Traveller's Refuge (16 page)

Bish looked around them like he expected someone to jump out and say “surprise”. “Nikolas? Nikolas Alexander?” He shook his head. “Our brother has been so fried on drugs he can barely remember his name.”

Jade laid her head down against Merlyn’s shoulder. “That’s how they controlled him? Oh, God, Merlyn. We should have made him come with us.”

“He wouldn’t, honey. You know we tried.”

Bish looked at them in horror. Finally, he whispered, “You’re trying to tell me that Dad really had you kidnapped? You’re serious? What kind of crazy story is that?”

“The truth,” Jade said flatly.

“Why? Why would he do that? You’re crazy!” he declared. Merlyn just looked at him with a steady, sober gaze. “Okay. Suppose I believe you? Why did he do it?” he asked quietly.

“Do you remember the McCrorys and the Taylors?” Jade asked diffidently.

“The two scientists and their families who disappeared a couple years before you? Your sister Rebaccah was married to McCrory, wasn’t she? What about it?” he asked, bewildered by her question. “What do they have to do with this?”

“I understand that you’ve met Samara? Her last name is McCrory,” Jade revealed gently. “Her father is Hamilton McCrory. Ham and Rachel came through the passage with their oldest little girl Elizabeth. Rachel was pregnant with Samara. Three weeks later, Nathan and Morgana Taylor came through with their oldest boy Joshua.”

“Okay…” Bish was still confused. “Suppose they did? What does that have to do with you, aside from the relationship?”

Sighing so deeply it hurt to hear him, Merlyn explained, “They left some of their working notes behind when they disappeared. They discovered some anomalies they couldn’t explain that led them to postulate the possibility of this place—or at least some place like it—a place with an invisible entrance that took up unseen time and space. They speculated that it might be a different dimension or a hidden UFO base or…I’m sure you can fill in the possibilities yourself.”

“So far, I’m with you. Then what?”

“Dad had Jade working on the papers before we married. The week before the wedding, she finally figured out what they found. When she realized what she had, she decided that she couldn’t let Dad get his grubby mitts on it so she destroyed all of the notes, set the computer programming to self-destruct, got rid of every scrap of paper.” He raised Jade’s hand to his mouth and gently kissed it. “Dad found out the day of the wedding. When we were abducted, we were brought to the Bright Shadows Mountains and locked in a hut with Nikolas. Dad came along and threatened to kill Nik and me if Jade didn’t tell him what she knew.” He swiped at a stray tear that trickled down his cheek. “Jade told him to kill us all as she would never tell him anything. He had them strip our clothes off and locked us in.”

“I don’t know if you remember but it was December and below freezing. Jade did that mind trick she used to do on the lock. It took
hours
!” He remembered with anguish. “Finally, she had it unlocked and we spent a good hour crashing against that door until it jarred the hasp loose.”

“You got away? Why didn’t you tell someone?” Bish demanded.

Jade screamed in frustration. “You still don’t get it, do you? Who were we going to tell? The Department has sticky tentacles in every office in our government. Wherever we went—whoever we told, we were endangering more innocent people.” She wanted to hit something but she calmed down when she felt Merlyn squeeze her hand. “So! When we got out, we decided to try to find the hidden place. Hell! For all we knew it was a complete void and we would die! I just knew that your father couldn’t get his hands on it.”

“So you found it. How?”

“The same way you did. We took shelter in a cave. When we smelled the roses—in December!—we followed the scent but Nik refused to come and we couldn’t wait there to convince him.” For the first time, Merlyn smiled. “Dai was meditating in the little cavern when we came through. He didn’t turn a hair when we arrived stark naked and blue with cold.”

Jade laughed out loud. “He was so funny. There we were, freezing and he’s talking to Merlyn about some bonding. All we wanted to do was get warm. Well, we certainly got warm!” Her laughter took on the edge of hysteria. “We haven’t been that warm since. We almost died from
schalzah
but I can definitely say we weren’t cold anymore.”

Merlyn got up, plucked Jade from her chair and sat back down with her in his lap. He held her close and comforted her, “Shh. It’s over, Jade. All over.” Looking at Bishop, he added, “Dad’s still looking, you know. When we searched Dancer’s clothes, we found a tiny electronic device. Ham’s pretty sure that it’s some kind of transmitter. He destroyed it but there may be others.”

“You think he was following Dancer to find this place? That all that rot about the Waterloo Group going after him was just to get him to find the valley?” Bish just stared at them. “What about Trav and me? And why is it so important?”

“We don’t know. You didn’t seem to have too many hiding places on you but Trav seems to have brought quite a pile of stuff with him. We’ll have to go through his things carefully. As for why? Dad said something about an old journal he inherited from Great-Uncle Cage. I think he thinks there’s a treasure here.”

“Huh. What about the Taylors? You know that Morgana is Dancer and Trav’s aunt, right?”

“What?” Merlyn frowned at him. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure. She’s their dad’s sister.” Bishop’s brow wrinkled in concentration. “It was in all the papers last year when they were murdered. All about how tragedy continues to strike the family.”

“Nate and Morgana went down to Rebaccah’s Promise right before Dancer arrived. They probably don’t even know that they’re here,” Jade whispered softly.

“If Dad knows, that would be two strikes against the Devereauxs.” Merlyn stared at Bishop angrily. “They’re in more danger than we even imagined.”

Jade smiled sadly. “Not much of a reunion, is it?”

“Better than a poke in the eye with a stick,” he pointed out morosely.

* * * * *

Dancer paced back and forth across the round living area impatiently. “What’s taking so long?” he demanded. “Trav could have taken ten baths by now.”

“Perhaps,” Dai answered agreeably, “but it would be rude to rush through a bath with his promised bond mate just so he could visit with his brother. After all, a bond- mate comes first—always—as you well know.”

“Bond mate!” He stopped dead, thunderstruck at the idea. “He just got here! How can he have a bond mate?”

“Except for the day Traveller arrived, you have been in seclusion, Dancer. As I recall, you took a bond mate the first eight-day you arrived,” Merlyn reminded him with a smile. “Compared to you, he’s been quite slow.” The others laughed when Dancer’s cheeks turned ruddy lavender. “He is also still quite fragile, so he must move slowly and carefully. Sit. Rest while you can. Eat some of those baby bars that Llyon concocted. You may be out of
burda
but Eppie is still in
schalzina
. You may have to have energy to care for her at a moment’s notice.”

Dancer nodded and sat down. “Dai says that you are expecting twins again? And the babies are due when?”

A faint glimmer of a smile passed Jade’s face.

“They are due the same day as our baby, Dancer. It seems that the bonding-rite storm caught women all over the valley by surprise,” Eppie told him with a smile. “I think Dai told me there are twenty-three pregnant women due then. The healers will be busy and it will be wonderful to have so many new children.”

“Well, they should have been in the middle of the storm!”

“It was quite a storm,” Jade agreed with amusement. “Merlyn thought he was going to be devoured whole.”

“I
was
devoured whole,” he corrected with a smile. “I’m a mere shell of a man now, between the
schalzina
and then the
schalzah
after she was pregnant, I bet I’ve lost twenty pounds. Being a bond mate is a dangerous job.”

Bish leaned forward in his chair. “Then why do it? Why not just get married?” When they all laughed, he said, “Well?”

“I suppose you deserve a serious answer,” Merlyn replied soberly. “Dai and I have talked many times about this. We think that the valley changes us in some way. Maybe the change happens in the passage. Whether a man or woman comes through the passage, within a short time of their arrival, they start to change. If they don’t have a
semtorn
who transfers the enzyme within about a year, their brain starts to slowly deteriorate until they eventually go insane, like Homer Brown.”

“Dancer was here less than an eight-day when he was bonded with Eppie. Obviously, there was something working there, because at the end of the oath-binding, there was a lightning storm such as we have never seen. They were struck by a flash, the sentinel stones lit up like they were transparent and when it was over, the slashes on their palms were completely healed. That was certainly no illusion.”

“Maybe, they weren’t really cut?” Bish asked.

“Oh, our palms were cut,” Dancer replied. “I did it myself. Blood was running down our arms. After the oath-binding, it was gone.”

“Well, that certainly sounds exciting,” Trav observed from the doorway. Dancer bounded to his feet and went to help Wrenna, who was supporting him with difficulty. Merlyn stuffed cushions in the largest chair and lined it with blankets. They helped him sit and Wrenna arranged more pillows until he was comfortable. Looking around at the group, he smiled. “Hello! It’s nice to finally get to meet all of you.”

Dancer laughed. “Trav, this is Eppie. You met her once but I don’t know if you remember. And this is Merlyn and Jade, Eppie’s parents.” They smiled but decided that hugs might be too much until he was better. “And you must know Wrenna—”

Traveller smiled blandly. “Oh, I know Wrenna. You get to know your bath partner very well.” The others gaped at him in astonishment as he spoke in that dark gravelly tone that Bish recognized meant business. “Wrenna and I are promised bond mates. We’ll be pledging and have the oath-binding as soon as Granddad Dai says that I’m well enough.” He kissed her hand sweetly, before pulling her down on his lap. Her cheeks flushed a pretty shade of lavender as she carefully cuddled against his chest but it was evident that she was quite happy.

Eppie and Jade merely smiled with secretive female smiles, indicating that they were happy with her choice of bond mate. He was certainly all male and quite capable of caring for her and their children once he was healed. A hard private look flashed between Merlyn and Trav before they nodded and then relaxed.

Trav cocked one eyebrow at Merlyn and asked, “What were you discussing when we came in? It sounded interesting.”

“We were talking about how people change once they enter the valley. Once we entered the valley over twenty-five years ago and had the pledge and oath-binding, Jade had the
schalzina
and we had
schalzah
, just as if we were born here.”

“I thought the oath-binding was only for virgins,” Dancer objected and then realized that it was his bond-mother he was talking about. His cheekbones blushed but Eppie took his hand to let him know that it was okay.

“Mama and Papa were married the day they were abducted,” she explained. “When they escaped from their captors, they took refuge in the cave and when they entered the valley, Dai ‘encouraged’ them to have the rites. It was the same for the Hamiltons and McCrorys.”

“So Dai encouraged your oath-binding, did he?” Bish shot Dai a look that said he suspected there was a bit more to his role.

“I believe that he convinced me that Jade would find the actual completion less painful. Women from out-valley that complete the oath-binding develop the
schela
and
mhital
almost immediately. Unfortunately, he didn’t know that Jade and I had accomplished the equivalent of a pledging—and
attachment
—back when she was three and I was twelve.” He swallowed a sip of his tea as he remembered the shattering result. “The severity of
schalzah
is directly related to the amount of time between the pledging and the oath-binding.”

The others stared at him in horror and Bish summed it all up for them. “Mother of God! You and Jade have been linked since you were kids. And you lived through it?”

“Yeah. Amazing stamina I have, huh?”

“I’ll say,” Dancer said quietly. “Eppie and I only had a short period of
schalzah
and I thought we weren’t going to survive.
Schalzina
is intense enough. I can’t imagine what that would be like.”

“I can.” Bish was smiling.

“I don’t think so,” Merlyn said with a shake of his head. “It isn’t something you can imagine. Ever. We’re always amazed when we survive it. We’re glad that this is the last time.”

“No more babies?” Bishop teased.

“No.” Merlyn answered firmly. “Sixteen children are enough. If Jade wants to play with babies, she’ll have the grandchildren.”

Trav struggled to sit up. “Play! Bish! Did you give Dance his violin and guitar?” he asked anxiously.

“Nope! I completely forgot about them. Hold on, Dance!” He slipped down the hall to his room and retrieved the two instruments, idly wondering where the kids had all gotten to. It was awfully quiet. When he returned to the living room, he handed Dancer the violin case and set the guitar case next to Eppie. “Here you are.”

Dance opened the battered case with trembling fingers. He hadn’t thought he would ever see his violin again. Carefully, he tuned it, checked his bow and then drew it across the strings, slipping into the strains of the lullaby he had played for Eppie. Jade’s face took on a remembering look and Merlyn nodded.

When he finished the song, Jade said softly, “You’re
that
Dancer. I once played with you when you were about seven years old.”

He whirled to look at her in surprise. “You’re Jade Alexander?
That
Jade Alexander?” Carefully, he placed the violin and bow in her hands. “Will you play something?”

“Dancer! I haven’t played a violin in over twenty-five years! My fingers would be shredded!”

“Just play something short,” he coaxed. “I remember how exquisite you were when we played together.”