I suppose. Elizabeth held out her hand, and Bri clasped it. They looked at Marian. The sounds Bri heard merged with Elizabeth’s sight. Each chakra had a series of notes, a color, spun in a different pattern and to a different beat.
Now that you help, I CAN hear the notes. Probably what the medica was talking about, Elizabeth said.
For sure. And with our link I can see the chakras better than I ever could on Earth. The seven main ones and all the way to the thirteen. Bri felt Elizabeth scrutinizing the medica. We could learn from them, and teach them, too!
You got the parents’ teaching gene, Bri said. I think I’ll take a chance.
You always do, Elizabeth said.
Dropping Elizabeth’s hand, Bri went to Jaquar, who still held the small bottle. Now she wasn’t physically connected with Elizabeth, sounds were amplified and her aura sight dimmer. She reached and drew Power from the atmosphere, boosting her sight. Yep, easy to see auras. Jaquar had a shadow in several of his energy pulses, as if a lingering sickness was finally passing.
“What made you sick about a year ago?” she asked him.
He stilled, straightened to his full height. “I lost my parents. A Dark monster drained their Power and killed them.”
The room suddenly seethed with sorrow, anger, determination.
“He was sick with grief,” Marian said. “Almost mad with it.”
Jaquar grimaced.
“Those particular monsters, sangviles, especially like to kill people strong in Power,” Alexa said. “Like Circlets. Or Exotiques.”
Bri looked back to Elizabeth. They do need our help.
And they aren’t about to let us go before they get it.
“Two drops only,” Bri said, and stuck out her tongue.
Plink. Plink. Oddly enough, the taste wasn’t nearly as good as the smell. Bri wasn’t sure what she expected, a sweet honey like columbine perhaps, but she didn’t get it. She turned to the medica.
“Say that again.”
The medica nodded. “We believe this sickness was sent by the Dark in some way, but the symptoms are not the same for every patient. It affects the rhythm and Song of the different energy pulses of a person—chimes—but not the same chime.”
You get that? Bri asked Elizabeth. And they call a chakra a chime. Bri shrugged. Only natural in such a culture, I suppose.
But Elizabeth was staring at the medica, then Jaquar. Bri could feel her waves of curiosity. She stared at the vial. He offered it, and she sniffed, wrinkled her nose. Overly sweet, she said to Bri. But I know you liked the scent.
Elizabeth held up two fingers. “Two drops only.”
Jaquar nodded.
The tip of Elizabeth’s tongue peeked from between her lips. Jaquar carefully poured one drop, then a second.
I like the taste, Elizabeth said.
Speaking of taste, what do we do with the spuds? Bri went to the bags of potatoes and pulled out three of each, then said to Sevair, “Do you have botanists who’d study these? They’re a very good crop on Earth, called potatoes.”
She thought she heard Alexa moan.
“They are a delicacy,” Marian said to Sevair.
Sevair had pulled a folded bag from his pocket, snapped it, then opened it. The man was prepared. How depressing.
With a smile, Bri carried the potatoes heaped in her hands over to him and dumped them in the bag, then drew one back out. “You germinate them by the eye.” She pointed to one on the Idaho potato. “These are better baked, the others are better boiled.”
“That one is excellent fried. Deep fat fried,” Alexa said.
Now Marian whimpered.
Sevair lifted an eyebrow, took the potato from Bri, weighed it in his hand, glanced at Calli. “Your opinion?”
Calli smiled. “What you have there is about a thousand times more tasty than turnip fries.”
He looked surprised, then pleased. Nodding to Elizabeth, then Bri, he said, “Then you have something to barter with. However, I assure you that the Cities and Towns who Summoned you abide by tradition. You will receive property—an estate in the city or town of your choice—and enough money to support you for the rest of your days. Both of you.” He slipped the potato into the bag. “You will also receive a bounty on every plant that is developed from this po-ta-toe.”
He bowed to each of them. “I thank you both for accepting the language potion. It will make our tasks much easier. With your permission, I would like to adjourn to Temple Ward.”
Alexa was staring at the cooler and the potatoes.
“Where’s that guy who guarded them last night?” asked Bri.
“That would be my brother, Luthan,” Bastien said. “I don’t think we’ve spoken of Luthan.”
“Or Faucon for that matter,” Marian said.
Something else, here, Elizabeth said mentally to Bri as she walked over to stand in front of the chest, blocking it from everyone else.
Alexa’s wistful look turned into a pout. She speared Bri with a disgruntled gaze. “Luthan Vauxveau is a Chevalier, a knight who rides the flying horses, so flies into battle with us. He’s a wealthy nobleman with his own estate and the representative of the Singer, who is the prophetess of Lladrana, lives to the south in an Abbey, but meddles in our affairs.”
I don’t like that, said Elizabeth. We have enough to worry about with the people in this room.
I don’t either, Bri replied.
Alexa cleared her throat. “Some people have instinctive reactions to Exotiques. Either an instinctive revulsion or an instinctive attraction.”
“I’ll go for the attraction,” Bri said.
“That can be a problem, too,” Marian said.
Bri waved that away. “Better than the alternative. I’ve suffered from prejudice before. How nasty is this repulsion thing?”
“Bad enough to get you killed,” Bastien said. His usual optimistic expression had faded and turned grim, making him look like the warrior he was. “Alexa had to fight for her life.”
8
Isaw him, Luthan, shudder last night when he looked at us, Elizabeth said.
Now that you mention it…
“Luthan has the instinctive repulsion,” Alexa said, her voice cool, her manner lacking any playfulness. “He is deeply ashamed of it. He would die before he hurt any of us.”
Must be difficult to have a brother-in-law who thinks you’re repulsive, Bri sent to Elizabeth.
“Ayes,” said Alexa, reading body language or energy or Bri’s mind. “Ayes is ‘yes.’ ‘Ttho’ is ‘no.’ And Luthan has long since gotten over his first problem with me, as well as Marian and Calli. It’s only when he has to meet and interact with a new Exotique that the problem surfaces again.”
“But you must be aware that others might have this reaction,” Marrec said. “If they have never met an Exotique before, they may not know they have this flaw and may act on it instead of thinking how important you are to us.”
“We understand,” Elizabeth said. Bri could feel her need to leave the suite and get out into fresh air, someplace not as crowded with others. Bri felt it too.
“Okay, so there’s a repulsion and Luthan has it and hates it. I still sensed he was the most honest of