The next morning Christopher strode alone into the busy Nittany Cub diner, its tables filled to capacity with students breakfasting and studying for mid-term examinations. In front of him a cheerleader wearing a navy blue sweater and short navy and white skirt waited anxiously for Daryl to bring her breakfast to go, a five dollar bill ready in hand to pay him. After a couple minutes Daryl appeared, taking her money and giving her change back. “Busy morning,” remarked Christopher to Daryl.
“Lucky for us, no one likes the dorm cafeteria breakfast. Wha’s up my man?”
“Do you still talk to Ned?”
“Ned? Like Ned the Dead? What do you want with him? He’s bad news!”
“I need a favor.”
“His favors aren’t cheap, Man.”
“I can afford it.”
“What’d you do, rob a bank? You need serious cash if you think you’re gonna get in with him for anything – and keep all your pieces where they belong.”
“I can handle him,” repeated Christopher.
“Let me guess, you got the joanie pregnant already and her old man needs a serious attitude adjustment?”
“Unless she’s been banging some other dudes behind my back – no, not hardly. No, Daryl, I need something else. Will you tell him I’m looking for him? I would call myself but I don’t want my calls being traced back to me.”
“You into some hellacious stuff, eh?”
“Yeah, yes I am. I wouldn’t ask you to call him otherwise.”
“Okay, well, I will see what I can do.”
“Thanks man!”
Satisfied, Christopher headed back to his apartment looking around him cautiously. From behind a tree Morlong intercepted him, “Is she safe?”
“Her lessons continue at a satisfying pace, My Lord.”
“Excellent. You will continue to do as you are told, of course.”
Christopher eyed him, “I know you think you have her best interests at heart but – “
“But nothing. You both are here at our bidding and only through our efforts.”
“Then explain to me why twenty five beinors ago I nearly took a laser crossbow quarrel to the heart on a world at least a hundred yen-ars away from possessing that kind of technology? No one of this world has that kind of weaponry – unless someone not of this world gave it to him.”
“As I told you before, Lord Yelu has his agents everywhere.”
“That is impossible without someone from a more advanced society bringing them here. Two galaxies are simply not crossed in an instant!
“You dare accuse us?”
Christopher glared at him, “You think since your race is so old your native galaxy no longer exists that somehow you are entitled to meddle with the affairs of younger races. You do not!”
“Your sudden anger is ironic, Christopher, given what we gave you, how we preserved you and guided you since you were a little boy of ten yen-ars.”
“I was a child; honoring you and your allies because you were obviously older, wiser, and more powerful than I am.”
“We are still older, wiser, and more powerful than you. That has not changed.”
“Perhaps – but things are different. I have grown. I see things, understand things I never understood before. You are neither omnibenevolent nor divine as I once thought you were!” countered Christopher fiercely.
“Do not defy us,” warned Morlong.
“Or what?” challenged Christopher.
“Or you will see my real face and form,” guffawed Morlong. “I dare you to survive an encounter with that side of myself!”
“We will see, Morlong. We will see,” defied Christopher, marching away.
Christopher found Anyu sitting at the dining table studying her English lessons when he opened the door to his apartment. Faking a smile, he sat down beside her, “How are the lessons coming?”
“Better – what’s wrong?”
“Who says there is anything wrong?”
“Beinarian intuition,” joked Anyu.
“On target. Your senses improve. I just saw ‘Richard’ on my way home from The Nittany Cub. I needed to check in with Daryl about a couple things before starting for the morning.”
“By your face I guess the meeting with him failed to live up to expectations?”
“There is a coldness to Morlong – that’s his name among our people if he never told you. I have not seen such coldness – or arrogance – from him before, not even back on Beinan. He was – unchivalrous. Alas, my dear Anyu, the being I worshipped as a child seems to no longer be so godlike anymore. Perhaps it is maturity – or perhaps something more hostile and violent is at work. I do not know.”
“Tell me about you and Morlong.”
“What is there to tell? I first met him as a little boy no more than ten yen-ars old. I was precocious, into everything and especially interested in getting on your nerves. Irritating you was my favorite boyhood game for which I apologize now. My grandmother in particular – the high priestess – she was especially not amused by my games. Well one beinor as I played – against her rules – in the temple of Abka Biya in Bira Hecen I saw a strange man in black with jet black hair and metallic blue eyes. Naturally I had to meet him, even though he successfully eluded me several times. When I finally met him, I thought he was some sort of god – perhaps The Shemai revered so intensely in the religion of that name. My natural psychic abilities told me that he was extremely old, extremely powerful, and no one to trifle with. Typical boy coming into psychic awareness, I rushed into the fray, becoming his pupil and obeying his commands.
“Morlong directed nearly everything I did as a boy and a youth – even the things I did that upset Princess Anlei so much. I came into my relationship with him filled with good intentions, never seeing the way he and his mate – Laela – controlled me. I am not the only Beinarian under his power, of course. By all reports, your mother also was his pupil, falling into his power shortly after your birth – and Lord Kian’s execution on the floor of the Great Hall of the Assembly.”
“Do you think this Morlong was behind my father’s death then?”
Christopher sighed, “I honestly do not know anymore, Princess Anyu. I used to feel so confident, so sure I understood right from wrong, good from evil. But of late – I just do not know. Something has changed about Morlong and Laela. I cannot say exactly what it is, but they are colder, more violent in their thoughts than I ever felt before.”
“What do we do now?”
“I let it be known that I am looking for a person of reputation with Daryl, a person able to create the sort of paperwork we need in order for you to exist as a legal citizen of this place. Without these papers survival will remain extremely difficult,” explained Christopher.
“And after that?”
“That, Your Highness depends on how much time we have before our enemies strike next.”
Original Draft of Chapter Ten from Princess Anyu Returns
Anyu and Elden flew indirectly towards the Ten-Arian monastery, stopping to feed or change Prince Rhisiart and Princess Brigid as needed and often taking small breaks designed to conceal their destination. After three shir-ors they glimpsed from above the devastation created by no less than three separate bombings on the monastery complex. Though the center of the oldest building housing the monastery’s temple still stood, three of its four wings laid in ruins, its once perfectly carved stones jagged and scattered chaotically and all its stained glass windows blown out by the explosions.
Between what was once the north wing of oldest building and the largest of the buildings once used.as teaching centres for the healers of Ten-Ar lay the ruins of the archery range at which Prince Consort Bevin and Lord Knight Corann once competed. Where once the ground had been perfectly level and polished, shards of stained glass from the very practice room used by Bevin and Corann in BE 6326 pockmarked the grass, ripping it so severely it was difficult to walk without tripping and cutting oneself on the g
lass. Rubble from nearby buildings littered the ground chaotically. Sharp stones that only a few yen-ars before were polished and perfectly cut jutted into and across the grounds like a barren wasteland.
Landing their low altitude shuttle close to the only standing wall remaining to the north wing Anyu fought her tears, “How can this be the same beautiful Ten-Arian monastery where so many of my ancestors were born, raised, and educated?”
“I think that was Lord Yelu’s point,” observed Lord Healer Elden.
“Do you think anyone is here?”
“One way to find out.” Nodding, Anyu re-activated her tablet computer from its low-power stealth mode and exited the shuttle. Elden caught her arm, “Anyu, I think I should investigate; you should stay here with your children. I can cloak myself in case of danger; you cannot.”
“I can handle myself!”
“I know that; but Rhisiart and Brigid cannot. You are their best and most natural protector. Stay here and guard them like the mother you are.”
Poem: Echoes of a Lost Friend
Poetry and music is an important part of the Peers of Beinan series. This poem from Princess Anyu’s point of view speaks to a half-remembered romantic interest from another life.
In my dreams you are still there
Though we parted years ago
Sleep disturbed with memories of you
Long assumed shut away.
Why do you taunt me so?
Why do I hear the words spoken on the wind?
Mistakes made, apologies offered
Yet you chose to scorn.
You did not understand.
The wind cries echoes in your voice
Your long forgotten face flashes in front of my sleeping eyes.
Something in the spirit wind beckons.
Something in the spirit wind cries your name.
Pain and agony you returned for affections offered.
Your sheltered heart refused to see beyond its boundaries.
Mocking me, your heart chose darkness over light
And left me humiliated for taking a chance.
Why do the spirits call to me?
Why must the forgotten return to life?
You chose the life you have since that day.
Who am I to speak against it?
Here I stand in the light-filled doorway.
Dazed and confused by the whispers in the wind.
Hurt by cruel deeds and words
Yet standing here still
In the rain.
Poem: Snowflake Sparkle Soul
Another poem from Princess Anyu that did not make it into Princess Anyu Returns. In this song, Princess Anyu remembers the mysterious “Christopher” from her past lives.
Snowflake sparkling sound
Your voice dreams expound.
Cross the yen-ars of space and time
Snowflake thoughts of you sublime
Snowflake sparkling dew
Singing I love you.
Cross the galaxies fair.
Snowflake sounds you are there.
Crystalline blooming bright
Reflecting your inner light
Dazzling splendor full
Snowflake sparkling lull.
Love eternal bright
Snowflake sparkling light
Always memory sight
Snowflake sparkling night
Also available by Laurel A. Rockefeller:
Fiction
The Poisoned Ground
Good-bye A672E92 Quintus
The Great Succession Crisis
The Ghosts of the Past
Princess Anyu Returns
The Complete Data Files (companion book)
Non-Fiction
Boudicca: Britain’s Queen of the Iceni
Catherine de Valois
Empress Wu Zetian
Mary Queen of the Scots
Queen Elizabeth Tudor: Journey to Gloriana
Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd, the Warrior Princess of Deheubarth
Empress Matilda of England
Preparing for My First Cockatiel
Many titles are also available for the stage. Perfect for backyard play, community theater, and educational use.
Select titles also available in audio edition.
About the Series
The Peers of Beinan Series began in November 2010 with the first drafts of what would become the Legacy of Princess Anlei Trilogy, the core novels at the heart of the book series. Originally imagined as fan fiction to the 1983 television series “Benji, Zax, and the Alien Prince,” the first draft originally told the back story to how and why Prince Yubi left Antars for exile on planet Earth. Some of this story remains in the unpolished draft chapters for “The Great Succession Crisis” and “Ghosts of the Past” that is found in the companion book “The Lost Tales.”
But the original idea was not meant to be. As the story outline expanded from one book to three, a universe wholly different from Joe Camp’s canon for BZAP emerged. The fan fiction idea was abandoned and the Peers of Beinan came into its own with tales of paranormal romance grounded in the author’s extensive background in medieval history along with tales of murder and terror that hallmark “The Ghosts of the Past.”
Original music, themes of hope in the darkest of situations, and the particularly vicious quality of Peers of Beinan villains all reflect the author’s formative years growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska USA. Those interested in the largely private details of the author’s biography should look to the second half of “The Poisoned Ground and the Healer Consort,” and the entirety of “The Ghosts of the Past,” and “Princess Anyu Returns” where those years are most intensely reflected in the plot and villains.
Through all the darkness, there is always hope and light. All it takes to break free of the most difficult times of your life is the belief that you will do so and the persistence to see it through until all that is sorrow and pain melts away into beauty, joy, and love.
Bright blessings to you and yours today and for all the days to come.
--Laurel A. Rockefeller
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