The Lawgivers: Gabriel (32 page)

Will’s face darkened with anger.
“Comin’!” he called. He looked at her again, hesitated, and then
grabbed her, hugging her tightly. “I love you, Lexy.”

* * * *

Gah-re-al knew it would’ve been far
better not to linger in the ‘new city’ as the social workers
referred to the sprawling encampment they’d assembled, but he also
knew that there was no telling how long he might be on the trail
when he left and he was reluctant to leave without trying to smooth
things over with Lexa if possible.

Truthfully, he’d become uneasy about
leaving her at all. Given the hostility her own sister had
exhibited toward her, he wasn’t convinced that the social workers
and guards together were watchful enough to prevent her from being
harmed. Up until that incident even though he had no longer been
able to ignore the fact that the group he’d brought with Lexa were
antagonistic toward her because of her liaison with him, he’d still
believed she was safe enough. There might not be anyone looking out
for her specifically, but they were all well aware of the
propensity of the humans toward violence and the guards were alert
for any signs of an eruption.

Those thoughts occupied his mind as he
stood on the rise to the south of the field, watching Lexa whenever
she came into view and waiting for an opportunity to speak to her
alone.

He debated the advisability of
mentioning his concerns to Phil-a-shee given their recent history,
but she was in charge of the field operation and if he spoke to
anyone at all it would have to be her. He certainly didn’t want to
go to Maya about it and, in any case, although Maya was technically
in charge of the entire operation, she disliked sullying her hands.
As far as he knew she hadn’t been within sniffing distance of her
pet project since she’d approved the chosen site. She wouldn’t do
anything beyond relay the message to Phil-a-shee … if she felt like
it.

Lawgiver Raphael joined him after a
while.

Irritation flickered through Gah-re-al.
They’d grown up together in the orphanage and had become more like
brothers than just close friends over those hard years, forming a
bond that had weathered the years since then when they’d been
separated by the circumstances of their careers. Despite that,
they’d both changed a good deal, and he wasn’t as certain as he
once had been that they still saw things eye to eye—not everything
anyway.

More specifically, he doubted Raphael
would approve of his interest in Lexa any more than any of the
others—if as much. It had been Raphael more than anyone who’d
influenced his views on the humans to start with, he realized
abruptly. A few years older than him, he’d been in the habit of
looking up to Raphael as a child and youth and, since Raphael had
arrived at the colony before him and had been appointed as a
lawgiver a full year before he was, he hadn’t questioned Raphael’s
views on the natives. He’d considered that Raphael must know what
he was talking about.

“You could always just march boldly
down there, arrest her, and haul her off for a few hours of
intensive ‘questioning’,” Raphael drawled suggestively, amusement
threading his voice.

Gabriel sent him a sharp look, trying
to assess from his expression whether the comment had been threaded
with sarcasm, and certain knowledge, or if Raphael was simply
fishing. “I could,” he responded after a moment, “but then my
objective isn’t to make her more of a target for the malice of the
others.”

Raphael drew his gaze from the field
and met Gabriel’s gaze assessingly. “In that case I’d suggest that
you wait until everyone is sleeping tonight, drag her scrawny ass
out of the tent, and haul her off—regardless of her objections—to a
safer place. This one isn’t … safe.”

Gah-re-al didn’t especially like
Raphael’s reference to Lexa’s scrawny ass. In fact, it pissed him
off, but he was distracted by the sense that Raphael was referring
to more than the fact that the natives were opposed to one of their
own fraternizing with the udai. “Skinny or not, she has a damned
fine ass and I’ll thank you not to cast aspersions,” he said
evenly.

Raphael’s expression lightened. He
chuckled. “There’s a lesson. Never make judgments before you know
the facts. My apologies. I simply assumed she was scrawny since
most of them are half starved.”

Gah-re-al frowned. “You haven’t
actually seen her then.”

“No, but I’ve heard an
earful.”

“And?”

The humor vanished from Raphael’s
features. “She isn’t safe … here. Honestly, I don’t know if she
would be safe anywhere, but she damned sure isn’t safe
here.”

“Sooo … you’re suggesting I haul her
off … To where?”

Raphael studied him assessingly for
several moments. Apparently, he decided he still trusted him. “I
have a place.”

Surprise flickered through Gah-re-al.
Actually, it would’ve been more accurate to say that he was
stunned. “You have a place?”

Raphael chuckled again, but Gah-re-al
wasn’t sure if it was because of his surprise or if something else
had prompted it. “Yes. Me.” He shrugged. “As it happens I’ve been
considering what it might be like to live like everyone else for a
while.” He lifted his head and looked around. “I’m thinking this
isn’t a bad place to give it a try. Reminds me of my home
world.”

“So you carved out a place for a
homestead? I’m guessing it isn’t close to any of the
colonies?”

“Nope.”

“And you’re offering to let me take
Lexa there?”

“Yes … until you can build your own
place—assuming you’ve got that in mind.”

Gah-re-al frowned. He hadn’t gotten
that far in his thinking, but he realized as soon as Raphael
suggested it that that was the source of a good bit of his
restlessness of late. He was weary of soldiering, tired of
wandering endlessly. The orphanage hadn’t been much of a place to
encourage anyone to settle down, but it had been a home of sorts
and he was tired of not having one. “You’ve got a woman,” Gah-re-al
guessed.

Raphael grinned abruptly. “Pretty
little thing. Mean as a snake, mind you, but things are never
dull,” he said with a wry chuckle.

Gah-re-al frowned thoughtfully. “What
makes you think she’d welcome Lexa?”

Raphael shrugged. “I think they can rub
along well enough, keep each other company.” He paused for a
significant moment. “Claire’s human. And she’s
pregnant.”

Gah-re-al suddenly felt as if the
ground had dropped out from under him.

Chapter Seventeen

Despite his fear that that was a very
real possibility, Gah-re-al had managed to convince himself that it
wasn’t likely, whatever the justices thought. They hadn’t actually
done any studies to see if the humans were close enough to the udai
to breed, but they were worlds apart. What were the
odds?

“Yours?” he croaked.

Raphael glared at him furiously. “What
the fuck do you mean by that?” he growled.

Gah-re-al was dimly aware that he’d
angered Raphael with the question, but his mind was too focused on
his own concerns to warn him of the danger. “You’re saying it’s
possible? I mean, Lexa could be pregnant?”

Abruptly amused at the look on
Gah-re-al’s face when he realized Gah-re-al hadn’t intentionally
insulted Claire, Raphael relaxed. “That depends,” he
drawled.

“On what?”

“If you’ve been poking her.”

Gah-re-al felt his face
redden.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Raphael
drawled wryly.

Gah-re-al glared at him and Raphael
laughed, throwing up his hands in a warding-off gesture. “Hey,
don’t kill the messenger. I never suggested you should.”

The comment irritated Gah-re-al, enough
so that it redirected his mind from one concern to another. “She
wouldn’t be safe here if she was,” he said thoughtfully, “not when
everyone in the group I brought with her is already certain … uh …
thinks ….”

Raphael held up his hand. “I hate to be
the bearer of bad tidings here, but there’s been a lot more jaw
flapping than you think. It isn’t just everyone in the group that
came with her that thinks it. Pretty much everybody thinks it.” He
frowned. “You wouldn’t think with the stupid social workers driving
them like slaves that they’d have time to do a lot of talking, but
it’s almost like they’re telepathic. One of them hears or sees
something first thing in the morning, all of them know it by
dusk.”

He frowned, all humor vanishing.
“There’s something in the wind here, Gah-re-al. I’m not sure what
it is, but I’ve heard rumors. That’s one of the reasons I took
Claire away.”

“Can you be more specific?”

Raphael shook his head. “I wish I
could. Worst case scenario, I’m thinking. From some of the things
I’ve overheard, I get the impression that they have a leader and
they’re gearing up for war.”

Gah-re-al stared at him in angry
disbelief. “They can’t possibly think they have a chance in hell of
winning!”

Raphael’s lips thinned. “Someone has
convinced them they do.”

Surprise flickered through Gah-re-al.
“This leader?”

Raphael shrugged, frowning. “Maybe. But
I think there’s a strong possibility he, whoever he is, got the
notion because one of ours convinced him.”

Gah-re-al gaped at him in total
disbelief. “One of our people?”

Raphael uttered a disgusted grunt. “Or
some. Hard to believe, I know, but think about it. From the start,
there were some that thought the best solution to the problem of
the natives was extermination—not many, granted, but they argued
long and loud against everyone else when the khabler insisted the
natives were the remnants of the builders, that they’d once had a
great civilization and could rebuild given enough time. The social
workers argued that time wasn’t what they needed but rather
interference in the guise of guidance and protection because they’d
been thrown so far back by the conditions on the planet that they
were in danger of exterminating one another in their battle for
survival. They couldn’t recover without some help because they’d
lost too much of the knowledge they’d once had and there was no
order that would allow for rebuilding. There were no leaders among
them—just tyrants determined to retain control by ensuring that
everyone was totally dependent on their whims for
survival.

“That’s when the ruling body decided to
form the lawgivers—for minimal interference. They thought the
lawgivers could bring the order needed to allow the natives to
rebuild.

“It didn’t work,” he added dryly,
“because no matter how many of the bastards we killed there was
another hopeful waiting to take up where that one left
off.”

“I wasn’t here when all that took
place,” Gah-re-al reminded him pointedly. “I got the short
version.” He paused. “I got the distinct impression that you agreed
with extermination.”

Raphael looked uncomfortable. “There
was a time when I did—to a degree. I never thought they should, or
that they would, but I was convinced that nothing we could do—short
of that—would change things. It never helps to do things for
people. They have to do it for themselves. They have to make up
their minds that it needs to be done and then they have to do
it—especially when the people are like these natives. They’re some
hard headed bastards and the more you push the more determined they
are to push back. If we’d confined ourselves to merely guarding our
interests as we did in the beginning, I don’t think they would ever
have become more, or less, of a problem. We would simply have had
to accept that that was the cost of colonizing here. I don’t think
any of our people ever understood that and I think it’s going to
come back to haunt them.”

“All of us if there’s anything to what
you’ve heard and what you think will happen,” Gah-re-al said
grimly.

Raphael studied him. “Except Claire,”
he agreed. “I’ve taken steps to keep her as far from this as I can.
My offer stands if you want to remove Lexa from what’s probably
going to be a battle zone sooner or later.” His lips tightened. “If
nothing else I can protect Claire from enduring the constant
slights from both sides for accepting me as her man. Lonely is
better than being a pariah. And if the tension keeps building the
natives might not stop at slinging insults.”

Since that was what Gah-re-al feared,
that comment hardened his resolve. He was going to remove Lexa
whether she wanted to go or not.

Of course, if she didn’t, he was going
to have his work cut out for him in keeping her there, he thought
angrily. “Thanks. I think I’ll see what I can do to persuade Lexa,”
he muttered.

Raphael chuckled. “Good luck on that.
My advice would be to remove her and then persuade her.”

“I don’t suppose you also have some
advice on how to persuade her?” Gah-re-al said dryly, then added
uncomfortably. “She’s pretty pissed off at me at the
moment.”

Raphael grinned. “As a matter of fact I
do. Nesting. If she’s pregnant, her prime consideration is going to
be to find a safe place for the baby.”

“And you know this because
…?”