It was not a question of whether the Harbinger clan would cheat. They always cheated. It was a question of finding out what their game was.
Jaspar and his clan always kept an eye on what the Harbingers were up to, because their two clans had been at odds for hundreds of years. Their spies had discovered that the Harbingers wanted to buy the Christmas Colony, but they hadn’t been able to find out why. All Jaspar knew was that when the Balthazar clan had swooped in and put in a higher bid on the colony, the Harbingers had been enraged.
But why?
There were no valuable minerals on the planetoid. It was only profitable for a couple of months a year, leading up to the human Christmas holiday – and certainly not profitable enough to interest the Harbingers, who, like the Balthazar clan, were vastly wealthy. There was no logical reason why the Harbingers would want it.
Jaspar and his clan hadn’t even decided what they were going to do with this world when they took possession of it.
By mid-afternoon, Jaspar had returned to the Hawthorne family residence. He was most pleased to see that Liza was happy again; apparently the humans liked it when their robots insulted them. How very strange.
Liza even insisted that he allow his mother to return from their ship. She claimed it was not acceptable to banish his female parental unit during the holidays.
When his mother strode in with Loren, she bore a smirk of triumph. “Do not test my patience again,” Jaspar warned her. “Or I will banish you to a very distant island when we return home.”
“But I see that our changes were welcomed after all. We have in fact saved this strange holiday for the human family,” she said, with a faint smile tugging at her lips.
“Do you now accept that I will indeed claim Liza as mine?”
“I do not. I still forbid it,” she said, and swept off majestically from the room, head held high.
Korl and the others returned shortly afterwards, and Korl looked glum and angry.
“What happened?” Jaspar demanded. “What did you find?”
“Terrible news,” Korl sighed.
Jaspar felt anger rush through his body. He’d known it. He’d known the Harbingers were going to cheat somehow. They had never held a fair negotiation yet. Although the males could not openly lie, they found ways to dance around the truth, and cheated behind the scenes.
“Sabotage?” he said.
“No, much worse,” his brother said.
“What is worse?”
“No sabotage at all. There were no traps. I have no excuse at all to storm their encampment and burn it to the ground.” Korl’s lip curled in disgust. “There is merriment and happiness everywhere I cast my gaze. It is as if nobody even wants a war. This colony is a nightmare.”
Jaspar stared at his brother in exasperation. “My clutchling brother? May I speak the truth to you?”
“Always.” Korl nodded with an expression of grave respect.
“You’re an idiot.” And Jaspar stalked out of the room.
As he was leaving, Marjan hurried in.
“I understand that Jaspar is going to take my best friend Liza out on a so-called date this evening,” she said. She glared at Korl. “I just want you to know that my race is fiercely loyal to our friends. I would kill anyone who threatened my friend or caused her harm. That includes Jaspar.”
“Well, obviously,” Stephan said scornfully. “I am sure that I am far more loyal to my clutchling brother and leader than you are to your friend.”
“I would bathe in the warm blood of those who merely offended Liza.” Marjan fixed Korl with a ferocious glare.
“I would rip the liver from the body of he who cast a disrespectful glance at my Regis, and eat it as he took his dying breaths.” Stephan looked at her triumphantly, as if he had scored some sort of point.
Marjan laughed. “That’s what you consider a threat? Because around here, that’s what we call Tuesday.”
She walked out of the room, and Korl glared after her as Sterran choked with laughter.
