Chapter Seventy-Seven: Ridikar Speaks
The next morning in Benedon…
"Hungry?"
"Not really."
"C'mon, Tayla, you have to eat sometime; today's our wedding day!"
"I'm not marrying you, Ridikar, so you might as well just take me back to my family, so we can go rescue the others," Tayla replied stubbornly, as she struggled against the restraints that Ridikar had left on her. She tried to maintain as much distance between her and Ridikar as possible on the king-sized bed that she had been forced to share with him the night before.
The suite, fit for a future king and queen, was large and luxurious, with five rooms, two bedrooms, a sitting room, a bathroom, and a small kitchenette. The master bedroom had a silver carpet with deep plush, walls covered with lavender velour with pink roses, two large picture windows, one that had a view of a lake and formal garden. The king-sized bed was oval-shaped, with a half-circle headboard made out of a pale pink wood streaked with beige, a wood called "peige", a popular wood among the Calmagian royalty, a rare wood found in only one Calmagian private forest with the peige trees having been imported from planet Cara-Camay. The bedcovers were silken with a deep purple velvet quilt covering the silky pale green sheets decorated with electric-blue roses and dark green vines. Tayla would have loved the room, if she had not been Ridikar's captive.
Last night, Ridikar had managed to get Tayla into Benedon with no real problems, and wrapping a huge brown cloak that he had bought around her body and most of her lower face area, he had managed to hide her restraints and her cuffs when he had checked them into Benedon's best hotel. When Ridikar had removed Tayla's gag again, Tayla tried to scream for help, but Ridikar gagged her once more. Now once again, Tayla's gag had been removed, and once it had been removed, she had tried to bring up the death of Amitar, but Ridikar had cut her off, still thinking that she was about to bad-mouth his father. He rarely let her speak for long.
"Tayla, don't be ridiculous," Ridikar told her. "Of course you are going to marry me; you sound as stubborn as Caline was on the day that she married Alberm. We'll get married, and then we'll go back to your people and help them to fight. Tayla, why can't you be happy about this?"
"Would you be happy, if you were forced to marry someone that you didn't love?" Tayla demanded to know.
"You'll learn to love me again, Tayla," Ridikar told her confidently. "I'm not going to hurt you, you know. I just want you to be my bride and my wife."
"Ridikar, your family is being held captive, the same as some of my family is. Doesn't that worry you at all? Don't you realize that Caline is one of the captives there? Don't you realize that Zarbon and his bunch could kill your family and mine at any time? This isn't time to get married; we need to go back!"
Ridikar sighed, "Tayla, we are going back, as soon as I make you my wife. If one or both of us die, I would rather us be married beforehand. I would rather take you as my woman; you don't want to die a virgin, do you? I sure don't want to die before I make you my wife in spirit, as well as in name. Don't you realize that you are going to be my queen someday, if we win?"
Tayla had to tell Ridikar about his father's death. "If I do have to marry you, that might happen sooner than you think."
"Why do you say that?" Ridikar wanted to know.
Tayla decided to just blurt it out; she hadn't wanted to break the news to him like this, but she had no choice. Ridikar had the right to know the truth, no matter what he had done to her.
"Ridikar, your father is dead," she said too quickly.
Ridikar looked at his future bride in disbelief. "Don't be silly! I just got a message from him two days ago, and he was fine, fighting a bunch of little green monsters. My father is a fine warrior, a fine soldier, no one can touch him-"
"A green monster did," Tayla told him quietly. "Dirkan told me and the others; he was going to tell you yesterday before you took me away about your father's death. Ridikar, he died when a green monster self-destructed while holding him."
Ridikar seized her by her thin shoulders and yelled, "You're lying!"
"I wish I was," Tayla told him sadly. "And it would be cruel of me to lie about something like that. I am sorry, Ridikar, but your father is gone forever."
"No, he's not, Dirkan has to be mistaken, he has to be! Not my father! No! It has to be a mistake!" Ridikar cried out in horror. "Please tell me that this is a bad joke, to get revenge on me for taking you away!"
"I can't, I'm sorry, but it's true," Tayla whispered, touched by the stricken look of pain on Ridikar's face. As much as she had come to despise him lately, she now wanted to comfort him; she truly pitied him.
He shoved himself away from her, and he went over to the velour-covered wall and punched a hole through it. "Those bastards!" he screamed. "That horrible monster! Why him? Why? He was a good father, a good father, he didn't deserve to die!" The Calmagian prince punched another hole in the wall, and his fist met a steel beam; the beam hurt his fist.
"Curses! Why, Father? Why did you have to die?" Ridikar screamed, his grief and anguish overwhelming him, as he continued to punch holes into the wall, one after the other, until there was a wide vertical track of fist-sized holes leading from the top of a window down to the floor base. "First Mother dies, and now him! Why does everyone I know and love want to leave me? Why?"
Tayla's brown eyes filled with tears for him; as badly as he had treated her, she felt sorry for him. She rolled her slender body over to Ridikar's side of the bed until she was lying near the edge of the bed.
"Ridikar, if you will untie me, I will hold you; maybe it will help to comfort you," Tayla volunteered softly.
"Untie you? Right, you'll run away from me the first chance that you get! I already lost Father, Tayla; I shouldn't have to lose you too! And I'm not going to lose you like I did him!"
"What if I told you that I wasn't going to run away? Would you untie me then?"
"No, because I know you, Tayla! You'll knock me out or electrocute me and abandon me! It's not happening!"
"Ridikar, I just want to comfort you; please untie me. I won't run away, I promise."
"Swear on it by your Seven Moons Oath!"
Tayla hated to do that, but she had no choice. She wouldn't have left Ridikar at this time anyhow. "I swear on Seven Moons then, that I won't run away."
An anguished Ridikar finally approached Tayla on the bed, and he began to untie her wrists, and he was even considerate enough to untie her ankles as well. Tayla kept her word and embraced him. Clinging hard to her, Ridikar's whole body shook with grief, as she hugged him to her. Finally, Ridikar couldn't take it anymore, and he began to sob, with a few tears wetting Tayla's shoulder. Tayla patted his back and rubbed it, forgetting for now that Ridikar had kidnapped her.
"I wish that little green bastard was still alive, so I could kill him myself!" Ridikar cried into her shoulder. "Why my father, Tayla, why? I don't understand! Why did Frieza have to pick our planet to attack? What did we ever do to him other than produce that bastard traitor, Alberm! And to think I approved of him marrying my sister! A traitor married into our family, and he brought this down on us! I hate him more than Frieza, I think, because he was one of us, and he betrayed us all to that evil monster! Alberm is to blame for my father's death! I'm glad that Alberm is dead! Alberm deserved what he received! I should have listened to Caline when she told me how bad he was, but Father and I wouldn't listen! And I helped Father force her to marry him."
Tayla held him closer to her body, as Ridikar hugged her tighter. After an hour had passed, Ridikar was still grief-stricken, but he had calmed down considerably. He whispered, "Tayla, do you hate me? Do you really hate me? I-I wouldn't blame you, if you did." His voice continued to shake, as he continued, "I-I hurt you, didn't I? I tried to force myself on you, even though you said no. I just thought that you were so pretty, so funny, so cute, so-so brave. I tried to make you submit to me, to become the conventional Calmagian wife, and you're not like Calmagian girls. I've never met anyone like you, and I guess that's what attracted me to you because you were different, and I tried to make you over into what Father and I thought you should be. I was always taught that girls were supposed to be submissive and obedient, never defying their fathers or husbands, or questioning things. The ways of Astorian women and girls was a shock to all of the men in my family because they are so assertive, self-confident and bold and brave, like you."
"Father was really angry because Caline was spending so much time with your family, and on that day when she told us that she wouldn't marry Filcor Sedemeyer, she made us so angry! But you know what, Tayla? I'm starting to think that maybe Father and I were wrong in forcing her to marry Alberm; I ignored her when she cried for help, and I tried to convince myself that she was Alberm's property and that he could do whatever he wanted with her. I put her down and told her that she had to obey Alberm and please him. I-I never told anyone this, but I wanted to comfort her that day when we all found out that Alberm was a traitor and a would-be murderer, and I didn't."
Tayla asked softly, "What did you have against Caline? She's such a sweet and kind girl, and I never understood why you didn't seem to care about her. She just wants to be loved, Ridikar, and she wanted you to love her. She told me that before. She told me that you two used to be really close to each other, and that you used to love and protect her and play with her. Caline has always wondered why you had suddenly turned on her after she was old enough to marry; she was really hurt when she had told you that Alberm had raped her, and you did nothing. Why did you ignore her?"
Ridikar sighed, his head hung down in shame, "I know that you and Caline will never believe this, but the first night, the night that Alberm first lay with Caline and took her virginity, I heard her crying. Later one of the butlers told me that Alberm had taken Caline to his room and mated with her. I wanted to hurt him then, and I actually went to Father about it. Father and I argued, but in the end, he won me over to his side. He told me that Caline was to be Alberm's wife, and Alberm was within his rights. I told Father that I heard Caline crying, but he chided me and said that all girls cry the first time they mate with a man. I let him convince me that what Alberm did to Caline was right and proper-"
"But it wasn't! Alberm hurt her!"
"I know that now, Tayla, and I should have known it then. Father had me convinced that Caline was acting like a baby, and that Alberm would make a good husband. Caline had come to me after Alberm had assaulted her for the first time and told me what happened. I know you are going to hate me more than you already do for this, Tayla, but I turned her away and ridiculed her. I told her not to be ridiculous and not to fight Alberm the next time he lay with her. I said that if she didn't resist Alberm, she wouldn't be hurt. I told her that she was Alberm's property, and that Alberm was a good match and a good addition to our family. I let her down; I know that now. I killed her that day, Tayla, I killed her; you wouldn't want to have seen the look on her face when I took Alberm's side against hers. She looked as if she were at her own funeral."
Tayla both pitied and condemned him at the same time, but she allowed Ridikar to continue.
"Caline was telling you the truth about everything; she has never told a lie that I know of. She was telling you the truth about us being close at one time. She wasn't always so scared and timid like she had been before you Astorians essentially adopted her. She was like you, although much shyer and gentler even then, but very lively and spirited when Father wasn't around. I loved her, Kami Ankor, but did I love her! I literally helped to raise the small mite after Mother had died. Mother had made me promise on her deathbed that I would look after Caline and protect her because she knew that Father wouldn't; Father wasn't happy to have another girl around. Father was never fond of my sisters anyway; he just saw them as pawns to form alliances with. But I kept my word to Mother until about a year ago, I did, even Caline will tell you that I was good to her up until that time. I used to take her everywhere with me and hold her in my lap and talk to her and play with her for hours, kissing her, cuddling her; she was like a little doll. It used to make my day when Caline would come greet me after I came home from training or hunting or spending the day with my father. She was everything to me then, Tayla, believe it or not, absolutely everything."
"What happened between you two?"
"Father mainly. I still love him, and it hurts me that he's gone, but I know that he didn't treat Caline well at all. He considered her nothing more than a nuisance, and he told me so several times that he wished that Mother had stopped having children after Naykiar, my youngest brother, had been birthed. He had wanted Mother to stop having children after Naykiar, but Mother insisted on carrying Caline to term; Father wanted her to have an abortion, especially when the sonogram revealed the baby to be a girl. Mother refused, and the only reason Father didn't beat her was because Grandfather told him it was wrong to hit a pregnant woman. Caline was unplanned; Mother was supposed to stop bearing children after Naykiar, and Father thought that three sons and two daughters was enough. He never really wanted Caline, and he didn't pay attention to her unless it was to beat or yell at her until it was time for her to have a husband."
Ridikar abruptly skipped ahead to the year before last. "This is going off the subject, but it must be said. I've mated with a few girls before I met you, and two of those girls I forced. So technically, Tayla, I am a rapist, according to your people's standards. I lost my virginity to a prostitute when I was fifteen in this really high-class bordello that Father occasionally visited himself. He took me there to learn how to handle women, and the things that the whore taught me that night changed my life forever. I so wanted to please Father, and I listened to Father's speeches about the superiority of men so many times that it finally started to sink in."
"I began to believe that females were inferior to males, and I began to believe that Caline was nothing more as a pawn to create an alliance with. Father used to scold me for spending too much time with her, and finally I started to believe him. I too began to see Caline as a pest, something that mattered little more than Father's gold watch. I started to talk down to her and belittle her in the same way that Father used to. And yet Caline never once reproached me about it, never once told me off. She faded into the woodwork the same way that she did when Father scolded her and withdrew. After that day when I refused to help her with the Alberm situation, she never came to me for anything again. Shortly after Alberm forced himself on her, Caline ran away and managed to hide out for a few weeks until my father's men learned where she was hiding. She was brought back home, and my father whipped her with the belt so many times that I thought that he was going to kill her."
"She married Alberm two days later, and oh, Tayla, she did look terrible; Father had belted her everywhere, even her face. She walked down the aisle with bruises and cuts covering her face, her back, her legs, and her arms. Her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, and her skin was so pale that a snowflake could easily have stood out against her flesh. She cried at the altar and looked towards Grandfather and begged him in front of everyone not to make her go through with this. Grandfather told her to stop fretting; that if she were a good girl and a good wife, things would be fine. And he also told her to stop holding up the ceremony. Father yelled at Caline and told her to stop acting like a brat and shut up and marry Alberm. Alberm was really mad at her, and he called her an ungrateful wench who should be thankful that he was still marrying her. Caline could barely say, "I do," for she was crying so hard. My heart broke for her that day, but I said nothing, I did nothing to prevent her from any more pain. I stood by and allowed her to be hurt, to be abused. I hardened my heart against her, not allowing myself to care about her again until now."
Ridikar took a deep breath, and his voice became shaky again. "You were right, Tayla, there is nothing worthy in me, nothing at all! No wonder you don't want to marry me; you must really hate me for treating you the way that I did, for kidnapping you, and for not protecting Caline." He finally wrenched himself away from her. "If you want to go back to your family, then go ahead." He pulled out the control box from his pocket and pressed a button to release Tayla's cuffs. Tayla gasped in shock when the horrible cuffs fell from her wrists, and a shock ran through her body when her ki came back to her in full force.
She looked at Ridikar and whispered, "Th-thank you."
Ridikar nodded. "Just go, please; I don't deserve you. I should have never allowed Dedron to talk me into taking you away; should have known it wasn't going to work. I just wanted you so much, Tayla, loved you so much. I know that you're only twelve-years-old, but I wanted you for my bride, my wife. I know that there's no way that you would ever want anything to do with me, is there?"
Tayla was quiet for a few moments, and she did not leave. Instead she said, "Ridikar, I don't hate you."
Ridikar looked at her, as if seeing her for the first time. "Really?"
"Really," Tayla said softly. "Don't get me wrong, Ridikar; I still don't intend to marry you, and I don't think that we could ever be a couple. That part of our life is over forever, and I'm only twelve, too young to even have a suitor. Most girls on my planet don't have suitors until they are about a year or two older than I am. But I don't hate you; there was a time when I didn't like you at all after you tried to rape me, and I never liked how you were towards Caline, but I never hated you. Ridikar, we will never be a couple, I am sorry, but maybe we could at least be friendly towards each other." Tayla had wanted to say, "we could be friends", but she didn't feel ready to say it yet. She didn't feel as if she wanted to turn Ridikar out completely, even though she no longer was in love with him. She was no longer angry with Ridikar or afraid of him; she pitied him now more than anything.
Ridikar stammered, "Can I hug you again? Just as a brother perhaps? I won't try anything on you, I promise."
Tayla didn't see the harm in that, and she allowed Ridikar to embrace her. The Calmagian prince held onto her tightly, as Tayla hugged him back; she did feel sorry for him now-and for Caline. She thought a silent prayer for both of them.
"Tayla," Ridikar whispered. "Do you think that I could ever gain Caline's forgiveness? Do you think that I could ever get her to love me again? Do you think that I could at least gain your forgiveness, if not your love?"
"You already have," Tayla told him, "just by admitting that you were wrong, and freeing me. I can't speak for Caline, but knowing her, I think that she would, if you gave her time and was kind to her. I hope that she's okay; I am worried about her."
"So am I," Ridikar choked out. "I hope that it's not too late for me to say that I'm sorry to her. I hope that she will forgive me."
Tayla hoped so too, but then she suddenly remembered Ridikar mentioning Dedron's involvement in her kidnapping. "Ridikar, did Dedron really have you take me away?"
"He suggested it and gave me the cuffing gun and control box to do so with," Ridikar told her. "He even lured you and Riccan to the bushes; I didn't expect you to bring company along. I am the one that hit you, but you probably know that, and I am sorry for it. But yes, Dedron masterminded everything, not that it makes me any more innocent."
"Did Dedron say why he had me kidnapped?"
"He really hates you, Tayla, I can definitely tell you that. He didn't say that he did, but I could tell. He really did want to get rid of you. I didn't like how he was towards you, and I should have spoken for you against him, but again, I kept silent, like I did when Alberm hurt Caline. But if he ever hurts you again, or talks bad about you, I'll beat him to a bloody pulp!"
Tayla permitted herself a smile. "Thanks, I appreciate that."
Strangely enough, Ridikar found himself laughing. "I'll admit, Tayla, that I was scared of you that day when you punched Dedron in the face, but he did have it coming to him, I see that now."
"I was so mad at him for talking about Nama and I that way! Ugh! I've tried to get along with him, but now I'd sooner deal with Vegeta!"
Ridikar found himself laughing again, but then he stopped and grew sober. "I shouldn't be laughing on the day that I find out my father is dead."
"Knowing your father, I'm sure that he wouldn't want you to spend too much time mourning him," Tayla told him truthfully about his hardhearted father.
"Perhaps you're right, Tayla. Father was a true warrior, one who knew how to cut his losses and move on with life. He'd want me to do the same. On that aspect, I do want to be like him-"-he couldn't help, but grin when Tayla scrunched up her face in disbelief-"but there are things about him that I would rather leave with him in his grave, including his attitude towards Caline and other women."
At that moment, the picture window facing the lake and garden had its glass shattered, and a fierce-looking Dirkan burst in through the window. Shalila climbed in after him, sighing.
"Dirkan, couldn't you have at least used the door instead of breaking the window?"
"Hell no! What else was I supposed to do? This window is hermetically sealed, it seems, or it was."
Tayla and Ridikar pulled apart from each other, and Dirkan told Ridikar icily, "You better be lucky that she wasn't harmed because I wanted to break your neck the moment that Dedron told me you were involved in Tayla's disappearance! Tayla, did he harm you before we showed up?"
"No, not really," Tayla told him truthfully, "other than that time he hit me to put me out. Dirkan, would you please not hurt him? He released me about ten minutes ago, and he now knows that his father died. He seems to want to change, Dirkan, really; he is sorry for what he has done."
Dirkan looked at Tayla in dismay. "Have you made up with him?"
"I still don't wish to marry him, or be his lady, if that's what you're asking."
"Thank the East Kai for that!"
Shalila hurried over to Tayla and gathered her into her arms, holding her tight to her.
"Tayla, are you okay?"
"Yes, Nama," Tayla told her happily, hugging her back. She had thought for a while that she would never see her beloved Nama or Dirkan again before Ridikar had told her he was returning her to her family to say goodbye.
Shalila looked at Ridikar sternly. Ridikar was trembling again, knowing how dangerous the Superior Gran and the Superior Granden were as warriors. "I never meant to harm Tayla, truly! I just wanted to be with her," Ridikar stammered.
"You should thank your deity for your sake that she wasn't harmed," Shalila told him in a steely tone. "However, since Tayla has not been hurt, and she did beg Dirkan not to attack you, I will not give you the beating that I probably should give you. You should be thankful that Dirkan and I were listening outside the window for the last twenty minutes. If he hadn't been listening to the conversation between you two, he would have burst in the moment we had arrived in this town, and you probably would not be alive right now."
"You were listening before you came in, Nama, Dirkan?" Tayla asked in astonishment.
"Yes, dandelion, we were. Believe me, I felt like Dirkan did when he just wanted to hit Ridikar and ask questions later, but then we heard you two talking, and we figured, well I figured, that Ridikar was probably not going to hurt you anymore."
"It did take her a few minutes for your grandmother to convince of that," Dirkan told Tayla. "I just wanted to give the boy what I thought he deserved, but he seems to want to make up for his crimes now, so unless he did anything to you that we don't know about, he'll be allowed to live." He turned to Ridikar and said quietly, "Ridikar, I do want to give you my condolences for your father's death; I am sorry that you and Caline and your other siblings are without parents now."
Ridikar said in a low voice, thankful that Dirkan wasn't going to send him to the next dimension. "Thank you, sir."
Shalila led Tayla off of the bed, still holding her, and Dirkan told everyone, "Now that Tayla's safe, we need to get back. We have people to kick and butts to rescue." Everyone looked at Dirkan strangely for a few moments, and Dirkan realized what he had said. "I-I meant that we have…err…butts to kick and people to rescue, yes that's it exactly."
Tayla laughed softly, as she left her Nama briefly to give her Namek guardian a warm, firm hug. Dirkan held her close to him, as Tayla rested her face in his chest.
Ridikar looked despondent because his father was gone, and because he knew that Tayla would never love him like he wanted her to, not now. But at least he had her forgiveness, and maybe sometime her friendship. He followed Shalila, Dirkan, and Tayla out of the hotel room window, and they headed back to the outskirts of Magan.
The next morning in Benedon…
"Hungry?"
"Not really."
"C'mon, Tayla, you have to eat sometime; today's our wedding day!"
"I'm not marrying you, Ridikar, so you might as well just take me back to my family, so we can go rescue the others," Tayla replied stubbornly, as she struggled against the restraints that Ridikar had left on her. She tried to maintain as much distance between her and Ridikar as possible on the king-sized bed that she had been forced to share with him the night before.
The suite, fit for a future king and queen, was large and luxurious, with five rooms, two bedrooms, a sitting room, a bathroom, and a small kitchenette. The master bedroom had a silver carpet with deep plush, walls covered with lavender velour with pink roses, two large picture windows, one that had a view of a lake and formal garden. The king-sized bed was oval-shaped, with a half-circle headboard made out of a pale pink wood streaked with beige, a wood called "peige", a popular wood among the Calmagian royalty, a rare wood found in only one Calmagian private forest with the peige trees having been imported from planet Cara-Camay. The bedcovers were silken with a deep purple velvet quilt covering the silky pale green sheets decorated with electric-blue roses and dark green vines. Tayla would have loved the room, if she had not been Ridikar's captive.
Last night, Ridikar had managed to get Tayla into Benedon with no real problems, and wrapping a huge brown cloak that he had bought around her body and most of her lower face area, he had managed to hide her restraints and her cuffs when he had checked them into Benedon's best hotel. When Ridikar had removed Tayla's gag again, Tayla tried to scream for help, but Ridikar gagged her once more. Now once again, Tayla's gag had been removed, and once it had been removed, she had tried to bring up the death of Amitar, but Ridikar had cut her off, still thinking that she was about to bad-mouth his father. He rarely let her speak for long.
"Tayla, don't be ridiculous," Ridikar told her. "Of course you are going to marry me; you sound as stubborn as Caline was on the day that she married Alberm. We'll get married, and then we'll go back to your people and help them to fight. Tayla, why can't you be happy about this?"
"Would you be happy, if you were forced to marry someone that you didn't love?" Tayla demanded to know.
"You'll learn to love me again, Tayla," Ridikar told her confidently. "I'm not going to hurt you, you know. I just want you to be my bride and my wife."
"Ridikar, your family is being held captive, the same as some of my family is. Doesn't that worry you at all? Don't you realize that Caline is one of the captives there? Don't you realize that Zarbon and his bunch could kill your family and mine at any time? This isn't time to get married; we need to go back!"
Ridikar sighed, "Tayla, we are going back, as soon as I make you my wife. If one or both of us die, I would rather us be married beforehand. I would rather take you as my woman; you don't want to die a virgin, do you? I sure don't want to die before I make you my wife in spirit, as well as in name. Don't you realize that you are going to be my queen someday, if we win?"
Tayla had to tell Ridikar about his father's death. "If I do have to marry you, that might happen sooner than you think."
"Why do you say that?" Ridikar wanted to know.
Tayla decided to just blurt it out; she hadn't wanted to break the news to him like this, but she had no choice. Ridikar had the right to know the truth, no matter what he had done to her.
"Ridikar, your father is dead," she said too quickly.
Ridikar looked at his future bride in disbelief. "Don't be silly! I just got a message from him two days ago, and he was fine, fighting a bunch of little green monsters. My father is a fine warrior, a fine soldier, no one can touch him-"
"A green monster did," Tayla told him quietly. "Dirkan told me and the others; he was going to tell you yesterday before you took me away about your father's death. Ridikar, he died when a green monster self-destructed while holding him."
Ridikar seized her by her thin shoulders and yelled, "You're lying!"
"I wish I was," Tayla told him sadly. "And it would be cruel of me to lie about something like that. I am sorry, Ridikar, but your father is gone forever."
"No, he's not, Dirkan has to be mistaken, he has to be! Not my father! No! It has to be a mistake!" Ridikar cried out in horror. "Please tell me that this is a bad joke, to get revenge on me for taking you away!"
"I can't, I'm sorry, but it's true," Tayla whispered, touched by the stricken look of pain on Ridikar's face. As much as she had come to despise him lately, she now wanted to comfort him; she truly pitied him.
He shoved himself away from her, and he went over to the velour-covered wall and punched a hole through it. "Those bastards!" he screamed. "That horrible monster! Why him? Why? He was a good father, a good father, he didn't deserve to die!" The Calmagian prince punched another hole in the wall, and his fist met a steel beam; the beam hurt his fist.
"Curses! Why, Father? Why did you have to die?" Ridikar screamed, his grief and anguish overwhelming him, as he continued to punch holes into the wall, one after the other, until there was a wide vertical track of fist-sized holes leading from the top of a window down to the floor base. "First Mother dies, and now him! Why does everyone I know and love want to leave me? Why?"
Tayla's brown eyes filled with tears for him; as badly as he had treated her, she felt sorry for him. She rolled her slender body over to Ridikar's side of the bed until she was lying near the edge of the bed.
"Ridikar, if you will untie me, I will hold you; maybe it will help to comfort you," Tayla volunteered softly.
"Untie you? Right, you'll run away from me the first chance that you get! I already lost Father, Tayla; I shouldn't have to lose you too! And I'm not going to lose you like I did him!"
"What if I told you that I wasn't going to run away? Would you untie me then?"
"No, because I know you, Tayla! You'll knock me out or electrocute me and abandon me! It's not happening!"
"Ridikar, I just want to comfort you; please untie me. I won't run away, I promise."
"Swear on it by your Seven Moons Oath!"
Tayla hated to do that, but she had no choice. She wouldn't have left Ridikar at this time anyhow. "I swear on Seven Moons then, that I won't run away."
An anguished Ridikar finally approached Tayla on the bed, and he began to untie her wrists, and he was even considerate enough to untie her ankles as well. Tayla kept her word and embraced him. Clinging hard to her, Ridikar's whole body shook with grief, as she hugged him to her. Finally, Ridikar couldn't take it anymore, and he began to sob, with a few tears wetting Tayla's shoulder. Tayla patted his back and rubbed it, forgetting for now that Ridikar had kidnapped her.
"I wish that little green bastard was still alive, so I could kill him myself!" Ridikar cried into her shoulder. "Why my father, Tayla, why? I don't understand! Why did Frieza have to pick our planet to attack? What did we ever do to him other than produce that bastard traitor, Alberm! And to think I approved of him marrying my sister! A traitor married into our family, and he brought this down on us! I hate him more than Frieza, I think, because he was one of us, and he betrayed us all to that evil monster! Alberm is to blame for my father's death! I'm glad that Alberm is dead! Alberm deserved what he received! I should have listened to Caline when she told me how bad he was, but Father and I wouldn't listen! And I helped Father force her to marry him."
Tayla held him closer to her body, as Ridikar hugged her tighter. After an hour had passed, Ridikar was still grief-stricken, but he had calmed down considerably. He whispered, "Tayla, do you hate me? Do you really hate me? I-I wouldn't blame you, if you did." His voice continued to shake, as he continued, "I-I hurt you, didn't I? I tried to force myself on you, even though you said no. I just thought that you were so pretty, so funny, so cute, so-so brave. I tried to make you submit to me, to become the conventional Calmagian wife, and you're not like Calmagian girls. I've never met anyone like you, and I guess that's what attracted me to you because you were different, and I tried to make you over into what Father and I thought you should be. I was always taught that girls were supposed to be submissive and obedient, never defying their fathers or husbands, or questioning things. The ways of Astorian women and girls was a shock to all of the men in my family because they are so assertive, self-confident and bold and brave, like you."
"Father was really angry because Caline was spending so much time with your family, and on that day when she told us that she wouldn't marry Filcor Sedemeyer, she made us so angry! But you know what, Tayla? I'm starting to think that maybe Father and I were wrong in forcing her to marry Alberm; I ignored her when she cried for help, and I tried to convince myself that she was Alberm's property and that he could do whatever he wanted with her. I put her down and told her that she had to obey Alberm and please him. I-I never told anyone this, but I wanted to comfort her that day when we all found out that Alberm was a traitor and a would-be murderer, and I didn't."
Tayla asked softly, "What did you have against Caline? She's such a sweet and kind girl, and I never understood why you didn't seem to care about her. She just wants to be loved, Ridikar, and she wanted you to love her. She told me that before. She told me that you two used to be really close to each other, and that you used to love and protect her and play with her. Caline has always wondered why you had suddenly turned on her after she was old enough to marry; she was really hurt when she had told you that Alberm had raped her, and you did nothing. Why did you ignore her?"
Ridikar sighed, his head hung down in shame, "I know that you and Caline will never believe this, but the first night, the night that Alberm first lay with Caline and took her virginity, I heard her crying. Later one of the butlers told me that Alberm had taken Caline to his room and mated with her. I wanted to hurt him then, and I actually went to Father about it. Father and I argued, but in the end, he won me over to his side. He told me that Caline was to be Alberm's wife, and Alberm was within his rights. I told Father that I heard Caline crying, but he chided me and said that all girls cry the first time they mate with a man. I let him convince me that what Alberm did to Caline was right and proper-"
"But it wasn't! Alberm hurt her!"
"I know that now, Tayla, and I should have known it then. Father had me convinced that Caline was acting like a baby, and that Alberm would make a good husband. Caline had come to me after Alberm had assaulted her for the first time and told me what happened. I know you are going to hate me more than you already do for this, Tayla, but I turned her away and ridiculed her. I told her not to be ridiculous and not to fight Alberm the next time he lay with her. I said that if she didn't resist Alberm, she wouldn't be hurt. I told her that she was Alberm's property, and that Alberm was a good match and a good addition to our family. I let her down; I know that now. I killed her that day, Tayla, I killed her; you wouldn't want to have seen the look on her face when I took Alberm's side against hers. She looked as if she were at her own funeral."
Tayla both pitied and condemned him at the same time, but she allowed Ridikar to continue.
"Caline was telling you the truth about everything; she has never told a lie that I know of. She was telling you the truth about us being close at one time. She wasn't always so scared and timid like she had been before you Astorians essentially adopted her. She was like you, although much shyer and gentler even then, but very lively and spirited when Father wasn't around. I loved her, Kami Ankor, but did I love her! I literally helped to raise the small mite after Mother had died. Mother had made me promise on her deathbed that I would look after Caline and protect her because she knew that Father wouldn't; Father wasn't happy to have another girl around. Father was never fond of my sisters anyway; he just saw them as pawns to form alliances with. But I kept my word to Mother until about a year ago, I did, even Caline will tell you that I was good to her up until that time. I used to take her everywhere with me and hold her in my lap and talk to her and play with her for hours, kissing her, cuddling her; she was like a little doll. It used to make my day when Caline would come greet me after I came home from training or hunting or spending the day with my father. She was everything to me then, Tayla, believe it or not, absolutely everything."
"What happened between you two?"
"Father mainly. I still love him, and it hurts me that he's gone, but I know that he didn't treat Caline well at all. He considered her nothing more than a nuisance, and he told me so several times that he wished that Mother had stopped having children after Naykiar, my youngest brother, had been birthed. He had wanted Mother to stop having children after Naykiar, but Mother insisted on carrying Caline to term; Father wanted her to have an abortion, especially when the sonogram revealed the baby to be a girl. Mother refused, and the only reason Father didn't beat her was because Grandfather told him it was wrong to hit a pregnant woman. Caline was unplanned; Mother was supposed to stop bearing children after Naykiar, and Father thought that three sons and two daughters was enough. He never really wanted Caline, and he didn't pay attention to her unless it was to beat or yell at her until it was time for her to have a husband."
Ridikar abruptly skipped ahead to the year before last. "This is going off the subject, but it must be said. I've mated with a few girls before I met you, and two of those girls I forced. So technically, Tayla, I am a rapist, according to your people's standards. I lost my virginity to a prostitute when I was fifteen in this really high-class bordello that Father occasionally visited himself. He took me there to learn how to handle women, and the things that the whore taught me that night changed my life forever. I so wanted to please Father, and I listened to Father's speeches about the superiority of men so many times that it finally started to sink in."
"I began to believe that females were inferior to males, and I began to believe that Caline was nothing more as a pawn to create an alliance with. Father used to scold me for spending too much time with her, and finally I started to believe him. I too began to see Caline as a pest, something that mattered little more than Father's gold watch. I started to talk down to her and belittle her in the same way that Father used to. And yet Caline never once reproached me about it, never once told me off. She faded into the woodwork the same way that she did when Father scolded her and withdrew. After that day when I refused to help her with the Alberm situation, she never came to me for anything again. Shortly after Alberm forced himself on her, Caline ran away and managed to hide out for a few weeks until my father's men learned where she was hiding. She was brought back home, and my father whipped her with the belt so many times that I thought that he was going to kill her."
"She married Alberm two days later, and oh, Tayla, she did look terrible; Father had belted her everywhere, even her face. She walked down the aisle with bruises and cuts covering her face, her back, her legs, and her arms. Her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, and her skin was so pale that a snowflake could easily have stood out against her flesh. She cried at the altar and looked towards Grandfather and begged him in front of everyone not to make her go through with this. Grandfather told her to stop fretting; that if she were a good girl and a good wife, things would be fine. And he also told her to stop holding up the ceremony. Father yelled at Caline and told her to stop acting like a brat and shut up and marry Alberm. Alberm was really mad at her, and he called her an ungrateful wench who should be thankful that he was still marrying her. Caline could barely say, "I do," for she was crying so hard. My heart broke for her that day, but I said nothing, I did nothing to prevent her from any more pain. I stood by and allowed her to be hurt, to be abused. I hardened my heart against her, not allowing myself to care about her again until now."
Ridikar took a deep breath, and his voice became shaky again. "You were right, Tayla, there is nothing worthy in me, nothing at all! No wonder you don't want to marry me; you must really hate me for treating you the way that I did, for kidnapping you, and for not protecting Caline." He finally wrenched himself away from her. "If you want to go back to your family, then go ahead." He pulled out the control box from his pocket and pressed a button to release Tayla's cuffs. Tayla gasped in shock when the horrible cuffs fell from her wrists, and a shock ran through her body when her ki came back to her in full force.
She looked at Ridikar and whispered, "Th-thank you."
Ridikar nodded. "Just go, please; I don't deserve you. I should have never allowed Dedron to talk me into taking you away; should have known it wasn't going to work. I just wanted you so much, Tayla, loved you so much. I know that you're only twelve-years-old, but I wanted you for my bride, my wife. I know that there's no way that you would ever want anything to do with me, is there?"
Tayla was quiet for a few moments, and she did not leave. Instead she said, "Ridikar, I don't hate you."
Ridikar looked at her, as if seeing her for the first time. "Really?"
"Really," Tayla said softly. "Don't get me wrong, Ridikar; I still don't intend to marry you, and I don't think that we could ever be a couple. That part of our life is over forever, and I'm only twelve, too young to even have a suitor. Most girls on my planet don't have suitors until they are about a year or two older than I am. But I don't hate you; there was a time when I didn't like you at all after you tried to rape me, and I never liked how you were towards Caline, but I never hated you. Ridikar, we will never be a couple, I am sorry, but maybe we could at least be friendly towards each other." Tayla had wanted to say, "we could be friends", but she didn't feel ready to say it yet. She didn't feel as if she wanted to turn Ridikar out completely, even though she no longer was in love with him. She was no longer angry with Ridikar or afraid of him; she pitied him now more than anything.
Ridikar stammered, "Can I hug you again? Just as a brother perhaps? I won't try anything on you, I promise."
Tayla didn't see the harm in that, and she allowed Ridikar to embrace her. The Calmagian prince held onto her tightly, as Tayla hugged him back; she did feel sorry for him now-and for Caline. She thought a silent prayer for both of them.
"Tayla," Ridikar whispered. "Do you think that I could ever gain Caline's forgiveness? Do you think that I could ever get her to love me again? Do you think that I could at least gain your forgiveness, if not your love?"
"You already have," Tayla told him, "just by admitting that you were wrong, and freeing me. I can't speak for Caline, but knowing her, I think that she would, if you gave her time and was kind to her. I hope that she's okay; I am worried about her."
"So am I," Ridikar choked out. "I hope that it's not too late for me to say that I'm sorry to her. I hope that she will forgive me."
Tayla hoped so too, but then she suddenly remembered Ridikar mentioning Dedron's involvement in her kidnapping. "Ridikar, did Dedron really have you take me away?"
"He suggested it and gave me the cuffing gun and control box to do so with," Ridikar told her. "He even lured you and Riccan to the bushes; I didn't expect you to bring company along. I am the one that hit you, but you probably know that, and I am sorry for it. But yes, Dedron masterminded everything, not that it makes me any more innocent."
"Did Dedron say why he had me kidnapped?"
"He really hates you, Tayla, I can definitely tell you that. He didn't say that he did, but I could tell. He really did want to get rid of you. I didn't like how he was towards you, and I should have spoken for you against him, but again, I kept silent, like I did when Alberm hurt Caline. But if he ever hurts you again, or talks bad about you, I'll beat him to a bloody pulp!"
Tayla permitted herself a smile. "Thanks, I appreciate that."
Strangely enough, Ridikar found himself laughing. "I'll admit, Tayla, that I was scared of you that day when you punched Dedron in the face, but he did have it coming to him, I see that now."
"I was so mad at him for talking about Nama and I that way! Ugh! I've tried to get along with him, but now I'd sooner deal with Vegeta!"
Ridikar found himself laughing again, but then he stopped and grew sober. "I shouldn't be laughing on the day that I find out my father is dead."
"Knowing your father, I'm sure that he wouldn't want you to spend too much time mourning him," Tayla told him truthfully about his hardhearted father.
"Perhaps you're right, Tayla. Father was a true warrior, one who knew how to cut his losses and move on with life. He'd want me to do the same. On that aspect, I do want to be like him-"-he couldn't help, but grin when Tayla scrunched up her face in disbelief-"but there are things about him that I would rather leave with him in his grave, including his attitude towards Caline and other women."
At that moment, the picture window facing the lake and garden had its glass shattered, and a fierce-looking Dirkan burst in through the window. Shalila climbed in after him, sighing.
"Dirkan, couldn't you have at least used the door instead of breaking the window?"
"Hell no! What else was I supposed to do? This window is hermetically sealed, it seems, or it was."
Tayla and Ridikar pulled apart from each other, and Dirkan told Ridikar icily, "You better be lucky that she wasn't harmed because I wanted to break your neck the moment that Dedron told me you were involved in Tayla's disappearance! Tayla, did he harm you before we showed up?"
"No, not really," Tayla told him truthfully, "other than that time he hit me to put me out. Dirkan, would you please not hurt him? He released me about ten minutes ago, and he now knows that his father died. He seems to want to change, Dirkan, really; he is sorry for what he has done."
Dirkan looked at Tayla in dismay. "Have you made up with him?"
"I still don't wish to marry him, or be his lady, if that's what you're asking."
"Thank the East Kai for that!"
Shalila hurried over to Tayla and gathered her into her arms, holding her tight to her.
"Tayla, are you okay?"
"Yes, Nama," Tayla told her happily, hugging her back. She had thought for a while that she would never see her beloved Nama or Dirkan again before Ridikar had told her he was returning her to her family to say goodbye.
Shalila looked at Ridikar sternly. Ridikar was trembling again, knowing how dangerous the Superior Gran and the Superior Granden were as warriors. "I never meant to harm Tayla, truly! I just wanted to be with her," Ridikar stammered.
"You should thank your deity for your sake that she wasn't harmed," Shalila told him in a steely tone. "However, since Tayla has not been hurt, and she did beg Dirkan not to attack you, I will not give you the beating that I probably should give you. You should be thankful that Dirkan and I were listening outside the window for the last twenty minutes. If he hadn't been listening to the conversation between you two, he would have burst in the moment we had arrived in this town, and you probably would not be alive right now."
"You were listening before you came in, Nama, Dirkan?" Tayla asked in astonishment.
"Yes, dandelion, we were. Believe me, I felt like Dirkan did when he just wanted to hit Ridikar and ask questions later, but then we heard you two talking, and we figured, well I figured, that Ridikar was probably not going to hurt you anymore."
"It did take her a few minutes for your grandmother to convince of that," Dirkan told Tayla. "I just wanted to give the boy what I thought he deserved, but he seems to want to make up for his crimes now, so unless he did anything to you that we don't know about, he'll be allowed to live." He turned to Ridikar and said quietly, "Ridikar, I do want to give you my condolences for your father's death; I am sorry that you and Caline and your other siblings are without parents now."
Ridikar said in a low voice, thankful that Dirkan wasn't going to send him to the next dimension. "Thank you, sir."
Shalila led Tayla off of the bed, still holding her, and Dirkan told everyone, "Now that Tayla's safe, we need to get back. We have people to kick and butts to rescue." Everyone looked at Dirkan strangely for a few moments, and Dirkan realized what he had said. "I-I meant that we have…err…butts to kick and people to rescue, yes that's it exactly."
Tayla laughed softly, as she left her Nama briefly to give her Namek guardian a warm, firm hug. Dirkan held her close to him, as Tayla rested her face in his chest.
Ridikar looked despondent because his father was gone, and because he knew that Tayla would never love him like he wanted her to, not now. But at least he had her forgiveness, and maybe sometime her friendship. He followed Shalila, Dirkan, and Tayla out of the hotel room window, and they headed back to the outskirts of Magan.
