by J. Naomi Ay
The Karut built hospitals in Mishnah and opened his company to do more things that employed many people. The economy started to improve and the Karut was credited for it even though my Akan had been at the helm of Mishnah for a decade now. Akan burned, whilst Phylyp seethed, whilst I plotted.
I had gone to visit my sister Dora and together we toured the Dark Continent. It was snowing in Mishnah and I could not tolerate the cold as I did when I was younger. The Dark Continent was warm and dry and kept my sinuses clear. When I returned to Mishnah there were whisperings in the Palace about an alien girl from another star.
“I don't understand,” I said to my maid, who related these whisperings to me. “What girl? What star?”
“A girl who was called a Human.” The maid brushed my hair a hundred times. “My lord, Prince Akan brought her here and tried...tried to, well you know, Madame. But Captain Loman rescued her and it is said that he nearly cut off the Prince's head he was so angry.”
“Well who was this girl?” I demanded, for never has Akan had any interest in a girl, especially one from an alien planet.
“They say,” my maid dropped her voice to a whisper. “She belongs to the MaKennah. She is to be the MaKani. This is why the MaKennah came to us last year, to ask permission to marry her.”
“He did?” I gasped. “And how did Akan bring her here?”
“He had her kidnapped!”
“Goodness!” I laughed and applauded my son for his industriousness. How very proud I was of him even if he couldn’t…well you know. Too bad the Lightie saved her.
I watched my maid try to curl my hair which wasn’t nearly as full and shiny as it had been in my youth yet still had, I thought, a beauty to it. I pondered the alien whom the Karut would take for a wife and it occurred to me that should Yokaa allow the Karut to do so, should the alien become the MaKani and Queen, Mishnah would have neither a Mishnese King nor Mishnese Queen upon her throne. “It would be a travesty!” I declared, shocking my maid, and for the first time in years, I humbled myself before my husband, the King, that night.
“You must not allow it.”
“I agreed,” he says coldly. He felt nothing toward me anymore, I feared. “It is to be done.”
“How can you?” I cried. “There must be a Mishnese woman who may bear him a Mishnese son to rule after him. This Human cannot possibly give him a son and if she could, the child would be but one quarter Mishnese. If it is already agreed, then make him take a second wife of Mishnah.”
“I gave my word to King Merakoma and the MaKennah,” the King sighed heavily. “If he waited a year, if he thought long and hard about it and after this time still wanted her, then I would not stand in his way. He agreed to wait but he also made it plainly clear that he would take no others.”
“Yokaa.” I beseeched him from my knees. “My beloved husband. What king would want only one wife? Look how many lovers you have taken over the years, who have served you as wife, some better than I. Perhaps he is blinded by love right now. It would be foolish for him to commit himself so.”
“Merakoma, the Karupatani King, had only one wife and even after her death stays true to her.”
“These Karuts are overly romantic,” I replied scornfully. “My husband, you must think of Mishnah and the future. What if he were to take a Mishnese wife whom he need not even consort with? He need merely impregnate her, leave her here with us to care for and raise the child and then we will have another true son of the Saint in line for the throne instead of the child of a strange alien woman.”
My husband thought upon this.
“The alien woman's son may rule Karupatani for all I care,” I said and stroked my husband's knee. “But not Mishnah. Or-” I had yet a more brilliant idea. “The MaKennah may stay on Rozari and you may make Akan the Regent until the child earns his majority and may rule.”
“Have you a Mishnese girl in mind?” The King stroked his chin thoughtfully. He enjoyed how I caressed his leg and I thought he liked my ideas.
“My cousin's daughter,” I suggested. “She is of the same age and as of yet unmarried. She is fair enough and of good breeding. Lady Mariya, she is called.”
“You know, Wife,” the King said, as my hand tempted him more. “This is a good idea. Summon the girl to the Palace. When the MaKennah returns to be wed to the alien, we will present him with the Lady Mariya as well. Hopefully she shall be fertile on this day and he may do his duty and then he and the alien may be on their way.”
“It was the MaKennah himself who did kill her father, my cousin’s husband. It would be a fitting recompense to the family, to offer them a future king in exchange, would it not?”
My husband, the King, nodded. “It would indeed.”
They came to the Palace. It was to be a grand affair, a monumental occasion and all were curious to see the alien woman. The King had decided he would receive them in the throne room and had invited the Parliament, the Council and all the Lords to fill the galleries.
I took my seat behind my husband's throne and noted the horrid Lightie and his family were seated first in the front row of the closest pew. The Lightie's son had married a Mishnese girl with hair the color of an orange and she was heavy from having recently given birth to a child. I thought this child should look very strange with his parent's odd coloring and this tickled me as I waited that day.
Outside the sky was grey and the sea was stormy. There were huge windows that surrounded our thrones so I turned my gaze from the orange woman to the sea and recalled my own daughter's wedding to the Karut's father and how sickened I was on that day. I was not sickened now, in fact I was feeling liberated. Perhaps, we would finally be rid of the Karut. Perhaps I, Moira, Queen of Mishnah, had resolved the issue of the succession with my brilliant idea and had set everything back to the way it should have been.
The room hushed as the great doors at the back of the hall opened. The Karut entered, dressed in finery that eclipsed even the King's. Indeed, there was a beauty to him in his striking coloration and elegant uniform. He was tall and strongly built and his presence was that of a king. There was indeed a glow about him, an aura, and it awed those in the chamber and brought many to their knees even though as a prince, he was not yet deserving of their homage. My breath unexpectedly caught in my throat for it had been many years since I had laid eyes upon him and I was surprised by this unfamiliar swell of emotion.
I forced my gaze away from him and instead looked upon the alien woman. She too was dressed richer than even I though she wore no crown. She was fair, pleasant even, and in a small way, she reminded me of my daughter. She was about the same size as my Lydia had been, although her figure was clearly that of a woman, not a girl. Her hair like my daughter's was blonde and curled but the alien’s eyes were a striking deep blue. She had a stern yet curious expression upon her face, glancing cautiously about the chamber.
My husband was smiling at them, beaming with pride. “She doesn't look alien at all,” he whispered back to me, though his voice was loud enough that surely the Karut had heard. “She is quite pretty really, a bit like Lydia.”
They came before the dais and the Karut made obeisance on his knees. The alien regarded him as he did this and then for a moment looked at my husband, the King, and then at me. She and I held each other's gaze. I smiled regally and lifted my chin. The people of Mishnah would never love her as they loved me, I decided. She would never wear my crown.
At the back of the chamber, the doors opened again and now it was my son Prince Akan, Lord Phylyp and the Lady Mariya who entered. Mariya was wearing the white gown of a virgin, a veil covering her face and an elaborate tiara taken from the Crown Jewels. I glanced at the alien again who wore neither white nor veil nor tiara, and I covered my mouth as I laughed at her. Clearly, she was neither a princess nor a virgin. She turned to gaze upon my son and a shadow passed across her face as if she now remembered him. I chuckled softly to myself again, recalling Akan’s bravery and how he bested the Karut by stealing thi
s woman.
The trio mounted the dais and stood before the King and I. The Lady Mariya stepped next to the Karut, an awestruck expression upon her face as she gazed at him. Truly, she looked pleased to be suffering this fate. I recalled how my own daughter had wept for days when sentenced to the same destiny with the Karut’s father. My husband smiled and cleared his throat. He began to speak.
“One year ago,” the King said. “I agreed to allow His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, to marry this Human woman providing he met our conditions. King Merakoma has assured me that such conditions have been met and he has wedded them according to the laws of Karupatani. I will do the same according to the laws of Mishnah however, after further consideration; I have added an additional condition.”
“Lady Mariya,” my husband continued. “Cousin to Queen Moira and of noble blood, you have been deemed the most eligible and you have been determined to be fertile now so you too shall be wedded to the Crown Prince. This shall ensure the succession of a Mishnese prince. Therefore, I, Yokaa Kalila, King of Mishnah do declare...”
“No,” the Karut interrupted, causing a stir in the gallery. “I will not have it.”
My husband cleared his throat again. “Now, Sehron, I have decided that…”
“No,” the Karut declared louder. “You have violated your word.”
“Now, Sehron,” the King said again, waving his hands placatingly. “Let us get on with the ceremony and then I will explain how it is we shall proceed. Therefore, I do declare…”
“No.” The Karut’s eyes grew bright, shining that strange silver light across the dais. He shook his head and began to sway upon his feet. “No, no,” he mumbled. The alien woman reached for his arm as if to steady him. The Lightie and his son, both rose to their feet. “No,” the Karut cried, as an explosion sounded right above me, above the throne.
A crystal chandelier shattered and came crashing down just inches from where I sat. Crystal and glass flew at me, cutting my dress and my hands and face. I screamed but my voice was lost in the clamor of explosions as the chandeliers throughout the room came plummeting down upon the dais, the galleries, the walkways, and the people. Then the great windows began to implode, sending shards of glass flying about like knives, hitting walls and pews and then shattering into tiny pieces.
The chamber, for a time, was a cacophony of noise, my own voice gone hoarse as I cried in fear at the carnage of glass raining down around me. A moment later, it was silent, save the whisper of the wind that blew in upon us from what had been the windows.
The Lightie ran towards my husband, the glass crunching under his feet. A fresh draught of cold wind and rain gusted through the chamber, picking up glass in swirls, serenading us with ghostly noise. The Karut stood amidst this all and spoke imperiously in the Noble Mishnese to my husband, who sat shocked upon his throne, his face pale and his body trembling.
“Do as you have been bid to do, Yokaa Kalila,” the Karut commanded.
My husband slumped forward. I saw now he too bled from his face and hands. The Lightie stood beside him, his hand upon my husband's shoulder.
“Say it,” the Karut ordered.
“I, Yokaa Kalila, King of Mishnah,” my husband rasped. “Do declare His Royal Highness, Sehron de Kudisha, the MaKennah ka Rehnor, wedded to the Human woman.”
“Katelina Anne Golden,” the Karut dictated. “Who shall hence forth be known as Her Royal Highness, Katelina de Kudisha, MaKani ka Rehnor and be accorded all rights and privileges of the Crown Princess and future Queen.”
“It is done as you say,” my husband whispered.
I was trembling. My face and hands hurt from where they had been cut but I could not move from my seat. My arms and legs were as if paralyzed.
The Lightie came and knelt beside me, asking if I was wounded, offering me a kerchief. I let him tend to me, wiping my blood as I watched the discourse between my husband and the Karut. I felt as if I was in a different place and time, as if I was watching this happening from far away.
When the Karut was satisfied that he had humbled my husband and gotten as he desired, he turned to leave. The alien woman, the MaKani, the Crown Princess of my beloved Mishnah, would not go. She ran across the dais to Lady Mariya. My cousin had fallen across the steps, her tiara lay upon the floor near her outstretched hand. There was glass on her veil. The alien knelt before her and touched her wrist, gasping as Mariya’s veil of lace turned red before our eyes. The alien pushed off the glass and lifted the veil and then quickly she turned away.
“Senya!” she yelled and pointed at Mariya.
She spoke words in her language but he did not respond. He stood as if cut from stone, watching her, watching us with his wicked silver eyes.
The Lightie left me and joined the alien next to Mariya. He too looked beneath the veil and then just as quickly turned away.
Now, my son was screaming. My addled brain thought it was for Mariya that he wept, but it was not. It was my dear Phylyp, my second son, who lay upon the floor, blood pooling beneath him, a giant glass dagger piercing his body, severing his heart, killing his soul.
“Why must you do this?” Akan wept. He cradled Phylyp's lifeless head. “Why must you destroy everyone and everything in your path? He is the Infidel! Can you not see that, Father?” Akan turned and yelled to the galleries. “Can you not see what he is and yet you will make him your king?”
The Karut held out his hand and his silver gaze illuminated my son.
“No!” The alien woman screamed and bolting from the floor, she grabbed his arm and pulled it, knocking him off balance. The Karut's eyes lit upon her and for a moment he looked lost. He blinked rapidly and shook his head, pressing his thumbs into his temples.
The Lightie stood and faced the Karut. “What have you done, Senya?”
“I'm sorry, Loman,” the Karut replied, rubbing his eyes. “I broke things and killed people again.”
“Bring them back,” the Lightie shouted. “Bring them back!”
“I can't,” the Karut, shook his head. "Not this time."
He took the alien woman’s hand and pulled her down from the dais. The girl nearly tripped on her feet. She, like I, was horror struck. She looked to me and once again we locked eyes but there was no challenge this time.
I could not help her. I, like her, was at the mercy of men, be they good or evil.
The Karut grew impatient and spoke to her harshly, urging her along. When still she stumbled upon her feet, he picked her up and carried her from the chamber.
It was now dark in this room where the chandeliers had been destroyed. The wind blew through us, chilling our frozen souls and the rain pelted us in our seats. Slowly, almost silently, the people began to leave. My husband sat upon his throne and wept. My son keened. Even the Lightie wiped away tears.
I did not weep. I could not cry. Instead, I prayed to the Blessed Saint that this evil creature would never rule my beloved Mishnah. If my prayers failed as they had done so many times in my life, I prayed that he would learn to control the powers within him, that he would be patient with the people who were simple and lesser than he and that he would always be blinded by love for that alien woman. She saved the life of my son today. I feared she would need to save many more lives in the future.
Chapter 16
Katie
“Run!” he yelled and so I ditched the high heels and we ran through the endless corridors splashed with rain and down into the courtyard where our spaceplane was parked. The engines turned over as we approached and the door swished open for us. We collapsed inside and the plane lifted off.
“Fucking lunatics every last bloody one of them,” he said, his eyes flashing. “Should do everyone a favor and just nuke the whole damn planet.”
I couldn’t speak. I was shaking all over as I tried to catch my breath. I pulled at the wet lace that was sticking to my body. My hands were trembling so much I couldn’t even grasp the fabric. My stomach turned and so I raced to the bathroom, kneeling over th
e toilet to purge every thought of that woman with a shard of glass where her eye should have been, her brain material spilling out on the floor.
The spaceplane soared over the city as I retched. We sailed over the mirror image of the SdK campus on Rozari where two giant flags waved in the breeze from the roofs of each of the buildings. One was the SdK corporate logo flag except with the Rehnorian letters while the other was a royal crest with a striking black eagle, two crossed silver swords and a large gold crown. Behind the campus was a huge building with an enormous clock on the very top. The side of the building flashed like billboard with a giant image of Senya projected upon it.
I didn’t see all this now because I could not lift my head from the toilet. I was too weak to stand, but it was all there as it was only a month ago when I last flew these skies.
When I had finished vomiting, when there was nothing left in me, I lay on the floor of the lav. It was a nice floor, marble. Too nice perhaps for a spaceplane but everything on the SdK spaceplanes was too nice. The marble was warm, it was heated, I thought. The floors of the Palace were marble too but they were cold. The woman collapsed onto the cold marble but she didn't feel it because her brain was smashed by a crystal spear that fell from a chandelier that had hung high overhead. My stomach heaved again but nothing came out. I stared at the ceiling of this bathroom which had its own crystal lamp and I imagined it falling and slicing my brain as I lay there. I was very cold. I was probably in shock but this warm floor was comforting and after a time I stopped shaking.
The engines on the spaceplane changed their tempo. We were no longer fighting against the planet's gravity, but on our own, leaving this solar system.
“Goodbye Erindad 37,” I whispered. “I hope I will never see you again.”
When I was no longer shaking, when my heart had managed to settle into a normal rhythm, I pulled myself to my feet and brushed my teeth with my finger. I looked at my pale face in the mirror and at this once elegant dress that was now a crumbled dried mess hanging from my body. I pulled a towel off the rack and washed my face. The towel rack was heated too. The towel was soft and thick and embroidered upon it in gold thread was the eagle crest. The taps on the sink were gold and the gold spout emptied into a shiny marble basin. I realized then this wasn’t the same spaceplane I flown in last time. This wasn’t the SdK plane that brought us from Spacebase 41 to Karupatani. This spaceplane looked the same from the outside, the SdK logo had even shown on her tail, but on the inside, this plane was as an extension of that palace.
