by Elin Peer
“What is that?” Khan asked.
From Magni’s bed came an annoyed sigh. “It’s a bloody feather. Everyone can see that.”
“Yes, I can see it’s a feather, but what does it have to do with anything?”
“Michael told me he found it on the staircase the same day that Dina had died. He kept it as a memory of her since she was the only woman he ever knew.”
They were all looking at me, waiting for me to continue, but I was unsure how to.
“I told you, Raven, he can keep that feather.” Erika gave an annoyed sigh. “No need to waste our time on insignificant details like that.” She moved to the edge of her seat. “I’ve heard enough. It’s all clues going nowhere. Dina has been gone for more than thirty years and it only brings sadness to keep talking about it.”
“I’m sorry that it brings sadness.” While talking, I pulled out the picture from Dina’s wedding and handed it to Khan.
“I’ve seen this before. That’s the man she married.” He tapped his finger on the photo and Pearl leaned in to see.
“His name was Henry Hudson, but since you mentioned that you and Pearl are good with details, let me ask you if anything catches your eye in this picture.”
They both stared at it.
“Let me see. I’m good with details too.” Magni reached out his hand, indicating that he wanted them to hand him the photo.
“Hang on, I have the picture here. Let me project it so you can all see it.” I worked my wristband and enlarged the picture for all to see.”
Mila had stopped crying and was leaning forward to see the picture. “Dina looks shy but happy.”
“You were so young, Erika.” Laura looked over at Erika, who was still stiff and looked like she was ready to leave any second. “And you boys, whoa, talk about change.”
“Who are those men?” Khan pointed to Henry’s two friends.”
“This one is Michael, the roommate, and the other was Daniel, a friend who was murdered shortly after Henry.”
“Oh, Mother Nature, are we talking about a potential triple murder case here?” Pearl sighed. “It’s hard to wrap your head around.”
Leo cleared his throat. “The picture is one of the last photos taken of Dina and the people close to her.”
“What detail are we looking for?” Khan looked from the photo in his hand to the enlarged version projected in the air. His eyes were narrowed as he searched from side to side. I observed him and saw the moment when his eyes expanded as he found what Leo and I had seen.
Elbowing Pearl, Khan pointed down to the picture and she was quick to see the detail too. Khan’s face was tense as he gestured to me. “Please bring back the picture of the feather.”
I added the picture of the feather and put the two pictures next to each other. This time everyone seemed to catch on to the detail I’d been referring to.
“What am I missing?” Laura got up to study the picture closer.
Pearl’s and Khan’s eyes were locked like they were having a secret non-verbal conversation.
“Don’t you two even think about it.” Magni slammed his right hand down on the bed but the movement was weak and made him pant. “If you see something then you’d better spit it out, ’cause I’m about two seconds from having a fit.”
Mila blinked her eyes. “Dad. Calm down.”
“Look at Erika’s jacket.” Pearl nodded at the picture.
“What about it?” Magni narrowed his eyes.
“I see it now.” Laura walked over and zoomed in on Erika’s jacket. “There.” A fine line of feathers decorated the breast pocket and they were all blue with a red dot in the middle.
“That doesn’t mean a thing,” Erika defended herself.
I couldn’t keep quiet. “It means that you were there the day she died, Erika.”
“Maybe Dina had one on her. I hugged her on her wedding day. The feather could have fallen off.”
“Mom, were you there?” Khan stepped closer to her, his tone hard and insistent.
Erika looked around for help, but all eight of us were pinning her down with our eyes.
“Don’t look at me like that. It wasn’t my fault.” Erika’s body was shaking and she stood like a cornered animal.
“Tell us what happened?” Khan demanded.
“You don’t understand. None of you lived through those times. The country was poor and people were desperate. Your father had to stay strong and be tough or everything would have fallen.”
“What happened?” This time, Khan spoke the words through gritted teeth.
Erika took a small step back but her chair was behind her. “I did it for you, Khan.”
“What did you do?”
“Dina wouldn’t stop making threats and the money was already gone. I had to do something. I couldn’t let her destroy our future. Your future, Khan. That’s why I went to speak to her. I explained that Marcus would pay the money later.” Erika’s hands were shaking. “I even brought my personal savings of thirty thousand dollars, but Dina she… she…”
We all waited for her to continue, holding our breaths.
“She was so angry with Marcus and being a teenager, she was stubborn and unreasonable.”
Magni’s next words reverberated through the room. “You killed Dina?”
“Nooo, it wasn’t like that.” Erika’s voice broke and her shoulders bobbed as tears filled her eyes. “She was my daughter, I would never harm her. Dina was young, she didn’t understand the devastating level of shame and humiliation she would cost your father and me. We had guarded that secret for so many years and she was threatening to destroy everything we had worked so hard for.” Erika raised her voice. “We sacrificed everything for this country and she would have destroyed it all. I couldn’t let her stay unsupervised in case she talked, so I went to bring her home. Marcus and I were going to talk some sense into her. To make her understand what was at risk.”
“But Dina didn’t want to come home, did she?” I asked.
Erika’s head fell down and she sighed. “No. She said she was done being our puppet and when I called for my guards to bring her to the drone, she ran up the stairs and locked herself in the attic. I tried pleading with her but she wouldn’t open the door.” The tears were streaming down Erika’s cheeks. “The guards had to break down the door and when I entered, Dina had crawled out the window. I ran over and by instinct, I wanted to pull her back in but when I grabbed for her, she tried to break free of my hold on her and it made her lose her balance and then…” Erika’s body had shrunk, with her shoulders and head low. She was looking down at the carpet with glassy eyes and I saw tears drip to land on her shoe. “I can still see her falling, my hands reaching out for her and her hands reaching out for me. Her scream mixed with my scream… There… There…” Erika’s shoulders bobbed with suppressed sobbing before she forced out the words. “There was nothing I could do.”
Complete silence filled the room, and I wasn’t the only one with moist eyes.
“I ran down to her but her blond hair was red with blood and my little girl was gone.” Erika looked up at us. “At first I thought that maybe… I mean, her blue eyes were open and as pretty as ever… but she wasn’t there anymore.” Her face twisted in pain and she couldn’t hold back the sobbing anymore. It made it hard to understand her words, “Dina was dead and no matter how many times I shook her and called for her to come back, she was gone.”
Mila rushed from the bed to hug her grandmother and Pearl rubbed Erika’s arm. “Take a deep breath.”
Their show of sympathy calmed Erika, who continued talking like getting it all out was a relief. “I can only remember glimpses from back then now, but I remember the guards pulling me from Dina’s body and hearing them explain everything to Marcus when we got back to the Manor. After that Marcus left to clean up the mess.”
“Mom, do you remember telling me and Magni?”
Erika shook her head. “No, I don’t remember that at all. I suppose I was in a state of
shock and grief.” She dried her nose. “After Dina’s death I went back into a depression. Marcus had me on suicide watch because I kept telling him that I didn’t want to continue living when our daughter had died because of me.”
CHAPTER 27
Reaction
Leo
“Is that why Marcus erased all traces of Dina from the Gray Manor?” Laura asked Erika, who had just confessed to causing Dina to fall from the window.
Mila and Pearl helped Erika to sit down; Mila kneeled down next to her grandmother and held her hand while Pearl returned to stand side by side with Khan.
“I never asked Marcus to remove everything. Even though he said he did it for me, I believe it was as much for him. He wanted life to go on. It had to. We had two sons and a country to think about. We were all grieving, but life had to go on.”
Raven crossed her arms. “And Dina’s husband, Henry, what happened to him?”
“All I know is that he made accusations after she died,” Erika breathed.
Khan had deep frown lines on his forehead and his eyes seemed black at that moment. “So, Marcus had him killed.”
Erika met his eyes. “Of course. It was the right thing to do.”
Pearl shook her head. “You wanted power that badly?”
“We wanted to live, Pearl. There’s no such thing as a retired ruler. We couldn’t afford for the public to know the truth. Marcus would have been lynched and we would have been killed by the next men seeking power. It’s how things work here.”
Pearl was squinting like she was trying to shield herself from all the ugliness coming to light. “But…”
“There’s no but, Pearl. People would have branded Marcus as a fraud if they knew that he hadn’t been able to protect me from being raped. He was playing a role as a mighty ruler exuding confidence and strength but in reality, he felt like a failure of a man. We were broke. The whole country was broke, and if people knew that Marcus stole Dina’s bride money from Henry…” Erika waved her hand like she was trying to find the right words. “Every day I feared the people would come for us. Every day I wondered if it would be our last.”
Laura’s voice was full of sympathy. “I had no idea.”
“That’s because you’re too young to have lived in anything but peace, but I grew up with a steady changing of rulers and kings.” Erika dried away more tears. “Living in constant fear is the curse of being the ruling family.”
There was a moment of complete silence and then Pearl turned to Khan. “Now do you see why democracy is better for everyone?”
Khan groaned and began pacing the room while Laura walked over to sit on the foot end of Magni’s bed. “What are we going to do?”
Magni looked exhausted when he muttered, “How many know? We have to eliminate the threat.” His face turned to us and his hand shook when he pointed a finger at Raven and me. “You’d better fucking guarantee us that we can trust you!”
“Of course, you can trust us. We haven’t told anyone.” I pushed Raven behind me, indicating that I wouldn’t let anyone hurt her.
“Good, but that Michael – we can’t have him talking. Solo, you’ll pay him a visit.”
Pearl took a big step toward Magni. “No, this stops now!”
Magni hissed back in a low strained voice, “This is way over your head, Pearl. We’ll deal with this the Northlander way, or do you want people to know the truth and an army of weasels to come and knock down the door, demanding Khan isn’t the rightful heir? We have to protect our family. Our children.”
Pearl gave Khan a pleading look. “No. There are other ways. You could be proactive.”
“How?”
“Put the facts out there and offer to step aside if the people prefer someone else over you. Let your results as a ruler speak for themselves and let the people decide if they want you.”
Khan scrunched up his face. “You’re talking about an election.”
“Yes. Offer to lead as you’ve done so far. If the people want someone else, we can always go live by that beautiful beach that Magni always talked about.”
Magni scoffed and was panting a little when he spoke, “Don’t listen to her, Khan. The Northlands is our home country.”
Pearl remained calm. “Don’t forget that there are ten million people here and it’s their home country too. Living in fear that someone finds out and overthrows Khan is no way to live, and I’ll have no part in killing any more innocent people because of what happened in the past.” Looking around like she was challenging each and every one of us, Pearl asked. “Who in here thinks that Khan could win a democratic election?”
Mila and Raven’s hands went up right away, mine followed with Laura’s and Erika’s. Pearl raised her hand and looked at Magni and Solo. “What do you think?”
Magni groaned. “I can’t believe we’re even discussing this. Are we talking before or after revealing the truth?”
“After.” She looked around at those of us with our hands raised. “Who thinks the people would choose Khan despite everything?”
Solo looked down, Erika lowered her hand, and Laura’s raised arm sunk a bit too.
Magni spoke in a gruff voice, “Not me. They’ll think you’ve lost your sanity if you offer to give up your power. Why would you do that?”
“Because it’s just a matter of time before the truth about my heritage comes out, and I don’t want my fucking head on a spear in the front garden like what happened to King Jeremiah.”
“That was two hundred years ago,” Magni protested.
“Then you take a pick of how rulers and kings have ended their lives in this country. It’s not pretty.”
“Listen, we’ll do a test. We might still be biological brothers.”
Khan picked up the picture of Nikolai Wolf that looked like an older version of him. “I wish, but I don’t fucking think so.”
“We will always be brothers. We share the same mother.” Magni closed his eyes like he was about to pass out of exhaustion.
Pearl pulled at Khan’s shirt. “You always knew you were the son of a ruthless tyrant, now it’s just a different one.”
Khan’s voice was cold as he looked down at her. “Yeah, one who raped women.” He turned his back on her, but she pulled him around and got close to his face.
“You’re almost forty-six years old, Khan, and you haven’t raped a woman yet, so it’s clearly not been passed down to you.”
Khan leaned his head back. “Fuuuck, I just remembered something.”
“What?” Pearl was stroking his arm up and down.
“When I was around eighteen a man was accused of mistreating his wife. During the trial it came out that he had raped her daily. Dad, I mean Marcus, killed him in a public display of what I assumed was insanity. Do you remember, Magni?”
When no answer came, Laura turned and touched Magni who had drifted off.
He opened his eyes. “What?”
“I was talking about the husband dad killed in public. You remember, right?”
“Uh-huh. To the day I die.”
Erika rubbed her face. “Let’s not talk about that.”
“Now that I know how Dad witnessed Mom being raped, it puts everything into perspective. Back then I just thought he was a sadist getting his kick out of torturing a man.”
“I didn’t agree with the way that man was executed,” Erika squeezed Mila’s hand. “No one deserves to be burned from the inside like that.”
Pearl gaped. “How do you get burned from the inside? You don’t mean literally, do you?”
Khan shook his head. “Let’s not go into detail. Just know it was a gruesome way to die.”
Magni didn’t spare us the details. “The rapist was tied down in public and had a scorching iron stick pushed up his ass. He roared and screamed in pain while people spat on him. It was fucking horrible to watch.”
Pearl covered her mouth and turned her face away and it made Khan wrap his arms around her. “I’m sorry, honey. I shouldn’t have mentio
ned it.”
Laura moved over to stand next to Magni. “Our people have come a long way since then. There’s a higher respect for life today. I would say that what our family has done for this country is nothing short of spectacular. The fact that girls go to school now, that we have more women and therefore more children born into families seemed like an impossible dream back when Khan first came to power. Forty years of peace, better jobs, better infrastructure, more money, and an influx of goods that we didn’t have access to before, not to mention the possibility of getting a visa and traveling the world. If the men and women of the Northlands don’t vote to keep us in the Gray Manor with Khan as their ruler then they are fucking fools.”
Magni looked up at her with his eyes hooded like he was fighting off falling asleep. “Do you get that Pearl is talking about democracy, Laura? She wants us to be like the Momsies. We can’t let that happen! Motlanders are repressed and brainwashed. They can’t even say the word fuck without getting reported.”
“The Northlands will never be like the Motherlands. We’ll have a better version of democracy, with the freedom to think what you want and express it with as many curse words as you want to.” Laura reached for Magni’s hand. “And if the people want someone else to lead them then screw them. We’ll find some tropical island to live on in peace – doesn’t sound like the worst plan to me.”
“Hmm.” Khan looked at Solo. “What do you think? You’ve been so quiet.”
Solo held up both palms. “I’m open to thinking outside the box. I’m not sure if we Northlanders are ready for democracy but if you go that route, I’ll support it.”
Khan huffed out air. “You might be right. The critics already call me too progressive and say I move too fast.”
“They say you’re Pearl’s puppet. That’s what they fucking say.” Magni grumped.
Mila stood up. “I would like to say something.”
We all turned to her.
“I just feel bad for Grandma. She confessed to causing Dina to fall to her death and now she must be afraid of what’s going to happen to her. But you’re all more focused on how to save yourselves.”