The Falcoran’s Faith

by Laura Jo Phillips

  “How stiff?” Jon asked.

  “I’m not a legal expert by any stretch of the imagination,” Faith said. “But considering the importance of the relationship between Earth and Jasan, I would guess a few years. That’s if she’s convicted, of course. Even if she isn’t convicted, it will make her life uncomfortably complicated for a while. She’ll have to hire an attorney, cough up all of her financial documents, and make court appearances, just to start. It will be expensive, and it won’t be fun.”

  Faith watched the Falcorans as they considered her suggestion. If she hadn’t been able to sense their emotions she might of been worried about the reluctant expressions on their faces. But she could read them, and knew that their reluctance was not out of concern for Diane in particular, but rather a reluctance to harm any woman in general.

  “Listen, guys,” she said, “I understand how you feel. You want to leave well enough alone, and move on with your lives.”

  Tristan, Gray and Jon all smiled at her as they nodded. “That’s exactly right,” Tristan said. “Two weeks ago we might have felt differently, but now we have you in our lives, and don’t want to think about her any more.”

  “That’s reasonable,” Faith said. “If you want to let it go, that’s fine, it’s up to you. But I want you to think about one thing before you decide.”

  “What’s that?” Tristan asked.

  “What would have happened if the Lobos had taken real steps against her instead of hiding what she’d done to them as they did? I know they tried to keep tabs on her, but that didn’t work out too well. If they’d reported her, would her prints and scans have been marked as undesirable? Because if they had, she would never have been able to return and do the same thing to you three.”

  “That is true,” Tristan said. “It is also true that there is nothing to prevent her from doing the same thing on other worlds, to other men.”

  “Exactly,” Faith said. “What’s already happened cannot be changed. But maybe she can be prevented from doing it to someone else.”

  “It’s worth a try,” Tristan said. “I would wish on no one what she did to us, and we were not harmed a fraction as much as the Lobos.”

  “Good,” Faith said. “I’ll send a message to the Director as soon as you guys give me her name and stats.”

  “I’ll have them sent to your hand terminal after breakfast,” Gray said.

  “That reminds me,” Jon said, “have you been able to finish reading the book on the Jasani?”

  Faith’s face fell and, for the first time that morning, she looked uncomfortable. Gray and Tristan shot looks at their youngest brother, but he barely noticed. “I’m sorry Faith,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “You didn’t upset me, Jon,” Faith said. “I’m just embarrassed to say that I haven’t been reading it. The past few days were...I was trying to work things out.”

  “There is no reason to be embarrassed,” Tristan said. “We are glad that you did what you did instead.”

  “I’ll read it today,” Faith said. “I’ll even try to finish it.”

  “There is no rush,” Tristan assured her. “We were only curious.”

  “All right,” Faith said, feeling better. “So, what’s on the agenda for today?”

  “The Ala-Lahoi picked up what appears to be an exceptionally large jump point on their sensors late last night,” Tristan said. “We stopped so that you could take a look at it this morning.”

  “You stopped the whole task force?” Faith asked in surprise. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

  “You were sleeping soundly on your own for the first time in weeks,” Tristan said. “It would have taken much more than a jump point to convince us to wake you. Besides, we’ve sent the rest of the task force ahead at low speed. We’ll catch up with them in a couple of hours.”

  “Well, let’s go take a look at it then,” Faith said, grabbing her cup and finishing her coffee.

  “There is no hurry, Faith,” Gray said. “We are very far ahead of schedule. Without the jump points you’ve found, we would not have reached Onddo for many months. As it is, we’ll be there in just a few more days. All thanks to you.”

  Faith smiled, her entire being filled with happiness. She’d never dreamed she could be so happy after all that had happened to her in the past couple of years.

  “Please, finish your breakfast,” Tristan said. “These regular meals are doing you so much good. That reminds me, I’ve been wanting to ask why you didn’t eat properly while on the passenger liner?”

  “I couldn’t,” Faith said, picking her fork up. “They allow three meals a day, period. I had to use my supplements, but I didn’t have that many since I never thought I’d have to practically live off of them. I ran out before we were halfway to Jasan.”

  “That’s very disturbing,” Tristan said.

  “Tell me about it,” Faith said. Tristan frowned, uncertain what she wanted him to tell her about. Faith felt his confusion and laughed, drawing several appreciative glances from the other men in the cafeteria, though she didn’t notice them.

  “May I ask another question?”

  “Of course,” Tristan said, greatly enjoying how relaxed Faith was.

  “Are all Arimas fighters?”

  “Fighters?” Gray asked, though they all looked confused.

  “Summer Katre carries a very large sword around, and Darlene had a belt full of knives, and Aisling Gryphon had an arsenal on her when I spoke with her on the vid the other day. I just wondered if being able to throw a knife or lop someone’s head off with a giant sword was a requirement for Arimas.”

  Though Faith’s tone was light, they felt the worry beneath her words. “No, Faith,” Tristan said. “Fighting is most definitely not a requirement. And, just to set the record straight, Darlene is not an Arima.”

  “Oh,” Faith said, frowning for a moment. “I wonder why I thought she was? Anyway, just so you know, I sometimes have trouble cutting my own meat without slicing my fingers off. I suppose that, all things considered, I really should learn to use a weapon.”

  “There is no reason for you to do that if you don’t want to,” Tristan said. “Most of the women who know weapons, or have fighting skills, developed them before becoming Arimas. It is a function of who they are, not what they are. Also, to my knowledge, neither Lariah Dracon, Hope Bearen, Berta Falcoran, or Honey Vulpiran possess such skills. That is four of the seven Arimas we know best, though we cannot claim to know any of them very well.”

  “Well, that’s a relief,” Faith said. “I suppose that explains why the Dracons hover over Lariah all the time. She’s so tiny. They must worry about her constantly.”

  Tristan, Gray and Jon all grinned, surprising Faith. “What’s the joke?” she asked, half smiling at their expressions.

  “Don’t think for a moment that our Princess is anywhere near as delicate as she appears,” Tristan said. “She is not only Clan Jasani, she is Dracon, with a dracon alter form.”

  “A dracon is what exactly?” Faith asked.

  “I believe that, in Earth mythology, it is called a dragon,” Gray said. “Except that a dracon has fur, of course. All Clan Jasani are mammals.”

  Faith nodded. She remembered reading that. “So little Lariah shifts into a giant dragon. Cool.”

  “Little Lariah isn’t any smaller than you, Faith,” Jon pointed out, grinning. “And I’m not so sure how cool it is. She breathes fire just as her Rami do. In fact, we had the pleasure of watching her shift once when a woman attempted to harm one of her daughters. She was magnificent.”

  Faith’s eyes took on a distant look as she tried to imagine that. “It must be so...liberating for her to know that she can defend herself.”

  “Yes, I’m sure it is,” Tristan said. “She was kidnapped and tortured on Earth before coming to Jasan. Such a thing could not happen to her now.”

  “Wait,” Faith said, frowning again. “I’m confused. If she can turn into a dracon, how did s
omeone manage to kidnap her? Does her ability to shift not work on Earth?”

  “No, she can shift on Earth, though I don’t think she’s been back there since...,” Gray trailed off as understanding hit him, just before Tristan shot him a quelling look.

  Faith’s frowned deepened at the Falcorans’ sudden wariness.

  “What is it?” she asked, settling her narrowed gaze on Tristan. “What am I missing?”

  “Faith,” Tristan said, then paused and looked around at the half full cafeteria. “If you are finished, we can go to the Observation Deck now.”

  Faith looked around, then nodded. “Okay.”

  She coaxed a dozing Bubbles back onto her shoulder and stood up, letting Tristan guide her out of the cafeteria. When they were in the deserted corridor heading for the elevator, Faith’s patience ran out. “Tell me.”

  “Once a true Arima goes through the mating ritual with her Rami, she is changed in such a way as to enable her to shift,” Tristan said, getting it all out in one sentence.

  Faith stopped in her tracks. “The women are changed? Was Lariah human?”

  “Yes,” Tristan said. “All of the Arimas that we know of were human.”

  “And all of them can now shift?” Faith asked.

  “Yes,” Tristan replied, testing Faith’s emotions carefully. She was shocked, but whether it was in a good way or a bad one remained to be seen. “They shift into whatever alter form their Rami take.”

  “So Summer turns into one of those cat like things?”

  “Yes,” Tristan said again. “It is called a katrenca. Hope Bearen shifts into a bearenca, Saige Lobo shifts into a loboenca, a wolf like animal.”

  “So, if I were to become your Arima completely, I’d be a falcon?”

  “A falcoran, yes,” Tristan said, still monitoring her reactions and still getting nothing beyond her surprise.

  “Is this in that book you gave me to read?” Faith asked, starting to walk again.

  “It is,” Gray replied.

  “Wow,” Faith said. “I guess I better finish reading that thing.” She fell silent as they boarded the elevator and rode it to the Observation Deck, then exited. The Falcorans exchanged worried glances over her head, but as she was obviously deep in thought, they did not ask her any questions. When they reached the Observation Deck Jon opened the door and they waited for Faith to enter before following her. She got half way across the room, then stopped and turned to look at each of them for a long moment.

  “I have to ask you guys a question,” she said.

  “Of course,” Tristan replied.

  “There is a lot I don’t know yet about what it means to become an Arima,” she said. “I wonder though, what if there’s something that I just can’t handle? What then? Is there a way I can be with you without being changed?”

  As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Faith sensed the depth of the Falcorans’ disappointment, though none of their expressions changed. “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “No,” Tristan interrupted her. “Do not be sorry for asking a question. The answer is yes, we can be together. But we cannot be soul-linked. Nor could we ever have children.”

  “But I can’t have children anyway, remember?” she pointed out. “Okay, let me ask you this,” she continued before they had a chance to respond to her question. “What if I left? Went back to Earth, for example. Would your mating fangs go back the way they were, like after you drank that potion?”

  “That is highly doubtful,” Tristan said. “To be perfectly honest, no one has attempted such an experiment, so we cannot say for certain. Is that what you want to do? Return to Earth?”

  “Not really,” Faith said. “I just want to know if you can find someone else to mate with if I’m gone.”

  “Faith, that is not going to be a problem,” Tristan said carefully, smiling at her. He would not allow her to make this decision based on her concern for them. The relief he felt from his brothers indicated they were in agreement with him on this. He hadn’t lied. If she left, they would never mate, but it wouldn’t be a problem since they would never want anyone else, anyway.

  “Now, I believe we should take a look at this jump point so that we can catch up with the remainder of the task force,” he suggested.

  “All right,” Faith agreed, her shoulders slumping. She was troubled in spite of the Falcorans’ smiles, but she wasn’t sure why. There was something they weren’t telling her. She reached into her pocket and felt the hand terminal. She definitely needed to finish reading that thing. But, first things first. She turned around and went to the viewport, and gasped at what she saw. “Oh, crappola!”

  “What is it?” Tristan asked, noting the sudden paling of her face. One day he was going to have to ask her what crappola meant, but now was not the time.

  “There are about...I don’t even know...dozens of Xanti ships on the other side of this thing.”

  “Dozens?” Tristan asked, shocked. “Are they guarding it?”

  “I don’t think so,” Faith replied as she continued to stare at something they couldn’t see. “They’re queued up at one of those Doors they make, and they’re going through it one at a time. How strange. This jump point is so much bigger than the Door, but it’s like they don’t know it exists.”

  “They probably don’t,” Tristan said. “Where are they? Can you see any planets to help you pinpoint their location?”

  “Yes, I see several planets,” she said. Gray activated the star map and she crossed over to where he stood, marking their current location. She glanced out the viewport, then looked around the room. She frowned, looked out the viewport again, then took a more careful look at the projected planets. “I’m not sure...,” she began, then trailed off. “I’m confused. I don’t see it.” She shook her head. “I mean, I don’t feel it.”

  “Feel it?” Tristan asked in surprise.

  “Yeah, usually I just get a feeling which way to go. I sure don’t know enough to recognize the worlds I see. But this time, I don’t feel it. It’s as though they don’t exist on this map Is that possible?”

  “Hang on,” Tristan said. “Gray, display the Large Magellanic Cloud.”

  “Of course,” Gray said, turning back to the control panel. He pressed a few buttons and the planets floating in the room changed. Faith turned in a slow circle, then began walking purposefully across the room. She stopped, looked up, then frowned again. “This is close,” she said. “The planets I see through that jump point aren’t all here, but I feel like they should be, if that makes sense.”

  “That’s because the information we have on that galaxy is from the Xanti themselves, and not yet complete,” Tristan said. “The data from the bio-suit hasn’t been fully translated yet.”

  Faith shrugged, not really understanding what he was talking about.

  “Faith, do you realize what you’ve just done?” Tristan asked.

  “Um, no?” she said, making it sound like a question since she really didn’t.

  “Very recently a brilliant man discovered information hidden in a Xanti bio-suit by, we suspect, slaves of the Xanti,” Tristan said. “Included were star maps of the Xanti’s home galaxy, their home world, and the planets they’ve enslaved, as well as star maps showing a series of jump points that we knew nothing about. Those maps have not yet been fully translated and uploaded to our ship, which is why some of the data is missing, resulting in an incomplete map.

  “We believe we can reach the Xanti home world in just under three years by using those secret Xanti jump points. It’s risky though. We’ve learned that the Xanti guard those jump points, which means we’ll probably have to fight the Xanti each time we attempt to use one. Which will make it impossible for us to keep our attack secret, as we prefer.”

  “Oh!” Faith said, suddenly understanding what she’d just done. “This is a jump point into their galaxy!”

  “It certainly is,” Tristan agreed. “And it’s only about a week’s travel from Jasan instead of three yea
rs.”

  Faith beamed. “Yippee!”

  The Falcorans burst out laughing. Faith stared in surprise. It was the first time she’d ever heard them laugh out loud aside from a few chuckles. After a moment she joined them.

  Once they all caught their breath, Faith and Jon worked with the binoculars to log the exact coordinates and dimension of the jump point. Then Tristan gave orders for the Eyrie to catch up with the task force, and the three of them began discussing their next course of action.

  Faith listened for a little while, but much of what they were saying went over her head. She excused herself and returned to her room, leaving them to their message encryptions. After she put Bubbles down on her pillow to finish her nap, she began pacing. She’d realized during their conversation about Arimas that she had some serious thinking to do, and she always thought better when she walked.

  Much to her surprise, it didn’t take her very long to make up her mind. In fact, once her decision was made, she realized that some part of her had already decided, and she just hadn’t consciously realized it. Or, maybe destiny had just given her a big kick in the butt. Either way, who cared?

  A soft knock on the door announcing lunch woke Bubbles up. While watching her all but inhale her food, Faith wondered if raktsasa were prone to becoming overweight. She turned on the hand terminal and looked for information on raktsasa as she ate her lunch. Bubbles climbed onto her shoulder for another nap, and Faith petted her absently before switching to the book on Arimas for a little while.

  She’d just started reading about mating fangs and how they were used when she checked the time, surprised by how quickly the day had flown by. She had about three hours till dinner. More than enough time for a long bath and some careful primping. She turned off the hand terminal and put Bubbles down on the bed, then went to the bathroom and bent over to flip the taps on the tub. When she straightened up and turned, she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror and gasped in surprise.