The kDira's World Anthology

by K R McClellan

  “Porelle,” kDira called to the guard outside the door.

  Porelle opened the door and looked at kDira.

  “Yes, Queen Mother?” he asked.

  “Put a log on the fire and get it burning better,” she said. “It is a little chilly in here for Winter.”

  “Yes, my Queen.”

  As Porelle went to the stack of wood to pick a dry log for the fire, the door opened, and Agis entered, back from his watch on the village wall.

  “Porelle, what are you doing in here?” Agis called out, “Can you not see the Queen Mother is feeding her child?”

  “B-b-but the Queen Mother…” Porelle stuttered.

  “Begone, now!” Agis ordered. “You can stare at the Queen Mother some other time.”

  “He was not staring,” kDira said in Porelle’s defense as he quickly darted out the door to return to his post outside the hut.

  “But I got him to leave us alone, did I not?” Agis said with a suggestive leer. Agis sat down next to kDira and laid his head on her unoccupied breast, putting his arm around her back and his hand on her belly.

  “Agis, are you okay that the baby is not yours?” kDira asked.

  “We will raise it to be ours,” he said. “There will be time for more babies later.”

  “What if it turns out to be like…” she paused. “Him?”

  “Let us see what happens before we start worrying about what we will do if this or that happens.”

  “You are right,” kDira said. “The dreams I have been having put me a little on edge.”

  “Everything is going to be fine,” Agis assured her, “and the Princess Mothers should be having their next babies around the same time as well. You know, I think Fralek is the father of Nepra’s child.”

  “You hush! You do not know that,” kDira said sternly. “Besides, I think Omiroe has feelings for her.”

  “I still cannot believe your mother Jilleane is with child as well!” Agis said. “Edu is like a proud father, is he not?”

  “It is so funny to watch him gather things for the baby; crib, garments, furnishings. He is like a young kreb!” kDira said, laughing.

  Agis pulled himself away from kDira and got up to tend to the fire. The light outside was getting brighter, and though Agis was tired from his late-night watch, he enjoyed this time spent with kDira and Winter.

  “Shall I fix us some breakfast?” he asked. “Some eggs and toasted bread, maybe?”

  “That sounds good,” kDira replied, knowing that the baby inside her needed to be also fed, as Winter had been. “Come put Winter in her crib to play.”

  Agis took Winter from kDira and placed her in the crib as requested. kDira pulled herself to her feet but suddenly fell back to the chair in pain.

  “OOOOH! Agis!” she yelled. “Get Elick! Something is wrong with the baby!”

  Agis, wasting no time, went out the door. Seeing that Porelle was still there, he ordered the guard to fetch Elick. Agis immediately went back inside, only to find a puddle of watery blood on the floor at kDira’s feet.

  “Agis, what is wrong?” kDira screamed.

  “Just be calm! Elick is coming!”

  “It is ripping out of me!” kDira screamed. “Help me! Where is Elick?”

  “He is coming,” Agis said, not sure what to do. “He is coming! He will be here any minute!”

  Suddenly the puddle of blood grew bigger, and what appeared to be chunks of flesh and meat were falling onto the floor.

  “It is tearing me up from the inside!” kDira screamed in a panic. “You have to do something! Agis, do something!”

  And without warning, Agis pulled his sword and plunged it through kDira’s swollen belly.

  kDira jolted with the shock of what Agis had done.

  “Nooooo!” she screamed, her eyes wide open. She found herself breathing heavily.

  Winter, still nursing at her breast, pulled away and began to cry. kDira looked down. There was no blood, no wound in her belly, and no Agis. The realization that she had dozed off, and that her torment was another terrible dream became evident.

  The door flew open, and Porelle ran inside.

  “Are you okay, Queen Mother?” he asked concernedly.

  “I’m fine, Porelle,” she said, trying to calm herself and slow her breathing. Her heart was about to beat its way out of her chest. “Thank you for checking on me.”

  “Is the fire warm enough?” Porelle asked.

  kDira looked over at the blazing fire that her guard had stoked at some point just before she dozed.

  “Yes, you did a fine job,” she said. “Again, thank you.”

  With that, Porelle pulled his head back out of the doorway, shutting the door behind him.

  kDira pulled Winter back to her chest to comfort her.

  “It’s okay, my love. Mum is okay,” kDira said, quietly.

  Winter settled down and relaxed in her mother’s arms.

  “I wish Agis would get here,” she whispered to her bright-eyed daughter.

  Her heart was still pounding, and she felt herself shaking.

  cHAPTER 2

  “kDira, it was just a dream,” Agis said, trying desperately to calm his companion.

  “But what does it all mean?” kDira cried through her hysterics. “I can’t take this anymore, Agis! I want this baby out of me.”

  “We cannot just cut it out, kDira,” said Agis. “We have to let it come naturally.”

  “I know, but the thought of having Hayden’s child inside me is really making me crazy,” the Queen Mother said, trying to gather her wits about her.

  “We will raise the child in the traditions of the Blackhorn,” Agis said. “We will see that it is raised to be a kreb unless it is a female and proves to be fertile, as the provicy stated.”

  “I need to get some rest,” Agis said, changing the subject. “Come lie down with me?”

  “No,” said kDira, looking over at her child standing by the side of her crib. “I want to take Winter to play with Benithan and Cayban, so I can go clear my mind.”

  “Then I will see that a guard goes with you,” Agis insisted.

  “If you do I will cut him down to the ground,” she argued. “I can take care of myself, and I will not be leaving the village anyway. Just go to sleep and stop worrying about me.”

  kDira left Winter with Princess Nepra to watch so that she could have some time alone. The Princess Mothers took turns taking care of the children, who were just old enough to crawl, but not yet walking. Today was Nepra’s day, and Princess Abril was nowhere to be found.

  kDira wandered about the village, stopping to exchange pleasantries with the tribe-folk that she came across. In the past, she could have walked around the village all day long, and no one would have a word to say to her. Now that she has become the leader of the tribe, and more importantly the Queen Mother, everyone felt obligated to wish her a good morning, or a fine day.

  As she reached the courtyard, she saw Muzi sitting on one of the benches feeding treecats some nuts from a small pouch. Treecats, a harmless long-tailed rodent that spent much of the day jumping from branch to branch in the trees above, liked to come down and beg for handouts from the tribe folk. At the first sign of danger, they would scurry up the wall of the village and leap onto a tree limb. None of the treecats showed any alarm as kDira approached.

  Muzi had proven herself an ally and a friend after almost losing her life to Hayden in her attempt to assassinate him. If it had not been for the Karn general, Hayden would certainly have taken her life.

  “Good morning, Muzi,” kDira said, sitting on the bench next to her friend.

  “Queen Mother, so good to see you,” Muzi said with a smile. “How have you been?”

  “I have had some very scary dreams, lately,” kDira said. “Almost all of the dreams concern my unborn child.”

  “Hayden has really gotten into your head, has he not?” Muzi asked. “He has mine too. I have nightmares often about how he treated me and beat me. It
must be awful knowing that it is his child is inside you.”

  “It is my child. It is a Blackhorn child,” kDira snapped.

  “Of course, Queen Mother, I meant nothing by it,” Muzi replied, a little surprised by the sudden turn of mood. “I am sorry.”

  “I’m sorry I snapped at you, Muzi,” kDira said with a heavy sigh. “I haven’t been getting much sleep lately.”

  “Oh no, I chose my words poorly,” Muzi said.

  kDira stood up, steadying herself on her feet. “It was nice talking to you, Muzi. I must go and talk to Jilleane.”

  “She is your mother, is she not?” Muzi asked.

  “Yes, she is.” kDira gave a little wave and a smile to Muzi and headed in the direction of Jilleane’s hut.

  Muzi watched kDira go, and as the distance between them grew farther, Muzi’s smile faded.

  “If Hayden’s baby were inside of me, I would claw it from my body with my bare hands,” she said quietly to herself.

  The two oldest Interpreters of the Blackhorn tribe were up early as always, putting tomes and scrolls back in their proper place among the others on the various shelves and cubby holes throughout the library. Several reading tables and other horizontal surfaces were covered with documents from the previous night’s studies, and lessons given to tribemates of the ways of interpreting. Guller, the elder of the two Interpreters in the room, blew out the last candle as the morning sun began shining through the windows to fill the room with light.

  “You must tell her of the provicy,” Guller said to Elick. “She must know. Her dreams are getting worse, I am told, and all center on a male figure; a male son.”

  The discussion between the two Interpreters about what should done regarding the scroll given to Elick by the Provitos has been going on for over a year. Elick spent a great deal of time searching tomes and other scrolls trying to find an answer.

  “It’s not that easy,” Elick protested. “How do I tell kDira that if the provicy is true, and she has a boy child, that she must kill him to save humanity?”

  “The provicy says nothing of killing the boy,” Guller argued.

  “Then what is to be done if we do not kill him? The provicy says Beware the first male child, for he will betray the world.”

  “Betray? Betray? What does betray mean? Is that worthy of a death sentence for a young baby boy?” Guller paced the floor of the Interpreter’s library, nervously picking up tomes from the tables and putting them away on the shelves. “I am an old man. I do not have many years left, but I do not want to spend the few I have remaining struggling with the weight of the murder of a baby boy on my conscience.”

  “Would it be murder,” Elick asserted, “if in doing so we are saving our own tribe… or the world, as the provicy states?”

  “We have a responsibility,” Guller countered, “to inform the Queen Mother of the provicy and let her decide what action to take. I am certain we have a few years before the child could cause any kind of a problem.”

  Guller looked over at his wise young friend. There was a distinct look of fear and concern in his aging eyes. He looked down at the hardwood table, and shuffled a tome to one side, and then back again.

  “By then,” he said, “I fear it might be too late.”

  Princess Jilleane, kDira’s birth mother and the eldest of the Princess Mothers, took her daughter’s hand and tried to comfort her. Twenty years kDira’s elder, Jilleane had raised her daughter in the way that the Blackhorn tradition had always dictated; by nursing her to adolescence, and when she proved to not be fertile, sent her off to learn the ways of the krebs, to become the warrior that she was.

  “I never had to deal with Hayden. He was not allowed to touch any of us except the girl he was given,” Jilleane said, referring to Muzi. “He would bring her out and parade her around, all the while telling her that this would be her fate if she wronged him.”

  “I could see the evil in his eyes,” she continued. “He was a mean, spiteful animal. I don’t think that he knew I was your birth mother. I think if he had, he would have done anything he could to hurt me, perhaps even kill me.”

  Jilleane was referring to a time in the recent past when she had been captured by the Karn and taken to become a breeder for them.

  “I am so glad you are safely back with us now,” said kDira, placing her arms on her mother’s shoulders. “I would not have been able to live with myself if he had harmed you because of me.”

  “So many days and nights I lay there, tied to my bed, wishing someone would come and cut my throat and just let me die,” Jilleane continued, with a lump in her throat.

  “Stop, mother,” kDira admonished her. “I understand your pain, but we must not relive those horrible memories.”

  “You are right. You have become such a strong warrior and an even stronger leader. My pride in you swells every day to watch you lead the Blackhorn.”

  “Mother, I am not as strong as you may think. Honestly, I am an emotional wreck,” kDira said, with a tear in her eye.

  “Poor girl. I have borne seven children, and now I have another on the way thanks to Edu. Each one of them brought out different and stronger emotions. Though thus far my offerings to the tribe, except for you, have been male, it was my time with you in my belly that I cherish the most. You were different, and I knew you were special right from the start.”

  “How so?” kDira asked.

  “It was just something I could feel within me. It was a warmth and energy that you possessed right from the first moments you started growing inside me,” Jilleane explained. “And my nights were filled with happy dreams that you would take care of me.”

  “I do not have happy dreams, mother, not happy at all. They are horrible, bloody dreams; that someone wants to kill my baby.”

  “Sweet child, you have been through so much. I am sure that all will be fine, and you will have a lovely child.”

  “I hope you are right,” kDira said, not feeling completely relieved by her mother’s assurance. “I do hope you are right.”

  The archery practice range was empty except for a lone female honing her skills on the well-used targets downrange. Ari had spent the night on watch on the walls of the Blackhorn village but wanted to get in some practice before turning in for some rest. kDira stood back and watched the practice, as time and time again Ari hit the bullseye, sometimes splitting the previous arrow with pinpoint accuracy.

  “You are still the best shot I’ve ever seen,” kDira said, as Ari set her bow down and started downrange to retrieve her arrows.

  “What are you doing here?” Ari asked, surprised to see her friend.

  “Just trying to clear my mind,” kDira said, walking over to the nearby locker and picking out a bow to use.

  As Ari retrieved her arrows and returned to the firing line, she stopped and looked at her friend. kDira looked back, and for a moment they were silent.

  “What is it, Ari?”

  “I was just thinking how sad I was that you had become pregnant with Winter. I was looking forward to taking some patrols with you,” Ari said, blushing.

  “I know you had feelings for me,” kDira said. “It’s no secret.”

  “I still do, but it was not meant to be,” Ari said sadly, taking her place on the firing line once more to launch more arrows downrange.

  “I am sorry, Ari. Agis and I have been close for a long time; long before I ever met you.”

  “I know, but there were moments between you and I, were there not?”

  “There were a few,” kDira agreed, blushing herself.

  kDira drew an arrow and readied a shot. She looked downrange and saw the target. She adjusted for the distance and wind and let the arrow fly, scoring a bullseye on her first shot.

  “I will always be there for you, kDira,” Ari said, also looking downrange and readying a shot. “I will always have your back…always”

  Ari loosed her arrow, and it sailed onto kDira’s target, splitting the Queen Mother’s arrow exactly down
the middle.

  “I wouldn’t want anyone else watching my back,” kDira said, putting her bow down on the bench near the firing line. She walked over and gave Ari a kiss on the cheek, then turned and left the range.

  cHAPTER 3

  Elick, Guller, and Agis were there, as were two of the elder women, and Ari. Soon Jilleane joined them and went immediately went to her daughter’s side. kDira’s hut had become crowded as news spread that she was in the final stages of labor.

  It wasn’t a dream this time. kDira felt the unmistakable pressures from within; pain that signaled the coming arrival of her baby. It was several hours later that she spilled water down her legs and onto the floor of her hut, and she knew that it was time. Her baby would be here soon.

  kDira paced as Ari and Agis tried to steady her. Then the real pains started, and kDira was escorted to her room and put into bed.

  Ari, Jilleane, and Guller stayed with her; all else were directed to stay in the outer chamber. Agis went over to the crib that held Winter and picked her up. Nervously, he paced the room as the others found a place to sit and wait for the birth.

  From the bedroom, they could hear kDira’s moans turn to cries of pain, and then muffled grunts and muted screams. They could hear Jilleane coaching her and working to calm her.

  The hours passed, and the moans became screams. It was clear that something was wrong. Everyone looked at each other in utter helplessness. Agis put Winter back in her crib and headed towards the bedroom door. Elick stopped him.

  “Do not go in there, you cannot help,” he told the panicked warrior.

  “Let me go! I have to see her!” Agis said, pushing Elick out of the way and stepping into the room.

  What Agis saw when he entered the room he would not soon forget. There was blood everywhere below the waist of kDira and on the forearms of Guller.

  “What is happening?” Agis demanded over the screams.

  “The baby is turned and will not come out,” Jilleane said. “kDira is pushing and trying so hard to get I fear it will kill the baby. Come over here and get her to relax and stop pushing.”