My Enemy's Son (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 2) (24 page)

Chapter 16

Katie

“Run!” he yelled and so I ditched the high
heels and we ran through the endless corridors splashed with rain and down into
the courtyard where our spaceplane was parked.  The engines turned over as we
approached and the door swished open for us.  We collapsed inside and the plane
lifted off.

“Fucking lunatics every last bloody one of
them,” he said, his eyes flashing.  “Should do everyone a favor and just nuke
the whole damn planet.”

I couldn’t speak.  I was shaking all over
as I tried to catch my breath.  I pulled at the wet lace that was sticking to
my body.  My hands were trembling so much I couldn’t even grasp the fabric.  My
stomach turned and so I raced to the bathroom, kneeling over the toilet to
purge every thought of that woman with a shard of glass where her eye should
have been, her brain material spilling out on the floor.

The spaceplane soared over the city as I
retched. We sailed over the mirror image of the SdK campus on Rozari where two
giant flags waved in the breeze from the roofs of each of the buildings.  One
was the SdK corporate logo flag except with the Rehnorian letters while the
other was a royal crest with a striking black eagle, two crossed silver swords
and a large gold crown.  Behind the campus was a huge building with an enormous
clock on the very top.  The side of the building flashed like billboard with a
giant image of Senya projected upon it. 

I didn’t see all this now because I could
not lift my head from the toilet.  I was too weak to stand, but it was all
there as it was only a month ago when I last flew these skies. 

When I had finished vomiting, when there
was nothing left in me, I lay on the floor of the lav.  It was a nice floor,
marble.  Too nice perhaps for a spaceplane but everything on the SdK
spaceplanes was too nice.  The marble was warm, it was heated, I thought.  The
floors of the Palace were marble too but they were cold.  The woman collapsed
onto the cold marble but she didn't feel it because her brain was smashed by a
crystal spear that fell from a chandelier that had hung high overhead.  My
stomach heaved again but nothing came out.  I stared at the ceiling of this
bathroom which had its own crystal lamp and I imagined it falling and slicing
my brain as I lay there.  I was very cold.  I was probably in shock but this
warm floor was comforting and after a time I stopped shaking.

The engines on the spaceplane changed
their tempo.  We were no longer fighting against the planet's gravity, but on
our own, leaving this solar system. 

“Goodbye Erindad 37,” I whispered.  “I
hope I will never see you again.”

When I was no longer shaking, when my
heart had managed to settle into a normal rhythm, I pulled myself to my feet
and brushed my teeth with my finger.  I looked at my pale face in the mirror
and at this once elegant dress that was now a crumbled dried mess hanging from
my body.  I pulled a towel off the rack and washed my face.  The towel rack was
heated too.  The towel was soft and thick and embroidered upon it in gold
thread was the eagle crest.  The taps on the sink were gold and the gold spout
emptied into a shiny marble basin.  I realized then this wasn’t the same
spaceplane I flown in last time.  This wasn’t the SdK plane that brought us
from Spacebase 41 to Karupatani.  This spaceplane looked the same from the
outside, the SdK logo had even shown on her tail, but on the inside, this plane
was as an extension of that palace.

I forced myself to leave the safety of the
bathroom and return to the passenger cabin.  At first I didn’t see Senya and
was surprised how relieved I felt.  Then I realized he was in the front of the
cabin sitting on the floor in the corner by the windows.  He looked asleep but
probably wasn’t.  He looked like he was cut from stone, as if he wasn’t
altogether there.  His fancy jacket was on the floor across the room, his silk
blouse hung loose and open.  On the floor next to him lay a rubber strap, a
used syringe, and a baggie of white powder.

“You are stoned!” I cried.  “You have been
stoned all this time!”

“Shut the fuck up,” he mumbled.

I was so angry I felt like my head was
going to explode.  I forgot that I was in shock thirty minutes ago.  I stormed
over to him and stood above him.

“You know what?” I seethed.  “Yesterday
you were completely drunk and now you are stoned!  I can’t believe this!  I
don't care what just happened back there, when we get back to Spacebase 41, I'm
out of here.  I don't ever want to see you or any other asshole Rehnorian
again.”  Storming towards the back of the plane, I ripped off the gold lace
thing.  “Where the hell is my bag with my clothes?”

He didn’t respond.  He just sat there with
this weird catatonic look on his face which I now recognized as the same weird
catatonic look he had all last night at the wonderful Karupatani banquet where
I got to eat meat with my fingers, get ogled by his cousin and get molested by
his drunk lecher of a father. 

Scrambling through the compartment of the
plane, I began to search through the overhead bins until I found my kit along
with his attaché.  Then, I stood there and ripped off this beautiful silk dress
with all the ropes of pearls and other stuff.  I dropped everything in a heap
upon the floor and pulled jeans and a S/S Discovery t-shirt out of my bag.  One
of the stupid pearl ropes must have broken when I dropped it because now
thousands of little round balls were racing across the carpet.

“Damn it!” I shouted and stooped to pick
them up.  The ship tilted slightly, sending hoards of tiny pearls scurrying
towards the starboard side before I could even begin to grab them.

“Stop yelling,” he moaned from the front
of the cabin.

“Oh, I’m so sorry if you are hung over,” I
hissed.  “But I just broke that stupid pearl thing!  Those fricking pearls are
everywhere!”

He took off his shoes, exposing silk socks
torn to shreds at the toes.

“Damn it!” I swore again, watching
thousands of pearls rush past me as the plane now tilted to the portside.

“Can you keep your voice down?” he sighed,
holding up one of the shoes.  Instantly, every one of those pearls flew out
from underneath the seats and corners of the carpet.  They shot across the room
and dropped into the shoe.  He put the shoe down and pressed his thumbs against
his eyelids.

“What is that?” I snapped.  “Like some
kind of magnetic shoe or something?”

“No,” he replied.  “It is just a fucking
shoe.”

“So you did that,” I concluded
brilliantly.  I dug through my bag for a sweater and thought about this.  He
could move things by telepathy like pearls and plastic horses.  He could make
things come from nowhere and go back to nowhere like cigarettes and knives.  He
could read your thoughts even if you didn’t speak the same language and he
could do all of these things without even seeing you.  I hugged my sweater and
tried to swallow.  On top of all that, he was…he was…” 

I glanced at the fancy dress coat that lay
tossed on the floor.

“Oh god.”  My stomach turned.  How could I
have been so blind?

He rubbed his temples.

“Did you make all that glass explode,
Senya?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper, my heart pounding in my
throat.  “Is that something you can do too?”

No response.

“Did you intend to kill those people?  Did
you purposely make the glass fall on them or was that accidental?  Please tell
me it was an accident.”

Nothing.

“Oh god.”  What did I just do?  Did I
really just marry a man who could and would willfully kill people just by
thinking about it?  “Oh god,” I muttered again and took a deep breath, trying
to calm my racing heart. 

On the other hand
, I swallowed
hard, while grasping on to this thought,
we were nearly back in Allied
territory
. 

Grabbing the runners from my bag, I headed
to the aft of the plane, while shoving them on my feet as I did so. 

What happened on Rehnor, stayed on
Rehnor.  Nobody knew.  Nobody saw.  I wasn’t legally married as far as the
Alliance would be concerned
.

Reaching in my pocket, I pulled out my
cell and then I walked down the corridor searching for a signal.  Two bars came
up.  My first instinct was to call Spaceforce Command and tell them I had been
kidnapped again or even just to report in my position.  My phone vibrated with
seven unread message and then my signal died before I could begin to place a
call.  The clock on it told me I had nearly seven more hours of hell in a
spaceplane until we got to the spacebase.  I shook the phone and yelled at it
to come back online. 

That’s okay
, I told myself. 
I
can survive seven hours.  I will get out of this.

“Ay yah, you are in deep shit,” Senya
laughed from the front room.  “You scored the big one.  Rehnor's most eligible
bachelor.”  Totally stoned.

“Shut up,” I yelled.  “Nobody is talking
to you.”  I headed back to the bathroom and locked myself in again. 

Sitting on the toilet lid and staring at
my blank cell, I repeated my mantra
.  I will get out of this.  I will get
out of this. 
Spacebase 41 was only six hours and fifty-two minutes away.

Opening my messages, I considered sending
an SOS which would go out as soon as I got a new signal.  What would it say? 

Help, I’m stuck in a luxurious spaceplane
with Dr. de Kudisha, President of SdK Corporation and galaxy renowned brain
surgeon? 

Spaceforce Command would receive this
message and would they then divert a starship to stop and board this plane, or
would they court martial me for abusing the emergency signal network? 

I will get out of this
, I thought and
read through my messages.

“Katie, are you okay?  Where did you go? 
Why did you run away from me?  I need to know what you are doing.  You said you
would give me an answer during leave.  Is this your answer?” - Jerry

“Katie, Dr. SdK left me to go find
you!!!!  Call me, text me, email me, talk to me GF!!!” – Caroline

“Katie, your boyfriend Jerry called to say
that you're not coming home and you're not with him but that you might have
left with some strange alien man who has brainwashed you.  Please call us.” –
Mom & Dad

“Katie, I found the perfect restaurant in
this new shopping village over in Kalika-hahr.  Janet and I tried it for lunch
today and it was fab!  Ring me as soon as you get here and I'll take you there,
my treat.  Everything going okay?  Don't let those barbarians upset you. 
Everything will be fine when you get back here.  Everything will go back to
normal.” - Shelly

“How does she know?” I mumbled and slammed
my cell shut.  “Maybe the barbarian is Senya.” 

Six hours forty minutes until I'm out of
here.  What exactly would be considered normal?

“Katie, come out of there.”

“No.”

“You cannot fly the whole way sitting on
the lav.  Come out and I will explain.”

I waited another few minutes for good
measure and then figuring I really had no other choice, I came out of the
bathroom.  I marched past him, back into the passenger compartment and parked
myself in a window seat in the last row.  He took the seat across from me.  He
looked slightly less stoned and very depressed.

“I'm sorry,” he said, hunching forward in
his seat, rubbing his hands on his knees.

“For which part exactly?” I demanded and
tossed my cell from hand to hand.  I wanted to throw it at him.  I wanted to
hit him, to hurt him because right now, I felt like I was the one with a piece
of glass in my head, bleeding out my brains.

“Everything.  All of it.  I am sorry that
you are stuck with me.”

“Oh, I'm not stuck with you,” I replied,
pointedly clearing up any confusion.  “I don't care what happened on Rehnor. 
Rehnorian laws mean nothing to me.  We are definitely not married as far as I
am concerned.”

His eyes open slightly sending a beam of
silver light into my face.  “You are bound by Rehnorian laws as am I.”

“Well to hell with that.”  I lifted my
chin.  “I'm never going back to Rehnor so it's not relevant to me what your
laws are.”  I stood up.  “I need to make a few calls.”

“No,” he ordered and grabbed my arm.  “Sit
down.”  He held my wrist like a vise.

“And if I don't, what are you going to
do?  Break my wrist or send a window pane into my skull?”

He released my wrist.  “Please.  You don’t
have a signal anyway.”

I stood there for a moment and tried to
stare him down which was actually really hard to do with a guy who didn’t have
pupils or normal eyeballs.

“I cannot do this without you, Katie,” he
said.