From Part 11 ...
Was Kal hoping for an heir?
Did he want a child?
For himself? Or for his people?
Was it his heart? Or his duty?
Did he feel he had failed his people by not providing one?
But if that were the case, wouldn’t he be in his wife’s bedroom every chance he got?
Given how he looked, why didn’t his wife have Kal in her bedroom every night?
If she, Lois, were Kal’s wife, there would not be separate houses.
Nor separate bedrooms.
Nor separate beds.
If she, Lois, were Kal’s wife, she was absolutely certain there would be nothing left over for the concubines.
Nothing.
Part 12
Lois spent the afternoon engrossed in her story. When Tek arrived with her supper, she was surprised at how quickly the hours had passed. She was disappointed too – disappointed that Kal had not come.
He’d warned her he would be busy all day, but she hadn’t been able to suppress the indomitable hope that he would be able to find a few moments to come to her.
Had something happened?
She was forbidden to ask Tek anything that directly related to Kal. “Is everything all right?” she asked. “Out there?”
Tek looked behind him to where she had pointed. “Yes.”
“Did you take the book home to your children?”
“Yes.”
“Did you read it to them?”
“Yes. Is there another one?”
“Yes, but it isn’t ready yet.”
Tek turned to leave.
“Thank you for bringing my supper, Tek,” she called after him.
Lois worked on through the evening ... listening ... always listening for Kal’s return.
It was only as she completed the final picture of the hopscotch story that Lois realised how weariness had crept upon her as she had worked. She tidied the desk and stood.
Kal’s bed – warm, big and comfortable – beckoned to her. It would be so easy to slip between the sheets; to be there when he returned. To be there to welcome him after a long day apart.
Breakfast seemed so far away.
Should she?
Should she simply get into his bed and wait there for him?
Would he sleep on the chair?
Or would he get in with her?
Would he think it intrusive?
She didn’t think so. He’d openly admitted he enjoyed being with her. He’d said he didn’t want to be apart from her all day.
She figured there was a good chance he would be delighted to find her in his bed.
But ... Kal’s reaction was not the only consideration ... getting into his bed amounted to an open invitation for him to join her. Was she ready for that?
With a sigh, Lois turned from the temptation of Kal’s bed and trudged to the lonesomeness of her own room.
A medley of emotion swept over her as she lay shivering in her bed. Discontentment at the limited time she had been with Kal that day ... anticipation of the sweet oatmeal they would eat together tomorrow for breakfast ... a small filament of anxiety regarding his whereabouts ... shock – still – at that black suit.
And the achy void within her – simply because she was not with Kal.
She was in love.
It was so new. So unbelievable.
She was living on another planet.
Another *planet*.
Eating their food.
Learning their ways.
Communicating – sort of – with them, through a device they had drilled into her head.
And most astounding of all – in love with their leader.
Kal.
An alien who had no concept of love.
Except he did – he had love for his people.
But his understanding of the love between a man and a woman seemed limited at best.
And she ... Lois Lane – a living, breathing, blundering fiasco when it came to relationships – was in love with him.
Lois laughed aloud ... at the irony, at the improbability and at the sheer joy of having found – against all the odds – the man who made her whole.
She was still smiling as she fell asleep.
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Lois awoke suddenly, panting, her heart pounding.
She sat up, disoriented.
She was in her room – in the concubine quarters.
She had been dreaming about Kal.
A vivid dream, striking in detail. He was calling her name. She’d looked for him through murky nothingness, but could not find him. Frantically, she had searched - her frustration and fear escalating to cold-sweat panic.
Lois sat up and tried to extricate reality from the lingering shadows of sleep.
Then she heard it – a low, intermittent groan.
Lois held her breath and listened.
It came again – soft and indistinct.
Lois slipped from her bed. She opened her door and ventured into the darkness.
The sound came again – barely audible. It came from the direction of Kal’s buildings. Lois crept across the courtyard and past the sentries.
Once inside, she listened again. The sound was coming from Kal’s bedroom. She moved through the chambers and hesitated at his bedroom door.
Someone was in there. Kal? Was he alone? Who was with him? His wife? Ard? Jib had said the Supreme Ruler could take any woman – married or single.
Lois raised her hand to knock, but froze as the groan sounded again.
Kal had said she could come to his room whenever she wanted.
But did that include the middle of the night?
Images filled her mind. Kal and Ard. Ard who was tall and beautiful and his first concubine.
With a jerky movement, Lois rapped on the door. She had to know.
She heard momentary stillness and then approaching footsteps.
The door opened.
Kal.
Alone.
His face etched with pain.
His cheeks wet with tears.
Lois snatched him to her, wrapping him in the circle of her arms.
His arms crushed her against his quivering body.
She held him for long moments, her fingers caressing comfort through his neck and shoulders.
Finally, Kal straightened enough that she could look into his face. His hands slipped to the curve of her hips and settled there.
Lois curled her hands across the arches of his rigid shoulders. “What happened, Kal?” she asked softly.
“They did it,” he said hoarsely.
Lois’s fingers glided across his cheeks with a tender touch. “Did what?” she asked gently.
“The parents of the murdered boy – they killed my two soldiers, then they went through the home of the murderer and slaughtered his wife and his daughter and his sister. Then they killed themselves.”
“Oh, Kal,” Lois sobbed. She gathered him close again and held him for a very long time.
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Kal had never wanted anything as much as he had wanted Lois to be in his room when he’d finally finished dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy.
But his room was empty.
Mindlessly, he’d changed from the black suit. He collapsed onto his bed, head slumped into his hands. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see the broken bodies ... see the blood ... see the destruction wrought by hatred.
He wanted Lois.
Ached for her.
He had tried so desperately to avert this situation. Earlier today, he had summoned the grieving parents. He had spent more than an hour listening to their pain and their anger and their desolation and their burning, uncontrollable need for retribution.
He had begged them to resist their thirst for violence.
He had threatened them with imprisonment.
He had ordered them to hand in their weapons.
Eventually, they had agreed there would be no bloodshed.
Yet still, Kal had commanded two of his soldiers to guard them.
Now those soldiers were dead.
Nine people. In total, nine of his people dead. Nine wasted lives.
Kal stared at the floor for a long time. He wasn’t sure when he’d become aware of the moisture spilling from his eyes – just as moisture sometimes spilt from Lois’s eyes.
He hurt inside.
More than he’d ever hurt before.
It felt like he had been torn apart.
And he wanted Lois.
He wanted her so much.
Then he’d heard the knock.
And she’d come.
And held him.
His pain was still there – still shattering him from the inside out.
But in her arms, there was comfort. There was hope. There was a place to escape from the images burnt into his soul.
So he had clung to her, sure of only one thing.
He never wanted to let her go.
Never.
Her gentle hands slid from his neck to his face. Her thumbs slowly drifted across his skin – each stroke further dissolving the boulder of pain inside him.
Then she reached up and kissed his cheek – a touch that stole away another portion of his anguish.
Kal’s thoughts moved to the long hours of darkness ahead.
Would Lois go back to the quarters? He wanted her to stay. He was willing to sleep in the chair. He was willing to do anything ... if only she didn’t go back to her room.
He drew her close again. Her arms tightened around his neck. “Please, Lois,” Kal murmured. “Please, Lois, please, Lois, please, Lois.”
She unfolded a little from him and sought him with her soft eyes. “Please what, Kal?”
“Please don’t leave.”
“I won’t.”
“You won’t go back to the Concubine Quarters?”
“Not if you want me to stay here,” she said.
Kal released a long breath as the knotted tension inside him began to ease. “Thank you.”
There was moisture on Lois’s cheeks. Kal swept it away – as carefully as she had swept away his moisture. “I’ll sleep on the chair,” he said, already intending to push the chair as close to the bed as possible.
“No,” she said. “You have the bed.”
“You can’t sleep on the chair,” Kal said. “It is uncomfortable.”
“We could both sleep in the bed.”
That was beyond what he had hoped for. “I want that so much,” he breathed.
Lois pulled back the covers of his bed and slipped between the sheets. Kal removed his jacket. He got into bed and lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. “Lois?”
“Yes, Kal.”
“Is it possible to hug when you’re lying down?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Could we do that?”
“Yes.”
Kal turned onto his side and opened his arms towards her. She wriggled into them. He bundled her closer and her presence seeped into his exhausted body.
He closed his eyes.
The images of death had gone.
He heard – and felt – her sigh. He kissed the top of her head. It felt a little strange to kiss hair instead of skin, but he still liked it.
“I love you, Kal,” she said.
Love – there was another word he needed to learn how to say the Earth way. He would ask Lois to teach it to him tomorrow. Tonight – he was just too tired.
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Kal awoke the next morning.
Before his eyes had opened, before his mind had come to full consciousness, before he remembered the events of yesterday, he was aware of Lois wedged between his arms.
He breathed in the scent of her.
And felt her warm softness.
And knew with absolute certainty that he never wanted to wake up alone again.
No ... it was more than that ... not just that he didn’t want to be alone, but that he wanted to be with Lois.
Every morning.
Every night.
Every day.
She stirred in his arms and moved away a little. Kal opened his eyes to discover she was looking at him. “Are you all right?” she asked. She looked like she cared about his answer - really, genuinely cared about him.
“Yes,” he said, surprising himself. “Not good, but all right.” A portion of her hair had fallen forward onto her face. Kal reached and brushed it back, allowing the tip of his finger to skim the silkiness of her cheeks. He wanted to tell her how much he had needed her to stay with him. He wanted to tell her that she had brought solace into a situation so overwhelmingly bad, he hadn’t known what to do.
He wanted to tell her that her touch and her words and her eyes and her smile had eased the pain inside him.
But he wasn’t sure he had the words to express any of that.
So instead, Kal smiled for her.
Because she had already taught him that a smile could say so much.
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Lois smiled back. Waking up with Kal was wonderful. His face still carried the ravages of yesterday and she ached for all he had been through, but she couldn’t regret being with him. “Do you want to tell me what happened yesterday?” she asked gently.
Kal turned more fully onto his side and lifted his head off his pillow and onto his flattened hand, causing the muscles of his arm to billow. Lois dragged her eyes to his face. “The wife of the murderer came yesterday morning and asked permission to offer her life.”
“Offer her life?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t understand.”
“There is an ancient Law,” Kal explained. “It is rarely invoked ... has not been invoked in all my time as Supreme Ruler.”
“What does it involve?”
“If a person wants something desperately and it is in the power of another to grant it, the first person offers his life in return for that favour.”
“Offers his life?” Lois said. “As in ... becomes a slave? Or as in ... dies?”
“Dies.”
She tried to choke back the horror that had sprung up. “Dies?” she echoed.
Kal nodded. “It is the final resort,” he said. ”To be used only when there is no other way.”
“So the wife of the murderer offered to die in return for a guarantee of safety for her daughter?”
“Yes,” Kal said, “But I denied her request. Offering your life is something that cannot be done lightly.”
“Obviously.”
“There can be no going back,” Kal said. “If you offer your life and it is accepted, it cannot be recalled.”
“What if you offer your life, then get what you want, then escape? Or change your mind?”
“There is a price on your head - a price equivalent to a year’s food for anyone who delivers your body.”
“So ... if you offer your life ... that means certain death?”
“Yes.”
Kal was looking uncomfortable ... as if he had perceived her repugnance of a system that allowed life to be bartered. Lois drew her hand across his unshaven jaw to reassure him. “You didn’t grant her permission?”
Kal’s eyes dropped. “No,” he said with regret. “I hoped there was a better way. I hoped my people would choose peace instead of hostility. I was wrong.”
“It isn’t your fault, Kal,” Lois said. “You did what you thought was right.”
“It was wrong,” he said dispiritedly. “I should have allowed her to offer her life.”
“No!” Lois exclaimed. “That would have been admitting there was no other way out of this.”
“There *was* no other way out of this.”
“Kal, you may be the Supreme Ruler, but you can’t be everywhere and you can’t control everything your people do.”
“I just want unity,” he said, he said with a long, tortured sigh. “I just want the past to be forgotten.”
“Was this a North versus South thing?”
“Yes. The parents were Southside. The original murderer and his family were Northside.”
Kal’s sorrow, and his hopelessness, dissolved the last of Lois’s barriers. Barriers already weakened by sharing his bed.
She leant forward and kissed him.
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Before Lois’s mouth touched his, Kal had known she was going to kiss him.
What he hadn’t known was that this was going to be a kiss like the first time – a moving kiss, a backwards and forwards, deepening, withdrawing, open-mouth kiss that sent fire through his veins.
Then she lurched away, her breath coming quick and rough.
Kal thought she was going to leave him.
Instead, she smiled.
And left him full.
But empty too.
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Lois slipped back to her room to allow them both the privacy to dress, then returned to Kal’s bedroom for breakfast.
She took her first mouthful of oatmeal and realised Kal had kept his promise. It was sweet. But again, he wasn’t eating much. “Tomorrow, I want you to order salty oatmeal,” she told him.
“Why?”
“Because I need to learn to adjust to Kryptonian tastes.”
“I like giving you sweet oatmeal.”
“Then order sweet sometimes and salty sometimes.”
He smiled. “All right.”
“What are you going to do today?” she asked.
Kal sighed. “I need to meet with my Cabinet. I think we will call an Extraordinary Report.”
“Do you like doing the Reports?”
He stared at her, his blankness reminding her of when she had first met him ... and affirming how expressive he had become since then. Or maybe she’d become better at reading him. But this was blank. “I don’t like or dislike them,” Kal said. “I do them because they are my responsibility.”
“Do you always wear the black suit?”
“Yes.”
He said no more ... clearly it wasn’t an issue for him. Or maybe it was so much of an issue, he didn’t like to discuss it.
“Lois?” Kal said. “When you told me about the made-up stories, you said that they help you forget the difficulties.”
“That’s right.”
“Can we read your second book? Is it finished?”
“It will be finished as soon as you write the Kryptonian words.”
“Can we do it now?”
“Of course.”
Kal wrote the words to her story as Lois read them from her notes. When they had finished, Kal said, “Will you read it now? Please?”
Lois nodded. “Where? On the bed?”
“Yes.” They went to the bed and sat together, leaning back against the bed-head.
Lois read her story – it was the simple tale of two friends who played a game of hopscotch. It didn’t have a moral or a villain or even much of a plot.
In fact, it was little more than an instruction manual for the game, dressed up to look like fiction.
When she’d finished, Lois looked for Kal’s reaction. He looked uncertain. “What are their names?” he asked.
Lois hadn’t named the characters. She’d figured Earth names wouldn’t translate and the Kryptonian names she knew would be too person-specific. “I don’t know,” she said.
“They must have names,” Kal persisted.
“How about ... Lucy for the girl ... and ... Jimmy for the boy?”
“Are they brother and sister?”
“No. They are friends.”
“Friends?”
“Yes,” Lois said. “Lucy and Jimmy like being together and they enjoy doing things together and they help each other and they laugh together.”
Kal thought for a moment. “Do they hug when one is hurting?”
“Always,” Lois said. “That’s one of the best things about having a friend.”
“Did you have many friends on Earth?”
“Some.”
“Do you wish you could go back to them?”
Did she? “Maybe I’ll make new friends here,” she hedged. “Except ...”
“Except?”
Lois glanced down at her hands. “Your people don’t seem to like me much. They don’t want to talk to me and I don’t know if it’s because of something I do or something I say or because I’m a woman or because I don’t understand the whole status thing and I don’t know where I fit in it or if it’s just because they don’t like me at all.”
Kal looked a little dazed. “It’s nothing you’ve done,” he said. “It’s who you are.”
That wasn’t particularly reassuring.
“Kryptonians are extremely wary of anything unfamiliar,” Kal said.
“So it’s because I come from a different planet?”
“No,” Kal said. “It’s because you’re neither North nor South. That makes you ... unfathomable.”
“But you aren’t North or South either.”
A look of isolation darkened his face. “I know.”
“So we’re the only two people on this entire Planet who don’t have an allegiance to the old areas on Krypton?”
“Yes.”
Lois smiled and squeezed his hand. “Then maybe we should stick together,” she suggested. “Help each other.”
“Could we be friends?” Kal asked uncertainly.
Lois’s heart melted again. “Yes,” she agreed.
“I’d like that.” He rose from the bed. “I have to call a Cabinet Meeting.”
“Thank you for breakfast, Kal.”
“Thank you for reading your story,” Kal said. At the bedroom door, he turned. “Who’s Lucy?” he asked.
“My sister.”
“You didn’t say you have a brother.”
“I don’t. Jimmy is my friend; someone I work with ... used to work with.”
Kal didn’t respond.
“Will you be back for lunch?” Lois asked.
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll stay here all day – so whenever you come, I’ll be here.”
“Thank you.” Still, Kal hesitated at the door.
Lois stood from the bed. “You can’t go without a hug,” she said.
“No,” Kal said. “I can’t.”
Then she hugged him.
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Tek brought Lois’s lunch. He handed her the plate and glass.
Lois gave him the hopscotch story.
He took it, but still he waited.
“Thank you for bringing my lunch, Tek,” she said.
Still he waited.
Lois looked up from the story – the third one – she was writing.
Tek reached into the pocket of his jacket and brought out a tiny metallic container. He held it towards her.
Lois looked from his hand to his face. It gave her no clue to his intent. “Are you giving it to me?” she asked.
“Yes.”
Lois took it and removed the lid. Inside was a light blue creamy substance. She sniffed and drew back. It was strong ... very strong, but also pleasant – almost flowery ... strong like daphne, but sweet like a rose.
“It’s for your face,” Tek said. “You don’t need much.”
“Where does it come from?”
“My wife makes it. She swaps it for food with the other women.”
“What is your wife’s name?
“Riz.”
“Tell Riz I like it very much, Tek.”
He turned away and left her.
Lois dabbed a little of the cream on her face, smiling.
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Bel, the Concubine Mistress came to Lois mid-afternoon. “An Extraordinary Report has been called. You need to prepare.”
Lois went to her room and changed into the white gown, then waited for Mo to knock on her door.
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Again, Lois stood at the end of the line of concubines. Again, she shot surreptitious glances at Ard. Again she was stunned by her beauty.
Again, the Kryptonians gathered, silently.
Again, the doors opened and the three men walked out. Lois figured they were the Regal Nobles – which meant one of them was Lord Nor. But which one?
She had barely noticed them yesterday.
Kal emerged onto the balcony.
In the black suit.
Lois had known it was coming.
But she still had to stifle the gasp that sprung to her lips.
She forced her eyes to his face and nailed them there.
In his face – under the mask of Kryptonian blankness – she could see his myriad of emotions. Grief, determination, despair. She could see his strength. His courage. His commitment to providing the leadership his people needed.
Kal put his fist to his chest in greeting and his people responded.
“Fellow Kryptonians,” he began. “You have heard of the tragic events of yesterday. You have heard that despite my counsel, two of our people with the intention of evil on their hearts, took the lives of their fellow Kryptonians. We, the people of New Krypton, are poorer because of their actions.”
Lois couldn’t help but expect a response – something, anything – a murmur of agreement. There was nothing.
“Today – you must decide your destiny, your future,” Kal stated in his strong, deep voice. “I lay before you two paths – but you must decide the path we will take. What do you want for your children? Do you want prosperity and justice ... or do you want war and hatred? Do you want peace or do you want violence? Do you want a future or do you want to live ... and die ... in the rivalries of the past?
“As a people, we face many challenges - many difficulties that are imposed upon us by the very nature of planet on which we live. Those difficulties threaten our survival. The only way we can overcome is to face them together – working as one people, not two.
“When we lived on Krypton, we had abundant food and water, we had warmth and light. Because life was so easy, we filled our minds with thoughts of dominion and triumph over our brothers. Every summer ... *every* summer, we sacrificed the best of our young men to this misguided cause.”
Kal stopped. He stared ahead.
Lois knew he was fighting the rising of his emotions. She saw him swallow furiously. She saw him blink away the tears that had gathered in his eyes. She saw him take in a cavernous breath. She saw his eyes glance to her, hover for a micro-second, then return to stare ahead.
“That was the old way,” Kal said. “If we are to live, we have to live a new way. There can be no more needless death, no more mindless violence.
“Today, as your Supreme Ruler, I am ordering you to make a choice. If you are willing to turn from the past, if you are willing to live in peace with all your fellow Kryptonians, if you want to join the fight against our difficulties ... I want you to walk out of here now. I want you to walk out of these gates and return to your homes, deeply committed to building a future for all of us.”
Kal stopped.
The people didn’t move.
Kal stood tall and straight as his eyes hovered slowly across his people.
Lois held her breath. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if no one left.
Still no one moved.
Still Kal faced his people, his face impassive, his shoulders straight, his eyes roving over them, challenging them.
Then, a woman near the back of the crowd turned and walked out.
She was followed by two other people.
Then three more.
Then a group of about ten.
Then a steady trickle.
Then a stream.
Lois pulled her eyes from the departing people and looked to Kal.
His posture had not changed. He stared forward, head high.
But the very extremities of his mouth had stretched into the merest suggestion of a smile.
Lois smothered her own smile.
Then Kal’s eyes flicked to her again. They bored into hers and held for less than a heartbeat.
But she felt the connection.
Him and her. Kal and Lois.
Together.
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From the balcony, standing the obligatory step behind Kal-El, Lord Nor observed the Kryptonian people turn and walk away.
Literally - walk away from the Report.
Symbolically – walk away from the zeal and outrage of the past.
He had misread them.
Their weakness sickened him.
He had believed the fire still burned. Certainly, it had been a simple task to spark the smouldering hatred of the grieving parents into frenzied vengeance.
He’d also misread the ease with which Kal-El could manipulate the people.
Their malleability offended him. Obviously those of the Northside would be tractable to a Northside ruler. But he had expected more from the fighting men of the Southside.
It mattered not.
Neither the favour of the people nor all of his moralistic propaganda could save Kal-El now.
In less than two weeks, there would be a new Supreme Ruler.
And then, the South would reign.
And those racketeers from the North would be subject to Southern Rule.
And unity would be a thing of the past.
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It had been a long day.
A long day of meetings and consultations and discussion.
A long day of tension – knowing that any knock on the door could bring the news that a spot-fire of hostility had broken out somewhere on Planet New Krypton.
But darkness had fallen and ... so far ... peace prevailed.
Through it all, Kal had drawn immeasurable strength from knowing Lois waited for him. When he’d done everything required of him ... he could go to Lois.
She loved him.
She’d said she loved him.
But what did that mean?
Did it mean she liked being with him?
Did it mean she admired him?
Respected him?
She had agreed they could be friends.
How many friends did an Earth woman have?
And did she love all of them?
All the same way?
Or did love come in varying categories?
And if so, where did he fit?
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It was late when Kal returned to his bedroom. Lois had already eaten supper. Her third story – how a little girl had wandered away from her home, become lost and then was found by her very-relieved parents - was written.
When Kal came through the door, his fatigue sat upon him like a dark cloud. Without a word, he strode to her and pulled her into his embrace.
Then they stood – for a long time - complete in their togetherness.
When Lois drew away, she couldn’t resist sweeping her hand across Kal’s cheek, allowing her touch to convey her love. “You were magnificent today,” she told him. “You were inspirational ... strong, compelling. Your people are fortunate to have you as their leader.”
“I was very anxious when no one moved,” Kal admitted.
“You didn’t look anxious,” Lois assured him. “You looked like you had absolute faith that your people would make the right choices.”
“How do you always know exactly the right thing to say?”
Lois chuckled. “Usually I don’t. I have said the wrong thing so many times in the past.”
Kal raised his hand and slowly slithered the ends of his fingers through her hair. “Maybe it’s just that you always know exactly the right thing to say to me.”
Lois grinned and pulled away. “I have an idea,” she said.
“About what?”
“Come to the bed and I’ll show you.”
