Familiar's Ancient Throne (Book 2 of the Death Incarnate Saga)

by H. Lee Morgan, Jr

  Familiar’s Ancient Throne (Book two of the Death Incarnate Saga)

  Published by H. Lee Morgan at Smashwords

  Copyright 2013 H. Lee Morgan

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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  Prologue

  “On your feet, Filthy Savages!” The slave driver commanded at first light.

  Meeka looked up from her restless night of being shackled and hating how they mercilessly bit into her wrists. She saw the detachment of nearly a thousand men preparing to move out now that they got a piece of what they came for. Out of over two hundred Utala only four had been captured. General sorcerer Adair thought the rest of their quarry died in a huge ‘unfortunate’ landslide. The slaver nearest brought out his whip and snapped it deftly to show who is in command. She got up quickly when the sorcerer turned his sights on Meeka and her Utala sisters.

  Utala refer to all strong women as a sister, related or not.

  When Meeka first awoke after hitting her head, she found herself captured with two other Utala women who accepted her into their tribe not even two weeks prior. She didn’t cry though she sorely wanted to after finding herself parted from the two she loved more than anything. During the night the army had found and captured Zatal, another tribe member and bound him to the opposite side of the wagon. One of the women, Lanna, tried talking to him and found out what a mistake it had been as one of the attentive slavers came over and backhanded her with a studded leather glove for not obeying. Lanna, a temperamental yet skilled warrior of the Utala went to strangle the man with her bare hands, but found the chain binding her to the wagon was too much and the line too short to properly retaliate. The man busted her lip and whipped her ten times until she passed out from pain. Meeka and Moril tried helping after it was over. The cruel man spoke, dripping heavily with distain. “Slaves are never allowed to talk unless your masters wish it. Until you learn proper respect for your owners, you shall be beaten without compassion or mercy. Your habits will be broken. As a woman you will always bow to a man and the sooner you realize that fact the less pain you will feel. Speak out of turn or without permission again and only a mage might be able to put you back together. And any further outbursts like that is a sure way to get yourself killed. The one thing you should look forward to is being broken. I’m sure going to love seeing you savages put in place!” He turned around smugly and left.

  A firm hand gripped Moril’s shoulder and she turned to see Meeka’s serene sapphire blue eyes. “Remember what I said, Sister.” Meeka whispered so that they wouldn’t be heard. “Do not do something that will cost you your life. Endure and we will live to see another day. I do not want to tell your mates you died because of your temper. How will your two young children feel if I had to tell them you died when in a few days or weeks you would be free? Lanna didn’t listen to me and look at what happened.” Meeka began putting pressure on the unconscious woman’s shallow wounds on her back and arm. “We are vastly outnumbered, without weapons, chained securely to this wagon, surrounded by guards and they have a sorcerer here. I don’t know about you, but I’ll bide my time for a better opportunity. We must remain calm and strong for whatever awaits…” She stopped whispering when a crossbow carrying guard walked closer in the cruel night. After he passed Meeka looked into Moril’s dangerous eyes. “As mate to Cage, your chieftain, and also as mate to Brooke, your priestess, will you be patient with me and follow? Even if we aren’t saved, in time we will be able to do it ourselves.”

  “I will follow you, Meeka Sister.” Moril whispered and helped slow the remaining bleeding. “How can you be so calm? I’m so angry that I wish I had my knife to cut the balls off all these dishonorable stupid men. They should not ever become fathers. They call us savages? They are the true savages. How can you be so at ease?”

  Meeka smiled solemnly. “Because I know my lovers are alive and will do anything to get me back. Do you remember how angry Cage got when Brooke and I worked together and I finally cut him?”

  The woman nodded. “He is the most frightening man I’ve ever seen.”

  “Exactly my point. Now imagine what he will do to these helpless fools when he comes for us? And they are not Utala. We both know Brooke will come too. It is the way she is. She loves her people and will kill anyone who threatens them. She would rather die than to see one of her people suffer… well after Cage beat her and became chief… Put my lovers together and our worry is nonexistent. What we should worry about is what they’ll do to these slavers.” Meeka’s smile turned into a lighthearted grin. “If I’ve learned anything from the man and woman I love it is that there is no one right way to solve a problem, unless we are dead.”

  Moril grinned back. “That does help. I hope they come to our aid soon… I miss Chala… She will be difficult without me near.”

  Meeka’s reminiscing of the night came to an end as two slavers checked her shackles. In the minutes before the driver snapped the reigns on the draft horses, to pull the supply wagon and them, she watched as the Laqura army got their camp broken down and formed groups. A dozen slavers surrounded the wagon with a hand near a whip or a crossbow at all times. After the snap, Meeka began marching with Lanna and Moril in front of her. Lanna ceased to bleed, but her pain did little to disguise her overwhelming anger towards these cruel, barbaric men.

  They began descending the Darshay Mountain, heading north. While slowly cutting through the trees, Meeka watched the large man riding a bull and she had to forcibly cool her expression when red tinted her vision. It was all because of that mage that she and her new sisters were in their current predicament. The sorcerer rode atop his powerful bovine Familiar without a care in the world. Lanna, Moril and Zatal also saw him and glared. That mage overwhelmed Cage, but somehow caught only the four of them. Meeka always believed Cage to be unstoppable till yesterday’s magical fight. She watched as he gave everything and all his magic did was irritate the sorcerer. She at least had the sense her lovers were still alive though she overheard a conversation in the night between the mage and lead slave driver. She and the others couldn’t sleep so they all overheard him saying he couldn’t feel the man who fought him near the cave. The sorcerer believed the rest dead since he couldn’t track the ‘pathetic mage’ as he liked to refer to Cage. Only Meeka knew that at least both of her loves were still alive, or so she hoped.

  The army and wagon continued down and proceeded through the trees all day long, stopping only once to rest. At that time the slavers gave only a small amount of water and an even smaller piece of stale tack for the newest slaves to eat. One of the men laughed when they saw the look on Meeka’s face. “Be happy you get that much. You whores don’t get to eat like us soldiers. If you obey you might get a half extra ration of water. Wouldn’t count on it though. The only thing we have to do with slaves is get you to the market with the least damage. From there you’ll serve your master till you die or are sold again. Just don’t do something stupid and di
e. It’ll only hurt the amount of coin our army receives.”

  Meeka thought, Well why would anyone want to do something like that? Oh I know… because you don’t deserve anything for such cruel acts and inhuman ways.

  But she and the others held their tongues and just glared, making several slavers laugh. She and the others wanted the men to believe they won.

  By early evening Meeka and the others spotted the main army of close to six thousand soldiers out on the Tribal Plains. She wondered where the rest were, the other four thousand, and felt it didn’t really matter since the Empire’s men were still vastly overwhelming. The driver made the new batch of slaves pull up to an area where several hundred slavers stood and ringed nearly three hundred other natives. They were separated into children, men and women. Children sat between the two adult groups to make the more mature captives submit and not try anything for the slavers could easily open fire on the children as readily as any distraught and angry adult. The largest group were the children that nearly held about a hundred and seventy, men numbered around fifty and women were close to eighty. Not one elderly person stood or sat among the slave groups. She remembered Cage explaining that slavers kept only those who would be useful or would become useful. Old people were a liability and would only slow overall progress. The elderly were killed without hesitation since they were considered a liability.

  The wagon came to a stop and a half dozen, foul smelling brutes approached, one carrying dirty linen. They spoke with the driver for a few seconds before reaching Lanna first. One man took out a knife and cut off her leather top and bottom. The grimy man looked at the naked woman with minor wounds that would heal without any disfigurement. He checked her straight white teeth and walked around to see any problems. To Meeka he seemed more like a horse trader who determined the worth of one’s steed and held out a hand to say “Gold.” and a man beside him pulled out a fist sized sack and passed a tiny piece of gold that looked like two discs with a thin bar keeping them together and was no larger than a thumbnail. He separated one of the thin golden discs and stood over a head taller than Lanna, turned her head and another man held her still as she struggled and spat at one man who grinned. The brute leader grabbed her earlobe and pierced it with the thin piece of gold and put the back on to keep it in place. Lanna struggled, but didn’t give these men the satisfaction of screaming. She had experienced much worse in her life.

  Another approached the young, naked tribal woman when the brute moved next to Moril and cut her scant amount of clothing off. The man before Lanna pulled out a dirty cloth and made her step in the middle and pull it up around and tie it around her neck. The cloth exposed her scabbed back and was designed to allow a slaver to whip the slave and not destroy the demeaning clothing. They then took her at the threat of a crossbow bolt pushing at the back of her neck and shoved her in with the other female slaves. The leader appraised Moril the same way and confidently said “Gold.” Pierced her ear, not getting a scream either.

  When he got to Meeka he smiled greedily with rotting teeth that further made it nearly impossible not to gag on the smell. His thick beard was a mess, had dirt and food inside the mat and body odor clung to him like no other person she ever met. He gladly used his knife and slowly cut off her pants and shirt. Meeka became stoic and impervious to anything after the first cut on cloth. He walked around and grabbed her chin painfully, forcing her lips back with a thumb to look at her teeth. The man stepped back and grinned like a person who won the greatest prize. He said “This whore deserves platinum. She will fetch a price more than half this lot.” He held out his hand and got a platinum earring. Unlike silver, this metal is practically white and expensive. She felt his hand grope her full breasts and his eyes leered expectantly, but she withdrew into herself, knowing she couldn’t do anything to stop him. “A fine, full woman every man wants to bury himself between such thighs...” He then grabbed her ear and pierced the platinum through the sensitive flesh. Her jaw clenched as she felt the painful bite and at the touch of his lingering hands. She felt a warm drop of blood fall on her shoulder from her throbbing left ear.

  He then went to touch her flower when came a deep malevolent voice. “Do not even think of that, Appraiser.” The men turned around to find an officer riding atop a warhorse, wearing fine armor. “The slaves are not ours until the brothels send them to us. I will not tolerate any breach of our standing orders. These unenlightened heathens belong to the Laqura Empire, not you. You know the price of touching a slave you do not yet own. I would have taken your head if you did touch that blonde savage. You cannot ever hope to afford one such as she and if her future owner learned you sampled his or her wares before they did, you would die nonetheless. Clothe her like the others and I better not hear of you disregarding the laws when we acquire slaves for the empire again. Am I understood?”

  “Yes, Captain.” The leader grumbled and turned around to appraise Zatal on the other side of the wagon and commanded for a silver earring.

  A man carrying the dilapidated linen clothed Meeka and she didn’t move or react unless she was told.

  “You there!” The man atop the horse commanded and Meeka stoically looked at him. “You do not look like these savages yet you wear their beads, why is that? Answer me.”

  In a lifeless monotone, pretending to already sound broken, she lied successfully and confidently “I was found as a babe when a tribe killed my family. They raised me as one of them.” Short and clear was how Cage taught her how to answer if she were ever captured from one of their many conversations they had together. Satisfied, the general moved on, not caring to delay his rounds through his camp any longer.

  Meeka was taken from the chain, but still her wrists remained shackled like all others. At least they allowed me to keep my boots and beads. She thought in mild satisfaction. She was then shoved in with the other tribes women who were captured and preferred to sit down and rest. Only one or two looked defeated, the rest were beyond pissed as they looked towards the children being held hostage, but knew death only awaited any escape or rescue attempt.

  She found Lanna and Moril standing over with three other women in similar linens, talking. They wore their beads differently in their hair, which she later learned uniquely explained the different tribes. War tribes hung off to the left while to the right meant they supported another, but none came anywhere near the Utala’s place at the temple. Meeka watched as the slave guards watched them and didn’t do anything. It seemed their only job is to keep them from running off or to use any means necessary to stop any attempts. Meeka walked right up to the five and saw the other three had earrings as well. Two had a silver and one a gold, all on their left ear too. Moril said “Meeka Sister, these are sisters from a peaceful neighboring tribe. Each one are mate to the late chief who died protecting them when they were attacked. Sisters, this is Meeka, mate to our new chieftain Cage and also mate of Priestess Brooke.”

  “Wait… someone beat the Utala priestess? I do not believe such a man exists.”

  “He is very strong.” Meeka stated simply and looked to them all. “What have you learned of our situation?”

  The other woman with the gold shook her head. “Not much. Our tribe was captured yesterday morning and less than half of us still live. We did not get out in time before they swarmed us without honor. All I have been able to learn is by morning we will be sent off to the slave market somewhere in the Laqura Empire called Bepop… it is to be a long journey with these men who like to call us savages. They are the savages for we do not hurt others as they do.”

  The two with silver earrings put a hand on her shoulder and said “Peace, My Love.” when they saw her anger mounting. One stated “We know that they are stupid men who are more like rabid dogs. We must live and prove we are their betters as we always have.”

  “You’re right, My Loves. I would be lost without you.” The woman said softly and continued. “These worthless fools, from what I’ve learned, takes our people and neighbors north, wh
en we reach a group size like this. To make matters worse they will send a mage to keep guard over us. They have close to a hundred in this large group. The only honorable thing I’ve learned is they won’t rape us with that general giving orders. When we leave his command’s influence, I don’t know what to expect.”

  “What I want to know” Lanna half growled and pointed to her bloody ear. “is why they so kindly put this in my ear.” Moril nodded as well.

  The woman sighed. “It is how they tell us our worth, like a man could know what a woman is worth.” She snorted and crossed her arms beneath her covered breasts. “Copper is lowest, my loves are silver,” The two women at her side glared at the grimy Appraiser as he strode away. “we three are gold and our sister Meeka here is the most valued, platinum. They will separate us later, using our earrings. The more valuable the metal in our ear, the greater the woman will fetch a larger price. All of us sisters will wait for the most opportune time to free ourselves, but at the moment we wouldn’t dare attempt anything. Especially with all the children being held as hostages.”

  Nearly every woman, Meeka included, looked past the guards where all the young children were together, crying out for their parents to come to help. Impotent anger filled each one, especially when a man cracked a whip to make the children quit calling for their parents. The kids stopped yelling for help, but couldn’t stop from crying.

  Meeka felt pure hate for these worthless excuses for men from Laqura and thought; Cage, kill them! KILL THEM ALL!!!

  Chapter 1

  Blinding headaches became more common, but never easier. Luckily Cage had a sky high pain tolerance from being paralyzed. The first thing he noticed after the throbbing behind his eyes and the tenseness in his neck dissipated is whispering and the crackle of a small fire and yet there also was a faint echo. He tried opening his heavy eyes and groaned.