Broken Wings (28 page)

After losing the Crystal Keeper in the
storm, her second chance dimmed.

A discussion with Sandral changed
that. Now they could use Shartrael Raea to get to Naishurol Saffir.
Two in one stroke.

["Contact General
Maenast."]

["Yes, sir."]

The man at the controls spoke to
someone else briefly and fell silent.

Finally. After all this time. The
quest of the empress would be complete. She needed only one more
piece of their plans.

["Ma'am. General Maenast is on the
line."]

Valdas took the tri-comm he handed her
and pressed it to her cheek. The general materialized before her,
arms crossed.

["Prime Commander Alshouan. You have
something?"]

In other words, she better have
something worthwhile. That she certainly did. ["I do,
sir."]

The general's wings lifted
slightly.

["I have an opportunity to capture
both shards of the Starfire."]

The general dropped her arms.
["How?"]

["Lieutenant Sandral is at Starfire
Tower. Give me a full complement of vehicles and personnel and
we'll capture both Crystal Keepers by morning."]

["You'll have it.
Coordinate with Prime Commanders Dallars and Shourees. Well done.
Capture Saffir
and
Raea and our plans can proceed ahead of schedule."]

Indeed they could. Starfire Tower
would fall at last. None of their attacks had ever broken through
the defense systems, especially when the closest cities came to the
aid of Starfire Tower. Now, with Sandral on the inside to sabotage
those defenses, they had the opportunity they needed.

["Thank you, sir. Alshouan out."] She
gave a slight bow and the link clicked off. ["Contact Prime
Commanders Dallars Maris and Shourees Sahra. Conference them to
this tri-comm."]

["Yes, sir."]

After all this time—over twenty-one
years since her predecessors lost Shartrael Padina when she escaped
to Earth—they'd finally capture the last two shards of the
Starfire. Empress Shirat Marin would complete her union of all of
Inar'Ahben and cleanse the world of Keepers.

__________

Confronting Cris

The door opened to a balcony. Raea
stepped out and smiled at the caress of the wind on her face. Far
below stretched an ocean dotted by scattered islands at different
levels.

The glass doors with their etched
swirl design closed behind her. Tennara had left her in the vacant
apartment to report to Saffir, a bit of a surprise since Raea
expected the other Crystal Keeper to be waiting for her.

But what did she know. She had just
arrived at Starfire Tower. Elis had told her a little about it,
because he had trained there, learning to use the power of the
Starfire in his genes. Sure, she could do more because she bore an
actual shard of the crystal, but all Keepers had certain abilities.
The Starfire had shared its power when it shattered five thousand
years ago as a means of facilitating communication to make Inari
understand its true purpose. It made itself a part of them, a
perfect symbiosis at the genetic level.

It had destroyed other worlds and
species that abused its powers in the past but spared the Inari.
Why?

Maybe someday the Starfire entities
would share their secret. For now, she could only
wonder.

A few Inari flew into view from around
the tower. She watched them, until a gentle music chimed from
behind her.

Raea returned to the bare apartment.
Bare was an understatement. Now she knew why Elis kept his room so
sparse and tidy. A wide bed roll lay against a wall next to an arch
that led into a bathroom. The dining table and chairs extended from
the wall on the other side. No other tables. There were no light
stands—lights projected from overhead only. No television. Man, she
missed just sitting and watching movies with her friends. Only a
lone picture decorated the wall above the bed roll, and that
shifted slowly so it was never the same.

She so couldn't wait to get back to
Earth and her bedroom with the corkboard cluttered with pictures of
her and her friends, not to mention being with her friends
again.

Raea stopped before the door. ["Come
in."] She hoped that was right.

Good enough. The door slid away,
revealing an older Inari woman with hair and wings of a few shades
of blue. She reminded Raea of Nare, but with long hair twisted and
wrapped up and her face lined by age. Her hands, or rather her
arms, though...

Raea's eyes had to be fooling her. The
woman's hands were covered by the aquamarine beyond her wrists with
the rays wiggling out to her elbows. The woman wore a plain dark
blue flightsuit with loose short sleeves, exposing her
arms.

["Shartrael Raea. It's an honor to
meet you."]

This had to be Saffir.

The woman stepped in, and
the door closed behind her. ["I had only guessed Padina passed her
Starfire on to another. I suspected she was pregnant when she
vanished, but I never
knew
until a few years ago. I assume Elis found
you."]

["Yes. Yes, he did."] Saffir had sent
him; he'd told her that much. Better him than someone
else.

["And he trained you to use the
Starfire…"] She suspected something.

["Kind of. I really didn't know
anything until six weeks ago."]

Saffir straightened, her face
hardening.

Uh, oh. She didn't mean to cause
trouble for Elis. ["No. It was mom's fault. She made Debbie
swear—and Debbie made Elis swear—not to tell me. I thought I was
human until the Starfire decided otherwise."]

["I see. That explains why you came to
me to send you home. Elis knows how to open a portal, although
without a shard, he can't."]

["That…that would be my fault. I
didn't exactly stay focused. He wasn't happy either."] Except when
she let the distraction be him.

One pale blue eyebrow lifted, and Raea
winced. Yeah, she knew. She should have paid closer attention to
Elis's training, but she hadn't expected this to happen. ["I'm sure
the Shirukan are aware that you're here or suspect it enough to
attack. You're safest on Earth, but when you return, you'll do well
to practice harder to harness the Starfire's power to create a
portal."]

["I will."] Definitely. No more
running around trying to escape the Shirukan when she could go home
any time. Now she knew why Elis pushed her so hard.

Saffir's expression warmed. ["Good.
Now, your friends are probably wondering. We owe them our gratitude
for rescuing you."]

["Um…Saffir?"]

She turned a patient smile
to Raea. ["Yes,
Keeper
Raea?"]

Okay. She took the point. Out of
respect, Keepers were addressed by title. ["Keeper Saffir, I…"] How
could she ask this? All the visions playing in the story of
Salera—did Saffir know? Who else might know about them? If Saffir
didn't, she'd be surprised. ["How many shards are
there?"]

["Four, of course."]

["Only four?"]

Ah. There—a look of recognition.
["They showed you."]

["I saw General Jakoru Vodin,
a…partial Keeper called Rafael Talea, and Keeper Salera. I think my
shard was hers."]

Saffir waved her hand before a black
dot on the wall. A hologram of buttons projected in the air before
them. Raea didn't recognize the symbols on the buttons, Inari
symbols. While she could speak and understand Inari, she had never
learned to read or write it. She'd ask Elis to teach her when she
returned. One more item to add to her lessons.

In seconds, Saffir pulled up records.
Records in Inari. Now she really wished she could read her mother's
language.

["Keeper Jenrashol
Salera?"]

["I don't know. She went to Earth
about four hundred years after the Starfire shattered."]

["Yes."] Saffir's eyes focused on the
new projection of writing with a picture of the white-winged
Keeper, exactly what humans described as angels. Salera radiated a
gentle beauty, and was gorgeous besides. No wonder the general had
a bit of a soft spot for her. What man wouldn't?

Saffir would have to read to her. A
mild frustration not being able to read for herself. ["What does it
say?"]

After a short silence, Saffir said,
["She was chosen to bear the Starfire in her first year of
training, went to Earth when she was only eighteen years on a
research vessel to study human civilization. She returned with the
ship. That's all it says about that mission, except for
sociological data."]

But it wouldn't say anything about
another shard. That was the great secret. ["What about General
Jakoru Vodin or Commander Rafael Talea?"] Who were the people she'd
seen?

Saffir punched a few keys projected in
the air. Two images Raea recognized popped up with data.

["That's them."] She wished she could
read it herself.

Saffir read in silence, scrolling
through the odd text and finally shrugging. ["Nothing more."] She
touched something that made the whole projection vanish. ["Not
surprising. No one knows of any more than four shards."]

And as long as the Shirukan thought
only four existed, Inar'Ahben was safe from the destruction the
Starfire had shown her almost a month ago. ["They left a shard on
Earth I think. It was supposed to be a secret, but Salera found out
by accident."]

["And the Starfire showed you this?"]
Saffir's wings shifted behind her.

["Yes."]

Saffir dropped her pale blue eyes, her
fingers rubbing the shard hanging on her chest. The frown on her
face left a sinking feeling in the pit of Raea's
stomach.

["What's wrong?"]

["Maybe nothing."]

["Maybe?"]

Saffir looked up. ["The Starfire
entities only show us what we need to know. Why would they reveal
this to you?"]

Good question. It had all started when
the man in the car put his hand up…bearing a strange symbol, an
Inari symbol.

["I need to check something. We have a
few hours before night on the area of Earth where you live. You may
want to bathe and change. Shirukan uniforms are unwelcome at best
here."] She passed a critical eye down Raea.

Raea had almost forgotten the black
uniform. She'd gladly give it up.

A few hours, then she had
time to clean up, change, eat,
and
make a final visit with the three rebels who
risked their lives to get her there. She had already taken a nap on
the shuttle, but she hadn't bathed or eaten in too long.

A few hours and she'd be home.
Finally.

["I don't have a change of clothes."]
Not since she left hers in Naviketan. Her favorite jeans
too.

["I'll have someone bring a fresh
change for you."]

["Thank you."] Something else nagged
at her mind, something that had bothered her for almost a month,
but which she dared not pursue with human doctors. ["Um…Keeper
Saffir?"]

Blue eyebrows lifted with a hint of
bemusement.

Oh, man. This wasn't as
easy as she expected. ["I…um…If , um…"]
Say
it!
Saffir waited patiently. ["When the
first Shirukan found me on Earth, he, um…did something to me. And I
was wondering if I could, um, see a doctor."]

Saffir's faced dropped into a frown.
["Did something to you?"]

Did she have to say it?

["What did he do?"]

She had to say it. ["The Starfire
showed me."] The horrible scene returned. She was unconscious, but
the Starfire had recorded it, as they recorded everything. ["I have
to be sure."]

["The infirmary is in Tower Two, level
twelve."]

["Thank you."] Especially for not
making her say it.

["Would you like me to show
you?"]

["Yes."] Raea followed Saffir from the
apartment, rubbing her hands along the silent trek through the
bright, rounded corridor. After a brief walk through the skyway and
a ride in a transport tube, she arrived at the infirmary with its
etched glass doors. There, Saffir left her to her needs.

Not long after, Raea returned to her
temporary room with a weight lifted from her shoulders. Not only
was she not pregnant or carrying any horrible disease, but she
wouldn't even be fertile until well into the bonding process. Now,
she only had to worry about returning home.

First, the shower called to her, along
with her stomach.

* * *

So much better. A hot shower and a
fresh change of clothes. They gave her a choice too, but Raea
couldn't resist the two-piece with its waves of three-tones of
green. It exposed her back and her abs, and was so much better than
the all-covering Shirukan uniform. After all the exercise
lately—not to mention the lack of food—she never noticed the
definition of her muscles. Her tummy flattened, while her back
muscles bulked up.