Heart Journey (2 page)

 

Mitchella Clover D’Blackthorn
: HeartMate and wife to Straif, heroine of
Heart Choice
. She is from a large commoner Family who is moving up in rank. She is an interior designer and is sterile.

 

Antenn Moss Blackthorn
: Their older adopted son, he is studying to become an architect. His natural brother was a notorious murderer.

 

Cordif Blackthorn
: Their younger adopted son.

 

Trillia Juniper
: An actress from an acting Family, she’s been in the business all of her life, another rising star. Ex-lover to Raz.

 

Klay St. Johnswort
: Friendly competitor to Raz.

Lily Fescue
: Leading lady in the mystery Raz is starring in.

Reing Galangal
: An actor somewhat older than Raz who plays the villain in the mystery Raz is starring in.

 

T’Spindle
: FirstFamily GrandLord who owns the theater the Evening Primrose.

 

Great Lord Rand T’Ash
: Jeweler/blacksmith, T’Ash sells his creations in T’Ash’s Phoenix. (
HeartMate
)

 

Great Lady Danith Mallow D’Ash
: HeartMate of T’Ash, Danith is an animal Healer and the person who usually matches intelligent animal companions (Fams) with people.

 

First Level Healer Lark Holly
: One of the three FirstLevel Healers of Celta. She is a HeartMate. (
Heart Duel
)

 

Captain Ruis Elder and Nuada’s Sword
: Ruis is Captain of Nuada’s Sword, the last starship. (
Heart Thief
)

 

Guardsman Ilex Winterberry
: Druidan Guardsman who is assigned to the FirstFamilies. (
Heart Quest
)

 

Great Lord Muin (Vinni) T’Vine
: The young prophet of Celta.

R
az, Cerasus Cherry, shuffled the oracle cards for his breakfast table
mates, a half smile on his face. Of them all, the cards looked best in his long-fingered hands—good tools for an actor, as was his face and his smile.

He had breakfast at the Thespian Club every morning—late mornings for those who were working, earlier for those who were between jobs. The full complement of the group was six, three men and three women, none of them couples. Three of their group had eaten earlier and were gone by the time the rest of them had arrived at their reserved table.

A daily reserved table at the Thespian Club! His smile bloomed. They were all in their late twenties, rising fast in their careers, all talented, all ready to leap into stardom and excellent gilt. Not to mention the fame. Fame brought better, more challenging parts.

“You gonna shuffle all day to look at your pretty hands?” asked Klay St. Johnswort, Johns, with his patented sneer. If you wanted a rough-hewn pure alpha male hero type, Johns was your man.

Raz considered himself elegant . . . and with an edge. More versatile.

“Lay out the cards, me first!” Trillia wiggled in her seat, her voice higher than usual, anxious. She’d gotten bored with the secondary lead in her play and had resigned the night before and was worried that she’d jumped when she should have stuck.

Raz handed her the cards—they belonged to the club—so they’d absorb her energy. Praying under her breath, she shuffled, cut the deck thrice, and laid out a six-card pattern. Her breath whooshed out, then her praying went to muttering as she studied her divination. “Crimson Nuts of Knowledge . . . the six of blazers, Goddess of the Rising Star, the six of wands.”

“Looks good,” Raz said. “New opportunities, gilt, success. But you might have to travel.”

Johns said, “Could go to Gael City.”

Trillia made a moue at the mention of the smaller town. “Gael City.”

Raz tapped the six of wands. “Success.”

“Oh, very well. I’ll go straight to the guild from here.”

“Might want to wipe the egg off your chin first,” Raz said.

She rubbed at her face with her softleaf then flung it at him. “Oh, you.”

“I heard The Rep in Gael City was reviving
Heart and Sword
in an updated production,” Raz said.

Trillia sat up straight. “Fern Bountry, the
Nuada’s Sword
’s Captain’s wife! I could play Fern, kidnapped from the cryonic tube by evil mutineers . . . Wait, wait, she was dark.” Trillia grabbed a handful of her hair and brought it in front of her face. It was fading from a blond rinse back to brown; she grinned in relief. “I can do this.”

“Of course you can.” Raz collected the cards.

Johns grunted. “Gonna show us all your fine fortune cards again, Raz?”

Raz quirked a corner of his mouth. The cards had foretold an excellent future for him lately. “What, past, present, and future? I was just going to draw an ‘energy of the day’ card.”

“And he hasn’t had all good luck,” Trillia said. “There was that break-in at his apartment. Have the guardsmen found the thieves?”

“No. I didn’t lose much.” Raz frowned. Putting his space back in order had taken time, and he’d arranged for a decorator. He blew on his hands and the cards to dispel the negativity of the mention of the theft and the images that had trailed through his mind.

Drawing in a breath to center and bring in more positive energy, he shuffled on the exhale, inhaled, and pulled three cards from the deck and laid them out.

“Past.” He flicked it over, the same Goddess of the Rising Star that Trillia had pulled. Trillia sighed. Raz liked it when women sighed, especially if they were in the audience.

Grunting again, Johns said sourly, “Prob’ly gonna be all major named cards, from the GreatSuite, all from the Ogham.” Since their culture was based on the ancient Ogham alphabet, it wasn’t surprising the major suite of divination cards were, too.

“One hopes.” Raz grinned. Fully expecting to flip over The Oak King, solid success for years, as he had every time in the last few weeks, he turned it over.

The Summer Queen. The HeartMate card if drawn by a man.

Surprise flooded him. He’d always focused on his career, no time or inclination for a serious, permanent woman in his life.

Trillia whooped.

“Personal success and the fullness of creative expression.” Johns snorted a chuckle. “Changes are coming for you, man. A HeartMate. A love life distracts from a single-minded career climb.”

Raz couldn’t tell if he was envious or not. Johns
was
taking some delight in the upset of plans a HeartMate could cause. Raz wasn’t pleased. He liked his love life just as it was, full of casual sex and no expectations.

“Future?” Johns jutted his square chin at the cards.

His own jaw flexing, Raz revealed the last card. The Birch Wand. “New beginnings!” caroled Trillia.

He didn’t want a new beginning or a HeartMate. He was doing just fine.

Johns stood, drew a card from the deck, The Oak King, tossed it down, then clapped Raz on the shoulder, grinning. “HeartMate, huh? Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.”

H
elena D’Elecampane, Del, rode into the mountain town, hot and
dusty from the frontier. It had taken all day by stridebeast to wind up the rough road from the plains to the town and was now late afternoon. After two months in the wilderness, she was longing for a soak in a private hot spring, a good meal, and a bedsponge. And her HeartMate.

Not necessarily in that order, though it would be another couple of weeks before she arrived in the capital, Druida City, to meet and claim him.

She’d felt him during his final dreamquest to free his psi power a while back. That made him younger than her, by how much she wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter. She’d liked his mind touch and would no doubt like his physical touch . . .

“Hey, turn down that music!” a man shouted from the street, and she reluctantly thumbed off her saddle music player. From his scowl, the guy didn’t appreciate the sophisticated sound. Del loved jazz. It was a music that only a few enjoyed.

Stup has no taste,
said her fox Fam, Shunuk, raising his nose. He was riding on a pad behind her saddle.
Smells bad, too. Eats mostly vegetables.

Del snorted. “There are a couple of jazz clubs in Druida. I heard places are admitting Fams. A good reason to visit the big city. We can stock up on new holobooks and vizes.” They’d watched all she had dozens of times. Maybe she could see a play or two. “Druida will be fine.”

Many busy people,
Shunuk said, watching a man hurry down a street.

“Yes, and a lot more there,” Del said. “Too many people for us.”

Foxes are doing well in Druida.
Shunuk grinned.

Del wondered how he would be accepted there, though he was as able to take care of himself as she was . . . and she’d be walking into a structured society, too. As a GrandLady from a House that had been founded three centuries ago, she could attend any society parties she wanted. If she wanted to be a social butterfly like her parents had been. Which she didn’t.

All she’d ever wanted was to satisfy the itch to
explore
, to discover or see other places on Celta that no Druida noble even knew about. Most nobles only traveled back and forth from Druida to their country estates if they left the city at all. Oh, she supposed some visited Gael City, which was much smaller and more provincial than Druida, but that was it.

“We don’t have to stay there very long.” Only the time it took her to claim her HeartMate and meld him into her life. “We’ll be back on the road soon.” She’d wanted to see everything, and she’d done a good job of traversing the western parts of the north and south continents. She’d
made
maps of the continents and refined details.

As a girl she’d apprenticed herself to a cartographer and left on her first trip as soon as she finished her Second Passage—a dreamquest to free her psi power, her Flair—at seventeen. By that time her parents had been glad to see her leave. They didn’t understand her and she was too young to want to understand them. Everyone was relieved the awful arguments were over.

She touched the long, cylindrical security pouch containing her maps that hung from the stridebeast’s withers.

Maps are good.
Shunuk gave a little yip.
Pretty.

Del smiled. “Yeah, they are.” Her Flair had changed and the maps were now fully three-dimensional. She thought the HeartMate connection during his Passage had sparked that change.

Ever since she’d told Shunuk about the great Guildhall in Druida, he’d wanted to visit.

“I said so.” She grimaced. “Sometimes city people move slowly, like in the government. The Councils always take a while to assign a value to the maps.” She rolled her shoulders. “There’s a great amount of paperwork.”

“Yes, I’ve fulfilled my annual NobleGilt and more with these.”

Her stridebeast whiffled, then whined. He didn’t like the paving stones under his hooves. Steep Springs was growing slowly, in small increments, as all Celtan towns grew.

More gliders on the streets,
Shunuk said.
Will we get a glider?

“No.” Del smoothed a tangle of the stridebeast’s long hair, patted him. “Gliders aren’t good if there isn’t smooth, solid earth. They’re too big and take too much energy to power. Spells I don’t need to spend gilt on.” Del shook her head. “More buildings here, too.” More two-story brick and stone buildings rather than wooden, and there were
streets
, not just one circled drive around the park in the center of town. Two narrow spokes ran along the valley, and houses climbed up the hills. Pretty houses tinted in pretty colors with fancy carved trim. Del scowled. Fancy enough to appeal to some city folk as “quaint.” Steep Springs was definitely growing.