Marcael: A Terraneu Novel, Book Five (7 page)

Brennae waited for Marcael to answer her question.
Why had he killed her grandfather? She knew there was more to the story than he
was letting on. His look of surprise at her question was almost enough to make
her laugh.

“I would answer you if I could—” Marcael started and she broke in. She
did not want him to make excuses for why he could not talk to her.

“Don’t tell me that this isn’t the time.” She looked around, wringing her
hands in agitation. “No matter what we say tonight, one way or the other this
will be all over soon. What harm could there be in finally telling the truth?”
Brennae leaned forward and smiled wryly, “I am not a child Marcael. I know that
the likelihood of me surviving whatever comes in the next few hours isn’t that
high.” She leaned back with a sigh, “I must have really muddled up the plans
you had for defeating my uncle. Trying to keep me alive is going to cost you
the advantage and I realize that.”

“That is not—” again Brennae interrupted him.

“True?” She was getting angry that he wouldn’t treat her like an equal,
“If it had been anyone else sitting here, you would be talking strategies
instead of trying to sugar coat our predicament for my sake. Stop trying to
protect me! I’m not some porcelain doll that can’t think!”

“Okay.” Marcael leaned forward and put his hands on hers, “You want only
the truth?” He sighed, “It would have been easier to initiate my plan without
having to worry about you on this ship. Our odds of success are diminished, but
not by as much as you seem to think. I still believe that we will be successful
in ending this nightmare.”

“I don’t suppose you will tell me this plan you have?” When he just
raised his eyebrow and smiled Brennae sighed, “Okay...so about my grandfather?”

Marcael bit out a laugh, “You are persistent.” He leaned back and his
eyes locked on hers, “Are you sure you want to hear this?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” Brennae didn’t hesitate. She waited patiently for
Marcael to start talking.

Marcael took a drink of his water and leaned back on the cushions. “I was
a street orphan when your grandfather found me. Five other boys and myself had
stayed together to protect each other from the other roving gangs. We were so
young I knew it was only a matter of time before we were killed, or sold into
prostitution.” He smiled at her, “I even accused your grandfather of that when
he offered to take me off the streets.”

Brennae had just taken a drink of her water when he stated that. She
gasped and immediately started coughing, waving him back when he moved to help
her. “I’m okay.” She rasped out, “You didn’t really do that!?”

He laughed again, “Yes, I did. Though I will admit at the time I thought
he was just a High Lord. I had not realized he was the King.” With a
mischievous glint in his eyes he said, “Actually, I am not sure it would have
mattered. I was terribly rude at that age.”

Brennae smiled at the thought of a young Marcael telling her grandfather
off. “How old were you?”

“I do not know, maybe nine or ten years old at the time. I had been
abandoned in the streets. There is no way for me to know how old I was
exactly.”

Brennae’s smile dimmed. “So young?” She whispered.

“Yes, well your grandfather saw to it that I was trained and educated.
When I achieved the honor of being Knoet’un I thought my heart would burst from
happiness.” Instead of having a radiant smile at the memory, Brennae was
surprised to see him frowning. “It was not long after the Knighting Ceremony
that I was chosen for the assignment that eventually led me here. You see your
grandfather was very smart. He knew that the Queen would accept me more readily
because he had guessed at my parentage. Though I did not know exactly who they
were, it showed in my features that I was from Aekaetum. It was easy for me to
say that I had been cast out due to my connection to the country we were
warring with.” Rubbing his hands over his face he continued, “I was able to
work my way into the Queens guard. They believed I had been stripped of my
status as Knoet’un because of my race and was therefore bitter toward the King
and Kingdom. I quickly earned a place at the Queens side where I stayed getting
as much information to the King as I could. When the day came that they brought
the King before the Queen, I was working as a guard at her side. They dragged
your grandfather in and made him bow to his wife. I could see something was not
right. He was not the same man. Instead of hearty and full of life, he was pale
and sweaty. I knew instantly that he had contracted Elyon’s Madness, the
disease she had created that was ravaging all of Terra.”

Brennae had to break in. “How could he have caught it. Wouldn’t he have
isolated himself for protection?”

Marcael shook his head, stating sadly, “He was not that kind of leader.
As long as even one of his people was in harm’s way, he would be in harm’s way
as well. When I saw the Queen move toward the King, I tried to stop her. Not
because I wanted to protect her, but because it was expected of me. As I knew
she would, she did not hesitate to keep going toward the King. She was so full
of hate and loathing I knew she would not let him out of the room without
insulting and physically assaulting him and I had to stand by and watch. When
the King grabbed Elyon and kissed her, I knew it had been his plan all along to
be brought in front of her. She was furious with him and demanded that I
torture my King.” Marcael’s voice grew softer, “I pulled my blade, the Un’bah
given to me by your grandfather on my Knighting day. I walked up to him and I
put my blade through his heart.”

Brennae sat in stunned silence for a second, “You knew my grandfather was
sick and that is why you were able to kill him. How is it that my uncle could
get any indication of ‘happiness’ from you?”

Marcael rubbed his eyes wearily, “Because I was happy to do it! The Queen
would have taken great pleasure from his suffering. If I had not killed him,
the King would have been tortured just so she could laugh while he screamed. I
knew my blade through his heart would end not only any torture, but also his
decline from the disease. I risked the Queen’s wrath in killing him outright,
but I had to do it.”

Marcael had finished his water and rose to get more, giving her time to
think about what he had said. He had killed her grandfather, but there was a
greater good from the act. He had been able to stay in the Queens guard and was
assigned to her mad uncle. When he sat back down she offered, “Since you
answered one of my questions, it’s only fair you get to ask one.”

He looked surprised, “Okay.” Tapping his finger against his chin, he
thought for a second, “Tell me about life on Terraneu.”

“Well, we have a giant swimming pond and park area. Everyone loves to
spend time there! It is like the oasis where you found me, only in the safety
of the community.” Brennae smiled at the thought of the waterfalls and lazy
river. “We also have sporting fields for football games.” At his confused look
she laughed, “Football is a game played by two teams. The object is to get the
ball into the opposing teams net. You can’t use your hands and there are other
rules...but it is very fun to play. My brothers are on a team and they are
constantly talking about football or playing football.” When he just nodded his
understanding, she continued. “We have these small creatures called gnowlers
that eat the grass around the community. My mom calls them lawn mowers. She has
one that she domesticated that she calls Chewy, and I have befriended a few as
well but they are nocturnal and no one else has them for pets.”
 

Sitting forward Brennae smiled widely, “We have pet sacath! You saw my
parents’ at the oasis, Cebat was the golden one and Tabec is his mate, she was
the black one. My mom calls them ‘saber toothed cat-dogs’. I always had an
affinity with animals, so when it came time to choose a job that I would enjoy
it was a natural choice to work with them. I work with a nice man named Iesti.
He has taught me all about the sacath and sorrem. Those are the pack animals we
use to move around Terraneu. Everyone gets to choose what job will make him or
her happy. For instance, my Uncle Knaleg and Aunt Catherine are both very
militaristic, so they chose jobs that lean toward security and weapons. My
Uncle Kneus and Aunt Gwen are both very scientific, so do a lot of work with
the computers and medical units around Terraneu. Some people just do roving
duties since they don’t have an affinity for any one position.”

Marcael held up his hand and she paused, “How big is Terraneu?”

“I’m not sure exactly how many rings are currently being used. You see
Terraneu is the original community based around the original fathers Square of
Four domes. The subsequent generations built out from there in rings. Depending
on the need, residential and the industrial domes can be turned on or off, or
entire rings can be dormant. Since there are new communities called New Haven
and McPhersonville where families live, the number of operational rings
varies.”

She smiled at Marcael and elaborated, “I have a dome in Terraneu close to
the sorrem holding where I work. It is the same dome my mother lived in when
she first came to Terraneu.”

Marcael stopped her and sat up straight, “When she first came to
Terraneu?”

“My mom is from Earth, or as you would call it Terra.” Brennae explained.

“Terra? All of the people of Terra were killed by Elyon’s madness.”
Marcael had gone a new shade of white.

“Not all the people of Terra died Marcael. Some must have survived and
started over with their lives. Earth is just getting to a new age of
technology, but there are over seven billion people living on Earth now.”

“Seven billion?” Marcael had gone from white to a weird shade of green.
“How can there be so many?” Shaking his head slowly he whispered, “Explain how
your mother came to be on Terraneu please.” He sank back into his seat and
Brennae worried he might be sick or something.

“Okay. It goes like this,” Brennae had heard the story so many times she
laughed, “My mom had gone on a trip during a time in their suns rotation when
it was cold where she was vacationing. She was out walking, slipped down a
hill, and landed on a port pad. The portal took her to Antilles where she was
caught in an Antillean trap. Since my father and the Antillean leader, Zerxix
have negotiated trade agreements with each other, they kept her thinking my
father’s people might be interested.”

“They traded humanoid life? Like slavers?” Marcael sounded offended.

“No. They trade some animals, like the sacath, for sugar cane we have on
Terraneu. They are insectoid so the only thing that they want is the plant,
nothing else matters to them. Zerxix has the strongest colony because of his
affiliation with Terraneu, so it works well for both of us. They also keep an
eye on the port pad to Earth.” Brennae laughed at this part of the story coming
up, “Anyway, my mother was wearing an ugly fur covering and hat so the
Antilleans and my father, thought she was a sickly primate or something. It was
back on Terraneu when my father went to take her out of the cage that my mother
hit him in a sensitive spot.” She cast a knowing look at Marcael’s groin then
back up. He winced and laughed with her at that part of the story.

“So when my father went down to his knees, my mother ran for it. She
didn’t get very far though. My father caught her and she was knocked out but he
thought she was dead. He put her in their medical unit to perform an autopsy,
it refused because she wasn’t dead, and he got frustrated and set it to do a diagnostic
instead. Well the medical unit recognized my mother’s DNA, even primitive as it
was and fixed her. Chaos ensued and when the smoke cleared, they ended up
mated. Happily ever after she is fond of saying.”

“What is mated?” Marcael asked her when she paused.

“Mates are a couple who have chosen to stay together in a monogamous
partnership. Since women were only introduced into the community after my
mother arrived and they found a way to bring more from Earth...or Terra as you
would call it...rules were put into place to try and keep everything as equal
and peaceful as possible. One of those rules is that once you chose mate status
you can’t reverse it. Some of the woman and men for that matter have chosen not
to have a mate. They are perfectly happy to date as many partners as they
want.”

“Do you have as many partners as you want?” Brennae was surprised at the
deep timber of Marcael’s voice. It was like a wave of energy along her skin
causing gooseflesh.

Brennae could feel herself turning red, “I don’t currently have a
partner, but I have dated.” She wondered if she could tell him the rest, “I was
a bit of a late bloomer you see. I didn’t really get any freedom until my
sixteenth year.
That
celebration dance was a night to remember!” Brennae
got lost in the memory of that dance. The lights and banners, the music and
dancing, the boys holding her close. When she heard Marcael clearing his throat
loudly she looked back to him. He was sitting there with his eyebrow raised
staring at her with an expression she couldn’t quite place. “What?”

“The celebration dance was a night to remember...why exactly?” He leaned
forward on the couch.

“Well for one thing my father, brothers, cousins and uncles didn’t chase
away all the males asking me to dance like they normally would have. I even got
asked out on a few dates at that dance.” Brennae leaned forward, “Since the
celebration dance only happens every six months and as much fun as I was
having, I was already looking forward to the next one!”

“So what does the celebration dance ‘celebrate’?”

“The woman coming to Terraneu. Every six months the port pad was active
and they were able to get some woman from Earth. It worked twice until they
were discovered. It seems the Earth authorities didn’t take well to so many
women going missing.” Brennae smiled, “The dance has kind of morphed into a
celebration of how far Terraneu has come as a community. The next one is a week
from now...that is—”