Traitor to the King

by Clare SM Keating

  “The law of Virenheim states that a being who is nameless to us, bloodless to us and a foreigner to boot can never take a position within the hierarchy!” Higatso screamed out as he clapped his hands together. Within the hole Karayan shook his head, attempted to pull himself upward but was suddenly smothered in the stone. The edges of the hole were snapped together to appear smooth and clear, as if nothing had happened and Higatso began to laugh. He could not believe that the King had permitted this fight to go so far or to allow the law to be broken by a stranger with no magic. As Higatso pulled himself onto his feet and breathed a sigh of relief, he strolled toward Damara, noticing her shock and the distaste of the crowd.

  “YOU CHEAT! YOU… You… you weren’t allowed to use magic you jackass!” Damara screeched angrily as she stepped out of the crowd and stomped over to the tired, heaving figure that was laughing at her. Higatso knew she’d be angry with him and when he thought over the true extent of his victory against someone chosen by the Benaga, he could not stop himself from chortling. He was looking forward to holding it over Lord Anouk’s head and it even gave him an impressive idea.

  “Enough… you’ve lost your honour and should remember to be humble and a fair looser, little Benaga. I look forward to the party your sister will have to host for me as well as the possibility of being owed by your family for my troubles. After-all, you’re no longer claimed so I could do it.” The crowd were insulted by the lack of humility within the winner as he slapped a heavy hand onto Damara’s shoulder as if the king were not present. The councillors about the king even began to shuffle in displeasure and would have begun to discuss the rules and the recklessness of this matter had not the king lifted his hand amongst them for silence. Damara noticed it; she also noticed a strange sensation within as if the magic of her body was being disturbed but once more she was irritated by Higatso’s boasting. “He’s buried now… I think we should put a plaque there to warn other foreigners against challenging a full blooded Deep Elf.”

  “You are too arrogant Higatso… and for that the Dark One himself has come for you!” Damara hissed, unsure where the words had come from but automatically she lunged away towards the crowd once more. Even the councillors went quiet as something began to rumble beneath the ground and Higatso gave a gasp of confusion. Suddenly there was a creaking sound as if the stone of the caves was screaming and the ground of the plaza split in half! A great nasty crack began streaking across the grey stone to Higatso’s feet followed by an ungodly roar as a great clawed tan-coloured hand stretched out to grasp his head.

  As everyone screamed in horror and milled to get out of the way, the black shining claws dug straight into Higatso’s face, making him groan from pain though he appeared unable to move. The giant black shrouded figure of the Karayan pulled himself straight up out of the ground with blood pouring from him alongside stone and rubble. It remained fully covered save for its long talon-edged hands that were now revealed to be almost human… the eyes shining with a demonic edge as Karayan growled. There was no hope for Higatso, the moment the second hand stabbed its claws into his shoulder and grabbed the head securely, he knew he was about to die for his arrogance. In a motion that was not natural through any power but that of a demon, the Karayan pulled Higatso’s head off cleanly and allowed the body to slump down onto the floor before he turned toward Damara.

  “My name… how did you know what it meant….”

  “I don’t… I just… what are you?” Damara’s question was an echo of the thoughts in the crowd, but at that moment the king stepped out from the circle. Everyone collapsed onto the ground without thought and kept their heads to the dirt. They did not see the greeting hand of the king strain out to stroke the Karayan’s shoulder and usher his bloodied form away. Instead the people could not move until the council had disappeared and only Lord Yeruell was left to speak of what had happened. Indeed, he stepped straight to Martum and Droy, pointing a finger towards the departing figures and sending them to work as the assistants of the new general before he turned to Damara. The two males looked petrified for a moment before bowing their heads, grasping their spears up from the floor and galloped up the stairs after the throng of the King’s Watchers. Damara merely turned toward Yeruell with anxiety and upset as if he were about to scold her for what had happened.

  “Your decision to sponsor him has dealt with a severe problem within our ranks. Perhaps your sister should learn to understand the importance of a strong hierarchy and its fragility as you have. It may not be normal for us to permit such a thing into our ranks… but the king has accepted him and cannot be questioned.” Damara gulped at the words before Yeruell placed a gentle hand upon her shoulder and produced a soft, pitying chuckle. “Though how you will explain what you’ve done to Anouk… well no one envies a task deadlier than this… Karayan.”

  Two: The Benaga Household

  To my king, my sword

  To my Sword, my life

  To my life, my blood

  To my blood, my promise

  Until the sword is broken within my grasp

  And my head cleaved from my heart

  My existence is for loyalty

  - The Oath of Virenheim

  The rain fell in a gentle murky shower upon the marsh at the north-eastern boarder of Virenheim. Here the Foandig Swamps fed the mighty Viren River after its Blood Reed and poisonous pond plants purified the liquid dribbling in from the wounded lands of the Orcreich. Here there was an open pathway to the forest and wild game of the Deep Elves, making it a risky place for any of the poorest individuals foolish enough to want to live close by and cheaply. But it was not pleasant for the guards and fighters to be near either; hence the quarrelsome Anouk was crouching amongst the long reed beds at the foot of the marsh in drab fleece robes and cloaks. Her sharp green eyes had narrowed around a possible threat… a Mud Lurch, causing her to hop into a nearby tree for a closer inspection.

  Slimy and blob-like in structure, the Mud Lurch was in characteristic lurching downward pose as it feasted on some poor Marsh Stag that had tried to eat from the golden frond of grass upon the blob’s head. Although brainless in action and hardly the servants of the Fallen Ones, the Mud Lurch were considered blasphemous and should be executed. Normally Anouk would not care for the religious superstitions of her kind, but Mud Lurch were insatiable and a clear threat to the livestock up here grazing over the summer. She would have to kill it and thankfully there was a very simple method to it.

  The beast had no ears to hear and no nose or really any eyes, it blundered into food and so it did not hear the slick whoosh in the air behind it. The next moment the Lurch was cleaved in two with its primitive little brain chopped finely in half as it slipped off the smooth blackened edge of a blade that was suddenly tugged back with a screech. The kill was clean and quiet enough to be ignored by the marsh life, but a new sound howled and clattered through the air. The various carnivorous life forms of the marsh darted alongside their rambunctious prey as the myriad of fowl launched into the air with hideous screeches and cackles, all of them panicked by the trembling noise from below.

  Pulling up the line of silvery links that had sent the blade so swiftly into its target, Anouk ignored the noise with a snort of irritation. Any being in Virenheim would learn to dread that low, moaning bellow of the horn but Anouk did not care for it anymore. If there was danger, then the other warriors could deal with it and then apologise for ignoring her warnings. After-all, she’d know if Damara or Talon were in danger and right now they were perfectly alive, as was Loteg. Without a need to rush in and pull her sister or her dearest friends from the jaws of death, she was quite content for the Watchers and the Council to stew away in whatever trouble they’d led to the underground city. Her ignorance to the noise as she shook the fine blade clean was noted by her crouching companion and grinned at.

  “It sounded only once – someone or something has infiltrated the Underground City Master, shouldn’t we go to assist?” The low deep voice of the
tall, human-like being was oddly calm despite his concern. Being in such a dangerous swamp there was always the fear of more parasitic menaces to kill off the terrified, so concern and fear had to be masked from any probing proboscis that could locate it. The last thing someone like Anouk would want to deal with right now would be the womb-rotting Boodoo, though they were always slithering along the waterways in search of a resting spot. Yet, despite it all Anouk’s nonchalant and seeming ignorant actions spoke volumes of her current contempt and it was the vibrant Blood elf of their crew who spoke out in response from the company’s barge on the edge of the waterway.

  “No way Alard! Those bastards ignored our warning about Harpy tracks near the mountain passage and refused to follow them! If one of those bitches gets into the city, it’ll only be upsetting for the liars – we don’t need to give a shit! Plus, they put Loteg in a Death Cell and Talon in prison… why should we care for their rules now?” After being forced into silence whilst on patrol in the first place, Ling was one creature that loved to get her point across and a nightmare to shut up. A former mercenary from North City to the far east of Virenheim, she was not used to such languid responses from authorities or restrictive laws – heck none had even tried arresting her yet on the surface and she always caused hell! But that was just it, as a migrant for the sake of work she was only allowed in the Underground City once a month… so she was only causing trouble for the poor and the non-Deep Elves!

  Ling’s exuberance made the bronze-skinned man mountain beside her sneer in frustration before turning to Anouk again, hoping for a reaction. Both looked up at the Deep Elf in the tree and their eyes widened in confusion. Ignoring the miserable rain and the squelching mud, they stepped to the broken old bark of the lonesome plant to figure out what their master was seeing or thinking. To their great concern Anouk’s right hand was caressing her chest whilst her whip-blade lay limp in her left arm. Experience had taught them to watch out for this fatal gesture, a sign that someone close to Anouk or at least of relevance was going to die. But just as they were about to yank her from the tree themselves, Anouk shuffled slightly and breathed a pained sigh of concern.

  “It’s not the harpy – it’s something more single-minded. We’d better make sure that idiot Gahlvrod doesn’t do something ridiculous and call Higatso down to bellow at his damn Core.” With that Anouk straightened her slightly muscular, perhaps even masculine frame and launched out of the tree. Despite the usual grace she offered in such moments, her landing was messy with a thick squelch as she dove into the mud and sprayed it upward onto herself, Ling and Alard. Her balance was nearly lost and she almost fell flat into the muck but Alard grasped her muggy looking robes and anchored her back until she could straighten. Once straight she ambled through the mud with her companions to hop back onto the barge with their thirteen other roguish fellows and grasped an oar each. It would take them a good ten minutes to push themselves onto the river but then an instant to get through to the First Dam and then into the Kadigak or ‘Foreigner’s’ quarters and then the Second Dam and its entrance into the kingdom… time enough to rinse the mud from their boots.

  The journey along the Viren River was swifter then had been expected as the current was filled from melt water off the peaks of the Giroff Mountains and pushed them straight on to the edge of the First Dam, named Olbeck after the very first of their kings. Once here the barge was hooked up by a series of lines to a special pulley system that took a few moments to arrange but was quick to move. The dangers of the demons and monsters from Orcreich meant that Olbeck Dam had to be super-enforced with magic maintained by the power of the Royal Watchers in the highest point of the king’s tower, the only structure of equal height and depth within the kingdom. To look up to its neatly carved pencil-like pinnacle, one could see the thin ray of technicoloured light like a rainbow filtering out over the glass roof and down over the city. Normally it was not clear in the rain so there was no urge to look up on this occasion, only forward as the first door of the barge entrance was opened.

  Once inside the underground channel the company stood up and straight onto a nearby platform where they then gently tapped their knuckles against the wall. A doorway slipped open and everyone squeezed through before the doors were sealed up and the chamber flooded. If there were a situation of an imposter amongst any patrol coming in, no one was to get off the barge and instead all would be flooded, one of the many sacrifices expected of all those sent into the patrols and one of the ways in which one of Anouk’s great-uncles had perished. Once in the tunnel system beneath the dam, Anouk and her company marched along the unmanaged pathway towards the magic curtain maintained by the power of the dam mages, then up into the bustling Kadigak Quarters, the above ground dwellings for farmers, the poor and foreigners alike.

  Here everyone spotted the patrol and casually waved their hands or bowed their heads, untraditional and even disrespectful gestures below ground but Anouk paid them no heed. The patrol would have to remain above ground and she would have to pass them over to her Secondary Commander if she was to go underground and indeed that was the plan. But as Anouk looked about the collection of muddy stone houses and across the lone path of buildings and town toward the wide fields protected only by the river boarding them, she realised that everyone was calm. There was no sign of any fear or upset and with a grimace she hurried onward towards the Second Dam, Kraskord, named for the First One that perished against it thanks to her ancestor. Ling and Alard encouraged the rest of the company to break off for their evening free time as they padded after Anouk’s fast legs as she stormed toward the massive set of stone walls and the great dam.

  “Commander… uh… commander you’ve got to cover your hair remember!” Ling bleated as she was forced to leap over a stray sheep to catch up with her companions. Like all Blood Elves she was more monkey like in her attitude then the more refine variety, prone to violence and short with skin that was practically golden and insane orange hair that she’d sliced into a box shape upon her head, rather than let it grow long. She always appeared rather ridiculous for it and hardly the war mad creature she was supposed to represent, but Anouk did not seem interested in listening to her today and so she swiftly launched up onto the six-foot-seven giant walking ahead of her. “Alard… what do you think’s happened? Everyone up here is calm and ignorant… do you think it was something like a Tunnel Worm or Dregg-eater?”

  “No idea Ling… but Anouk’s already on the bridge to the tower, we should get over there quickly before she gets annoyed.” The Aeron stated as he bunched up his multitude of muscles and went for a quick sprint across the muddy track to the narrow stone bridge in front of the dam. He ignored Ling’s little shriek of concern as she hooked her legs around his waist and listened in fear to the rumbling roar of the Viren Rapids below. The Kraskord Dam was insanely deep, filling the whole gorge cut into the stone by the river centuries ago and protecting the whole of the Underground City from the world above. It looked more like a stone wall then any kind of dam as the mechanics of the thing were beneath the eye line and deeper into the earth where the river was harnessed at its most powerful. Even as the pair got across to the narrow walkway to the lonely turret, they were greeted with a vicious growl from a figure who popped open a wooden window in the side of the tower and barked at them to return to their residence whilst Anouk dealt with the issue.

  As much as Anouk was displeased by the thought of her companions being sent away, she waited patiently to be addressed properly and for the Captain of the Turret to step to the window. It took a few minutes but after meeting up with Captain Oratanigon, Anouk and her squad found themselves at a loss. Not only had the alarm been false but it was hinted that a challenge had occurred below. The posse were eager to know the details, but with only Anouk having fulfilled the required amount of time on patrol for her kind, the others were passed into the hands of Anouk’s Second, Uljan, as she was commanded inside. With her kind’s skin used to darkness, too much exposure to the light of N
abuto could be fatal and with twenty-four hours straight above ground, Anouk was at risk and therefore she obediently did as she was told. Oddly though Oratanigon was grinning menacingly over the matter, as if something very juicy had been whispered up the ladder to this gatehouse, but Anouk ignored it.

  Women were not supposed to hold titles, land or commands so a lot of the captains tended to find her honours and privileges vexing. Not to mention this particular captain had been handed out countless beatings by this Benaga lady for his rather lecherous habits during their magic study in their teenage years.

  Anouk stepped through the great wall coloured door on the outside edge of the turret, ignorant to the Viren River’s foaming waters beneath her as she stepped precipitously close to the edge of the narrow shelf-like path. Once she had hooked her hand into the barely visible gap and jilted the lock from the inside, she pushed forward into a circular room with two sets of staircases. The room appeared askew, slightly tilted as the first staircase was directly straight and led out to a shooting position on the lower wall whereas the other one was coiled around and appeared to go nowhere. Beside this one was one large black slab on the ground and patiently Anouk stepped onto the hollow piece of rock and gently tapped the staircase three times. A metallic sound echoed about her and then slowly the staircase uncoiled itself and twisted downward continuously through the floor, letting Anouk drop downward for eternity into darkness, the only sound the gushing torrent of the river and the clicking of the metal gears.