Keepers of the Flame

“Marian, Alexa, Calli, and our husbands,” Marian said. Bri had a good ear, too, and the voluptuous redhead’s voice was deeper, throatier than the others.

Bri backed up a couple of paces as Elizabeth walked into the room, dressed in her clothes from yesterday and not seeming too pleased about it. She’d have washed out their underwear, of course, before they fell into bed. “‘The Three’ have turned into ‘The Six.’”

“They brought their men? Why?”

Shrugging, Bri went to the bathroom. “Don’t know. At a guess, to show us a benefit of the place? Hunky husbands?”

Elizabeth snorted. “The last thing I need is a man in my life. Let me go through the bathroom to the dining room where there’s another door to the hallway.” She hustled past Bri, closing the door behind her, then faced the outer door. Her panties were still damp and she resented wearing them. If the women had been perspicacious enough to have nightgowns made, why couldn’t they have provided some decent underwear? All Elizabeth had seen were long-underwear type leggings and tops and she’d had enough of those all the last miserable winter long.

The Six. Huh.

“Elizabeth? This is your morning briefing. By now you would have realized that you’re here for a while. And we thought we’d help you get on,” Alexa said.

Elizabeth crossed her arms. “Bri is in the bathroom.” She heard sputtering water. “Showering. Come back later. With breakfast. I’ll take an egg white omelette and a piece of dry toast. Bri will have eggs scrambled with cheese. If this benighted land has coffee, bring two cups, hot and black.”

A male chuckle came as if in approval. “I don’t think they’re as disturbed as you expected them to be. You go get the food. We will stay here,” the man said. In English. One of the men knew English. Elizabeth couldn’t figure out whether that was a good sign or a bad one.

Marian said, “They have each other for support, so of course they are less affected than we were—being stranded in a strange dimension all alone.”

That’s what she thought. Elizabeth allowed herself an irritated sniff.

“But a discussion over food will be fine. I will, indeed, go, Jaquar.”

Who was Jaquar? Calli’s husband or Marian’s?

Alexa said, “I’ll hang here with the guys. A coupla croissants and butter and an omelette sounds good to me, too, with that cheese. And mushrooms!” Alexa called. “Too bad we don’t have hash browns.”

“I’ll go with Marian,” said Calli.

“Much running around,” said another male voice in English, very heavily accented.

Shifting from foot to foot, Elizabeth stared at the door, wondering if it would be beneficial to let the others in, four instead of six. Would it throw off their rhythm?

“It might,” Bri said next to her ear and Elizabeth jumped.

“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.”