Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen: The Price Of Life
“I should have known, but how would one know? I’ve known you since I was two. I saw not a drop of blood, blue or red, come from your veins, and yet, I trusted you. Trusted you with my secrets – with my life! How dare you! How DARE you?”
Patti stared into his eyes, her flashing blue ones meeting his ice cold ones.
“I almost had you, Patti. I almost became one of the most powerful people in Imperial Ruok. But that blasted Shamal stepped in. I could see it for months. I was losing. So I pulled a few strings in Renoka . . .“
“And you got invited to the campaign of the Empress, but that failed too, your try to get closer to the Royalty of Imperial Ruok,” Patti said, with a cold smile, thinking of her new friend and royal, Jennifer.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Jehan said, looking at his watch impatiently.
“Jehan, are you converted, or born? Were you raised to believe all that is wrong in this nation, or have you just now confronted the people of Seaking? And drunken their Elixir of Purple?” Patti quivered, her hand near the stunner that lay at her hip.
“I have come to the light! I see the truth! Humans are a weak race! They will die out! Being a humanoid is so much better, Patti. . Join me . . . “ So saying, he took a step toward her, his arm outstretched.
“No! You are wrong! Don’t touch me! Are you totally void of human feelings? Can’t you see that humans are a strong race? How could we have lived? We are over five thousand years old. We originated on a totally different planet. We lived in space for twenty-six years before we found the planet of Tou. (To ew) And after Tou, Fora. And Nadidian. And so many more! So many more.
“And yet, you are but two hundred years in the making, an inbred child of the half-bred Kiy-Kiy. And your cannibalism destroyed that race of the purple-blooded beauties! You are blooded with blue because you are half human, and “The red from their veins hath been taken. They are no longer human. They are no longer Kiy-Kiy. Neither one nor the other. A race all their own. The race of the Seakings. The tyrants of the sea!” Screamed Patti, quoting from the holy book, the Tancha. (Ton ka)
“You have the bare facts . . . “ started Jehan, nervously twisting his fingers.
“You are nothing but a half-bred! Nothing!” Patti declared, seething with anger.
“You have no idea. You are but an ignorant girl. A mere child.” He said, stepping even closer.
“O Jehan, how much you miss. In I.R., age is not what makes us ignorant, but what we know. But what we don’t know.”
“That, child, is where you are wrong.”
“If I am wrong, what will happen? Nothing! I shall be an ignorant girl.
“Tori-Ban-Ne-I-Un!”
Jehan was supposed to be flung back. Jehan was supposed to land on his back. But Jehan did neither of those things.
“You are an ignorant child! Charm blocking is quite simple. A child could do it. A child of two. But not that well. Not even Chely-Martina. Why, she put up a good fight. But Chief Zoqan was too strong. Chief Zoqan knew she would be too hard for a two year old, yet easy for a twelve year old, or even a six year old.”
“Your people killed her? You took the life from her body – the breath from her lungs. You replaced it with the brow of the dead!”
“It was a small price to pay.
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