Shields Lady (45 page)
"This way, my lord and lady. I have your usual table waiting. A bit chilly today, isn't it?" "It is," Gryph agreed. "My wife will have some of the kalala fish stew, Myrig. The medic says it's very
good for pregnant ladies. I'll have my usual."
Sariana, who had been thinking of having a salad and baked fish for a change, wrinkled her nose but made no protest. When it came to having babies, Gryph had decided he was an authority.
"How's business?" Sariana asked cheerfully as the cafe proprietor scurried off to place the orders with his cook.
Gryph lounged back in his suspended chair and smiled in satisfaction. "Business is booming, as you well know. It looks like I'll be hiring a couple more men next week."
"I told you there was a market for an agency specializing in private investigative services, security guards and escorts for people who need to travel to the frontier towns."
Gryph chuckled. "You were right."
"This kind of work is the perfect transition craft for a Shield. It allows him and his clan to live in town if he wishes. His sons can go to school with the children of other classes and learn to move comfortably in society. When the time comes, those same sons will have a much broader range of acquaintances from which to choose mates. And they'll also be a lot more acceptable as husbands to families who fear losing a daughter to the frontier. Eventually, as the Shields learn the ins and outs of investments, they'll make all kinds of social inroads. In the long run money is a lot more useful than a blade bow or a knife."
Gryph shrugged. "We'll see what happens. You've made one hell of a start on singlehandedly changing
a whole social system, I'll say that for you."
"The whole social class system on both continents is undergoing a lot of change and restructuring. The old inflexible rules set down by the social philosophers who sent us here never did hold as well as those planners would have liked. Nothing stays static. Trust me. Things are going to be different around here in the coming years. I'm going to help make sure that our class doesn't get left behind in the dust."
"It isn't a question of trusting you, it's a question of keeping up with you, my love. Wait until your parents see what you've accomplished during your so-called exile here."
"We'll find out soon enough, won't we?" she retorted with a grin. "They're due to arrive next week."
"Worried about how they'll react to your new husband?"
"No." Sariana smiled. "My new husband is getting rich fast, and as I have tried to explain on countless occasions, easterners have a built-in respect for anyone who controls wealth."
"You certainly didn't have to worry about your welcome from my family, did you? When my folks took one look at you and realized you were pregnant, they adopted you instantly into the clan."
"I think both your parents and mine tend to be pragmatic about certain things. Oh, that reminds me," Sariana said, "would you mind very much if we had a little girl instead of a little boy?"
Gryph nearly dropped his fork. "Sariana, that's impossible. I've explained to you that Shields only produce male offspring."
"Yes, I know," she agreed soothingly, "but something tells me that's another thing that's going to start changing on Windarra."
Gryph shook his head, perplexed. "What makes you say that?"
"I don't know," she told him honestly. "Lately I haven't always understood how I know some of the things I know. But it's occurred to me that this planet may be changing all of us in small, subtle ways." She reached up to stroke the lizard on her shoulder. "Take this matter of women turning lizards into pets and krellcats having an affinity for human males. Even in the eastern provinces it's become fashionable in recent years for men and women to keep some odd pets. I never had one because I was always studying so hard, but I knew people who did have them. And there was something strange about the relationship, Gryph, just as there's something different about the relationship scarlet-toes and krellcats have with westerners. It's not a normal people-pet relationship."
"So scarlet-toes and krellcats are a little different. So what?"
"I'm not sure," Sariana said, frowning intently as their food arrived, "but I've been thinking about it and there are some other matters which seem to indicate slight changes taking place."
"Such as?"
"How about the matter of a Shield learning to use his mind as a weapon? Both you and Targyn achieved that dubious distinction. Is there any indication that any of your ancestors had that ability?"
"Well, no, but - "
"And what about you and me?" she continued forcefully. "You've said yourself that, our link is unusual in many ways."
"Sariana," Gryph said grandly, "you would be an unusual wife on any planet in the universe. I strongly suspect you're totally unique. I don't know of another woman on the face of the planet who could have convinced me to let Etion Rakken's bank handle the prisma transactions."
"Don't change the subject. There are some other matters I've been thinking about."
"Such as?" Gryph leaned back, resigned.
"It has occurred to me that your ancestors were ordinary men who showed a slight potential for some form of mental ability. The scientists found a way to strengthen part of that potential by injecting those men with some chemical. Originally everyone assumed the result would be a sterile group of Shields."
"So?"
"I've wondered if all that really happened is that those scientists simply speeded up what might be a perfectly normal development process that's going on in humans already. It might be a long-range trend that would, under normal conditions, take thousands of years to impact an entire population. The scientists who worked on your ancestors concentrated on one small element of that potential, the element they could use as a shield against prisma rays. But who knows how far that basic potential can go?
Maybe the environment of Windarra somehow encourages development of that kind of mental ability in human beings."
Glyph shook his head in indulgent amusement. "What makes you say that?"
"I've been wondering why that huge prisma ship was left here. You've said yourself there's no record of such a large one being found before."
"The records could be wrong, you know. Don't forget my people have been out of touch with their home world as long as yours have been from theirs. We don't know what's been happening with prisma elsewhere."
"True. But isn't it just possible Windarra was special in some way? Perhaps it made a particularly good storage planet for mind weapons because there's something in the environment here that favors that kind of development."
"Close your lovely mouth and eat your food, my love. Pregnancy is obviously affecting your usually admirable reasoning powers."
She tilted her head and looked at him. "Are you going to spend the rest of your life telling me to shut up?"
"Are you kidding? If I devoted my time to a job that size I'd never get anything else done. Now eat up, sweetheart. You need your nourishment."
"Yes, Gryph."
Two months later little Gryphina Chassyn was born and the entire Shield class went into shock. Births were always an important event, but the birth of a female Shield was unheard of. Sariana and her baby had so many visitors Gryph was forced to hire extra household attendants just to handle the flow.
Any doubts about the child's parentage on the paternal side were immediately put to rest when visitors got a good look at the infant. Gryphina had brilliant blue-green eyes; Shield eyes. She also had her father's dark hair.
Even if some had questioned the coincidence of hair and eye color, no one could doubt the strength of the bond between Gryph and Sariana. It was obvious to everyone that Gryph was claiming his daughter. He would have been just as certain of that even if she hadn't had his eyes and hair. He knew her mother too well and too intimately. The bond between Sariana and Gryph was stronger than prisma.
"I'm exhausted," Gryph had announced a few hours after the birth as he sat on his wife's bed, holding his new daughter. "I had no idea it was going to be that rough. And you deliberately blocked most of it from me, didn't you? I know you were fighting to keep from projecting. I told you to share it with me. As usual, you didn't follow orders very well."
"Yes, I know," Sariana admitted. "But some things a woman likes to do on her own. Didn't you get enough of a taste of it there toward the end?" she added with a tired but saucy grin. "By that point I had lost all my noble, womanly fortitude. I seem to recall thinking you deserved a sample of what it was like."
Gryph laughed. "You're right. That bit at the end was about all I could take. It was worth it though," he added as he played with one tiny little fist. "She's as beautiful as you are."
"I know it was sort of a shock for you, Gryph."
"That we have a little girl? I should have known you would prove as unpredictable in the matter of making babies as you have in everything else. But what does it mean? Why us? Why now? Maybe you were right when you said that this planet was making some changes in all of us."
Sariana smiled at him, love in her eyes. "It doesn't matter as long as we'll be together to face those changes."
"Oh, we'll be together," Gryph assured her with the arrogant, unswerving conviction of a Shield. "You can count on it."
"Word of a Shield?" she teased softly.
"The word of a Shield in love," he clarified as he bent down to kiss her with infinite tenderness.
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