Rayne's Return (Hearts of ICARUS Book 3) (40 page)

They stopped in front of the Roar Room and Landor opened the door.  Once they were all inside the ante chamber and the door was closed, she turned to face them.  “I know this is probably not the time for this, but I have to ask.”

“No need,” Landor said, a sad smile on his face.  “Even though we’re now beginning to understand the reason our fathers did as they did, it doesn’t change the fact that they dishonored themselves and our mother by breaking their word.  We would never do that to you, Rayne, nor would we put our children through what we experienced.  If we’re blessed with children, and you are taken from us, we
will
remain on this plane until they’re fully grown and no longer in need of our guidance before we rejoin you.  On this you have our most solemn vow.”

“If that happens, never forget that I will wait for you, no matter how long it takes,” she said.  She blinked away her tears and took a deep breath.  “Okay, let’s go do this.”

“Yes, let’s,” Con said, opening the door into the shifting chamber.  Rayne went through the door and stumbled the moment her foot sank into the deep padding.  Landor caught her before she fell and carried her into the center of the room.

“Wow, graceful start.”

“Everyone stumbles the first time the floor sinks under their feet,” he said as he set her down, then hovered until he was sure she would remain steady.

“Thanks,” she said.  “Now what?”

“Imagine your bearenca in your mind and call to her,” Ari said, holding his arm up so that she could see what her bearenca looked like. 

Rayne nodded, took a deep breath, then closed her eyes and imagined herself as a bearenca.  She felt an odd pulling sensation that she didn’t recognize and opened her eyes.  Just as she started to ask Landor what it meant, she realized that she was no longer in her human form.  For one thing, she was taller than her Rami which was just plain weird.  For another, she was standing on four feet.  She looked down, grinning inwardly at the long sharp claws curling out from toes covered in red gold fur.

“Wow,”
she thought,
“I’m in desperate need of a mani.  Or is it a pedi?” 
She raised her nose to the ceiling and laughed, then froze, startled by the odd sound that came out of her mouth. 

“Was that supposed to be a laugh, Kisu?”
Landor asked.  Because of her experience with Wolef, she immediately understood that he was speaking to her telepathically.  She looked around and saw that all three of them had shifted and took a moment to admire them.  Then she did an odd little hop and leap of excitement and took off running.  She was surprised by how fast she moved, and how powerful she felt.  She caught something out of the corner of her eye and glanced that way, smiling inwardly to see Landor loping along beside her.  She looked to her other side and saw Con, and sensed that Ari was right behind her.  Without warning, she put on a burst of speed and outdistanced them by several paces for just a few moments before they caught up.  She was laughing delightedly when the part of her mind that was now purely bearenca spoke to her for the first time.  She stopped so suddenly that she flipped head over heels a few times before coming to a skidding stop on the thickly padded floor in her humanoid form. 

“Rayne?” Landor asked, bending over her with worry in his eyes.  “Are you all right?”

Rayne looked around to see Con and Ari standing close by, their worry as deep as Landor’s.

“I’m fine,” she said.  “Better than fine.”

“What happened?” Ari asked.  “You were running along fine and then you just fell.”

“I got…distracted,” she said as she struggled to her feet.  “And surprised.” 

“What surprised you?” Landor asked softly while noticing at the same moment that she had a tiny smile playing around her mouth.  He reached for her feelings.  “You’re excited about something.”

Con and Ari looked at Landor, then reached for Rayne themselves.  They found what Landor was talking about just before she clapped her hands together and laughed.  “Yes, I’m excited,” she said.  “Very excited, but you have to guess why!”

Ari and Con shook their heads even as they smiled at her antics, but Landor’s expression went from curiosity to speculation to shock.  “Are you sure?” he whispered.

“Positive!” Rayne exclaimed then leapt into his arms so fast he nearly failed to catch her. 

“Let us in on this, please,” Ari asked, then stilled as an idea blossomed in his mind.  “Oh,” he whispered.  “Really?”  Rayne laughed again, nodding at him, her eyes sparkling.  Ari threw his head back and let out a wordless shout of joy.  Then he looked at Con, who was beginning to look a bit testy.

“We’re going to be fathers, Con,” he said.  “We’re going to have babies to love and care for and teach and raise.  We’re going to be a
family
.”

Con’s mouth dropped open, then he reached over and pulled Rayne from Landor’s arms.  He spun her around in circles before pulling her close against his body and wrapping his arms around her.  “I love you so much, Rayne,” he said into her hair.  “So very much.  Thank you for this.”

She leaned back and looked into his eyes, then stretched up to kiss him.  “I love you, too, Con.  I love all of you.  After linking with you, this is the happiest moment of my life, but you needn’t thank me.  As I recall, we were all there at the time.”

“A triad pregnancy,” Ari said, holding his arms out to her when Con released her.  He didn’t spin her around because he could feel her lingering dizziness and didn’t want to make her sick.  He wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes as their hearts beat in tandem.  When he released her she laughed and clapped her hands again, hardly able to decide what to do with herself.

“Rayne, how do you know?” Landor asked, then shook his head.  “Never mind, I know the answer.  Your bearenca told you.”

“Yes, she did,” Rayne agreed, placing her hands gently on her lower abdomen.  “Girls.  We’re going to have girls.”

***

Later that afternoon Rayne took the follicle restorer to Salene’s room up the hall from the master suite, the same room she’d used, and started to knock.  She paused, then reached out with her senses for Salene, something she’d gotten much better at over the past week with the Bearen-Hirus.  She felt her sister sleeping, so she turned and went back down the corridor to the music room instead. 

She went inside and took a moment to just stare at the piano in admiration.  Then she pulled the bench out and seated herself before opening the fall, revealing the long row of black and white keys. Once again she had a bit of music repeating itself over and over in her mind that she couldn’t place.  With all of the other exciting events of the day she’d been able to shunt it aside several times, but as soon as her men left after lunch to attend to some duties, it had come back again.  It didn’t belong with the concerto she’d written, that much she was certain of.  But, at the same time, she couldn’t help feeling that she’d written it during her time with the Doftle.  So it
should
have been part of the concerto. 

She shook her head, set the confusing thoughts aside and reached up to the little electronic control panel setting on top of the piano and turned on the recorder.  Then she placed her hands lightly on the cool, glossy keys, closed her eyes, and played the snippet that had been repeating itself to her on a seemingly endless loop.  She played it twice before something in her mind seemed to click, and then the music began to flow through her fingers to the piano.  While she played, images began to roll through her mind, choppy and disjointed at first, but gaining clarity as the music unlocked one final memory.  By the time she finished the finale and the last notes faded into silence, her face was wet with tears. 

“There’s a story there,” Salene said knowingly, startling her.  She wiped her tears with the sleeve of her sweater, then turned around to see her sister sitting on the edge of a chair near the door, and her Rami standing near her with expressions of worry on their faces.  She gave them a watery smile then took a moment to study Salene.  She wasn’t looking very good.  The burn on her cheek was an angry red, contrasting sharply with her pale complexion, and there were dark circles of pain and worry under her golden eyes.

“Should you be up running around?”

“I’m a long way from running,” Salene said dryly.

“How did you know I was in here?”

“I felt you, of course,” Salene said.  “And your sadness.”

“It’s an old sadness,” Rayne said, glancing at Landor, Con, and Ari as she spoke.  “I just uncovered one last memory.”

Salene nodded, then pushed herself to her feet with effort.  “I can see this is going to be a private conversation, so I’ll just take myself back to bed.”  She walked slowly to the door, then paused to look back for a moment.  “That was really beautiful, Rayne.  Heart-rending, but beautiful.”  Then she opened the door and was gone.

Rayne stood up, turned around and pushed the bench back in place, then closed the fall and turned off the recorder.  While she did that, she felt her men approach so that when she turned around again, they were right in front of her.  “Salene’s right,” Landor said.  “It was beautiful.  And sad.  Do you want to tell us about it?”

“Of course I do,” Rayne said, smiling up at them.  “I want to share all things with you guys.  Don’t you know that?”

“We do, but it’s nice to hear anyway,” Ari said. 

“You remembered hearing us on the mesa the night the Doftle took you,” Con guessed.

“How’d you know?”

“The music told us.”

Rayne nodded, then stepped closer to Landor.  He picked her up, understanding what she needed because he needed the same thing.  He cradled her in his arms so that Ari and Con could crowd close.  When they were all touching each other, she spoke.  “The first week or so that they had me, I focused every scrap of energy I had sending out mental calls for you day and night.  I knew it was useless, I knew you’d never hear me, and I knew help wasn’t going to come.  But at the same time, it gave me something to do.  Something to think about and hope for.  After a few days I realized that I needed to get a grip on myself.  I couldn’t stop sending out calls, because that would feel too much like giving up.  So I put a limit on myself as to the number of times I could call, and how often.  That worked out all right as far as it went, but I needed something else to occupy my mind while I was waiting for time to pass between calls.  That’s when I first got the idea to write music and memorize it, and that piece I just played was what I wrote.”

“We didn’t hear the entire thing,” Ari said, “but we felt what we did hear.”

“I didn’t remember more than a few bars before I started playing it, so I recorded it.”

“We’ll listen to it later,” Landor said.  “Right now I’m more concerned with how you feel after regaining that memory.”

Rayne smiled up at him, then stretched up to kiss him quickly.  “You guys told me what happened on the mesa that night, and you were honest and thorough.  Because of that, it wasn’t the big shock to me it would otherwise have been, and I’m very grateful to you for that.  It was sad to remember how I felt when I wrote that particular bit of music, but I don’t feel that way now.”

“You should publish it,” Ari said.  “I think it might be the best thing you’ve ever written.”

“Really?” Rayne asked.  He nodded.  “I was just focusing on the memories and remembering the music, so I don’t really know.  I’ll listen to it later.  Now, what are you guys up to?”

“We came down because we felt your sadness, but we need to go back to work for a couple of hours,” Landor said.  “What about you?”

“I intended to visit Salene but she was sleeping, so I came in here instead.  I guess I’ll go have that visit now.”

“We’ll walk you,” Landor offered, setting her on her feet. 

***

Rayne waited until her men were gone, then knocked on Salene’s door.  A moment later her sister answered, appearing even more pale and tired than she had in the music room.  But her eyes lit up when she saw Rayne and they hugged each other tightly.  Then Rayne stepped inside and closed the door.

“Your hair is back to its normal color and it’s curly again,” Salene said.  “It looks great and oh my goodness!  You’re
lau-lotu
are so beautiful!  Why didn’t I notice them in the music room?  Were you hiding them?”

“No,” Rayne said, holding her arms out so she could see Con and Ari.  “I can’t quite believe how lucky I am to have them so I haven’t even considered hiding them yet.”

“It’s not luck, Rayne,” Salene said solemnly, her smile fading.  “I know a little of what you went through.  Enough to know that you bought and paid for every single moment of happiness you have now, or will have in the future.  I can’t tell you how happy I am for you, or how proud of you I am.”

“Thank you, Salene,” Rayne said, then hugged her again, careful of her injuries.

“Okay, enough with the weepy,” Salene said, leading the way to the sitting area of the room where they both sat down in overstuffed chairs.  “By the way, thanks for the clothes.”

“You’re welcome, of course.  If you need anything else, let me know, okay?”

“I can’t think of anything, but thanks.”

Rayne reached into her back pocket and pulled out the hair wand.  “I thought I’d start work on your hair,” she said.  “But I’m not so sure you’re up for it.”

“I’m just a little tired is all, and you should be spending time with your Rami right now, not fussing over me or my hair.”

“They’re working,” Rayne said.  “And they know where to find me if they want me.”  She turned the hair wand on and got up, moving to stand behind Salene.  Using gentle, slow strokes she began running the device over her sister’s scalp.  “Now, tell me how you really feel, please.”

“I’m tired and the burns hurt, but the salve keeps the pain from being too bothersome,” Salene said.  “Please, tell me what you know about my guys.  Are we still following them?”

“Yes, we are, and my understanding is that we’re not too far behind them.  I don’t know whether you’re aware of this or not, but this ship has Blind Sight now, just like the Doftle have.  They don’t know we’re following them, and they won’t know until we suddenly show up and take your men back.  In the meantime, maybe just one day in a healing tank would make a difference for you.”