Especially when she saw Jaquar shaking a dark purple bottle about two inches high. “What’s that?”
“The language potion,” they said in unison.
“Nope.”
Jaquar sent her a winning smile. “You see how it worked for me.”
“Like a charm,” Marian said.
“Nope.” Calli wanted to slip her hands in her pockets but thought she should keep her hands free.
“You could try just one drop,” Marian said. “That would be temporary.”
Again shaking the bottle, Jaquar said, “There’s about three months’ worth of potion in here. The magical properties fade with time, so you learn the language gradually. After three months, you should know Lladranan.”
“So you know English now, but if you don’t use the language every day, it will fade away?” asked Calli, intrigued.
Jaquar frowned as if he didn’t like the idea of losing a skill. “True.”
“Pillow talk,” Marian said. “And if you marry a Lladranan and bond with him mind to mind, you also learn the language, the more, ah, intimate you are.”
“Many pathways are opened during sex.” Jaquar grinned again.
That sounded even more frightening. “Absolutely not.” Calli smiled herself. “I’m not convinced this isn’t a dream.” She looked around at the color of the furnishings. “Though there’s more purple than usual in my dreams.”
“That’s the heraldic color assigned to Exotiques, especially Marshalls. Alexa’s suite was mostly purple, she’s switched out a lot of furniture from there to here.”
“Purple is not my color,” Calli said.
At that moment a triangle rang. Calli sensed an inrush of bright and healthy volaran minds.
“The Marshalls and Chevaliers have returned!” Marian said. Jaquar stood and pocketed the bottle.
Calli ran to the window where she’d caught sight of beating wings. The whole army swooped down to the landing field out of her sight.
I am here, too, Thunder called.
Calli exited the opulent rooms without a backward look, running down the tower stairs to the outside door. She flung it open only to face the tall hedges of a maze.
6
A young woman in her mid-twenties, dressed in buff-colored Chevalier leathers, but obviously not a fighter, hovered between the hedges. Shifting from foot to foot, she smiled and bowed to Calli, then pressing her fingers to her chest, she said, “Seeva Hallard.”
Calli nodded, probably a relation to Lady Hallard, daughter maybe. “Hey, Seeva.”
Seeva swept a hand toward the interior of the maze and said something in the French-like language. Once again the strangeness of this place struck Calli, but when the woman took off through the maze, Calli followed. It took longer to wend their way through than Calli anticipated. Impatience to see a lot of volarans again nibbled at her. She let her mind reach and knew all the winged horses were fine. Thank God.
Finally she and Seeva made it to the field, and all the volarans, even those being led away by grooms, stopped and turned to Calli.
Thunder pranced up to her. His hide rippled. Grooming time. The strong scent of amber rose from him. Volaran sweat, Calli guessed.
I’m sure, she replied to him.
I would like a rubdown.
He was demanding, but Calli felt indulgent. “I can do that,” Calli said, sending images of standard grooming. He whickered.
Three people separated themselves from the rest and walked toward her—Alexa, Bastien and the older Chevalier who Calli had heard was the “representative to the Marshalls.” She wore yellow and gray. Her tunic, which Calli recalled as being pristine, was stained and torn. Yeah, she’d been fighting.
Against monsters that Calli hadn’t seen. Yet.
The woman shot orders to Seeva, who ran across the landing field. Calli recalled the older woman’s name was Hallard. Lady Hallard. If Calli remained in this dream, would she get a title, too?
“Exotique,” Lady Hallard said with a little bow.
Oh, she already had a sort of title. Exotique Calli. Exotique Alexa. Exotique Marian—Calli had heard all three of them called that. Women from Earth.
Lady Hallard sent a stream of rapid-fire words to Alexa, who winced and kept nodding, a pained smile on her face. Then Alexa bowed to Lady Hallard, answered in a mild voice and talked a while.
After she ended, Lady Hallard nodded, bowed again to Calli and strode away, leaving her volaran to grooms. Calli saw several people who wore her colors on an armband bow to her. The older woman waved casually to them.
Bastien shook his head. Alexa sighed. “She said that she was told Thunder gave you a good report and she wants you to be integrated into the Chevaliers’ ranks as soon as possible. And you shouldn’t be up at the Marshalls’ keep.” Now Alexa’s smile-grimace was aimed at Calli, who wanted to pay more attention to all the volarans inching closer to ring them. The flying horses still seemed as fascinated with her as she was with them.
“I insisted that you stay in my tower tonight,” Alexa said.
“All right. I need to groom Thunder,” Calli said.
“Fine.” Alexa rubbed her gauntleted hands together. “Calli, do you want Marian and me to lay all this out at once or drop it on you in little bits?”
Calli sent Alexa a crooked smile as she stroked the exquisite softness of Thunder’s near wing. “I think this is all a dream and I’ll wake up in my own bed tomorrow morning.”
“Not going to happen,” Alexa said.
Bastien spoke and Alexa nodded again, this time with enthusiasm. “The more you bond with the volarans, the more you are physically aware of this world—like by grooming Thunder—the more you’ll believe you’re here. So Bastien’ll take you to the stables and teach you. Later we’ll eat in my tower with Marian and Jaquar.”
“Jaquar speaks English.”
“What?”
“They made a potion—”
“Of course they did,” Alexa said.
“—and he tried it out. So he can speak English.”
Alexa looked up at Calli. “Wonder how that works.”
“Me, too.”
Bastien gently jostled Alexa aside and offered his arm to Calli. She didn’t need it this time. She made a lead-theway gesture.
He grabbed Alexa
