by J. Naomi Ay
“Madame!” Telix pleaded.
“Do it!” I screamed. The car lost altitude as Lanaka's hands fell off the controls. Telix ordered the second limo to turn around and get my mother. I released Lanaka.
“I’m sorry, Lanaka,” I apologized and sat back, out of breath, my heart racing. “Hover here until I can see her in the car. Then send another car to pick up my brother and his family.”
“Yes Madame.” Telix glared at me.
Lanaka coughed and rubbed his neck.
“Ye got the controls alright, Lan?” Reggie asked softly.
Lanaka nodded and coughed a few more times.
“She's as bad as Senya,” he mumbled under his breath.
The second limo came alongside of us, and my mother waved, clearly excited to be traveling in-style again.
“May we go now before they shoot us out of the sky?” Telix asked smartly.
“Please do,” Luci cried and we blasted off into orbit.
“I thought you had orders only to protect me?” I looked from Telix to Reggie to Luci. Not one of them would look me back in the eye.
Leaning against the window, I looked down upon Earth, a big blue beautiful globe below us now. I wondered if I would ever see her again.
“The orders were changed,” Telix replied coldly. “I shall update you as soon as we are safely aboard the spaceplane en route back to the Empire.”
We had left the solar system and were soaring across the galaxy toward Erindad 37. Mother, Luci and I were sitting in the passenger compartment. Luci was studying the dinner menu while Mother was looking at the list of available movies.
“This is nothing like the spaceplane your father I took years ago,” mother said selecting ‘From Here to Eternity.’ “The bathroom was filthy on that one and the seats were all squished together. The food was terrible too.”
“This is a private plane used by the Imperial family,” Luci replied as the flight attendant laid out a table with a white linen cloth, gleaming silverware and crystal stemware. The movie began on the overhead vid.
“Who is that dear?” Mother asked. “What Imperial family?”
Luci laughed. “Oh Mrs. Golden, you are so funny!”
Mother smiled and patted Luci’s hand. “Where are we going anyway?”
“Home,” Luci replied. “And you're going to love it there. Shall we have some Fois Gras on toast points and a Cabernet Sauvignon to start?”
“Oh, that would be lovely,” my mother replied. “Do you want a bit of Fois Gras on toast points, Katie Anne?”
“No,” I snapped. “I’d rather have a fried eagle.” I got up and walked to the back office.
“No, you wouldn’t, Madame,” Luci called after me. “It’s quite tough and has a rather nasty flavor.”
“So what's the deal, Telix?” I demanded.
All the guys from the command center were sitting in there along with several officers from the Imperial SpaceNavy. Everyone stood up when I came in the room.
“We have been ordered to deliver you to Karupatani, on the Capital Planet,” Telix replied, still avoiding my eyes.
“Order by who, HIM?”
Telix looked at his screen as if something very important was being transmitted across it. Reggie looked at the ceiling. Lanaka fingered the purple bruise on his throat.
“Lord Taner,” Telix conceded when he finally looked up.
“Lord Taner!” I snapped. “Since when do I take orders from Lord Taner?”
Telix nodded his head slightly and walked across the room toward the door. I followed, ready to kill someone and conveniently it was going to be him.
“We have invaded Rozari,” Telix whispered. “We had a matter of minutes before the Allied forces would take you again.”
“What?” I shrieked. “You have got to be kidding me! We’re not supposed to invade Rozari. I negotiated a settlement.”
Telix pursed his lips and looked away.
“Oh man!” I sighed and rubbed my temples. A massive headache was about to start. “I'm sorry for barking at you, Telix. You should have said something. Is my brother going to be okay?”
“We've got a team going in for him. He's not going to like how we kidnap him, but that is going to be the only way we are going to get him out.”
“Thanks. Let me know when you have him, please.”
He bowed slightly and walked away.
“Telix,” I called after him. “What sort of invasion?”
“Madame,” one of the SpaceNavy officers called and pointed at the vid overhead.
The picture showed the Fashion Mall in Takira-hahr surrounded by Imperial troops. There were people outside in the parking lots and the streets adjacent to the mall. They stood around staring at the troops as if stunned. It was pouring down rain too, the sky a dark gray, the rock hard ground pooling with water. I could even see the Cowboy Corral restaurant, people queued up outside, the red poppies still growing from the pavement and bent over in the rain. Nobody had umbrellas or even rain hats as it probably hadn’t rained like that in a good thousand years. There weren’t any drainage ditches or culverts either, and so water had accumulated to the point of nearly flooding.
“They’re all wet,” I remarked inanely, feeling sick to my stomach. The officer switched screens to show other Rozarian cities, but the picture was the same. “They’re just standing around and letting us take over. Either that or they’re totally confused by the rain. Show me the Allied Landbase, please.” The screen switched again to a view of the landbase which appeared to be vacant except for a few troops patrolling the outskirts. The parking lots were empty. There were no shuttles or spaceplanes on the ramps. My old office building was dark and shut tight. Even the taco stand, which was always out front, was now gone. “Why?” I could barely speak, my throat was so tight. “I promised them, he wouldn't do anything. I paid them. I gave them our house.”
“As soon as HIM and Prince Tuman departed Rozari, HIM ordered the invasion,” the officer said. “He claimed Rozari as a territorial planet of the Empire and dissolved their government. Safe passage has been granted to anyone wishing to immigrate to another Allied territory.”
“Get Taner on the vid,” I ordered and paced the office nervously until the Lord Chamberlain’s image was in front of me. “What happened?”
He showed me his hands. He shook his head. “I thought Tuman could help,” he mumbled, obviously as upset about this as I.
I looked across the stars at Taner standing helplessly. My security team stood around uselessly. Luci slipped through the door, a worried expression on her face. The spaceplane soared through the endless night of the galaxy.
“Somebody needs to do something!” I screamed.
“Why are you all standing around in here?” my mother cried coming through the door herself. “And who is that guy?” She pointed at Taner hovering in the air in the center of the room.
“Did they lay out dinner yet?” Luci said, taking Mother's arm. “Shall we go have a bite, Mrs. Golden?”
“Katie Anne,” mother continued undeterred. “What is going on? Did your dreadful husband take over another planet or something?”
“Yes, Mother, exactly that.”
“Well, let me tell you something,” she said, shaking off Luci and wagging her finger at me. “You need to tell him to knock this off. Enough is enough already. If your father were here, he'd yell at the both of you. Taking over the whole entire galaxy! My hairdresser, Vui thinks this is disgusting. Your Aunt Emma doesn’t understand how you can just stand around and let him get away with it. Didn't I teach you anything? Yes, somebody needs to do something, and that would be you. You need to show him who is the boss.”
“Um…he is?” I rubbed my temples.
“Only because you didn’t train him right,” my mother snapped. “Your father always thought he was the boss too, but that was because I let him.”
“Come on, Mrs. Golden,” Luci cried and shoved Mother out the door. “Dinner time.”
&nb
sp; “I just don’t understand you, Katie Anne. You certainly wouldn’t let anyone push you around when you were a child. Good heavens, when you were a teenager, you were positively a terror. Since when did you become so meek?”
“Mrs. Golden,” Luci shouted. “We are missing your movie.”
“Oh? Yes,” Mother said. “Do you think we can restart it from the beginning, Luci dear?”
“Absolutely,” Luci cried and shut the door soundly behind them.
Everyone stared at me.
Taner cleared his throat. “Tuman and Sorkan have asked for you to be delivered to Karupatani. HIM will be arriving tomorrow and everyone believes you should be there to greet him.”
“Greet him?” I spat. “More likely I'll kill him.”
“Then you would be doing us all a great favor,” Taner sighed. “However, Cmdr. Telix will make sure you leave all your weapons aboard the ship just in case. And Commander? Please make sure her mother stays aboard too.”
Chapter 20
Tuman
He did not summon me aboard the starship.
“Does he know I am here?” I asked Taner.
“Of course,” Taner replied. “He knows everything, does he not?” Taner looked ill, very tired and ill. “When we have secured clearance for you, you shall board a spaceplane with him and taxi down to the planet. We will set you as close to the Temple as we are allowed and then the plane will wait there until you wish to return. I believe you will need to walk for several miles to reach the Temple. I have provisions and backpacks for you to carry. There is food and water enough for several days as well as blankets and a medical kit. If you need more provisions, you may return to the spaceplane to fetch them. He does not walk well now so it will be slow going.”
“You will be there, on the plane?” I asked.
“I will be here on the starship, but you need only have the officers on the ground ring me if you require anything at all.”
When Taner left, I packed my few items into one of the backpacks. I had brought the ceremonial robes of a High Priest, oil for the Eternal Light, Incense, Barkuti, a blade and an urn. I had also brought a robe for HIM. Then, I knelt down before the window of my stateroom, and I prayed that I would know what to do when we got there because surely I did not know what to do now.
He did not speak to me in the spaceplane either. I boarded first, and when he did, I made obeisance at his feet. He walked past me as if I did not exist and all I saw of him was his back as he went into the office.
I thought of my brother, Pedah on the ride down to this planet of ghosts. What would my brother do were he in the plane here instead of me?
He would laugh at the MaKennah, I decided. He would say “What makes you think you can ignore me when it is you who has brought me here?”
Pedah would go back to the office and demand the MaKennah put on his robe for one does not desecrate the Holy Temple by wearing the clothing of the Mishnese. He would look upon this planet I saw before me, a rainbow of colors of a land that was healed and a land that still bore open wounds and my brother would cry as I did because this land was once our home.
We landed in a valley as green and welcoming as our own valley on Rehnor. The sun was setting, and the sky was a mass of blue and purple with a trace of orange where the sun had last been. A single moon rose, and it was to me disconcerting. I did not know whether this moon was the Mother or the Child and who did it chase about the night sky? The wind was warm though, and it smelled of fir trees and fresh water. A hawk circled overhead and watched us and somewhere across a river, I heard the call of a coyote. I felt this place in blood as if I had lived here all of my life. This land was in my bones, in my DNA. I stood at the door of the spaceplane, at the top of the stair. I was my great father, Karukan, surveying my kingdom. I knew in my heart, I would do everything and anything to save it.
I felt the Emperor's presence behind me and I fell to my knees.
“Get up,” he ordered sharply and debarked the plane. He limped badly and leaned heavily on his stick. Taner was indeed correct. He did not move quickly at all, and I forced my gait to slow in order to stay behind him. I carried my backpack over my shoulder and thought again of my brother. Pedah would walk slowly without even trying. My brother would chew a stem of grass and pause here and there to watch the sunset. He would drink in the scent of this earth and sing a greeting back to the birds. He would call to the coyotes as they welcomed him. I slowed my pace even more.
I did not know exactly where the Holy Temple was, but we continued in the same direction as if a magnet were pulling us. This too must have been in my DNA for several hours later in the dark of the Rozarian night lit only by her single moon, we arrived at ancient building made of stone. Inside there was a flickering of light from the lamp that held the Eternal Flame. My nephew went forward and prostrated himself on the floor before the altar. He removed his garments and wore nothing, no robe. I saw in the dim light the scars covering his back, the markings done by me years ago and more recently by my son. My son did a lousy job. On his right arm, the Emperor had more markings foreign to me and his left leg was spoiled by a thick and terrible scar. I covered his back with the robe I had brought for him and then I lay down beside him and prayed.
We stayed for many days and many nights. During the day, we ate our provisions and in the evening we smoked Barkuti and lit the incense. I saw my brothers in the wafts of smoke; Lot, whom I knew not well, and Pedah who I knew as well as my own heart. My father came to me too, and all of them spoke to me, but I could not understand their words. One day I walked back to the spaceplane to retrieve more water and food and then returned to the Temple to resume my vigil beside the MaKennah.
After more than two weeks, the MaKennah spoke to me at last. His eyes were bright, brighter than I had ever witnessed, and they lit up the dark recesses of these ancient stone walls.
“I am finished,” he said. His voice was hoarse and rasped from lack of use. He sat, his scarred leg stretched out awkwardly before him.
“Finished what?” I asked. “Are you finished here in this Temple?”
“Yes,” he replied. “Here in this Temple, here on this planet, here in this Universe.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I have had enough of being the MaKennah.” His voice grew quiet. “I have had enough of this life.”
I watched his face. I wondered if he had too much of the ceremonial drug.
“I have done everything He has asked.” My nephew rose with great difficulty to his feet. He reached for his stick and balanced himself with it. His face paled from the pain of this misshapen, damaged leg. “I have spilt my blood and rebirthed this planet,” he continued, turning away from me and back to the altar. “I have set billions of people free. I have released them from the bondage, from the shackles of oppressive governance. I have brought justice, liberty, and prosperity to this galaxy, and now,” he paused and limped forward to the Eternal Flame. “I am finished.” A light flickered across his face as the flame reflected upon the metal in his hand.
“I, Sehron de Kudisha,” he whispered, slicing his wrist with the blade. His blood poured down upon the flame hissing and burning and sending wafts of foul smoke into the air. “MaKennah ka Rehnor, King of Mishnah and Karupatani, and the sixteen other fucking planets, Emperor of All Rehnor do declare this Holy Temple once again consecrated and name Tuman de Kudisha, Prince of Karupatani, the High Holy Priest of Karupatani, Rozari and New Karupatani, Rehnor. That's it, I am done.” Blood flowed like a stream running across the stone floors to my feet. “Now let me go!” he shouted upward. “Let me go!”
“Stop it!” I cried and ran to him. He collapsed upon a knee, clutching at the flame as if it were the only thing that might keep him upright. “Stop it, stop it!” Both wrists were cut, and blood pooled everywhere.
“I want to die,” he begged. “I am in pain, and I want to die!”
“Stop it, Senya!” I yelled and slapped him twice across his face, as h
ard as I could. He fell back against the podium on which the lamp sat, and the blade clattered as it fell against the floor. The lamp teetered on its mounting and I reached for it as it had to stay lit. It could not die as it had before and lay dormant for a thousand years. I steadied it as Senya slumped further on the floor, lying in his own blood, the fight gone out of him.
Racing to my backpack, I retrieved the medical kit finding within it long bandages and sealant.
Bless Taner for having anticipated this, I thought, and curse him for not having warned me. I turned to hurry back to my nephew’s side, but was stopped by what appeared before me.
Hovering above Senya’s body were three bright orbs of silver light. They stretched and grew into forms, man-like forms with huge dark wings. Falling back on my heels, I shielded my eyes before I became blinded by their omnipotent light.
The angels spoke to Senya in a language I could not understand whilst he lay there inert. I watched him, for his body reflected and glowed with a sliver mist surrounding him, swirling about him until another orb emerged and now there were four of these angel men. They argued, their voices became violent whispers in my mind. Though I did not comprehend their words, I knew their names. I knew who they were.
I blinked as tears came to my eyes. I wept and reached out to them but as soon as I did, they vanished.
“Taner!” I screamed. “Taner! Taner!” My voice echoed through the dark and silent chambers of the Holy Temple.
Chapter 21
Taner
“Thank you,” Prince Tuman said.
“Don't thank me,” I replied. My chest hurt. I sat down on the sofa in the prince's stateroom. “I thank you.”
“It was not me at all.” Tuman looked at me curiously. He crossed to the liquor cabinet and removed a bottle. “He is doing well then?”
“Of course. We are only beginning Act III. Open that. We will share.”
Tuman studied the label. “I want my own. I will drink it all myself.”