Dragon Horse War Page 5

  “Then I’ll leave you to it.” She went to the door. “Jael lives off pro-chow and packaged meals, but I can actually cook and brought some real food with me. So join me when you’re done.”

  Her last meal had been the previous morning. “I am starving, but I’d like to get clean first.”

  “Not a problem. The food should be ready by the time you are.”

  *

  “I have sufficient meals in cold storage to feed an army. You didn’t need to bring food,” Jael said.

  Second didn’t turn from the eggs and vegetables she was scrambling together. “You’re back. Good.”

  “I’m not cleaning up after you. I eat prepackaged meals because I hate the wasted time cooking and cleaning.”

  “No one will be eating that cardboard you call nourishment as long as I’m here.”

  “Fine.” Jael leaned over her cousin’s shoulder and inhaled the spicy scent of jalapeños and peppers added to the eggs. Her mouth watered. “I have some goat cheese in cold storage.”

  “Found it already. Go wash up in the guest latrine. It’s almost ready, and your visitor is showering in your latrine upstairs.” Second opened the warmer and added the contents of the skillet to a large pan filled with the same concoction. A long loaf of flat bread warmed next to it.

  “Great morning, you’ve made enough for an army.”

  “Furcho, Raven, Michael, and Diego arrived last night. I thought you might have seen them when you came up. They’re in the bunks downstairs. Michael and Furcho arrived just after midnight, Raven around three a.m., and Diego trailed in at dawn. Unlike you, some people require sleep to function, so I thought we could eat, and then I’ll leave the rest in the warmer for when they stir.”

  “Tan?”

  “Should get here sometime this morning.”

  Jael was tired and had so much to do. It was a relief to have Second around to take care of the details while she worked out the bigger picture. She grabbed her cousin by the nape and gave her an affectionate squeeze. “It feels good to have you at my side again.”

  Second grinned at her. “Aw. That’s sweet. You’ve missed me.”

  Jael released her hold and cuffed Second gently on the back of the head. “I’m still not cleaning up after you.”

  “Stars. If that tastes as good as it smells, I’ll be happy to clean the prep afterward.”

  Jael scowled at the voice, flashing on the bumbling, mumbling girl that had stumbled up her corridor yesterday…the first-life that the council insisted she drag along on this important mission. But when she turned, her mind filled with the woman and last night’s temptation to steal a kiss. The red spikes of hair were a rakish contrast to the soft oval of her face, her creamy skin, and her rose-splotched cheeks. Her lithe frame was covered in a dark-blue, body-hugging unitard visible under a sheer light-blue tunic. Dragon dung, she was too tired to deal with this distraction. “You two eat. I’ve got a lot to prepare. I’ll shower upstairs then be in my study.” She paused at the stairway and then turned back to Second. “We’ll be deploying in a few days for an extended time. I don’t know how long. Can you make indefinite arrangements for John to watch over my mountain?”

  “Consider it done.”

  Alyssa stared after Jael. “Something I said?”

  “Nah. That’s just Jael. She’s probably tired after being gone all night. She’ll be better after some food and a nap.” Second filled three plates and then handed two to Alyssa and pointed to the eating area. She followed with two cups of citrus juice but didn’t sit when Alyssa did. “Go ahead and start. I’ll be right back. If I leave a plate of food on her desk, she’ll eat it after she showers.”

  Alyssa’s stomach growled as Second bounded up the stairs, and her polite intention to wait evaporated. She dug into her food and groaned with appreciation at the first mouthful. Stars, it was good. She considered the situation as she ate. She wasn’t certain what the day would hold. Should she leave now that her message was delivered? Maybe not right away. She would eat, then complete her daily meditative exercise and figure out what to do next. To be truthful, she wanted to hang around. Something was afoot, and the excitement she was reading off the visitors sleeping restlessly downstairs was much more enticing than returning to the monotony of the temple compound. The most exciting thing to happen there was when a black snake got in the chicken coop and scared a novice half to death.

  As promised, Second reappeared almost immediately and settled down to her own breakfast.

  “This food is amazing.”

  “Thank you. I work for the Ministry Nutrition Council. It’s a losing battle, but I don’t believe healthy food has to be tasteless.”

  Alyssa swallowed her last bite and put her utensil down. “Can you tell me what’s going on? I know there are more people here now, downstairs.”

  Second raised an eyebrow but didn’t question her statement. She pointed to her own temple to indicate the area of Alyssa’s tattoo. “I can see that you’re an Advocate of The Collective, but I don’t know if or where you fit into all this. So, I’ll leave it up to Jael to decide what to share.”

  “What do you think she’s doing up there?”

  Second chewed, her eyes twinkling as she regarded her. “She’s probably wolfing down the food I left her, and then she’ll go sit on her balcony.” Second swallowed and grinned. “She claims to be communicating—she’s telepathic, you know—but I suspect she’s just mastered sleeping in a lotus position.” She winked at Alyssa. “Maybe she’s up there checking your references.”

  Alyssa frowned. “I’m not aware that I’ve applied for a position here. I’m not sure, after delivering a message to her, why I’m still here. Should I stay or return to the temple?”

  “Jael always says you should get all information available before making decisions.”

  That was enough of an invitation for her. “I guess I should hang around for a while longer then.”

  Second finished her meal quickly and began to collect their plates, but Alyssa stopped her.

  “You prepared the meal. I’ll clean up.”

  “How about you wash up the dishes while I inventory the storage? I need to know what we have on hand, so I’ll know what we need to procure when Jael lets us in on what’s up.”

  “Okay.”

  While they worked, they talked about the simple diet Alyssa was accustomed to at the temple compound, and Second ranted about the provisions shared with lesser food-producing continents. Protein chow could sustain life, but living should be more than just surviving.

  Alyssa put away the clean dishes while half-listening to Second’s running dialogue from the pantry. Unlike the enigmatic Jael, Second had no shields around her emotions. She was welcoming and self-assured, easy to like. Still, Alyssa’s mind wandered to the floor above them. She tried to imagine Jael in her private study. Was she sitting at the desk, sending out d-messages on her digital processor?

  Second emerged from the storage, muttering the last item of her list into the individual communicator strapped to her wrist. “Other than some fresh fruit and vegetables, there isn’t much she doesn’t have. But I have some arrangements to make.” She tapped a few commands into the IC. “The others won’t be up for a few more hours, so I’m going to make a quick trip into town. Make yourself at home.”

  “The bedroom I slept in is hers, isn’t it? I should move my things somewhere else.”

  “Take the first room on the left. It’s actually mine, but I never stay in it. I prefer bunking downstairs with the others.”

  “If you’re sure. I don’t want to put anyone out.”

  Second smiled, but a wave of deep sadness washed over Alyssa. “You’re not putting anyone out. I don’t stay there anymore.”

  “Thank you. You’re very generous.” Alyssa instinctively projected an uplifting feeling, and Second seemed to brighten again.

  “Well, I’m off. Should be back in a couple of hours.”

  Alyssa opened the tea pouch she’d bro
ught with her and idly stared into the common area while she waited for a cup to steep. Hmm. She was alone for the first time. Second did say to make herself at home, right? She glanced at the stairway. Jael said she was going to shower and then work, so she probably wouldn’t be coming downstairs for a while. Her cheeks heated at an unbidden image of Jael naked, standing under a spray of water. She consciously replaced the image with one of Jael sitting behind a desk, talking on a communicator. She did use communicators, didn’t she, even though she was telepathic? Her curiosity was a nagging itch.

  Her gaze wandered. A person’s home usually held clues about them. The three-tiered structure was beautiful, but efficiency was apparently a design priority. A huge stone fireplace took up one wall, but it was fitted with an insert to produce the greatest amount of heat from the smallest amount of fuel. Solar and wind power were the norm since fossil and nuclear fuel had been outlawed for environmental reasons, but the solar windows on this house were so large, she’d bet they collected and stored enough energy to run three houses, even without the wind turbine that sat on the edge of the large meadow out front.

  The hand-hewn furniture was handsomely crafted, but fairly Spartan and functional. She wondered if Jael might have been the artisan who constructed it. Although using wood was no longer common, she suspected the surrounding forest provided more than enough deadfall to fashion furniture and have an endless supply of fuel.

  So, none of this was particularly unique. It was unusual, however, that instead of holograms or decorative tapestries, a wide variety of ancient weapons adorned every wall—spears, bows, crossbows, swords, and knives. A shirt of mail hung next to a medieval mace. Only the projectile weapons from the centuries immediately before the Great War of Religions were missing. All had been ordered destroyed in the aftermath of that devastating destruction. Alyssa supposed the collection was part of Jael’s profession as a historic-war novelist. She touched the gleaming blade of a long, sickle-shaped sword and shuddered. It was very sharp. She couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to dwell on war, but perhaps Jael’s books were a necessary reminder of those atrocities so that they never happened again. Still, who would want all these dangerous weapons in their house?

  Alyssa discreetly peeked into cabinets and opened doors, finding an electrical junction for the solar windows in a room apparently meant for shedding outerwear and boots, judging from the items hanging on pegs and neatly lined against the wall. A door on the opposite end led outdoors. A series of tall, narrow storage units were built into the wall, curiously locked in a building that didn’t appear to have any other locks…anywhere. The prep, common, and dining areas were all part of one large open room, but a door between the stone hearth and the stairway led to a room filled with books and maps. It could have been a study or library, except there was no desk or comfortable chair for reading. In the center of the room were seven straight-back chairs around a long table covered by a world map.

  In fact, Alyssa realized there also were seven chairs at the dining table and seating for seven in the common area. If she returned to the outerwear storage, she’d bet the stars she would find seven of those locked cabinets. Seven was a sacred number in The Collective, but not even the priests at the temple were that obsessive about it. Maybe her host had some type of mental peculiarity. A lot of the gifted minority had eccentric quirks that were a side effect of their talent.

  She opened the last unexplored door and gasped. It was as if the earth had dropped out from under her—the mountain, at the very least. The gentle slope of the meadow in front gave no clue that the house was perched at the top of a sheer precipice. The majesty of the mountains before her stole her very breath. She could think of nothing more completing than having her morning tea on this wide deck every dawn. Oh, her tea. She’d forgotten it.

  When she turned to retrieve it, a slight movement caught her eye. A floor above her and five meters to her left, Jael sat on a platform only a meter in diameter. The window at her back was open. Alyssa’s heart stuttered. There was no safety rail, not even a lip on the edges of the platform, and nothing but a thousand-meter drop if she fell from her perch. But Jael sat cross-legged, her hands resting on her knees, utterly still. The movement that had drawn Alyssa’s attention was the wind rippling across her loose cotton shirt. Jael’s sculpted face was tilted up to the sun, her eyes closed, but Alyssa wondered if she had sensed her. It really didn’t matter. She felt like an intruder regardless.

  She quietly went inside. Her tea had grown cold so she poured it down the drain and washed the cup. She stared at the tea leaves as she washed them from the sink. She didn’t know why Jael unsettled her so. She needed to find her focus.

  Since she didn’t want to disturb her host, she wandered out front. There was a wide expanse of thick grass before wildflowers took over the meadow, and she stood in the center of it and closed her eyes. She breathed in the thick scent of sun-warmed pine, extended her arms before her to form a circle, and relaxed her knees. It took some time to empty her mind of this mountain and the questions that were as plentiful as the flowers around her. It could have been a few minutes or a half hour later, but without a conscious thought she began the precise, flowing movements that both centered and energized her life force, her chi.

  Eighty-eight movements later, she took a deep breath and stilled. She felt absolute peace. And she felt that she was not alone. She calmly opened her eyes to the glare of the sun and turned. Jael sat on the front steps, silently watching her. Her blue eyes, jewels in the sunlight, were unreadable, but Alyssa felt something she couldn’t put words to. It was as though Jael had slipped into her pool of calm without causing even a ripple and they were sharing its serenity.

  “Hi,” she said softly.

  “Your execution is near perfect,” Jael said quietly.

  Alyssa moved closer. “Advocate Han taught me when I was young and still struggling to sort and block the barrage of emotions from other people. I had to learn focus before I could learn to shield, and the exercise helps me do that.” She gestured to the steps where Jael sat. “May I?”

  Jael nodded and Alyssa sat beside her.

  “Han is a good teacher,” Jael said.

  “You know him?”

  “He taught me the same exercise.” The curl at the corner of Jael’s generous mouth hinted at a smile. “But it took me more than one lifetime to get it right. You must be an apt student.”

  She flushed at the compliment and demurred. “More like a desperate one.” She stared down at her hands. “I had no clue as to how I could stop absorbing every emotion around me. My ability to feel others grew as I got older. The noise—happy, sad, angry, joyful—was deafening by the time I was eleven. I was nearly insane with it. I couldn’t sleep or eat most of the time. My parents were at a loss until a teacher told them to take me to the temple.” She stared out over the meadow. “I begged them not to leave me there. Then Advocate Han took my hands in his and made it stop.” The meadow’s riot of color blurred, and she blinked back tears. “I remember weeping with relief. He thanked my parents and assured them I would be fine.” She looked up at Jael. “And I was. I am.”

  Jael nodded again but didn’t reply. They sat in comfortable silence.

  It still bothered her that she couldn’t feel Jael’s emotions. Other than Advocate Han, she’d never met anyone who could shut her out completely if she opened to read them. Even so, Jael’s presence steadied her. Perhaps it was her old soul. She felt Jael stiffen and was surprised to realize that she had been unconsciously leaning against her shoulder. Alyssa rarely touched people. Children, maybe, but not other adults. It was harder to shield against their emotions if she touched them. She discreetly shifted away, pretending to reach down and scratch her ankle.

  Jael stood, staring across the meadow and into the woods. She couldn’t feel Jael’s emotions, but the snapping of their nascent bond was like a slap. She grappled for something to keep her from pulling away. She had questions.

  “Sec
ond said you were gone all night. Can I ask where you went?”

  Jael glanced down at her. “The message you brought was a summons from The Collective. There’s a portal near here.” She started down the steps.

  Portal? Did she mean—“Wait! You talked to The Collective. You actually saw them?” She was incredulous. She’d never known anyone who claimed to have seen them.

  Jael paused at the bottom of the stairs and turned back to her. “The others are stirring downstairs. Will you show them the food Second prepared? Our last guest is coming up the mountain.” Not waiting for an answer, she crossed the meadow in long strides.

  Alyssa stared after her. She whispered the words as if she could taste them. “There’s a portal?”

  Chapter Six

  Jael jogged along the deer path, her light moccasins an occasional whisper against the leaves that sporadically littered the trail. When she burst from the woods into a sloping pasture, she smiled to herself. Grazing next to Specter was a glittering chestnut mare. Jael narrowed her eyes. Phyrrhos surely had made it there before dawn, so where was her bonded? The question had barely formed in her head when she instinctively hopped sideways to dodge the body launched at her back.

  Her attacker tucked to roll, and Jael flung herself on the woman’s back. They rolled down the slope together, each grappling for a hold until the assailant sprang free and circled as Jael remained crouched, calculating her next move.

  Jael sized up her opponent. The woman matched her in height, but her russet skin slid over sinewy muscles more pronounced than Jael’s. Barefoot and dressed in a sleeveless desert-bush shirt and tattered jeans, she had shaved her head smooth except for a Mohawk of tight, springy curls. But it was the band of black painted from temple to temple and white diagonals slashing across her cheeks that added an exotically dangerous air to the sharp, dark eyes.

  Jael held steady against a series of feints, then sprang to the side when her opponent finally leapt at her. She grabbed the other woman’s arm and twisted it against her back as she added her weight to their momentum and pinned her to the ground.