The Lost Queen Book 2 - Kehlani

31. Sacrificial Dance

The guard escorts us into Dipak's office.

There is yelling, then a few people fight over a box.

Marcus jumps up. "ENOUGH. SIT DOWN."

"WE NEED OUR DRESSES, ASSHOLE."

A boy at the table glances at me a couple of times. He seems confused but doesn't say anything.

I smile at him. "You look like your daddy, sir."

I get a big goofy smile from him. "Everybody says that."

"Are you going to grow your hair out like him?"

"I don't know."

"Yea, that would be a lot of work. How old are you?"

"Why?"

"Well, I believe, in some weird twisted way, I'm your aunt. So, I need to know how many birthdays I missed. I have to catch up on birthday presents."

He jumps straight up and gets a twitch. His eyes are so big. "I'M 402."

"You buy presents for birthdays?" Marcus has an eyebrow up.

"For the birthday parties. I obviously missed those for him. But I can still give presents. I think it still counts."

"IT COUNTS, DAD."

We crack up laughing.

"You have birthday parties?"

"For the kids, yes. Every 50 years they get 1. I'll get him 8 presents. That's normal. Usually, for princes and princesses, it's a gold bar from every invited king to their 400th birthday party. It helps grow their vaults." I wink at him. "You are a prince, right?"

"YES."

"Hopefully you invited lots of kings to your 400th birthday party."

"I don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Birthday parties."

"Like at all?"

"No."

"Well, you could still do it. There's a 5-year grace period if you're on vacation. I can't believe you never had a birthday party."

"Nobody has them."

"Like ever?"

"Right."

"You're supposed to have a birthday party when you're born and every 50 years, until you turn 400."

Tre shakes his head. "What would you get a newborn baby for a birthday?"

"That party isn't actually called a birthday party. It's called a baby shower. It'll happen within the last year before the baby is born. People give gifts for a newborn. Clothes, beds, little toys, diapers, sometimes money to start their banks. It's meant to shower the parents with gifts and little things to help them out. It's random baby stuff."

Dipak nods. "And then every 50 years the baby gets another party?"

"Yep. When they're 50, they may get some little toys or outfits. A new blanket or kid towel. 100 is mainly toys. After that, it depends on the kid and what they're into or what they're ready for. Momma said when I was 50 she asked everyone who was able to get me a pair of socks as my present or with my present. I absolutely loved socks. They were the best thing on the planet."

They all laugh.

I smile. "When I was 100 they asked for kid books instead of cards. I still got presents, but I got a copy of everyone's favorite kid's book too. I learned to read on those. 150 I was really into dolls. So they didn't say anything specific. I got different stuff. 200 was the same thing. Daddy got me my swords that year. 250 I was into dancing. I got everything right down to lessons paid for a year. That way I could try different people's favorite types of dance. 300 I was still into dance but also into outdoor stuff. That 1 kind of went both ways. When my brother turned 200, I remember he got art stuff. That kid loved art. Any kind of art. I mean, it does depend on the child."

Luke smiles. "I like horses."

"I don't even have those on my planet. I don't know what present would be good for that. Do you need a new horse?"

"No. I like other animals too." He pulls a model animal out of his bag. It's about 3 inches tall.

"I bet I can find some of these with animals from my planet. They might be new to you. Do you have a horse?"

Victor laughs. "You are not stealing his horse."

I give him a dirty look.

Alden puts his arm around me. "We'll search, baby. I'm sure we can find a little model horse for you somewhere."

"I need a souvenir."

He kisses my head. "We'll get 1. Don't worry."

"We're ready now."

Dipak stands up. "Welcome to earth, please have a seat."

Alden rubs his eyes and leads me to the visiting end. Victor stays on the wrong end with Tye, Nik, and 2 boys I haven't met yet. They seem to get along well.

"Did you want?" Dipak motions to Victor.

Alden shakes his head. "No. Please keep him."

Everyone laughs.

I glance around at everyone. Me, Alden, Nadine, 3 other girls, Tye, Johen, and Tre are all formal and with crowns on. I laugh and rub my eyes. "Victor, did you want to go formal too?"

He takes the box. "I need a crown."

Dipak shakes his head. "You need a planet to rule."

I choke on water. "You can have the snake planet."

Everyone sitting there nods except Alden. "What snake planet?"

"When I ran away I went to a few planets. The first had giant bugs. The 2nd tried to sacrifice me to a giant snake. The 3rd had a plague. Dipak made the ship leave the 4th. Which makes me wonder, why is my ship listening to Dipak?"

Victor stands up. "Wait. 1 thing at a time. I would pick bugs over snakes."

"They were some big f*****g bugs, Victor." I motion at the brain. "Play the footage of me being chased by them." The lasers show up and go into color. The last thing we see is me jumping into the shuttle. "WHAT THE HELL?"

We crack up laughing.

Victor nods. "Ok. Bug planet goes to them. I'll take the snake planet."

I crack up laughing too hard to talk. Tre smiles. "Play the footage of the cave on the snake planet and go frame by frame. Keep in mind, this is the skin 1 snake grew out of Victor."

We watch this cave show up with the fire. The brains already broke the boulder. I'm standing there screaming, and the view scans the room. The snake skin is absolutely humongous. Everyone shakes their heads.

Victor smiles. "I'll take it."

A man sits back. "Are you crazy?"

"What? I go in, kill a few big snakes, then they think I'm a God. I'll get the whole planet to submit that easily."

Dipak nods. "And what are your plans to kill them? Keep in mind, we have no idea how many there are."

"I'll have to summon a golem or something. I don't know. Need more time to think about that part. What was the plague like?"

Everyone cracks up laughing.

Alden shakes his head. "You're not bringing that plague back to my planet. You stay out of there."

"Fine. Snakes it is."

Dipak smiles. "And for the final planet. Your ship and the AI on it will work to keep you safe. When I gave the order to hyperspace you out of there, they decided that was in the best interest of your survival and accepted the order. It would have happened the same way if Nadine was on her ship, in danger, then Alden gave the order to get out of there. Our ship would have taken the order too."

"I guess that's ok then."

A man I don't know stands up, "Can I have the bug planet? I'll exterminate the hell out of it."

A blonde girl stands up. "NO YOU CANNOT, TOBIAS. We don't know what that bug does for the environment there, you could take it out and kill the entire planet. You can't go somewhere and kill an entire life form because you don't like it, or it doesn't like you."

I smile. "Maybe you could try to get them to like you. I failed there."

He sits back down.

Alden rubs his eyes. "What happened with the horn people?"

Dipak plays the footage. "That's all we have. It wasn't worth her staying to get more."

"Yea. That's true."

Victor stands up. "Back to the snake planet."

The girl stands up again. "You are insane. That snake was 180 feet long and bigger around than you are tall."

"There could be a million of them, Victor."

"Doubtful, there are people on that planet."

I sit back. "I think Victor should take it. He's right, there are people there. People are being tormented and killed by snakes. He takes out the snakes, the people will see him as their hero. Play the rest of the footage of me being there. And listen to what they chant when they are taking me into the cave. I believe they were asking for the snake to take me and stop attacking them. Also, I have a full analysis on that planet. Which obviously wasn't that great." I give a dirty look to the brain and the footage begins with me on the field.

I wait for it to get done. "Granted, that was 1 village that we saw. But the people seem ok. They were dancing and eating. That chant though..."

Tre says, "Infinite Master, keeper, hear us. Please accept our sacrifice, so we may continue to live in peace. We plead this of you."

Tye nods. "It seems like they're begging for the attacks to stop. It's like they think the snake is their infinite master."

"How many villages are on that planet?"

"1604. This was 1 of the biggest."

"That's not many."

"There seems to be a passage way of cave chambers near the surface. A new opening will develop when a village grows in an area."

Mason scratches his head. "The snakes are sensing the people when the populations of an area get too big. Then they break through the tunnels to eat. How are they sensing them?"

"If it's underground it's not visual." Tre sits back. "The snakes could hear them or sense their heat somehow."

"Smell maybe."

The blonde girl rolls her eyes. "Snakes can't smell."

"Here they might not be able to. We can't say that for other places. And we only have so many senses."

"What are they?"

"Sight, hear, touch, taste, and smell." Tre shakes his head. "It couldn't be touching or tasting if they're drilling through rock to get to them."

Tobias smiles. "It could still be the sense of touch. They could feel the vibrations of the sound. That dance they were doing. Maybe they were trying to draw it in. Jumping like that on the ground."

I stare at him. "I joined in my own sacrificial dance."

Everyone laughs and nods.

Nadine stands up. "I'm going around the table quickly. We're not all here, but it'll give you an idea of names. I know we're bad with introductions. My mates are Dipak, Mason, Marcus, Tre, Tye, Johen, and Nik. My dad is Miculai. This is Frode, Bud, Rick, Tobias, and Collin. You know Kane, Omar, and Dracul already. The girls are Thora, Coral, and Starlet. We don't expect you to remember everyone, but you've been introduced now."

Dipak stands up. "You can break apart and work out your theories. Girls, you need to go over for the dance class. We'll go over anything anyone finds in the morning, then move over to the arena at 11." A bunch of people make a run for it. Tre says something about checking a star. I don't know what that means.