Guardian of Honor (5 page)

"Marwey?" Thealia gestured to Marwey and mimed talking,
then indicated her head, Marwey's, and Alexa's. Alexa didn't like the idea
forming in her mind.

The young girl, shorter and slighter than Alexa, slowly lifted
thin arms. Marwey curled her palms around Thealia's face. They seemed to
commune. Marwey stepped back.

Sure enough, Thealia indicated Marwey should do the same with
Alexa.

There was a long pause as Alexa considered. She studied the girl,
who looked young and innocent and good. When Alexa half-shut her eyelids she
could see a bright aqua aura around Marwey. For some reason it reassured her.
Like evil would show big black smears? Maybe. Maybe. Her instincts seemed to be
guiding her well enough tonight.

Alexa jerked a nod.

Marwey eyed Alexa's baton.

Alexa sighed and dropped her hands to her sides.

Marwey came close enough that Alexa could smell her scent—girlish
and floral, perhaps a prettily fragranced soap. Marwey put her warm hands
against Alexa's face and the image came of soap in the shape of a seashell and
the color of moss.

Alexa flinched as butterfly wings brushed her mind. Marwey's eyes
grew big. She shuddered and jumped back.

She swayed and others crowded around her, leaving Alexa standing
alone.

Marwey licked her lips.
"Leyu exotique,"
she
said.

Alexa tried to translate. This time "exotique" sounded
almost
familiar. "Exotique." French? French for
"exotic"? A French-based language? She didn't do well with languages.
She was doomed.

The girl curtseyed to Alexa. "Bar," she said clearly.
"You...haff...passed...the bar."

Bar? Alexa and Sophie had passed the Colorado bar a couple of
months ago.

Marwey made a frustrated noise. "No. You...haff..
.crossed...
le
bar."

That sounded even stranger, but again a little familiar. Alexa
shook her head, hoping to straighten out her jumbled thoughts.
Crossed—passed...

This had been a
test?
All this stuff—the monster, the
star-ball, the baby, the killer with the knife...had been
a test?

Fury built in her, radiating from her belly to the soles of her
feet and the top of her head. Again her hair stood straight out from her scalp.
She shifted from foot to foot. She'd never been so angry. The baton in her hand
began to hum cheerfully. Tiny figures incised in the jade that she hadn't
noticed before glowed and almost moved. Looking at the staff meant she looked
at her arm—and the golden aura streaked with red crackling from it.

Alexa angled the baton but didn't point it. Slowly she turned and,
step by step, she looked at each person in the half-circle before her.

Too much. It was too damn much. Alexa whirled to the top
nobles—Reynardus with the ivory baton and Thealia.

"This was a test?" she bellowed. The tapestries on the
walls shivered. Alexa grinned. She turned back to the pool and pointed her
baton, wondering what would happen if she sent a bolt of energy to it. She
couldn't find the urge to care.

"Ttho!" Thealia jumped in front of Alexa. Locked gazes
with her. "Ttho."

Alexa's nostrils flared.

Partis pulled Thealia aside and took her place. He was protecting
his wife. He spoke to Alexa, his voice rising and falling in beautiful lilting
notes. She ignored the words—as she thought he meant her to—and listened to the
tone, the rhythms, the cadences. Warm yellow light pulsed from him.

The craziness of it all hit Alexa. She was a Marshall. But they
all wore swords. And armor.

She wasn't a savior.

Hell, they
had
wanted Joan of Arc.

"I
think everyone except Partis and I should leave," Thealia
said.

Reynardus snorted and swept her a mocking bow. "As you will,
Swordmarshall Thealia."

Thealia lifted her chin a bit. "Our mission was a success. We
now have a powerful new Marshall. With her aid, the plague of evil invading
Lladrana will be stopped."

"You think so?"

"You doubt the Spring Song?" His constant arguing wore
on her nerves. She looked him straight in the eyes. "One of the requisites
for a Marshall is appropriate visits to the Caves of Melody and a trance with
the Singer and the Song. Reynardus, how long has it been since you have
undertaken an individual Song Quest to tell of your path?" She knew, but
wanted to hear him say it aloud.

A vein throbbed in his temple. "Are you challenging me for
the leadership of the Marshalls?"

"I'm saying that I've received several Song Quests in the
past decade, and most recently when the third fencepost vanished."

She waited a beat. He didn't speak. "When was the last time
you consulted the Singer and the Song?" she repeated.

He paced with sharp-sounding steps to where his cloak lay.
Whirling it around him, he replied. "I've been."

"When you were first confirmed as a Marshall. Before you even
knew whether you were a Sword or a Shield," she pointed out. "Have
you been other times?" she ended quietly. He had this coming, but it
wasn't an easy thing to do—to force a Marshall to carry out his duty by shaming
him.

"I'll go to the Singer and endure the Song Quest." He forced
the words through clenched teeth as he clasped the brooch at the throat of his
cloak shut. "Tomorrow." He stared at each one of the Marshalls, lip
curling. "I trust you will temper our new little Exotique and make sure
she is amenable and Paired by the time I return." Reynardus spun on his
heel, then swept to the threshold and out into the portico in a dramatic exit.

Thealia caught the slamming door with her power and let it gently
swing shut.

She turned to face the Exotique—Alyeka, Thealia corrected herself—and
found the young woman still shooting out angry energy. Thealia glanced at the
huge crystal points at the end of each rafter. Thank the Song such energy could
be stored and harvested later.

Partis looked at the girl with his usual compassion. "She's
not happy with us," he murmured.

"Who would be, enduring such Tests?" Marwey spoke up—out
of her place.

Thealia frowned at her and the teenager faded back from the
Marshalls. Then Thealia scanned the rest of her companions.

"What went wrong with Defau? He wasn't supposed to try to
kill her. He was only to test her courage."

"Why ask, when we all know?" Shieldmarshall Faith said,
rubbing her hands up and down her arms as if she were cold and didn't have the
strength for a warming spell. Her skin showed an underlying pallor. "He
hates Exotiques beyond reason. A flaw we didn't know and he didn't reveal.
Perhaps he didn't know himself." Faith
glanced at
Alexa. "She is odder than I anticipated. Her coloring—the ebb and flow of
her Power, the rhythm of it." Faith shook her head. "I don't know
whether to be repulsed or fascinated."

"Obviously Defau was repulsed," Thealia said dryly.

Faith's eyes clouded and she tilted her head as if straining to
use her Power. "His lifepulse is thready. I doubt he will live."

"We all knew there could be casualties among us,"
Thealia said. She felt the weight of their gazes.

"And you sent Reynardus away," Armsmaster Swordmarshall
Mace said. His wife and Shield set her hand on his arm and squeezed. He shut
his mouth.

Thealia passed a hand across her eyes, caught small beads of
perspiration. "You only say what everyone thinks." She looked at them
all. "We can't afford to have a negative influence in our Circle. We lost
her for a moment. We could have lost her for good. Reynardus has challenged
every step we took. I listened to the Spring Song and underwent a personal Song
Quest." She nodded to a couple of friends. "So did some others of us.
Reynardus won't listen to the Spring Song or believe our personal Song Quests."
She shrugged. "He's always been a man who will only trust what he himself
knows
to be true—what he sees, or touches or perceives. Let him undergo trance
with the Singer and hear his own Song. I only wish his results would be
different and more hopeful than the rest of ours have been." Others
nodded.

"Marshall Alyeka is about to fall into the pool again,"
Mace said. "Who knows what immersion in jerir twice in one night would do
to her?"

Thealia hadn't seen any movement in her peripheral vision, but
when she faced the woman, Alexa was swaying.

Straightening her shoulders, Thealia said, "Let's finish this
business. Those who want to stay, can. Partis, call in all the unmated noblemen
and women."

Marwey tensed as Partis went to the gong and hit three notes
around the rim.

"Marwey?"

The teenager pressed her lips together. "You're including
Chevalier Raston?"

Empathy for the girl's attraction to the knight touched Thealia.
"I must," she said gently. "Alyeka must be able to choose from
everyone eligible. Including Raston. Including you. The Song knows there isn't
a
good
choice of quality available bedmates, just those courtiers
usually here at the Castle and the Chevaliers assigned to us." She clicked
her tongue. "I don't think our widespread call for a mate for an Exotique
was taken seriously."

Marwey's mouth set; she looked strained about the eyes.

"And," Thealia said gently, "if Alyeka chooses a
bedmate tonight she won't have to go through the formal Choosing and Blood-Bond
Pairing ritual tomorrow. You've been the closest to her of us all. Surely you'd
like to spare her that wrenching experience."

Marwey grimaced and dropped her gaze. "Yes."

"You've been linked to her to experience her world and help
us communicate. Do you think she will want you or Raston?"

The teenager narrowed her eyes, recollecting and exploring her
brief bond with the Exotique. Marwey shivered again. A dimple peeped from her
cheek. "She likes men only. And older ones than Raston." Then Marwey
sobered and glanced around the group of Marshalls. "Her world is completely
different! They don't even believe Power exists!" She blinked rapidly.
"I can't tolerate the glimpses of her world. I hope she can fit in here.
'Cause she
can
help us, a lot. She
will
make new fenceposts for
us.
I felt
it." She pressed both hands to her chest.

They looked skeptically at her. She drew herself up to her full
height—almost as tall as the Exotique. "I have not come into my
full range or aspects of my Power, but I know what I
know," she said with dignity, and walked to the bench beside the door and
sat.

"Teenagers," Mace sighed.

"They can be dramatic," Faith agreed. "But Marwey
is the only one who's linked with our new Marshall, and the Exotique chose the
Jade Baton of Honor."

There was silence as they all thought of the ancient legends of
blazing energy woven around the Jade Baton of Honor.

The gong sounded as the door opened and people trooped in.

3

A
lexa jumped at the deep tone of the gong. She gathered her wits
from the daze she'd fallen into.

More people. Now what? Was she going to have to weather more
"tests"? Anger spurted through her and gave her energy enough to
stand straight and glare at the newcomers. They brought a riff of music with
them, individual notes, most of which weren't interesting to Alexa. Weird.

At Thealia's wave they stood in a line before Alexa.

Again they were all taller than she, a couple of the men far more
than six feet tall. They were an attractive people.

Only a few had streaks in their hair, silver or gold. Several—men
and women—were dressed in soldiers' uniforms, some with heraldry on their
chests. The women wore long gowns of cotton or linen with wool surcoats in
layered, bright colors that wouldn't
have been
matched together back home. None of the newcomers dressed like the Marshalls.

Definitely a class system here. Alexa wondered where an orphan who
grew up in foster homes like herself would fit in. Lowest of the low, no doubt.
A serving woman.

Ha! She'd climbed from poor beginnings in her own world, she could
do it here too. After a little rest. God, she was tired! It was all she could
do to keep her chin up. A warmth pulsed in her hand and she looked down to see
her baton. Right, she thought fuzzily. She was already a Marshall, whatever
that was.

A woman in the line squeaked as the jade staff glowed, then
crumpled to the floor. Someone else snorted.

"Deshouse, Alyeka," Thealia said.

Alexa stared blankly at her.

Thealia tapped her foot and her eyebrows drew together as if she
was figuring out how to communicate.

"Alyeka," said Marwey.

Alexa turned her head to the girl. Marwey ran to one of the young
soldiers and threw herself into his arms. He flushed and stiffened until she
pulled his head down and whispered into his ear. After a second, he kissed her
with enthusiasm.