Laura Jo Phillips (18 page)

“I feel the same way,” Aisling said.  “I have never felt as I feel for the three of you, and I know that I will never feel this way for anyone else.”

“Then will you agree to mate with us?” Olaf asked.

“Wait,” Rand said, holding up one hand.  Aisling’s heart skipped a beat as she stared at him warily.  Did he not want her, after all? 

“I apologize,” Rand said, “but before Aisling answers that question, it is only fair that we explain to her what it means to mate with a Clan Jasani male-set.”

“What it means?” Aisling asked with a frown.  “I don’t understand.”

“Rand is correct,” Olaf said.  “It would be unfair not to explain this to you first.”

“Okay, I’m listening,” Aisling said, her hands tightening on the mug so much that her fingers were white.

“Clan Jasani males are born with a set of mating fangs hidden in the tops of our mouths,” Olaf began.

Aisling’s eyes widened at that, but otherwise she maintained a stoic expression.  “Go on,” she said softly.

“When they scent their Arima, their mating fangs descend.  The mating fangs contain a serum which they administer to their Arima in a ritual we call the Soul-Link Triad.  After the serum has been injected three times, the mating fangs are shed.  The serum causes the Arima to change such that she becomes a full Clan Jasani and is able to shift as her Rami shift.  She also becomes soul-linked with them, and they with her.  Only when Rami and Arima are soul-linked are they able to have children.”

Aisling had been raised by both a doctor and a scientist, so she immediately had dozens of questions she wanted to ask.  But they would have to wait.  Right now, her most important question was a personal one.  “And if a woman is not an Arima?”

“For thousands of years we had no Arimas,” Olaf continued.  “We did, however, have human women.  Out of dire necessity, our scientists discovered a way for us to mate with them.  The process requires that we drink a potion which causes our mating fangs to descend, and also alters the serum contained within them.  The male set administers the serum to the woman in the same manner they would an Arima, but it does not cause the same changes as normal serum would cause in an Arima.  Instead, it speeds up her ability to regenerate, and makes minor DNA changes so that she is capable of becoming pregnant by her male-set.  Her children will all be males, triplets, and shifters as their fathers are.  It is important that you know that becoming pregnant is difficult at best and, in many cases, impossible.”

“If the woman cannot have children, what happens to her?” Aisling asked.

“Happens to her?” Rudy asked. 

“Do the male-sets abandon her and try again?” Aisling asked.

“Of course not,” Olaf replied, shocked by the idea. 

“I’m sorry,” Aisling said.  “I don’t mean to be insulting.  I just need to know.”

“Aisling, once a Clan Jasani male-set is mated, whether it is to a chosen human woman or an Arima, that is it.  There are no second chances.  We mate for life.  Our physiology does not allow for anything else.  We are unable to have sex with any other than our mate.  Ever.  If our mate leaves us, or passes to the next plane, then we must live out our lives, no matter how long they may be, without benefit of a mate.  There is no exception to this.”

“So if you mate with me, and I am unable to bear children, you will be stuck with me forever anyway?” she asked.

“We would not put it quite like that,” Rand said.  “But yes, once mated, we are mated for life.”

“I want children, very much,” Aisling said.  “It frightens me to think of not having them.”

“We, too, long for little ones,” Olaf said.  “If we cannot have children of our own, we will adopt them.  We cannot promise you children of your own, Aisling, as much as we wish we could.  But we can, and will, promise that we will bring children into our home, as many as you want, and we will love and raise them as our own.”

Aisling’s eyes stung and this time she let the tears come.  “Yes, I will mate with you,” she said.  “You are the men I am meant to be with, and the men I want to be with.  Nothing could make me happier.”

Chapter
19

It had taken Aisling a while to settle down enough to focus on work after the Gryphons dropped her and Karma off at the Council Complex.  She was so happy that she couldn’t think of anything else.  She’d had a very bad night, but she forgot all about that in her happiness. 

She shared her news with Karma, who had been very happy for her.  Then Elder Vulpiran had come in and Aisling had set aside her personal feelings and focused on the task at hand.  The computer had identified one hundred and thirty two distinct characters in the written documentation.  That was a lot of characters for a written language, but she didn’t think it would take very long for her to translate enough for the computer to do it’s thing.

The morning was about half gone when she was interrupted by a soft knock on the door.  She was ready for a break anyway.  The written data was almost entirely scientific, factual information and even though she liked science and numbers, this stuff was mind numbingly boring.

“Excuse me, ladies,” Elder Vulpiran said, entering the office.  “I apologize for interrupting your work.”

“I’m happy for the break,” Aisling said, standing up to stretch. 

“I have the results of the blood tests we ran the other day,” Elder Vulpiran said.  That got the full attention of both women. 

“I must first ask if you would prefer that I give you the results separately.”

“I’d tell Karma anyway, so I don’t mind,” Aisling said.  “Karma may feel differently, though.”

Karma smiled.  “Nope, I’d spill to you as well.  Go ahead, Elder Vulpiran.”

“Very well.  Miss Aisling, your mitochondrial DNA indicates that you are, in fact, a
berezi
.  You have the potential to be an Arima to a Clan Jasani male-set.  This does not mean you will definitely find a male-set.  Only that you have the potential.  Do you understand?”

Aisling nodded, unable to speak around the sudden lump in her throat.  Elder Vulpiran politely turned his gaze away from the emotion on Aisling’s face and focused on Karma instead.

“Miss Karma, your results were a bit...different.  We were unable to determine whether you are a
berezi
or not.  We actually ran the test three times, thinking a mistake had been made.  There is something in your DNA that we have not seen before.  We are uncertain what it means, if anything.  Our ability to identify
berezi
is quite new, and that may be the explanation for our difficulties.  In another year, we will hopefully know more, and may be able to give you more definitive results then.”

“It would have been nice to know for certain, but in the end, I suppose it makes little difference,” Karma said.  “If I am, and I am meant to find a male-set, then I will.”

 “The results of these tests is confidential, correct?” Aisling asked.

“Yes, they are,” Elder Vulpiran replied.  “However, you may feel it necessary to share the information under certain circumstances.”

Karma frowned and opened her mouth to ask him what he meant, but Aisling spoke first.

“I understand,” she said. 

Elder Vulpiran nodded.  It was clear to him that Aisling was upset about the results, and he wanted very much to ask her what was on her mind.  But he could not do that without violating the directive concerning the privacy of the information he had just given her.  

“Miss Karma, this afternoon I am going to our village school to speak to the students,” he said, moving on to the other reason he had come in.  “I thought that as you are a teacher, you might enjoy coming along with me.”

Karma’s face lit up with pleasure.  “I would love to come along,” she said.  “Thank you very much for inviting me.”

“Excellent,” Elder Vulpiran replied.  “I will stop by for you when it’s time to leave.”

“I’ll be ready,” Karma replied.  After Elder Vulpiran left, Karma turned back to Aisling, surprised to note that her friend’s face was even more pale than usual.

 “You aren’t very happy about being a
berezi
, are you?” Karma said, after Elder Vulpiran left the room.

“No, not really,” Aisling admitted.  “I’m worried about how the Gryphons will react since I’m not their Arima.”  

“I don’t see why it would make any difference,” Karma said.  “You love them, they love you, right?” 

“Yes, that’s right,” she said, but Karma heard the doubt and worry in her voice.

“Do you feel any hesitation?  Could there be another male-set out there that you should be with instead?”

Aisling took a moment to think about that, examining her feelings carefully.  The worry left her face and she smiled.  “Absolutely not,” she said decisively.  “The Gryphons are the men I am meant to be with.  No others.”

“Then a blood test should not change that,” Karma said.

“No, it shouldn’t,” Aisling agreed.  But deep inside, she had a bad feeling about this.  She was certain of her own feelings.  But she wasn’t quite so certain about the Gryphons’.

After lunch Aisling went back to her translations.  This portion of the text was almost exclusively records.  What was sold, to whom, for how much and when.  Orders, destinations, arrivals, reports on crew and ship maintenance and status.  It was so boring and repetitive that, before long, Aisling was reading on automatic pilot, not really paying much attention to the data as she thought about the Gryphons.  When she came to a section of writing that she couldn’t read, she was so startled that for a moment she wasn’t sure why she’d stopped reading.

She stared at the screen in front of her, blinked, turned her head to look at it sideways and tsked in frustration.  Whatever it was that she was looking at, she couldn’t read it.  She had the strangest feeling that the words were close to being familiar, but not quite.  Which made no sense to her.  Either it looked like Standard or it didn’t. 

She reached for the vox sitting on her desk and asked Elder Vulpiran to come to her office when he had a chance.  He was there a couple of minutes later.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he hurried across the office toward her.

“I just came across a section of writing that I can’t read.”

“Really?” Elder Vulpiran said in surprise. 

“Yeah,” Aisling said, pointing to the offending text on the screen.

Elder Vulpiran swung a chair around so that it was next to Aisling’s and sat down.  He studied the text for a moment, and shook his head. 

“I certainly can’t read it,” he said.  “I wonder why you can’t?”

“Since I don’t know how I can read and understand Xanti in the first place, I don’t have any idea why I can’t read this.  I’m sorry, Elder Vulpiran.”

“Well, lets think about this for a moment,” Elder Vulpiran said.  “Have you tried to read the entire thing?”

“No, just the first line or two,” Aisling replied. 

“Why don’t you try reading the whole thing,” Elder Vulpiran suggested.

“Okay,” Aisling said.  She turned to the screen and read through the entire section, stumbling over the unfamiliar sounds.  When she was finished she turned back to Elder Vulpiran.  “This section is complete mush to me.”

“I wonder if its a dead language,” Elder Vulpiran said thoughtfully. 

Aisling’s eyebrows rose in surprise.  She looked back to the screen and ran through the first few lines again. 

“Maybe,” she said.  “But if I can’t read the words, why do the letters look like Standard?”

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking it’s in code,” Aisling replied. 

“If that’s the case, it would seem to indicate that it’s important,” Elder Vulpiran said.

“Yes, I agree,” she replied.  “The text leading up to this section refers to it as the
Oraculum of Arkandu
, and refers to a law requiring every Xanti to read it at least once each day.  There’s also a very strong directive against allowing it to fall into the hands of any non-Xanti.”

“What is an
oraculum
?” Elder Vulpiran asked.

“I don’t know, but I have a feeling it may be a prophecy of some sort.”

“A prophecy concerning the Xanti would be a good thing for us to have.”

“If it’s in code, can’t the computer figure it out for us?” Aisling asked.

“I would say yes except for one problem,” Elder Vulpiran replied.  “The characters in the section you cannot read look nothing at all like those in the rest of the document.”

“They don’t?” Aisling asked in surprise.

“No, they don’t.  Not remotely.  Do you think you can figure out what it says?”

“I don’t know, but I want to try.  I think it’s going to take some time though.  Can I download this to my hand terminal?”

“Yes, just be careful with it and don’t talk about it with anyone,” Elder Vulpiran cautioned.  “The Xanti must not get wind that you have this.”

“Don’t worry, I promise that no one will know I have it other than Karma and the Gryphons.  Unless you want me to keep it a secret from them as well.”

“No, that’s not necessary,” Elder Vulpiran replied.