71. The Prince

71

THE PRINCE

E ll-rom stared at Annani, his mind reeling with the revelation that she had just dropped on him like a bombshell. Could it be true?

He had felt an affinity toward her, had seen something familiar in her impossibly beautiful face, and now she was telling him that the reason for that was that they were related.

The same god had fathered them.

He and Morelle were not alone anymore. They had a family. A big one.

Even though he couldn't remember his life before waking up in this room, Ell-rom knew that he and his sister had been mostly alone. The dreams and tidbits of memories that had surfaced so far indicated that they had lived in profound isolation.

"Do you believe me?" Annani looked into his eyes with hope shining in hers.

He lifted his hand, intending to cup her cheek, but put it over his heart at the last moment.

Annani might be his sister, but they were strangers, and her son would not like Ell-rom touching his mother. The guy was tense and ready to pounce, and his bodyguards loomed dangerously from where they were standing against the wall by the door.

"I felt the connection in here." He tapped his chest. "And your face looked familiar. I thought that maybe you looked like my sister, but now I realize that the resemblance I have noticed is to both Morelle and me. It's subtle, but it is there." He swallowed. "It is so frustrating not to remember my past. If I knew my history, I would probably be able to deduce how we could have the same father."

Annani smiled, a soft, patient curve of her lips that held a world of understanding. "It is a long and complicated story; much of it is speculation." She sat back down, and he had to turn on his side to look down at her face. "My father did not tell me about his past on Anumati. The exiled gods did not share their history with their children; I can only guess the reasons. They might have been ashamed of their home world and its injustices, or maybe they wanted their children and the humans they ruled over to believe that all gods were benevolent and followed the same moral code as the one adopted and enforced by the gods on Earth." She shrugged her slim shoulders. "Or they might have been ashamed of being exiles. Regrettably, all the founders of the colony on Earth are gone, so we cannot ask them."

"What happened to them?" Ell-rom asked.

"Mass assassination—an act of terror. One of the gods did not like being ruled by our father and established his stronghold away from the other gods. Our father was willing to negotiate with him to maintain peace, which was a mistake. That god committed the heinous crime of killing a fellow god and was sentenced to entombment by the council of gods. To avoid that fate, he dropped a bomb over the assembly that killed all the gods. He was caught in the blast and died as well." She sighed. "Mind you, I was not there because I escaped, so the only thing I know for a fact is the aftermath. I can only hypothesize how it happened. The version I told you was the most likely one until recently, but after we found Jade and the Kra-ell people, we learned things that might indicate another party might be responsible for that abominable act of terrorism. Not only the gods died in the nuclear blast. The entire region was devastated, and everything living within a radius of hundreds of miles died. It took decades for the region to recuperate."

Ell-rom had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach when he asked, "Who is the other possible party?"

Annani smiled sadly. "Our grandfather, the Eternal King. But I am getting ahead of myself. You need first to understand why the gods were exiled to Earth. As I mentioned, I did not know their history until I learned about Anumati from Jade and the three gods who came to look for the missing Kra-ell settlers."

His sister paused and turned to the tall redheaded guard standing by the door. "I am getting parched from all the talking. Can you please call the security office and have someone bring us refreshments from the café?"

As the guard asked everyone what they wanted to order, Ell-rom thought about what Annani had said about their father and his and Morelle's mother. Our father was a dreamer, a visionary who dared to dream of a world where everyone was judged and treated based on the merits of their character and nothing else. For a while, your mother shared his dream.

Had his mother been a rebel? But she was the queen? Who had she rebelled against?

"What about you?" Annani asked. "What would you like from the café?"

The question caught Ell-rom by surprise. "I do not know what I am allowed to have. The medic said that I can only have clear liquids."

"Herbal tea, then," Annani told the guard.

The guard did not have a teardrop, and he responded in the language they spoke on Earth, but his tone was friendly and respectful, not fearful or reverent.

Seeing how Annani treated the guy warmed Ell-rom's heart. He might not remember much or have a lot of life experience, but the interaction between Annani and the guard spoke volumes about the kind of person she was.