decided, since he had no soul and couldn’t bond to anyone. Goddess, they were getting high up here!
She spared a look down and wished she hadn’t. Could Raak really get them all the way to the top? He’d better or they were going to splat on the sandy beach that surrounded Rainbow Mountain and make a multicolored mess of themselves.
“Look at that, Mommy! Look at the man and lady up top!”
“Wow—look at them climb! I thought you said we couldn’t do that, Mommy. Why come the man and lady can and we can’t?”
Looking down again, Kara saw two adorable kids pointing up at her and Raak. They weren’t the only ones, either. A few moments ago Rainbow Mountain had seemed almost deserted. Now there was quite a sizeable crowd gathered and all of them were staring and pointing at her and the big Y’lyn Kindred.
“Is that the Chancellor’s daughter?” Kara heard one of the mothers ask. Due to a trick of the air flow, she could hear her quite clearly, despite the fact that they were getting higher and higher up the mountain.
“Mmm-hmm, I think so. I saw her flash her fangs a minute ago.” The other mother shuddered. “I don’t know how she ended up with those—I thought only males were supposed to have them.”
“Must be some kind of genetic mutation,” the other mother said. “It makes me really glad I’ve only had boys since my hubby is a Blood Kindred.”
“Oh yes—what would you do if your child was born deformed like that?” the other mother asked. “It would be so sad. Of course you would love them no matter what but still…”
Kara felt her cheeks going hot. Suddenly the crazy climb up the side of Rainbow Mountain didn’t seem quite so fun anymore. She wondered if Raak had heard the women’s conversation too—if so, he hadn’t said anything about it, even though they continued to talk.
“And what is she doing up there with that guy anyway?” the other mother went on. “Isn’t there some kind of rule that prohibits climbing up the side of the mountain?”
“If there isn’t there should be. It’s a bad example for the children. Someone ought to complain.”
“I’ll bespeak my hubby right now and you bespeak yours. We’ll get someone here pretty quickly if we tell them it’s the Chancellor’s daughter pulling this stunt.”
This was too much for Kara.
“Stop!” she said in Raak’s ear. “We have to go back—those women down there are going to complain to my father and get me in trouble.”
“Sounds like the story of your life, huh, baby girl?” Raak grunted, as he continued to climb. “Someone always running to daddy to tell on you?”
“Well…yes.” Kara thought of all the years she’d had to be perfect in school so the other kids wouldn’t think she got special treatment because of her father’s status. “But that’s beside the point,” she said. “We have to get down before we make a scene.”
“I have news for you—we already made one. Also, here we are at the top. Let’s look inside the crater like we wanted to.”
Raak was standing on a ledge just about four feet below the lip of the crater and looking down into the hole. Of course by now he was soaked from the multicolored streams of water which flowed down the side of the mountain and Kara was pretty wet herself. His warm, wet skin was slippery to hold on to but Raak reached behind him and supported her easily with one big hand under her thigh.
Kara bit back a moan at the sudden contact and bent over his shoulder to examine the inside of the crater, interested despite herself in the water pumping mechanism. Science, tech, and mechanics had been her three favorite courses in school and she had also excelled in piloting, which her Uncle Baird had taught her when she was barely twelve cycles old.
“Look at that,” Raak murmured. “Looks like they have a flow disbursement mechanism but how do they keep the colors of the water separate?”
“Maybe repelling nanites in each of the streams?” Kara suggested. “Watch…”
Leaning down over his shoulder, she scooped some of the yellow water into her hand and then held it under the blue stream. But instead of mixing to form green, the blue water made a little jump and went back to its own stream, avoiding the yellow water in her palm completely.
“You were right, has to be nanites,” Raak growled.
“Cool,” Kara breathed, trying again with two different streams with the