Zoe Thanatos (24 page)

Like the Queen Mother before her,
she hated the name Thanatos, despised the very idea of it. She looked out
towards the direction of the Military Complex, a building connected by corridor
to the Throne Room and one of the only Crown buildings without public access.
Somewhere an Elder was locked up, awaiting punishment for the crime of stealing
from her, from the Crown. If that were the only crime she was accused of Kyra
might have shown her leniency. Instead the Elder conspired against the Queen,
accused her of being a fraud, claimed the identity of a dead woman, and
orchestrated to both kidnap the King and hold him hostage.

There were others who played a
part. How many additional residents were there in Last City who knew of the
Elder woman’s claims about the Queen? How fast would her treasonous claims
spread and trickle into the innermost cities? No doubt the residents were
already questioning the necessity of the lock-down. They didn’t need any more
gossip to whisper in each other’s ears. Kyra knew she would have to act soon to
prevent even a small uprising. With any hope they would summarily dismiss the
rumors, having forgotten the name Thanatos all together.

There were other matters
distracting her from her duties as sovereign. The King returned from Last City
but did not bother to see her, instead sending Evan in his place. Then he
revealed that she was no longer the only woman in his life. She was certain
there had never been anyone else, though not for a lack of trying. Evan, whether
by ignorance or sheer carelessness, seemed immune to the charms and advances of
others. Except her.

She had long admired the allure of
his good looks and charm, even from childhood when she would watch him play
with others in Royal City, his sister Evadine chief among them. It wasn’t until
she was Queen that she had the courage to approach him, to smile and flirt as
though it came naturally to her. She had been groomed by the Queen Mother to
inherit the Crown, to preside over Terra, and to one day produce the next
Straton heir with the King. Yet she had no interest in him. It was Evan she
wanted and before she knew it they were sharing a bed, carrying on an affair
that only further emboldened her.

Until him, she had only ever made
love to the King, though she wouldn’t have called it love. It was a marital
ritual they observed ceremoniously at first, and later as an obligation to
their duties as Queen and King. Their intercourse was unremarkable, plain and
often boring. There was no passion between them, no desire for one another that
made the act anything more than just sex. They never once discussed producing
an heir.

With Evan, however, there was
excitement, a thrill that made her feel desired and wanted. With him she
experienced a depth of lovemaking she had not felt with her husband. He would
give himself to her, kiss her deeply as he moved inside her, his fingers
entangled in hers as he satiated her. She had come to love him in her own way,
to appreciate their physical relationship for what it was.

Now there was someone else, someone
in another world that would keep him from his home and away from her. Someone
he would give himself to instead of her. The thought was unsettling. Jealousy
stabbed through her as she imagined Evan with another woman, kissing her,
making love to her.

If it was someone from Terra she
would know her and have to see her; everyone would know there was someone he
chose over her. Yet it was almost worse that whoever she was, she was from
another world. An outsider. Residents were not permitted to bring people from
other worlds to Terra, which meant if Evan wanted to be with his mystery girl
he would have to leave Terra. The idea of it fueled her jealousy, turning it to
anger.

She could have ordered him to stay,
to continue the affair with her and no one else. It would have been so easy,
and yet that wasn’t who she was, or who she wanted to be. Her own version of
love for him made it impossible to exert her authority over him.

A figure emerged from the corridor
leading from the Military Complex. Alcander walked briskly towards her, his
face rigid in contemplation.

“Your Highness,” he greeted. His
face contorted into a displeasing scowl as he hesitated.

“What it is?” she asked. She tried to
clear her mind of her personal thoughts.

Alcander looked up at her
regretfully, his face drawn deep in lines. “The residents from Last City we
were detaining have escaped our custody. We believe they were being aided by a
Resident, one of our own.”

Kyra stood from her throne and
stepped down from the pedestal. He took a step back as she approached him and
bent his head to avoid eye contact. “When?”

 “Not long ago. Several teams have
already been dispatched to look for them and every Crown Soldier within the
city is on the alert.”

“Is the Elder woman also missing?”

“No, she’s still in her holding,
Your Highness.”

“Shut down the Transport Stations
immediately. I want this kept quiet. No one outside of the Crown Soldiers is to
know about what has happened.”

“Of course. I have already
expressly instructed them to do so.”

“Fine. What about the Resident who
was helping them? What do you know?” Someone, one of her own residents, had
aided in freeing known conspirators of the Crown? The entirety of Royal City
was in lock-down with no one permitted to leave their private residences.
Whoever it was they had acted foolishly against the Queen’s wishes and with
flagrant disregard for the Crown.

“We’ve yet to identify anyone. From
what we’ve gathered so far, whoever it was managed to disengage the master lock
of each detainment room.”

She looked at him disbelievingly
“You mean to tell me they just walked out of their cells and escaped past every
Crown Soldier in the Military Complex?”

Alcander’s posture diminished
beneath her glare. He was a small man cowering in front of her. “No one claims
to have seen them, Your Highness. Many of them were preoccupied with the King.”

Kyra’s eyes opened wider at the
mention of her husband. “The King was there during the escape?”

He nodded. “Yes, Your Highness.”

Interesting
. Her lips pursed
and she tilted her head back, his words sticking at an unspoken thought in her
mind. “Where is he now?” she asked, looking back at Alcander.

“With Hector in the Military
Complex. He’s insisted on leading the search for the escaped residents.”

“Good. Keep an eye on him.”

“O-on the King?” he stuttered,
clearly taken aback by such a request.

“Do you have a problem with that,
Alcander?” she asked.

His eyes widened as the shock
registered on his face. “Your Highness, he is the King!”

“And I am your Queen!” she replied,
astonished she had to quantify anything for him at all. He swallowed and again
cowered beneath her imposing stare.

“Forgive me,” he pleaded, his head
bowed before her in shame.

“Just do your job. Put extra guards
outside the Elder’s room. Gather the soldiers who were supposed to be
monitoring the other detainment rooms and have them escorted to the Government
Center to await further instruction. When the Transport Stations are shut down
I want the transport searched car-by-car. Find out who was on board last and
what station they disembarked at.”

“Yes, Your Highness. I will see to
it immediately.”

“I hope so,” she dismissed. He
turned on his heel and quickly exited the Throne Room, heading back in the
direction of the Military Complex. She watched him retreat in silence and
briefly considered whether she had come off too hard, or not hard enough.

“Well, you’ve certainly got a mess
on your hands, Kyra.”

The hairs on the back of her neck
pricked up as she recognized the voice. Quickly she turned and came
face-to-face with a set of golden eyes. She bent into a deep curtsey and dipped
her head forward. When she stood upright again she found the golden eyes still
staring intently at her.

“Hello, Mother.” It had been a long
time since Korina Straton set foot on Terra. She’d long ago retired to an
opulent residence in a nearby universe, ascending Kyra to the throne in her
place while she lived out the rest of her generation as an Elder. Her
appearance was as meticulous as ever: pale blonde hair cropped just above her
shoulders, her skin as radiant and luminous, effectively hiding her older age.
By all accounts she was the most beautiful woman Kyra had ever known, her own
dark eyes and hair a poor contrast to her mother’s beautiful appearance.

“Hello, Darling. I’ve been hearing
some rather unsettling rumors as of late. I thought I’d come inquire in person
as to their validity.”

Kyra gave a curt smile. “My
apologies for having to inconvenience you; fortunately, I have everything under
control.”

“Do you?” Korina asked
rhetorically. “A sacred artifact was stolen and the King kidnapped in the
attempt to retrieve said artifact. The Last City residents you’ve brought back
have managed to escape, slip out undetected from the watch of your Crown
Soldiers, and the woman responsible for it all still lives?”

“I do not plan to pass sentence on
her until I speak with her myself.”

“Giving credence to a Resident who
would plot against the Crown is not a wise move, my dear.”

“That will be my judgment to make,”
Kyra asserted.

Korina turned her back and began a
slow pace around the throne. The silence in the room stretched out between
them, a growing thickness that disconcerted her. She wondered just how much the
Queen Mother knew about the situation. Clearly she had been apprised of the
goings-on of Terra, but there was some information she was either lacking or
choosing not to divulge, such as the fact that the Elder woman was claiming to
be Thea Thanatos. If there had been any measure of doubt about the demise of
Thea Thanatos the Queen Mother would have come back to Terra willingly and
without hesitation. There was no indication she knew either way and Kyra
vacillated on whether or not to inform her.

She was growing inpatient at the
Queen Mother’s interference. Regardless of whom the Elder woman claimed to be
it was
her
responsibility to deal with the matter, not Korina’s.

Finally the Queen Mother stopped
pacing and turned back to face Kyra. Her eyes had narrowed and her chin jutted
out, making her posture increase in height. “I will speak to her,” she
announced.

“That won’t be necessary,” Kyra
dismissed her.

Korina’s eyes narrowed. “I’m afraid
I insist. There is no one alive apart from me who could look into the woman’s
eyes and know if she is indeed Thea Thanatos.”

So there was doubt. For nearly a
generation the world believed the original family was gone, forgotten in time.
In all likelihood the Elder woman was lying, and yet Korina Straton felt
compelled to find out for herself. Had Kyra mistaken the Queen Mother’s
intentions? What other reason could there be for her wanting to question the
captured woman? Under any other circumstances she would have loathed her
mother’s interference in matters of the Crown. However, there was no doubt in
Kyra’s mind that if Thea Thanatos wasn’t involved, even in name only, her
mother would not be there.

“I’ll take you to see her,” she
agreed. Despite the irritation she felt for her mother her own curiosity got
the best of her.

When she turned she noticed a
number of Crown Soldiers had entered the Throne Room and taken posts at each
corridor. They were all armed. As she led Korina towards the corridor leading
to the Military Complex, each soldier they passed bowed their heads in
reverence to her. Another set of guards stood watch at the center of the
corridor, one at each side and each bowing as they made their way through.

The Military Complex was stocked
with a small army of Crown Soldiers, some being outfitted with weapons, others
strategizing with interactive maps of Royal City blown up large on the glass
walls. She noticed Hector sitting at a command station, speaking into a headset
as his eyes kept watch on the screens in front of him. The atmosphere of the
room was thick with a tension that only amplified when their presence was
noticed.

One by one the soldiers bowed their
heads in deference to the Queen and Queen Mother, their silence bringing the
room to a quick and unsettling quiet. Kyra scanned the top of heads bowed
before her and noticed that none of them belonged to the King.

She dismissed them with a nod and
the soldiers went back to their work. Kyra continued through the building
towards the detainment rooms, her mother in close pursuit. As they reached the
corridor that branched off from the main room they were stopped by an
ashen-faced Alcander.

“Your Highness!” he gasped, clearly
startled by the rare appearance of the Queen Mother. His head and torso dropped
down so low Kyra was sure he would fall to the ground. When he stood again his
face was still pallid and weary. He opened his mouth to speak but the sound was
nothing more than a feeble squeak. His mouth shut again and he swallowed hard,
his eyes growing ever wider in his face as he looked from the Queen Mother to
Kyra.

“What’s happened now?” Kyra asked.
The terror on his face was unmistakable. She nearly felt sorry for the man as
he fumbled to compose himself in front of them. She looked briefly to her
mother and saw she was equally perplexed. She hoped it wasn’t more bad news.
She couldn’t stand being made to look like a fool in front of anyone, let alone
the Queen Mother.

“I did as you asked, Your Highness.
I sent the guards from the detainment rooms to the Government Complex to await
your instruction. The transport was shut down. I sent more guards to the Elder
prisoner’s room but they…” he trailed off.

Korina took a step towards him and
he looked as though he might faint. “But they what?” she asked.