Free Keepers of the Flame by Robin D. Owens

She’d said she fought monsters every week.
    Bastien
snorted, stood and stepped behind Alexa, wrapping his arms around her. His gaze
was fierce. “She is beloved. She has a good estate, wealth which she did not
have on Exotique Terre. She is,” he glanced at Marian and Calli, “you all are,
the crème de la crème.”
    “We’ve
found our places in life.” Calli went to stand beside Alexa, took her hand. “I
hadn’t planned on going back with the Snap, either, not after I bonded with
Marrec, and certainly not after we adopted our child, children.” She smiled
softly at her man. He lifted a shoulder and moved to hold her like Bastien held
Alexa.
    Alexa
angled her chin at Marian. “That one was the one who kept saying she had to go
back.”
    “For
Andrew, my brother with multiple sclerosis. And I did.”
    “But
you’re here,” Bri said.
    “I
brought him back with me. And he’s still here. After a fashion.”
    Cold
curled inside Elizabeth. She kept her voice mild. “After a fashion?”
    Alexa
grinned. “Since you’re both medicas you’ll be interested. His mind and, um,
soul—” she glanced at Marian, who nodded “—were transferred to a Lladranan
body.”
    Wow! Bri’s thought
echoed Elizabeth’s. Incredible. Bri said, “I’m not a medical doctor.
Elizabeth is.”
    Marian
raised her eyebrows, obviously back to normal. “We saw you save last night.”
    “She
has a unique gift of healing hands,” Elizabeth murmured.
    Blinking
at Bri, Marian said, “So I would postulate that you studied alternative
medicine. As I studied New Age subjects.” She crossed to the other side of
Alexa, and still watching the twins, held out her hand. Alexa took it. Jaquar
strolled behind her to stand with the other men, rested his hands on Marian’s
hips.
    “Choose
an end,” Alexa challenged with a smile. “You’re supposed to be here.” Then her
humor faded. “Bottom line, we need you. We’re sure the Dark is sending this
disease somehow and we need you to find a cure.”
    Elizabeth
shook her head. “It isn’t that easy.”
    “We
know it isn’t,” Marrec said, his accent thick. “None of the Exotiques’ tasks
were easy. But they prevailed.”
    “We’re
sorry for your problems, but we have loving parents who will miss us in two
weeks,” Bri said, lowering the cake back into the cooler.
    At
that moment a long lilting strum came from the door. “Sevair Masif here,” said
the deep voice of the city man.
    Alexa
hurried to answer, obviously glad of the interruption. “He’s been very patient,
but he’s waiting for you two. The City and Towns were the ones who Summoned
you.”
    Marian
and Jaquar did a little chant and the dishes and cutlery cleaned themselves and
were stacked on the table. Elizabeth and Bri watched wide-eyed, then Bri
hurried to put the casserole back into the chest and set the top back on it.
She smiled. “Plenty of ice.”
    “Bri,
you can’t go out looking like that!” Jaquar sounded shocked.
    All
the women looked at him.
    Marian
said, “I would never have thought you to be a prude.”
    He
glanced at the other men as if for support. Bastien smiled blandly and replied
in simple Lladranan that Elizabeth was beginning to understand, “She looks
wonderful.”
    Marrec
leaned on the sofa and said in accented English, “I was in Co-lo-ra-do. In the
summer. I saw bare legs.” He smiled reminiscently.
    Calli
blinked at him. “Oh, yes, I left you in the park when I went to the bank.”
    Bri
said, “Before I was in Denver, I was in Sweden, before that, Spain. But I’ve
traveled a lot, I should have realized.” Now she smiled at the women, not
nicely. “Can you do an instant clean on my clothes? The blouse is silk. Or do
you have clothes for at least one of us?”
    “Yes,”
said Marian drawing herself up.
    “Yes,
what?” asked Bri.
    Marian
withdrew a finger-length stick from her pocket and with a flick of her wrist it
turned into a wand. She pointed it at Elizabeth. A hot breeze hit