Chapter 8: EIGHT

Half an hour later, members of the jury, all the humans in the gallery had left. Only Aaron Farrow, Sendrhea, Verdis, Šhedrhen, and the whistling dragons remained, standing at Farrow’s table.

She introduced her mate and daughter and their whistling dragons. Farrow just nodded, looking somewhat concerned, as if his mind were still on the trial.

“Clever,” he said a moment later. “I would even say brilliant.” He swiped his hand across his thinning black hair.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “There was nothing clever, nothing brilliant about it. She attacked me, I defended myself. Simple. Judge Kingsley was right in not charging me.”

“So whenever a Tereskàdians kill someone, they just walk away.”

“Don’t you get it, Mr. Farrow? In order for a Tereskàdian to kill anyone they would have to be attacked. In our society if we are attacked we defend ourselves. We have every right to do so. ‘Right’ might be the wrong word. Let’s say it’s our nature... instinct, if you will.”

“That might be the way it is on your world, not ours.”

“It doesn’t change just because we are now living on another planet. The government has decreed...”

He waved the statement away. “I don’t think it’s right. Anyone who commits murder should stand trial.”

“So you’re saying if someone breaks into your home, brandishing a knife, stabs you... in the ribs, but you still manage to subdue your attacker and kill him, you should stand trial for murder.”

“Not murder, Sendrhea. Yes, it’s self defense, but I still killed someone, so I should pay for what I did.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“I have a sense of right and wrong,” he said. “I know when I kill someone, I’ve done something wrong.”

“I know that too. Do you think I rejoice when someone attacks me, and I have to defend myself? And how do I do that? With my claws. You have to remember that my mind, and your mind are not the same.”

Šhedrhen tugged at her mother’s arm. “Are we going home soon, Mama?”

“Soon.”

“Do you think Lana didn’t know about the poison in your claws?” Farrow asked.

“She knew, didn’t she?”

“All this... the accusation, the arrest, the trial, she had it all planned. You were the unfortunate... alien caught in the middle of this.”

“What was she thinking?”

“I knew her far longer than you, Sendrhea. I’ve been with the family for the last twenty years and...” He cut her off before she could utter a word, looked around to see if anyone was still in the courtroom. When he leaned closer she detected the strong odor of sweat and cologne. She took a step back. “What I’m going to tell you cannot leave this courtroom. I want you to agree to this. My career could be in jeopardy if I tell you this but... She’s dead, and her father doesn’t give a damn about her so...” He shrugged. “I doubt he’ll even show up for the funeral.”

“I’m not sure.”

“Agree?” He glanced at her mate and cub.

“All right, I agree.” Hesitation vanished, replaced by curiosity.

“Lana was born into a successful upper-middle class family. Her father owned a prosperous hardware chain, and she had two older sisters, both successful in the business world. Lana was four... five years younger than the middle sister, and she told me she felt like an outsider, like she didn’t even belong there. Her father wanted her to go to college and study business administration so she could follow in his footsteps, but she didn’t meet his expectations.”

Is this going somewhere? Fharezhan asked.

Sh. I want to hear what he has to say.

Farrow chuckled. “Meet? She didn’t even come close. And then she started going out with this young man who had dropped out of school, and she got herself pregnant. Her father found out, threatened to cut her out of his will if she didn’t get an abortion. She told me she loved this... Kyle, I think that was his name, and she was going to keep the baby. Trouble was, the baby never came to term, so I guess her father got his wish in a roundabout way. As for Kyle, he didn’t stick around, found someone else, and took off for parts unknown.”

“What does all this have to do with me?”

“Don’t you get it? When she didn’t abort, before she had her miscarriage, her father kept hounding her, and hounding her, telling her she’d never amount to anything, she’d never ben in the same league as her sisters... she would spend her life in the gutter blah blah blah.”

“What about her mother?”

“Her mother died six years ago. Suicide. Lana told me her mother was driven to kill herself because of her father... Lana’s father. After her mother’s death she didn’t talk to her father anymore, and the arguments widened the gap further. As far as she was concerned he was dead, just like her mother.”

“I guess that’s why he hesitated when she told the court her father would see an attorney about a lawsuit.”

“Lies, all lies.” He straightened his papers, pushed them into a gaping briefcase.

“The sisters?”

“The oldest is now CEO of her father’s firm right here in Westover, and the middle sister is a branch manager in Chicago. They think their sister is the black sheep of the family, getting pregnant, miscarrying... Not much love there.”

You are reading story Claws at novel35.com

Fharezhan sat beside her as she scratched the top of his head where his ears would have been if whistling dragons had ears. The whistling dragon stretched his wings, purred.

“I should learn more about your species,” Farrow said. “You’re... you know, like kangaroos? Marsupials?”

“Not like kangaroos, Sen Farrow,” Verdis said, speaking for the first time. “You might say we have a... what we call a chamber in our abdominal region. Sort of like... uh, like nature, if I may call it that, had scooped out a hole in our bellies specifically for the cub.”

“Males and females?”

“That’s right.”

“I find that fascinating.” He turned to Fharezhan and the other whistling dragons. “May I ask some questions?”

“Sure,” Verdis said.

“These... whistling dragons, they’re always with you, aren’t they?”

“That’s right.”

“And the male... he has milk in those... uh, teats.”

“Yes. And so does Chemhonha (Chĕ moh’ nah). They’re adults. Šhedrhen and her whistling dragon, Zef‘hen (Zĕf’ yĕn) are still cubs. He’ll provide her with milk next year when she turns five.”

A puzzled expression crossed his face. “Just one more question, if you don’t mind. Why are they called whistling dragons? I can’t picture him as a dragon, despite those wings. I have a different picture in mind.”

“Huge... reptilian... hatching from eggs.” Sendrhea ran her paw along Fharezhan’s furry back. “Mammal.. live birth... We are tied together, so to speak. Born at the same time, we will die at the same time.”

“What’s their whistling like?” Farrow asked.

What do you think he might like to hear, Fharezhan asked.

You decide.

Fharezhan whistled the opening bars of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

“Classical,” Farrow said. “Did you teach him that?”

“He’s not a parrot.” A bit of indignity in her voice. “He listens, he learns, just like anyone else interested in music. Maybe I’ll tell you more another day, right now we would all like to go back to Colbert’s Landing.”

“Sure thing, Sendrhea... uh...”

“What will happen to Lana’s body?” She and Verdis had moved it to a location safe from prying eyes. She didn’t really care what happened to the body, just as long as no one touched it for at least three days. After that the poison dissipated, and they could give her a proper burial... if her father even cared.”

“She hatched a grand scheme,” Farrow said, “and you were a part of it.”

“She scratched her face and arms and belly so she could take me to court?” She wondered how another Tereskàdian, in the same situation, would have handled it.

“That’s right.” He picked up the briefcase, well-fed now with his papers.

“She must have been desperate. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to self-mutilate themselves.”

“If I may put it bluntly, she used you. She used Marie Beauchamp, she used her friends, and I guess that backfired on her. When her father kept hounding, she confided in me that she was thinking of ending it. She said she didn’t blame her mother for killing herself, not after the way Lana’s father treated her. I tried to talk her out of it, but by then, no one could have changed her mind. She asked me about the quickest way to end your life. The surest way, she said. When I asked her why she told me she was researching suicide and its effect on others for her psychology class, but she was lying. She wanted to find out about the Tereskàdians and the poison in their claws. She became obsessed with your species. When she told you she hadn’t read the book, I guess you knew she was lying.”

“I’m a Tereskàdian,” she said. “Her lies were strong, I did all I could to hold myself together.” ^I think it’s time we headed back to Colbert’s Landing,^ she told Verdis through their whistling dragons. She turned back to Farrow. “If you knew this was wrong, why did you go through with the trial?”

“I was the prosecutor in this case,” he said. “Let’s say, it was more of a case of curiosity than anything else. How far would this trial go before something happened?”

“You should have called it off.” The bitterness in her voice was evident. “You should have gotten some help for her.”

“And what would that have accomplished? She would have done it eventually, and if not you, another Tereskàdian.”

“She wanted to end it quickly, and she wanted to drag a Tereskàdian down with her.” She ignored Šhedrhen’s tug on her arm. “And she didn’t give a damn which Tereskàdian.”

“Some people want to end it, but they’re afraid it might hurt too much, or they think they won’t be successful, and they’ll end up a vegetable, unable to function for the rest of their lives. I guess getting killed by a Tereskàdian doesn’t involve any pain... or death comes so quickly that pain doesn’t even register. Your instinct is to defend yourself when attacked, so the courts can’t charge you with any crime. I don’t really agree with this, but what can I do? The law is the law, despite my objections.” He grasped the handle of his briefcase, sighed. “Lana was rather insistent that you should be charged, and have your day in court... and her day as well. You just helped a young woman commit suicide, but because you’re a Tereskàdian...” He lifted his shoulders in an imperceptible shrug.

“Case dismissed,” she said.

“Case dismissed,” he agreed.

The End

You can find story with these keywords: Claws, Read Claws, Claws novel, Claws book, Claws story, Claws full, Claws Latest Chapter