“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.
6
No one fell into the room. Instead, with twinkling eyes and a smile as wide as Bri’s, Alexa strolled in. “Good morning. The greeting here in Lladrana is most often ‘Salutations.’” She waved to the men following her. “I don’t know if you remember the guys. Bastien, the one with the black-and-white streaked hair and the baton at his hip is a Shieldmarshall and mine. The taller one with blue eyes—ancient Exotique blood mixed with Lladranan—is Marian’s soulmate, Jaquar, a Sorcerer-Circlet, as you can see from his gold headband.”
Jaquar walked in, and like Bastien, gave the room and the open doors a quick scan. Neither of them would miss anything. Then Jaquar bowed, first to Bri who still held the door, then to Elizabeth. “Salutations,” he said. He spoke English well.
The last man was equally tall and had an easy amble that Elizabeth recognized was similar to a cowboy’s walk. He carried six books.
Deceiving, that last one, Calli’s man. He’s even more aware than the others, Bri said to Elizabeth.
Hands on her hips, Alexa studied them. “You’re talking to each other telepathically, again. Rude.”
“We think we should have all the advantages we can get,” Elizabeth replied. “And you will no doubt be speaking Lladranan before us.” She gestured. “Make yourselves at home.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Alexa said, heading for the angle between walls where the chest sat with the leftovers from their father’s birthday dinner.
Bri jumped in front of it at the last minute. “Ours!”
The third man holding the books gently closed the door. He made a short bow. “I am Marrec. I am with Calli.” His expression turned considering. “You will read in Calli’s book that I was in Co-lo-ra-do with her.”
With an effort, Elizabeth kept her mouth from falling open. Possibilities spun in her mind. “If you were in Colorado, then there’s some way to get back and forth. We can go home.” To her surprise, her heart didn’t leap in her chest in delight. She blinked and took a few instants to probe her own feelings. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go home right now.
Jaquar, wearing an ankle-length midnight blue velvet robe and looking every inch a very masculine man, took a seat on a long leather couch. Bastien hitched a hip onto the arm nearest the confrontation of Bri and Alexa opposite him. Marrec sat on the other end of the couch, as if leaving space for Calli and Marian. Still, Elizabeth could almost feel that these men trusted each other, more, were bound together through their wives. And their love for their wives?
Bri and she had grown up with parents who deeply loved each other and their children.
“We can go home!” Bri’s choked exclamation echoed in mind and words.
“It’s not that easy,” Marian said from the hall. Calli held a plate with one hand and the door knob with the other. Marian carried a large tray.
“You’d think with all the magic you have here, you could just beam that over,” Bri said.
“It’s not that easy,” Marian repeated.
The smell of eggs and coffee and ham made Elizabeth’s mouth water.
“Alexa, your omelette. With cheese and mushrooms,” Marian said.
“But you haven’t been gone very long, and the food looks fresh, so magic was used,” Elizabeth said.
“That’s right. Magic, which is called Power here, and more like the extension of psi powers—”
“Power can heat the food, but it’s harder to translocate things,” Calli said. “Especially more than one item at a time. And there’s an energy cost. You always have to figure what energy you might need for something else later.” She handed Elizabeth the plate. “Sit. We can talk over breakfast.”
“We often have breakfast discussions with our parents,” Elizabeth said.
Everyone looked at her then Bri.
“You have parents.”
“Of course,” Bri said impatiently. “Will one of you pass me my plate, please?”
Calli had gone directly to a gate-legged table against a wall. Marrec joined her in setting up the table and soon there was a crowded table for eight. Opening lower drawers of a cabinet, Calli set a cork hot plate down for the tray, then brought out dishes, mugs and silverware. Marrec took chairs set around the room and placed them. Everything looked familiar.
“There’ve been Exotiques from Earth here in Lladrana before,” Marian said. She’d found thick glasses that looked handmade and poured water into them.
“And Marrec went to Colorado,” Elizabeth said.
“It’s part of the Snap,” Alexa grinned. She still stood near Bri and the cooler. “That’s Marian’s topic.”
“Let’s eat,” Bastien said in the French-sounding Lladranan that Elizabeth barely understood.
Jaquar frowned at Bastien. “I told you we refined your language potion.” Since Jaquar still spoke English, Elizabeth deduced that Bastien had been following the conversation.
Bastien grunted, moved to a chair that had its back to the foam chest and held out his hand to Alexa.
She looked at the cooler. At Elizabeth. At Bastien. At Bri. After tapping her foot, she sighed and walked to Bastien, took his hand and stood tip-toe to brush a kiss over his mouth. But she moved to a chair where she could still see the chest.
Bastien rolled his eyes, shook his head and sat next to her. “I have eaten, but my belly can always accommodate one of these.” He unfolded the napkin on a large basket. Letting out steam from flaky croissants, he took one, set it on his plate, then ripped it into large pieces.
Alexa cut a third of her omelette and put it on Bastien’s plate, then she dug in.
Doesn’t look like they’re going to poison us, Bri sent mentally to Elizabeth.
Not since we survived the first night, but I’m sure they have plans for us. Images of the people they’d healed came to her mind, were matched by Bri’s memories. The flow of emotion between them was stronger than Elizabeth had ever experienced. Of course they’d had “hunches,” intuitive feelings about each other, but nothing like this connection that seemed to have thought sharing and definitely included telepathy.
Elizabeth shifted in her seat, picked up a fork, cut into the omelette and ate. Fabulous—and delicately flavored with spices she didn’t quite recognize.
“So,” Alexa said between bites, “welcome to Lladrana. You are now known far and wide as the Medica Exotiques Summoned for the Cities