Alien Barbarian’s Little Human

Taurek

TAUREK

“He’s the best doctor in the Mountain Kingdom,” Serge assures me.

Serge, the servant who handles the royal family’s affairs, tries to calm me down after the latest examination, to no avail.

“Then I fear for Kiphia, because he’s a fool. Like all the rest.”

The so-called doctor looks at me from the door with a sneer of disgust. I sneer back. The feeling’s mutual, I think to myself.

I walk slowly up to Hanai’s room. She’s been slipping in and out of consciousness, so I don’t know how much of the argument she heard between me and this butcher. He wanted to cut her open to take pieces of her brain and heart.

This nightmare has become our lives. It began with weakness in the knees, an uncommon complaint for an eight-year-old. She and her friends were climbing the replica of our sacred peaks at Taro’s Point, something she’s done so often she could draw a map from memory of the handholds and footholds of several routes. That day, though, she didn’t have the strength to reach the first step.

“My knees feel like they’re buzzing, Papa,” I remember her saying. “Like how prism moths move, but inside me.”

If only the arthritic knees were all of it. Within the week, things went from alarming to grave.

“Papa. It’s the same buzzing,” she said as I tucked her in. “But my head. Why are there spirits dancing in my room? What do they want?”

The day after that, she was perfectly normal. Then an aching in her side came. The flare-ups are completely unpredictable, like a stalker in the night. You have no clue when or where the next attack might be.

Dozens of doctors have seen her in person, and hundreds have written to us with their opinions. None of them have a clue.

I sent commpad messages to the royal families in four of the other Kingdoms of Kiphia, Ocean, Lakes and Rivers, Treetop, and Desert, searching for help. I eventually even sent word to Cloud Kingdom, a realm I despise with a passion almost as great as my love for my daughter.

With no promising leads, I’ve started to resort to more desperate measures. Every day, my scribes and messengers send word to the furthest reaches of Kiphia seeking any advice, regardless of the source. I haven’t yet resorted to other planets, but I’m about to.

The other morning, Hanai couldn’t hear. Today, her sight has ripples in it, as if the visible world is gradually receding from her. With her gradually pulling away from me, my life may as well be ebbing away with hers.

I stroke her hair, looking at her lovely face, hoping her dreams are more peaceful than the chaos around her. Since the calamity, Hanai has been the center of my world. Without her, there’s nothing.

A knock on the enormous palace doors jars me. It must be another doctor here to test his mettle. Some treat a trip to the palace like a competition of strength more than they do a sick child’s bedside.

These days, the doctors are just about the only ones who visit. Even before Hanai got sick, denizens of Cygoth were inclined to think of the palace as a haunted house, permanently cursed by the devastating events that occurred here. They’re suspicious that if they get too close, the misery might find them, too.

“Prince , it’s Master Talan. He’s come from Tlisan, the human settlement.”

“Are you positive? He hasn’t been to Cygoth in years. I heard he swore to never return.”

I try to make out the face, but all I see is a dark silhouette against the enormous stone entrance, mined from the tallest peaks of the Mountain Kingdom.

“He did swear that,” a familiar voice calls out. “But he’s breaking his self-imposed exile for an old friend.” Although his simple clothing belies his aristocratic lineage, Talan’s smile is unmistakable.

“It’s really you, Talan. I don’t believe it.”

He opens his arms to hold me in a tight embrace. When he looks at me as if no time has passed, I’m struck by an emotion I can’t place at first. I realize it’s the peace of being in the presence of someone who regards me without any scintilla of pity.

“Come in, come in. Frin and Lurz, please prepare food and drink for our guest. The infused wine from Taro’s Point and a slab of nasarer hare. We have fermented bernai roots from the cellar. Do you like those, Talan?”

“I’m afraid I can’t stay long, Prince .”

I try to conceal my disappointment. “We’ve known each other since we were children sneaking off into caverns. Stay a while. You must be exhausted from the journey.”

Apart from Hanai, there’s practically no one I can truly talk to these days. Since she’s taken ill, I’ve lived in my head. As much as I love my father, Thane Odar has never been known as a glittering conversationalist. My brothers are all scattered in other parts of the Kingdom, and some in other parts of Kiphia.

“I took a chordata,” Talan answers. “So the journey wasn’t too strenuous.”

“I remember you were a champion rider in your youth.”

“Never like you, .”

“Please. That was so long ago, I don’t know if I can even mount one anymore.”

Talan knows me well enough to roll his eyes, not believing a word of my false modesty.

He’s right. If anything, I’m a stronger rider now. In the aftermath of the calamity five years ago, I distracted myself by teaching Hanai how to ride. It was one of the few outlets that helped us feel whole after Kantha left us.

Death would have been easier than her unceremonious abandonment. Death comes for all of us. Leaving is a choice.

It’s been months since Hanai has been strong enough for us to ride together. Her illness has robbed us of even that happiness.

“So, what brings you here, Talan? When I first saw your face, I thought I must be hallucinating and the illness had gotten me, too.”

I smile, but his expression is aghast. “I’m sorry to add to your stress, .”

“No, no, I’m sorry for the bad joke. I forget gallows humor isn’t a universal language.”

“The illness brings me here today, actually.” He looks down.

“I see.”

“There’s a woman in Tlisan, a friend of Sorsha’s, who’s an expert in these things. A human, one who’s quite wise and resourceful. When we received your dispatch, Sorsha talked to her right away.”

I stare skeptically. “Is she a doctor?”

“No. An artisan.” He continues despite my scoffing. “She was ill as a child. She has deep knowledge of various remedies, especially healing properties of the mountains. You know, on Earth, they used to have cures from mineral deposits…”

“I’m not interested in human medicine for my Kiphian daughter. I’m sorry you came all this way, Talan.”

“Stars above, you are just as stubborn as ever, . Will you just listen?”

I grunt in assent, and he continues.

“This woman, Zaya, she spent her convalescence learning about the world, since she couldn’t interact with it. Once she was better, she wanted to see everything she’d read about. I’ve met few individuals of any species who are as naturally curious.”

“And you came to ask me to give this human a medal?”

“If you were anyone else, I would leave now. I’m only staying for Hanai. I’ll tolerate you for her sake.”

“Ah. I’ll give you the medal then.” I grin, but Talan is not amused.

The porter leaves food and drink for us on silver trays, mined from caverns beneath the palace.

“What shall we toast to, my friend?” I raise my goblet, and Talan haltingly lifts his.

“To truly living, . Not just surviving.” It cuts to the core. We clink our glasses and immediately drain them. I hold up the carafe of wine and pour us a second round.

“And another toast, . Here’s hoping the wine will make you less of a surly bastard!” Talan holds his goblet high, almost spilling.

“Is wine a miracle cure?” We both collapse into laughter and down the second glass.

“Let’s hope.”

“Anyway, keep talking. I’m actually listening for some reason.”

“Zaya has studied the records of Kiphia’s histories.”

“Even I never had the patience for that. And some of them are about my family.”

“That’s why you should listen. I think she has something to offer. She said the histories chronicled an illness that sounds like Hanai’s. It was called the stone-skipping curse, because it strikes the body like a game of stone-skip. You remember that game as kids?”

“Of course. You pass around a stone activated by heat, and you lose if it combusts into ash in your hand.”

“Yes. She can explain it better, but the books said it relates to electric signals in the body…”

“This sounds like a fairy legend.”

“It also sounds like with her knowledge, she might be able to help.”

It sounds ludicrous. At the same time, it seems less ludicrous than the doctor who said he needed to drain all of Hanai’s blood. And the one who said she needed to rest on the edge of an active volcano.

“So, Your Highness. Would you like to summon Zaya?”

Would I like to? No. Will I?

“Yes.” I let out a sigh and shake my head. “I’ll see that she’s sent for.”