“Um, no, I just…,” she paused, scrambling for some excuse to be here, interrupting his work. “I just wanted to thank you.”
“For what?” he asked, his eyebrows raised in surprise.
“For getting me off of EDU-12,” she said. “Well, getting me and Tani off, I mean, in time.” She blushed and dropped her eyes, knowing that she sounded like a fool.
“I didn’t get you off in time,” he said. “You got hit with a knife, and she got a tranquilizer dart.”
“It could have been worse,” she said. “Much worse.”
Khurda shrugged, then spun his chair back around, putting his back to her. “It could have been better, too, Astra. If the sound had worked the way it should have, we could’ve warned you they were following you long before they got close enough to throw a knife at you. I knew it was down and kept putting off fixing it, so it was entirely my fault. I’m sorry.”
She heard the regret in his voice and wanted to kick herself. The last thing she’d meant to do was make him feel bad. She wondered what to say next, couldn’t think of a single thing and gave up. “Well, um, good-bye.”
“Bye, Astra,” he said without turning back around. Astra turned, waved her hand over the sensor, and all but ran through the door. She made her way down the corridor to the elevator, went down one level and hurried toward her room. The moment her door was closed and locked behind her, she let the tears flow.
***
The Dracons sat quietly in their private dining room aboard the Ugaztun, their breakfasts barely touched before them. They were so deep in their own thoughts and worries that the vid terminal beeped three times before Trey reached over to answer it. When the large screen on the wall went from dark blue to an image of Salene and Rayne, they all tried to smile.
“Good morning, Daughters,” Garen said.
“Good morning, Ata,” Salene said. “Mom, Dede, Popi. You look tired.”
“We’re a little tired,” Trey said. “We meant to contact you two this morning, so we’re glad you called.”
“You have news?” Rayne asked hopefully.
“Yes, a little,” Garen replied. “Your Aunt Glory spoke with Tani in a Dream Walk. Tani said that she’s fine, and that she wasn’t kidnapped. She was attacked, and transported aboard a ship to safety, but they’re being followed and it’s not safe to send a transmission. She’ll give Glory the coordinates of her location tonight.”
“That’s good news and bad news,” Salene said.
“Yes, it is,” Trey said. “We’ve contacted security on EDU-12, and they’ve promised to send personal guards for both of you within the hour. Tani believes that the men who attacked her may have been after any one of you three, not just her in particular.”
“All right, Dede,” Salene said. “Don’t worry though. We aren’t as skilled with weapons as Tani, but we can take care of ourselves if need be.”
“We know that,” Garen said. “Just remember that even with Tani’s skills, she was forced to flee the planet.”
“Yes, Ata, we’ll remember,” Rayne said, then bit her lip and glanced at Salene.
“What is it?” Lariah asked, concerned by the expressions on their faces.
Salene and Rayne looked at each other again, then at their parents. “We have some information that we think you should know,” Salene said. “We promised not to tell you, but under the circumstances…,” she trailed off and looked at Rayne. Rayne nodded, then picked up a sheet of paper on the counter in front of them.
“We went through Tani’s things,” she said, her face reddening with embarrassment. “It was wrong of us to violate her privacy, and it’s wrong of us to do this. We both feel as though we’re betraying our sister, which is fair since that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
Lariah saw the tears in Rayne’s eyes, and the determination on her face, and understood her struggle. “If it will help Tani, then it‘s right that you tell us whatever you know.”
“That’s the problem, Mom,” Salene said. “This won’t help her. If it would, we’d have no qualms about this at all. We’re doing this for your sakes, not Tani’s.”
Garen, Trey and Val exchanged looks with Lariah, then all four turned back to the image of their daughters on the vid screen. “We don’t understand, Salene,” Garen said.
Rayne held the sheet of paper before the vid camera. Trey adjusted the view so that the print on the page was clear enough for them to read. It took a moment for them to understand what they were looking at. Lariah understood first, and the color drained from her face so fast that she slumped sideways in her chair before Garen could catch her, his own mind reeling.
Rayne removed the paper when she was sure they’d had time to read it, then she and Salene waited for the outburst they knew was coming.
“How long have you known this?” Garen demanded, causing them both to flinch.
Lariah placed a hand on his chest and shook her head. “Stop, Garen,” she said, then waited until his golden gaze met hers and he nodded. Only then did she turn to look up at her daughters.
“Thank you for sharing this,” she said. “I know how difficult it was to break your word to your sister. Tell me, are you certain that this is correct? Is there no possibility of a mistake?”
“No, Mom,” Rayne said. “She had the test run twice and when she finally told us about it, we insisted she have it run again. We had it run on ourselves at the same time, just in case. Our results were normal, but her results were the same all three times. There is no mistake.”
“Is this what’s been bothering her these past months?” Val asked quietly.
“Yes, Popi,” Salene said. “She’s known for well over a year now. Nearly eighteen months, in fact. It took Rayne and I months to convince her to confide in us.” She looked at her parents and sighed. “I’m so sorry we couldn’t tell you sooner, but this was Tani’s secret, not ours, and we gave our word. We didn’t agree with her, but it was not our decision to make.”
“Why did you decide to tell us now?” Trey asked.
“We thought it might explain what’s happening,” Salene answered.
“I don’t understand,” Lariah said, frowning. “How does it explain anything?”
“We think that whatever is happening with Tani right now might be her destiny,” Rayne said.
“Actually, we feel very strongly that it is,” Salene put in. “We didn’t at first. That first day we were just terrified that she was missing. But the feeling that Tani is where she’s supposed to be right now, doing what she’s supposed to be doing, grows stronger within us every day.”
Silence fell as the Dracons considered Salene’s words. Finally, Garen looked up at his daughters with a wealth of sadness in his eyes and said, “We must accept that your feelings are probably correct, but at the same time, we cannot help but hope that they’re not.”
Rayne and Salene shared another look, then nodded. They understood, but did not agree. Tani had been so sad for so long that they couldn’t help but hope that she’d soon find happiness, no matter where that took her.
***
Tani watched through the tiny viewport beside the seat she was strapped into as the Stray approached Garza, surprised at how desolate it appeared. It was reddish and rocky and had no discernible forests, plains, oceans, lakes or rivers. She turned toward Astra. “Is there water on Garza?”
“Yes, but we have to drill deep wells to get to it,” she said. “Thanks to the Welfare group who loaned us some drilling equipment, we have two wells at the caves, and three at the main farming site which is now abandoned.”
“It looks kind of…barren…from here.”
“It is barren,” Astra said. “What you see is about all there is. Garza has rocks, dirt, and almost no indigenous plant life at all. The farms are all hydroponic, otherwise nothing would ever grow. The soil is hard and dead.”
“Then why do your people stay?” Tani asked.
Astra’s eyebrows rose in surprise, as though that was a ques
tion she’d never considered, which it was. “I don’t know,” she said finally. “I mean, now we can’t go anywhere obviously, but I suppose we should have left as soon as the first Welfare ship came. It was just…not something we ever thought of as a possibility. Garza is the only home we’ve ever known.”
Steel entered the room and stopped to nod at them. Tani smiled back. They hadn’t had a chance to finish their conversation since the infirmary, which disappointed her. She was curious to know whatever he’d been about to tell her, but had refrained from questioning Astra. She wanted to wait and hear it from Steel himself, whatever it was.
“You ladies strapped in?” he asked while at the same time reaching over to check their safety harnesses for himself.
“Yes, Steel, we’re fine,” Astra replied anyway.
“It won’t be long now,” he said after satisfying himself that they were both safe. Then he turned and went to his seat beside Marbic and strapped himself in. Half an hour later Khurda set the ship down on a small makeshift landing pad surrounded by enormous boulders. Tani unbuckled her safety harness and stood up, then paused, feeling at a bit of a loss. She didn’t know where she was going, what she was supposed to do, or even how long she’d be here. She couldn’t even busy herself with luggage since all she had were a couple of shirts and some underwear that she’d borrowed from Astra.
“Tani, are you all right?” Astra asked.
“Sure, I’m fine,” Tani said. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do is all.”
“I would very much like to have you stay with me,” Astra said. “Don’t worry, we have running water and bathrooms in the caves. It’s primitive, but not that primitive.”
“Thank you, Astra, that’s very kind of you, but I don’t want to put you out.”
“You wouldn’t be putting me out, Tani,” Astra said. “I have an extra sleeping chamber in my cave that isn’t being used. There’s plenty of room, and I’d enjoy the company.”
“All right,” Tani said. “Thank you, Astra, I appreciate the invitation.”
“We dragged you into this, Tani, it’s not like you’re an unwanted guest that showed up out of nowhere,” Astra said. “If you want a cave of your own, you can have one. There are plenty of them, believe me.”
“No, I don’t want that,” Tani said. “I’d prefer to stay with you so long as I’m not in your way.”
“I promise, you won’t be,” Astra said, smiling brightly.
“There’s something we must tell you before we leave the ship, Tani,” Steel said, joining them. “It’s the same thing I was about to tell you earlier when we got interrupted.” Tani saw Astra grow tense, and noticed that Marbic looked nervous. Khurda had a stoic expression on his face, but she doubted there was much that could shake him.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Not long after the Xanti brought our people to Garza, they began to change,” Steel said, crossing his arms over his chest as he spoke. Tani had a feeling that he was preparing himself for rejection. “Either something in the mines, or in this planet itself, has changed us into other than the humans we once were.”
“What has it changed you into?” Tani asked.
“Creatures of a bestial appearance with hard flesh and, for the men, wings,” Steel replied. “We call this aspect of ourselves mahrac.”
“Is it a change that effects everyone?”
“Yes, though it effects the men differently than the women.”
“Well, you don’t look at all…bestial to me,” Tani said.
“Not at the moment. I doubt that you would enjoy remaining in the same room with any of us for long if you knew what we turn into.”
“Well, don’t count your doubts just yet,” Tani said, trying not to be offended by his presumption. “You might be surprised by what I consider surprising, or even normal.”
“I understand that your people are shifters, and you’re used to that,” Steel said. “We’re not the same.”
“No?”
“The Jasani have always been shifters,” Steel said. “They were created that way, from the beginning. They’re natural shifters. We’re not.”
“That’s splitting hairs a bit,” Tani said dryly. “Honestly, as long as you don’t change into a pack of psychopathic murderers, it doesn’t matter to me one way or another.”
Marbic burst out laughing, and after a moment, Khurda joined him. Astra smiled, but Steel remained silent. “It doesn’t bother you that we’re mutants?”
“Mutants?” she asked in surprise. “Is that what you think you are?”
“Yes,” Steel said. “What other explanation can there be?”
“Well, there’s magic,” she said.
“We have no magic, Tani,” Steel said.
“You shift into another form but believe you have no magic?” she asked in surprise. Steel nodded. “How long has it been since the change began?”
“Since shortly after we were brought to Garza,” Steel replied. “Over four hundred and fifty years.”
“In those four and a half centuries, how many changes have you undergone?”
“Changes?” Steel asked, frowning.
“How much different are you now than your first ancestors were when they shifted?”
“As far as we know from the old stories, we haven’t changed at all.”
“Then you’re not mutants,” Tani said. “If there was something in the air or soil of Garza, or even something in the mine that altered your ancestors, it would not have made one change and stopped there. It would have continued changing you, generation after generation. Not only that, but I don’t recall you saying that the Nomen suddenly became shifters, and they would have changed as you did since they’re mostly human, too.”
“She’s right, Steel,” Marbic said thoughtfully. “Tani, what do you think caused the change if it wasn’t caused by contamination of some sort?”
“I don’t have any idea,” she said. “But I don’t believe for a moment that magic isn’t involved. Nor do I think that shifting is a bad thing unless you lose control of yourselves and your actions.”
“No, that doesn’t happen,” Steel said. “Our minds remain the same in both forms. But there’s no magic, Tani.”
“When you shift from your human form to your alter form, what happens to your clothing?”
“Our clothing?” Steel asked blankly.
“Yes, your clothing,” Tani said. “Are you still wearing the same clothes when you shift or are they torn to shreds as your body expands? When you shift back, are you naked? Or are you wearing the same clothes you wore when you shifted?”
“Our clothes change,” Steel said. “When we shift back, we’re wearing the same thing as before.”
“The only explanation for that is magic, Steel,” Tani said.
Steel nodded slowly. “I suppose you’re right,” he said. “But that doesn’t change what we become.”
“Well, if it’s my reaction you’re worried about, I can promise you that it’s not going to bother me.”
“You will change your mind when you see us.”
“If you say so,” Tani said, carefully hiding how much it hurt that he’d disregarded her promise so easily. She turned to Astra. “Shall we go now?”
“Yes, Tani, let’s go,” Astra said, shooting a glare at her cousin before leading the way out of the control room. A couple of minutes later Astra had collected her bag and they left the ship. Tani was glad to be outside again, but she couldn’t believe how dreary the landscape was.
“How far are we going?” she asked Astra as they walked between two of the boulders surrounding the ship.
“Not far,” Astra said as they cleared the boulders. “We’re going right there.”
Tani looked where she pointed and smiled at the rows of caves that dotted the sloped face of the cliff. There were a few children playing here and there under the watchful eyes of several older people, but otherwise most of the people standing outside the caves were watching them.
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Suddenly, a huge dark shadow appeared in front of them, followed by the shadow’s owner, an immense creature that, to Tani’s eyes looked just like the gargoyles found on ancient buildings of Earth. Its features were humanoid, but exaggerated, with an extra-large jaw, huge pointed teeth, a bulbous nose and heavy brow ridges. Its flesh looked much like the reddish rock around them, its arms and legs, like its facial features, extremely large. Its leathery wings were enormous, which, Tani thought, made sense considering the size of the creature itself. She was amazed that something so big and apparently heavy could fly at all.
Tani made a point of studying the creature from its bald head to its bare, oversized clawed feet, then back up again slowly, glad that it was wearing what appeared to be a leather loin cloth around its waist. When her gaze reached its black eyes, which required that she tilt her head back since it had to be eight or nine feet tall, she shrugged lightly. “Was that supposed to scare me, Steel?”
The gargoyle shifted into the more familiar form of Steel who was looking at her as though she were a puzzle he couldn’t quite solve. “No, Tani, it was not my intention to scare you,” he said. “I just wanted you to see what I meant about our appearance. You cannot deny that we are ugly.”
“Actually, I can, and I do,” she said. Steel’s eyebrows shot up and she shook her head. “I have a different interpretation of that word than you do, obviously. To me, people who are cruel, or evil are ugly. You could be the most beautiful creature in the Thousand Worlds, but if your heart is black, then I will see you as ugly, regardless of your outward appearance.
“This alter form of yours is not ugly to me, Steel. You are a man who cares about his people, who worries about their safety and well-being. Because of that, I see your alter form as strong, solid, and capable of protecting that which you honor and cherish. I don’t know why you’re so determined to make me see you in a negative light, but I will not pretend a reaction or opinion that is not my own. I’m sorry if that disappoints you.”
Steel nodded, though he appeared confused. He took a slow step back, then another before shifting back to his mahrac form. He watched her for another few moments, then his wings snapped out and he leapt into the air. Tani watched him as he flew away, gaining altitude slowly but surely, not taking her eyes off of him until he was too far away to be seen.
Tani's Destiny (Hearts of ICARUS Book 2) Page 8
