“Are you crying?” Susie asked him.
He sniffled hard. “Nope, nope, it’s just the cold making my eyes water.”
Marjan stomped over to them, and her fangs shot out of her mouth. Her eyes went feline, and her fingers melted together until her hands were enormous furry paws with claws that curved like daggers.
“I should kill you for having my friend kidnapped,” Marjan snarled. “The Harbingers put her in a cage. They planned to kill her and send her body back to her heart-mate. You would have been responsible. And they were going to kill your children too.”
The children looked at her with alarm. “Don’t kill her!” Louis pleaded. “It’s Christmas! She’s our only mother!”
Paul went pale, but he stepped in front of his wife. If Marjan wanted them dead, though, it wouldn’t help. She could dispatch both of them with one swipe of her paw.
“No, Marjan, don’t kill them,” Liza said quickly. “I understand why she did it. I wish she’d had more faith in me, but I understand why a mother would be willing to do anything or sacrifice anything to keep her children safe.”
“You’re lucky she’s here,” Marjan said in disgust, and turned and stalked off to wait by the hovercraft.
Sterran was looking at his wrist-holo. He swore loudly.
“What is it?” Liza asked, but she had a feeling she knew.
“The Arbitrator has ruled that because Jaspar was not there at the negotiations, the Harbingers win by default.” Sterran’s face went pale. “We will appeal, but appeals take a long time. The Harbingers will almost certainly take possession of this planet next week. That bastard Arbitrator. He ruled against us because he was angry that Jaspar filed that complaint.”
Liza’s heart throbbed painfully in her chest. It was all over, then. If the Harbingers took over the planet, she was sure they would destroy it out of spite, so that even if the Balthazar clan eventually reclaimed it, it would be ruined beyond repair.
Sterran’s brows drew together. He read the message on the wrist-holo and shook his head. “As soon as the Arbitrator pronounced his ruling, Fabian began bragging about why they really wanted this planetoid. It’s not the planetoid – it’s not even the portal, although that is certainly valuable. There are asteroids circling your planetoid that contain a certain mineral that increases strength and aggression in the Drakken. Fabian claims that it will give them the edge they need to defeat us in an all-out war.”
“So what do we do?” Barbara asked hopelessly, hugging Louis to her.
“It’s Christmas Eve,” Liza said. “We go into town and we celebrate with our loved ones. That’s what we do. The Harbingers can’t take that from us.”
