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“Home,” he declared with a broad smile.
She half expected him to be greeted by a crowd, but when they opened the ship’s doors, there was a distinct absence of people. Nobody was there. A leaf blew by in the breeze, just one yellow piece of foliage which almost seemed embarrassed to have interrupted the otherwise still emptiness of what looked like it should have been a busy city.
The steps and paths were worn with decades of foot-traffic, winding along paths and between planted passages. They were made of stone and sand, and they ran between flowering groves, and past little homes and businesses with signs and products out the front. It looked as though the city had been abandoned in a hurry, and all at once.
It looked as though everybody had run away. Fled, before Konan’s ship. This was not merely an absence of welcome. This was like a ghost town.
Konan did not seem bothered by the lack of adoring peasants, or even an angry mob. He strode down the gangway, his muscular arms spread wide, a regal smile set broadly on his features.
Behind him, Elizabeth walked on her chain. It jingled when he turned and made an expansive gesture to the crew.
“Come! We walk to the palace!”
“Why didn’t we just land at the palace?” She knew every question risked fresh punishment, but she couldn’t help herself. A new world, a new city, a new palace, a new people. How could she stand about silently?
“We do not keep the docks next to the place our royal family lives in case they happen to be used by ill-forces. This walk is usually lined with guards.”
“What happened to the guards?”
Why was she asking these questions? She knew the answer in the pit of her stomach. They were not only unhappy to see Konan, they were terrified of him. His presence on the planet seemed to make every part of it recoil.
“Oh, there are some people,” she said out loud, narrating the obvious.
There were people, well, aliens. But they weren’t exactly looking celebratory. They looked terrified, huddled under the walls of the castle which rose out of the jungle almost sheepishly, as if it were peeking through the leaves in shame.
They were just the first of the alien citizens they encountered on the march to the castle. All of them stopped running the moment Konan came into view and decided to cower instead, laying on their faces, trembling with obvious fear. Wherever Konan walked, people cried in terror and begged for mercy many thousands of times over. It was a harrowing sound and a disturbing sight for Elizabeth, who tried to pick her way through the fallen crowds without standing on anybody by accident.
This was her first time seeing Konan in his natural environment, and she had to admit, she felt fear. She had been afraid of him for some time. A very long time. But the fear had waned when they were on Paradise. Now it had returned, a big, black, heavy thing right in the core of her stomach. Every instinct she had told her that she was in trouble, that she walked next to someone who had committed real acts of evil. He was not a fantasy beast redeemable by a princess. He was the real kind. The kind that never changes, only evolves into darker and more dangerous forms.
“What did you do to these people?”
“Come,” Konan instructed, ignoring her questions entirely. "We have much to celebrate. The king has returned to Masih!”
His crew cheered boisterously behind him, a sound which almost drowned out the frightened sobs of the peasants as he led her through fortified gates and into the courtyard of the palace proper.
She could feel the age of the place. It was obviously ancient. There was a gravitas and a craftsmanship on display that never accompanied anything modern. Everywhere Elizabeth looked, she could see the marks of one dynasty or another, various emblems and carvings on display, one giving into the other with the marching of the ages.
The palace itself was astonishing. Made of red clay, formed into patterned bricks and built into a series of nesting spires, turrets, and other architectural features Elizabeth wished she knew the names for, it was inhabited by the same kind of plant she had become very familiar with on the ship. Its tendrils, branches, leaves, and flowers seemed to be woven through every single part of it.
“Sire! You have returned!”
The doors opened and a great many servants came pouring out. Unlike the sobbing peasants, they seemed happy to see Konan. It was quite a confusing greeting, and no effort was made to explain it to Elizabeth. She was a chained prize, part of the general decor.
“I have returned,” Konan repeated in a booming voice, as if he wanted to make sure anybody hiding in the back would hear him. “I have reclaimed the crown, and I will now reclaim my throne. Tonight, we feast!”
