Heart Fire (Celta Book 13) (38 page)

A
long line of flickering yellow-orange flames stretched across the plain as far as Antenn could see. A man threw bottles lighting the winter-dried plains grass that caught quickly and rolled hot in the wind, torching brush and bushes.

“The ecosystem!” Tiana gasped.

“Druida
City
,” Antenn said tightly. He ran for the firebomber, Vinni keeping pace. As he did, great alarm klaxons pulsed from the far city. A stream of lights shot toward them, flashing. Gliders on emergency mode.

“All the mages who best work with the elements: fire, air, water, earth,” Vinni said. “They come.”

“We’re here!” called Custos. He and the other three Chief Ministers joined in the hunt.

Younger ran with a speed none of the rest of them could match.

The villain must have seen him coming, but Elatum’s stance didn’t alter. He stood as if mesmerized by the conflagration. Younger tackled the man, took him down. Foreman put him out and broke his jaw with a punch.

Antenn, Vinni, and Tiana found Elatum’s tools and neutralized them. Tiana and the Chief Ministers cleaned the foundation stones of accelerant, did other chants and blessings.

In a few minutes, guards showed up to help fight the fire, and one pair took Elatum into custody and away.

Antenn lent strength, physical and Flair, to the mages who arrived, milling around, trying and failing to quash the fire with different methods. Three fell.

Finally Vinni T’Vine threw back his head and shouted, “Nuin Ash!” The begrimed eighteen-year-old trotted over to him.

“Didn’t I hint at what you should do, Nuin, not more than a week ago, should this happen?” Vinni said through gritted teeth.

The young man’s mouth dropped open and eyes widened. He flung his hand at the firefighters. “I am the youngest, the
least
.”

“You are a greatly Flaired Fire Mage. You are an ASH! Go organize them. Time to grow up, boy.”

Tiana gasped beside Antenn. She stepped up to the youngster, looked up into his face. “You can do it. Blessings.”

With a jerky nod, the young man loped away and, through force of will, made his colleagues listen.

Vinni sagged, and Antenn steadied him with an arm around his shoulders. “It could be worse,” the prophet mumbled. “I usually saw worse. And the later in the year this happened, the worse it was.” He turned his head to Tiana. “Your actions helped.”

Then he patted Antenn’s hand on his shoulder and paced away. “And yours. You two belong together. Do not forget that. I’m going now. I can sleep now.” With a half smile, he left.

Antenn would never forget the two septhours that followed. The cool bright and beaming stars peeking through roiling smoke, white against the night sky, billowing higher than a man. After the flames passed, stalks of bushes showed black against the night. Smoke clogged his throat, the stench of it saturating everything. Pitiful cries of small animals, fleeing or dying.

Many Lords and Ladies arrived from Druida, what contribution they could make was determined by Nuin Ash as he set them to work.

Tiana, along with the Chief Ministers and other priests and priestesses, succored the injured. Finally when all had quieted, once again Antenn, Tiana, and the four Hopeful ministers remained.

“The cathedral stands,” said Elderstone.

“The cathedral stands,” Antenn agreed.

“We were all blessed. In many different ways,” Custos said.

He looked at Antenn. “We will need to evaluate the land, the damage to the plateau, in the morning—say MidMorning Bell. It is a sorrow that the landscape around our great structure is burned.”

Tiana folded her hands into her opposite sleeves. “I am sure the FirstFamilies will do some rituals and send some Healing energy to the plateau.”

“We will do so, also, throughout the building of our cathedral. For now, let us go to our old church and pray.” He bowed to her and Antenn, joined hands with his colleagues, and teleported away.

Antenn looked at his HeartMate, the woman who’d hurt him so earlier that day. “We belong together.” He rustily repeated Vinni’s words. “And we need to work things out. Now. I’ll meet you in TQ’s back grassyard in half a septhour. Long enough for both of us to clean up.” He angled his chin. “I want the air cleared.” He grimaced at his own words even as he whiffed lingering smoke. He might need an energy drink, but they had to be easy with each other if they worked together.

But he just wanted his HeartMate.

He waited a good long minute for her to protest, then gave her a half bow and teleported to his waterfall room, telling T’Blackthorn Residence not to let his Family know he was home and that he’d be leaving shortly.

*   *   *

T
iana headed to the Temple and the largest staff waterfall room, cleansed herself, and pulled on an older, comfortable robe that she’d soon retire. Felonerb supervised.

Then she visualized TQ’s back grassyard and found her image boosted and refined by both Felonerb and TQ himself. Oddly enough, the place she recalled best was outside the block of the MasterSuite.

When she’d been in her own rooms, she’d spent most of her time in the sunroom or looking out the north window of her bedroom at the side yard.

Two more deep breaths in and puffs out, and then she held her arms out for Felonerb to jump into them, merged their vision of the space, double-checked with TQ, and teleported hom—into the back grassyard of TQ.

Felonerb jumped from her arms and raced around the yard, and Tiana heard rustles as other animals hid or left.

Her gaze fixed on Antenn, across the yard from her. He stood tall, his hair ruffled by the breeze, his tunic and trous dark. Yet the events seemed to have refined him in her eyes, and maybe to himself and others, too, she didn’t quite know. He had the bearing of the adopted Noble son but the shadows of the street boy who’d been abandoned and spent his first years in fear. Tough, a fighter, and it was easy to see that, while she’d just discovered the kernel of fight in herself.

Her heart ached for the man, the boy he’d been, his trials—and ached, in a different way,
for
him, a need that didn’t feel as if it would be satisfied.

He nodded to her, crossed his arms. With a little Flair, he made his words easily heard, though he spoke softly. “We had a discussion today.” He paused, the side of his mouth lifting ironically. “One that didn’t end well. I’ve had some time to mull it over.” Now he smiled and his eyes lit with humor. “While sparring at The Green Knight Fencing and Fighting Salon.”

Men. She still just reacted when in a dangerous situation, and here he seemed to consider it something like meditation.

“And it’s not only me who is wary of being HeartMates, dragging my feet on this, not ready.”

“Oh?” She jutted her chin.

“I trust you more than you trust me.”

“Untrue.”

“Let’s just try a little experiment. We’re HeartMates, right?”

Though she had to swallow before she replied, she said, “Yes.”

He nodded, raised his voice. “TQ, can you hear me?”

“Yes,” issued a voice from a speaker.

“Can you use one of your spotlights or project your Flair to make a light-spell beam to ‘draw’ a line bisecting the yard?” Antenn asked. “We’ll start out twenty paces away from each other and walk to the line.”

“What is this, a duel?” she asked.

“Hmm,” he said, and she could now see him better. He’d raised his brows. “You might think of it like that. A duel of hearts.” He grinned and gave her a flourishing bow, and the lightening of his spirit swept over her, simply charming her. “All talk and discussion aside, we’ll see who’s brave. I’ll meet you at the line of light, halfway. When we meet, we’ll join hands and state our intentions to be HeartMates.”

She didn’t say anything.

“All right?” Pure challenge from him.

She nodded. “All right.” Her voice sounded a little high.

“And to prove that I am sincere in changing, that I have accepted that I must change and
will
change to be a good HeartMate to you, I will . . .” He stopped and drew himself up, glancing over at TQ where a camera angled toward them.

“TQ, according to my schedule, the cathedral will be completed in six months. I wish you to issue an invitation,
right now
, to all the FirstFamilies Lords and Ladies, as couples, to attend a celebratory al fresco banquet in the back courtyard of my place of business on the first-quarter twinmoons of the month of Vine, in six months’ time, at the rise of the twinmoons in the evening. Please have them RSVP.” Antenn crossed his arms and stood hip-shot, his gaze burning with intensity.

“There. I’ve faced that fear—the fear of being rejected by the FirstFamilies, never being acceptable to them, never being good enough for them.” As if he noticed how tightly he held himself, he dropped his arms and stood more casually.

They looked at each other in silence, and his expression softened. “I know
you
are changing, too. You’ve started fighting for your rights. I will be with you all the way on that.”

Tiana found her voice. “Thank you.”

HERE you are
, said Pinky telepathically, teleporting in from somewhere to the grassyard. He promptly hissed at Felonerb across the width of the grassyard, turned with lifted tail, and hopped onto a cushioned chair at the patio.

“Thank you for joining us, Pinky,” Antenn said.

“Greetyou again, Pinky,” Tiana said.

TQ said, “I have already received acceptances to your invitation from T’Blackthorn, T’Vine, and T’Hawthorn,” he said.

A small breath whooshed from Antenn. “My parents and two good friends.” The line of his shoulders shifted. “Well, it’s a start.”

“Absolutely,” Tiana said.

His gaze focused on her again and his lips quirked up. “And now we will see about our relationship, and whether you will be welcoming guests with me that evening.”

“Proceed!” TQ said. Just the one word let her know the House was enjoying this. Their Fams, Felonerb and Pinky, sat on the sidelines illuminated in the stripe of light, Pinky at the edge of the patio, Felonerb across the yard, just outside a leafing bush.

With a steady step, his gaze on hers, Antenn started toward the lightbeam in the middle of the yard.

She began, too, aware of the eyes of feral animals watching them from the bushes. Amusement came from them as well as TQ. But at fifteen paces, her nerves began to twang and her steps slowed. At ten paces, she had to force herself to continue, but her steps lagged and became smaller.

At five paces, Antenn was already at his edge of the fifteen-centimeter-wide lightbeam and stood in what appeared to be a relaxed manner, but watched her with hooded gaze. She sidled one step, another to him.

If he held out his hands, it would help her. But he didn’t. His expression still wore that half smile he’d had when they’d started this experiment—that was turning out to be much more difficult than she’d expected—but the feeling she got from him now had no hint of amusement.

She thought he didn’t even look at her anymore, fixed on something in his mind’s eye or tried to distance himself from the situation. No, he wouldn’t offer any more than he had, standing there with the white light from TQ crossing the tips of his boots.

He probably couldn’t offer any more. She stopped and closed her eyes, wondered if she’d hear him gasp. No.

Centering herself, learning herself, the new self blown open earlier that night, still raw with uncertainty. She’d been angry with her parents, had felt for so long that she couldn’t trust them. And not to put her needs first.

No one had put her needs first, not even herself, as she conformed to the expectations of a priestess.

But here was a man who could. She examined their bond. He was painfully sensitized to her movement, spiraling high into hope, crashing into despair. He’d never be an easy man to live with, but that didn’t matter, because he was just the man she needed. Her HeartMate. They’d give each other a home.

Opening her lashes, she saw that he appeared just the same as before. One last big breath for courage and she ran, sped to him, across the light separating them, and leapt.