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

The Two Moons of Rehnor

Book 2

My Enemy’s Son

J. Naomi Ay

Published by
Ayzenberg, Inc.

Copyright 2012-2016
Ayzenberg, Inc
.

All Rights
Reserved

011215

Cover Art by Robert
W. Cabell

Also by

J. Naomi Ay

The Two Moons of
Rehnor Series

The Boy who Lit up
the Sky, Book 1

My Enemy’s Son,
Book 2

Of Blood and
Angels, Book 3

Firestone Rings,
Book 4

The Days of the
Golden Moons, Book 5

Golden's Quest,
Book 6

Metamorphosis,
Book 7

The Choice, Book 8

Treasure Hunt,
Book 9

Space Chase, Book
10

Imperial Masquerade,
Book 11

Rivalry, Book 12

Thirteen, Book 13

Betrayal, Book 14

Fairy Tales, Book
15

Gone for a Spin,
Book 16

Firesetter Series

A Thread of Time,
Book 1

Amyr’s Command,
Book 2

Three Kings, Book
3

Exceeding
Expectations, Book 4

Table of C
ontents

Prologue

Chapter 1 – Shelly

Chapter 2 – Katie

Chapter 3 – Shelly

Chapter 4 – Senya

Chapter 5 – Shelly

Chapter 6 – Berkan

Chapter 7 – Katie

Chapter 8 – Email

Chapter 9 – Katie

Chapter 10 – Email

Chapter 11 – Meri

Chapter 12 - Katie

Chapter 13 – Rekah

Chapter 14 – Berkan

Chapter 15 – Moira

Chapter 16 – Katie

Chapter 17 - Shelly

Chapter 18 – Katie

Chapter 19 - Berkan

Chapter 20 - Senya

Pro
logue

He started walking across the planet, the
red dust covering his bare feet, coating them with a thin layer of powder.  The
dust still held traces of radioactivity from the war; the nuclear missiles
launched a millennium ago.  It was hot and so dry his throat felt parched
within mere moments.  He wished he had some water and would have willed himself
some had he known where some might be.  He didn’t know any place on this
planet.  He was completely and totally alone in this dark hot terrain, guided
only by the distant scent of the ocean, the slope of the landscape under his
feet and the occasional sound of a speeder or a bird passing above him.  Never
the less, he kept walking.

While he walked, he tested himself.  He
forced himself to think on the past though he had tried for nearly a decade to
wipe it from his brain with drugs.  Nothing was forgotten.  Every moment from
the orphan home to the guards who came and tore him from the Lord Governor’s
dead body was still there on the tip of his consciousness.  Every emotion,
every moment of rage still burned like an ember in his heart.  He looked
forward and knew that this would not always be.  Someday he would be content. 
Someday he would even be happy, for a while.

He tested himself in other ways too. 
Throughout the desert of this godforsaken land, he tried his strength on
boulders of rock and ruins of buildings that had once stood as testaments to a
great people.  He drew fire from nowhere and rain upon himself when he grew too
hot and thirsty.  When his feet grew sore and swollen, he summoned his wings
and looked upon the land from the air, satisfying his hunger with the occasional
snake or rodent.

When finally he reached the sea, he had
walked and flown for more than seven days and though he held no fondness for
water, he immersed himself fully and washed away the red dust.  Then he held
the water in his hands and willed the sodium and ions to separate and fall
freely back into the sea leaving only the hydrogen and oxygen for him to
drink.  He drank and quenched his thirst and then turned back to the shore to
rest from his journey.

It was while he lay upon the sand that he heard
the Voice and quickly he prostrated himself upon his knees.  The words of the
Voice made everything clear and now, he understood to where his journey had
led.  He thanked his Lord for the insight and rising to his feet, called forth
his blade, long ago stashed away in a secret place.  With his blade he cut the
ulnar artery at his wrist and let his blood spill to the dust.  Then he willed
the skin to close, the wound to heal and took from the sea more fresh water. 
Already where his blood had lain there grew grass.  When he added the water,
the grass spread outward in long tendrils, its roots digging through the dead
earth and churning it, nourishing it, bringing it and the DNA of long dead
worms and creatures back to life.  He sat back on his heels and listened to the
sound of the grass growing.  He inhaled the scent of chlorophyll.  He ran his
hand across the soft green spines and then he lay down upon them and saw
forward to this place when a great forest rose on either side of him.  He heard
the distant music of a waterfall, the pond and brook that would run through the
forest and feed the ocean with new salmon.  He felt the wind caress the tops of
the majestic trees upon which he would sit and then he heard voices in a
language he didn’t yet know.  His heart raced when he heard the laughter of the
woman, a sound like the sweetest music.  He smelled her and felt the softness
of her skin beneath his calloused palm and on his tongue.

Just as quickly as the sensations came,
they were gone leaving only the night air cooling rapidly around him.  Now he
understood the task before him.  He knew why he was set here and what he must
do.  He must heal this land and her people and then he too would heal.  He felt
the rage, the knot of anger that had burned in his soul begin to unravel.  A
peace and contentment washed over him.  He turned on his side and fell soundly,
blissfully to sleep because in that brief glimpse of the future, he felt
something he had never known before in this lifetime.  He had felt loved.

Chapter 1

Shelly

I had lived in Takira-hahr, Rozari for
about three years.  I actually liked it there.  It reminded me of home which
was Tucson, Arizona.

 Rozari was covered by a layer of red dust
and enormous Sedona-like red rock formations lined the landscape.  Huge craters
and canyons could be found scattered across the planet which were tragic daily
reminders of the nuclear war that took place nearly a thousand years before. 
The weather was warm but cooled off appreciably in the evening and it almost
never rained.  My husband Tim had tried several times to start a garden in the
desolate patch we called our backyard but because of his travel schedule and my
lack of interest in watering it, everything usually dried and died immediately
after taking root.

We came to Rozari because Tim was offered
command of the Landbase.  Our two sons, Thad and Larry, were grown and married
by then and their wives had no interest in leaving Earth.  The Landbase would
be Tim’s first command as an Admiral, so it was a good move career-wise for
him.  I was looking for an adventure, something new to shake up my middle age
so I figured what the heck, let's go be aliens someplace. 

Landbase Rozari was one of the largest bases
in the Planetary Alliance, located just outside of the city of Takira-hahr
which was one of the few cities on the planet that had been released from their
air dome.  Land was practically free and taxes were low as the government was
doing everything it could to encourage people back outside into the post-nuclear
wasteland.  Cheap and free were strong incentives for many so there were plenty
of other Humans around to keep us company.  Ships were always coming and going
as a nuclear devastated planet that had actually managed to survive was not
only a rarity but a great tourist attraction.

I found a research position fairly quickly
after we arrived on the planet.  Back at the University of Arizona, I had
worked on my Post Doc in Socio-Anthropological studies.  The Anthropology
department at the Rozarian Science Institute was tiny and understaffed which
suited me fine.  It was just two miles from the Landbase which made it minutes
from my house.  At U of A, I had studied Hopi culture.  At RSI, I explored the
Wars of the Saint, the unfortunate episode in time that brought this poor
planet to the decrepit state it was in. 

I felt perfectly content in my job, my
home and my life.  In fact, if someone told me then that I would leave all that
to be where I am now, you could have knocked me over with a feather. 

I’ll leave that part for later though.  A
friend of mine always said, “Time has to happen in the way it has to happen,”
so I’ll just begin at my beginning.

The Department Chairman of Anthropology at
the Rozarian Science Institute was Dr. Kenak, a sweet old guy.  He stood
shorter than me at less than five feet and had a curly bush of pure white
hair.  Like most Rozarians, his skin was pasty and pale from having grown up
under a dome and now splotched with moles and pigment from emerging into the
sun later in life.  Skin cancer was a huge problem on Rozari. 

Dr. Kenak pretty much left me to do
whatever I wanted.  He didn’t care if I taught one quarter and researched the
next.  His passion in life was the history of Rozari and all he cared to do was
to get into long discussions about Markiis Kalila, the Saint, and his rival,
the Infidel, Karukan de Kudisha.  He could talk your ear off for hours about
those guys. 

Dr. Donak was an old friend of Kenak's and
like his buddy, barely hit five feet tall.  Donak’s once dark hair was streaked
with grey and he wore thick glasses over his dark blue eyes but otherwise, he
and Kenak looked so much alike that easily one could mistake them for
brothers.  Donak was a medical doctor over at the RSI Medical Centre but now
was semi-retired.  He hung around our department most afternoons.

On this particular afternoon, Kenak was
working quietly in his office and I was sitting at my desk staring at nothing. 
The temperature outside was well over 120 degrees and I was sleepy and not very
motivated to work.  I had agreed to teach a class the following quarter on the
period of years prior to Markiis Kalila being declared the Saint.  I had been
attempting to write out my lesson plans but was suffering from a brain block
and just couldn't seem to write anything beyond a word or two.  When the door
opened, I was actually thrilled.  I was hoping it would be one of my students
or a colleague from another department or even someone selling something just
so I could have a conversation and not have to think about this.  The person
that entered was Donak though and I audibly moaned.

“What's the matter, Shelly?” he asked. 
“You do not wish to see me?”

“I’m always happy to see you, Donak,” I
replied and stifled a yawn.  “I was just hoping you would be bringing me an
iced latte or something else cold and delicious.”

“And I've come with empty hands instead.” 
He showed me his hands.  “But an interesting find to share with you and Kenak. 
Is he in?”

“In his office.”  I pointed to the door
across the room and rose up to follow him.  “What sort of find? 
Archeological?  Did you find an old bone for us to look at?”

“Kenak!”  Donak ignored my question and
shouted for Kenak.  Kenak was going a bit deaf and tended to repeat things
which prompted Donak to shout things.  “Kenak, I've got something to tell you.”

“What is it, what is it?” Kenak responded
and waved us into his office which was really not much more than a closet with
a couple of chairs perched behind a desk much too large for the space. 

Our department was severely underfunded by
a university that was perpetually suffering from budget cuts.  Donak sat down
in his usual chair while I stood in the doorway and fanned my face.  The air
conditioning didn’t work too well here either, although no one else seemed to
be bothered by it as much as me.

“Last week we had a patient come in through
the ER,” Donak announced taking off his glasses and wiping them on his tunic. 
I went back to my office and found everyone a cold bottle of water and then sat
down in the chair next to Donak to listen.

“I was working the ER you know,” Donak
continued.  “Once a month, they insist I must do the rotations.  Oh, how I hate
the ER.  I am far too old to be rushing here and there and quick and stat and
this poor fellow needs this and that poor fellow needs that.  I am much happier
in my quiet little office with one or two patients who I have seen for years
and years for the usual pains and the usual aches.”

“Yes, quite, quite,” Kenak agreed, nodding
his head.  “I have never understood how you could possibly manage rushing here
and there and this one bleeding and that one oozing and another one tossing up
all sorts of foul matter.”

I stood up.  I’d heard this discussion
before.  Next they would start in on what Donak would do to entertain himself
upon retirement and whether golf or bridge lessons would provide enough mental
stimulation.

“Where are you going, Shelly?” Donak
asked.  “Do you not want to hear of my find?”

“I do.  But I don’t want to hear about
blood oozing and spurting.”

“Please,” he waved, “sit back down and I
shall tell you all about a patient I admitted and I will not make mention of
anything he oozed or spurted.”

“Thank you.”  I took my seat again.

“Yes, well,” Donak began again, cleaning
his spectacles one more time.  “This fellow was brought in by the police, you
see.  Stoned out of his mind, he was.”

“Stoned?” Kenak gasped.  “On what?”

“Horkin!” Donak exclaimed.  “Can you
imagine?  This is what all the aliens have done to our beloved Rozari, my
friend.  Sorry Shelly, do not take this personally.  We never had drug addicts
before all these folks settled here.  Now we have drugs again and drug addicts.”

“Quite, quite,” Kenak mused thoughtfully. 
“A drug addict.”

“That’s it?” I asked.  “You came to tell
us about a stoner bum?”

“No,” Donak continued and put his glasses
back on which magnified his eyes to about ten times their normal size.  “Well
yes.  Actually, I did come to tell you that this particular…uh… stoner bum had
enough Horkin in him to kill an elephant, two elephants actually.  He was found
under a bench in the middle of the shopping mall by the Takira-hahr police. 
Somehow he got there during the night when the mall was closed and locked up
tight.”

“A clever stoner bum who can pick a lock.”
 I sighed and stood up again.  Granted there were not too many bums and drug
addicts on Rozari but I wasn't bored enough to waste the rest of my day hearing
about one.

“Ah hah,” Donak said.  “That is what the
interns thought too.  Waste of time, this one.  Sober him up if he hasn't
killed his brain and send him on his way.  But!”  Donak paused and punctuated
his sentence with an audible exclamation point.

“Yes, yes?” Kenak prodded. 

I stood by the doorway with my arms
crossed, and waited.

“After analyzing a bit of blood, we discovered
that not only had this fellow enough Horkin in his system to kill two
elephants, he had Haloperidol enough to kill two elephants.”

“What's Haloperidol?”

“A very strong tranquilizer,” Donak
replied.  “Not something you would use on an advanced life form unless you
wanted him knocked flat for days.  Immobilized, paralyzed, unconscious, should
be dead but he was not.”

“Did you tell this to the police?” Kenak
inquired.

“I did not.”

“Why?”

“Because when I examined more of the
subject's blood, I discovered several other very interesting and curious
things.  One, his plasma was full of very unusual proteins.”

“So he is alien,” I remarked.

“No,” Donak replied dismissively.  “He is
not alien.  There were clearly Rozarian markers in his blood too.”

Kenak's eyes grew wide. 

I glanced between the two men.  What was I
missing?

“He is Rozarian, then?” I ventured.  “A
Rozarian stoner bum drug addict.”

“Yes, possibly or no, possibly not.  In
truth I cannot exactly say."  Donak smiled and turned back to Kenak.  “But
now my friends, here is the most important and most interesting bit.  This
fellow has been marked!”

“No!” shouted Kenak, suddenly leaping from
his chair.

“What?”

“Really, Donak?” cried Kenak, leaning
forward across his desk.

“What are you talking about?”  I gasped.

Donak nodded profoundly.

“How?”  Kenak exclaimed.  “How and where
and what is it?”

“It appears to be cut and then burnt,”
Donak replied smugly.  “I am certain you will want to see it for yourself.”

“And where?” Kenak implored, raising his
arms and opening his hands.  “Where?  Where?”

“Extending across his left deltoid to the
brachialis.”  Donak pointed at his own arm.  “It appears to me to be the
Eagle.”

“Holy Saint,” Kenak sighed ecstatically
and fell back upon his chair, his hands now stuck in his white curls.  “Holy
Saint, Holy Saint.”

“What does this mean?” I practically
screamed.

“Our friend Donak has found a Karupta,
dear Shelly.”  Kenak shook his head with a wondrous expression on his face. 
“And one who is marked with the sign of Karukan, the Eagle.”

“But there aren’t any Karupta left on
Rozari,” I stated.  “They left a thousand years ago.

“Only the kings and princes were marked.” 
Kenak managed to extract his fingers from his hair and made a prism of them
instead.  He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling.  “A prince
would be marked as you say.  The king would be marked across the forearm. 
Could this one be a prince?”

“Ha,” Donak coughed.  “This one appears to
be a slave, not a prince.  Perhaps the Karupta, wherever they are, have changed
their reasons for marking.  Perhaps he is now branded with the symbol of the
prince he serves.”

“Why do you think that?” I asked.

“This one has welts and scars across his
back and chest.”

“What sort of scars?” Kenak sat up and
stared at Donak.

“Gunshot wounds, laser burns, welts from
lashings, it appears.  Whoever owned him punished him severely.”

“Poor guy,” I mumbled and imagined the
last Karupta on Rozari trying desperately to escape his evil master only to
become a stoner bum hanging around the Fashion Mall in Takira-hahr.

“But there is more,” Donak teased.  “This
you will not believe my friends.  The Karupta’s eyes are not normal.  His eyes
are indeed the strangest ocular specimens I have ever seen in all my years of
treating the people of this galaxy.”

“What's wrong with them?” I whispered,
almost afraid to find out.

“They are silver but beyond silver
colored. Indeed they emit specks of shining silver light.  When he gazes upon
you it is like looking at the sun.  You will feel a thickness in your skull, a
fog or heaviness, until he closes his eyes or turns away from you.”