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Authors: Robin Owens

Heart Journey (49 page)

BOOK: Heart Journey
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“Or else I’ll have the next person we meet be priest or priestess and recognize my HeartMate vows to you.”
She felt a smile curving her lips, closed her eyes for a few steps. All she could feel from him was love. “What of your career?”
“You,
we
, are more important than my career.”
“Same here,” she said, then touched her stomach. “So is the baby.” Then she turned and looked at him fully, saw his mobile face radiating love. He lifted her hand to his lips.
“My lover, my love, my HeartMate. Bond with me.”
She had to cough to clear her own throat. “Yes. About our home—”
“My home is with you.”
“I have some ideas on that.”
D
el had three sets of pillows propped behind her as she lay on the
bedsponge in Raz’s suite in T’Cherry Residence. She felt stupid. Selfishly, she wanted to be back at her own house. But Raz and the other Cherrys had hovered over the new HeartMate and the prospective first child of the next generation.
His mother and sister had actually
cooed
over her. His father, T’Cherry himself, often took breaks from his work at home to come up and check on her.
They’d convinced her that she would be easier served in T’Cherry Residence. She wasn’t used to being served, but everyone was worried about the baby, including her, and she should have the best care.
She still felt stupid.
She shifted and muttered. From what she could tell with her own body, all was well, but she
wouldn’t
jeopardize this child.
Her and Raz’s child.
At least there wouldn’t be continual bed rest. This was only precautionary after the frightening and active events at the labyrinth. T’Anise’s mind had cracked beyond all mending and he had been placed in D’Sea’s, the mind Healer’s, most private facility. His estates had been confiscated.
His guard and distant relative had been more interested in the treasure
Lugh’s Spear
might hold than his lord’s wish for glory. The big man had been tried for murder, found guilty, fixed with a DepressFlair bracelet and exiled to an island. Like others with the same fate, he wasn’t expected to live long. When the FirstFamilies acted, they moved fast and deadly.
Del was still concerned about being tied to the Blackthorns through Doolee—they tended to hover, too—but was becoming resigned to a lot of Family around her. At least she liked the Cherrys and the Blackthorns . . . and the Clovers that she’d met, Mitchella Blackthorn’s birth Family.
She had a large Family again, who would have thought it? She wasn’t quite ready for them all, but she was stuck.
For a while. Until the property in Verde Valley was ready. Since she’d done much of the original arrangements and Raz insisted on it being a mutual HeartMate partnership project, he took an enthusiastic lead now.
Del glanced at the timer, he’d be back from negotiations with Amberose and her agent soon. The final negotiations. If they couldn’t agree on the casting of the play and having it open at the new Cherry Theater of Verde Valley, that particular project would be scrapped.
Since Raz was muttering about hiring a playwright for a story about the Tabacin Diaries, that wasn’t too bad, except Del felt the press of time.
She shifted in the bed. She felt fine. The baby was fine. There had been myriad tests, resulting in this one eightday of bed rest. Which was becoming more tiresome with every second.
She sighed and picked up the ancient divination cards Raz had given her to amuse herself.
At first she just looked at the people in the foreground. She smiled when she saw hints of features in those she knew. T’Ash. Ruis Elder. Vinni T’Vine. Then a river and hills caught her eye and she began to pay more attention to the backgrounds and landscapes of the cards.
Here, as Raz had said, was
Lugh’s Spear
, looking not at all like
Nuada’s Sword
. An older type of ship or something. She tried to figure out
where
it might be, but there wasn’t enough detail. So she set that card aside and began sifting out those that showed more geographic features.
Her heart began beating hard as she started to recognize the areas, the journey Tabacin had described . . . surely that was an edge of Fish Story Lake, those were the Bluegrass Plains. Del put them in order, though she was still frustrated. Just not enough detail. She had a copy of the diaries, too, and flipped through them to the few scenic sketches . . . Tabacin had been afraid of the outside world, had preferred to draw people, especially if they paid her for likenesses.
Frowning, Del lined up the cards in the order of the journey, east to west, then south to north. Her hand hesitated over the ten of wands. Surely that was
their
valley. Verde Valley. Her head went a little dizzy. Verde Valley. An old, old name. As old as the
Lugh’s Spear
colonists?
The door creaking open had her jolting. “Sssh.” Raz came over, leaned down and hugged her. “Just me.”
From the wild sense of triumph that pulsed from him, Del knew they’d gotten everything they’d asked for. She grabbed his face for a hard kiss and he returned it enthusiastically.
He raised an eyebrow at the large cards spread over the bed, shrugged and straightened, paced to the window and back, too restless to sit with her.
Del grinned and when he turned, he matched that.
Rosemary was hopping up and down on his shoulder, as far as her “stay” spell allowed.
Raz said, “Not only did we get the cast and the director we wanted, but ...”
“But?”
“Amberose herself will come to the theater opening and mix and mingle.”
“Wonderful. That will be a big draw.”
“Yes. She is interested in a ‘country’ theater. I got the impression that she might have an estate near there.” Raz winked. “Good for types that don’t care for the city much.”
Del nodded. “Good for nobles driving a glider from Druida to Gael City and their southern estates. With the landing pad we will put in, it will serve airships, too.”
“And as people become more adept with teleportation, it can be a stopping place,” Raz said casually. They’d discussed all this. He paused and his eyes gleamed. “And ...”
“And?”
“I happened to take a copy of the Tabacin Diaries with me, talked to her about the story. She’s hooked. I think she’ll write it.”
“Wonderful!”
Raz was pacing again, rubbing his hands. “After the Evening Primrose Theater does
Heart and Sword
next year, audiences will be ready for more colonist tales. We can premiere the play when
Heart and Sword
closes up here.”
“If it closes; the Gael City production is still going strong.” She hesitated. “Are you sure you want to premiere
Tabacin
at our theater? We agreed that you would take some runs here in the city.”
“We did.” He came over and played with her fingers. “But if our inn and theater go well, I will rethink that. I’d like being a big fish in a big pond. We own much of the valley, but not all, and I can foresee an artistic community growing here.”
“Huh.” Del wasn’t sure about that.
Raz glanced at the cards, his brows drew together. “What’s this?”
He’d observed it, too, the distinctive crooked mountain against the sky, a view they could see from their home in Verde Valley. He picked up the card. “I never noticed this before.”
Del gestured to the cards. “I think this is the journey Tabacin made. I even think
Lugh’s Spear
colonists stayed in our valley for a while, named it maybe.”
Raz’s mobile face had gone still. The link between them was wide and his emotions of awe and love for her rushed through it. Del flushed.

You
are wonderful.”
I want to SEE!
Rosemary shouted.
Unstick.
Flicking fingers and murmuring a Word, Raz dissipated the “stay” spell.
Rosemary hopped onto the bed, staggered around the cards, disarranging and flipping them.
“Rosemary!” Raz chided, grabbing her.
But knowledge exploded in Del’s brain as she noted the backs, the minuscule symbol that looked like
Lugh’s Spear
on one card. “Wait, wait!” She panted. She gathered the cards and began laying them out, back side up. Shuffled them around.
“What?”
“It’s a map!”
“A map! It doesn’t look like a map to me, just bands of different colors, pale yellow to deep purple.”
“But it is! Tabacin mentioned that the leader of the colonists, the Captain of
Lugh’s Spear
, showed them a map and progress they made on it on their trip. The map he would have used would have come from the ship, been taken by
Lugh’s Spear
.”
Raz stared, shook his head. “I don’t see it.”
“It’s a little fuzzy,” Del admitted. “And the woman
did
like her color palette. But I recognize the scale, and we also have the map that was transmitted from
Lugh’s Spear
to
Nuada’s Sword
.” She pointed to a big purple blob. “Look, this is the edge of the Deep Blue Sea.” Touched another purple area. “And Fish Story Lake.”
Her finger quivered as she touched the card with the symbol of
Lugh’s Spear
. “And there is exactly where they landed,” she whispered.
“We have a map,” Raz said blankly.

The
map. The map to
Lugh’s Spear
.”
“Just as we’d always been told,” Raz said. He put a hand on her shoulder. “If you want to go ...” His voice was expressionless.
Yearning twisted inside Del. If this had been only two months ago . . . but two months ago she hadn’t known Raz and none of this would have happened.
“I love you.” Her voice was thick with conflicting emotions. “And I love our child and the thought of more children with you. They can’t be jeopardized.” She squared the cards, lifted her chin, and returned the love she saw in her HeartMate’s eyes. “The discovery of
Lugh’s Spear
has waited this long, it can wait until our children can make such a trip. The logistics of finding it, maybe excavating or raising it, will take massive planning.”
Raz bent down and kissed her tenderly on her lips. “My HeartMate, my woman, my wife, the mother of my children. I can only love you more each minute.”
Sounded like mushy actor stuff to Del, but it touched her all the same, and dammit, that was just what she felt, too.
A
month later Raz stopped the huge and heavily shielded glider just
before the pillared gateway of their Verde Valley estate. Del opened the door and got out. She heard the voices of workers putting the last touches on the hotel for the grand opening at Full Twinmoons just after the new year in a few weeks.
The male HeartMated couple who were to run the inn had already arrived, as well as Del’s Healer.
Their house had been finished yesterday. The white tinting around the many-paned windows gleamed. At last everything was ready for them to move in. Within her satchel was the HeartGift Raz had given her, an exquisite model of
Lugh’s Spear
. Well shielded until she placed it on a shelf in their bedroom next to his landscape globe that night.
Rosemary and Shunuk tumbled from the glider, shot through the pillars into the estate.
Raz wrapped an arm around her, his hand resting lightly on her stomach. They looked at the estate, the hotel in the foreground, their house near the lake. The red and gold tinted theater gleamed like a jewel.
Del let out a long breath. Finally free of Druida City! “My journey has ended,” she murmured.
Raz rubbed his chin against her hair. “Our journey together begins.”
“Yes.” She wrapped her arms around her HeartMate, kissed him, and leaned into his embrace. “Our journey together begins.”
BOOK: Heart Journey
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