The Valley Of The Ke’cje
Chapter 50
L
Ta’lan led the group down the walk past the fragrant Qu’rosk trees and over the footbridge that crossed the circular fishpond. Then she led them along a small but exceedingly quaint and neatly kept little lane for a distance of about six blocks. She stopped in front of a nice-looking if surprisingly modest-sized house. It had an upstairs and a downstairs and looked like it might have two, maybe three bedrooms at the most… probably two upstairs and one downstairs, assuming it was built similarly to an earth home for its size.
Ta’lan opened the front entrance by touching her finger to something that appeared to be a lock.
“Nice trick,” Alex said approvingly. “I wish I could do that.”
“You could do it… if it were adjusted for you,” Ta’lan replied. “It responds to my digital subprint.”
“Digital subprint?” Maria looked at her own fingertips quizzically. “Is that like a fingerprint?”
Ta’lan smiled. “Not like on the outside of the finger. Any of us can imitate another’s fingerprints just by shape-shifting… taking their fingerprints. It wouldn’t be any protection at all. But the subprint… well… like I said, it’s not really a ‘print.’ That’s kind of a misnomer. It’s more like a subcutaneous, exo-osseus life pattern… similar to DNA but not exactly that either. DNA can be found in all parts of the body; the digital subprint is found only in the fingertips within a membrane that covers the tip of the finger bone. It cannot be altered. Almost everything else in our bodies can be. Even if we take the shape of a creature that has no fingers or hands, the unique digital subprint is still present somewhere in the body.”
“So do I have a digital subprint?” Alex asked.
“I suspect that you do, Alex,” Ta’lan said with a smile. “Every creature has one somewhere… or something equivalent.”
Ta’lan led the group into what was clearly a living room or parlor and motioned toward several comfortable-looking chairs and a longer seat that resembled a sofa.
“Please! Have a seat. Be comfortable.”
Max sat down, and the others all followed suit, glancing around curiously at the décor. Jung-Jo stretched out on the floor beside Jim. The inside of the house seemed much larger than the outside would have suggested. On the far side of the living room, which was quite expansive, there was a large concave window that reached all the way to the floor… or perhaps it was a door… a sliding door maybe… but it looked more like a large, super clear, solid membrane, slightly rounded outward toward the outside of the house. To their left, there was a wide semicircular stairway with a banister. That, at least, looked earthlike. The chairs, too, were fairly earthlike, though their design was clearly alien. The sofa was somewhat different than anything they had ever seen before. It was long, perhaps twelve to fourteen feet long, and had a large number of contours that really didn’t seem to match any known body shape… well, any that they had ever seen anyway, though the overall look was very interesting and even elegant in an alien sort of way. Each end of the sofa had a very ornate arm, partially wrapped in a plush, soft, velvet-like fabric.
When Liz, Maria, Angie Lee, Alex, and Isabel sat on the sofa, the odd contours seemed to reconfigure themselves, conforming to each one’s shape. Liz smiled to herself, wondering who… or what… had sat there before them and left the contours that they had seen when they came in.
“Would you like something to drink… or something to eat,” Ta’lan asked sociably.
Kyle’s eyes seemed to answer the question, but it was Rahn who replied…
“I think we are all a bit thirsty, thank you.”
Ta’lan nodded and smiled. “I’ll bring some da’nish out for you… and some of my Qnist’as.”
Maria looked at Rahn questioningly. “Danishes?”
Rahn smiled. “Not the same as you know from earth. Da’nish is a drink, a little like jubish… only better. You’ll like it.”
“What’s jubish?” the younger Max asked.
His double from the other dimension smiled… “You’ll see.”
Ta’lan returned with a large tray holding numerous very tall, thin, flute-like glasses filled with a bluish-amber liquid. It was pretty, especially in the fourteen-inch tall, one-inch wide glasses… but it really didn’t look like something that should be ingested by the human body.
“Are you sure this is safe,” Alex asked, holding the glass up and examining the sometimes bluish, sometimes amber liquid in the light.
Max nodded with a grin. “Try it.”
Alex took a deep breath and put the glass to his lips, allowing a few drops to pour over his tongue. The look on his face was, at first, unfathomable. It was either one of the best things he had ever tasted or… he was dying. Concerned, Maria, Liz, and Angie Lee leaned forward in their seats, and Isabel looked into Alex’s eyes to make sure that he was okay…
“Alex?”
Alex took another deep breath then let it out again… “Whew!”
“That was… that was… incredible! Totally excellent!”
That was good enough for Kyle. Convinced that Alex wasn’t going to die, Kyle poured some of the liquid into his mouth… perhaps a little more than he should have at one time. The look in his eyes clued the others in. Michael grinned, clearly enjoying Kyle’s look. It reminded him of a cartoon he had once seen somewhere… maybe of Popeye after eating spinach… or maybe the guy whose head spins around and around and his toupée blows off while steam pours out of his ears. Kyle didn’t actually move from his seat, though. The look was all in his eyes.
“Are you okay, Kyle,” Angie Lee asked. Kyle nodded and took another drink… a much smaller one this time. Then everyone else took a sip, too.
“This stuff would make someone rich back on earth,” Alex said approvingly. All the others just nodded.
Ta’lan picked up another tray and passed it around. This tray appeared to hold something that looked like large cookies; and in fact, that’s more or less what they were.
“Try a Qnist’a. It goes well with da’nish… it will help you to enjoy the da’nish.”
“I’m enjoying the da’nish already,” Alex said, holding his glass up.
Jim Valenti, of the other dimension, grinned and raised his eyebrows. “We can see.”
“It is pretty good,” the younger Max said, in what was clearly an understatement. Michael nodded his agreement.
Ta’lan smiled. “Well, eat the Qnist’a anyway. It will keep you sober.”
Each of them took a Qnist’a and tried it. It did seem to have an effect… a very rapid effect, in fact… bringing them back down from what they now realized had been quickly becoming a state of euphoria. The Qnist’a seemed to counteract the intoxicating effects of the da’nish. Remarkably, it didn’t detract from the taste at all. It may even have enhanced it.
As everyone in the group finished off the da’nish and Qnist’as, they began to think again about the reason they were here.
“Max…”
“Yeah?”
“How are you gonna find all these groups that are fighting for your throne? And another thing, what are we gonna do with them after we find them?”
Max shook his head and smiled just a bit. “Good questions, Alex. I’m still thinking about those very things myself. I have some ideas, though. Michael does, too, right, Michael?”
Michael nodded solemnly. “I say we march over there and put you on the throne and announce that you’re back. Then they’ll find US. Let them do all the work. We just have to be ready for them when they come.”
For a moment, Max appeared to consider Michael’s words. “Sounds logical. They’ll definitely know where to look for me… I don’t know where to look for them.”
“We could find them with the sphere of location,” Liz said, joining the discussion.
Michael thought for a moment and nodded. “Yeah, probably so… but I still think it’s easier to make the pretenders and usurpers come to us.”
“We might have the advantage of surprise by going to them, though,” Max said. Liz nodded.
Michael thought about it again and nodded hesitantly. “That’s a good point. But we don’t know who is going to be our enemy and who isn’t. I mean… some of these groups may not be against you… you being the real king and all. Some of them may even want to join us. We don’t want to just rush out and round everyone up without knowing whether they’re friend or foe. Since there was no legitimate king here, they can’t be accused of treason or anything for trying to take over the throne. Kivar doesn’t count. He wasn’t legitimate.”
“Who’s living in the palace now,” Kyle asked.
Max looked at Ta’lan, and Ta’lan shrugged… “I don’t know. We never go to Coruz Antar anymore. We never did very much… and since Kivar took over the throne, I don’t know of any Ke’cje who has been there.”
“I could find out,” Rahn offered.
Alex laughed. “Are there roadrunners here on Antar?”
Rahn shook his head and smiled. “No roadrunners… but there are other birds… like the long-tail golden zerpia… and the jah-ee.”
None of the younger gang reacted to these names, but the older Max and Michael, from Antar in the other dimension, did. The fact is, the group from earth in this dimension had no idea… at least not yet… what a golden zerpia was, much less the formidable jah-ee.
“A jah-ee might be overdoing things just a little bit, don’t you think, Rahn,” the older Max asked with a grin.
Rahn nodded. “The jah-ee is only a myth. It’s not real. I only meant that there are other birds here on Antar. I would not need to become a roadrunner… or a jah-ee. The long-tail golden zerpia can run… and fly. And it is beautiful.”
“And it would not be paid very much attention,” Ta’lan agreed. “The golden zerpia is fairly common at this time of year in Coruz Antar… especially in the parks… and around the palace. There are many of them in the palace gardens.”
Rahn needed no more encouragement than that. Immediately, he began to contract and shrink, ultimately becoming a long-tail golden zerpia, a large bird about two-thirds the size of a peacock with mostly golden-colored feathers on its side and belly, darker greenish or bluish feathers on its back and head, and a very long, straight, iridescent tail.
Liz and Maria both gasped, and Angie Lee reached out to stroke the bird’s beautiful feathers…
“They’re so soft! Rahn, you’re totally gorgeous!”
Jung-Jo raised his head and looked at the bird with curiosity, both ears rotating forward on alert. “Down boy,” Jim said with a smile. “That’s just Rahn. You don’t want to eat him.” Jung-Jo put his head back down and began to purr then rolled onto his back for Jim to scratch his belly.
Rahn couldn’t smile, but he did appear to be strangely satisfied… for a bird… as he strutted out the front door, spread his iridescent blue-green and golden wings, and leapt forward into the air, rising majestically into the sky, trailing five-foot-long iridescent tail feathers behind him.
Ta’lan watched, smiling. “I taught him to do that. I’ve known Rahn since he was a baby.”
“You taught him to fly?” Maria asked.
Ta’lan nodded. “I taught him to shape-shift… when he was little.”
“You have to learn that? I thought you guys were born doing it.”
Ta’lan laughed. “No. We have to learn. Were you born walking and talking, Maria?”
Maria shook her head.
“You probably had to learn those things. We do, too… and we also must learn to shape-shift.”
“Can anybody learn to do it then,” Maria asked.
Ta’lan smiled, shaking her head. “You must be a shapeshifter to shape-shift. Your body must be able to do it. Would someone be able to walk if they had no legs… or talk if they had no mouth?”
“I see,” Maria replied, nodding. “I just wondered.”
Ta’lan smiled.
Maria thought about Ta’lan’s words but decided not to bring up the incidents onboard the ship when J’Shalo caused them all to shape-shift uncontrollably. Instead, she filed the thought away in the back of her mind to be brought up later, when it would not seem like she was contradicting their hostess outright. If Ta’lan didn’t want them to believe that shape-shifting was possible for anyone but a born shape-shifter, Maria was not going to challenge her on it. Perhaps Ta’lan did not know. Or perhaps she was right, and shape-shifting, at least controllably, was impossible for anyone else. Certainly, Maria knew that she, herself, had not shown any signs of having such an ability since Rahn had “cured” them, saving them from a certain horrible death on the ship.
“Come… Let me show you the rest of my home,” Ta’lan said, motioning to Maria and the others to follow. She walked toward the grand staircase and stopped, placing one hand on the rail, to wait for them. Everyone placed their empty flutes back on the tray and followed Ta’lan up the staircase. It led to a large hallway. Looking down the hallway, they could see eight rooms, four on either side.
“Are those all bedrooms,” Maria asked.
Ta’lan nodded. “Well, six of them are. I have six upstairs and three downstairs. Nine in all. The other two rooms up here are for study and relaxation.”
“The house doesn’t look this big from outside,” Kyle said. “I would have guessed that there were two large bedrooms or maybe three smaller ones in this house… but it looks a whole whopping lot bigger when you’re inside it.”
Ta’lan smiled. “It is our way. It is not considered to be good manners to make one’s house look larger than the others. Still… and this might seem contradictory… okay, it is contradictory, I guess… we all really do like to have a lot of space and nice things in our homes… so inside each home, everything is different in size and décor from one Ke’cje house to another. The look from the outside is only an illusion in a way. It makes us appear to be all the same. You would call it ‘forced perspective.’ The front of the houses are all the same size, but the sides expand as they go back. The house looks much smaller than it really is, so it is impossible to tell whether one Ke’cje has more or has less than another. It is a false modesty, I suppose. We all have our little quirks… even the Ke’cje.”
“Is this house bigger inside than most Ke’cje homes,” Angie Lee asked.
“It is about the same,” Ta’lan replied. Angie Lee wasn’t sure whether to take that answer as a fact or as an expression of the Ke’cje “modesty,” so she smiled and nodded.
“This is the relaxation room,” Ta’lan said, opening one of the doors. Everyone followed her inside and looked around. It was a large room with a very high ceiling. Except for something that might have been a bed or a chaise, against one of the walls, though, nothing in the room was recognizable to them at all. There was something near one wall that looked vaguely like offset climbing bars that reached all the way to the ceiling. Jung-Jo leapt onto the bottom rung, and before anyone knew what he was doing, he was at the very top, resting on a ledge overlooking the room.
“He’s okay. Let him stay there,” Ta’lan said.
In a corner, there was something that could only be described as an eight-foot-high rock mountain full of tiny caves. Directly overhead there was something that appeared to be a swing. The ropes attaching it to the ceiling were quite long, so it would have had a formidable swinging range. On another side of the room, there was a pile of rocks with a waterfall cascading over them into a small pool. The pool did look peaceful and relaxing, and it was probably big enough to qualify as a small spa or something, but none of them could even begin to imagine how Ta’lan might make use of the items in this room. Kyle looked at Max, and Max shrugged.
“When you’re a shape-shifter,” Ta’lan explained, “relaxation can come in many different forms. It is necessary to exercise the different muscles and then to allow them to rest.”
Max nodded, beginning to understand. “Each of these… devices… is meant to offer exercise or relaxation to you in a different form that you can take.”
Ta’lan smiled. “Exactly. I may fly up to the swing and swing on it, then I may swim in the pool… as a fish. Those bars over there are for climbing. There are creatures that climb, like your pawgor, and those are some of the muscles that we must exercise and care for, too.”
“What’s the little rock mountain with all the caves for,” Jim asked.
“It is a dark place to hide and relax. Some creatures seek out such places to sleep.”
Jim nodded, not sure he wanted to know precisely what creatures Ta’lan might have in mind.
“I would invite you to use my relaxation room, but you would probably find it… awkward.”
Liz looked at Maria, and Maria raised her eyebrows and smiled, nodding her agreement.
“It’s an amazing room,” Liz said. “It’s a shame we’re not shape-shifters.”
Ta’lan smiled. “Come on, I’ll show you the study.” Stepping to the door, Ta’lan opened it and walked out into the hall. The others all followed. Jung-Jo hopped down from his ledge to the swing then onto the floor and brought up the tail end of the line. Ta’lan led them to the far end of the hall and opened another door. This room was much more recognizable. There was a desk… It was clearly a desk. And there was a chair. On the desk was a device that Liz immediately assumed to be a type of computer… or something like a computer. It certainly wasn’t made by IBM or Apple, but it did appear to be a computer… like… device… probably, she thought to herself as she looked at it. Against one wall, there was a bookshelf full of books, and beside the desk, tilted upward toward the sky, there was a bright, airy-looking window that provided light and fresh air to the room.
“This looks more like what I’m used to,” Alex said with a grin. Then he noticed something in a corner and walked over to it. Carefully, almost respectfully, he picked it up and held it in his hands. Then he ran one hand over the fourteen strings on the front of it. It made a harmonious sound.
“Awesome! An alien guitar! Do you… play this, Ta’lan?”
Ta’lan nodded and smiled.
Alex shook his head. “I knew there was something I liked about you! Well… a lot, actually. You play a… a… uh, what do you call this?”
“Kyy’ta-va,” Ta’lan replied.
Alex nodded. “Kyy’ta-va. Cool! A kyy’ta-va. Can you play something for us? Please?”
“Ta’lan sighed and took the instrument in her hands. “First of all, Alex, it’s held like this…” Ta’lan sat down and placed the instrument in her lap with the long neck aiming straight up next to her face. She appeared to caress it. She placed her left hand over the strings, not quite touching them, allowing them instead to resonate and vibrate under her fingers. Then, with the other hand, she pulled and strummed at the fourteen strings softly. The sound was melodious… rich… full… like a large string orchestra. Alex stood watching and listening, enraptured. It was like a harp and like a guitar… and it sounded like a whole orchestra.
Ta’lan finished playing her song and returned the instrument to its stand in the corner of the room. “I guess you have learned my weakness. When everyone believes that I am working hard in my study… sometimes I am relaxing with the kyy’ta-va.”
“Works for me,” Alex said, still in awe of the music he had just heard come from the instrument Ta’lan called a kyy’ta-va. “I would be playing it all the time.”
Ta’lan nodded. “That is a temptation that I must resist, Alex. There is work to be done, and sooner or later it always has to be done.”
“That never changes wherever you go, does it,” Liz quipped with a smile.
Ta’lan returned the smile. “I’m afraid not, Liz. I’ve never found the planet yet where no work had to be done… though Yxtiar came close.”
“Yxtiar?” Alex asked.
“That’s a planet several light years from here,” Michael from the other dimension replied. “It has a lot of hot springs. It’s kind of a getaway place… a spa resort.”
“A place that Michael is going to take me to soon,” Maria from the other dimension added, looking at Michael.
“Right,” Michael said.
Ta’lan led the group back down the stairs to the large living room.
“Would you like to see the back?”
“The back?” Max asked. “Yeah, sure… I guess.”
Ta’lan smiled and led them toward the large concave membrane-like door on the back of the living room. But instead of stopping and opening it, she walked right through it. The membrane, or whatever it was, stretched momentarily then just flowed over her body as she emerged on the other side of it. She turned and motioned to the others to follow; they couldn’t hear her voice through it. Max looked at Michael, and Michael looked at Kyle, and Kyle looked at Alex, and as they did, Jung-Jo walked through the membrane.
“Chicken,” Michael said to Kyle with a smile.
Kyle reached over and brushed Michael’s shirt with his hand. “Feathers.”
Liz and Maria pushed both of them through the membrane and followed them through, then the others followed. As soon as everyone was on the outside, the membrane turned itself inward, becoming convex on the inside and concave now on the outside.
“It’s inviting us to go back in whenever we’re ready,” Ta’lan said. “You can only pass through it when it’s turned inward, not outward, from the side you’re on. It’s a one-way convex conveyance port.”
“I’ll take your word for that,” Jim said, grinning.
Liz looked at the membrane curiously. “Shouldn’t that be a ‘one-way concave conveyance port? You go through it from the concave side.”
“Thank you,” Ta’lan replied with a smile. “That’s exactly what I told the Borolians who installed it. They’re a strange people, but these conveyance ports come from their planet… and they insist on calling it a convex conveyance port, because, they say, the default setting is convex as seen from the outside of the house. You can’t argue with a Borolian. They don’t listen. And they never read the instructions.”
Maria smiled. “An all-male planet, huh?”
Michael put his arm around Maria and pulled her to him brusquely, but a lopsided smile partially betrayed his feigned scowl. “We get the job done, though, don’t we?”
Maria grinned and nodded, winking at Ta’lan. “He does, you know.”
Ta’lan led the group through the gardens and pathways behind her home. Like everything they had seen in the valley, Ta’lan’s gardens were impeccably cared for. Liz stopped to admire a stand of tall, lily-like flowers. They were clearly alien… but lilies were the nearest things that came to her mind. She carefully pulled one of the golden flowers with long petals infused with broad reddish streaks toward her nose and sniffed it. It had a nice fragrance… like the trees with the pinkish white flowers. She hoped that these flowers were less intoxicating than the trees had been. Further along, Ta’lan showed them a small waterfall that cascaded over some rocks from a height of about seven feet into a pond with more of the alien fish that Liz had seen before. There was a bench beside the pond to sit on. It all seemed very peaceful. But all too soon, they were back at the house again. The back yard was probably not as large as it really looked. That was a reversal, actually, of the perspective they had had of the house. It was the way Ta’lan arranged her garden and pathways that made the yard seem larger than it really was.
Ta’lan motioned toward the “convex” entrance port that was really concave… on the entrance side… and everyone passed through it and into the house again.
“How do you keep other people… or animals… from coming in through that when you don’t want them to,” Jim asked.
Ta’lan smiled. “Well, one can only pass through it from the concave side, so if it is convex on the outside… as it is in the default setting… nothing can come in through it.”
“Even if they run and jump into it… or hit it very hard…” Kyle asked.
“Try it,” Ta’lan suggested.
Kyle looked at the membranous port and decided, wisely, not to.
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“You would not get through it. It would feel like a mountain of solid stone,” Ta’lan explained with a smile. “It responds automatically to me when I go in or out, but anyone else who passes through it must be with me or have my permission. I can recalibrate the acceptance limits, of course, if I decide to.”
“Cool,” Kyle said, nodding that he understood.
At that moment, as Ta’lan spoke, something did come up to the back port. It was Rahn. He had landed and changed back into his normal more human-like appearance. A quick wave of Ta’lan’s hand, and the almost invisible membranous port turned inward, allowing Rahn to pass through it and into the house.
“Did you find out anything, Rahn,” Ta’lan asked.
Rahn nodded. “The palace is occupied by a small group of soldiers led by one of Kivar’s former co-conspirators… one named Nyykto.”
“Nicholas!” Max and Michael from the other dimension both said at the same time. Both of them immediately recognized the Antarian name of their old nemesis and archenemy. Max and Michael from this dimension had not recognized the name Nyykto, never having heard it before, but at the mention of Nicholas, both of them immediately came to full alert, too.
“Nicholas? Here?” the younger Michael exclaimed. “I thought we got rid of him on earth!”
“Apparently not,” Rahn replied simply. “He is here, and he controls the palace.”
“Well, I say we get that pimple-faced pre-adolescent pimp out of the palace, Max… and the sooner the better,” the younger Michael said to Max. “You and I can take him, together.”
“He has soldiers with him,” Rahn reminded them. “He is not alone. “Why did you call him a pimple-faced, pre-adolescent pimp, Michael?”
“Because he is one.”
Rahn appeared perplexed. “I didn’t see any pimples on his face… and Nyykto is a man, he is not an adolescent.”
Isabel put her face into her hands and groaned, as unwelcome memories flooded back into her mind from somewhere deep inside her. She saw Nicholas as he once was… before he traveled to earth and took the husk of a young boy in order to survive in earth’s atmosphere… before he became the pathetic… but very dangerous… sarcastic little twerp that they all knew.
“He must have returned and somehow returned to his old body… or made himself look like he used to again,” Liz said.
Isabel nodded. “Nicholas… Nyykto… was very… handsome when we were living on Antar in our former lives. I know. Oh, God, I don’t want to think about him… what he did! What he… made me do… I betrayed you, Max. I betrayed the royal family!”
“No, you didn’t.”
Isabel looked at Michael from the other dimension. The words had come from him.
“You didn’t betray Max or the royal family, Isabel. Nicholas tricked you. I know. I went back in time… I saw what happened… everything. I’m pretty sure it happened the same way in your dimension.”
“What did you see,” Isabel asked, not sure that she really wanted to know but feeling more than a little compelled to find out what Michael knew.
You… Vilandra… were once taken in by Nyykto, it’s true… but that was only in the beginning. You believed that Kivar only wanted to talk to Zan and would not hurt him, and you believed that Nyykto loved you. But you began to realize that you had been deceived by both of them. By then, it was too late to stop Kivar’s plot, so you tried to form a fake alliance with Kivar to slow him down and allow the royal family time to escape to a safehouse in the country. You planned for them to return later and save you from Kivar. But Kivar had had you followed, and he knew all of your plans as soon as you made them. He killed the protectors and royal guards at the safehouse… then he killed the rest of us… including you… at the palace. You tried to save us.”
“But it was my fault that he was able to get into the palace,” Isabel groaned.
Michael shook his head. “Kivar had shape-shifters with him, pretending to be a civilian entourage. They came as friends but were really soldiers in disguise.”
Suddenly remembering that he was among shape-shifters right now, Michael looked up at Rahn and Ta’lan and quickly clarified what he had said…
“They weren’t Ke’cje. They weren’t from Antar at all. These were a different race of shape-shifters. The Ke’cje were never allies of Kivar.”
Ta’lan nodded. “That is true, we were not friends of Kivar, nor did we help him. There are several different shape-shifter races, including the Kelians, who are mostly good, the Utibo, whom we call the black hole shape-shifters, and the shadow men of Na’tia-bo. Some of them are treacherous, but they are not from Antar. And they are certainly not Ke’cje.”
All the talk about shape-shifters brought Maria’s former question back to her mind, and she searched for a way to bring it up…
“Do you think some shape-shifters might not have been, you know, born that way, Ta’lan?”
“Not born shape-shifters? Why would you ask that, Maria?”
Maria shifted in her seat uncomfortably. “Well, it’s just that we all changed shapes… sort of… well, some of us did… back on the ship… before Rahn stopped it and saved us.”
Ta’lan looked at Rahn, and Rahn hesitated, looking for a way to explain…
“J’Shalo activated their cerebral processes. They were unable to control it. They would have died…”
Ta’lan nodded. “I understand. So you did what you had to do.”
Rahn swallowed and nodded.
Ta’lan breathed in and then sighed. “Well, it could not be helped. J’Shalo is to blame.” She turned toward J’Shalo, who sat quietly in his cage on a table across the room, and shot him a blistering look. The hawk clearly seemed to wither, tucking its head under its wing defensively.
“Is something wrong,” Maria asked.
“No! No! No!” Ta’lan shook her head. “It is nothing that you need to worry about… nothing that any of you need to worry about. It is just that… well… it compromises our security… our secrets. Fortunately, it is you and not someone else. But even that is cause for concern to us. Rahn understands that.”
Rahn nodded. “I would have had to let almost anyone else die after J’Shalo changed them. The risk to our people is that great. But you… I could not. You are the king… and… you are… my friends.” Rahn hung his head.
“It is okay, Rahn,” Ta’lan said, lifting Rahn’s chin back up again. “I believe we can trust them… You did the right thing. You saved the life of our king. If this is to be, it is to be.”
“Thank you, Ta’lan,” Rahn replied humbly. “I was not sure that you would feel this way.”
Ta’lan smiled. “Yes, you were, Rahn. You just don’t know it. You did the right thing. It is what I would have done. I would expect no less from you; and within your heart, you know that.”
Rahn nodded.
“Well!” Ta’lan took a deep breath and smiled. “Fate sometimes brings winds that were not expected. We will talk about this later. But first, we need to get you back on your throne, Zan… in your palace… and Nyykto off of the throne.”
“Yeah!” Alex exclaimed enthusiastically. “That’s why we’re here.”
“Actually,” Max from the other dimension said hesitantly, “Rahn gave me an idea.”
“I gave you an idea?” Rahn asked with a bit of surprise.
Max nodded. “You mentioned that you could change into a jah-ee.”
“But I was just using that as an example. That is a mythical bird,” Rahn repeated. “The jah-ee does not exist.”
“Perhaps,” Ta’lan said cautiously.
Rahn turned to look at her quizzically.
“Well, we have always believed the jah-ee to be a myth, but there are Ke’cje who claim to have seen it once while flying in the high east winds.”
“They forgot to eat their Q’nist’as,” Rahn said with certainty. “The da’nish had them seeing things that weren’t there. Were they flying in circles?”
“The jah-ee?”
“No. The Ke’cjes.”
Ta’lan shook her head. “I’m not so sure, Rahn. At least one of them was very trustworthy.”
“Well, I wouldn’t know what a jah-ee looked like to turn into one,” Rahn insisted. “I’ve never seen one… except in the story books… of Frebel-Ish.”
Max from Antar in the other dimension smiled. “I may be able to help you with that and answer some age-old questions for you at the same time.” He closed his eyes and concentrated for what turned out to be some very long moments… close to two full minutes. Then he opened his eyes again.
“Did you go into a trance, Max,” Kyle asked. “You weren’t with us there for a while.”
Max smiled. “Actually, I was far away… my mind was anyway. I was talking to some friends of some friends… in a way. If I relayed the message right, we may get a visit soon.”
“Here?” Ta’lan asked.
Max nodded. “Don’t worry, Ta’lan. It’s only a bird. It can’t reveal any secrets… except maybe to me.”
Ta’lan looked at Max, and her mouth opened but no words came out. Somewhere, deep in her mind, she knew… She knew what Max had done.
tbc
Coming up: Well, we all know, don’t we?
Ta’lan and Rahn get a visitor that they never in their lives expected. An assault on Nyykto and his soldiers is planned, and another unexpected visitor, this one to Max and Liz of Antar from the other dimension, suddenly has them and the others in their group longing to get back home to their children again.
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