Traitor to the King: A Tale of the Benaga Sisters

by Clare SM Keating

  Damara’s body began to tingle and prickle with frustration and excitement at the thought that something could be coming their way. If her sister or her companions had noticed her interest and eagerness to prove herself useful, they might have scolded her for tempting fate, but Damara could not prevent the rush entering her blood. There was something bad up ahead, her body knew it and craved to advance as a curious electricity sparked between the three adults and their casual pace dropped down to something more purposeful. After the forty paces that made up the length of the kennels, they stopped at the wide bulge within the straight tunnel as it angled upward and became pitch black. Here in one of the pockets in the stone wall sat the lonely looking white hut of the Emergency Centre and automatically they watched Head Healer, Lady Molwesa Ahygah-Benaga, stroll out of the great wooden doors with a grimace upon her face. She had a large satchel wrapped about her white and blue robes as she strode towards their position and then froze beside her niece. Her eyes locked onto Karayan and he turned to face her, snarling.

  “I have said before, General Karayan, that I refuse to treat you within the sacred kingdom’s apartments and will only work with you at your home. If you have come for some medical query I suggest you return to your livings and send Droy or Martum out to meet me.” The aggression in her manner toward the figure was palpable and beside her, Damara could see that even Talon was confused by the attitude of the seemingly gentle woman toward the curious figure of the Karayan. But he remained ignorant to her words and with growing terror Damara watched as the great figure’s shoulders bunched and his hands reached into his robes and produced his hideous axe from thin air. She had no idea where he’d been keeping that around the children, but it just fell into the massive catalogue of questions and mysteries about the strange figure.

  “Talon… was it? Go tell Martum and Droy to alert the Core and the Guard to fill up every tunnel into the city… and take the kids and their teacher back to the main square. Little One…” His words had them all on edge and before Karayan could continue more Talon was already on his way to the others and Molwesa was producing her own sword from its strap at her hip in preparation for battle. Damara copied but found she had no sword to wield of her own and she grimaced fearfully, until the Karayan pulled out his own crooked, gnarled blade and cast it to her. With a shriek she snapped at it in the air and just about managed to keep hold as the Karayan snorted. “Don’t touch the edge, but you should be able to use your magic with it. The moment things get carried away, you’re to run… got it Kid?”

  Hurriedly Damara nodded her head, but no sooner had she done so then a strange smell wafted down the passage to her nose. It hit Molwesa too and the healer almost vomited visibly at the stench of rotten fish mixed with eggs, the usual stench of a collection of troublesome monsters and then they saw the horrific figure strolling towards them. The moment Damara clapped her eyes upon the one massive, bulging reptilian eye of the figure gliding towards them she froze to the spot. Her body trembled with terror as she felt the air being sucked out of her body and a strange sensation creeping into her mind, the eye was fixed upon her and she felt her knees buckling to give in as the horrendous Hive Demon approached.

  What Damara did not know or even feel, was that the demon had already hooked onto her fear and was encouraging her to walk towards it. Though she still held the blade defensively Damara was walking towards the enemy and in a trance of terror she whimpered and mumbled to herself. She heard something like a bark from Molwesa to close her eyes, but it was too painful a thought and Damara managed only to close one… but it was enough as from nowhere a bright light came skimming down the tunnel and smashed into the giant eye on the slender body of the demon. In a sudden pop the ball exploded into a massive wave of light and there was a scream from the demon as it was blinded from its hive contact and Damara was released.

  “Bulgas… Damara use your magic… I’ll take care of the demon!” Molwesa barked to her niece, making Damara jump back in terror as she scampered back towards her original position and gripped the sword tightly. She closed her eyes again and imagined a series of small balls filled with freezing water that squeezed their way out of the stone walls to surround her. It was just in time too as a massive collection of ugly, ape-like creatures thundered down the tunnels with roars of anger. Some were already bloodied from whatever was happening within the depths of the tunnel but most of them were small, blood thirsty and on a clear rampage towards the Dregg tunnels. Damara released her balls to shoot out and splatter against the creatures, but though some froze most of the beasts smashed through their stiff companions and charged the group. Damara lifted her sword as the first horrendous creature came charging toward her with its hog mouth open to smash her apart on its tusks and she was not sure what to do.

  Damara would have been ripped apart had she not heard the Dreggs explode from their kennels behind her and charge into the battle. Yellow, green and brown beasts leapt onto the Bulgas that rushed into the bulge of the tunnel, stabbing their vicious teeth into any flesh and ripping off chunks. Many were trampled beneath the hefty brutes, but it was enough to smack Damara into action and she swung the sword about, clasping the hilt tightly and forcing her ice magic into it’s blade like she was squeezing water from a cloth. At each magical embrace the sword shattered its immediately frozen enemies to pieces and with the Dreggs’ help Damara was able to clear the first wave as Molwesa and the demon fought, her sword against his tree-like arms as he tried to feel for her with extending fingers. The Karayan though had been eagerly avoided by the Bulgas, who whimpered and whined to make a space around him as he swung his axe and slapped its blade deep into the bone of every beast heading through the tunnel. He did not seem eager to fight the first wave and instead stood in front of the passage, eagerly waiting for the next.

  Damara could hardly imagine what he was thinking until she heard stone cracking and the hefty snorts of a great Bulgas Berserker trudging down the path. When this beast broke into the dim light from the centre it was clearly fourteen-foot-tall and at least six foot across, smashing stone as it charged down towards the Karayan. It was not afraid of him but with a grunt of frustration the Karayan merely shook his head and stepped cleanly out of the way of the charging animal. The pallid monster spun neatly on its heels, still crashing its backside into the rocky walls and knocking stones flying but charged again. Once more the Karayan stepped out of the way but as it passed he reached out with a clawed hand and grabbed the beast by its stump of a tail. The moment he did, something must have happened for the Bulgas jolted forward and folded up as a dead heap as the Karayan had jerked it’s tail back and caused something further up it’s spine to snap in half!

  “How did you do that?” Damara squeaked in surprise but just as she was distracted the great branching arm of the demon shot out her way. Suddenly the great feelers stabbed into her shoulder and her body exploded with a burning sensation of agony. Molwesa rushed toward the girl, forgetting her fight with the giant eye as the Karayan hurried over and severed the branching arm with his axe. As the demon gave a shrill cry and Damara gasped for breath as the pain eased, the great stranger lunged toward the hideous being and without fear of the branches that swung back and stabbed into his body, he grasped it by the skinny neck and swung his axe right down to split the eye in half. There was a fizzling sound of rage as the Hive Demon disappeared into dust but then another rumble as the rest of the Bulgas group slammed through the tunnel.

  “Healer… take the kid and go, I’ll clear the mess.” Karayan barked as the next berserker came screeching towards him, this one twice the size of the last one, shattering stone as it charged but coated in fresh wounds. The Karayan was almost surprised when he looked to the great slices and gashes upon the beast as it continued to charge him, but then he heard a whistling sound. From nowhere a curved scythe blade on a silvery chain shot out and stabbed into the back of the beast’s head, making it hurtle into a heap to turn and face its attacker. As it spun the chain
swung and pulled the perpetrator’s bloodied form screeching out of the tunnel to place her dagger firmly into the middle of the beast’s skull. Karayan gave a cry of excitement and relief as he rushed to the side of the figure and aimed to pull her up. His joy was short lived as she instead dove out of the way of a leaping Bulgas that Karayan grasped by the throat and swiftly hacked up with his axe. “Anouk… what are you doing here?”

  “No time to talk there’s still a few more coming down the tunnel… along with my squad.” Anouk blustered, walking about a little awkwardly as if she had been forced to ride one of the horrid hunched beasts, which somehow Karayan thought to be true. He gave a soft chuckle at her remark before throwing the corpse aside and hearing the familiar sound of a horn in the distance. Damara and Molwesa were gone, Talon had led the kids and their teacher to safety and it seemed Droy and Martum had done their job. Now he could truly focus on his fight and thankfully Anouk felt the same.

  Six: Worrying Signs

  By order of the King and Council, any being of any species caught touching a stone or removing them from their place of sanctuary shall be punished severely. The charge of this action is treachery to the king and will result in the execution of the criminal following the cleansing of the stones. However, exceptions to this rule include the King himself and those who can be proven to touch the items for the sake of the kingdom i.e. stone retrieval. An exemption also exists for oracular purposes.

  - Laws of Virenheim Order One Point Seven

  Damara could not figure out where she was, only that this must be a dream and she had no choice but to let it flow naturally. Dreams were often unusual things for her but this one was particularly unnatural and it did not follow the usual muck around pattern of most dreams. For a start she was not even in this dream herself and yet everything within it was familiar and felt very real indeed. For once she was not being led through a random series of events with a purple Yub-Yub squealing around her feet telling her it was the personification of her most dreadful desires! Confusion ate at her body as she found no way to control the direction or her thoughts and was no longer clear if this was just her mind playing along or a spell.

  Instead she was forced to watch as her body, or at least the body she was inside, motioned to look about a castle of pallid grey stone that was almost familiar to her. Where she looked down was a female elf’s body but nothing she recognised as hers as this being was adorned in jewellery and walked with a fierce determination unknown to her. She knew it was not Anouk either, if only because this being still walked like a woman. Somehow the veil this woman wore was barely over her eyes and the males in grey robes that passed by the circling corridors did not seem to notice or react to her as they might do normally. The faces of these figures Damara did not know, but she could tell by the way the corridors spun around in an endless sloping coil that she was in the mind or memory of one of the King’s Watchers… but a female one?

  Ignoring the thoughts that bubbled in her head as she watched the story unfold as if she were a part of it, Damara followed the hands that began to trace the walls nervously. With growing anxiety she noticed the manner in which the body began to shake, and the head looked back and forth as if it expected attack or defeat. She could feel a sensation as if she might be killed at any moment and the body was alert and tense, making Damara feel scared. But if this was the tower then why should she be afraid when nothing bad had ever happened there in her memory at least?

  Damara was led in this new body up towards a strange dark room where there was nothing to see except a small little altar where a pot of incense sat burning away. Damara could not smell it but something told her it would have been familiar and so she let the body lead her to a strange line within a wall that was no longer stone but wood. She felt her hands lift and trace the lines with an intimate familiarity as they clasped one neat little section of the wood panelling and pulled it away. To Damara’s great shock she looked into a small enclave where three shining, colourful stones of crystal glittered together in seeming harmony. It did not take a genius for Damara to recognise them as the Sacred Stones; each one was etched with the three letters of the longer word they all made together, but why was this person here?

  Damara allowed the dream to flow onward and her body to relax into it more as she watched a stone be removed and turn within the hand into something like soapstone away from the light of its companions. Then a strange crystal, one of the many from the crystal cave perhaps, was put in its place as the sacred stone was smuggled away. To Damara’s great upset this figure was able to get out of the building without anyone questioning her until she stepped along the great bridges and thoughtlessly turned to look down into the water. Damara could feel the sudden dizziness from the height and see the rushing foam of the rapids below as the figure chuckled and she listened to the words that slipped past the figure’s lips.

  “Return to the depths with me so that the traitor cannot steal you away….”

  * * * * *

  The Bulgas were retreating, save two berserkers that were proving quite stubborn and difficult to knock from their perches. Anouk was frustrated as she was forced to keep her chain wrapped around her body and both dagger and scythe blade in her hands at all times. The demon may have been dead but it had certainly brought in a unique collection of aggressive Bulgas. Unlike the usual tunnel digging horrors this little pod did not really seem to have any set goal for the attack, just infiltration as if testing the strength of the older tunnels for a higher problem. The guards, patrol and the Royal core had all taken up defensive positions and the Core members had already brought ropes to subdue one of the berserkers as the Dreggs remaining grabbed at its flesh and ripped it open. The other beast was undergoing a barrage of fire magic from Sarag, hacking slashes from Karayan, sharp blasts of wind to blind it and Alard held it firmly at the throat in his slow attempt to suffocate the damn pallid brute. Anouk was forced to try and cut its tusks down as the rest of her squad swarmed the beast’s large body and drove their weapons into its harsh hide.

  “Lord Benaga… are you sure these are the only remaining beasts?” Lord Lutas stated as he galloped down the tunnel with other members of the council and the police. With the great massive hulks still wrestling to try and continue their attack, the nobles pulled back with grimaces of disgust. None were willing to go any further past the kennels and instead waited for the rest of the guard to bring their pikes and continue to spear the great beasts until they stopped moving. In the last throws of its life, one of the berserkers managed to swing its body about and smash itself firmly into the emergency centre, crashing through the weaker rock and crumbling the facility beneath its heavy body. By a stroke of luck Molwesa had been the last person in the centre after sending the staff and patients on to the main hospital to deal with their minimal wounds, but the collapse of the structure caused a creaking sound in the rock wall of the tunnel and whatever structural weakness had been caused by the beasts’ charge, the roof of the passage began to fall. “EVERYONE OUT!”

  Their feet galloped swiftly out of the passage, Anouk making sure her team and the Dreggs were all out as the great boulders smashed down into the floor of the bulge. She dodged a few rocks though her side was bleeding and just when she looked to be lagging behind, the Karayan lunged forward before Alard could to hook her about the waist and throw her and one of the core members still lagging straight onto his back. He jumped clean over the fissure forming from the collapse and into one of the kennels as the last chunk of the hill above slumped downwards into a locking position. With the rockslide over, the emergency passage lost and a cloud of dirt and stone dust filling the kennels, the guards, core, council and Anouk’s patrol emerged with the remaining Dreggs to the centre of the passage with heavy grunts and sneezes.

  Alard rushed to Anouk’s side, straightening her wobbling form and patting her back until she coughed out a cloud of bloodied stones. As he tried to hook his arms about her bleeding form to take her on after her sister, Ano
uk slapped him heavily. When the Karayan then stepped out with his nervous looking soldier she slapped his arm hard as well, making him jump and swear aloud. Her harsh eyes caught his and he felt her rage forcing him to apologise for daring to pick her up; of course, he had no idea that to carry a soldier was to mock their gender and therefore their position. But as she wobbled around with her bleeding side, her squad rushed over and together they all measured one another’s injuries and checked for any casualties. By some curious luck none of them had been killed, even the Core and the Guards had been injured but the Dreggs had suffered great losses. The big reptiles rushed to lap at the wounds of their masters, spreading their healing saliva to stop the bleeding like the faithful creatures they were.

  “By the luck of Nabuto we’ve managed to survive… but what on Organthra happened? One minute we’re all quite content getting on with the daily business and then we go from a Hive Demon sitting at the First Dam staring to a Bulgas attack? What do you think is the cause of this?” Lord Angemar, the guardian of the river and therefore the tunnel passages, came shooting down from the wall of the kennels with a look of exasperation upon his face. A stocky and quite rotund figure despite their species, Angemar rushed up and down the kennels and counted how many Dreggs he had left before he froze in front of the great black and iron grey rocks that now smothered the passage. His thick fingers drummed nervously against his chin and he looked toward Lord Benaga, Lord Lutas, Karayan, Lord Caphoni and Lord Floryas in concern.

  “According to the message down the pipe from Chroniison, the Hive Demon at the dam is still standing there staring at the defences, he’s locked everything down thankfully, but no one knows what to do? Personally, I think we need to just kill it and be done with the figure like these fellows did down here.” Lord Floryas was a tall, nasal figure with a lean face and all the manner of an aristocratic human rather then a Deep Elf. As head of the police he would have to investigate not only how the demon got in but why Anouk chose to change the route of her patrol, but right now the fact a demon was still in the kingdom boundary concerned him. The others nodded their heads in agreement but swiftly Anouk gave a growl.