Chapter 3

Jade let her sword drop and stared at the four women who surrounded her. "Why are you here?"

Garnet pulled back the hood of her cloak. Riotous, bright red curls bounced around her beautiful face. "Do you think we could feel your fear and not come to you, sister?"

"There are times being so closely tied is a real disadvantage." Jade turned back to Storm and stowed away her sword. "I'm fine."

Onyx was the third oldest of the girls and she slid off her pony and held out her hand to her sister. Jade grasped her arm then pulled her into an embrace. Onyx pulled back and looked into Jade's eyes. "We worried."

"I am fine."

"So you say, but we know better."

Amber, the youngest and the only blonde in the family, tossed her head and easily curbed the temper of her half-wild pony. She slid down, patting Gale's neck before leaving his reins looped over his neck. "You were thinking of him again."

"No." Jade shook her head even though she knew it was in vain. They had always had an uncanny sense, always knowing when one was in trouble. They also could sense each others' feelings.

"Sister, you know you shouldn't lie to yourself or to us." Amethyst joined her sisters. The girls were beautiful, each tall and athletic with long limbs. Each closely linked to the other. It had started years ago, when Calder had taken their small village under the guise of their lord's colors. Jade had made the girls leave, giving up her own freedom and virtue to save them. Because of that sacrifice, Garnet had taken the younger three and gone to the village where a witch of strong spirituality had cast a spell over them, linking the five girls to each other. Only death would sever the bond. All five girls had moments where they wished they weren't as closely bound.

Especially Jade.

Garnet reached out and took Jade's hands in her own. "What can we do?"

"Nothing."

Garnet's smile was slow and incredibly irritating. "We know that isn't true. Show me, sister. Show me what has you so incredibly splintered that memory of that pig snuck out to torment you." Garnet kept her eyes on Jade's and exhaled sharply as the images of Dax, of the way he'd been treated, of the marks on his back were indelibly etched in her head. "Cassianna has proven to be a bitch before but this is beyond anything we thought her capable of doing." She shook her head, breaking the contact.

"So now you know. There isn't a thing that you can do." Jade tried to pull her hands out of her sister's but she wasn't letting go. "Garnet, I am fine!"

Amethyst came up and stroked Jade's arm. "I can feel your distress, sister. I know you are anything but fine." She reached out and stroked Jade's cheek, turning her face. Amethyst felt her hesitation and she concentrated on that feeling, sending a soothing calm into her sister's anxiety.

Jade felt her muscles loosen and closed her eyes, her head coming forward to rest against Amethyst's shoulder. A heavy sigh shook through her. "Thank you, sister."

"It is the least I can do. You gave up so much for us. I feel guilty that I can't do more."

Jade wrapped her arms around Amethyst and leaned into her, feeling the other girls wrap around them as well. She stood there, letting their love flood into her and feeling her strength grow until she knew that she would be all right. With one last sigh, she disentangled herself from her sisters' arms and wiped the tears off of her cheeks. "You always know when I need you."

"And you always give us such a bad time about it." Amber reached out and flicked a lock of hair away from Jade's wet cheeks. "You'll never learn."

Jade smiled and flicked her fingers at Amber. "It's a trait that seems to run in the family."

"And we are proud of it." Amber smiled and ducked Jade's playful slap. "Please, sister, call for us when you just wish to spend time with us. We miss you."

Jade nodded. "I miss you too." She hugged them each, pressing a warm kiss to their cheeks. "Ride back with me?"

"We can meet the king?" Garnet grinned when Jade gave her a look.

"If he is awake. Is that the only reason you want to spend more time with your sister, to meet the king?"

"I've heard that he is a handsome one, maybe he'll take interest in one of us. We aren't getting any younger." Onyx hugged Jade once more. "But of course, spending time with you is always great."

"How did you get away?"

"My sister needed me, the children will be fine one night while I am away."

"Have you met their father yet?" Jade had worried when Onyx had told her of the job that she was taking. The children were young, their mother was dead. Onyx had gotten the job through the master's houseman. The master, she'd never met.

"No. I just don't know what kind of man would leave his houseman in charge of his home and a woman he'd never met in charge of his children. He couldn't know that you'd fall in love with them."

"No, but isn't it nice that I have."

Jade gave her a look and then threw a leg over Storm's back and slid into his saddle. "I certainly hope you aren't going to get your heart broken."

"I've not fallen for a man, sister." Onyx shook her head, her long, dark hair just touching her horse's back. She took up the reins and kicked her pony, easily curbing the animal's antics as she caught up with her sister. "I don't think the children will break my heart."

Garnet scoffed. "Little you know, Onyx. Children can chew your heart up and spit it out with barely a thought."

"Tavin and Karista aren't like that."

"Sure they aren't. Ami, how are your studies?"

Amethyst snapped her fingers and opened her hand, a flicker of flame erupting on her palm. It shone brightly for a moment and then sputtered out. "It's an ongoing process, sister."

"And Massiem? Is he still treating you like a girl and not a woman?"

"Massiem is who he is. I've learned to shrug off a lot he says and concentrate upon what I need to learn."

Garnet snorted and nudged her pony up closer to Jade. "I think she protests a bit much, don't you?"

Jade glanced at Garnet and saw the look in her eyes. "Has our baby sister fallen for a man?"

"That man is a sexist pig. Every time I see him, he asks me when I plan to marry and leave him be. I want to take the nearest chamber pot to his blasted head!" Ami stopped speaking when she heard her sisters burst out laughing. "Oh to Gaylleng with you! I don't know why I let you do this to me all the time..." Her shoulders drooped and she glared back at them. Then she kicked her pony into a faster gait and didn't look back.

"That wasn't nice." Amber was always the one that tried to keep her sisters from fighting and bickering. She was the mother hen of the girls and the peacemaker.

"Oh Amber ... just get..."

"We're sorry, Amber. We'll be good." Jade elbowed Garnet and gave her a dirty look when the girl started laughing again. "Be nice."

Garnet shrugged her shoulders at Jade's hissed words. "I never said I was nice."

"Well maybe you should try it for a day, you might end up liking it." Jade tipped her head to the side, staring Garnet. "Wait, you being nice might crack that shell you have for a face."

"And you say I'm not nice."

Jade just gave her a smug grin and then kicked Storm to catch up with Amber. "I'm sorry, Amber. It wasn't nice to laugh at you."

Amber glanced over and then down at her hands before looking forward once more. "It's not that you were laughing at me, Jade. I'm just afraid that what you were saying might be the truth. I don't want it though. Any of it. The idea of falling in love with that ... that..."