Salene's Secrets (32 page)

“Including today, yes, that’s correct,”
Tonka replied.
  “On the fifth day, the Nomen will return.”

“No, four days is too long,” Salene said.  “We have to get there sooner than that.”

Talus reached over and squeezed her shoulder gently.  “Do you think we’ll be able to walk there, in this weather, in less than three days?” he asked Tonka
.

“Without snow on the ground I would say yes, absolutely,”
Tonka replied.
  “With the snow as deep as it is, I can only say that I think so.  I wish I could be more specific, but I never made the journey without Oberto, and he had a bad limp.  I can only give you my best guess.”

“We understand, Tonka,”
Talus said
.  “
Will there be snow on the ground once we leave the mountain?”

“I don’t think so,”
Wolef said.
“This is the fourth snow storm I’ve experienced, and so far I’ve seen no more than a light dusting of snow on the flat lands.”

“How many people are in the silo?” Jon asked.

“About a hundred.”

“That’s not too many, so long as they all cooperate,” Talus said.

“It’s unlikely that all of the people will want to leave
,” Tonka said.
  “In fact, I’d be surprised if half of them were willing to leave the silo.”

“Why not?”
Jon asked in surprise. 
“Don’t they want to be free?”

“I’ve known most of those people my entire life,”
Tonka said. 
“They are good people who work hard and yes, I think they would all like to have freedom.  But like myself, most of them were born in the silo and that means that they’ve never seen anything beyond its walls.  They don’t know how to find food, build shelter, or even start a fire.  The silo is all they know, and to them, leaving it is certain death.”

“I understand, Tonka,” Talus said.  “We’ll do our best to assure them that they won’t be abandoned on their own, but if people choose to stay, we can’t force them to do otherwise.  Perhaps when our ships arrive and their safety can be guaranteed, they’ll change their minds.” 

I do not mean to insult your people, Talus Gryphon, but are you certain that they’ll care enough to try to convince people who’ve chosen to remain captives that it would be better for them to leave?”

“Yes, Tonka, I’m certain,” Talus replied.  “If I’m wrong, it won’t matter because my brothers and I care, as does Salene, and Jinjie.  We will not give up until we have freed everyone, and made sure that they have a safe place to live, and a way to provide food and shelter for themselves and their families.”

“You are generous, Talus Gryphon, and I thank you for it
,” Tonka said, dipping his head low.
 

Talus returned the gesture solemnly, then turned to Salene.  “I’m sorry,
Zerura
, but we’re going to have to take the children with us.”

“I know,” Salene said.  “But we can get supplies, right?”

“Yes, we can get supplies.”

“That’s going to make an enormous difference,” she said.  “Since we know that the Nomen use infrared, you three need to get yourselves some survival suits.  Jinjie, if I get suits and clothing, can you shrink them down to fit Mali and Tab?”

“Yes, do be easy.”

“Excellent,” she said.  “We’ll need more food, too.  I think we can make what we have last, but it would be nice if we didn’t have to have stew for every meal.  And shelter’s going to be an issue once we leave the mountain.  All I’ve got is a little one man tent, and that’s definitely not going to be enough.”

“None of those things will be a problem,
Zerura
,” Talus said.  “Let’s make a list of what we’ll need.  We’ll read it to Captain Royce and he’ll transport it down for us.”

“Wait,” Salene said suddenly.  “Will the Nomen be able to trace your transport signal?”

“No,” Kar said.  “The
Aegl
is a new ship, fitted with the latest transporter.  There’s virtually no fringe ionization from the matter stream, so the signal is undetectable from ten or more feet away.”

“That’s a relief.”  She fell silent for a few moments, then rattled off a list of items that included warm clothing, boots, gloves, sleeping bags to replace the rough blankets, survival suits for Mali and Tab and a few other things.  Jon recorded her list while Talus and Kar worked on another list of items for themselves.  When they were finished, the Gryphons went to the first cave to transmit their requests to the
Aegl
and speak with their captain.

“They’ll let us know when they’re ready to transport everything down to us,” Jon said when they returned.  “It won’t take long.” 

“Thank you, Jon,” Salene said.  “I have something for each of you,” she said, reaching into her pack for a flat cardboard box that she’d taken from her weapons roll earlier.  She opened the box, revealing half a dozen bracelets in different colors and designs.

“Um…women’s jewelry?” Jon asked doubtfully as he looked into the box.

“These are personal transport disrupters,” she said.  “
Dede
got an extra half dozen of them for me before they left Jasan.  The problem is that there are seven of you, and I’ve only got six extras.”

“Jinjie do be make two small for Mali and Tab.”

“I was hoping you could do that,” Salene said.  She took two of the bracelets out of the box and set them down on the log in front of Jinjie. 

“How do they work?” Kar asked, reaching into the box for what appeared to be a gold bangle. 

“Not a clue in the cosmos,” she said with a shrug, then blushed when her men all grinned at her.

“We’re sorry, love,” Jon said.  “We just missed hearing you say that is all.”

“It’s all right,” Salene said, smiling.  “Anyway,
Ata
did explain it all to me but it flew way over my head.  I do know that they each have a small button on them somewhere.  If you press it, it will disable the disrupter for five minutes so that you can voluntarily be transported, then it starts back up again so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to turn it back on.”

“Does it have to be touching your skin to work?” Talus asked.

“No, but it has to be within a few feet of you.” 

“That solves one problem,” Jon said.  “As long as Jinjie remains on your shoulder, or one of our shoulders, he’ll be within the scope of the device.”

“Oh, that’s good,” Salene said.  “I wouldn’t have thought of that.  What do you think, Jinjie?”

“Do be good idea,” he said. 

“Can you make three of these bigger?” Kar asked Jinjie.

“No, do be make smaller, but not do be make that bigger.”

Salene picked up the bracelets Jinjie shrank for the children,knelt down by Mali and placed one on her wrist, then placed the other one on Tab.  Both children smiled, admiring the pretty bracelets.  “Those will help keep you safe, so don’t take them off, okay?”

“We won’t,” Mali said.  “I promise.”

“Thanks, honey,” she said, ruffling Tab’s dark curls when he grinned up at her.  Then she turned back to the Gryphons.  “Any other ideas?”

“Because of the way they work, I think we can just use a bit of cord to tie one around our necks, Tonka included,” Jon said.

“Perfect,” Salene said, reaching for a coil of twine on the side of her pack and handing it to him.  A few minutes later they were all protected from unwanted transportation.

“These are great, Salene,” Talus said.  “I feel a lot less worried knowing we can’t be yanked out of here at any moment.”

“I know what you mean,” she said.  She returned the empty box to her pack just as Jon’s wrist device beeped.

“They’re ready to send our stuff down,” he said.  “There’s going to be a lot so it’ll take us a few minutes to carry it in and sort through it.”

Salene nodded and watched the Gryphons leave.  Then she turned her attention to Mali, who’d been looking pensive and sad for the past half hour despite the pretty new bracelet.  “Come sit with me, Mali,” she suggested, patting a place on the blanket beside her.  Mali got up, walked over to her, and sat down, her steps a little slower than usual.  “Would you like to tell me what’s troubling you?”

Mali nodded, and Salene smiled.  Mali was so much like her.  Serious, straight forward, and honest.  “I wished really hard that you wouldn’t send me and Tab away cause we don’t know what a
ship
is, and we don’t want to be away from you and Tonka and Jinjie.”

“Do you think that caused the problems the ship’s having?”

“No,” Mali said slowly, stretching the word out thoughtfully.  “But I’m kind of glad about it, and that’s bad.”

“Are you glad that the ship is having trouble?  Or are you glad that you don’t have to go to a place where you don’t know anyone?”

“The second one,” Mali said.

“That’s okay then,” Salene said.  “They’re not the same thing, honey.  Being glad that you don’t have to do something you didn’t want to do doesn’t mean that you’re glad something bad happened.  Do you see the difference?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Good,” Salene said, noting that there was still a line of worry on Mali’s forehead.  She had the distinct feeling that Mali’s worry about the ship had been the least of her concerns.  “What else is on your mind?”

“Are you going to Promise with one of those men?”

“Promise?” Salene asked.  Mali shook her head, obviously at a loss to explain, so she looked up at Tonka hopefully.

“She means take a mate.”

“Ah, thank you, Tonka,” she said, then took a moment to consider her answer.  “Remember when I told you that I’m not human?”  Mali nodded.  “And that I have three dads, and one mom?”  Another nod.  “Well that’s because Clan Jasani women always have three mates.  To answer your question, yes, I will Promise, or what we call
soul-link
, but with all three of them.”

Mali nodded, her little shoulders slumping as she dropped her eyes.  “I thought so,” she said sadly.  “You like them a lot.”

“I love them, honey, and they love me, but I don’t understand why this makes you sad.”  She thought about the sadness in their eyes earlier.  “Do you think that I can’t care about all of you at the same time?”

Mali frowned.  “I don’t know.  Can you?”

“Yes honey, I can, and I do.”

“That just makes it harder,” Mali said, sighing heavily.

“I don’t understand,” Salene said gently.  “Please tell me what you’re thinking.”

“When you said we could go to your ranch, me and Tab thought you wanted to keep us.”

“I do want to keep you.”  Mali frowned up at her in confusion. 

“But you can’t.”

“Why can’t I?”

“Because if you do, then you can’t have your own babies.  Aunt Lei said so.  She said we ruined her life cause she had to let us live with her and that meant she couldn’t have her own babies.”

“I see,” Salene said, instantly angry though she did her best to hide it.  “What else did Aunt Lei say?”

“She wished we never were born,” Mali said, her eyes back on the floor.  “Grandfather heard that and got real mad until she said she didn’t mean it, but she really did.  They fought about us a lot.”  Mali looked up at her with tears in her eyes.  “I tried so hard to stay out of her way and I always took care of Tab so she didn’t have to and he never makes any noise or does anything bad but she still was always mad at us.  She pretended to Grandfather that she cared about us, but she told me she didn’t really mean it.” 

Salene had heard enough but something in Mali’s eyes told her there was more, something worse than what she’d already said.  She waited quietly, giving Mali time.  When she spoke again her voice was so low that Salene had to strain to hear it. 

“She said when she got Promised we’d have to go live alone in the forest like the animals.” 

For the first time in her entire life, Salene wanted…really deeply
wanted
…to slap someone.  She reined in her anger and squeezed Mali’s shoulder very gently.  “Tell me the rest, honey,” she said softly.

Mali dropped her eyes again.  After a few moments, her voice lowered to a whisper, she said the worst thing of all.  “Sometimes, when she got really mad, she made us stay outside all night because she wanted us to die.” 

A deep rumbling growl filled the cave, causing both Salene and Mali to look up at Tonka in surprise. 
“Why did you not tell your grandfather, Mali?”
  Mali swallowed hard, then shrugged.

“She threatened you,” Salene said.  Mali nodded.  Salene considered asking what the threat had been, but decided Mali had relived enough horror for one morning.  She reached over, picked Mali up and pulled her into her lap for a hug.  Mali stiffened in surprise, but that didn’t deter Salene.  She wrapped her arms around the little girl, and rocked back and forth while she fought back her own tears.  She waited until she felt Mali start to relax in her arms, then she shifted her to one side and gestured to Tab.  He got up immediately and walked straight over to her, turned around and plopped down in her lap as though he’d been doing it forever.  He reached over to pat Mali’s cheek, his eyes sad, proving to Salene that he not only knew what was going on around him, but that he was even brighter than she’d suspected.