Keepers of the Flame

4

Elizabeth was holding onto sanity as if it was the unraveling edge of a ratty blanket. Too much strangeness. Everything—the people, the humid air, the sky showing too many stars, and most especially the winged horses.

One was still rubbing against Bri in mutual admiration.

Sevair Masif, the man who’d come from Castleton, was ensuring the care and comfort of his people with efficient orders to soldiers and servants. The knot of the more ostentatiously dressed people—including two of the three Coloradan women—attracted his attention. He gave one last order and joined them, crossing his arms and raising his chin.

“We agreed that should the Summoning of the medica be successful and if she fulfilled our great and desperate need, she would stay here at the Castle tonight. The ladies are tired. Why are they not being led to their quarters?” The soft translation came to Elizabeth’s ear and she turned her head to see Calli smiling at her.

Calli lifted a shoulder, sighed. “They argue. Sevair’s a good man, just obsessed with frinks.”

“Frinks?” Elizabeth asked.

“Metallic worms that come with the rain. The dark sends them, too.”

Elizabeth wished she hadn’t asked.

“One of your tasks will be to smooth the way between the City and Town segment of society and the rest.”

Elizabeth shook her head, looked at Calli, then at Bri who was examining one of the horse’s wings. She seemed familiar with the animals, at least was probably familiar with wingless ones. Another change. Somewhere, sometime Bri had learned about horses. No doubt she’d traveled where a horse was still considered a necessity. Elizabeth gestured to the horse and Bri. “Why aren’t you supervising?”

“You’re sharp,” said Calli. “Remembered that I’m the one who was Summoned for the volarans and Chevaliers.” She followed Elizabeth’s gaze. “I can see auras, you know.”

“No.” If she denied all this it might go away

“Yes. Most folks here depend upon their ears and their Power to hear Songs. I hear the Songs, but auras are easier for me. Thunder is a curious volaran, and it’s difficult to ignore the fact that the horses have wings. Not something you’d see on Earth. Thunder is giving your twin sister some energy.” Calli narrowed her eyes. “Some of that is passing into you.” Nibbling on her lip, Calli continued. “It takes a while to become used to Lladrana. We, the other Exotiques and I, hoped to make your transition easier. It didn’t seem to work.”

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. “With sixteen people in the throes of sickness needing medical help?”

Calli winced. “I suppose that would have been the equivalent of me riding most of the Castle volarans.” She met Elizabeth’s gaze steadily. “I’d apologize, but I’m not sorry. The townspeople are desperate. None of the medicas in Lladrana have found a cure for this new disease and people are dying.” Calli squinted at Bri, then back at Elizabeth. “You and your twin had a basic similar layer of green in your auras when you came but different upper layers. That’s interesting. But the bond between you two when you arrived wasn’t nearly as strong as it is now.”

Elizabeth didn’t want to hear any of this.

A man dressed in such an understated and tailored style of leathers that proclaimed him wealthy joined them. He bowed, then looked expectantly at Calli.

“This is Faucon Creusse, a nobleman and Chevalier.”

“Chevalier?”

“Knight, like I said.”

Faucon said something, and Calli translated. “An impressive display of Power by the new Exotiques, as usual.”

Before Elizabeth could answer, the discussion between the leaders got heated.

An older woman snapped something, and Calli delivered the words but didn’t match the tone. “Of course we have plenty of space, but we only prepared for one and it’s evident that they will not want to be separated.”

Masif stood solid. “We townspeople have many places where the Exotiques can stay. We paid to have them Summoned. They are our—” he glanced from Elizabeth to Bri, who were both watching him, nodded in acknowledgment and finished “—guests. They should stay in the city.”

“Not tonight,” said the woman.

Calli added, “That’s Lady Knight Swordmarshall Thealia Germain, she’s the head of the Marshalls and runs everything.”

Faucon gave another half bow to Elizabeth then turned and stepped up to the group. “Of course the sisters would prefer to room together. Which is why I requested a suite be prepared in Alyeka’s tower for them.”

“I’d like to keep them in my tower,” Thealia said. The streaks of gold at her temples were so wide they nearly reached the middle of her head. A sign of nobility? Both Faucon’s temples showed swaths of silver.

At that moment a horrendous siren went off.

Elizabeth jumped.

Bri stumbled as the volaran she was leaning against hopped away.

The courtyard was full of people and now every one of them was moving. Some were racing away to a point Elizabeth couldn’t see; the healthy townsfolk had stepped back to crowd the cloisters. Volarans alit in the courtyard and the Chevaliers—those in leathers—jumped on their backs, along with some of the younger people who had a sheath on each hip.

Thealia, the older woman, turned and scrutinized the action like the head of the hospital checking the emergency room in a crisis, and Elizabeth’s stomach tightened as she sensed there was a disaster in progress. “What?”

“I wondered.” Marian, the sorceress, circlet, whatever, reached Calli at the same time as Bri. She looked at Calli, jerked her head to the small white-haired woman who joined them. “Four Summonings. Four times the Dark has attacked very soon after.”

“Connected,” the small woman, Alexa said. Her serious gaze watched the refined chaos and her left hand went to the cylindrical leather sheath at her side.

Bri had linked arms with Elizabeth and she could feel nerves thrumming through her twin.

A slightly shorter, muscular man who moved with grace whirled Alexa up in his arms. “Let’s go!”

“We fight? It’s not our rotation,” Alexa said.

“I have a bad feeling. I don’t want Pascal and Marwey to lead the youngsters. We’ll do that.”

Alexa met Elizabeth’s gaze, then Bri’s. “Later. This is my husband, Bastien, by the way.”

Elizabeth wanted to call them back.

“Must you?” cried Bri.

But Alexa and Bastien merely waved.

“They’ll triumph, as usual,” said Marian.

“Yes,” added Calli.

But both women’s faces showed anxiety.

“How many will we lose?” murmured Calli. “Who will we lose?”

Elizabeth stepped closer to Bri. Again she thought she should offer to do something—what?

Bri said, What in God’s name could we do? We know NOTHING about this place. But they shared flickering along their nerves as if they should spring into action, too.

The activity in the courtyard separated into patterns—those who flew away and those who stayed.

Thealia, the leader, snapped out a few orders and said something to Calli and Marian.

“Another interminable war council in a few minutes,” Calli said.

Bri flinched beside Elizabeth, and Elizabeth finally let herself realize what she’d sensed all along—these people had many reasons for Summoning them, and the primary one was because of a war.

A disease was one thing, a war quite another. She didn’t want to be here.

As if she’d read Elizabeth’s mind—could they do that?—Marian said, “They don’t fly to fight other humans. They fly to fight monsters and save a world. A world we need your help to save, too.”

Worse and worse.

Bri leaned against one of the fancily carved columns of cloister “windows” opening onto the courtyard. The stone was cold and hard and had the unmistakable feel of reality. She much preferred being propped up by a winged horse and tingling with energy, stuff of dreams.

Calli kept up a running commentary and translation.

At that moment the man in the white leathers appeared carrying the cooler they’d left in the huge, circular room. Atop the chest the sacks of potatoes were neatly stacked. Elizabeth’s bag’s strap crossed his chest, and the loop of Bri’s big backpack was over his shoulder. He carried them all easily.

Calli frowned at him. “Luthan, you’re not fighting?”

His jaw clenched and he nodded, showing no emotion. “I have instructions from the Singer to remain at the Castle or in the town for the first two weeks after the Exotiques arrive.” His voice gave nothing away, but a ripple of shock passed through the others.

“She said two would be coming?” asked Marian, seeming to throb with irritation and curiosity.

Luthan said, “She said at least two.”

Silence draped the cloister. He let the statement hang, then bowed—with cooler—to Elizabeth and Bri. “I am Luthan Vauxveau, brother to Bastien, the pairling of Exotique Alyeka. I am also the representative of the Singer, the oracle of Lladrana, to the Marshalls. I sit on their councils to inform her what transpires here.”

“It would be good if she kept us equally informed,” Thealia said.

“The Singer is the Singer,” Luthan said.

“Not the same as the rest of us, that’s for sure,” Calli muttered. She caught Bri’s eye. “A prophetess.”

The leaden weight of exhaustion was ready to flatten Bri. Despite the spurts of adrenaline since she’d arrived, and the various sources of energy that poured into and through her, there was only so much a body could take. Except for a quick nap at Elizabeth’s that afternoon, she’d been going nonstop for too many hours.

“Where do I put this chest?” Luthan asked expressionlessly. From the faint sheen of sweat on his forehead, Bri thought he was under a mental or emotional strain. His hands were sheathed in gauntlets.

“I can take that—” she offered, pushing away from the wall, but the handsome Faucon stepped forward.

“I will carry the ladies’ treasures.” He took the cooler and potatoes from Luthan. “Marian and Calli, if you would show the new Exotique Medicas the way to the suite under Alyeka’s.”

Calli sniffed. “We argued, all wanting you near. Thealia won, but that was when there was one of you.” She shrugged. “Circumstances change rapidly in Lladrana.” She shot a glance at Bri. “A lot of stairs. You hanging in there?”

“Yes.” She had to shift back and forth to feel her feet, but she figured she could manage stairs. The weariness would hold off for a few minutes more.

Faucon waited for Marian and Calli and their men to precede him then took his place between Bri and Elizabeth as they followed. Luthan, still bearing the twins’ bags, fell into step.

They entered the keep and trudged up an endless number of stairs around a tower, went through a door and marched singly through a narrow security corridor to enter a wedge-shaped bedroom in purple. There was one huge bed and a smaller one.

“My valet has arranged for the extra bed and wardrobe,” Faucon said, sweeping the room with a glance. “I will put the food in the dining room.” He disappeared and Bri heard the opening and closing of more doors. When he returned he glanced at Bri and Elizabeth and winked. “Most defensible.” So he’d seen how Alexa had salivated over the potatoes, too.

“Where do you want these, ladies?” asked Luthan, removing the bags and holding them at arms’ length.

Elizabeth gestured to a low wooden chest at the bottom of the big, curtained bed. The room was crowded with the smaller bed, two large wardrobes, a set of chairs, and love seat, all shoved against the large circular wall under a row of windows.

Bri tottered a little and Elizabeth was there, wrapping her arm around her waist, and it felt good to be with her sister again, not alone in this strange dream.

“Thank you all,” Elizabeth said with the authority of a hospital physician.

“You’re welcome,” Marian and Calli said at the same time.

“We’ll leave you alone now, but if you have any concerns, just holler,” Calli said.

“We’ll be back tomorrow morning,” Marian said.

Elizabeth nodded at the same time Bri did.

Faucon stopped before them and raised Elizabeth’s hand to his lips, kissed her fingertips. “Vel-coom to Lladrana,” he said in heavily accented English. Bri got the impression it was his only English and he’d been saving it.

Then he kissed Bri’s hand and she sensed great satisfaction from him. He was pleased he could provide the new Exotiques with amenities. She caught the thought—more emotion really—Which one is mine?

Uh-oh.

But he was gone the next moment, closing the door behind him and Bri was left staring at it and doubting what she’d thought she’d heard. Sensed. Felt. Oh, hell.

They were alone. At least inside the suite, Bri hadn’t heard as many footsteps leave as those who had accompanied them. Guards?

She supposed she could send a mental probe and figure out who was there. Just the idea that she was contemplating such a weird action made her stomach twist.

“Bri?” Elizabeth’s voice was laden with concern.

“I’m hanging in there. Been a long day.” She wondered if anything would happen if she braced a hand against the wall that the bed was against. It was either that or collapse in a heap, so she did so. The pretty pattern wasn’t paper. It was silk. She shook her head to banish gray exhaustion from her vision and saw that Elizabeth had checked out two doors and left them open.

“Study.” Elizabeth pointed left. “Bathroom.” To the right. “Then dining room.”

Bri stared at the bed. Bigger than a California king. Of course the Lladranans were a big people, larger than American average, or American big. They pampered themselves, with beds that big and a damask comforter filled with down atop it.

Elizabeth sniffed. She had a tissue in her hand.

“Oh, Elizabeth!” Bri stumbled to her, found her and they held each other and rocked, as they’d done often when life had overwhelmed them in childhood. Privately, because this was their own twin thing.

Bri, I’m frightened.

Me, too.

You’re the adventuress. Do you think we’re really somewhere else?

Either that or the elevator crashed and we have massive trauma and are either in comas or dead and not moved on yet.

Choking, Elizabeth said, “That’s what I thought. Am thinking. I think.”

“Therefore you is. You always think. But both logic and emotion lead me to believe we’re alive and functioning and in a different, uh, realm. We’re together, you’re not in my dream. Or maybe you are. Should I say something I know that proves to you that I’m me and here?” She thought a little. “I found this really excellent rock group in Sweden and had an affair with the drummer and even followed him around on a European tour.”

“You!” Elizabeth’s head jerked as though from a blow and her arms loosened. Her eyes were wide with shock.

Heat flooded Bri from her feet to tickle her scalp. She winced and gave an embarrassed chuckle. “Yeah. I’m susceptible to lust and infatuation just like anyone else. He found someone who’d flatter him more and dumped me.” Not the whole truth.

Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed and she swept a glance up and down Bri. She raised her hands. “Hey, I’m all right. I can be sensible. No sexually transmitted diseases. No pregnancy.”

With a final scan and a blink, Elizabeth crossed her arms. Bri held out hers again, and they hugged, stepped back, but kept their hands linked.

“All right,” Elizabeth said. “That sounds so you, but I never would have imagined it. Never.”

“Your turn,” Bri said. “You pretty much acted like I’d expect if this was all my dream. Prove you’re you.”

Elizabeth’s jaw clenched. She dropped Bri’s hand, looked away, blushed a fiery red, and Bri heard her answer telepathically. Cassidy was—is—into light bondage. And I liked it, too.

Bri’s mouth fell open. She stared. Elizabeth’s arms were crossed again and she still wasn’t looking at Bri.

“You’re right. That’s something I’d never think of.” Her turn to study her twin. “But you were both wound too damn tight. I can see…no, I don’t think I want to see. Just let me ask. One or both of you, um…”

“We took turns.” Elizabeth’s voice was stifled. She finally met Bri’s eyes and said, “And you reacted just like I’d expect you to.”

They stared at each other, then cracked up, falling together again. When they’d finished with the bout of hysterical laughter, Bri took a tissue, wiped her eyes, then blew her nose.

“For the record,” Elizabeth said in a serious tone. “Sexual preferences aren’t necessarily determined by stress or how ‘tightly’ a person is wound.”

“Huh. I heard that sometimes high-powered professional women such as yourself—”

“So, tell me, Ms. Free Spirit. Haven’t you ever done it?”

Again heat rose in Bri. “I’ll take the fifth, but I will say it never became a standard sexual practice.”

Elizabeth smiled wickedly. “We aren’t identical.”

“One last thing, what’s your favorite number?”

Bri waited a beat, then said, “Forty-two,” at the same time Elizabeth did. “I think I have to sit down.”

“The beds—”

“Definitely not the bed,” Bri said. “If I hit a bed, I’m gone, and we need to talk. You got any chocolate in your purse?”

Going to the chest, Elizabeth took her black healthy back bag and clutched it. “Maybe.”

“Me, too. I’ve got a feeling that we’ll have to be careful of it or those others will pinch it or expect us to share. Let’s see how much.” With slow steps, Bri reached the chest, then hefted her backpack with the solar panels on it. “Boy, am I glad I invested in this.” She carefully spilled the contents. Her music pod, PDA, digital camera, cell, and everything else she needed for a three-day hike.

Elizabeth pulled items from every pouch of her bag and lined the objects in little rows, glanced at Bri’s heap. “That’s it?” she gasped. “Two small candy bars. That is the extent of your chocolate cache!”

Bri winced. “I was hungry on the plane. I ate some.”

Elizabeth took Bri’s pack, shook it. Rustling came. She rolled her eyes. “You just dumped the bag, didn’t check the compartments.” Nimble fingers delved and found the unopened bag of the miniature bars Bri had purchased as well as two credit card holders and a lucky koala bear key chain.

“Oh, thank God!” Bri snatched the chocolate bag. Tears welled in her eyes. “You are a wonderful woman, twin.” The words were out of her mouth before she realized that Elizabeth’s chocolate stash was about twice the size of her own. Elizabeth still had the unopened bag of her dark chocolate treats, too.

“I wonder whether the others prefer milk or dark,” Elizabeth said.

Putting down her bag, Bri sorted her stuff. Electronics, pens and paper, food, water bottle, wallet and coin purse and loose change, keys, instant coffee, herbal tea bags…. “I bet it won’t matter. Chocolate is chocolate after all. We don’t let them know we have it.”

“You don’t think they have chocolate here?”

“I don’t want to take the chance.”

Elizabeth was packing her purse up again, sliding things in their proper pockets. “You’re right, and my chocolate is mine and yours is yours.”

Bri sent her a wounded look. “Would I take your chocolate?” “Yes.”

Sniffing, Bri said, “You’re right. Better hide it.”

“When I get home—” Elizabeth stopped, choked, dropped her bag, put her hands over her face and folded onto the love seat.

“Oh, honey.” Bri grabbed her own packet of tissues and sat next to her sister. “I know you’re scared. I am, too. But we’re in this together.”

“I don’t want to be in anything. Even if you are here.”

Bri rested her head on Elizabeth’s. She didn’t dare let go of her control or she’d be asleep in two seconds. “I’m sorry.” She blinked and blinked again to keep her eyes open.

Elizabeth’s muscles tensed as she gathered her own control. It wasn’t often Elizabeth broke down, and Bri could only imagine the emotional roller coaster her twin had been on lately. Not surprising this hit her hard. It might be hitting Bri equally hard if her mind wasn’t so fuzzy.

“I love you, sis, but I don’t know what to say,” she said. “I don’t know how to help you.”

After wiping her eyes and blowing her nose, Elizabeth threw away their tissues in a wastebasket, then said brusquely, “Just weariness. Now let’s get serious. What sort of meds do we have?” Once again she opened her bag and brought out a small gold-toned pill box that Bri had given her on their last birthday. She flipped it open and showed a few over-the-counter analgesics.

Bri winced. “That’s it?”

“You know I don’t carry any sort of drugs on my person, and make sure everyone in the hospital knows that.”

“Yeah, yeah, good idea.” Bri fumbled through her stuff, withdrew a generic mega-bottle of American aspirin. “I used local remedies in Sweden.”

“That’s good.”

Bri separated a few baggies with a mixture of pills. “Herbs and vitamins.”

“What kind of herbs?”

“Um, Rhodiola Rosea.”

“Excellent,” Elizabeth said.

The only thing that looked remotely mainstream medical was a series of tin-foil–wrapped packets with little bumps of pills in them.

“What are those?” Elizabeth asked.

“Swedish cat antibiotics. I was taking care of a friend’s cat. It got better after one week instead of two.”

“What are the ingredients?”

“I don’t know.”

They stared at each other.

“We’ll have to keep them for emergencies.”

“How can you think of using—”

“If it came down to cat antibiotics or death, what would you chose?” Bri said brutally.

“You have a point.” Too anxious to sit still, Elizabeth stood and paced along the lined-up furniture, looking at the night-dark windows facing…what? She’d lost her sense of direction.

But the rooms of the Castle didn’t bother her as much as the people, the suffering people, she’d found here. “Do you really think we can turn this epidemic around?” Elizabeth asked, not at all sure, frightened of failure.

But Bri was asleep. She slumped against the back of the love seat, listing toward where Elizabeth had been sitting.

Elizabeth swallowed hard. Even exhausted, Bri had handled this whole thing so much better than she. Of course Bri was used to new people and places, learning to fit into a new culture.

Elizabeth went back to the couch and sat, studying her twin. Bri had really meant to settle down in Denver. How ironic that now her itchy feet had finally stopped, they were somewhere else. Elizabeth glanced at their pitiful cache of drugs. Aspirin, vitamins.