At least one pod carrying females had reached Earth three thousand years earlier. A pod carrying Eldar Hamat’s Arima and three young daughters, along with many other women. Since Lariah was a descendant, it was now certain that at least one of the three daughters had survived. And if one had survived, it seemed logical to at least hope that there were others. More potential Arimas for his people. He had realized the moment Lariah revealed she had a sister that the woman could be an Arima, but Lariah had no other family. Now, apparently, there was hope for many more male-sets than he had thought.
At long last, Garen realized, there was real hope for the Jasani to once again become a true people.
Epilogue
Lariah stormed into the guest room where she had first stayed when she came to Jasan. She waited a brief moment until she was certain that Tiny was all the way through the doorway, then she slammed the door shut as hard as she could. The sound was satisfyingly loud.
She stomped toward the bed and threw herself down, her anger evaporating as quickly has it had flared. She sighed and shook her head mournfully. She had no idea what was wrong with her. One minute she was happy, the next angry, the next near tears. And in between, she all but attacked whichever of her three men was closest as though the mating heat was still on her. She had even called Riata to ask her if that were possible, but Riata had assured her that it wasn’t.
Lariah felt tears run down her cheeks and she sat up and wiped them away. Her emotions were all over the place and she couldn’t seem to control them no matter how hard she tried. She wondered again if it was her inability to shift that was causing it. She knew that when Garen, Trey and Val went too long without shifting they got tense and irritable.
The problem was she couldn’t seem to make it work. Everyone seemed so certain that she could shift if she wanted to, but she had tried everything everyone had suggested and a few things of her own with zero luck. She admitted to herself that she felt like a failure.
She heaved a big sigh, wondering if she should go apologize to the guys for losing her temper again. She couldn’t even remember why she’d lost it this time. “Honestly Lariah,” she admonished herself, “you are getting absolutely ridiculous.”
A soft whimper caught her attention and she turned to see Tiny standing patiently at the door, waiting to be let out. “That’s a good idea,” she said. “Maybe a little walk and fresh air without the hovering trio will do me good.”
She crossed the room, opened the door, and stepped out onto the patio, pausing a moment to inhale the sweet fragrance of the garden. She could never get enough of all of the plants flowers and trees. Tiny headed toward the gate, Lariah following him, opening the gate and closing it behind them before trailing him toward the copse of trees set back from the house on the hill. She let her mind wander absently as she walked, just trying to relax a little.
A deep, warning growl startled her out of her reverie and she looked up to see Tiny standing just in front of her, his hackles raised, teeth bared. She followed his stare up the rise to the trees but didn’t see anything unusual. She stepped up beside the dog and put one hand on his back.
“What is it boy?” she asked softly. Three figures stepped out from the trees and for one long moment Lariah’s heart seemed to freeze in her chest. She recognized them immediately, thought she would never forget them. The man in the middle, short, round, and deceptively soft looking, was Loggia. The two hulking brutes on either side of him were the men who had followed his sadistic orders while he sat watching, as though what was being done to her was a show put on for his entertainment.
Something deep inside of her awoke with a roar as the three figures moved toward her, all of them smirking at her, swaggering confidently as they approached. Tiny growled louder and tensed beneath her hand. The bodyguards eyed the massive dog warily, but Loggia ignored him.
“You gave us a merry chase, Ellicia,” Loggia said, his high girlish voice sending chills down her spine as her anger rapidly grew, outdistancing her fear by leaps and bounds the closer they got. “It will be fun making you pay for that.”
That did it. Something inside of her snapped and she tilted her head back toward the sky, opened her mouth and roared, reveling in the sudden rush of power that filled her. She looked down at the three small figures standing before her and roared her fury again. She was so shocked to see flames shoot from her mouth that she stopped mid roar and blinked.
She looked down at herself, and grinned inwardly. She had done it. She had shifted into her dracon.
“Lariah, precious, you are not where we left you,” Garen’s voice spoke in her mind. She looked up and saw Val, Trey and Garen all flying toward her.
“Well,” she thought back, deliberately making her voice sound light, “I decided to work on my fear of fire.” She paused a moment before adding, “I think I got it beat.”
The sound of three male growls reached her ears as the three dracons landed, surrounding the three men still standing motionless, staring at the scorched grass in front of them. A sharp odor reached her sensitive nose and she stared blankly at the men, her dracon eyes noting at once the spreading stain in the front of Loggia’s pants. She wrinkled her nose with disgust, causing Garen, Val and Trey to send her their teasing laughter. She shook her head in an attempt to dislodge the smell, and was distracted by a soft noise. She paused, searching for the source of the sound.
Garen, Val and Trey all shifted back to human form just as a sleek ground-car approached them at high speed and slid to a stop, hovering just above the thick blue grass. The door opened and a tall, gray figure stepped out. He had an abnormally large head with round shiny black eyes, a flat nose and a mouth that stretched all the way across his face, ending behind the tiny hearing membranes situated on either side of his head. His shoulders were extremely wide, narrowing to slim hips and thin legs. For all that the man looked top heavy and bulky he walked with an odd grace.
He stopped next to Garen and smiled, revealing that his head was mostly mouth filled with several rows of extremely sharp, pointy teeth.
“Ah,” he said, his voice smooth and deep, “I see our guests have arrived just as we expected.”
Garen shrugged easily. “They are yours,” he said, “provided you keep your promise that they will not have the opportunity to bother our mate again.”
“Oh, I guarantee such a thing will never happen,” the gray skinned man replied with a chuckle. He then tilted his head back and looked up at Lariah. “Is this your lovely mate then?” he asked. “She is quite astounding.”
“Yes, she is that,” Garen agreed. “Lariah, release your dracon please.”
Lariah looked at him, Val and Trey. It seemed everyone was waiting on her. She shrugged, not really caring, still feeling a bit distracted. She thought about it for a moment, then closed her eyes and focused on being her human self. A few moments later she was standing next to Tiny again.
She buried her fingers in the thick fur around his neck and tried to focus on the people standing staring at her. She avoided looking toward Loggia and his men.
The gray man bowed slightly to her. “Ah, I see the family resemblance,” he said. “I bring greetings from Ellicia,” he continued. She heard the startled gasp from Loggia but ignored it. She never wanted to look at him again in her life.
“You know my sister?” she asked.
“Yes, and a very fine young lady she is. She has…aided…me in a certain matter concerning the…beings…standing over there.” The man looked toward Loggia and bared more teeth. “Ellicia asked that I give this to you, along with a message,” he said, reaching into his pocket and removing a small box which he held out to her. Lariah took the box, her heart speeding up as she guessed what was in it. What she hoped was in it. “The message is, and forgive me, but I promised her I would say it exactly, Now Larry, I don’t want you to lose this again and this time, I mean it. Next time I won’t give it back.”
Lariah laughed, though everyone else looked a bit confused. “Larry?” T
rey asked.
“Not Larry, Lari,” Lariah corrected with a smile. “Thank you so much,” she said to the gray man. “Please tell Ellicia thank you for me as well, and that I am very happy and will send her a message soon.”
The gray man bowed once more. Then he looked at Garen. “I will take this mess off of your hands now,” he said, his toothy smile widening impossibly further as he gestured toward Loggia and his men.
“Please do,” Garen said, adding, “and do have fun.” His tone made Lariah shiver. She had never heard him sound like that before.
“Oh, I intend to,” the gray man replied. Lariah shivered again. She wasn’t sure exactly what the two of them meant, but she had a feeling that Loggia and his men were not going to be harming anyone else again soon…or ever.
The gray man tapped his cuff and seconds later, the three men vanished. Lariah breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, she breathed softly.
“I assure you, it is my pleasure,” he said. He bowed once more. “Gentlemen,” he said, nodding at Garen, Val and Trey, “it has been a pleasure working with you.” They returned his nod solemnly. He turned and walked back to the ground-car in his curiously gliding gait. Moments later, the ground-car was gone, and the four of them were alone on the hill behind the house with Tiny.
Lariah suddenly realized something. She put her hands on her hips and scowled at her men. “That was a setup, wasn’t it?” she demanded.
Garen, Val and Trey all raised their eyebrows at her, their expressions entirely too innocent. Lariah rolled her eyes at them. “You knew Loggia and his men were going to be here. In fact, I bet you had to allow them to transport down. And there is no way you three would ever let me wander outside alone knowing he was going to be here. So what’s going on?”
They grinned at her, three identical grins containing not one shred of guilt. Garen shrugged. “You are correct sharali,” he admitted. “In truth, they would never have been allowed to come closer to you than they were. Our magic is more than strong enough now that we had no concern for your safety. Given that, we thought you would like to be present when we handed them over to Jung Del.”
Lariah gasped. “That was Jung Del?” she asked in a shocked whisper.
“Yes, that was Jung Del,” he confirmed. “Loggia stole the Crown Jewels from his sister and queen, murdering her in the process. Ellicia helped him find the jewels, and every one of Loggia’s bases was raided. But Loggia and his men escaped capture, so we agreed to aid Jung Del in luring them here so they could be caught.”
Even Lariah was familiar with the name Jung Del. The word ruthless barely began to describe him. She looked at her men, and understood that they had wanted Loggia to suffer greatly for what they had done to her, but that torture was not something they could engage in. Or that she could condone. Turning Loggia and his men over to Jung Del was an act which, in and of itself, revealed how deeply furious and vengeful they felt toward Loggia.
Knowing what little she did about Jung Del, she could almost feel sorry for Loggia and his men. Almost. But not quite.
“Thank you,” she said simply. “I now know that I will never have to worry about Loggia, or his men, again.”
“You are most welcome, sharali,” Garen replied with a smile.
“Are you going to show us what your sister sent to you?” Trey asked curiously.
“Oh yes!” Lariah exclaimed, “I’d almost forgotten.” She turned the box over in her hands slowly, hoping it contained what she thought it did.
“On my thirteenth birthday, my Mother gave me a ring,” she said, speaking softly. “She told me it had been passed down in our family for many generations and was very special. At the time I could not wear it because it was too big for me, so I used to wear it on a cord around my neck. I don’t know how many times the cord broke and Ellicia had to find it for me.” Lariah smiled at the memory. “As an adult, it fit my finger, and I wore it all the time. Loggia took it from me.” Lariah shrugged, but her eyes were sad. “He didn’t know what it was, but he liked it, so he took it. That is how Ellicia was able to find me,” she explained. “She knew I always wore the ring, so she looked for it to find me. When I woke up in the hospital, Ellicia was gone, and so was the ring. I didn’t know if Loggia had gotten away with it or not, but I never thought I’d see it again.”
She paused for a moment, looking up at her men. “At least, I hope that is what is in the box. I’m almost afraid to open it for fear it’s something else.”
“Your sister’s message that she didn’t want you to lose it again probably means that the ring is in the box,” Val pointed out.
Lariah smiled. “Yes, I think you are right.” She looked at the box, took a deep breath, and opened it.
There, nestled in a soft bed of black velvet, sat her mother’s ring. Lariah felt tears sting her eyes at the sight of it. She had thought it lost forever.
“It’s a Daughter Ring!” Trey gasped. Lariah looked up at him in surprise.
“Lariah, may I look at it more closely?” Garen asked. Lariah nodded and handed him the box, curious to note that Val and Garen looked as surprised as Trey had sounded.
Garen lifted the ring from the box and examined it closely. It was made of a white metal that looked like platinum, but, he knew, was not. The metal felt warm, almost soft, though Garen knew that it was extremely hard. A large blue-green stone that seemed to glow with an inner light was set in a circle of the metal. Etched into the metal, so tiny they were difficult to see, were the figures of three feline beasts. The bezel itself was set in a nest of finely crafted filigree, coming together at each side to form the narrow band.
Garen placed the ring back in the box and handed it back to Lariah. “You must show that ring to Eldar Hamat,” he said.
Lariah’s brows rose in silent question.
“I am willing to wager that he and his brothers gave that ring to their Arima,” Garen told her soberly. Lariah looked back at the ring in wonder.
“What did you call it Trey?” she asked, “a daughter’s ring?”
“No, a Daughter Ring,” he corrected. “That stone, and the metal, were both quite rare on Ugaztun. Now of course, with Ugaztun no more, there are only those few that were among the possessions of the male-sets who landed on Jasan.
“It has long been a tradition among our people to present this rare combination, the stone and the metal, to an Arima when she bears daughters. Many families had only one ring, which were passed down from one generation to the next. Even before the Dark Time, daughters were rare and treasured,” Trey explained. “A ring such as that is beyond price.”
“So the cats on it must mean that this ring belonged to the Katre Clan,” Lariah said sadly.
“Why are you sad, sharali?” Val asked.
“This is the only thing I have that belonged to my mother,” Lariah said. “But, it would be wrong not to return it to the Katre Clan.”
“Well, we do not need to make such decisions at this time,” Garen told her, scooping her up into his arms and turning toward the house. “For now, enjoy the return of your mother’s ring, and we will think about tomorrow when it gets here.”
Lariah smiled and leaned up to kiss Garen on the neck. “That is a good idea,” she said, her mind turning to other revelations this day had brought.
Garen carried her across the patio and into the house, settling on the sofa with her in his lap, Trey and Val sitting on either side of them. Lariah looked at them suspiciously. They were obviously up to something.
“Lariah,” Garen began, “you have been behaving strangely for many days now, and we are beginning to be concerned. Are you unhappy?”
“No, I am not unhappy,” she replied. “In fact, I am extremely happy right now.”
“You are?” Val asked, one eyebrow cocked dubiously. Then he frowned. “Oh, because of your mother’s ring.”
Lariah laughed softly. “Yes, I am,” she said. “And no, it’s not because of the ring.” Her smile faltered just a bit. “Are you
all happy?”
They immediately assured her that they were, talking over each other for a few moments in their haste. She relaxed at once and smiled again.
“Would you like to be even happier?” she asked cryptically.
Garen frowned. “I don’t think it’s possible for us to be any happier,” he said solemnly. “You are the answer to every dream we ever had, and a few we never even dared to dream of.”
“Well, except for one thing,” Trey said, eyeing Lariah speculatively.
Garen and Val looked at him in confusion, then their eyes widened. Garen actually paled a bit.
“Lariah, are you…” he hesitated, afraid to say the word.
“Pregnant?” she filled in archly. “Yes, I am.”
“How long have you known,” Garen demanded, while at the same time Val demanded to know how far along she was and Trey said simply, “Sons at last,” with a very un-Trey like sigh.
Lariah laughed again, quite satisfied with their reactions to her news.
“I have known for about ten minutes,” she said answering Garen’s question first. “When I transformed into my dracon, she knew.”
She turned to Val. “I don’t know exactly how far along, but I think since the night of the soul-link triad.” She thought about that for a moment before nodding decisively. “Yes, that is when it happened.”
She turned to Trey. “I’m sorry Trey, but you are not going to get those sons just yet.”
Trey, Garen and Val all frowned at her, not understanding at all. It had been so long since any other than males had been born, that the obvious truth did not occur to them right away.
When it did occur to them, they all gaped at her. Very satisfying indeed.
“Girls?” Val asked.
“Daughters,” Trey gulped.
“You are certain?” Garen demanded.
“Very certain,” she replied smugly. “Three of them. All healthy, all strong, all female.”
Special Bonus!
Chapter 1 of
The Dracons' Woman: Book 1 of the Soul-Linked Saga Page 33