“Yeah, but we thought she had her sights set on our lord’s younger brother, Prince Tidor. This complicates everything.” Carrie looked into the forest towards the sounds coming from the trees. “That female must have been fighting her needs for a long time. Once she bonded…Well, at this rate our lord may not be giving us what we need for a while to come.” At this the black girl made a face of irritation. “Anyway, this cannot stand. I’ll apologize later, but we need to put those two under immediately. They’re both beyond reason now. Any attempt to interfere physically could be fatal.”
“Agreed,” said Roxanne. “We’ll see it done, Sister. I’ll have Paul carry the little human slave girl. She shouldn’t be too much of a weight for him. The others need to shift or take to the air. The flyers will go ahead and tell Mother Rainy to prepare our people for either attack or evacuation, depending on our arrival time and pursuit. She should also send warriors to back us up, just in case.”
“Good,” said Carrie. “Once our lord and the big Illyrian bitch are unconscious we run and we don’t stop until sunrise.”
******
“My son!” said Roc in disgust. Tidor could not meet his father’s eyes. “You are a young man of many talents. Despite your age you’ve proven yourself in battle and have been beyond capable in administration and rule. The people admire you greatly and I thought that perhaps I had not gone wrong in setting you before your older brother…until now!”
“Father,” said Tidor, “it was Jawara who carried off the Illyrian Princess, not I.”
“To save your skin and our entire family, not to mention the nation!” cried Roc in fury. “Did you actually believe that the Bellasarian Empress would just look the other way when you spurned her daughter in favor of your human slave?! By doing this he prevented that and saved all our lives!”
Tidor swallowed. Obviously Jawara had not been exaggerating the situation and the danger. But he still felt that all had worked out for the best and said so.
“Father, the girl wanted Jawara,” said Tidor. “She was in denial, but it was true. All would have crumbled anyway with the same results…for our union anyway. If my brother should tire of her…”
“He will never tire of her,” said Roc. “He has bonded with her as well.”
“Then all is just as well,” said Tidor.
“No,” said Roc. “All is not well. Your behavior was uncovered in Akkadia anyway when Elder Terrence arrived with news of Princess Miko’s abduction. You and your human woman will remain in confinement until I return and decide what will be done with you…and her.”
“Done with us? Return? Where are you going?” said Tidor, more concerned for Carol than himself.
“I must now hunt my own son,” said Roc. “The empress demands him as payment for your insult to her family. He is to be brought to her capital in Illyria along with her daughter. There he will be legitimized by her before all the empire and properly mated to Princess Miko. I have lost my most gifted heir! Damn me for not legitimizing him when I had the chance! Also, your sister Sandra will also remain in Illia with the empress for a time. She hated Barrat. And now…in a land where she is free to do as she please, I don’t see her coming home anytime soon, if ever. I have lost nearly all of my children because of this. Except one, and look at you!”
“I’m sorry I have brought shame upon you, Father,” said Tidor sadly, “but I love her and she loves me.”
Roc looked at his son and shook his head. The boy had bonded with the human. But humans were fickle. Their loyalty and devotion was NOT assured by nature as was a mutant’s. They lie, and unlike a mutant who will die for his or her mate once bonded, humans were known to abandon their mates as soon as things became difficult or someone else caught their attention. It could not be helped. He couldn’t kill the slave without killing his son, only more slowly. Worse still, he might unleash a demon of vengeance.
“You and your female will stay put until I return,” said Roc. “Then we will decide what to do.” With that, King Roc left to gather his trackers and begin pursuit of Jawara. It wouldn’t be that difficult he was sure. If he knew his kin correctly, now in the grip of “The Hunger” they would not have gotten too far before their need to consummate their bond took complete control. With a little luck, he would overtake them completely and happily exhausted and totally incapable of resisting. Roc let out a sound of humor despite the situation. It was entirely possible that Jawara and Miko would be unconscious when they found them with their frustrated retainers standing around helpless to do anything until they woke.
******
Lord Terrence sat in misery. Things had gone astray terribly. The empire now had its claws firmly into the Barratian royal family, and by extension, Barratia. The damned Mavie! They were going to survive after all, and worse, the men of Barrat would once again be under the heel of women. He couldn’t let that happen. Ironically, there was a time when Terrence believed in peace and had even supported reunion with the Mavie, but that was before his beloved mate Annie was killed by the Mavie in their very hall during the peace celebration of that year. The year named “The Year of Irrevocable War”. That day Lord Terrence lost his wife and the Prince’s mother was slain as well, along with most of their extended kin and all of the noblemen who came with them. The Mavie had planned it well.
The carnage of that day changed everything, especially once it was discovered that women from the empire and Barrat had been a party to the deed. Terrence had forgiven the terrible crimes committed against his beloved friend and liberator, Barrat and his young son. He had forgiven the events that led to the death of King Ken and his Mate and son, Queen Dalia and Prince Barrat II. Again it was the Mavie hardliners that had caused this, sparing only Barrat’s twin sister, Katie, who was then raised to be their queen. Again and again, every time things looked promising the Mavie would add new blood to old and the empire would do nothing! Well, at least nothing to the Mavie. No longer was Terrence in the forgiving mood. He swore he would see the Mavie destroyed utterly, no matter the cost. Indeed, all the Barratian nobles did. But it would not be so easily done.
When it was revealed that various women from the empire had supported and actually assisted in the murderous treachery in Mavie, Empress Dido disavowed any knowledge of their actions. Yet she declared war and sent warriors into the western mountains to avenge them when many of them were captured and either beheaded or enslaved before they could slink back to their holes in Bellasaria. Immediately, the Mavie slave women in Barrat saw their chance and revolted with some support by Barratian free women. “The Women’s War” as it was call in Barrat had begun. It was a savage war. The women within Barrat were crushed so severely and brutally that they would never think of rising again. And even if they did, they wouldn’t be given even the slightest means or advantages to do so, much less succeed. Free Barratian women, who until then had a certain amount of status and privileges in Barratia, lost everything. Including the right to travel freely, hold rank, speak in assembly or bear weapons and learn their use. The Mavie and the empire weren’t so easily or decisively dealt with though. The men of Barrat had begun to see the men of the east as weak and tied to their women’s skirts. But the war in the mountains had proven them to be mighty warriors. They (although sympathizing with the Barratians) fought hard and did not yield ground easily and their numbers seemed endless. But in the end, Empress Dido lost too many warriors and her vassal kings, including King Harold II of the Great Forest Kingdom had now risen in revolt to the support of the wronged Barratians. Dido withdrew her forces leaving thousands dead or captured in Barrat to put down her rebellious cousin and his allies, which she did with some difficulty. When all was done, Barratia remained free and defiant, but at the cost of thousands of its men, and most of the adult males of their noble houses decimated. The empress pacified her kin and brought her own troubles to an end. It wasn’t easy, but ingrained respect for clan mothers, elders and kinship he
lped greatly in bringing the rebellious vassal kings to the table of peace.
The world and empire had now changed. The men of Barrat had fought bravely and with never before seen ferocity to defend their freedom. At great cost they had withstood the mighty Bellasarian Empire. The men of the empire had now learned to respect them highly and the women to fear them equally so. The cost to the empire had been high in both lives and reputations. The empire would never again march into the western mountains in open war on Barrat. Nor would any vassal queen of the empire independently do so either. The men of the empire had full knowledge of who had started the war between the Mavie and the Barratians…and who had kept it going. They had seen this new bloody act as the blackest of treachery and the empress’s response as clear gender biased support for the Mavie and their twisted values. The empress’s and the vassal queen’s arguments were that they were only avenging the women of their own countries who had been foully murdered and enslaved without a proper Bellasarian hearing. They also claimed again that their aim was not to help the Mavie, but to save the brutalized women in Barrat. King Harold called such arguments bullshit, and right to the empress’s face. This feel was widespread among all the men. It didn’t wash. Everyone knew these women were accomplices to the treacherous slaughter at the peace talks. Why avenge them? The women in Barrat were being treated exactly the way they had treated their men when they were in their power. Again, why help them when the empire didn’t help the men?
Empress Dido lost much respect because of that war. It would take a long time for her to repair the damage to her image. As for those who had Mavie sympathies and urged military aide to them, they were dismissed from the council or resigned. The truth of the situation and the cost of their short sightedness had now been driven brutally home. But the damage was done. The kings would tolerate no more attacks against Barrat, or for that matter, many of the vassal queen’s male lords and common subjects. Total civil war had been avoided, but the Bellasarians’ own society and social structure was endangered now. There were some men who were beginning to wonder if the Barratians were right and if the women of their lands really were trying to keep them on leashes. That line of thought had to be stopped at all cost. The Women of the noble houses’ acted quickly to repair the damage, beginning with the withdrawal of major support to the Mavie. The Mavie would never receive aid on such a level again from the empire. They were on their own now.
Yes, the conservative’s deed had had forever blackened the reputation of the Mavie women and their losses during the war were terrible. Worse, unlike the empire, their warriors were not as easy to replace and much more desperately needed. Also, many Mavie women defected and abandoned their former homeland altogether once the imperial warriors began to leave. Many had wished to anyway and now was their chance. Their former countrywomen could do nothing now to stop them. The defectors were under Bellasarian protection. Naturally, this depleted their numbers even more. This loss of fighting women would tell greatly against them a few years later when the Barratians began to make raids into their land. The raiding parties became larger as the years went by and the Barratians began to recoup their numbers. As predicted by Queen Maya long ago, the Mavie were unable to match their rate of repopulation. As also predicted, Mavieland’s own captured women contributed greatly to the Barratian population recovery. Eventually war parties numbering in the hundreds were attacking, and soon armies. Trying at first to buy time, and finally in sincerity, the Mavie leadership begged for truce and lasting peace. But all offers were contemptuously brushed aside. Finally, even the fanatics couldn’t deny the truth any longer.
The Mavie reformed their government and promised a better life and home for any male mutants who’d come there. But it was now too late. Shameless incentives were also given as well, but there was nothing the Mavie could offer that could not be had by men in their own lands and the Mavie couldn’t shake their past. They were notorious for treachery, especially where men were concerned. Many mutant men believed that once they were in their power they would be locked into slave collars, depowered and used like animals. Besides…the Mavie society was still a dead end for any man with honor. Although well-treated now, men in Mavieland had little say in their government and even less respect in the eyes of other men. The Barratians saw mutant men who willingly joined the Mavie as beneath contempt, and for that matter, most Bellasarian and Akkadian men too. Aside from sex and being pampered by women (which was not something men couldn’t have anywhere in the empire) the rewards did not equal the risks. Joining the Mavie meant fighting the Barratians and the men of the empire had no wish to do so and for many reasons…certainly not with “Stud Service” and a comfortable home being their only reward and status in that society.
Naturally, the few men who did join the Mavie were not the best. If they couldn’t find mates in their own lands among the most aggressive and hot-blooded females ever known, there was a reason. Sadly for the Mavie, mutant males who came to them were almost always of inferior quality, both mentally and physically. The hard truth for the Mavie was that their mutant men were too few and even the ones they had were no match for the Barratians.
In desperation, the Mavie increasingly began to accept and even kidnap human men to fill the gaps for war and reproduction. This was easier for the Mavie women to do than other mutant women because men of both species were originally lumped into one inferior category to begin with in their land. Even their nobles, much to the disgust of the Bellasarian nobility, began mating with them.
But these men were no match for the Barratian mutants in battle and their hybrid human-mutant offspring were of inferior might as well. It was the end at last for the Amazons of Bellasaria. But by this time, the old king had finally begun to succumb to the agony of losing his bonded mate. Rage and vengeance had held it off, but now that the worst was over, he more and more became desponded. Sadly, the death of one’s mate doesn’t always break the ties between two equally bonded people. Realizing what was happening; the king stepped down in favor of his son, Roc, and soon died. The new king had visited the empire as a youth and had seen what it had to offer in terms of technology and comfort. He also had seen that the men and women there seemed to exist quite differently and happily together, and had come home with strange ideas in his head. Reeducating him had only been partially successful. The former king should NEVER have allowed the prince to visit there, but he had needed to know all he could of the imperial family in case of another invasion and so deemed that would the best way. Besides…Empress Dido had insisted that he should form closer ties with his kin in the empire to prevent any more bloodshed between them. Sending his heir was the best way to prove his desire for peace with Bellasaria.
Once king, Roc began to slowly given certain basic privileges back to free female Barratian citizens. Worse, he was finally persuaded to sign a treaty creating closer ties with the empire. Basically, becoming part of the empire…but still remaining largely autonomous. Terrence knew that this had given the women of Bellasaria only a tiny foothold in Barrat, but one that would grow if they were not careful. Then the new damned empress decided to open relations with their many times proven untrustworthy cousins on Earth. This stupid move had brought all the great nations and clans together all at once for the first time in centuries with the unforeseen results of lots of bonding’s and unions among the princes and princesses. Not to mention a few queens and kings as well. Barrat’s mortal enemy, Queen Bal of Mavie even bonded with Roc’s youngest son. And now this!
One prince was bound to the imperial family and the Mavie royal house. The princess he had skillfully persuaded the king to have mated to that fool Stragg, thus removing her as a possible threat, was now lost to the empire as well. He blamed himself for that. He hated Stragg despite his part in arranging his betrothal to the Princess. He should have known that the girl would immediately seek protection from her kin in Illyria. But when the princess had begged to come and plead her brother’s case b
efore the empress, Stragg, as usual, opened his mouth in protest. Terrence couldn’t resist the temptation to stick it to the fool. Unfortunately, in this case, Stragg was right. This was a catastrophe. The eldest legitimate son of the king was proven to be a weak fool where his emotions and women were concerned. The last hope for a strong leader among Barrat’s descendants before the damned Bellasarians got in was fleeing towards the borders of their domain. If he made it he could become an even greater enemy than the Mavie ever were, considering how he was treated, and the allies he made beyond the frontier. If the king caught him and brought him back he would send the boy to the empress in Illyria, the heart of the Bellasarian Empire. Once there, who knows what those damned women would do to his mind, especially now that he has bonded with one of their bitches.
Terrence cursed himself. If he had only befriended the boy when he had the chance he would have a powerful ally, but he didn’t. As for Roc…The king should have recognized Jawara’s talents too and defied the council (and him) as soon as the boy showed what he had between his legs. But instead, he set him up away from the capital to fight brigands and wild women to appease the jealous lords. Now the elder had no choice. He did have a backup plan.
Terrence didn’t want to go this road, it was a drastic solution to this worsening situation, but in his mind he had no choice. The king was weak. Terrence could see that now. He had been irreversibly tainted by his stay in Illyria as a youth and all his heirs were tainted as well. He had to go and a new line established before the women took over. The nation was greater than any one man or one family. Even if that family was the family of its founder! Still, he couldn’t let the bloodline of his beloved friend die either. He’d see Princess Sandra back in Barrat and married if it was the last thing he did.
There was only one man physically powerful enough (besides him) to take on King Roc and mate with the princess. The man had his flaws, but he was not the sort to be weakened by a woman’s charms. In fact, they were all terrified of him…and with good reason. To be honest, he wasn’t very popular among the men either, especially now. But that would work to Terrence’s favor too if all went well.
The Mutant World Page 42