Salene's Secrets (28 page)

“What’s happening?” she asked softly when she felt like she could speak around the lump in her throat.

“Controllers do be not give up without fight.”

“Will they be able to keep them from taking over again?”

“Yes,” Jinjie replied.  “Shifting do be making start over.”

“Why doesn’t shifting reject the Controller?”

“Me do be not know.”  He looked up at her.  “You do be not need watching this, Salene.”

“I don’t agree, Jinjie,” she said tightly.  “I think it’s the very least I can do.”

***

Talus, Jon, and Kar were unaware of time as they waited for the pain to ease, but they thought, rightly, that it was faster than before.  When they were capable, they shifted back to their humanoid forms and struggled to their feet, only to find Salene on her knees in the entryway, her face wet with tears.

“We’re sorry, Salene,” Talus said wearily.  Salene wiped her face with both hands and stood up.  She waited silently until Jon and Kar were both standing near Talus.  Then she turned around, and walked away.

“I don’t understand,” Jon said.  “Why is she upset with us?”

“We probably just reminded her of how much we hurt her,” Talus said, his gut tightening painfully at the thought. 

“It wasn’t us,” Jon argued quietly.  “It was the Controllers.  She knows that.”

“She knows it in her head, but maybe it’ll take a bit longer for her heart to catch up,” Kar suggested.

“There has to be a way for us to fix this,” Jon said.  Jinjie shook his head and sighed, capturing Talus’s attention.

“What?” he asked. 

Jinjie looked up and shook his head again.  “You do be thinking this about hurt feelings?  You do be thinking she broken toy what do be need fixing?  Salene Dracon do be not stupid.  She do be understand
Controller
.  She do be understand
sorry
.  She do be understand
you
.  But you do be
not
understand her, and she do be knowing that, too.”

“I don’t understand what you mean,” Talus said.

“No, you do be not,” he agreed.  “Tell me, why do be here?”

“To rescue Salene,” Talus said. 

Jinjie’s round brown eyes narrowed.  “And?”

“We love her, Jinjie,” Talus said.  “She is meant to be our Arima.  We love her, we miss her, and we want her to know that it wasn’t us that hurt her.  We want to take her, and you, and Tonka and the children too if that’s what they want, up to our ship and get the hell away from this world.  We want to go home to Jasan, make Salene our Arima, and get on with our lives.”

“That do be what
you
want.  Did you be asking her what
she
do be want?  What
she
do be need?  How
she
do be feel?”

“You think we’re selfish,” Kar said in surprise.

“You do be think you
not
selfish?”

“You know full well that we had Controllers, Jinjie,” Talus said.  “As much as I hate to admit this, we were completely powerless against them.  Nothing we tried worked and we tried everything we could think of.  We were
victims
.”

“Yes, that do be true,” Jinjie agreed.  “Princess Salene also do be victim.”

Talus couldn’t argue with that.  “What do you think we should do, Jinjie?”

“That do be decision you must do be make.  But Gryphons do be not hurt Princess Salene more.  Jinjie do be small, but magic do be strong now.”

“You’re threatening us?” Jon asked in surprise.

“Jinjie do be
warn
, not threatening.  High Prince Garen Dracon do be ask Jinjie protecting Salene and me do be give promise.  Jinjie do be not break promise.  Ever.”

“Your warning isn’t necessary, Jinjie, and we certainly wouldn’t expect you to break your word,” Talus said.  “We have no desire to hurt Salene.”

“Then do be not.”  Jinjie turned around, and left them standing in the cave looking at each other in surprise.

***

When Salene returned and settled down in front of the fire again, Tonka took a moment to study her carefully. 
“You are well, Highness?”

“Yes, Tonka, I’m perfectly well, thank you, and please call me Salene,” she said.  “You didn’t finish your stew.”

“I thought to wait for your return.”

“Shall I heat it up again?”

“No, thank you,”
he said.  Salene picked up her bowl and started eating the cold stew she no longer wanted, pausing to nod at Jinjie when he returned.  The Gryphons followed him a few minutes later and sat back down.

“We thank you for your help, Jinjie,” Talus said.  Jinjie nodded politely and Talus slid his eyes to Salene.  “There are many things we must discuss,” he said.  “Before anything else, we need to tell you about the
Ember
.”  Salene’s stomach rolled sickeningly, but she was careful to give no sign of it as she nodded.

“She crashed into, and through, a Doftle space station,” he began.  “She went in so deeply that only a bit of her nose section showed from the outside.  We had to send a crew into the wreckage to identify the yacht.”

“Was anyone alive?”

“On the Doftle space station, no,” he said.  “The
Ember
rammed straight through its core.  We scanned for signs of life of course, but it seems even Doftles need an atmosphere to live.”

“I can’t say I’m sorry about that,” Salene said.

“I can’t say we are, either.”

“What about the crew of the
Ember
?”

“All alive,” Talus said, shocking her into looking up at him.

“Really?  They all escaped?”

“Yes, they all escaped.” 

Salene took a deep shuddering breath.  “I can’t tell you how relieved I am.  Is everyone all right?”

“Captain Jake has some shattered bones in his shoulder and hip.  He’s in a healing tank and expected to make a full recovery.  The rest of the crew is fine.  A few bumps and bruises and one broken arm that’s already been healed.  Nothing serious.”  Talus smiled gently.  “They credit you with saving their lives because you prepped all of the life pods ahead of time.  And they’re right to do so.”

“What do you mean?”

“We retrieved the recorders from the
Ember
,” Jon said.  “We watched them on our way here, and saw everything that happened.”

“Tell me, please.”

Talus nodded, and decided to begin just before Salene and Jinjie entered their pod.  “About twenty seconds after the pilot told Captain Jake you had one minute and thirty seconds before collision, the space station fired a missile at the
Ember
in what appears to have been an attempt to destroy it before impact.  The missile struck a meteoroid that passed in front of the
Ember’s
nose at just the right moment.  The explosion slowed the
Ember
down just a fraction, and sent Captain Jake flying across the launch bay and into the wall, breaking his hip and shoulder.  He managed to crawl back and launch your pod before he passed out.

“A few seconds later the crew reached the launch bay and found Captain Jake unconscious on the floor.  They tossed him into a pod, launched it, then self-launched themselves.  Since they had to self-launch, they were conscious long enough to witness the
Ember
crashing through the center of the space station before their pods automatically put them into hyper-sleep.  The collision ripped the yacht’s hull open from one end to the other less than three seconds after the last pod got clear. 

“Life pods take precisely nine seconds to cycle through start up, but the crew had less than three seconds to spare.  If you hadn’t prepped those pods, Salene, they’d all be dead now.” 

“I’m so glad that they all survived,” Salene said, her hands trembling with the intensity of her feelings.  “Thank you for finding them.”

“We didn’t do anything but pick up their pod signals,” Talus said.  “We’d hoped to find you with them, but there were only six signals, and we never did pick up a seventh.  We feared you dead.”

Salene heard the tension in his voice and automatically tried to ease it.  “As you can see, I’m perfectly fine.  Captain Jake had me and Jinjie in the launch bay at the first sign of trouble.  After we crashed on this planet I discovered that the comm panel on the life pod had been damaged, though I don’t know how or when.  How did you find me, anyway?”

“The tracking dot we put in your shoulder,” Talus replied.

Salene’s eyes widened.  “I’d forgotten all about that,” she said, one hand going to her shoulder as a vague memory of them telling her about it over breakfast the morning they were abducted rose in her mind.

“You said that you had something you wanted to talk about,” Talus said, his eyes going briefly to the unfamiliar stone on her forehead, and the scar.

Since there were several things that fit into that category, Salene took a few moments to consider which one to begin with.  She hadn’t missed Talus looking at the stone she wore, or the scar.  He already knew about the scar since she’d told them about it when they were still on the
Armadura
, and she wasn’t ready to discuss the stone just yet.  So she addressed the most immediate problem by giving them a condensed version of finding Tonka and the children the previous morning after the raid on the settlement, and what Tonka had told her about the Nomen and the Doftles.

“So, you want to go to this silo…why?” Talus asked when she was finished.

“Mostly because of the innocent people who’ve been kidnapped from their home worlds to maintain the silos.  And also because the silo is filled with the Doftles’ creations.  Clones, humanoids, animals, constructs, hybrids, whatever you want to call them.  And because some of those hybrids have human heads, including some that look enough like me that Tonka recognized me.”

A low growling noise filled the cave.  Tonka leapt to his feet, his head down, icy green eyes fixed on the Gryphons as he considered the best method of getting on the other side of the fire so that he could put himself in between them, and Salene and the children.  “It’s all right, Tonka,” Salene said.  Tonka’s eyes met hers for a long moment.  Then he turned his gaze back to the Gryphons, not completely convinced that they were safe.

“We apologize, Tonka,” Kar said.  “Our alter form is part of our nature, and sometimes it responds in ways that our human forms would not.  Our anger is not directed at Salene, you, Jinjie, or the children, nor would we physically express that anger in a way that would endanger any of you.”

Tonka dipped his head slowly in acknowledgement, then laid back down, his eyes still on the Gryphons, but with less intensity. 
“Since you are upset already, I suppose it’s a good time to tell you that you three carry the scent of the Nomen.”

“That must be from the Controllers,” Jon said with a grimace of distaste.

“How could the Controllers be scented?” Salene asked, frowning.

“I’m not sure,” he replied.  “I remember reading a report, years ago, submitted by the Katre Consuls.  Arima Summer mentioned that the Brethren male, Winicke, could tell by scent whether or not someone had a Controller, and whether or not it was active.”

“That’s right, I’d forgotten about that,” Salene said. 

“What’s your plan?” Talus asked.  “Do you have one yet?”

“Nothing fancy but, yes, we do,” Salene said. 

“All right, tell us what it is, and we’ll help.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Salene said.  “I think you three need to return to Jasan as soon as possible and have your Controllers dealt with.  Jinjie and I will stay here and help Tonka.  My biggest concern is the children.  If you’ll promise to have at least one male-set on the
Aegl
make sure you shift every day, I’d like to ask that you take Mali and Tab back to Jasan with you.  Rayne and her Rami will care for them until my parents return from the LMC, or until I return, whichever happens first.  They’re extremely important to me, and I want them off of this planet and out of danger.”

Talus, Jon, and Kar shifted their gazes to the children.  They’d noticed them of course, but most of their attention had been on Salene and Tonka.  After taking in the children’s small size, thin frames, rough clothing, and the wary expressions on their faces and in their eyes, they thought they understood.  Salene had a soft heart for those in need, and these two children certainly fit into that category.  They looked at each other and shrugged.  It was in their nature to protect all women and children, so it would be no hardship to make a point of watching out for these two.  

“We are honored that you’d trust us with the care and protection of the children, Salene, and the promise you ask for is freely given,” Talus said.  “But we are
not
going to leave you on this world to fight without us at your side.”  He looked past Salene to where Jinjie sat on his log.  “Jinjie, how certain are you that we can keep the Controllers from taking over if we shift regularly?”