RHEN

by Charity Kelly

  “My, my, my,” Ceceta breathed out. “You do take your job seriously Black Angel.”

  Chapter 17

  Elfin University – Classroom Building

  The next morning, during Ceceta’s class on Surpen studies, Latsoh and Crystam spent the entire time discussing the Black Angel. Ceceta couldn’t seem to get them to concentrate on Surpen. She found it hard to assert herself because she didn’t want to alienate her new friends. Towards the end of class, she succeeded in teaching them a few phrases, so the lesson wasn’t a total waste of time.

  Later during breakfast, Crystam decided to try out one of her new phrases on Rhen. Looking him straight in the eye, she said in Surpen, “I have black hair in my ass.”

  Rhen’s hand was half way up to his mouth with two wiggling bloodworms when he heard her. He dropped the worms back into his bowl and laughed, tumbling over sideways onto Erfce, who buckled under his weight. The two of them fell onto the floor.

  “What? Did I say it wrong?” Crystam asked. “It’s true,” she insisted.

  Ceceta snorted at Crystam’s announcement and dropped her head down onto the table as she laughed.

  “What?” Crystam asked. “It’s true. Didn’t I say it right?” She glanced at Latsoh, but Latsoh only shrugged.

  “It sounds right to me,” she said. “I have black hair in my ass,” Latsoh repeated, using the words she had learned in Surpen class.

  Rhen threw his hands out towards them, climbing to his feet. “Stop. Please, just, stop,” he told them. “Don’t say anything else.” He glanced at Ceceta, who was still giggling on the tabletop. “I can see my wife is an excellent teacher. It seems she’s teaching you the most important Surpen phrases first.” Walking over to Crystam and Latsoh’s side of the table, Rhen said, “Tell me in Thestran what she was trying to teach you to say?”

  “It looks cloudy outside today,” Crystam and Latsoh parroted in Thestran.

  Rhen bit down on his bottom lip as Ceceta continued to giggle. “Great,” he told them. “You have the words mixed up and you aren’t quite pronouncing them correctly.” Rhen paused. The easiest way for him to help them was if he touched their jaws as they spoke, but he didn’t like the idea of touching them. He considered waiting for Ceceta to do it, but she was still laughing. With a sigh, Rhen made up his mind. He would touch Crystam and Latsoh briefly, just to show them how to move their mouths in the correct manner. Once they had learned the trick, they would have no trouble speaking Surpen. Rhen straddled the bench between them, sitting down to face Crystam. “I’ll show you the trick to Surpen,” he told her, reaching out to take her face between his hands.

  The minute Rhen’s hands touched Crystam’s face, she breathed in sharply as a wave of unexpected love coursed through her body. It caught her completely off guard. She wasn’t even aware that she liked Rhen, but now, his closeness, his touch, his aroma, his soothing voice, the memory of his body and the feel of his warm skin against hers made it almost unbearable. She felt she should either fling herself on top of him or bow down at his feet.

  Crystam’s intense emotions brought a blush to her cheeks and she realized she had to get herself under control. She was lucky no one could see her change in color because Rhen’s hands were on her face. Rhen said the words in Surpen for ‘it looks cloudy outside today’ and asked Crystam to repeat what he had said. Crystam said the same words back. As she was speaking, she could feel Rhen pushing on her jaw in certain spots to make her words come out sounding Surpen. Crystam could hear the mistakes she had made before and feel the difference in her mouth as the words were spoken in the correct way.

  “You got it?” Rhen asked, taking his hands away from her face. The redness from Crystam’s blush was still apparent. Looking at her with concern, Rhen added, “Did I push on your cheeks too hard?”

  “No,” Crystam said, glancing away. “I got it.” In perfect Surpen, she said, “It looks cloudy outside today.”

  “That’s it,” Rhen said with satisfaction. He turned around to face Latsoh and reached out to take her face in his hands the same way he had held Crystam’s. Latsoh had the identical physical reaction to Rhen that Crystam had had. She looked at Crystam with surprise as she felt love swelling up inside of her for Rhen. She had never felt that way before. Crystam gave Latsoh a slight nod to tell her she had felt the same way. Knowing Crystam had experienced the same sensation helped Latsoh relax. Rhen repeated with Latsoh what he had done with Crystam until Latsoh could say ‘it looks cloudy outside today’ in Surpen.

  “Now you both have it,” Rhen said with triumph. He stood up to leave but Crystam and Latsoh rose at the same time. They giggled like school girls when they bumped into Rhen by accident getting off the bench.

  “They have crushes on him,” Lilly whispered to Reed and Charlie from where they watched the scene across the room.

  “Yeah,” Charlie nodded. “The dude is like a sex magnet.”

  Reed laughed at Charlie’s statement and said with sarcasm, “Right. The evil Surpen God of War is a sex magnet. I don’t think so.”

  Charlie glanced over at Lilly. She winked at him. The two of them had spent more time with Rhen than Reed had. They had noticed the way the female students watched him with more than just curiosity. “What do you think Crystam was saying that made them both laugh so hard?” Charlie asked, changing the subject. He stumbled after Reed and Lilly, who were making their way to the portal to give their report on Rhen’s progress to James.

  “I have no idea,” Reed said. He quickened his steps to follow Lilly through the school’s portal into the Thestran Castle.

  An invisible Loreth floated through the portal behind them. He was enjoying himself more than he had thought possible. He had arrived at the University to check in on Rhen and had found him holding onto an elf’s cheeks while teaching her Surpen. At first, he had been livid, but then, when he had read the minds of the other students in the room, he had realized they were beginning to succumb to Rhen. He chuckled in silence, floating above the Thestran Royals. Whether he knew it or not, Rhen had already succeeded in gaining the attention of most of the students at the University. Now he just needed to do the same thing with the elves and the Thestran Royal Family and then Loreth would be ready to strike. Loreth loved the idea of Rhen’s family falling in love with him before the battle. How marvelous! He couldn’t wait to see the shock on their faces when Rhen slit their throats. Their horror over Rhen’s duplicity would make it worth this annoying wait.

  Loreth flew into the room where James was receiving the latest report on Rhen’s progress from his siblings. With a malicious grin, he made the room’s temperature drop. The innocent lambs wrapped themselves in cloaks and lit a fire in the room’s fireplace. It was easy enough for them to fix this little problem. How on Thestran were they going to rectify the colossal problem that was hurtling straight for them? Loreth chuckled in silence and flew away.

  That night, after dinner, Ceceta heard someone knock on her apartment door. She ran over to open it and found her friends standing in the hallway. “Hey! I wasn’t sure if you were serious about studying here.” She stepped back and held the door open for them.

  “Definitely,” Erfce said. He brushed past Ceceta and walked into the room followed by the others. “Your apartment is much better than the library.”

  “I was hoping you’d show up. I had the staff stock the kitchen with refreshments for you.”

  “That’s great,” Tgfhi called out, putting Crystam’s books on the coffee table.

  As her friends settled into the chairs around the coffee table, Ceceta grabbed her books from her bedroom and joined them. They broke into groups and began discussing their homework.

  An hour later, Rhen strolled into the apartment. He was wearing a dusty green tunic that had yellow and black piping. His military belt held only one sword and his boots were just as dusty as his tunic. Tgfhi and the others hadn’t realized that he was out. Rhen stared at the group with curiosity before walking over to kiss Cece
ta on the head. She didn’t have to look at him to know where he had been. She could tell from his smell that he had returned home to Surpen again.

  Rhen went into his bedroom and came out, a few minutes later, wearing a clean, deep purple tunic. He strolled over towards the coffee table and flopped down onto the beige, carpeted floor beside it, closing his eyes.

  Fifteen minutes later, Tgfhi looked up from his textbook and asked, “Rhen, aren’t you going to study?”

  “I am studying.”

  Latsoh laughed. “Yeah?” she said in a sarcastic voice. “What’re you studying? Blindness?”

  Rhen opened one eye to look at her. Latsoh giggled, feeling nervous, as she remembered his touch from earlier that morning. She couldn’t maintain his stare, so she glanced back at her book and flipped to a new page. Rhen closed his eye and continued to lie on the floor.

  When they were finished working for the night, everyone got up to leave.

  “Ceceta, thank you so much for allowing us to study in your apartment,” Crystam told her.

  “I love having you here. In fact, I wish you’d use our place as if it was yours. You can come and go anytime you want. We’ll keep the door unlocked.”

  “That’d be fantastic,” Tgfhi said with enthusiasm from the doorway, balancing Crystam’s books in his arms. He glanced back towards the coffee table to say goodnight to Rhen, but the Surpen Prince appeared to be sleeping on the floor.

  After they had left Ceceta turned to Rhen. She kicked him gently on the bottom of his boot. When Rhen opened his eyes, she asked, “Were you giving a report to your father?”

  “Yes.”

  “What’d you tell him?”

  “That I’d discovered the Thestran Royal Family’s real names.”

  “What?” Ceceta asked with a laugh.

  “It appears the Royal Family uses nicknames. Kate’s real name is Katterine, James’ is Jamethian, Lilly’s is Lilith, Charlie’s is Charleton, Henry’s is…”

  “Oh my God. That was your spy report for the day? Your Dad must have been furious.”

  Rhen grimaced. “He wasn’t happy.” Sitting up, Rhen reached out to hold onto the coffee table for support and Ceceta wondered if Andres had punished him. “If I tell him what I’ve learned of the Thestran’s forces, he’s going to bring us home. I’d hate for you to have your school experience cut short because I did my job too well.” Ceceta reached out to squeeze Rhen’s shoulder. Rhen put his hand on hers and added, “I’ve decided to lie to him from now on. I’ll make up false reports.”

  Ceceta dropped down onto her knees to kiss him. Rhen’s lies would put him in danger but they’d give her a chance to attend school and they’d protect her new Thestran friends. His thoughtfulness was just one more reason why she loved him.

  The next afternoon, Rhen was sitting at a desk in his History of the Thestran Royal Family class while the teacher droned on about Queen Kate. He had no interest in what Mr. Balot was lecturing about, so he decided to check the Universe for trouble. With his eyes focused on the notebook in front of him, Rhen sent his mind out into the nearest solar system. Things were calm in the immediate vicinity. He was about to send his mind further, to check Surpen’s territories, when he heard someone nearby cry out in pain. Rhen pulled himself back into the classroom. Everyone seemed okay, with the exception of a boy two rows back who had partied too much last night and felt like throwing up.

  Suddenly, Rhen heard it again. Someone cried out in pain. This time, he could tell it was coming from the University’s main lawn. Rhen stood up and walked over to the classroom windows.

  After his first encounter with Rhen, Professor Balot hadn’t said one word to him. He gave Rhen a wary look and continued his lecture on Queen Kate.

  Rhen opened the window and stuck his head out. In the distance, he saw several students surrounding a small boy. Without hesitation, he jumped out of the classroom’s third-floor window. “Themrock!” a few of the students in the room shouted. They rushed over to the windows to see if he was alright.

  Rhen was standing on the grass below them. They watched him pull a dagger from his belt. His eyes were fixed on a group of boys near the apple trees.

  “Oh, my gosh, it’s Tgfhi,” Latsoh said from the classroom windows. “Those boys over there are hurting Tgfhi.”

  Rhen wondered if the boys would stop, after hearing Latsoh’s remarks. He had his answer, when one of the boys grasped Tgfhi’s arms behind his back, so he couldn’t move. Tgfhi struggled against the boy, but it was no use. The sheer size of the other student was too much for him. The biggest kid in the group stepped forward and brought his hand back to punch Tgfhi in the face. As he swung his hand forward towards Tgfhi, Rhen released his dagger. The boy’s arm flew out sideways and he screamed, when the dagger struck him in the center of his fist. His friends stared at him with surprise. They looked around to see where the dagger had come from. It didn’t take long for them to spot Rhen standing next to the lower windows of the classroom building, smiling and waving at them.

  “This doesn’t concern you,” one of the boys hollered. He turned and lifted his hand to punch Tgfhi in the face.

  Rhen moved faster, flinging another dagger from around his waist at the boy’s hand and striking him in his fist. The kid screamed and dropped to his knees, clutching his wounded hand.

  When the boy holding Tgfhi let go to help his friends, Tgfhi ran across the lawn as fast as he could towards Rhen.

  “Are you okay?” Rhen asked, when Tgfhi ran up beside him panting.

  “Yes,” he said.

  Rhen turned back to the bullies. “Tgarus is under Surpen protection,” he said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “I know you understand what that means.”

  Without waiting for a response, Rhen picked Tgfhi up onto his side like you would a small child. “Which classroom is yours? I’ll drop you off on the way to mine.”

  Tgfhi glanced up at the school building and saw that every window was open. The entire student body was watching them. Chills raced down his arms. He would never have to worry about being hurt again. No one would dare touch him now. He couldn’t help himself from laughing. Rhen shifted underneath him, and Tgfhi sensed he was growing impatient. “The second window on the right over the dining hall,” he told Rhen. Rhen swung Tgfhi about, so he was on Rhen’s back then jumped up onto the building, scaling it like a squirrel on a tree.

  The students in Tgfhi’s classroom stepped back from the windows as Rhen appeared. Rhen reached behind him and pulled Tgfhi around his body, pushing him in through the open window. A few of the students inside the room helped Tgfhi down. As soon as he was safe, Tgfhi turned and said, “Thanks Rhen.”

  “Don’t mention it,” Rhen said before continuing up the wall to his own classroom. As Rhen stepped in through the open window of his classroom, the students cheered. Turning, Rhen closed the window behind him and sat down in his chair. Professor Balot took a deep breath then picked up on his lecture as if nothing had happened.

  “How did you know Tgfhi was in trouble?” Erfce whispered to Rhen, once Mr. Balot’s lecture was back in full swing.

  “I heard him.”

  “You couldn’t have heard him all the way up here with the windows closed.”

  Rhen gave Erfce a blank look and picked up the book they were studying. He glanced down at it, flipping through its pages of pictures on the Thestran Royal Family, none of which were of him.

  Erfce shook his head. Impossible, he thought. Rhen must’ve heard the bigger kids discussing their plans during lunch. There was no other explanation.

  That evening, at dinner, Tgfhi marched up to Rhen’s table with a huge smile on his face. He placed his tray of food on the table next to Rhen’s and announced to the group, “No one bothered me all day long.” Tgfhi crawled up onto his knees on the metal bench beside Rhen and gave him a hug. “I love you.”

  Everyone at the table laughed. “No,” Tgfhi said. “I really do love him.”

  “I heard those students
,” Erfce said, nodding towards the opposite side of the room, where the kids who had attacked Tgfhi sat, “they tried to get Rhen expelled for using weapons on the school’s grounds. Apparently, though, Professor Dewey saw the entire exchange and felt they got what they deserved.”

  “Really?” Latsoh asked.

  “Really,” Erfce confirmed.

  “Tgarus is under Surpen protection,” Tgfhi said with pride. “I love that. Thank you for conquering my planet. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This has been the best day of my life.”

  Ceceta and the others laughed again.

  A small boy at the table behind theirs said, “Psst.” Tgfhi glanced over at him, nodded once and turned back to Rhen. “Um, Rhen. My friends and I have been talking, and, well, I know you haven’t conquered their planets yet, but these guys, well, they were wondering if you could give them Surpen protection as well.”

  Rhen twisted his body around, so he could see the boys behind him. They were all small for their age. A few of them had purple bruises and cuts, and they seemed miserable. Turning back to the table, Rhen nodded. “Really?” Tgfhi asked. Rhen nodded again, taking a bite of meat.

  The table of boys behind them erupted with cheers. Tgfhi jumped up onto his bench. “Let it be known that all of my friends are now under Surpen protection!” he shouted to the room full of students.

  The dining hall was silent, until one student started to clap. A few minutes later, everyone was clapping.

  “Damn,” Reed whispered to his sisters, Lilly and Rachel, who were on Rhen duty for the evening. “Bullying has always been a problem here, but I guess Rhen just solved it. Who would’ve thought that he could be so nice?”

  “The more I see of him Reed,” Lilly said. “The more I realize he’s an amazing person. If we could just get him to like us, I’m sure we’d be able to enjoy him as much as they do.”