Echoes in the Dark (22 page)

“We
will return to that pool,” Faucon said. “As soon as we show Raine how the Ship
will be built,” he said softly.

“She
doesn’t know?” Jaquar stared at Raine.

“Ttho.”
She lifted her chin. “I’ve asked Marian a few times but never got a short,
straight answer.”

Everyone
looked at Marian, who flushed. “Pardon,” she muttered. “I get caught up…didn’t
realize.” She drew in a deep breath as if readying herself for a lecture. You
could take the prof out of the school, but not the school out of the prof.

Faucon
smiled charmingly. “I think it would be better to demonstrate.” He gestured to
his cousin. “Corbeau?”

Corbeau
was staring at Raine, his mouth slightly open. He glanced at her model. “You
did all that without knowing exactly how a ship is built?”

“Ayes,”
Faucon responded with a pride that surprised Raine. “She
is
the Exotique
Seamistress. You should see her on the water.” Now everyone was staring at
Faucon. “Pure magic and Power.” He winked at Raine, nearly made
her
jaw
drop. The sexual sizzle between them was back, greater than before.

Alexa
made an approving noise. She wasn’t the only one. Raine glanced at the clump of
Exotiques and their men.

“Must
we—you—always travel in a pack?” Raine asked

“Well,
I haven’t ever seen a ship raised, either,” Alexa said cheerfully. “Not even
built the regular way. Anyone else?”

“I
saw one raised here,” Marian said. “During research—”

“Of
course you did,” Alexa said, grabbing her bondmate’s hand and pulling Bastien
faster than his usual saunter. Bastien, too, winked at Raine. It wasn’t the
same.

Alexa
continued. “We’ll get out of your way tomorrow and you can be all alone with
the man.”
She
winked.

Raine
felt her cheeks warm.

“Coming,
Raine?” Faucon said.

“I
will not pick up that straight line,” Marian murmured.

“Thank
you,” Raine said weakly and hurried to Faucon. Obviously all the others sensed
the sexual tension between herself and the noble Chevalier. Also evident was
that they approved. She should return with them in the morning.

She
caught the scent of the sea, a wisp of Power sent in the air from it, and knew
she wouldn’t. Didn’t want to be very far away from an ocean ever again.

No
physical constraint this time, but emotional. Seaside was her place.

The
next series of pools showed three places—Faucon’s northern estate, the one
here, and, of course, the one she’d been offered. She stared at it—she’d been
told it was empty.

“We
divested ourselves of that piece of land a while back. The owner to the north
wanted it.” Faucon shrugged. “Eventually her family had financial troubles and
it came back on the market just a few months ago. We hadn’t quite decided to
buy it back—”

His
cousin grunted.

“—when
Marian suggested it would be a good place for you.”

Raine
looked at Marian and she said, “It has a shipyard.”

“Does
now,” Corbeau said. “The village is smaller on this reckoning. Features haven’t
been kept up here.” Another frown as he strode to the northern estate where he
lived. “This isn’t quite right, either.”

“I’ve
been fighting,” Faucon said, “you haven’t been down.”

“No
quarreling,” Marian said. She held out her hand to her husband, Jaquar, then
took Faucon’s gesturing hand, then sent a grin to Raine. “This will be like my
training. Form a very detailed image in your mind of the land, Corbeau.”

He
took Faucon’s hand and Jaquar’s, forming a small circle of Power, the lines of
his face deepening in concentration.

“Gonna
be fun,” Alexa said to Bastien, who was at her back, his arms around her. She
wiggled in excitement.

“Later,”
Bastien said.

Raine’s
mouth
did
fall open as she watched. She could tell through her link with
the other Exotiques that Corbeau was providing the image, backed by Faucon.
Jaquar was keeping the link between them all clear and steady…and Marian was
shaping the land with wind and the wave of the pond. It was like watching the
forces of nature carve the estate over years. Raine had seen the Exotique
Circlet do mundane spells, and some esoteric ones Raine couldn’t grasp, but
this was the first time she saw Marian work her true craft.

Awesome.

Corbeau
grunted. “We have more sandbars.”

The
land was raised in certain places, pulverized to sand.

“Wow,”
Alexa said.

“That’s
it, I think,” Faucon said. “Blessings of the Song.” He dropped his hands, shook
them as if ridding himself of energy. Sparks flew from his fingers. Corbeau
yelped, stepped back and then sank into his balance, studying the result. His
mouth curved. “Ayes. Perfect. Good job.” He looked at Marian and Jaquar and
shook his head. “Consorting with Circlets.”

“We
don’t bite,” Marian said.

“Later,”
Jaquar said.

Raine
snorted.

But
Corbeau was walking out on the peninsula, jutting into the pool’s waters. He
pointed to a particular spot. “I think this would be the best place to raise a
ship.”

The
continued use of
raise
finally clicked in Raine’s brain. They couldn’t
possibly mean…

But
Enerin, as a seabird, cawed as she dropped a stick that looked suspiciously
like a rudder on the place Corbeau had indicated, then fiddled with it a bit
until her parents came with more twigs. It looked as if they were setting up a
ketch.

Raine
bit her lip. “You actually
raise
the ship like a—”

“Barn,”
Marian confirmed. “A person in the local community sends word out that he or
she needs help for building a boat, the materials are laid out, others come and
a circle is formed around the boat and it is ‘raised.’”

“By
magic,” Raine said, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Let’s
show her,” Faucon said, and the birds lifted to Alexa’s, Marian’s and Raine’s
shoulders. Once again she welcomed the light weight of her companion.

You
will see!
warbled Enerin.

Faucon
splashed into the shallow water and held out both hands to his cousin. They
positioned their linked arms around the planks and bit of cloth that was the
outline of a ketch.

Sinafinal,
the original female feycoocu who came for Alexa and was her companion, dropped
a tiny hematite sphere in the bow. She sprinkled gem chips on the outline—one
in the bow, one where the rudder stick would be and one for the rudder itself.

Corbeau
began a rolling chant that matched the rise and fall of a boat on deep waves,
then the Song quickened as if it were coming to shore, the waves more shallow,
with a hiss of surf.

Raine
stared as the “planks” rose, formed, snapped together with…Power? Small bits of
twine unfurled and set themselves in minuscule blocks and tackles, the sails
straightened. The ketch tottered on the piece of land, then lifted from it and
moved to the “sea,” bobbed there, complete and functional. Raine couldn’t
believe it. She stared.

Alexa
sloshed into the pool and dunked it, the little boat righted itself and bobbed
back up. “Incredible.”

Sinafinal
chirped in satisfaction on Alexa’s shoulder.

She
scooped the boat up, held it at eye level, examined it from every angle,
including upside down. “No teenie-weenie nails. No glue. Huh.” She jumped
through the pond to Raine and handed it to her. “You look.”

“Smooth
lap construction. Very smooth,” Raine’s voice squeaked with surprise. “But no
glue.”

Faucon
raised his brows. “Power.”

Corbeau
came over, took the little boat from Raine, studied it himself. “A good job.”
He glanced at Faucon. “We do good work together.”

“Always,”
Faucon said.

Setting
the boat back into the pond, Corbeau gave it a small push. The little round
Power stone took it to magnetic north.

“I
want one,” Alexa said. “I want my own boat. A prettier one.” She fixed her gaze
on Raine.

Faucon
met Raine’s eyes with a challenge. “Let’s try it again, with Raine.”

16

“A
yes!” shrilled
Enerin, an actual word instead of mind-talk. She shot off to nearby bushes and
began scruffing about in the underbrush, muttering to herself. “Too thin, too
long. Look, look, a cord for rigging!”

They
all stared at the little bird.

She
is a feycoocu,
Sinafinal said.
If she wishes to speak aloud, she can do so.

Raine
shared glances with the other Exotiques. Just what were the limits of feycoocu
Power? They all knew the magical beings could move a lot faster than volarans
or even Bri’s roc. They looked at Marian, who said,
I ask questions but am
mostly ignored. I will
not
experiment on them.

Of
course not!
Raine’s shock was echoed by the others.

Tuckerinal,
Marian’s ex-hamster, flew to her shoulder as Sinafinal went to help Enerin
gather appropriate shipbuilding materials. Raine shook her head at that
thought.

I
do not know all that I can do,
Tuckerinal sent to them.
I surprise
myself.
His head cocked and beak clicked.
I cannot heal as well as Bri,
I cannot revive dead things.
He gazed northward.
There are very few of
us feycoocus and we cannot defeat the Dark by ourselves. It falls to humans for
that.

“Raine!”
Enerin’s cry was piercing. She was standing next to the outline of a boat.

With
a little shock, Raine realized that some of the “planks” had been colored, and
if she visualized the boat in 3D, it would correspond to the last boat she’d
built for herself—the one that had splintered when she was sucked to Lladrana.

A
great wave of homesickness rolled over her.

Then
Faucon was next to her, hand on her shoulder. He murmured, “I asked Koz about
your mirrors. He’s finished them and has been to Bossgond’s island. He’ll soon
arrive here.” Faucon made a sweeping gesture to the arrangement of sticks,
cord, tattered triangles of cloth and a tiny hematite sphere.

Alexa
lifted her chin. “
My
boat!”

“Snot,”
teased Marian.

Alexa
just smiled. “I never had a toy boat.”

She’d
been the most financially deprived of them all.

“Neither
did I,” Calli said, sauntering over to watch the raising.

“Neither
did Elizabeth or I,” Bri said.

These
women, like sisters she’d never had, understood Raine more than her brothers
ever had, lifted her spirits. Along with Faucon’s touch. Their connection was
steadier, stronger, since they’d shared the sail.

She
smiled up at him. He looked startled, took his hand away and walked toward the
“boat.”

Raine
shrugged and followed, took Corbeau’s hand, then held her free one out to
Faucon.

“Maybe
we—” Alexa started.

“Not
now, Alexa. We don’t know the Song,” Marian said.

Raine
glanced at them. “I don’t, either.”

“Of
course you do,” Corbeau rumbled. “Better’n Faucon or me. You’ve been building
ships all your life.”

She
met his eyes, so like Faucon’s chocolate-brown.

“It’s
in your blood and bone and Song,” Corbeau said.

Faucon
took her hand and she felt a zip of energy go around their closed circle. There
was the attraction between her and Faucon, which they both ignored. She heard
Corbeau’s personal Song better, sounding much like her brothers’ would. A
solid, practical man who loved the sea.

Dragging
in a breath, she put away her feelings and stared at the sticks arranged
slooplike on the ground. The three of them surrounded it.

“Focus,”
Corbeau said.

He
meant magic, Power, of course, but she heard the echo of her brothers’,
“Concentrate, Raine, don’t let your mind wander.”

Then
Corbeau began the ship-raising Song again, and she
did
know it. The
notes she should Sing came bubbling to her lips and fell from her mouth droplet
by droplet without thought. From her link with the men, she learned the words.
Words that referenced the ocean and waves and wind and sail and the Power of
working on and with the sea. Words she recalled hearing when she was a
potgirl…but not often. Those who frequented that tavern were more interested in
drink and sex and games, the occasional story.

The
men’s strong tones pulled her from that depressing memory, brought her to the
here and now.

She
heard the distant bustle of people in Faucon’s castle, preparing food and
chambers for guests. She heard the first trio of stars blink brightly into the
deepening blue sky.