by J. Naomi Ay
“Let's get him inside.” Together we half dragged, half carried my son back into the house whilst he mumbled more words we could not understand. I did not recognize this language he spoke. Keko rushed forward to assist us though the old man could do little more than hold my son’s shirttail.
“Let's get him to the couch,” I decided but even as we did so, Senya struggled away from us, prostrating himself upon the floor and crying louder in this other language.
The three of us stood watching helplessly, looking from one to the other as if one of us could understand better what was happening. After a time and I cannot say how long it was, my son grew quiet. I knelt down beside him.
“Senya?”
“Go to the river,” he whispered, his voice now hoarse. “At the embankment immediately below the twisted elm just south of the lake, my wife is there.”
“Is she alive?” I asked.
“She is now,” he replied.
Chapter 24
Katie
“Come,” they said and pulled my hands. I was about to step from the dock, through the mist and into my father’s boat, which beckoned me from the golden lake.
“No!” Senya cried and grabbed me about the waist. “No! No!”
“Come with us, Sister,” the men called, their honeyed voices sweet and tempting.
“No!” Senya held me fast, pulling me back even as they pulled me forward. “They are not who you think they are. They are not your brothers."
"We have come to take you home.”
Instantly, it became hot. The golden lake steamed and then erupted into flames. My father’s boat exploded into a blaze before my eyes. The fire ate at the sails, turning them from cottony white to thick black ash. The ash plumed upward as the wind took it, stoking the flames, spreading them from the water to the dock on which I was standing. The dock turned liquid like molten gold lava, searing my feet, spreading the fire throughout my body.
I pulled my hands away from the strange men who themselves had turned into dark red creatures. The fire continued to lick at my skin curdling and burning it as I watched helplessly in horror. I screamed as my flesh melted away, my bones charred and turning to dust, my body disappearing even as I stood there.
“Stay with me,” Senya called and pressed his hands against me, restoring my flesh and healing my skin. I wrapped my arms around his neck, clutching him tightly as great dark wings took us from this place, back into the mist and the gentle fog which cooled us and saved us from the burning fires.
“Now you understand why I hate water,” he said.
I opened my eyes a tiny crack and my head pounded. My vision swirled, and my stomach heaved though it was empty. I shut my eyes again tightly.
“Just a moment, Madame,” a voice said and a second later the swirling stopped. “I’m going to adjust your meds a little bit.” My headache immediately started to subside.
“That was hell. Where am I now?”
“You're in the infirmary in the Mobile Command Center, Lass.” I recognized Reggie’s voice. “Got yerself banged up a bit, you did.”
“A concussion, Madame,” the first voice replied. I could see him now. He was a nurse.
“Senya?”
“HIM was here a few hours ago,” the nurse said. “He said you'll be fine. You’re to get some rest and eat something more substantial than berries. When you feel better, you are to return to the village.”
“Are we still in Karupatani?”
“Yes, Madame,” Reggie replied. “We're set up in the landing area. Telix and Lanaka are here with me just in case you need anything.”
“Do I have hands?” I held them up and looked at them. They were scratched but not burnt, all fingers intact. Reggie and the nurse exchanged glances.
“Do you feel like some dinner, Madame?” The nurse frowned at the monitor above my head and adjusted some settings.
“Definitely,” I cried. “I'm starving.”
The next day I was feeling much better, so I got out of bed. I showered and dressed and then headed back down to the village as I had been ordered to do.
I didn’t want to run away again. Frankly, I was tired, and I ached all over. I was definitely too old for this. Besides that, something had happened to me beyond a concussion. Every time I looked at my hands, I saw the flesh burning and then Senya placing his own hands upon them and restoring them to normal.
Maybe I had eaten some poisonous berries which gave me hallucinations, compounding the concussion. Maybe they had dosed me with Vicodin, not realizing I was allergic. Or maybe, there was something else weird going on. I wanted to speak to the Evil Emperor and see if I could find a trace of the Senya that I had imagined rescuing me from the burning lake.
If I did find him, if he was really there inside, I was resolved to chip away at him until I could get that façade to crumble. Then maybe, if I was lucky, I would get my husband back.
The house was quiet as I entered though I could hear muffled voices from the office upstairs. I headed to the kitchen and looked in the fridge, taking inventory. Eggs. Lots of them. At least this much hadn’t changed. Also, there was an untouched casserole of some kind of mystery meat, berries, apples, milk and mineral water.
Taking out some eggs, I set them to hard boil, and found what looked and smelled like mayonnaise and a fresh loaf of bread in a bread box. In short order, I had four egg salad sandwiches, one of which I practically inhaled standing there. The other three, I put on a plate and along with a bottle of water, I headed upstairs.
I entered the office as if this were something I had been doing every day for the last ten years, glancing briefly at the men's faces on the vids suspended from the ceiling. I didn’t recognize either of them. One raised his eyebrows as I came into view and the other looked a bit taken aback. Ignoring them, I set the plate of sandwiches down on the desk next to the netbook upon which His Imperial Majesty, Emperor of all things Rehnor and otherwise sat pounding while both of the vid men attempted to converse with him.
“Lunchtime,” I whispered, turning on the desk lamp as the room was rather dark. Then I left.
I spent the rest of the afternoon chatting on the vid with Shika, my mother, Caroline, and Luci who had arranged a quick presser.
Sitting on the sofa in front of the fire, dressed in my Karupatani best, I gave a quick interview, telling all and sundry out there in vid land, how wonderful it was to be back in the Empire and how HIM and I were enjoying our reunion by having a quiet little vacation here. I deftly defrayed their questions and smile noncommittally like the best politician. Luci applauded me when we are done.
“Good show, Madame,” she cried. “You remembered exactly how to handle them, and your Mishnese is much better than before.”
“You and Berk really need a vacation too.” I insisted before I signed off. “Promise me no more pressers or anything until we get back to the Palace in a few weeks.”
“Oh no worries,” Luci said. “We're off to our estate in Korelesk. Fancy that, I've never even seen it! This should be quite fun. Oh and no worries about your mother either. I've given her your Andorian servants Noka and Kira, and they will take most excellent care of her.”
“Perfect,” I replied, certain that my mother would get along fabulously with a couple of blue, three-breasted Andorian nurses who had previously worked in an insane asylum. “Goodbye Luci. Enjoy your vacation.”
It was raining outside again. I could hear it pattering on the rooftop and splashing against the windows. It had gotten very dark too, and the trees were leaning as the wind blew through them. I watched them from the couch where I had not moved since the presser. My legs ached, and for a moment I rubbed these old scars. I had no memory of where they came from but knew it had something to do with the spaceplane accident.
I should have gotten up and made dinner, but I was too tired. An old Karupta man came in at some point and asked me in Mishnese if I wanted anything to eat. He brought me some of that casserole which I had previously shunned b
ut heated and hungry, it wasn’t that bad. He took some upstairs as well and returned a while later with empty plates and glasses.
“Would you like anything else, MaKani?” he asked, and when I said no, he bowed and left the house again.
The fire burned down to embers reminding me of the burning lake hallucination. I tried to put it out of my mind, but it was always there and as hot as it had been in that dream, the memory of it left me cold in the marrow of my bones.
Curling up on the couch with a blanket, I considered going back upstairs. I was a little surprised and disappointed that Senya hadn’t come downstairs to greet me all day. After being gone for nearly ten years, we still hadn’t even said hello.
Maybe I was delusional after all. Did I really think that feeding him was going to change things? He was the Evil Emperor no matter how many egg salad sandwiches I put in front of him. Maybe Senya really was gone. I stared into the dying fire until eventually fell asleep.
When next I awoke it was early morning, around dawn, and the rain still pummeled the rooftops. For a moment, I wasn’t sure where I was, and in the shadowy grey light of the living room and I couldn’t remember why I was here either. This confusion didn’t last long though.
Pulling myself to my feet, I headed upstairs. The bedroom was empty, the bed made and unused. Across the hall, I quietly pulled upon the door to the office. The desk lamp was on as I had left it the afternoon before and Senya was asleep upon the sofa, covered in a blanket, snoring softly.
I turned out the light and then I studied him in the dark shadows of the room. He looked older with lines around his eyes, too. His beard had a fair amount of grey, no, not grey, silver. His hair was mostly black still, except for a band of shiny silver near his temples.
Leave it to Senya to grow silver hair. The rest of us got old and grey while he turned silver and even more beautiful.
I never was a match for him. I was now as I had always been plain old Katie Anne Golden while he was as he had always been, this extraordinary creation.
His breathing shifted and grew quiet. He was awake.
“Sorry to bother you,” I whispered and headed out of the room.
I went into the bedroom to freshen up. Another delightful day in Karupatani was about to unfold. Sitting down on the bed, I considered my options. I could go back to Derius. My beach shack was probably still vacant although they might have turned into a tourist attraction with a big sign pointing down the beach and reading,
“Here was the home of the former Empress Katie before she got sentenced to eternity in the Tower.”
Alternatively, I could go back to Mishnah resigned to my fate. If the Evil Emperor wanted to lock me away in the tower, I had no choice but to accept it. The handwriting was clearly on the wall. He would rather hide in his office or sleep on a sofa then come downstairs to greet me. He didn’t even bother to thank me for making his favorite lunch.
Obviously, he didn’t want me around. Any thought of him coming to rescue me from Hell’s fiery water was clearly a figment of my overactive imagination and concussed brain. Maybe even, I had been bitten by the talking snake and didn't realize it.
I was destined to be locked away like other ancient mad Mishnese Queens and come to think of it, that just might be the best place for me. I suspected the Tower doors were probably the only ones that my bracelets were keyed to open.
A shadow fell across the room and I looked up to see him standing in the doorway.
“You do not have to stay here. You may go back to Mishnah today if you wish.” He spoke formally using the royal pronouns.
“Do you want me to go back, Sir?” I replied, equally as formally and rising to my feet.
I considered kneeling but decided against it. The way my knees were creaking, I might not be able to get back up. At the risk of getting a window pane in my skull, I defiantly stood. I had nothing to lose at this point anyway. Frankly, the window pane might be a better option than the Tower.
“What I want, and what you do is not necessarily the same thing, Madame.”
“Well, I guess the same can be said for what I want and what you do, Sir. Clearly I did not want to be shut away in an insane asylum for eight years so that you could take over the galaxy in my absence.”
“That was not my choice,” he said evenly.
“Well, whose decision was it, Sir?”
“At least you were asleep, Madame,” he replied. “I was awake. Every moment of every day, I was awake and living through it while you were blissfully unaware…”
“Of my own name.” I finished for him. “How could you do this to me? I thought you loved me at one time.”
“I told you to stay. You left me.” He turned and limped across the hall.
“What the hell happened to you? Why are you limping?” I raced after him, but the door slammed shut in my face.
“Senya!” I yelled and pounded on the door. “Senya! Open up!” I pushed the door open. That was dumb of me. It wasn’t even locked. I stormed into the room anyway.
He was leaning on his desk breathing hard and clutching his leg.
“Are you alright?”
“No!” he snapped. “Do I look like I'm alright? Kari-fa!”
“Let me help you. Maybe you should lie down again.” I wrapped my arms around his waist. He shirked away from me. From me! “Stop that!” I ordered and gripped him tighter. “Since when do you have a problem with me touching you? Lean on me and let's walk to the couch.” He kept a hand on the wall and stumbled a bit as we hobbled across the room. It took all my strength to help him stay upright. Fortunately, it wasn’t far. He collapsed upon the couch, heaving his bad leg after him with both hands and propping it up on the armrest. “What happened to your leg?” I covered him with the wool blanket that had been lying on the floor.
“It has been having spasms since I was in space a few days ago.”
The color washed out of his face, and beads of sweat formed at his temples. I ran to the bathroom and wet a towel with cold water.
“Do you want me to massage it?” Kneeling down beside him, I wiped off his face. “Why is it cramping so bad? You never had problems in space before.”
“Take off the brace.”
I unlatched the thing and then unlaced the sides of his pant leg to reveal a terrible scar running up the length of his leg. The muscles of his calf and thigh were incredibly tight, knotted and misshapen.
“Oh!” I gasped involuntarily. “Oh my God! That is even uglier than your feet. How did you do this? When did this happen?”
“Will you massage it with menthol gel, Madame?”
“Of course, Your Imperial Everythingness. Where is the bottle?” A desk drawer across the room opened and a container of menthol gel came flying at me. Opening it, I took a scoop in my hands and then rubbed it into his skin, pushing against the distorted muscles, kneading them, massaging them. Space massage was a required class at the academy because of the prevalence of space sickness especially among cadets. I was always pretty good at it. I think I even got an A out of the course. “Maybe you have a touch of space sickness too?” I suggested. “I can diagnose these things. My first husband was a doctor.”
A grunt in response.
“This is one nasty, ugly scar.” I added some more gel. It heated up as I rubbed it into his skin, and his muscles began soften and relax. “It beats both of mine by a long shot. I don't even want to know how you did this, especially when you've supposedly been cloistered in your office with a thousand guards surrounding you all the time. Of course, I probably don't want to know how I got mine either.”
“A bear.”
“A bear?” I repeated. “A bear got you or me? Probably you, since I don't like to eat them or play with them. I suspect I got mine in a spaceplane crash. Geez, you are all knotted up.” I work on his calf. “This must hurt like hell.”
“Ay yah,” he mumbled.
“Okay.” I capped the container. “Let that soak in and then I can massage it again in about
an hour.”
Wiping my hands on the towel, I covered him back up with the blanket. It was then that I noticed the long scars on the inside of his forearms originating from his wrists.
“And what the hell is this?” I declared, grabbing his wrist. This scar was fresh. “Was that a bear also?”
He didn’t respond, just angrily pulled his arm away from me. “You may go now, Madame.”
“Let me see that,” I demanded and reached for him again.
“Go!” he repeated with no uncertainty.
“What the hell did you do?”
He turned his back to me.
“Senya?”
“You are dismissed, Madame.” The door opened, and there was a big Karupta guy standing there.
I was so furious I thought I could take on that big dude all by myself.
“I get it. I see what that is. Now I know why everyone is tiptoeing around you. Now I understand why I’m supposed to be forgiving. You...you...if you do that again, I’ll kill you!” I screamed. “Do you hear me, Senya? You cannot just create this bloody monstrosity, disassemble the Alliance, change the whole damn galaxy and then decide to check out of here!”
He still didn’t move. The Karupta guy came into the room and pointed at the door.
“You are not going to leave me!” I shrieked. “Not forever!”
Nothing.
“Damn you! You promised me happily ever after, and this isn't happily ever after at all! This is miserable ever after! This isn't fair. This is so not fair. This is not what I signed up for. I want my money back. I want a do-over!”
“Madame,” the Karupta guy growled.
“Okay, okay, I'm leaving. I’m out of here.”
Throwing down my hands, I marched across the room, slamming the door behind me. As I stomped down the stairs, the big Karupta guy came out and shut the door quietly then stood in front of it with his massive arms crossed over his chest.
A while later I was listening to Lady Fern on the vid rattle away about my schedule as soon as I got back to Mishnah, whenever that would be.
