My Enemy's Son (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 2)

by J. Naomi Ay

  “Hi honey,” I said.

  “Hey,” Thad said again. “What's the matter?”

  “Nothing,” I replied.

  “Well, sorry for interrupting. I just wanted to let you know I'm going to Earth tomorrow. Leslie gets the kids for the next week so I'm delivering them to her.”

  “Are you planning to stay?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I'll take a week off and shack up with Larry and Ming.”

  “I'd sure like to visit Larry too,” I mused. I haven't seen my younger son in more than a year. “Tim's away in Altaris for the next couple of weeks. Maybe I will come with you.”

  “Sure, go on, everyone go to Earth. Take a plane. What the hell do I care,” Ron grumbled.

  “Really?” I asked.

  “That'd be great, Ron,” Thad said. “Thanks. You're not going to stay at Larry's are you, Mom?”

  “No,” I scoffed. “I'll get a hotel room somewhere.”

  “So we'll leave first thing in the morning?” Thad suggested and then looked back at Ron who was staring blindly at the ceiling. “So, Berk said your wedding was quite an experience.” Thad chuckled.

  “You did get married!” I cried.

  “Oh yeah!” Thad laughed. “And killed that gay dude and some girl at the same time. A lot of wind but no thunder and lightning. Way to go, Ron. Back to doing what you do best, killing people and breaking things.”

  “What?” I gasped.

  “Shut the fuck up, Thad,” Ron said, breathing out smoke like a dragon.

  “So where's Katie?” Thad asked, looking around the office.

  “You killed people at your wedding?” I gulped. “No wonder Katie left.”

  “Katie left? Already? That was even faster than my first marriage.”

  “This isn't funny,” I snapped.

  “Would you all please leave,” Ron said tiredly, taking his feet off his desk and laying his head down there instead. “Just get the hell out of here and leave me alone.”

  “We are not going to leave you alone,” I declared. “Where is Katie? She didn't go off with Dr. Waldman, did she?”

  “I can find out where she went,” Thad said. “I'll get a PI to trace her bank records and find out if she's used a pay card recently.”

  “Or we can ask Dad's yeomen to find her. She had to check in with Spaceforce,” I realized.

  “She is on Earth,” Ron mumbled into his desk, his voice muffled by his arms. “She went home to mummy and daddy.”

  “Well sure,” Thad chortled. “After finding out you've just married the Prince of Darkness with super powers enabled, where else would you go? She's probably hiding under her bed.”

  “Thad!” I snapped again and then turned back to Ron. “Fortunately, we're taking a spaceplane to Earth tomorrow since you're going to come along with us.”

  “I am not going to Earth.”

  “Yes, you are and I suggest the first thing you do when you get there is be a gentleman and go speak to her father.”

  “About what?” he asked, his silver eyes shining in my face.

  “Well,” I said in my professorial voice. “Where we come from, a gentleman is expected to promise to honor, cherish and provide for a lady. He usually goes and speaks to her father and assures him that he will do that and sometimes asks permission to marry her.”

  “I never did,” Thad remarked.

  “And look what happened to your marriage. Tim certainly did. In any case, assuming that Katie was quite upset when she ran home to her parents, you'll need to go and assure them it won't happen again before they'll ever trust you.”

  “I do not care if they do not trust me.”

  “Yes, you do!” I stood up and wagged my finger in his face. “These are your in-laws. They rank right up there with your king grandfathers. You need to go back there and apologize all over the place to them and then take her off their hands. I'm sure they'll be pleased as punch to have their twenty-nine year old daughter married off to a nice prince fellow like you but you're going to have to prove to them she won't be running back home again and again. Now get up, go take a shower, clean yourself up, put on one of your nice Armani suits and meet us at the plane at seven sharp tomorrow.”

  The silver light flickered in my face.

  “Even if he cleans himself up, how can you be so sure she won't go running home?” Thad asked. “I mean, come on Mom, this is Ron we're talking about. He so scary even I come running home sometimes.”

  Ron glared at Thad.

  I ignored Thad. “Did you buy her a nice ring?”

  Ron furrowed his brow. “Why?”

  “Oh please,” I sighed. “Surely you can come up with a nice diamond for her to wear. She needs to show off to all her Spaceforce girlfriends. Lord knows, you have enough money.”

  “Or just take a few out of one of your crowns,” Thad said. “I think you have a few extras in that hair clip thing.” Thad pointed at the back of his head.

  Ron rubbed his temples. “Anything else?”

  “After you manage to convince her to stay married to you, you need to take her someplace nice, just the two of you. On Earth, you could go to a nice beach or tour a historic city. Tim and I honeymooned in Austria and we had a wonderful time touring the museums.”

  “Leslie and I went to Bora Bora and stayed in an over-the-water hut,” Thad added. “We didn't get out of bed the entire time.”

  “Anything else?” Ron sighed, putting his hands on the desk and glaring at the both of us.

  “Nice vacation, good food, good wine, a big diamond,” I ticked off.

  “Lots and lots of sex,” Thad added with a nod. “That'll do it. Then you come home and five minutes later she'll start nagging, have a headache anytime you want sex and she'll drive you so crazy you'll be the one wanting to run home. I can see why you didn't want to have more than one wife. Can you imagine the nagging coming out of your harem?”

  The next morning, Ron was on board the spaceplane dressed to the nines, clean shaven and with his hair cut to collar length. He was busy typing away on his netbook as Thad, the kids and I boarded.

  “Hey, dude,” Thad said. “You're looking good, almost Human. You might even fool her parents for a minute or two.”

  Ron narrowed his eyes and pointed his finger at Thad.

  “Sorry, sorry!” Thad yelled. “Don't blast me in the butt again!”

  Instead, Jimmy and Gwen raced over to Ron. “Are you Dr. Ron?” Jimmy asked.

  “Daddy says you can do magic. Can you show us some tricks, please?” Gwen begged.

  “No, no tricks,” Thad called, heading straight for the plane's bar. He took out a couple of beers and tossed one to Ron. “Come on Ron, loosen up. This'll be easy. You're Prince Charming, right? With super powers enabled.”

  “Please!” Gwen and Jimmy plopped themselves into the seats across from Ron and buckled in. “After we get out into space can you do magic for us?”

  “Children,” I called, already very annoyed. “Where are your manners? Don't bother Dr. Ron.”

  “Sorry Grammy,” they said.

  Ron snapped his netbook shut and retreated to one of the cabins in the back of the plane leaving his unopened beer on the floor.

  “This plane is really lovely,” I told Thad once we had taken off. I ran my hands along the soft leather seats. A flight attendant came by with a breakfast menu. “How many of these do we have now?”

  “Six for Rozari and there are another two in Rehnor,” Thad replied. “I've also got orders out for four more for us since our directors are using them all the time now too. You should see the Rehnorian ones. They are even fancier. Everything Ron touches there has to be royal, so there were certain Palace standards that had to be met when outfitting them.”

  “Like what?” I chose the Eggs Benedict with a side of link sausage.

  “Like everything has to have his crest on it and needs to be embossed in gold. The plane, the dishes, the stemware, the napkins, everything he could conceivably touch. Berkan was pul
ling his hair out trying to get everything done before Ron actually needed to use a plane.”

  “Don't you usually take one of these planes there?”

  “I do, yes. But for Ron, we need to either retrofit these planes or switch him before he gets into their star system. We usually take him to a spacebase first and rendezvous with our other plane. Fortunately he can afford his own upkeep, otherwise the Mishnese government would be just writing more blank checks. What a disaster that country is. I sure hope Ron can turn it around when he gets in control of it.”

  “So if the government can't afford it, why do you have to do it?” I asked, sipping the coffee the flight attendant had set down in front me.

  “The orders come down to Berkan from the Palace,” Thad replied, handing his menu back to the attendant. “And you don't ignore orders from the Palace. You should see Ron's office in New Mishnah. It had to be done the same way and it's fabulous. Considering that half the planet is starving, it's all a bit much.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  Thad shrugged. “Everything has to be inspected and approved by the Palace before Ron is even allowed to go in his own buildings. They really try to control every aspect of his life when he is there even with him paying for it himself. I'm really not all that surprised Katie turned tail and ran.”

  “You think they'll control her in the same way?

  “Hey, not only will they control her every move, he'll expect her complete submission too. Cmdr. Golden doesn't strike me as the submissive type either.” Thad drank his beer with his pancakes.

  “Maybe we're making a mistake taking him to Earth. Maybe we should just leave her alone,” I fretted.

  “Somebody's got to marry the dude,” Thad burped. “And she pulled the golden ticket.”

  “He really does love her,” I said

  “What’s that got to do with anything?” Thad smirked.

  “I'm coming with you,” I announced.

  “Hey, I'll come too,” Thad said.

  Ron stared at us through his dark glasses.

  “You'll need us as character witnesses,” I added.

  “Yeah,” Thad agreed. “We'll tell her dad what a great person you are and how lucky she is. Mom and I can lie convincingly. Let's just drop the kids off at Leslie's first.”

  Ron didn’t object. He didn’t say anything. The limo was offloaded from the plane's storage bay and we all climbed in. Thad gave the driver Leslie's address and after the kids were safely deposited at their mother's home, we headed to Seattle, to the Law Offices of Emanuel Golden.

  “You'll need to make an appointment for another day,” the receptionist told us. “Mr. Golden is in meetings all day today.”

  “Just tell him that Dr. de Kudisha, of SdK Corporation is here to see him,” Thad insisted and Thad inclined his head toward Ron. Ron looked like he would much rather be somewhere else.

  “I'm sorry, sir,” the woman persisted.

  “Perhaps we shall come back tomorrow,” Ron said quietly in Rozarian.

  “No,” I replied. “Get this over with. Since when are you so timid?"

  Ron frowned.

  “Get him out of his meeting,” Thad demanded. The receptionist looked up at Ron for a moment. She put her hand to her temples as if she were dizzy.

  “I'll go get Mr. Golden right now,” she cried suddenly and practically ran into the back office.

  A few minutes later a very irate Mr. Golden came into the reception area. “Can I help you?” He sounded pissed.

  “Yes,” I replied, pushing Ron forward. “Mr. Golden, this is Dr. Sehron de Kudisha, your son in law.”

  Chapter 18

  Katie

  I was lying on my twin bed staring at the chess pieces. The vid was on in the background but I had no idea what was playing. I picked up the Queen and turned her around and around in my hand. She was made of white marble with gold veining. The eagle crest was stamped on the bottom in gold leaf. I had these pieces since I was ten years old and never thought to wonder what the gold leaf stamp meant. I always assumed he sent me the white queen and the black king because they represented a bride and groom. When I was ten, I thought it meant he wanted to marry me.

  My door opened. “Come on,” my dad said. He had on a windbreaker and his topsiders. “It's been a long time since my favorite first mate came aboard.”

  “I don't feel like it, Dad,” I said.

  He reached over and shut the vid off.

  “I don't care if you don't feel like it, Commander,” he ordered. “The captain of this ship needs you.”

  “Alright,” I sighed. “As long as I don't have to put my uniform back on.” I dragged myself out of bed and followed him outside and down to the dock.

  “What's the matter, Katie Anne?” We pushed the boat away from the dock and hoisted the main sail, hoping for a whisper of wind. We didn’t need to move very fast. Dad just loved to be out on the water even if all we were doing was drifting.

  “Why do you think something's wrong?” I asked. The sun was low on the horizon and the lake had turned golden hued.

  “Well,” Dad chuckled. “You've been moping around the house ever since you got here. You spend most of the day sleeping and when you're awake you stare at the vid. You don't even want to go out to your favorite Chinese restaurant. Something's going on. You miss your ship?”

  “No,” I scoffed. “I needed a break from it.”

  “You miss Jerry?”

  “No,” I scoffed again. “I needed a break from him too.”

  “You want to tell me what it is then?”

  I stared at the water for a moment. “These last few months have been pretty traumatic,” I told him. “I need to sort through it in my head.”

  The wind caught us for a moment and we heeled over to the starboard.

  “You want to raise the jib?”

  “Sure,” I replied more enthusiastic than I felt. I scrambled onto the foredeck. I hauled up the halyard until the jib was raised and then I secured it to the cleat. I jumped back into the cockpit. The boat heeled even further starboard and so dad and I sat port, propping our feet on the starboard bench while he held tight to the tiller.

  “Six knots, woo hoo!” Dad laughed.

  “Speedy,” I said.

  “Not quite as fast as you normally travel.”

  “More fun to have the wind in your face,” I replied and managed a smile.

  As quick as it came, the wind died down and now we were half way across the lake with the last of the sun's rays disappearing behind the Olympic Mountains. The lake had gone from gold to shades of purple and blue.

  “Dad?” I said as we sat bobbing up and down, waiting for another gust. “You know why I was late coming home?”

  “Oh I know something about some alien who brainwashed you according to your mother. You don't look so brainwashed to me though.”

  “He didn't brainwash me,” I replied. “He just didn't tell me about a few things.”

  “Mhm?” Dad tightened the sheets as far as they would go. The boat picked up a little bit, slicing silently through the water.

  “So there was this guy...”

  “The alien guy?”

  “Yeah, a very alien guy.”

  “Your mother wouldn't like you dating an alien guy. That's what she was afraid of when you decided to go to space.”

  “How would she feel if I married the alien guy?” We both laughed uproariously, as if this were the funniest thing we had heard all day. “But then I left.” I wiped my eyes on my shirt.

  “Loosen up that sheet,” Dad ordered as a speed boat raced past us and set us rocking for a moment. “Your mom was hoping you'd marry Dr. Jerry.” Dad turned his face to the sunset. The colors reflected off his glasses. “And move back here.” He smiled thoughtfully. “No?”

  “Jerry was hoping the same thing. I chose Senya though.”

  “Senya? That would be the alien fellow? The one you married and then left?"

  “Yeah,” I nodded. "I did
n't know what I was getting in to. I couldn't handle it all.”

  “Handle what?” Dad says. “His alien family?”

  “Yes, definitely his family. And his...his job.”

  “Job? I thought he was a doctor?”

  “Well, yeah he is,” I said and then paused. “Wait, I never told you that. How did you know he was a doctor?”

  “Oh!” Dad looked at the tiller as if it was the most interesting piece of wood in creation. “How do I know that? Maybe I'm mixing him up with Jerry.”

  “Dad?”

  “Hmm...well...no, that's not true actually. The fellow that came by my office this afternoon definitely was not a Jerry. I don't think he was a Senya either. What was his name? It was something real alien like.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Better take down these sails, Katie Anne. It looks like we're going nowhere. I think we’ll have to motor in.”

  “Dad!”

  He shrugged and started to drop the main.

  “Go on Katie Anne, go drop the jib.”

  “Dad! Who came by your office?”

  “Some doctor fellow. Tall, black hair, dark glasses. Not sure I can pronounce his name.”

  “What did he want?”

  Dad pointed at the jib, so reluctantly I got up to deal with it. I loosened the sheet with shaking hands and the sail came flying down.

  “Now don't let that get into the water, Katie! How many times have I told you that?”

  “Sorry. Please Dad, tell me what he said.”

  “Well, now, he seemed a bit contrite. Apologized, you know, because he didn't ask my permission to marry you and all. Sorry you came home so upset.”

  I nearly fell off the deck with the sail. “So what did you say?”

  “I asked him what he did for a living. He told me he's a surgeon among other things. What's so funny?”

  “It's all the other things. So, then what did you say?”

  “I told him it was nice to meet him too. Nice looking fellow although kind of alien-ish. Nice suit too. He told me you picked it out.”

  “I probably did. Then what happened?” I quickly stuffed the sail into its bag and dropped it down the hatch to the v-berth.