As Ceceta followed Reed towards his castle, she wondered where the elves were. Usually, you would see Wood Elves all over the place, but today, the paths leading up to the castle were barren. When she noticed Estan winking at Ralis, she realized what Reed was up to. He hadn’t simply invited Rhen to a picnic. He’d invited him in the hopes that Rhen would awaken his castle. The Wood Elves were probably hiding because Reed knew that Rhen didn’t like to be surrounded by crowds. Ceceta sighed. She didn’t blame Reed for wanting Rhen to open his castle, but there went the rest of her day.
When Rhen stepped onto the castle’s stone steps, he nearly lost his balance as the ground shook. He was about to retreat back to the lake, when Lilo slipped her hand through his arm and pulled him forward. “Don’t mind that. We’ve had a few minor quakes lately. It’s nothing.” With Lilo on his arm, Rhen had no choice but to continue up the steps to the entrance of the castle.
Estan was devastated. Their castle wasn’t showing any visible changes to Rhen’s presence. The towers, peaks, balconies and windows were all still the same. His castle hadn’t morphed into a natural phenomenon that would bring tourists and money. Was there some reason why his castle wasn’t improving? Was Themrock angry with him and his people? Rhen and the others had stopped short just inside the entranceway. Estan walked up the steps to join them.
“Holy powers,” he said when he saw his front hall. The Wood Elf castle had changed alright, just not on the outside. Instead of finding himself in a large white entrance hall, Estan was staring into a lush forest that smelled of Giy flowers. The room’s pillars had turned into trees, its chairs were now gentle mounds of grass, and flowers bloomed everywhere. Moss, ferns and polished stones formed walkways. There was a pond in the middle of the room with fish in it and birds flew back and forth, chirping as they played. Estan felt sunlight on his face. Looking up, he realized he could see the sky. He shook his head, baffled by the change. How was it possible to see the sun when there were another twelve stories above them?
Trying not to gaze at everything around him as if it were the first time he was seeing it, Reed walked across the room. He entered the hallway that led to their Ancestor Room then waited for the others to catch up, while breathing in the scent of sweet berries. The hallways in their castle were now woodsy passageways lined with trees, bushes and vines. The trees’ branches weaved together over their heads to make a ceiling. Fruits he didn’t recognize hung down from vines above. Reed reached up to pluck a round, bluish fruit from one of the vines. Thank Themrock, he thought, when a new one instantly grew in its place. It appeared they might never have to worry about food again. He took a bite from the fruit he was holding and smiled. Whatever it was, it was delicious. Lilo tugged on his arm, so he passed it over to her with a reassuring nod.
“Your home is magnificent,” Rhen said. “I never imagined that you could bring a forest inside. That trick with the sunlight in your front hall is spectacular.” Reed nodded. He totally agreed.
They passed a room that had once been a small conference room and Reed stopped short. He peered through the open doorway at a desert that stretched out as far as the eye could see. His skin prickled from the heat of the desert’s sun, forcing him to step back.
“What do you use this room for?” Rhen asked, stepping out of Reed’s way. He liked the room. It felt like home.
Charlie snorted as he hopped on one leg, pretending he had to go to the bathroom. “That’s where they put the guests they don’t like.” He slapped Rhen on the back. “Reed said you should wait here.” Rhen lunged for Charlie, but he danced out of the way, laughing.
“Hey, Reed! Could you hurry it up? I still have to go,” he whined.
Reed wanted to hug Charlie. He’d been totally caught off guard by Rhen’s comment. “This way.” He led them down the hall, a smile on his face as he waited to see what would happen next.
There was a different habitat, not only from their planet, but from other planets as well, in every room they passed: savannahs, tropical rain forests, deserts, underwater grottos, fire fields, temperate forests, beaches, glaciers, mountains and more. Reed laughed with delight when they passed a room that had a Ventarian plumb tree forest in it. He would have to talk to Chara to make sure they regulated wood production so there wouldn’t be a glut in the market. If they felled two acres of…
Reed paused in his thinking, his mouth dropping open. They had arrived at a window that looked out onto the inner courtyard of their castle. The courtyard had always been dark, so they’d had trouble growing things within it, but now…
“Wow,” Rhen said. “That’s some tree.”
Reed chuckled. The most enormous tree he had ever seen was now growing in the middle of their inner courtyard. Its limbs connected the left side of the castle with the right. The elves, who’d been hiding, were now walking across the tree’s limbs, while others swung about the courtyard on vines, screaming with delight. Wait, Reed thought, when he spotted some pink sneakers flying by. That’s my daughter! She shrieked and jumped from one vine to another, her brother in hot pursuit. Both of them were laughing with glee.
“Your children play nicely together,” Rhen said. He pointed to the sides of the castle that were visible from the courtyard window. “I like how everything grows on the stones so it looks like your home is alive.”
“Thanks,” Reed murmured. He hadn’t even noticed that plants and vines were now growing on every stone of the castle, turning it green with life.
They continued until they reached the Ancestor Room. Reed glanced over at the handprints on the stone structure as Rhen entered the room. “The changing rooms are here,” he said gesturing to two of the five doorways. “Men are on the left, women on the right. We have plenty of bathing suits. Change and we’ll meet back here before going to the lake.”
Rhen started to follow Charlie towards the men’s changing room, but stopped short. His head lifted and he stared at the paintings above him.
Ceceta stepped up to his side. “Can I hear them, too?”
“You might not want to,” Rhen whispered. Ceceta nudged his hand, so Rhen dipped his chin down to touch her head. Themrock’s songs sounded pensive and melancholic to her ear, as if he’d lost his way.
Ceceta was confused. “Why is he questioning himself?”
Rhen shrugged. “I don’t know, but he sounds almost resigned about something.” Rhen noticed that Reed was waiting for him by the changing room door. “We’d better move it if you still want to swim and make class.”
Ceceta was cornered the minute she entered the women’s changing room. “Okay, what were those pictures about? What did you learn from their songs?” Latsoh demanded. The elves wouldn’t be able to hear them until Rhen put his hands in the carvings.
“They sounded sad,” Ceceta explained. “It was as if Themrock was questioning the meaning of life.”
“That’s horrible,” Crystam bawled, covering her face with a towel.
Ceceta muffled a laugh. She’d never seen Crystam act like that before. It was so unlike her. Lilly was also crying on the opposite side of the room. What had gotten into them?
“Sometimes it freaks me out that Themrock is here with us,” Latsoh admitted as she pulled on her suit.
Ceceta folded her robes. “He’s not really Themrock. Themrock’s different. He’s Rhen, a regular guy.”
Latsoh snorted. “Right. Emperor of 33 Solar Systems. He’s definitely just a regular guy.”
“Yes,” Ceceta insisted. She turned when Crystam started blowing her nose. “Are you okay?” Crystam nodded. She wiped at her eyes, then dropped her right hand to her belly.
“I knew it,” Lilly cried out from across the room as she wiped at the tears on her face. “When I saw you crying over the songs, like me, I knew you were pregnant.”
Ceceta and Latsoh rolled their eyes at her statement, but when Crystam didn’t deny it, Latsoh said, "Wait. Oh Gods, are you?”
“Yes,” Crystam admitted, her eyes tearing up again.
“But please don’t tell anyone. We still haven’t told our parents yet.” Latsoh shrieked and hugged her as Ceceta did the same. “Your secret is safe with us,” Ceceta promised.
Outside, in the Ancestor Room, Tgfhi checked his communicator. “Where are the women?” They’d been waiting for longer than was necessary for any woman to put on a bathing suit. “Shouldn’t they be done by now?”
Rhen was sitting on the stone bench that circled the room. He leaned his head back against the wall. “Have patience, Tgfhi.” He watched as Charlie wandered around the pillar in the center of the room then stopped to put his hands in the carvings.
“Themrock’s hands were bigger than mine,” Charlie told them.
“Really?” Reed asked. He joined Charlie, putting his hands in the carvings next. “They’re bigger than mine too, but not by much. Rhen, do you want to compare your hands to Themrock’s?”
Rhen rocked his head back and forth against the wall. “I already know my hands fit. Remember, they fit at the Fire Elf castle.”
“Well, maybe these are different,” Aaron suggested. “Come see if they’re the same size.”
Rhen closed his eyes. “No. I’m not going to do that. The last time I put any of my body parts into one of your elfin carvings, I woke up later with a huge headache and nothing to show for it.”
When the women finally emerged, they headed down to the lake. With Ceceta’s coaxing, Rhen entered the water. They swam together for a while and Rhen found he was enjoying himself.
It wasn’t until later, when Reed walked up onto the shore and called back that he was going to check on his kids, that Ceceta remembered their class.
“Oh, no,” she said. “We’ve got to go. It’s late. I think we might have missed our history class.”
Rhen pulled her into him as they floated near the shore. He loved holding her in the water. “Let’s skip the rest of our classes for today.”
Ceceta pretended to struggle in his grasp. “No, we need to go to school.” Rhen wasn’t sure if she was serious or not, so he released her. Ceceta swam to the shore then turned back to face him. “If you can catch me and kiss me, without using your powers, before I get to the changing room, we can skip school today. Otherwise, we can’t skip school for the rest of this year.” Rhen’s eyes lit up, accepting her challenge. Ceceta shrieked with delight, grabbed her towel, and ran towards the castle laughing.
“She has a plan,” Latsoh whispered to Erfce. He thought the same thing and it seemed the others did too, because they were all making their way to the shore to follow. As they ran towards the castle, Reed yelled, “Wait! Just the guard elves. We don’t want it to look too obvious.”
Aaron and the others found Ceceta hiding from Rhen on the opposite side of the pillar in the Ancestor Room. When Rhen ran left, she would run right. They kept circling the pillar, laughing.
As soon as Ceceta spotted them, she paused by the handprints, pretending she didn’t hear Rhen sneaking up on her. “Got you,” Rhen called out, putting his right hand next to her head and swinging down to kiss her. He laughed with success. “No school today!”
Ceceta pouted. “I can’t believe you caught me. You must have used your powers.”
“I promise I didn’t.” He leaned down to kiss her again. “You taste good,” he whispered, rubbing his lips against hers. “Come on, let’s go back to the lake.”
Rhen stepped forward, but was jerked back to the pillar just as Ceceta cried out, “Oww!” She reached up find her hair was caught under Rhen’s hand.
“Oh, no,” Rhen groaned as he felt around the outside of his hand. “My hand is stuck in the carving.” He pulled on Ceceta’s hair to see if he could get it to slide out from under his palm, but it was completely stuck. Closing his eyes, he leaned his forehead against the pillar. “We’re stuck.”
Like a captured cat, Ceceta began to claw at the pillar while twisting and pulling on her hair. She was terrified. This hadn’t been a part of her plan. What was going to happen to her when Rhen put his other hand into the carving? Would she be killed from the power blast that he released if she was between him and the pillar?
Rhen couldn’t understand why she was panicking. “Ceceta, calm down. There’s no use in fighting it. We need Estan to say the magic words while I put my other hand into the second carving. That’s all. It worked at the Fire Elf castle, remember?”
“I know,” Ceceta grunted, fighting to free herself. Sarah and Jack tried to help, pulling on her hair from different angles but nothing worked.
“Do you want us to cut it?” Sarah offered. Ceceta groaned. She really didn’t want to cut her hair, but it might be her only option.
As Ceceta’s friends and the guard elves chatted about what they might do to release Ceceta’s hair without cutting it, Rhen squatted down against the pillar with his eyes closed. He was so quiet that Ceceta asked if he were sleeping. “Yes,” he said, softly.
Ceceta grunted and poked him on the shoulder. “What’s going on? Why aren’t you moving?”
“I thought I’d try holding still on the off chance that it would release me,” Rhen answered hopefully. He lifted his chin and stared up at her with such sad eyes that Ceceta’s heart went out to him. Before she could say anything, he added, “I’m trying to gain the strength to willingly put my hand into the other carving because the last time I did that I had an enormous, spine-tingling, three-day long headache.”
Ceceta reached out to stroke his cheek. “Take as long as you need.”
Rhen leaned his head into her hand. With a heavy sigh, he stood up and bent down to kiss her. “Do you want me to cut your hair?”
Ceceta closed her eyes. It was really her only option. She didn’t want to risk getting fried by Themrock’s power blast. “Yes, please.”
“Smart thinking. One of us needs to be able to function after we’re released, and it’s certainly not going to be me.” Scissors appeared in his hand. “I’ll do my best to give you a nice haircut.”
A little while later, Ceceta stepped away from the pillar smoothing her hair. She was free.
A mirror appeared in Rhen’s hand and he held it out to her. “Oh, Ceceta,” Crystam said. “You should have Rhen cut your hair more often. You look great.” Ceceta tugged on the ends of her short hair. She’d never had hair this short before. It felt light. Crystam was right. She did look good.
“Okay?” Rhen asked.
Ceceta hugged him then rose onto her toes to give him a kiss. “Marvelous. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
She handed the mirror back and watched as it disappeared from his hand. One day she’d have to ask him where he sent the things he didn’t want. “Are you ready for Estan to say the magic words?”
He wasn’t, but Estan had been waiting quietly on the bench for them. He was sure the Wood Elf King wanted to move on.
When Rhen nodded, Ceceta gestured for Estan to approach. “Are you ready?” he asked as he stepped up beside them.
Rhen lifted his left hand to place it into the other carving. He hesitated, his eyes on Ceceta. “Ceceta, I…” He paused, shook his head then thrust his left hand into the carving.
Rhen jerked, his head fell forward and he began speaking in a different language as light poured out of his eyes, mouth and from the carvings around his hands. The floor of the castle shook, as the entire Wood Elf castle rose from beneath the ground. The elves felt a power surge hit their bodies. They gasped from the force of it. Just when it was becoming almost unbearable, the surge ended and Rhen tumbled to the ground, his eyes still glowing.
Reed used his new powers to raise the soil underneath Ceceta, forming a small chair for her as she cradled Rhen’s head.
Sarah shook her hands and glanced around the room. “What do you think our other power is?”
Charlie was lounging against the wall under a portrait of Thamber and Tharis. “We can heal ourselves and others.”
Reed’s eyebrows rose. “How do you know that?”
He poi
nted to the picture above him. “They’re singing about it.”
Aaron walked over to look at the portrait. “That’s weird,” he said to Latsoh, his eyes on the image of Thamber. “Why do you think Themrock painted Thamber with black hair? She has short blond hair in your portrait?”
Thellis had entered the room to answer any questions the elves might have. He frowned when he heard Aaron’s words. He’d thought that Thamber had already taken her portrait back. He’d have to tell her that Latsoh still had it.
“Quiet!” Jet barked, getting everyone’s attention. They turned to find Rhen bleeding from his nose, mouth and ears.
“What’s wrong with him?” Reed asked, kneeling down by his brother. The blood had pooled in Rhen’s closed eyes. It streamed down his cheeks from his nose.
Ceceta was trembling with fear as she wiped at Rhen’s face. “This isn’t good.”
“You should prepare your people to black out,” Thellis told Reed.
Immediately, Reed sent a telepathic message to the elves in his castle as well as to the kings from the other three tribes to warn them. He watched with trepidation as Ceceta and Tgfhi worked to soak up Rhen’s blood.
“He’s stirring,” Ceceta told them a few minutes later. Rhen opened his eyes, groaned and passed out. The elves blacked out with him as Thellis disappeared in a puff of green smoke.
“What do we do?” Crystam asked Jet. She felt helpless.
Jet bent down beside Ceceta. “Let’s move Rhen into one of the bedrooms. Tgfhi, would you please make your water into ice? I want to ice his head to see if it will help.”
They carried Rhen through the castle until they found what they believed was a bedroom. The room resembled a forest scene, but it had a raised area of soft grasses and ferns that looked comfortable. Tgfhi wrapped ice into a towel and placed it on Rhen’s head. The ice seemed to help, because Rhen’s bleeding slowed.
Later, when Rhen regained consciousness. He curled his body up into a ball and lay motionless on his side. Ceceta sat beside him, wiping at the blood that still dripped occasionally from his nose. Their friends waited outside in the hallway for the elves to find them.
The Surpen King - Part 2 - Rise of the Elves Page 43