Robin Owens - Protector of the Flight

Marian said, “Remember you aren’t alone. We’re here to help every step of the way. Don’t panic.”

“Just yell and we’ll come running.”

“Huh. Sounds like you’re trying to tell me something,” Calli said.

“I panicked,” Marian said.

“I did, too, especially when I saw my hair turned white overnight.”

Sleepiness fled. Calli looked down at Alexa. “Really?”

“Yes.”

Then Calli studied the wide silver streak in Marian’s hair. “I suppose you didn’t have that when you came, either?”

“Lladrana can be tough on hair color,” Marian said.

“I like being blond.”

“Hey, another reason to stay here.” Alexa grinned. “No dumb-blonde jokes.”

That just reminded Calli that her father thought her stupid and cowardly. She tensed. The other women noticed, of course.

“Sore spot? I’m sorry,” Alexa said, squeezing her into a tighter hug. The woman’s grip was like iron.

“I definitely need to get to bed,” Calli said.

“Right.” Alexa withdrew and marched to the door.

The short walk was silent, but the quiet between them was easy. Calli hadn’t had good female friends since high school. Nice to be part of a girl crowd.

Alexa opened the outer door of Calli’s suite and kissed her cheek, so did Marian.

“Thanks, guys.” Calli’s voice was hoarse with appreciation, weariness. She entered a narrow security corridor and turned left until she found another door, a tiny entryway and a third door, and finally got into the bedroom. Soft light glowed with the radiance of a summer evening from what looked like little suns on torches. Pulling off her boots and stripping, Calli slid into cool sheets. The lights went out and Calli fell into welcoming darkness.

She woke to hail pounding against the curved tower windows in the middle of the night and shot straight up in bed—a big four-poster bed with curtains. Weird.

She was still in Lladrana. Carefully, she stretched, and found her muscles in prime working order. Wiggling her hips, she tested her pelvis. Fine.

Oh, man.

Did she even want to wake up at home? At least the problems here were new, didn’t seem as crushing as fighting her father for her home and her vision of the ranch. That would take a lot of money and effort to win. More money to fix up the ranch the way she wanted.

If she was stuck here, what had she gotten herself into with that damn Choosing and Bonding ceremony? Dare she trust the “magic” to find her a man who’d match her? What was she thinking. Was she totally crazy?

But those Marshalls—Mace and Clua—had been the most married couple she’d ever seen. Like Marian and Jaquar, they’d die together. She trembled. Could she possibly want that much connection?

That much love?

Yes.

This need to give and receive love came from deep inside. As if all the love she’d poured onto her father over the years had bounced off him and come back to her and she had this great store.

Getting up, she found her clothes washed and folded on a chest at the end of the bed and just stared at them. Someone had been in her rooms? Who had the key?

Surely it would only have been Alexa or Marian checking on her. Still, the sooner she had her own rooms and key, the better. Next to her things was a stack of underwear. In her size. Must be magic, there, too—she touched her old clothes, noticing the texture of denim and cotton. Alien to this world.

She turned, staggered back at the sight of a small neon-blue volaran hovering near the corner of one of the bed’s foot posts. The animal was only about a foot long.

She pressed a hand against her pounding heart. “My God, you startled me!” She knew this…person. The energy of the being was familiar. There was her sixth sense again and she disliked how much she was depending upon it.

I am Sinafinal, the feycoocu.

Of course she was. Staring at the creature, she realized she’d seen it before. As a hawk. As the cat. Calli sat on the chest.

You are not crazy. You are on Lladrana. You should go through the Choosing and Bonding ceremony.

“And I should listen to you, too, huh?”

Yes. The volaran loop-de-looped a couple of times, leaving a bright blue trail behind her.

“Why—”

You should stay here on Lladrana. Here you will have a love of your own, children, land, a home.

“Guaranteed?” Calli infused great sarcasm into the word.

Sinafinal fluttered up to within six inches of Calli’s eyes and hung there. Yes, guaranteed.

Calli’s stomach clutched.

Everyone wants to be loved. Why do you see your big heart as being a fault?

Because Dad never valued love? This introspection was getting too damn intense. She didn’t like it. She preferred action.

By this time tomorrow night you will be sharing a big bed with a lover, a man drawn particularly to you.

“Uhn.” That idea was so good it hurt. Made Calli’s chest ache.

When you both awake the next morning, you will choose your land. You will have enough zhiv from the land and an annuity as an Exotique that you will never want for any material thing for the rest of your life. Enough to build the perfect stables and training grounds for horses and volarans.

The little volaran was sure spinning a sweet story.

In three weeks you will have adopted a child.

Calli flopped back, banged her head on the wooden footboard behind her. “Ouch! Dammit all!”

Sinafinal zoomed over and perched on her head, Calli could feel four little hooves, and goose bumps covered her body. With two flaps of the magical being’s wings, Calli’s headache was gone. Oh, boy. She rubbed the back of her head anyway. “Why are you being so insistent about this?”

Because without you, the volarans will not bond as much as needed with humans. They won’t be ready for the great, final fight.

Calli swallowed. “Who won’t be ready? What final fight?”

There will be much more loss of life.

“I don’t want to hear this.”

That’s why I am telling you.

I don’t want to believe you. Though she hadn’t said the words aloud, the feycoocu answered her anyway.

I know.

“Hell.”

The neon-blue volaran examined one of her wingtips. If you do not believe me and do not continue with the Choosing and Bonding ritual, I will convince everyone that you should consult the Singer for a Song Quest. Perhaps a strong vision direct from the Song will be powerful enough to convince you of your worth here.

Ooooh. Zinged several hot buttons all right. “Damned if I do, damned if I don’t,” Calli muttered. “This had better be a dream.”

It isn’t. You will awake here. The little blue volaran’s muzzle stretched in an unnatural smile.

“Go away. I’m planning on waking up in my own bed on the Rocking Bar T.” But it sounded weaker and weaker to her.

Sinafinal circled the room. All the Exotiques will have companions. Alexa has me. Marian has Tuckerinal. You have Thunder.

Calli snorted. “Sidekicks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m going to bed. I hope not to see you in my dreams.”

Sinafinal dipped a wing and flew through a closed window into the night.

Calli looked out at the darkness below—no lights. She looked at the moon and star-bright sky. Not Earth’s sky, not even from the southern hemisphere, too many stars for that. She shrugged. When she woke she’d either be home or not. If she was here, the day would be packed with fateful events from the moment she opened her eyes.

Calli woke and stretched luxuriously. The bed was wonderful, too bad she was alone in it. She must be treating herself to a good hotel near the next competition…everything rushed back.

She was in Lladrana. Or at least she wasn’t in her own bed back at the ranch. What was written in those old-time black-and-white movies? “Meanwhile, back at the ranch…” A hollow laugh rasped from her. What little peace she’d felt when she woke up vanished.