RHEN (Themrock Series Book 1)

by Charity Kelly

  “Are you sure he doesn’t read our minds?” Charlie asked, sounding worried.

  “Yes, Charlie,” Ceceta said, rolling her eyes. “He’ll only read your mind after he’s received permission. Believe me, he really hates doing it.” She didn’t add the fact that he had been banned by the Genisters and her from reading minds. Charlie’s mouth dropped open and Ceceta thought he was going to ask her another question, but he turned away.

  “Fascinating,” Kate said to herself. Rhen had an enormous amount of power. More than any elf in the Universe and more than most people in the Universe, too.

  “You know,” James told Ceceta. “He blocks both of your minds from us, so we can’t read your thoughts.”

  Ceceta tilted her head to regard James. “I knew he blocked our minds, but I wasn’t sure if you could break through his powers, since you’re a part of his family.” Her chest tightened as she realized what she had said.

  “That’s right,” Lilly said. “We’re a part of his family. Don’t you forget that.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” Ceceta said, but the Thestrans changed the topic, and for the next hour, they discussed a variety of issues from oracle predictions to the disadvantages of being a member of the Convention.

  “I want to talk to Rhen about his illiteracy,” Kate said.

  “No!” Ceceta yelled. “You said you’d keep what I’m telling you a secret. You can’t bring it up. He feels he’s doing fine without those skills, and if you ask him about it, he’ll know I told you. He’ll consider your interest in the matter to be an insult. It’d be better to just leave the entire subject alone.”

  “But how is he going to pass his written exams?” Sage asked.

  “It’s kind of hard to explain. You’ll understand when you see him taking his exams,” Ceceta told her. A second later, Ceceta was relieved to see Rhen and Reed exiting the Wood Elf Forest on their jet bikes. She was done with the Thestrans’ questions for the night.

  The next morning, Rhen forgot to bring his helmet to breakfast. He suffered through a terrible group of singers, who couldn’t hold a note to save their lives.

  Rhen remembered his helmet for lunch. He sat smiling at his friends while the rest of the student body squirmed in their seats to the sounds of the Thestran Royal Family anthem being sung by a Nosduh with no ability to speak, let alone sing, in Thestran.

  “Take that smug look off your face or I swear I’m going to hide your helmet,” Ceceta threatened.

  Rhen gave her an innocent grin and continued to eat his meal. Every now and then, they could see his shoulders shake as he laughed at their agony.

  That evening, when Rhen and Ceceta arrived in the dining hall for dinner, they were arguing in Surpen. “That wasn’t nice,” Rhen said, glaring at Ceceta while sitting down with a thud next to Tgfhi and Reed.

  “I didn’t do it. I swear I didn’t do it,” Ceceta protested in Thestran. She sat down across from him, beside Crystam and Latsoh.

  “Didn’t do what?” Crystam asked.

  “I didn’t hide his helmet. I threatened I would hide his helmet, but I didn’t actually do it,” she told them.

  Everyone at the table laughed. “Seriously?” Tgfhi asked his friend. “You can’t find your helmet.” Rhen growled at him and reached for some meat. “Ahh,” Tgfhi sighed. “I hope you enjoy tonight’s performance.”

  A look of fear settled on Rhen’s face as he watched the first performer for the evening walk onto the stage. Fortunately, the young man was an excellent pianist and his performance was quite enjoyable.

  “You’re going to choke if you keep eating that fast,” Erfce warned Rhen.

  “He’s trying to finish and leave before the next performance,” Ceceta said.

  “Good idea,” Latsoh said. She dropped her utensils and shoved handfuls of food into her mouth, making them laugh.

  “Ahem.” A nasal voice said into the microphone. “I have decided to give you a treat this evening and will be playing the next piece personally.”

  Rhen glanced over to see the pompous Mr. Orisco on stage. He laughed out loud at the thought of Mr. Orisco’s performance being a treat then ducked down to hide from view behind Tgfhi. The music teacher glared in his direction but couldn’t see who had laughed.

  “Nice job,” Charlie whispered to Rhen from the next table over. “You’re finally learning.” Rhen gave him a thumbs-up sign but stayed hidden.

  Trying to look dignified and regal, Mr. Orisco made his way to the piano. He spent ten minutes moving the bench to the ‘right’ position. After Mr. Orisco was seated, he made a show of stretching his fingers in preparation of playing. When he began his performance, it was mediocre at best. The piece he was playing was supposed to be performed at a steady pace, but Mr. Orisco sped up and slowed down throughout. He also seemed to be having trouble pressing down on some of the keys, when they were supposed to be played. He played without any feeling or understanding for the piece. When he was finished, Mr. Orisco turned to bow. There was a smattering of applause from some of the students, but most of the room was silent.

  Ignoring the students’ lack of interest, Mr. Orisco announced, “I will now play a piece by a composer that most of you should recognize, Wilhelm Adora.”

  Several students sighed. Everyone knew Wilhelm Adora’s music. It was beautiful, sweet and light but complicated to play. There was no way Mr. Orisco could play any of Wilhelm Adora’s pieces the way they were meant to be played.

  Rhen remembered several of Adora’s compositions, from when he was a child. He glanced about the room, hoping to make a getaway, but dropped his head down onto the table in defeat, when he spotted several of the teachers watching him from the doorways. Rhen couldn’t believe he was going to have to sit through Mr. Orisco’s performance. Glancing over at Charlie, who was sneaking drinks from a flask he had hidden in his jacket, Rhen wished, for the first time, that he could drink. Suddenly, he had a wicked idea.

  Mr. Orisco fixed his jacket, cleared his throat and placed his hands above the keyboard. As he lowered them down towards the keys, the piano jumped three feet away from him, making a loud, screeching sound as the metal tips on the bottom of its legs scratched against the stage’s wooden floor.

  “What the hell,” Reed said to Rhen’s right, a murmur going up among the students.

  Mr. Orisco raised an eyebrow but decided to ignore the incident. He moved his bench back into place, stretched out his fingers with care and started to lower them once more onto the keyboard. Again, there was a burst of noise as the piano jumped backward. Many of the students laughed. Latsoh hid her face behind her napkin while Tgfhi shoved food into his mouth to try to stop himself from cracking up.

  Jumping to his feet, Mr. Orisco glared at the students. “Whoever is moving the piano had better stop or you will all receive detention,” he yelled. “Do you hear me? You will all receive detention.”

  “What’s going on?” James asked a teacher by the door. He, Kate, Henry and the Headmaster had arrived late from a meeting they were having. James nodded in greeting towards a few of the Elfin Royals, who were sitting in the room on ‘Rhen duty’.

  “One of the students is moving the piano so Mr. Orisco can’t play,” the teacher explained.

  “Who’s doing it?” Professor Dewey asked. He couldn’t remember any of the students reporting that they had the power to move objects with their mind.

  “I don’t know,” the teacher said. They watched Mr. Orisco move his bench back into place.

  Mr. Orisco sat down and made a show of flexing his fingers. As he started to lower his hands to play, the piano jumped back five feet. “Ahhh!” Mr. Orisco shouted with fury while the students tried not to laugh.

  Mr. Orisco marched over to the microphone. He opened his mouth to yell at the students, but nothing came out. His mouth was wide open, and he was gesticulating with his hands, but he was silent. A look of fear passed over his face.

  Everyone quieted down as they watched him struggle.


  “What’s going on?” Reed asked, rising to his feet. He was going to go to Mr. Orisco’s aid, but stopped, when he saw the Headmaster running towards the stage.

  Suddenly, the piano began to play. Mr. Orisco’s fear about losing his voice morphed into confusion. He turned to stare at the piano, which was playing by itself. The room quieted down as a magnificent rendition of Wilhelm Adora’s Ode to Sunrise filled the dining hall.

  “It’s perfect,” Crystam said quietly, with tears in her eyes.

  “Yes,” Erfce said, sounding equally moved. “I’ve never heard it played that well before.”

  “Is Kate doing it?” Latsoh asked Reed. He shook his head and sat down. “Well, who’s doing it?” Reed shrugged in answer. He didn’t want to talk, he wanted to listen.

  Reed glanced at his family and noticed they were all staring in his direction. Turning, he shifted in his seat to watch Rhen. Since none of them could play music with their powers, it had to be Rhen. Lilly’s efforts had paid off. After being buried for years, a part of Rhen that belonged to Thestran alone, had been resurrected only two days into the music program.

  “Between this and Reed’s jet bikes,” James whispered to Henry. “We’re going to make Rhen Thestran again.” Henry smiled and inclined his head in agreement, while listening to the music.

  Unaware of the looks he was receiving from the Royals, Rhen remained still. He stared down at his plate, his hands resting on his lap. Ceceta glanced over to smile at him a few times during the piece, but Rhen ignored her. He ignored everyone as he worked Adora’s music.

  When the last chords were played, the room shook with applause. Kate was so happy she hugged James and Henry. “We did it,” she whispered fiercely to them.

  “You’d never know it was him,” James said. He watched Rhen clap along with everyone else. Rhen’s eyes were on the piano, and he had a sad, wistful expression on his face.

  “Whoever you are, thank you,” the Headmaster announced, when he reached the microphone. “That was a beautiful rendition of Wilhelm Adora’s music. It was,” he paused to shake his head, “beyond comparison.” Pointing over at Mr. Orisco, who was still quite furious, Professor Dewey said, “Now, if you would please release Professor Orisco, we can call it a night, and no one needs to get detention.”

  “Bastards, assho—” Mr. Orisco yelled before he caught himself.

  “One more thing,” the Headmaster said. “If the student, who performed this piece, would like to join the orchestra, I think we would all be very happy to welcome them.” His words brought cheers from the student body.

  “Ready to ride?” Reed asked Rhen, when the commotion in the room died down.

  “Yes,” he said, but when they left the dining hall, they discovered it was raining.

  “I guess we’ll have to postpone,” Reed said. “Sorry.” He knew Kate and the others would be frustrated that they couldn’t talk to Ceceta, but there was nothing they could do about it. “Tomorrow?”

  “Definitely,” Rhen said.

  “If you’re not riding your jet bike tonight, you can come with us to the B.A.C. meeting,” Ceceta told Rhen, looping her arm through his. Rhen rolled his eyes for show, walking with her to the University’s library.

  “He’s back!” Stanley was screaming from the top of the balcony, when they arrived. Tgfhi ran up the stairs to join him. When Ceceta and the others caught up to Tgfhi, he turned towards them beaming. “There have been reports that he saved 35 people yesterday. He’s back. The Black Angel is back.” Tgfhi gave a shout of joy and grabbed Crystam up into his arms, swirling her about in a circle before planting an impromptu kiss on her lips. As Tgfhi lifted his face from Crystam’s, he realized what he had done and flushed a deep red. “I’m sorry,” he told her awkwardly, placing her back on her feet. “I guess I was just so excited about the Black Angel’s return that…”

  “Don’t be sorry,” Crystam told him. “We’re all happy the Black Angel has returned. It’s fantastic news.” Crystam’s lips felt warm and tingly from Tgfhi’s kiss and she wanted him to grab her again, but she was too embarrassed by the looks they were getting to initiate another embrace herself. Crystam gave Tgfhi a nod and walked over to take a seat.

  “I didn’t even know he was missing,” Rhen said, sounding bored. He moved over towards his favorite chair to sleep.

  When the B.A.C. meeting was over, Ceceta invited her friends back to her apartment to study. They opened the door to find Charlie emptying out the refrigerator, stacking the food into teetering piles on the counter beside him.

  “Hey,” he said. He glanced up at them and his blue eyes widened. “What’s with the face stuff?” he asked, pointing at Rhen and Ceceta, who had scarves wrapped around their mouths and noses.

  “It’s raining out,” Latsoh told Charlie. She pushed past the others and walked into the apartment.

  “So,” Charlie said, without understanding.

  Rhen and Ceceta walked into their bedroom, unwrapping the scarves from around their faces as they went.

  “How can you not know why they’re wearing scarves after all this time,” Erfce snapped. “Haven’t you seen them wearing scarves before?” Charlie gave Erfce a vacant look and Erfce sighed. “If they swallow rain water, the bloodworms will kill them.”

  “Oh,” Charlie said. “Wow. That’s rough.”

  “Are you done?” Ceceta said. She had returned to the kitchen to rescue her food, so it wouldn’t fall onto the floor.

  “Yes,” Charlie said, giving her a goofy smile. “I was looking for pickles, but you don’t have any.” He waved good bye and walked out of the apartment without cleaning up after himself.

  Tgfhi stared at the mess on the counter and whistled. “Seriously Rhen, are you sure you’re not the older brother? He acts like such a baby sometimes.”

  “I’m sure,” Rhen said. He walked out of his bedroom carrying a small knife. “Knives tonight,” he told Tgfhi. He had just started to train Tgfhi on how to handle weapons.

  Tgfhi frowned but moved over to join Rhen. He loved learning about weapons but hated when they had to fight. Forty minutes later, he plopped down onto the sofa gasping for breath. He was finished with his training for the night and felt exhausted.

  As usual, Rhen looked unfazed from the experience. He lay down on the floor next to the coffee table and closed his eyes to ‘study’. They had stopped making fun of Rhen for his ‘studying’, now that they knew he was reading Ceceta’s mind to learn his homework.

  --

  The next day, Rhen wrapped his face with a scarf to go on his daily run, because it was still raining out. Ceceta shuffled over, wrapped in their white comforter, to give him a hug. “Have fun,” she said. The corners of Rhen’s eyes crinkled as he smiled. He kissed Ceceta on the top of her head and left.

  Ceceta dressed and wrapped herself up with a scarf before running over to the main school building to meet her students. Entering the room, she shook the water off her scarf, nodding hello to Crystam and Latsoh. They’d been doing very well with their Surpen. Tgfhi and Erfce, who had recently joined her class, were having mixed results. Since Surpen occupied Tgarus, Tgfhi wasn’t having any difficulty in picking up the language. It felt familiar to him. Erfce, on the other hand, couldn’t even begin to understand the complexities of Surpen.

  At the end of her class, Ceceta pulled a packet of photos out of her school bag. “Now that you all have a good grasp on the Surpen language,” she told them, giving Erfce a wink. “I thought I’d start to focus our lessons on Surpen’s culture. I had Orpel send me some photos from our palace, so you could see what life is like on Surpen. Most of the pictures are of our country, but a few of them are of Rhen and his men.” Ceceta handed the photos to Crystam. “We’ve run out of time for today, so you guys should review them tonight. Rhen and I will be late for study group tonight. When we return, we’ll answer any questions you have about Surpen.”

  “Return?” Latsoh asked. “Where’re you going?”

  “Andres ha
s asked us to eat dinner with him. We’re going home for dinner, but we’ll be back tonight. I promise.”

  “Sorry,” Erfce sympathized.

  “Me too,” Ceceta confessed. “Don’t tell Rhen I said that.”

  Later that night, in Rhen and Ceceta’s apartment, Crystam tossed the photos Ceceta had given them to Latsoh and said, “Surpens have the most beautiful clothing.”

  Latsoh picked up the pile of pictures and started to flip through them. “You see,” Crystam said. She pointed at the photo in Latsoh’s hands. “Even their merchants in the marketplace wear gorgeous tunics and robes.”

  “Yeah,” Latsoh said. She leaned back on Rhen and Ceceta’s couch to get more comfortable. “Our jeans and t-shirts look terrible compared to their robes.”

  Crystam pulled a few of the pictures out of Latsoh’s hands and laid them out on the coffee table. “They use so many vibrant colors.”

  “And the elaborate designs on the men’s tunics are amazing,” Latsoh said, picking up a new picture from the top of the coffee table.

  “And the men’s jewelry…,” Crystam added. Latsoh nodded. She’d seen Rhen’s jewelry. It was outstanding.

  “Did you guys see this one of Rhen?” Tgfhi asked, holding up one of the photos.

  In the picture, Rhen appeared to be struggling against a large Dristar Beast, a cross between a Thestran cow and a Zorthan rhinoceros, which seemed to have wandered down a city street. Everyone on the sidewalk around Rhen appeared to be frightened, but he was laughing. “I thought Dristar Beasts were mean,” Tgfhi said, lifting the picture up to study it. “Why would Rhen risk his life by wrestling with this animal alone?”

  “Yeah,” Erfce said. “Why wasn’t anyone helping him?”

  “Maybe there were other people helping him, but you can’t see them in the photo,” Crystam suggested. She held out her hand for the picture. Tgfhi handed it over to her and reached down to pick up another one.