Before Orpel could say anything else, the woman in gold shrieked.
“Sorry,” she apologized, when everyone turned towards her.
“Are you elves?” Latsoh asked the women. When they nodded, she said, “Which tribes do you belong to?”
Instead of answering her question, the woman in silver pointed over towards Rhen, who was just starting to wake up.
Rhen stretched out his arms and sat up yawning. “Thanks, Mom,” he mumbled. He blinked a few times and then realized he was looking at Ceceta. “Hello? What are you doing here?”
“You invited me, remember?”
“I did?”
“Yes, at breakfast. You invited all of us to come to Surpen, so we did.” Ceceta gestured towards the others.
Rhen lifted his head and saw his friends. A laugh of pure delight escaped his lips and he jumped off the couch to welcome them to his home. He hugged each of them, while telling them that he was going to give them the grand tour. Grabbing Crystam and Latsoh’s hands, he pulled them out of the study and down the hall.
“Are you staying the whole weekend?” he asked, tucking their hands into the crooks of his arms.
“Yes,” Latsoh said with a laugh. She couldn’t help herself. Rhen’s excitement was catching.
“Great!”
They followed Rhen as he gave them a tour of his palace. Ceceta kept to the background. She didn’t want to put a damper on the general mood. For the most part, Rhen ignored her presence. At the end of the tour, Rhen took them to a room in the dungeon. “And this is where I spent my childhood,” he said, flicking on the room’s lights.
They entered a vast, white, padded room. On the ceiling hung incandescent lights that were surrounded by wire cages. The lights blinked and caught across the room, basking it in a cold flickering bluish glow. Along three of the walls in the room were built in cabinets. Rhen opened one of the cabinets and his friends noticed rows of drawers inside. He pulled out two of the drawers to show his friends the weapons they held. “You can find every weapon in the Universe in these drawers. I was trained daily from sunup to sunset on how to fight.”
Near the door where they had entered the room, was a small, caged area that contained one chair.
“What’s this cage for?” Latsoh asked. She placed her hands on the cold metal bars.
“Oh, Dad would sit in there when he came to watch me. It protected him from flying weapons,” Rhen explained. He walked over and opened the door to the cage. “Do you want to go in?”
“No,” Latsoh said, shaking her head. She found the room disturbing and, from the expressions on her friends’ faces, they did too. She couldn’t understand why Rhen seemed to like it here.
“What’s that cot on the far wall for?” Erfce asked.
“That was my bed,” Rhen said, closing the door to the cage. “Although I don’t fit in it anymore.”
“Your bed?” Crystam asked with growing discomfort.
“Yeah,” Rhen said. He walked over to open more of the drawers full of weapons.
“Rhen lived in this room for years,” Ceceta explained, when she realized they couldn’t quite grasp what he was talking about. “He wasn’t allowed to leave this room until he could bring down Narseth, his father’s strongest guard, using his skills alone.”
“Right,” Rhen said, with a nod. “It took me a while, but when I did I was allowed to leave the room three times a day to eat my meals with my Dad. Once I could defeat every species in the Universe, my Dad decided I was finished with my training and I was put into Legion 68.”
“You really spent your childhood in this room?” Erfce asked. He wandered around the horrible white cell and felt goosebumps rise on his arms. “They didn’t let you outside to see the sun?”
“Not for many years,” Ceceta confirmed.
“It was an incentive to work harder,” Rhen explained. He closed one drawer and opened another, pulling out a black whip. Rhen swung the whip to his right, making it crack. “I was always good with a whip. Perhaps I should incorporate it into my military uniform.” He wrapped it up and tucked it into his weapons belt next to his sword then smiled and pulled out a blue, metallic circle that was four inches wide. “Ha!” he cried out, holding the ring up for them to see. “Now this is a valuable prize.”
“What is it?” Tgfhi asked, walking over to take a closer look. The room gave him the willies. He wanted an excuse to focus on something else.
“It’s a Genister loop,” Rhen told him. He rotated it in his hand to hold it out to Tgfhi.
Tgfhi was too nervous to touch it. Stepping backwards, he asked, “A what?”
“A Genister loop,” Rhen repeated, smiling at Tgfhi’s reaction.
“Do the Genisters know you have one of their loops?” Tgfhi asked with dismay.
Rhen laughed and nodded. He waved the loop around in front of Tgfhi’s face, making him step backwards again. Rhen kept following Tgfhi each time he took a step back, until they were running around the room like school boys, laughing so hard that tears streamed down their cheeks. Finally, Tgfhi crashed down onto Rhen’s old cot. He was out of breath and held up his hands, pleading with Rhen to stop.
Laughing, Rhen stood over him, spinning the Genister loop around his finger.
“What do the Genisters do with their loop?” Tgfhi asked, when he’d caught his breath.
“They use them to call other Genisters with,” Rhen explained. He tossed the loop up into the air and caught it. Turning towards the others, he asked, “Do any of you want to look at it?” They shook their heads in unison, so Rhen walked back to the wall and tossed it into the open drawer.
“How’d you get a Genister loop?” Latsoh asked. She wondered if Rhen would be willing to talk about the Genisters. He was in such a good mood. Maybe she could find out more about his meeting with Thellis.
“It was given to me by someone who was dying.” Rhen closed the drawer with the loop in it and opened another one.
“A Genister?” Latsoh asked. Perhaps Rhen had gotten the loop from an antiques dealer.
“Yeah," Rhen threw out as he ran his fingers over the throwing stars in the drawer above.
“Thellis?” Erfce asked.
“No,” Rhen chastised him with a laugh, closing the drawer and turning towards Erfce. “Thellis’s mortal body is already dead. He hasn’t had a new one in ages.”
Latsoh swallowed. That meant that Rhen had lied to them. He’d always said he’d only met one Genister but now he was admitting to having met two. She wanted to know more. If they didn’t say anything to catch Rhen in his lie, Latsoh hoped he would continue talking. Unfortunately, Erfce said, “Wait. You told us that you’d only ever met Thellis, but now your saying that you’ve met another Genister? Which one?” Latsoh cringed as she saw Rhen’s face go blank. Damn it. What was Erfce thinking?
Rhen hesitated. He’d been having so much fun that he’d forgotten to keep his mouth shut on the Genisters. “Thellis took me to visit another Genister after he showed me their mapping lines. The one we visited was dying.”
“What could possibly kill a Genister?” Erfce asked.
“She was killing herself. Fading away slowly into oblivion.”
“That’s horrible!” Crystam said.
“I know. That’s what I told her.” Rhen walked towards the exit, his friends following along behind him. He wanted to move on. If they left the room, maybe his friends would drop the subject of the Genisters.
“Why was she doing it?” Erfce asked.
“Doing what?”
“Killing herself,” Erfce clarified.
Rhen sighed. He really wanted to change the subject. “She was doing it to be closer to God.” Rhen flicked off the room’s lights and they walked down the cement corridor towards the stairs.
“But the Genisters are Gods,” Latsoh said.
“No, they’re not. The Genisters never claimed to be Gods. They’ve always been very clear on that point. They’re simply from a different dimension.”
<
br /> Latsoh was about to remind Rhen that Themrock had created their Universe, so technically he was, in fact, a God, even if he claimed he was simply from a different dimension, but a gaggle of boys came running down the stairs towards them. The children surrounded Rhen, their faces filled with joy as they screamed at him to pick them up. The youngest boys clung to his tunic, trying to climb his body.
Rhen laughed with relief for the interruption and picked up the two smallest boys. He placed them on his shoulders then pretended to fight the others. Above them on the stairs, they heard a woman’s voice say, “Emperor? Oh, I’m so sorry. Children! Bow before your King!”
Tgfhi and the others glanced up the stairs to find an attractive Surpen woman, who was very pregnant, coming down the stairs towards them. Her red robes had black and yellow piping and she was carrying a book. Her kids jumped off of Rhen and bowed down before him.
“No, no, stop it. Get up,” Rhen told them.
The children glanced up at their mother for approval. When she nodded, they threw themselves onto Rhen, screeching and laughing with abandon.
Rhen laughed right along with them. He tossed a few of them up into the air then tickled the smaller ones until one of the children shrieked and ran off down the stairs with the others following him in hot pursuit.
“I’m sorry about that, Rhen. I was just taking them into your old workout room to give them a little exercise before bed,” the woman apologized.
“You don’t need to apologize, Deirda. You know I love playing with your children.” Rhen turned to his friends and introduced them to Deirda. “She’s Nk’s wife,” he explained. “And those,” he pointed in the direction in which the children had run, “are nine of Nk’s and Deirda’s ten children.”
Deirda laughed and patted her belly. “And in two months, we’ll be adding yet another child to the mix.”
“Poor you!” Latsoh blurted out.
Rhen and Ceceta laughed at her comment. It was so typically Thestran.
They heard someone crying from down in the workout room and Rhen, with a knowing smile, said, “See you later, Deirda.” She rolled her eyes before continuing on down the passageway.
Rhen took his friends on a tour of the City of Surpen. They stopped by the Universe’s largest zoo then visited the city’s bustling shops. “I love it here,” Crystam said, staring into the window of a shop that specialized in blown glass.
“Thanks,” Rhen said. He was standing on the stone sidewalk beside Tgfhi waiting for Crystam to move on so they could catch up to the others.
Crystam shifted her purse to her left shoulder and walked down to the next store, where Latsoh and Erfce were going through racks of Surpen clothing that had been lined up on the sidewalk. “All of the stores offer specialized items, so it makes you feel like you’re in a village, not a city,” Crystam added, as she reached out for a turquoise robe with black piping. “The city has a relaxed feeling to it.”
“Yeah,” Latsoh agreed. She walked over to join them holding a cloth sack with some clothing she’d purchase. “I never realized before how personable Surpen City is. I thought it’d be more like Thestran’s capital, a large city with people running everywhere and huge stores, but it’s completely different.”
Erfce held out his hand to take Latsoh’s bag. “Thanks,” she said, handing it over to him. “What do you think of Surpen, Erfce?”
“I like it a lot. Like you said, it’s got a small town feel to it, even though it’s one of the biggest cities in the Universe. Also, the people are incredibly polite.”
“You said it,” Latsoh agreed. “Rhen, can you teach the Fire Elves to behave like the Surpens?”
“What do you mean?” Rhen asked. He waved to Ceceta, who’d just finished shopping inside the store and was now searching for them.
“You know. They show you respect, but they don’t mob you. They don’t scream at you or whisper about you behind their hands. The way they behave with you is so... so civilized,” Latsoh explained.
Rhen recalled the way the Thestran students had treated him on his first day back at school. They’d mobbed him when he’d entered the cafeteria, grabbing at his clothes and hair to touch him. If the Headmaster hadn’t of warned them off, Rhen would’ve been forced to fight them. “I don’t think I can teach your people manners. They’re too much like animals,” he told Latsoh, getting a smack on the arm in response.
--
Reed and James were shown into Te’s office in the Delegate Wing of the Thestran Royal Palace by an attractive young Neptian woman. “He’ll be right with you,” she told them before leaving the room, closing the door behind her.
Several minutes later, Reed glanced at James and grunted. He couldn’t believe Te was making them wait.
James knew what he was thinking so he nodded. He totally agreed.
Just when they were about to leave, the door on the right side of the room that led to Te’s personal quarters opened and Te walked into the room. Te walked over to his desk and sat down. “I wanted to tell you,” he began, without any greeting to the royals in front of him, “that I plan on taking over both Mencuri’s and Geis’s trade routes with Ventar.”
“What?” James asked.
“You heard me.”
“This is a matter for the Council, Te,” James told him with fatigue. “It’s not something you can unilaterally decide.”
“It’s already been decided, James,” Te snapped. “Within the next few months, I plan on taking over all of the trade routes that deal with Ventar.”
“Why?” Reed asked.
Te wanted to yell at Reed that it was none of his business, he was nothing but a lowly elfin prince, but he felt that speaking to Reed would only show he valued what he said. “It’s best for the Council if I take over all of the trade routes to Ventar. My team will increase the profits for these routes, which will keep Queen Chara from considering an alliance with Surpen when Crystam marries the Tgarian.” He waited a moment before continuing, “But, if Yfetb were to court Crystam and gain her approval, we wouldn’t have to worry about Surpen finding their way into our most profitable routes. So? What will it be?” Te pursed his lips as he waited for James’ response.
James leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or cry. Te was trying to blackmail him.
What’s really going on here? James wondered. Te had mentioned Surpen taking over Thestran’s trade routes, but everyone knew Surpen had no interest in other planet’s trade routes. They were quite happy with their own. Why was Te so focused on Ventar?
No, James thought. Not Ventar. Surpen. Te had been harping about Surpen long before he’d fixated on Ventar. Everything Te was doing now was because he was afraid of Surpen. But, why was he afraid of Surpen? It was at that moment that James remembered Rhen telling him that Ceceta had been betrothed to Yfetb. Neptians married at the age of eight, but they didn’t live together until they were older. Ceceta had been planning on marrying Yfetb, but he’d left her at the altar. In Neptian’s culture, the shame of such a thing would have been astronomical. Ceceta’s family had been run out of town. Rhen had said that he’d met Ceceta while her parents had been visiting the Neptian Palace. He had bumped into her, while her family had been asking the Neptian King to give them back their lands.
James sat up in his seat. He’d figured it out. Te was scared of Surpen because he’d hurt Ceceta when she was younger. James smiled. Sometimes people got what they deserved.
The curtains by the window suddenly fluttered outward, as if a wind had blown them out of Te’s office, yet none of the doors in the room were open.
James felt a prickle of fear. Had someone been watching them without their knowledge? He’d heard that there were people who had the power to turn themselves invisible. James glanced at Reed, who looked equally concerned. Since there wasn’t anything more for them to say to Te, James decided it was time to go. It wasn’t worth the risk of staying in his office to argue. He didn’t want to get as
sassinated by an invisible killer.
Standing up, James turned and walked towards the door with Reed following along behind him.
“What’s your decision?” Te asked from behind his desk.
“It doesn’t matter,” James said, opening the door so that Reed could leave. “The Council will vote on your proposal at the next meeting. I personally will vote against giving you all trade routes to Ventar, but since I only have one vote, it doesn’t truly matter.” He turned and left Te’s office, feeling satisfied by the disturbed look he’d seen on Te’s face before he left.
Chapter 41
Surpen Palace
The absence of doors in Surpen’s palace made it difficult for Tgfhi to sleep. He felt too exposed. Anyone could walk right into his bedroom. The arches that made up the room’s windows let in a sweet, earthy aroma, the columns around the room were painted a beautiful fern green color, and the bed he’d been given was soft, but the openness of the room made him uncomfortable.
When Tgfhi realized he wasn’t going to be able to sleep, he got up and took a walk. Passing the library, he was surprised to see Rhen’s mom reading. He didn’t want to bother her, so he kept on going. A little while later, he passed a small study, where Bosternd was working on some documents. Tgfhi considered approaching Bosternd, but the man seemed involved, so he moved on. When Tgfhi bumped into Ceceta in the next corridor, he asked, “Why are all of you up?”
Ceceta shrugged. “Go back to bed, Tgfhi.”
“I can’t sleep,” he admitted. “And,” he added with a sly grin. “It seems I’m not the only one with sleep issues.”
Ceceta smirked but refused to comment. Instead, she changed the subject. “You do realize that you’re the first ‘playdate’ that Rhen’s ever had.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Think about it. Rhen grew up in the dungeon. After that, he was sent into the military. The only non-subordinate childhood friend we ever had was Trst, and he died shortly after we got here. This is the first time Rhen’s hung out with friends in his home.”
The Surpen King_Part 1_Return of the Gods Page 27