Chapter Ten
The next morning, Jaspar woke with an uneasy premonition. His premonitions were never wrong.
Something bad was about to happen.
He dressed quickly, glancing with regret at his bed. He wanted Liza there with him, by his side, every night. He hoped that she would soon agree to marry him and he could begin planning the wedding party.
He hurried out to meet with his brothers. They were in the kitchen eating breakfast.
“Have the Harbingers tried anything else?” Jaspar demanded of them.
They all shook their heads.
“Our surveillance drones have been watching their hotel all night,” Korl said. “They did not leave the grounds.”
Jaspar walked outside to find Liza, and saw that she was standing by one of her family’s booths, talking to a man he did not recognize. She was scowling, and looked very unhappy.
He did not know what was wrong, but he felt an instant rage roar through him. Someone was upsetting his heart-mate.
He hurried over to her, and to his surprise, she spun around and glared at him, angrier than he had ever seen her before. “You son of a bitch.”
He stood there and considered this. He knew what a bitch was. There was only one person she could be referring to. “Has my mother said something to you? You are angry at my mother, am I correct?”
“Oh no, your mother has nothing to do with this.” She practically spat the words at him. “And to think that I was falling for you. Drakken can’t lie? Riiight. Just goes to show that you can’t believe everything you read in the Encyclopedia Galactica.”
He stared at her as she stomped away.
What had just happened?
Korl walked up to him. “Is this a bad time?” he asked.
“What could possibly give you that impression?” Jaspar grated between his teeth.
“You’ve gone scaly and there is smoke pouring from your nostrils.”
Jaspar answered with one frustrated jerk of his head. “Yes, this is a bad time.”
“Sorry,” Korl said. “We need to head to the conference center right away. The humans filed a complaint with their local Galactic Representative, and the Arbitrator has summoned both clans.” He smiled eagerly. “I hope it turns into a death battle!”
“I could use a good slaughter right now,” Jaspar growled in agreement.
He and his clan gathered and flew to the meeting place, arriving two hours later, as they had been ordered.
Deathbringer Fabian was there, along with most of his men and several females. Jaspar recognized Valeria the Bloody.
Clever. Since the females were genetically able to lie, they could do some of the negotiating.
They gathered before the stage in the big, empty meeting room, and a hologram of the Arbitrator, a human named Orion, appeared.
“Greetings, oh wise one! The Balthazar clan threatened us and attempted to challenge me,” Fabian said quickly.
Orion gazed at him and raised an eyebrow. “I am told that you went into town carrying weapons, which is against the laws of this colony. Until ownership of the colony is decided, you will still follow their rules. As for the individual challenge, the Balthazar Regis was within his legal rights.”
Fabian scowled. “The Balthazar Clan has been spying on us and on this meeting place.”
“But so have you, haven’t you?” Jaspar said.
“We most certainly have not,” Valeria said indignantly. “We have been completely aboveboard in all our dealings here.”
