Ascension (Royals of Aeterna Book 1)

by J Haney

  Before I can speak, I hear the sounding of the alarms. Zane grabs me.

  “Go, take Valaria, and head for your chambers. If I do not return in fifteen minutes, take the stallion and run.” He says as calm as I have ever seen him.

  “Don’t go! Please.” I hold on to him as Val pulls me to my stairs. She wants me to go all the way up. “Zane.” I hug him tightly.

  “I have to find out what’s happening.” He separates us, then kisses me. “I love you. I’ll be back for you both.” He looks to Val. “Release the Kraken.” He winks then takes off out of my rooms.

  Pacing that is what I’m left to do. Val got me upstairs and turned into a fucking bear. She won’t let me past to see what’s going on. I don’t even know how Zane will be able to get up here. She’s sitting in front of the door of all places. I hear scratching against the glass, and I drop to the floor, hiding behind some bookshelves as Val shifts back and is holding me.

  The scratching travels, and I can hear the flapping of massive wings. “You need to stay calmer,” Val says as my grip tightens on her arms.

  “What is that?”

  “My best guess? A Chinyoka.” Her head swivels as another sound catches her attention. Breaking glass followed by hisses and clicks. Scurrying and snarls. “I think it’s Yokinda,” Val says.

  While the Chinyoka resembled Earth's mythical dragons, the Yokinda was like a piranha with wings and feet. Typically they hunted in a swarm-like fashion, consuming any fleshy things they could get a hold of in their wake. “You need to stay low. I’m going to draw them. Make a break for the stairs when you hear my roar.” Val pulls from me. “I love you.”

  What the hell? They love me and leave me. Am I just destined to be alone for the rest of my life? Crawling, I keep to the ground getting closer to the stairs. I look back, seeing Val on her hind legs ready to fight for me. I swing the door open, and I’m knocked to the side as all I see is orange, white, and black fur. I hurry, trying to get away and fall forward. I guess I found the stairs.

  I go splat, and I know that I should run, but I’m stuck. Every fiber of my being tells me that whatever that was, it was Zane. I can hear the roars, screeches, and things smashing. I feel rage and pain, laced with determination. The smashing becomes a dull clattering, and that determination becomes a triumph and uncertainty. I can hear what sounds like heavy footfalls above me. Seeing Zane’s suspender holster, I reach for one of the desert eagles. I know he uses Rhodium coated ammunition. Whatever is coming for me, I’m going to take it with me. I aim, watching the stairs, hearing them creak. Bare feet give way to bleeding calves, hairy ones. Calves to thighs and a perfect backside as the figure turns the staircase, I see an arm hanging, and as my eyes travel upward. Find I am seeing my General holding the limp body of my Lady before he collapses.

  I try to get up but can’t. I can’t use my right arm at all. Using my left side, I drag myself to them. “Val? Zane? I don’t know what to do.” I cry. My left hand is going from one head to the other. I want to see their eyes. I need to see their eyes. I need to know they are going to be okay.

  I let out a blood-curdling scream as I’m grabbed about the middle. I have to fight. I can’t leave Zane, and Val a roar erupts from deep in my belly…

  21

  G rowling, snorting, and snarls, these are the sounds that rouse me. I’m in a crumpled heap on the floor, Valaria, in my arms. She is broken, bruised, and beaten, but breathing. I can feel the burning of my flesh as the bites and tears are already beginning to heal. As my eyes adjust, and my hearing sharpens, I see the back end of a massive white tiger. It has taken on a defensive stance and blocks us from what looks like half the Royal and Mechkan Guard. Cale at the front. He holds a heavy wooden shield. “Silly bear, she’s going to make a toothpick out of that.” I manage though my voice is hoarse. Those little fuckers did an excellent job on my exposed bits.

  “General Zane! Please! Your Queen has flipped her switch.” Cale cries.

  “Maybe go the fuck away and let us handle her,” I suggest, and she looks at me. The fear in her eyes settling slightly, only to be filled with rage again as the guards attempt to wrangle her with fucking ropes! “Seriously!” I shout, watching her buck like a mechanical bull I once saw in a western bar her father liked to eat at. Guards are thrown left, right, up, and down. I swear if she could have swizzle sticked them, she might have. I sigh, only one thing left to do.

  This is going to hurt.

  I launch myself at her, landing squarely on her arching back, my nuts take the hit, knocking the wind out of me. I grasp her thick fur, and she roars, trying to unlatch me. Holding on for dear life, I grab her ear and bite down, hard.

  She lurches and spins, I reach back, as she’s distracted and getting ahold of her tail, chomp again—this time, the toxin of my unknown species is released. She swoons as the nerve agent takes hold, and we both hit the ground. The Guard doesn’t understand, and I prefer it that way. They just know that she is subdued. They also witness that the High Queen’s powers have manifested, and like her father before her, she is indeed Blanca Vēsṭigara, the white tiger, one and only heir to the High Throne.

  “Get the fucking Medi-mages,” I order as my head swims, and I drop beside my Queen.

  ***

  My eyes flutter open, and I am in a bed that is not my own. From the lumps in the mattress, I can assume I am in the medical chambers adjacent to the castle major. I try to rise, only to find I am restrained. My eyes dart left and right, guards surround me.

  “What is going on?” I growl, lifting my arms the meager six inches the chains allow.

  “Zane Coreleali, you have been accused, the charges are conspiracy, collusion, and treacherous intent. It is believed you willfully aided members of the Nation of Normalcy in the staging and successful assassination of King Maynard Meleke. That you have placed yourself in direct alignment with these renegade forces to your own benefits and now have attempted to somehow poison the High Queen Maya Meleke. What say you to these charges?” The voice prattling on is Prional Estes, the Lesser Rinewalled regent.

  I pull on my binds. “I am Blood Oathed!” I snarl, looking at the scars on my arm from Maynard. “I have served the Royal family for eighty years! I am loyal, I am-” Gagged, that’s what I am. “Fuck!” I snarl through the ball in my mouth.

  I can feel my temperature as it rises, feel the bones begin to shift. Do they think that a little bit of metal and leather is going to hold me? They have no idea what they are fucking with. My mother may beVēsṭigara, but my father… The bed shakes as I whip my head to the side, my claws dig into the mattress, and I watch with complete satisfaction as the color drains from their smug faces. My binds are torn from the rails as the Mantagaria rises. Enormous thick leathery wings rip out of my back, and they lift me. My body is that of the tiger, only my colors are split: half natural and half white. I roar, my tail flicks, and the stingers emerge.

  They step back, and Prional screams like the little bitch he is. I am going to enjoy seeing him wither and twist from my venom.

  “Zane!” I hear a woman scream, and my eyes zero in on my Queen.

  “You’re Majesty! Keep back. He is too dangerous! He’s already tried to murder you once.”

  She looks horrified. “He didn’t try to kill me. What in the hell? I heard him?”

  The look of horror on her face rips out my heart. I knew her instantly when I saw her, but all she sees is the monster I have become. I let out a mournful wail and, turning, smash through the window and out into the night.

  22

  F orty-eight hours and I am still not being permitted to leave this medic bed. Now that I have had the transfusions, I pace the room, and my legs are working again. I have not seen my Queen. She has been sequestered. I awoke as Zane fled. I didn’t know it at the time, but Cale was able to slip a note onto my food tray explaining. They accused him of treacherous intent, and he turned into something that I thought only existed in scary stories. The Mantigara was an amalgam. Pa
rt Vēsṭigara, part Chinyoka, and according to scriptures, all bad. Myths said it ate children and raped their mothers as their fathers watched. Not Zane. Never our General. I felt his despair, still do. I have tried to reach out to him and beg him to come home, but the link is only one way, and I do not know that I have reached him.

  I am wearing a path in the floor when my door opens. I look up, the scent familiar, my heart flutters as I think for an instant it is my May. Then my eyes settle on the Lady Adria. Confusion must cross my features because her finger goes to her blood red lips as I watch her lock the door.

  “Shh, little Mechkan. We wouldn’t want them to think ill of the Queen’s Lady in Attending.” Her voice is an almost inaudible whisper as she wags that clawed finger at me. “You have a secret.”

  I shift from one foot to the other, watching her. I can feel the threat as it sloughs off her like a serpent’s first skin. “I have no secrets from the crown.” I insist.

  “Ahh, but what of the secrets you keep for the crown?” She moves like lightning and has me by the cheeks. “It was not hard to put together. You were always a bit too fond of Maya. But fucking her and the monster?” She sniffs at me. “What could he have planted in those gaping bellies? Hmm?” She snickers. “What would happen if anyone should find out?”

  “Y-you are mistaken.” I try to defend it.

  “A-a-am I?” Her nails dig into my cheeks as she condescends. “I think not. We have video, you, the Queen, and the monster. The King, my brother’s body, was barely cold, and there she was just fucking, and sucking away on peasants.”

  I claw at her hands. “Pl-please let me down,” I beg.

  “Oh, I’ll let you down, the question is how far shall you fall? Do you wish to see your Queen outed for the whore she is, or would you like to protect her by doing me a teeny tiny little favor?”

  23

  Z ane hasn’t come back. I’m worried about him. I tried to go after him but was held back. Then pretty much locked in the stone fucking tower. Where’s Rapunzel when you need her? Some High Queen, right? Something these idiots don’t seem to understand is I can’t fucking cook! I miss Dawn so bad right now.

  I’ve been at this table for well over twenty-four hours. These idiots want to protect me. It’s time for things to change!

  “Fucktards!” I scream and know they can hear me.

  It’s time Aeterna comes out of the dark ages and fully immerse itself with technology. Rule change one. The next few are going to be a little trickier.

  I jerk my head in the direction of my door as it opens. It’s Val! I’m up and moving to her in seconds as the door shuts. Moving to my chambers, we get the doors shut quickly, so we can’t be heard from anyone or anything.

  My hands roam over her face. There are still hints of pale lines and wounds from where she was hurt, trying to save me. “Val, you’re okay. I’ve missed you so much!” I kiss her all over her face.

  Her eyes downcast as she takes my hands in hers, lowering them. “I can’t reach Zane. I’m afraid he may be lost to us.”

  “No, I’ve got an idea. It’s all we have. If they let me out of this fucking room!”

  Val’s eyes narrow. “You are the High Queen. You don’t answer to them, they answer to you.” She takes my hands. “Just walk through them.”

  “I’ve tried, they block me. I’ve pushed, and they don’t budge. Someone in the fucking palace is playing me like a toy. I need your help.”

  Val nods. “I can try. Would you like me to eat them?”

  “Nice thinking, but I’d like to be able to kiss you without thinking about you eating someone.”

  She shrugs, “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

  “Ah, Val!” I cringe. “I need someone that can fly. They won’t let me out the door. I’ll take the fucking window.”

  “Um, May, you’re a cat. Jump.”

  “That’s a long way down.” I look at her like she’s crazy.

  “I said jump, like balcony to balcony. Just scale the walls. I’ll distract the guards and meet you on the lawn.”

  “Can you feed me first? They’ve brought me lots of lambs.”

  “Well, I do call you May, perhaps they thought to call you Mary?” Val jokes.

  “I love you, but now is not the time for jokes. We need to find our other piece. Because right now, I am not whole, and my tiger is not happy.”

  “We’ll let her out to play.” Val takes my hands. “I can go to make your food, but I suggest you take that opportunity to escape.” She raises a brow, “Hit the big kitchen and grab some Seafin. I saw they caught a tank full on their runs this morning as I was transferred out of the Medi-mage building.”

  Seafin was one of our larger species of fish. It was firm like cod, but sweet like red snapper, though you could cut it like tuna. I always wanted to make tacos with it, hmm.. I’m making myself even more hungry.

  I run my fingers over her cheek. “I have a few announcements and rules I have to make and well change, but then- then I can claim you as mine. I love you, Valeria.”

  I feel her heart swell and watch the tears in her eyes fall. “It only took me almost dying for you to say it.” She whimpers, kissing me quickly. “Go, I will see you down there.”

  “Yeah, if I die and you see Zane tell him, thanks for leaving.” I wouldn’t be locked in this fucking tower if he were here.

  I can do this. I go to the balcony and lookout. Oh, this is going to hurt so fucking bad. I strip, see in my time being locked up even in a couple of days, of shifting back and forth, I have figured it out. I think.

  Time to do this. I throw my clothes to the ground. My panties land in the prickly bush. Don’t think I will be wearing those. My bra hits the fucking water. This is not working out for me.

  I shift looking once more before lurching myself forward. I hit the solid of the first balcony. Okay, maybe I have this. I spot grandpa outside. I look around. Perhaps if I use my claws and scale down the rest?

  Claws and stone don’t really mix. This fucking hurts. I’m scaling down the side of the castle when I hear someone yell. I miss where I was trying to get ahold of, and I fall. Please land on my feet. All four of them! Okay, so, in tiger form, I’m am not the most graceful of cats.

  “Maya?” Grandpa questions and I snort at him. “What on earth are you doing?” I look around for my clothes when Val comes through the doors. I then snort at her and tilt my head to grandpa.

  “Lord Wasi, she’s trying to tell you she was locked in her chambers and decided to escape.”

  I look and find some of my clothes. Getting them behind the bush, I shift back. “Fuckers wouldn’t let me out. Grandpa, I need to make some changes.”

  He observes me. “I thought you might.”

  Grandpa went about setting up what we call a press conference. However, it’s only the Lesser Kings that are still here from the attack. Speaking of the attack, grandpa is not looking the best.

  Many people got really sick while the guards were trying to contain a bear and look for me. I take my throne, watching everyone as I do. Whispers begin as they do not see Zane with me. Val is at my side, though. Cale is standing close by as well. She trusts him. I'm just not sure yet.

  I stand, looking out over my people. "I want to thank each of you for being here, especially under these circumstances. There is a lot we must learn to work through together. The attack on this castle was an attack against all of our people. Me, you, us. We are not an I. We are a unit. If one of us is attacked, we are all attacked. Whether that be Vēsṭigara, Kuguar, Mechkan, Otso, or any other in our lands. I don't care. If you are attacked, I consider it an attack against the High Court. It is time we quit fighting. We need to love and live." I see nods around the room. "What happens when you love one that is not considered a worthy suitor? What happens if you say love your guard or cook? They're killed. Well, no more. Love should not be a punishable crime. I hereby say that you can love and be with who you want, no matter what the laws before say." More murmuring heads
turning this way and that. I can already feel the resistance.

  24

  “T

  he High Queen has lost her sense.” Lesser King Feyer Charind’s page speaks for him. I watch as she’s beginning to lose them.

  "On to punishing. We don't ask questions, we assume. It's time we change that. If someone is accused, they will be given the right to a trial of their peers.” My Queen ignores the naysayers.

  “Trials take money!” Comes from the Lesser King Gentra. “What would you have us do? Tax the people into poverty?”

  It is his region where the Golden-tailed butterfly has taken hold. It is also not a very wealthy place, though there is potential.

  “Honestly? Yes, I think it is time we set a tax for all. It is time all get a wage. We need to move forward and not backward. My father, King Maynard Meleke, wanted us to move past what we are now. Should we let all that be in vain?”

  Dirty looks and more whispers, then my father steps forward. He bows, and his eyes search the room. “My High Queen, what you ask, these proclamations, they are hardly enforceable. You wish us to empty our coffers to people that we already carry? My servants are well fed, have homes, I provide for them what they need. Now you ask that I do this and pay them?” He laughs. “We will be bankrupt within a year!”

  My Queen smiles in a way that I’m sure means she is amused. “Food, shelter, clothes. You say you provide, but why do we make our Lady’s in Attending dress in almost rags or our guards wear something that makes them look like they have a stick up their ass? Perhaps a living wage and allowing them to be comfortable would lessen the civil unrest that is brewing?” She looks at me. “We are all equal, and I think we need to get used to being so. Treat each other with the kindness we want to be treated with.”