Читать книгу: «Keepers of the Flame», страница 3

“Yes.” She had to shift back and forth to feel her feet, but she figured she could manage stairs. The weariness would hold off for a few minutes more.

Faucon waited for Marian and Calli and their men to precede him then took his place between Bri and Elizabeth as they followed. Luthan, still bearing the twins’ bags, fell into step.

They entered the keep and trudged up an endless number of stairs around a tower, went through a door and marched singly through a narrow security corridor to enter a wedge-shaped bedroom in purple. There was one huge bed and a smaller one.

“My valet has arranged for the extra bed and wardrobe,” Faucon said, sweeping the room with a glance. “I will put the food in the dining room.” He disappeared and Bri heard the opening and closing of more doors. When he returned he glanced at Bri and Elizabeth and winked. “Most defensible.” So he’d seen how Alexa had salivated over the potatoes, too.

“Where do you want these, ladies?” asked Luthan, removing the bags and holding them at arms’ length.

Elizabeth gestured to a low wooden chest at the bottom of the big, curtained bed. The room was crowded with the smaller bed, two large wardrobes, a set of chairs, and love seat, all shoved against the large circular wall under a row of windows.

Bri tottered a little and Elizabeth was there, wrapping her arm around her waist, and it felt good to be with her sister again, not alone in this strange dream.

“Thank you all,” Elizabeth said with the authority of a hospital physician.

“You’re welcome,” Marian and Calli said at the same time.

“We’ll leave you alone now, but if you have any concerns, just holler,” Calli said.

“We’ll be back tomorrow morning,” Marian said.

Elizabeth nodded at the same time Bri did.

Faucon stopped before them and raised Elizabeth’s hand to his lips, kissed her fingertips. “Vel-coom to Lladrana,” he said in heavily accented English. Bri got the impression it was his only English and he’d been saving it.

Then he kissed Bri’s hand and she sensed great satisfaction from him. He was pleased he could provide the new Exotiques with amenities. She caught the thought—more emotion really—Which one is mine?

Uh-oh.

But he was gone the next moment, closing the door behind him and Bri was left staring at it and doubting what she’d thought she’d heard. Sensed. Felt. Oh, hell.

They were alone. At least inside the suite, Bri hadn’t heard as many footsteps leave as those who had accompanied them. Guards?

She supposed she could send a mental probe and figure out who was there. Just the idea that she was contemplating such a weird action made her stomach twist.

“Bri?” Elizabeth’s voice was laden with concern.

“I’m hanging in there. Been a long day.” She wondered if anything would happen if she braced a hand against the wall that the bed was against. It was either that or collapse in a heap, so she did so. The pretty pattern wasn’t paper. It was silk. She shook her head to banish gray exhaustion from her vision and saw that Elizabeth had checked out two doors and left them open.

“Study.” Elizabeth pointed left. “Bathroom.” To the right. “Then dining room.”

Bri stared at the bed. Bigger than a California king. Of course the Lladranans were a big people, larger than American average, or American big. They pampered themselves, with beds that big and a damask comforter filled with down atop it.

Elizabeth sniffed. She had a tissue in her hand.

“Oh, Elizabeth!” Bri stumbled to her, found her and they held each other and rocked, as they’d done often when life had overwhelmed them in childhood. Privately, because this was their own twin thing.

Bri, I’m frightened.

Me, too.

You’re the adventuress. Do you think we’re really somewhere else?

Either that or the elevator crashed and we have massive trauma and are either in comas or dead and not moved on yet.

Choking, Elizabeth said, “That’s what I thought. Am thinking. I think.”

“Therefore you is. You always think. But both logic and emotion lead me to believe we’re alive and functioning and in a different, uh, realm. We’re together, you’re not in my dream. Or maybe you are. Should I say something I know that proves to you that I’m me and here?” She thought a little. “I found this really excellent rock group in Sweden and had an affair with the drummer and even followed him around on a European tour.”

“You!” Elizabeth’s head jerked as though from a blow and her arms loosened. Her eyes were wide with shock.

Heat flooded Bri from her feet to tickle her scalp. She winced and gave an embarrassed chuckle. “Yeah. I’m susceptible to lust and infatuation just like anyone else. He found someone who’d flatter him more and dumped me.” Not the whole truth.

Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed and she swept a glance up and down Bri. She raised her hands. “Hey, I’m all right. I can be sensible. No sexually transmitted diseases. No pregnancy.”

With a final scan and a blink, Elizabeth crossed her arms. Bri held out hers again, and they hugged, stepped back, but kept their hands linked.

“All right,” Elizabeth said. “That sounds so you, but I never would have imagined it. Never.”

“Your turn,” Bri said. “You pretty much acted like I’d expect if this was all my dream. Prove you’re you.”

Elizabeth’s jaw clenched. She dropped Bri’s hand, looked away, blushed a fiery red, and Bri heard her answer telepathically. Cassidy was—is—into light bondage. And I liked it, too.

Bri’s mouth fell open. She stared. Elizabeth’s arms were crossed again and she still wasn’t looking at Bri.

“You’re right. That’s something I’d never think of.” Her turn to study her twin. “But you were both wound too damn tight. I can see…no, I don’t think I want to see. Just let me ask. One or both of you, um…”

“We took turns.” Elizabeth’s voice was stifled. She finally met Bri’s eyes and said, “And you reacted just like I’d expect you to.”

They stared at each other, then cracked up, falling together again. When they’d finished with the bout of hysterical laughter, Bri took a tissue, wiped her eyes, then blew her nose.

“For the record,” Elizabeth said in a serious tone. “Sexual preferences aren’t necessarily determined by stress or how ‘tightly’ a person is wound.”

“Huh. I heard that sometimes high-powered professional women such as yourself—”

“So, tell me, Ms. Free Spirit. Haven’t you ever done it?”

Again heat rose in Bri. “I’ll take the fifth, but I will say it never became a standard sexual practice.”

Elizabeth smiled wickedly. “We aren’t identical.”

“One last thing, what’s your favorite number?”

Bri waited a beat, then said, “Forty-two,” at the same time Elizabeth did. “I think I have to sit down.”

“The beds—”

“Definitely not the bed,” Bri said. “If I hit a bed, I’m gone, and we need to talk. You got any chocolate in your purse?”

Going to the chest, Elizabeth took her black healthy back bag and clutched it. “Maybe.”

“Me, too. I’ve got a feeling that we’ll have to be careful of it or those others will pinch it or expect us to share. Let’s see how much.” With slow steps, Bri reached the chest, then hefted her backpack with the solar panels on it. “Boy, am I glad I invested in this.” She carefully spilled the contents. Her music pod, PDA, digital camera, cell, and everything else she needed for a three-day hike.

Elizabeth pulled items from every pouch of her bag and lined the objects in little rows, glanced at Bri’s heap. “That’s it?” she gasped. “Two small candy bars. That is the extent of your chocolate cache!”

Bri winced. “I was hungry on the plane. I ate some.”

Elizabeth took Bri’s pack, shook it. Rustling came. She rolled her eyes. “You just dumped the bag, didn’t check the compartments.” Nimble fingers delved and found the unopened bag of the miniature bars Bri had purchased as well as two credit card holders and a lucky koala bear key chain.

“Oh, thank God!” Bri snatched the chocolate bag. Tears welled in her eyes. “You are a wonderful woman, twin.” The words were out of her mouth before she realized that Elizabeth’s chocolate stash was about twice the size of her own. Elizabeth still had the unopened bag of her dark chocolate treats, too.

“I wonder whether the others prefer milk or dark,” Elizabeth said.

Putting down her bag, Bri sorted her stuff. Electronics, pens and paper, food, water bottle, wallet and coin purse and loose change, keys, instant coffee, herbal tea bags…. “I bet it won’t matter. Chocolate is chocolate after all. We don’t let them know we have it.”

“You don’t think they have chocolate here?”

“I don’t want to take the chance.”

Elizabeth was packing her purse up again, sliding things in their proper pockets. “You’re right, and my chocolate is mine and yours is yours.”

Bri sent her a wounded look. “Would I take your chocolate?” “Yes.”

Sniffing, Bri said, “You’re right. Better hide it.”

“When I get home—” Elizabeth stopped, choked, dropped her bag, put her hands over her face and folded onto the love seat.

“Oh, honey.” Bri grabbed her own packet of tissues and sat next to her sister. “I know you’re scared. I am, too. But we’re in this together.”

“I don’t want to be in anything. Even if you are here.”

Bri rested her head on Elizabeth’s. She didn’t dare let go of her control or she’d be asleep in two seconds. “I’m sorry.” She blinked and blinked again to keep her eyes open.

Elizabeth’s muscles tensed as she gathered her own control. It wasn’t often Elizabeth broke down, and Bri could only imagine the emotional roller coaster her twin had been on lately. Not surprising this hit her hard. It might be hitting Bri equally hard if her mind wasn’t so fuzzy.

“I love you, sis, but I don’t know what to say,” she said. “I don’t know how to help you.”

After wiping her eyes and blowing her nose, Elizabeth threw away their tissues in a wastebasket, then said brusquely, “Just weariness. Now let’s get serious. What sort of meds do we have?” Once again she opened her bag and brought out a small gold-toned pill box that Bri had given her on their last birthday. She flipped it open and showed a few over-the-counter analgesics.

Bri winced. “That’s it?”

“You know I don’t carry any sort of drugs on my person, and make sure everyone in the hospital knows that.”

“Yeah, yeah, good idea.” Bri fumbled through her stuff, withdrew a generic mega-bottle of American aspirin. “I used local remedies in Sweden.”

“That’s good.”

Bri separated a few baggies with a mixture of pills. “Herbs and vitamins.”

“What kind of herbs?”

“Um, Rhodiola Rosea.”

“Excellent,” Elizabeth said.

The only thing that looked remotely mainstream medical was a series of tin-foil–wrapped packets with little bumps of pills in them.

“What are those?” Elizabeth asked.

“Swedish cat antibiotics. I was taking care of a friend’s cat. It got better after one week instead of two.”

“What are the ingredients?”

“I don’t know.”

They stared at each other.

“We’ll have to keep them for emergencies.”

“How can you think of using—”

“If it came down to cat antibiotics or death, what would you chose?” Bri said brutally.

“You have a point.” Too anxious to sit still, Elizabeth stood and paced along the lined-up furniture, looking at the night-dark windows facing…what? She’d lost her sense of direction.

But the rooms of the Castle didn’t bother her as much as the people, the suffering people, she’d found here. “Do you really think we can turn this epidemic around?” Elizabeth asked, not at all sure, frightened of failure.

But Bri was asleep. She slumped against the back of the love seat, listing toward where Elizabeth had been sitting.

Elizabeth swallowed hard. Even exhausted, Bri had handled this whole thing so much better than she. Of course Bri was used to new people and places, learning to fit into a new culture.

Elizabeth went back to the couch and sat, studying her twin. Bri had really meant to settle down in Denver. How ironic that now her itchy feet had finally stopped, they were somewhere else. Elizabeth glanced at their pitiful cache of drugs. Aspirin, vitamins.

And healing hands. That thought tightened her throat. She’d denied her gift for so long. Suppressed it.

All she’d ever wanted was to be a good doctor.

Cassidy had discovered her secret. It had been the inciting incident of their last fight which had led to the end of their engagement.

If she let herself, she could hear murmuring around her—like a film soundtrack. And she was sure her retinas still held images of the auras she had actually seen. Automatically, she repacked her bag and Bri’s backpack. Then she changed herself and Bri into nightclothes and persuaded her sleepy sister to bed. Maybe this would all be a dream.

5

Bri woke and savored the coziness of sheets and warmth, definitely not the tiny, chilly apartment in Stockholm. Elizabeth certainly did herself proud. Did the family proud, including Bri herself. During college she’d had no doubt that Elizabeth would sail through medical school and become a brilliant physician like their mother. Now if Bri could only buckle down and master nursing school.

She yawned, stretched. The day before had been hard, the worry that she’d get home to Denver all right on standby. Those incredible dreams. She snorted. Imagine that, flying horses. She hadn’t dreamt of them before.

Opening her eyes to a canopy overhead showing an embroidered huge winged horse, she got the nasty feeling that she still hadn’t dreamt of them. She jackknifed up and the covers slid down, and the room was warm. She was covered in a large shirt, obviously not her own. There were buttons on the shoulders. A soft whuffling moan caught her attention and she looked over to see Elizabeth in the huge bed with her. Beyond the posts of the bed were windows set in a circular wall showing gray sky.

Tears had her eyes stinging. She wanted to be home, and not just Denver, but her old room with her old waterbed. A room that had been redecorated years ago. But at least she was supposed to be home in Denver. The yearning for it had gotten bigger and bigger in the past year and developed into a horrible homesickness. She wriggled her feet, not just to get her circulation, but to test. No signs of itchy feet.

She glanced at Elizabeth, who was wearing a pristine nightgown. Slipping from the bed, she went over to the large freestanding wardrobe that featured two doors with a couple of drawers beneath them. Opening the left door she saw only a smaller shirt and a larger shirt. Brought by Faucon? Or in case a man was Summoned? Opening a drawer, she found handkerchiefs, took one and blew her nose.

“Bri?” Elizabeth mumbled.

Bri froze. If she was feeling this bad, how would Elizabeth the homebody feel? How was she going to comfort her sister when she had little emotional strength herself?

But Elizabeth was sitting up in bed, looking around, eyes bright. She smiled at Bri, rolled her shoulders, linked her fingers and stretched. “Not in Colorado anymore.”

It occurred to Bri that to Elizabeth, leaving Colorado and her grief and problems might be a relief. Bri blew her nose louder, saw a large wicker basket with a linen sack that she figured was a laundry hamper, and tossed the used hankie inside. “Lladrana.” She remembered that much.

Recalled also that she had some power bars in her back-pack. Padding on thick carpets to the love seat, she grabbed her pack.

She hopped onto the high bed and under the covers and opened her satchel. Elizabeth probably would have put the food—yup, she unzipped the pocket, dipped her hand in and tossed a bar to her sister, while ripping the wrapping off one herself. “Thanks for sleeping with me. If I’d been alone, I mighta freaked.”

“I didn’t want to be by myself last night, either.” Elizabeth studied the wrapper. “What’s in this?”

Bri spoke around a mouthful of granola, raisins and yogurt bits. “Only healthy stuff, I swear, sweetened with rice syrup.”

Hastily Elizabeth peeled off the wrapper, dropped it over the side of the bed, took the shreds of Bri’s wrapper and did the same. Must be a wastebasket there. Elizabeth chomped down, made a humming noise. Chewed. Swallowed. Turned to Bri with crumbs on her lips. “This is really good.”

“Yeah.” Bri had already gobbled hers and wasn’t going to eat another one of what now must be rationed. She slipped from the bed and went to the windows.

“What do you see?” asked Elizabeth.

“Green fields and hills.” A movement caught her eye and she craned her head to the left. “Castle wall, garden, big dirt field. Pretty bustling down there. Soldiers. Those knights, Chevaliers, a couple of…of volarans. That city guy, Sevair Masif, all neat and tidy and pressed, watching this tower.”

“Any sign of The Three?”

Snorting with laughter, Bri withdrew from the window. As kids they’d always had nicknames for those in their lives, twin shorthand. “Nope.”

“How late is it?” Elizabeth was frowning, staring at the window.

“Hard to say. No sun, though I think the windows face west. A gray day.”

“How long do you think they’ll give us alone this morning?” Elizabeth asked.

“If they can sense resting versus waking energy patterns—”

A strumming came at the sitting-room door, then the rapping of a knuckle. Bri finished, “—I’d say not long at all.”

Hopping from bed, Elizabeth said, “Gotta pee,” and headed to the bathroom.

Bri never drank much on a travel day, but now that Elizabeth mentioned it…

More harplike notes.

She recalled the polished rosewood door to the suite had something like a Swedish door harp affixed to the door, without the little wooden balls, and with vertical strings.

She went to the outer door. “Give us a break, folks, we’re sharing a bathroom. And we don’t want you in our bedroom.”

There was some mumbling. There seemed to be a lot of life signatures beyond the door, and Bri was able to sense them easily. Scary.

“May we come in?” a voice asked in English.

Definitely at least The Three.

“Who all’s there?” Bri asked.

“Bri?” came Alexa’s voice.

Good ear. This being an aural society, they probably all had good ears, or like Bri had guessed before, they sensed energy patterns, too. Though Bri’s and Elizabeth’s energy patterns might be very similar, they wouldn’t be identical.

“Who all’s there?” she repeated, heard a flush and thanked God that there appeared to be modern plumbing. Water ran as Elizabeth washed her hands.

“Marian, Alexa, Calli, and our husbands,” Marian said. Bri had a good ear, too, and the voluptuous redhead’s voice was deeper, throatier than the others.

Bri backed up a couple of paces as Elizabeth walked into the room, dressed in her clothes from yesterday and not seeming too pleased about it. She’d have washed out their underwear, of course, before they fell into bed. “‘The Three’ have turned into ‘The Six.’”

“They brought their men? Why?”

Shrugging, Bri went to the bathroom. “Don’t know. At a guess, to show us a benefit of the place? Hunky husbands?”

Elizabeth snorted. “The last thing I need is a man in my life. Let me go through the bathroom to the dining room where there’s another door to the hallway.” She hustled past Bri, closing the door behind her, then faced the outer door. Her panties were still damp and she resented wearing them. If the women had been perspicacious enough to have nightgowns made, why couldn’t they have provided some decent underwear? All Elizabeth had seen were long-underwear type leggings and tops and she’d had enough of those all the last miserable winter long.

The Six. Huh.

“Elizabeth? This is your morning briefing. By now you would have realized that you’re here for a while. And we thought we’d help you get on,” Alexa said.

Elizabeth crossed her arms. “Bri is in the bathroom.” She heard sputtering water. “Showering. Come back later. With breakfast. I’ll take an egg white omelette and a piece of dry toast. Bri will have eggs scrambled with cheese. If this benighted land has coffee, bring two cups, hot and black.”

A male chuckle came as if in approval. “I don’t think they’re as disturbed as you expected them to be. You go get the food. We will stay here,” the man said. In English. One of the men knew English. Elizabeth couldn’t figure out whether that was a good sign or a bad one.

Marian said, “They have each other for support, so of course they are less affected than we were—being stranded in a strange dimension all alone.”

That’s what she thought. Elizabeth allowed herself an irritated sniff.

“But a discussion over food will be fine. I will, indeed, go, Jaquar.”

Who was Jaquar? Calli’s husband or Marian’s?

Alexa said, “I’ll hang here with the guys. A coupla croissants and butter and an omelette sounds good to me, too, with that cheese. And mushrooms!” Alexa called. “Too bad we don’t have hash browns.”

“I’ll go with Marian,” said Calli.

“Much running around,” said another male voice in English, very heavily accented.

Shifting from foot to foot, Elizabeth stared at the door, wondering if it would be beneficial to let the others in, four instead of six. Would it throw off their rhythm?

“It might,” Bri said next to her ear and Elizabeth jumped.

“Sorry,” Bri said. “You were thinking really loud.”

“Alexa and the men are out there.”

“Ah. Well I have the feeling that Alexa would be a handful by her very self.”

“True.” Elizabeth looked at Bri. She was wearing the leggings and the smaller shirt, with her bra underneath. Both Lladranan garments were made of cream-colored silk. “You look good.”

Bri shrugged. “The outfit works for the moment.” She smiled. “I didn’t want to put on damp panties.”

Elizabeth grumbled, “More humid here than in Colorado. Our underwear would have been dry if we were home.”

“Yeah.” Bri’s smile became a wicked grin. “Bet at least one of them is leaning against the door?”

“I don’t know.” Elizabeth frowned. “These are warriors. Would they do that?”

“One way to see.” Bri strode forward.

Bri yanked open the door.