Icarus Unbound (8 page)

Odan took his place among the administrators assembled in the western garden of the royal aerie. This unscheduled meeting set his nerves on edge, not to mention took time away from his new mate. Jehri was busy making updates to the aerie they had claimed, but sooner or later she would expect him to be on hand, and so far he'd spent more time away from her than before they were officially paired.

One of the two dozen administrators called the meeting to order and served as tonight's leader among this assembly of equals. A relatively new construct in Icarian government, the administrative committee had been appointed by Jidar and Namara to help them deal with the increasing demands of leadership when the success of the breeding program caused a three percent increase in the Icarian population in a single year.

The committee of twelve appointed elders and twenty-four liaisons served to aid the ruler in any way he saw fit and to uphold Icarian traditions during a time when a tenth of the planet's population was human.

Odan served as a liaison, and the fact that all of his colleagues had been called here when Jaran was not in attendance made him nervous.

"A concern has been circulating throughout the population, and you've all been called here to render your opinion on the matter." The nominal leader spoke from a podium raised slightly above the ground.

69

Icarus Unbound

by Bernadette Gardner

Next to Odan, Daralei rung her hands. "The outcome of this meeting will not sit well with Jaran," she muttered.

"I agree. I don't like what I've been hearing."

The speaker raised his wing tips, commanding silence from the crowd. "Our liege, Jaran, has chosen a full human mate.

This has given rise to concerns that too many others may choose to do the same in the future. Today we are here to question whether the integrity of our genetic lineage will suffer because of Jaran's choice."

Odan mumbled a curse and spread his wings, commandeering the attention of the committee. "Our liege's chosen mate may be fully human, but so are half of our parents. More than half of us standing here today exist only because my father, Jidar, had the courage to invite humans into our society. Without their genetic contributions, our race would have died out completely within the next two mating cycles. How can we still hold prejudice against the human bloodline when it is the reason we survive today?"

Another liaison countered Odan. "The original purpose of the human infusion was to provide enough varied DNA to allow for successful mating. Now we've accomplished our goal, and we should be concentrating on producing a generation of nearly full-blooded Icarians if we can."

Daralei took up the argument. "But until our population grows sufficiently, we're still in danger of attrition. We may need more human DNA to prevent another catastrophic wave of infertility." As a full Icarian, her opinion held more weight than those of the hybrid liaisons, though it was not very popular among her equals on the committee.

70

Icarus Unbound

by Bernadette Gardner

"Jaran is the only full-blooded Icarian of our generation,"

another liaison said. "He has a duty to uphold, and his choice of mate should reflect his dedication to Icarian traditions."

"Then who better for him to choose than the daughter of the first human to accept an Icarian symbion and embrace our society as his own? If not for Caleb Faulkner's bravery, we would never have known that symbions can successfully join with humans," Odan said. If the committee voted against Jaran, he could lose Lara and be forced, at the very least, to choose another mate.

"Dr. Faulkner's daughter is human. She may have been raised in an aerie, but upon reaching adulthood she moved to the research station island and has lived there among humans for several years. She wears clothing..." The dissention came from a liaison from the northern islands.

"So do you, on occasion, Markus," Odan countered. "And you were named for your human father, were you not?

Laramee Faulkner is no less Icarian than you are."

A rumble of disagreement spread through the crowd at Odan's remark. It worried him that more people seemed to be against this union than for it.

"Hail, hail." Dara spread her wings, and the assembly gave her its collective attention. The elder Icarian raised her voice to speak. "If you would vote to dissolve this union, you must take the Icarian traditions into consideration at every level. A leader's mate, according to the old laws, the ones you are all so anxious to uphold, can only be dismissed for the following reasons."

71

Icarus Unbound

by Bernadette Gardner

Daralei held up one hand high enough for all to see and counted on her fingers. "One, if she has proven unable to produce offspring. Two, if she has proven unwilling to produce offspring. Three, if she expresses a desire to abandon her mate or her offspring or four, if she has not proven herself to be a valuable member of society."

Odan smiled. "Laramee meets none of those criteria. You have no grounds to request her dismissal."

Markus, the upstart, spoke again. "She is a human scientist, a valuable member of
her
society, not ours."

"We should remember her human parents embraced Icarus. They vowed to preserve our culture," someone else offered.

"But she's a botanist. Jaran could have chosen a healer like Arilani, or a teacher like Namara, or an explorer like Daralei's daughter. A human scientist has the best interests of the research station at heart. She is
not
truly Icarian."

Markus's argument left Odan feeling weary. He sighed. "So what would Laramee have to do to prove herself a worthy Icarian female if her desire to mate and produce offspring and her dedication to providing healthy food crops for Icarus is not enough?"

Silence greeted him at first. No one offered a suggestion until Tyri spoke up from the edge of the crowd.

"She should forsake the human sciences and dedicate herself to the Icarian traditions. Otherwise we have the grounds to dismiss her. She cannot ride on the accomplishments of her parents."

72

Icarus Unbound

by Bernadette Gardner

Anger ruffled Odan's wings. He considered all of this complaining and posturing to be ridiculous, but he realized the opinion of the majority of Icarians mattered. Everything he'd heard here tonight had been echoed by other members of the tribe who were not present. He couldn't pretend he wasn't aware of the rumors circulating among the aeries.

"Very well. We should give Lara until the official start of the mating cycle to prove her contribution to our society." He hated imposing a time limit, and he knew once Lara conceived, the committee would be less likely to dismiss her, but it still could happen.

He wanted to spare her and his adopted brother as much pain and humiliation as possible. This at least would give them a chance to thwart the prejudices against her.

Reluctant agreement made its way through the crowd, and Odan clenched his fists as he prepared to leave the garden. "I will inform our liege of this decision."

He would tell Lara first though, and give her as much time as possible to save herself from dismissal as Jaran's mate.

He'd left her in her bungalow, shaking with rage and something else she didn't dare admit to herself. After Jaran's unceremonious departure, Lara had been unable to think, unable to even consider returning to work at her lab.

How dare he practically drag her off the beach insisting he was going to ...
claim
her and then not follow through?

Once she'd regained her motor skills, she'd run to the tiny bathroom and splashed ice cold water on her face. Even the temperature shock couldn't calm the heat of her shame at her body's reaction to his touch, to his unfulfilled promise. From 73

Icarus Unbound

by Bernadette Gardner

the moment he'd arrived on the beach, she'd begun trembling inside, anticipating what he might do to her. She wanted to believe it was anger at his cavalier assumption that she would drop everything to accommodate his sexual whims, but the truth was, she'd wanted it. She'd wanted him.

She'd been aching for him since last night, wishing in the deepest corner of her soul that he would simply fuck her and go. She refused to think about how her nipples had hardened and her thighs had gone damp. She'd been halfway to her bed, prepared to surrender without question when the bastard changed his mind.

She let out a frustrated scream and slapped her palms against the bathroom countertop. This couldn't go on. She had to end this before Jaran destroyed her completely.

Still seething, she marched through the bungalow and flung the door open. Two steps outside, she nearly collided with Odan, Namara's biological son. He was one of the few Icarians born to her generation who had been conceived through artificial insemination. Jidar had preferred to avoid the process, believing it would undermine the strong familial core of Icarian traditions. Only a few other families, couples already mated, who could not conceive, had accepted such a radical option. Jidar had agreed to allow his own mate to undergo the human method of scientific procreation only because he had no desire to choose a human mate for himself and dismiss the woman he loved from his bed. Namara had given birth during the same mating cycle in which Lara and Jaran had been born.

"Odan, what are ... I mean, uh..."

74

Icarus Unbound

by Bernadette Gardner

"I'm sorry to intrude, Lara, but I'm glad I caught you before Jaran arrived."

"Actually, he just left."

Odan shrugged his wings. "Good, it's better if I speak to you alone first."

Lara backed up a step. Odan's expression worried her. He looked anxious. Unlike his foster brother, Odan had never been cruel to her. Growing up, she couldn't have said they were friends, but he'd never ridiculed her name, her lineage or anything else about her, so she found it much easier to speak to him than she did Jaran.

"What's bothering you? You haven't come to lecture me on how I should act toward Jaran, have you? And why didn't you kneel?" Lara clamped a hand over her mouth at her impertinent question. Odan, so far, had been the only Icarian to treat her normally since word of Jaran's choice had gotten around.

Rather than look embarrassed at his faux pas, Odan smirked. "Must we stand on protocol when no one else is watching?"

Relief made her limbs weak. "No, thank goodness. Odan, you're the only sane person I've run into today."

"You might not think that when I tell you what's going on."

She stared at him. "This is about the mate pairing, isn't it?"

Odan nodded and proceeded to tell her the consensus that had been reached by the administrative committee. "It all strikes me as nonsense, but as a liaison, I have only one vote. This whole thing is based on fear that ultimately we will 75

Icarus Unbound

by Bernadette Gardner

lose our culture to human influence. That was a fear thirty years ago when the first hybrids were born and it's still a fear now. I'm not sure how to combat it."

Lara felt worse now than she had before Odan arrived.

While asking for a dissolution of her union with Jaran would solve the problem, it would also serve to permanently separate her from Icarian society. Walking away from her mate would mean accepting at least one condition of failure, and she loathed that prospect.

"How am I supposed to prove myself?" She threw her hands in the air and ruffled her wings in frustration. "I've created three hybrid fruit trees and helped extend the southern growing season. I'm
this
close to finding a cure for kelp blight. What more can I do for Icarus, Odan? This is my home and these are my people. All I've ever wanted was to help this world."

Odan squeezed her shoulder. "Lara, you are worth something to Icarus. Your contributions are valuable. Don't let the committee make you doubt your importance here."

"Too late. I had no idea they thought so little of me."

Odan cursed. "They don't. That's not the point. The point is, the next mating cycle will begin to produce offspring who could be closer to full Icarian than any of their parents.

There's a belief that proper mate pairing will eventually breed all human traits back out of the population."

"Why do I make such a difference? Why does it matter so much what I do? Jaran and I could have one child this cycle and possibly one in the next and then he'll become infertile 76

Icarus Unbound

by Bernadette Gardner

again. The most we can contribute is two people to future generations that won't mate for thirty or forty years."

"Like I said, it's mostly nonsense. Political nonsense. And the underlying worry that we will never be a genetically unique race again. But as Daralei said at the meeting, if they wish to uphold Icarian tradition, you can't be dismissed just because you're human. If you can prove your contribution to Icarian society, they have to accept you."

Lara paced in a tight circle. "But how do I do that?

Everything I've done since I earned my degree has been to help Icarus. I don't know what else I can accomplish before the mating cycle begins that will change anyone's mind."

Odan sighed. "I don't know either, but give me some time.

Maybe I can figure something out."

Lara studied the handsome man before her. He resembled Namara who had been her own mother's dearest friend.

"You'd help me?"

"Of course."

"Why? You have to know better than anyone that Jaran and I don't belong together. Do you know why he's doing this? What is he trying to prove?"

Odan leveled his own golden gaze at Lara. In that moment, he resembled Jaran even though they were not related by blood. "Only he can tell you what he's trying to prove, Lara, but trust me when I tell you, Jaran has made the proper choice. His reasons are valid."

Lara would have scoffed, but Odan's voice held such conviction. What did he know about Jaran's motives that he wasn't telling?