Laura Jo Phillips (21 page)

“Now, raise the katana over your head and slip it into the harness, the blade facing your left,” he said.

Summer followed his instructions, missing the loops meant to hold the katana the first two times she tried it.  Maxim made further adjustments until she could slip the blade into the loops in one smooth motion, and remove it just as easily.

“Try that a few more times, and let me know if anything catches in the slightest degree,” Maxim suggested.  Summer nodded and did as he said, practicing the movements repeatedly until she could both draw the katana, and sheath it in one easy move.

“I think it’s perfect,” she said finally, as she looked up to find Maxim nowhere in sight.  She turned around and spotted him further up the aisle, standing before an array of giant battle axes.  Summer joined him, watching as he reached out and stroked the handle of a slender, almost graceful looking axe with a recurved blade and a carved wooden handle.

“This was no axe,” Maxim murmured softly.

Summer frowned at the axe, then looked to Maxim.  “What is it then?” she asked.

Maxim’s gaze flew to her as he withdrew his finger from the axe.  “Excuse me?” he asked, clearly startled by her presence and her question.

“You said it was not an axe,” Summer said.  “I just wondered what it was.”

Maxim smiled faintly.  “I owe you an apology, Summer Whitney,” he said.

“For what?” Summer asked.

“Mara,” he said, his teeth clicking together as though he had to bite the word to get it out.

“Why should you apologize for another’s actions?” Summer asked. 

“She is our mother.”

“That does not make you responsible for what she does or says.  It does not appear as though you have a very good relationship with her,” Summer said, unable to prevent herself from fishing just a little.

“No, I do not,” Maxim replied.  Summer thought she caught a note of sadness in his voice, but from the cool expression on his face, she was sure she was mistaken.

“I’m sorry,” Summer said.

Maxim frowned, opened his mouth as though to speak, then closed it again.  Summer suddenly understood.

“She is the reason you do not like me, isn’t she?” she asked.

“I do not dislike you,” Maxim argued.  “But, I admit that she is the reason I have been so critical of you.”

Summer nodded.  “You think that I am like her.”

Maxim opened his mouth but Summer held up a hand.  “No, please do not deny it,” she said, her voice gentle in spite of the sudden sharp pain in her heart.  “I am who I am, Maxim.  If I were able to continue pretending to be someone else, perhaps you would feel differently about me.  But I cannot.”

Summer swallowed hard around the lump in her throat and blinked against the sudden sting in her eyes.  “I thank you, Maxim Katre, for assisting me with the harness.  It was most kind of you.  If you will excuse me, I must leave now.”

With that, Summer turned and walked almost blindly back down the aisle to the front of the armory.  She barely noticed Darleen standing by the door waiting for her.  She fished around in her pocket for the transaction card she had found in her luggage that morning, and offered it to the young man who had assisted Darleen.

“There is no charge to you, ma’am,” the man said politely.  Summer wanted to ask why but knew that if she spoke, the dam would break and the tears would flow.  She could only nod as she turned toward the door and hurried out of the armory, shoving the card back into her pocket as she all but ran through the cluster of buildings, back across the valley toward the gravel path, and some semblance of privacy.

Chapter
26

Mara watched Ran and Loni as they followed the tall, dark haired woman with their eyes as she raced by. 

“I sincerely hope that you are not going to tell me you want to mate with that female,” she said snidely.  Her sons tore their gazes from the other woman and looked back at her in surprise, as she had intended. 

“She is too skinny, too tall, and her hair is so long it looks positively uncivilized.  Besides which, her face is ugly.  Especially her nose with that great lump in the middle of it.  What is wrong with it anyway?  Is she deformed?  I have no wish for ugly grandsons.  If you must mate, you had better pick someone at least passably pretty.  I warn you now that I will not tolerate any offspring from that female.” 

“When did you become so foul, Mother?” Loni asked, his voice calm as always, though his eyes warned her that she had, again, gone too far.  First Ran, then Maxim, now Loni.  What was wrong with her? she wondered.  She seemed unable to curb her tongue at all lately.  Well, that is what stress will do, she thought.

She opened her mouth to again call on her loneliness as an excuse, but Loni shook his head.  “Good day, Mother,” he said shortly.

With that, Loni offered her a short bow that was the bare minimum of politeness and strode away without a backward glance, Ran at his side.  She watched them in surprise until they entered the armory.  Well, she told herself, at least they had not followed after that woman. 

Thinking of the dark haired woman caused her to turn and look after her, noting with satisfaction that she was still moving quickly out of the valley and had nearly reached the gravel path back to wherever she had come from, the black cloaked figure limping along at her side.  Mara wondered who the woman was, and why her sons seemed to be interested in her, then decided it did not matter.  Should they try to mate with the woman, Mara was fully confident in her abilities to drive her away.  With that happy thought, she put the matter out of her mind.

She stood there for a few moments, trying to decide what to do next.  She had been trying to come up with some idea to get herself into the Dracons’ home all morning long, and so far she had failed.  In the end, she thought perhaps another lunch would help her to think so she turned to go back into the cafeteria.  She glanced up once more to see that the dark haired woman was nearly out of the valley, and caught a glimpse of something in the distance as she turned.  She turned back and gasped aloud.  Finally, her luck was in.

Just there, strolling through the grass and heading in her direction, were several figures.  One, a petite woman with long red-gold hair was walking behind three toddling children.  Behind them paced a gigantic dog with black and gold stripes in his fur, harnessed to a small wooden wagon.  Surrounding the group were three warriors, all alert, but obviously enjoying their duty as they watched the children toddle along in the grass. 

Mara was afraid of the dog, Tiny, but as he was harnessed to the wagon, she thought she would be safe from him.  She knew that the children often rode in the wagon and that the dog pulled it, which she personally thought was outrageous.  Just a fancy show for the upstart princess and her oh-so-precious daughters.  Even from where she stood, Mara could see that all three of the children had their mother’s ugly red hair.  Ugh.  If she’d been born with red hair, she’d either dye it, or go bald, Mara thought disdainfully. 

Mara studied the small procession carefully as it grew closer to the double row of buildings, noting with some concern that they were not, apparently, going to visit any of them.  Instead, they appeared to be skirting the more populated area, and the crowd of people gathering to watch politely from a distance.  Mara realized that they were only cutting through the valley, probably on their way to the Lobos’ home on the other side.

She began walking casually toward the building at the far end, keeping the Dracon children in sight as she went.  Before long she was slightly ahead of them, and noted with some relief that they would actually pass quite close to the building where she was headed.  She reached into her pocket and felt the familiar object she had been carrying on each visit to the ranch for nearly a year as she reached a spot just beyond the corner of the building.  From her position she could see the children, but would not be easily seen herself.  She slipped the cap off of the object in her hand with a practiced motion, and gripped it carefully between her fingers.  Then she waited.

Lariah Dracon laughed as her youngest daughter, Tani, tumbled head over heels in the thick blue grass.  The little girl sat up, lifted her face to the sky and laughed happily.  Nothing ever seemed to bother Tani.  She always found joy in everything her world had to offer. 

Lariah’s vox beeped softly in her ear and she reached up to tap it, still grinning as her eldest daughter, Salene, toddled over to Tani and tried to help her littlest sister to her feet.

“Yes?”

“Have you guys left yet, Lari?” Saige asked.

“Yes, we’re about half way through the valley now,” Lariah replied.  “Something wrong?”

“No, just curious,” Saige said.  “I think I’ll come down and meet you half way.”

Lariah opened her mouth to reply when several things happened at once.  First, she noticed that her middle daughter, Rayne, had wandered a bit far from the rest of the group, nearing the back of one of the new buildings.  The guard who would have normally herded her back was helping Salene and Tani get back to their feet after Salene’s attempt to help had landed them both in a tangled, giggling pile.

The next thing she noticed from the corner of her eye was a very large figure darting away from the building toward Rayne, just as Tiny began growling furiously, sending her a mental warning of danger.  Lariah spun toward Rayne and the figure, which she now realized was a large woman, just as the woman grabbed hold of Rayne, causing the usually calm child to scream. 

Lariah’s dracon burst forth at the terror and pain in her daughter’s voice.  One second she was a human female, small and delicate, the next she was a fifteen foot long dracon with a mouth full of sharp teeth whose only reason for not incinerating the offending woman instantly was that her daughter was too close to avoid harm.

The woman released Rayne, dropping her carelessly to the grass as she started to turn back toward the building, only to freeze when she looked up to see a gigantic, leopard spotted dracon standing over her.  When the woman started to take a step back, Lariah lifted her head and roared her fury into the sky.  The woman stilled, her heart racing so fast that Lariah’s sensitive dracon ears had no problem hearing it.

A fraction of a second later, the scent of Rayne’s blood reached the dracon’s sensitive nose, enraging it to the point where Lariah had to struggle to hold it in check.  It wanted nothing more than to bite the woman in half.  Instead she stood close to the woman, her fangs bared, growling softly as a warning to the woman not to move.

“
We are on our way
sharali,” Garen said into Lariah’s mind.  “
What has happened?”

“
A woman has harmed Rayne
,” Lariah replied, unable to provide further details.  She was too angry to think in words at the moment.  The sound of racing paws reached Lariah and she was glad to know that Saige was on her way as well.  Lariah had managed to hold the dracon in check so far, but she still wasn’t altogether certain she was capable of forcing it to allow the woman to live.

“I’m sorry,” the woman said, but neither Lariah, nor her dracon, wanted to hear a word.  She growled furiously, loud enough to cause the ground to shake.  The woman shut her mouth and said nothing more.

Three soft popping sounds announced the arrival of Lariah’s men, Garen, Treyen and Valen, the Royal Princes of Jasan. 

“Please return to human form,” Garen said softly.  Lariah’s dracon growled again, but did as her mate asked.  As soon as she was back in her human form Lariah bent to pick Rayne up off the ground, cuddling the sniffling child close to her.  She looked to her other two daughters, relieved to see that Trey already had Salene in his arms, and Val had Tani.

“Explain to me why my daughter’s blood scents the air,” Garen commanded the woman, his voice a rumbling growl of anger. 

“I have no idea what you are speaking of,” Mara said.  “I just meant to pick the child up when that crazy woman of yours started....”

Garen threw his head back and roared with fury as he shifted from human to dracon, then back again.  “You dare to insult the Princess to my face?” he demanded as soon as he was back in his human form.

Mara swallowed hard.  “I apologize, High Prince,” she said.  “I am frightened, and when I get frightened, my tongue gets carried away.”

Mara’s eyes widened as a gigantic, black and white striped wolf wove its way through the gathering crowd as it stalked toward her, its pale green eyes fixed on her face.  Mara knew that somehow, that animal could see right through her.  She started to take a step back when another voice growled from behind her.  “Do not move,” Maxim warned.

Mara spun around to face her eldest son, ignoring his warning.  “Maxim, explain who I am,” she ordered him imperiously.  “This is getting ridiculous.  I am being treated like a criminal and I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Maxim placed large hands on his mother’s shoulders and, gently but firmly, turned her back around to face her accusers.  “Do not move again,” he said softly, his voice so cold that Mara actually shivered. 

This was not going well.  She had thought she could bluster and bully her way out of this, but she had underestimated the Princess.  She had never guessed the little snip of a thing could, or would, show such rage.  And she had certainly never imagined that the Princes themselves would show up over the matter of one squalling brat.