Burning Stone Read Free

Elemental.” Kedna wore her own vivid robes for the event. “Yours are simply designed for more heat, and now, you are ready for formal floor melting.”
    The group of gathered Citadel members laughed and applauded, all were wearing their own robes, and there were a lot of elementals in the room.
    A few healers were sprinkled in the mix, as were minders and other psychics. The group of thirty was a festive bunch, and they welcomed her with open arms.
    Kedna and Haedock were not the only couple, but whenever a man approached Leyhara, Halwis was there and making a point of directing her conversation to a different partner.
    Leyhara frowned and went to speak with Kedna. “Do you know what is going on? Every time I go to speak to a male, Halwis is in between us. Does—is there a problem with me being Resicoran?”
    Kedna sighed and took Leyhara by the arm, drawing her out onto the balcony of the ancient city hall.
    “What do you hear at night?”
    “What?”
    “What do you hear as you dream?”
    Leyhara blinked. “Singing. Halwis-Iskan told me that it was perfectly normal.”
    Kedna rubbed the back of her neck. “It is and it isn’t. In this system, there is another habitable world but it is barren and forbidden.”
    She had no idea where this was going, but she said, “Interesting.”
    “Isn’t it though? It is said that deep in the surface of that world is an ancient power, a sleeping member of a fading race. Well, it is more than said, Iskan spoke with him at length before he went to sleep. He and other Drai were scattered through space to wait for their mates. When they find a compatible woman, she will hear the song in her mind. It is their way of seducing their mate.”
    “Mate?” Leyhara inhaled sharply. “I just got out here. I don’t want a mate.”
    “He will wait. Waiting is what they do.” Halwis-Iskan came out of the shadows.
    Leyhara looked at the Avatar with narrowed eyes. “What is a Drai?”
    Kedna grinned. “I just got an upgraded holographic projector. There are files on the ancient Drai.”
    They slipped down the edge of the party and into the hall that Kedna and Haedock made their home.
    Leyhara spent the rest of the evening drinking wine and watching vids of huge beasts stomping across landscapes and taking to the air. The energy that had to be expended and absorbed as they shifted from one form to the other must have been incredible. A man with wings like a night flier and teeth that were intimidating to say the least.
    “One of those is singing to me in my sleep?” She was a little tipsy and the idea was less creepy and more intriguing with every sip.
    Halwis-Iskan gave her a long look. “His world is ready for renovation. If I speak to him and he is amenable to the work, would you go there and create landing sites?”
    She wrinkled her nose, and Halwis-Iskan waved away the idea.
    “Never mind. Your particular skills are much in demand. It is far less expensive and detrimental to the environment to get you to do the smoothing than it is for them to pave them.”
    Leyhara raised her eyebrows. “Seriously?”
    “Seriously. You have a line of requests on primitive worlds that is twenty deep.”
    Leyhara bent her knees and put her arms around them. “How would I get there?”
    “They would send a shuttle for you, and you could do as many of them as you wished and come home whenever you liked.”
    “Is this home now?”
    Kedna smiled. “It is if you want it to be. You will always have a place here, as you will always have a place on your own world. Resicor would have you back in an instant. Never doubt that.”
    Iskan took over and inclined Halwis’s head. “It is true. She has offered a whole and open link to all of her children. If you wish it, I would be able to open the link here and you could walk between worlds.”
    “What?”
    Halwis grabbed the body. “What he was trying to say is when Resicor sought help to break out of her long sleep, she asked other worlds for