RHEN

by Charity Kelly

  Andres growled at the Headmaster forcing Professor Dewey to step backwards.

  “I’m here to see my son. What I do with him, does not concern you,” Andres told him in accented Thestran. The Surpen King turned. His eyes scanned the room, until they landed on Rhen. Rhen saluted his father as Andres barked, “Front and center now!” Rhen ran around his table and down the aisle, stopping in front of Andres. He bowed to his father from the waist down.

  “Rise,” Andres said. Rhen straightened in silence. “Is it true?” Andres asked, stepping forward, so he was almost touching Rhen. “Well, is it true?” he shouted.

  “Yes, my lord,” Rhen said, his face lacking expression.

  Andres swung his enormous body backwards with distress, yelling out, “For God’s blood son, what the hell were you thinking?” After a moment’s hesitation, he turned back towards Rhen. “I thought I raised you better than that. You’re proving that I’m a failure. You’re demonstrating that I have no control over my own house. Were you a second son, I would have you killed.” A crack rang out as Andres slapped Rhen across his face, drawing blood from his lip.

  The students were shocked at the sight of someone abusing Rhen. Latsoh’s temper boiled over. Rhen was a hero, yet his father was treating him like a traitor. She stepped forward to yell at the King, but Ceceta grabbed her arm and put her hand over Latsoh’s mouth to keep her quiet. “Don’t,” she whispered. “You’re a woman. Don’t say anything or he’ll kill you.”

  It was the Headmaster, who stepped forward to protect Rhen. “Now see here, there is no cause for you to abuse Rhen,” he told Andres.

  Instead of answering, the Surpen King glared at Professor Dewey while two of his soldiers pushed Professor Dewey backwards, until he fell to the ground.

  Andres turned back to Rhen. “I am disgusted by this action and hurt by your betrayal. Didn’t I tell you you would have to follow Debrino’s Codes while here on Thestran? Any violation of his Code and you are to receive full punishment.” He pointed at one of his soldiers. The man had a Surpen’s typical black hair and grey eyes. He also had a scar running down the side of his cheek. The soldier opened up a parchment and read, “In sight of the Surpen God, you have been found guilty of violating Debrino’s Code Rule Number 7. Any Surpen soldier found fighting for another planet must be lowered in rank by four stations and whipped 10 times the number of his previous station with the medusa whip.”

  Several of the students in the room gasped. The medusa whip was a vile instrument that had been banned in most solar systems. The tips of the nine leathers on the whip were fitted with a small, snake-like animal. When a person was whipped, the animal would bite at their flesh, tearing it, causing severe damage.

  The soldier reading Rhen’s sentence cleared his throat. “How do you plead?”

  Without hesitation, Rhen said, “Guilty.”

  Andres yelled out again and punched Rhen in the face. Rhen’s body snapped backward from the blow, but he maintained his stance and didn’t fall. “You stupid idiot,” Andres yelled. “Do you know how many lashes you are to receive?” Rhen was silent. “Do you know child.”

  “100,” Rhen said, in a voice devoid of emotion.

  Andres paced around Rhen fuming. “I have worked so hard to raise you and you repay me in this manner.” He stopped in front of Rhen to look him in the eye. “I know you have amazing healing powers son, but my God.” Reaching over, he grabbed Rhen’s neck and pulled their foreheads together. “100 lashes,” Andres murmured. “You could die, you know.” After a moment of silence, Andres released Rhen and asked, “Why’d you do it?”

  A smile formed on Rhen’s lips. With laughter in his voice, he said, “Have I ever said no to a good fight Dad?”

  Andres chuckled and stepped over to rub Rhen’s hair with affection. When his hand touched the back of Rhen’s head, he stopped and pulled Rhen downward, so he could inspect the lump he felt. Eventually, he made a ‘humph’ sound and released his son. Turning, he marched towards the door asking, “Are you coming or do I need to have the guards drag you?”

  At once, Rhen stepped forward to follow.

  “Wait,” James cried out. The Headmaster’s secretary had contacted him the minute the Surpen King had arrived at the University. He’d arrived in time to witness most of the exchange between Rhen and his father.

  Rhen paused and turned as Andres walked back into the room to glare at the Thestran Royal Family members who were walking towards him.

  “Rhen won the war for us on Ustar,” James told Andres, stepping forward. He still couldn’t get over how tall Andres was. The man’s forehead was level with Rhen’s eyebrows. He had a massive frame and his grey eyes were quite large. There were also scars on his face and he was missing a piece from the side of his nose. “You don’t have to punish him. Ustar is his. We will give it to him.”

  “The Ustarian War was against Thestran, not Surpen. Rhen fought beside you. He fought for Thestran. He will be punished,” Andres said. He moved his body to block Rhen from James’ view.

  “No,” James said. “He shouldn’t be punished. Ustar is his. Ask anyone. We did nothing during the battle.”

  “Your soldiers fought alongside Rhen,” Andres said. “He fought with Thestran. He knows he was wrong. He broke Debrino’s Code. He will be punished.”

  “I broke our law,” Rhen said. “I deserve to be punished.”

  James and Reed approached Rhen, stepping around Andres. The look on their faces was a mixture of pity and confusion. It was clear to all that Rhen had known this would happen, and yet he had still come to their aid. They owed him their lives. The fact that he might die because of it, was unthinkable. “You don’t have to do this. You know that,” James told him. “You’re not Surpen, you’re Thestran.”

  Rhen frowned. “But I am Surpen James? I keep telling you that.”

  Reed placed a tentative hand on Rhen’s arm. “You were raised on Surpen, but your heritage and your people are Thestran. You don’t need to follow Debrino’s Code.”

  Rhen glanced at his father’s back. “No,” he said. “I do. My life is on Surpen. My family is Surpen. It’s all I know. I cannot desert my people. Would you desert them,” he asked Reed, gesturing towards the elfin students, “if I asked you to?”

  Reed took in the worried faces on the elfin students in the room and dropped his shoulders. “Of course not. I could never abandon my people.” Lifting his head, he squeezed his little brother’s arm. “You will be a great ruler someday Rhen.”

  “If I live that long,” Rhen laughed out before turning to walk out of the room with his father’s soldiers.

  Andres remained a moment longer. He glared at James, his upper lip quivering in anger. “Thanks to you and your family I may lose my son today. If that happens, there will be retribution to pay.” Reaching out, he pushed James on the shoulder, knocking him down. Andres debated kicking James but changed his mind. Turning, he followed Rhen back to Surpen. Ceceta dashed past the Thestran Royal Family in pursuit.

  There was a stunned silence after they had left. Rhen had saved their lives, and they had just sent him to his death.

  James turned at the sound of people running down the hallway towards the dining hall. He lifted his hand, when the rest of his family ran into the room.

  “We need to rescue him,” Lilly said, after James had told them what had happened. She couldn’t believe her mother hadn’t already left for Surpen.

  They debated their next step before deciding to go to Surpen to stop Rhen’s punishment. At the school’s portal, James called out, ‘Surpen’, but instead of stepping through the frame, when it opened to Surpen, he paused.

  The room, on the Surpen side of the portal, was full of soldiers in military gear.

  Kate stepped past James and entered the Surpen palace, her children behind her. The Surpen soldiers in the room, were not only wearing their red and black military uniforms, but they also had black smudges on their cheeks. Their shields were held at waist level and t
heir swords were raised and pointed towards the Thestrans. A tall, muscular soldier stepped forward from the side of the room. He looked like the other Surpens, with his short, black hair and gray eyes, but he had a rather large head, broad nose and full lips.

  “The King said you would try to stop the punishment,” he told James.

  “Let us through,” James demanded.

  The man scoffed. “I don’t think so. Just turn around and go back to Thestran. This situation doesn’t concern you.”

  “Doesn’t concern us?” Kate yelled. “That’s my son he’s beating. I think it concerns us more than it concerns you.”

  The man grunted. He had seen Kate speak before, so he wasn’t impressed by her audacity. If she had been a Surpen woman, he would have had her arrested. “Then you don’t know anything about us,” he growled as he stared at James. “There isn’t a man in this room who wouldn’t give his life for Rhen. We’ve grown up with him, we’ve fought with him and he’s saved most of our lives on countless occasions. Had the King taken us, and not his Royal Guards to arrest Rhen, we would have issued the Oird Oath and taken Rhen’s place. If he’s so important to you, why didn’t you do that for him?”

  “Oird Oath?” Kate asked.

  “We don’t know an Oird Oath,” Reed said.

  “We don’t know an Oird Oath,” the soldier mocked in a whiny voice. “It doesn’t matter. Even if you had, you wouldn’t have issued it. I can see from your faces that he’s not a part of you.” He turned his back on them and walked through the line of his men. “Leave now or we will kill you.”

  The Royal Family paused, considering the odds. After having watched Rhen fight on Ustar and knowing these men had been trained in battle the same way that Rhen had been trained, they weren’t sure if they would be able to defeat them. James motioned for his family to retreat, so they walked back through the portal into Thestran.

  Charlie paused on the Surpen side of the portal. He turned back to the man, who had spoken to them earlier. “Is he okay?”

  The man lifted his head to regard Charlie. “We don’t know yet,” he said, his eyes looking moister than they had been a minute ago.

  Charlie nodded and stepped back onto Thestran.

  Before the portal closed, they heard someone yelling in Surpen to the soldiers. A great cheer went up among the men, and they banged the hilts of their swords on their shields, chanting Rhen’s name.

  “I would take that as a good sign,” Charlie said, turning towards his family.

  “I have to go back to Surpen,” Kate said. “I have to find him. I need to know that he’s alright.”

  “How are you going to go back?” James asked. “They’re guarding the portal entrance.”

  “There must be some way to return.”

  “Can we make a different portal opening to Surpen with the Genister Magic Box that Rhen gave me?” Sage asked.

  Kate’s face lit up. “Yes.”

  “Let’s go,” James barked. He turned to the portal and said, “Thestran Royal Castle.”

  They followed Sage into her bedroom and waited in her living area as she got the Magic Box from her safe. Holding the golden box with both hands out in front of her, Sage told it, “I wish I had a new portal connection to Surpen…”

  “In the dungeon,” Kate blurted out.

  “A new portal frame that provides a single use visit from here in my bedroom to the Surpen Castle’s dungeon,” Sage clarified. She opened her box and they watched as a white mist floated up out of it. It hovered in the air for a moment before lowering and taking on the shape of a door. Within seconds, the mist evaporated and they were staring at a golden portal frame beside Sage’s couch. Sage didn’t waste any time. “Surpen,” she yelled at the frame. A blue light filled the interior of the frame. When the light faded, they saw a dark, empty corridor on the opposite side.

  “I have to go find him, but you don’t,” Kate told her family. “Please stay here where it’s safe.” She moved to step forward towards the new portal, but James grabbed her arm.

  “You’re kidding, right?” he asked his mother. “We’re adults Mom; we do what we want. Also, you wouldn’t stand a chance alone in that male-dominated society.” He moved past her through the portal into the Surpen Castle’s dungeon, the rest of his family following along behind him.

  When the portal closed, the dungeon became very dark. “Rachel, dear,” Kate said. Rachel held up her hand and a small, white light glowed within the center of her palm. “I’m going to change your appearances,” Kate told them. She moved from person to person, using her powers to change their looks, until they all resembled Surpen soldiers – muscular, black haired, grey eyed and dressed in traditional Surpen uniforms.

  As a group, they walked up the first stairs they came to into the main portion of the castle. They wandered about, until they passed the room where the soldiers had stopped them earlier. Most of the men were gone. The ones who remained were celebrating with abandon. Continuing down a long corridor, they stopped a slave, dressed in robes of grey and wearing a thick collar of metal around his neck, and asked where Rhen was located. The slave frowned at James’ broken Surpen but pointed them through a doorway on their right. The room was empty, so they continued, entering the next room, where they found two slaves kneeling on the floor cleaning a pool of blood.

  On either side of the slaves were blood splattered pillars. A pair of blood coated chains and wrist cuffs hung from the pillars and the black medusa whip, with its nine snarling, biting heads, growled from the hook on which it hung in the far, left corner of the room.

  Reed stepped forward and said Rhen’s name to the slaves. They pointed him towards an archway on their right. As the Thestrans walked over to the archway, they noticed a trail of blood on the floor that went from the pillars through the doorway. “When in doubt, just follow the blood,” Charlie said. Sage elbowed him in the ribs. He slapped a hand over his mouth and glanced back at the slaves, to see if they had heard him. They were still at work, cleaning the blood, and didn’t show any interest in Charlie or the others.

  The trail of blood led them through one room into a spacious, oval room with multiple arched windows and two balconies on either side. Enormous blue curtains billowed inward from the wind. There were two rows of stone columns holding up the vaulted ceiling and a small, blue pool located in the floor towards their left in front of a marble throne. In the pool, they noticed four, orange and white fish. “Are those the fish that Rhen took at breakfast the morning of Sage’s wedding?” Lilly whispered.

  Before anyone could answer, they heard a clinking sound and froze. When no one jumped out to attack, they peeked around one of the columns towards their right. On the far side of the room, they spotted Rhen sitting on a red, cushioned bench with no back to it. He was facing away from them and shivering. There was a thick, red blanket wrapped around his shoulders. An elderly woman dressed in blue and wearing a crown was hugging his left arm and whispering to him.

  They heard another clink and saw Rhen throw something small and white into a twelve-inch-high, brass urn. Ceceta entered the room from the left, carrying two glass goblets filled with blood. A slave followed along behind her with what appeared to be clothing. Ceceta talked in a cheerful tone of voice to Rhen and the old woman in Surpen. Stopping beside Rhen, she handed him one of the goblets. When Rhen was finished with it, she took it and handed him the new one. After Rhen had emptied the second goblet, Ceceta placed them onto the low table in front of him and moved to his right side. With care, she pulled the blanket away from his back to look at his wound. Rhen’s shivering increased, so Ceceta replaced the blanket. Holding her hand out behind her, they watched as one of the slaves moved forward to place the clothing he was carrying into Ceceta’s palm. Ceceta stood in front of Rhen, shifting the thick red and black tunic around in her hands, so it would line up with his body. She dropped the tunic down over Rhen’s head, and with the old woman’s assistance, the two of them helped Rhen pull his arms through the s
leeves.

  When Rhen’s tunic was in place, Ceceta pulled the blanket out from underneath it before wrapping a new blanket around his body. Two slaves walked into the room carrying jewelry on trays. Ceceta took a necklace from one of the trays and placed it around Rhen’s neck. Rhen threw his left hand out to bat her away as he tossed another white object at the brass urn in front of him. The white piece clinked on the urn’s rim then fell into it.

  The old woman placed a crown on Rhen’s head. He barked something in Surpen, grabbed the crown and threw it behind him. The crown bounced and rolled across the room, stopping when it hit James’ right foot. Without thinking, James bent over to pick it up.

  The crown was made of gold with a varying array of multi-colored jewels that James didn’t recognize. There were intricate, swirling carvings throughout the base of the crown. When James looked up, he jumped, because the old woman was right in front of him. Without saying a word, she knelt onto the floor and bowed at his feet.

  James didn’t know what to do, so he placed the crown onto the floor by the old woman’s hands. She snatched it up and crawled away from him, standing when she neared Rhen.

  Ceceta, who had watched the exchange, kept her eyes on James. She appeared confused. Bending down, she whispered to Rhen.

  Shivering, Rhen turned his head to look at the soldiers behind him. For a moment, he appeared puzzled, like Ceceta. He shifted his body further on the bench, to get a better view of the soldiers, and then started to laugh.

  Rhen told the slaves in the room to leave. When they were gone, he said in Thestran, “I should be furious with you for breaking into my home, but I’m not. In fact, you’re just in time. Reed and Charlie, can you come over here and help me? I need to meet my father on the balcony in a few minutes and I’m not sure I can go alone.”

  Startled by his words, no one moved.

  “Seriously?” Ceceta asked. “It’s the Thestran Royal Family?”