Hearts and Swords: Four Original Stories of Celta

by Robin D. Owens

  He kissed her. It was a jubilant kiss, a press of his mouth on hers, and it had the bond between them expanding wide and fast, joy running back and forth between them. Of course they’d kissed before, not quite every day, but now his mouth nibbled at her lips, his tongue plunged inside her mouth, and she tasted him—mint and a touch of caff from his drink. His arms wrapped around her and brought them center to center, and she felt his erection.

  Argut yipped. Time to play. The fox butted their legs. You said we would have special play today after test done.

  Walker pulled away from her, looked down at the fox. “You’re right.” His arm slipped around her waist. “We can go to that new restaurant that caters to people with Fams.”

  Argut yipped again, ran around the room in a blurred circle.

  Sedwy winced. “I think your mother and your aunt Pratty have prepared a special meal for you, Walker.”

  His expression clouded. His hands dropped from her, and she missed the connection, the warm touch of his palms, his fingers squeezing into her hips. “Oh. Of course,” he said.

  “There will probably be a party tonight, too.”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, feeling the joy that had been emanating from him diminish.

  Again his shoulders moved, as if he was adjusting burdens. He smiled lopsidedly. “Not much. Argut, we’re postponing the meal, but we will take the afternoon off.” Walker glanced at the small desk with her project.

  “I didn’t get much done,” she said.

  “I know. Too concentrated on me.”

  She raised her brows.

  “What? You didn’t expect me to feel that? Or how T’Ash was putting more ambient Flair in the atmosphere while he was stone polishing in case I might need to use it?”

  Sedwy blinked. She hadn’t realized that.

  Walker tilted his head. “Monkshood’s back in his office, where he’s more comfortable.”

  Sedwy felt her eyes widen. “You can tell?”

  Walker shrugged. “I have a...thread to him now that we spent some septhours together. You and I have spent time in the Guildhall and I know the floor plan and where his office is. I knew he teleported to his office and now I can tell you that he is more comfortable.” Walker smiled. “As anyone would be.” Then his brows knit and Sedwy understood that he was about to communicate telepathically.

  Mother and Aunt Pratty, can we return my den to regular?

  “I heard that,” Sedwy said.

  “Good.” He took her hand in his, swung it. “We did it!”

  “Yes.”

  Then he kissed her fingers, glanced at Argut, who had collapsed, panting on the thick rug. “Let’s go eat and give my cuzes time to move out T’Ash’s worktable and the desk for Sedwy.”

  “I still don’t know why you had three small desks built, and areas made in this room for them to be moved in and out.”

  He stared at her, shook his head with a quiet smile. “I’ve visited several FirstFamily Residences lately.”

  She still didn’t know what he meant.

  “Sedwy, where does your sister, D’GroveHeir, work?”

  “In an office off my mother’s ResidenceDen.”

  “I’d rather have my heirs work with me.”

  Her throat closed and stomach clutched. She should remember he was all about Family. Of course he’d want his heirs close.

  “Most Residences have a major ResidenceDen and smaller adjacent offices for apprentices and journeymen or journeywomen. I didn’t know that when I first set up this block, but this will do fine until a more formal den and offices are built. And, of course, the compound will take centuries to become an intelligent Residence. It’s new.”

  An image of Walker and three small children looking like him had hit her, along with a great yearning that was...inappropriate. She hadn’t thought of having children for a long time. Of course, when she’d first started her career, she’d planned to be married by now, and perhaps with a child, but after the wreck of her life, she’d had to concentrate on her career.

  She blinked and cleared her throat, withdrew her fingers from his—had he noticed the leap in her pulse?—and slipped her arm in his own, just as a brief knock came on the door and it opened to show four Clovers ready to rearrange the furniture.

  “Thanks, guys,” Walker said.

  “Won’t take long,” the burliest replied. He touched the worktable and initiated a built-in anti-grav spell. The table rose a few centimeters from the floor.

  The youngest man, recently adult at seventeen, wiggled his shoulders as he smoothed a hand over the chair. “T’Ash actually worked here. I can feel it.”

  Walker’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe you should be tested by him.”

  Flushing, the young man said, “I’m not like you, Walker. Mom’s a Commoner, and I didn’t have any Passages.”

  “But you have more than ordinary Flair,” Sedwy said. “I feel it.”

  He flashed her a smile. “Maybe my kids will have really good Flair, and be tested.”

  “Maybe,” Walker said, knuckled the youngster on the shoulder as they passed. “Think we’re having an early lunch, come join us when you’re done.”

  “All right. This won’t take long,” said the one in charge. All of the excess furniture brought in for Walker’s examination was floating.

  She and Walker left the room and walked down the wide hall with pale yellow-patterned silkeen on the walls. “Lovely place.”

  “Yes. It fits the image,” Walker said.

  “I hadn’t heard of the office block.”

  “We’re still discussing in which direction to expand,” Walker said. Before they turned a corner, he glanced over his shoulder. The other men were moving in the opposite direction. They headed into the short western arm of the new block. Walker stopped in front of the door that would lead to the more populated part of the compound. He was frowning.

  “Monkshood doesn’t like me, and the numbers of my Family makes him nervous.”

  “Monkshood doesn’t like many people.”

  “He’s a GraceLord himself, right? His Family has been noble for centuries.”

  “Yes.”

  “So I’ve passed him. He won’t be easy on the Clovers. We need to talk about this, Sedwy.”

  “Let me think on options.” She leaned against him. “Time enough for problems tomorrow, let’s celebrate today.”

  Walker’s smile was slow and deliberate and made her heart thump hard. A smile she hadn’t seen before, perhaps one just for her. The bond between them was wide and strong. She shouldn’t allow it to be so wide or so strong, but it felt wonderful. His smile was that of a lover, and her body responded. Kisses would no longer be enough.

  Eleven

  Walker couldn’t wait. Though the Clover women had made all his favorites for his meal, it wasn’t what he was hungry for. He wanted Sedwy.

  Now.

  He was pretty sure he could have her, if he could only find the right place. It had to have ambience. It had to be out of Clover Compound so that they wouldn’t be interrupted. Some of the more Flaired members of his Family had learned to mindspeak with him, and didn’t hesitate to shout to him telepathically if they wanted him. He needed to work on that. But not today.

  And as much as he loved Argut, they had to ditch the fox. A real ditch might work.

  As soon as they finished eating and he thanked his mother and others, he grasped Sedwy’s hand. “Let’s take a walk.”

  She stared at him. He grinned at her. “There’s plenty of snow on the ground, but the temps are fine—and someone taught me how to make personal weathershields.”

  Her body eased, and he realized she hadn’t loosened up since the exam.

  “We deserve a day off,” he said, squeezing her fingers. “Let’s go.”

  “Bundle up,” Fen said, then beamed at Sedwy. “The neighborhood is wonderful to walk around.”

  “And we own most of it,” Walker said drily.
<
br />   Sedwy laughed, pulled away. “Let me get my outdoor gear.” Her lashes slipped down over her eyes, then swept back up. “There are various ways of arranging personal weathershields. Sometimes I like to leave my head out.”

  “Hats and scarves,” stated Fen. “Flair for weathershields takes energy, and you don’t want to run out and not be protected.”

  Walker glanced at the large plate that he had cleaned of food. “I don’t think that will be a problem.”

  “You were stoking up after spending energy on the test,” Fen said.

  He couldn’t win this argument with his mother, and besides, she was right in thinking he wanted to expend a lot of energy with Sedwy. “I’ll meet you at the door in five minutes.”

  Smiling, Sedwy nodded. “I’ll be there.”

  Walker went to the corner of the room and made sure no one was around, then teleported to his bedroom, using about as much energy as if he’d run flat out from the kitchen to his suite.

  Once again he opened a closet door and saw none of his favorite coats. These were all long and sleek and made of expensive materials, probably had some spells woven into the fabric, too. Warmth, anti-wet, others. He fingered the cuff of a dark green one, pulled it out. It was definitely stylish. Narrowing his eyes, he thought his cuz Mitchella D’Blackthorn was responsible. And he’d bet that none of his older coats were anywhere he could find them.

  More change.

  There was a fast rap on his sitting room door, and Sedwy opened it. “Walker?”

  “I’m ready,” he said, pulling the coat on. It sure wasn’t one he’d be wrestling with his cuzes in. Surely the women didn’t throw everything away.

  He’d have to ask Barton. Barton was getting fashionably upgraded, too, and could be sneakier about finding out where their stuff went.

  As always, when he saw Sedwy, his problems lightened. A very good feeling.

  She was dressed as elegantly as he, in a black cloak with gold trim and a jaunty hat that covered her ears.

  He stepped out into the corridor, drew her arm through his, murmured a spellword to lock and shield the door. Argut zoomed down the hall. We are going out!

  “For sure,” Walker said.

  I like the snow, and I have been stuck IN.

  “Thank you for staying with me so we could bond these last two weeks.”

  Argut glanced up with a smirky smile. I love my FamMan.

  And I love you, Walker returned mentally. He didn’t need to speak the words aloud to Argut, the bond between them was large, and the Fam could feel Walker’s wash of love.

  The bond with Sedwy was nice-sized, too. He was aware she liked that he was happy when he saw her.

  Instead of going into the old southern block, he held the new door in the eastern wall open to the stairs so she could precede him, and Argut could roar past and down.

  “They did a very good job putting in the staircase,” Sedwy said, her free hand stroking the fancily carved rail set into the wall, though there were also anti-fall spells in the stairwell. No one wanted nobles visiting Walker hurt.

  “When you continue to enclose large areas with houses, you learn the trade.” He bent near her, let her hair scented with a fragrance that reminded him of a forest glade filter through him. “I’d like to show you something special of the Clovers.” The tickle of his fingers on her palm was as much a signal of desire as the pulse of red yearning through their bond.

  He was rewarded by the heightening of pink in her cheeks, a deepening of her blue green eyes to more blue. Which only fueled his aching. Her fingers clung to his.

  Life was good.

  Argut yipped and his claws scrabbled against the heated flagstones as he danced before the door. No pet entrance in the impressive threemeter- tall and two-meter-wide oak door.

  Sedwy gestured the security away and they were out into a brilliant winter day. The snowy drifts of the park before them were trampled with the evidence of a large den of foxes.

  Walker nodded to the guard at the door, then called the head of the fox den telepathically. Vertic?

  I am here today, the fox replied.

  Good, Argut needs some good exercise.

  Of course, Vertic said. Argut had sped to the elder and was crouched and hopping before him, teasing him to play.

  Vertic gave a quick bark and other foxes leapt from concealed ditches. Most of them looked Argut’s size or a little larger. They rushed together and tumbled down a snowbank.

  Vertic, Sedwy projected so Walker and all the foxes could hear her.

  Yes, lady? the elder asked.

  My mother has a female Fam who wants a mate.

  Vertic’s ears flicked. Grove den?

  Yes.

  With a dignified inclination of his head, Vertic replied, I will tell my dog foxes.

  “Thank you.” Sedwy bowed.

  “Thank you.” Walker bowed, too.

  Vertic gave a fox-chortle in absent agreement and trotted off to supervise—or play himself.

  The whole thing reminded Walker a lot of the Hollys and the melees at The Green Knight, though he wouldn’t tell his brother Barton that.

  “Come,” he said, and tugged on Sedwy’s hand to stroll north on the wide, cleaned Clover sidewalks.

  There must have been something in his tone, in that one word, because he got a throb of heightened sexual desire from her. The air suddenly felt less cold and more crisp as his skin heated.

  His voice dropped to an intimate whisper. “I don’t think you’ve seen the inner portion of the Clover Sacred Grove.” She’d celebrated the last two weeks of rituals with her own Family. He wondered if she’d accept an invitation to their huge and cheerful Yule ritual.

  “No,” she said, sounding breathless.

  “It’s in the north block we’re enclosing. Centered in a small labyrinth.” He chuckled. “We are generally an impatient Family, so my cuz Mitchella insisted.”

  “And she got her way?”

  “She’s a FirstFamily GrandLady and she paid for the construction and the spells.”

  “Ah.”

  Walker said, “I’ve heard walking a labyrinth with someone special is a...unique...experience.” He’d heard that if the two were lovers, every pace wound desire tight. He was looking forward to that. Right now their bodies brushed with each step.

  When they reached the middle of the block and the main door to the compound, Walker nodded to the guard. One guard today. After the formal results of the examination were announced, he’d be a GrandLord. No way back from that. He shoved the thought that had dampened his sexual urge aside, greeted the guard as they passed, and strove to recapture the moment.

  Sedwy tickled his palm with her fingers.

  That helped. He picked up his pace and then they were in the next area to be enclosed, the northern block that they’d been landscaping into a park and a sacred grove. In the middle of the wide block was a circle of trees. Like other high priorities for the Family, they’d paid a GrandLord to help them grow. Their branches were bare, but the underbrush the Clovers had also planted blocked any view, as did the outer circle of beautifully shaped pine and spruce. Some of those trees had been potted Yule trees for the Family.

  There were grasses and flowers all along the first two meters of the park, then the labyrinth began, opening in the east. Walker was surprised to see that there was a path through the snow to the labyrinth. Obviously people had been using the meditation tool. A small, warm bloom unfurled inside him. He wasn’t the only one anxious about the future. And he should have come here—and the sacred grove—before. On the other hand, he was glad he was sharing this first time after his Passages with Sedwy.

  He wasn’t quite sure the last time he’d used the labyrinth alone. He’d had no pressing problems or challenges in his life. So he was growing.

  He could have done without that.

  They stepped into the pathway together, one large enough for two. The Clovers were a loving Family and built on the basic unit of a couple. />
  So they crossed through the snow to the beginning of the labyrinth path. In the high summer, this was short, green grass. Now the grass was brown and flattened—but a slight, earthy hum radiated through his feet, and he stopped, astonished. He could feel the Flair in the path...and as it rose through him, he knew what it was. It was one of the spells funded by the great Family rituals, where cheer and energy poured out from the Family to an intricate web of spells and Flair that kept the Clover Compound going. Walker wasn’t sure how it worked. He glanced at Sedwy, whose eyes were sparkling and lips were open as if she tasted the magic. Her fingers clasped his strongly.

  She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He cleared his throat. “Ready.”

  Her lashes lowered, covering any reaction showing in her eyes, but her cheeks had pinkened, and he didn’t think it was because of the cold or the wispy breeze. He thought it was because of the pulsing bond between them.

  “Yes.” Her gaze traced the rounds of the path before it curved into the grove. “This is wonderful. Yes, I’m ready.”

  He found himself smiling, and they took the first step together, and their bodies continued to brush.

  “The labyrinth was my mother’s idea, she insisted. She and my father attended the first Great Labyrinth Fair a couple of years ago.”

  “You are an exuberant and outgoing people, so she wanted it as a tool for quiet spirituality?” Sedwy asked.

  “No,” Walker said. His steps matched Sedwy’s. “We were growing as a Family. She wanted it for the community. A tool for each member to experience outside rituals. Any of us can come and walk the labyrinth—and meet anyone else.” He smiled. “I’ve met my cuz Trif’s husband and his Fam, Vertic fox. And a couple of youngsters who were set on the path as anger management.” He frowned. “I’ll have to be more aware of each individual now, so we can help them find their joyful profession. And how much Flair each might have, what type, so they can be taught.” He lapsed into brooding thought, but that lasted only a few steps until Sedwy bumped him with her shoulder.

  “Appreciate the day.”