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

  “Here, try this.” Melli placed the mug in front of Ani. “You’re my first victim.”

  It was not the cinnamon tea Ani expected. A decided exotic scent wafted from the steamy tendrils. She blew across the liquid’s surface before carefully sipping.

  Melli didn’t bother cooling hers but took a mouthful and inhaled through pursed lips. She then swished the liquid from cheek to cheek, held it in her tongue, and inhaled again before swallowing it. She set the mug down, pulled out a pad from a pocket, and scribbled a few words. Ani smiled. The note-taking habit of Taryn’s obviously came from his mother.

  Melli didn’t look up. “What is your first impression?”

  Ani considered. “Curiosity.”

  Melli looked up. “Curiosity? Haven’t heard that one before. Tell me more.”

  “Well, it’s better than the sheren leaf and chard.”

  Melli giggled. “Yes, that was a mistake I won’t repeat.”

  The slight bite of udi root reminded Ani that she had forgotten to bring the package of tea from Layson. It was still on the star runner. Ani made a mental note to retrieve it at the next opportunity and present the “Southern tea” to Melli. Hiding a brief smile behind her cup, Ani sipped again, rolling the tea over her tongue, swallowing and inhaling the residual aroma, and tasting for other familiar flavors before commenting. “A suggestion of udi root and luris seed.”

  Melli nodded.

  Finally recognition of the main flavor hit Ani, surprising her. “Whirjerata?”

  Melli laughed. “And only you would pick that out. Your uncle shipped me a batch of dehydrated fruits shortly after he arrived on Southern. I think it was his way of thanking Gelwood and me for kind of looking after you while he was down on Southern. You know, it took almost two months getting here. I haven’t had any response to my note of thanks, so he must be far from a communication source. I used about half in pastry fillings right away and stored the rest for later use. Well, you know me. I had to experiment with the newest food. Funny thing you using the word curiosity. I was considering naming this batch Southern Curiosity. I’m still working on getting a consistent taste. I’m not sure about the amount of luris seed. I think there’s too much. It almost hides the whirjerata.” She added to her notes.

  Ani took another swallow, appreciating the juxtaposition of the citrusy luris seed against the Southern fruit. “Perhaps that’s why I had trouble identifying the whirjerata, Melli. Besides, I’ve only had them twice since Uncle Reslo discovered them. But they do have a distinctive flavor. I agree that the luris seed hides that specialness. You are a master tea designer, Melli. You should market these on a wider scale. Your teas are the best kept secret of Star Valley.” She hesitated and then added, “With a few exceptions.” This was a perfect segue to the topic she really wanted to discuss.

  Melli pocketed the notepad. “True enough. Now, what do you want to know about your mother?”

  “As I said, I don’t know how to begin. It seems so wrong to not know your own family.”

  “Well, I always try to appreciate directness. I may not like it but getting a topic out in front makes it easier to discuss and handle than keeping it inside and letting it fester or get muddled.” Melli sipped her tea.

  Kela needled. Except when it comes to the love life of her son. You know she’s trying to set Taryn up with Keci’s youngest sister.

  Ani poked a foot at Kela. Stop it. You should not be talking. I need you to listen and observe.

  Yes, master. Kela sighed and sidled up to Melli, bumping her hand, asking for a petting.

  Melli rubbed the base of the canine’s ears as she waited for Ani.

  Ani adjusted her seat. “Melli, Mother lied to me.”

  A frown accentuated the wrinkles between Melli’s eyes. “About what, dear?”

  “Oh, blades, this is more difficult than I thought.” Ani looked at the ceiling because she couldn’t look at Melli. Then she took a slow breath, bent her head to her chest, and expelled the breath into her mug, studying the pattern the rippling tea made.

  Melli leaned forward, her face neutral, nonjudgmental. “Just say it.”

  Ani’s whisper was barely audible. “I have a twin.”

  Melli froze.

  Ouch. Kela sent the sensation of Melli’s fingers clenching the roots of his fur at the base of his ears. Ani felt him struggling not to wince or whine as Melli’s fingers began to pinch the skin. Ani, do or say something. It hurts.

  “Melli?” Ani looked up and saw the shocked expression in her friend’s eyes.

  “I … I was not expecting that.” The older woman’s voice shook with uncertainty. She brought both hands to the mug and drank deeply.

  Kela shook his head. My thanks. He lay down where Melli couldn’t reach his ears.

  “At least I am not the only one.” Relief colored Ani’s comment.

  “A twin?”

  For the first time Ani heard a guarded tone. Melli might be hiding personal knowledge or suspicions that there was a twin. “Did Mother ever say anything about having twins?”

  Melli pushed away from the table. “Anyala, there is … are often things that are too painful to discuss. And when one promises to abide by a friend’s wish, it is —”

  “Melli, you must tell me. I have to know.” Melli had used her formal name instead of the diminutive, something she seldom did. This was serious.

  “I promised her, Ani. I don’t want to break that promise.”

  Reaching across the table, Ani grasped both her hands. “It’s been twenty-five years since I was born and mother’s been gone more than a year. It will do more harm for you to keep this secret than reveal it. I need to know.” Ani scrambled to find a reason for Melli to explain. “It is a matter of life and death.”

  Melli finally looked straight at Ani. “I thought you had saved everyone in that village.”

  Ani almost breathed a sigh of relief. “The family records in Southern mentioned that Shendahl had birthed twins when she was here in Star Valley. I need to know where she is so I can give her the vaccine — if she has not already died.”

  “Is this disease contagious?” Melli’s alarm was evident.

  “No, it’s confined to a particular genetic pool. I would feel responsible if my twin were to die because I didn’t know who or where she was. It will be up to her to decide to have the vaccine, but I must offer her the choice.” This was a true statement … unless the twin also carried the correct hormones to cure Lrakira.

  Ani rushed on. “Even if she was born with a disability, I have the same responsibility. Perhaps Mother could not care for both of us.” How did her mother make the choice? Why was Ani chosen and not the twin?

  Melli was shaking her head. Ani assumed it was in disbelief.

  “Melli, don’t misunderstand me. I don’t hold a grudge for the choices my mother needed to make. I want to understand them so I can manage the consequences. Do you understand?”

  “Oh, Ani.” Melli started to cry.

  Ani walked around the table and embraced the sobbing woman. In her heart Ani realized Melli knew about the twin. But what exactly did Melli know? She began to cry too.

  “Melli, it’ll be all right. Please tell me.”

  Wiping tears from her face, Melli sniffled into a kerchief from her pocket. “It was supposed to be a fun trip, to get the two of us out of the village. Gelwood and Yenne had wanted to stay with us, but we made them go home. We were fortunate they had brought up enough food for a week, though we had intended to stay only for the weekend. It was useful, what with the blizzard and all.”

  Ani pulled a chair around the table and sat next to the now calmer woman. “Where did you go?”

  “The cabin.”

  “You two went to the cabin?” Ani was surprised.

  “Oh, we were younger back then and not so wise in the ways of weather or babies.” Melli shook her head. “We were foolish and it nearly cost us our lives — and the lives of our children. Yes, Ani, there was a twin, but she d
ied. I’m so sorry. It’s complicated. You need to hear the whole story.” Melli sniffed again and straightened her bodice. “Dear, could you pour more tea, please?”

  The tension left Ani’s shoulders at Melli’s words but quickly returned as she considered Melli’s tone of voice when she said “the whole story.” No matter how long it took to hear this story, Ani was determined to let Melli tell it at her own pace. At least now she knew, and that brought about a sense of relief. Her mother had not lied to everyone — Melli knew. And even though this was different from what the Stones believed, it was what Melli believed.

  Ani complied with Melli’s request for more tea while Melli launched into her story. “It was mid-spring, you know. The weather was wondrous and it had been weeks since the last storm. We thought we needed one final adventure before becoming mothers. Your mother was a little further along than me, so we had carefully planned our weekend escape to be at least a month before your mother’s due date. It was planned for two eves, and the men promised to come get us. Yenne was so sweet. He insisted on filling the food cooler to the brim. He had just installed it, you know, and he made it fully functional. He also made sure the pump worked so we wouldn’t have to carry buckets of water from the stream. Gelwood chopped almost a month’s worth of wood so we’d be as warm as possible when it cooled off after the sun went down.

  “We practically kicked them out so we could have our girlfriend time. We had brought up crafts to finish. Shendahl was putting the finishing touches on a crib wrap and I was needling a yarn blanket. This was going to be our last time to be just girls, not mothers.” Melli halted her dissertation to swallow more tea. “Where was I?”

  “You had kicked our fathers out.”

  “Oh, yes. We had a fabulous aftermorn, so warm. The birds sang so much. Turned out to be a warning about the coming storm. We just sat on the porch and talked girl stuff while we stitched our projects. By the next morning, the weather had chilled quite a bit. It was overcast and windy.” Melli shook her head. “We still didn’t heed the warning. We thought it was just going to rain.

  “Ani, we didn’t have the fancy weather satellites back then, so we had no idea it was going to snow so late in the spring. So much has changed in the last twenty years.”

  “It’s not as bad as that,” Ani said, though all she could think about was the twenty-year time shift in the time it took the Stones to sing a song and the knowledge that Melli’s best friend was from another planet.

  Kela rose from the floor to nuzzle Melli’s hand for more attention now that the shocking news had been exposed.

  Melli laughed. “Oh, I’m not complaining. Technology is a good thing, Ani. It gives us hope. It was Shendahl who complained about the lack of technology. She was always pushing the scientists at the lab to create new things, thinking of wild and hard-to-imagine ways to make life better.

  “You know, just before you entered your teens, she once told me that you were very special, that you were going to save lives. At the time, I thought she meant you were going to become a doctor like her and discover new treatments. Now I think she knew you were going to save the lives of those in her village down in Southern.

  “She was grief-stricken after your father died, but she tried to raise you in the Southern traditions. All that blade training and such. She always said she needed to uphold her end of the bargain, hold to her promise, and make sure you were respected for who you were, not just for being a girl. It was because she and Reslo trained you that so many girls are getting better educations and participating in all sorts of athletic competitions. Perhaps there will be blade competitions between Northern and Southern athletes someday, and we’ll crown a planet-wide champion. That was her goal for you, I think.” She drained her cup. “Your mother was so proud of you when you won. It was worth all that work.”

  “And all the teasing,” Ani said, remembering that most painfully.

  Melli turned to her and took up both of her hands. “Oh, she saw that and hurt for you, but she knew you would overcome it. She always said you were the rock she could lean on.”

  “What?”

  “She always said she could trust and rely on her Anyala stone.” Melli smiled. “You were the stone base for her beliefs, the reason she kept going even when she missed Yenne so much and even with everyone telling her she should quit the doctoring because she was alone with a youngster. She said she had to keep her promise to her home and family and she’d do whatever was needed.”

  The Anyala Stone. That’s what she talked about, and because she named me after the Stone, Melli thinks she was talking about me. Ani sent the telepathic thought to Kela.

  Perhaps she was, Ani. Kela answered back.

  There was a knock on the screen door. “Melli? You home?” a woman’s voice drifted down the hall to the kitchen.

  Melli scooted her chair back. “Oh, I completely forgot, Ani. Nonnash was bringing Brenlee over. I was going to watch over the baby while Nonnash took a walk.”

  “That’s all right, Melli. It’s been twenty-five years and another eve won’t change the results. It’s a lot to take in. I just wanted to know if it was true. Thank you for telling me. We can continue this tomorrow.” Her head was spinning and she needed some time to internalize this new information.

  Melli nodded and patted Ani’s hand. “I have so much to tell you, and I have to find some things from your mother that might explain even more than I know, but tomorrow will be better. We’ll have more time. Now that you know, can you wait for the reason your mother asked me not to tell?”

  Ani nodded. She tried to remind herself that another day wasn’t that long, and she really needed to approach this with care. At least now she knew the Stones were partially correct — there actually was a twin. Melli patted her hands again then leaned toward the front door and raised her voice. “Nonnash, I’m in the kitchen. Come on in.”

  Nonnash arrived with her youngest daughter snugged in the carry seat. “Thank you so much for watching her. All the other girls are in school, and I just need some time by myself.” She recognized Ani.

  “Oh, you’re back from Southern! Did you find the cure for your village?”

  Ani smiled and greeted the woman with a respectful nod of her head. “Yes, we were fortunate to get there in time. Many lives were lost but the rest are well now.”

  “What was the cure?” Nonnash talked as she uncovered the sleeping infant, now almost a half-year-old.

  “It turned out to be me. Well, my blood. Apparently, members of my family have a natural immunity to whatever bug is down there, and it took them a while to locate us. Renloret was kind enough to get me down there to assist. They drew enough blood to create a vaccine and they inoculated everyone.”

  “Will you have to go back?”

  “Maybe. Depends.” Ani shrugged. She drew her finger across the sleeping infant’s cheek. “All the baby girls are safe now.”

  Nonnash looked at Melli for an explanation. Melli offered, “Something about the virus affecting only the women and girls.”

  “Oh. Can we catch it here?” Concern flashed across Nonnash’s face.

  Ani answered as honestly as possible. “I don’t think so. This was an extreme outbreak and not likely to happen again, especially now that they have stockpiled the vaccine.”

  Ani gave Nonnash a hug. “You and Keci make beautiful daughters. Have a nice walk. I’ve got to get back too.” She nodded to Melli. “I will see you first thing, all right?”

  “Yes. I’ll have your favorite tea ready.”

  Ani walked herself to the door leaving Melli to hear care instructions from the mother of six. She left knowing without a doubt that her mother was the mother of two, and in the morn, she would find out why only Melli knew.

  This time they met at the lake house. During the eve meal Renloret revealed the note he’d found. It was dated a few months before the attack on the research center and it questioned S’Hendale’s choice of twin. While it did not reveal the identity or wher
eabouts of the twin, it implied she was still alive at that time. Both Taryn and Ani sighed with relief.

  They moved to the living room with its larger table so Taryn could lay out copies of the newslines announcing all the births and deaths that had been registered during and shortly after the unprecedented blizzard. Taryn voiced his concern about the lack of notice of Ani’s birth, let alone a birth of twins anywhere near Star Valley, but he also said that official notices hadn’t been required at the time.

  Settling on the couches, Ani and Taryn took turns reading selections of the newslines aloud. Renloret needed to understand the magnitude of the storm and its aftermath. The pilot had been preparing to build a fire when he noticed the family photo on the mantel. He took it down and showed it to Ani. After staring at it for several minutes, she passed it on to Taryn, battling tears as she began chewing on her knuckles.

  “So does he still look like this?” Taryn asked as he reached over and pulled her hand out of her mouth. “Well? This was taken when you were about five, wasn’t it?”

  She wiped the trace of tears off her cheeks. “Yes and yes. Mother kept it on the mantel. It was the last image she had of him.”

  An uncomfortable but respectful silence settled around them until Ani sighed deeply and refolded the newsline papers. Tucking her feet under her, she stared at the crackling fire for a breath or two.

  “I admit he’s my father. Now can we get on with our mission?”

  The defeat and frustration in her words kept the two men silent.

  She motioned for Renloret to take a seat. “My turn and it’s good news, sort of. Melli admitted that there was a twin, but she said the twin died.” She waved off Renloret’s attempted interruption. “We know that the Stones said the twin is alive, and contrary to Melli’s statement, I am inclined to believe the Stones. There is also the note Renloret found. I need the whole story to understand why Mother never said anything about her. Melli had just started to tell the story when Nonnash arrived at the house and interrupted us. I’m supposed to go back to hear the rest in the morn.”