by Zara Zenia
“How are you doing ma’am?” one of the nannies asked as she scurried into the nursery.
“Oh we’re doing great aren’t we Urie?”
He giggled again, a great big line of spit flying from between his blue lips. The nurse laughed at his antics and wiped his mouth straight away.
“He’s a messy little one isn’t he?” she said as she took him from my arms.
“Yeah, but cleaning up after him is half the fun.”
“Awe. I suppose you’re right,” she wrinkled up her nose as she smiled. “But oh dear, it smells as though he needs to be changed, doesn’t it?”
“I can get that. I am his mother after all.”
“Oh no ma’am, it’s our job to clean him. You just relax.”
I knew she was just being nice, just being an attentive nanny but it still felt weird. I did everything I could do for my baby but there was always a nanny or a servant around every corner who was eager to do it all for me. If I sat back and let them I would blink and Urie’s childhood would be over and what would I have done? Nothing.
“He looks so much like his father, doesn’t he?” she asked as she wrapped up a dirty diaper.
“So much like him it’s uncanny.”
“At least you know he’ll grow up to be a big handsome warrior.”
“I’d be shocked if he didn’t.”
“And where is Urie Senior? If I may be so pertinent to ask.”
“He’s with the war council. He’s been so busy strategizing for the upcoming battle that he’s hardly spent any time with us!”
“Oh that’s a shame but—”
There was a knock on the door. The nanny rushed to open it.
“Hello?”
“Hi there. Sorry to bother you ladies but I have a delivery for lady Samantha and Urie.”
A strong man stood in the doorway struggling to hold a giant box in his arms. His face was red with his cheeks puffed out as he struggled to breathe.
“Oh my!” he grunted as he stepped into the nursery. “I’m used to carrying heavy stuff but this is… this is crazy.”
He tripped as he placed it on the ground but managed to gain his balance. He stood up embarrassed with his head somehow becoming even redder and nodded to me.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am. It would seem the stories are true.”
“And what are those stories, if I may ask?”
“That you’re the most beautiful person anyone has ever seen.”
“Oh,” I blushed. “That’s so kind of you to say.”
He gave me an awkward smile and tipped his hat, a peculiar gesture that I didn’t know transcended the space-time continuum.
“Good day,” he said.
“Ok,” I felt a little embarrassed by the formality. “Good day.”
I watched him leave, walking out the nursery with a jaunty step and an aloof gait.
“What do you think it is?”
“Hmm?”
“The delivery?” the nanny pointed at the large box.
“Oh… I have no idea. I didn’t ask for anything.”
We both walked over to it but even with both of our strength combined, we couldn’t move it an inch.
“Oh my God, how did that guy carry this?”
“I’ll go fetch some people to help. Be back in two minutes.”
When she returned, she had three servants with her, all big young men who were used to doing a lot of the manual labor on the palace’s estate. They immediately got to work, slicing open the box with their tools. A mass of padding fell out onto the floor and drifted like tumbleweed. Whatever was in the box must have been valuable.
“Aaaah!” the nanny screamed and slapped her hands against her cheeks.
“What is it?” I pushed my way in to see what the fuss was about.
“Wow,” one of the servants said.
“It’s massive.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Urie Junior will be so happy.”
We all stood in awe at what lay before us. A solid glowstone crib encrusted with black and red jewels. I traced my fingertips over the crystals and felt their smooth edges. I could never imagine a baby needing such a thing but in true Ura-Than style, only the best will do.
“We should put him in it, to see how he likes it?” the nanny suggested.
“Good idea. I’ll get his favorite blanket and make it comfy.”
As we placed him inside, the enormous crib appearing to engulf his tiny blue body, he kicked and gurgled. His little toothless smile made me beam and seeing him in such an opulent bed properly cemented his princely status.
“What are these jewels?” I asked as I touched them once again.
They were glorious and I couldn’t take my eyes off them. They glinted with such a decadent light that no matter where I looked in the room they sparkled in the corner of my eye.
“These,” the nanny pointed at the red jewels. “Are famous for being from the Black Canyon.”
“Oh? Where is that?”
“It’s not far from here but you wouldn’t want to go there its erm….” she grasped at the air as though she was physically trying to find the right word.
“It’s a little rough,” one of the servants said.
“Yeah, that’s one way of putting it. It was built as a mining town especially for the production of these precious gems but… you know how things go. A lot of the mines closed down and a lot of people became destitute.”
“Oh, that’s terrible.”
Suddenly the mysterious red jewels took on a strange and evil connotation.
“They remind me of something we have back home on Earth called blood diamonds.”
“They sound scary!” the nanny exclaimed.
But before she could say any more there was a bang, a yell and the sound of pounding footsteps. An alarm began to sound downstairs. A gunshot was fired. I panicked and dived on top of the crib, shielding little Urie from the onslaught of bullets that were being fired into the nursery. The nanny screamed behind me then she hit the floor, her blood running across the pristine whiteness of the tiles.
I grabbed Urie and take off running but not before I saw half a dozen bullets fly into the young servant boy beside me. Urie began to scream in response to the gunfire. He was shrieking and flailing in my arms.
“Be quiet sweetheart, mommy’s here.” I said, trying to soothe him amidst a war zone.
I had my eyes focused on the open door with laser precision, as it was the one way out of the situation. Around me, the world seemed to slow down, time dragged by as bullets zoomed past. One grazed my shoulder, taking a piece of my dress with it. I looked down in horror as a trickle of blood began to run down my arm, hot and sticky.
More bullets were fired, with so many being pummeled into a servants chest that he convulsed mid fall as though he was performing a macabre dance of death.
“No!”
I tried to see the faces of the armed intruders but it was all a blur. I saw guns, black clothing, more guns, and a hail of bullets.
“Get away from us!”
I fled for the door but was held back by my hair. One of them held me up by my ponytail, lifting me so that my toes were barely scraping the floor. I held onto Urie as hard as I could, squeezing him so tight that he screamed even louder.
“Let me go! You’re scaring the baby!”
But no one listened. I glanced about for signs of a weapon, or anything sharp I could use. My eyes scanned every item in the room. A bottle of milk, a pop-up book, toys, baby food, a piece of fruit, some unwrapped presents, a blanket and right beside me on the edge of the crib lay Urie’s favorite rattle. With my baby in one arm and my other stretching out as far as I could, I wriggled one last time and managed to grab it before slamming into the face behind me.
My hair was finally let go and I crashed to the ground, gasping for air with my heart beating like a kick drum. The intruder behind me was stunned. I turned around to see his head was bleedin
g, with blood running out the bottom of his mask. Before the others could reach me, I lashed out again, striking him all around his head over and over again as I held my son in my arms. Then the masked man stumbled backward, lost his balance and fell. A look came over his eyes and amidst the chaos, they connected with mine, a precious second that we shared amongst the violence. I took my chance and slammed the rattle into his temple, a sharp and broken piece of plastic piercing into his head.
He yelped, made a strange, panicked gurgling sound then his eyes glazed over. He fell flat on his back as blood streamed out of his head like a tap.
“You bitch!”
Suddenly—there were arms on me. They were on Urie too and I cried and begged for them to let us go but their grip on us only got tighter.
“You bastards! You’ll pay for this!”
But they only laughed at my despair as they dragged me out of the nursery and down the hall.
“Don’t hurt my baby!” I wailed. “Please, don’t hurt him!”
Chapter 17
Urie
I was looking down at the ground with my hands over my face because I didn’t want my advisors to see me cry. I felt the smoothness of the table beneath my elbows and somehow it felt foreign, everything did. The people around me, the palace, what just happened, none of it seemed real. A feeling spread across my gut, black and murky as though death was taking over my soul with the help of the sheer misery I felt. But it wasn’t just misery, there were so many emotions in me, rage, shame, grief as well as a deep love and longing for my little boy.
“Will I ever see him again?”
I attempted to sound tough, tried my very best to speak with a strong voice but my words came out distorted somehow, weak and far away as though it wasn't even me who said them.
“Well? Will I?”
I looked up to Oban and saw that he too had tears in his eyes. We looked at each other and said no more. There was nothing to be said, just the raw emotion of losing the most important thing in your life.
“The X’Sorians have my wife and child,” I seethed. “And yet here I am, crying like a child.”
The tears fell from my cheeks hot and salty, burning my cheeks with shame. I didn’t remember the last time I cried. I must have been a child, maybe even a baby.
“We don’t know for certain it’s the X’Sorians,” Oban placed a hand on my back. “We don’t know it yet.”
“Of course we know it!”
I stood up and shook the old man off me. I wanted to burst with anger, wanted to trample the palace to the ground and shatter every inch of glowstone.
“Please. I know it’s impossible but you must remain calm. If you can…”
Oban knew he was asking for the impossible. I punched the wall beside me.
“Aaargh!”
“Young Urie! Please! We can’t discuss a plan of action if you are like this. You need to be calm, collected and in tune with the situation otherwise, we will make mistakes. The next few hours are critical if we want to get your wife and baby back… alive.”
I glared at him. There was no other option but to get them back alive. What would I do without them?
“I need to go for a walk,” I said. “I won’t be long.”
The palace felt like a morgue as I walked through it. Flashing lights and police were everywhere with the servants being taken from the building in various states of injury. Some were just bruised or shocked while others were injured with blood pouring from their wounds. Others, however, were not so lucky. It was cold like ice despite all the people around and all the white. The glowstone walls of the building that usually made the place so opulent and dazzling now looked sterile and menacing as though it wasn’t a home anymore but a war hospital. As I walked up the stairs, a body bag was being brought down, a trail of blood dripping from the end of the zipper.
How could this even happen?
I clutched my head and ran toward the scene of the crime. The bodies from the nursery had been taken away but the blood remained. It lay in puddles where each person died.
“This is where we found one of the intruders,” a nearby law officer said. “He died from a very serious head injury. Your wife must have put up a good fight.”
“That sounds like her,” I gave a faint smile.
In the center of all the blood spatters lay the crib, little Urie’s blanket discarded inside. I picked it up and held the soft fabric to my face and breathed in his innocent scent. But there was something else too, an undertone that smelled sweet. It was his mother’s perfume, clinging to the material. Yet as I held the blanket to my face, I couldn’t help but notice something sticky on one of the corners. Looking closer, I saw it was drying blood but there was no way to know who it belonged to. Was it the nanny’s? One of the attacker’s? Or did it belong to Urie himself? I couldn’t bear the thought of him hurt in any way.
“Urie?” Oban was in the doorway. “You must come quickly!”
“Samantha! You’ve found her?”
I hurried out with him.
“No, but the X’Sorians! They’ve sent a message!”
Oban had gathered my advisors at almost lightning speed and we were all crowded around the table with the transmission screen in front of us.
“Turn it on, Oban. I can’t stand it anymore! I need to see it!”
“Are you ready?” he asked.
I gave him a deathly stare. I didn’t have time for his nonsense.
“Very well.”
He pressed the button and the screen blinked on. For a long while, the screen was black.
“Is there something wrong with the transmission?” I asked.
“No…” Oban said. “Just watch.”
The blackness seemed to last forever with every passing second making my gut churn. At last, there appeared to be sound, a light crackling as though someone was fidgeting with a microphone. Then the voice came out from the darkness.
“PEOPLE OF URA-THAN!”
It was distorted, loud and angry. It bellowed out from the screen and made the hair on my arms stand up on end. It was the voice of the man who had my wife and child, the voice of the person I was going to kill.
“THIS IS FOR YOUR LEADER! THIS IS FOR OUR ENEMY! LISTEN URIE, AND LISTEN WELL BECAUSE ANY WRONG MOVE FROM YOU COULD END IN DISASTER.”
My hands were shaking. I needed to see what he looked like, needed to see the face of the man who thought he could break into my palace without consequence.
“CAPITULATE, URIE! IT IS YOUR ONLY OPTION!”
Oban glanced at me terrified.
“He wants you to give up? Is he mad?”
“Shh….”
“GIVE YOURSELF TO US AND I WILL SHOW MERCY TO YOUR WIFE AND CHILD. ENSURE THAT YOUR DEATH WILL OCCUR AND I WILL LET YOUR LOVED ONES GO. IT IS THAT SIMPLE.”
I stared into the blackness as the voice washed over me. If I died, Samantha and Urie could live. If I fought them then they were bound to die. Either way was a disaster.
There was a click, movement on screen and as I squinted to see better, I could make out a shape forming in the black background. It was emerging from the shadows, a large and looming creature with a masked face and black robes.
“THIS IS THE FACE YOUR WIFE AND CHILD HAVE TO LIVE WITH NOW.”
It was mocking me, driving me wild with bloodlust. In the background, there was a baby’s cry. Then it was quickly silenced.
“Urie!”
I charged at the screen only to be held back by my advisors with Oban hanging off my arm with all his strength.
“He has my son! He’s crying!”
I fell to the floor whimpering. How could someone have the audacity to do this?
“REMEMBER… URIE. I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO YOUR PEOPLE. I WILL LET THEM LIVE. SPARE THE LIFE OF YOUR WIFE AND CHILD BUT YOU MUST BE WILLING TO SACRIFICE YOURSELF. YOU MUST GIVE ME YOUR LIFE AND OBLITERATE YOURSELF. YOUR SON HERE, THE PRECIOUS BOY, HE WILL LIVE ON FOR YOU. LET’S HOPE HE’S A LESS CARELESS LEADER THAN YOU!”
&nb
sp; The figure cackled like a maniac and raised two fingers, holding them to his temple in a mock salute.
“ANYWAY, IT’S TIME TO SIGN OFF. FROM YOUR EVER LOYAL ADVERSARY, CASTON DIOVA!”
There was a final click and then he vanished. Only silence filled the space in front of me. Oban switched off the screen and turned to me. The entire table was afraid to talk. I turned around to look at my advisors and saw that none of them would meet my gaze.
“Look at me,” I ordered.
They all raised their heads as their eyes met mine.
“Whatever we decide, we need to make sure it happens fast. There is no time to waste, not a single fucking second. Do you hear me?”
They all nodded and muttered their understanding.
“Good… I want a plan to come together in under two minutes. Then we’re on our way.”
“I swear that the short time I have left in this body will be spent seeking revenge on the X’Sorians!”
I was looking out the front window as the stars sped past. The heart of the enemy, that was where we were going. The X’Sorians originated on a planet precisely seven suns from ours and although they had inhabited other places, this was always their true home, their sacred land.
“Faster!” I shouted at the captain.
He looked at me horrified then nodded. Turning the wheel, and ripping at the throttle, the ship began to accelerate, faster and faster until the passing stars were nothing but a blur. Not a second could be lost if we were to save Samantha and Urie.
Sitting around me were my closest Shocktroopers. Their faces were stern, their lips tight with anticipation and their eyes cast down to the floor as they contemplated the last hours of their lives.
“I just have to say that you are the most honorable men I have ever had the pleasure to know. You will be rewarded in the afterlife. I am sure of it.”
