The Days of the Golden Moons (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 5)

by J. Naomi Ay

  I laughed. “Enjoy then,” I said. “Drink to your nephew's health and happiness.”

  “Ay yah. It shall require much more than my drinking to ensure that.” He brought me a glass and poured the clear innocuous liquid that looked so much like plain water yet could soothe our troubled hearts. He sat down across from me, but we did not speak. We drank. We drank the entire bottle, and we were numbed, I looked at Tuman and saw great tears coursing down his cheeks.

  “What happened in there?” I asked.

  Tuman shook his head. “I cannot even begin to say. You will not believe me even if I try.”

  “Oh, I will,” I scoffed. “I have seen just about everything and have come to believe just about anything since the first moment I laid eyes upon Senya.”

  Tuman studied his empty glass as if the answers lay there in. “I saw…” He stopped and shook his head again. “Perhaps I saw nothing. My mind was in shock and imagining all sorts of things. I had earlier believed myself to be speaking with my father and brothers. It could have been merely the Barkuti. I had too much. I must have had too much.”

  “Perhaps,” I agreed. “Don't cry, Prince. I believe that things from now on will only improve.”

  “How come you to this knowledge, Lord Taner? What secret was revealed to you that went unnoticed by me?”

  “I don't know. Maybe, it is only that I cannot imagine it getting any worse.” However, for some reason yet unbeknownst to me, I was optimistic. I felt the worst had passed us. My heart ached though, and it was a physical as well as emotional pain.

  “Perhaps you too are clairvoyant,” the Prince suggested, forlornly. “We can only hope that your words ring true.”

  “Either that or I am merely drunk,” I replied.

  In the early hours of the morning, I was summoned by the Emperor. He was alone in his shipboard office quietly working at the great desk there. He was not even conscious when we brought him back aboard the previous evening yet now, he was as before though his wrists were heavily bandaged beneath his thick gold cuffs and the light from his eyes was shockingly bright.

  “Good morning, Taner,” he greeted me as I approached.

  “Sir.”

  “I want this distributed.” He handed me a document with his signature scrawled across the bottom. His eyes lit on my face as I reached for the paper. “You are ill,” he said with concern.

  “Am I?” I rasped. My heart tightened in my chest at the suggestion. “How so?”

  “Ach, Taner,” he sighed and shook his head. “You are having a heart attack. You've been having a series of them. Why have you not gone to the infirmary before now?”

  “I didn't know,” I stuttered as the pain increased.

  “You've got two blocked arteries. Lie down, right now.” He pointed at the sofa. I nearly collapsed upon it as he rose up from the desk and limped to my side. “Come on, Taner, you should have said something. We could have treated you early on, and you would have felt much better all year.”

  “I truly didn't realize,” I cried. “What are you doing?” He was unbuttoning my shirt.

  “I'm sorry, Taner,” he said, placing his left palm upon my chest. “I should have noticed. I've been too lost in my own troubles. I nearly let you die.”

  “What are you doing?” I repeated anxiously. Perhaps he meant to finish me off now, pressing hard against my struggling heart. The pain was growing quite intense. I feared that there were tears falling from my eyes as I struggled to stay conscious.

  “Don't fight it, Taner. I won’t hurt you…anymore.” I could see him no longer as the silver light had grown so bright it was obscuring my vision. My whole body was infused with this light. I felt it surge through my veins, warming my muscles, filling my lungs, and bursting into my heart, breaking the dam that had been blocking my blood. Suddenly, the pain was gone, and my heart was pumping strong. Suddenly, I felt as strong as a man half my age.

  “What did you do?” I wept as the light dimmed and my eyes could see once again. He removed his hand from my chest and closed his eyes.

  “A new trick.” He smiled and struggled to his feet. For a moment, he leaned heavily on his cane, catching his breath.

  “You fixed my heart!” I sat up. “Just like that!”

  “Ay yah. Less recovery time than a bypass. Go to the infirmary and get yourself some blood thinners, anti-coagulants and cholesterol lowering drugs.” He limped back to his desk and fell heavily in his chair. “I can't revive you every time you let yourself go.”

  “I will!” I jumped to my feet. “Thank you, Sir. I am speechless with gratitude. Are you alright?”

  “Taner, you are never speechless,” he replied reaching again for the paper he was going to present at the start. “I'll be fine momentarily. A bit winded is all. Now distribute this and see that it is presented to the Alliance and the citizens of Rozari.”

  “What is it?” I glanced down the page.

  “It is an explanation,” he paused and took a deep breath, “Of why I have taken Rozari.”

  I stood and waited for him to continue. He didn’t. He rubbed his temples and then fumbled blindly through his desk drawers for a cigarette.

  “Why did you take them? They did not ask to join our empire,” I said as he lit up. I wasn’t about to start arguing after he had just saved my life, yet I was most anxious to know. “It was unprecedented, Sir.”

  “Do you doubt they will benefit from inclusion in our empire?”

  “No, of course not. But what of the resistance? We are coercing them, are we not?”

  “Taner, there are two factions that are against us in this, the Humans and the Saintists. The Humans' objections are born out of the impending demise of the Alliance. Rozari is neither their planet nor their colony. The Alliance located a large landbase there because at the time, the Rozarian government was willing to give them land still recovering from nuclear winter. This property, which no one else could or would want to inhabit, became taxable and generated revenue for the government. Now you see, the landbase has been evacuated already, and it is closed. The Alliance will find another base on another planet to build their offices and house the bureaucrats.”

  “But what of the Saintists on Rozari then? Do you not fear an uprising among them?”

  “What of them?” he countered. “We had Saintists here in Mishnah too.”

  “Now they think you are the new Saint,” I remarked.

  “It doesn't matter what they think of me. Rozari is our home planet, mine as well as yours. It is incumbent on me to redeem and repair her for the damage wrought by my ancestors. We have an obligation to share our prosperity with her. I cannot look upon Talas or Cascadia or Altaris or any of them and not think that our brothers and sisters of Rozari should enjoy what all our people have. How can I not make it so even if I must force it upon them?”

  “Thank you for explaining this to me,” I said and bowed my head. “I will make sure it is communicated properly.”

  “I know you will,” he replied and putting on his glasses, he turned back to his netbook.

  I watched him for a moment. There was something different about him now. It had been years since he had worn his glasses, but that was not it. There was a strange band of silver in his hair. From root to tip on either side of his head there were strands of silver hair shining as bright as his eyes. I had never noticed this before.

  “Senya?” I gasped. “What happened to you?”

  He didn’t answer immediately though he stopped his typing and appeared to consider whether or not he wished to tell me.

  “Why did you do it?”

  “I thought I was done,” he replied after a time. “I thought there was nothing more I needed to do here.”

  “Here?” I asked, and as I did so, I saw in this moment an aura about him. The light that saved my heart glowed throughout his whole being, sparkling in his eyes and shining in his newly silver hair.

  “Who are you really, Senya?” I whispered.

  He smiled sli
ghtly and shrugged.

  “That, Taner, is complicated.”

  Chapter 22

  Katie

  I was back on Rehnor for the first time in ten years. Mother and Allen and his family had gone on with Luci to Mishnah, but I had been deposited on the landing strip in the Valley of Karupatani. It appeared to be mid-afternoon. It was grey and warm, and everything around me was damp though a spectacular rainbow shown just above the river, each end disappearing into the Blue Mountains. I set foot on the ground and my shoes immediately soaked in the wetness.

  “MaKani,” Rekah said, coming forward and bowing low. I gave him my hand, and he held it for a long time.

  “Is this a sign?” I asked, pointing at the rainbow. He looked at me with his deep brown eyes, so dark they were nearly black.

  “Merely a prism of light and water, MaKani,” he replied, a small smile upon his lips.

  “Too bad. I think we could use some Divine Intervention.”

  He studied me curiously still tightly holding my hand. “Why?” he asked after a time.

  I pulled my hand away. Maybe he thought invading Rozari was perfectly rational behavior. “Where to, Rekah?”

  “This way, MaKani.” He held out his arm and led me toward the village and past that to the little house nestled in the trees.

  The people in the village watched us. Some I vaguely recognized, but it had been a long time since I had been here and I could not recall any names.

  “Is Sorkan here?”

  “Ay yah,” Rekah replied. “He will greet you later. He is working in a distant field this day.”

  “Sorkan working?” That in itself sounded like an oxymoron. “And Tuman and…”

  “They have not yet arrived,” Rekah said, holding open the door to the same little house I had stayed in before. “We expect them after sunset.”

  I went inside and looked around for a moment. I had always liked this little house. It was built from logs with a clay tile roof and had a large wrap around porch that circled the entire structure. Inside it had wide open beams of polished wood and a great room that combined the fireplace, kitchen, dining and living areas. Upstairs were two more rooms and a bath. A fire was already started in the hearth, and someone had left a fresh bowl of fruit on the counter in the kitchen.

  “You have heard about Rozari?” I asked, taking off the jacket of my silk suit and tossing it on the back of a sofa. I went into the kitchen and found a bottle of naturally sparkling water in the refrigerator.

  “Indeed I have, MaKani.” Rekah followed me. I offered him a bottle as well, but he shook his head, still gazing at me with his dark unnerving eyes. I glared back at him, thinking how much more I preferred blind men who could not see me at all rather than stared as if they could see right through my clothes.

  “What do you think about it?”

  “I think Rozari belongs to the MaKennah.” His eyes drifted from my own to settle somewhere upon my silk blouse.

  “How many children do you have now, Rekah?” I turned away from him and finished my water.

  He laughed, a deep and throaty sound.

  “I have a better question. How many wives do you have now?”

  “Too many,” he replied. “And how many husbands have you?”

  I coughed up my water. "Maybe too many as well.”

  “You are gone nearly ten years, yes? My cousin did not come for you. Surely you did not wait for him?”

  “I’m afraid that’s not really your business,” I said and headed back to the living room. I grabbed my jacket and started to go upstairs to the bedroom. He followed me. Maybe that was a bad choice.

  “You have been with my father,” he stated.

  “And now you think it's your turn? Sorry, but I have not been with your father. I met him only briefly. It was purely a coincidence that we were on the same planet.” I turned to shut the door, but he blocked it. I looked him over and calculated my options. I hadn’t worked out in a long time, and he was a big guy, as big as the rest of them. His arms bulged with muscles from working in the fields. That wasn’t all that was bulging. I quickly looked away. “I’m not going to be with you.”

  “Your eyes speak differently than your words,” he said.

  I backed across the room toward the window. “You are misreading my eyes,” I said. “My eyes are telling you to get the hell out of here.”

  “You will fight me? I like how you fight your men.”

  “My men?” I wondered if the window would open. “What do you think my man, the Emperor will do about this?”

  “My cousin is insane. He cares for nothing. He wishes only for his own death.”

  “So you think he wouldn't be angry with you. You think he wouldn't kill you?”

  He laughed. “You are just a woman, MaKani. A Human woman he has not touched in ten years.”

  “Do you ride his horse too?”

  “I am not that crazy,” he scoffed and came closer.

  Scooting along the wall, I realized there was no place for me to go except out the window, which now I could see was locked and splattered with rain. I had left my shoes downstairs by the front door, and my feet slipped in my nylons on this polished wood floor. My skirt was narrow, so much so, I would never be able to get a kick off or even raise my knee high enough to inflict any damage. If he pinned my arms, I was done for.

  “For many years now I want you,” he declared, placing his hands on either side of my head, trapping me against the wall.

  “Rekah, go away,” I ordered as he pressed himself against me. “Don't make me hurt you.”

  “You do not wish to hurt me.” He lifted my arms above my head and pinned my wrists in one hand. “You want me. You are not his anymore. Too much time has passed.” He pushed hard against me as I cursed myself for reacting too slowly and missing my opportunity.

  “I want you because you are beautiful,” he said. “I can see how the light turns your hair to gold and your eyes to the color of the sea.” His hands were in my hair, and he was pulling my face up to him. “He never told you this, did he? How pale is your skin and how red are your lips?” He kissed me and tried to put his tongue in my mouth.

  “Rekah, please, don't do this,” I hissed and tried to twist away. He pressed me harder, his dark hand so different than Senya's unbuttoning my blouse and slipping inside my bra.

  “Look how white you are,” he said. “Like the snow. Your nipple is like a red berry waiting to be plucked.” He dropped to his knees and took it in his mouth.

  This was wrong. This was so wrong, and I was getting really pissed off. Even more, I was furious with myself for not staying in shape and feeling too weak to take him out.

  His hand unzipped my skirt. It fell to the floor with a swish of silk.

  “You want me.” His mouth was on my belly, moving lower. “You are warm and wet, and you want me.”

  “No, I don't!” I snapped, glad to be free of the skirt. With all the force I could muster in my creaky old knee, I lifted it up and slammed it into his chin.

  “Ah!” he cried and fell back on the floor. Before he could turn away, I launched my best kick at his groin, hoping not to break my foot by connecting with a bone. Then I ran for the bathroom and locked the door. I could hear him moaning in the bedroom, probably cursing me up one side and down another. Good, let him curse. Go to hell, Rekah and take every other de Kudisha prince with you, except my Shika of course.

  Eventually, I heard his footsteps gingerly leave the room and trod down the stairs. I guess eighteen children were enough for him.

  I showered for a long time and used an entire bar of soap yet still felt dirty. I was thinking and planning how I would get out of here before the Evil Emperor arrived. I could disappear into the forest. He won't send them after me. He didn't last time, he wouldn’t this time. He would let me go wherever I wanted.

  When at last I came out of the shower, wrapped in a towel, I found Sorkan standing in my bedroom.

  “Why doesn't this damn house have a
ny locks on the doors?” I screamed.

  “Daughter,” he said and bowed formally. I held the towel tight around me.

  “Sorkan, what are you doing in my bedroom?”

  His gaze has the same piercing dark look of Rekah’s. Every one of the de Kudishas were cut from the same mold.

  “My son is en route now from Mishnah.”

  “Great,” I cried. “I am so looking forward to seeing him again. I'm sure I'll have just as much fun with him as I did with Rekah.”

  Sorkan narrowed his eyes, and he frowned. “I will wait for him downstairs. You may join me if you wish.”

  “Thanks, but I think I'll leave instead.”

  “I will not allow this,” he replied. “You will stay in this house. We have all had enough of your trifling with the emotions of the Emperor of All Rehnor.”

  “I'm trifling with his emotions?” I gasped. “I'm the one he locked away for 8 years!”

  “Do not be as this, Daughter,” Sorkan said. “This is not the time for your anger.”

  “Really? And what is it the time for exactly?”

  “Forgiveness. We are all sorely in need of each other's forgiveness.”

  “You wanted him to take over Rozari?” I demanded. “You wanted him to own half the galaxy?”

  “No,” Sorkan shook his head. “I only want for him as you want for your own son, health, peace, happiness.”

  I stared at him. Was this really Sorkan?

  “Be forgiving, Daughter. My son's burdens are not of his choosing. He is at the mercy of The Creator.”

  “I’ve heard that too many times before,” I sighed.

  Sorkan's dark eyes grew weary. “I forgive you, Daughter.”

  “For what? What did I ever do to deserve this?”

  Sorkan smiled sadly. He reached for my hair. I stepped away. After all, I was still dressed in a towel. “I forgive you for breaking my son's heart because you have returned and I know now that you will mend it.”

  “Don't be so sure of that,” I retorted. “And for your information, the selfish bastard broke my heart, not the other way around.”

  Sorkan went to the door.