by J. Naomi Ay
When I was sixteen years old and still living in the dorms, I bought a new pin-up of the MaKennah. It had just come out and it was the best ever. He had been living in Karupatani for several years, and there had been no pics since he was twelve and now there was a new one of him at sixteen. I queued up at the store with my roommates, and we each bought one.
The pic was snapped in Karupatani. He was astride a big black horse that was rearing on his hind legs, and the horse's head was pulled back, and its teeth were bared. My cousin, the MaKennah, was wearing Karupta clothes, leather leggings and tunic adorned with silver and his hair was very long and curly and pure black. He held the horse's reins in one hand and a light sword in the other. His eyes were bright silver, and his expression was curious as if he didn't know who was snapping his pic but was on his way to find out.
“Oh, he is so dreamy,” my roommates moaned. We had all four pin-ups on the walls of our room.
“He is,” I agreed and secretly dreamed that my mother's wiles might work, and I would again be granted an audience with him. I would charm him with my wit and enchant him with my beauty, and I would take him in my bed, and I would become the MaKani and someday, Queen.
Around that same time, the Palace announced that the MaKennah would be returning to Mishnah to begin studies at the University of New Mishnah in the fall. This prompted another round of ecstatic moans from my roommates and me. UNM was within walking distance of our own campus. I bought myself new dresses in preparation for the Palace parties I would surely be invited to.
Then, before we knew it, Prince Akan was on the vid announcing that the MaKennah was dead, killed by the Karuptas. Prince Akan was pale and somber as he made this announcement and he promised that revenge had already taken place. The King's village in Karupatani had been massacred. Only women and children and the old king remained. We saw pics of burned out homes and dead men and horses in the streets. We saw women on their knees keening and pulling their hair before their dead husbands and sons. We saw the old king with tears running down his face clutching a young boy.
I wore one of my new dresses intended for a party, to the memorial service. Prince Akan sat on the dais and wiped at his eyes a few times, but King Yokaa was devastated. He sat hunched down in his throne and wept. He ended up leaving the service early, and it was announced shortly after that, Prince Akan would begin to assume some of his duties.
I finished school and rented a flat with a girlfriend in New Mishnah. I didn't have a job nor did I have any intention to get one as I was born in the privileged class and had sufficient income from my father to see to all my needs.
I paid little attention to politics or economics are any of those things that consumed the working people, yet after a few years, even I began to notice that Mishnah had begun to change. Many people were out of work. Even in New Mishnah, the shining city on the hill, office buildings and homes lay empty and unused. It took many more Mishnese dollars to purchase the things I needed. The rent on my flat went way up. My flatmate, who was not as wealthy as I, could no longer pay her half of the rent. Three other girls moved in and shared her bedroom and our one bath. Panhandlers and hobos lined the streets begging for coins in front of every building. There were food shortages and many restaurants closed.
When I was twenty-five and could no longer tolerate living with four other girls in a dying city, I moved back to the Child Moon until I could decide what to do with myself. My mother had intended for me to make a good marriage, but many of the elite and privileged had also lost their wealth when the stock market crashed, and the economy plunged. There was simply nobody out there worthy of marriage to me, save Prince Akan himself who was not inclined to appreciate a woman.
My father, Lord Governor of the Prison Colony stayed surprisingly wealthy. He was loyal to Prince Akan and rewarded handsomely for that. His colony grew across the tiny moon as more and more prisoners arrived and he was given a large percentage of the value of the ores that were mined.
Our home there was as opulent as the Palace of Mishnah despite living within an air bubble. It was adjacent to the prisons and quarries, but rarely did we see any prisoners beyond those that worked in our house. I kept busy doing needlework and playing piano and occasionally sketching or drawing, but for the most part my life was exceedingly boring.
About a year or so after I returned to the moon, my girlfriend Leesa came to stay for a while. Leesa's family had been well to do, owning one of the largest speeder manufacturers in the country. She was very pretty and great fun when we were in school together, and I loved her dearly. This last year, her father had lost his business when the government had taken it over. He embarrassed everyone after that by committing suicide. Leesa blamed Prince Akan and railed upon him constantly, and it grew quite tiresome. She had come to visit to cheer up, but I grew bored with her depression. I would rather do my needlework in silence than listen to her rant about the government.
“It wasn't like this when King Yokaa was still in charge,” she said scornfully. “I wish the MaKennah was still alive. At least we would have some hope for the future.”
“Well I wish he was still alive too,” I agreed. “But my father has done well under Prince Akan. Just because your father didn’t, doesn't mean…”
She interrupted me and went off on a rant about unemployment and taxes or some such thing.
“Oh, come on,” I said, so as not listen to this. “Let's go take a walk around the estate.”
“Where?” she demanded. “It's not like you have gardens or anything.”
“We do,” I insisted and I showed her the gardens and greenhouses where we grew all the food for ourselves and the colonies. They were maintained by prisoners who had earned relief from the quarries for good work. The gardens were immense, and parts of them even grew large trees, up to one hundred feet tall before they bumped into the roof. These trees generated much of our oxygen, and the forest there was quite dense as our oxygen requirements were enormous.
“Oh, it's gorgeous,” Leesa cried, and her mood picked up considerably. “It's almost like being back on the planet.”
“We even have a lake and a waterfall,” I bragged, smelling the beautiful roses that my mother grew.
“Can we go see?”
“Of course.” We walked through the path in the forest towards the lake.
“Is it warm enough to swim?” Leesa asked.
“Yes, but we didn't bring swimsuits with us.”
“Oh Mariya,” Leesa laughed, and I remembered how much fun she was back then. “We don't need swimsuits. Who will see us?”
“Prisoners.”
“Well, if there are none by the lake, I'm going to go swimming,” Leesa declared, and she began to run along the path.
The lake was beautiful. There was a waterfall that churned the water and poured it into the lake which streamed out into the reservoirs that the colony used. There was a meadow that surrounded it all, filled with wildflowers and grass and a prisoner was there pushing a mower about.
“Oh darn, a prisoner,” Leesa said and then she moved closer to get a better look at him. “Mariya, is he a Karut?”
“Looks like it,” I replied. “How odd is that? We don't usually have Karuts here. They take care of their own.”
“Maybe he killed some Mishnese or something,” she mused. “He's awfully good looking, isn't he? He has beautiful hair just like the MaKennah did.”
“He does,” I agreed. “But the MaKennah had wavy hair like Princess Lydia's. Besides, this one is much too old, and his skin is too dark.”
“I don't care,” Leesa said with her wicked smile. “I'm going in the water and if he notices me, well too bad.”
“Leesa, you're terrible!” I cried as she tore off her clothes and executed a perfect dive into the pool.
The Karut turned at the splash and gazed at my friend in the pool. She was paddling around on her back exposing to him her beautiful breasts and
womanhood.
He turned back to his mower.
“Come on, Mariya!” Leesa teased. “The water is wonderful.”
I glanced at the Karut, but he paid us no mind, and so I too stripped and plunged into the pool. It was wonderful. The water was warm and clear and though the sky above us was false, it felt as if we were truly on the planet.
“What's that,” Leesa said and pointed at the sky.
“I don't see anything.” Of course my eyes were closed as I paddled backward.
“It's a bird! You've got birds here too!”
“No, we don't.” I opened my eyes and followed her gaze. Sure enough, circling high near the ceiling, above the trees, was a bird.
“It's an eagle!”
“How could an eagle get in here?”
“Look, it's so beautiful.” Leesa stood in the shallow water now. “It's black. It's a black eagle.” The bird swooped down in our direction, and it screamed.
“Look how big it is!” Leesa gasped as it disappeared into the forest.
That night I asked my father if there were eagles in the forest.
He laughed at me and told me I was ridiculous.
“Even if we brought an eagle in, there is nothing there for him to eat. You must have been dreaming.”
Leesa and I went again the next day, but we did not see the eagle. The Karut was there mowing the lawns, and he spied us but turned back to his mower again.
“Maybe it's over there,” Leesa said, pointing to the orchard behind the waterfall.
We headed in that direction. The apple trees were in full fruit and there were several prisoners on ladders harvesting them. A foreman was sitting on a bench smoking a cigarette. He nodded to us.
“You want some apples, Milady?”
“Sure,” Leesa said.
The foreman stood and gazed across the orchard. Several men were carrying large bushels and loading them on a conveyor.
“Karut!” the foreman called. “Bring some apples over here for the ladies.”
A man stepped out of line and carried his bushel towards us.
“Oh my Saint,” Leesa cried and grabbed my arm. Blessed Saint, I swayed on my feet.
“I told you some, not the whole fucking bushel, you bleeding idiot!” The foreman yelled and raised his whip. “I told you yesterday, one more screw up, and you're back to the quarry.”
The man set the bushel down at my feet. He crossed his formidable arms in front of his chest and waited. He towered over all of us. The foreman looked at me as if I should decide if this was a screw up or not. I had lived many years on my father's colony and have given orders to many prisoners. I knew how to speak to them in a commanding voice and never had I shied from ordering them to do my bidding. My tongue was frozen in my mouth at this moment, and no words could come.
“Lady Mariya,” the foreman repeated. “Do you wish for this whole bushel or just a few apples?”
The prisoner's eyes were very nearly closed but from beneath the thin slits was silver light. I saw it, and Leesa saw it.
“We changed our minds,” Leesa said quickly. “We don't want any.” She pulled me away.
“Women,” the foreman spat. “You, Karut, get back to work.”
Leesa and I ran back to the house. The other Karut on the mower stopped his mowing and watched us. He smiled.
We immediately ran to my rooms. In my bedroom still that pin-up of the MaKennah on the horse hung on the wall. We stared at it as if it would speak to us.
“I saw that,” Leesa said and pointed at the branding on his left arm.
“Are you certain?”
“His sleeve was torn. I saw that, those black marks.”
“I saw his eyes,” I said. “I saw them when I was first introduced at age twelve, and I remember. They looked the same.”
“He has a scar near his right eye,” Leesa touched her eye, and we peered at the poster. “Must be new.”
“Same hair,” I said. “Definitely same hair.”
“And pale skin,” Leesa added. “How many Karuts have pale skin like that? One?”
“How did he get here? He's dead ten years?”
Leesa walked away.
“Mariya, your father is in Akan's pay.”
“He's not!”
“He is! Mariya, your father is rich, and everyone else in the entire country is poor. Akan is paying your father to hide him!”
“He can't be.” I collapsed in my chair. “That's treason.”
Leesa sat down, as well.
“If it is him,” she said carefully. “We've got to get him out of here.”
“Why wouldn't Akan just kill him?” I asked. “Why hide him away?”
“Maybe he can't kill him,” Leesa suggested. “Maybe he tried killing him, and it didn't work. Remember when we were twelve, and he was in the hospital for so long? That was because Akan tried to kill him then.”
“How do you know that?” I demanded.
“My Poli-Sci professor said so.”
We sat in silence and thought about this.
“Let's go back tomorrow at the same time,” I decided. “Then we'll know for sure.”
Neither of us slept a wink the entire night.
The next day we returned to the orchard. No one was there. The harvest was finished, and the prisoners had moved on to something else. There was no one mowing the meadow either. We walked around the shore of the lake.
“Look,” Leesa said and pointed at the top of one of the tall fir trees. The eagle was sitting there watching us. We stared at him. Suddenly there was a noise behind us and a dark hand was wrapped around my mouth. I tried to scream. Leesa watched with wide eyes but did not move to help me.
“Tell your lord father the eagle flies in the forest and make him come see,” the man said. He spoke the Noble Mishnese, but his accent was strange. “Will you do so?”
I nodded, and he released me.
“Let me help,” Leesa said to him as if she knew and trusted him.
The man handed her a piece of paper with a number written on it.
“Tell him where we are. Tell him to send him to Rozari. Will you remember this?”
Leesa nodded emphatically.
“Is it really him?” I asked. “He is really alive?”
The Karut looked at me and held my gaze for a moment before he turned and walked away.
Leesa departed within hours. I had called a shuttle for her. She kissed and hugged me.
“We're doing the right thing,” she whispered. “I know we are.”
I nodded. Doing the right thing meant my father was treasonous.
I told my father again about the eagle in the forest.
“You must come see for yourself,” I insisted. “He is huge and beautiful.”
“Oh Mariya, Mariya, you are such a child sometimes,” he said, and he hugged me tightly.
My father always loved me best. Because he had been so busy as of late and had spent precious little time with me, he agreed to a walk in the forest.
He admired my mother's roses and the waterfall as if he had never seen them before. The lake glistened beautifully and enchanted him.
“What a good idea,” he said. “We should come out here more often. It is truly a beautiful place. I feel so relaxed!”
“Oh, Papa,” I said as together we sat on the shore. “Look!” In the reflection on the surface of the pond, we saw the eagle circling above us. Together we lifted our eyes to the sky and watched this incredible bird as he glided on our generated wind currents.
“You're right,” my father exclaimed. “There is an eagle here. However could he have gotten here?”
Suddenly, there was another reflection in the lake. It was the other Karut man, the one who had given Leesa the note.
My father turned abruptly.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded. “Go back to your crew.”
The Karut pulled a k
nife.
“Your term is over, Lord Governor,” he said.
My father had a laser, and he raised it before the Karut could strike him. My father shielded me with his body and yelled at the Karut. “Where is your foreman? Get back before I kill you.”
“Run, lady,” the Karut said to me. “Run away.”
“Don't speak to my daughter, you savage,” my father hissed and blasted the Karut who ducked away and was not hit. Overhead there was a screech and my father, and I turned our eyes to the sky. The eagle was bearing down on us, his talons long and fierce looking. I screamed in terror and fell to the ground as the creature tackled my father. The beast was enormous, and though my father gnashed about and for a moment his laser swung wildly, the bird overcame him.
My father was dead. His blood ran from the tears in his body and bubbled from his mouth. It ran into the lake and contaminated it. I retched at the sight of this and pulled at my hair, but there was nothing I could do that would bring my father back to life. Still the beast was atop him pulling at his organs with his great beak, ripping my father into shreds as I turned my eyes from this horrific sight.
“That's enough!” the Karut screamed and swatted at it, but the creature remained until the laser bursts hit him. The guards had come, but it was not our guards. It was the Royal Guard, the King's guard, and it was not the eagle who they pulled from my father's dead body. It was the MaKennah.
Chapter 19
Katie
