by Lisa Lee
According to the story Priya often told Gideon, the king saw her one day and ordered her to marry him. But the day after Priya interrupted his video game playing with Gabe, Gideon was playing the Royal Game of Ur with his great-uncles, who told him a much fuller story.
Priya’s stepbrothers were the architects of The Red Palace. They were selected soon after Steve Li became king. One day in 2074, the forty-four-year-old king went to see the construction progress on the palace and saw nineteen-year-old Priya for the first time.
According to the elder great-uncle, Joseph, “In those days, Priya was very beautiful, a gorgeous young lady. And she would frequently bring homemade lunches for us.” Then Joseph dabbed at his eye with a monogrammed handkerchief.
The younger great-uncle, Michael, disagreed. “Beautiful? She’s not the hag she is now, but beautiful is stretching it.” He sat back with his hands over his well-fed stomach, satisfied with his pronouncement.
“Anyway,” Joseph continued, annoyed that his flow had been interrupted. “As I was saying, Priya would frequently bring our lunches. This allowed her to speak briefly with one of the junior architects, Adam. Everyone knew they liked each other and assumed marriage negotiations between our respective families would start soon. But the king was quite taken with Priya’s beauty and assumed all sorts of lovely things about her based on her face alone.”
Michael interrupted, “And you know what they say about assuming things.”
“No, I don’t know what they say about assuming things,” said a female voice from the doorway. It was Priya. She gave her stepbrothers a baleful look before stalking off.
“I told you she has the sight,” Joseph whispered.
“Yeah, there’s something wrong with that woman, all right. All the women in our family are crazy, always seeing things and whatnot,” Michael complained.
“Well,” Joseph began, “there is a long history of female shamans in our family, but it didn’t really take special sight for Priya to realize she couldn’t turn the king down. Not without consequences for us, her family.”
“Oh, there you go again, yakking on about what a great sacrifice she made for us. We wouldn’t have eaten our New Year’s dinner in this palace if not for that wedding. She turned up roses, that girl,” Michael said smugly.
“True,” Joseph conceded. “But she never loved him.”
“She didn’t?” Gideon asked.
The brothers looked at him as though they had forgotten his presence. Joseph recovered first. “Not as much as she loves you.”
Gideon smiled, but he had one more question. “But what happened to Adam?”
“He went on a mission overseas, last I heard,” Michael said, and Joseph nodded.
Years later, Gideon was no longer a child easily appeased, but a man fully grown. On that day, he and his twin brother would fight, along with representatives from all sixteen sectors, to hold the title of Supreme Fighter, an ostentatious title that carried a small financial award but larger bragging rights. Unlike his grandfather, Gideon had more charm than violent tendencies, but he still wanted to win that title.
* * *
Prince Gideon Li loved the crowd. Even better, the crowd loved him back. Once his name was announced, he put on a mini show of kicks and jabs and flying-tiger moves, to the roaring approval of the crowd. He was ready to fight his third match in two hours. He was confident that he would win this match too, even though it was against his twin brother, Gabe.
He strutted across the mat and roared as he raised his fist to the crowd. He was rewarded with thunderous foot stomping, clapping, and shouts of support. Gideon’s parents, however, kept their usual stoic expressions and clapped sedately.
Gideon thought how he would love to rub a victory in his brother’s face. Gabe usually won most of their matches in practice, but in the last few weeks, Gideon had won about half the matches with his brother.
After Gideon left the mat, his brother performed similar moves. If the applause and foot stomping were a little louder, Gideon figured it was just due to his brother being older by a few minutes and the heir to the throne. Seahorse Island’s subjects were experts at the art of sucking up.
Shrugging off the thought, Gideon spit excess saliva into a nearby cup, moved to the mat, and assumed a fighting stance. He ignored the unusually humid day, the copious amounts of sweat pouring down his back, the slight stench even in the outdoor arena, and the shouts and screams of the crowd. His only thought was to crush his brother to the mat for a decisive victory.
His brother seemed to be in top fighting form. Each time Gideon attacked, his brother expertly blocked him. Gideon had been a fighter long enough to not get frustrated. If he did, his emotions would rule, and he would inadvertently let his guard drop.
His patience was rewarded when his brother didn’t move fast enough to block one of Gideon’s offensive moves. Unfortunately, as his brother went down, Gideon let his concentration slip a little and was caught off guard when Gabe swung his foot and knocked Gideon off his own feet.
Gideon rolled and moved to get back up, but his brother heaved himself on top of Gideon and whispered, “Please stay down.”
There was no way Gideon was going to listen to that plea. He elbowed his brother and flipped so that he was the one holding Gabe down. What he saw shocked him. Gabe’s face was grayish blue.
Thinking quickly, Gideon rolled off and clutched his leg while grimacing in feigned pain.
His brother stood up, swaying a little, and on the count of ten, Gabe was declared the winner of the Supreme Fighter title.
In the screaming and shouting that followed, not many people noticed that the towel given to Prince Gabriel hid an inhaler or that when he finally raised his arms in victory, his trainer kept his arm around the prince’s waist in support, not in celebration.
Gideon got to his feet and remembered to limp as he walked over and stood next to his brother on the opposite side of the trainer, applauding. When he saw his brother slightly lean his way, Gideon put his arm around him and smiled.
The king and queen’s stoic expressions didn’t change. They sat in the section of the arena reserved for the royal family, behind glass designed to repel weapons. Not surprisingly, this section was heavily secured with the elite Royal Guard.
As the king stood, everyone else promptly stood as well, and the king’s image immediately became visible on every large screen in the arena. The celebratory noises became silent. Reverence for the king was a key patriotic duty.
The king said, “Citizens of Seahorse, in celebration of Prince Gabriel’s victory today, a public celebration will be held tomorrow night at the Golden Bowl Plaza. The event will be hosted by the royal family.”
Prolonged applause and wide grins greeted this news. A good fight followed by free food and wine was indeed a cause for celebration. The only citizens unhappy with the day’s turn of events were the unlucky gamblers who had bet on Prince Gideon.
The king turned toward the fighting area. His sons and the other sixteen fighters bowed deep in a display of unified respect. The king and queen left first, accompanied by various ministers and guards. Then the other royals left, accompanied by their own staff. Celebratory music played as the fighters left to go back to their respective communal homes. The princes returned to the limousine that would take them to their own home, The Red Palace.
Gideon wanted to speak with his brother as soon as they were in the limousine. Unfortunately, the princes were accompanied by their personal guards, Luke and James. Their personal guards had been personally selected by the king. Any misstep by the princes, no matter how minor, was reported to the king. Thus, the princes were prompted to, at least privately, nickname the guards Royal Snitches 1 and 2. The brothers had agreed early on to have personal conversations without those two present. So, Gideon resolved to keep his questions to himself for a little while longer.
Gabe sat across from him, his head back and his eyes closed. He looked as though blood flowed through
his veins again, but his extreme tiredness was almost palpable to Gideon. He and Gabe called it their “twin sense.” They could each feel when the other was in distress. This bond was made clear when the twins were six-year-olds. In truth, Gideon only half-remembered his hospital stay that year, but his mother loved to retell the story so much that Gideon could tell it himself almost verbatim.
One summer day when he and his brother were six, their mother, Queen Jasmine, hosted a summer solstice party. Her sisters and some of her cousins were visiting, and she wanted to celebrate. The party was outdoors, with the abundant scents from the large potted flowers mixing with that of grilled meat, sweet pastries, savory pastas, exotic sauces, and other favorites of the queen and her guests. Most of the guests were family, so the atmosphere was relaxed with the adults talking, laughing, and perhaps drinking a bit more than they should.
The kids, sensing their parents were not really paying attention, ran rampant like packs of wild animals. The parents didn’t worry, assuming their various nannies were looking after the kids. Unfortunately, the mostly middle-aged nannies could not completely keep up with the organic honey-fueled energy of their charges. Between the laughter, conversation, eating, drinking, and the constant roving of the kids, no one noticed little Prince Gideon make his way all alone back into the palace.
When the prince had been gone about five minutes, his twin brother, Prince Gabriel, stopped abruptly in the middle of playing and shouted, “Gide!”
The other kids paused in their play, unsure whether this was part of their game or not. The nannies looked around in panic, realizing they were short one kid.
“Gide!” Gabe shouted again before running to his mother, the queen.
“Gide’s hurt,” he said as he reached his mother.
The queen looked first for Gideon and then his nanny. She saw neither. The nanny had run inside to look for Gideon.
“Let’s go look inside,” she suggested to Gabe, assuming Gideon had gone inside to use the washroom or play inside away from the crowd. Sometimes too much noise caused him to retreat to a quiet area.
“Hurry, Mother! He’s hurt!” Gabe cried in panic.
Fortunately for him, his mom decided to trust his instincts. She spoke via her watch phone to the head palace guard. “Prince Gideon is missing. Please have staff locate him immediately.”
Conversation stopped as certain of the guests overheard the queen’s words. She excused herself, saying something along the lines of her son loving to play hide and seek. Her guests nodded in understanding as the queen walked back into the palace with Gabe. Kids resumed playing, and the adults resumed talking and drinking.
The head palace guard was waiting for her. “Your Majesty, I have every available guard looking, and I’ve requested that the head of palace staff have his personnel look as well.”
“You can’t see him through the cameras?” the queen asked.
“We didn’t see him come in on the cameras at all,” the head palace guard replied, his brow furrowed, causing the queen to grow nervous.
Gabe looked at the guard. “We know how to get through the palace without being seen by the cameras.”
The head palace guard nodded and knelt. “Is that so? Would you like to show me?”
Instead of replying, Gabe took a complicated route through the west side of the palace until he reached a small outdoor garden. He ran behind a large bush, and there he found his brother.
Gideon lay non-responsive on the ground. The queen called for help via her watch phone, and two doctors and several medical assistants came within minutes. The more senior doctor, the chief physician, did a quick look over the prince.
“His face is big,” Gabe said.
The doctor nodded and looked inside Gideon’s mouth. She then took a thick yellow pen and injected something into Gideon’s right thigh. Gideon moaned almost inaudibly.
The doctor spoke to the queen. “I’m going to give him another shot, but we need to get him to a hospital right away. He was exposed to something to which he’s allergic.”
So, the party ended rather abruptly, the king came home right away, and Prince Gideon spent a week getting treated and recovering in the hospital. Prince Gabriel was taken every day to visit his brother and was generally mopey, weepy, and whiny when he had to leave the hospital to come home to the palace. The king and queen felt almost hysterical relief at the tragedy that was so nearly averted. Despite repeated tests, no doctor could determine what substance caused the prince’s reaction. Gideon came away from the incident with a stronger appreciation for his brother, and he thought the reverse was true as well.
At that moment, Gideon’s twin sense was raging loudly that his brother was feeling worse than he let on. He took a quick glance at Luke and James, who both were looking at Gabe, and gave a muffled sigh, his fingers drumming against his restless legs as he looked out the window. He knew that distant acquaintances or strangers often had trouble telling him and Gabe apart on looks alone, but they soon learned to identify Gideon by his constant movement. His parents could not cajole or beat him out of the habit, so they eventually gave up trying to change something so central to his character.
Gideon found it interesting that some people had such difficulty discerning the physical differences between him and Gabe. They were fraternal twins, not identical. While they were both a touch over six feet, tall for Seahorse, his brother—to Gideon’s great annoyance—was about a quarter of an inch taller. Gideon was left-handed while his brother was right-handed. Gideon was a little thicker than Gabe. They both had bronzed skin, black almond-shaped eyes, long noses, medium lips, chiseled cheekbones, and closely cropped black hair. While the media generally described him and Gabe as handsome, Gideon was not so vain as not to understand a royal title and wealth often made one more handsome than he was in reality. Still, he thought he and Gabe did possess a certain elegant and approachable demeanor that made others enjoy their presence.
Looking at them after the fight, however, even those who knew them well would have trouble telling them apart, for Gideon, the loser of the last match, had the upright demeanor of the winner while Gabe, the winner, had the demeanor of one defeated.
Because The Red Palace was built on the side of a mountain, there were only two drives: one for arrivals to the palace and the other for departures from the palace. The drives were artfully landscaped on the sides but filled with twists and turns that made it impossible to drive with any real speed. Of course, there were emergency entrances and exits, some secret and some known.
Gideon knew, however, that his parents would not want the attention that would come with any use of an emergency entrance; otherwise, they would have had Gabe examined at the arena. It would not do for Seahorse’s citizens to think there was anything amiss with Gabe’s health. Gideon would just have to endure the long drive up the mountain to the palace. He would converse privately with his brother once they were there.
Gideon was relieved when the limousine finally pulled up to the palace and the Royal Snitches exited the vehicle to confirm that the surroundings were safe. “Can you make it inside on your own?” he asked Gabe, who had woken up once they stopped.
On Gabe’s nod, he exited the limo and walked a little slower than usual until he and Gabe were beyond the massive, intricately carved double doors and into the palace. Gideon wasn’t surprised to be greeted by the chief physician and several assistants. They had brought a hospital bed and some other medical apparatus, presumably to escort Prince Gabriel to the infirmary.
“What is all this?” Gabe asked, looking genuinely confused.
The chief physician bowed slightly from the waist. “Your Royal Highness, congratulations on your impressive win today. Your parents were concerned for your health and requested that we greet you.”
Gideon was glad his parents had arranged for his brother to be examined. Fortunately, the palace had its own medical staff who were subject to strict confidentiality agreements, the violation of which was conside
red treason and punishable by death.
“There is no way I’m getting on that bed,” Gabe argued. “I am the Supreme Fighter Champion! Why not check out the loser over there?”
Gideon shot Gabe an incredulous look and then said, “Let’s both go, and we’ll see who is the most recovered from three rounds of fighting!”
“Gabe!” Gabe’s pregnant wife, Lily, stood between the medical staff and the princes, a look of horror on her face. She hadn’t attended the fighting because she spent about half the day on bed rest per her doctor’s recommendation.
“Babe, don’t stress yourself. I won!” Gabe smiled his charming smile, one that usually made Lily smile back, despite whatever disagreement they happened to be having. It didn’t work this time.
“You won?” Lily said with her head tilted to the side and one hand on her hip. “That’s what you consider to be the most important thing right now?”
Before Gabe could answer, the chief physician coughed discreetly and said, “Pardon the interruption, Princes and Princess, but I advise that we continue the conversation in the infirmary.”
“Fine,” Gabe began, “but there is no way I’m lying in that bed like some sort of invalid. I’ll wa—”
Before he could finish, Gabe collapsed and would have fallen to the floor if not for the medical assistants who grabbed him before he hit the floor. Lily screamed and then fell to her knees with her hand clutching her stomach. Another medical assistant went to assist her.
Gideon followed the mad dash to the infirmary, yelling at the Royal Snitches to update his parents. Minutes later, he stood outside the closed infirmary doors per the chief physician’s request that he wait until they were done examining both patients.
In frustration, Gideon banged his left fist on the wall closest to the doors. Feeling drained and frustrated, he turned and leaned against the wall, eyes closed and arms crossed as he replayed the events of the day in his head, wondering what Gabe’s symptoms could mean. He sighed as he heard footsteps and straightened his posture. His parents had arrived.
