Shields Lady (33 page)

threat," she concluded.

            "What do you think would happen if it became known that a Shield might be able to use the power of the crystal ships to control everyone on this planet?"

            Sariana took a long time mulling that one over. "I see your point," she admitted finally. "You walk a narrow line, don't you, Gryph? You must keep people in awe of you if you are to maintain your secrets, yet you can't risk having the populace learn to fear you. If people knew how dangerous your kind could be, they might decide they would be safer without you around."

            "The system has worked reasonably well since the First Generation. The last thing any Shield wants is war between our class and the other classes."

            She nodded. "So now you have to hunt down this rogue Shield before he activates the crystal ship weapons you believe he's found."

            "Or before some outsider discovers there is such a thing as a rogue Shield." "You think the ship is somewhere in this gorge?" Sariana asked.

            He rubbed the back of his neck and took a couple of steps closer to her. She was being a little too businesslike about this whole thing, he decided. He couldn't tell exactly how she was reacting behind that thoughtful facade. If she was experiencing any strong emotions she was rapidly learning how to conceal mem from him. He wanted to pull her into his arms and prove to himself that she still wanted him in spite of everything he had just told her, but he had a hunch this wasn't the time.

            "According to the records, the last weapon ships discovered were found around here. The Shields thought they had cleaned out the area but it's difficult to sack prisma in this kind of country. Certain kinds of rock can get in the way of a Shield's ability to focus on the light radiation prisma produces. Today I start hunting."

"You've tracked weapon ships before?"

            "No," he admitted. "Not real ones. I told you, the last ship was found before I was born. But I've been trained to work prisma."

"How'do you do it?" she asked curiously.

He smiled wryly. "It's a little like the first link with a Shieldmate. Except that there's no passion involved. I use the lock on my weapon kit and sort of, well, tune myself, I guess you would say." "I see. You had better get busy then, hadn't you?"

He narrowed his eyes and wondered again what the hell she was thinking. "Sariana?"

            "Yes?" She turned toward him expectantly.

"Never mind. You're right. I'd better get busy."

            He spent the afternoon seeking prisma as they cruised slowly through the awesome gorge. One hand on his lock, his mind concentrated to the point of pain, Gryph focused on the unique kind of disturbance a ship full of prisma weapons created. It wasn't easy finding one of the small crystal ships, he had been told by experts from his father's generation. It took time and patience. The problem was he didn't have a lot of either.

            "Maybe your weapon kit lock isn't strong enough to do the job under the kind of conditions you're encountering in this gorge," Sariana suggested that evening as they finished setting up camp.

            "Maybe." Gryph sat gazing into the fire and wondered what he was going to do if he couldn't locate the weapon ship. "I wish I knew how much time I've got to track it. Whoever took that cutter could be getting into the ship right now. I should have brought Delek with me instead of sending him for help."

            "Why?"

            "Because two Shields could cover more territory than one working alone." Sariana stroked the scarlet-toe curled in her lap. She was eyeing his weapon kit. "Something about

that kit of yours has interested me from the beginning."

His mouth tilted. "I remember the night you took it off me. It fascinated you."

            "I couldn't help myself. I wanted to examine it more closely. Unfortunately, you woke up before I could look inside."

            "You wouldn't have been able to open it at that point. You had to be tuned to it by me. That's what happened the night we went to bed together the first time. The next morning you were able to open it and prove you were my - " he broke off before he said wife.

"And I haven't wanted to touch it since," she said wryly. "But I find I'm curious about it again tonight."

            Gryph watched her closely for a long while. "You want to open the kit?"

            She got up and put the lizard on her shoulder. Then she circled the fire and sat down beside him. Gryph slowly unsnapped the kit and handed it to her. He felt an odd tingling sensation when she took it

from him. She put the kit in her lap and examined it intently.

            Gryph experienced another wave of the tingling sensation. He shook his head to clear it. Sariana touched the lock, her silvered nails moving lightly over it.

            Gryph was suddenly filled with a strange urgency. He was getting odd impressions in his head, the kind of filtered light he saw when he had first learned to work prisma.

            Sariana stroked the lock with a lover's touch and Glyph drew a deep breath. He reached for her free hand.

            "Think of light," he whispered. "Think of light in all its different colors. Think of a beam of white light broken out into a hundred million rays, each slightly different than the one next to it. Follow the spectrum into the range where the colors have no names. Look at the colors you can't see with your eyes. You can see them with your mind. Do you understand?"

"I don't know. I think so." Her voice shook.

            "Now look for the colors in that range that have a certain pulse." Gryph realized he was holding onto Sariana with a savage grip.

            Her eyes were closed and she had gone rigid with unnatural tension. Her fingers were frozen on the lock.

"Hold onto that pulsing light ray, Sariana. Follow it back to its source."

            Gryph never knew what made him try for a working link. No woman had ever been able to work prisma according to the history he knew.

But he was desperate and Sariana was a most unpredictable female.

            He touched the other side of the prisma lock and carefully tuned into it. Sariana was there. There was definitely another presence in tune with his lock and it was not a weak presence.

            Gryph didn't stop to analyze what was happening. He cautiously reached out for other rays that would be generated by a crystal ship, the way he had been doing all afternoon."

Without any warning he found them.

            The unseen vibrations of prisma light focused on the weapon kit lock and bounced through Gryph's head with such force that he nearly screamed.

He did hear a scream, but it wasn't his own. It was Sariana.

            He wanted to reassure her but he wasn't given the chance. Unprepared to handle such an incredibly strong focus, Gryph's brain did the only sensible thing. It shut down temporarily and plunged him into unconsciousness.

Chapter 15

            SARIANA was shaking as she knelt beside Gryph. He was lying in the same unconscious sprawl he had been in the first time she bad seen him. Frantically she sought for a pulse in his throat. Her own pulse was racing as if her bloodstream was attempting to dilute and drain away the impossible, unnamed rays of light that had filled her head for a split second.

            "Gryph, wake up. Please wake up." Her trembling fingers found the steady beat in his throat and she told herself he was all right. "Come on, Gryph, open your eyes," she ordered tightly. Her whole being willed him to awaken. She almost collapsed when his dark lashes fluttered and lifted. He gazed up at her

for a long moment.

            "I always said you were an unpredictable woman, Sar-iana. But this time you've outdone yourself." Gryph swore softly as he sat up. Gingerly he reached for his weapon kit and reattacbed it to his belt.

            "What happened?" she demanded, sitting back on ha heels in the sand.

            "You helped me work prisma," he told her simply. "We found the weapon ship. Or at least we found the beams it's putting out. I've never tuned in to live prisma crystal before, but I was told years ago that if I picked it up I would recognize it. The men who taught me that were right. It's very similar to neutralized prisma but it has a slightly different pulse. I'll be able to track it now." He leaned back against the rock from which he had toppled a few minutes eariier and gave Tier a strange smile. "It's supposed to be impossible, you know."

"What is?"

            "No woman has ever worked prisma. The original Shield teams were all male and all their descendants are male

            "What about their Shieldmates?" Sariana asked. She was getting a distinctly uneasy feeling. Gryph gazed up at the stars for a moment before answering. "Until now being a Shieldmate meant only

that a woman had the ability to link with a Shield and, if all went well, give him a son. Sometimes, if everything went very well, there would eventually be two or three sons. Some experiments have been done through the years, but no woman has ever been able to work prisma beyond the point of being able to tune in to her lord's lock. We've always assumed the talent didn't go farther because the women had never undergone the original genetic alteration. They might have the potential, but without the chemical injection needed to strengthen that potential, women can't truly work prisma."

            "Sounds like just the sort of conclusion a bunch of men would arrive at," Sariana said with a shaky smile.

            "I have to tell you something, Sariana. I think that whatever happened between us that first time we linked was unusual, to say the least. It may well have been unique. You remember the way you felt? You picked up on the pain of my wound, my fever, and then there was the sensations of the link itself plus your own, uh, feminine reactions."

            "You don't have to remind, me," Sariana told him. "I remember it all quite well. You said there might be some "initial discomfort." I believe that was the euphemism you used."

            In the firelight Gryph's cheekbones seemed to darken to a dull red, but his eyes met hers steadily. "That's all I had ever been told to expect. But I talked to Detek about it and he said - "

            Sariana was abruptly outraged. "You talked to Delek? Another man? About us? About what happened that first time? Gryph, how could you? Have you no respect for my feelings? My modesty? By the Lightstonn, what right did you have to discuss something that personal with someone I don't even know? I will die of embarrassment if I ever meet him. Of all the stupid, egotistical, unfeeling things to do."

            He groaned and massaged his temples with both hands. "Please, Sariana, I could do without the cutting edge of your tongue tonight."

"You deserve it!"

            "Maybe, but do me a favor and save it for later, all right? There are more important things to discuss at the moment."

            "Ha!" But she said nothing more. She had the uncomfortable feeling he was right. Gryph eyed her warily and then went on with his story. "As I was saying before you jumped all over

me, I talked to Delek about our initial linking. He said it didn't sound normal to him. He said that I had been told the truth. There is supposed to be a faint burning sensation from the lock when the man tunes the woman to it. There is also generally a feeling of disorientation as the man and the woman catch traces of each other's feelings and emotions. There is a lot of powerful sexual energy being exchanged in such circumstances, and the sensation of picking up on your partner's passion can seem very strange until you get accustomed to it. Then it becomes very, uh, exciting. I've told you before. Shields and their mates have a strong bond between them. That bond starts with the sexual relationship. It's unique."

            "You've already explained it doesn't necessarily lead to love," Sariana said stiffly. "A Shield's first duty to his clan is to create a son. Love has nothing to do with that."

"It's always nice to feel needed," Sariana muttered.

            Oryph held up a hand in protest. "You have chewed on me enough tonight. No more. Not now." Sariana sighed. He was right. "Go on."

            "I was just trying to explain to you that right from the start there was something different about our relationship. When you and I are in bed together we do much more than just pick up on each other's emotions. We practically pour our passion into each other along with whatever else we might be feeling at the time. And we seem to resonate with each other in a way that makes the original sensation stronger. We're like mirrors that both absorb, concentrate and reflect back sensation. When you felt my wound in your shoulder, the pain of it was more intense than the ache I was actually feeling. My fever made you feel hotter than I felt at the time. You transferred that heat back to me and I felt, hotter. You see what I mean? Since that first time together we've both instinctively started figuring out how to control the reaction. We can tune out everything but the passion and the excitement, which is fortunate because otherwise we'd probably drive each other insane. But the interesting part is that we seem to have a bond so strong that it requires such internal control in the first place. We're communicating with each other on some very strange levels, Sariana."

"What else did this friend of yours say?" Sariana asked suspiciously.

            "About us? Not much. I didn't tell him the link we have in bed seems to have already extended itself to other occasions. Normally the ability to sense when one's Shieldmate is in distress or exuberantly happy is an evolving process that takes years of living together to mature into anything that might be labeled telepathic. Even then it would be hard to distinguish it from the normal empathy that seems to develop between a man and a woman who live together for years. Except in bed, of course, where it stays unique. But with us it was there almost from the beginning. It's sporadic at this point, but it's also very strong. I think it's going to eventually grow even stronger."