“Yes,” Neka agreed. “Just like the ocean.”
“Tell me,” Rhen asked Neka conversationally. “Thellis informed me that when you pick your crops, new food grows back instantly. Your crops’ yield is never ending. Is that true? And if so, do you ever need to worry about starvation for your people?”
Neka was caught off guard. Her eyes grew wide as she panicked. Charlie stepped up beside her, munching on a cracker. “You’re right,” he told Rhen, while taking another bite of his appetizer. “Starvation isn’t something that the Water Elves need to worry about. Like you said; if they pick something, it grows back instantaneously. Do you want to go outside and pick something to watch it grow back?”
“Yes, before I go, I would like to see that.” Rhen turned to Plos. “Can you grow your species of plants anywhere or do they only grow here?”
“Only here,” Charlie answered for a stunned-looking Plos. “We’ve tried to grow them at the Thestran palace, but they need the special environment that only the Water Elf castle can offer to thrive and reproduce.”
“That’s too bad. I would’ve liked to have brought some cuttings back to Surpen for our farmers to try to cultivate.”
“Sorry,” Charlie told Rhen, as Reed punched him on the arm. “Oww,” Charlie whined, rubbing his muscle. “Why’d you do that?”
“Why are you taking over Plos and Neka’s evening? Perhaps they would like some time to talk with Rhen? After all, you live with him every day,” Reed told him.
“Okay,” Charlie agreed, sounding grumpy. He walked over to get a drink.
Plos and Neka were sorry to see him leave. They’d appreciated his quick-thinking answers to Rhen’s questions.
“Where are the merpeople?” Rhen asked, glancing about the room. He turned to his sister, Sage, who’d married a merman several years ago.
Sage smiled and looked towards her husband, Ryan, for support, but he only laughed nervously and asked, “What?”
“Your people,” Rhen said, nodding towards Ryan. “Thellis told me you live with the Water Elves. Where are they?”
“They’ll be here later,” Charlie yelled, from across the room.
Sage nodded, thankful that her brother had answered Rhen’s question but concerned because it was such an obvious lie. Since Ryan’s parents couldn’t live out of water, they hadn’t been invited. She sure hoped Charlie knew what he was doing.
Plos and Neka decided to walk Rhen over in Charlie’s direction, so he could continue to come up with quick answers to Rhen’s strange questions.
“Later?” Rhen asked Ryan as they crossed the floor.
“Yes,” Ryan said, with a shrug.
Sage reached out to pull Ryan away from Rhen. “What’re you doing?” she whispered.
“I’m following Charlie’s lead. He seems to have a plan or at least, he’s fooling Rhen well enough that Rhen’s buying it.” Sage laughed. Oddly enough, it seemed to make sense.
Charlie had gotten himself a drink from the bartender. He downed it then asked for two more. Carrying the drinks towards Mary, he handed her one then downed the second. Mary shook her head. She loved Charlie, but sometimes his behavior was less than exemplary. “Thanks,” she murmured, holding up the strange, brown concoction that Charlie had given her. “What is it?”
“That tropical drink you fell in love with while we were on Crithnians.” Charlie lifted his hand to order a third drink. “It just looks different with the Water Elves’ mixers. Hey, you want to dance?”
Mary took a sip. “Oh, this drink is amazing.”
“Do you want to dance?” Charlie repeated.
“Definitely.”
Charlie leaned forward to kiss her before taking her hand to walk out onto the dance floor. Before they could reach it, Neka grabbed Charlie’s arm.
“Sorry, Mary. We need Charlie.” She rushed him back to Plos’ side whispering, “You have to help us. Rhen’s asking questions we can’t answer. We aren’t good at lying. We don’t have enough practice, like you do.”
Charlie appeared offended. “Really, Neka, I’m not sure how to take that.” He laughed at the look of horror on her face then continued over towards where Plos was standing.
“…so the yield from your corn crop, if everything is harvested in one fell swoop, can feed your people for how long, would you say?” Rhen asked.
Charlie tripped accidentally and spilled his drink onto Plos’ shirt. “Oh, I’m so sorry.” He wiped at Plos’ shirt with his own. When Rhen wasn’t looking, he winked at Plos. William was laughing at Charlie’s clumsiness from the corner of the room, but the others knew Charlie had tripped on purpose. “There, all done,” Charlie said. He stepped back and shook out his shirt next to Rhen, spraying him with droplets from his drink.
“Charlie,” Rhen growled, drying his face with a napkin. He gazed out over the crowd. A lot of the elves were dancing.
“Do you want to dance, Ceceta?” Bending down, he whispered, “I took off my weapons belt for you.” Ceceta smiled and reached for his hand and the two of them left to dance.
“Rasack’s balls!” Plos grabbed Charlie’s arm. “You came just in time. I was telling so many lies that I lost track of all of them.”
“No, no, no,” Charlie replied emphatically, while patting Plos on the shoulder. “That’s bad. Never lose track of your lies, then you’ll crash and burn. Tell your lies, mean your lies and believe in your lies. Then no one gets hurt. I still believe there’s a demon in the northern volcano that ate my homework in third grade.” James and Reed, who were standing next to them, laughed. They remembered that lie. Charlie had been so adamant about it that he’d even had their teacher believing in the northern volcanic demon until Kate had set her straight.
“Stay with me the rest of the night,” Plos begged.
Charlie chuckled at his predicament before answering, “Maybe. Right now, I need a drink.” He walked off towards the bar.
When Rhen stopped dancing, he was surrounded by Water Elves. They wanted to learn more about him. Rhen answered their questions for over an hour. When he started to hear the same questions being repeated, he realized it was time to move on. He signed to Ceceta, over the elves’ heads, that he needed a break and was heading to the bathroom. Ceceta signed back that she wanted to go with him. They made their excuses and walked through the door on the left that was located in the middle of the waterfall wall.
A moment later, Rhen’s guard elves opened the same door to follow. When they did, they revealed Rhen and Ceceta making out. The two of them had stopped to kiss as soon as they’d entered the room. Rhen’s hand was down Ceceta’s robes and Ceceta had her hand up Rhen’s tunic. They broke their embrace, when they noticed hundreds of Water Elves staring at them. Rhen’s anger flared and he turned on his guards. “You don’t need to follow us!” Ceceta was just as embarrassed about being caught and yelled at them, too, which made Rhen even angrier. He hated seeing his wife upset. Soon they were all yelling at each other.
Just when it appeared that Rhen and Ceceta might cut their visit short, Charlie stumbled through the door, slammed it shut behind him and declared, “I’ve got to take a piss. Is this the way?”
Rhen and Ceceta fell silent.
“It’s in the other direction, Charlie,” Sarah told him, while pointing back towards the party room.
Charlie burped. “Isn’t there another one in this direction?”
Sarah sighed. “Yes, but it’s far away and through some old, dingy parts of the castle.”
“Far?” Rhen repeated. “You can hold it, right Charlie?” Without waiting for a response from his brother, he grabbed Ceceta’s hand and told Sarah, “Lead on.”
They walked through two rooms before stepping behind an ancient tapestry into a secret passageway that led them through several small rooms full of doors that, when opened, showed the wall behind them. “Doors to nowhere,” Rhen said, staring at the brick wall behind the door he’d opened. “Didn’t I sing a song about that once?”
“Yes,” Ceceta said. She pushed the door closed and pulled on his hand to make him keep up with the others. “But I don’t think you were talking about these.”
“You don’t?” Rhen teased.
Sarah led them up a staircase and back through another room full of doors that led to nowhere. At the end of the next corridor, they entered a large, round room that had a circular stone structure in the middle of it. The structure reached from floor to ceiling and was roughly as thick in diameter as a small jetbike. There were numerous ancient, elfin symbols carved into it and on the walls encircling the room were paintings. The floor of the room had large swirling designs that appeared to continue on indefinitely. Two handprints had been carved into the stone structure in the center of the room.
Rhen paused when he stepped through the door into the chamber. He glanced up at the paintings then turned about in a circle to see them all. Sarah walked back to join him. “Why didn’t Plos bring us here earlier?” Rhen asked as he approached one of the pictures.
Sarah shrugged. “We never use this room.” She glanced up at the paintings of the Genisters on the walls. She’d been afraid to bring Rhen through here, since Themrock’s portrait was everywhere, but she needn’t have worried because Themrock had obscured his pictures. His eyes were now glowing such a brilliant blue that the details of his face were hard to see. “It’s the oldest room in the castle and it’s located in the center of all those rooms with empty doors, so it’s pretty much useless.”
Rhen figured Plos had probably thought he’d find it boring. He smiled at the painting in front of him then stepped over to the next picture. “What do you call this room?”
“The Ancestor Room.” Sarah gestured about. “Very descriptive, don’t you think? We’re not sure what it was used for. The pictures on the walls are of the Genisters, but we can’t read the ancient, elfin symbols to decipher them.” She pointed at the central column. “We thought the column was load-bearing, that it held up the upper floors of the castle, but recently we discovered it doesn’t seem to bear any weight. Some of the elves want to knock it down and open up the room, but Dad thinks there must be a reason for it. He hopes to figure it out someday.”
“All of the elfin castles have a room like this one,” Latsoh told Rhen.
“Interesting.” Rhen stepped to his right to look at the next picture. A moment later, he bent his head down to keep from laughing. The elves surrounded him. They searched the painting, trying to figure out what he found so funny.
Ceceta bumped into Rhen, when he moved on to the next painting. “Why are you laughing?”
Rhen shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”
Ceceta’s eyes widened. “Well, now you have to tell me. What is it? They seem like beautiful pictures of Themrock.”
Rhen put a hand on her back to guide her to the next painting. “They’re beautiful and funny.”
“They don’t look funny.” Ceceta peered at the picture in front of her as Rhen bent his head down again to stop himself from laughing. Ceceta smacked him on the arm. “Come on. Tell me what’s so funny.”
Rhen lifted his hands in surrender. “Alright. First, ask Sarah what’s in Themrock’s hand in the last picture we saw and then I’ll tell you why I think they’re funny.”
Ceceta strolled over to the previous picture and stared at Themrock’s hand. It appeared he was holding a long, thin sword. She turned to look at Sarah, who was two paintings behind her. “Sarah, would you mind telling me what’s in Themrock’s hand in this picture?”
Sarah walked over and sighed. “I love this one. It’s of Themrock with five elfin angels around him. He’s holding a sword, protecting the angels from some dark evil above them.”
“Thanks,” Ceceta said, “that’s what I thought, too. I just wanted to be sure.” She wandered over to Rhen. He was laughing at another picture when she bumped into him. “He’s holding a sword,” she whispered.
Rhen snorted. “No, he’s definitely not.”
Ceceta frowned. “It looks like a sword. It’s not exactly straight, but… I give up. What is it?”
Rhen bent down closer to her so no one would hear. “Don’t tell the others, but you’re looking at smoke rising from Themrock’s Tgarus cigarette.”
Ceceta appeared confused. “He’s smoking Tgarus weed?”
Aaron had appeared beside them, so Rhen decided to sign the rest of what he was going to say, That’s what’s so funny. This God, Themrock, that the elves are so happy to worship, is more into self-pleasure than anything else. Kind of like Charlie was at school.
Charlie’s shoulders hunched over as he felt the others staring at him after Lilly broadcast Mary’s translation. Fortunately, Rhen continued. They’re worshiping someone, who hasn’t done anything to deserve their affection. That swirling dark brown cloud above Themrock is Theter. He’s coming to yell at Themrock for not attending an important meeting and Themrock’s just laughing at him.
Ceceta put a hand to her mouth. She was shocked. She noticed the guard elves were surrounding them now. Are you telling me that Themrock’s not a good God? she signed.
Rhen shrugged. I don’t know. He might have been good at one point, but in these pictures, he’s definitely more into having fun than anything else.
Ceceta couldn’t accept what he was saying. I don’t believe you. How could you possibly know that? Did you read the ancient symbols? Themrock is a kind, peaceful, loving God. You’re making this up.
I’m not making it up and don’t jump to conclusions. I never said that Themrock wasn’t kind, peaceful and loving, just that he’s a bit of a partier. You don’t need to read the symbols to know it. Can’t you hear the pictures’ songs? He pointed at the painting in front of them.
Ceceta couldn’t hear anything coming from the painting. Song? What song?
Rhen pushed her closer. Listen. You can hear the pictures singing. Themrock painted these pictures and he placed a song into each of them. You can understand them by listening to his song.
Sarah and the others had a new appreciation for the paintings. They hadn’t realized that Themrock had painted them himself. The room became quiet, as they tried to hear the songs Rhen had mentioned.
I can’t hear anything, Rhen. Ceceta signed.
Rhen leaned over and placed his head on top of hers giving her the ability to hear the songs. Ceceta gasped. You’re right. I can hear him. This is amazing. I’m hearing Themrock singing a song that’s thousands of years old. I can’t believe it. You know he sounds just like…” she was going to say you, but realized she shouldn’t.
Rhen sniffed her hair. He loved the way Ceceta smelled. Like who?
Ceceta paused. Like… like Charlie.
Rhen chuckled into Ceceta’s hair and kissed her on the head. You’re right. He does sound like Charlie. Oh, Gods, I just had a thought. What if Charlie is Themrock? He looks like him a little, he sounds like him and according to these paintings, he definitely acts like him. He’s Themrock. I finally found Themrock.
The elves couldn’t help but laugh at Rhen’s words, as Charlie chuckled along with them. He wished Rhen would stop comparing him to the Genisters.
Rhen finished looking at the remaining portraits then walked over to the stone pillar in the center of the room, circling it, he inspected the ancient symbols. When he came to the handprints, he paused. “What are those?”
“It's rumored they’re Themrock's hands,” Sarah said, “But we think, in reality, the sculptor left them behind. Kind of like his signature, you know.” She walked over to put her hands into the handprints. “They’re big. He must have been a big person.” Sarah had taken her hands out of the prints so Rhen put his in them. As soon as Rhen’s hands made contact with the stone, his body jerked forward as a white light shot out from his eyes and mouth and from around his hands. The castle shook as Rhen began to recite a litany of unrecognizable words. Light began to pour out of the cracks between the stones that made up the castle and there was a roaring sound in the dista
nce.
“Sarah!” Aaron yelled over the noise. “We’ve got to get his hands out of there until we know what this means.”
They grabbed Rhen to pull him off the wall, but instead they ended up clutching onto him as their bodies lifted into the air. A strong power blast surged through them, making their hair rise as a tingling sensation raced up and down their spines.
A moment later, it was over. They held onto Rhen as they fell back down to the floor. They could hear people running in the five hallways that opened into the room. When they looked up, the other elves, who’d been at the party, rushed in to join them.
Reed was the first to speak. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Sarah said.
As she explained what had just happened, Rhen collapsed to the floor, the handprints finally releasing him. He was still glowing white, but his eyes were now closed. Ceceta sat down to put his head on her lap while Jet walked to the side of the room to talk with Thellis, who’d just arrived.
Sarah lifted her hands to look at them. Something happened, I feel different, she thought.
You too? Aaron looked over at Sarah and tilted his head. Did I just read your mind?
Sarah’s mouth dropped opened as the other elves in the room laughed. They’d heard Sarah, too. Oh, Gods, Jack chimed in. We can read minds. Rhen gave us the power to read each other’s minds. The elves laughed with glee. They had some of their powers back.
I can’t believe it, Latsoh thought. This is wonderful.
“Can we do anything else?” Sarah asked.
Latsoh nodded enthusiastically. “I bet you can. Your powers over water should be back.”
“Really? You think?” Sarah thought.
“Tgfhi, throw a water ball into the air,” Latsoh told him.
Tgfhi had knelt down beside Ceceta and Rhen. “Why?”
“Just do it,” she snapped.
Tgfhi formed a ball of water in his palm then tossed it into the air. Sarah pointed her hands at it, willing it to stop. She stared with awe, as the water hovered in the air for a moment before falling towards the ground. Tgfhi snatched it back to him before it splattered, getting everyone wet.
The Surpen King - Part 2 - Rise of the Elves Page 31