The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

have heightened your senses for you to see him in the first place,” Jack sighed. “Engage your TrueSight, Margit. Then look slightly to the side of the distortion. Do you see him?”
    “I’m not sure. He looks sort of like a scrying image gone awry, almost there but not quite.”
    “I’m here, Margit. And our betrothal is off. I’ve found another. Vareena.” His voice caressed the name. The figure that might be Marcus reached out as if to embrace the short woman standing off to the side. But he didn’t touch her.
    Vareena heaved a weary sigh and stepped away from him. She’d be pretty if she weren’t so old. Nearly thirty. Past being a spinster. Margit classified her as a maiden aunt, destined to care for her brother’s families, if she had any.
    “Robb, tell him that I do not love him,” Vareena said wearily. “I cannot love him.” She sounded more exasperated than aggrieved.
    “I can’t tell him anything, Vareena.” Another ghostly voice that sounded like Robb but not quite, from somewhere near the largest of the sledges.
    Margit looked closely. Definitely another man shape within the light distortion. And beside him another and another. The flutters and fluctuations in her perceptions made her dizzy.
    She closed her eyes to regain her balance. When she opened them again, the wavering light remained.
    “What’s going on, Jack?” She looked at his solid body rather than at all of the almost-people who milled around the courtyard. Katrina looked as bewildered as she. Only Vareena and the other man who did not seem a part of the entire proceedings acted as if all was normal.
    “I was just about to find out when you interjected with your rather—um—forceful opinion,” Jack replied. The corners of his mouth twitched even though he kept them in a stern frown.
    Just then a caterwauling rose all around them, like a thousand cat fights all at once. Chills ran through Margit, but she didn’t sneeze.
    “Now what?”
    “They’re all fighting over the gold,” Marcus said. He sounded as if a great weight pressed against him.
    Margit’s heart almost moved in empathy with him.
    But the hurt was too great.
    How could he have just presumed she wanted a home and children? Kardia Hodos was a big planet, and she intended to see all of it.
    No, he hadn’t heard. He hadn’t listened. He never listened to anything but what he wanted to hear because he presumed his luck would make everyone agree with him.
    “Your luck just ran out, Marcus,” she muttered as Jack and two blobs of watery light moved toward the loudest of the disagreements.
    And then she heard something that chilled her even more than the screeching fights and arguments by unseen ghosts: the distinctive hiss of long metal blades sliding out of wooden scabbards.
    She whirled around to find a new party of a dozen steeds ridden by nobles and men at arms.

    “Whatever happens, do not touch the gold,” Robb whispered to Jack. He slammed his weight into two Rover men who grabbed each other by their shirts, clutching fingers far too close to the vulnerable throats of their opponent.
    “Zolltarn!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “Zolltarn, control your people!”
    Jack bounced off two women, one heavily pregnant. They separated, mouths agape, panting for breath as they stared at the man who had the audacity to interfere. The burning energy that must separate the women from the normal world kept Jack from touching them directly, but his impact against the barrier should have been unpleasant enough to force them apart.
    Someone grabbed the back of Robb’s shirt and spun him around. Then a fist connected with his jaw and stars spun before his eyes.
    “Robb!” Vareena screamed. And then she was kneeling beside him, hands reaching out to examine the huge ache in his teeth that spread from his chin to his eye. This time she forced her hand through the burning energy. Her fingers caressed his jaw, feather-light. The sharp pain eased to a dull ache.
    For a moment his gaze caught hers. Suddenly his heart raced in his chest, opening him to new emotions, new truths about himself. A kind of serenity filled him. All because she touched him.
    “We’ll discuss this later. Right now, I have a brawl to break up.” He heaved himself to his feet, wishing he could return her caress, perhaps kiss her cheek in tentative promise. “Later,” he affirmed to them both.
    The world seemed suddenly brighter and all of their problems surmountable.
    And then