"Why did she leave me, Janad? Why?" David asked, his torment apparent in the tone of his voice.
"Maybe because she knew how much you are needed here. How much help you can give Taleed, teaching him to be a good king. How much help you can be dealing with the New Alliance." Janad held him tighter. "Maybe she knew how much I wanted you here with me."
David took hold of her hands looking down at them. He didn't turn around; he didn't want her to see the tears in his eyes.
"I'm glad to be with you, too, Janad. I'm even glad to be here. I like it here; I like your people. This place could be home for me. More a home than Earth has become. Only
. . .
Why did she leave me? Why did she leave me without even saying good bye?"
"Because she knows you, David. She knows you could never say good-bye to her. No matter how much you might have wanted to stay here. You would not have been able to watch her go. She wanted you to be happy, and she wants to be happy, and I don't think either of you can do that if you're together. Yet neither of you can say good-bye. So she just left."
David smiled and looked up at the sky. "I will miss them."
"And they will miss you."
RJ lay in their bed on the ship, her head on Levits' chest. She couldn't sleep.
"You're thinking about him again aren't you?" Levits asked gently.
"I know it was the right thing to do. That doesn't make it easy," RJ said. "I'm wondering if he'll ever understand why I did it."
"I'm not sure I understand why you did it," Levits said running his hand over her hair.
"Truthfully, because I couldn't forgive him, Levits. I tried, but I just couldn't. I couldn't, and I know that he knew that I couldn't." She gently untangled herself from him, got up, walked to the porthole and looked out at the vastness of hyperspace. "He reminded me of my pain, and I was his constant reminder, too. Neither he nor I deserved to live in the hell we had created, and neither of us knew how to stop it. This was the only way."
Levits got up, bringing the blanket with him and walked over to her wrapping them both in it although he knew she wasn't cold. "He'll miss you."
She leaned her head back into his chest. "And I will miss him."
Taleed handed his hand written proclamation to the priest. It was sloppy and damn near unreadable, but the priest took it and smiled.
"I have written that letter in my own hand," Taleed said. "And it bears the seal of the King. That would be me. Let runners take the decree throughout the land. I have written all that has come to pass, what is to be done with the tainted gold, and how the Priests are to behave in their office. Knowledge will no longer be treated as an evil. The Great Books shall be copied, and everyone who desires may read them. No longer will the King force women to serve him to give him abundant children that the land cannot support.
"Birth control techniques will be taught to all the people, and it shall be seen as their civic duty that they do not bring children to the world that they cannot feed. We will tend to our land and make it prosper, so that together these two things will ensure that never again will one of our people have to make war against another. Our warriors will train, and we will remain strong, but we shall do so not to fight amongst ourselves but to stay ever ready to fight the evil of the Reliance. An evil that The Ancestor warned us about and that corrupt priests ignored for personal gain, almost causing the destruction of our world and our people."
He looked down at the priest and smiled. "There is more in the letter, but those are the high points."
"My Lord
. . .
What about the holy breeding program? What will become of us if we turn so completely from our old ways?"
"We shall evolve as we were meant to evolve," Taleed said with a laugh. "Now do as I have told you, or I will have your head cut off."
The priest jumped to his feet from where he had been kneeling. "I was just kidding," Taleed laughed out as the priest quickly departed. He looked at Haldeed and smiled. "I really was just kidding, Haldeed."
It wasn't very funny
, Haldeed signed.
Jessit walked in, wearing the clothing of the High Priest.
"My King," he said scratching his head. "I was wondering."
"Yes, Jessit?" Taleed asked.
"What is our religion now? I mean
. . .
I understand why you want the priests to continue their duties. They must or the generators will die. I understand why you have left them as leaders of the community; there must be an order to things, but
. . .
What is it that we now
believe
? Who are our gods?"
"I don't know," Taleed said with a laugh. "Do we need any?"
"Oh, yes, I think we do. We need something that the people can believe in. Something safe, or they will make up something horrible," Jessit said.
"You're the High Priest. You make something up and tell me what you decide," Taleed said. "Now go away before I have your head cut off."
"What?" Jessit asked in shock.
Taleed laughed. "It's just a joke."
"Well, it isn't very funny," Jessit said leaving.
Haldeed gave Taleed an
I told you so
look, and the young King shrugged. He sat back in his throne, put his feet up, picked up a glass of wine and took a drink spilling half of it on his shirt. He didn't care. He could spill a gallon of wine at a time, and the little he got into his mouth would still taste sweeter if he held the glass in his own hand.
He smiled broadly at his friend. "Ah now, Haldeed, this is indeed a great adventure."
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen