The Balance (The Stone's Blade Book 2) Page 3

  Three days ago she’d been an only child. Now, according to a trio of intelligent, singing, color-slinging crystals, she had a twin sister living somewhere on Teramar. This twin would not know she was supposed to save the life of an alien creature — one of those intelligent crystals. Ani couldn’t help wondering about her twin. Was she happy? Healthy? Did she have friends? Family? Did she know that Northern’s first female short blade champion was her sibling? Would she believe what she was going to be told? Would she willingly come to Lrakira to save an alien? So many questions. Too many, actually. Ani wanted to focus on just a few of them, the important ones, but which were they?

  What about the horrible aliens the people of Northern were so worried about? When she thought about that, really, how horrible were the three alien Stones she’d met so far? They perched on pedestals, two singing prophetic songs and glowing in shades of amber and blue. The third was in a sorry state, barely flickering in faded green, with an amber blade embedded near its soul. Ani examined her feelings about the rock. It was another telepathic voice in her mind, similar to Kela’s, and her heart ached for the injured Anyala Stone.

  She rubbed at the blisters on her palms, acquired from her efforts to remove that offending blade three days ago. Then, in frustration at her inability to focus on one thought, she pulled at the grass on either side of her. Questions chased each other in an unrelenting circle. Was saving an entire race of people from extinction more important than saving a single intelligent rock? She chuckled at the line of her thoughts. The villagers of Star Valley would consider locking her up for thinking that way. Of course, she hadn’t known who — or rather what — she was destined to be. Her mother and uncle had done a superior job of keeping that a secret. Anger and disappointment bubbled up again alongside the incredulity of her new reality, her new identity.

  She tore at the grass and flung the bits at the pair of un-ringed moons. Would she ever be normal again? What was normal? All her training to become a master blader had not prepared her for this. Glad she was alone, she drummed her heels into the ground, digging divots in a childish tantrum as she railed against her predicament.

  Peeling bells from a cathedral announced the half bell. The man claiming to be her father would be waiting for her in less than thirty minutes. She stopped the selfish tantrum and scrambled to her feet. Long training and professionalism demanded she follow through on her commitments. Ani jogged down the hill to Kela, and they ran through the winding streets back to the building that housed the Stone Chamber. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as she thought, then pushed the thoughts away knowing she would have at least two weeks to get them in order before she stepped on Teramar’s surface and faced her twin — if her twin could be found.

  Though the run had warmed her up and she’d actually arrived a few chimes ahead of time, Ani shivered nervously with the prospects of the meeting.

  A baritone voice brought her out of her musings.

  “Was your time without observation sufficient?” Renloret asked as he strode towards her, his eyes staring at the floor instead of her, hands clasped tightly behind his back as if trying not to embrace her.

  “I found the meat roll vendor and had two rolls. He wouldn’t let me pay.”

  A slight smile softened Renloret’s expression. “Did anyone bother you?”

  How could she explain? “They were all so … polite. One woman even kissed me in gratitude.”

  He raised his head to face her and she almost stumbled at the depth and intensity of his gaze. She cursed her heart for wanting him, but there were more important blades to sharpen before she could declare her feelings.

  Renloret frowned. “I suggested they not advertise your likeness, but they wouldn’t listen to a pilot. They even ignored your father’s request to wait until we had left for Teramar.” He smiled again, this time more broadly. “Oh, you will be pleased to know the desired ship is a few bells away. We can leave in the morn.” The pilot stopped at a door and knocked gently. “Speaking of your father, he is waiting.”

  He pushed it open and gave her a gentle shove. Kela followed.

  She didn’t have to wait long for Yenne Chenakainet to find his voice. She barely listened to his rant though she was keenly aware of each time he mentioned her age and lack of knowledge of who she was and where she was from. When he finally ran out of words, the silence in the room seemed to echo. How could he be her father?

  “Do I have to keep apologizing for not being five?” Ani asked. When was this man going to let that fact stand? Obviously, he was as disturbed by the age and time difference as she was, but he had known all along he was alien to Teramar and she’d just found out. He’d actually met countless aliens and traveled between stars as often as she’d driven to Gelwood’s grocery. “This is not my fault,” she muttered, rolling her eyes. Kela grumbled agreeably in her mind.

  She watched the commander stalk about the room. It was just the three of them: Kela, this man who claimed to be her father, and herself. Renloret had left over an hour ago with the admonition that they would not be let out until they had talked. The commander did not talk, he complained. And all he could complain about was that she was twenty years older than she’d been just three of his moon-cycles ago. She corrected the time frame to months, determined to think and speak in her native language, Teramaran Northern, which he complained about as well. He wanted her to accept implantation of a bio-teacher so she could naturally speak and understand Lrakiran, but after her experience with the coma-inducing device implanted during a blade fight less than a month earlier in her timeline, she had no tolerance for another machine being placed in her body. His insistence had only strengthened her resolve, much to Kela’s disappointment.

  You could bend the blade a bit, Ani, Kela snipped telepathically.

  Why? He’s the one with all the alien experience. He should understand this better than me. He should be helping me adjust, not the other edge of the blade. She folded her arms tightly across her chest.

  Kela rolled over so his stomach could be available for scratching. You are indeed your father’s daughter.

  That was uncalled for, Kela. Stretching out one foot, she tried to poke his exposed belly. The canine’s comment stung.

  It was not and you are.

  She pushed away from the table and went to the window to study the patterns on the plaza’s stone pavers, lit up for the night. A small group of normal looking people crossed under the lights. Ani turned away from the serene view. Was it really possible that the young man sitting at the end of the table, head cradled in his hands, was her father? He looked more like an older brother than a father. Tears welled up. Her father.

  She wanted to blame someone, especially him. He certainly seemed to be blaming her for her mother’s death and her growing up twenty years in just the few months that had passed for him. Could she blame the Stones? They were responsible for singing this … time-song, which was supposed to age everyone on Teramar forward eight to ten years. Right?

  Hadn’t the doctors said that she only needed to have passed into menses so she would have the correct hormones in her body to save the Lrakiran people? Why hadn’t the song stopped when she reached her early teens? Wasn’t that what the plan had been? Why didn’t the Stones know what was going to happen? They seemed quite aware of a lot of things, including the need for The Balance to save one of the Stones. So why weren’t they expecting the attack on the Anyala Stone? If they knew it was going to happen, couldn’t they have prevented it? Maybe the Stones just didn’t expect the assailant to be one of their own Singers.

  Ani had heard rumors that her grandmother — a twisted blade of a woman — had interrupted the Stones’ time-song at a critical moment by stabbing the Anyala Stone with Singer Diani’s amber blade. Everyone was shocked by the turn of events — even the Stones. What little information Ani had received from the injured Anyala Stone pointed to this unknown twin being the only person who could draw out the blade. At least Ani and her father c
ould agree on the fact that neither one of them knew about such a twin. And now, in order to save a truly alien creature, they had to go back to Teramar and find her. Once found, they would have to explain her alien identity and that she was needed on a planet in another galaxy to save the life of an intelligent crystal. Ani shook her head.

  Barely two months ago, the word alien had been a bitter rumor that tagged along in her life like some rotten piece of fruit buried deep in the recesses of an old backpack. You could smell it occasionally, but no matter how often you cleaned the backpack, the scent wafted across your senses when you least expected it. Ani chuckled at the implausibility of being an alien, having a father barely older than herself, and having an unknown twin.

  At her chuckle, the man — her father — stirred from his reverie. His dark brown eyes were intense, drawing her in.

  “I apologize, Anyala,” her father said in Northern. He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth.

  So that’s where I get it. She felt Kela’s smirk and shut off the telepathic communication. Not that it made any real difference, but recognizing the habit made her mouth soften into a bit of a smile. Perhaps they were related. Ani pulled out a chair. He seemed ready to talk, finally, and she was ready to listen.

  “You’re correct. None of this is your fault, and I apologize for sounding like I blame you.” His dirt-brown hands were folded against his chin and unshed tears glistened in his eyes.

  “Apology accepted. I’ll try not to blame you either.” She could be magnanimous when she wanted to be, though she wondered how long she could refrain from blaming him for leaving in the first place.

  “I think …” He sighed. “Ani, we need to talk to the Stones, all of them, and that won’t happen until after we find the twin and return with her. We don’t know the whole story and perhaps the Stones do. They might point us in the right direction to unearth answers — like why Selabec stabbed the Anyala Stone when she did. I’m confident that the wounding of the Anyala Stone caused the time bubble to swing wide of its mark, extending the aging process almost a decade.”

  “I’ve asked Selabec, and she does not understand why she did it,” Ani replied. “She felt compelled to cause a ruckus of some sort to get the Stones to bring S’Hendale home.” She pronounced her mother’s name in the Lrakiran manner and then tipped her head toward a shoulder. “Well, after that interview, her doctors requested that I not see her again because it was too upsetting for her. Yenne, she believes I’m her daughter and your hostage.” Ani noticed the flinch in his shoulder when she used his proper name instead of referring to him as her father. He would have to be satisfied with his first name and not his familial designation. She wondered if she would ever be able to call him father.

  Kela harrumphed. Ani glared at him, mentally sticking her tongue out. He showed her a similar canine face. He was definitely in the same blade ring as this man. She looked around for something to throw at the animal. He laughed confidently in her head.

  “There is that misperception on her part,” Yenne said, bringing Ani back to their conversation.

  “Did Mother ever tell you what the Anyala Stone told her before she joined your crew?”

  “When she revealed her real name, she also told us she had made a blade promise to the Stone that she would go to Teramar to help us find the cure. I was drawn to her confidence. I believed in her; we all did. She was quite knowledgeable about medical research and she was constantly frustrated that technology on Teramar was hindering her. We’d been on planet for about two moon-cycles — or months — when I asked her to join-hands. She kept me waiting for three days.” He chuckled at the memory.

  Suddenly, Ani wished her mother could see that he was still in love with her. Ani reached out and touched his entwined hands — the first positive contact between them. “I see now that her heart was true to you and to the Stone to the end.”

  He nodded. “On our wedding night she told me that she would conceive a daughter who would provide the cure for our people.” His eyes never left Ani’s face. “When she announced her pregnancy, the two other women on the research crew feared she would die as so many of their families and friends had over the last few years. S’Hendale told us the Stone had promised she would provide a living cure in the form of a daughter and that neither she nor the child would die. When you arrived prematurely she was very concerned, but she was also confident that the Stone’s promise would hold true and all would be well. Once you had made it past your original due date, she seemed to relax and became a true mother devoted to a beloved daughter.”

  He paused, covering Ani’s hands with his and squeezing them. “You were never an experiment, Ani, if that is what you think. You were and are our daughter, a fact more important to us than you being the cure for our people.”

  Ani felt a lump tighten her throat and she fought the tears that formed. “Thank you for that,” she whispered. In her heart she knew this was true. And in her heart she knew that she came from a loving family. So why had her grandmother attacked the very Stone she professed to love and want to pass on to her now dead daughter? Once again, too many questions, but did she need all the answers, now? Wasn’t she under enough pressure? Could she be patient?

  Kela snuggled his muzzle into her lap, and Ani freed one hand to rub his ears. His growling purr helped to sooth her roiling emotions.

  When she looked up, Yenne was staring at Kela. A frown furrowed his brow. “What’s wrong?”

  He cleared his throat. “I’ve wanted to ask about Reslo. You said he was the one who enabled your link with Kela.”

  “Well, yes, he did. But neither of us knows exactly how he did it if that’s what you want to know.”

  Watching him massage his bottom lip between his teeth again, Ani knew he was sorting his thoughts because she did the same thing.

  “Reslo was always experimenting,” he finally said. “Given a problem or task, he almost always found a solution in half the time it would have taken someone else, and it would often be … unique.” He chuckled. “And Kela is unique.”

  His laughter brought a smile to Ani’s face and a shiver of memory slid into place. Her father had laughed often when she was young and that was his laugh.

  Of course I’m unique. Kela stated in utter confidence. At least on Teramar.

  “How long have you had this connection?” her father asked.

  Placing her hands on either side of Kela’s head, she looked into those icy blue eyes with love. “Almost fifteen years. I do know that Uncle Reslo specifically chose his species because they live well into their forties, even in the wild. But while many people assume he is half my age mentally, they grow up very fast in the beginning and gradually slow to the point of matching our own aging patterns. So by the time Kela was ten, he had matched my age of twenty. He now ages one year to one of mine and will do so for the rest of his life.”

  “Excellent.” Yenne clapped. “And he understands every word spoken?”

  “Every word of Northern. He can read Northern as well.”

  Kela barked in agreement. I was taught well. Tell him who taught me to read. He winked.

  Yenne leaned forward. “And he says …”

  “I don’t want to brag, but I taught him to read. Uncle Reslo was surprised when we showed him.”

  Eyebrows raised in surprise, Yenne sat back in his chair. “Reslo didn’t know Kela would be capable of reading?”

  Ani shook her head. “He only planned on Kela being able to talk to me and being able to understand what everyone in the room was saying. Reslo said it might be useful and another way of protecting me.”

  Yenne rubbed at his chin. “You mentioned you hadn’t been in contact with Reslo for a while. Why did he go to Southern and leave you alone?”

  “He was able to leave because, with Kela, he knew I wouldn’t be alone. The only time I was alone was when I woke up three days ago without Kela in my head.”

  “My apologies, Ani.”

  “Well, he’s back in my
head and we have no intention of repeating that scenario, right?” Grabbing the ruff of fur around his neck, she pulled Kela’s face to hers and kissed his muzzle several times.

  Ani returned to her father’s question. “As for Uncle Reslo, shortly before Mother died, Southern launched satellites as their first volley into space. Both Uncle Reslo and Mother were excited about the possibilities but didn’t really explain why they were so interested. Mother’s condition worsened dramatically shortly after that, and the subject didn’t come up again until after the funeral when Uncle Reslo told me he was going to Southern to offer them assistance. He said that by helping Southern get into space, he might be able to use their technology to enhance the communications system at the old research center, and then he’d be one blade closer to getting home.”

  Abruptly, she stopped talking and clasped both hands over her mouth as she remembered the desperation in Reslo’s voice when he told her that he was leaving. She spoke through her fingers. “I didn’t understand, then. I do now. Oh, blades. He and Mother had been trying to send messages to Lrakira for over twenty years without success because of the time thing around Teramar. Neither one of them gave up. They were always looking for a way to get me here. He went to Southern in search of a way to —” She choked on a sob and tears spilled over. Once again, her world — or the one she thought had been her world — was cracking open.

  Yenne reached across the table and gently cupped her chin. “It’ll be all right, Ani. Renloret got you here in time and our people will survive. When was the last time you talked to Reslo?”

  She brushed the tears off her face. “Actually talked with him? Months ago. He was excited about his research on Southern legends of some kind. Then I left him a message about Dalkey being back at the lake house and stirring up trouble about nonexistent aliens when Renloret’s ship crashed.” She grimaced.