"Are you afraid of being angry?"

"I don't know, but that's what it sounds like, doesn't it?"

Steel smiled. She was so honest, even with herself. How he could have imagined for even a moment that this woman had lied was beyond him. "I want to try something," he said.

"All right," she agreed.

"Close your eyes and go back to this morning in your mind. Think about each detail, say it out loud if you want, whatever you need to do to make it real. If you can remember what happened within yourself, maybe you'll find answers."

"All right," Tani said, nodding. "It's worth a shot." She closed her eyes and tried to do as Steel described, but couldn't. Something was missing. Without thinking, she raised her hands and reached for Steel. He took her hands in his, squeezing them gently, and she relaxed. After that, it was easy to relive the incident in her mind.

She saw Steel, heard his angry words, watched herself as though from a distance as she stood up, then listened to her speak in a voice not her own, with words she would never have used. Her eyes flew open, so shocked that her face went white and she felt dizzy.

"Tani?" Steel asked. "What's wrong?"

Tani swallowed hard, realized that she was panting and made herself take deep, controlled breaths. A few moments later the dizziness passed enough for her to realize that she was squeezing Steel's fingers so hard that her hands hurt. She relaxed her grip and looked up apologetically.

"Steel?" she asked, surprised by how pale he was. "What's the matter?"

"I'm an idiot," he said. "I'm so sorry, Tani. I shouldn't have suggested you try that."

"No, don't say that," she said. "It worked."

"It did?"

"Yes. It just scared the nine hells out of me."

"Why?"

Tani bit her lip as tried to figure out how to tell him without sending him running from the room. "If you don't want to tell me, that's fine," Steel said. "I'll understand, I promise."

"No, I want to tell you. I'm just...worried...about your reaction," she said, changing the word scared to worried at the last moment.

"I promise not to get angry, if that helps," he said.

"I wasn't worried about that," Tani said. "How much do you know about Clan Jasani?"

"Some," he said slowly. "I know that you're shifters. I know you wield magic. I'm not sure exactly what you want to know." He deliberately left out what was, to him, the most important aspect of the Jasani, because he couldn't quite make himself bring it up.

"Up until about twenty years ago, women were not shifters until they found their male-set and went through a ritual. Only after the ritual did they become shifters."

"And now?"

"Now some females are born shifters," she replied. "Here's the important thing...either a female is born a shifter, in which case she's able to shift from birth, or she's changed into a shifter by her male-set when she's an adult. There's no in between. At least, not that I've ever heard of."

"In between?"

"I don't know what else to call it," she said. "When I got angry this morning, something inside of me...woke up."

"Something?" he asked. "You don't know what it is?"

"I'm guessing it's a dracon, but it could just as easily be a Taurian tree frog for all I know."

Steel's mouth twitched but he very wisely chose not to smile. Or laugh. He cleared his throat instead. "Are you saying that you've been a shifter all your life and never known it?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "I can't shift, Steel. I know that absolutely. Whatever's inside of me, it's trapped there. Maybe I've always known on some level that getting angry would awaken it."

"Why do you look so worried, Tani?"

"If my inner dracon, or whatever the hell it is, gets control of me, there's no telling what it would do. It's powerful, and it's very frustrated."

"You think it could hurt someone using your body," Steel said. Tani nodded. He smiled and shook his head. "That would never happen, Tani. Whatever's inside of you is part of you, and you'd never harm an innocent person."

"How can you say that after the way I threatened you this morning?"

"I deserved it, Tani," he said. "If either you, or your inner dracon...or tree frog...had thrashed me for my behavior it would have been no more than I deserved."

"You're being awfully understanding about all of this."

"That's because I understand it more than you know," he said.

"Meaning?"

Steel opened his mouth to answer her, but before he could speak Khurda's voice came through the speaker mounted near the ceiling in the corner of the room. "Steel, please join me in the control room ASAP."

Steel sighed. "I'm sorry, Tani, but I really have to go."

"It's all right, I understand," Tani replied. "Thank you, Steel, for helping me. I feel much better now."

"It was my pleasure," Steel said. "I promise, we'll finish this conversation soon."

"I'm going to hold you to that," she said with a smile. He returned the smile, stared into her eyes for a long moment, then stepped back with a jerk after coming so close to kissing her that he could almost taste her.

"If you'll excuse me," he said, then turned and left the room before he did something that he had absolutely no right to do.

He made his way quickly through the ship, turning corners and climbing ladders with little thought. He was relieved that Khurda's interruption had saved him from having to answer Tani's question. For a while anyway. She was going to have to be told before they left the ship, though. Otherwise, she'd be in for a very unpleasant surprise.

"What is it, Khurda?" he asked unceremoniously as he entered the control room.

"It looks like the Nomen have given up on us," Khurda said, barely glancing up from his screens.

"Or they're cloaked," Steel said. Khurda raised his head and arched an insulted brow. "I apologize," Steel said on a sigh. "Of course you've already determined that's not the case or you wouldn't have called me up here."

"Exactly," Khurda said.

Steel studied the screens in front of Khurda. "Where are they?"

"There," Khurda said, pointing at a tiny red blip on one screen that was moving quickly away from them. "I think they know where we're going and feel no need to continue dogging us since we obviously know they're watching."

"Or they're hoping we'll let our guard down and do something to reveal our position on Garza," Steel said.

"Probably," Khurda replied. "I was hoping to turn off cloaking and save some power, but that's surely what they're counting on."

"With Tani's ability to speak with her aunt in her dreams, I think we'll get some help soon. After that, power won't be such an issue."

"Dreams?" Khurda asked in surprise. Steel explained, chuckling softly at Khurda's reaction. It wasn't easy to surprise his old friend, but that had certainly done it.

"Tani Dracon is the key to our freedom," Steel said. "Not just because of her family's connection to ICARUS, either."

"I agree," Khurda said. "I don't know what it is, exactly, but I have a strong feeling that, without her, the Khun have no future."

"I know what you mean," Steel said. "But don't worry. She has far too much honor to turn her back on us until we're safe, no matter how many times I make an ass of myself."

Khurda looked up at him. "You're certain of this," he said, making it a statement rather than a question. Steel nodded anyway. "Thank you," Khurda said simply, then returned his attention to his screens. "We'll be home in about four hours."

"Good," Steel said. "It'll be nice to get outside and stretch out a bit."

"Agreed."

Astra waited in the tiny comm room just up the corridor from the control room, pretending interest in whatever text was displayed on her view terminal while waiting for Steel to leave. She was beginning to think he'd stay there until they landed on Garza and was ready to give up when she heard the door slide open. A few moments later Steel passed the comm room and, shortly after that, she heard the elevator doors open.

She turned off the vid terminal and stepped out into the corridor, biting her lip nervously as she considered what she was about to do. But she'd made a promise to herself when she was standing at the end of that alley on EDU-12 watching Tani Dracon as she bravely attacked two men who were each easily three times her size. That promise was to stop being a coward.

She stopped in front of the control room door, released her lip, raised her chin and knocked firmly.

"Enter," Khurda called absently.

Heart suddenly racing, Astra waved her hand over the sensor, then stepped inside when the door slid open. She paused just inside, the sound of the door sliding shut behind her causing her to flinch even though she'd expected it. Khurda was bent over his console, studying the array of view screens in front of him so intently that she was surprised he'd even responded to her knock. After five full seconds, she realized that she was going to have to speak first.

"Hello, Khurda," she said, wincing slightly at how nervous she sounded. Well, she wasn't much good at hiding her feelings, and never had been. That's why she'd always stayed as far from Khurda as possible which, she now realized, had been doubly cowardly.

If she hadn't been staring at him so hard she probably wouldn't have noticed him stiffening at the sound of her voice. Her carefully gathered courage shrank at the sight and her heart thudded heavily in her chest. He turned slowly and stared at her for a long moment before saying, "Hello, Astra." Silence fell. Khurda coughed. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"Um, no, I just...," she paused, scrambling for some excuse to be here, interrupting his work. "I just wanted to thank you."

"For what?" he asked, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"For getting me off of EDU-12," she said. "Well, getting me and Tani off, I mean, in time." She blushed and dropped her eyes, knowing that she sounded like a fool.

"I didn't get you off in time," he said. "You got hit with a knife, and she got a tranquilizer dart."

"It could have been worse," she said. "Much worse."

Khurda shrugged, then spun his chair back around, putting his back to her. "It could have been better, too, Astra. If the sound had worked the way it should have, we could've warned you they were following you long before they got close enough to throw a knife at you. I knew it was down and kept putting off fixing it, so it was entirely my fault. I'm sorry."

She heard the regret in his voice and wanted to kick herself. The last thing she'd meant to do was make him feel bad. She wondered what to say next, couldn't think of a single thing and gave up. "Well, um, good-bye."

"Bye, Astra," he said without turning back around. Astra turned, waved her hand over the sensor, and all but ran through the door. She made her way down the corridor to the elevator, went down one level and hurried toward her room. The moment her door was closed and locked behind her, she let the tears flow.

The Dracons sat quietly in their private dining room aboard the Ugaztun, their breakfasts barely touched before them. They were so deep in their own thoughts and worries that the vid terminal beeped three times before Trey reached over to answer it. When the large screen on the wall went from dark blue to an image of Salene and Rayne, they all tried to smile.

"Good morning, Daughters," Garen said.

"Good morning, Ata," Salene said. "Mom, Dede, Popi. You look tired."

"We're a little tired," Trey said. "We meant to contact you two this morning, so we're glad you called."

"You have news?" Rayne asked hopefully.

"Yes, a little," Garen replied. "Your Aunt Glory spoke with Tani in a Dream Walk. Tani said that she's fine, and that she wasn't kidnapped. She was attacked, and transported aboard a ship to safety, but they're being followed and it's not safe to send a transmission. She'll give Glory the coordinates of her location tonight."

"That's good news and bad news," Salene said.

"Yes, it is," Trey said. "We've contacted security on EDU-12, and they've promised to send personal guards for both of you within the hour. Tani believes that the men who attacked her may have been after any one of you three, not just her in particular."

"All right, Dede," Salene said. "Don't worry though. We aren't as skilled with weapons as Tani, but we can take care of ourselves if need be."

"We know that," Garen said. "Just remember that even with Tani's skills, she was forced to flee the planet."

"Yes, Ata, we'll remember," Rayne said, then bit her lip and glanced at Salene.

"What is it?" Lariah asked, concerned by the expressions on their faces.

Salene and Rayne looked at each other again, then at their parents. "We have some information that we think you should know," Salene said. "We promised not to tell you, but under the circumstances...," she trailed off and looked at Rayne. Rayne nodded, then picked up a sheet of paper on the counter in front of them.

"We went through Tani's things," she said, her face reddening with embarrassment. "It was wrong of us to violate her privacy, and it's wrong of us to do this. We both feel as though we're betraying our sister, which is fair since that's exactly what we're doing."

Lariah saw the tears in Rayne's eyes, and the determination on her face, and understood her struggle. "If it will help Tani, then it's right that you tell us whatever you know."

"That's the problem, Mom," Salene said. "This won't help her. If it would, we'd have no qualms about this at all. We're doing this for your sakes, not Tani's."

Garen, Trey and Val exchanged looks with Lariah, then all four turned back to the image of their daughters on the vid screen. "We don't understand, Salene," Garen said.

Rayne held the sheet of paper before the vid camera. Trey adjusted the view so that the print on the page was clear enough for them to read. It took a moment for them to understand what they were looking at. Lariah understood first, and the color drained from her face so fast that she slumped sideways in her chair before Garen could catch her, his own mind reeling.

Rayne removed the paper when she was sure they'd had time to read it, then she and Salene waited for the outburst they knew was coming.

"How long have you known this?" Garen demanded, causing them both to flinch.

Lariah placed a hand on his chest and shook her head. "Stop, Garen," she said, then waited until his golden gaze met hers and he nodded. Only then did she turn to look up at her daughters.

"Thank you for sharing this," she said. "I know how difficult it was to break your word to your sister. Tell me, are you certain that this is correct? Is there no possibility of a mistake?"

"No, Mom," Rayne said. "She had the test run twice and when she finally told us about it, we insisted she have it run again. We had it run on ourselves at the same time, just in case. Our results were normal, but her results were the same all three times. There is no mistake."