The Mutant World

by Darryl T. Mallard

  In a few days Jawara was in control of himself once more even though the big Illyrian girl followed him around like a puppy. Some found this amusing, others irritating, but all understood. Humans and non-Bainian mutants envied Bellasarian women’s beauty and power, but not what came with it. As for Jawara, he needed to get his people supplied and on the move as soon as possible. Word had spread and people, both mutants and humans who would join him were gathering at Castle Fang with alarming speed. Jawara was shocked that so many Barratians thought so highly of him. His mother and retainers were not. He needed to move fast though. Barratian warriors were sure to be coming. He had to be on the western side of the border beyond his stronghold, out of the foothills and into the lowland forest region fast. The queens there had already been told of what had happened and would not attack him…he hoped.

  By the middle of the next week Jawara could wait no longer and although he hated to leave any possible stragglers behind he abandoned his castle and fled west with at least one thousand three hundred people in his band. They entered the domains of Queen Shanis of the Borrenqi, whose warriors met them and escorted them to her capital, the fortress city of Borrenqikan. She wasn’t pleased to see the giant Illyrian girl.

  Queen Shanis was a very attractive, curvy and fair complexioned mutant. She had very straight brown hair and blue eyes. Her daughter, Princess Sada, was a chocolate colored woman with curly hair. Her granddaughter, Princess Jayna, (who Shanis had intended to mate with Jawara) was a light golden complexioned girl with long light hair with large loose curls. Her eyes were blue, but it was obvious by their shape that her father was of some equally mixed background himself. Both women shared the queen’s voluptuous figure and impressive assets.

  Both Queen Shanis’s mate and son-in-law had been killed in battle with the Barratians and the Borrenqi had in turn killed and captured their share of Barratians. They, along with other ferocious tribes beyond the western mountains had been raiding and being raided by the Barratians for some time until Lord Jawara appeared, but the Barratians were never able to decisively get the upper hand. That changed when Jawara entered the picture. The Dark Prince, as he would be called, inflicted severe damage on the western tribes time and again, but rather than press his advantages the way a Barratian usually would have by taking their towns and enslaving all the female fighters and forcing the surviving men to swear fealty, he fought the way other Bellasarians did. Not to crush his opponents, but to earn their respect. That done, he then persuaded the local queens to sit down and make peace. This was not the way many in Barrat wanted things to go. Some had even hoped that the bastard of the king would be killed so they’d be rid of him at last. Instead…Well, it no longer mattered. Now he was on the run with a bonded mate, and the Borrenqi Queen knew this did not bode well for the peace they had made. But she wasn’t about to lose the chance of strengthening her clan’s bloodline. Even beyond the Barratian western border the name Cato Curtis was known. It was also known that the Barratian royal family was of his mighty bloodline. She would have those genetics and ties to the Bellasarian Empire beyond for her family at all cost. This situation was not what she had hoped and bargained for, but she would make the best of it.

  “Lord Jawara,” said Queen Shanis, “I knew you would tire of your brutal people and leave your father’s land someday, but I do recall mentioning that if you did you would have a place here. And if you should ever desire a formal mate I would be honored to find you one from my own house. Indeed, my daughter’s child was most eager for the match.

  “I do remember us discussing something of this absently,” said Jawara, Miko already moving possessively to his side, “but it is now out of my hands. As you can see, I have bonded and she with me.”

  “Yes, an Illyrian Princess to boot,” said Queen Shanis, eyeing the big girl closely. “I’m surprised that your father isn’t hot on your heels even now to get her back before real trouble starts with whoever is now empress in that land.”

  “I too am surprised that we saw no sign of pursuit, even now,” said Jawara.

  “Perhaps they fear to endanger the princess,” said Queen Shanis. “Stay here. I am certain that envoys will appear to search your whereabouts. The Illyrian girl can explain the situation.”

  “Yes,” said Princess Miko, “once all is made clear I assure you that my mother and father will welcome you with open arms. You are kin and you are worthy. Everything you’ve done and the respect these people have for you prove this!”

  “I have no desire to go to Bellasaria and serve in Illyria as some pampered pet,” said Jawara. “Neither can I endanger my friends and host, Queen Shanis.”

  “Fear not for me,” said Shanis. “Before you came, my people threw back every Barratian host sent against us and gave back as good as we got. Stay here. With you fighting beside us and my granddaughter as your principle mate…”

  “I intend to make a home…a nation of my own, Queen,” said Jawara. “I intended to become a king by my own merits and rule my own lands as my kinsman, King Harold The Great, did.” Neither Shanis nor Miko liked the sounds of that.

  Just then a Borrenqi warrior hurried into the throne room. Shanis recognized this man. He was one of their border guards, a winged mutant used to deliver sensitive messages to locations too long and risky for telepathy.

  “What is it?” said Shanis jumping to her feet.

  “Word from Barrat, My Queen,” said the man.

  “Speak!” snapped Shanis. The man gave Lord Jawara a nervous look. “I said, speak!” ordered Shanis again.

  “Stragglers entered our domains, Queen. Some were people trying to join their lord,” said the man nodding towards Jawara, “others were warriors who had been part of the king’s pursuit party. They showed clear signs of having been in battle…all bore wounds.”

  Jawara, his mother and Miko looked at one another. They had nothing to do with this, but it would explain why they were not overtaken by at least a scouting party. This did not sound good.

  “Go on,” said Shanis.

  The man swallowed and said, “King Roc is dead. He was overtaken and slain by Barratian warriors led by Chief Stragg.”

  “A lie!” shouted Jawara in fury. “No one could kill my father in personal battle! Certainly not that perverted animal, Stragg!”

  “He and his men were overwhelmed by superior numbers,” said the messenger. “Stragg and other very powerful mutants struck the king while feigning coming to his aid in pursuing you. The others then attacked. The survivors escaped because the victors were too badly mauled to give chase. Your father took many enemies with him to the other side. It is my belief that this is an attempt to totally replace the direct Barratian line. If that is true…” The messenger hesitated. “If that is true, then they will have targeted every member of the royal family in Dinos and…”

  For a moment there was silence, and then Jawara let out an awful roar and collapsed to his knees. “I’ll never let them get away with this!” he cried. “Stragg! Stragg is a mindless brute who never thinks past his dick! He would never have done this on his own! It was someone else pulling his strings! I’ll find him! Then he and his followers will all drown in lakes of blood!”

  ******

  “You STILL haven’t found them?!” shouted Stragg.

  The Barratian warrior swallowed and said, “No, my lord.”

  “That’s ‘No, Your Highness’!” snarled Stragg raising his sword to strike the hapless messenger. The young man closed his eyes, but other than this didn’t flinch.

  “No!” cried a voice and Stragg froze.

  “Elder,” snarled Stragg, “you presume too much!”

  “Leave us,” said the Elder to the young man, who then bowed in gratitude and left the throne room.

  “I am the King!” shouted Stragg. “How dare you inter-”

  “I am your elder and chief of the Barratian high council,” said T
errence. “I was advising kings before you were squirted into your mother’s womb! Aye, even the mighty Barrat himself! And as your advisor it is my duty to stop you from making stupid mistakes!”

  “Mistake?!” cried Stragg. “How is it a mistake to discipline incompetent subordinates?”

  “Killing people for nothing more than telling you facts that you don’t want to hear is stupidity, NOT wisdom!” snapped Elder Terrence. “Killing the messenger is the classic mistake of tyrants’ not good kings. The first king on Bellasaria was very fond of making that fatal mistake and he didn’t last.”

  “Bah!” spat Stragg. “Everyone knows that King Harold of the Forest Kingdom ruled long and founded a mighty dynasty. I fear your mind is beginning to fail you.”

  “My mind is as sharp as it ever was, boy,” said Terrence. “And you should have paid more attention to your teachers in school. Harold of the house of Cato was not the first king on Bellasaria. The man he defeated was. A fool named Tarrack. King Tarrack might have lived a very long life or at least a little longer than he did if people were not afraid of being killed if he didn’t like their advice or for bringing him news of a setback. And since he didn’t like bad news, people either made sure he got only good news, even if it was a lie or nothing at all. Many joined Harold rather than return in defeat to Tarrack to be killed. Do you understand NOW?”

  Stragg reluctantly nodded, but Terrence could see that understanding was one thing, but really understanding was another. Stragg would almost immediately prove him right.

  “Elder, that boy gave proper offense,” said Stragg. “He did not address me by my proper title. I am the…”

  “First of all, a lapse like that does not warrant death, not the first time. Second, the boy was right! You are not the king so long as Prince Tidor lives!” snapped Terrence. “You let the prince slip through your fingers and until he is captured or killed you are merely a usurper! We might have used the king’s mate as a tool to get both him and the princess into our hands, but you behaved true to form and amused yourself with her and then brutally killed her.”

  “Did you see what her mate did to me?!” shouted Stragg. “I was so close to death that even three healers almost couldn’t put me back together again! And one of them died of exhaustion later!”

  “Yes,” said the elder, “the healer was a great loss. How many of our men died because you ordered all of our medical mutants on the scene to save you? The survivors were so exhausted that they couldn’t heal anyone else for hours later. The Great Cat and King Barrat always put their men first.”

  “I am not Lord Cato or Barrat!” snapped Stragg.

  “No, you’re not,” agreed Terrence.

  “Well I couldn’t very well become king if I died, now could I?” mumbled Stragg, unable to meet the elder’s eyes.

  “No, no you couldn’t,” admitted the elder, “but you didn’t need to be healed to complete and perfect health either. You have rapid regeneration. Your body would have healed itself once your life was out of danger. You might have been out of sorts for a few days, but hundreds of men would yet be alive including the healer if you had. Ah, but then you wouldn’t have been strong enough to rush back here and overpower the Lady Ayala, which I understand you still had difficulty doing, and then rape and murder her! Indeed, it was because of your actions and the uproar caused by it, that Tidor was alerted and even aided in escaping by outraged Barratians and the human slaves!”

  “I…I did it to avenge my slaughtered men,” muttered Stragg.

  “No. You did it because the king’s mate was beautiful and in your mind this was the perfect way to round out your victory,” said Elder Terrence shaking his head. “You had this in mind no doubt before you departed with the warriors I had so foolishly supplied you. I never should have put any faith in you. All of Barrat may now burn because of your idiotic and sexually warped behavior.”

  “What do you mean,” said Stragg nervously.

  The elder looked at him in disgust. “Do you realize what you have done? You don’t, do you? You have murdered a king of Cato’s bloodline. You have raped and murdered his mate, a mutant noblewoman related by marriage to the Bellasarian imperial family! Raping a mutant woman is a terrible crime in Bellasaria. Raping a mutant woman of Ayala’s status is too abominable to speak aloud in Bellasaria. It has never been done! When word of this gets to Illia the empress will howl for her warriors and Bellasarians will come screaming into these mountains by the tens of thousands like rabid dogs! Me, they may spare for the fate of permanent slavery, humiliatingly locked in a control collar for the rest of my VERY long life to be the object of abuse and ridicule. I’d rather die! But you?” said Terrence looking at Stragg. “Do you know what the Bellasarians do to rapists? Do you have any idea of what they do to a man who rapes a mutant woman? And you, you not only raped her, but you then killed her after killing her husband. You usurped the throne and tried to take over the country. You still haven’t succeeded yet, you know. I don’t think there has ever been a precedent like this before. If the women of Bellasaria get their hands on you…Well, I don’t like to think about it. As advisor to the throne I would advise my king not to allow himself to be taken alive.”

  “But it was your plan!” cried Stragg.

  “I never told you to rape the king’s mate and murder her!” snarled Terrence. “Alive and well-treated she, along with her son, would have been the perfect tools to prevent what is now certainly coming!”

  “But Tidor…” stammered Stragg. “Prince Tidor could have challenged me for the throne. He was going to have to die anyway.”

  “Tidor had disgraced himself with a human slave girl!” snapped Terrence. “No one would have faulted us for keeping him from the throne, especially the women of the empire. But they wouldn’t have wanted him killed either. After all was done, we could have simply banished him to the empire and his Catonian kin in disgrace. And that would have been the end of our worries about him. The dead king would have been a sticky matter, but with the hostages we could have not only prevented total war, but negotiated and even acquired the Princess Sandra. But now…We have to capture Tidor before he escapes our domains, if he hasn’t already. It’s your fault he escaped in the first place! It is because of your mindless depravity and cruelty that everything has gone totally to shit!”

  “Is it really that bad?” said Stragg, who always did have the habit of thinking after indulging his impulses. Fear was now clearly evident in his voice.

  Terrence shook his head. “If we can recapture the prince alive we…or at least our people might survive this. If not…”

  ******

  Three weeks ago President Chambers came out to address her nation with no small anxiety. The world had seen many aspects of Bellasarian culture on TV. Thankfully, there were other aspects they had not seen, but they had heard about them nonetheless. But really, that was no surprise either. Bellasarians were notorious for their sexual behavior or misbehavior to the Earth peoples’ thinking.

  Be that as it may, the goal of the president, and indeed, all of the delegates who went to Bellasaria, was to secure the means to protect themselves from another Bellasarian incursion if it should happen. The former presidents had promised these things before Chambers, but had been unable to deliver. Many had believed that this would be different for Beverly. Being a woman, they felt the women of Bellasaria would be well disposed to her and deliver the goods. But now Beverly Chambers had returned almost as empty handed as her predecessors.

  “President Chambers, do you think that this trip was a waste of time?” asked a reporter.

  “No, not at all,” replied Beverly. “In the areas of medical treatment we did very well for ourselves. However, in terms of technology we have to earn the Bellasarians’ trust. And that will take time. But I do believe we have made a good impression on the empress, we Americans that is.”

  “Yes,” said the reporter, “
I heard.” There was a perceptible chuckle among several of the gathered press and staff. I understand that you were present at a Bellasarian orgy your first night there and one member of your staff joined in and made a big hit with the natives.”

  “I wonder who told you that?” said President Chambers. “The press who covered the summit was not present at any of the traditional welcoming feasts held by each nation for visiting dignitaries. What else did you hear? Well, it really doesn’t matter. An aide was sent home, so proper disciplinary action was taken.”

  “Yes, but not on the aide who indulged in the orgy,” laughed the reporter. There was much laughter at this.

  “Are you interested in what was gained during the summit or rumors of lewd behavior?” said Beverly. “Are you a real reporter or a muckraker for some rag?”