Crystal Healer (2 page)

I had been brought here after my husband and I returned to Joren, the homeworld of my adopted people, and landed our scout vessel
Moonfire
at HouseClan Torin's main transport. I had been told the meeting was some sort of official welcome. Instead, I had been treated to an intense round of questioning, and informed of what amounted to a declaration of war on another world.

"Healer Torin."

They didn't like my moving around; they wanted me where they could see my face. I returned to the table. "You can't do this," I repeated. "Over two thousand beings live on that colony."

"Your pardon, Healer Torin, but we must." Malaoan Adan, the Jorenian Ruling Council's chief legal adviser, was the oldest of the three, judging by the number of purple streaks running through his braided black hair. He spoke slowly and carefully, both to project the gravity of the situation and so that the vocollar translation device I wore around my neck converted his words correctly into Iisleg, an obscure form of Terran, the only language I understood. "This matter has now become a legal issue."

"How so?" I knew almost nothing about Jorenian law, but as I remained one of Joren's chosen rulers, I saw no reason to confess that. "I have related to you everything that happened to me and my husband."

"I must respectfully question your account of the events, Healer." Volea, HouseClan Torin's chief of security, wore his solid black hair in a warrior's knot, and had several healed scars on his face from blades, pulse burns, and impact injuries.

If they doubted me, they had some reason to do so. "On what basis?"

Volea consulted the datapad in his hand. "According to the information retrieved from the
Moonfire
's database, your ship did not make an emergency landing; it was fired upon and crashed. Audio records indicate that you and your bondmate were forcibly removed by drones not under your command."

"You have interpreted the data incorrectly." I was glad my husband had survived our ordeal on Trellus, because as soon as I saw him, I was going to kill him. "While we were journeying through space, my husband and I ran some simulations of those scenarios. The database and the audio records must have been damaged during the emergency landing, or they would indicate that."

Volea shifted in his seat. "Healer, biodecon scans performed on the
Sunlace
revealed new tissue that would indicate you and your bondmate sustained multiple recently healed injuries."

"Reever and I both acquired some minor flesh wounds while running the simulations." I smiled. "Our bruises and scratches were no more serious than what one would sustain during a practice sparring match with a drone opponent."

"You did not fight a drone," said Xonea, my adopted ClanBrother and captain of the
Sunlace
. The largest of the three males, he commanded attention, although I hadn't given him much. Xonea troubled me for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the ominous suppressed emotion glittering in his white-within-white eyes. "We detected Sovant's DNA embedded in your garments. What say you tell us how you simulated that?"

I thought of the alien predator I had helped to capture and exterminate on the quarantined colony of Trellus. It had been a voracious, horrific thing that had possessed the bodies of sentient beings, destroying their minds and then masquerading as their prey while devouring them from the inside out. I could not tell them that Reever and I had been forced down on the planet to serve as bait for it.

"That was likely from some form of accidental contact." I clamped down on my rising temper. "We could have brushed up against something already contaminated with the DNA."

"Indeed." Xonea flattened his six-fingered hands on the table and leaned forward. "You and Reever unintentionally collided with something doused with at least two liters of Sovant blood, bone, and brain tissue?"

I couldn't tell him about the final battle we had fought with the colonists against the Sovant, so I folded my hands in my lap. "Garments become contaminated with all manner of foreign DNA, particularly when one visits a multispecies colony. It may have happened over a period of weeks--"

"Healer, there is no need to deceive us any longer," Malaoan said gently. "You are under no obligation to protect the Trellusans. It is clear to us that they committed or were involved in these acts. We have only to declare ClanKill before a witness of your House."

Now I understood their unwavering determination to pursue complete extermination. On Joren, if one makes a threat against one of the people in the presence of his blood kin, he would be publicly declared ClanKill, treated as prey, and hunted down by the entire HouseClan. The Jorenians would not stop until he was caught, and whoever did so first would eviscerate him with their bare hands.

Such was always done, even if the offender had made only a verbal threat. What had happened to me and my husband on Trellus had been much worse, and they had evidence of it. Naturally, they were outraged.

This was why these three calm, pleasant men were proposing to send Jorenian ships to Trellus to destroy the entire colony from orbit.

I needed to stall them until I could find Reever. "There is no reason to declare ClanKill on the Trellusans," I said as firmly as I could. "My husband and I have returned safely to Joren."

Volea smiled at me. "For this we thank the Mother of all Houses each day."

With his hands--Jorenians used gestures as well as words to speak--Malaoan made a beautiful motion that I recognized as agreement. "We understand your inherent need to preserve life, Healer Torin, but in this case it is not applicable under the law."

"Really." I needed to change some laws.

He nodded quickly. "Multiple offenses have been committed. The colony is small and has few defenses. We need send but two or three vessels to eradicate the population. We would not have troubled you with this matter, but we wished to reassure you that justice will be served."

The pressure increasing at my temples made me imagine for a moment my skull flying apart. "You are not listening to me.
I
was stranded on the colony with my husband.
I
know what happened and who was involved. The colonists are not guilty of any crime. I made a full report. It is over. I wish to see my daughter now."

"So you will, once this matter is decided." Xonea smiled at me, and not in a particularly friendly fashion. "As first ClanSon of the Torin, I say it is far from finished."

I heard a sound that made me think of the jaws of an ice snare snapping around my ankle. Fortunately, it was the access panel behind me, opening to admit a tall, lean male dressed in black garments, his golden hair loose around his handsome if somewhat impassive features.

"Duncan." I rose and almost knocked over a stand of
t'vessna
worked into the Jorenian symbol for the path, and went to my husband, taking his hands in mine. I needed to touch him in order to establish a telepathic link between our minds.
They are going to send a fleet of ships to destroy Trellus. They found evidence of what happened and they're blaming the colonists. They even found the wretched Sovant's DNA on our garments when we were scanned.

Worry not, beloved.
He pressed his mouth briefly to my brow before his clear blue eyes moved to study the faces of the other males. "I was not made aware that this welcoming committee intended to separate me from my wife in order to intimidate and interrogate her."

Malaoan and Volea shifted in their chairs, clearly uncomfortable.

Xonea, in contrast, didn't twitch a muscle. "Much as we were not made aware of your true reason for leaving Joren. Sit down, Duncan."

When I began to tell him that he had no right to order either of us to do anything, Reever put one of his hands over mine. One newly healed wound slashed across the lattice of old white scars covering the flesh from his knuckles to his wrist.

"As you say, Captain." He led me back to the table and sat down with me, his eyes never leaving Xonea's. "Before anything more is said or decided, Jarn and I shield the colonists of Trellus."

"As bondmate of a naturalized Jorenian, you have limited rights under our laws, Linguist Reever," Volea said, his tone decidedly cool. "They do not include making decisions for a Ruling Council member, or shielding those responsible for threatening her life."

"Then I will say the words," I told him. "I shield the colonists of Trellus."

Malaoan's expression turned sympathetic. "Under ordinary circumstances, that would be acceptable, Healer, but in this case special considerations for your current mental state must be made."

I tried not to grit my teeth. "What has my mental state to do with anything?"

"Your medical records indicate that you suffered extensive brain damage and severe emotional trauma while being held captive on Akkabarr," the legal adviser said. "You persist in referring to yourself as another persona named Jarn. Add to this the ordeal you must have endured on Trellus, and it is apparent that your ability to make rational decisions has been compromised. In such cases, under Jorenian law, the affected individual's HouseClan is required to intervene and provide consent."

It took my vocollar a few moments to relate all that to me in the language I could understand. Not that I understood it. "Do you mean to say that I am too
crazy
to shield the Trellusans?"

"No," Reever said, his eyes never leaving Xonea's face. "He is saying you need a member of HouseClan Torin to approve your decision."

"The Healer's closest blood kin, to be precise," Malaoan clarified.

Reever spared him a glance. "My wife is not Jorenian by blood or birth. Her only blood relative is deceased. Under Terran law, as her husband, I am her closest relative."

"Once my ClanBrother Kao Chose her, Cherijo became Torin," Xonea said. "After he embraced the stars, my House assured that she would remain our kin by granting her citizenship and formally adopting her."

I felt bewildered, as I often did when being confronted by actions I had never taken. All of these things had happened to Cherijo Grey Veil, the woman who had inhabited my body before dying on Akkabarr.

"I do not consider myself Terran or Jorenian," I reminded them. "I was born on Akkabarr, among the skela of the Iisleg. According to their laws, I am the property of my husband and subject to his will alone."

"You may consider yourself whatever you wish, Healer," Malaoan said kindly, "but your citizenship has never been revoked by you or your HouseClan. As such, it takes precedence over this claim of Akkabarran citizenship."

"Very well." It seemed obvious that they weren't going to allow me to escape this special consideration. "So who do you define as my closest blood kin?"

"That"--Xonea kept his gaze locked with Reever's--"would be me."

If I was not crazy now, I soon would be driven to that unhappy state. "Then, Captain, would you please give me your approval?"

At last he turned toward me. "First you will provide more information so that I may know you are making a wise choice."

My limited experience in dealing with my adopted Jorenian brother had not been terribly successful. On a previous occasion, when he had tried to prevent me from attending to the victims of a plague that was destroying the Hsktskt homeworld of Vtaga, I had been forced to threaten to take away his command in order to stop his interference.

Now, it seemed, he had the upper hand. My former self had referred to this sort of situation in her journals. She had called it
payback time
.

I resigned myself to dodging more questions. "What do you wish to know, Captain?"

The big male sat back in his chair, seemingly at ease now. "I want the name of the offworlder who harmed the female patient you operated on just before you and Duncan departed Joren. I want to know why you concealed the fact that the explosive device implanted in her body was mounted with a trigger specifically designed to detonate upon contact with your DNA. I want to know who is trying to assassinate you."

Xonea didn't care for my request for time to verify the medical facts behind his last barrage of demands, but I felt sure he wouldn't accuse me of stalling in front of the other Jorenians. He didn't. Nor did he protest when I suggested we reconvene the meeting at HouseClan Torin's medical facility in the morning. I think he knew he had me right where he wanted me. I think my husband's cold, unwavering stare also may have played a part.

Volea and Malaoan, who also sensed the rising tension between Xonea and Reever, quickly agreed to an adjournment, and after making polite farewell gestures, departed. As my ClanBrother left the conference room, he paused for a moment to loom over me.

"If the true reason for this fact-finding delay is to provide time for you and Duncan to leave Joren," he said, a muscle twitching under his eye, "you will find that you must also obtain my permission for travel offworld."

"Why would I want to do that?" I made my expression bland. "According to you, I am a mental deficient, and you have seen to it that I will be treated like one. My freedom has been taken away and my decisions will be made for me. Life could not be easier unless I were brain-dead."

"I will have the name of the one responsible for this, Cherijo," Xonea promised, glancing once more at Reever before he strode out.

After the door panel had closed and we were alone, my husband put an arm around me, and I allowed myself to lean against his shoulder.

I felt as weary as if I had spent three days fighting in a bloodsports simulator, until I formed a new link with my husband and his strength came flooding through it.
How much do you think he knows about what really happened to us on Trellus?

Enough to justify an attack on the colony.
Out loud, Reever said, "Marel is waiting for us with Salo, Darea, and Fasala at the pavilion. They arranged for us to have a private meal with them."

I hated that we could not speak openly and freely, but Reever and I both suspected that the Jorenians were keeping us under constant drone surveillance--on Xonea's orders, no doubt. "Then why are we standing here?"