Protector of the Flight (63 page)

Alexa,
Jaquar holding Jetyer, and Marian stood where the lightning hit. Jaquar let go
of Jetyer and the boy ran to Calli and Marrec, sandwiching himself between
them.

Marian
and Jaquar linked hands and minds and swept their staffs around the encampment,
chanting. Alexa looked shell-shocked. Her hair stood straight out from her
head. She fumbled to sheath her baton, stared down at Seeva’s crisped remains.

“Eeww.”

More
thunder, lightning.

Rain
pummeled down, washing away the smog, cleansing everything, then stopped as
suddenly as it came, and a dry, hot wind followed. Jaquar smiled.

Alexa
shook her head. “Bad show.”

“Yes,”
Calli said.

“I
felt you,” Marian said. “Both Jaquar and I did. We all are linked enough for
that. We met Alexa and landed, then rode lightning here.” She shook her head,
glanced around at the sluggish camp. “The sleepiness wouldn’t have alarmed me.”
She grimaced. “I think your death would have jolted me, but by then it would
have been too late.”

“Far
too late.” Calli coughed.

At
that moment, Luthan arrived.

Calli
jerked to her feet, glaring. “Your Singer set us up.”

He
closed his eyes and sighed. “All three Exotiques live.” When he opened his
lashes, he said, “Did Koz live?”

“Right
here.” Koz exited his tent with Diaminta.

“Thank
the Song, the best future won.” Luthan glanced down at Seeva. “She’s dead,
good.” Then he met Calli’s gaze, face grim. “Only you could make everything
turn out as it should. She would have been the best Master for the Dark. That
has been prevented.”

Jaquar
tilted his head. “I’ve just been notified that another Master to oversee the
management and the invasion of the horrors has been chosen.”

“But
it is not Seeva.
That
battle we won,” Luthan said.

“And
it isn’t someone from us, from the Castle or the Chevaliers, who know us well,”
Alexa said.

Silence.

“What?”
asked Alexa.

“It’s
someone from Castleton,” Jaquar said.

Calli
gritted her teeth. “Still not quite as bad.”

“One
of Townmaster Sevair Masif’s assistants,” Jaquar added.

“Ouch.”
Calli winced.

Alexa
tapped her baton. “The Community of the Cities and Towns have approached us to
Summon the next Exotique.”

Sighing,
Calli said, “And so it continues.”

“And
so it continues.”

Then
Diaminta began to yell. She wriggled and Koz put her down on her feet. She
rocked a little, held out her arms to Calli. “Ma. Ma. Ma.” And staggered to
her.

Marrec
grinned. “Her first steps.”

Calli
scooped up Diaminta. Her daughter nuzzled her, set her face against her and
sighed a warm, good, baby breath onto her neck. Standing, she settled the
little girl on one hip, stretched out her arm for Marrec. He moved in and put
his solid arm around her waist, kissed her cheek. Jetyer joined them, grasping
Marrec’s other arm and standing in front of them both. It would have made a
perfect picture back home. Too bad they had no cameras on Lladrana.

“We’ll
hire a painter this very month,” Marrec said. “To image us so our children’s
children will know how we made a family. And we’ll trade services for a
musician to set our Songs into the canvas with our images. Song willing,
strains of us will live for a long, long time.”

Calli
swallowed, pressed close to her husband as he shifted toward her. They’d
survived. Through everything that had happened, on Lladrana and on Earth.
They’d done more than survive, they’d triumphed, fulfilling the dreams of their
own and their children, their children to come.

Volarans
circled them, running around them, wings slightly lifted, in some ritual
blessing of their own that flowed out and covered her and her family with
sparkling Power, and Calli heard for the first time, the Song of the Volarans
for their Exotique. Tears filled her eyes and she didn’t stop them as they
meandered down her cheeks.

She
kissed Diaminta’s soft black hair. “I love you, Diaminta.”

“Ma.
Ma.” Her daughter snuggled closer.

Calli
bent and made a loud smacking noise as she kissed Jetyer’s temple. He grinned
up at her and she noticed he had a dimple. Like his father. “I love you,
Jetyer.”

“I
love you, Mama.” His eyes, too, sheened.

When
she turned to kiss Marrec, his lips were there, a little open. Their mouths
melded, his tongue caressed hers and sent Power through her. They withdrew from
the kiss at the same time. His eyes were as deep and rich and soft as melted
chocolate. “I love you, Calli.”

“I
love you.”

The
volarans stopped running and fanned around the family.

Alexa
and Bastien, Marian and Jaquar faced them, all in attitudes reflecting their
character.

“A
real Hallmark moment,” Alexa said, hand on hip.

“You
look a picture,” Marian said at the same time.

“Of
a happy family,” Bastien said.

“We
are a happy family,” Marrec said.

Content,
Calli smiled.

“Let’s
go make a home and a family and a life,” Marrec said.

“We’ll
make a family,” Calli agreed. She glanced around the now-busy camp, bustling
with Power and energy and life. The stars were bright against a black sky, and
she felt like one of them, as the people around her were stars, too. Bright and
burning. “But there will be a last battle.”

Marrec’s
arm tightened like steel around her waist. His gaze had gone tough and hard. He
nodded. “We’ll be there for that, too.”

“Together,”
they said.

Squires

CUT SCENE.  All
rights reserved; copyright © Robin D. Owens. The text contained within may not
be reproduced in whole or in part or distributed in any form whatsoever OR SOLD
without first obtaining permission from the author.

A couple of young, male Chevaliers ran up to them. They bowed. One
said, "I'm Crible and this is my pairling Fourag. We would like to offer
ourselves as squires to you, Chevalier Guardpont and Exotique Calli. We would
be honored to groom your exceptional volarans."

They both needed to fill out, one taller and thinner than the
other, who looked as if he'd turn stocky. Both had threads of silver at each
temple. Some Power, then.

Calli glanced at Marrec to find him looking at her with raised
eyebrows.
I approve of these two.

Do you know them?

I've seen them around. They work hard. They are ambitious.

The two young men, she thought they might be around twenty, looked
neat and clean and there was the faint smell of horse and volarans on them.

"How good are you with horses?" she asked.

Fourag grimaced. "Fair."

She wanted someone more than fair with horses on her staff. Staff!
Imagine that. But she'd had ideas about staffing the ranch at home and those
could certainly be flexed to fit her new, incredible, circumstances.

"You wish to become Chevaliers?" asked Marrec.

"Yes!" they
replied in unison.

I approve,
Marrec repeated.

"Fine," Marian said. "But I also want a squire...a
personal assistant who wishes to remain in that post who is exceptional, she
liked that new word, had learned the meaning from Marrec's mind, with horses as
well as volarans." She glanced around to see a lot of Chevaliers and most of
the Marshalls in the Landing Field. "Let everyone know." She wasn't
sure how a person went about advertising for staff. Word of mouth was good, it
worked fine on Earth.

Thealia Germain, Lady Knight of the Marshalls, strode up.
"Let's lunch in the Marshall's dining room and review this morning's
training session."

A surge of disappointment came with the stiffening of Marrec's arm
behind Calli's back. She supposed she needed to do this. It wasn't as if she'd
never watched her own performances time and again to see what she could have
done better in a sixteen second ride. She'd even seen the last time, seen Spark
slip, her own fall, his crushing her.

She shook off the memory, sent a responding pulse of
disillusionment and resignation to Marrec, reached over and took his hand to
link fingers with him.

Marrec nodded at the
two hopeful young men. "You're hired. Speak to Seeva Hallard about rooms.
Move your things from the barracks to Horseshoe Hall. If either Dark Lance or
Thunder doesn't like you, you're back to being soldiers."

Thunder stepped near the young men at that, snuffled at each of
them, butted Fourag.
This one smells good.

I like this one,
Dark Lance said at the same time, eyeing Crible, the taller,
lankier man.

"Sounds good," Marrec said. He waved Crible and Fourag
to the volarans. "Take care of them."

The two hurried to comply, murmuring to their new charges and
walking with the flying horses to the stables. Calli had the impression that
they were giddy with relief that their plan had gone so well and intended to
groom the volarans to the last tuft of feather.

Calli's First Battle

Robin D. Owens
Protector of
the Flight
– Alternative Scene: Calli's First Battle

CUT SCENE.  All
rights reserved; copyright © Robin D. Owens.  The text contained within may not
be reproduced in whole or in part or distributed in any form whatsoever OR SOLD
without first obtaining permission from the author

They spiralled down to the battlefield. Marrec's gut tensed. This
was a big incursion. Must be around a hundred horrors. The Marshalls and
Chevaliers had agreed that he and Calli would continue to follow Lady Hallard
who would attack from the opposite direction of the Marshalls, then both groups
would work inward.

Marrec opened himself completely to Calli. Fear lurked in the back
of her mind, under control. Good.
Ready?

She sucked in a deep breath, nodded.
Ayes.

He was pleased she used Lladranan.

Just do as we have practiced and you will be fine.

They flew to attach themselves to the front of Lady Hallard's
wing, just behind her. Marrec nodded to her new Chief of Chevaliers**.

"Dive!" commanded Hallard.

Shield!
ordered Marrec.

Calli heard it in her mind, snapped a forcefield bubble around
Marrec, exhaled a little prayer that the action had been instinctive reaction
to the demand she'd heard again and again in the last couple of weeks. She
puffed out her breath and drew in another deep one as the ground
—
and
the monsters, this time no illusion
—
got nearer
and nearer. Splotches of color separated into different beasts
—
black renders, yellow slayers, gray soul suckers. Bigger
than she'd expected. Huge.

On the ground, they screamed in rage and vicious delight at the
thought of killing, maiming, tearing into human and volaran flesh. Tasty meat.

Waves of their brutal glee smacked her, rocked her back in the
saddle. Thunder whinnied in fear. She couldn't have that
—
have Thunder
fear, let herself fear. Only concentration on the event mattered.

Marrec and the other Swords dove, weapons out, at the monsters. On
the other side of the mass of horrors, she saw the Marshall Swords, including
Alexa, do the same. Battle cries ripped from their voices. Shields, like
herself, thank God, flew over the battlefield.

Icy panic slopped in
her stomach, but she didn't allow it to overwhelm her. Stay cool. Stay calm.

But she wished this was thirteen second event. No chance of that.

Until two small dreeths appeared and breathed fire. Took out a
line of Chevaliers. Zoomed toward her.

Then others were around her, Bastien, Thealia's Shield, leading
her to safety and warriors attacked.

***

The link with Calli was incredible. Knowing that he was completely
Shielded, that he didn't need to defend himself at all, her Powerful Shield
would keep all attackers from him, left him free to fight as he never had
before. Now and then he and Dark Lance felt a nudge from Calli and Thunder,
urging a move in a different direction, and he followed. All his focus was on
keeping Gray calm and killing the horrors, swinging sword, using shield in
up-close fights.

Near the end, he had the luxury of going afoot. When he met Alexa
on the ground across the dismembered heap of a slayer and two soul suckers,
they exchanged fierce grins. Though the invasion had been been larger than
usual, he'd killed more monsters than usual, the time had passed more quickly. He
shook his head, noticing the huge quiet of the abscence of fighting
—
no
horrors
screaming rage and hatred, no