Read Kudisha Departure Episode 1 Journey to Rehnor series Online

Authors: J. Naomi Ay

Tags: #romance, #apocalypse, #epic, #aliens, #galactic empire, #colonization, #short read

Kudisha Departure Episode 1 Journey to Rehnor series (3 page)

BOOK: Kudisha Departure Episode 1 Journey to Rehnor series
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King Karukan, who for only two weeks had sat
upon the throne which he never anticipated nor hoped would be his,
failed to respond in a decisive or quick manner. The politicians
populating the hallowed halls of Parliament by definition were
indecisive as well, thus Karupatani failed to retaliate for
Kalila’s initial salvo.

“Ha ha ha!” Kalila roared in his palace by the
sea in Takira-hahr. “This Karukan is an even bigger fool than his
brothers. In due course, all of Karupatani shall be
mine.”

 

The internet outage made it impossible to
broadcast the royal wedding across the country, fortunately for the
new Queen Lorena who had packed on yet more pounds. She did look
lovely though with clouds of white tulle swirling around her golden
form, her long dark hair pulled tightly into a bun on the top of
her head, and pinned in place by a tiny crown.

The wedding night was also a rousing success,
and one in which web access might have been helpful, but not
required. Neither King nor Queen had any experience in the task set
before them, and despite their fumblings and bumblings, were
pleasantly surprised to discover they had done it right.

The only bothersome bit to Lorena, and this
was really a tiny, nagging, little annoyance, was her new husband’s
propensity to speak to someone who clearly was not
there.

“Oh! You’re here,” Beloved Ruka proclaimed,
while nestled against Beloved Rena’s large, soft, and compliant
breast, which also smelled slightly yeasty, like the bread she so
favored.

Initially, Lorena assumed she had misheard. Of
course, she was here. Where else did her new husband think she
was?

“I’m so glad you’ve come,” the King
continued.

“I’m glad too,” Lorena replied, a bit
quizzically, while lazily stroking Ruka’s broad back.

“You are completely correct again. I do like
this immensely. It is indeed a delightful benefit of being
alive.”

Lorena’s hand paused. What? Had she ever said
he would like this, and if she had, how in the heavens would she
have known, as she was even more a novice than he?

“Now, what shall we do about
Markiis?”

“Markiis?” Lorena gasped.

“Shall I call him, do you think? Invite him
here for a little tete a tete? If the three of us…”

“What?” Lorena screeched, knocking Beloved
Ruka’s head from his perch.

“Hush dearest,” the king replied. “Yes, I know
you think Markiis can be entirely unreasonable.”

At this point, the Queen-bride assumed her
worst fears had been realized, and her new husband’s heart belonged
to another. Markiis. It was only when Karukan rose from the bed,
and reached for his robe, all the while discussing a proposed
summit with Markiis and someone else, that Queen Lorena realized,
her problem would not be Karukan’s fidelity.

“He can be a rational fellow at times. You’ve
told me the same. Surely, the best path to peace and prosperity for
both our nations is through a conduit such as you.”

“Ruka,” the Queen called, albeit timidly.
“Where are you going? It’s the middle of the night.”

Karukan, now reminded of both the hour and his
wife’s presence, stood momentarily disconcerted, as if he had
forgotten who and where he was. A blush crept up his face, although
Lorena wasn’t certain from where his embarrassment came. Was it
because she had caught him in the act, and if so, the act of
what?

“Oh yes, Rena, my beloved.” The king glanced
at his wrist, although it was absent of any watch. He waved a hand
in the air, and made a prancing step towards the door. “I am so
sorry, but I must leave. Business. Kingly business. You know, that
sort of thing. I am the king. Fancy that.”

He shrugged, and blushed again, as if
surprised by this whole proposition, and then, briefly, he returned
to her side, and kissed her lovingly upon on the cheek.

“I’ll be back,” he announced huskily, reaching
for and quickly fondling a large breast, before hastily quitting
the chamber for his own.

Returning to the solitude he was accustomed
to, and frankly, much preferred, Karukan sat down to plan out the
meeting he had just envisioned.

 

Lorena wasn’t one to complain. Save Karukan’s
oddities, the ever present war, and the threat of death which
overshadowed her every move, she was blessed with a life beyond any
other. After all, she was Queen of Karupatani, and she could eat
unlimited bread.

In due course, which fortunately for the royal
couple was immediately, Lorena became pregnant with the future
Crown Prince Kirat. Karukan, while professing his greatest pleasure
at this most exciting news, was still preoccupied by the kingly
summit soon commencing. Markiis Kalila had agreed to meet at a
neutral spot, a chain of islands in the southern hemisphere
belonging to no one. The two kings would come alone, without
advisors or even guards, to hammer out the differences between
their countries. Hopefully in short order, they would return home
with both a truce and trade agreement, as well as a friendship that
might ensure a lasting peace.

“Are you certain you will be safe?” Lorena had
asked fearfully, when Beloved Ruka was filling a case with
clothes.

“Of course,” Karukan had scoffed. “I will be
perfectly fine, and I will be successful because I am right, and
Kalila is the one who is misguided.”

Naturally, the King of Hahr did not agree. In
fact, to no one’s surprise but Karukan’s, the summit ended in
disaster with neither a truce, nor pact to trade. Instead, the two
kings stormed back to their respective thrones with only vows to
continue warring. The ownership of that island chain in the
southern hemisphere was now included in their long list of
disputes.

 

A few years later, shortly after the birth of
Karukan and Lorena’s second son, Behrat, Lorena found her husband
pensively sitting at his desk. This wasn’t unusual at all, for he
was often pensive, and even more frequently at his desk. However,
there was an odd expression upon his face which concerned the
Queen.

“What is it, Ruka?” she asked. “What troubles
you more so than usual? With our two beautiful boys, you should be
very happy.”

“Indeed, they make me very happy,” Karukan
insisted, forcing a smile, although it didn’t extend all the way up
to his eyes. “But, at the same time, their existence makes me
inordinately sad, for what is life but the ultimate prelude to
certain death?”

Having lived with her husband now for five
long years, Lorena didn’t question this extraordinarily depressing
and contradictory statement, but waited patiently for the king to
expand upon his thoughts.

“Our sons, like my brothers before them, shall
be sacrificed to these never-ending wars, as shall Kalila’s sons,
unless we find some means to finally bring about the
peace.”

“We could give Kalila the lands he covets,”
Lorena offered. “We would still have plenty of oil, gold, and
minerals for ourselves, and then, he would have no reason to fight
for more.”

“Weakness and capitulation never brought peace
in the history of mankind,” her husband snapped. “Only superior
strength and fear of one’s own destruction.”

“Oh,” Lorena replied meekly. “Well, we could
marry Kirat to Kalila’s daughter.”

As soon as the words fell from Lorena’s lips,
she tried to imagine what it would be like to have a
daughter-in-law from Hahr. The girl would be so foreign, so very
different, so un-Karupta-like. Would she love Lorena like a mother,
or would she become the evil daughter-in-law from Hell?

“No,” the King scoffed, much to Lorena’s
relief. “Kalila would never abide by that, and furthermore, Kirat
is promised to Elise de Kirkut.”

Lorena sighed. She liked Elise de Kirkut, even
though the girl was only two years old. She had a mop of dark gold
curls, and was as polite as she was pretty, despite the shrewish
nature of the toddler’s mother.

“Then what? What shall we do if these wars
will never end?”

“We shall have to leave,” Karukan stated,
knocking his hand upon the table top. “We shall have to abandon the
planet Rozari in order to save our people, to save our race.
Therefore, I am commissioning the construction of the spacecraft to
commence as soon as possible. If Kalila doesn’t cease to war, and
no alternative remains, we shall have to do what is necessary. God
help us be victorious in this endeavor.”

 

“Spacecraft,” Lorena thought that night, as
she lay sleepless in her bed, recounting this conversation in her
mind. It occurred to her, and not for the first time, that Beloved
Ruka might be insane. Spacecraft? In order to abandon the planet
Rozari to fly off to heaven knew where? What would these spacecraft
be like? Did he mean for her to wear a tight and constricting suit?
How would they breathe? What would they eat? How would they
go?

This thought alone made Lorena hungry, and so
donning her robe, she climbed from her bed to head to the palace’s
kitchens for a late night snack. Returning a few moments later with
two buttered sourdough rolls and a cheese danish pastry, she spied
Karukan pacing madly through the hall.

“Are you certain about all this?” the king was
asking, although there were no ministers in sight. Neither was
there a servant, retainer, or even a valet. “Yes, yes, I know, but
it’s quite a gamble. We may all die, whilst in route, but like you
said, the alternative isn’t any better.”

“Poor, poor Ruka.” Lorena shook her head,
while quietly tip toeing back to her room. All those years of
loneliness and solitude really did damage the poor man’s brain. Ach
well, one must accept the good with the bad. He was a faithful
husband, and a loving father, despite it all. If his madness
overcame him, and they really were required to sail off to the
stars in a spaceship, at least, Lorena would make certain it was
fully stocked with bread.

Chapter 4

 

 

Kirat thought he was unlike most crown princes
in that he didn’t really want to be one. Sure, the perks were
pretty cool. He imagined it would have sucked to have to work for
all the stuff that was just given to him. But, the pressure was
intense, especially knowing this mess was all going to be his
problem someday. Especially when he hadn’t a clue what he was going
to do about it. No amount of good stuff was worth all
that.

“No wonder your dad spends all his time
talking to himself,” Torim de Shrotru said.

Kirat’s best friend was sitting on
the rug playing
Heroes &
Conquerers
. Torim had reached level
fourteen, and needed only three more mushrooms to win the key to
the tower. Then, he’d be able to rescue the princess, something
Kirat had already managed while playing by himself late last
week.

Kirat laughed. Anytime anyone
mentioned his dad, Kirat forced himself to chuckle heartily, as if
his dad’s madness was the funniest thing he ever heard. In the old
days, the really old days, or in a game like the one the boys were
playing, laughing about the king might be considered high treason.
Even if you were his son, you might find yourself waking up one
morning without your head. But then, if life was a game like
Heroes & Conquerers
,
Kirat could just push the red button, and voila, he’d have a whole
new head, maybe several.

In truth, Kirat didn’t really want the throne
at all, although he didn’t really want anyone else to have it
either. As much as he disparaged it to himself and Torim, Kirat
knew he would never have stepped aside, and let his little brother
take it.

But, he wasn’t like his dad. Not all. He never
wanted it that much. Kirat thought their dad had wanted the throne
so much he had killed his brother, King Revak and Queen Myra, his
wife. That’s what a lot of people said. The Queen was pregnant at
the time, too, so that kid might have been the crown prince instead
of Kirat. He might have wanted it, which made Kirat kind of sad,
but not that sad. Just a little.

Because of all this, and because Kirat’s dad
was so weird, keeping mostly to himself, except when he had to do
official functions, a lot of people called him an evil usurper, and
an infidel, whatever that was. They used all sorts of large
terrible sounding words which meant his father was very, very
bad.

“That’s completely false,” Queen Lorena had
scoffed, when Kirat asked her why nobody liked their family. “The
people love us. Wave to the cameras, dearest. Smile with all of
your teeth.”

But, why did they make up so many rumors that
were untrue? Torim had said he heard this one or that one at his
school. Torim was allowed to go to a regular school, unlike the de
Kudisha princes who had to be tutored by special teachers at the
palace. All the guys laughed at the King according to Torim. Torim
probably did too, although he would never admit it, not even to
Kirat.

“I surely hope Torim did not,” the Queen
continued. “If so, then he is not your friend, and he shan’t be
allowed to come visit you anymore. He shall be denied the privilege
of sharing your royal presence.”

Kirat insisted Torim would never have done
such a thing. Torim was completely loyal to the de Kudisha family.
In fact, he swore young Viscount Shrotru had subsequently punched a
guy out, receiving his own black eye and ten demerits in the
process. Fortunately, the Queen never bothered to confirm Kirat’s
story, for the Crown Prince would have been devastated not to have
visits from his friend. He’d be so lonely, he have to start talking
to invisible people just like his dad, or spend every waking hour
playing by himself on his game system.

BOOK: Kudisha Departure Episode 1 Journey to Rehnor series
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