The Surpen King_Part 1_Return of the Gods

by Charity Kelly

  Thaster huffed. “Of course. Stop acting like a baby.”

  “Fine,” Loreth said. “I’ll be there.” He couldn’t believe he’d just agreed to visit Hell.

  “See you soon,” Thaster sang out, before disappearing through a swirling vortex of red lights.

  Chapter 25

  The Planet of Rasack

  Loreth changed his image into Therol’s and flew down to land beside Sinter on the wooden reviewing stand that had been built by the Rasack King’s slaves. A cloud of dust was rising from the activity on the field below. Sinter was reviewing his troops. The Rasack soldiers were lined up in rows of eight, ten deep. They filled the entire vicinity of the castle. “Looking good,” Therol said.

  The sun made the Rasacks’ iridescent, scaly necks shine a myriad of colors. Their horse-like hooves on the grass-covered field below made a deep rumbling sound, which echoed up into the viewing stand.

  “It’ll do,” Sinter replied, before bowing his head. “Lord Therol.” His second-, third- and fourth-in-command bowed beside him. Sinter wished Therol hadn’t stopped by. He’d been enjoying himself but now he’d have to focus on Therol instead.

  “Where will you attack first?” Therol asked.

  “I haven’t decided yet,” Sinter said, raising his diamond-shaped head. He turned back to view his troops. He’d like to attack Thestran. Ever since Queen Kate had come to power he’d detested the planet. The nerve of that woman asking him to join in her Council. Fortunately, the Zorthans, Surpens and Vivists had agreed with him. They’d formed their Convention faster than Kate had had a chance to form her Council. If only they’d had the foresight to continue acquiring other planets like the Thestrans had. The Thestrans’ Council kept growing, while the Convention’s planets had stagnated… except for Surpen. Surpen was proving to be a most welcome ally. Sinter wondered if he could convince Rhen to attack Thestran. Probably not. The Surpen Emperor seemed to have a soft spot in his heart for his birth planet. Sinter shivered with disgust at the idea.

  If only the Rasacks had powers, Sinter thought. Then they wouldn’t need the Surpens. They could conquer Thestran and her planets themselves. “Lord Therol,” Sinter began. The Genister God turned to face him. Sinter wondered if he was making a mistake by asking, yet he continued, “would it be possible for you to grant some of my people powers? We’d like to use them when we attack… other planets.” He’d almost said Thestran. That would’ve angered the Genister.

  Therol considered Sinter’s request. He’d created the Rasacks and Vivists, but he’d never given either race powers because Themrock had forbade it. Themrock had been angry at him for making races that thrived on war, but he hadn’t destroyed Therol’s creations, only limited them. At the time Therol decided not to fight with Themrock, demanding that his races be given powers, because he’d been surprised that Themrock had allowed the poisons within both races to remain. The Rasacks’ and Vivists’ poisons were strong enough to kill a Genister’s mortal body. Therol wondered if he could somehow poison Rhen. He loved killing off the Genisters’ bodies. Thellis had been livid when Therol had killed his elfin form. He had yet to take a new mortal body. Therol assumed he’d do it once Themrock returned. If Themrock returned. It all depended on Rhen.

  “I wish I could give you powers,” Therol told Sinter. “Unfortunately, our powers won’t adhere to your non-human bodies.” He waited for Sinter to argue with him, but the Rasack King seemed to believe him. “Look on the bright side, you can kill anything you bite.” He watched Sinter narrow his eyes with approval before turning back to observe the soldiers below.

  Therol turned back to the parade himself. What would Themrock do to him if he gave the Rasacks powers? He noticed some of the younger Rasacks, who were watching the parade, prancing about on the outskirts of the field and wondered if any of their parents were participating. One of them had something white protruding from its mouth. Narrowing his eyes, Therol realized the baby Rasack had a human arm sticking out of its mouth. The Rasack was holding the arm by its elbow joint between its two fangs, leaving the hand to dangle. Every now and then, it’d shake its head, making the appendage wiggle, as if the arm were still alive.

  “Did I miss the children’s exhibit?”

  “Yes, my Lord. The children did splendidly. None of the slaves lasted more than thirty seconds.”

  “Bravo,” Therol said, clapping his hands.

  “Would you like us to repeat the performance?” Sinter asked.

  Therol sighed with disappointment. “No, I have another commitment. I’m afraid I can’t stay.”

  “Are you here to ask us to threaten the Thestran pawns you’ve been working on?” Sinter asked with a hiss.

  Therol smiled. He’d love to let Sinter loose on Te. “As much as I’d like to have you eat the humans I’m working with right now, I’m still not ready for your involvement.”

  “Whenever you’re ready,” Sinter said, the purple tip on his tail flicking with anticipation.

  “I understand you mentioned to the Vivist King that the Convention members should begin attacking other planets since the Black Angel is missing.

  “I didn’t tell him the idea had come from you,” Sinter said. He wondered if Therol would be angry at him for spreading the word. Instead, the Genister God appeared pleased.

  “It’ll be good to shake things up again,” Therol said. “The Thestrans have grown complacent after Andres’s war. They believe they’re safe from Surpen. I want them to remember that there are other members in the Convention.”

  “Indeed,” Sinter agreed, pawing the ground with his hoof.

  Chapter 26

  Rhen and Ceceta’s Apartment – Elfin University

  Rhen walked into his apartment and pulled on the strap that released his weapons belt. Tonight, after he’d finished working with the Headmaster on the Astronomy textbook, Thellis had told him that he could have the break he’d been asking for. Rhen couldn’t wait to tell Ceceta, but first things first: He needed to teach Tgfhi how to fight. He’d promised Tgfhi’s dad, Tgonar, that he’d teach Tgfhi how to protect himself. It was time to pick up their lessons again.

  Stepping into his kitchen, Rhen placed his weapons belt on the linoleum counter and pointed at Tgfhi through the opening in the wall between the kitchen and living area. Tgfhi glanced over at him from his seat on the couch where he was studying math with the others.

  “Come on, Tgfhi,” Rhen said, when he caught Tgfhi’s eye.

  “What?”

  “Remember? I promised your dad that I’d teach you how to fight. I have some free time, so I want to start your private lessons again.” Rhen stepped out of the kitchen and moved into the open area between the kitchen and living room. He tugged down on his green tunic and rotated his shoulders to relax them in preparation for their fight.

  “Oh,” Tgfhi breathed out. He really didn’t want to start that again. He’d found the lessons tiring, not to mention painful. “I don’t think that’s necessary anymore. I mean, your planet protects mine. There really isn’t any reason for me to know how to fight. No one’s going to attack one of your planets. It’d be suicide.”

  “Vivist's spit,” Rhen said, dismissing Tgfhi’s comment with a wave of his hand. “Come on. Don’t make me wait.”

  Clearly, Rhen wasn’t going to give him a chance to back out. With reluctance, Tgfhi flipped his textbook over and put it down on the coffee table. “You should know that I haven’t been practicing. I haven’t done a thing since you’ve been gone. I haven’t even gone to any of your new fight classes." He made his way past Latsoh’s chair. "What made you decide to start my private lessons again? We’ve been at school for a while now. Why didn’t you start them before?”

  “I told you,” Rhen said. Tgfhi tilted his head, looking confused, so Rhen explained, “My meetings for tonight were cancelled. This is the first time that I’ve had any free time and I want to donate it to you. You need to learn how to fight.” Rhen grabbed Tgfhi’s arm and flipped him over onto h
is back. “Why haven’t you been practicing?” he snapped. Tgfhi’s surprised expression looking up at him from the floor irked Rhen.

  Tgfhi grunted. He’d forgotten just how much their fights hurt. As he climbed to his feet, he said, “Because, as I just told you, you own my planet. No one would be stupid enough to attack you. It’d be suicide.” Rhen jabbed Tgfhi on the shoulder, causing him to fall back against the kitchen’s bar counter. “Owwww!” Tgfhi cried out, while rubbing his aching muscle. “What’s your problem?”

  “Fight!” Rhen urged with an exasperated expression. He wanted to get today’s training session over with. He was tired and felt like resting. He was also looking forward to some alone time with Ceceta after his friends left.

  “No,” Tgfhi whined. “Take your stupid Surpen aggressions out on someone else. I don’t want to fight you.”

  “Fight!” Rhen demanded.

  “No!” Tgfhi barked. He stepped away from Rhen, while rubbing his shoulder.

  Rhen crossed his arms in front of his chest and stared at Tgfhi with a blank expression. He had to get Tgfhi to take this seriously. Surpen wouldn’t always be around to protect him. Perhaps if he made Tgfhi realize that, it would help. “I hereby release your planet from Surpen control. You are now independent.” Rhen returned to the kitchen to get his weapons belt. He was bluffing, but he hoped Tgfhi would believe him and agree to fight.

  “You can’t do that!” Tgfhi yelled. "That's a death sentence! As soon as word gets out that we’re no longer owned by Surpen, there’ll be hundreds of war jets surrounding us."

  “Really?” Rhen asked.

  “You know that! You were the one who told me that we’re always under threat, because we’re rich. When the Convention members hear that we’re independent, they’ll attack us. My father and I will lose our planet.”

  “Fight?” Rhen asked in a singsong voice.

  Tgfhi's mouth dropped open. “B... but that’s blackmail. I have to fight you or you’ll release Tgarus?” Rhen nodded. Tgfhi struggled over what to do. He glanced over at his friends. They appeared to be worried. All of them that is, except for Ceceta, she looked like she was going to laugh. Was Rhen bluffing? Ceceta always knew what Rhen was up to and if she was holding back a laugh, then there was a good chance that Rhen was trying to trick him. Tgfhi dropped his hand down to his hip and laughed falsely. “Oh, you had me. I thought you were serious.” When Rhen’s face fell, Tgfhi realized he was right. He laughed again for real and sat down on the couch next to Crystam, picking up his book. Glancing back up at Rhen one last time, Tgfhi pointed his finger at him and shook his head then turned back to his assignment.

  Rhen stood in his kitchen, watching Tgfhi. He chewed on his lower lip as he debated what to do next. He needed to teach Tgfhi how to fight. It was important. But he didn’t want to tell Tgfhi why it was important.

  Tgfhi had called his bluff: Rhen had had no intention of releasing Tgarus. It would’ve only caused an enormous blood bath. Rhen turned and opened the fridge to get a drink.

  Suddenly, he had an idea. It was a naughty idea, one that would make Ceceta mad at him if she ever found out, but it’d work. Rhen closed the fridge, wrapped his weapons belt around his waist and walked over to lie down on the floor next to the coffee table. Closing his eyes, he scanned Ceceta’s mind to absorb the lessons for the day then jumped into Tgfhi’s mind.

  In Tgarian, using Tgfhi’s own voice, Rhen spoke into Tgfhi’s mind, “I really should learn how to fight,” he told Tgfhi. Rhen waited, listening to Tgfhi as he read his textbook on Thestran’s Solar Systems. Once Rhen thought Tgfhi was ready, he did it again. Using Tgfhi’s voice and speaking in Tgarian, he said, “Perhaps someday another planet might try to attack Tgarus, I should learn how to fight so that I can protect my people.” Rhen smiled as he watched Tgfhi shake his head, his words being absorbed into Tgfhi’s mind.

  When Tgfhi glanced down at Rhen, he hid his smile. Rhen could see himself through Tgfhi’s eyes. He appeared calm and innocent, lying next to the coffee table. Tgfhi went back to his book and read about Thestran’s conquest over Ponto. Rhen spoke again, using Tgfhi’s voice and language. “Rhen may not always be around to protect Tgarus. If I learned his skills, I’d be able to protect Tgarus forever.”

  Tgfhi put down his book and rubbed his eyes with his hands. He looked over at Crystam and smiled. Rhen saw Tgfhi’s memory from earlier that night. He was stealing a kiss from Crystam in the hallway that led to the bathroom next to the school’s dining hall. Rhen chuckled to himself as he saw Tgfhi grabbing Crystam’s butt before they both turned to join Erfce and Latsoh.

  Tgfhi picked up his book and told himself to study some more. He flipped through its pages to return to the section that he’d been studying. Rhen waited. When Tgfhi started to read about how the Thestrans dealt with the Pontoians after their first battle, he decided to try again. “Rhen’s the best fighter in the Universe. He could teach me everything I’d need to know in less than a semester.” Tgfhi shook his head then continued to read.

  This isn’t going well, Rhen thought. By now, Tgfhi should’ve been begging him to fight. Rhen realized he was out of practice with using mind projection. He opened his eyes and caught a glimpse of Crystam’s enormous engagement ring. Duh, he told himself. Rhen returned to Tgfhi’s mind. Using Tgfhi’s voice, he said, “I should learn how to fight for Crystam. She never received her mother’s powers. Her planet will be vulnerable when she becomes Queen.”

  Tgfhi closed his eyes and Rhen heard him thinking on his own that he should learn how to fight. Peeking over at Rhen, Tgfhi wondered if he’d look foolish asking Rhen to teach him how to fight tonight, since he’d just told Rhen that he didn’t want to fight.

  Rhen pretended to be Tgfhi’s conscious as he told him, “No, Rhen wouldn’t be upset if I asked him…”

  “Love?” Ceceta’s voice blurted into Rhen’s head — and because he was speaking into Tgfhi’s mind at that moment, it jumped into Tgfhi’s head as well. “Love, where are you right now? I can tell you aren’t studying.”

  As Ceceta was finishing her sentence, Tgfhi looked over at her and realized he was hearing her thoughts. “No way!” he yelled, jumping to his feet and letting his books fall to the floor.

  “Hell,” Rhen blurted out, sitting up. Now, he was in serious trouble.

  “You were in my head!” Tgfhi yelled, while pointing at Rhen. “You were playing with my thoughts!”

  “No!” Ceceta snapped. She turned on Rhen. “You weren’t, were you? Did you go into Tgfhi’s mind?” Her one major rule with Rhen was that he should never go into anyone’s mind. She allowed him to enter hers, so he could study, but that was the only time he was allowed to enter a mind.

  “No,” Rhen said. Ceceta glared at him, so he repeated himself, trying to sound innocent. “No.”

  “He was convincing me to want to learn how to fight!” Tgfhi yelled. Tgfhi couldn’t seem to stop himself from yelling. If he yelled, he knew that his words were his own and not Rhen’s.

  Ceceta was furious. “We had an agreement! You aren’t supposed to go into anyone’s mind, ever! How could you break our agreement?”

  “Love, I was simply helping Tgfhi work something out,” Rhen said.

  “No! You can’t do that. It’s not right. You know the rules. Where do you draw the line? How do I know that you aren’t going to manipulate me? How can I trust you?” Ceceta asked. She was livid.

  “He was manipulating me into fighting with him again,” Tgfhi told her, sounding calmer. He turned to Crystam. “He even used you as a way to get to me. He was using my own voice in my own mind and he was speaking in Tgarian.”

  “You can do that?” Latsoh asked, sounding impressed.

  Rhen nodded but ducked when Ceceta threw her book at him. “Love, come on. It’s really not such a big deal,” he told her as he pushed against the coffee table to stand up.

  “Not a big deal? Not a big deal! It’s…” Ceceta screamed. She picked up another book and threw it at hi
m. Using his powers, Rhen returned the book to the coffee table.

  “He was using my voice. How could he be using my own voice, inside my head?” Tgfhi asked Erfce, who shrugged in response.

  “That’s it!” Ceceta yelled. She marched towards their bedroom. “You’re on the couch for a week for going into Tgfhi’s mind. Maybe, if I punish you for manipulating your friend, you’ll realize how truly terrible it is.”

  “No, no, no, no, no!” Rhen cried out. He didn’t want to be stuck on the couch for a week. This was the first night, since he’d turned back into a man, that he wasn't being asked to go off with the Genisters. “Come on, love, please?”

  Ceceta stopped by their bedroom door and held up her finger. “We have rules. Rules that we agreed to years ago. I relaxed our rules when we came to this school. I agreed to let you into my head to read my thoughts, so you could keep up with our classes, but you’ve now broken my trust, as well as Tgfhi’s. How can I trust you again? How can our friends trust you?”

  “I was only going into Tgfhi’s mind for school work,” Rhen lied.

  “No!” Ceceta screamed. “That’s two weeks for lying.”

  Rhen lifted his hands in defense. “Oh, come on, love, please? Two weeks. That’s forever.”

  “Good. Maybe then you’ll learn a lesson.” Ceceta stepped into her bedroom and slammed the door in Rhen’s face.

  “Love, don’t close the door. Love?”

  Ceceta wouldn’t answer. After a few minutes of begging, Rhen realized she wasn’t opening the door. He turned towards Tgfhi, and with an impish grin, said, “Sorry.”

  “Why’d you do it?” Tgfhi asked, feeling hurt.

  “You need to learn how to fight. It’s important,” Rhen explained. “I’m only trying to help you.”

  “Ceceta seems really upset,” Erfce said. He glanced over at the closed bedroom door.

  Rhen shrugged and gave them a smile. “She’s a hothead,” he joked. “Luckily for me, she usually gets over it quickly. I’ll be back in bed with her by tomorrow night.”