As they looked for their escape route, some of the villagers began to climb the outside staircase leading to their rooftop.
“King Romarus, please bless our fields before you leave,” an old weather-beaten woman called out from the sandy street below.
Shan saw an opening down in the street which the crowd hadn’t yet reached, and pointed it out to Romarus. “Do you think we can make the jump?” she asked.
She barely finished her sentence when the king launched himself from where he stood on the rooftop, landing in the sandy street below, instantly tucking into a tight roll. She followed his lead. It was unusual for her to be with somebody who was physically capable of doing the same things that she was.
A forward roll cushioned her landing. Romarus grabbed her hand and they ran for the empty streets ahead, with the crowd gaining on their position. Ahead, they were coming closer and closer to a wall. They leapt, placing their hands lightly on the top of the wall, their legs gliding over. King Romarus cleared the next three walls in this way, barely breaking his stride. Now he’s just showing off, she jested in her head. Shan stumbled and hopped up over the final wall, just as a common brown-eyed mortal would have done.
The crowd’s noise died down. The couple stopped to catch their breath for a second, but were startled by a group of overly excited young girls running towards them from a narrow side-street. Shan and Romarus took off again. A pool of water lay ahead and people came streaming from the alleyways, converging on the circle of water that spanned fifteen footfalls. Romarus was ahead of her, nearing the water’s edge. The king leapt, his chest leading, with his arms outstretched to the side. He landed and tucked into a tight forward roll and continued running.
Here it goes, she thought, as she copied his every move. Her landing wasn’t as graceful as the young king’s. She found herself being forced into a tumble. With sand in her mouth, crunching between her teeth, she ran again and saw there were two walls in front of Romarus and then the large mud building which housed the village records. It stood three stories high. I doubt even we could scale that.
But her thought was quickly proved wrong as Romarus leapt onto the first wall, used it to leap onto the second, higher, wall and then, in a moment where time stood still, he launched himself at the record-storage building.
He’s not going to get his feet high enough to land, Shan panicked while her legs still worked rapidly to catch up with him. His feet were clearly going to miss the roof of the high building. His boots hit the wall but his hands grabbed the ledge, and he pulled himself up.
She held her breath as she leapt onto the first wall, stretched for the second with the big building looming ahead. Then came the leap of faith. Beverine protect me! She jumped, propelling herself forward and up to the roof. It was as if the side of the large mud building was flying towards her and the roof seemed to get higher. Her hand slipped as she grabbed the rough surface but the king’s strong hand held onto her wrist and hauled her up. As Shan’s body was fully pulled onto the roof, she flopped onto her back and lay there for a moment, squinting at the hot desert sun.
“We need to get down to the street again before they catch up with us,” Romarus said as he ran to the other side of the roof, looking down at the deserted streets. The growing noise suggested they wouldn’t be empty for long. “Where are you taking me anyway?”
She answered breathlessly, “It’s…a place…my father lets…to his workers…when they…need to…stay in the village.”
Shan knew her blue-eyed body was capable of a great deal more than that of those with brown eyes, but what she just saw (and copied) from Romarus, had shocked and exhausted her. Gasping for air, she joined Romarus at the rooftop edge. They looked down the narrow gap to street level. There was no way down. No outdoor steps and none on the other large building, which was separated by a five footfalls’ gap from the roof they stood on. “How are we going to get down?”
Romarus just smiled at her and, before she knew it, he leapt off the side. He hurled himself towards a small ledge on the opposite building. Before he had fully landed on the tiny foothold, he launched back across to a similar ledge on the other wall of the record-storage building.
Backwards and forwards, from wall to wall, he leapt, until he reached a soft landing on the sandy street below. She wanted to follow him down, but her feet wouldn’t let her. Her body argued with itself until…
Ten Gods be with me!
She leapt and the opposite wall hurtled towards her. She caught the ledge with her foot. Her body swayed. The soft crumbling stone ground under her feet and her nails dug into the mud wall as she tried to steady herself. Shan hurled herself back across. Her thighs burned. Another jump and she felt her ankle straining as her foot gripped the narrow ledge—which was no more than a sticking-out stone. After five jumps, she was standing next to Romarus at ground level. Her legs felt weak and her clothes were damp with sweat.
They ran fifty footfalls to a purple door. “This is it,” she said, pushing the door open into the small mud building.
It was a single room with just a bed and a washbasin. The space reminded Shan of her shelter out in the desert, where she had rubbed the king’s shoulders and spent the night as a queen…in her mind at least.
An hour passed while they waited for Polo to catch up with them. “I think I will go and look for Papa,” Shan told him. “You will be safe here. None of the town’s people would think to look here as long as you keep the door closed.” She left Romarus in the safe room.
When Shan eventually came running back with her father in tow, she opened the door to the safe room and found Romarus standing with the old brown-eyed crow who had propositioned him earlier. He was holding the woman up against the wall with a thigh in each arm and his bum was bare as he thrust backwards and forwards. The woman was shouting, “Yes, my king! Yes!”
Romarus didn’t turn to look at Shan. He grunted, “Please, just a few more minutes.”
She turned back onto the street and her father put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t interrupt a king, or any man for that matter, when they are doing that.” He then stood as if he was a royal guard at the door. “I wish to ask Romarus if he would do me the honor of laying with you. Just think, a king giving you his seed. And with your blue eyes, and his, that child could grow to be a lord.”
She suddenly remembered, Romarus promised to make him a lord! “I would gladly have that happen and I did ask him into my bed but he said he didn’t want to dishonor me. And father, he wished to make you a lord, in way of thanks for your work for the kingdom.”
He laughed and his eyes opened wide. “A lord?” He shook his head, still smiling. “I am honored that a king thinks of me in such a way but I do not wish to become a lord. I would rather that he lays with you so that you can be looked after and your children be looked after.”
“I don’t think he will allow you to swap your lordship so that he will lie with me, Papa.” She pushed him on the shoulder with a smile.
“He has not offered me a lordship yet anyway. But I still mean to ask him to lie with you. You do like him, yes? He is handsome and you both do your tricks and he seems kind. And think of the child you might bear—”
Shan held a hand up to her father’s mouth. “You don’t have to convince me. I have fallen for him. The moment I saw him, I fell for him.” Okay, Shan, keep your voice down, she told herself off in her head. He’s only on the other side of the door…but seemed distracted anyway.
“Ahh ahhhh fuck aw aw aw aw awwww,” they heard Romarus grunt from inside the mud dwelling.
“I think he’s done,” her father said, pressing his lips together as he turned to open the door.
As the two of them entered the room, Shan saw the young king pull back from the old crone, who scurried out of the door. She was shocked to see, as Romarus cleaned off his manhood, that it was standing upright as if it had a bone in it. This was the first time that she had seen one like that. He pulled up his cotton trousers and sat
on a chair, downing a cup of water. “Sorry, I just had to,” King Romarus said with a laugh that sounded as if he was nervous in some way.
“Your Grace, there is no need to apologize to the likes of us. A king has the right to take whomever he chooses.” Polo bowed so low it looked as if he were going to kneel.
All three of them sat on the bed in the mud-built room. “I’m sorry you didn’t get any closer to finding your friend,” Shan offered softly to Romarus, who was sitting on the stale pillow, leaning against the wall.
“What have I told you about girls saying sorry?” He curled his lips and gave her a light punch on the arm.
“Shan, stop apologizing to the king!” Shan’s father jumped in sharply.
Ten Gods! I was just trying to make him feel better.
King Romarus added, “And he’s not my friend. In fact, I’ve never met him. I hadn’t even heard of him until King Stewart…” He paused. “But I have to find him. I made a promise and I don’t break promises.”
The serious look on the king’s face made Shan reach out to hold his hand. “You will find him, I know you will. And I will pray every night to Yod’Herem that he comes to you.”
“Thanks.” King Romarus leaned towards her and pecked her forehead, then immediately looked to her father as if he was a startled cottontail.
Polo just smiled. “King Romarus, I do not know what your plans are from here—we will of course help you in any way we can—but I suggest you do not linger in Sal’Merel.”
“You’re a clever man and I’ll listen to whatever you think is best.”
“I urge you not to return with us to the farmstead. You must leave if you are to make it out of the village in one piece.” Her father curled his lips in a warm smile. “There are reasons why a king has guards, as you have seen. Although most do not wish to harm you, nevertheless they still all want something from you.”
Romarus stared at the floor. Shan could almost hear his mind working when suddenly his eyes locked onto hers. “Shit, the woman I just fucked. She’ll tell them I’m here.”
Polo tapped his chest ten times and whispered a prayer under his breath, likely because of Romarus’s cursing. Too scared to tell a king not to curse, are you Papa? Shan thought.
Her father spoke after his silent words to the gods, saying, “I doubt she will, Your Grace. It is likely she is satisfied that she is the only one to know your location. However, I would suggest we get you out of here as fast as we can.” He turned to Shan. “Go and fetch the duneback and I will get the king some less kingly coverings.”
She immediately ran to the duneback point where they entered the village. The crowd had dispersed and there was little activity on the streets. The sun was still high in the sky and most mortals had returned to their dwellings for reepa to rest and to escape the hottest part of the day. Faithful Barry stood waiting for her where they had tied him up earlier. She led him through the streets, urging him to go faster with gentle tugs on his ropes. He didn’t seem to like being rushed, judging by the moans and groans.
By the time she reached the safe room, Romarus was wearing a black robe covering his head down to his feet. The young king held both palms up to her father in Ten Blessings. Romarus turned to her and asked, “Was Barry okay?”
She smiled and pointed out of the door. Romarus went outside to see his furry companion. Her father looked confused, mouthing the word Barry, with his face screwed up. When father and daughter were left standing alone in the small room, he asked, “Who is Barry?”
“Barry’s his duneback.” A grin crept across her face and she shrugged.
Polo simply nodded as if to say, of course he is.
Shan and Romarus climbed onto Barry and set off through the streets before the air cooled and people returned. She was to take Romarus to the edge of the village on the eastern side and see him off into the desert. The thought of him leaving felt like a wall hurtling towards her. I don’t want my king to leave, she thought, counting his stomach muscles again, perhaps for the last time.
Romarus’s voice interrupted her counting: “You know your father wants me to fuck you?”
“What?” she blurted. “Forgive me. I mean, I know he does. Well, not those words. But yes.” Stop fumbling Shan, she told herself as she struggled to find the right thing to say.
“Sorry, I mean he wants me to lie with you.”
Might as well just say it, “I want that too.” She squeezed him.
“You are the most interesting girl I have ever met and I like your face too.”
Ten Gods! He finds me interesting and likes my face! She was glad he had his back to her or he would have seen her ridiculous beaming smile.
“But I can’t lie with you. You’re barely a woman and—”
“—I have bled though!” He didn’t need to know that, Shan! She slapped herself on the head and mocked her own words, mouthing them back to herself.
They were nearing the edge of Sal’Merel and their time together was running out. I know you should never question a king but, “Why not?” She clutched his body.
“It would do you dishonor and I’ve already done that to somebody else…” he trailed off. “And I’m not finished repaying that one.”
His body felt warm and strong. She couldn’t bear the thought of letting it go. Romarus turned his head so that she was looking at his face side-on as Barry continued to trundle out into the desert. When the mud buildings and palm trees had turned into wide-open sand, Romarus spoke again. “I promise I’ll come back and when I do I’ll be inside you day and night.”
Shan rested her head on his warm back and squeezed him one last time. She hopped down off the duneback’s back before she found any more reason to stay. The promise from the young king’s lips was enough for her to be able to let him go. Watching him ride off, she shouted, “Kings always keep their promises, don’t they?”
“This one does!”
His words made her smile because she knew they were true.
The Blue Hunter
Grietum stretched her blubbery legs as she lay on her oversized bed. It was her throne and it sat in the central chamber of her hive. The vast metal structure, riddled with tunnels, was nestled under the red rocky hills separating Last Kingdom and Arland Province. Only the main entrance could be seen from the surrounding desert sands. The rest was set deep into the slopes. She answered to neither of the strange lands on either side and was subject to nobody.
A naked male knelt before her in the middle of the throne room. She had not seen one with such blue eyes in years. This hunt will be a wonderful achievement. Her daughter, Gosha, had brought her two blue-eyed males.
Grietum was much larger in stature than anybody she had ever known and her skin was blue like the sky, while everybody else’s body colors were strange shades of whitey-pink or dark brown. Skin color did not matter to her though—only the color of a male’s eyes. She was bloated with child—four by her current estimations. Her round, swollen body lay on the large bed in her throne room. It was a wide space with dark gray-brown, sweaty, metal walls.
Two of her ‘rats’ stood on either side of the throne with spears in hand. These characters were tall men with shaved chests and muscular bodies covered in pelt waistcoats and gray leather kilts. Some were from Vostos, some hailed from Last Kingdom, others from Dorland—all were outcasts, waifs, bastards and strays. She liked to look at them but had no interest in them being inside her because of their brown eyes.
So that they would not be tempted to soil her, or her daughters, or her daughters’ daughters, with their empty seed, she insisted that their manhoods be removed if they were to continue in her service.
Extending Grietum’s reach into more populated, rich and fertile lands, her rats helped her to find blue-eyed males and brought food and other luxuries back to the hive. Although they held spears and stood in a position of guard around the throne and at the doors, it was her daughters who Grietum trusted to defend her and the hive. Her rats were nothing but
expendable thralls on display. Some of them had names—perhaps all of them did—but she only bothered to remember a few.
Grietum had them under her spell and they served and obeyed her beyond all measure. Her spell of course was not a magic spell that the apes of the Green Islands speak of. Her power came from a black dust made from a red flower, grown in her secret garden. Grietum had the knowledge (from where, she could not remember), of how to grow the plant, extract the oil and turn it into a potent black powder which she let her rats sniff if they obeyed. It rendered them in a state of pure ecstasy. They began to crave it and, unless they served, they were not given their ‘fix’.
She could have used the same tactic on her blue-eyed males, but no! She wanted their seed, but it had to be pure. It had to be given willingly and not under the false thralldom of the Salt of the Blood Flower. They had to want to put their seed inside her—not because of the promise of some concoction. Grietum was sure she had the power within her to have a hold over males but for the life of her could not summon it. It was a locked door, existing in her mind, that she could not gain entry to, and it frustrated her to the very core. So in place of the power, she was sure she possessed but could not use, she initiated hunts.
Her new ‘Blue’, having been stripped of his clothes, knelt opposite the throne with his hands chained to the ground. Her host of daughters, and their daughters, sprawled out all over the throne room; some sitting around tables drinking, some lying on soft cushions strewn across the floor and some lurking in the shadows.
“What do you call yourself?” Grietum asked the naked Blue who was kneeling in front of her.
“Owin, Your Greatness,” whispered the blue-eyed male.
A Poisoned Land (Book 1: Faith, Lies and Blue Eyes) Page 25