by J. Naomi Ay
“Cascadia III is requesting your presence for a variety of activities beginning next month. We could book the entire month there if you like and then move on to Lumineria. They too are most anxious to see you as well as the Derian planets. Talas also…”
“Fern,” I interrupted with a sigh. “You and Luci can figure out what I need to do and just schedule it. I don't care where or who we see. Just do it.”
“Certainly Madame,” Fern continued. “Now, in terms of your gowns. We would like to commission at least forty new outfits for you.”
“Fine, whatever.”
“Alright, next.” Fern checked off her list. “You need to pick out some new furniture.”
“Uh, why?”
“Your new apartment? Would you like a decorator just to come and do it or would you like to select your colors and fabrics yourself? You don't want the items from your old apartment moved there do you?”
“What new apartment? Where am I going?”
“Well.” She looked flustered. “You've been given a new flat.”
“The Tower,” I mumbled. Just as I had suspected. “It doesn't matter to me. The old stuff is fine. Hell, you could buy new old stuff off of Craig's List for all I care.” It wasn’t like I would need designer furniture to decorate a Tower prison.
“Yes Madame, of course,” Fern replied and then really quickly signed off. Tuman and Sorkan came in the front door, stomping their wet shoes on the mat.
“Good morning,” Sorkan said cheerily.
“Is it?”
They glanced at each other.
“Is he awake?” Sorkan nodded toward the stairs.
“I don't know. He's resting probably.” I dragged myself off the couch and into the kitchen. I opened the fridge and looked at the same things I saw yesterday. “He seems to be in a lot of pain.” I took out some eggs, butter and milk. Then I found the flour and baking powder.
“Physically or mentally?” Tuman asked.
“Both.” Finding a bowl on a lower shelf, I started cracking eggs into it. “Geez, this is all so over my pay grade.”
“What?” Sorkan said, looking in the bowl as if cracked eggs where a novelty to him. “Making breakfast?”
“No. That I can handle. Dealing with the mental issues of the Evil Emperor is way beyond my skill set. Pancakes anyone?”
“I ate,” Tuman replied.
“I haven't.” Sorkan smiled. “May I help you?”
“How about a pot of coffee? Strong. Regular. Extra caffeine. And I saw some strawberries in there that you can clean.”
“Now you see why Taner has heart attacks and Berkan has gained a hundred pounds,” Sorkan said, starting the coffee pot and finding the maple syrup. Tuman set out the plates and cups while I flipped the pancakes on to a platter. “How are you feeling now? Are you ready to swing from more trees and swim in the river?”
“Very funny,” I snapped. “But thank you for asking. Yes, I am much better and ready to hit some more trees. In fact, I might do it this afternoon just to get out of this depressing and oppressive house. Geez, I didn't realize Berkan gained a hundred pounds."
“I guess I will have one or two pancakes,” Tuman said and sat down at the table.
“I'm starting to think it was actually nice being catatonic for the last decade.” I sighed as a bolt of lightning flashed outside. Thunder boomed overhead.
“Another nasty storm out there,” Sorkan commented.
“It’s worse in here.” Tuman smiled.
There was a thumping noise on the stairs as Senya came slowly down clutching the rail. In his Karupta tunic and leggings and messy hair, he certainly didn’t look like the guy who billions of people fell on their face in front of. Frankly, he looked like the kind of guy my mother would have been horrified by if I brought him home. Wait. I did bring him home, and she was horrified.
Setting one more plate, I poured him a cup of coffee and pulled out his chair as he hobbled to the table. Tuman and Sorkan hardly looked up. Senya sat down, his head slumping a bit and his eyes flashing erratically. I put some pancakes and strawberries on his dish.
“You have a migraine?” I asked
He nodded and reached for the coffee cup but missed it. It spilled all over the table and down onto the floor.
“Kari-fa,” he whispered and started to get up.
“Sit down,” I ordered and grabbing a towel, I wiped up the mess. Then, I poured him a fresh cup of coffee. Taking his right hand, I placed it on the cup. In his left hand, I put his fork. “Pancakes here, berries here. Syrup?”
He nodded slightly, so I poured some syrup over his pancakes.
“Okay.” I patted his shoulder and then decided to massage the knot in his neck. He used to get these horrid migraines whenever his beta protein levels started swinging. He couldn’t take Excedrin either so I became an expert at kneading his neck and shoulders. His skin and muscles were as familiar to me as my own, maybe even more so.
The men ate in silence, except for the pounding of the rain on the roof, and an occasional clap of thunder.
“Well, I guess we won't show you what we've done with the pasture land along the riverfront today,” Sorkan said, pouring himself a cup of coffee. “What would you like to do instead, Senya? Would you like to go riding even though the weather is poor? Your blasted beast of a horse could certainly use the exercise.”
“No,” Senya grumbled. “I've got work to do.”
I pressed my thumbs around the base of his skull and then back down to his shoulders, making small circles and then larger ones.
“Are you not on vacation?” Tuman stabbed another stack of pancakes with his fork and transferred them to his plate. “Did we not decide that you would abstain from your work and have a proper rest?”
“You decided that,” Senya replied. “I did not.”
He attempted to find the pancakes on his own plate but missed several times. He was probably too consumed with the headache to concentrate on where the food was. I moved his hand over and showed him again where everything was.
“Well, we have a thousand chiefs from the west coast arriving today. They will worship with us at sundown, and then we will have a banquet.” Sorkan poured himself a second cup of coffee. “Their families have come too.” He looked pointedly at me. “You will need to meet with their wives and let them pay their respects.”
“Sure,” I said. “I can't pretend to be Tarzan in this rain anyway. Are you okay now? My hands are getting tired.”
Senya nodded again even though I could see he was still suffering. I finger combed his hair and gathered it back, retying the ribbon that was hanging loosely. For a brief moment, I felt like everything was right and I kissed the back of his head.
“Tomorrow, you will grant audience to them?” Tuman asked Senya.
“No. I will come to worship tonight, but that is all.”
“But…”
Senya turned his face up to Tuman and his eyes flashed. “If you insist upon making demands of me whilst I am present, I will return to Mishnah forthwith.”
“Ach, come now, Senya,” Sorkan scoffed. “Next week we have yet another thousand or so chiefs arriving. All of Karupatani leadership will be visiting whilst you are in residence. You have spared us precious little time in the past. Can you not…”
“No, I cannot,” Senya pushed his half-eaten dish away and rose to his feet. “Thank you, Madame. When you have a moment, please go to the command center and fetch Lord Eberley and Lord Garing.”
“Yes, Sir. Of course, Sir.” I saluted and then cleared his dishes. “Shall I come massage your leg some more?”
“No, thank you.” He disappeared up the stairs.
“Why don't you massage another part of him, Daughter?” Sorkan suggested. “Perhaps it would improve his mood more so than his leg?”
“Leave her be, Brother,” Tuman replied. “We had to coerce her to come back here only to be subjected to his foul temper. We should be grateful that she is willing to endure him at
all.”
“Seems to me both of us were a bit coerced,” I remarked, flipping on the dishwasher. “At least now I know he's not just picking on me by refusing to speak in anything but the Noble Mishnese.”
“Oh, he's not picking on you at all,” Sorkan said. “This is about as peaceful as he has been for a very long time. Keep working your magic though. I see a tiny crack in the dam.”
“Do you?” Tuman asked.
“Perhaps only a hairline fracture,” Sorkan conceded.
“A chip in the cement,” I sighed. “But maybe enough for a poppy to grow through.”
Grabbing my coat, I headed back to the command center in the rain.
“I will walk with you to the Mishaks that have taken residence on our landing strip.” Tuman slipped on his still wet shoes and followed me out the door..
“They're not Mishaks anymore, brother.” Sorkan came along, as well. “They are our brother Rehnorians.”
“Same difference,” Tuman replied.
Surprisingly the village was packed with people. Men, women and children were all walking up and down the streets, chatting, going in and out of the shops despite the rain. They stopped and looked at us as we passed.
“Nothing to see here,” I thought, recalling how unnerving it was to be stared at so much during the brief period that I had lived on Rehnor. Maybe I really was fortunate to have slept through the last decade.
Tuman and Sorkan left me at the top of the steppes. Walking back to the main gate of the complex, I estimated that easily the complex was equivalent to ten mobile command centers. The entire place was also surrounded by fencing and patrolled by Imperial Guards.
I only needed one command center with me in the very hostile territory of Earth. Senya needed ten or more in the friendly territory of Karupatani. Of course, he rated much higher than me in the scheme of things. I wondered briefly how many command centers accompanied Taner whenever he went somewhere.
“Madame,” the guard called, bowing to me. “You have returned.”
“I have indeed,” I replied. I requested the presence of Lords Eberly and Garing and a moment later two gentleman emerged wearing Mishnese robes and insignia from both Taner and Berkan's offices. Undersecretaries, I presumed.
“When did you guys get here?” I asked.
“This morning,” Garing said. “Lords Taner and Berkan have both gone on well-earned and much needed vacations.”
“Lucky them.”
“HIM and yourself should be enjoying your vacation as well, Madame” Garing said.
“Oh, I’m on vacation,” I replied, leading the men through the village. We garnered even more stares on my return trip. “But I don’t think HIM knows the definition of that word. Don’t pay any attention to the staring. The only time Mishnese came in this village in the past was to attack or kill someone.”
“I'm not Mishnese,” Eberly said. “I'm from Rozari, although I am of Human descent.”
“I'm not Mishnese either,” Garing added. “I'm from Cascadia, also of Human descent. My grandparents immigrated from Mars sixty years ago.”
We arrived at my little house only to discover that the front porch was filled to capacity with more women than I could count.
“What's this?” Eberly asked.
“I have no idea. Go ahead and go upstairs. The office is on the right. Be forewarned, he's got a headache and in a really bad mood today.”
“He is in a really bad mood every day,” Garing replied. “It would indeed be a novelty if he were in a good mood.”
“MaKani,” Lookah, Rekah’s sister, called to me while emerging from the crowd on the porch. “We have come to take you to the ritual bathing, and then you will listen to our women and solve our problems.” She was joined by Rekah’s wives Letitia, Carina and Seesi as well as Senya’s aunt, Garinka.
“Solve your problems? I can’t solve my own problems.”
“Please, Madame.” Lookah indicated that I should walk with her.
“Just a moment.” I pushed my way past them and into the house.
“No, no, no!” Garinka declared and grabbing my arm, she pulled me off the porch and into the woods. She was chattering up a storm as we went, not a word of it in Mishnese.
I looked back at Lookah. “Translation?”
Lookah shook her head. “Just go.”
Chapter 25
Garinka
We ritually bathed her as we would have done for all our Queens had we had a Queen in the last half century. Since my mother-in-law died before I even knew her, we had little experience doing this except for the one time we did it when the woman came to be wed to the MaKennah. Once it was done to me and once to my daughter, Lookah as we were the highest ranking women in Karupatani before the MaKani came and before Rekah married three times.
I could tell she did not like the ritual, but she complied. I didn’t blame her. The water was cold, and it rained the entire time. She had new scars on her body and age had taken a toll but still she was an attractive woman. I, who was only a dozen years more than her, wished my figure was still so slim.
Afterward, we dressed her in a gown and cloak and whilst we set around the fire to warm her, she let the young girls paint her toes and finger nails and put beads in her hair. We drank our fine Karupatani wine and ate tarts of cheese and fruit in pastry. Our women asked her questions as if this woman who had abandoned her son and been hiding from her husband for ten years should know best how they should raise their children and satisfy their own husbands. I drank my wine and spat at their foolishness.
“Enough,” I declared when the rain had finally ceased, and the afternoon sun began to warm the valley into a steaming mist. “The men have gone for worship as sundown is approaching and we must go quickly to the village to prepare the banquet.”
“One more question, one more question,” the women cried but the MaKani shook her head and told Lookah she had no more answers. She rose to her feet and looked back toward the village.
“This way?” she asked and pointed at the trail.
“Yes, MaKani,” my daughter replied and walked alongside her.
I followed, leading the wives of the chiefs from the western coast back through the woodlands along a trail that I knew as well as my daughter's face.
“This is so ridiculous,” the MaKani whispered in confidence to my daughter. “They are asking me about children, in-laws and disinterested husbands as if I should have any advice. My son was raised by the staff, my in laws,” she snorted. “Well, you know Sorkan. And my husband? Do I even have a husband? I have a lord and master.” She rattled her gold bracelets. “But I don't think I have a husband anymore.”
“Perhaps you should be pleased that he does not bother you,” Lookah replied with a sigh. “I wish my husband would turn his attention elsewhere. I would not care if he had another wife at all. I tire of his body and his demands.”
The MaKani looked surprised. “You are too young to say that, Lookah. I am too young to say that and I’ve got ten years on you!”
“I did not say I would not desire a nice young man,” Lookah protested with a wicked smile. “Yes, I would like a young stallion with a firm body and muscles that have not gone to flab.”
“Your husband is not fat at all,” the MaKani replied. “I've seen him. He's still a good looking guy.”
“Ay! You should see him without clothing. No, you should not. You would be horrified, and your stomach would turn ill!”
The two of them giggled like school girls.
“At least the MaKennah is as beautiful without clothing as he was in his youth save that nasty scar that hobbles him,” Lookah said. “Even with all his scars his body is still firm and…”
“And how do you know this?” the MaKani interrupted.
Lookah blushed. “I look at him in the ceremonies even though we are supposed to keep our eyes down.”
A woman walking next to me, Lekoran's first wife giggled too. “I look too,” she said in Mishnese. And the MaKenna
h took my virginity, so I know how his body was then. He is still very pleasing.”
The MaKani tripped on her own feet and my daughter caught her.
“Are you alright?” Lookah held the MaKani upright as Sestere's daughter came to assist. “The MaKennah took my virginity too,” she reported. “Of course I was much fairer then. My waist was two hand spans, not like now when to circle it takes more hands than I can count.”
“Anybody else?” the MaKani asked in a voice that was high and tight.
“Well,” Lookah shrugged and the MaKani glared at her, “Not me! I am his cousin and I was too young.” Her voice drifted off.
“I was with him too once,” another woman called. “Though he wasn't my first.”
“I lost my virginity to him by the hot springs pools up in the hills,” yet another woman declared.
The MaKani went very pale. “I think I'm going to be sick,” she muttered.
“MaKani, it was a great honor,” my daughter insisted. “Don't let this trouble you.”
“An honor?” she gasped. “For who?”
“Come,” I snapped, grabbing the MaKani’s arm and pulling her away from Lookah and the crowd of women. “Come come come.” I had enough of this discussion. “You women go back to the village and prepare supper. Hurry now, it's getting dark. I have something to show the MaKani. We will be along shortly.” I took the lady deeper into the forest, cutting across the graveled path onto a muddy trail. “Don't pay any attention to them,” I said in Mishnese.
“You speak Mishnese!” she cried.
“Yes, yes I do,” I said, letting go of her arm. “But not in the village. Now don't you dare tell anyone this.”
“Why not?”
I led her to a bench overlooking the river though it was getting dark and the river and sky were merely different shades of grey.
“Sit down and let me catch my breath for a moment and I will tell you.” All this hurrying had caused my heart to flutter, and my breath to run out. I sat down and patted the seat next to me. “Those de Kudisha princes are the most arrogant, condescending, self-important men that ever walked the face of this and the Mother Planet. Each one of them thinks they are the Holy One’s gift to womanhood, including your own son.”