“What emergency?” Marian said faintly, her stomach tightening, watching mercury flow viscously in a glass tube under the flames.
“On the battlefield, if I fall,” Alexa said.
Marian dropped the baton. Alexa caught it—or rather, it flew into her hand. Marian stared at the woman, fit and strong, with the scar running down her cheek and somber eyes. Alexa heaved a sigh.
“I was afraid that they’d leave this to me. That miserable old man. But maybe you won’t be fighting. Many Circlets don’t.” She shrugged, but her voice was faintly condemning. “Let’s walk and talk.”
“I’m not staying here. I have a life back home.”
“Which is?”
“Boulder.”
“Ah.” Alexa’s smile was quick and charming, but she covered the ground rapidly. “Thought I pegged you for an academic.”
“I’m working on my doctorate in Comparative Religion and Philosophy,” Marian said stiffly.
Alexa halted in the small meadow. A couple of large rocks graced the center, looking like seats. She turned to Marian and tapped herself on the chest. “Swordmarshall Alexa Fitzwalter, Esquire, Attorney at Law.”
“You’re a lawyer?” It was the last thing Marian would have guessed.
“Was.” Alexa hitched herself up on one of the rocks and wiggled to get comfortable. “Nice seat, warm from the sun.” She smiled serenely at Marian. “Now I do all my fighting on a battlefield, not in a courtroom.” A shadow lingered in her eyes.
Marian wasn’t ready to hear her story. She had to make something else very clear, first.
“I’m not staying. I can’t. I have a life I must return to.”
Alexa lifted her chin. “I have a life I crafted here.”
“I have a brother with MS.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Alexa held out her hand, and Marian took it—this time a sweet comfort flowed between them.
“It’s progressive regressive MS, so it comes and goes. I’m hoping to find a cure to take back. Maybe I can become Powerful enough to cure him with magic?”
Alexa just shook her head. “I’m not sure how healing magic works here. I’ve seen great wounds healed.” She grimaced. “But it usually takes more than one person and some serious spellchants. For a disease, I just don’t know.”
“My mother is back home, too,” Marian said. She ran her hands through her hair as she took the rock seat next to Alexa. It felt as if many had sat there before—to talk, to eat, to watch the stars at night.
They sat in silence for a moment before Alexa spoke. “I suppose you’ll return to Earth when the Snap comes, and stay. To be honest, I don’t know how much of our magic here will translate to magic there.” She waved a hand. “I never made it all the way back home during the Snap—”
“The Snap?” Marian asked.
“I’ll tell you about it later.”
Marian sighed. “All right.”
Alexa’s hazel eyes appeared greener. “I didn’t have any family at home, nothing much to go back to, not compared to what I have here.” She shrugged and her smile quirked. “Though a vision I saw indicated I’d become a federal judge if I went back.”
Marian didn’t doubt it. The woman was walking determination.
“I can’t stay,” Marian said. “I can’t leave my brother.”
“All right. But I’d better tell you what’s going on, anyway.”
“That’s a very good idea.”
9
“Let me tell you why you were Summoned,” Alexa said.
“As long as you don’t expect me to stay,” Marian cautioned.
“Too bad. Lladrana needs all the help it can get, and I can tell by your aura that you’d be a lot of help.” Alexa slipped from her rock to sit on the sun-warmed ground.
Marian did the same and tried not to think about bugs.
Her expression completely serious, Alexa said, “The fact is, Lladrana is in deep trouble. There are monsters invading from the north.” She shot Marian a glance. “I’m not talking about other people with differing belief systems, but real, live, evil monsters. The Lladranans usually call them ‘horrors.’”
Bossgond’s images of monsters came to Marian.
Alexa frowned. “Watch.” With a sharp indrawn breath and narrowed eyes, the air between them hazed. A huge, vicious-looking creature hulked into view. It had long, sharp teeth that dripped saliva. Curving, knifelike claws extended from its lifted forepaws.
“Render,” Alexa said. She kept the image up and rotated it, until Marian had to swallow hard.
The second monster was worse. Bigger even than the render, it had putrid yellow fur, horns and spines along its arms, head and back.
“Slayer. It can shoot the spines. They’re poisonous, of course.”
“Of course,” Marian said faintly, wondering if she was turning a shade of green.
The slayer vanished and a third horror appeared. Worse. This one had lizardlike gray skin, a round knobby head with burning red eyes and a hole for a nose. Each shoulder sported an arm and two tentacles with suction cups.
“Soul-sucker,” Alexa said. “But it really just drains your life-force.” She waved a hand.
Just? Marian thought she squeaked, but Alexa showed no evidence of hearing her.
The next horror that appeared metamorphosed between two shapes. A black weblike substance and a dark manlike thing with rudimentary head, arms and legs.
“It has a penis, too,” Alexa said unsteadily. “Sangvile. One tried to rape me as it sucked my Power from me.”
The thing turned its head and its burning gaze struck Marian like a blow.
This vision disappeared once quickly, as if Alexa didn’t like remembering it. Marian couldn’t think how anyone could survive an attempted rape by the hideous being.
“Dreeth,” Alexa said on a sigh, and something Marian recognized formed. At her exclamation, Alexa smiled.
“They look like pteradons, don’t they?” Alexa said.
“More like a quetzalcoatluses with big bellies.”
“Quetzalcoatlus. That sounds like the Aztec god.”
“Yes, they were the largest of the flying dinosaurs.” In her studies, she’d found that many cultures had stories of dragons.
“Okay. They’re dreeths here, as big as a house. A couple of them nearly fell on me as they died. Bad,” Alexa said so casually that Marian stared at her in pure amazement.
She sorted out the implications. “You battle these things?”
“Pretty much every week.” Alexa stroked the scar on her face.
Marian couldn’t imagine it. “You?”
Alexa met her gaze with fathomless eyes. “The Marshalls Summoned me to be one of them, the best magical warriors in the business.” She shrugged. “Like Joan of Arc.”
“Must have been a shock.”
“Yeah. In Denver I’d taken one personal defense course from the free university, several years ago. Big change in lifestyle.” Now she smiled. She waved a hand down her body and suddenly Marian saw a rope of purple and silver. The link throbbed with life and vibrated with a pretty melody. “But I’m well compensated. This is my bond with my Shield, Bastien. As for financial reward, I have wealth and an estate—you’ll get your pick of land, too, if you stay. And Bastien—” she grinned “—he’s rather like a certain rogue mercenary with a spaceship in the movies.” She sighed. “I miss the movies.”
“You—they—the Marshalls, don’t expect me to become one of them, do they?”
“Nope. The Marshalls Summoned you for the Tower Community, the Sorcerers and Sorceresses—the major ones are called Circlets.” Alexa grinned again. “No wonder they reached Boulder. Mostly scholars, I think. Though Jaquar is one prime man.”
Marian hadn’t forgotten the hunk who’d appeared in the pentacle with her.
“He’s had it rough, lately, though. The sangvile ate his parents.”
“Ate his parents!”
Alexa waved her hand. “Okay, to be exact, the sangvi
le drained his parents of their Power, turning them into husks that crumbled into gray dust.”
That didn’t sound any better.
“He’s really grieving. I’m sorry for that,” Alexa said quietly. “I know what he’s feeling.”
Not wanting to think about the man or his hurt, Marian said, “So the Tower Summoned me.”
“The Tower had the Marshalls of the Castle Community Summon you,” Alexa corrected. “The Circlets do not play well together.”
“What do they expect me to do?” Marian asked plaintively.
“I don’t know. But there’s plenty of work. The Marshalls are just dealing with the monsters as they invade. That doesn’t address the underlying problem of where they’re coming from or why, or how to stop them.”
Another image coalesced between them, this one of a topographical map. “The country of Lladrana. Note the northern border,” said Alexa.
Marian studied it. Bright yellow glowed at points, and between the lights wove a blue line.
“Magical fence posts and shield along the boundary,” Alexa said, explaining further Marian’s vision from Bossgond. She always preferred the maximum amount of facts, and appreciated Alexa’s visit. “The old fence posts were wearing out, the shield failing, and the Marshalls didn’t know how to make new fence posts or power the boundary. That was my task.”
“Sounds incredible.”
“Yup, but I did it.” Alexa beamed with pride. “Now we know how to create fence posts and the boundary, but it isn’t easy or quick. You can see we still have big gaps in the border. Thus the continued fighting—building up the army, which consists of Marshall Pairs and Chevalier Pairs—Chevaliers are like knights, or singletons. We’re equal-opportunity employers. There are fifteen Marshall Pairs now.”
“So few!”
Alexa glanced at her. “There were six when I came a couple of months ago. We’re ramping up as fast as we can. But we lost three Pairs before and during the first big battle.”
There wasn’t anything Marian could say. She stared at the tiny glow of the fence posts and boundary line. So fragile to keep a land safe. Magic and muscle, physical courage and a willingness to fight were the only weapons being used to defend Lladrana now.
“It sounds to me,” Marian said carefully, “as if the Lladranans are missing a lot of knowledge.”
Nodding approvingly, Alexa said, “That’s right. They’d depended on the boundary for centuries, killing the monsters as they straggled over or through weak points. The Lladranans didn’t find their enemy, learn its flaws, formulate a plan to defeat it, or destroy the threat once and for all.”
Marian closed her eyes. “That’s exactly what must be done.”
“Yup,” Alexa said with an exaggerated Western twang. She stood and brushed off the seat of her pants, but since the leather looked as if it would deflect an oil well, no dust or grass had stuck to her. Old habits, Marian mused. No matter that she’d become integrated into Lladranan society, much of Alexa would always be pure Earthling.
She held out a hand to Marian. Marian put hers in it, her fingers far larger than Alexa’s. With a smooth pull, the smaller woman drew Marian easily to her feet.
“Um, Marian.” Alexa colored.
“Yes?”
“I think it would be good for both of us if we—uh—had a closer connection so we could call each other mentally if need be, for instance.”
“A blood-bond? Like I have with Bossgond?”
“Yes.”
“About that bond with Bossgond. Do you think it was the wrong thing to do?”
Alexa shrugged. When she met Marian’s eyes, hers were serious. “I’ve relied heavily on my instincts here. I think it might serve you well to do the same. After all, the Song sought you out, so you have what is needed to mesh with the Tower, to stay here on Amee.”
She lifted her hand before Marian could speak. “I know, I know, you need to get back to your brother, but I have the feeling that the Song—that’s fate, God, Goddess, whatever—doesn’t make mistakes, and it chose you.” She hesitated. “Be careful of the Singer—the oracle—though. She’s a sneaky old witch.”
Apparently having said all she was going to on the matter, Alexa withdrew a wicked-looking dagger from her boot. She turned over her left wrist and nicked the vein, then glanced at Marian. “You ready?”
No. But she held out her arm anyway.
Alexa was quick and careful. The knife had little bite. Marian watched blood well from her wrist. Alexa took Marian’s arm and held it against hers.
A wash of visions flowed from Alexa to Marian—recent ones of battles on Lladrana that caused Marian to sway in horror, but mercifully they flashed by.
There was Alexa hearing the same gong and chimes and chant as had Marian. A lovely blond woman dancing in the sunlight down Denver’s 16th Street Mall. Graduation from law school. Classrooms. Alexa growing younger in a series of foster homes. Each picture brought a spurt of emotions—terror…grief…triumph…resignation.
Marian’s sight dimmed. Her knees collapsed and she was on the ground again. She flung out her left hand and it hit Alexa’s rib cage.
“Oomph!” Alexa protested.
“Sorry,” Marian said weakly.
“No problemo.” Alexa sounded as dazed as Marian herself. “Didn’t expect this to be so strong. I saw your brother, Andrew. You love him very much.”
“Yes.”
“Your mother would never take care of him.”
“No.”
Alexa sighed. “Can you see yet?”
Marian blinked. Everything was cloud-thick gray. “No.”
“Neither can I. Guess since we’re not doing anything, I’ll tell you about the Snap.”
“That would be good.”
“The Snap is when Mother Earth calls you back—”
“I’ve lost my connection with Mother Earth.” To her horror, Marian’s voice rose.
“Well, I never knew I had a connection until I got here,” Alexa said. “I thought I’d lost it, too, but it did pull me back. I’m sure somewhere you still have a link to our home planet.”
“Go on.”
“It’s hard to describe—a pull. More, it’s a choice—stay or go. Like I said earlier, I was given visions of what my life might be if I went back, but I never actually left Lladrana. I could have, if I wished—just wished to be back, I guess. But by that time I’d made a life here. I had too much emotional commitment to Bastien and the Marshalls and Lladrana to leave Amee.”
Before Marian could ask questions, a man’s honey-smooth voice purred, “Well, well, well. Look what I’ve found, beauties basking in the sun. I wonder what I’ll do with them.”
Terror froze Marian. She was blind, helpless.
“Bastien, that’s not funny. You’re scaring Marian,” Alexa said.
There was an instant of silence.
“My apologies, Marian,” said the man. He was closer now—on the other side of Alexa.
“Salutations, Pairling.” His voice crooned now, full of tenderness and love.
Marian still couldn’t see the outer world, but a beautiful glow came from her left side. Her tense muscles relaxed. Then she chided herself. Knowing Alexa as she did now, if there’d been danger, the woman—blind or not—would have been up and swinging.
“I’m having trouble seeing or moving, Bastien.” Alexa sounded very drunk—her bad Lladranan accent—and pissed.
“Always impatient.”
Alexa snorted. “As if you aren’t.”
“Hey, another person is here who needs help,” Marian said.
“Ladies, join hands and I’ll aid you in clearing out your systems of the aftereffects of an ill-prepared blood-bond. Pairling—” his voice lowered dangerously “—I don’t suppose you researched the blood-bond before you did it with Marian?”
Another silence. Then Alexa said, “Uh, no. It came to me that it would be good to have a blood sister. I like Marian. I thought it would be best for everyone—for Lla
drana, even—if we blood-bonded.” She spoke faster and faster, slurring her words, as if trying to convince them all of the impeccable logic of her impulsive act.
“Somehow I think Marian would have researched the blood-bond before initiating it,” Bastien said, humor in his voice.
Marian groped for Alexa’s small hand, found it, squeezed.
“We’re in this together,” Alexa said with dignity, and Marian wondered which “we” she meant.
Marian had no intention of staying in Lladrana, despite Alexa’s yearning for a sister-friend. Then she felt a pulse of clear, bright silver—Bastien’s energy to Alexa, thundering through the smaller woman, then rolling into Marian. A flash enveloped her. When it faded, she could see deep blue sky with fat white clouds.
She turned her head to check on Alexa, but her gaze went straight to the man. Alexa had called Jaquar a prime man, but this one exuded charm and virility from every pore. His hair was striped black and white and the murmuring sound coming from him was like nothing Marian had heard in this world. Bossgond had said something about his being a “black-and-white,” and…
“Unfortunate?” she whispered, incredulous.
Alexa grinned. “Yeah. He really looks unfortunate, doesn’t he?”
“He looks like a bad boy to end all bad boys.” He was a rogue to the bone—with or without a spaceship.
He winked at her. “Actually,” he said, grinning at her with too much devilment, “I’m better with volarans.”
Bastien had read her thoughts, and she picked up images of winged horses from him. She’d been contemplating sitting up, but remained still. All the new input was beyond her.
Alexa jumped up and into the man’s arms. From there she looked back at Marian. “Your initial questions answered?” she asked Marian in Lladranan.
Marian’s mind was unfortunately blank. She should have a thousand more questions, but none surfaced. “I suppose.”
“Anything else you need right now?”
Only one thing came to the forefront of her mind. “We need a cook. Someone who’ll get along with the grumpy old man, doesn’t like to socialize and would love to live on an island.”
Sorceress of Faith Page 10
