Laura Jo Phillips (16 page)

“That’s incredible,” Saige said when Lariah was done.  “Its kind of a weird coincidence too.”  She quickly explained the sudden resurgence of her telepathic ability.  When she was finished the two women sat silently for a few minutes, considering. 

“Do you think you always had the ability, but just blocked it out after your father died?”  Lariah asked.

“Maybe,” Saige replied slowly.  “I didn’t even have those memories until I woke up in that box.  Now that I do have them, I don’t think the ability I had was that strong.  Of course, that could have been because I was a child.  What about you?  Do you think you always had the ability to communicate with animals?”

 “I just don’t know,” she said with a shrug.  “I was never around animals much before coming to Jasan.”  Lariah hesitated a moment, and decided it was time to inform Saige of a few more facts.

“Saige, I know you think that Faron was unforgivably rude to me.”

Saige scowled.  “But,” Lariah said, holding up a hand to halt the tirade she saw coming, “you need to understand why he acted the way he did.”  Lariah blushed but ignored it.  This had to be said. 

“Garen, Trey and Val are the Princes of Jasan,” she said.  “I am their Arima, which means that I am also…,” Lariah hesitated in spite of her determination to get this out.  She cleared her throat and looked directly into Saige’s eyes.  “I am the Princess Nahoa-Arima of Jasan.  I am the first Arima in three thousand years, and the first Nahoa-Arima in about five thousand years.” 

“No kidding?” Saige said with a grin.  “I don't know what half of that means, but wow!  It sounds very cool!”

Lariah grimaced.  “Yeah well, you would think so,” she said.  “Every time someone calls me
Princess
I feel like an imposter.  Anyway, the Lobos are the Prime Guardians.  That means that they are the personal bodyguards of the Dracon Princes, and also, in times of emergency or war, they are the head of the Jasani military, second in command only to the Princes.  They were trained for this position from the time they were babies, and they take their responsibilities to the Princes, the people of Jasan, and to me as the Princess Nohoa-Arima, very seriously.”

“What you’re telling me is that for Faron to have snapped at you the way he did, something seriously serious had to be happening with him?” 

“Exactly,” Lariah replied. 

“Okay,” Saige said, feeling less angry than before.  “What?”

“The single most important matter to any Jasani male is the health and safety of his mate.  Multiply that by about a hundred and you have how important it is for all Jasani males to protect an Arima.  And I don’t mean
their
Arima because aside from me, and now you, nobody else has an Arima.  But they will lay down their lives without a second thought to protect any woman who is one, or has the potential to be one.  Now, multiply that by about a zillion, and you have an idea of how important it is for them to care for and protect their own Arima.  When Faron and Dav came into the kitchen and saw you, all of their protective instincts just flared up.”

“I don’t understand that,” Saige said.  “I am not small and delicate like you, nor am I twenty months pregnant, which, by the way, is about how far along you look.”

“That's about how I feel too,” Lariah said with a groan.  “There are three special little girls in here though, and in a few days, if all goes well, they will come out and I will be able to breathe again.”

“Triplets huh?” Saige asked, considering her friend carefully.  Lariah was so small.  She hoped Riata was going to be there when those babies were born. 

“Saige, the Lobos,” Lariah said, bringing her back to the present conversation.

Saige sighed.  “Why would they feel protective of me when I was just sitting at the table talking with you?  Did they think you were going to roll over and crush me or something?”

“Oh, very funny,” Lariah said dryly, trying hard not to laugh.  This was a serious subject and she wasn't going to let Saige divert her from it.  “Have you looked in a mirror lately?”

“Oh,” Saige said in a small voice.  “I forgot about the bruises.” 

“Well, its hard to forget about them from where I sit,” Lariah said as she looked directly at the bruises she had been trying not to look at all morning.  “In fact, I think they may even be worse than when you got up this morning,” she said worriedly.

Saige stood up and looked around the room before spotting a small hand mirror on the dresser.  She picked it up and looked at her reflection. 

“Ugh,” she said softly.  The bruises did look worse than they had earlier.  Now they covered most of her face from her eyes to her jaw with black and blue marks, fading to an ugly yellow along the edges.  No wonder Faron had been upset.  Even though he'd seen them before, they had not been anywhere near as bad.  Saige set the mirror down on the dresser and hurried into the bathroom. 

She slipped the large shirt she’d borrowed from Lariah off and raised the camisole so that she could see her breasts in the mirror.  She felt a little sick when she saw that those bruises had worsened as well, spreading and changing color like those on her face had, only much worse.  She heard a gasp from behind her and quickly yanked the camisole down to cover herself before turning to face Lariah.

“Tell,” Lariah said, mimicking Saige’s order from earlier.  Saige shrugged and told Lariah how she thought she’d gotten the bruises while she was unconscious.

“I wish Riata were able to heal you,” Lariah said, feeling sad and angry about what had happened to Saige, but also grateful that she was here and safe now.

“It doesn’t matter,” Saige said.  “They’re just bruises and they will fade.  I don't want you to worry about it.”

 “What is a
berezi
?” Trey asked when Faron was finished telling them what Saige had remembered of her abduction.

“Nobody seems to know the answer to that,” Dav replied.  “I called Jackson last night, but he didn’t know and couldn’t find a reference to it in his system.”

 “Eldar Hamat?” Trey asked Garen.

“Yes, I think he is our best choice in this instance,” Garen replied.  Trey tapped the vox in his ear as he rose and strode out of the room again.

“I thought of calling him last night,” Faron said as they waited for Trey to return.  “But it was far too late.  There is another thing I need to tell you.  When we checked the women’s compartments aboard the
Cosmic Glory
, we did not scent any beings other than humans.” 

 “Do you think Saige was mistaken?” Garen asked.  “Maybe what she saw was really just a human.”

Faron shook his head.  “No, she had very clear memories of what happened and I don’t believe she made a mistake, or hallucinated.  Rather, I think that whoever, or whatever she saw has some method of hiding their scent.”

Garen had known and trusted Faron Lobo for too many years to doubt anything he said.  If Faron believed the mysterious being had discovered a way to hide its scent, then Garen believed it.  But it wasn’t an easy idea to accept.  The implications of such a thing were horrifying.  As shifters, Jasani relied on their sense of smell nearly as much as they did their eyesight.  The significance of such an ability barely had time to sink in before Trey came back into the room, the expression on his face a clear indication of further bad news.

“According to Eldar Hamat,
berezi
is a very old word,” Trey said.  “It was once used to indicate potential Arimas whose male-sets had identified them, but who were too young to be claimed.”

“Son of a
squilik
,” Garen swore.  “Someone has found a way to identify potential Arimas.”  A deep, throaty growl filled the room.  Garen turned to Faron and Dav. 

“Cease,” he commanded.  He understood their emotional reaction to all of this since Saige had come so close to being lost to them forever, but this was neither the time nor the place for it.  Faron and Dav obeyed at once, both bowing their heads in apology.

“I understand how you feel, my friends,” Garen said.  “But Saige is safe now, and I need your cool heads.  We must decide what we are going to do, and we must decide quickly.  Our first priority is to prevent any more women from being abducted.”  Garen hesitated a moment, then shrugged.  “Especially those women that can be identified as
berezi
,” he added.  “I know it is selfish of me, but our species has been too close to extinction for too long.  Every potential Arima is both precious and important to our entire race.  And, unfortunately, someone knows it.”

Chapter
14

Lio Perry knelt on the floor of his office, his boyish features arranged carefully into an expression of humble apology.  The floor beneath his knees was hard and uncomfortable but he did not fidget the smallest amount even though he was still alone.  Alone except for his red and blue toys in the corner, he suddenly realized. 

Lio cursed himself silently for forgetting to return them to their pens.  He briefly considered ordering the controllers to remove them from the office, but decided it was too risky.  Za-Queg would appear at any moment and Lio had no wish to increase the Xanti’s anger by appearing distracted. 

The first thing Lio had done after being warned by the lookout that the spaceport pickup had gone bad, was contact Za-Queg.  He had no doubt that Za-Queg had him under constant surveillance, therefore he always acted accordingly.  The second thing he had done was prepare for Za-Queg’s impending visit by ordering Hap Murray to be brought to him.  He’d then interviewed the man carefully before ordering him to wait just outside his office door.

With no warning other than a tiny flash of light, Lio was no longer alone.  He did not need to risk a glance up at the Xanti to know how furious he was.  The Xanti’s very motionlessness was indication enough.  Lio had always thought it strange that, unlike every other intelligent being he had encountered, the angrier a Xanti was, the more immobile they became.  Even their eyes grew dim and empty when they got angry.

Lio remained as motionless as the Xanti, knowing better than to be the first one to move or speak no matter how much time passed, or how badly his knees hurt.  He kept his mind focused on not clenching his fists or allowing his body to tremble from muscle fatigue.

“Please explain how one of the
berezi
, and an unused prime controller, were allowed to slip through the fingers of your men,” Za-Queg said politely.

Lio had been waiting for the question for so long that when it finally came his mind went blank for one brief, horrifying moment before he came back to his senses.  “I have already made inquiry as to that and I believe I have discovered the answer,” he said, working to keep his voice calm and neutral.  One did not trigger a Xanti’s predatory instincts by showing fear or nervousness.

“Ah, Lio, I can always count on you to know exactly what I need,” he said, his voice so soothing, so musical, that it invited a smile.  Lio was not fooled.

“We have been unable to replace one of our inside men at the spaceport,” Lio said, keeping his answer short, revealing only those facts he knew the Xanti would care about.  “A human who came highly recommended promised that he could rig the cargo bay door.  He raised questions by failing to fill out a standard work order.”

“Where is the faulty human?” Za-Queg asked, smiling gently.

“Murray,” Lio called out, just loud enough to be heard through the closed door.  The door opened and the short, squat figure of Hap Murray entered the room.

“Are you the one who raised suspicions regarding the cargo bay door?” Za-Queg asked, smiling enigmatically. 

“Its not my fault,” Murray said, sticking his chin out belligerently.  “I did everything I was told.  I rigged the door so Lucky could open it, and then I left.” 

“I see,” Za-Queg said, walking slowly towards the man.  “You did not forget anything?” 

Murray shrugged.  “I might have forgotten to fill out some damn form, but so what?  The door got rigged.  That’s all that matters.”

“Ah, so you did not do as you were told.”

It required all of the will Lio possessed to keep himself from sagging with relief at Murray’s admission.  Had the stupid man not admitted to forgetting the work order, Lio knew Za-Queg would have turned his attention back to him. 

Za-Queg stood inches from Murray, staring at him for so long that Murray began to step back away from him.  The moment he moved, Za-Queg attacked. 

The next few minutes lasted an eternity for Lio.  He closed his ears to Murray’s screams, focusing solely on remaining completely motionless and keeping his breathing slow and even.  A single twitch of a finger could, and likely would, earn him Za-Queg’s attention, which was something he most assuredly did not want at the moment.

Finally, shortly after Murray’s screams came to an abrupt stop, Za-Queg moved back to the center of the room until he was standing in the exact spot where he had first appeared. 

“Look at me Lio,” he said.  Lio was prepared for what he would see when he raised his eyes, so he did not react it in any way to Za-Queg’s pristine appearance.  How the Xanti managed to slice and dice an entire human with his bare hands, yet step away without a single drop of blood on him, was a mystery to Lio.  It was also, for reasons Lio himself did not understand, profoundly horrifying to him.