Slater’s tail twitched a small amount before he was able to prevent it. The Xanti had just proved he knew far more about his people than he pretended. “That is true,” he conceded when he was certain he could speak without hissing. “It will not be a problem though as I will not transform into anything other than the sugea while I am on Onddo.”
“Very well then, we shall proceed with our plan,” Xi-Kung said. “However, rather than send you on your own to this Magoa, I think it might be best if I accompanied you.”
Slater remained motionless, unwilling to reveal that he knew Xi-Kung had once again given himself away. Why would he isolate and weaken Slater for fear of his magic, and then volunteer to step foot on a planet filled with Narrasti, most of whom had stronger magic than Slater himself?
“Perhaps I could ride upon the back of this sugea,” Xi-Kung suggested. “If they decide to attack us rather than listen, I assume you have means in your sugea form to defend yourself?”
Slater nodded slowly, wondering what exactly it was that Xi-Kung really wanted. He again wished he had taken the time to experiment with magic while he had been in the form of the sugea on Jasan. His tail twitched irritably, a movement that the Xanti did not miss.
“I only wish I knew the full extent of my abilities in the form of the sugea,” Slater said aloud, both to explain his irritation, and in hopes that Xi-Kung would offer him a chance to experiment before they reached Onddo.
Xi-Kung frowned as though he were deep in thought. “So you have no knowledge of any means of self-defense while in that form?”
“I am able to breathe fire, and of course the size of the sugea is such that it would be easy to destroy any Narrasti who might attempt to attack,” Slater replied, unwilling for the Xanti to think him helpless in any form.
Xi-Kung smiled. “In that case, I do not see any reason to take a detour which would cost us several more days.”
Slater nodded briefly, conceding the point. Perhaps once they reached Onddo he would have the opportunity to experiment before they reached Magoa.
“I will need more food and water to build up my strength if I am going to be able to maintain the form of a sugea for any length of time,” he said.
“Of course,” Xi-Kung agreed. “In fact, if I have your word that you will not cause mischief with your magic aboard my ship, I would prefer to move you to a more comfortable berth for the remainder of our journey to Onddo.
Slater blinked in confusion. “Why would I cause mischief?” he asked. “Because of you, I will realize my dreams faster than I had thought possible. We are partners now, are we not?”
Xi-Kung smiled again. “I am most pleased that our goals our equal in this,” he said.
Slater returned the smile even though he had no idea what the Xanti’s goals were. He promised himself that one day soon he would ask. When he was no longer under the Xanti’s power.
Chapter 12
There were so many emotions warring with each other on Faron’s face as he stared after Saige that Lariah nearly smiled. When he finally turned his gaze on her, shame had won. “Please forgive me Lariah,” he said. “I do not know what got in to me to speak to you in such an unforgivable manner.”
“Had you not apologized it would be unforgivable,” Garen said as entered the dining room from behind them. “As it is, I am sure Lariah understands how difficult it must be for you right now.”
Lariah scowled at Garen. “Lariah understands, but Lariah also has a tongue and can speak for herself.”
Garen smiled indulgently at her. “I am sorry sharali.”
Lariah rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Faron and Dav. “How are you feeling?”
Faron sighed and took a seat at the table, Dav pulling out a chair next to him. “Thanks to Riata, we will be fine,” he said. “Dav's injuries are healed, and mine are almost healed. We are mostly weary from the healing itself. Ban is still sleeping. If Riata is unable to heal him further, he will eventually heal himself, but it may take a few weeks. We owe her much, particularly for healing our burns. I do not believe I have ever experienced anything quite as painful as burns.”
Garen glanced at Lariah, noticing at once that her face was pale and her hands were trembling. He shot a look at Faron, who blanched immediately. Garen had told him of the torture Lariah had suffered, and how badly she had been burned during it. He opened his mouth to apologize, but, on second thought, he closed it. His mouth was not serving him well this morning.
“I am sorry you heard that sharali,” Garen said as he knelt beside Lariah and pulled her gently into his arms.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said softly. “I think I will go check on Saige while you guys talk.”
Garen released her and watched as she rose from her chair and walked away, the large bulge of their daughters changing her usual graceful movements into an adorable waddle. Not that he would ever say such a thing aloud to her.
When she was gone and he heard the guestroom door open and close, he turned back to the Lobos.
“Riata over-extended herself last night,” he said. “She is still sleeping and when she awakes she will need to eat well. Then she should be able to complete Ban's healing, and yours as well.”
“Isn't there another healer that can be brought in so that Riata need not deplete herself so dangerously?” Faron asked.
“None that can get here in time to be of much use,” Garen replied. “Riata will be fine, but I do not know when she will be able to heal Saige.”
Faron shook his head. “I know that her injuries are not severe and that Riata has done much for us already. It was just difficult to see her with those bruises on her face. They are much worse now than they were last night.”
“I understand,” Garen said. “It is difficult to see one's Arima in pain. By the way, congratulations to you both. I could not be happier than to know you have found your Arima.”
Faron and Dav both smiled, their eyes lighting up as they thought of Saige. Neither of them had missed her unconscious movement to shield Lariah from them, and they were proud of her for that. Faron realized he needed to apologize to her, but thought it might be best to let her temper cool first.
“Tell me what you learned on the Cosmic Glory,” Garen requested in an effort to take their minds off of their Arima for the moment.
“Something is very wrong there,” Faron said, frowning. “The Captain seemed a bumbling fool, yet it makes no sense that a bumbling fool would be assigned the Captaincy of a civilian liner of the Cosmic Glory’s class. Also, not one but two women were missing when they docked at the skyport. Yet we were not informed of that when we made inquiries about Saige. Neither were the Bearens.”
Garen pulled out a chair at the table and sat down. He reached for the coffee pot still sitting on the table and poured himself a cup, then passed it to Faron. When they all had coffee Garen took a sip of his, thinking carefully about all that had happened. He had a strong feeling that more was going on than they knew.
“I want to know all that happened on the Cosmic Glory please,” he said.
Faron nodded, took a moment to settle himself and began. He told his Prince everything that had happened and everything that had been said, leaving nothing out. When he was finished he refilled his coffee cup as he waited for Garen to think about what he’d heard.
“The Captain was there when you spoke with Jackson?” he asked.
Faron was startled by the question, not understanding the significance. “Yes he was,” he replied. “He offered us the privacy of his quarters when I asked for the use of a vid terminal.”
“What time was that?”
Faron looked to Dav. “It was 14:53 JST,” Dav replied without hesitation, as Faron had known he would.
“Interesting,” Garen replied. “Tell me what you remember about the explosion.”
Faron stared at him, nonplussed. He did not understand what his Prince was thinking. He had to refocus for a moment before he could answer the last question. “The two men i
n the trunk started talking, but I didn't think much of it at first. Moments later they began yelling, and I caught the scent of burning flesh. I barely had time to cover Saige before the ground-car exploded. After that, I just tried to get everyone out of the vehicle.”
“After we transported everyone back here last night, we went back to the site,” Garen said. “We discovered the remains of what we believe were two humans. There wasn’t much left of the bodies. What we did find was completely charred. I am quite sure that those two men were the source of the explosion, though I admit I find that difficult to believe. Either something they had on them, or something they had in them caused the explosion.”
“I can’t believe that the Bearens would have failed to remove anything remotely dangerous from their persons,” Dav said.
“Nor can I,” Garen agreed. “That leaves something in them.”
“But why?” Faron asked. “It makes no sense, even if they had an explosive planted in their bodies. Why would they just blow up?”
“I think that the Captain informed someone of the conversation he overheard between you and Jackson Bearen. He is the only person, aside from ourselves and the Bearens, who knew that you were driving to the ranch last night with Saige and both men in the trunk of the car.
“Here is something you do not know,” Garen continued. “After we returned to the house with Saige's luggage, we received a call from planet security. The Cosmic Glory was destroyed in an explosion that vaporized the vessel along with everything, and everyone, on board.
“As far as I can tell, Saige called me for help within no more than three minutes of when the ground-car explosion occurred. My vox log shows her call coming exactly one minute after the Cosmic Glory blew. We have no proof of course, but I have a strong feeling that the two incidents are connected. I think that whoever blew the car, blew the ship as well. “
“If the explosions are connected, and it seems reasonable to assume that they are, I don't understand the reason for the delay,” Faron said. “The car explosion took place nearly two and a half hours after we left the liner. Why wait that long?”
“Because Jasani space security routinely monitors all transmissions from all ships that are broadcast within one light minute of Jasan,” Trey said from the doorway. Everyone looked at him in surprise. He shrugged as he and Val entered the dining room and sat down at the table. “It's standard regs and ‘cols,” he added. “I don't know whether the Cosmic Glory was outside that range or not, but it might be worth checking. If not, we might be able to track down the call.”
Dav grinned. “Doesn't matter if it was inside the range or not.” Everyone turned to him. “We placed the Cosmic Glory under close surveillance when it failed to return to Jasan after our first turn around request. That means every transmission in or out of that liner was automatically plotted and recorded while it remained in Jasani space. And the captain would not have known that because that is not published protocol.”
Garen looked at Trey. “At a guess, how long do you think it would have taken the Cosmic Glory to get beyond the one light minute range?”
Trey thought about that for a moment. “A liner as big as that, two to three hours. It depends on how hard the Captain was pushing the engines. Could be less, could be more.”
“Sounds like it’s at least possible that the Captain waited until he thought he was outside of the expected monitoring range, and then made a call that resulted in both explosions,” Garen said. “Trey, contact Signals Intelligence and have them start going through those transmissions.”
“Right away,” Trey said, reaching for his vox as he stood up and headed out of the room.
“What I don't understand is why would anyone blow up those two men?” Garen continued. “Jackson told me that the three humans were little more than idiots, and that the two you had in the trunk very likely knew nothing. If that is the case, why bother killing them?”
Faron stared at the coffee in his cup and thought carefully about everything that had happened. A thought occurred to him. “There was a small silver case that Jackson recovered from the three men in the cargo bay,” he said. “He put it on top of the car, with Saige's luggage.”
“We thought that was Saige's,” Val said. “It's with her luggage. I'll go get it for you.”
Faron watched Val leave and turned back to Garen. “There’s a strange object inside that case that Jackson overheard the men call a prime controller. It gave me a bad feeling just to look at it.”
Val returned with the small case and set it on the floor since it was charred and black from the fire. In spite of the external damage of the case, Faron had a feeling that the contents would be unharmed. He bent down and flipped the catches, opening the case with a screech and pop of warped metal. As he suspected, the item inside sat undamaged in its protective bed of foam. He carefully removed the object and set it on the table where everyone could see it. There was something ominous about it that made every man there want to destroy the thing at once.
“Now that looks like something that someone would not want us to have,” Garen said softly. “Perhaps that thing is the real reason for the ground-car explosion. We need to get that to the council scientists as soon as we can.” He looked up as Trey came back into the room. “When Signals calls back about those transmissions, ask them to send someone from Scientific Intelligence for this thing,” he said, gesturing toward the silver object on the table. “High priority.”
Val knelt down and removed the foam insert from the ruined case and placed the silver object in it for safer transporting.
“There's something else that Jackson wanted me to tell you,” Faron said. “I don't know if it has anything to do with all of this, but given that the controller was taken from the humans who planned to use it on Saige, I think it may all be connected.”
“What?” Garen demanded. He did not like all of these incidents occurring so close together. He was certain they were all connected, but he needed more information to determine how.
Faron related what Jackson had told him about the unusually large amount of unclaimed luggage at the spaceport. “Also, Saige was due to arrive yesterday morning. Yet, when Jackson searched the system for her luggage, he discovered it had already been tagged and stored as unclaimed. The usual procedure allows at least 24 hours for travelers to claim their luggage before it is tagged as unclaimed. He thought perhaps it was because she had been reported missing, but I am beginning to wonder about that. He found the other missing woman’s luggage there as well.
“And, according to what Saige remembers of her abduction, there is some race involved that seems to be a mystery to everyone.” Faron repeated Saige’s description of the iridescent male with the perfect features. “Have you ever seen or heard of such a being?”
Garen shook his head and looked at Trey and Val, who also shook their heads. “There are a lot planets, and a lot of beings in The Thousand Worlds,” Garen said. “I am certain there are many we know nothing of.”
“True,” Faron said, “but at the same time, this being seems to be of a technologically advanced race. Such beings tend to be well known to us, and everyone else.”
“To have a new one suddenly pop up out of nowhere is troubling,” Garen agreed. “Did Saige remember anything else about her abduction?”
“Yes,” Faron replied. “And there are a few other things about it that are troubling as well.”
Chapter 13
Lariah knocked softly on the guestroom door. “Saige it’s me,” she said.
The door opened a crack and Lariah saw one light green eye peek out at her before the door opened the rest of the way.
Lariah stepped in and closed the door behind her, taking a moment to study the expression on her friend’s face. Saige appeared to be equal parts angry and hurt. “That was unfortunate,” she said.
Saige paced away from Lariah, then back again, her steps quick and nervous. “They were so rude Lari,” she said. “And mean to you. You know how I fee
l about people who are mean. There’s just no excuse for it. And he had no right to snap at you that way. If he wanted to ask something about me, I was standing right there.”
Lariah listened as Saige continued to vent. After a while she crossed the room to a chair and carefully lowered herself into it, amazed that Saige was able to rant for so long over an incident that had only lasted a few moments. But she knew Saige well enough to refrain from pointing that out.
Lariah had known Saige for six years, since they’d both started working at the library, Lariah as a historical librarian, Saige as a security guard. Like herself, Saige never dated, never seemed to have much interest in men, and other than Lariah, she had no friends. It wasn’t that she was not likeable. She was just considered strange, like Lariah had been, partly because neither of them ever dated or even appeared interested in men. The two of them had gravitated toward each other, each finding something in the other that they found familiar, even though they were as different as night and day.
While Lariah was generally quiet and sometimes shy, Saige was outspoken and, at times, temperamental. She had a good heart and she was very loving of those she cared about. She was also extremely protective and if angry, had a tendency to speak first and think later. Knowing this, Lariah waited patiently for her friend to blow off enough steam to cool her anger. When she was finished, then they could talk.
“Holy heart failure, Batman!” Saige exclaimed. Lariah giggled. One of their favorite things to do on weekends had been to borrow stacks of digital copies of ancient television shows from the media section of the library and watch them while eating junk food. Batman had been one of their favorites.
Lariah looked up and saw Tiny standing at the patio door, an expression of surprise on his wrinkled face. “Saige, please let Tiny in for me.”
“That thing’s name is Tiny?” Saige asked, laughing as she opened the door. The giant dog lumbered in, and headed straight to Lariah. She patted him on the head and scratched his ears.
The Lobos' Heart Song: Book 2 of the Soul-Linked Saga Page 11
