Heart Fortune

Then he forced her down, hard, and she screamed at the pleasure.

“Only you,” he said.

She liked hearing those new words, felt the sex bond overwhelm, thought she saw the glitter of the golden HeartBond, didn’t care. Only desire, yearning, delight mattered. Only the sharing of the climax.

“Glyssa, lover,” he moaned as he came.

She leaned against him, her damp body moving against his, one, two—and pure ecstasy flung her into the stars, with him, holding him.

His arms clamped around hers.

He teleported with her to the bed, arms and legs tangling, lips seeking each other’s, still joined, but ready to conquer bliss once more.

A knock came at the pavilion door.

Jace’s hands tightened on her, so nice! She snuggled closer, ran her fingers along his side to his hip.

“It’s the Elecampanes,” called Raz, projecting his voice and completely breaking the after-sex-and-before- the-next-round moment.

Jace dropped his arms, rolled. “You take the first waterfall.”

Her lips tightened. “No, you go ahead, I’ll summon a cleansing spell.”

His eyes hooded . . . that she had more Flair than he? She still didn’t quite believe it. She sensed strong magic from him. She wished she’d suggested that he be tested by T’Ash and his Flair-determining stones when they’d been in Druida.

“Glyssa? Jace?” Raz called, knocking again.

Del murmured something. “No,” Raz said. “We need to discuss this now.”

Glyssa whisked a cleansing spell around her that sent wildflower fragrance throughout the tent, listened as Jace grumbled about the tiny shower. Pulling on underwear and a long tunic, she muttered a Word and the field that looked like a door thinned.

Thirty-one

Raz Cherry Elecampane strode in like an autocratic king. Glyssa sighed. He was followed by his HeartMate who nearly slouched her way into the tent, the ultimate in casualness.

Glyssa gestured to the chairs, flushing a little as she saw the one she and Jace had made love on out of alignment. Thankfully, the tent-cleaning spell had cleansed it, too.

Del took a different chair, stretching her legs out and crossing her ankles. She winked at Jace when he came in. He strode over to “their” chair and sat, grinned at Glyssa, and patted his lap. She flushed deeper.

Raz stood staring at her coolly. “I had thought you’d have told us of any plans by T’Hawthorn?”

“What?”

“I received a communication today from Laev T’Hawthorn. He informed me that at least thirty people are coming to the camp. Most of them wish to check out the countryside and found a town. T’Hawthorn will study this camp, too, since so far we’ve been successful in keeping him and other FirstFamilies from investing and meddling in our project. After the tour of the site, they want to move on to look at the landscape around the Deep Blue Sea.”

“Neither he nor Camellia said a word to me about this a week ago.” Walking over to Jace, she sat on the arm of the chair, put her hand on his shoulder. “Did they mention this to you?”

“No. But from what I’ve seen, Laev T’Hawthorn moves fast,” Jace said.

Glyssa nodded. “That’s right. From the moment I announced I wanted to do my fieldwork here, it was just two days before I arrived.”

The Elecampanes focused their stares on her, then Raz relaxed, went over to Del’s chair and lifted her from the seat, settled in himself with her on his lap.

“T’Hawthorn stated that there will be other investors in the party with whom he is not associated, as well as a group of cross-folk looking to found another town of their own. Outsiders are moving faster, so we have to move up our plans, too. But they find they will get nowhere without our help—at least if we go along right now and don’t force them to mount an alternative expedition to this area.” Raz smiled. “Which is why I’m inclined to help, so we can control events better.” He finally relaxed, saying, “They’re coming in the newest, most luxurious passenger airship of Cherry Shipping and Transport.” He linked his fingers and stretched out his arms. “And I get to fly it to the Deep Blue Sea!”

Del snorted. “You should let the pilot do that.”

“But she doesn’t know the area,” Raz said smugly.

Del chuckled and shook her head, but her own smile showed amusement at her HeartMate. A small twinge went through Glyssa. The couple was HeartBound, their connection so deep that should one die, the other would follow in a year.

Their hands linked and Raz absently kissed Del’s capable, scarred fingers.

Looking directly at Glyssa and Jace, Del said, “The Cartographers’ Guild is sending a man along to update some of my charts. There are a few people who want to travel overland to the Deep Blue Sea with him and me, if you want to come along, Glyssa . . . and Jace.”

“I’d love to! How long does it take by stridebeast? Do we have enough mounts?”

“About three very long days.”

Glyssa winced, she wasn’t a good rider.

“And we should have enough stridebeasts if some of the people here want to rent theirs out to the interested parties.”

“Sounds good.” Glyssa angled her body to Jace. “Do you think you’d like to come?”

He tensed a little. The couple opposite him watched with weighing gazes. She was tired of repressing herself so she wouldn’t ruffle his issues. She was in his life. She was his HeartMate. He should learn to deal with it.

“Jace, you haven’t been to the Deep Blue Sea lately,” Del said.

“I’ll decide later,” Jace said. He didn’t touch Glyssa.

Urgh! The man was maddening. Every time she thought they were getting closer, he took a step away. And that was tiresome.

“The transport will be arriving in three days,” said Raz. “We’ll let the visitors look around for a day, maybe two, then leave for the Deep Blue Sea.” Raz winked at his HeartMate. “I and my lot who fly in the airship will be at the Deep Blue Sea in a couple of septhours. The small group going with you, Del, will be latecomers. By the time you show up, I’ll have investors thinking that a village by the Sea might be an interesting prospect, and the cross- folk ready to settle down, too.”

“I’m sure. But they’ll start out small,” Del said, as if she and Raz had talked about this before.

“We’ll be larger, and they’ll rely on us.” He smiled wolfishly. “I like that idea.”

He set Del on her feet and stood. “We’ve decided that we want at least one permanent building up in camp before our guests arrive. We’ll be harvesting some lumber and building a common gathering place.” He frowned. “Not circular, but octagonal. We believe that spending the energy, physical and Flair, is worth the effort.”

“We already have plans, of that building and the whole future community, drawn up by the famed architect, Antenn Blackthorn-Moss,” Del said.

Glyssa was impressed.

As he had weeks before, Raz focused his attention on Glyssa. “We will be asking for volunteers from our investors and our shareholders to help with the construction. Are you in?”

She loved the camp, but go deep into the forest? Well, she’d be with others. “Of course.”

Raz stared at Jace. “And you?”

“Yes. I can give you more muscle than Flair.” His smile was lopsided.

“Done.” Raz nodded in satisfaction.