Story of the Slave

“He’s lying” Sati said to Kane, “he knows you are not on speaking terms with Indrani, it’s all over the dawn.”

Kane nodded and slumped down on his chair.

“No I’m not” Mordant sputtered out with a hand on his chest, that insolent smirk still attached to his face, “I have a written approval back in my office”

“Shut up!” Kane raised a hand, “I don’t care if it was approved or not. I need to know what it is”

“Well the civil contractor is free to take artistic liberties…”

There was a ruffle of feet and Kane was breathing down Mordant in an instant.

“… and I’m free” he said through clenched teeth, “to strangle filth like you …”.

“Scared, Morgan?” the goblin said.

“You wish”’ came the reply.

“Oh for God’s sake…” Sati screeched and separated the two with outstretched hands.

She flashed her eyes at Mordant and said “Leave, now!”.

Mordant slowly moved back out towards the corridor, not taking his eyes off Kane who stood there with gritted teeth, a brow jumping up and down on his forehead.

“Why in the whole wide world did you call that jerk in?” Sati said.

“I should have killed him long ago”

“Yeah” she snorted, “Why are you looking for that pride chest?”

Kane looked up with a frown, “Just wanted to know”

Kane had not told Sati about his encounter with Effie. He had no reason to hide it, but somehow, he was convinced she wouldn’t like her.

“Fine, don’t tell me” she said, “and where were you all evening?” Kane took a deep breath.

“I was at my cabin” He had a cabin on a private six thousand square feet island in between the upper lake surrounded by the sweet and intoxicating blue methberries. The island was off limits to all humans and demiliens (sadly there were no pure aliens left in the new century) and if ever a stray hovercraft anchored against the rocky greenish blue beaches, his ravager hounds were ferocious enought to scare them off. He maintained a very strict in-and-out policy, his one sanctuary against the gruesome hobby he had.

“Kane!” She lurched at him, “How could you leave me alone with your crackpot loony father”

“Don’t call him that”

“But he drives me mad! He sends away the servants and I have to work all day long. And now this! What if he runs to the media and I end up looking like a jerk, kidnapping goblins and serving dwarfs.”

“I’m the one he’ll be after” Kane said with some exasperation. He wished he could shove a pencil through her eyes to make her stop talking. When he didn’t look at her for a whole minute, she walked away sulkily. It was not one of the brightest of the days for Kane. All those years at St. Luso’s came rushing back to him, as if a dam had been let loose and by the time it was lunch Kane couldn’t stop thinking about it.

His anger snowballed and he was taking the back seat again. He needed a release. But it was too soon.

He opened his comm and logged into his website on the overlay network he had named The Anonymous Sleaze Killer or TASK. There were over a hundred unopened requests. But he didn’t want to investigate. He wanted a man on his table right away. He had saved a few just for such an occasion. He clicked on his saved items list and picked up the first he had marked with red, the colour of human blood. It was a service manager of one of the nationalist demilien banks. He slammed his comm shut. The earthlings were everywhere. One less wouldn’t make a difference.

Suddenly Sati reappeared at the office door and said, “Indrani has invited us to a party at the storm’s passing. And you are coming” She flashed her eyes and disappeared. He cursed loudly and decided to call it a day. He had to be at the party. And he had to keep his temper in check. He could say no but then he wouldn’t stomach Sati’s taunts for a month. It was always better to slay the dragon than to anticipate his breath of fire to scorch your ass before you had to succumb to the fight.

He rushed back home and dressed up. Sati came home a little late and together they traveled to the Wockharts’. The diamonds roared and clattered in broken rhythm as they cruised through deserted streets sparkling red and blue in the soft light. Finally they arrived. Kane dusted dust off his crimson shoes and Sati ambled out of the hovercraft wearing a red dress with high heels.

Indrani was standing in the doorway, her neat Grey hairs fell on her neck and outlined her face. She pulled Sati into a tight hug and patted Kane’s back softly. Sayan came and sheepishly stood behind his sister. Although Sayan and Sati were twins, they had hardly anything alike. Sayan was funny but a coward and Sati was dull but fierce.

“Hey! Kane” he mumbled.

Harry nodded stiffly and moved inside.

Indrani turned around to see Kane once again and gave him a wide grin. He could make out all of her teeth. She smiled but somehow her eyes lacked the lustre of the Indrani Kane was used to in school. Kane’s heart raced and he returned a weak grin that faltered within a second..

She smiled in a way that made Kane uncomfortable. It made her look a bit like Mordant the goblin Kane’s arch enemy.

Just then a light scampering noise somewhere around his waist made him look down. A little dwarf was standing in a pink frock with frills and a white bow on her head that had a blond wig slammed on the tiny skull. She blinked at him and stretched out her tiny wrinkled hand.

He obliged. Her eyes reflected Kane with a big head and a tiny body bent forward. He realized her eyes were the largest of any dwarf he had ever seen.

“Who’s this?” Asked Kane and Sati together.

“This is Abner, a free dwarf. She wanted to see the famous Kane Morgan.”

Kane looked up at Indrani and frowned. Before he could say anything however, Mr. Wockhart barged in the living room with open arms and screamed, “Hello children”.

“Dad” Sayan, Indrani and Sati rushed to hug him.

Mr. Wockhart noticed the tiny dwarf and bent forward, “and who might you be dear?”

“I’m Abner, Sir” she squeaked, “a free dwarf. I wanted to meet famous Kane Morgan”

Indrani stepped forward with that horrible smile still in place and patted the dwarf slightly on its shoulders, “and she has some fascinating stories to share. Don’t you Abner?”

“Wait a minute” cried Sayan, “I know who she is...” but he stopped on noticing Indrani, who was looking at him with murder in her eyes. For an instant Kane thought Indrani was possessed of some dark creature. She looked up at Kane an instant later and her goblin smile returned.

“Abner is one of the few dwarfs of the healer community still alive. She has been around for, what?” She looked at the dwarf and the dwarf replied, “Eight hundred years”.

“Eight hundred years” Indrani repeated stretching herself to full height.

Harry gave a low whistle.

Mr. Wockhart seemed to sway a little and, with a sudden fervor, swept them on the couch.

The elf gave an uncomfortable chuckle looking around the room.

“How’s your museum comming along Mr. Wockhart” asked Sati.

“Ah... I found a gem last week in a junkyard. It’s a bottle that has a reverse weather charm.”

Kane looked around at him with a quizzical expression on his face.

Indrani on the other hand looked like she was trying hard to remember an answer to a question she forgot.

“What’s it used for, Dad” asked Sayan in a quavering voice, flipping open a page on his comm.

“You are noting this down?” Asked Sati in amazement.

“I label the stuff Dad keeps in his garage” said Sayan in an innocent voice, but Kane knew he was jotting it down for his comic show on the 2MASS radio network.

Mr. Wockhart rubbed his hands together and said, humans use it to keep their beverages hot”

“A thermos!” Screeched Indrani.

“Indrani you are a human…” Mr Weasly clicked his fingers and pointed at her.

“How are the kids?” he asked a while later.

“They are fine” said Sati and Indrani together.

“You write to them regularly?”

“How many times did you write to us dad? Oh I know, only once in my second year”

“and it wasn’t a ‘letter to remember’ either!” added Sati pointing her fork at Sayan.

“You were responsible for that. Who crashes a government space shuttle after it has safely landed back on ground? It must be some sort of record”

“Yeah, Sayan reckons he created a monster out of the car” Kane laughed, “it still hurts Mr. Tomas our instructor to speak about it”

“Yeah, I reckon he hasn’t been the same again.” Said Sayan amid roars of laughter.

It was not as bad as Kane had imagined.

How could he have been angry at Sayan? His best mate, and Indrani his only friend as good as a sister. Kane joined in on the fun.

Soon it was time for dinner. It had been years since he had had dinner at the Wockhart’s. If anything Indrani’s cooking had crossed a barrier beyond perfection and Kane had to stop eating when he could not bear the whiff of his third helping of the delicious treacle pudding.

“What’s the secret ingredient of this pudding Indrani?” asked Sati.

“Smooth the top with wet fingers just before the baking dear, and a whiff of methberries!”

Afer they had all finished eating, Indrani started to clean the table. The dwarf, Kane saw, shivered slightly as if trying to restrain a great urge to jump up and run, but she held-on.

Finally, after the tables were cleared, everyone was well fed, warm and cosy, Mr. Wockhart came out to the living room with hot chocolate on a tray. Sati sniffed hers and smiled with her eyes closed.

Then Indrani said in a loud and clear voice. “Why don’t you tell us something about yourself, Abner?”

Sayan looked a bit miffed at Indrani’s deliberate attempt to divert attention.

“I is a free dwarf”, Abner squeaked, “I can say whatever I want”

“That’s right” Indrani said kindly.

“I still don’t understand how she can be eight hundred years old “ said Kane, curiosity taking the hold of him.

“I has taken the elixir, Kane Morgan”

“Where did you get...”

“I know how to make the eternal stone of life. I is make one and gave it to my master ”

Kane’s eyes widened, “you are Nennius Ambrosius’s servant?”

The dwarf stood up with a sudden jerk and balled its fists, “I is no servant, Kane Morgan. I is a Healer dwarf.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to offend...”

“But you did. Master never called me a servant.”

“Never?”

“Just once, when I was 15 years old.”

“What happened?”

“I’ll tell you what happened. In 3325’s, 325 years after the first slave wars, the alien council proclaimed to end all healers, warriors and monarchs of our kind. Only the workers was safe. We was wearing old clothes to please our masters. They ordered us to leave our homes. We is moved out.

We is lived in small cupboard like rooms.

Then one day the aliens come.

They ordered us to make lines and put names on lists. They asked whom we worked for. Those who had alien masters were spared.”

“What happened to the ones that didn’t ?” Kane asked. He had a nasty feeling that he already knew the answer.

They kills us. All of us. But I is saved.

I is saved by master. He say I is his servant. A dwarf always server his savior’s house” she wiped her tears on her pink frilled frock.

“I is free again today, Kane Morgan because of Madam Indrani”

“We systematically wiped out an entire species and those that remain are but broken creatures” said Indrani with tears rolling down her eyes, the look of compassion returning.

Kane looked at her.

“Am I asking too much if I want a representation from their society only to allow them to be as they were? Is it too much to ask if the demiliens could, for once, accept that they were the bad guys here?”

A moment passed in silence in which the dwarf’s sobs echoed round the halls.

Sati wiped her eyes and nudged Kane.

“I’m sorry Indrani for some of the things I’ve said”

“I’m sorry too, Kane” she said and rushed forward to hug him. Sayan and Sati jumped in on the hug and Kane felt a knot loosen around his chest.