Mother's Hand

Chapter Seven

We had been in the chopper for about an hour. The prince had said nothing. His features were lit in the glow of the e-paper he was reading, his large legs folded. The splatter of red marked his pristine white outfit. His eyes only lifted to the window briefly as we began to descend.

Mother's House was set amid fields of yellow crops way out in section ten. The wall that surrounded it rode out into these crops like a tide of green water hitting a beach, as beyond it was undulating land, with manicured grass.

I had learnt about Mother's House growing up and as we viewed it now, it was more impressive than any photo I had seen. A true palace, white in color, with great white columns, hundreds of windows and the most distinctive feature; a gigantic golden glass solarium, like a diamond set in the center of two sweeping wings. The diamond reflected the crops beyond as it sparkled in the sun.

The edges of the palace looked almost crumbly from here, but I knew it was because of the carvings. Space dragons decorated Mother's House. As if in answer to my thoughts of these space-faring monsters, two AstralCannons were installed either side of the palace, aiming up to the stars. Surrounding the AstralCannons and the whole palace itself was a ring of dark green. As we got closer, and the details materialized I realized the lawn was filled with a daunting hedge maze.

To make it harder to get in... or impossible to escape?

I was surrounded by the blank, angular faces of the girls. I tried not to think of what it must be like to be one of these Amys, coming to your senses and trying to escape through the maze with a psychopathic prince on your heels.

"Poisoned," the prince said, looking up from his e-paper and noticing my gaze. "The maze if made from a special prickled plant I designed myself. Lethal of course – just a scratch will kill you."

But it could not harm our prince – he had unbreakable skin.

I realized at that point, as I sat with Gary in the vibrating chair of the chopper that we were getting a very special view of our rulers. I had seen the real prince. Not the noble gracious galaxy-faring superhero painted in the press, but for the monster he really was.

I had real proof. Something concrete.

And the smallest voice in the back of my mind spoke to me.

Perhaps there is some way I can use this?

I was shocked by the way the thought whispered. I shut it out. No. We would survive this encounter. I will go home and then we would put this whole thing behind us and live my life as far away from Mother as I could get.

***

I sipped my tea. The prince was sat opposite me and held an identical version of the teacup I was holding but the size of a soup bowl. Gary was to my right. Face pale and teacup untouched on its saucer in his hands. Behind Gary, the diamond ball of the solarium stretched out, the angled glass walls surrounding us as the windows letting in a fading light.

When we had come in, the ceilings of the conjoining halls were painted, filled with planets, moons and in the center the scene of a battle, with a space dragon wrapped around a spaceship, its tail wrapped around the length of the ship and claws tearing through the hull.

Along the far wall, where the glass on the diamond met the palace, were servant doors and an over-sized fireplace, with a roaring fire already going. The thing was huge and almost industrial in its design.

You could roast a hog on that thing... or a person.

"Well this is nice." The prince said and took another sip of his tea. "Look – I should of course apologize for taking my club to that poor woman, blah-blah-blah." His spare hand made some lazy circular movements as if unwinding a long apology.