My Enemy's Son (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 2) (28 page)

My father on the other hand, found Senya
absolutely fascinating and the two of them got into a long detailed
conversation about the law and constitutionalism.

Afterward, Senya and I took the SdK limo
off to Bora Bora to honeymoon for a few days in an over the water hut.  During
that time we agreed that the subject of Rehnor would not be broached until it
absolutely had to be.  Nobody was to know about Senya beyond Shelly and Thad
and nobody was to mention a word of it to Admiral Tim or Spaceforce Command. 
Senya would also abstain from drugs and copious amounts of alcohol and he would
do his best not to kill people or break things.  I agreed to be a dutiful wife,
not nag too much, and have a minimum of headaches which suited me fine.

“What are you doing?”  It was 2AM.  I
wasn't sure where I was for a moment.

“I am going outside.”

“Now?”  I was in Takira-hahr, in our
house, in our bed.  “It's the middle of the night.”

“I need to go now.”

“Why?”

He was out on the deck.

“Senya?  What's the matter?”  I rooted
around for my bathrobe.

“I will be back soon.  Well, maybe a few
hours.  Go back to sleep.” 

He was gone.  Just like that.  Vaporized
or something.  I found my bathrobe and raced across the room to the French
doors.  There wasn’t a trace of him.  He didn't jump down onto the grass, he
wasn’t climbing down the support posts and he certainly wasn’t flying through
the air like Superman.  There was an eagle overhead though, a big one.  It was
circling above the bay and then in an instant dropped down, skimmed along the
water and took flight again with a large fish in its talons.  It headed up in
the direction of the forest.

“He's so strange,” I said to no one at all
and then tried to get back to sleep. 

I couldn’t sleep.  I was in the wrong time
zone and bothered by his abrupt departure.  We had been home for only a couple
of days. 

“Pisses me off,” I said again to no one. 

Things had been going so well.  It was
almost like it was when we were kids.  The big evil prince dude that I had met
on Rehnor was gone and now he was just Senya again, smiling shyly, beating me
in chess, praising me lavishly for every meal I made for him as if I were the
greatest chef in the Universe even if it was nothing more than fried eggs.  I
loved him with every bone in my body, with every breath that I took.  My heart
would race every time I saw him.  I never wanted this time, this moment in
space to end.

Now for sure I couldn’t sleep.  At this
point, I went out on the deck and waited for the sunrise.  It was beautiful out
there with the sky gradually lightening and the calm pink bay reflecting the
orange and red dawn. 

Just after 4AM, Senya came walking up the
beach.  I leaned against the railing and watched him.  He knew I was there
because he turned his silver eyes up to me as if he was watching me too.  I
waved.  He lifted his arms as if to wave back but in the blink of eye he was
gone.  A bird, an eagle was lifting into the air and heading straight for me. 
I was frozen in place as this creature with enormous wings swooped down toward
the deck and then the beast was gone and it was only Senya crouching there.

“Tell me I didn't just see that,” I said,
gasping for breath and holding my chest to quiet my pounding heart.

He held out his hand and there were
feathers in it, long black flight feathers.

“No way.  No way!” I cried.  “Don't tell
me this.  This is beyond possible.  Telekinesis, telepathy, even tripping
through dimensions I can somewhat understand but not this.  This is a complete
molecular transformation.”

“Very good,” he nodded.  “Except for my
toenails and my incisors.  I do not know why I cannot get them to change.”  He
ran a finger along a pointed, fang like tooth.

“You're so damn weird.”  Now I was furious
for no rational reason.  “What are you, like a Werewolf except a Werebird?”

“I am not just a bird, I eat birds.”  He
lay down on a chaise and pulling up a foot, rubbed his talon like toenails. 
“Therefore, I am a raptor.”

“How the hell can you do that?  Why do you
do it?  Wait.”  I held up my hand.  “I know.  I know.  It's complicated.  It's
not for me to understand.  Tell me there are no more secrets I need to know
about.  I don't think I can take anymore.”

He laughed and held out his arms.  “Come
here.”

“No.  No.  This is totally blowing my
mind.  You should have come with a user's manual.  Turn to chapter twenty-two
to learn what to do when your husband decides to turn into an eagle and go kill
things.”

“Just wait until you get to the
appendices,” he said.  “Come here.”

“Why?” I demanded.  “Why should I come
there?  So I can make you feel like a man again?  You're done being a raptor
and now you want to use your man part again?”

He nodded.  “Good idea.  Come here.”

“God,” I sighed.  “How did I get mixed up
with you?” 

Never the less, I walked over to the
chaise and lay down in his arms and let his man part do its thing because
despite all this weirdness, he was still just that boy Senya and I loved him.

“What does it feel like to fly?”

“It is incredible,” he said, pulling me on
top of him.  “Better than anything except...”

“Except what?”

“Except this.”

Chapter 19

Berkan

“I'm going to Rozari,” my father announced,
dropping unexpectedly by my house.  He held baby Marik for a moment.  “Come
with me, Berkan.”

Luci and I exchanged glances.

“Why are you going?” I asked hesitantly,
although I had a suspicion.  “Why do you need me?”

“I don't need you,” my father replied
loudly, shocking poor little Marik who let out a wail.  Quickly Luci rescued
him.  “I would like you to come.  Your presence may...”

“Go Berkie,” Luci urged.  “If your
presence will make whatever news he has to deliver easier, than you must go.”

“Alright,” I agreed and packed my
overnight kit.  I ordered an SdK spaceplane readied and we left right away.

“I think you want me to come because you
like traveling in our spaceplanes better than the government planes,” I told my
father once we are aboard and gazing at the dinner menu presented by the
attendant.  He laughed and agreed heartily.

Half a day later, we were in Rozari where
the afternoon sun was already setting and Takira-hahr was turning to dusk.  I
had never been to the estate before.  I had been to the campus in Kalika-hahr
and I had stayed in the guest suites there.  Our visit was unannounced and my
father did not believe we would stay through the night. 

We circled the estate while the pilot
requested permission to land on the runaway cleared from meadowland surrounded
by forest.  It was a short walk to the main house which sat high on a bluff
overlooking the calm Rozarian sea.  It was a beautiful house of white washed
stone, covered porches, window boxes teeming with tropical flowers and a red tile
roof which had a retractable glass ceiling over the central courtyard. 

My father rang the bell at the front door
and for a while we waited.  Eventually there were footsteps crossing the hall
and Senya opened the door.  His hair was disheveled and he was dressed only in
pajama bottoms.

My father cleared his throat.

“Did we wake you?” I asked with a
snicker.  “At 5pm?”

Senya didn’t respond, just stood aside for
my father and myself to enter.

“Sir,” my father said, but did not bow.

“Sir,” I said too. 

Senya glared at me. 

We walked across the courtyard.  Katie
watched us from a third floor balcony and then came running down the marble
staircase.  She was dressed in a gold silk bed robe.  Senya led us into a room
with leather sofas, a fireplace, an enormous vid on the wall and panoramic
windows that looked out upon the ocean.

“Would you like coffee, tea?” Katie asked,
holding the front of her robe closed.

“No, they want nothing,” Senya replied and
then ordered us to sit.

“Would you like to stay for dinner?” Katie
asked.

“No,” Senya said again and pointed at the
couch across from us for Katie to sit as well.

My father took a Royal writ from his
attaché and placed it on the table between us.  I looked at it.  Katie looked
at it.  Senya lit a cigarette and turned his face to the windows.

“What does it say?” Katie asked, picking
it up and touching the ink, the gold leaf embossing.

“I'll read it,” I offered and took it from
her.  The front of her robe gaped a little.  I saw the soft white curve of her
breast.  I stared at it a moment too long.

“Go get some clothes on!” Senya ordered.

“I'll be right back,” Katie said and
scurried from the room. 

I set the writ back down on the table. 
Senya smoked.  My father gazed out the windows.  I looked around the room.  It
was a nice room.  I imagined with a fire in the fireplace it would be very
comfortable in here.  I checked my cell.  I had a few messages.  I read them
and then sent a text to Thad telling him I was in town.  Perhaps he could meet
with me tomorrow morning for a few hours.  Katie came back in a t-shirt and
jeans.

“Read it please,” she said and handed the
writ back to me.

“It says,” I cleared my throat and
translated.  “Be it known to all that on this day it is hereby declared that
Sehron de Kudisha, MaKennah ka Rehnor, Crown Prince of Mishnah, Crown Prince of
Karupatani, Duke of the Light Continent and Duke of the Dark Continent, Duke of
the Mother and Child Moons, is prohibited from returning to the planet Rehnor
until such time as jointly seen fit by His Majesty the King of Mishnah and His
Majesty the King of Karupatani.

We make this pronouncement with heavy
heart and great distress for the actions wrought upon the people of Mishnah by
the MaKennah cannot be forgiven nor ignored.  Until such time as the MaKennah can
temper his anger and control the forces within him that cause such destruction,
he is to be under penalty of banishment.  Further, he shall forfeit the
receipts of the Privy Purse associated with the lands and estates of the
duchies and principalities associated with his titles.

Written and inscribed this day by my
hand.  Signed Yokaa Kalila, King of Mishnah and Merakoma de Kudisha, King of
Karupatani.”

I set the writ back down on the table.  My
father reached for it, presumably to put it back in his attaché but it flamed
up on the table and burned.  My father quickly drew his hand back.

“That was not necessary,” Katie snapped
and extinguished the fire with water from a flower vase on a neighboring
table.  Now the coffee table was covered in a wet, gray, ashy mess.  Katie
stood up in a huff and left to get a cloth to clean up.

“So, I can just come here for the time
being,” I offered.  “Or you can send Thad.  You haven't had too much need to
visit our facilities anyway, right?”

Senya smoked his cigarette and gazed
blindly out the window.

“I don't know what you are upset about.” 
Katie returned and cleaned up the mess.  “I think this is wonderful.  May you
forever be banished in my mind.”

“I think it will be rescinded eventually,”
my father said.  “They are both quite angry now but they will calm down and
come to reason.”

“It's not like there is an alternative,” I
pointed out.

“Well, there is Akan and Sorkan,” Katie
said.  “So let them deal with it.”

“Loman,” Senya said at last.  “You go back
and tell the both of them this.  They are to rescind this writ immediately or I
will pull my company out of Mishnah.  I will not open the four hundred
hospitals I had planned to open nor will I employ the two hundred thousand
people I had planned to employ.  I will cancel all further projects including
my intent to hire an additional fifty thousand people for a spacebased
development project that was to begin in two year’s time.  The Mishnese
treasury will be bereft of nearly a billion dollars in tax money that I and my
employees would have paid.  Further, I will release into the economy more than
fourteen trillion Mishnese dollars which I currently own.  Akan and through his
ignorance, Yokaa Kalila, and the corrupt and incompetent Parliament, have
attempted to keep the economy of the planet afloat by unceasingly printing
money which would have become utterly worthless had I not stepped in and bought
up all these valueless notes.  Mishnah will find herself with such an
overwhelming deficit that the value of your dollar will plummet again to the
point where it will take a speeder full of coins to pay for a loaf of bread. 
Akan, Yokaa, and the Parliament will all find themselves with their heads on
pikes in front of the Palace should you allow this to happen.”

Senya’s eyes flashed upon my father.

“You may also inform Merakoma that should
he continue to condone this charade, he will condemn his own people to death. 
The sole reason that Akan does not attack Karupatani today is because he is
afraid of my response.  Akan would dearly love to return to the days of
periodically decimating Karupatani villages.  His popularity was quite high
among the Saintists then.  If the economy in Mishnah fails, he will attack
Karupatani as a means to deflect the blame from himself.  This will work for a
time but ultimately, even the Saintists will turn on him.  However, thousands
of Karupta lives will be lost before that happens.  Do you doubt me in this,
Loman?”

“You own fourteen trillion Mishnese
dollars?” my father repeated.

“Give or take a billion or two.  Who the
hell did you think was buying up all the debt you fools were creating?”

“How?”  My father shook his head.

“Through SdK Investment Services,” I said
quietly and peered at my father.  He turned to me with shock on his face.

“You knew about this?”

“Senya's been propping up the Mishnese
economy for several years now,” I admitted.

“But why?” my father gasped.

“Had I not, there would be no Mishnah to
banish me from.”  Senya breathed smoke into the air like a dragon.

My father nodded.  “I will deliver your
messages, Sir.”

“Very good,” Senya replied.  “You may stay
tonight at the campus in Kalika-hahr, if you like.  Berkan, I hope you have
business with Thad otherwise I shall expect you to charge the Mishnese
government for the use of my spaceplane.”

“Yes, Sir,” I said.  “I will, Sir.”

“You may see yourselves out.”  Senya lit a
fresh cigarette and turned his face back toward the windows.  My father and I
rose and this time we both bowed as we left the room.  Katie rose too and
walked us to the front door.

“I'm not sure I understood what that was
about,” she said.  “Most of the time you were speaking Mishnese.”

“Well,” I summarized.  “Either the
banishment is rescinded or Senya's going to close down SdK Rehnor and then
collapse the Mishnese economy which will put the whole planet in peril.”

“Sounds like he's got you,” she replied.

“Check and mate,” I said.

She nodded thoughtfully.  “Senya always
wins at chess.  You guys need to learn not to play against him anymore.”

“I think we just learned that,” my father
mumbled and we bid her goodnight.

The banishment was rescinded two days
later upon our return to Mishnah.  Akan was furious.  SdK continued to flourish
and a short time after that, Senya sent me a confidential email asking me to
secure the rights to build a multi-ship spacedock in orbit above Rehnor.