“Malthur did that to him.”
The Bnome suddenly squatted down. At first Xuhn thought he was trying to escape, but then the Bnome covered his ears in fright.
“Stand up you idiot!” Xuhn said, not understanding the Bnome’s behaviour.
“Please don’t utter the Lord's name!” the Bnome cried, “I fear him like nothing else.”
“Fine, I won’t say his name again,” said Xuhn, astonished that the Bnome should be so afraid of Malthur. “But get up now.”
“Yes, it was the Lord who made Mortugal what he is now,” said the Bnome, shuddering as he rose.
“I don’t understand why you healed Mortugal,” said Xuhn.
“It was as per the Lord’s command,” the Bnome said, “he told us to make Mortugal go to slumber again in any way possible. But he told us to keep him alive at all costs.”
“Why should that be?”
“Only the Lord knows,” said the Bnome, and Xuhn gathered from his expressions that he wasn’t lying.
“We thought we would take him to the lake in Sura when he was unconscious, hence this carpet.”
“But you fed him something that messed up his mind, didn’t you?” At this the Bnome merely looked at Xuhn in hesitation. Ruponi slapped the Bnome’s head.
“Answer him!”
The Bnome scowled at the lady vampire, but spoke,
“Yes, so that he would want to go to slumber instead of staying awake.”
“And also to make him hate his friends,” said Xuhn through gritted teeth.
“That was an added benefit of the potion,” said the Bnome.
“Look how he dare calls it a benefit,” said Ritika.
“Tell me how we can fix his mind,” Xuhn said.
“I don’t know,” the Bnome said, not meeting Xuhn’s eyes.
Xuhn grabbed the man’s neck.
“I know you know,” he hissed as the Bnome winced in pain, “there should be another potion or some such that can fix Mortugal’s mind, and I know you have it.”
Now Xuhn wasn’t sure of that. He couldn’t see any reason why the Bnomes would make any potion that could make Mortugal not want to go to sleep. But the Bnome was trying to avoid his eyes, as though hiding something, and that convinced him there just might be something to fix Mortugal’s mind.
Xuhn let go of the Bnome’s neck.
“Now tell me, is there such a potion?”
“Believe me, I don’t know. If there’s anyone who does it’s the Lord.”
“Where does Mal— I mean your Lord live? The north?”
“So you know of his residence,” said the Bnome, “but he’s in Werewolf country today.”
“And you are going to take us to him,” said Xuhn.
“No I won’t,” the Bnome said, resolute for the first time. But Xuhn landed a blow on the Bnome’s broken nose and that helped.
“You are going to take us to him,” Xuhn told him, glaring.
The Bnome looked this way and that, as if thinking hard.
He pursed his lips in frustration.
“Fine, I will.”
Chapter 13
Neither Xuhn nor the two vampires trusted the Bnome even a slight bit, and they were sure he would try to push them off the carpet the moment he got a chance. So they bound both his hands and legs together with the flexible shoot of a certain plant that was growing near the place, ignoring all of the Bnome’s protests.
“Now fly this thing,” Xuhn ordered the Bnome, once they all sat down on the carpet.
“Wait a moment,” the Bnome said, a grimace pasted on his face. He closed his eyes and uttered sometime. The carpet rose in the air, and kept rising.
Xuhn did not have any faith in the Bnome’s ability to control the carpet, though he well knew the latter was able. So it was a very different experience from getting airborne with Mortugal. Mortugal was someone who was caring and wouldn’t let him fall off in any circumstance. The Bnome however would kick Xuhn and the vampires down the carpet at the first opportunity. But he was grateful that at least the carpet was much bigger in size than the ones the Bnomes normally used for flying, since it was designed to carry someone as big as Mortugal. The edges of the carpet were far away, and that provided some reassurance.
Once they were high up among the clouds, the Bnome, through his strange magic words, ordered the carpet to go forwards and off they sped. The villagers of the vampire village down below were barely visible, but Xuhn was sure they were gazing at the carpet in awe. Xuhn thought about Mortugal. He wasn’t quite sure the dragon would make a soft flight to the lake in Bindi village. The half-destroyed house down below was testimony for that. Xuhn could only hope the dragon would become the old Mortugal after drinking the new potion— provided Malthur gave it to them.
Xuhn shuddered. Looking at how much the Bnome feared Malthur, it was very clear Malthur was a very dangerous person. Xuhn had no idea how to face one of the creators of the world. He decided it was best not to think about it. He would just react to the situation when it came. Yes, that was best.
Xuhn noticed Ritika was looking at him. Their eyes met for a moment and then Ritika quickly turned away, her blush quite visible in the newly risen sun’s light. He couldn’t help but think Ritika was interested in him. Yes, she was very pretty… but wasn’t she a vampire, and he a human? That thought was like a wall inside his mind which prevented him from accepting the fact that he was interested in her too. Mayesha was gone from his life, all thanks to Corpsia, so he hoped something might happen between him and Ritika. He only wished if she was a human. That would have been really great.
“Since when have you been serving your Lord?” Xuhn asked the Bnome.
“Since my birth,” the Bnome said, and Xuhn noticed the pride in his voice.
“And when was that?”
“A hundred years ago,” the Bnome replied, the pride only growing. Xuhn’s mouth fell open. He couldn’t imagine serving anyone for a hundred years. Those years as a slave in his childhood had been the worst time of his life. It was better to labour all day under one’s own command.
“That’s some time,” Xuhn said. “Does he pay you anything?”
The Bnome glared at him.
“Why should the Lord ever pay us?” he said angrily, “That we are getting the opportunity to serve him is the biggest payment in itself.”
“Okay,” said Xuhn, realising the Bnomes more or less worshipped Malthur and it was best to not speak of the undead king like he were a common master and the Bnomes his slaves, “I am sure he occasionally rewards the best of you Bnomes, doesn’t he?”
The Bnome shook his head.
“There’s no need for anything like that.”
“All right,” said Xuhn, “have you ever talked with your Lord even.”
The Bnome shook his head again.
“Not once. It’s he who speaks, and we follow his every word.”
“But you do need to relay information to him at certain times, don’t you?” Xuhn asked. He was getting more and more astonished at the relationship between the Bnomes and Malthur.
“There is a commander in each troop of Bnomes. It’s the commander who relays such information and I am not one.”
“I am sure you don’t even have a name, do you?” Ruponi asked. It was clear from her tone that she had meant it as an insult, but the Bnome promptly replied,
“Of course I don’t!” and Xuhn decided it was futile to converse with the Bnome because the he was more like an object than a person. He was like that chopper Xuhn used to cut wood daily. It would serve him any way he wanted to use it. And that alone, Xuhn thought, was Malthur’s greatest sin. He had rendered an entire race nothing more than objects to be used when wanted, robbing the Bnomes of their personalities.
Xuhn did not like talking to Ritika with her mother sitting just feet away. But when he saw a flock of beautiful birds in the distance, with the sun in the backdrop, he took the opportunity and pointed the sight to her. He relished how her face lit
up. What followed was a good, though short, time in which he conversed with her, asking mostly trivial stuff. He kept it short knowing her mother was sitting listening, but enjoyed it all the same.
It took hours to reach werewolf country. The place was colder, and Xuhn thought he recognised certain areas down below that he had seen before from atop Mortugal’s back. His stomach grumbled and he couldn’t even remember the last time he had eaten. Had he been Mortugal, he would have eaten the Bnome ages ago.
“We have reached,” the Bnome declared after sometime. But all Xuhn could see below was vegetation.
“I don’t see Malthur,” he said.
“Please don’t say his name!” the Bnome said, furious. “He’s so close!”
“Fine, fine,” said Xuhn. “But where is he?”
The Bnome pointed at some trees in the distance with his tied hands.
“Over there,” he said, a shiver in his tone.
Xuhn peered hard but couldn’t see anybody under the cover of trees.
“All right, take us there.”
The Bnome uttered some words under his breath and the carpet lowered towards the ground. It landed after some moments not far from where he had earlier pointed. Xuhn heard voices ahead and knew the Bnome hadn’t been lying. All of them got off the carpet, Xuhn dragging the Bnome along with him.
It was then that he realised that the shapes he had thought were mere bushes or shrubs form high above were wolves in reality.
Werewolves.
But none of them were looking towards Xuhn’s group. Their heads were turned towards a human who was speaking, the werewolves forming a circle around him. The man had an impossibly pale face and Xuhn realised the man could only be the undead Malthur. There were also a few Bnomes near Malthur.
“So you brought us here to be killed,” Ruponi said. Ears of several wolves stood up at her words and very soon everyone was looking at their group. Xuhn felt as though unable to breathe, while his ears became hot. Would the werewolves kill Ritika and Ruponi since they were vampires?— As if the werewolves would allow him to go. A Suran helping vampires was likely be considered worse than the vampires themselves.
But fiercer than the werewolves were the eyes of Malthur, which were fixed in utter fury at the Bnome.
Xuhn gulped and strode towards Malthur and the wolves, dragging the unwilling Bnome with him. If he was going to die, he planned to die courageous— or at least attempting to be so.
“What did you order the Bnomes to feed Mortugal?” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Who are you?” a werewolf asked, coming towards them, a growl under his breath. The presence of the hands-tied Bnome with them no doubt suggested they were no friends of Malthur, which equalled to that they weren’t friends of the werewolves either.
“My question is for Malthur,” Xuhn said, “I have got no enmity with you werewolves. I am a Suran.”
The werewolf twitched his nose, taking the scent of the four of them. His eyes widened.
“Vampires!” the wolf cried to the others.
And now the werewolves broke the circle around Malthur and approached Xuhn’s group, fire like anger on their faces and baring fangs. For the first time ever, Ritika and Ruponi bared their bangs too in response.
Xuhn had a very cold feeling in his stomach, but he stepped in between the werewolves and the two vampires. Just as the closest wolf prepared to lunge, Malthur spoke,
“Brothers, brothers,” he said to the werewolves, his serpentine voice oily and sly, “wait a moment, wait a moment.”
“They are our enemies!” a werewolf barked at Malthur.
“They are our enemies, but if you kill them, you are destroying possible treasures troves of information.”
“But—”
“We did not come here to attack you,” Ritika said.
“Because you can’t,” another werewolf snapped.
“We are just here to speak to Malthur,” Xuhn said. The Bnome immediately knelt down in utter fear.
“See,” said Malthur to the werewolves, “it is me they want to talk to.”
“So they are your friends, eh?” a werewolf said.
“Well, no friend of mine dares to tie the hands of a Bnome in front of my eyes without my orders,” said Malthur.
“Fine,” a grey wolf said, who sat closest to Malthur. He was the only wolf that hadn't come towards Xuhn's group. Xuhn guessed he was the leader of the werewolf clan. “Speak with them… But they will be ours once your talk with them is over.”
“Will you allow me to take them to my camp?” Malthur asked.
The wolf nodded. Malthur beckoned Xuhn and the two vampires to follow as he walked away from the werewolves. The four of them followed him, Xuhn pulling the Bnome along. The eyes of the werewolves were fixed upon them, such that the smallest movement of a werewolf made Xuhn’s heart leap.
“Can’t you let me go?” the Bnome said to Xuhn. It was clear that he was feeling shameful in front of the other Bnomes with Malthur, who cast mocking eyes at him.
“Believe me,” Xuhn told him, “it’s best as you are.”
After walking for some time, they reached Malthur’s camp. It was in a big clearing, and was a high tent made of what looked like gilded silk.
Malthur entered the tent.
Xuhn waited outside with Ritika and Ruponi, holding the Bnome.
“Enter,” Malthur’s serpentine voice said a moment later.
Chapter 14
Xuhn pushed aside the veil on the tent’s entrance and entered. Malthur was seated on a throne made of what looked like Bnome bones. There were skulls, ribs and what not. It was a chilling sight. But what surprised Xuhn was the woman sitting on a seat just metres away from Malthur.
Corpsia.
She was wearing the same white dress Xuhn had earlier seen her in. She was gorgeous, but she had played too much with his emotions. What puzzled him though was that Corpsia, unlike her father, did not look undead at all. She looked just like a normal woman. He tore his gaze from her and met Malthur’s cold, grey eyes that gleamed with malice.
“So you have led these good people to me?” Malthur said to the Bnome. The anger pulsed high in his voice.
“I am sorry, my Lord,” the Bnome squeaked. Malthur pointed a finger at the Bnome. A beam shot from it. Xuhn could only watch horrified as the Bnome turned to dust that fell on Xuhn's feet.
Malthur was powerful, no doubt about that.
“So, what were you saying?” Malthur asked them, leaning back. He appeared much more relaxed now that the Bnome was dead.
“About Mortugal,” Xuhn said, trying hard to stop his voice from shivering, “what the Bnomes fed him messed his mind, and he hates us now. I know you have an antidote.”
“Why did you awaken Mortugal in the first place?” Malthur said, his lips stretched in an ugly smile.
“To end the war.”
“You are a human, aren’t you? Why are you bothered so much about the war?”
“Because the vampires are suffering,” Xuhn said. He found himself getting bolder. If Malthur was going to turn him to dust he didn’t mind at all. It would be a painless death.
Malthur let out a false laugh, not looking amused.
“So you care about blood-sucking monsters, don’t you?” he said, “You like that vampire girl, is that the reason?”
“But you are a blood-sucking monster too, are you not?” Xuhn said. Those words poked a sore wound of Malthur, and his bulging eyes well said that. He stood up in his fury and pointed his finger at Xuhn.
Xuhn swallowed.
All of a sudden Corpsia flung herself between Malthur and Xuhn.
“Please father!” she cried, “Not the human!”
“Didn’t you hear what he said, daughter?”
“You are harming yourself using your powers, father,” Corpsia said.
“Run!” Xuhn said to Ritika and Ruponi, taking the opportunity. All three fled outside without looking back once. But outside there were t
he Bnomes, who came at them waving clubs and swords. Xuhn kicked one, so that the Bnome’s sword fell. He picked it up and slashed one Bnome after the other, though he himself only barely managed to avoid swords coming at his face and chest many times.
Ritika let out a cry behind him and he turned to see a Bnome attacking her. He drove his sword through the Bnome’s neck.
“You okay?” he asked Ritika, but before she could answer her eyes widened. Xuhn felt a stinging pain shoot up his back. He turned his head to see that a Bnome had driven a dagger into his back. Xuhn tried to hit the Bnome, but his legs gave up. He found himself lying face first on the ground, kissing the grass. Pain flooded his back, and he saw stars in his vision.
Soon Xuhn found it hard to breathe and his consciousness began to slip.
Just then a growl pierced the air and from nowhere the legs of a wolf appeared in front of him. Xuhn’s vision blacked out.
***
When Xuhn opened his eyes, he found himself sitting against a tree. Near him were Ritika, Ruponi and the she-werewolf Xuhn had first met when he had visited the stream near Mortugal’s birthplace.
He tried to move, but pain shot up his back. He looked under his shirt to see a white cloth tied around his torso.
“What happened?” he asked the three of them, all of whom were looking intently at him.
“See?” the she-werewolf told the two vampires, “my herbs work. Plus, the dagger didn’t pierce deep. He’s a wimp, so he passed out.”
“Hey, don’t say so,” Ritika said, kneeling beside Xuhn, “he was attacked when he was saving me.”
“I don’t understand,” Xuhn said, looking from one to the other, “you saved us, didn’t you?” he asked the she-wolf. He remembered seeing the wolf legs just before he had passed out, but he couldn’t see any reason why she should help them.
The she-wolf exhaled.
“Yes, I saved you. You owe me a lot. You will pass out from a single cut, but you aren’t bad with a sword, must say.”
“She carried us to safety on her back,” Ritika said.
"You did?” Xuhn asked the she-wolf.
“That was the fastest way out, since you were down," she replied, "I never knew my back was so strong that it could carry three people, though it’s beginning to ache now.”
The Banishment of the King Page 9