The kDira's World Anthology

by K R McClellan

  “Princess Jilleane!” kDira cried, rushing over to give her mother a hug. “I have missed you so much!”

  “And I have missed you, my child,” Princess Jilleane exclaimed. “I hear you are now the Queen Mother.”

  “I am not fond of having that title,” kDira protested. “I think now that you are back with us, the title of Queen Mother should belong to you.”

  “We can discuss that later,” Princess Jilleane said, touching kDira’s cheek.

  “Please make yourselves comfortable,” came a voice from possibly any one of the spirits in the room.

  kDira and Agis sat next to each other, with Jilleane and Edu to their south-hand. Muzi found a chair near them and everyone sat nervously. The spirits stood along the walls all the way around the room.

  “What do you want with us? Why did you rescue us and why did you bring us here?” Agis called out to any one of the spirits that might answer. There was no answer.

  After a brief, but uncomfortable silence, a door at the end of the chamber opened and a figure emerged. Like the others, he had a black robe and large hood, but he had a dark blue stole draped around the back of his neck and down his chest. He made his way to the head of the room and stood there looking over the Blackhorn guests. His eyes stopped at kDira.

  He removed his hood to reveal his face, a pale, thin face with black eyes. His cheeks were sunken, his lips thin and he was completely void of hair.

  The rest of the spirits removed their hoods to reveal similar features, but were instead adorned with the outline of a skull on their faces.

  “Welcome,” the man said. “I am the Provitos, leader of the Prophets. You are the first guests we have had in over one hundred years. We have foreseen your coming.”

  “What do you mean, you have foreseen our coming,” Agis asked.

  “We are gifted with insight into the future. Your female is the chosen one, she must be protected,” the leader of the Prophets went on.

  “That is what I am here for,” Agis said.

  “Agis, shut up,” kDira said.

  “We have prepared a meal for you, and drink,” the Provitos continued. “You may rest here a day, you will be made comfortable, then you must go and never return here.”

  “Provitos, why must we not come back?” kDira asked.

  “Our strength is in the fear we cause the Karn,” he said. “If they feel that we are merely humans, they will have power over us and we will be killed. We carry no weapons, only our legend.”

  Without any signal at all, one of the Prophets along the wall stood up and went up to the Provitos. The leader handed the subordinate a scroll, of which he turned and walked it over to kDira.

  “This scroll contains a provicy that concerns you, Blackhorn leader,” the Provitos said.

  “What does it say,” kDira asked.

  “Do you have an interpreter?” he asked.

  “Yes, we have two back in Blackhorn,” kDira replied.

  “Then have them interpret,” the Provitos said. “Heed what it says. Your future will depend upon it.”

  cHAPTER 28

  The next morning the Prophets provided the Blackhorn with two carts for kDira and Jilleane to ride in. Seeing the condition of Muzi’s feet kDira invited her to ride with her as well.

  The Prophets watched them head south, the Provitos never appeared that day.

  kDira looked at the strange parchment given to her by the Provitos. Its symbols confused her, and she could not imagine how anyone could find meaning in them.

  “I want to thank you for your help in rescuing me,” kDira said to Muzi. “It almost cost you your life.”

  “It would have been worth it to drive that dagger into his black heart,” Muzi said.

  “I would have felt the same way,” kDira said, smiling. “You will not be treated that way by the Blackhorns.”

  Edu walked alongside the wagon that Princess Jilleane was riding in, happy to have her back in the tribe.

  “Edu, there is something I wanted to tell you earlier, but we were interrupted,” the Princess Mother said, breaking the silence.

  “What is that, my Princess?” Edu asked, reaching out to hold her hand.

  “It is no secret that I am kDira’s birth mother,” she began.

  “Of course, that is where she gets her strength and courage,” Edu said with an obvious twinkle in his eye.

  “Thank you, but that is not what I am trying to say,” she said, a bit embarrassed. “I am kDira’s mother. But you, Edu, are her father.”

  “I don’t understand, her father could be any number of Blackhorn warriors…” Edu said, confused.

  “There were no others,” she said. “I never wanted another.”

  Edu looked ahead at kDira riding and talking with Muzi. It was not common to know who the father of any Blackhorn baby was because it was normal for the Princess Mothers to share themselves with as many males as possible.

  “Do you mean to say that you only shared yourself with me?” Edu asked, dumbfounded.

  “That’s what I am saying,” Jilleane said. “You are the only male that I ever wanted to mate with.”

  Edu just stared at kDira, and for a moment, kDira caught his gaze and smiled back at him. Edu smiled and quickly looked away.

  “I don’t know what to do,” he said. “How do I handle this new revelation?”

  “You don’t have to do anything, I just wanted you to know,” she said, squeezing his hand.

  Edu, not certain what he should do, leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

  The trip took many days to get back. They stopped every night, and most nights they had successful hunts. They left every morning refreshed and ready to continue. By the time they entered the south gate, they were happy and relieved to be home.

  kDira sent two warriors to retrieve the Princess Mothers, the babies and the Interpreters. She longed to see Winter and hold her to her breast again. Her breasts ached from lack of nursing and she worried if she could once again nurse her child.

  It was late in the evening when the refugees from Lexton returned and kDira could hold her baby again.

  She cried at the site of her, and Winter cried as though she knew the torment that her mother was going through. kDira sat back in her chair holding her baby to her breast and took great joy in her friends, and her family. Agis sat next to her stroking her hair.

  A knock on the door was followed by Elick announcing he had come as requested. kDira called him into the room.

  “We have something we need you to interpret, Elick,” kDira said as Agis handed him the scroll. “We were told it is a provicy; it foretells our future and what we need to be aware of.”

  “Well, let me look,” Elick said, unrolling the scroll. “Hmmm, interesting.”

  “What does it say?” Agis asked.

  “Well this first part is called ‘The Book of Kaderah’.”

  “Kaderah?” Agis said. “kDira?”

  “It would seem so,” Elick said. “Then it goes on, ‘A non-breeder will become with child, and her daughters will be breeders, all’.”

  “And then,” he continued, “it says here, ‘Beware…’ he paused.”

  “It says…” again, Elick hesitated.

  “What does it say?” kDira prodded.

  “I will have to take this and interpret it some more. Maybe Guller can help. I have to go now and do some research on this dialect,” Elick said nervously as he got up and made his way out the door.

  “Strange man,” kDira said.

  “All of your daughters will be breeders,” Agis said. “That would be amazing.”

  “But I think Elick is keeping something from us,” kDira said.

  “Let’s not worry about that now, “Agis said. “Let us enjoy the time we have, here and now.”

  “You are right. Let Elick work out his problems, and we will concentrate on ours,” kDira agreed.

  Elick went back to his hut and pulled out the scroll once more. He read it over, and then read it
again.

  “This is not good,” he said to himself. “Not good at all.”

  The Book of kADERAH

  29) A non-breeder will become

  with child and her daughters

  will be breeders, all.

  30) Beware the first male child,

  For he will betray the world.

  Hayden’s

  Curse

  pART 1

  Growing Pains

  cHAPTER 1

  Under the brilliant green forest canopy, kDira could see the rays of sunlight shooting through the branches like brilliant columns of light towards the branches below. Some beams even made it all the way to the ground at her feet, and she smiled. She was happy.

  She looked down at her belly and saw no bump where she remembered a baby being. She saw no scars on her arms or legs from the abuse that Hayden had bestowed upon her. She was happy.

  She looked around the forest and for a moment was confused. Was this the Kaiba Forest? kDira struggled to make it clear in her mind where she was. Had she come from the east, or the west? She turned, and suddenly there was no longer a path. The forest grew dark, and she was scared. She looked down, and the scars had returned to her arms and legs. She looked at her belly, and it was covered in blood. She lifted her garment to find a long wound the width of her abdomen and an umbilical cord hanging out from the bloody opening in her belly.

  She began to run, but she felt something holding her back. She looked behind her, but she could see nothing following her. Yet she knew something was there, and if she stopped it would catch her, and then...?

  Help me! She heard a voice call from the unseen distance. She ran in the direction the voice came from, but then it called again from a different direction, more southerly. Again, she ran towards the voice, but suddenly the voice sounded from behind her. She stopped and turned around only to find a young man standing right in front of her.

  “Help me, Queen Mother,” the young man implored. “They are trying to kill me. Please help me.”

  “Who are you, child?” kDira asked, confused.

  “You must help me. If you do not, they will kill me,” he said in desperation.

  “Who? Who is trying to kill you?” the Queen Mother asked.

  Suddenly, the young man pulled out a long knife, kDira’s own knife, and lunged at her.

  “You are!” he yelled as he plunged the knife into her belly.

  kDira instinctively grabbed the young man’s hand and wrested the knife from him. He was far stronger than he looked, and kDira seemed paralyzed with fear and confusion. She felt tired, weak. Was she dying?

  She took the knife and turned it on her attacker. She stabbed the boy again and again.

  “No, Queen Mother! No!” the boy yelled. “No, mother! No!”

  Suddenly the boy went limp and fell face down on the ground. kDira looked at the blood coming from her own wounds, but was angry and shaken by the attack. She knelt down next to the body of the fallen boy, and slowly rolled him over.

  In an instant, she realized it was not the face of a young man at all.

  It was the body and face of her precious daughter Winter!

  kDira opened her eyes in shock. Sweat-soaked and gasping in horror, she quickly realized that she was awake and fine, lying in her bed in her quaint hut in the Blackhorn village. She felt her belly and was happy that she had no wounds, and that the attack she had endured was only in her dream. Her second baby could come at any time, and the farther along she went, the more frequent and horrifying, and gruesome, her dreams became.

  kDira was alone in the bed, as Agis, her long-time companion, and father of her first child, had the night watch on the wall and wouldn’t return until first light. The light of the full moon outside cast an eerie glow through the hut windows. kDira got up and walked over to the handmade crib where her daughter slept. kDira was relieved to see that the toddler was fine, lying there, sleeping peacefully.

  Where had this nightmare come from? What it the traumatic stress of the horrors that she had gone through many months earlier coming to the surface? She was certain that the baby inside her was Hayden’s, and it tormented her to know that she would be raising the child of a tyrant. But the child was half hers, and that was important to her. If she raised the child as her own, then so it would be. The child would have no knowledge of the evil that had impregnated the mother.

  kDira put on a robe and sandals and stepped outside. A Blackhorn guard greeted her.

  “Good evening, Queen Mother,” the guard said.

  “Good evening, Porelle,” kDira said.

  Agis had insisted that a guard be stationed outside her hut whenever he wasn’t around ever since she had been kidnapped by Hayden and the Karn. kDira now felt she couldn’t go anywhere without having a shadow, even if it was Agis himself.

  “I am going up to the wall to see Agis,” kDira said. “You stay here and listen. If Winter cries, you send someone for me right away.”

  “Queen Mother,” the guard said, “Agis left me strict orders to stay with you at all times.”

  “And I am giving you strict orders to stay with Winter,” kDira insisted. “Agis takes orders from me, and that means you take orders from me. Remember that.”

  “Yes, Queen Mother,” said Porelle, snapping to attention.

  “That is better,” kDira said. “I will return shortly.”

  kDira headed away from her abode. She had lived in the modest hut for many years, and it brought her comfort. She never felt the desire to occupy the Temple that Queen Mother Dachraolene had lived in up until her death from the wounds that the Karn had given her.

  Agis had made it his home as well when Winter was born. The paternal feelings he was experiencing and his love and devotion to the mother of his child were alien to most Blackhorn, but he could not avoid them. With kDira’s permission, he moved in, and this was the way it has been since.

  The walk across the courtyard to the wall where Agis was standing watch was not far from kDira’s hut, but to Agis, she might as well have been crossing the Valley of Death alone.

  Agis didn’t see her coming, his eyes fixed on the forest and roads outside the walls, so when kDira climbed the ladder and walked up beside him, he turned with a start.

  “What are you doing up here?” he said. “Where is Porelle? I will have him whipped for not staying with you!”

  “Relax, kreb,” kDira said with a laugh. “I made him stay behind and guard Winter. I think I am safe within the boundaries of my own village if my brave Agis is on the walls.”

  “I will still have a stern talk with him,” he said.

  “I am fine, I just wanted to see you,” kDira said, putting her hand on his arm.

  “What is wrong?” Agis asked. “Are you okay?”

  “I am fine,” kDira assured him. “I just had another bad dream. This one was about some young boy I have never seen before, and he attacked me. It was so real! And when I killed him, he turned into Winter!”

  Agis reached out and took kDira into his arms. Her warm body felt good in his tired arms. He had been on the wall for several hours in the dark of night while his body had longed for sleep. For a moment, he imagined himself lying in bed with her, holding her close.

  “It was so real! Agis, it scares me that I keep having these dreams.”

  “They are just dreams,” Agis said trying to calm his mate. “Hayden has your head so messed up it is amazing you can even sleep at night.”

  kDira looked out over the village; the light of the rising sun just poking through the trees to the east. Several of the huts were now showing the twinkle of lanterns and torches, and the sounds of the waking tribemates could be heard amongst the town structures. The watch would be changing soon, and the village was waking up to another warm, summer day.

  “Queen Mother,” a voice came from below. kDira and Agis looked down from the wall.

  “What is it?” kDira asked of the young female warrior below.

  “Porelle request
s your return,” the warrior called up to the Queen Mother. “Child Winter is crying for her mother.”

  “Tell him to start breastfeeding her, and I will be right there,” kDira called down to him with a smile. The young Blackhorn turned and ran back towards kDira’s hut.

  “I guess I should go,” kDira said to Agis.

  “Tell Porelle I will deal with him later,” said Agis, half-jokingly, half-seriously.

  “You will do no such thing,” kDira said with a sly smile. “Mind your place, kreb.”

  “I would punch you if you were not with child,” Agis said.

  “And I would toss you off this wall,” kDira answered.

  Agis bent over and kissed her forehead.

  “I will see you in an hour,” he said. “Be careful climbing down.”

  “You be careful too; I hate a crying kreb.”

  kDira once again crossed the courtyard back to her hut where Porelle stood nervously. Winter was obviously upset inside the walls of the hut. kDira looked Porelle in the eye as she arrived, smiling slightly.

  “Good job, Porelle,” she said. “And thank you.”

  “Thank you…” he said as kDira shut the door behind her.

  Almost a full year old, Winter was growing fast, and proving to be a very healthy and happy baby, as long as her mother was around. She was certain to be walking soon, as were the other young babies in the village.

  Benithan, son of Princess Mother Abril, and Cayban, son of Princess Mother Nepra, were both only a few weeks younger than Winter. The two Princess Mothers had borne Karn babies, though the two boys were fortunate in lacking the large foreheads and prominent eyebrows of their Karn male fathers.

  Winter stopped crying as soon as she saw kDira walk into the hut.

  “Mum,” young Winter said as kDira picked her up.

  “That’s right!” kDira said. “Mum is right here!”

  “Mum!” Winter said again, smiling and leaning into kDira’s shoulder. kDira walked over to her favorite chair and sat down to nurse her baby. Winter settled in and enthusiastically fed from her mother’s breast.