“I always had a feeling,” he said distantly, as if talking to himself. “I always knew there was something strange about my parents. They slept so often, and always like they were dead or in comas. They even had rules about not being disturbed. Whenever I woke with a nightmare, I just crawled into bed with my brother.”
“So …” I gulped. This was the moment of truth. “So, do you agree to rule Geniverd with me?”
Zawne stared seriously out the window. It was one of the things that was totally in contrast to Roki. Where Roki was a charismatic jokester, Zawne could be stiff and severe. Yet it was one of the reasons I was so attracted to him.
“I agree,” he said. “I agree in the name of Shondur and in the name of Geniverd, for my parents and for the people.” Zawne turned to me, a smile finally breaking through. “If I had said no, would you have been killed?”
“Yes. I was quite nervous. We both would have been killed.”
“Not to worry,” Zawne said, swooping across the room to sit with me on the bed. “We will survive, prosper, and rule with compassion and courage. We will face this trial together as man and wife. When do we go to Shiol?”
In that moment, I was proud to be Zawne’s fiancée. I wondered if Roki was watching me. I wondered if he was there in the room, listening to my thoughts. Was Roki jealous?
The following evening, as Zawne and I lay down to sleep after a busy day of wedding planning—our wedding was to be held the day before the coronation—we both spelled Shiol over our hearts. Seconds later we were being zipped through the eternal cosmos.
“What a ride!” Zawne said as we materialized into the Crown of Crowns’ bubble. “The gaseous bursts of space, the huge planets, the interdimensional tear into a pocket of the universe. I could get used to that!”
“I already am,” I said, laughing. “It’s amazing how fast the human brain adjusts to a new experience. This was my third time, and it didn’t even faze me.”
“And it never will again,” came Riedel’s voice. I had to concentrate and reach out with my senses to see his twinkling form standing beside Hanchell.
“I can’t believe it,” Zawne said. “You are built of light. This is amazing.”
I supposed Zawne didn’t need to focus to see Riedel and Hanchell. He was an Aska. His training would never leave him. Still, it made me feel inferior. Zawne was already better at this than I was.
“I see you’ve made your decision together,” Hanchell said. She sounded pleased.
“Yes.” Zawne took a bold step forward. “I agree to your proposal, Crown of Crowns. I agree to become king of Geniverd.”
“Good for you,” Riedel said. His voice was an earthy boom, perhaps to try to put Zawne in his human place. “But there are things we must go over before we proceed. This will be our last meeting before the coronation, so you must understand all the rules before you leave here today.”
“Got it.” Zawne folded his hands and stepped back. I touched his arm, trying to show some solidarity between us, but Zawne was at attention, as if he were listening to his squad leader.
“The first rule is that you must come here to Shiol five nights a week,” Riedel said. “We suggest you take shifts, split up your time here. That way one of you is not constantly tired.”
“When you come to Shiol,” Hanchell said, “you will be given our recommendations on how to adjudicate the following day’s council meetings. You will be ruling over disputes and issues between two or more clans. These are important, and we highly suggest that you adhere to our recommendations.”
“But we don’t have to?” I asked.
“No,” Hanchell said. “You don’t have to, but no one in hundreds of years has ever gone against us. We suggest that if you wish to make the business of governing four billion people on six continents easier, you listen to what we say.”
I nodded, but Zawne wasn’t convinced. “Where do you get the information for your recommendations?” he asked. “How do you decide?”
“Irrelevant,” Riedel boomed. His voice shook the void with authority. It left no room for debate.
“And you cannot discuss our findings with anyone,” he continued. “Not with the ex-queen or ex-king. Not even with the dead! If you do, you and every person you’ve revealed any part of the Great Secret to will be killed brutally and painfully within the hour.”
That was enough to shut Zawne up. He stood straight and didn’t say a word.
“Should you need to speak with us urgently,” Hanchell said, “you may take a power nap. Drift quickly here, ask for what you need, then return to Geniverd. This will wear you out, so please don’t do it too often.”
Good, I thought. If I get overwhelmed, I have a place to go. However, I could always ask Roki for his opinion. It was going to be nice having a Min at my disposal while I was queen.
“Our recommendations will also come with physical evidence for your human eyes,” Riedel told us. “You may read through reports, flick through video, and listen to audio recordings here in Shiol. Then you must return to sleep and make your judgments the following day. This will be a stressful process. Ready yourselves over the coming weeks.”
“One more thing,” Hanchell said. She was audibly giddy. “Whose head would you like me to land on at the coronation? I’m so excited!”
Zawne and I exchanged a glance. “I’m okay with it being Zawne,” I said, smiling at him.
For once in the meeting, he smiled back. “Thank you, my queen. I appreciate it.”
“It’s settled!” Hanchell said. Her blob of light was agitated, sparking with excitement. “I will land on Zawne’s head in two weeks’ time. Now go to sleep, humans. You have a wedding and a kingdom to plan. We will see you soon.”
Hanchell
