.”

  “Then how did you find me?” It helped to have friends in high places.

  Vee shifted through the sofa and sat. Charlotte rubbed the bridge of her nose and tried not to laugh. Would she ever get used to shapeshifters?

  “When your energy pattern just vanished, we became concerned that something ill had befallen you.”

  She pivoted, facing him by raising one knee to the seat. “The only thing ill to befall me is an exasperating Mystic and a ridiculous set of traditions he finds sacred.”

  “Tal Aune’s upbringing and—”

  “I don’t want to argue with you. I understand why he feels so strongly, I just don’t happen to agree. You didn’t answer my question.”

  “The Symposium is inundated with requests for direct links. They encourage those who can access a person with an existing link to utilize the Wisdom of the Ages in this way.”

  “So they sent you—”

  “All requests of the Symposium are confidential. They would never compromise your privacy in such a way. Dro Tar contacted me about an anonymous friend. She wanted to know if I, as an official of the Symposium, would be bound by their privacy pledge.”

  Charlotte smiled. Oh, she liked Dro Tar more each day. “And are you? If you have contact with me, as an official of the Symposium, are you unable to share any information with anyone else?”

  “Council-client privilege?” Vee chuckled. “As your friend, Shar Lott, I would not share anything you did not wish me to share. As an official of the Symposium, it is forbidden.”

  “Then I officially request your services as an officer of the Symposium.”

  Vee heaved a sigh and tilted his head slightly, his bright green eyes intent upon her face. “Are you terribly unhappy here?”

  “I wasn’t—until…” She didn’t bother to finish the thought. Why detail what they both understood? “I don’t think I can do this, Vee. My feelings for Tal are what link me to this world. I had finally accepted that I didn’t leave anything important back on Earth. Victor and Stephen will always live in my heart. I was ready to build a life with Tal. But without him…” She couldn’t find the words. Without Tal, nothing else mattered.

  He loved her, just not enough.

  “I want to tell you a story.”

  Charlotte laughed and flopped back on the couch. Draping her forearm over her eyes, she said, “If it uses the phrase ‘greater good’, I don’t want to hear it.”

  “I will do my best to avoid the phrase.” He paused. “Attentive listening allows the speaker to ascertain the effectiveness of his tale.”

  She chuckled and moved her arm away from her eyes. “Attentive enough or do I need to sit up?”

  “Reclining is acceptable so long as your expressions indicate you are listening.” He lifted her feet into his lap and lightly patted her knee.

  Solemnly nodding her head, she wiggled until the couch adjusted to her new position. “I shall attempt to be expressive.” She batted her eyelashes at him.

  “Kindly retain your questions until the end of the story. This is a difficult tale to tell.”

  The rough edge to his tone caught Charlotte’s attention. She sat up and bent her legs, wrapping her arms around her knees. “Go on.”

  “E’Lanna dar Aune may have been the most powerful Mystic Ontariese has ever known. She was gifted with many powers as well as the one she passed on to you. As you have already learned, it is possible for a catalyst to intensify the strength of their other abilities. This made E’Lanna’s potential almost limitless.”

  “But I was told most catalysts don’t have other abilities. I don’t,” Charlotte muttered. “Well, I’m mildly telepathic and I can erect a strong shield. But this isn’t anything you haven’t already told me.”

  He smiled and stretched his arm out along the back of the sofa. “Why are the young always so impatient?”

  “Because the ancient never come right to the point.” She softened her playful sarcasm with a smile.

  “Your mother was very much in love with someone else when the sacred traditions demanded that she accept Frim dar Joon as her life mate.”

  Okay, this was new information. “Then why did she accept Frim?”

  “Because the traditions demanded it.”

  His expression was completely neutral. She couldn’t tell how he felt, what he was thinking.

  “Was there no way for E’Lanna to appeal the match? No way to fight tradition?”

  “She wanted to appeal the match but her lover would not allow it. The Royal Houses had been at odds for years. The joining of E’Lanna and Frim was meant to stave off the building aggressions.”

  “But it didn’t work. She married him and it didn’t matter. The war happened. The Great Houses divided and the sects were formed,” Charlotte said softly.

  He averted his gaze for a moment then met her gaze directly. Sorrow burned in the depths of his emerald eyes and Charlotte understood. This was no simple tale. This was the history of E’Lanna dar Aune and her lover—Vee.

  “E’Lanna became my apprentice when no other Mystic could manage her skills. Numerous Standards forbade our love. Though she was promised to another, it was the cry of my heart to be with her. No trace of royal blood can be found in my veins and still we—”

  “You’re not of royal blood?” Vee was treated with respect and something akin to awe. I
t had never occurred to her that he was anything less than royalty.

  “My abilities have exalted me far beyond the station of my birth.” He paused for a moment, fiddling with his sleeve.

  “You would meet her at Rainbow Falls.” She remembered what Tal had told her about the beautiful glen. “That’s why it’s too painful for you to go there now.”

  He nodded stiffly, his expression distant.

  “It was there she Summoned the Storm for you and your sister. She gave you your Earth names and entrusted your lives to the guardians.”

  “What is my sister’s Earth name?”

  “Krystabel,” Vee said then his gaze narrowed on her face. “E’Lanna implanted a memory that day. Have you never envisioned your mother’s face?”

  “I’ve dreamt of a woman I always believed was my mother, but I was never able to see her face.”

  “Show me.”

  Charlotte formed the image within her mind.

  “Can you use the catalyst to enhance the image?”

  “I’m not sure. Let me try.” She focused on the woman’s face, peeling back layers of shadow until her features were clear. Upswept in a twisting mass of tiny braids, her hair mixed shades of brown, gold and red. Like Vee’s, her eyes were one solid shade with no movement. But unlike Vee’s, hers held the rich purple of amethysts.

  “She was beautiful.” She felt Vee’s reluctance as he withdrew from the image. Her heart ached with a similar emptiness. “Why did her eyes not swirl?”

  “It is the final level of control for a shapeshifter. Tal Aune has yet to master the ability but he will.”

  “If you loved her so much, why didn’t you fight for her? You chose tradition over love.” The familiar phrase nearly choked her.

  “I chose honor over love.” He took her hands between his. “If they had not bonded, it would have meant war. Had I been so selfish as to make a life with E’Lanna while our world was torn asunder, I would have been unworthy of her love.”

  “I don’t accept that,” Charlotte said simply, pulling her hands from between his. “If I’m to be High Queen of Ontariese, then it will be a place where people don’t have to choose between honor and love.”

  Vee smiled, his emerald eyes twinkling. “This is the very reason I am here.”

  * * *

  “What am I going to do?”

  Trey laughed and Tal turned to face him. “That must be a rhetorical question. It’s inconceivable that you are asking my advice.”

  “I cannot lose her. But I see no way out for us.”

  “No easy way for sure. Do you love her?”

  “With every fiber of my being.”

  “Then fight for her.” Trey paused for emphasis. “Find a way.”

  “I wish it were that simple. She is High Queen. Ontariese needs her as much as I do.”

  Trey shrugged one broad shoulder. “Your piety is surpassed only by your arrogance. Mystics make everything so complicated. If she were mine, little brother, there’s no power in the universe that would keep us apart.”

  Tal nodded, knowing his brother was right. Regardless of the challenges set before them, Charlotte was worth fighting for. “I will find a way.”

  “That’s the spirit.”

  “She is angry and confused. I must—” A ripple of awareness disrupted his train of thought. “She is here. Vee just brought her through a vortex.”

  “That’s my cue to leave. Don’t screw this up. Or you’ll answer to me.”

  Trey had been gone only a moment when the buzzer sounded announcing Tal’s visitor. He steadied himself with a deep breath and raised the privacy panel.

  “What can I do for you?” She was still shielding her emotions from him. Even her expressions were carefully guarded.

  “May I come in?”

  He stepped aside. His first instinct was to pull her into his arms and kiss her senseless but passionate kisses couldn’t resolve the fundamental differences looming between them. She had mentioned a middle ground. They must find it now or all was lost.

  “Where have you been?” he asked, keeping his tone even and quiet.

  “With Dro Tar and Vee. We’ve been working on that logical solution to our little problem.”

  He instinctively reached for her before he realized what he was doing and clasped his hands behind his back. “A sacred tradition forbidding our union is a ‘little problem’? What do you consider a crisis?”

  “Finding out you don’t love me,” she said softly. “That would be a crisis. There would be no logical way for me to make your feelings change. But laws, Clarifications, even sacred traditions,” she paused for a playful smile, “these must bow to the mighty force of logic. They simply have no choice.”

  He smiled, fascinated by her buoyant mood. “If the problem is so simple,” he began, “then you have found a way for us to be together, truly bonded as life mates?”

  “Is that what you want?”

  “You know what I want.”

  Her head tilted, her turquoise gaze catching the light of the firestones. “Do I?” She reached out and caressed the edge of his robe where it lay against his chest, touching yet not touching him. “I know you love me—to some degree, but I’m not sure it’s enough. I’m the High Queen of Ontariese, Tal Aune. I’m the High Queen of all Ontariese. My allegiance must not be to either of the sects but to Ontariese herself.”

  “You set yourself above the Clarifications?” His heart pounded within his chest. “You need not abide by the laws?”

  “No. I must abide by the laws of both sects and set a higher standard for myself than any other.”

  His brows drew together at her words. “And how do you propose to do that?”

  “One sect at a time,” she said with an enigmatic smile.

  Frustration surged through him. Her evasive optimism was just as infuriating as her candid attack had been. “Why did you come here?”

  “To let you know everything is going to be all right.”

  “How? What logical solution have you found for our little problem?”

  She started to speak then shook her head. “I’m not going to tell you. I’ll only have to explain it all again for the TSC tomorrow. You will be there, won’t you?”

  “Of course I will be there.” He didn’t want her to leave. He wanted to sweep her into his arms and never let go. “What about tonight?”

  “Tonight we must concentrate on tomorrow.”

  * * *

  “Are you sure this is necessary?” Charlotte asked, gazing at her reflection in the section of wall she had just transformed.

  “If you hope to negotiate—”

  “The dress, Vee. I meant the dress. It seems a bit much to me.”

  He laughed and his reflection joined hers. His nondescript robe made her outfit appear all the more ostentatious. Her hair had been upswept and styled into a complex combination of tiny braids and smooth waves. She adjusted the shimmering fabric across her shoulders and down her sides. The color changed from purple to green to gold with her movements. A decorative golden cord crisscrossed the bodice and a slightly gathered train attached at the waist but remained separate from the full skirt.

  “This seems more appropriate for a ball than a TSC meeting.”

  “This will be no ordinary meeting. You are the High Queen of Ontariese and it is imperative that they perceive you as such.”

  “I know you’re right. I just feel like I’m on my way to a masquerade party.”

  “This is no masquerade,” Vee said. She met his gaze in the mirror. “You are High Queen.”

  With an Ontarian command, she returned the wall to its natural iridescent state and turned around. “So when do we start searching for Krystabel?”

  Vee chuckled. “As you directed, the Symposium and I are compiling a history of ‘when and how’ the search for your sister has been conducted. But is it not wisest to fight one battle at a time? I believe you are stalling.”

  She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.
“Is the Symposium ready in case the TSC references a Clarification I’m not familiar with?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  She shot him an impatient glance. He knew the formal address annoyed her but just wouldn’t quit.

  Vee chuckled. “Shall we go?”

  Charlotte glanced away. Much to her chagrin, she had one last stop to make. “I need to…um, powder my nose.”

  It took a moment for comprehension to dawn in his emerald green eyes then he offered her a rare smile. “You should find powder in the stateroom where you changed your garments.”

  She impulsively kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll be right back. Don’t start without me.” Leaving Vee in the vestibule, she hurried down the corridor and ducked into the luxurious suite designed for visiting dignitaries. Well, they might wish she were only visiting but Charlotte Layton was here to stay.

  After using the facilities, she stepped out into the sitting area and found Vee awaiting her. “Last stop. I promise,” she said, surprised that he had followed her from the vestibule.

  “Do you feel better, Charlotte?”

  Panic formed a hard knot in her stomach but she managed to raise her shields. “Much,” she said, forcing herself to smile. The tone had been perfect, but Dez dar Joon had called her Charlotte, not Shar Lott or Your Majesty.

  What should she do?

  Try to trap him here?

  Summon Tal?

  Where was the real Vee? Standing in the vestibule. Impatiently waiting for her to powder her nose.

  Dez’s eyes slowly deepened, changing from green to turquoise before they started to spin. “I called you by name. Didn’t I?” he muttered. “Damn. He would have used your fancy new title.”

  She took a deep breath, meaning to scream, physically and telepathically, but a containment field rose from the floor. Like a dense tube of Mystic energy, it not only surrounded her, it enveloped her, robbing her of movement, preventing any sound.

  “Oh no, you don’t,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m not ready for an audience yet.”

  He paused, swaying unsteadily and panting for breath. Why would a few simple maneuvers tax his strength? They certainly hadn’t fazed him at Fortress Joon. Was it possible he had yet to replace the captives? She focused on the unexpected spark of hope.