LITMIR.BIZ

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considered her wings. “It’s not a bad form, but I don’t think I’ll wear it outside of your dreams.”

      “Then what are you?”

      “That doesn’t matter,” Sinafin had replied with music in her voice. “What does matter is that you understand what is happening.”

      “What?”

      Sinafin had sighed, studied her toes and flexed her feet. “You have been Summoned to Lladrana.”

      Alexa’s heart had thumped. She’d licked her lips. “Heavy mojo. Chimes. Rainbows. Chant. Gong. Large silver pentacle. It doesn’t look like I can get home easily.” She didn’t even want to think about disappearing holes and big hairy monsters. With fangs.

      The fairy avoided Alexa’s eyes.

      She sat up straight. “What aren’t you telling me about getting back?”

      “It would be a massive undertaking for a Ritual to return you to the Exotique Land.”

      “But?” Alexa had spotted a hesitation in the little woman’s words.

      A minute pink tongue dampened pink lips. “There’s a moment, a Snap, when your Land calls to you.” She took off from the headboard and zoomed a circuit around the underside of the canopy. “Like when sometimes before you fall asleep, your body jerks.”

      This time Sinafin perched on Alexa’s upraised knee. The serious look on the little pointed face didn’t suit Sinafin. “You have a moment to go or stay. Wish to go, and you’re gone. Hang on to something here, and you stay.”

      “When does this happen?”

      Sinafin shrugged. “Who knows? Days. Months. Years. Different times for different people. Sometimes the Snap is easy, sometimes hard. Different for different people.” She frowned. “Or maybe sometimes it’s easier for people to stay or go.”

      “Duh,” Alexa said, throat tight.

      “But we really need you here.”

      “Joan of Arc,” Alexa croaked.

      Sinafin’s entire being flashed humor. “Yes. But you can do it. You are stronger than you think. Stronger than they think. They cannot coerce you in any way—remember that.”

      “You’re not one of them?”

      She gave a tiny fairy snort. “Do I look like one of them? No. I sensed you were here and came. I am here for you.” She launched herself into the air, dipping and whirling, wind chimes rippling with her movements. Alexa got the idea she was too impatient to sit still. Sinafin hovered before Alexa’s nose, just far enough away that Alexa didn’t have to look at her cross-eyed.

      “Deep in your heart you need Lladrana. It can be a home for you. You can find your place here.”

      “Argh,” was all that came out of Alexa’s mouth.

      A teeny fairy finger wagged at her. “So don’t get scared, or depressed. Take it as a challenge.”

      “That’s what they always call awful problems nowadays, ‘challenges,’” Alexa muttered.

      The fairy beamed. “I’m here to help you.”

      Alexa wasn’t sure how a little pink fairy in her dreams could be of use.

      Sinafin flittered around the bed, grabbed the fringe on the hangings and swung from it. “Don’t think of going back. Accept your fate here and you’ll live a long life of great fulfillment.”

      “You sound like a fortune cookie.”

      A laugh rippled from Sinafin. “I am good fortune. Now, I know you aren’t good with languages. So listen!” A delicate wand with a star on top appeared in her hand. She waved it, and the whole evening rolled like a movie before Alexa’s eyes. Only this time, she could understand what the people were saying. At least the words, but some of the meanings and concepts were beyond her. When it ended, she had a million questions. She opened her mouth to ask Sinafin, but with fairy capriciousness, the little magical woman had disappeared. A feeling of dark destiny crept over Alexa.

      Now she shivered from toes to head as she remembered the dream and the night before. She clutched a pillow almost as big as her. Her arms sank into it and she knew it was made of the finest down. Everything around her was the finest.

      “Hard to go back,” she muttered to herself, and knew that there wasn’t much of a life to go back to. She’d have to start all over on Earth as well as here in…Lladrana? “Find my place here.” Tears welled in her eyes and she was helpless to stop them. All she’d ever wanted was to fit in, be normal, know she was the same as everyone else who had a family and friends and a good home.

      In Sophie she’d found a good friend, as close as a sister. Sophie had been outgoing and charming, had expanded Alexa’s circle of friends. She and Sophie had graduated law school, passed the bar, and started their own firm specializing in domestic law. They’d had three clients.

      Then Sophie died and the plans were shot to hell. Before Alexa had had time to regain her balance, she’d heard chimes and music and had gone through the silver arch to Lladrana.

      She had chosen to go through the gate of her own free will. She knew that. But she sure hadn’t known the consequences. Alexa was certain that in Colorado “ensorcellment” wasn’t a valid defense for stupid decisions. What about here in Lladrana?

      She uncurled from a fetal position and looked around her. Everything in the room—her own room—was of the highest quality. She had passed “tests” and been granted the status of Marshall. Alexa shuddered at the thought of the tests. She’d thought a month of studying for the Colorado bar had been bad!

      That was then. This was now. And now was an entirely different world.

      Tests. She’d focus on that. The little star-ball—atomball—had been a test. Partis had said so before he sent it to her. Many had been surprised she could handle it. The test was a measure of what they called “Power.”

      The next test was obvious. Did she have the compassion to save the baby? Then, she’d asked for help in keeping the baby alive. Had that been a test too? Alexa thought so. She wasn’t too proud to ask for help. She could work with others to achieve a goal. She made a disgusted noise. Oh, their tests had been clever, all right.

      The memory of how she’d flung her assailant against a wall with her sheer will burned in her heart. She couldn’t sit in bed and face that fact so got up to pace the room. What could she have done differently? She wasn’t trained in martial arts. She hadn’t hurt him on purpose, had only defended herself. Self-defense was acceptable in Colorado and apparently in Lladrana too, since she hadn’t been punished. But that she’d hurt, maybe killed, shook her to the core.

      A sour taste coated her tongue, so she went to the bathroom and rinsed out her mouth. On the way back, she stopped at the windows and finally looked out. She was about five stories up!

      Glancing down, she saw her Tower was built on the edge of a cliff. She flinched back, then looked out onto an expansive landscape. Before her were fields showing a fuzz of spring green, then wooded, rising hills.

      She followed the window to the far left curve—in the distance was a large, tidy walled town. She looked down and saw a hedge maze just within the castle walls, and just beyond it a small garden centered around a tall, lovely white-barked tree. A sweet murmuring, almost beneath her hearing, beckoned to her. She pressed close to the window. The low music must come from the growing things, maybe even the land. Rocks? Who knew?

      From what she’d already experienced, anything was possible.

      She frowned, trying to separate the attractive lilt from other notes, and finally figured out that it came from the tree. She smiled. The tree had caught her eye, so it was logical that she’d hear its tune more clearly.

      Alexa moved to the center of the window to once again study the vista of multihued greens.

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