Laura Jo Phillips

by The Gryphons' Dream: Soul Linked#5

  “We have possession of a Xanti bio-mechanical suit,” Prince Garen said. “With the generous assistance of Arima Katre, our scientists have successfully extracted a large amount of data from its on-board computers. Unfortunately, all of it is in Xanti, a language known only by the Xanti themselves. We believe this data may reveal the locations of other slave compounds, as well as details about the Xanti, and their plans.”

  “If I can translate Xanti, I will certainly do it,” Aisling said at once. “The problem is, I didn’t even know I could do this until a short while ago. I have no idea whether I can translate Xanti or not.”

  Garen smiled grimly as he reached into his pocket and removed a hand terminal. Jackson turned off the image currently displaying on the wall and a moment later it was replaced by one from Garen’s terminal.

  This was an image of writing on a section of blackened metal. Aisling couldn’t tell what the metal had been, but the writing was clear enough. She shrugged her shoulders and turned to look at the Prince, wondering what it was he wanted her to do. She was surprised to see that everyone in the room was looking at her.

  “Can you read that?” Prince Garen asked her.

  Aisling frowned, realizing that what looked like Standard to her once again appeared incomprehensible to everyone else. “Yes,” she said. “It says One Prime Controller, beneath that it says Warning: confirm berezi status before use. Below that it says The contents of this case is strictly regulated by Xantara Inter-Brood Secret Police as per Security Directive 19378-1960-475, and shall remain the permanent property of Xantara superseding all purchase agreements.”

  “Excellent,” Garen breathed. Aisling could sense the excitement of the warriors in the room, and knew enough about the Xanti to understand it. But she was a little worried about one thing.

  “That’s interesting,” Jackson said with a frown. All eyes went to him.

  “What?” Prince Garen asked.

  “I wasn’t there so I may be wrong, but I thought that Darleen Flowers had one of those Prime Controllers,” he said.

  Prince Garen frowned as he nodded. “Yes, now that you mention it, she did. I wonder if that means she is a berezi?”

  “It only says to confirm berezi status,” Hope pointed out. “I don’t think it means that it’s for use on berezi only.”

  “True,” Prince Garen agreed. “I would like to know what it does mean, though. Perhaps we’ll learn the answer to that question when Aisling translates the Xanti data.”

  “Where is the data that needs to be translated?” Aisling asked, finally getting a chance to voice her concern.

  “At the Council Complex,” Prince Garen replied. “That won’t be a problem. They will set aside a room for you to work in where you won’t be disturbed.”

  “Is there any way for me to take the information with me to the ranch and translate it there?” Aisling asked.

  “I’m afraid not,” Prince Garen replied after considering it for a moment. “The data is in the council’s secure network and cannot be transferred without incurring an unacceptable security risk.”

  “But the Bearens are leaving for the ranch tomorrow,” Aisling said. “I won’t have a place to stay when they’re gone.”

  “You are welcome to remain here in our home,” Jackson offered. “My only concern is that you would be alone. If it gets out that you can translate Xanti, I am concerned that your safety will become an issue.”

  “We will assign guards for you,” Garen said. “They will watch over you very carefully.”

  Aisling blanched at the idea of having strange men watching over her every move. She already felt like she was living under a microscope.

  “Perhaps it would be best if she stays with us,” Olaf offered . “We would see to her safety and her care, of course.”

  “That would be the best solution, I believe,” Garen said. “I thank you for your generous offer.”

  Aisling felt stuck. She had already agreed to help and, in truth, she wanted to help. She’d been useless for so long, and the thought of actually being able to DO something for a change was exciting to her. Especially something as worthwhile as this. But she was nervous at the idea of being alone with men she didn’t know. These three men in particular. There was something about them that caused feelings that she didn’t understand, and wasn’t sure she wanted to explore.

  “Aisling, I will remain with you, if you like,” Karma offered.

  She turned to Karma, no longer surprised by the other woman’s generosity, or her insights. She didn’t know much about Karma, but she knew that the tough girl exterior was a front. Despite their rocky start when they’d first met, the two women were becoming good friends.

  “That’s very kind, Karma, but honestly, you’ve done enough for me,” she said, choosing her words carefully so that Karma had an out if she wanted it.

  One corner of Karma’s mouth turned up, letting Aisling know she understood the out. “I don’t mind,” she said.

  “Thank you,” Aisling said. “I would like your company.”

  Karma smiled one of her rare, genuine smiles and turned to Olaf. “If you don’t mind taking the both of us, we’ll accept your offer.”

  “We are pleased to have the both of you,” Olaf said, relieved that Karma would be staying with Aisling. They’d never had a lone female stay in their home before. It would be better if there were two of them. He hoped.

  “When do you want to leave?” Karma asked.

  “We do not want to rush you,” Olaf said, “but we would prefer to leave as soon as it’s conveniently possible.”

  Aisling felt a leap of excitement race through her, and her hands clenched into fists before she could prevent it. She was surprised and confused by her reaction.

  “No problem,” Karma said casually, leaning forward on the sofa and blocking the Gryphons’ view of Aisling. Clearly Karma thought she was afraid rather than excited, but that didn’t change her protective intentions, or how much they meant to Aisling. “Neither of us brought much luggage with us, so it won’t take us long to pack.”

  Aisling forced herself to relax her hands. When she was sure she was fully composed she rose to her feet, stiffening her spine in an effort to control her limp as best she could. For some reason, she didn’t want these men to see just how bad her limp was. Which made zero sense to her.

  “Come on, Karma,” she said, pleased that her voice sounded calm. “Let’s go pack.”

  Karma rose at once and turned to face Aisling, her back to the Gryphons.

  “After you,” she said. Aisling had to fight back sudden tears at Karma’s understanding. She turned and began walking out of the room, Karma close behind her, hiding her from the Gryphons’ view as much as possible. Aisling knew that Karma could not really hide her, but she made the effort, and that meant the world to Aisling.

  Once they were out of the living room and several feet down the hall, Aisling paused and turned to face Karma. “Thank you,” she said simply.

  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.”