Laura Jo Phillips (6 page)

“Yes, I am,” he said with his warmest smile, automatically reaching out to shake hands with her.  “And you are?” 

The woman looked at his hand with distaste and kept her own hands at her sides.  Startled, Sergio glanced up into the woman’s dark blue eyes and realized he’d made a mistake.  This woman, whoever she was, was far more than she seemed at first glance. 

“My name is Berta Simms, Mr. Farnswaite,” she said.  “If you will get the rest of your luggage and load it into the trunk, we can be on our way.”

Sergio turned around in time to see one last suitcase dropped from the doorway on top of the rest of his luggage which was scattered around on the blue grass.  The door slid shut and the transport lifted off before the steps were fully folded up into their compartment.  Sergio turned back around, dismayed, but the woman merely arched a dark, perfectly shaped brow at him.  She opened the door and looked at him over her shoulder. 

“The sooner the better, Mr. Farnswaite,” she said.  “I have other things to do.”

“That wasn’t very nice, Berta,” Hope said as Berta entered the car and pulled the door shut behind her.

“No, it wasn’t,” Berta agreed.  “But that is not a nice man.  He’s the kind of man you have to draw lines in the sand for.  You let him step over it once, and it’s all over.  I don’t want him pushing Lariah around, so I figured it’d be best to start him off on the right foot.”

“You like Lariah, don’t you?” Hope asked.

“Very much,” Berta said, looking at Hope in mild surprise.  “I’ve never known anyone with such a generous, kind and gentle spirit.”

“Yes, just being around her soothes me somehow,” Hope agreed.  “That’s why they call her the Soul of the Jasani.  But if you think the Dracons would allow anyone to push her around, you are very much mistaken.  And don’t forget, delicate little Lariah is a dracon herself, and more than capable of defending herself if need be.”

“I know,” Berta said.  “I can’t help feeling protective of her though.  Especially now that she’s had those three little boys.  They are so adorable.”

“Yes, they are,” Hope said, not pointing out the fact that Berta thought all children were adorable.  “Although I must say, I think my sons are more adorable.”

Berta laughed, turning back to the window to see Sergio Farnswaite struggle to the back of the car with his second load of luggage.  “When are you going to tell Jackson, Clark and Rob your news?”

Hope gasped and Berta turned to look at her.  The expression of surprise on the other woman’s face made her smile.  “You didn’t know?”

“No,” Hope said, her hands going to her flat stomach.  “I wondered yesterday, but it’s far too soon to know for sure.”

“Well, I know for sure, and if you ask Jareth, I’m sure he’d be happy to confirm it for you.”

“Yes, I think that I will,” Hope said, her turquoise eyes shining with happiness.  “Berta, how did you know?”

“Remember that sweater I’ve been making for you?”

“Yes, of course,” Hope said.

“I finished it this morning.  As soon as it was done, I knew that...well, I just knew.”

“Knew what?” Hope pressed.

“Are you sure you want to know?” Berta asked, a smile playing around her lips.

“Of course I want to know,” Hope replied.

“Okay, I knew that you are pregnant with three little girls,” Berta said with a grin. 

“Girls?” Hope asked.  “Really?  Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Berta replied.  “You’re going to have your hands full with three boys toddling around and three baby girls, but you’ll be happy.”

Hope smiled, picturing it in her mind.  She could hardly wait to tell the guys.  She frowned.  “What did the sweater you made have to do with it?”

“When I finished the sweaters for Aisling and Karma, I suddenly knew things about them,” Berta said.  “It didn’t happen until I tied off the last stitch.  Then I had sort of a waking dream that lasted for just a few moments.  I thought they were just dreams, at first.  An old woman’s passing fancy.  It was hard to imagine that Aisling was really a warrior, and the Gryphons’ Arima.  I also saw Karma following her destiny on a different world, and finding her happiness there.  Now we know those things to be true.  When I finished your sweater this morning, I knew about your daughters.”

“Didn’t you make a sweater for Lariah before you made mine?”

“Yes, but hers was an experiment,” Berta said.  “I made Aisling, Karma and you sweaters that matched the colors of your eyes.  And I got visions, or whatever you want to call them, of each of you when I was finished.”

“Lariah’s sweater was lavender, wasn’t it?” Hope asked.

“Yes, and her eyes are green,” Berta said.  “I got no visions at all when I finished her sweater.”

“That’s interesting,” Hope said.  “Also sort of scary.”

“Yes, very,” Berta replied.  “That’s why it took me so long to finish your sweater.  I was afraid of seeing something bad.  Then I decided that if something bad was going to happen, it would be better to know about it in case there was a way to prevent it.”

The rear door of the car opened and Sergio Farnswaite entered, slamming the door shut behind him.  He was huffing and puffing in a most annoying manner, but Berta wasn’t fooled.  He was trying to attract either sympathy, attention, or both.  She reached over and hit the button to raise the privacy window between the front and rear seats.

Hope shook her head slightly, but she was smiling as she started the ground-car.  She drove slowly across the airfield, thinking of the things Berta had told her.  She couldn’t wait to tell the guys, but first she wanted to take Berta’s advice and ask Jareth to confirm it. 

“Berta, now that Jareth has healed all signs of aging, have you thought about contacting the Falcorans?” Hope asked, finally giving in to her curiosity after weeks of holding her tongue.

“I’ve considered it, yes,” Berta said, not ready to reveal that she considered it nearly every moment of every day.  “But I’m really kind of busy right now.  Jareth wants to do one more session, and we still have a busy ten days ahead of us to get Arima House and the Rami Houses finished by the deadline.  Then I’ll be getting the first group of
berezi
settled in, which I’m sure will be hectic.”

“Why does Jareth need to do another session?” Hope asked, glancing over at Berta.  Even though the transformation had been gradual over the past six weeks, Hope still had a difficult time remembering that this young, dark haired beauty with the deep blue eyes and cherry lips was the old woman that had greeted them in the Brethren compound not even a full year earlier.  Until she opened her mouth.  Berta’s exterior had changed, but she was still the same person on the inside.

“He says there are still a few internal things that need to be touched up,” Berta said.  “I don’t mind.  At first the sessions were draining and difficult, but I’m used to them now.  Or maybe just stronger now.”

“So you haven’t contacted the Falcorans because you’re too busy?” Hope asked as she turned onto the gravel road that would lead them to Arima House about a mile away.  “I know that you had reasons for sending them away that had nothing to do with age, but I thought that age was the largest factor.”

“It was a big factor,” Berta said.  “But it wasn’t the largest factor by any means.  Unfortunately, as talented as Jareth is, there are some things that cannot be healed so quickly.”

“Like scars?” Hope asked hesitantly.  It was something she’d never asked Berta about, but it was impossible not to notice that the woman always wore long sleeves, regardless of the weather.

“Scars aren’t the only things that can’t be healed,” Berta said. 

Hope nodded in understanding.  Clearly she was concerned about matters that went far deeper than scars.  “Berta, I want to say only one thing to you.”

“What’s that, Hope?”

“You were forced to spend the past sixty years of your life alone,” Hope said.  “Now that your body is young again, you may easily live another sixty years.  Will you now
choose
to allow history to repeat itself?”

Berta looked at Hope in surprise.  After a moment she shook her head and sighed.  “I’ve been struggling a lot with choices lately,” she admitted.  “Even so, I have to confess that I hadn’t really thought of my future in that way.”

Hope reached over and patted Berta’s hand.  “I know you hadn’t,” she said.  “But I think you should.”

Berta raised one hand to finger the sapphire earring holding the tiny disk that the Falcorans had given her.  She never took them off except to clean them, and had developed a habit of touching them often that she was scarcely aware of.

“You don’t think they’ve already been told?” she asked.

“You swore us all to secrecy,” Hope reminded her.  “Myself, the Bearens, Talinka, Jareth, even the Dracon princes.  Only the builders have seen you, and they have never been told your name, as you well know.  Unless you think one of us has broken our word, then no, I don’t think anyone has told them.”

“Of course I don’t think that,” Berta replied.  “I know better.  But there are a lot of people coming and going here with the airfield and the garrison.  It’s not far fetched to think that someone else has seen, and understood what they saw.”

“Of course, you’re right,” Hope said as she turned into the drive before Arima house.  “However, I think that if the Falcorans had knowledge of it, they would already be here.”

Berta nodded.  She thought so too.  The real question was, did she want to wait until someone else told them, or did she want to tell them herself?

Hope parked the ground-car and they got out and walked toward the small gate that opened into a large garden that wrapped around the house.

“It’s beautiful, Berta,” Hope said.  “Very beautiful.”

Berta gazed at the garden that Pater, the Dracons’ gardener, had designed and planted for them, then looked up at the pretty house.  It had been a very busy couple of months for her, but she’d loved every minute of it.  She’d been involved in every aspect of the creation of Arima House from choosing the location, designing the structure, approving the colors, carpets and fixtures, and setting the rules, though without Talinka’s help, and Hope’s, she would have been lost.  Never had she had so much responsibility, so much power, so many things to do every single day.  She had thrived on it, and now that it was nearly done, she’d begun to worry that she’d be bored with nothing more to do but run it.

Talinka opened the front door and stepped out of the house to greet them  As soon as she neared Berta, she read her emotions and sought to soothe her.  “Don’t worry, Berta, running this place is going to keep you busier than you think.”

“Good,” Berta said.  “I like busy.  The busier the better.”

“That’s good, because as of this morning, there are thirty-six women on the list for Arima House.”

“Thirty-six?” Berta exclaimed in surprise.  “But the house only holds eight at a time.”

“I know, my dear,” Talinka said.  “That’s why we use a waiting list.”

“I didn’t realize there were that many women who’ve been tested, let alone that many who came up positive,” Berta said.

“Ever since we received the message from the Gryphons regarding the Controller’s effect on Arimas, many of the women the Katres have freed from the slave compounds have been placed in healing tanks and retested,” Talinka said.  “Of those, all but a few have tested positive, and all of those want to find their male-sets.”

“I know that the freed women who’d been sent back to Earth want to return to Jasan,” Berta said.  “That’s why the Gryphons were asked to take the
Kontuan
to Earth before they returned from their trip to Rathira.  But I had no idea that all of the women tested had been found positive, or that they all want to return here.”

“Yes, all of them,” Talinka said.

“I don’t understand,” Berta said.  “These are all women who were kidnapped, correct?”

“Yes,” Talinka said.  “It is most interesting that none of those women had the Prime Controller.  It tells us that whatever method the Xanti use to identify
berezi
is not foolproof.”

“That is interesting,” Berta agreed.  “But I don’t understand why they want to come back here and be Arimas after what they’ve been through.”

“They couldn’t adjust to regular life after their experiences, and hope that being an Arima will be the answer to whatever it is they are looking for,” Talinka said. 

“They don’t remember anything about their captivity, do they?” Berta asked.

“They didn’t at first, no,” Talinka said.  “Initially it was thought that the Controller blocked everything and that they would never remember what had been done to them.  But, after a time, the women began to have nightmares.  Eventually, they gained full conscious awareness of what had been done to them.”

“That’s too bad,” Berta said.  “It would have been better for them if they hadn’t remembered.”

“Do you think so?” Talinka asked.  “I’m not so sure.  I met some of those women and, for most of them, the blank spots in their minds were more horrifying than the truth.”

Berta frowned.  She hadn’t thought about it that way before.  “I still don’t know why they would choose to....”  Berta trailed off uncertainly.  Being an Arima was not a bad thing.  Far from it.  Hope, Lariah, Saige, Summer, even Aisling, seemed to be very happy.  And why not?  Their men adored them completely, and she had no doubt that they loved their men in return.  None of them were stifled or controlled.  Rather, they had, all of them, blossomed since becoming Arimas.