Laura Jo Phillips (65 page)

“Oh,” Hope said, surprised again.  She didn’t really know what to say to that, so she skipped it and asked another question.  “What does
Kontuan
mean?

“It means
bear
in our ancient tongue,” Jackson replied as he studied Hope’s expression.  “Do not worry about the Captain,” he said.  “All will be well.”

“I’m just worried that he’ll be angry,” Hope admitted.  “I don’t want us to start off on the wrong foot with the Jasani.”

“He is not angry,” Jackson assured her.  “He is
out of his comfort zone
, as Ellicia would have said.”

“I wish I had gotten a chance to know Ellicia,” Hope said wistfully.

“As do we,” Jackson agreed.  “We know what kind of woman she was, her bravery, her determination, her loyalty and honor, but we did not have the opportunity to really know her personally.  When it comes time to tell her sons who she was, it will be difficult.”

“No it won’t,” Hope said.  “What you do know of her is all good, and they will need to know that.  Her sister will be able to fill in the more personal aspects of who Ellicia was.”

“Yes, I had forgotten that,” Jackson said, brightening.  “Thank you.”

“This has been an interesting journey,” Hope said.  “There are a lot of things I wish had not happened, but I can’t help but feel as though we have a happy ending in spite of it all.”

“A happy ending, and a joyful beginning for our new family,” Rob said as he parted her hair and began braiding it.

Hope smiled as Jackson and Clark raised their fists to their hearts and bowed in acknowledgment of Rob’s words.  They were such big, strong, powerful men, and yet they were so sentimental, she thought.

“The one thing I don’t understand is why I had such a strong feeling that I had to go to Jasan, to Bride House,” she said.  “That bothers me because the urge was so intense, and I just knew it was the right thing to do, but it wasn’t.”

“Poutanas yie,”
Clark exclaimed.

Hope looked at him in surprise.  “You swore!”

“I apologize,
aspara
,” he said sheepishly as he leapt up from his chair and hurried across the room.

“But you swore,” she repeated. “In Greek.  Where did you learn how to swear in Greek?”

Jackson and Rob chuckled.  “
Niha
, you swear in Greek quite often,” Jackson said with a grin.  “It would be difficult for us
not
to learn it.”

“Oh,” Hope said, feeling her face heat.  “I suppose I need to stop doing that now that I have three sons to raise.”

“Don’t worry about it too much,” Rob said, bending down to speak softly in her ear, “I promise you that nobody on Jasan knows Greek.”

“That’s good to know,” Hope laughed as Clark returned to his chair with his hand terminal. 

“What are you looking for?” Jackson asked as he watched Clark search through his files. 

“Ah, here it is,” he said.  “Yes, that’s what I thought.”

“Clark?” Jackson asked archly.

“A few months ago a secret slave compound was discovered on Jasan,” Clark said, speaking mostly to Hope.  “That such a thing existed on our world without our knowledge was shocking, to say the least.  As heads of planetary security, it fell to us to beef up our defenses, and organize several search teams to scour Jasan for more such compounds.”

“Did you find any?” Hope asked.

“No, we didn’t,” Jackson replied.  He turned to Clark with a questioning look.

“I’m getting there,” Clark said before looking back to Hope.  “Bride House is very popular among Jasani male-sets.  So much so that it requires a reservation for male-sets to visit.”

“Ah...” Jackson said, understanding where Clark was going now.  Everyone turned to him but he shook his head and waved for Clark to finish.

“About a year ago we made a reservation to visit Bride House,” Clark continued.  “Because of the backlog, our date was set far in advance, and was supposed to take place about three months ago.  The discovery of the compound put a lot of extra work on our plates, and we missed our appointment.  In truth, we forgot about it completely.”

“So you guys were supposed to visit Bride House while I was there,” Hope said.  “That is such a relief to me, thank you so much for telling me that.”

“I am sorry we missed that appointment, Hope,” Clark said. 

“I think everything happened the way it was meant to happen,” she said with a shrug.  “As my mother said before she died,
Tò peproménon phygeîn adýnaton.”
   

“It is impossible to escape from what is destined,” Clark, Rob and Jackson translated at the same time.

Hope smiled, then yawned widely.  “Excuse me,” she said, covering her mouth as she yawned again.  “I suddenly feel so tired.”

“It is time,” Jackson said.  He stood up and bent to lift Hope in his arms.

“You won’t leave me alone, will you?” Hope asked, voicing a fear she hadn’t known about until she said it.

“Not for a moment,” Jackson promised as he laid her on the bed.  Rob straightened her robe and Clark tugged her braid out from beneath her and laid it over her pillow.

“I love you,” she said, yawning again.  As soon as the yawn ended, she smiled and started to say something else when her eyes closed and her body went limp.

Jackson, Clark and Rob stood beside the bed, watching her for a moment, feeling at a loss.  They knew what would happen next, and what they had to do, but they could not help but feel nervous about it. 

“Perhaps you should go and get Karma,” Jackson suggested to Rob.  “Let her know that we have begun, and that we will need her to send Hope into a deep sleep in about an hour.”

Rob opened his mouth to respond and froze, as they all did, when Hope’s silver and gold owl suddenly floated up from her sleeping body.  It settled in the air above her as though it were resting on a branch, and contemplated the Bearens with large, round, turquoise eyes.

Garen, Clark and Rob watched the owl carefully for a long moment, knowing that this apparition was far more than a projection of Hope’s thoughts.  Jackson considered their options, then bowed politely.  Clark and Rob instantly followed his cue, though none of them took their eyes off of the giant bird.

“Who are you?” Garen asked, forcing himself to speak in a polite tone rather than a demanding one.

“We are the Sentinel,”
the bird replied.  It did not speak out loud, but they heard its voice in their minds.

“The Sentinel of what?” Jackson asked, finding its use of the plural and the singular when it referred to itself interesting, and potentially meaningful.

The bird tilted its silver head.  “
We are the Sentinel of the Owlfen
,” it replied. 

“You do not look like Clan Owlfen,” Jackson pointed out, remembering the Owlfens that Hope had painted on her living room wall.

“Our current appearance is most comfortable for those of this world.”
  The bird blinked its turquoise eyes as it studied each of the Bearens.  “
Long have we guarded this line, the last with the blood of the Owlfen, awaiting the return of our Clan to the land of the living.”

“Then you must be pleased to know that your wait is at an end,” Jackson said.

“Perhaps,”
the bird replied. 

Jackson’s fists clenched with that single word.  He sensed a threat to their sons, but forced himself to remain calm.  A blood-rage would certainly not be of benefit, he cautioned himself. 

“Perhaps?” he asked, pleased that his voice sounded calm.  “The infants are what they are.  That cannot be changed.”

“It cannot be changed,”
the bird agreed. 
“It can be ended.”

“You would do such a thing?”

“We are wary,”
the bird replied. 
“Our Clan was destroyed and we would see its return.  However, it must return as true Clan Owlfen, not as a child of Clan Bearen cloaked in the flesh of Clan Owlfen.”

“Is it not better to have the Owlfen return, no matter who teaches them, so long as they are taught with honor?” Jackson asked.

“No,”
the bird replied. 
“Clan Owlfen must return in its pure form, in thought and will, as well as in wing and beak, or not return at all.  There can be no compromise.”

“It is better than nothing at all,” Jackson argued.

The bird tilted its head to the other side. 
“Would Clan Bearen be satisfied if its last sons were raised as Clan Vulpiran?  Or Clan Lobo?  Never to know the ways of the Bearen?  Never to know the secrets of your own Clan?”

Jackson sighed.  “Satisfied, no,” he admitted.  “But at least they would be alive.”

“We feel your love for the infants,”
the bird said
.  “It does you credit.  But we have waited too long to settle for less than a true return of Clan Owlfen.”

“What you seek is not possible,” Jackson replied.  “There are no Clan Owlfen.  There is nothing left of your clan.  We did not even know of its existence until recently.”

“It
is
possible,”
the bird argued
, “if you are found worthy.  You have already passed the first test.”

“What test?” Jackson asked warily. 

“The test to determine if you are able to bend your own beliefs enough to hear another’s,”
the bird replied.

Jackson was stunned.  “That was a test?” he demanded.  “Did Hope test us for you?”

“No,”
the bird replied.
 “She is unaware of our true nature.  Nor did we influence her.  We do not interfere in the lives of the living.”

“If that is so, your threat to kill the infants is only a threat.”

“We do not kill, nor do we threaten,”
the Sentinel replied with a sharp snap of its beak.
  “The first is beyond our power.  The second alien to our nature..”

“You said that the infants’ lives could be ended,” Jackson persisted.  “If you are not threatening to kill them, then why would they die?”

“We cannot accept them beneath the protection of our wings until we are certain they will be raised Clan Owlfen,”
the Sentinel explained
.  “If they are not accepted soon, they will perish.  This is true for all children of the Owlfen, and has been so from the Beginning.” 

“What does it mean to be accepted beneath the protection of your wings?”

The Sentinel ruffled its feathers as though irritated, but did not answer the question.  Jackson tried another.

“If we have passed the first test, what is the second?”

“To find whether you can humble your Bearen pride to accept our guardianship,”
it replied. 
“Only then can we teach you the ways of the Owlfen, so that you may teach them to the infants.”

“Is there no other way?”

“Never have we offered such to those not Clan Owlfen,”
the bird replied.
  “We can bend no further.”

Jackson considered the bird for a long moment, but he knew that they had to accept the offer, even if it meant submitting to the teachings and ancient ways of another Clan.  If they did not, the boys would die, and they could not risk that, no matter the cost.

“We humbly accept your offer, Sentinel,” he said.  “Tell us what we must do.”

***

Jackson sent a thread of Water magic into Hope, checking her heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration, knowing that the time was approaching for them to perform the second injection.  He was nervous now, after their discussion with the Sentinel. 

They had learned from the Dracons, the Lobos, and the Katres that the ritual of the Soul-Link Triad would be far different from what they’d been taught.  High Prince Garen had even sent them a special message to remind them of those differences, and what they would have to do in order to insure the safety of their Arima.  They had listened carefully to all they had been told, and were confident that they were prepared for this.  Had they not been, they would not have risked the ritual until after they returned to Jasan.

However, the Sentinel had changed a few things on them, and they were worried.  If it had been possible, they would have called it off.  But the first injection had been given.  There was no going back.  If anything went wrong...but Jackson did not want to consider that.

Jackson sent another thread of Water magic into Hope just as someone knocked on the bedroom door.  Rob went to answer it while Jackson finished checking Hope.  Her vital signs were still normal, so he withdrew his magic and turned to Rob.

“That was Karma, checking to see if we needed her yet, and letting us know she will be across the hall,” Rob said.

“Did you tell her that we may not need her?” Jackson asked.

“Yes, but I told her to be prepared anyway.”

“Good,” Jackson replied.  The Sentinel had told them that it would not allow Hope to feel the pain of the second stage of the transition, but they wanted Karma to stand ready, just in case.