The kDira's World Anthology

by K R McClellan

  “No talking!” one of the Ravengard warriors yelled. The remainder of the walk back to the barracks was done in silence.

  Tina secretly worried about Lucas. Though there were many other Survivors with her, Lucas was the one she had worked most closely with, and they loved each other like brother and sister. She and Lucas had dated each other in the past, but it had never felt right for either of them. But her worry for her friend was very strong; she could not deny that.

  “Evening meal will be in one hour,” one of the warriors announced as the fishing party was released into the barracks.

  “What I wouldn’t give for a hot shower,” Tina sighed.

  “What is hot shower?” Cliverly asked.

  “Um, I mean I would like to wash off in hot, fresh water.”

  “Hi, Tina,” kDira said, stepping into view. She had been hiding from the Ravengard for over an hour in hopes of catching Tina when she got back from the docks.

  Tina jumped and said, “kDira, what are you doing here?”

  “I needed to see how you are doing. Are you all eating okay?”

  “If you call one small meal a day eating okay, then yes, we are eating just fine.”

  “Hi, kDira,” Cliverly said, eagerly.

  “Hello, Cliverly. How are you.”

  “I am good. I get to cook on the boat.”

  “He cooks, but you don’t get to eat?”

  “That’s right, the food is only for the crew, but that doesn’t matter right now. What is the real reason you are here?”

  “Come, let’s go talk in private. Cliverly, Tina and I would like to talk about female stuff, okay?”

  “Oh, okay. I will rest for little while.”

  kDira and Tina walked a short distance away, then kDira stopped and turned to Tina.

  “The Queen captured Charlomine and Star, and now she has Agis. He’s up there to mate with her for the release of the girls.”

  “Oh, kDira!”

  “And I’m not taking it too well…” kDira said, breaking down into tears. Tina hugged her close and held her.

  “How horrible it must be for you.”

  After sobbing for a minute or so, kDira composed herself and said, “Listen, we need to be ready to do something. I don’t know what yet, but we need to be ready to band together. When whatever it is… starts happening, we all need to be in on it and fight like there is no tomorrow because there might not be otherwise. Understand?”

  “I understand, but we are not trained to fight. We don’t even have weapons.”

  “Then we must use the one thing we have that they can’t take away: surprise. We must surprise them, get their weapons and eliminate them, quickly and without mercy. I need you to talk to everyone here, one at a time if necessary, and get the word spread as quickly as possible. Start watching for when the Ravengard are the most vulnerable and least attentive. Be ready.”

  “I understand.”

  “It’s time for you and your people to become warriors. You can do this. I need you as much as I need the Blackhorn.”

  “We are with you, kDira.”

  kDira gave Tina another hug and pulled away.

  “I must go back now. Be strong, Tina Davis.”

  “You too, kDira. I will be thinking of you and waiting for a signal.”

  When the Queen told her to stop, it was all Ari could do to hold back her tears. She pulled away from Agis and wiped the spittle from her mouth.

  “Now climb on top,” the Queen ordered.

  “I will not,” Ari said quietly.

  “I hope I didn’t just hear you refuse my orders?”

  “I will not mate with Agis,” Ari said firmly. “This is for you, and you alone. I have had enough of this humiliation. You can beat me for it, but I will not do this!”

  Ari climbed off the bed, grabbed a blanket, and wrapped it around herself as she left the room, slamming the door behind her.

  “Well, you would think she would be happy to have such a fine male partner as you,” the Queen said, climbing her way on top of Agis.

  “She is not that way, and you know that.”

  “She will be any way I wish her to be. She has to learn that.”

  “Can we get on with this?”

  “But, of course, you are absolutely right,” the Queen said as she positioned herself for penetration.

  “You will make fine babies with me, King Agis.” The Queen worked herself up and down as Agis tried to block the scene from his consciousness. “We will do this for as long as it takes to make a baby.”

  “But what of the girls. They will go free, right?”

  “When I am with child, I will consider it.”

  “That is not what you said…”

  The Queen instantly put her hands around Agis’s throat, all the while pumping harder and harder as Agis fought to pull her hands free.

  “You see, I am in charge. I make the rules, the laws. I am the Queen, and you are my King as long as I find that it amuses me.”

  Suddenly she could feel the climax of Agis within her, and a few moments later she slowed to a stop and released her grip on the throat of the now-passive man beneath her.

  “You see? Sometimes pain can be fun, too,” the Queen said, climbing off the bed, the seed of Agis running down her leg. Agis looked away, disgusted with himself for letting himself give in to the pleasures he fought so hard to control.

  “There is a wash basin against that wall. Clean yourself up and get dressed, if you can. Then come out, and we will have a nice evening meal.”

  As soon as the Ravengard realized that Tuviast would not be able to take down any more of them with his strange, loud weapon, they pounced. Within moments, the Blackhorn were face down on the hard pavement, hands bound behind their backs.

  “What do you suppose we should do with these treacherous Blackhorn traitors?” the General asked.

  “Cut their heads off and take them to the Queen as trophies,” one suggested.

  “I like your way of thinking, Kotal. You are now my new Sergeant. Get them on their knees.”

  The remaining Ravengard picked up the four and positioned them before the General. “You are all just children. Except you,” the General said, stepping in front of Lucas. “You are not even of the Blackhorn. You are not even a warrior. What is your hand in all of this?”

  Lucas Brown shifted on his knees. “I have nothing to offer you. Go ahead and kill me.”

  “You really don’t want to kill that one,” Tuviast spoke up.

  The General took one step to the side to stand before Tuviast, obviously the youngest of the four. “You are the one that murdered five of my finest men, including my Sergeant. Why would I even listen to you?”

  “Because of these artifacts,” Tuviast explained. “He is the only one that knows how to use them. He was going to show us how when you knocked us down.”

  “Tuviast, stop. I won’t tell them anything.”

  “Silence! The only artifact I want is the one the boy used.”

  One of the Ravengard picked it up off the ground and handed it to the General. He examined it closely, then sniffed the burnt gunpowder from the end of the barrel.

  “Interesting. How do you make this work?”

  “It no longer works,” Lucas said. “The boy used all the magic that was in it.”

  “Is that so?”

  “All of these old relics; the magic is gone from all of them.”

  “I am bored with this,” the General said, tossing the revolver aside. He drew his sword and looked over his four prisoners.

  “Bend the boy over. He murdered our warriors; he will be the first to die.”

  As ordered, several Ravengard rushed at the boy and bent him over so that his head was pointing forward. The General stepped to the side of the boy and raised the sword above his head with both hands.

  “This is where you pay for your sins against the Ravengard! The Queen will mount your head on her wall!”

  Tuviast drew a deep breath, knowi
ng it would be his last. He closed his eyes but told himself he would not scream or beg. He waited for the light of the darkness within his eyelids to dim when his head finally was displaced from his body and rolling on the ground, but the only thing he heard was the thud of a body hitting the ground next to him.

  Then commotion.

  Tuviast opened his eyes to see two more Ravengard fall, and then one more fell directly on top of him.

  “What’s happening?” Lucas yelled.

  “I don’t know but get down!” Benithan yelled.

  The other three Blackhorn quickly fell flat on the ground, as the remaining Ravengard fell lifelessly to the ground around them, arrows piercing vital organs.

  Tuviast struggled to see what was happening when he heard footsteps come quickly from behind.

  “Are you okay, my son?” Edu asked.

  cHAPTER 27

  The moment Tuviast’s hands were cut free he jumped to his feet, spun around and threw his arms around his father.

  “I can’t leave you alone for a few days, can I?” Edu teased.

  “Father, I am so glad you are back with us!”

  “It’s a good thing, isn’t it? A few seconds later and you would all be dead. Now here, take this knife and cut our friends free.”

  “Is mum….?

  “She’s gone son. She is resting on a nice hill overlooking a valley where she can see the sun rise and set every day.”

  Tuviast took a deep breath and mustered all the courage he had to not break down in front of his friends.

  When everyone was free of their bonds, and gratitude given to Edu, they gathered around the wagons.

  “Okay, does anyone want to tell me what these things are?”

  Lucas stepped up and explained about the guns and roughly how to use them.

  “And they are loud, too!” Tuviast said.

  “I already know that; I heard the sounds from these when I was miles down the road. Then just before I got here, I heard five more Booms.”

  “That would have been my gun, father. I killed five of the Ravengard before I ran out of cartridges; I forgot my revolver-gun only holds five.”

  “You can call them bullets, too,” Lucas reminded.

  “Right. Five bullets. Those big black ones, they can hold ten rounds each.”

  Tuviast set about reloading his revolver while Lucas further explained the weapons.

  “So, when you gathered them up, you didn’t think to load them up in case you were… attacked?”

  “We never thought about that. And they took us completely by surprise. We wouldn’t have had time to use them anyway.”

  “I was ready,” Tuviast boasted.

  “Yes, Tuviast was ready, and he knew what to do,” Lucas said.

  “Too bad he forgot how many bullets his gun held,” Benithan remarked.

  “And if everyone else had been ready like he was,” Edu chided gently, throwing his arm around his son, “my help would not have been needed.”

  “You are right, Edu,” Benithan said, chastely.

  “So, you have more small guns here, correct? Let’s load them up and each carry one.”

  “You know,” Lucas said, “it seems to me that they had things to carry these at our sides… holsters. Let’s make a quick trip back and see if we can find some holsters.”

  “Sounds like a good idea,” Edu agreed.

  Agis strained to get dressed after cleaning himself in the wash basin. He could hear the Queen scolding Ari in the adjacent room. None of the sounds he heard came from Ari. After he finished getting his clothes on, he did his best to hobble to the door and open it.

  Instantly he saw Ari naked and pinned against the wall, the Queen holding the Blackhorn up by the neck. Ari was slowly turning blue; her struggles by this point getting weak.

  “Enough!” Agis yelled, as though he were commanding a subordinate. The Queen just looked at him and smiled. She released her grip on Ari, who fell limp to the floor.

  “Listen to you! My King is now a man. kDira must not bring out the manhood in you.”

  “You do not need to treat Ari that way. She will serve you loyally without being forced into submission.”

  “She will serve me anyway I want her to serve me, or she will suffer the consequences.”

  “What about my girls. Are they free to go?”

  “I am not certain I am satisfied yet. Let’s just say you leave me desiring more,” she said with a glance toward Ari. “Maybe later we can try again and this time, with a bit more cooperation. Seeing the girls go free is not nearly as important to Ari as it is to you, but like I said, we shall see how it goes next time. Bryne? Ari, dear. Fetch us some bryne.”

  Ari slowly picked herself up off the floor, grabbed the blanket that had fallen at her feet and wrapped it around herself once again, then went over to the table to get two glasses of bryne.

  Trying to hold the blanket to her naked body with her elbows, Ari presented the bryne to the Queen, then to Agis.

  “My Queen, if I do willingly as you ask, will you swear to the release of the girls?”

  “My, isn’t this interesting now? Ari shows such compassion for your girls, King Agis. What do you make of that?”

  “She is only doing it for the girls. She would do anything for those girls.”

  “But she would not do just anything for me? I find this disturbing. Go dress yourself, girl; you look ridiculous walking around with that blanket. Then go down and find out where our evening meal is.”

  Ari ran, but she didn’t go to the kitchen as she was asked. Instead, she ran past the guards on the bottom floor and toward the complex that housed the Blackhorn. Running on pure adrenaline, she went in the back entrance and straight up the stairs and across the complex to kDira's chambers. She didn’t bother to knock on the door, she just burst inside.

  kDira jumped up, expecting another of the Queen’s attacks, but when she saw it was Ari, she stopped, speechless.

  “kDira, I have been so wrong,” Ari said, falling to her knees before the Queen Mother, bursting into tears. “Please forgive me. I have wronged you. I have betrayed the Blackhorn.”

  “Ari, Ari. Please, get up. Come, let’s set down and talk.”

  “I don’t have much time. I must go right back to Queen Lehentis. I think Agis is in danger, and I don’t think the Queen is going to give the girls back. You have to do something.”

  “I wish it were that easy, but we are far outnumbered by the Ravengard.”

  “Then I will kill the Queen! I will cut the head off that serpent. I will go back, and I will do that.”

  “Ari, wait. We have a plan, but it might take a week. Can you keep Agis and the girls safe that long? When we are ready, we will be able to take on the entire Ravengard army. You have to trust me.”

  Ari did not look too sure of what she was being told. She searched for words but found none.

  “Do you trust me, Ari?”

  “Yes, Queen Mother.”

  “Then go back and keep an eye on Agis. Keep him safe.”

  “But you should know…”

  “What?”

  “The Queen expects me to mate with Agis as well. I defied her once, and she almost killed me. I don’t think she will let it go a second time.”

  kDira took Ari’s hand and looked her in the eyes. “I know it will be a struggle for you, I understand that, but if you are worried about me and how I would feel about it… then I say better you than that Queen up there.”

  “I have to go. Thank you for listening to me.”

  “Ari…”

  “Yes?”

  “I forgive you.”

  Ari gave kDira a quick but warm embrace, then ran back out the door.

  “I sure hope the young ones find what they are looking for,” kDira said to herself. “We sure could use them back here right now.”

  cHAPTER 28

  “Where have you been?” the Queen scolded Ari as she entered the chamber out of breath.

  Ari consider
ed telling her she had gone to check on the food as ordered, but she saw that Agis and the Queen were sitting at the table, the evening’s food laid out before them.

  “I went to see kDira. I wanted to let her know that Agis was okay and that you were treating him well.”

  “And why did you feel the need to do that? Perhaps I don’t want her to know anything about what goes on up here. Perhaps what she imagines is far worse than what really happens.”

  “I am sorry, my Queen. kDira is still my friend. I was just trying to ease her mind and put in a good word for you.”

  “I am sure you were. Come, sit at the table. Tonight, you both will do as I say, or there will be consequences, and the girls you are hoping to keep safe might just not be so safe.”

  “As I stated, I am not here for Ari,” Agis protested.

  “It’s all right, Agis,” Ari said, “I will not fight it again. I will do what she says for the good of the girls.”

  “Oh, how wonderful! Now we are all getting along!”

  “Ari, you don’t have to do this.”

  “Can we just eat, please?”

  “Of course, my dear. Here,” the Queen said, passing a platter of fish to Ari, “have some of our latest catch, fresh from the ocean.”

  Ari took the platter and dished a small portion of the fish onto her plate. “Thank you, my Queen.”

  “Oh, how rude, I haven’t poured you any bryne,” the Queen said, getting up from the table.

  “That’s not necessary, my Queen, I can get my own.”

  “No, no, you sit. You look tired.” Queen Lehentis got up and walked behind Ari, apparently on her way to the bryne table. Suddenly, she took Ari into a headlock. Ari was suddenly unable to breathe.

  “Enough!” Agis yelled. The Queen did not back down but looked Agis straight in the eyes.

  “You must learn your place, Agis of Blackhorn.” The fact that this time she omitted King as a title was not lost on Agis. “I rule this land, and you are both my subjects. I can be a very generous host, but only if you are a grateful guest. And so far, none of you have been.”

  Ari pulled at the Queen’s arm to allow air to flow but couldn’t overcome the strength that the Queen displayed. Agis rose to his feet, favoring his good leg.