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Yet.
    The
woman shot orders to Seeva, who ran across the landing field. Calli recalled
the older woman’s name was Hallard. Lady Hallard. If Calli remained in
this dream, would she get a title, too?
    “Exotique,”
Lady Hallard said with a little bow.
    Oh,
she already had a sort of title. Exotique Calli. Exotique Alexa. Exotique
Marian—Calli had heard all three of them called that. Women from Earth.
    Lady
Hallard sent a stream of rapid-fire words to Alexa, who winced and kept
nodding, a pained smile on her face. Then Alexa bowed to Lady Hallard, answered
in a mild voice and talked a while.
    After
she ended, Lady Hallard nodded, bowed again to Calli and strode away, leaving
her volaran to grooms. Calli saw several people who wore her colors on an
armband bow to her. The older woman waved casually to them.
    Bastien
shook his head. Alexa sighed. “She said that she was told Thunder gave you a
good report and she wants you to be integrated into the Chevaliers’ ranks as
soon as possible. And you shouldn’t be up at the Marshalls’ keep.” Now Alexa’s
smile-grimace was aimed at Calli, who wanted to pay more attention to all the
volarans inching closer to ring them. The flying horses still seemed as
fascinated with her as she was with them.
    “I
insisted that you stay in my tower tonight,” Alexa said.
    “All
right. I need to groom Thunder,” Calli said.
    “Fine.”
Alexa rubbed her gauntleted hands together. “Calli, do you want Marian and me
to lay all this out at once or drop it on you in little bits?”
    Calli
sent Alexa a crooked smile as she stroked the exquisite softness of Thunder’s
near wing. “I think this is all a dream and I’ll wake up in my own bed tomorrow
morning.”
    “Not
going to happen,” Alexa said.
    Bastien
spoke and Alexa nodded again, this time with enthusiasm. “The more you bond
with the volarans, the more you are physically aware of this world—like by
grooming Thunder—the more you’ll believe you’re here. So Bastien’ll take you to
the stables and teach you. Later we’ll eat in my tower with Marian and Jaquar.”
    “Jaquar
speaks English.”
    “What?”
    “They
made a potion—”
    “Of
course they did,” Alexa said.
    “—and
he tried it out. So he can speak English.”
    Alexa
looked up at Calli. “Wonder how that works.”
    “Me,
too.”
    Bastien
gently jostled Alexa aside and offered his arm to Calli. She didn’t need it
this time. She made a lead-the-way gesture.
    He
grabbed Alexa and kissed her hard, patted her butt and sent her off toward the
maze. Apparently she didn’t groom volarans. But then, she didn’t ride them by
herself, either. Interesting.
    Bastien
sent a loud mental message that showed the stables. Once again the volarans
began to move to the large building at the opposite end of the Landing Field.
Calli blinked. Was that really the stables? It was huge. Big enough to house
every volaran here, for sure.
    They
walked through a corridor of volarans, with people standing behind the winged
horses, staring. The folks wore a mixture of expressions. Everything from
irritation and resentment to…awe? She didn’t want to be awe inspiring.
    As
Calli passed, she felt soft muzzles sliding against her, sniffing. Once again
overwhelming approval came as she sensed the volarans’ feelings. She smelled wonderful. Different. She’d flown with Thunder and smelled of him, too, and the mixture
was lovely. She smelled sweet.
    Calli
stopped. Sweet?
    Bastien
chuckled, as if he heard the volarans. “Ayes,” he said, nodding. “Doose.”
    She
didn’t think of herself as sweet. Tough, practical, with horse sense, but not
sweet.
    Sweet. Thunder pranced
by her side. I will get the best stall, with plenty of wing space.
    She
stared at him, turned to Bastien. Thunder turned his head, too, and squinted at
Bastien.
    Bastien
grinned, showing flashing white teeth. Though he smelled of man and volaran
sweat, he looked none the worse for battle…except there was dark,