Heart Fire (Celta Book 13) (33 page)

“Ah,” Tiana said. D’Ash was the animal Healer in Druida City, a rare trait, and the person who usually assigned Fams since they were drawn to her, no doubt by the Flair that even influenced Felonerb—a free spirit if there ever was one. Tiana didn’t see him changing much as her Fam companion.

Though she believed, to the recesses of her heart, that her HeartMate and she would change each other over time and naturally, as all well-married people changed. She sniffed. Felonerb smelled better. He’d been accepting smoke and other cleansing. Not because he cared, but because she did. So she was wrong to think he wasn’t changing.

She’d been, too. She stared at the complaint, balanced the large papyrus on her palm. Would she have filed this last week?

Before her review and promotion? No.

And even if she lost any upward momentum in her career . . . the High Priestess and Priest had been right. She’d wanted to prove herself because of what had happened that night in her childhood home. Handling it in a different manner might ease that inner need.

She turned to the door, minding her step so she wouldn’t jostle Felonerb unduly, and saw High Priestess D’Sandalwood studying her. Her gaze dropped to the complaint Tiana held.

“We haven’t spoken to you about the ramifications of this action,” High Priestess D’Sandalwood said.

Tiana braced herself.

“Which we, all of us, your previous counselors, the High Priest and I, have seen as a failure on our parts.”

Tiana stared, then lowered her gaze.

“We have little excuse for not helping you sufficiently, though it appeared to us that since your Family . . . ah . . . seemed to have recovered well, we did not understand the weight it had on your heart and your emotions. And you have learned serenity well, are an excellent priestess and counselor yourself, so we ignored the damage your past might have inflicted on you.” She sighed, and Tiana looked up again.

“We three—you, me, and the High Priest—will have some heavier sessions in the future, but not until the Hopeful cathedral project is done.”

Holding the complaint up, Tiana said, “I think that this action will resolve some of my issues.” She was sure none of them wanted more heavy counseling sessions.

“Perhaps. And perhaps we should have encouraged you to file that complaint the first year you were with us.” The High Priestess shrugged. “But that is in the past.” Slowly she smiled. “Your transport to the CouncilHall awaits at the eastern door.”

We must go tell the bad man he is bad
, Felonerb added.
See you later, Holy Lady.

The High Priestess chuckled. “Yes, later.” She stepped away from the door and Tiana curtseyed before she walked through, then picked up speed as she nearly ran to the eastern entrance. Once there she stopped, felt her mouth simply drop open. People crowded around a huge and empty FirstFamily glider. With T’Ash’s arms on the side.

The vehicle chimed as she neared, and then the back door rose. Flushing, Tiana slid into the glider, feeling underdressed. She skimmed her gaze around but didn’t see Lucida Gerania. Though it appeared that Tiana’s status might have shot up among her colleagues in the last few minutes.

Felonerb squealed with delight and hopped around the benches in the glider as the door closed and the vehicle accelerated.
I smell him. I smell Zanth. And other Cats and a fox!

Throughout the short drive to CityCenter, Felonerb continued to jump around, sniffing. Tiana watched his every movement in case he contemplated marking the vehicle. Apparently, rubbing his head against the floor and the benches was sufficient. That took her mind off the trip until the glider pulled up to the new CouncilHall and the portico that could handle large gliders like the Ashes’.

The response at the CouncilHall wasn’t quite as goggling as GreatCircle Temple, but a few people stopped to see who emerged from T’Ash’s new Family glider. Felonerb swaggered out, crossing to the huge armorglass doors, tail up and waving. Tiana thought she heard suppressed laughter. Wanting to hurry, but knowing, as always, that she wore priestess robes, she remained calm outwardly, not harried or rushed. With a soft smile, she left the glider and entered the hall.

Her nerves returned when T’Ash and D’Ash flanked her, and sweat from her palm sank into the complaint she held. The walk down the long marble halls, past the doors to the Commoner Council chamber to the NobleCouncil, passed in a blur. None of them said anything.

Then T’Ash curled his fingers around one of the door handles and nodded to her, ready to open it at her gesture.

Danith D’Ash picked up Felonerb and he purred outrageously. “You will stay out here, right?”

To guard the door in case he tries to escape. Yes!
Tiana’s Fam said.

T’Ash snorted. “We’ll prop the door open with Flair to watch.” He glanced up and down the corridor. “Guards are coming to witness and for other legal reasons I don’t know.” Then he rolled a shoulder and opened the door.

Tiana took a big breath and walked in.

People stopped talking—arguing whatever was on the agenda of the day. All gazes of the Nobles sitting in the tiered seats turned to her, and Tiana used all the calm she’d gathered over the years of her career to proceed in a serene manner and without flushing.

“Greetyou, FirstLevel Priestess,” stated a man behind an elegantly carved heavy wooden lectern, no doubt the Captain of the NobleCouncil. She should know his name but her mind had blanked.

“Greetyou,” she said, continuing to move toward him, and then she realized that GraceLord T’Equisetum was in the front row, behind another lectern as if he’d been speaking on a matter. Well, the timing hadn’t been hers, after all, T’Ash had finessed it—or another person told him.

“What is your purpose here?” the Captain of the NobleCouncil asked.

She dipped a slight curtsey to him, turned, and did the same to the rest of the chamber. “I am FirstLevel Priestess Tiana Mugwort, of the once GraceNoble house of Mugwort. I am here to deliver a criminal complaint—
my
criminal complaint to GraceLord T’Equisetum.”

“A criminal complaint!” GraceLord T’Equisetum bridled, then strode from behind the lectern. “What am I supposed to have done to you . . .
illegally
, little Mugwort?”

Rude, confrontational, forceful, but none of that ruffled her as it had that morning. She’d been staring at him from the moment she’d entered, and she tried to sense him as she would a person to be counseled. His spiritual health seemed . . . very off . . . as if he couldn’t access his inner self who could connect with the divine.

Continuing to assess him, she tilted her head. “GraceLord T’Daisy was right about your Flair this morning, wasn’t he, about how you might fail for a Testing as a GraceLord in Flair? And I’ve been wrong all along; I did not trust the Lady and the Lord. Those events you instigated years ago, here in the NobleCouncil and with your cuz Arvense,
have
worked on you, threefold, haven’t they?”

She offered the complaint. He ignored it.

With narrowed eyes, she said, “Your Flair is suppressed. Quite odd.”

She pitied him. He saw it and lashed out.

He struck her.

T
’Equisetum sent Tiana crashing into the lectern, then suddenly Danith D’Ash had her arm around Tiana’s waist, helping her stand. Sucking in a breath, Tiana put her hand to her aching face and drew off the heat and the pain, murmuring a standard Healing spell. Occasionally people she counseled became violent, and she knew what to do.

Danith D’Ash stepped up to T’Equisetum. “So you’re a proponent of the Traditionalist Stance movement, are you? You wouldn’t let people like me Test and rise from Commoner to Noble anymore, huh?” She tilted her head. “Well, since you don’t think my Flair is acceptable. I guess I’ll take your Family off my list of people to receive animal companions. Not that I would give one to a man who’d strike someone weaker than he.”

T’Equisetum bared his teeth, lifted his hand again.

The hiss of a sword being drawn froze most. T’Ash stalking in with an unsheathed blade immobilized everyone else. Tiana smelled fresh urine.

“Bad enough that you strike a priestess, for
nothing
, T’Equisetum,” T’Ash growled. “Wouldn’t want to be you when High Priest D’Sandalwood shows up at your door for some penance ritual you can’t refuse. Don’t you use that hand on my HeartMate or you will lose it. Now take the lady’s complaint, ’cuz Lady and Lord know, you are guilt—”

“Stop, T’Ash,” Danith said. “Legal rules. He is innocent until proven—”

T’Ash grunted, his gaze still fixed on T’Equisetum, who, though motionless, flushed bright red.

“Bad health. Nasty temper.” Now Danith tsked. “Yes, this one needs counseling. Or punishment, though from my point of view, I can see the rule of three has acted upon him. His misdeeds have come back thrice.”

She turned to face the other Nobles in their tiered seats. “Just who among you is of the Traditionalist Stance and saying I’m not good enough to sit in this chamber if I wanted to? Because you have the right to your beliefs and the consequences thereof. And I have the right not to place Familiar companions in the hands of stupid, shortsighted, idiot—”

“Danith.” Her name was spoken softly. The same voice said, “T’Ash, please put the sword away. We don’t want any feuds called in hotheaded impulse.” A tall, scholarly-looking man who carried himself with authority strode up and put his hand on T’Ash’s shoulder.

“Hi, Walker!” Danith beamed at the rising star of the NobleCouncil, Walker Clover, who’d been a Commoner like her.

“Merrily met, Danith,” Walker said, smiling and giving her a short bow. He glanced at T’Ash, who sheathed his weapon. “Always interesting times when the Ashes are involved.” Walker’s gaze swept the assemblage. “I suggest you all remember that. Now, T’Ash, you are here to witness the proper service of the complaint?”

An unbending and a muscular presence, T’Ash said, “I support FirstLevel Priestess Tiana Mugwort in her claims.”

Walker Clover’s jaw flexed. His eyes cooled as he stared at T’Equisetum. “Ah. I suggest you take the complaint, GraceLord.”

“No,” T’Equisetum said between choppy breaths.

“Guards,” Walker Clover said.

Two guards in uniform strode in. One was Chief Winterberry. He paced up and stood next to T’Equisetum, facing in the same direction. The other man, who looked as if he usually had a cheerful manner, came up and ranged himself beside Tiana.

He nipped the complaint from her fingers, cleared his throat, and stated in a voice that rolled through the chamber, “I, as a duly sworn member of the Druida City Guard, a subsidiary of the Celtan Planetary Peace Keeping Force, do stand as proxy for Tiana Mugwort, who has a complaint vetted and approved by a legal clerk of JudgementGrove against Hyemale T’Equisetum, do serve this upon that person—”

“GraceLord T’Equisetum,” said the man, his color fading to pink.

“—such complaint.” He offered the papyrus to T’Equisetum. Who didn’t take them.

“I, as a duly sworn member of the Druida City Guard, a subsidiary of the Celtan Planetary Peace Keeping Force, do stand as proxy for Hyemale T’Equisetum and accept—” Winterberry began the litany.

“Just give it to me.” T’Equisetum took the papyrus packet and crushed them in his fingers. “I deny all charges.”

Winterberry nodded. “So noted. It would be helpful if you, and your cuz Arvense Equisetum, voluntarily share your memories of the night that mobs firebombed GraceLord T’Mugwort’s home and other Hopefuls’ abodes.”

T’Equisetum shrugged. “I can’t recall that particular night.”

Tiana thought she heard a lie, and from the glances between the members of the Lords and Ladies in the first row of seats, they had, too.

Winterberry, face expressionless, said, “It’s done.” Nodding to Tiana, he asked, “Do you need a Healer, FirstLevel Priestess?”

“No. Thank you.” Again she touched her cheek where only a lingering sting stayed . . . more due to memory than actual bruising.

“Good,” T’Ash said. A click came. Tiana realized that he’d snapped the cover over his blazer, then shuddered a little that he’d been ready to use
two
weapons. She wasn’t the only one who trembled.

“I don’t know about you, Tiana—” T’Ash began.

She jolted at her name on his lips.

“—but Danith and I want to go look at the machines from
Nuada’s Sword
building the Hopeful cathedral. Our glider is out in front. We’re taking all the children for the educational experience,” he said indulgently, “and Laev T’Hawthorn, too. Camellia D’Hawthorn made us—and you—a picnic lunch.”

Danith D’Ash linked arms with Tiana. “Come on, let’s get out of this stuffy old place,” the GreatLady said with the disdain of a person with great Flair and of the highest status.

Yowls and roars came from the open doorway to the marble corridor.

“Catfight!” someone shouted.

“Zanth!” T’Ash bellowed.

“Felonerb.” Tiana sighed.

*   *   *

T
iana and Felonerb ended up being transported to the cathedral site on the Varga Plateau in a GreatCircle Temple glider once more assigned to her. Eventually she’d learn the light and venue well enough to teleport there, but it would take daily visits. She didn’t think anyone except the Chief Ministers, Antenn, and perhaps some of his crew could teleport there now.

She stood a few minutes in awe with other newcomers and just stared at gigantic machines oddly silhouetted in black and gray and green and rust against the bright blue sky. Lifting huge blocks from a line of cut stones that just appeared due to some sort of ancient Earthan all-tech transport system.
Fast
transport system, as fast as a Flaired thought. Machines trundled or glided the massive stones to the trenches, delicately placing them. Then people would swarm down and measure, have them adjusted in tiny ways she couldn’t distinguish, and continue on.

Soon her training—and her desire to be near Antenn,
help
Antenn—kicked in and she hurried over to see him explain something with gestures that he’d already used five times on different groups. She listened to him, and he seemed to calm when she showed up, and then he referred them to Dani Eve Elder or Captain Ruis Elder. The group rarely trudged over to the two nulls, who would suppress any inherent Flair they had. And even less rarely approached one of the Intersection of Hope—Hopeful—ministers.

After a few minutes Tiana understood the construction process and led informational tours, including speaking to the Chief Ministers. After a while, her good friend PublicLibrarian Glyssa Licorice Bayrum appeared and helped her.

Whenever anyone expressed interest in the ritual that evening, Tiana handed them all four papyrus sheets—and if she saw a page fly across the plain in the wind, she snatched it back.

In the late afternoon, two trios of Earth Mages began to work in concert with the machines, and after WorkEnd Bell sounded in distant Druida City, a flood of people who hadn’t been able to attend during the day showed up to watch.

By sunset, two full tiers of granite blocks, with the special mortar between, had been laid along the entire outline of the cathedral. They didn’t reach the lip of the trenches but were sufficient that all the FirstFamily GreatLords and Ladies who’d deigned to visit had told her the stones would hold a strong spellshield. This would be just the first spellshield, and particular to the granite. When the limestone and foam metal girders—that came from the starship
Nuada’s Sword
’s storage—were placed, there would be additional security spells.

Everyone felt that there couldn’t be too many since GraceLord T’Equisetum, as a member of the Traditionalist Stance movement, had denounced it and the Hopefuls.

*   *   *

S
o. Lucky.

*   *   *

A
ntenn had been so lucky that day, and every time he’d had that thought he muttered a prayer to the Lord and Lady. Laying the foundation had gone more smoothly and quickly than he’d even originally scheduled.

Both Captain Ruis Elder and Dani Eve Elder worked with him on setting up the even flow of the transport of granite from the quarry and the careful placing of blocks in the trenches. He sweated now—and his bespelled clothes absorbed the sweat and negated any smell—just thinking about the whole thing. The Elders had treated him with respect, and they knew their stuff—the workings and capabilities of their machines.

Most of Druida City, including about half of the FirstFamilies Lords and Ladies—twelve of them—had turned out to watch the colonists’ machines that had built their city in magnificent action.

At first he’d been pestered, by the Chief Ministers with whom he had to smooth over the absence of Apex Mage Builders, then by every Lord or Lady who had a nodding acquaintance with him.

Tiana had shown up and been an amazing help as a liaison in every way with every group. Glyssa Licorice Bayrum had pitched in.

Then two subcontractors had shown up, impressed with the machines and the Elders and wanting part of the action. One had been a firm Antenn had called in desperation near dawn, the other three were partners that had split from GraceLord T’Pulicaria and Apex.

Antenn had crossed his arms and let the two underbid each other for the day’s project. Both of them wanted contact with the Elders, wanted to be considered for any other jobs the Elders and
Nuada’s Sword
might get from this demonstration. In the end, Antenn had been able to hire them both.

Lucky.

Now the sun dipped under the horizon and he was going back to the Turquoise House, who admired him, with his lover. His HeartM—no, he couldn’t think of that right now. He couldn’t afford to let any great emotions overwhelm him at such a thought.

He checked the temporary, very minor alarm spellshield he’d set around the perimeter of the trenches, went over their duties with the six private guards he’d hired to patrol the area before everyone returned for the ritual. Then he called to Tiana, Pinky, and Felonerb to take her glider back to TQ with him.

If his luck continued to hold tonight, he’d get sex and food before returning in a septhour and a half to participate in the ritual.

Their Fams’ meeting had been brief and bloody, with each cat pretending he’d won the fight, though Antenn and Tiana had separated them. To everyone’s surprise, both Fams knew the rules laid down by Danith D’Ash at sharing a home and their persons . . . and neither Pinky nor Felonerb wanted to break those. Mostly, Antenn thought, because Felonerb hadn’t gotten a special Fam collar from his FamWoman and Pinky wanted a new one. Whatever worked.

He and Tiana sat in the glider with Felonerb and Pinky between them, but hand in hand. The cats ignored each other and the sexual tension between himself and his HeartMate rose higher and higher. He drew circles on her palms with his fingertips, unable to help himself.

When they reached the door, the cats shot around the House to the back grassyard and he and Tiana bolted for her bedroom. Again.

Then he just stood, framing her lovely face with his hands and staring at her, letting all his emotions show, especially his need.

His craving.

He had to look at her, cherish this watching of her as the sun slipped away and shadows contoured her beauty.