Laura Jo Phillips (4 page)

Karma shrugged.  “You’re welcome,” she replied.  “Let’s get our things together.”

“Before we leave, I’d like to take a moment to say goodbye to the babies,” Aisling said.

“Me too,” Karma agreed. 

“Hold on, you two,” Berta said as she shuffled into the hall after them, leaning heavily on her cane.  “I have something for you.”

Karma and Aisling looked at Berta in surprise.  She didn’t own any more than they did, so they didn’t know what she could possibly have for them.  

“What?” Karma asked as they followed the older woman down the hall and into the guest room she had been using.   

“I’ve been working on a gift for each of you girls,” Berta said as she opened a drawer in the tall chest of drawers.  She removed two items, one the same shade of olive green as Aisling’s eyes, the other the same dark gray of Karma’s eyes.  She unfolded the green garment and shook it out before holding it up so that they could see that it was a v-neck sweater with bell sleeves. 

Aisling had seen Berta working with two long stick-like objects and green yarn, but as she personally did not want to answer questions, she made a point of never asking them of others.  Now she realized that Berta had somehow made this garment.  She reached out and ran her fingers lightly over the subtle, but intricate pattern of leaves and vines that were a part of the texture, and gasped with awe.

“This is beautiful,” Aisling said.  “You made this, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did,” Berta replied.  “It’s almost a lost art now, but my grandmother loved it and she taught me when I was a child.  I wanted to give each of you young ladies a gift for helping to free me.  It isn’t much, but I put a lot of my heart into it, if that counts for anything.”

“That counts for everything,” Aisling said softly as she admired the intricate detail.

“They’re gorgeous Berta,” Karma added as Berta offered Aisling the green sweater, then held up the gray one.  Karma’s sweater had a round neckline, fitted sleeves and a pattern of stars with fine silver threads scattered here and there.  “I will treasure this always,” she said as she accepted the sweater.

“As will I,” Aisling said.  “Thank you so very much, Berta.”

 “I’m glad you like them,” Berta said with a pleased smile. 

“No, we love them,” Karma corrected as she bent to give Berta a hug.  “It’s hard to believe you made these with two little sticks and some yarn.  It’s like magic.”

Berta laughed and shook her head.  “Get on with you now,” she said, waving them toward the door.  “You don’t want to keep those good looking Gryphons waiting on you for too long.”

Aisling wasn’t so sure about that, but she gave Berta one last hug and left the room, holding her new sweater close to her. 

Chapter
2

Xaqana-Ti was feeling tense.

The Supreme Queen Mother had ordered her to attend Xitura-Re’s trial in person.  As the trial would take place in only a few hours, there was not nearly enough time for her to come up with a reasonable excuse for failing to obey.  There was barely enough time for her to get groomed and reach the Palace Hive on time.

She wasn’t worried about hiding her glee at Xitura-Re’s predicament.  They were sisters, true, but they were also rivals.  It was perfectly natural for her to be pleased at Xitura-Re’s disgrace. 

She was, however, worried that she would be unable to hide her deep sense of self-satisfaction at having successfully orchestrated Xitura-Re’s downfall.  Under normal circumstances, that wouldn’t have mattered either.  But these were not normal circumstances.  Xitura-Re was charged with allowing a Xanti
makina
to fall into the hands of the Jasani.  A
makina
that had not, for some inexplicable reason, self-destructed upon the death of it’s occupant.  That was an unforgivable lapse of security that Xitura-Re must personally answer for.  If there was any hint that she, Xaqana-Ti, was really responsible for such a violation of Xanti law, or that her own broodling, Za-Linq, had been operating/ that
makina
at the time of it’s capture, then she would be tried alongside her sister.

As Xaqana-Ti widened her mandibles to make it easier for her body males to polish them, she went over every detail of her plan, and her execution of it.  There were weaknesses, she knew.  Weaknesses she had recognized, and deemed to be acceptable risks.  There was no use in regrets at this stage.  All she could do was attend the trial as ordered, and hope that her hard work paid off.  If things went badly, at least she had the satisfaction of knowing that she had played the game with intelligence and courage, which was more than she could say for any of her sisters.

“Enough,” she ordered the body workers.  The small males that had been crawling all over her, cleaning and polishing her large body, instantly ceased what they were doing and scrambled to the floor and away from her.  She studied herself in the mirror and decided her appearance was adequate.  Not perfect, but then, she was supposed to have been despondent for the past several weeks, which made her not quite polished appearance exactly right.

She turned away from the mirror and left her personal quarters, wondering if there was anything she’d forgotten.  As she made her way through the narrow tunnels of her hive, following the complicated network of twists and turns toward the surface without conscious thought, she decided that she was glad to be attending the hearing after all.  It would most likely take days, as these things often did, but in the end, Xitura-Re would be finished, and Xaqana-Ti would be the victor.

Chapter
3

Aisling and Karma sat quietly in the back seat of the ground-car, Rudy and Olaf in the front, and Rand flying overhead in his gryphon form.  Watching the large, stocky man go from the form of a human male to a gigantic beast neither of them had ever seen had been startling.  Once they’d gotten over their shock, Karma had found the process interesting to watch, but Aisling wasn’t altogether sure what she thought of it.  She couldn’t deny that it had been exciting.  But it had also been alarming, mostly because she had never seen a gryphon before and had not known what to expect. 

During the few weeks she had spent on Jasan with the Bearens, she had seen them in their bearenca form, and she had also seen the Lobos and the Katres in their alter-forms.  But those beasts resembled animals she was at least vaguely familiar with.  The gryphons, with their eagle heads, wings and forelegs, combined with leonine bodies at least ten foot tall at the shoulder with olive green fur around their necks, ankles and the tips of their tails, were like something out of a fairy tale.

“Elder Vulpiran has requested that we stop at the Council Complex so that he can meet you,” Olaf said, turning in his seat to look at Aisling.  “Would you mind if we do that?”

“Of course not,” Aisling replied, keeping her eyes down as she answered. 

“May I ask you a question?” Karma said to Olaf.

“You may ask what you like,” Olaf replied.

“What is a vulpiran?  I know what a loboenca, bearenca and now a gryphon is, but
vulpiran
is not a word that is familiar to me.”

Olaf frowned thoughtfully as he considered the question.  He knew that there were creatures on Earth, in either reality or myth, that resembled most of the Clan alter-forms, but he wasn’t certain what the Earth equivalent of a vulpiran was.

“I do not know the Earth name,” he said.  “I can tell you that it is close in relationship to the lobo, in the same way that the dracon and the gryphon are close.  It is red furred, with a long, narrow head and a bushy tail, rather short legs for its body which is also long and somewhat narrow.  Does that help at all?”

Karma and Aisling looked at each other in mutual confusion.  Suddenly Aisling got an idea. 

“Do you mean to say that it’s canine?” she asked, forgetting to avoid looking directly at Olaf.  “Like a dog?”

Olaf smiled and Aisling felt her heart skip a beat at the sight.  His eyes lit up, transforming his entire face from stern and forbidding, to kind, and even more striking than she’d thought before.

“Yes, canine,” he said. 

“It sounds like a fox to me,” Aisling said, shifting her gaze to Karma. 

“Oh,” Karma said slowly, trying to imagine a giant fox, since all of the Clan animals seemed to be extraordinarily large.  “Could we ask one of them to show us?”

“Perhaps,” Olaf replied doubtfully.  He knew that was not a request he was going to make of Elder Vulpiran himself, but perhaps these women could get away with it. 

“Is it impolite to ask a Jasani to shift?” Karma asked, not missing his doubtful tone.

“No, it is not,” Olaf replied.  “In truth, we are generally pleased when interest such as yours is shown in our alter-forms.  It is much better than the fearful reaction we often get.”

“Then why do you think that Elder Vulpiran won’t like being asked?” Karma pressed.

“Because he is Elder Vulpiran,” Olaf replied.  “It has nothing to do with him being a Clan Jasani, or an Elder, or even a Vulpiran.  It’s because of who he is.  But then, what he would not accept from us he probably won’t mind coming from one of you.”

The ground-car slowed and Olaf turned back around to see that they had arrived at the Council Complex.  After Rudy parked the car, Olaf got out and opened the door for Aisling and Karma as Rand landed on the lawn behind them and transformed back to his humanoid form.

“I would ask that you walk together, in between us, until we are inside the building,” Olaf said to Aisling and Karma.

“Why?” Karma asked suspiciously.

“So that we can more effectively guard you,” Olaf replied.  “The Bearens and Prince Garen have entrusted us with your care, and it is not a responsibility we take lightly.”

“Is there some reason to think we would be in danger?” Aisling asked.  “I thought that we were safe here on Jasan.”

Olaf hesitated.  He did not want to worry the women, but he also thought that they would be more careful of their own safety if they knew the truth.  “A woman was transported off-planet several weeks ago,” he admitted.  “We do not know how, or by whom.  She was in her home, which was surrounded by Council guards at the time.  We have no wish to frighten you, but at the same time, we do not want to lie to you either.”

Aisling froze, her mouth suddenly dry with fear.

“If it’s that easy to transport someone off-planet, what difference does it make if you’re guarding us?” Karma asked.  “If they took a woman from her own home, they could just as easily take us, or anyone else.”

“Not precisely,” Olaf replied.  “We are covering you with a shield of Air magic which would disrupt any attempt at transportation.  Our home is protected from such an invasion, as is the Bearens’, and the Council Complex, by an electronic barrier.  One of the reasons that the Bearens are relocating to the ranch is that the entire ranch is surrounded by a magically enhanced barrier that none can enter without express permission.  Arima Hope and the children will be able to move freely without worry while they are there.”

“All of that, plus the Bearens have cracked the Blind Sight camouflage system,” Rand added as they walked toward the entrance to the Council Complex.  “We have since warned off one Xanti ship that tried to enter our space, and discovered two hidden compounds on Jasan because of it.”

Aisling took a deep, relieved breath, then blew it out slowly and silently. 

“That’s good news,” Karma said.  “Were they able to rescue any women?” 

“Yes,” Rand replied.  “Eleven of them.”

“Did they have Controllers?” Aisling asked, shuddering inside at the thought.  She had no memories of the time during which she had a Controller in her own head, but she had been told about it once it was removed. 

“Yes, they all had Controllers,” Rand replied.  “Saige and Summer were able to safely destroy them, and the women are all fine now.”

“What about the people in charge of the compound?” Karma asked.  “What happened to them?”

“It was discovered that they, too, had Controllers, though of a different type altogether,” Rudy said.  “Their Controllers were removed and it was determined that while they were aware on some level of what they were doing, they couldn’t stop themselves from doing it.  They were following specific directives that they could not ignore.  They were kidnapped women too.”

They approached the entrance to the Council Complex, the five of them bunched together, the Gryphons’ senses on alert until the doors opened and they stepped inside. 

“Greetings, Elder Vulpiran,” Olaf said politely to a tall, narrow man with a thin face, long nose, and bushy reddish brown hair.  Though he had no lines in his face or gray in his hair, there was something about him that spoke of age.

“I am most pleased that you agreed to stop so that I can meet this special, and generous young woman,” Elder Vulpiran said, politely not looking at the women as he spoke to Olaf. 

Olaf turned and gestured toward Aisling.  “This is Aisling,” he said.  “She has a gift for languages.  Aisling, this is Elder Vulpiran.  He heads the branch of our intelligence services concerned with out-world technology.”

 “It is an honor to meet you, Elder Vulpiran,” Aisling said, reaching out to shake his hand.  Olaf was surprised by her suddenly calm, confident manner.  She had seemed so shy and withdrawn that he’d expected her to have a difficult time with formal introductions, but she seemed a completely different woman at the moment.