Heart Journey (38 page)

Straif swept his gaze to each of them. “A noble house or even a Residence, but not one I know. Don’t think the victim lives here. He had the scent of Druida on him.” Straif stretched, a physical man limbering every joint in his body after a long day; Raz noted the movement for use in the future.

Then Straif’s deep blue gaze bore into him. “My trail lies in Druida City. I took the liberty of contacting T’Cherry and requesting a seat in the last express airship there.” He gestured to the guards. “These gentlemen want to talk to you, show you a holo of the dead guy.” Straif rolled his shoulders and there were a couple of pops, then he bowed to Raz. “Good seeing you again.” He glanced around and his mouth twisted. “Nice place.”

It was emptier than Raz—and his Family—liked, but the destruction was gone. “Thank you,” he said.

Raz saw from the flicker in the lord’s eyes that Straif had noticed he didn’t hold Del’s hand or have an arm around her waist. Raz thought the tracker knew to a millimeter the amount of space between them, sensed their tension with each other.

Straif prowled toward them, took Del’s hand, and lifted it to his lips in a polished gesture, a FirstFamily GrandLord gesture. “See you later, Del. You and Doolee have another appointment for your holo portrait in three days.” He sniffed. “Don’t come by stridebeast, that takes two weeks.”

“We leave tomorrow,” she replied coolly. “Raz is driving a glider back for T’Cherry by the new route through Fairplay Pass. Glider’s shorter than stridebeast, longer than airship.”

“Right.” Straif reached over and rubbed Rosemary between her blue gray ears. “Cute kitten.”

I AM!
Rosemary replied and started her thin purr.

Straif glanced back at the Gael City guards. “My thanks for your help.”

The local guardsmen looked dubious.

“I’ll teleport to the Airpark.” Straif strolled from the chamber into the entryway, picked up a duffle, and ’ported away.

One of the guards cleared his throat awkwardly, holding a sphere. “Will you two look at the crime scene and body?”

Raz lifted Rosemary to meet her eyes.
I think I heard a mouse in the main bedroom this morning. It should be out and running around by now.

His FamKitten narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
You THINK?

“Yes.” He kept his face guileless.

She sniffed, commenting on his wish to get her out of the way. He stroked her from head to tail. She was just a baby and didn’t need to look at dead bodies . . . unless they were mice she’d dispatched herself. Without a sound she vanished from his hands and he heard a tiny thump from the MasterSuite.

Del had walked over to the guard, glanced down at the image in the sphere. “I don’t know him.” She frowned. “That looks like one of the fairground groves.”

“Yes.”

“We were near there earlier today, about WorkEndBell.”

“So T’Blackthorn informed us. You didn’t go into the grove?”

“No. We were on the fairground itself and the three western gliderways. That grove is to the east.”

Raz strode to the guard, held his palm up for the holo, braced himself. When he glanced down, he saw a strange scene in an eerie gray and white that revealed every detail of the night. He caught his breath at the sight of the body, a person whose life had fled, violently. The man was small with even features and a weak chin. He lay on his side and black liquid—blood—had pooled under him. His mouth was open slightly, his eyes, thankfully, were closed.

“How’d he die?” Raz asked.

“Knife. At about the same time the lights went on after
Heart and Sword
ended,” the older guard said.

Raz nodded, saw Del do the same. “I think I’ve seen him before.” Raz closed his eyes, forced away the afterimage of the body. Thought of the man alive and standing, moving. “It would be better if I’d seen him moving.”

“Dead don’t move much,” said another guard.

Raz shrugged. “I think he was one of the thieves at T’Spindle’s party who vandalized my glider. He had enough Flair to teleport himself and the other man away.”

The guard grunted. “Or enough practice.”

Raz opened his eyes and gave the man an edged smile. “That’s all I remember. You can contact T’Spindle about it.”

“We’ll talk to Winterberry, who is the Druida liaison. Leave it to us.” They all stood. “Thank you for your help,” the older man said. None of them offered their hands but turned and left the house with brisk solidity.

Raz poured himself a brandy. This little surprise had diverted him from the thorny problem of his HeartMate.

 

 

Something had happened in the theater. Del didn’t know what it was, but now that the guardsmen were gone, they could deal with it. Trillia must have made some comment about her. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

A lie and she didn’t think he’d ever lied to her before.

“You don’t want to talk about what’s bothering you, say so. Don’t lie.”

He lifted eyes that swirled with hot emotions that she couldn’t define, stood. “All right.” He bowed. “My apologies.” His jaw flexed. “Everything’s wrong and I don’t want to talk about it.” He went past her through the dining room and the kitchen; she heard him put the snifter in the cleanser. His voice floated back. “I’ll be sleeping in the blue guest room tonight; take any room you want.”

That stabbed. Her blood drained from her head and clamminess wrapped around her. Her gut churned with nausea.

He didn’t want loving, sex, closeness. Easier to tell her when he wasn’t looking at her? Not even in her presence?

She took a deep breath and stood in his way when he returned. He didn’t meet her eyes.

“You don’t want to be in my company? Fine. I’m not the one due at work in two days.” She lifted her chin, met his surprised gaze. “You and Rosemary go ahead in the glider. I’ll pick up my stridebeast and Shunuk and I will ride back to Druida City. Doolee and T’Apple can wait. I want my mount in town, anyway. For the moment.” Until they headed out again on an empty winding road away from him.

Lady and Lord, she hurt. She didn’t know she could hurt so bad. She talked around the lump in her throat. She would not show him how devastated she was. She didn’t want to understand how devastated she was herself.

“You’re walking away?” No actor’s voice here; pure man, reacting.

She trembled inside. After a mental spell to keep herself from shuddering, she said, “Yes.”

The atmosphere sizzled between them, with anger and hurt, not passion. Raz’s jaw clenched and unclenched. He said nothing.

Del gave a sharp nod. “Right.” She turned on her heel and strode toward the door.

He caught up with her in three steps, caught her hand, lifted it to his mouth. “I’m sorry. Please. Don’t go.”

Even with the spell, she flinched, dammit!

He took both her hands, held them tight, spoke fast and husky. “I don’t want you out of my life. Not yet. Please don’t go . . . yet. I’m not ready for this to end now. I’ve hurt you and I’m sorry. I . . . I . . . care for you, Del. You must know that.”

She did, but she wanted more. She wanted
everything.
So much, too much. “Now”—he wanted to live only in the moment. She was once good at doing that.

“My lovely Del.” He opened the link between them and she was flooded with emotions overwhelming her. Sparkling yearning urgent need . . . his and hers.

She hung on to him as she strove to master the emotions clashing inside her, rocking her, only managed a whisper. “I won’t go . . . yet.”

He dropped her hands to grab her close and wrap his arms around her. His breath was ragged in her ears. “Stay with me, for now.”

She wanted forever. She shut out the future, croaked, “For now.”

They made love on the floor and later he carried her upstairs and they bathed and loved again. But after he’d fallen asleep, she was left empty and staring at the ceiling, contemplating a lonely, winding road.

 

 

T
he next morning she awoke before dawn as usual and thought of
Raz’s behavior the night before. He’d had a few shocks. Hell, so had she, viewing that murder scene. Murder brought this mess of thefts and vandalism to a whole other level. Not much she could do but be careful and protect her own.

Her own Fam, her own man.

Just how long he’d be her man, she didn’t know, but she knew enough that she was going to have a very hard time walking away from him.

But she had tentative plans for a compromise . . . maybe. Where could they live that would please them both?

She hadn’t seen the HeartGift she’d given him. What did it show as Raz’s perfect home?

What if it revealed something in Druida?

She didn’t know. Maybe she could get something from Healers to help her live in the city, or the starship
Nuada’s Sword
might have a remedy, but she flinched at the thought.

Wouldn’t a HeartMate’s home be a place where she could live, too?

She didn’t know. Maybe HeartMate love didn’t mean living together, but would stretch to living in different places, or one being on the road and the other in a city. The thought made her feel hollow.

She didn’t know what would happen when they went back to Druida City, either. The more time she spent there, the more she felt like a spring was winding tight inside her, ready to snap. This trip had loosened it a bit, and a two-day glider ride through countryside would help, but a heavy dread waited.

Raz woke then and opened his eyes, they went from blurry to sharp as he smiled with a sweetness that made her clench. Surely he would come to love her like she loved him? Maybe not; she loved him so intensely it felt as if it had sunk into her very bones, never to be removed.

Never wholly her own self again.

T
hey had nearly recovered their previous easiness by the time they took
a waterfall together—and made love again—and dressed, preparing to leave Gael City.

Del packed her duffle, swept the room with a practiced glance to see she hadn’t left anything. Knew she had left a lot of herself here: her quiet satisfaction at being alone with Raz; her innocence before she got involved in a murder; much of her hope that she and Raz would live together as HeartMates. “Ready?”

“Wait,” he said, adjusting his cuffs, then taking something from his trous pocket. She wore her good leathers, he wore a fashionable linen trous and shirt suit with minimal blousing of the sleeves and legs. He’d always be the better dressed of them.

He set a circle of papyrus about five centimeters wide above her left breast, tapped it. Del felt a warmth as whatever design on the sheet was transferred to her leathers. With a grin, Raz took her fingers and led her to the mirror. “Look.”

The ancient symbol of the theater—a happy white mask and a sad black one—was now inscribed on her leathers. Raz circled his finger around it. “You’re now a lifetime member of the Theater Guild.”

Turning over the hand he held, he pressed more circles of papyrus into her palm. “For all your leathers.” He cleared his throat. “I like the looks of it.”

“I do, too. A wonderful gift, thank you.” Her own voice was husky.

Rosemary and Shunuk trotted into the room; they’d been wandering, “out looking for a last wild nibble.” Both appeared satisfied.

Time to go? A new ADVENTURE, glider ride home!
Rosemary said.

“Time to go,” Raz agreed. Once more he scanned the room. “I’ve done the best I can for this place.” He shrugged. “I’ll let my sister and parents take care of the rest, make it what they want.”

Del got the feeling that he’d crossed some inner threshold, that whatever place this house and estate had had in his life had changed forever. She recalled the holo murder scene and figured that would affect anyone.

He glanced at her. “I don’t think others of my Family will have to view that holo. I’m glad.”

Because this was their place more than his. “I’m glad, too.”

They did a tour of the house and estate, left before WorkBell dawn.

To Del’s surprise, Raz had already arranged transport for her stridebeast to Druida and stabling in the city.

As soon as they reached the outskirts of Gael City, tension dropped from Del like a heavy load off her back. She sighed and thinned her window to open air. Raz thinned the roof.

Rosemary hopped up and down in her web sling with glee.
Go, go, GO!

Raz did. He drove faster than any glider on the road, not that there were many. They headed out on the standard route of hard-packed earth toward Druida. Del shut her mind to the destination and lived in the now.

They would travel over plains and foothills and camp in one of the mountain valleys tonight, then take the new airship and glider route through Fairplay Canyon the next morning. At the speed they were going, they’d cut several septhours off the usual glider trip. More than she’d anticipated.