False Horizon - Alex Archer [50]
Annja took a drink and then looked around the table. The party had lost all of the joy for her. She watched, as if peering in through a window, how Tuk and his people bonded.
Music started as the meal finished. More wine flowed and the people took to dancing all over the grass. Even Guge and Vanya enjoyed a few dances before sitting down again. At one point, Vanya looked over at Annja and smiled. Annja smiled back but she felt no happiness.
The idea that Mike would be dying soon felt like a hole had been torn in her heart. She’d lost close friends before, but this felt different. Mike was a different kind of man. He never expected anyone to understand what it was that drove him. He made no apologies for being who he was, and he was utterly comfortable in his own skin.
Annja respected that. And she respected what he had accomplished in his life. Barring the incident with Tsing, Mike had nothing to be embarrassed about. He pursued what he loved and did so with all the joy of a child.
Annja wished she had some more of that mirth in her own life. But that seemed to be a precious commodity. And somehow, the music that played around her tugged harder at her heartstrings than she cared for.
“Annja?”
She looked up and saw Guge standing there. She tried to smile but felt it die on her lips. “Hi.”
Guge’s eyes peered deep into hers. “Perhaps we could walk awhile?”
“Sure.” She rose and followed the king away from the party and back toward the grand staircase.
Guge smiled at her. “I’m afraid I’m not as young as I used to be. These celebrations tend to wear me out.”
“I see.”
“But what’s your excuse?”
“Sorry?”
He turned to her. “You wear the look of someone who has lost a friend.”
Annja sighed. “I guess in a way I just did.”
“Who? Surely not Tuk. He seems to have a genuine fondness for both you and your friend Mike.”
“It’s not Tuk,” Annja said. “It’s Mike.”
“Oh?”
“Apparently, he’s dying.”
Guge said nothing for a moment and then looked at her. “Surely it is not the injury to his leg?”
“No. He has a brain tumor. It’s a disease where something grows inside his head until it kills him.”
Guge nodded gravely. “I see. And there is nothing that the doctors in the outside world can do for him?”
“According to him, no. They’ve told him that it is inoperable. They can’t take it out for fear of killing him.”
“That is unfortunate,” Guge said.
“I don’t mean to be down during such a time of celebration,” Annja said. “He only just told me, though. It’s weird. I was so overjoyed to see him earlier and everything seemed so great. And now I feel like he’s already dead.”
Guge laid a hand on her arm. “He is most certainly not dead yet, Annja. And you should remember that.”
Annja nodded. “I know. I just can’t stop thinking about it. We’ve always been friends and now I’m not sure what to do.”
“That is the thing about the universe, my dear. It doesn’t succumb to the desires of the likes of us. It simply is. And the things we wish to change are the very things that often must happen. We simply don’t have the power to make the universe obey our whims.”
“Yes,” Annja said. “I know from experience it doesn’t listen to the likes of my desires, but that doesn’t stop me from trying again and again.”
“That’s because you are a human being,” Guge said. “And ours is always of the mind that we can control our destiny.”
“He’s just such a good person. I hear about the evil men that walk among us and wonder why the universe doesn’t take them?”
“The universe doesn’t distinguish between good and evil, per se. Only in certain incarnations will it see things in such a light. To the universe, evil and good simply exist. Neither is better than the other. They simply are.”
Annja sighed. “I wish it was easier than it is.”
“If it was easier, then we would have no chance to learn and evolve ourselves to a higher level of existence.”
Annja sat on the stairs and hugged her knees. “I don’t know how long he has. And he’s thinking that he doesn’t want to leave here to go back to his home. He’s entranced with this place.”