The kDira's World Anthology

by K R McClellan

The warrior turned and sprinted up the stairs.

  “May I sit down?” Agis asked, pointing to one of the chairs near the door.

  “Be my guest,” the guard sneered.

  Shortly the subordinate raced back down the stairs and stopped at attention in front of the door guard.

  “The Queen is coming down. She requests you… Agis… wait for her. She will be here shortly.”

  “Thank you,” Agis said.

  As the Queen stepped off the last tread of the stairwell, a smile swept over her face.

  “My dear Agis, to what do I owe this honor?” the Queen said in a sweet voice.

  Agis, again with the help of his two Blackhorn friends, rose to his feet and approached the Queen.

  “Forgive me if I do not bow. My knee, as you know, is not well. But that is not why I am here.”

  “Go on…”

  “kDira has suggested… offered… that I mate with you, in exchange for the release of our daughters, Charlomine and Star.”

  “An interesting proposition. And this was kDira's idea?”

  “We reached the agreement together, for the good of our daughters.”

  “How fascinating. And what makes you think I won’t just kill you right now for trespassing in my palace?”

  “I think if you’d wanted me dead, I would be already. You suggested the mating; I am here now. But I must have your agreement that my daughters will be released.”

  “I am not sure you are going to be good enough to warrant releasing both girls… maybe just one. Would that be sufficient?”

  “I will stay as long as it takes to satisfy your needs, on the promise that both will be released.”

  The Queen pondered the offer for a moment then, with a nod of her head, turned to walk back up the stairs.

  “Agreed,” she said as she walked away. “Bring him up.”

  Agis looked at Omiroe and Acetec. The two took a deep breath and hoisted Agis off the ground. Slowly they made their way up the ten flights of stairs.

  At the very top, they found the door to the Queen’s quarters open. “Bring him in,” called the Queen’s voice from inside.

  Omiroe and Acetec carried him in and placed him on a comfortable looking chair. The two Blackhorn men were resting their hands on their knees, trying to catch their breath when Ari walked out.

  “Agis? What are you doing up here?”

  “Agis, my dear,” the Queen interjected, “will be staying with us for a few days, or more, in exchange for the freedom of his baby girls.”

  “What are you going to do with him?”

  “He is here for our pleasure, to entertain us. Won’t that be wonderful?”

  Ari looked at the Queen, and then to Agis. “I don’t understand.”

  “Oh, you will, my darling, you will.”

  “Will you send for us when Agis needs to come back down?” Omiroe asked.

  “Oh, I will see that he gets back down. You two can run along.”

  Omiroe and Acetec hesitated, but Agis motioned with his hand for them to go.

  “That’s right,” the Queen quipped. “Run along like good little males. Run along, run along. And shut the door behind you when you go.”

  cHAPTER 24

  After a couple hours of matching guns with ammo, the four Blackhorn finally decided on several of the long guns that all used the same ammo. Most of the rifles were black; other, silver-colored rifles, bore a leafy pattern. There were about ten rifles that took the two-two-three ammo, of which there was plenty.

  They also found many small guns that used the plentiful nine-millimeter ammo. Tuviast made sure he found some ammo for his prized treasure; the snub-nosed .357 Magnum he had found in Mojave.

  Lucas suggested they take a couple of each gun and learn how to use them. Everyone followed him outside, overflowing with excitement.

  Lucas began by explaining the rules for safe operation of such guns as he understood them, beginning with: do not point them at anyone unless you intended to shoot them. He went on to explain that every gun should always be treated as though it were loaded, then he showed them where the safety was on each gun and how it worked. He then demonstrated how to load the magazines and insert them into the guns.

  “Keep your fingers off the triggers until you are ready to shoot,” Lucas told them. Hefting one of the larger black rifles to his shoulder, he demonstrated the firing technique to the best of his knowledge. The limited experience he had came from years past in the underground compound of the Survivors. He explained how to use the sights on the gun. He then proceeded to point the gun across the lot, turned off the safety, and pulled the trigger.

  The loud, sharp Bang from the gun startled everyone and made their ears ring. “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, they are loud.”

  “That would have been nice to know ahead of time,” Benithan said.

  “Sorry about that. So, who wants to try it next?”

  “I want to try my gun,” Tuviast said, pulling the small .357 out of his sack along with a handful of bullets. The Smith & Wesson, being a revolver, required a bit more of instruction from Lucas.

  “Be careful of the recoil. This gun will try to push back on you as much as it does the bullet. Hold the gun firmly with your arms outstretched.” Lucas went over all the finer points of operating a handgun, and when he was finished, Tuviast fired off all five rounds in quick succession.

  “Wow, that thing does fight back, doesn’t it?”

  “That is the recoil, or kick, I warned you about,” Lucas explained.

  “I want to shoot some now,” Benithan said.

  “Me too!” declared Cayban.

  “Okay, let’s all get ready to shoot. Now, remember what I told you about safety…”

  “Mother, it’s going to be all right,” Winter said, in an attempt to calm her mother. “Agis will get the girls back and everything will be fine.”

  kDira was not taking the turn of events well and had put down a few botas worth of bryne. “I have a bad feeling that the Queen will do everything in her power to make my life miserable unless I agree to merge the tribes. Maybe that’s what I should do; just merge the tribes so we will all be left alone.”

  “I forbid it!” Winter exclaimed.

  kDira was taken aback. “You what?”

  “I am heir to the throne, so to speak. I am next in line to be Queen Mother. I will not allow you to give up our heritage to the Ravengard, no matter what the cost.”

  “Daughter, I have never heard you talk like this.”

  “Well, get used to it. My ankle is healing nicely, and I can walk again. I may not want to try to run anytime soon, but I can fight hand-to-hand if I am pushed into it, and dammit, I will.”

  “You make me so proud.” kDira went to Winter and wrapped her in a warm embrace. It was then that the door opened and Omiroe and Acetec walked in.

  “Agis has been delivered. The Queen agreed that when she was satisfied, she would return Charlomine and Star.”

  “When she’s satisfied? That evil bitch will never be satisfied. You left him there on a vague promise like that?”

  “Agis agreed, and sent us away.”

  “That stupid kreb. He’s going to get himself killed, and the girls will still be held prisoner over there.”

  “I think he knows what he’s doing. Ari is there too, and frankly, she doesn’t look happy to be there anymore.”

  “She deserves what she gets!”

  “Mother, she can still be an ally. She has gone through a confusing time, and she will realize that she should never have left. She will come around, and when she does, you need to love her more than ever.”

  “She hasn’t made it easy for me.”

  “I know, mum.”

  “So, what do we do now, Queen Mother?” Acetec asked.

  “I guess we wait to see if Agis gets the girls back, or if the young ones come back with the ancient weapons, or if we have to go rescue Agis and the girls without them. One way or another, the girls will be back with
us.”

  “I hope the weapons are as effective as Lucas said they are,” Omiroe said. “We could really use some luck to go our way right about now.”

  Benithan and Cayban, looking around other stores, found some hand-pulled wagons in a building just down from the sporting goods store and hauled them back to the sporting goods store to be loaded with weapons for the return to Ravengard.

  Tuviast and Lucas spent the time hauling the guns they had selected and the matching ammo out to the front of the store to be loaded into the wagons.

  Tuviast made sure he had some extra ammo for his revolver. He loaded it and placed it in his sack.

  “I think we have enough guns for a small army of our own, now,” Lucas said. “Shall we head back? We will stop outside the walls and keep hidden until dark. Then we will load up weapons for each of us and make our way into Ravengard. If we don’t meet any resistance, we will make our way back to kDira and let her decide what we need to do. If we do meet resistance, under no circumstances can we let the Ravengard get possession of the guns.”

  “We understand,” Benithan said.

  “We should go to the grassy area and have a bite to eat. It has been a long day, and we need our energy.”

  Pulling ropes tied to the handles of the two wagons, the four made their way toward the grassy area to the south of the row of buildings they had scavenged.

  Without warning, as they passed the corner of the last building, they were all knocked to the ground and faced by a dozen Ravengard warriors pointing swords or readied bows at them.

  “Look what we have here,” General Ultral sneered. “Seems like we have found our four defectors.”

  The Blackhorn scrambled to keep their distance from the tips of the swords but were quickly surrounded. It was obvious that they were not going to be allowed to get back up to their feet.

  “Looks like they found some treasures,” the Ravengard Sergeant said. He stepped over to one of the wagons and pulled a black rifle from the cart. “What is this?”

  “It is just an artifact,” Benithan said, “from the olden days.”

  “An artifact, is it? You have a lot of the same artifacts. And what’s in these boxes?” The Sergeant bent down and picked up one of the boxes, opened it, and dumped the contents out into his hand. It was a box of two-two-three ammo, and as the bullets came out, some fell to the ground with a clink.

  “I will only ask this once more,” the General demanded. “What are these things?”

  “Here, I will show you!” Tuviast said, quickly reaching into his bag and grabbing his large-caliber snub-nose revolver. He quickly fired off two rounds, Boom-Boom! The Sergeant and one other Ravengard fell to the ground as the others jumped back, shocked and stunned.

  Boom-Boom! Two more Ravengard fell.

  Boom! A fifth one fell, then Tuviast turned the gun toward the General.

  Click… click… click…

  cHAPTER 25

  “I’ve sent Ari to her room to find a pretty dress and some nice shoes to wear in honor of our guest,” the Queen said, pouring two glasses of bryne. “The mighty Agis, King of the Blackhorn, what an honor it is to have you here in my modest chambers. If I had known you were coming, I would have had Ari clean up a bit. But no matter, it is a pleasure to have you here. Bryne?”

  “Thank you,” Agis said, accepting a glass of the dark red refreshment. “But I have told you before, I am no King; our tribe recognizes no King.” He took a sip of the bryne, and it was all he could do to hold back a wince. The bryne was so terribly bitter and tart that it made the back of his throat close for a second.

  “Is the bryne okay?”

  “It’s fine,” Agis managed to choke out. “Are the girls okay?”

  “Your girls are fine. They are being fed as we speak, treated to luxurious furnishings only a Queen can provide… or take away.”

  Ari stepped out of her room dressed in a short purple dress and walked unsteadily in all-too-high heels over to the bryne table to pour herself a glass to calm her nerves.

  “Have you ever seen your Ari look so pretty?” the Queen asked. “She doesn’t look much like a warrior anymore, does she?”

  “I am still a warrior!” Ari protested.

  “She doesn’t look comfortable, I will say that.”

  “Oh, but she will get used to it. I understand that Ari has never taken a man before? Perhaps that will change tonight.”

  Ari shot a look at the Queen, and then at Agis. Agis had never seen that look in Ari’s eyes before. Was it… fear?

  “I didn’t come here for Ari, I came here for you.”

  “Come, my dears,” the Queen gestured, “Let us move into my bedroom. Ari, help the Blackhorn King onto my bed.”

  Ari hesitated, but then relented, walking over to help Agis to his feet, willing her own ankles not to break from her unsteadiness due to wearing the tall heels.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Ari asked Agis quietly.

  Agis looked at Ari as though the answer was obvious. “One of us has to do something.”

  They made their way into the Queen’s bedroom, and Ari helped Agis as gently as she could onto the bed. The Queen had already unzipped the back of her long dress and let it fall from her shoulders, her back to the bed.

  “Now help him get undressed, my dear. Let’s not keep the Queen waiting.”

  “I can get undressed myself just fine. If it not too much of an issue, I would like the keep the brace on my knee. It seems someone felt it would be better bent the opposite direction that it should be, and it is not too steady anymore.”

  “Oh yes, so sorry about that. Sometimes I lose my temper, don’t I, Ari?” Agis looked at Ari’s black eye. “But I am over it, so everything is good.”

  “I am glad to hear that.”

  “Ari, my dear, you may get undressed as well. We shall enjoy your first time together. I can savor your experience and reminisce on my own first time.”

  “But my Queen…” Ari began to protest.

  “Tut-tut! Do not upset the Queen when she is in such a good mood. That would not be a smart thing to do, now, would it?”

  Ari stepped back, and Agis watched her. Her face flushed white, a scared look came over her, her eyes darted back and forth, and then locked on Agis. She appeared to be searching for someone, anyone but the Queen, to tell her what she needed to do. She looked into Agis’s eyes, and he nodded. Then he diverted his eyes downward. As she fought back tears, she began to take off the dress that she had put on just a short while before.

  A few moments later, Agis sat naked on the bed, save for his knee brace, and Ari stood before him, also naked, with her back to him. The Queen, also without clothing, stepped in front of Ari, gathered her in and hugged her close. Ari looked up at her, and the Queen gave her a tender kiss that Ari didn’t fully return.

  “What is wrong, my dear? You’re trembling.”

  “I am just nervous. Please, my Queen, please do not make me… with Agis.”

  “You’re so sweet and innocent, but what better mate could you hope to have for your first time: the great Blackhorn King, Agis. Come here, we will go through this together.” The Queen led her over to Agis. “Here, let us help our male get comfortable on the bed.”

  The Queen carefully lifted Agis’s legs onto the bed, and Ari helped Agis position his shoulders, attempting to not look at him anymore than necessary. She had seen naked males before, but this was Agis. She felt as though he were more of a brother than anything else, and considering his relationship to kDira, it felt that much more wrong. Even if she were interested in males, she would not wish to be in this situation with Agis.

  “Are you comfortable, my mate?” the Queen asked.

  “I would be more comfortable if you didn’t refer to me as your mate, but whatever makes you happy. Yes, I am comfortable, but I am not comfortable with Ari participating. That will not help me in the least.”

  “Oh, I think you will loosen up and be just fine. Now, Ari, we will
gently caress his body. I know you know how to do this, just pretend it’s me you are touching.”

  Ari did as she was told. Still not looking at Agis, she ran her hands up and down his side and his arms.

  “Ari, my dear, I don’t feel your heart is in your job. Here, let me make this easier for you. Turn this way,” she said, instructing Ari to turn with her back to Agis, facing his feet. “Now lie across his stomach, put your arm across to the other side.”

  Ari could see that this was going to put the private parts of Agis directly in front of her face. She looked at the Queen, her eyes begging not to be forced to comply, but she could read in the Queen’s face that there would be no discussion about it. Ari did as she was told, then there was no ignoring the nakedness of Agis any longer.

  “Now stroke it. It is far too soft to do either of us any good. Stroke it and make it strong. Come, dear, do it now.”

  Ari took the manhood of Agis in her hand and began gently rubbing it. The Queen went to the other side of Ari and rested across Agis’s chest, her breasts all but in his face. Agis let out a sigh and a hint of a moan as Ari complied with the Queen’s wishes. Agis began fighting the urge to become aroused for the sake of Ari, but he could not overcome the feelings and sensations that he was feeling.

  “Don’t fight it, my King. You have my permission to enjoy this.”

  “I do not enjoy this.”

  “Of course, you do. Is he getting hard, my dear Ari?”

  “Yes, my Queen.”

  “Excellent! Now, my dear, take it in your mouth.”

  cHAPTER 26

  “Where is Lucas Brown?” Cliverly asked as he and Tina Davis walked back down the gangway after another day of fishing. The sun was beginning to sink lower in the west, and the ship had come back with another full load of fish. The offloading went well, and the day’s work was done.

  “He is helping kDira. He will be back when he is done.”

  “You like Lucas Brown?”

  “He is a good friend. We have been friends for a long time.”

  “Lucas Brown nice.”

  “Yes, Lucas Brown is nice.”