Protector of the Flight (15 page)

Marian’s
expression softened. “I understand.”

“So
do I,” Alexa said, smiling.

“I
am
the volarans’ Exotique,” Calli said.

Masif
wiped his mouth and hands with a napkin, then stood. He’d eaten very
efficiently. All his turnip fries were gone. Without ketchup. There was no hope
they’d link up together. He stood and slid from the table, offered Alexa a
hand.

Alexa
opened her fingers and picked out a gold coin. Masif curled her fingers back
over the money and said something. He nodded to Marian and Calli.

On
the other hand, the guy was obviously treating them. A gentleman. She could go
for a gentleman.

Alexa
and Marian murmured thanks in Lladranan. Calli waited and said, “Thank you,”
matching his serious expression.

He
set several gleaming silver coins on the table, bowed once more and walked
away.

“Nice
guy,” Alexa said.

“Very
serious,” Marian said.

“Yes,
we seem to prefer the rogue and charmer types, huh? How about you, Calli?”

“I’d
like a man who’d love me.”

Again
those warm smiles. “That’s what’s important,” Marian said. She stood and Calli
followed her, glancing around the place, not looking at the trophies. Not many
people lingered. Two gay couples, one male, one female, all of whom smiled at
her, and a grizzled old man, stood at the bar. The other booths were empty.

“One
moment,” Alexa said. She went toward a door on the wall.

“I’ve
never been in there,” Marian said, following.

Feet
slow, Calli asked, “More trophies?”

“Not
exactly.” Alexa pushed open the door. The room was dark but the minute she
walked in, light came on. She waved to roughly faceted quartz crystals sitting
in brackets.

“An
older lighting system, interesting,” Marian said. She stopped and looked up.

Calli
entered the room and looked up, too. It wasn’t a large room, but it was
high-ceilinged and held hundreds of flags in several rows from the top of the
room to just above a tall Lladranan man’s head.

“Heraldic
banners of Chevaliers and Marshalls who’ve died the last two and a half years
fighting the Dark,” Alexa said.

Looking
closer, Calli saw many were ripped and torn, showed brown stains of earth and
blood. A couple were burnt and eaten away as if acid had spilled on them. Other
colored stains, green, yellow or black, also decorated the flags.

Calli
gulped.

Alexa
stared at a big maroon banner edged in gold except where a chunk was burnt. Her
expression was inscrutable. “That one belonged to Lord Knight Swordmarshall
Reynard Vauxveau, Bastien and Luthan’s father.”

Swordmarshall
Thealia held that title, Calli knew, the greatest title in all the land. So the
most powerful man in the country had died.

Marian
said, “We must return to the Castle.” She walked back into the barroom. Alexa
did, too, leaving Calli alone.

Calli
stared at the flags, hanging still and solemn. Her heart tightened in awe and
fear. All these people had fought against the monsters displayed in the other
room, and lost. Died.

Soon
Calli would bind herself to a man who’d fight. She’d be expected to fight, too.
Or defend with magic, Shield to the man’s Sword. Risk limb and life and
volaran. Volarans must have died, too. She put a hand to her throat.

She
wanted a husband and a family and a ranch and beautiful volarans.

This
was the price.

11

A
s they were
leaving town, Calli heard the worst thing in the world, horses’ terrified
cries. She ran in the direction—more by feel and the screeching notes of mental
noise than by ears. It was farther than she expected, through the town to the
outskirts. There she saw a small round pen where a man flailed at two horses, a
black and a bay, with a snapping whip, raising blood.

A
protective force field rippled around the man with the whip, but Calli could
see his aura beneath—a nauseating yellow-green color. In the shadows of the
building another chartreuse glow pulsed with meanness and excitement as he
watched the abuse.

“Stop!”
Calli shouted, running fast. Fury burned in her so hotly she thought her hair
crackled out from her head.

The
men turned to her, sneers on their face. Then they froze. The guy with the whip
dropped his arm, openmouthed.

Alexa,
breathing hard, caught Calli’s arm. “You slow down.
Calm
down. I’ll
translate for you, but watch yourself. Your Power is out of control, shooting
off sparks!”

Alexa’s
strong grip gave Calli pause. Her words penetrated the red haze. Then she
blinked, seeing what Alexa said was true. Little fire-bright sparks rose from
her skin.

The
man in the shadows bolted.

Alexa’s
baton flew into her hand. She pointed it at the men and yelled, “Arret!”

This
time the men really did freeze, midmotion, their eyes rolling as wildly as the
horses’. Satisfaction surged in Calli. Super powers at work. Excellent. She
found herself grinning and knew part of the assholes’ fear was because of her.
Really good.

She
reached the paddock where the horses still circled in fright. “What do you
think you’re doing?” she said softly to the men. Alexa translated the question,
her voice full of threat.

The
men said nothing. Calli got the impression they couldn’t speak. Alexa waved.
“Parly.”

Calli
leaned against the wooden rail, waiting until it was safe. The man in the pen
gauged the horses’ gallops and ran to escape when they were on the far side of
him. He scrambled over the fence.

“Well?”
asked Calli, lacing menace into her tone. The guy in the shadows cringed back,
tumbled into speech, gesticulating.

Alexa
looked at Calli, disgust on her face. “He said the horses wouldn’t go.”

“They’re
goin’ now.”

“That’s
for sure,” Marian said, joining them. She sent the men an icily aristocratic
look that had them bunching together.

“What’s
the law about animal abuse?” Calli asked.

“Don’t
know,” Alexa said, “but I’ll find out.”

“Tell
’em that I want ’em gone. Now,” Calli said.

That
didn’t go over well. The men raised their own voices, waved their hands. Calli
thought they were using the old “these animals are my property and I can do
whatever I want with them” defense. Mid-tirade she swept an arm out toward them
and banged them up against the outbuilding wall.

Alexa
grabbed her arm. “Don’t do that again. Your Power is out of control.”

She
was right. Calli trembled from more than her anger. Power rushed through her like
a flooding river. She had to dam it, use it. For good. Not to whup some stupid
asses who had skulls too thick to ever learn how to treat a horse, egos too
solid to ever think that someone else could teach them. Even a lesson in fear
wouldn’t last with them very long.

But,
oh, how she wanted to
give
them that lesson in fear. Terrify them
until—Sparks jumped from her skin again, and gave her a quick, shocking
backlash, sizzling a few of her nerves.

“Wow,”
Alexa said. “Lock it down, Calli.”

Dam
it. Right. She sucked in a deep lungful of summer air.

Marian
had been coolly watching. “I think it would be best if we paid them off for the
moment. Bought the horses. Are you all right with that, Calli?”

“Yes,
but I don’t have any money.”

“We’ll
take care of it,” Marian said, keeping her eye on the men. She said something,
sounded like a price. The men shook their heads, their voices becoming louder
again.

Marian
looked down her nose, gestured to the horses, obviously telling the guys the
animals weren’t in good shape.

They
argued more.

“Arret,”
Alexa said, crossed her arms and glared. “Take it or leave it, but get away
from here.”

The
man who’d been in the ring spat in the dirt.

“Too
stupid to live,” Marian said in a tone of wonder. “Facing the three most
Powerful women in the country and arguing over a few coins.”

Calli
turned to the two men, considering what else she might be able to do with
magic.

Marian
touched her arm. “You’re very Powerful. You’ve proven your point, you don’t
need to intimidate them further.” She handed Calli three small gold coins.

Sending
a scalding look at Marian, Calli shook off her hand. Motioning to Alexa, she
strode up to the men. “You tell these…turds…that they had better not
ever
treat another horse this way or I’ll skin their hides.”

With
a smile that showed all her teeth, Alexa fingered her sheathed baton and
repeated the words. The men paled. Calli’s smile matched Alexa’s.

“Bastien
and I will make sure they pay,” Alexa growled. The two weren’t looking happy
now. In fact, their eyes had gone wide and round as they looked from Calli to
Alexa to Marian.

Calli
threw the gold coins at the men’s feet. “Go.”

They
scooped up the gold and scrambled away without a backward glance.

Now
she was faced with the task of transporting two terrified and abused horses up
to the Castle. She didn’t know how she’d manage. It usually took her a minimum
of two and a half hours to work a green horse into trusting her, let alone a
mistreated one. “We need to get the horses to the Castle.”

“Or
stash them somewhere until you can come back to them,” Marian said.

“That
could work.” Calli’d rather have them close. These animals she understood. The
familiarity of horseflesh, even their scent, reassured her, reminded her that
she was a damn good horsewoman.

“Try
whispering to them,” Alexa said.

“I’m
not going near them just yet.”

“With
your
mind,
Calli,” Alexa suggested gently.

Shit,
what did Alexa think Calli could say? “Here, horsey, horsey,” like some
tenderfoot? Calli leaned on the rail and closed her eyes. She brought the
equine language she’d learned a bit of yesterday to mind and mentally
reached
for the horses. She heard fearful shouts. Men. Will kill me. Will eat me. Run.
Run. Run.

Calm,
she tried
radiating the feeling.
Come to me. I will help. I will protect.
She said
that in her mind but kept up a flow of completely confident and serene emotions
to them.

The
sun bore down on her, making her shirt stick to her back. Her scalp dampened.
This was hard!

The
horses’ hooves slowed from a gallop to a canter, then a walk. Finally they
calmed and lowered their heads to sniff around the ring.

Come
see me,
she coaxed.

Their
eyes rolled as they saw her—or maybe it was the three of them, not quite in the
shades they might usually see.

But
now Calli could sense their thought patterns—or equine images. Of course, they
weren’t intelligent like volarans. But they were curious. Especially about her
smell, which was volaran and horse and different-horse. And predator, but the
meat-eater was behind a fence and the bad bad-men predators were gone and the
other littler predators smelled interesting, too.

Calli
smiled. The work to connect lightly with their minds, to soothe them, to
hear
them paid off in joy. Here, on Lladrana, she
could
whisper to horses
with more than her voice and body language. In Lladrana, horses could whisper
back. And that squeezed her heart nearly as much as flying on volarans. To be
appreciated and respected and someday loved by beings she’d always loved
herself was another priceless gift that Lladrana had brought her.

Come
see me.
And they did. They walked over and when she didn’t move in a threatening
manner, dipped their heads to whuffle her hair. They jostled each other to get
the best position to sniff her up and down.

Without
looking away from the two, Calli said, “They want to look at you two. Come to
the rail.”

“Oh,
very well,” Alexa huffed and came to stand on Calli’s right. The horse nearest
to her, a black, whinnied a greeting. Alexa held out her hand and when the
horse came near her, rubbed its neck. The black lowered its head to sniff at
her baton.

Calli
got the impression that the horses felt slightly reassured that the three women
smelled of volaran and two of them had the scent of wondrous-magical-creature.

Marian
had come to stand at Calli’s left—to stand near the newcomer instead of next to
Alexa!—and the black drifted over to her. Even the roan Calli was rubbing and
murmuring to turned its head to see her.

To
them, she smelled of ocean. And big magic. And a little of fire, which they
didn’t like much.

Then
they stilled. Each pricked their ears, looked past Calli…and upward. A small,
foot-long volaran of a demure brown, flew to them and landed on the thick rail
post of the pen.