My Enemy's Son (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 2) (26 page)

“You think you cannot do this?”

“I...I kind of researched it and the
chances of a Human and Rozarian successfully conceiving are like a billion to
one.”

“You would like to have a baby?”

“Well, not right now but eventually.  But
that's not the point.  You're this...this prince guy.  It's not like we could
have a normal family life.”

He nodded.  “This is true.”

“I'm so sorry.  I just don't think this is
the job for me.”

“You would like for me to marry someone
else?”  His silver eyes blazed into me.  “You would like to go back to your
vessel examinations and not be Queen, yes?  These examinations are more
important to you than I am?  Loving me and helping me is not a good enough
reason for you to forgo your career?"

“It is my career.  It's what I chose to
do,” I protested.  "Why should I give up what I want to do so that you can
do what you want to do?  And you lied to me!  I don't even know who you are
anymore."

"Again,” he sighed.  “I did not lie. 
I did not tell you about that which you had never asked."

"That's the same as a lie in my
book.  If you loved me you would abdicate or do whatever so that I could have
my career and you could continue to be a doctor.  Isn't that enough for you? 
Marriage is a partnership.  We don't just play by your rules."

He nodded.  “I understand.  Unfortunately,
though I would like to remain a doctor, abdication is not a choice I can make. 
And unfortunately, everyone must play by my rules.”

“Then I'm out of the game,” I replied.  “I
quit.”

He nodded again.  “Pity, I killed Mariya. 
She would have been a suitable alternative.  She was fertile and Mishnese and
very pleased to become the Crown Princess.  I could have resolved the heir
issue today.  Perhaps I have other cousins who might suffice.”

I stared at him, stunned for a moment. 
“That was quick.”

“You just told me to marry a Rehnorian
woman, did you not?  Did I misunderstand you?  I can do this.  I will remove my
protection from you and you will be free to be with Jerry Waldman and have
copious offspring and a normal family life.  This is what you wish, yes?  Jerry
Waldman will allow you to make all the rules and follow you where ever you wish
to go.”

I couldn’t speak.  My heart lodged in my
throat so that I could barely even breathe.  I couldn’t just go back to Jerry. 
Jerry or anyone would never measure up.  I spent the last year thinking Senya
had dumped me and I still pined for him every day.  I was already sick with
jealousy just at the idea that Senya would be with someone else, that he would
have a baby with someone else.  I was jealous of the woman with the glass in
her head because she was fertile, never mind she was now dead.  “Oh why can't
you just be normal?” I shrieked.

He stood up and walked across the cabin.

“You have already stated that you will not
honor the laws of Rehnor,” he said.  “I will not force you into marriage with
me.  I will take you back to the spacebase and you may return to Earth as you
have planned.  We have not consummated this marriage yet.  You may consider it
annulled.”

“Okay,” I mumbled.  “I guess all the
consummating before doesn't count."

“That was merely fucking for sport,"
he sneered.  "Since I have released you, I am no longer bound by my
promise to you to refrain from all others and so I too am free to do as I
please with as many as I please."

“What?  That's it, isn't it?  You've
missed sleeping around with everyone on the planet, haven't you?  Mr. Hot Shot
Prince Dude!  You're such a dickhead, Senya!  I'm sure glad I'm finding this
all out now before it's too late!”

“Fortunately for you, you now have only
six hours and five minutes of hell in a spaceplane," he snapped and headed
to the back office, the door swishing shut behind him.

I was ready to scream again.  I was ready
to break the windows and get sucked out into deep space.  I got up and walked
around the cabin, grinding my teeth, seething.  I pounded the back of a few
chairs.  I kicked the walls.  I looked at the messages on my cell again.  Nothing. 
I stared out the window at the stars whizzing past and realized I was
incredibly hungry.

Calming down, I crossed over to the galley
and stood in front of the cockpit door.  I wanted to look at it last time I was
aboard but I was too sick.  This would probably be the last time I was aboard
an SdK spaceplane so I knocked on the door and poked my head into the cockpit.
Two men sat there smoking and chatting as extremely high tech, three
dimensional displays flashed and moved about the windows.

“Very cool,” I breathed.  Our Spaceforce
planes looked nothing like this.

“Your Royal Highness.”  The men jumped to
their feet.

Whoa. I looked behind me.  Nobody was
there, just me.

“Um, I was just looking at the controls,”
I stuttered.  “I have a level four flight license too.”

“Yes Madame,” they nodded.

“I'm not Madame or...or anything like a
royal highness.  I'm just a Commander.  Um, can I get you guys something from
the galley?”

“No Madame.”  They stood at attention.

“Okay then.”  I shut the door and leaned
against it for a moment.  Whoa.

Time to eat.  Opening the fridge in the
galley, I discovered all sorts of things like sandwiches, frozen meals, fruit,
and drinks.  All of the little bottles had gold labels with the Eagle Crest on
them.  Every package was embossed with it.  The dishes and cutlery, even the
glassware was rimmed in gold with the crest in the center.  I looked out the
galley window at the wings only to discover the eagle there too.

Why didn't I notice this before?  I
laughed.  Actually, I laughed in a hysterical sort of way.  When I stop
laughing and wiped the tears from my eyes, I took two Excedrin.  Then I made
some eggs.  My thoughts immediately went to Senya.  The few days I spent with
him last year on Rozari, he always wanted me to make him eggs.

I wasn’t hungry anymore.  I had just lost
my appetite.  I sat in the cabin staring blankly out the window for a while
trying to understand all this, trying not to cry, trying to imagine how I could
possibly spend the rest of my life on Rehnor living in that palace and be
happy.  I didn’t think I could.  I thought I could live on Rozari in the house
on the pink beach but not Rehnor.  I lost my battle with tears.  After all this
time, after all these years of looking for him, I was going to lose him again and
this time it would be forever.

“Senya?”  He was sitting at the desk in
the back office typing away on his netbook, a cigarette hanging off his lip. 
He paused and pressed his thumbs against his eyes again.  “What’s the matter?”

“Migraine,” he mumbled.

“Can I get you something?”

He shook his head.

“I know this technique,” I said as I
approached him.  “They taught it to us at the Academy in my space massage
class.  “Do you mind?”

He just shrugged so I pressed the heels of
my hands into his shoulders, working them in circles, pressing hard at the
pressure points and then pinching at the base of his neck.  The muscles were
tight and knotted up but relaxed somewhat under my hands.

“Helping?”

“Yes, thank you.”  I continued to massage
his neck, pushing aside his hair and the diamond barrette.  I thought about
taking the clip out and combing his hair with my fingers.  Actually, I wanted
to climb into his lap and have him tell me this was all some big joke and we
would go back to the bedroom and spend the rest of the trip in that big bed.  I
didn’t want him sleeping with every girl on the planet.  I wanted him only with
me.

“Do you really want to be King?  Aren't
you happy doing what you are doing on Rozari with your company?”  I pushed him
hard with my thumbs.

“I am very happy on Rozari,” he replied
distractedly.  “I would much prefer to stay there.”

“So, can't you refuse the crown or
whatever it's called?  It's happened before on Earth.”

“It's not quite that simple when one has
been purposely created for the position.”

“That's quite a guilt trip they've put on
you.”

“I will not do this because of guilt.  I
will do this because it something that I must do.”

"Maybe they should have created a
wife for you too while they were at it."

He leaned into my hands.  "He
did."

“The girl who you just killed, was she
created to be your wife?"

"No, someone else was."

"Did you kill her too?"

"Not yet," he snapped, now
moving away.  "But I am seriously considering it.  That's enough, Katie. 
Thank you for the massage.  Now go out of here and let me work."

“Fine!” I cried.  "Five more hours
and we'll never have to see each other again.  Just answer me this, why did you
have to kill that girl, in front of me and everybody?"

“Because, I promised you I would have no
other wives," he shouted back.  "And a moment later she also would
have been declared my wife."

Oh.  She was going to marry him too.  “I
thought she was there to marry the other guy,” I said meekly.

"I am sure she would rather have had
the window pane in her skull than marry him."  He went back to his typing.

“So you didn't want to marry her?”

"Of course not.  His Majesty chose
her.  Katie,” he turned back around to me, “I want to marry only you but you
have already expressed repeatedly that you do not wish to share my life so I
will not force you to.  We will part ways and you will do what you wish to do
and I will do what I must and that will be that.  I have no desire to belabor
this anymore.”

"Ok.  The king guy, he didn't want
you to marry me, did he?"

"No, he did not."

"That's why you had to stay away from
me for a year."

"That is correct."

"Ok.  For what it's worth, I forgive
you for that.”

“Thank you.”

“Did you really have to kill her and the
other guy?"

“Yes,” he sighed with exasperation

 “But it's...”

“Katie, your ethics do not apply here. 
You have been raised in the Alliance.  Not only am I Rehnorian, but I will rule
Rehnor.  Our worlds and our mores are different, as are the rules for my
conduct."

“Ok,” I agreed.  “I think I've been to
enough planets that I understand this even if I don't like it.  Did you kill
that guy because of what they did to me?”

“Not entirely.  I will say only that it
was time for him to go.”

“Would you have killed the other guy if I
didn't stop you?”

He shook his head.  “It was not his time. 
You will know when it is his time.”

“Me?”

“You.  You will be the one to kill Prince
Akan.  Then you may wrestle with your own ethical dilemma.”

I went to the back cabin and took a nap on
the bed.  When I woke up several hours later the spaceplane was gliding into Spacebase
41.  Senya, or whoever he was, was chatting on his cell with someone about a
new product release.  He was walking the length of the plane and smoking a
cigarette.  He had changed his clothes into his usual jeans and t-shirt
although the diamond clip was still holding back his hair.  I stood there
holding my duffle and watching him.  I wished he could just be this guy, the
one who was concerned with product issues and patient loads.  The plane's door
slid open after the bay was pressurized.  Senya was still talking on his
phone.  I held up my hand and wondered what I was doing.

“Bye.”

“Just a moment,” he told whoever was on
the phone.  The silver light panned my face.  He's smiled a little in that
condescending way he had.  “Goodbye Kate.”

I left.  I couldn’t believe I was doing
this but I was because I was stubborn and I had said I would.  I walked across
the bay to the lift and practically burst into tears as it took me up three
decks.  Was it just two days ago we came down this lift and stopped it between
floors?  I stopped the lift and then told it to go back down.  Maybe I could
try it.  Maybe I could come live on Rozari with him for a while and just see
how it went.  Maybe his grandfathers were going to live to be 180 or something
and we wouldn’t have to worry about this for a long, long time.  I started to
run across the bay but the SdK plane was gone.  The bay was empty.

Chapter 17

Shelly

“What in the hell are you doing here?” I
said.  Ron went straight through to his inner office and the door slammed
behind him.  Brave soul that I was, I went in right after him.  “I thought you
were going to take a week or so off.  Aren't you supposed to be having a
honeymoon?”

He flipped on his vid and ignored me.

“What's gotten into you?” I demanded. 
“Your hair is a mess, you haven't shaved in a week and you obviously haven't
washed your clothes because you're wearing a shirt I bought you easily four
years ago which was probably sitting at the very bottom of your closet.  Where
is Katie?”

“Get out of here, Shelly,” he said,
lighting a cigarette.

“No, I'm not getting out of here.  Where
is Katie?  She's not here, is she?”

“No.”

“Damn it!”  I shook my head.  “How did
that happen?  She took one look at your insane relations and ran the other
direction?”

“More or less,” he mumbled.

“Well,” I said, sitting down on the sofa
in the corner of his office.  “Maybe she'll change her mind and come back.”

“Doubt that,” he replied, leaning back in
his chair and blowing smoke at the ceiling.  “My behavior didn't help.”

“Hey, Ron?”  The door opened and Thad
stuck his head through.  “Hi Mom.  Can I come in for a moment?”

Ron put his bare feet up on his desk and
waved at Thad to come in.

“Hi honey,” I said.

“Hey,” Thad said again.  “What's the
matter?”

“Nothing,” I replied.

“Well, sorry for interrupting.  I just
wanted to let you know I'm going to Earth tomorrow.  Leslie gets the kids for
the next week so I'm delivering them to her.”

“Are you planning to stay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I'll take a week off and shack up
with Larry and Ming.”

“I'd sure like to visit Larry too,” I
mused.  I haven't seen my younger son in more than a year.  “Tim's away in
Altaris for the next couple of weeks.  Maybe I will come with you.”

“Sure, go on, everyone go to Earth.  Take
a plane.  What the hell do I care,” Ron grumbled.

“Really?” I asked.

“That'd be great, Ron,” Thad said. 
“Thanks.  You're not going to stay at Larry's are you, Mom?”

“No,” I scoffed.  “I'll get a hotel room
somewhere.”

“So we'll leave first thing in the
morning?” Thad suggested and then looked back at Ron who was staring blindly at
the ceiling.  “So, Berk said your wedding was quite an experience.”  Thad
chuckled.

“You did get married!” I cried.

“Oh yeah!” Thad laughed.  “And killed that
gay dude and some girl at the same time.  A lot of wind but no thunder and
lightning.  Way to go, Ron.  Back to doing what you do best, killing people and
breaking things.”

“What?” I gasped.

“Shut the fuck up, Thad,” Ron said,
breathing out smoke like a dragon.

“So where's Katie?” Thad asked, looking
around the office.

“You killed people at your wedding?” I
gulped.  “No wonder Katie left.”

“Katie left?  Already?  That was even
faster than my first marriage.”

“This isn't funny,” I snapped.

“Would you all please leave,” Ron said
tiredly, taking his feet off his desk and laying his head down there instead. 
“Just get the hell out of here and leave me alone.”

“We are not going to leave you alone,” I
declared.  “Where is Katie?  She didn't go off with Dr. Waldman, did she?”

“I can find out where she went,” Thad
said.  “I'll get a PI to trace her bank records and find out if she's used a
pay card recently.”

“Or we can ask Dad's yeomen to find her. 
She had to check in with Spaceforce,” I realized.

“She is on Earth,” Ron mumbled into his
desk, his voice muffled by his arms.  “She went home to mummy and daddy.”

“Well sure,” Thad chortled.  “After
finding out you've just married the Prince of Darkness with super powers
enabled, where else would you go?  She's probably hiding under her bed.”

“Thad!” I snapped again and then turned
back to Ron.  “Fortunately, we're taking a spaceplane to Earth tomorrow since
you're going to come along with us.”

“I am not going to Earth.”

“Yes, you are and I suggest the first
thing you do when you get there is be a gentleman and go speak to her father.”

“About what?” he asked, his silver eyes
shining in my face.

“Well,” I said in my professorial voice. 
“Where we come from, a gentleman is expected to promise to honor, cherish and
provide for a lady.  He usually goes and speaks to her father and assures him
that he will do that and sometimes asks permission to marry her.”

“I never did,” Thad remarked.

“And look what happened to your marriage. 
Tim certainly did.  In any case, assuming that Katie was quite upset when she
ran home to her parents, you'll need to go and assure them it won't happen
again before they'll ever trust you.”

“I do not care if they do not trust me.”

“Yes, you do!”  I stood up and wagged my
finger in his face.  “These are your in-laws.  They rank right up there with
your king grandfathers.  You need to go back there and apologize all over the
place to them and then take her off their hands.  I'm sure they'll be pleased
as punch to have their twenty-nine year old daughter married off to a nice
prince fellow like you but you're going to have to prove to them she won't be
running back home again and again.  Now get up, go take a shower, clean
yourself up, put on one of your nice Armani suits and meet us at the plane at
seven sharp tomorrow.”

The silver light flickered in my face.

“Even if he cleans himself up, how can you
be so sure she won't go running home?” Thad asked.  “I mean, come on Mom, this
is Ron we're talking about.  He so scary even I come running home sometimes.”

Ron glared at Thad.

I ignored Thad.  “Did you buy her a nice
ring?”

Ron furrowed his brow.  “Why?”

“Oh please,” I sighed.  “Surely you can
come up with a nice diamond for her to wear.  She needs to show off to all her
Spaceforce girlfriends.  Lord knows, you have enough money.”

“Or just take a few out of one of your
crowns,” Thad said.  “I think you have a few extras in that hair clip thing.” 
Thad pointed at the back of his head.

Ron rubbed his temples.  “Anything else?”

“After you manage to convince her to stay
married to you, you need to take her someplace nice, just the two of you.  On
Earth, you could go to a nice beach or tour a historic city.  Tim and I
honeymooned in Austria and we had a wonderful time touring the museums.”

“Leslie and I went to Bora Bora and stayed
in an over-the-water hut,” Thad added.  “We didn't get out of bed the entire
time.”

“Anything else?” Ron sighed, putting his
hands on the desk and glaring at the both of us.

“Nice vacation, good food, good wine, a
big diamond,” I ticked off.

“Lots and lots of sex,” Thad added with a
nod.  “That'll do it.  Then you come home and five minutes later she'll start
nagging, have a headache anytime you want sex and she'll drive you so crazy
you'll be the one wanting to run home.  I can see why you didn't want to have
more than one wife.  Can you imagine the nagging coming out of your harem?”

The next morning, Ron was on board the
spaceplane dressed to the nines, clean shaven and with his hair cut to collar
length.  He was busy typing away on his netbook as Thad, the kids and I
boarded.

“Hey, dude,” Thad said.  “You're looking
good, almost Human.  You might even fool her parents for a minute or two.”

Ron narrowed his eyes and pointed his
finger at Thad.

“Sorry, sorry!” Thad yelled.  “Don't blast
me in the butt again!”

Instead, Jimmy and Gwen raced over to Ron. 
“Are you Dr. Ron?” Jimmy asked.

“Daddy says you can do magic.  Can you
show us some tricks, please?” Gwen begged.

“No, no tricks,” Thad called, heading
straight for the plane's bar.  He took out a couple of beers and tossed one to
Ron.  “Come on Ron, loosen up.  This'll be easy.  You're Prince Charming,
right?  With super powers enabled.”

“Please!”  Gwen and Jimmy plopped
themselves into the seats across from Ron and buckled in.  “After we get out
into space can you do magic for us?”

“Children,” I called, already very
annoyed.  “Where are your manners?  Don't bother Dr. Ron.”

“Sorry Grammy,” they said. 

Ron snapped his netbook shut and retreated
to one of the cabins in the back of the plane leaving his unopened beer on the
floor.

“This plane is really lovely,” I told Thad
once we had taken off.  I ran my hands along the soft leather seats.  A flight
attendant came by with a breakfast menu.  “How many of these do we have now?”

“Six for Rozari and there are another two
in Rehnor,” Thad replied.  “I've also got orders out for four more for us since
our directors are using them all the time now too.  You should see the
Rehnorian ones.  They are even fancier.  Everything Ron touches there has to be
royal, so there were certain Palace standards that had to be met when
outfitting them.”

“Like what?”  I chose the Eggs Benedict
with a side of link sausage.

“Like everything has to have his crest on
it and needs to be embossed in gold.  The plane, the dishes, the stemware, the
napkins, everything he could conceivably touch.  Berkan was pulling his hair
out trying to get everything done before Ron actually needed to use a plane.”

“Don't you usually take one of these
planes there?”

“I do, yes.  But for Ron, we need to
either retrofit these planes or switch him before he gets into their star
system.  We usually take him to a spacebase first and rendezvous with our other
plane.  Fortunately he can afford his own upkeep, otherwise the Mishnese
government would be just writing more blank checks.  What a disaster that
country is.  I sure hope Ron can turn it around when he gets in control of it.”

“So if the government can't afford it, why
do you have to do it?”  I asked, sipping the coffee the flight attendant had
set down in front me.

“The orders come down to Berkan from the
Palace,” Thad replied, handing his menu back to the attendant.  “And you don't
ignore orders from the Palace.  You should see Ron's office in New Mishnah.  It
had to be done the same way and it's fabulous.  Considering that half the
planet is starving, it's all a bit much.”

“Why do you say that?”

Thad shrugged.  “Everything has to be
inspected and approved by the Palace before Ron is even allowed to go in his
own buildings.  They really try to control every aspect of his life when he is
there even with him paying for it himself.  I'm really not all that surprised
Katie turned tail and ran.”

“You think they'll control her in the same
way?

“Hey, not only will they control her every
move, he'll expect her complete submission too.  Cmdr. Golden doesn't strike me
as the submissive type either.”  Thad drank his beer with his pancakes.

“Maybe we're making a mistake taking him
to Earth.  Maybe we should just leave her alone,” I fretted.

“Somebody's got to marry the dude,” Thad
burped.  “And she pulled the golden ticket.”

“He really does love her,” I said

“What’s that got to do with anything?”
Thad smirked.

“I'm coming with you,” I announced.

“Hey, I'll come too,” Thad said.

Ron stared at us through his dark glasses.

“You'll need us as character witnesses,” I
added.

“Yeah,” Thad agreed.  “We'll tell her dad
what a great person you are and how lucky she is.  Mom and I can lie
convincingly.  Let's just drop the kids off at Leslie's first.”

Ron didn’t object.  He didn’t say
anything.  The limo was offloaded from the plane's storage bay and we all
climbed in.  Thad gave the driver Leslie's address and after the kids were
safely deposited at their mother's home, we headed to Seattle, to the Law
Offices of Emanuel Golden.

“You'll need to make an appointment for
another day,” the receptionist told us.  “Mr. Golden is in meetings all day
today.”

“Just tell him that Dr. de Kudisha, of SdK
Corporation is here to see him,” Thad insisted and Thad inclined his head
toward Ron.  Ron looked like he would much rather be somewhere else.

“I'm sorry, sir,” the woman persisted.

“Perhaps we shall come back tomorrow,” Ron
said quietly in Rozarian.

“No,” I replied.  “Get this over with. 
Since when are you so timid?" 

Ron frowned.