“It just seemed right for her,” Rand said, glancing at Rudy who nodded in agreement. “I don’t know why.”
Karma shrugged one shoulder as though dismissing the matter, but she wondered. She didn’t have a lot of experience with men, but it seemed strange to her that both Rand and Rudy had thought enough about Aisling to have an idea of what scent would work for her.
Chapter 9
Olaf watched Aisling sleep, wanting to climb into the back seat and pull her into his arms, but not quite daring. She was not theirs. He had no right to do such a thing. So he watched her instead, telling himself that only if she slipped sideways on the seat would he get into the back with her. Then he found himself wishing she would slip sideways. By the time Rand, Rudy and Karma returned to the ground-car, Aisling had still not moved. Olaf couldn’t quite decide whether he was relieved or disappointed.
The ride home was quiet as nobody wanted to awaken Aisling. Olaf was out of the car the moment Rudy stopped in front of the house and reaching for the back door before he’d cut the power. He reached into the back seat and gently gathered Aisling into his arms. He straightened up and paused for a moment, shocked by the sensation of rightness that came over him as he held her. As though she belonged there, in his arms.
Olaf shook his head and turned to go into the house. Such thoughts were fanciful and ridiculous. She was not their Arima. Period.
Olaf carried Aisling to her room and laid her gently on the bed. Rudy carried the packages into her bathroom, then went to the closet and came back with a light blanket which he shook out and laid over her. Rand bent down and carefully tucked the blanket around her, and brushed a lock of hair from her cheek.
Karma went into Aisling’s bathroom and unpacked the items Rudy had carried in. When she was finished, she stepped out of the bathroom and stopped, surprised to see all three of the Gryphons standing silently beside the bed watching Aisling sleep. She watched them for a few moments, struck by the strange expressions on their faces. They seemed caught between want and regret, an expression she had never seen before.
“Let’s let her sleep now,” Karma whispered, hoping that would be enough to get the men out of the room. It was. All three of them stared at her in surprise for a long moment, then turned and left the room. Karma went last, closing the door quietly behind her. She followed the Gryphons along the curving hallway to the living room where they all stopped and turned to face her.
“Is something wrong?” Karma asked.
Olaf returned Karma’s steady gaze with one of his own, but she did not look away, or even blink. She was worthy to be Aisling’s friend, he thought.
“We are only worried about her,” Olaf said finally. “If she is not better in a couple of hours, we will call the doctor.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Karma said. I think I’ll go take a shower.”
“Very well,” Olaf said. “Dinner will be ready in about three hours.”
“Thanks,” Karma said as she turned and went back toward her room.
The Gryphons watched her until the curving hall hid her. Then they listened until they heard her door shut behind her. Rand waited a few moments, then turned to his elder brother.
“Olaf, if you had to select, or imagine, a scent for Aisling, what would it be?”
Olaf frowned. “Why do you ask?”
“I will tell you in a moment,” Rand replied. “Please, humor me in this.”
“Very well,” Olaf said. “I suppose I would have to say honey, but mixed with something else to cut the sweetness. Nothing flowery or fruity though. A spice perhaps.”
“Cinnamon?” Rand asked.
“Yes, that sounds right,” Olaf said after a moment.
“Interesting,” Rand said. “That’s what Rudy and I thought as well. But Aisling does not smell like either honey or cinnamon to us.”
“Not to me either,” Olaf said. “She smells...clean. Like shampoo and soap. Do you want to tell me why you asked this?”
“Because Karma wanted to purchase some scented products for Aisling, as a gift, and asked for help selecting them. We both wanted a combination of honey and cinnamon. A basket of items will be delivered for her in an hour or two.”
“Yes, it is interesting,” Olaf said. “But like so many things involving Aisling, I do not understand what it means.”
Chapter 10
Aisling awoke to the sound of the bedroom door opening. She raised her head to see Karma tip-toeing through the room with a large basket in her arms.
“What’s that?” she asked sleepily.
Karma jumped a little, then turned to face Aisling with a relieved smile. She walked to the bed and set the huge basket down next to Aisling.
“Just a little surprise from me and the Gryphons,” she said. “I was just going to get you a little bubble bath or body wash, something to use in that giant bath tub, but the guys decided to go all out for you.”
Aisling sat up and rubbed her eyes, then stared at the basket. It was very big, with a huge yellow ribbon wrapped around the handle and bits of yellow tissue poking up between the boxes, bottles and jars that were stuffed into the basket.
“Wow,” she said, nearly speechless by the sheer number of items in the basket. “Did they buy out the store?”
“Just about,” Karma said with a grin. “The lady custom blended the scent according to what Rand and Rudy wanted, and they were very specific and particular. When she finally got it right, Rand told her he wanted one of everything. So, whatever that means, that’s what’s in that basket.”
Aisling reached for a bottle of body wash and opened the top. She hesitated a moment, then sniffed the contents. Her eyes widened in surprise. “I love the scent,” she said. “I usually have a hard time finding scents I like, but this is wonderful. Custom blended for Rand and Rudy huh?”
“Yes,” Karma said. “And it wasn’t easy for the clerk to get it exactly right to satisfy them.”
“That’s very thoughtful of them,” Aisling said as she closed the bottle and returned it to the basket. “But why would they give me such an extravagant gift?”
“Because they wanted to?” Karma suggested. “Or maybe because you are risking your health, if not your life, by translating that Xanti screeching for them.”
Aisling looked doubtfully at the basket, then back to Karma.
“What difference does it make?” Karma asked. “It’s yours, so I suggest you take it into the bathroom and use it. Dinner will be ready in about an hour, so don’t dawdle too much.”
“You sound like my mother,” Aisling said with a laugh.
“Good,” Karma replied as she turned and crossed the room to the door. “Mind me then.”
Aisling laughed again as she watched Karma leave, then she turned back to the basket.
“Oh, what the hell,” she said softly. She climbed out of bed, picked up the basket, which was far heavier than she’d imagined, and limped to the bathroom with it. She set the basket down on the long counter, spotting her hand terminal where Karma had left it, along with the items she’d had on her list.
The bathroom, with it’s gleaming marble countertops, tile floors and polished gold and silver fixtures, looked as though it had never been used. Aisling thought about taking a quick shower, but the bathtub and the gift basket beckoned, a temptation too strong to ignore. She reached down and flipped the taps on the tub to start it filling, then turned to the basket. She sorted through the items, selected a bottle of foaming bath oil and poured a generous amount into the tub. The scent of honey and cinnamon filled the room and she breathed it in, wondering why she had never thought of that combination before. She loved it and instantly knew that it would always be her favorite. She selected a bottle of body wash and one of shampoo, and set them on the edge of the tub before stripping out of her clothes.
She kicked her jeans aside with a grimace before climbing into the tub. She was so tired of wearing the same few clothes over and over again. Clothes that, under normal circums
tances, she would never have considered wearing. Ill fitting jeans, beige tops with nothing to distinguish one from the other, bland sweaters, scuffed sneakers. They were part of her disguise, just as her bowed head, meek manner, and hunched shoulders were. She wanted so much to shed her disguise, but she had learned the importance of caution. From what the Gryphons had said earlier, it sounded as though she would be safe here, on Jasan. But how could she be sure?
She reached for the towel she’d set beside the tub and dried her hands, then picked up her hand terminal. A few moments later she turned the terminal off, set it down and leaned back in the hot water with a sigh. No response yet. For the hundredth time she computed distances and standard message travel times, but the answer was no different. Yesterday had been the earliest possible day she could have expected a response to her message. It was entirely possible that her message hadn’t even reached Jessi yet. She needed to be a little more patient.
She closed her eyes and tried to think of something else. An image of the Gryphons immediately popped into her mind, as it had repeatedly throughout the day. She hadn’t gone an entire hour without thinking of them. As she imagined them, pictured them in her mind, a wave of heat raced through her body unlike anything she’d ever experienced. It took her a moment to realize that what she was feeling was arousal. Her breath caught in her throat as she examined these new feelings.
They were certainly beautiful men, there was no denying that. She loved how stern they appeared until you looked into their eyes, as though they held their true selves back, reserving themselves from those who didn’t care to take the time or effort to see beyond the surface. She was like that, though very few people she had ever known recognized it.
She liked how big and strong they were, while at the same time they considerate and polite. She had seen no trace of haughtiness or arrogance in any of them, though she’d not only expected it, but had looked for it. She even liked their green hair. She loved the way it flowed down their backs in shining waves, and slid sensuously across their shoulders as they moved, and she wondered what it would feel like against her skin.
Aisling opened her eyes and shook her head as she sat up and reached for the bottle of body wash. This was ridiculous. She had no room in her life for such things as men, or romance. She admitted to herself that she longed for the kind of relationship that Hope had with the Bearens, or Summer with the Katres, but even if she were blessed with such a thing, it could not be now. Not yet. She wasn’t ready for that. She had promises to fulfill first.
An hour later she stepped into the dining room, her hair still damp, but feeling refreshed and hungry. “Hi everyone,” she said as she crossed to the chair she had used the night before. “I hope I’m not too late.”
Olaf, Rand and Rudy all stood politely, and Karma smiled. “Thanks for the gift,” she said to all of them. “It was very generous, and perfectly lovely.”
“We are glad you enjoyed it,” Rand said as he and his brothers sat back down. “And you are not late. We were just getting ready to ask Karma to see if you were ready for dinner, so you are just in time.”
“Great,” Aisling said. “I’m very hungry tonight. Which reminds me, I’m really sorry for conking out on all of you today.”
“Conking out?” Olaf asked as he picked up a platter of steaks, carefully selected the one that looked the most perfect to him and put it on Aisling’s plate.
“She means she’s sorry that she overworked herself today, nearly caused herself a brain hemorrhage, and passed out from exhaustion,” Karma said with an arched brow as she accepted a steaming dish from Rudy.
“Brain hemorrhage?” Rand asked. “I don’t know what that is, but it does not sound good at all.”
“She’s exaggerating,” Aisling said. “A lot.”
“Not by that much,” Karma argued. “You need to be more careful, Ash, and I mean it. It’s not going to do anyone any good if you can’t finish the translations because you’ve hurt yourself by listening to that noise too much.”
“She is correct,” Olaf said, choosing his words carefully. He did not want to offend Aisling by telling her what to do, as he had earlier, but at the same time, he did not want her to cause herself harm. “We would ask you, with all respect, to please use care while doing the translations.”
Aisling gave him a startled look. “I did not mean to hurt myself,” she said. “I had no idea that would happen. Now I know, so I will be more careful.”
“Thank you,” Olaf said solemnly.
It seemed strange to Aisling that someone would thank her for not being careless with her own well being. But at the same time, she sensed that Olaf was completely sincere.
“May I ask what you translated today?” Olaf said as he reached for the pitcher of iced juice and silently offered to pour some for Aisling.
Aisling nodded, and Olaf filled her glass. “Nobody said I couldn’t talk about what I translated, so I see no reason not to discuss it.”
“We are the Consuls of Clan Gryphon, and have our world’s highest possible-security clearance,” Olaf said as he poured a glass of juice for himself. “We could call Elder Vulpiran and ask, but we’d prefer to hear it from you, if you do not mind.”
“Nope, don’t mind at all,” Aisling said. “What I listened to today was all recorded by the same person, someone named Za-Linq. It had the feel of a diary, or a log.”
“Yes, that is what Arima Katre said his name was,” Olaf said.
“The first entry was about him having witnessed a woman kill someone. He referred to the woman as a berezi, and an it, and the person she killed as her owner. He said he was going to acquire the female, and resell her.”
“It did not work out quite that way,” Olaf said with a tight smile.
“No?” Aisling asked.
“No,” Olaf replied. “Summer Katre was the berezi, and she killed the Brethren, William Winicke, the owner Za-Linq mentioned. Decapitated him with her sword, in fact. After that, the Katres killed Za-Linq.
Aisling gasped in surprise and looked at Karma across the table, who was smiling a very satisfied smile. “Berta told us that the Brethren leader, Stalnek, was off-planet when we were abducted because he went looking for his son, William,” Karma explained. “We’re just happy to know that he was not successful in that quest. I suppose you could say that we are not big fans of the Brethren.”
“I suppose not,” Olaf said with a chuckle.
“The first thing that I translated must have been the last thing Za-Linq recorded,” Aisling guessed.
“Sounds like it to me,” Olaf agreed. “Was there anything else?”
“A lot of it sounded crazy,” Aisling said. “He was going on and on about someone by the name of Lio. He was convinced that this Lio person had betrayed him, and was a traitor to the Xanti. He was determined to find the guy and, as he said over and over again, make him pay.”
“Lio was a Xanti agent, that’s true,” Olaf said. “I don’t know whether he betrayed the Xanti or not, but it doesn’t really matter. Za-Linq succeeded in killing him before he died himself.”
“There were also what I would describe as memos concerning a new slave compound on Jasan,” Aisling said. “I told Elder Vulpiran about that right away, and he told me that it was the same compound that had already been discovered.” Aisling picked up her glass and sipped her juice. “I think that’s about it,” she said. “There was more, but nothing of any great import.”
“What you are doing for us is very important, and we are very grateful to you for doing it,” Rand said. “Even so, your health is more important. Please do not risk it.”
Aisling put her fork down and reached for her glass, turning it in her hands as she tried to decide whether or not to say what she wanted to say. After a few moments, she made her decision. She took a sip of her juice and set the glass back down.
“My father was a scientist,” she said without preamble. “He specialized in Xenoanthropology. My mother was a doctor. When they we
re very young they volunteered their services on the welfare ships. They went to a lot of backwater planets, saw a lot of people who were destitute, sick, starving. They also saw something else.”
“What?” Olaf asked, gentling his voice, feeling as though Aisling was revealing something very private, and very important.
“They saw a lot of victims of the Xanti,” Aisling said. “And they learned a lot of things that, because of the charter of the welfare ships, they were contractually obligated to keep to themselves. More importantly, things they couldn’t reveal without risking the lives of the populations involved.”
“What sorts of things?” Olaf asked.
“The Xanti are parasitic. They find a world that has something they want, and they take it. All of it. Food, metals, minerals, technology or even people, it doesn’t matter. They strip what they want from the planet, and leave what’s left without another thought. They enslave the scientists, inventors, whoever has invented or created something they want. They force those people to work for them, then sell the technologies as Xanti creations.”
“That is new information,” Olaf said, reining in his excitement. “Do you have proof of this? Or rather, does your father?”
Aisling dropped her eyes to hide what she knew was an over reaction to the question. Olaf did not know her father, or her for that matter, and had not meant his question to be insulting.
“I do not need proof to believe what my father told me,” she said without lifting her eyes from the plate before her. “It is enough for me to know that the Xanti are evil. That is why I have agreed to do the translations. Not only because it will help the Jasani, but because it will harm the Xanti.”
“We understand that you have personal reasons for wanting to aid in the war against the Xanti,” Olaf said, forcing his voice and manner to remain casual. “Whatever your reasons, we are grateful to you for your assistance.”
Laura Jo Phillips Page 8
