Icarus Unbound (11 page)
Authors: Bernadette Gardner
"The committee should hear that. They should know the sacrifice you made for the tribe."
"I'm not sure it will be enough." Lara shook off a sudden melancholy. Perhaps if the committee dissolved her union with Jaran she would go to Daedalus to work. At least with Caleb and Zara she would feel like she belonged.
Jaran moved to stand next to her. He brushed a thumb over her cheek and looked into her eyes. "You're everything the committee could demand for my mate and everything I could ask for."
Lara's heart raced. She'd been careful all day not to allow memories of last night to interfere with her thoughts, but now, looking into Jaran's tawny eyes, all she could see was the two of them tangled in bed. Her muscles began to coil, and beneath her clothing her nipples hardened.
Their day was done. They could go back to his bedroom—
their
bedroom—and allow their symbions to take control of their emotions.
Jaran leaned in and brushed his lips over hers, drawing a moan from her. Her wings twitched, signaling the awakening of her symbion.
"Don't you have a private chamber for this?" Odan's voice interrupted, echoing from the stone walls of the audience room.
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Jaran stepped back, but his feral gaze told Lara he wasn't finished with her. "You've already been paired, Odan. Go away."
"I'd like nothing better than to go to my aerie and be with Jehri, but I had to stop here and speak to Lara first."
Lara transferred her gaze to Odan and fought to overcome the sudden rush of mating hormones her symbion had produced in response to Jaran's brief kiss.
"I've made a list of tasks that previous co-leaders have accomplished. I thought you might want to look it over."
Lara crossed the room, eager to see the paper Odan produced from the messenger pouch he wore, but Jaran intervened.
"These tasks won't be necessary."
"They might." The joviality drained from Odan's voice.
"The committee plans to vote in ten days."
Lara pushed Jaran's hand away and took the paper Odan had written on. "Why so long? Why don't they just get on with it?"
"Because someone argued that you should be given an opportunity to prove your worth."
"You?" Lara gave Odan a half smile.
"Me. And Daralei. There are others who haven't yet made up their minds, but the opposition is growing."
"This is nonsense." Jaran blustered, and his wings twitched.
Lara scanned the page. For centuries Icarian females had endured great risks to prove themselves worthy of being chosen by Icarian tribal leaders. Even Namara had proven her 98
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worth when she'd rescued Jidar's ailing grandmother from a storm-swept aerie. With no storms brewing on the horizon, and no elderly Icarians trapped on distant islands, Lara had little chance of pulling off that feat.
The other tasks seemed outrageously dangerous or difficult. "Hand raising an orphaned symbion ... I could do that if there was one available," she said. "But it would take a lot longer than ten days. Aiding in a difficult birth ...
considering there won't be any Icarian births for nearly a year, that one's out. I could string fishing nets in the Minarian Strait, or place daily offerings in the northern temple for a year ... if I had a year."
Jaran grumbled. "Odan, this is ridiculous. Some of those tasks were performed hundreds of years ago and would be totally unnecessary today. Lara is a scientist. She has much more to offer than stringing fishing nets."
"It's about posturing, Jaran. It's about a dedication to our culture, not modern accomplishments. Half of the people of our generation are scientists, inventors and teachers. Lara needs to do something that will set her apart from everyone else."
"Here's one," Lara showed the list to Odan. "Retrieve a black egg from a symbion nest. Why would that be—"
Jaran grabbed the paper from her hand and crumpled it.
"Collecting oddities is no more worthy than working to increase our food supply, and Lara has done that since she received her degree."
Odan gestured with a wing tip. "Listen to what I'm saying, Jaran. It's about traditions."
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"I've never seen a black symbion egg," Lara mused. "I've never even heard of one." Her mind whirled. Kiala might be a source of information. Her friend monitored symbion breeding grounds. If any of the birds had produced a black egg recently, Kiala might know.
"The black eggs are very rare. They're unfertilized and they never hatch. They harden to stone, but many symbions protect them anyway, sometimes for years. Generations ago, so my mother told me, the black eggs symbolized eternity because they could not break or rot. Given as a gift to the Icarian leader, they represented a wish for him to live forever."
"What happened to the egg when the leader finally did die?"
"It was cast into the ocean along with his body. That's why you've never seen one," Odan said.
Jaran had walked away and was glaring out the nearest window, his wings partially spread, signifying his agitation.
"Legends will not help us, Odan."
"This is the only task on the list that I might be able to accomplish," Lara said. "I need to speak to Kiala."
"You're not going searching for a black egg." Jaran's voice was flat but with an underlying current of determination.
Clearly he meant this as an order to be obeyed without question. "Symbion breeding grounds are dangerous."
"I know. My mother survived in one for several days, though, and she told me all about her experience. I know what to watch out for."
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"You could canvas half the world searching for a black egg, Lara," Odan said. "You may not find one in ten years, let alone ten days."
Lara put her hands on her hips and spread her wings in defiance. "Well, if I don't then maybe I'm not worthy to be co-leader."
She didn't wait for Jaran's response. Ignoring protocol, she stormed out of the audience chamber without his leave and set off for Kiala's aerie.
"I can't believe you would do this, Odan." Jaran transferred his angry gaze to his brother as soon as Lara left.
"Do what? I'm trying to help because I know you couldn't bear to have Lara taken away from you."
"She will not be taken away."
"Will you give up leadership for her before the committee votes to dissolve your union?"
"No." Jaran turned from the window. "That won't be necessary."
Odan challenged him. "Why? Do you think revealing your father's identity to them after all these years will make a difference?"
"It certainly will."
"It can only hurt you, Jaran. It's a secret best kept."
"It will remove any doubt about our offspring."
Odan shook his head. "Don't do it, Jaran. Give Lara a chance to prove herself."
"She shouldn't have to."
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Odan pursed his lips and his wings rustled with irritation.
"Don't you think that perhaps it's because of you that she feels she must?"
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The flight back from the aerie Kiala and Breon now shared left Lara bone weary. Her friend had chosen one of the most distant islands in the royal chain, and it had taken the better part of the day and early evening to make the trip, convince Kiala to give her detailed maps of all the symbion breeding grounds and fly back as the sky darkened with the beginnings of a mild storm.
Wet from the first lashing of raindrops and shivering with fatigue, Lara flew instinctively to the royal aerie and landed on the upper tier balcony that led directly to Jaran's private chamber.
She found him there, sitting at his table, a half-eaten meal before him. His dour expression softened a bit when he saw her. "You look exhausted."
"Thank you. I feel just as bad." Lara lowered herself to the bed, but resisted the urge to fall back into the sweet-smelling alor fibers. She knew the moment she got comfortable she'd fall asleep and she was too hungry to last the night without eating something.
She eyed the food waiting on the table and wished for the strength to get up again and help herself.
"I wish you would stop disappearing. I can't fly off and search for you, you know. I have duties here."
"I didn't disappear so you would have to search for me. I went to talk to Kiala, and she gave me what I needed. Once the rain passes, I'm going to begin searching for a black egg.
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It seems silly, but if it will impress the committee, then I should do it."
Jaran sighed. He filled a bowl with bread, fruit and what appeared to be strips of succulent crab meat and brought the meal over to her just as she'd been silently hoping he would.
She dug into the food gratefully while he watched her.
"Thank you," she mumbled between bites. "I'm starving."
"Tomorrow I'll speak to the committee, and you won't have to go on this ridiculous hunt."
She plucked fruit slices from the bowl and savored the mix of juices. "Jaran, I won't allow you to abdicate for me. That makes no sense. You lead in Jidar's name, and that's how the tribe should be ruled."
"I won't abdicate. I will tell them something that will make all this worry about tradition seem absurd."
She licked her lips and set the nearly empty bowl aside.
"What could you possibly tell them that will make them forget their commitment to tradition?"
"The traditions are only an excuse. I told you, they care about lineage. They want full Icarian offspring."
"And with a hybrid mate you could have a better chance of producing a child with all Icarian traits. I understand why they want that, Jaran."
"But it will never happen. Even if I choose a hybrid mate, I will never have a full Icarian offspring."
Lara swallowed her last bite of dinner and stared at Jaran.
Genetics were not her area of expertise except where it concerned plant breeding, but even so what he said seemed impossible. "A full Icarian and a hybrid Icarian will produce 104
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three-quarter hybrid Icarian children. You have the best possible chance to breed out human traits."
Jaran held up a hand. "True, and a full human and a hybrid will produce three-quarters human offspring."
Lara shrugged. "That's one of the reasons I thought you might not pair me with anyone. The committee wants to minimize the chance of human traits in the next generation."
"And the odds are you and I will produce a three-quarters human child."
Lara stared at him. He wasn't making sense. "I don't..."
Jaran's gaze delved into hers. Clearly he was trying to say something to her without using the actual words. After a moment of blissful ignorance she began to understand. "Your father wasn't Icarian."
"My father was Dr. Danson."
Lara hadn't meant to gasp so loudly. She drew in a breath so fast she began to cough. "Are you serious?"
Jaran frowned, and his wings ruffled in irritation. "Why would I make that up?" My mother told me the truth shortly before she died. She hadn't ever intended to, but I recall pestering her to know which of the guards who visited us was my father."
"But when did—"
"Before her exile, when she realized she wouldn't have the chance to mate with your father, she accepted a substitute.
Dr. Danson was a healthy human male and he was more than willing to participate. She lied to him as well. On the one occasion he asked Jidar to allow him to visit her in exile I hadn't yet been born. Apparently he suspected once he heard 105
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the rumor of her pregnancy, but she managed to convince him that she'd conceived
after
being brought to her prison.
She believed having a full Icarian child when almost no one else could would restore some of her battered reputation."
Lara could only gape. She couldn't imagine the burden Arilani had placed on the shoulders of her young son by asking him to keep this secret.
"Jidar always told me my lineage didn't play a role in his choosing me as his successor over Odan, but I always wondered. That's why I never told, and why I resented you so much. You didn't have to lie. You were different than everyone else in our generation, but you never had to hide it."
"So you made me want to." Lara fought a quick stab of anger mixed with sympathy. All those years Jaran had punished her for being a full-blooded human had been spurred by his own insecurity about really being a hybrid himself.
"I'm sorry. Truly."
"Every other member of our generation is a hybrid, Jaran.
There's no shame in it."
"Every other member of our generation was born of a sanctioned union assigned by Jidar and Namara. My mother disobeyed Icarian law."
"She did, but you can't be held accountable for her crimes."
"Yes, I can."
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Lara rose and put a hand on Jaran's arm. "Do you really think the committee will use this information against you if you tell them?"
"As much as it embarrasses me, no. Like you said, every member of our generation is a hybrid. The committee can't remove me from my position because my father was human.
I wasn't chosen for my DNA. Once they know the truth, they can't dissolve our union because even if I mated with another hybrid I would still produce a hybrid child." Jaran bowed his head and touched his forehead to Lara's.
She probably should have been angry, but instead her heart ached for him. She put her arms around him and laid her head on his chest. "I'm sorry that your mother put you through this. Regardless of her crimes, she loved you and wanted for you to be accepted."