Again his Family came to him, one by one, dressed in their best clothes. Occasionally he saw a hint of amusement in his older cuzes’ eyes, but when they reached him, all became as serious as he, himself.
To his left and his right stood guards, one retired now, one dead. Behind them, at the back of the deep chair, stood two others.
His Chief of Guards, Cosus, came around and took Vinni’s small hands in his large, callused ones, stated that by his Vow of Honor, he swore a Loyalty Oath to the Family and Muin T’Vine personally. So did his First Lieutenant.
But the two behind Vinni?
He didn’t know.
Now chill fear coated his stomach at the notion.
One or two people living in the Residence, Vines, who hadn’t sworn loyalty to him. Who could betray him, the Family, Avellana, without any evil consequences to them of breaking a solemn Vow of Honor.
Focus.
He breathed deeply, evenly, in a pattern to squash the dread. Sharpen that memory. Four people beside him. Two guards who’d sworn loyalty.
Who else?
Avellana wandered into view. Her smile hurt his heart. He couldn’t do without that smile.
But he wouldn’t need to, ever again.
Focus!
He closed his eyes, knowing Avellana wouldn’t start up the path without him. Let her drink in the plant life around them, become used to their new HeartBond.
In his mind’s eye, he brought up the memory, sharpened it. Four people standing beside his chair, two in front, the best guards, two in back . . .
Not Bifrona. In his recollection, she stood, beaming, at the back of the hall, organizing the ceremony, directing others to the banquet, every inch the head of the staff. Her deputies scurried around under her eagle-eyed supervision.
Who else stood on the dais with him?
He pushed at his recollection, pulled, pummeled. The third person came around from his left, another guard, a woman who’d since moved to Gael City. Vinni would have seen her if he and Avellana had continued with their trip.
Focus!
Looking down with a sober expression, the woman clasped hands with Vinni, let her voice ring out as she enunciated the Loyalty Oath.
Then she stepped back, bowed to him, descended the dais, and raised a cheer for Vinni.
And he realized he couldn’t sense the fourth person who’d stood next to the chair. Someone who’d slipped away . . . before she or he had vowed loyalty . . .
Lady and Lord, who?
Who would have been so personally close to him as to have stood with him on the dais?
Not the now-deceased Chief of Guards. Not Bifrona, who’d been the first to take her oath so she could run the occasion the way she wanted.
A flash of instinct hit him like lightning, and he felt as if huge blocks of understanding tumbled through his mind and smashed.
Someone had betrayed him long ago and he’d never known. Vinni reached for the bonds with the man, which should have been thick and strong, and found . . . nothing. Blankness.
Such terrible betrayal by a man he respected.
Had the villain nested himself in T’Vine Residence and plotted? Maybe.
Contacted other people of like mind? Probably.
Secretly joined the fanatics of the Traditionalist Stance? Taken over leadership when the first leaders had been prosecuted and convicted? Enjoyed being a behind-the-scenes power?
Oh, yes.
With Vinni coming into his Flair and the title so early, spending much time with other FirstFamily children his own age, and even with Commoner Clovers, the Vines were considered a more progressive Family.
The vicious man could certainly use that to hide his yearning for power and a hatred of change that bordered on madness.
As a mild-mannered but intelligent, well-educated, and respected Vine, he must have been invaluable to the upper levels of the movement.
Vinni could visualize this man, one with an evil delight in spiderweb plotting. And now Vinni could look back and match this man’s demeanor, his emotions, to the rise and fall of the reactionary Traditionalist Stance movement’s power.
The secret, gleeful smirk Vinni had noticed when reports of problems came from the excavation of the lost starship, Lugh’s Spear, nearly three years ago.
Lines etched in a serious face when violence traced to the greedy directors of the Traditionalist Stance had been proven, and the men arrested and convicted as criminals.
And just earlier that year, when children had been attacked, Vinni knew the man used others, used younger people as fronts to direct that violence. Manipulated and betrayed a lover, to cover that he was the leader and not her.
She’d died suspiciously, hadn’t she?
Could Armen have killed her? Could the main villain himself?
He must be mad, must believe as Armen had done that Avellana was a defective mutant, bad for the Family.
The revelation made Vinni sick. He sat shakily, forcing nausea down. Then he wiped his mouth, yearned for mint water to wash the bitter taste of betrayal from his mouth, settle his gut.
With a Word he drew his clothes back around himself, felt the immediate freshening spells taking care of sex perspiration and the more recent cold sweat.
Couldn’t teleport out, and trying to run up the sides of the crater thick with growth and shrines took nearly as much time as walking the path. So Vinni spurted a telepathic message to Duon.
Find and restrain Arcto! He’s the secret head of Traditionalist Stance! Check out his movements last spring with T’Vine Residence and the murderous attacks.
Surprise from Duon flooded Vinni; he felt the guard jump to his feet and bellow to, and through, the Residence. T’Vine Residence, get Arcto! What? One second . . . Listen, Residence . . . I must MOVE. Later, T’Vine! And as Duon moved, he yelled for scries to Winterberry and Primross.
“Muin?” Avellana came around the tree, frowning. “What distresses you?”
He rose in one quick move. Holding out both hands, he waited until she came and clasped them before enfolding his fingers over hers. “I know who he is.”
“The main villain,” she replied matter-of-factly.
“Yes, the main villain.” He let the name out on a painful breath. “My tutor, Arcto.”
Arcto, who’d come to the Family after the first Loyalty Oath when Vinni was six, who’d . . . been very ill the next time newcomers had been sworn in as a bunch . . . and never rescheduled the oath . . .
And been close to Vinni during Avellana’s First Passage when she’d saved Flora, nearly draining the life out of everyone else.
Avellana’s face crumpled. “I have known him all my life. I thought he liked me.”
Vinni squeezed her hands. “Something warped in him, and I didn’t see it. He covered it up and I didn’t look. I realized he never swore a Loyalty Oath to me.”
She raised her face toward him, her eyes wide. “If he never pledged Loyalty to you, then he did not swear to uphold the Vine Family, either. His bonds with you—”
“No bonds, none at all. I don’t think anyone else feels them, either.”
“All superficial, then, and not truly strong enough to guide him when he started going wrong.”
Vinni made a disgusted noise. “We need to start back and deal with this. Arcto has disappeared, left T’Vine Residence. I feel no bonds.”
“Neither do I, and I took lessons from him, too.” She sniffled.
“Duon is handling the situation and Family for now. He’s contacting officials in the city, probably informing our allies, too.”
“No wonder Bifrona fell into syrthio shock, if she discovered this,” Avellana said.
“No wonder.”
Avellana sighed, then looked at the long path winding back and forth up the crater. “I had wanted to be, for us t
o be, more serene when we walked the labyrinth. For the path to be a celebration of our HeartBonding, a ritual journey.”
Dropping her hands, he put an arm around her waist and walked with her to the beginning of the path, only wide enough for two if they brushed with every step. Lovers. HeartMates.
“HeartMate.” He kissed her temple.
“We will do this together.”
“Yes.”
“And silently, Muin.”
“Yes.”
“It will be a bond.” She gave him a wry smile. “The walking will force your nerves down and your mind quiet.” Another sigh and she put her arm around his waist. “A bond between us, and when we reach the end of the path, we will help the Family as T’Vine and D’Vine.”
“Yes.”
Avellana clasped hands with her lover, her beloved, her HeartMate. They said a simple, nondenominational prayer asking for clarity and peace, then began the walk.
Muin’s active thoughts buzzed, more like a physical sensation along her skin than not-quite-touching her mind. Truly, they had HeartBonded.
So she leaned against him. Muin’s arm steadied her as they learned to walk together down the narrow path, best for one. He protected, her lover—an integral quality of him.
And as she brought up the deep well of the calm she had developed in her travels, a way of dealing with new places and new faces, and began her own pattern of breathing to drop into a meditative state, she felt Muin’s breathing and heartbeat match hers.
Good, though she yet caught a whiff of dark dread.
Thirty-nine
They walked together until thorns pressed on the path so they had to go single file. Vinni led. And as they walked the labyrinth, he understood he’d made a mistake in going first. He couldn’t see her. He could feel the bond between them. Also sensed her settling into a deep-blue well indicating a serene, near-trance state. He could feel her behind him, hear her footfalls, but that wasn’t enough. Not when each step of the meditation path seemed to draw up his fears so he could deal with them before he could proceed. Damn.
But he used her strength to handle those fears.
He would not believe in horrible visions and dreams anymore. In fact, she’d be sleeping with him, so all he’d have to do would be to reach out.
All Vine betrayers had been unmasked. They could not hide and strike from inside the Residence. Arcto would be caught.
Inhale, exhale, calm.
Avellana wore a protective amulet and had personal armor.
She was safe.
She was his.
They were together.
Finally, finally, he could let the fear that crippled him go, seep away from him and into the ground with every step.
By the time they’d reached the Vine Pavilion, Vinni had managed a good trance and meditative state that helped put his problems in perspective. He’d also developed a back-of-the-mind list of action items.
At his shrine Vinni offered free wine and cheese, and, occasionally, wind chimes he made with his creative Flair.
“Let’s have some blackberry wine,” he said, drawing Avellana into the small room and to the long bench. Blackberry vines had given his Family their name. He always stocked at least one bottle of blackberry wine, as well as others from his vineyards, in the no-time, along with good cheeses.
She sat on the bench and stared at the large, stained-glass wind chime he’d made last year.
And his serenity faded as he opened the no-time and found only a half bottle of adequate white wine. The cheeses had been reduced to a quarter of a big, standard orange block available at any food store.
Telepathically he contacted his vintner at T’Vine Residence. The Great Labyrinth wine and cheese no-time lacks wine and cheese. Restock them immediately.
I . . . I’m sorry . . . T’Vine. My greatest apologies. Bifrona always handled that— she began.
Your responsibility. But his home vintner lacked several decades of Bifrona’s age.
I know, my lord, but she preferred . . . And the household is in an uproar with Arcto’s betrayal and his fleeing the Residence and city! Huge excitement throbbed through their link. Vinni realized that came from many of his relatives, maybe one of the reasons he hadn’t settled while he walked. He’d pushed away the feelings because of his link with Avellana and her expectations that he would use the labyrinth as a good tool. Also, he’d been preoccupied with clearing his problems.
Vinni paused. Arcto escap—Left?
Yes, he spewed the most outrageous things. I swear he looked sane, then mad in the next instant. I saw him ’port out of our castle myself, screaming he’d never go to the city, he’d establish his OWN town—Duon and others questioned me, T’Vine—Massive respect flowed to him from her.
Vinni rubbed his forehead and replied, Thank you for your support.
Of course, T’Vine! Shocking events.
Yes. He cleared his throat, though she would not sense that. About the wines.
I will take care of that immediately. Pride lit her tones, and he felt her settle.
I want a good blackberry wine and a variety of five more of our label that you believe will appeal to pilgrims’ taste. Make sure the wines are available for purchase in Druida City.
Perhaps the most popular, or those we wish to sell more of—
I’m leaving it to you. Pair the wines with appropriate cheeses and crackers. He pursed his lips. You translocate them today, but come on up tomorrow and check on them. When did you last walk the Great Labyrinth?
A gulp that came mentally to him. Ah, years, my lord.
Come up, FEEL how weary, coming and going, the pilgrims might be, or how deeply in trance. We might want some wines served at rituals, that priests and priestesses believe help the spiritual state.
Yes, T’Vine.
Stay at the inn as long as you like while you do your survey.
THANK YOU, T’Vine!
Blessed be, he ended, and gently set her thread aside, became aware of the multitude of reverberating notes from the four permanent wind chimes in his pavilion. Avellana stood, grinning and looking out at the labyrinth, head tilted as she listened.
If a wind chime hung near her, it would be sounded, by hands or spell, and joy would bubble through her at the chimes. The reason, he thought, that his creative Flair manifested into the art of making them.
He went to the back of the no-time, accessed a secret, locked compartment, and pulled out two small bottles—his personal premium blackberry liqueur and an equally exclusive Family sparkling wine.
With good eye and steady hands, he mixed them together as she watched, then poured the effervescent drink into crystal wine flutes that he’d also taken from the compartment.
He offered the glass and she took it, then waited as she sipped.
“Oh, it is wonderful!” She closed the space between them and kissed him on the lips.
Sweeping his tongue across his lips, he replied huskily, “Not as wonderful as the taste of you.”
She laughed, then sobered, raising her brows. “You spoke with a member of your Family? What happened?”
“Arcto escaped, did not go into Druida City, and is in the wind and free.”
“Ah.”
He raised his glass. “To a long and healthy love and life with my HeartMate.”
“To a long and healthy love and life with my HeartMate,” she repeated.
They clinked flutes.
After they finished the drink and a few bites of cheese on the remaining fancy crackers, he cleansed the flutes and returned them and the Family’s personal bottles to the compartment.
Looking ahead, he saw the path continued wide as it curved around the crater.
The time with Avellana and the wine should have removed any tension, but his brain kept busy thinking of T’Vine Residence. His nape
and the top of his spine remained tight with an edge of lurking dark like a bad vision.
Avellana scrutinized him. “I think Flora would be good for you right now.”
“Flora’s delicate. She’s never been here.”
Avellana’s eyes widened. “What, delicate like me?” She gave a ladylike snort. “Flora would love this place.” Avellana’s chin set. “I will teleport her.”
“No, wait.”
Avellana frowned.
“I’ll ask her, why don’t I?” Vinni said. “You prefer to be asked, right?”
“Yes. But she will want to come. She must have sensed your preoccupation, and she would have been agitated, too.”
He closed his eyes and found Flora more upset than usual. “Yes.”
Raising his lashes, he looked at Avellana and let a rueful smile curve his lips. “Though I’d wanted to spend time with you alone.”
“We are HeartBonded, we will always be together. And you and Flora will comfort each other . . . through the grief of being betrayed by those you loved.”
“Yes.” The word tore from him as she’d named his raw feeling.
“I will teleport her,” Avellana said softly; she paced backward, then pointed to the ground. “There.”
“I’ll do it,” Vinni said; he reached and found his Fam, asked her if she wanted to be with him and Avellana in the Great Labyrinth, and got a flow of excited agreement.
Flora hooked on to his location, siphoned some power from him . . . and Avellana . . . and Rhyz?
“There you are!” Avellana cheered when Flora materialized before them on the path.
I helped ’port myself! She jumped twice.
“Good job,” Avellana said.
An instant later, a pop came and Rhyz purred behind them. I came, too. Was sleeping at T’Vine Residence, HOME, when screaming and yelling at the Residence woke Me up.
Much ructions! Flora agreed, hopping into Vinni’s arms. Bad man came and made people CRY and YELL and SCREAM and SHOUT—
“We know,” Vinni said.
Then Arcto ran, ran, ran away, Rhyz ended with glee, trotting around them, nose aimed up the path.
Heart Sight Page 38
