by Tammy Walsh
If I threw it open and ran, would the creature catch me? Perhaps not here but he would. One day.
I checked over my shoulder. The Changeling was gone, hiding in one of the many dark recesses.
I eased the door open and was surprised to find Kal standing on the other side.
“Kal,” I said. “Is something wrong?”
If there’s not, I’ve got plenty to share around.
All thought of the kiss we almost shred had flown out the window. Right then, I could only think of one thing.
I had to convince him to share his political allegiance with me. Get him to reveal his deepest, darkest secrets.
But how did you do that with someone you hardly knew? It was hard enough with a close and dear friend.
“I have something I wanted to ask you,” Kal said.
To join the rebel fight? To help you with lying to the Changelings? Give me a hint, something to take back to the aliens! Please!
He was staring at me. Had I been silent for too long?
I opened the door.
“Would you like to come in?” I said.
Please do. I don’t want to be alone in here with that creature.
He hesitated but stepped inside. I shut the door behind him and led him into the room. He paused when he saw the bedsheets lying on the floor. He turned to me questioningly.
“Humans… prefer sleeping on the floor,” I said by way of explanation.
Kal made a soft “Huh” noise.
“That’s how Titans traditionally sleep too,” he said.
“That is interesting,” I said as if I really did think it was the most fascinating thing I’d ever heard.
I peered around the room in an attempt to locate Not George Clooney but he was nowhere to be seen. Could those creatures mimic stationary objects too?
“Are you okay?” Kal said. “You seem a little… tense.”
“Do I?” I said. “No. Of course not. I’m fine. I’m just… tired. That’s all.”
“Okay. Well, good. Listen, I was wondering if you might like to accompany me tomorrow,” he said. “I’m from a small town and we could do with some new music. I would love it if you could teach us some of your traditional Earth songs.”
Anything sounded better than what the Changelings had in store for me.
But an invitation to his home? It was something… but it wasn’t proof of where his loyalties lay. The Changelings weren’t going to be happy about this.
“I would love to join you,” I said.
Take me away. Now!
A grin spread across his handsome face.
“That’s wonderful news,” he said. “I’ll speak to your… handler. I’m sure I can get him to let me have you for a few days.”
“That sounds great,” I said. “But hey. Why don’t I teach you some songs tonight?”
“Tonight? I don’t know. It’s pretty late.”
“It’s not that late,” I said. “I can order some wine and we can exchange cultural information.”
Like, who would you prefer to rule over you? Just picking a question at random here.
“I should go,” he said. “It’s a long journey tomorrow. Don’t worry about me. I can show myself out.”
He headed for the door.
I needed to sing a song. If I started, maybe he would stop and stay. But try as I might, not a single song would come to mind.
He gave me a smile and shut the door behind himself.
My one chance to get him to admit his political bias and I’d blown it.
“Love Me Tender!” I shouted, a lyric finally finding my tongue…
But I was too late. He’d already left and I no longer had an audience.
Except that wasn’t true. There was one creature in the room I could sing to.
Not George Clooney stepped from the shadows. I wouldn’t bother to try and run. It wasn’t like I could escape. These creatures were merciless. They wouldn’t listen to my pitiful cries for forgiveness.
“Why didn’t you force him to tell you his political allegiance?” Not George Clooney said.
“Because that’s not how we work,” I said. “We have to get to know each other before we can share our deepest secrets. I know he’s not human, he’s a Titan, but he’s more similar to us humans than I thought.”
The creature paused, in thought.
“And if you had longer, could you learn what you need to know?” he said.
It was a worm wriggling on a hook. An opportunity.
“Yes,” I said. “Definitely. Nobody would tell you their deepest, darkest secrets in just twenty-four hours of knowing them. Unless you’re in the movie After Sunset. It takes a while to get to know somebody.”
The creature reached into his pocket.
I shuffled my feet.
“Oh no, please,” I said. “Don’t do this. I swear if I had just a little more time…”
He came out with a small device—not the neuralizer.
“Take this,” he said. “Plug it into his computer system in his study at home. We will study his communications. Meanwhile, you will get closer to him. You have another twenty-four hours to complete your mission.”
“Thank you!” I said. “I can do this. But is there a way to get an extension? By a month or two, maybe?”
“Twenty-four hours,” Not George Clooney said sternly. “No longer.”
He turned and left through the door.
I fell back on the sheetless bed, exhausted.
I had twenty-four more hours. A single day to learn a guy’s deepest darkest inner turmoil, secrets he kept hidden from his nearest and dearest, never mind total strangers.
They might as well have asked me to discover the theory of everything.
Kal
Sirena clutched the arms of her chair tightly as we swerved between two huge advertisement boards and joined the long stream of traffic peeling out of the city. It would take some time for us to break through the worst of the traffic and reach the green shores of the countryside where I lived.
She was nervous about flying in a spacecraft, but not as bad as I would have expected if her species hadn’t yet dabbled with aircraft. She was a nervous flyer and I knew exactly how she felt. I still got a little jittery when I flew. We were born with feet. I much preferred keeping them on the ground.
Zes sat in a seat ahead of us, relegated from his usual position at my side. He’d been polite enough to Sirena that morning—anything else and I would have had sharp words with him—and now he leaned back with his head facing the shuttlecraft ceiling and began to snore lightly.
Anyone looking at him would think he was dead to the world. He was anything but. Even prone as he was now, he could whip his blade out faster than the time it took to blink. He’d served my father and my brother. We were lucky to have him.
That morning, I met him for breakfast. He clamped a hand to his head and moved like a geriatric patient.
“What did I eat last night?” he said. He was in real agony.
“Serves you right for stuffing your face,” I said. “I brought you here as my date and you turned into a slob. The least you could do was comport yourself.”
Zes shook his head.
“Sorry,” he said. “I couldn’t help it. You know what I’m like with Methusida steak. I can’t control myself. Did I do anything embarrassing?”
I thought back to the upturned faces of the lords and ladies he’d gatecrashed. I didn’t recognize them but I wanted to rub it in.
“Only kicked off a land skirmish war I’ll have to sort out when we get back,” I said.
“Really?” he said. “Oh man, I’m sorry. I don’t remember a thing after falling asleep.”
In truth, when I received the invitation, I knew it wasn’t going to be the most exciting event in the world. If it did turn out to be exciting, it meant they wanted to bury a blade in my back and toss me in a ditch somewhere. In such a situation, I needed the best guard I had.
The real reason I was giving
him a hard time was because I wanted him to forgive me for what I was about to tell him I’d done.
I flapped my newspaper out wide and set to reading it.
“By the way,” I said, dropping it in as if it wasn’t such a big deal, “I invited someone to stay with us at the castle.”
“Oh? Who?”
“A girl. She was a singer on the stage last night.”
“A singer?”
I shrank under the newspaper, sensing the penny was about to drop. “Yes.”
“Have you met her before?”
“No.”
“And you invited her to stay with you?”
“Yes.”
There was a pause, and although I couldn’t see his face, I could see in my mind’s eye the expression that must be dawning on his face.
“Have you lost your mind?” he said.
“Not the last time I checked,” I said carefully, turning the page and not reading a single word.
A fat finger appeared at the top of the newspaper and pulled it down.
“I think we need a little talk,” he said in a grievous voice.
I folded the newspaper up and set it to one side.
“Is there a problem?” I said.
“Uh, yeah. You might say that. You invited someone to the castle who you don’t even know? Do I need to remind you of the way things are right now? Are you crazy?”
I folded my arms.
“I’m not crazy,” I said.
Zes backed down. He’d been with us so long, he was like family. I grew up with him acting more like an uncle than a paid employee. He tended to forget I was the head of the family now and no longer the little boy he used to babysit.
He raised his hands.
“All right,” he said. “That was out of order. I’m just saying I’m not sure it’s wise to invite strangers into our midst. That’s all.”
“She’s a human female, far from home,” I said. “She was abducted and brought here against her will. She doesn’t know anybody. She’s alone. It’s not like she’s dangerous. I doubt she even knows how to be dangerous.”
Zes pursed his lips and leaned back in his chair.
“All right,” he said. “But if something happens, don’t say I didn’t warn you. I can see the next few days are going to be hard work. I won’t want to face this on an empty stomach.”
He raised a finger to the waitress and ordered everything on the menu. He would never learn.
That was the end of the discussion, and it went better than I thought it would. Finally, Zes was beginning to think of me as the new Lord of Taw. Maybe one day I’d think the same way.
I settled into the shuttlecraft chair and peered over at Sirena. She lay back with her eyes closed.
She was so beautiful. I wanted to reach out and touch her, to see if her skin was as soft as it looked, if her hair was as silky. The same thoughts that’d passed through my mind last night on the threshold of her room.
When I looked at her, I saw my wife. The thoughts came unbidden. I couldn’t kiss Sirena. When I reached my palace room and paced up and down, running my hands through my hair, I knew I couldn’t let her slip through my fingers. In a galaxy this big, you never got a second chance.
I came up with a temporary solution. I wanted to see her again. So, I would invite her to my home, introduce her to my family, and the townspeople, and find her somewhere better to live and work. Somewhere nearby. In case she needed my help. It must be better than the life of servitude she currently had, didn’t it?
So I marched back to her room, knocked on the door, and asked her to join me at my home. Thankfully, she agreed. I had begun to stare at her again, at her soft feminine body, and knew I had to leave quickly.
I tossed and turned all night, excited for the next day to begin so I could see her again. Finally, after an hour, I reached the very fringes of sleep, that moment where you’re just about to slip over the edge and into the dark welcoming depths of sleep when I jolted awake.
Zes. I’d completely forgotten about him.
He was still perched on his chair in the ballroom. I threw the blankets aside and slipped on my shoes. I needed to reach him as quickly as possible. If anyone else were to disturb him from his slumber, we might end up with a dead body on our hands.
I spoke with Sirena’s master—just the idea that she belonged to someone else made me feel sick to my stomach—and said I was interested in borrowing his singer for a few days’ engagements. I agreed to his rates, and just like that, she was mine.
The shuttlecraft banked hard and took us south, toward the most beautiful part of the entire moon. Innel.
The endless rolling hills and green lands of pasture gave way to dense woodland. Many counties had dug up their natural forests, but not us. For each tree we cut down, we planted another in its place. Titans had a mystical link with nature. Robbing it from locals was too high a price to pay.
The shuttlecraft shuddered as it met turbulence.
Sirena burst up in her seat. She’d slept most of the way. I’d spent the time gazing admiringly at her, memorizing every line of her face and curl of her hair.
Her eyes were quick, alert, and full of panic. She peered this way and that, looking everywhere but taking nothing in.
I placed a hand on her bare arm.
“It’s okay,” I said. “It’s just a little turbulence. It will pass.”
Her attention latched onto me. She took in my face and our surroundings before her shoulders visibly relaxed. After everything she’d been through, accepting this as her reality couldn’t have been easy. She pressed a hand to her head.
“Headache?” I said.
“From a nightmare,” she said.
“What do you have nightmares about?”
“Oh,” she said, placing a hand over her eyes. “There’s always something to be scared of.”
I reached up to press my hand to her temple.
“Do you mind?” I said.
She wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but she leaned forward and let me touch her. I gently rubbed her temple, sliding over the knot of muscle I felt beneath my thumb. I worked it gently, easing it away one stroke at a time.
“Mm,” she groaned, her eyes still shut. “That feels good.”
Her eyes darted left to right beneath her eyelids. It must be a bad headache. I placed my other hand on the opposite temple and repeated the motion.
She relaxed her neck so her head was like putty in my hands. I massaged those hard muscles away and eased her suffering.
With her eyes shut, I could look at her as much as I wanted. Those succulent lips of hers stared straight back at me. They opened and closed, making teasing ‘o’ shapes.
I took a moment to glance at the hard lump forming against the front of my pants, aching to be let loose and run rampant…
In one direction.
Sirena smiled as she opened her eyes. She looked at me as if she’d just woken from a much-needed nap. She placed her hands on mine, sending sparks shooting into my brain.
“That’s great,” she said. “Thank you. You have healing hands.”
“It’s nothing,” I said, wishing I could keep touching her. “Any time.”
She worked her jaw and shook her head.
“Where did you learn to do that?” she said.
“I get headaches sometimes,” I said. “When I’m very stressed. It helps me relax.”
“It’s awesome, whatever it is,” she said. “You’re going to have to teach me how to do it. I feel so refreshed!”
“That’s good,” I said with a laugh, “because you’re about to meet my family.”
Her smile faltered for a moment.
“Family?” she said.
The shuttlecraft set down smoothly and the thrum of the engines powered down.
“We’ve arrived, my lord,” the pilot said. “Lowering ramp now.”
“You will not!” Zes said, leaping up from his chair, his hair sticking up on end. “You know the secur
ity protocol!”
The pilot bristled.
He said, “The protocol stipulates that if there is no one present—”
“That doesn’t matter!” Zes said, jamming a finger in the pilot’s face. “These are difficult times. We have to follow the emergency protocols to the letter!”
The pilot opened his mouth to argue, but he knew better than that. No one ever won an argument with Zes—whether he was right or wrong.
“Yes, sir,” he said wisely.
“Damn right!”
Zes marched to the back of the craft. Within four strides, he was there. It was a small craft meant only for short distances and not intergalactic travel.
Sirena arched an eyebrow at me. What is going on? it asked.
“Just humor him,” I said. “I’ve found life is much easier that way.”
Sirena chuckled.
“Chief security officer in place!” Zes bellowed.
The pilot sighed and flicked a switch.
“Hatch lowering now,” he said.
The hatch whined as it lowered and touched down, forming a ramp for us to walk down. Zes hustled out first, hands perched above his blade and blaster in case he needed to draw at a moment’s notice.
“Okay,” he said, waving a hand for us to descend the ramp. “It’s clear.”
I rolled my eyes at Sirena and the pilot, who grinned. We followed Zes as he led us across the flat lawn and crested the hill.
The castle rose behind it. I positioned myself so I could see the expression on Sirena’s face as she laid eyes on it. It was the same expression most people wore when they saw it for the first time.
“It’s like a fairytale castle!” she said.
Titans had fairytales but few featured castles. Most were centered around honor and battle. But I understood what she meant. The main body was a solid square block. Tall towers protruded from each corner. It sat perched on a hill overlooking the town below, nestled in the valley. It was a perfect spring day with butterflies fluttering from one flower to another, chasing each other in an endless playful dance.
“I’ve only ever seen a castle like this in movies,” Sirena said.
‘Movies’ roughly translated to forms of entertainment we used to watch. Since then, we’d moved onto full emotion manipulation systems. But most of the storytelling techniques were the same.
