The Strange Round Bird: Or the Poet, the King, and the Mysterious Men in Black
Page 39
“Must speak,” my wife whispered, the rasp in her voice making it almost impossible for me to understand.
“Hush, my love,” I cooed gently to her. The physician came in and said quietly to me that he believed that Roxalene was dying. I fought tears as I realized for the first time that Kor was nowhere to be found.
“Kor. Where is—” but Roxalene cut me off with a groan.
“Not Kor…he…isn’t …” A bout of coughing cut her off, but she fought to speak. “Forgive me…lies…all lies…love…my…our son …”
Many things I had refused to allow myself to think I had known. I loved Mustafa. I thought of the son I shared with Roxalene. The boy had always been a menace. He had been spoiled and uncaring and selfish from the day he was born. Because of the execution of Mustafa, Roxalene’s boy, the one we had named Selim after my own father—this boy would now inherit the throne. I truly felt a pang of guilt for having tarnished the name.
“Hush, my Roxalene—”
“No, no,” wailed Roxalene. “I must now…I…confess…I …” Her breathing became more raspy and her eyes less focused.
“There is nothing to confess, my love. I am only glad to see that Kor—”
“NO!” she cried. “No Kor.” She pulled me close and I could see how the illness had ravaged her beautiful face. “There is no Kor.”
I shook my head. Was her mind becoming unclear?
“Kor was not…not the name …” Roxalene’s head drifted back. I held it in my hand. “He is half a devil. Our son-in-law is half a devil,” she said, almost all breath and no sound. She grabbed my sleeve. “They… Komar Romak.”
“What do you mean?” I could not understand.
“It was Kor who poisoned our love…Komar Romak is the key to all evil.”
The End of Suleiman’s Reign
Suleiman’s death marked the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Selim, the spoilt, pampered child of Roxalene, wanted power for its own sake. All lamented the loss of Suleiman. But his secret legacy remained. The driving force behind the Knights in Black was to protect Il Magna from the world and to protect the world from Il Magna. The brothers were charged with protecting the scientists and their families.
Suleiman understood that Kor or Komar Romak had done everything to crush his life. Komar Romak had killed his son, stolen his love, and taken the life of his wife, either by poison or heartbreak. But Suleiman would have no vengeance. Kor had vanished. Suleiman would spend the rest of his days with a heavy full of hatred.
As it happened, Suleiman would fight battles, and many a slain enemy warrior would die from the fierce hand of a king burning for revenge he would never have. In 1566, Suleiman would die in battle with the name of Komar Romak on his lips.
He had believed he would die on the battlefield and had been sure to set his affairs in order, to arrange for the care of Il Magna to continue forever. Preparations for safety had to remain in the hands of The Brothers in Black. The scientists and their children continued their work, as it continued and continues, as we see here today.
Understanding Komar Romak may perhaps always challenge the Brothers in Black. But there are things we now know of Komar Romak. There are two traits that always made Komar Romak recognizable. One, Komar Romak had no heart. It was believed that cold blood ran through the veins of Komar Romak. Purely evil, Komar Romak had no sense of kindness, only power.
The second was that somehow, Komar Romak was only able to grow hair on half of his face. This makes Komar Romak vulnerable because it is recognizable. It is a trait that has run through the line through generations. Hiding it through false moustaches and beards became the way of Komar Romak and, so, a weakness. But without knowing of the long line of Komar Romak, the aging scientists feared Komar Romak to be an immortal demon, appearing unchanged through generations. Komar Romak, to them, would be the shadow that chased the centuries. The Order of the Knights in Black would forever be the light against that shadow and, thus, the guardians to watch over their ward, Il Magna.
It is no secret that the hurt and damage Komar Romak caused in the past still reaches into our time and the times ahead. Komar Romak can do only one thing to tear the innocence from those imbued with it. Komar Romak will turn the good into a work of darkness. The brothers understand that they must all be strong against such a force. Alone, one is vulnerable. Together, they can find strength.
The Strange Round Bird
What more can or will be said of this invention? Very little. Centuries have passed while the bird has cyclically sung and been silenced. That said, Suleiman surely felt like a fearful father who brought a monster child into the world. He created something so powerful, he knew that the world had to be forever protected from it, and it from the world.
Somehow, the combination of its parts proved greater than the individual pieces. Yet, by combining them, each piece was forever changed, and the power of the whole remained within each piece of it.
Il Magna, the engine, is a force that must remain secret. For those reading these words, and may that be only those who can be trusted, you must be one among us who protect the strange round bird from itself and from those who wish to use it for harm.
You, too, dear readers, are now part of the story.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want thank my ever-supportive family without whom … it goes without saying:
Nate Unger Bowditch
Lyric Unger Bowditch, my wonderful editor
Julius Unger Bowditch
Cyrus Unger Bowditch
The talented artists who have brought so much to the book:
Mary Grace Corpus
Steve Parke
Wendy Vissar
Tracy Copes
The brilliant scientists, researchers, historians, linguists, archivists, mathematicians, and the world’s greatest Egyptologist:
Salima Ikram
Richard Hoath
Stephen Nimis
Steve Urgola
Ola Seif
Eman Morgan
Amy Motlagh
Reem Bassiouney
Dianne Salerni
To those who have basically given me the business…and helped with putting everything together, at Bancroft and around the globe, who have supported this and all the Young Inventors Guild books:
Elliott Light
Emad Kassan
Bruce Bortz
Erika DiPasquale
Harrison Demchick
Sara Allen
Project Gutenberg
The American University in Cairo
And to my early readers to whom I am forever grateful:
Sammy Kennedy
Malcolm Regal
Cliodhna Reidy
Evan Rowland-Seymour
Hannah Rowland-Seymour
Reem Al Sharif
Lydia Tadross Marks
Noah Tunis
Dahlia Matanky
Hamish Newall
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eden Unger Bowditch has been writing since she was very small. She has been writing since she could use her brain to think of something to say. She wrote at the University of California, Berkeley, and she wrote songs as a member of the band Enormous.
She has written stories and plays and shopping lists and screenplays and dreams and poems—and also books about her longtime Baltimore home. She has lived in Chicago and France and other places on the planet, and has been a journalist, as well as a welder, and an editor, and other things, too.
Presently, Eden lives with her family (husband and three children) in Cairo, Egypt where she teaches at The American University in Cairo. But that’s another story entirely…
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