After some consideration, I have decided to post twice a week. The next couple of entries will be the humans of this planet trying to understand where this child has come from. I tried to go a more realistic route with communication with someone who may not understand language. So, this may seem a little clunky. Over the next couple of entries most of the characters, who will remain until the end of the first book, will make an appearance.
A few more people have opted into reading this story, which is great. I hope you enjoy the journey, as it is one that is close to my heart. I am still thinking of what I will use for images to separate sections and for the overall book. However, until I come up with something, enjoy a picture of my rat Cupcake.
Meedus had been charged with getting the girl to treatment whilst the others dealt with the dead lizards. Needless to say, the Queen’s handmaidens were less than pleased with him as they spirited her away for treatment. He didn’t have long to wait before the Queen herself made an appearance.
Where the King was stocky and had dark hair that was greying now, she still looked as young as the day that she had married Karesh. The tall woman, with blue-grey hair that was tightly plaited and dark grey eyes, quickly descended on him. She looked furious, and her lab coat billowed out behind her as she marched toward him.
“Why me?” He muttered under his breath as she came to stand before him.
“What the hell did you assholes do to that child!?” She screamed at him.
Even after fifteen years of being married into the Royal family, she still hadn't learnt to mind her tongue.
“Now, Your Majesty...”
“Don’t ‘Your Majesty’ me Meedus. On a quick inspection, I could tell you she has next to no life force left and has internal bleeding that we are still trying to find. She has a hole through her hand, and a cut big enough to fit my hand in along her forehead. Was this Karesh’s doing? Why I ought to…”
“If you’d let me explain.” Meedus said with exasperation.
“Oh, don’t pull that attitude on me.” She wagged a finger in his face. “Answer me this. Was this Karesh’s doing?”
“No! It was the lizards, I think…”
“You think, or you know?” She demanded, her eyes ablaze with fury at the mention of the creatures that had taken the life of her first child.
He started to explain what had happened, but the more he spoke the angrier she became as if she didn’t believe what he was saying. Eventually, she had heard enough and held her hand up for him to be silent.
“Send Karesh to me when he arrives and have the corpses delivered for autopsy. I would have one of the handmaidens determine their origin.”
“And the girl?”
“My handmaidens will do what they can. She is hurt, I’m not going to lie to you.” The Queen thought this statement over, then said softly. “You realise she was likely bait to kill Karesh, right? The Lizard Lords will not stop until his line is dead.”
“The thought had crossed my mind but Your Majesty, she didn’t understand us and the manner of her clothes. It is unknown even to me, and I travelled far more than even you.”
“I already sent her clothes and a sample of her blood for analysis. We will uncover who she is.”
“As expected, Queen of Knowledge.” Meedus bowed.
“Oh, stop it! And it is Technology, Queen of Technology.” She grinned.
Today had meant to be a day of mourning. Her baby had died on this day ten years ago. She would normally settle in her room and drink herself to a stupor. Then she would sleep it off whilst her husband did his yearly trek to the gravestone she refused to see. Not today though, today she had been presented with an enigma, and if anything could break her out of her mourning ritual this was it.
The strange girl had regained consciousness quickly once the Queen’s handmaidens had managed to stop the internal bleeding. From what the Queen was told, the girl had laid there for a few minutes whilst the internal wounds were sealed before she had jumped up and ran, naked, from the healing chambers. The search for her had been fruitless, and now her hospital was crawling with her husband’s soldiers as well as her own security detail. It infuriated her. This was a place of learning and healing. She had allowed the indignity of being escorted to her laboratory and locked there, but she was not happy. She sat and glowered at the soldier posted at the door which had just been closed, which was a good thing because her eyes suddenly met the dual colours of the girl that had been squatting behind it. She looked absolutely terrified.
“Interesting.” The Queen sat silently and viewed her. “Heterochromia. Blue and grey, well that is rare. I don’t think I have seen that since...since Natus.”
The girl suddenly held her head and groaned, the cut was still open and had started bleeding again. The wound in her left hand also was bleeding. Clearly, the handmaidens had only time to deal with the main injury which would have killed the girl. Terrified and in pain, the girl sat down and looked up at the Queen as if resigning herself to her fate of being captured.
“Budding breasts, hips starting to flare, I’d say you can’t be older than fourteen. I’d have to look at your teeth to be sure.” She continued softly, as she got off her chair to reach for a clipboard. “Do you understand me?”
The girl shook her head.
“Well, you aren’t deaf. You just don’t know our language. I can get around that. Do you know numbers?” The Queen drew several numbers on the clipboard and showed it to her.
The girl shook her head again.
“Okay, let’s do this.” The Queen sat on the ground and pointed to a number then raised a single finger. “One. Not painful.”
She used the paper to make a paper cut on her finger to prove a point. “One, not painful.”
She went through all the numbers making faces to show the severity of pain, then pointed to the girl, then to the numbers. “Your head. Number?”
The girl held up three fingers, clearly, a lie, and the Queen laughed. “Lying even though you have no language to lie with, impressive, but I need to know the truth.”
She repeated her instructions again, going slower, trying to make it clear that she needed the truth from the girl. The girl looked less scared now and tapped the cut then signed three again. Then she tapped her head, away from the cut and signed a six.
“Ah! Okay.” The Queen nodded her head.
She got to her feet and collected an anatomy book she had been researching the night before. “We are getting somewhere.”
She paged to a large picture of a skull. “Where is the six?”
She took a few steps closer to the girl, then sat and put the book in front of her. The girl looked confused again.
“You can’t read this either, can you? Where did you come from, young one?” She tapped her forehead, then the corresponding location on the picture followed by signing six. “Six here?”
The girl shook her head and tapped closer to her ear then the same location on the picture, leaving a bloody fingerprint.
“You were hit and fell on your face?” The Queen mimed what she said. “Hard?”
The girl nodded her head, then clutched at her head again before miming a seven.
“Is it getting worse?” The Queen signed a six followed by a seven, then an eight.
The girl nodded her head once more, then looked at the Queen imploringly.
“You have a brain bleed.” She turned a few pages to where there was a picture of a brain.
She leaned forward to catch a few drops of the child’s blood before smearing the liquid on the left side of the brain. She showed the picture to her and then wrote the number eleven.
“You need to let me help you, or you will die.” She continued to draw numbers until she just drew a straight line. “And it will hurt. Blood will come from your ears, and it will hurt a lot.”
The child shook her head and groaned for her effort. The Queen saw movement by the door and held her hand up to stop whoever was trying to enter. “Stop! Just stay where you are. I am in no danger as long as you stay there.”
“My Queen?”
It was Doran’s voice. Upon hearing it, the child growled and tried to stand. Too fast. Blood rushed to her head as she did this, and then she was out before she even started toppling. The Queen barely caught her before she hit the ground. Doran forced his way into the room ready to defend the Queen but paused when he saw her with the child lying in her lap.
“There is definitely an increase of pressure in her skull.” the Queen said as she lay a hand on the child’s head. “There is a brain bleed. How has she managed to remain conscious for so long?”
“Are you hurt?” Asked Doran.
“I was getting through to her.” The Queen looked confused. “I can’t heal her. If I can’t heal her then the likelihood is her internal injuries haven’t been healed either. Doran, you need to summon surgeons.”
“Those bloody butchers?” He scoffed. “Surely your life force…”
“I do not have time to argue with you. Either get the surgeons or find me someone else who will.”
“At once...Your Majesty.”
He called to the soldier beyond the door and made his request known before returning to the Queen’s side. Her lab coat was already turning crimson. He had only seen that look on her face once, and it was from a time he would rather like to forget.
“Let me take her.” he said as he squatted. “I am stronger. I will carry her.”
Without waiting for the Queen's approval, he took the child, surprised at how light she was, before getting to his feet. “Do you even keep surgical rooms anymore?”
“No, we will have to have one prepared quickly.” the Queen followed behind him.
As Doran moved, he watched the Queen yelling orders for a room to be prepared hastily for surgery. The handmaidens looked at her in confusion. Not one of them had even seen a surgery in their lives as most healing, even for the most extreme cases was managed by life force practitioners. Doran wasn’t even sure if any of them knew how to disinfect anything other than their own hands. Eventually, a small room was sanitised and prepared for the bloodletters. A small order of the Queen’s people, who still valued the use of using their hands in their skills whilst shying away from the use of life force. He always assumed they thought of using life force as something unclean.
“That which keeps us alive should stay inside.”
That was their motto, something Doran had scoffed at when he had first come to this planet, but now, he wasn’t so sure. He looked at the child in his arms and wondered why it was that she could not be healed by even the Queen’s life force. That had never happened before.
“Sir Doran, place the child on the table, we need to begin.” Said one of the butchers as he indicated the cold, steel table that had been surrounded by their archaic machines that made too much noise.
“This is insanity!” He said to the Queen. “Try again! We cannot have them split her open…”
“Your Majesty either we start on this child now or you get an undertaker, those are your options.” The butcher looked to the Queen and ignored Doran. “We do not have the luxury of waiting now.”
“Doran, let them work.” The Queen gripped his arm and squeezed. “You may not like them, but they do an important job.”
He relinquished his hold on her as the surgeon took her away. Then both he and the Queen were escorted from the room, and the door closed behind them.
“Your Majesty…” Started Doran.
“Once more...a child’s blood on my hands.” She looked at her bloodied hands whilst shaking hard. “I couldn’t do anything. Nothing…”
“Your Majesty, I…”
“Where is Karesh? I must speak to him!” She gripped the front of his shirt.
“Perhaps you should take off the bloodied clothes before seeing your husband.” He pulled her off. “And perhaps some sugar water, you are in shock.”
He escorted her to her chambers where Karesh was already waiting. Well, more like pacing back and forth in front of the giant stained-glass window which showed the tale of their meeting.
“Myla! Are you injured!?” The King stepped forward with his arms open.
“It was Natus all over again.” She said tears suddenly coming to her eyes as she accepted his arms around her.
“What happened?” demanded the King looking at Doran.
It was during this time that Doran explained what had happened when a messenger appeared with a file.
“Preliminary report on the lizards.” Said the messenger with a hint of disgust in his voice.
The Queen left the safety of her husband’s arms and collected it. She paged through it quickly and sighed heavily before she said. “From a few scales which were not completely melted it looks like these were from the planet Bulaash. The weapons retrieved seem to have come from the same planet. We will need to wait for the blood and tissue results to confirm that this is the planet of origin but if it is...Karesh...the Lizard Lords have found you and your line.”
“Why do I have to wait for these results? Why were they not in that file?”
“Because dear, science makes everyone wait for her. She is fickle like that.” The Queen continued to scan through the notes. “Teeth count is correct; scale colour couldn’t be determined due to charring.”
Myla looked at Doran and spoke. “Have word sent that our son is to return to the castle at once. I will not have him out there with the possibility of more Cold Bloods.”
“At once, Your Majesty.” Doran wanted to leave before the argument started.
“If you had let me name the boy my heir this never would have happened!” Started Karesh.
“Like our last son!” Screamed the Queen.
That silenced Karesh instantly. He knew he had overstepped his bounds once again in this matter.
“The first son for you line, the second for mine. I have, but one son left. I will not put him in harm's way because you and your father were incapable of stopping the war with the Lizards! I lost one baby to your war; I will not lose another!”
Doran closed the door behind him with a sigh. Since another son was born seven years ago, this has been the most argued point between the King and Queen. Karesh was desperate for a son to accept the throne after him. However, the binding contract between him and Myla had stated her words exactly.
One son for the line of Karesh and one for the line of Myla.
There would need to be a third son for Karesh to get his wish, but that said Myla had had a difficult pregnancy with her second child, Aleux, which left her scarred internally, so the chance of more children was about nil. Karesh knew this and hounded Myla constantly about Aleux’s role in his father’s throne. Myla was as stubborn as Karesh and refused each time he asked. Doran suspected that this was the only reason Aleux had remained unthreatened during this time. But now the Lizards were here, they must have been desperate to remove Karesh as soon as possible but for what reason?
Ten years ago, the war between the Lizards and them had peaked when the crowned prince had been killed, causing Karesh to flee to his wife’s home world, leaving behind his home world and most of his subjects. Ten years was an exceedingly long time, and even Doran was starting to miss their home world. Ten years and those subjects that had not managed to escape to other planets were trapped on the homeward doing the bidding of the Lizards.
Doran clenched his hands and teeth. He still had family on the planet and had no idea if they still lived or not. It pained him, but he had sworn a blood oath to Karesh when he ascended the throne to always be his right hand. He had even been tasked with bringing the young prince here to be buried. He looked at his hands and shirt, it was coated in the blood of the child he had carried. She had been so thin, so frail, where had she come from? Who was she? He would need to find out.
He quickly moved away from the royal couple’s chambers as he heard the volume of the fight starting to increase. As soon as a soldier fell in step with him, he repeated the Queen’s orders, and the man had moved swiftly to follow the orders as if they were directly from the Queen’s mouth. The first step he made was to where he had last heard his father had been.
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