Traitor to the King

by Clare SM Keating

  “That’s good to hear, but now I’m fascinated… I’m a little concerned that you might be a bad influence on my daughter…” Anouk suddenly slapped her face and shook her head in frustration. She growled in irritation and rubbed her forehead, snarling that she had stated something so untrue and yet in many ways true. Damara was her sister, but Anouk had begun to wonder if there was truth in her unpleasant dreams that made her look at Damara differently. She looked so unhappy over the slip that the Karayan gave a sigh of frustration and then gently stretched out his hand to pat her shoulder.

  The moment his great claws touched her shoulder she shuddered and jumped, but the Karayan did the same. The pair of them looked towards each other with wide and fearful eyes at the curious sensations and thoughts that had launched through their bodies. For Anouk there had been a strange moment like a flash of comfort and kindness, but that she was the one holding a wounded figure when she was a child, healing them. The memory of the rain and the amount of blackened blood she’d seen oozing out of a terrible chest wound launched into her mind and she gave a whimper of frustration as she thought over such a thing. With a soft groan she rubbed at her head, noticing that the Karayan had just turned to look away from her to the ceiling as if he were very unhappy with what he’d sensed.

  “Don’t… I don’t need any kind of reassurance… I said what I said; she’s my sister but I’ve been starting to realise I don’t see her like that. It sounds ridiculous, but she was born when I was an elder teen… almost an adult and well… I…” Anouk had begun to try and explain her words rather then attempt to acknowledge the image that had come to her mind. The Karayan remained silent but as the light started to swim upon them, Anouk noticed the curious look upon his face and she found herself loosing faith. She could not talk about the situation, she could not tell him about the dreams of having a child if only because the strange flash of imagery just then had rattled her. With the possibility that she was seeing him in her youth and this was why he was trying to be her friend, Anouk swore aloud and pulled herself back into the current situation. She looked to the narrow entrance of the tunnel, covered in long strands of hanging moss and blood vines that was only barred by a few worn down boulders and a pool of slime. They were at the edge of the swamp now and it was time to start looking out for the signs of the stones and not discuss matters of the past, Damara needed them, and they had to move fast.

  As they continued through into the swamp the pair remained quiet as their feet squelched and stomped through the wretched mess with groans of disgust. The Karayan seemed to drop right down into the deep murky water ahead of her but he made no attempt to fuss or allow Anouk to pass him. As she was lighter and faster on her feet, she skipped about through the mud, occasionally stomping on an unfortunate fish or snake that was too slow to swing about and fight her, the Karayan stretched out an arm to encourage her to grab him should she fall. She growled at his assumption that she might need his help, but when she watched the water ahead of him, everything started to leap away from him with fear. In fact, Anouk’s eyes widened in shock as she realised that the beasts within the watery world were trying to hide from the shrouded figure as he stepped through, not wading or pushing himself against the tide.

  Anouk would have questioned the matter, but she was quite amused by it and thankful too. By standing in his wake the monsters in the water were pushing themselves out of the way and not willing to turn around after him. In fact, by walking behind him the creatures could not see if Anouk and Karayan were different from one another and thereby refused to attempt to get close. It caused a grin to split Anouk’s face and she chuckled in amusement as she mentioned the fact and when he made a joke about it this time, Anouk actually found herself eager to give a soft chuckle. The reaction seemed to urge the Karayan to move faster and become more talkative as he asked about the situation with Damara and about the situation that had caused her father’s end.

  It was a very difficult thing for Anouk to discuss and when Damara was in so much trouble out here in the dangerous swamp it brought the memories forward. Though she growled and tried not to even think on what had happened or what to say, she felt an unusual sensation of trust with this figure again. As much as Anouk wanted to deny the fact that she felt comfortable with the Karayan knowing the truth of it all, she wanted to be cautious. Not everyone could understand the story or why such things were permitted to happen in their society; Alard and Ling had not accepted any of it!

  “He was killed by my uncle… his half-brother about twelve years ago. My mother was killed alongside him and Damara was nearly killed as well.” Anouk stated, hoping at first that this was enough information for the creature, but it was clear he wanted to know everything. His first question about her uncle and the memory of that man with his strangely sharp expression, long black hair held in a pony tail and his malevolent purple eyes made her growl. She did not want to speak his name and she would not, instead she breathed a sigh and rubbed at her chest wound, happy that she was not receiving the usual warning sensations she did when Damara was in trouble. “My grandfather’s original intended wife ran away because she fell in love with a low class Deep Elf. My grandfather was accepting of her choice as he was far more concerned with the wars and battles of the land… when she was away she visited the cities of the north but returned heavily pregnant after her partner was killed. No one wanted to deal with her, but to the shock of everyone my grandfather married her and adopted her twins when they were born. My grandfather had never expected to be the only remaining of seven sons and he was quite old at the time, so when she needed help and she was his friend he helped her. When her children were five years old, my father was produced and when he was met by the King the decision was made that my father was the heir, not the adopted son. That’s probably the reason my uncle did what he did, he used to train the nobles’ children in fighting and he trained me and Elrid, Lord Lutas… he was particularly vicious with me and although a lot of people just made a point that I was female, so I should be treated harshly… there was always the underlying thought that he was doing it to get me to run away. My grandfather rescued me from it though and then when my grandfather died… there was no one strong enough to control my uncle’s jealousy.”

  Anouk could recall the beatings now with her teeth grinding the way they had then; she had burst into tears the first week of training until her uncle had laughed at her and stated a girl could not do anything. Then things had changed, and Anouk had shut out her emotions, save rage – she had looked for every reason to hate her uncle in the training sessions to make her fight him and his particular aggression towards young Elrid Lutas had fuelled it. Elrid had been suspected as a possible child of her uncle, if only because he had been involved in an affair with Elrid’s aunt and in some circles Elrid’s mother too, hence his father had refused to call him by his noble first name of Alvonse and insisted instead on the second name Elrid, ‘a spare’. When he had split a wooden cane upon the boy’s bare back one day and caused a massive welt, Anouk had leapt over the boy and cuddled herself around him to take the whacks instead and it had been the first time she’d disobeyed her uncle’s training rules and then he had become much more barbaric. In one training session he’d broken her ribs by stomping on her a few times in front of her grandfather and that old man’s fist had solved the problem.

  “When my grandfather died I had my incident with the demon that a lot of people talk about… I don’t know what happened, but my uncle was the one to find me and respond. For the two years I was kept inside some cleansing place with my aunt, he attempted to have my title stripped from me and placed on him and then Damara was born and Molwesa was able to solve the situation and give him a particular job… that’s according to Loteg’s father’s diary that something was concealed and that the pair were involved with it. I don’t really know what was happening then, but Damara was a problem and I later found out my uncle had tried to have himself arranged to marry her and my mother had attacked h
im in front of the nobles. Everyone was shocked over it and my uncle had to stay out on patrol for a few years out of concern but that only made something strange happen to him.” Anouk sighed as she checked the swamp about her for any sign of her friends or her sister and to her surprise found the Karayan had slowed down for her to grasp his back for reassurance. “He came back acting the perfect brother and I knew he was up to something… he caused an accident at the orphanage that killed my mother and was supposed to kill Damara, but she had been sickly and at home. Two years later he lost it and kidnapped Damara from her school lessons, causing my father to go crazy and chase after him. I was there first with Loteg to fight him at home and Loteg rescued Damara whilst I had my body slashed and should have been killed… but then father showed up.”

  Anouk went silent, suddenly finding herself lowering her head and pressing her forehead to the middle of the strange being’s back for comfort. He could smell the regret and bitterness in her words… that in truth Anouk had no real idea why what happened had happened. He could tell too that Anouk had been saved instead of their father and that she had extreme guilt for it, that she probably even considered that she should have died instead. The Karayan felt a tingle at her head upon his back and he wondered whether she was quite aware of how her sorrow reverberated around her body and how… because she was guilty… he could sense that she was weak to the dangers of the swamp.

  “Climb on my back… we can cover ground faster and it means you can go straight after your sister if we see her.” The Karayan grunted and when a fish slapped about in the water closer then one had been before, Anouk jumped. She grasped his shoulder tightly and swiftly hooked her legs about his hips with a grimace of upset. She wanted to groan and grumble over the matter but the Karayan did not try to grab at her to hold her in place, he simply ignored the sensation of her body pressed to his. After a lot more walking through the swamp the grassy verge was visible up ahead and with nothing around to see just yet, the Karayan dared to ask something that struck Anouk. “Is it because you’re guilty you think that you’re unworthy of any kind of attention? You have that Yeruell gentleman after you all the time and yet you seem to avoid contact as much as possible… is that why?”

  “No, it’s not…” Anouk sneered in frustration only to drop her head into her hands and give a soft grunt before nearly falling off the Karayan and snatching his shoulder in a tight pinch. He produced a soft grunt over the matter but little else to say that she had hurt him or indeed had hindered him in anyway at all. But she was offended by his question, if only because it made her feel like she was being put down to a lower position like the other lords tended to try. “No… it’s the fact I don’t know what happened to me and what happened is so jumbled up in the minds of people he would not cope. Everyone assumes I’ve been corrupted and that means I’m unsuitable to marry a male of high standing or at least be the first wife to one. I assumed for a long time the situation had made me sterile and that was why, but Molwesa always used to tell me the situation was the complete opposite and that I should never indulge in any kind of romance unless she chose the male. But all that has never really bothered me before, it’s only recently I’ve started to have more reaction to past events… as if I’m waking up slowly from a drunken spell. Right now, I’m having memory-dreams that I possibly had a child and…”

  “A child?” Karayan blurted in surprise only for Anouk to shut up swiftly and then slap the bald side of his head with a grunt. She could spot something going on up ahead and she grasped his head tightly, urging it to look in that direction and ignore her words. Before he could snarl or growl over the matter, his head was jolted toward a collection of reptile-like horses dancing about angrily. There were also the sounds of boar squealing and for a second, they thought they’d spotted the familiar form of Alard darting about the grass. The pair was almost about to call out until there was a sudden explosion of light from the forest beyond and the Karayan fell over into the swamp, knocking Anouk straight off his back and into the water.

  Karani’s eyes were wide with terror and she was trembling on her elbows and knees, pressed into the grass unsure if she should grab Damara or just pray to Nabuto for help. She could not figure out what to do to assist her friend and from the twitching she was glad her own body was not experiencing such agony. Though the bright light had hurt her eyes as it had the other elves present, Karani had still turned to them and begged for any kind of advice from the older men who remained silent and trembling with shock. No one could tell her how to help Damara; apart from the King only the Benaga Household were permitted to handle a stone so to them this process was perfectly normal. But Karani could see horror in the wide staring eyes of her companion as Damara lay stuck with her hands clasping the stone vibrating as if in some kind of seizure.

  For Damara though, Karani and the men did not exist within her sight and neither did the earth she was lying on. The stone had swallowed her senses and drawn her to a strange place on the edge of a deep dark hole somewhere in the mountains. Ancient whisperings and perhaps ancestral memories warned her that this great pit was the place where the dark gods had fallen and the true form of the Orcreich. Damara wanted to cry and howl for help, but she could not blink her eyes or do anything but shake as she considered the void and great piercing amber eyes fixated upon her. The darkness seemed to grow nearer, closer and more harrowing as the outline of something was made visible to her. It was not human although it had some of those characteristics, it was not like the goblins or orcs as there seemed to just be organs falling off the exaggerated skeleton of a mix of reptile, bovine and human traits. The light did not seem to want to illuminate the creature, but it was clambering out of the shadows, staring straight at her and long sharp blade-like talons were slipping out to try and stab the stone from her hands!

  “DAMARA WAKE UP!” Karani screeched, suddenly crashing her widened hand in a firm slap against the girl’s face. The clap was enough to make the demonic beast roar and Damara close her eyes, stopping herself from being pulled into whatever magic trance it was trying to keep. She blinked, spotted Karani standing over her and gave a loud scream of terror and upset. Karani then launched her arms about her companion, yanked her up into a sitting pose and hugged her tightly whilst bursting into tears. “We’ve got the stone now let’s get out of here… please!”

  Damara could not pull her hands off the rock and it continued to glow a brilliant light blue, the three letters on its surface glimmering gold as if they were in conversation with the other stones. The light must have been seen from the dams and the kingdom would know a stone was found, Damara was sure the king could even sense it himself, but she was exhausted, and they were not out of danger. A crawling sensation within her body irked the young maiden into believing that a monster was on its way to their location and Karani appeared just as shaken, as if she was also sensing trouble. The pair tried to hug each other again and with this relief the stone throbbed and allowed one of Damara’s hands to fall from it, only for the general’s to replace it with a hiss of pain.

  “Let go of it Benaga… you don’t get to own this glory.” Ynvirius sneered although his face was grimacing and flexing with the sudden pain he felt at holding the stone. The two females looked to the rock, Damara still unable to release her other hand although the lettering had turned a blood red colour. The whole stone was starting to turn a black shade and it was vibrating as if it were angry, burning into the general’s flesh and burning Damara’s hand too. She gave a shriek and finally her hand was released; she swiftly stuffed it deep into the soil, her eyes widening with shock and realisation of what her little friend Ike had said about the stone. But at the same time her mind flashed with the image of the reaching creature and she lurched backward, smacking into Karani’s legs as her friend drew her sword ready to fight.

  “What the hell do you mean Ynvirius? Damara’s the only reason we’ve got the stone… you should just share the glory with us!” Karani snapped in frustration as the
figure lifted the stone up, its form burnt into his flesh as he eyed its dark surface with fascination. He grimaced at the pain from it and yet he was not willing to try and release his fingers clicking around it. The scar upon his face even seemed to be reopening and the figure’s eyes were becoming strange, his pupils dilated with some twisted sickness and as he lifted it upward towards the sun, he realised Karani had been talking. When his mind registered her phrasing, he turned about with a chuckle as the two girls straightened themselves and then he stretched out and pushed them straight back into the dirt. “What by Nabuto is wrong with you, Dregg Hole?”

  “Shut up… what in the mountains are you both going to say to stop me anyway? You’re both unwed, under age, untrained females who haven’t even got the permission of their households to leave the Kingdom. The pair of you are up here illegally and if I felt the need I could drag you both back to the kingdom by your hair and pass you over to the police to be flogged in public for disobedience. So, consider this a kindness and put your hoods back on, we can see your hair you harlots!” He snapped angrily, swatting his free hand toward them and making Karani drop her sword with shock. As she scrabbled to grasp it again tightly he began to laugh at their stupidity and weakness, amused that they might have dared to try and take the credit when they were at fault! “This gem is going to restore my family’s honour…”