The Balance (The Stone's Blade Book 2) Read online

  “I’m just curious.”

  “Yes, Ani, please translate,” Renloret said.

  Her sigh of resignation was loud. “He says they’re sweet and crunchy.”

  Almost like dessert. He scrambled to his feet and maneuvered behind the couch so Ani couldn’t reach him.

  A whistle from the pot on the stove interrupted the levity. Ignoring the snickers from both men and Kela, she poured the hot water over the tea balls. The bite of cinnamon drifted from the mugs as she handed them out. Cradling their mugs, each sought out a seat facing the fireplace and a comfortable silence settled between them.

  Kela yawned and placed his head on his paws. His eyes perused the trio. This is good.

  She covered her smile by sipping the tea. Yes, it is.

  Renloret shook his head and sipped his own tea, a smirk settling on his lips.

  “What are you thinking?” Ani asked softly.

  He closed his eyes and answered. “This is home, Ani. I just realized that an alien sheriff, a real heroine, and a telepathic canine are far more family than I have on Lrakira.”

  Ani swallowed a mouthful and began rocking. Taryn smiled at her and began tapping his hands on his thighs in syncopated rhythm to the steady creaks from the rocker runners. Ani began to hum and tilted her head at Taryn in silent suggestion. He nodded and began singing. The old folk song about a lost child longing for a family connection and finding that the definition of family, as varied as the shapes of snowflakes, seemed to solidify Renloret’s comment. After the first phrase, Ani joined in, watching Renloret’s reaction out the corner of her eye.

  Renloret had closed his eyes. At the beginning of the second verse, he softly added monosyllabic background baritone notes. The chorus was simple enough and he sang the words. The trio sang it four times through and Renloret whisper-sang the last line of the chorus to a satisfying close. Then the only sound was the crackling of the fire.

  Another one please, Kela requested.

  Ani obliged the silent request with a sideways glance at Renloret.

  The pilot set his mug down in astonishment as Ani launched into a Lrakiran song. He waited for her to begin the chorus and joined in. Ani occasionally stumbled over pronunciation, but she held the melody line while Renloret played with descants.

  Taryn applauded at the end. “Well done. Did you practice that on your way back?”

  Ani smirked. “I have to apologize to Renloret. I found some music files on the starship and entertained myself when I couldn’t sleep. I don’t know the meaning of most of the words, but the tune is catchy and … I liked the feel of it. I hope the words aren’t offensive or lewd.”

  Waving her off Renloret said, “No apologies from you are needed. I apologize for not making you aware of the files in the first place. On a ship, I have a tendency to concentrate on the mission at hand. I certainly did not want to botch up this one. It’s an old folk song children are taught in schools. I’ll get you a translation, if you want.”

  “Perhaps later. Now, do either of you want anything else to eat or drink before we settle?”

  Crunchy sap beetles? Kela offered.

  Ani nudged the animal’s rib cage. “Beetles, bah!”

  The two men laughed. Ani snatched the mugs from their hands and placed them in the sink. “We have a lot to do after we break fast in the morn. We should get a good eve’s rest. Taryn, you set up the cot and I’ll get the blankets.”

  When she tossed the blankets from the shelf, Taryn missed and the blanket landed on Renloret’s head, making her snicker. He pulled it off and ran his fingers through his hair to smooth it out. Ani turned away to hide her smile. The three of them had been together most of the day, so perhaps she should accept that they got along and appeared to like each other. Nothing bad about that. She felt the agreement from Kela, whose tail thumped softly against the floor.

  Yes, you are right, she admitted silently. This is good. She nodded at the canine’s wink. She was more relaxed than she’d been in months. Together they would find the twin and save the Stone. Then all would be well.

  Renloret pushed down on the door handle a third time. It did not open. There was no palm pad, no key opening. He leaned against the wall thinking that it might require a verbal command to open.

  No one was with him to enlighten him about the storage room lock, so he would have to figure it out on his own. Ani and Kela had gone to Melli’s house, as planned. Taryn had probably checked in with his office before heading to the library to do some research. And he was standing in front of a locked door at the research center.

  He tried all the Northern words for open or unlock the bio-teacher offered. It did not open. He cursed in Lrakiran. That gave him the idea. “Abren.” The bar of the handle glowed green. “Ha!” He pushed it down and the door swung in.

  Lights automatically hummed on as he entered the records room. Drawered cabinets lined three walls. A rectangular table with six metallic chairs occupied the center. Renloret turned around. The wall with the door also displayed a large writing surface. There were no windows to the hallway. He set his pack on the table and looked at the drawer labels. Bolded words were in Teramar’s Northern. In smaller script beneath, the words were Lrakiran. Obviously, workers from both had used the records. He pulled open a drawer.

  More labels, all in Northern, delineated categories of information. The bio-teacher supplied basic translation as he perused the paper contents. Such a waste of space and resources. He shook his head and closed the drawer. He didn’t have time to search each drawer’s contents. He finished reading the exterior labels. Nothing suggested he’d find what he needed in any of the drawers. Was there another records room?

  He sat down and pulled the pack close. The outer pocket held the layout of the research center Taryn had retrieved and printed from the tel-com at the cabin. Renloret had been more than surprised at the technology hidden amongst the cabin’s rustic appearance. Before they had slept, Taryn had sent a message to his secretary to send the schematics and architectural features of the research center in the morn. Within the first bell of the workday, the papers had printed out, and after a quick study, they had targeted this room for Renloret’s fi rst search. He leaned closer to the paper and then studied the room. The dimensions on the blueprint were incorrect.

  Paper in hand, he strode to the back of the room and ran his hands across all the cabinets. They were all solid and heavy with paper. The labels gave away nothing. What had he missed? He returned to the corner where there was a gap between the cabinets and ran his hand over the sides of the last one, stopping at a slight imperfection in the surface. To most people it would have felt and even looked as if the metal had been scratched. Renloret smiled knowingly. How clever. He pressed the scratches and spoke, “Abren.”

  The entire wall moved away from him and slid to the side. In the room beyond, a row of screens with Lrakiran keyboards appeared. Now this was what he really needed. He ran back to the table, retrieved the backpack, and entered the hidden space.

  He set the pack next to one of the keyboards, returned to the false wall, and examined the surface until he located pressure switches for sealing the wall. A smile crossed his lips as he also discovered alarm settings. Obviously, only Lrakiran personnel worked in this section. He made a few adjustments and the wall slid back in place. Comfortable he would not be discovered if someone wandered into the deserted portion of the complex, he turned his back to the wall and went to a keyboard and screen. Would it initiate? He pressed the pad and when a small blue light appeared, he expelled the breath he’d held and began typing.

  Ani had dropped Taryn at his home so he could use his own hover-car to get to the library, then she continued to his parents’ house. She sat in her vehicle and stared at the home, her second home now that her mother was gone. The wide porch with its iron railings welcomed her as they always had. She had sipped many a cup of tea with Melli on that front porch.

  “Okay, Kela. Let’s go in,” she muttered aloud, as mu
ch to herself as to the canine. “I’m not sure I’m prepared for this. She’s going to have a lot of questions, especially after the way I left.” The last time she’d been here, Ani had sneaked out of the house through an upstairs window with the intent of finding and killing the man who’d stolen her mother’s body from the cemetery.

  Kela snuffled in her ear. Not as many questions as you have for her.

  “I guess I can bluff my way around the alien stuff. Everything else is true. I just have to remember that everyone here thinks I left to save a single village, not an entire planet of aliens.”

  That shouldn’t be a problem. Just don’t mention you met your father.

  She ground her teeth. He was the last person she wanted to talk about.

  A curtain moved in the large window. Ani could see the silhouette as it moved toward the door. Melli came out and waved, her smile radiant. Ani responded in kind.

  “Come on, Kela. Time to get this search rolling.” Ani held the vehicle door open for Kela and watched as he bounced up the stairs. His tailed waved with pleasure as Melli bent to rub the top of his head.

  “Good morn, Kela. I see you convinced her to come.”

  Ani raised her eyebrows. Does she suspect our connection?

  No. But I bet she knows you talked with Taryn after we saw each other at the cemetery. She had asked me then if you were also in the area, but I had no way of actually telling her. Let her believe what she wants. I think she’s delighted that you are back and have chosen to see her first.

  “Yes, he wanted to come with me and I couldn’t refuse. I can put him back in the wheeler if he becomes a pest.”

  I heard that.

  I know. Now, behave like a normal canine.

  Kela gave a pleasant rumble as Melli continued to massage the base of his ears. He sat down and placed a paw on Melli’s thigh. She took it and leaned closer to place a small kiss on his muzzle, and he beat his tail on the porch floor in response. Having greeted Kela, Melli straightened and held her arms out. Ani stepped into a fierce maternal hug.

  “So glad you’re back, Ani. Did your friend return with you?” Melli stepped back and held Ani by the shoulders to look into her face.

  “Renloret?” She was surprised by the question. It wasn’t on her list of possible first questions at all.

  Melli nodded encouragingly.

  “Yes, he did. He’s staying at the cabin right now.”

  “Why not at the lake house?”

  “We weren’t sure of the reception he would receive after nearly abducting me from the valley. What did you tell them?” Ani maneuvered Melli to sit on one of the chairs. Kela followed and lay at Melli’s feet.

  “Oh, there was quite a stir about the cemetery scandal, and we used that as an additional excuse for Renloret to take you to Southern to recover until the mess could be straightened out.” Melli leaned forward and took both of Ani’s hands in hers. “Did Taryn tell you we reburied your mother? When you are ready, we can discuss a proper remembrance ceremony.”

  Patting Ani’s hands, Melli reassured her. “It’s appropriate to be upset. I cannot imagine what you’ve been through. So horrible that someone would do such a thing. That it was General Dalkey just makes it worse. And just to steal your mother’s blade. I just can’t understand the reasons.”

  Kela gave a low, approving growl. Ah, that’s how Taryn explained it. Good thing.

  Close enough to the truth. “I apologize for behaving the way I did, Melli. I didn’t know how to handle what had happened.”

  “Taryn said you were in a real state when they found you.”

  “Yes, that’s what I was told.”

  Melli sat back in the chair. “How did that turn out?”

  Ani cleared her throat, readying the story. “It was a good idea to go to Southern so I could come to terms with what happened at the cemetery and what I did afterward. Plus it turns out that my parents were indeed from the village that needed help, so when I got there, I was tested and it was confirmed that I had some immunity to the virus. They created a vaccine from my blood and everyone in the village was inoculated. They lost quite a few before we could get there. I’m embarrassed to say that part of the problem was that my parents had changed their names, so Renloret didn’t recognize them from the list. Apparently, there had been some trouble between the medical and political factions early in their careers and moving to Northern allowed them some freedoms they didn’t have in Southern at the time. Things have changed in the past twenty years, things we didn’t know about until my uncle returned to Southern. He’s located in a different part of Southern and didn’t know there was a problem in their home village, so he couldn’t help.”

  Melli patted her hand again. “People should talk things out. Miscommunications cause more problems than anything else. We are not all that different from them.”

  Kela gave Ani a canine grin. No lie! It’s only a matter of technology and time.

  Ani ignored Kela. “No, we are not that different.” She paused, uncomfortable with changing the subject but knowing she had to.

  “Listen, Melli. While I was there I learned some things about my own family and I need to talk to you about them.”

  “Why me?” Her surprise was genuine.

  “Well, you were mother’s best friend.”

  A wary look crossed Melli’s eyes and the smile disappeared. “Yes, we were close.”

  Ani stood and placed her hands on the railing, looking away from Melli. “I don’t know how to broach this. I’m still not convinced it’s even true. If it is, then I have to reorganize my whole understanding of my mother and her side of the family.”

  Ani received a telepathic scene from Kela’s point of view. It was disconcerting because she was in it, standing as she was, but she could also see Melli. She watched Melli become still, as if hesitating to respond, her face studying Ani’s stiff back.

  Kela explained. This way you don’t have to sneak a peek and perhaps not see what you need to see. He continued to project the scene from his point of view.

  Melli finally gave a sigh and firmly stood up. “Why don’t we make some tea? I do know your mother was very conflicted about her relationship with your grandmother. There was some event neither could overcome or reconcile. Shendahl never explained. Let’s go inside and see if I can answer some of your questions.”

  Ani turned, grateful for Melli’s intuition. This would be a start to finding out if there had been a twin. And maybe she would discover more information about the relationship between her mother and grandmother. She and Kela followed Melli into the house.

  There’s more to Melli than even I suspected. Perhaps I should consider becoming a frequent visitor, a nonverbal listener, a confessor of sorts. There are advantages to being a canine. Plus, I could beg for snacks and actually get them.

  Yes, you do have advantages no one else has. That’s a good idea, except for the snack part. Ani reached down and ruffled the fur on his neck.

  “Running his hand through his hair, Renloret pushed back from the desk. He had looked through so many files he could barely think. And still no leads. He hoped the other two were having better luck. He pulled out a meat-stuffed roll from the backpack and absently took a bite, chewing while he stared at the scrolling screen. He wondered if he had entered the best search criteria. Next to the screen, the insulated container of tea seemed to whisper his name. He poured the tea into the cup-like lid and breathed in the scent of cinnamon. He blew across the still scalding liquid before sipping. The spicy bite tingled pleasantly. He studied the screen. It had stopped scrolling. One file was highlighted and he selected it.

  Renloret read the entry again. It was just one faint line, scribbled in the margin within one of S’Hendale’s personal notes on her research for a cure. It looked like she had tried to erase it. Magnifying it, he read it aloud. “What if I’m wrong and I chose the wrong twin?” This was the first true evidence that there had been a twin. He let out a shout of jubilation and scanned the repor
t for any further explanation. He found none and backtracked to check the date of the report. It was several months before the attack on the research center. Ani had just turned five and her mother had finally started to test her daughter’s blood.

  “Thousands Trapped or Stranded. Eight Feet of Snow Blankets Mountains.” The headlines caught Taryn’s attention. He scanned the front-page article from the capital’s main newsline and remembered the stories of rescues retold many times over the years. There had been unusually heavy spring snowstorms the year he was born, storms that had buried Star Valley and the neighboring mountain ranges. So many children had been born premature that spring that the local hospital officials had jokingly called them low-pressure babies or storm-front babies. Taryn and Ani had shared birthdays with a higher than usual percentage of school classmates. Old tales of barometric pressure changes setting off labor in pregnant women came under scientific scrutiny that year. Instead of the three or four birthdays a month, he could count at least ten within the same week as his. They were considered survivors.

  In the details of the article, all births were listed, along with where the births had taken place. He found his own birth listed at the Star Valley Hospital. The valley actually had a hospital back then. He could not find a listing for Shendahl and Yenne Chenak welcoming even one daughter, let alone two. He checked the lists again. A surprising number of infants had not survived the long hours of cold or the lack of medical attention. He checked several weeks on either side of the blizzard without success. Ani’s birth was not listed or announced in any of the local bulletins or the regional newslines. Where had she been born? He was fairly confident she had been born in Star Valley. Perhaps her mother had been moved to a special medical facility because of an imminent premature birth. But the commander hadn’t said anything about a troubled pregnancy, and Taryn had gotten the impression that the premature birth had been a surprise like so many others. Maybe Shendahl had been in another district giving a lecture, or maybe Ani’s parents hadn’t wanted official notice because Ani was not really from Northern. The search for the twin would have to rely on personal accounts and that meant Ani’s discussions with Melli were even more important.