“Ah, but I didn’t define it wel
l. I still can’t. So much of what I sense is . . . innate. My dislike might be irrational, but the truth is, I can’t trust anyone who is not open to the mystery of the mate bond.”
Bird, quiet until now, spoke up softly. “Do you mean he is damaged because he hasn’t a mate?”
Joey said thoughtfully, “It’s not quite that: it’s that he truly is closed off. I don’t know if it’s purposeful or resentment, but that layer in him: entirely blocked off.”
Mikhail felt Bird’s tremor, and carefully laid his arm around her. “When we were young, he was as brave as anyone I ever trained with. Courageous as well. I liked partnering with him. But in recent years, we drifted apart. He must have put considerable energy into hiding his new pursuits from me.”
Joey said tartly, “He was lying to you. Why do you think he was in effect grounded here, after being a knight for so many years?”
“I don’t know what happened,” Mikhail admitted tiredly. “All I know is that the empress sent him from the imperial court, and made him Guardian in this area as a chance to get him away from the temptation of power politics. To let him rethink things. For his sake, I never pressed further. I called on him, hoping to give him a chance to redeem himself.”
“As he knew you would, loyal and true-hearted Mikhail. I gather he figured out the Oracle Stone was there all along?”
“He wasn’t clear about that. There are some fire beings from the deeps that certainly knew about it. They also knew that no one could touch it except the empress.”
To Bird he said, “This is very old—very old. Whoever corrupted Cang, probably an older, deeper power, knows what information is locked in that stone and doesn’t want it revealed. Cang wanted to possess it as the first step in challenging the imperial throne. One of them somehow managed to superimpose the shadow figures over the text that the Oracle Stone makers had put there for whoever would come after. They couldn’t touch that text—very ancient magic protects it—but they could obscure it. I believe he was unsettled at the discovery that the text was slowly bleeding out from behind the shadow paintings.”
“He was scratching it off,” Bird said.
“So it appeared, but if we had a chance to go back there, you’d see the letters begin to reform again, bit by bit. I did my best to convince him he was destroying it permanently in order to buy you time, my brave Bird. But that text is not so easily destroyed.”
Bird looked troubled. “I was beginning to feel sorry for him. But then I remembered you in those chains, and I don’t. That goes double for deliberately destroying art.”
Mikhail kissed her ear. “He will have a lot to account for when the empress catches up with him.”
Joey said from the front seat. “You’re going to have to stick around to guard the entire mess until the empress decides what to do, right?”
“For the time being,” Mikhail said.
“Good.” Joey pulled up on the quiet lane below Bird’s cottage. “Here you go. I’ll talk to you two later.”
Mikhail and Bird walked up to the cottage hand in hand.
“Oh, I don’t think I’ve ever wished for a hot bath more than I do now,” Bird exclaimed. He was glad to see that she was no longer shivering. “Every bone and muscle in my body feels like . . . feels like I was crawling around a cave, then running for my life. Is every day going to be like this from now on?”
Mikhail stopped inside the front door, worry flaring through him until he looked into her smiling face. She said, “Life is never going to be boring again, is it?”
He smiled back, still concerned, wanting her to understand—hoping that it would be enough. They’d had so little time before things accelerated so suddenly.
He said carefully, “I might be gone for periods, once this situation is resolved. But you will always be able to reach me. Your mental bond is very strong. Not every mate bond includes it if one is a human partner, is my understanding.”
“Blame my imagination.” She wrapped her hands around his and tugged him further inside. “Let’s get cleaned up, and treat ourselves to a dose of normal. We can make a third try at Linette’s pastries, plus tea. How’s that?”
By the time she had had her shower, Mikhail’s burns had healed enough to enable him to shift, arrow to his motel for fresh clothing, and bring it all back. And when she emerged, clean and freshly dressed, his healing had progressed enough for him to bear hot water on his tender skin.
They soon sat at the tiny table, eating the pastries Bird had warmed and drinking a fine Oolong. He so looked forward to taking her to the clan tea farms, to the palace.
He looked forward to telling her everything, and showing her off everywhere.
But first things first. Beginning with her life.
He polished off his plate, then took her hands. “I had an idea,” he said. “Tell me if you like it. Why not solve the wedding problem by hosting it in this beautiful garden?”
Her face brightened, then clouded. “It would be a beautiful setting, but we couldn’t run the reception out of this place.” She looked in despair around her cottage. “My stove is old and cranky, and my fridge is almost as old. It needs to be defrosted every week, or the ice builds up. Even a tiny wedding would be too much to manage here.”
“But we could from the larger house if your landlord liked the idea, could we not?”