Echoes in the Dark by Robin D. Owens

minute, then came a voice but no image. “What! I’m
working!”
    “Koz
and Raine have a project for you.”
    A
heaved sigh, then wisps in the ball solidified into the image of the skinny,
wrinkled Sorcerer. He sat with arms crossed and listened as Koz explained what
he needed.
    Bossgond
sniffed. “It will cost you.”
    Raine
had anticipated this, but anger spurted through her anyway. She jumped to her
feet. “Cost me! ” Glaring at him, she said, “Am I or am I not the one who
spoke to you for hours about every little detail of my Summoning here
and my life? Haven’t I given you masses of information about…stuff. My
grandmother’s mirror that originally came from Lladrana. The Summoning. Living
here on my own. Travys who had the innate repulsion.” She waved her hands.
“Whatever. You should owe me!”
    “She’s
got a point.” Koz rocked on his heels, grinning.
    “Excellent
strategy,” Alexa said.
    Another
big sigh from Bossgond, though Raine thought she saw the eternal curiosity that
marked a Sorcerer in his eyes. “You can locate your father’s home?”
    “My
father and four brothers.” Raine stuck out her chin. It didn’t matter that none
of them would believe in talking mirrors or interdimensional communication. She
wanted a connection to them all.
    Bossgond
let out an undignified squeak. “Five!”
    “Yeah,
tough,” Raine muttered. “I love them all, and they love me.” Even if there
hadn’t been much understanding among them. She’d wanted to take the family
shipbuilding company into the second millennium with double hulls and metallic
alloys. The guys had insisted on staying with wooden sailing ships. She
probably would have left the company by now, but that was all in the past. Her
future, for the moment, was on Lladrana.
    “I
want to get a message to them that I’m okay, too.”
    Koz
gave a little cough, gazed at Raine, then switched to Bossgond. “I have an
idea.”
    “Ayes?”
asked Bossgond.
    Koz
looked Raine in the eyes. “Are your father and brothers honorable men?”
    Raine
had rarely given that phrase much thought on Earth. Here in Lladrana it was
important. “They’re known for always keeping their word.”
    “Right.”
Koz nodded. Again he swept a look from Raine to Bossgond. “What say we send the
mirrors to their attorney. You know their attorney?”
    “Yeah,
I know him well.”
    “You
could locate his office,” Koz said. A gleam came into Bossgond’s eyes. He loved
discovering new places of “Exotique Terre.”
    Raine
shrugged. “No problem. They’re a family firm, too. A family firm run by men
doesn’t often change drastically. They’ve been in that building for twelve
generations. The Lindleys were upstarts in Best Haven at four generations.”
    She
looked around and Marian anticipated her, whisking a piece of paper and pencil
in front of Raine. With a few quick strokes Raine laid out the plan of the
office.
    Koz
took the layout with a low whistle. “You are one good draftsman. Draftsperson.”
He studied the map for a couple of seconds. “What if we deliver five mirrors to
this attorney, along with money, saying it’s an inheritance from your
great-grandfather’s lover’s estate…”
    “That
would be the Singer here on Lladrana,” Raine said. She still marveled that her
great-grandfather had been an Exotique, the last one Summoned before Alexa.
    “Yes.
A mirror for each of your brothers and your father. To be hung in their living
rooms for…say…three generations. With the mirrors will be some sort of payment.
We’ll think of that later.” He waved a hand like a man who’s never known
poverty. “Like helping convince my sister that I should be on the invasion
force.”
    “I
can’t—” Raine started.
    “How
soon do you wish this project to be done?” asked Bossgond from the crystal
ball.
    “I
have a stock of mirrors ready,” Koz said.
    The
older man raised golden brows. “Ayes? You don’t want to consult the Singer on her mirror,