Zoe Thanatos (18 page)

Zoe felt her face pick up at the
mention of Evan. She swallowed and tried to abate the butterflies forming in
her stomach.

“I don’t know if he’s there right
now,” Eva remarked, as though answering Zoe’s unspoken thoughts.

“Of course. I wasn’t...” Zoe’s head
shook. “He doesn’t even know I’m here, right?”

Eva gave a side-glance to her, a
bit of a smile on her lips. “Come on. We’re almost there.”

They walked to two large and
imposing doors, each one sleek with oversized ornate glass handles. A line of
Soldiers stood beside each door, the first two on either side eyeing both Eva
and Zoe. They opened the doors without question, revealing a third large room,
the smallest of the three but the most impressive. One glass wall looked out
into a dark abyss of space, stars and galaxies stretching out infinitely into
the distance. The celestial bodies themselves seemed to ebb with light, a
subtle twinkling that made Zoe feel slightly ill from the perceived height and
depth. “What is this room?” she asked, not daring to raise her voice higher
than a reverent whisper.

Eva’s pace slowed significantly,
her head leaning in close to Zoe’s hear. “This is the Throne Room. See those
doors up ahead?” Zoe’s gaze followed were Eva discreetly pointed, to two more
large doors guarded with fewer Soldiers. “That’s our residence.”

Zoe’s eyes moved to her right where
another set of doors, far more commanding and imposing than any of the
previous, stood ensconced in a great wall of steel.

“And there?”

Eva nodded to the soldiers standing
outside the doors to her residence, thanking them as they opened the doors.
“That’s the Straton Residence. Where the Queen and King live,” she whispered.

Evan poked at his food in silence,
moving the contents of the plate around aimlessly. His mind was back on Earth,
in Santa Barbara, with Zoe Thanatos. He tried to imagine how it was possible
that she had gone to Earth without knowing it. Did someone send or bring her
there? And when?

In his memories he could just barely
make out the original family, often playing with their children when he was
just a boy. He couldn’t see their faces, didn’t know if they were boys or
girls.

Thea said she didn’t know whether
her children were dead or alive, so who was Zoe in the Thanatos original
family? If she was her daughter wouldn’t she have said something?

“What’s that phrase you told me
they say in Gaia? ‘Your thoughts cost a penny’?”

Evan parted from his thoughts. The
corners of his mouth lifted in a joyless smile. “‘Penny for your thoughts’.”

The Queen nodded. She leaned
forward in her seat and rested her chin in her palm. Her eyes searched him
quizzically. “You’re not here with me, Evander. Where are you?”

His hand went automatically for his
hair, bringing back unruly tufts with his fingers. He had so many questions and
no idea where to direct them. He could talk to Thea first and ask her about
Zoe, tell her he found her on Earth, but what would that do? No matter what
information he gave to her, her life was a certainty. She stole from the Queen
and aided in kidnapping the King. Her life was over, and it was only a matter
of time before she was eliminated by order of the Queen.

The book! The book had the answers
he was looking for and so much more. He saw the chart himself; the Thanatos
name printed in the ancient texts. There must have been a record of Zoe
somewhere in there. If only he had thought to look before handing it over to
the Queen.

His thoughts were interrupted again
by her hands on his shoulders. Her palms spread out wide, fingertips extending
out over the width of his shoulder, cupping the muscle in her hands with great
care.

“Where do you go when your thoughts
take you away?” she whispered in his ear. His eyes closed at the sound, her
voice a soft purr that had whispered many things to him when they were alone.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I’m just
preoccupied.”

“Things will be taken care of,
Evander. You have nothing to worry about.” She rubbed his shoulders gently,
relaxing the nerves and tendons beneath his skin. Her hands moved to his neck,
circling around them as she moved to his front. Without much effort she straddled
him in his seat, keeping her body close to his as her hands moved up and down
his neck from his hairline to the collar of his shirt.

Evan’s arms move autonomously to
her waist, holding her protectively. In his arms she looked like the Kyra he
had come to know in private, the side of the Queen she kept hidden from the
rest of the world.

“You’ll see,” she declared. She
brushed her hand across his head, pushing locks of hair off his forehead.
“Everything will go back to the way it was.”

He took in her dark eyes, the shape
reminding him of Zoe again. The similarities were unsettling. Surely, it was
his conscience speaking to him, forcing his heart and mind to stay on the same
page. He, too, wanted things to go back to normal, but for him that meant something
different.

He wanted to see Zoe again, not to
question her lineage or birthplace, but just to stand with her in her world. As
long as he and the Queen continued their affair he couldn’t be the kind of man
to Zoe that she deserved. He couldn’t go to Earth to see her and then come home
to be with Kyra. There wasn’t room in his heart for both.

“Kyra,” he spoke. Her mouth on his
silenced him before he could speak further. She was sweet and a little gentle,
but he could feel that she wanted more. He had to fight wanting to kiss her
back in order to maintain his focus. His hands moved against her hips and
slowly pushed her from him. The kissing stopped abruptly as she teetered
backwards, caught herself on her feet and stood in front of him. She looked
confused, angry, and a little humiliated.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

He hadn’t meant to physically
pusher her off of him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to” he exclaimed. He
desperately searched for an excuse but all he could think of was what Zoe would
think if she knew what he was doing. “I just remembered some things I need to
take care of in Gaia. On Earth.” It was a lame excuse and not good enough to
quell her irritation.

The Queen’s chest rose and fell
rapidly as she stared at him, incredulity in every feature of her face. “You’re
thinking about Gaia?”

“No, I’m thinking about you. I just
remembered a matter I left unattended and it’s going to bother me if I don’t
make peace with it,” he explained bringing his hand back to his head.

“The gates have been deprogrammed
for Gaia,” she affirmed, her voice calming down to its usual tone. “Whatever
you’ve forgotten will just have to stay that way.”

He could barely manage to swallow.
He felt like she had just slapped him. “Deprogrammed? Why?”

The Queen looked down at him indignantly;
the private side of her she shared only with him was gone. “What does it matter
why? This is your home, Evan! Not Gaia!”

He was too stunned to think. Before
he was conscious of his movements he found himself walking briskly to the door,
ignoring the Queen’s protests as he walked out and ran as fast as he could to
his private residence.

“And this is where we live.” Eva
spread her arms out around the room. “This is the common room. Our rooms are
through those doors there,” she continued while pointing. “I’ll show you how to
work everything in your room.”

The common room was nearly the size
of Zoe’s house and just as nicely appointed. Like every other room she had seen
so far, the common room was built from glass, concrete and steel. The walls were
interchanging panels of glass and concrete, the glass projecting images of a
blood-orange sunset over a vast prairie of green grass. Rising concurrent with
the setting sun was an even bigger moon, casting its own pale blue light to the
land. Great animals were migrating in groups across the landscape, moving from
blue to orange, and a few stopped every few feet to graze for food or water.

A sitting area was partitioned off
at the front of the room. To her left there was what looked to be a kitchenette
without appliances and a rectangular glass table that could comfortably seat
six people.

Two more large areas were
partitioned off, each with seating interspersed between large glass panels.
Four doors on the adjacent walls led to the separate bedrooms Eva pointed out.
She felt a flush of blood rising in her face as she looked at the doors,
wondering which one belonged to Evan.

“Here, I’ll show you how to work
everything.” Eva led her to the kitchenette and stood in front of the tallest
cabinet.

“What is this?”

“Nutrition Replicator,” Eva
answered. “Here, watch.” She placed her hand on the right side of the glass and
it came to life with the same white glow Zoe had seen in the Communicator. She
watched, waiting for something significant to happen. After a moment Eva
removed her hand and smiled at her. “See?”

Zoe didn’t. “I don’t get it.”

Eva pointed below to a compartment
the size of a microwave that Zoe hadn’t noticed. When she bent to look inside
she was surprised to see a plate of shredded chicken, tortillas, beans and
rice. She recognized it as the first, last, and only meal she shared with Eva
and Evan before they left for Terra.

“Are you telling me you can think
of any food and it will make it for you?”

“Any food in any world,” Eva
smiled. “Try it!” She switched places with Zoe and encouraged her to place her
hand where she had on the glass. “Just think of what you want.”

Zoe reached her hand up and placed
it gingerly on the glass. A strange sensation radiated on her skin as the glass
lit up again and she closed her eyes. “What is that?” Eva asked after a moment.
Zoe looked to the compartment and gasped in amazement.

“It’s a chocolate truffle!” She
picked up the lump and made an appreciative sound.

“It looks like excrement.” Eva’s
nose wrinkled in disgust.

“Yes, but it tastes divine,” Zoe
replied before popping the morsel into her mouth. It was an exact replica down
to its velvety texture and decadent flavor. There was no difference in taste
that would make her believe it were not the real thing.

“Okay then, moving on. Let’s get
you some new clothes and get your room situated. You must be tired.”

Zoe was tired, but the awe and
excitement of Terra was enough to keep her mind preoccupied. She followed Eva
to the two sets of doors furthest to her right and watched as she opened one
merely by placing her hand on it. The room was empty. Of the four walls two
were concrete, the other two glass. It looked as sterile as it smelled. She
looked at Eva skeptically.

“Don’t worry!” she cautioned with a
smile. She placed a hand on a glass panel close to the door and the lights
brightened. “It works just like the Nutrition Replicator. Just place your hand
here and think of what you want the room to look like. I’ll go get some clothes
for you.”

Eva left Zoe alone in the bright,
empty room. Had she heard her correctly? She could think of anything and it
would appear? She approached the panel and placed her hand in the same spot Eva
had, feeling the same strange sensation on her skin that she felt on the
Nutrition Replicator.

She closed her eyes and thought of
home, picturing her own bedroom with her bed and her own belongings. Through
her closed eyelids she could see the light adjusting in the room. When she
opened her eyes her breath caught in her throat. Apart from the two concrete
walls everything was an exact replication of her bedroom, every detail perfect.
To her right were the familiar French doors leading out to the backyard, her
pool sparkling under the golden violent sunset she had seen so many times before.
On instinct she moved to the doors to open them, but found nothing but a glass
surface beneath her touch. The illusion was almost perfect.

“It only looks three-dimensional.”
Zoe looked to the entryway and found Eva looking at her, an enormous pile of
clothing gathered in her arms. “Let’s get started.”

The lights inside the common room
were on by the time Evan returned, and he figured his sister was back from
whatever errand the Queen had sent her on. He was in no mood to talk to anyone
though, and headed straight into his private room.

The quiet Santa Barbara landscape
brightened in his presence and a breeze blew through the palm tree leaves with
gentle care. Without hesitation he collapsed on the bed, his arm reaching up to
cover his eyes.

The gates were deprogrammed and
there was no way to get back to Earth. The thought was like a hard lump in his
gut, wrenching his insides to the point of near physical illness. Without any
explanation or warning the Queen had summarily ordered to have them
deprogrammed. Now any chance to see Zoe again was gone.

Even if she did have them
reprogrammed, there would no telling if or when he would be able to go back.
His trips to other worlds had clearly not gone unnoticed by the Queen and she
seemed intent on keeping him in Terra.

Did she have the gates deprogrammed
because of him? Gaia was the only universe that had been disconnected; he could
go anywhere else without a problem. So why Gaia? Something must have happened
to warrant such drastic action. Was it something to do with the Elder woman and
the residents of the Last City? Thea mentioned nothing of Gaia or Earth, and
had only barely hinted at Zoe’s existence. Something else must have happened
that he was unaware of.

Eva looked at Zoe and nodded in
appreciation. With her hair combed back into a sleek chignon and the Earth
clothes replaced with a more formfitting and monochromatic ensemble, Zoe
Thanatos looked as though she were a lifelong resident of Terra.