The Singer took the lead.
Oddly
enough, his muscles eased. The muffled quality of her Song held most of his
visions at bay. But he’d seen the future again: a wondrous ship, rough seas,
the looming volcano of the Dark’s Nest in the distance. The battle. Monsters
against Chevaliers and Marshalls. The Exotiques and their mates Singing the
Weapon Knot loose, the City Destroyer spell.
Death
and destruction. Again and again. Only one thing remained the same. Calli, the
Volaran Exotique, and her bondmate, Marrec, lived. For that Luthan gave thanks.
If even one Exotique lived the outcome was good. Usually the Dark expired, too;
when it didn’t, it was too wounded to rise for generations. Good.
He
plodded after the Singer, trying to keep his mind shielded from the prophetic
wraiths.
Luthan,
what the hell is going on! Bri, the healer, demanded, and he sensed her within
the Abbey proper, arriving by the roc sooner than the others. She and her
husband, the formidable Citymaster, Sevair Masif, were spiraling down on the
roc to the main courtyard. They would sense Luthan, come to him, might even
sense the new Exotique.
For
years Lladranans had fought invading monsters sent by a great Dark until the
magical northern boundary began to fall and the Marshalls had dared to Summon
the first Exotique, Alexa. She’d found the way to mend the fence posts, but had
set them on a course to defeat the Dark itself.
Marian
had come then, for the Circlets—the Sorcerers, Tower community—had discovered
that the horrors invaded to regain some specific item. Marian agreed that the
battle should be taken to the Dark. And she’d found the knot that would be
their greatest weapon.
Then
Calli was Summoned for Luthan’s own portion of society, the Chevaliers, and the
volarans. She’d scouted the Dark’s Nest.
When
a sickness sent by the Dark had swept the country, the Cities and Towns had
paid the Marshalls to bring a medica from Exotique Terre. Twins had arrived,
Bri and Elizabeth, and had fulfilled their tasks…and Elizabeth had returned
with the Snap, when her home planet called her, opening a portal in the
Dimensional Corridor, giving an Exotique the choice to stay or return.
Unknown
to the rest of Lladrana, the Seamasters had tried a Summoning—Raine—and had
thought they’d failed, and left. Now she was to build a great Ship to carry an
invasion force to the Dark’s Nest itself and kill it.
The
fractured communities of Lladrana were combining for that one purpose. To kill
the Dark.
To
send one swift and stealthy Ship to the Dark’s Nest, manned with the best
warriors of Lladrana to fight the horrors and the Master defending it. There
the Exotiques would untie the mysterious Weapon Knot Marian had found—the City
Destroyer—with Song and…and leading the Song would be this last woman.
The
sixth and final person to be Summoned to battle the Dark.
4
A cold wind
whipped around Luthan, whistled through the tunnel, some of the Friends’ voices
broke and were silent. Luthan drew on his Power to keep going, to protect the
woman in his arms, as the bird shrilled a distress call.
The
Singer remained untouched and serene, her pace regular, her Song soaring.
But
she knew, like everyone else, that all their lives hung in the balance.
When
they reached the white-and-gold anteroom, her Song faded. She turned toward
Luthan with a flinty gaze. “I will not let you take this one away. She is mine
to train! Her voice is not sufficient, yet, to master the spell Circlet
Exotique Marian discovered to destroy the Dark. This one must develop her full
range, as I have. She is the key. She will lead the others.”
The
Singer gestured and a hefty man hurried from the rest of the Friends’ to stand
before him, arms outstretched to take the burden of the new Exotique. Luthan
held onto her.
The
door to the caverns was still open, the room was small and not everyone could
crowd into it. Friends in the tunnel whimpered. Then their ranks broke and