“Of course! I recommend bringing several more. Maybe your Interpreters? Some can stay for a while, leave when they wish, return when they wish. We are thrilled that you are willing to do this. They can learn as much as they wish. We have people whose job it is to teach. They would love some fresh pupils.”
“I do not know what a pupil is, but if it means Blackhorn, then I think we have a deal. “Give us a little time to figure out who will go with you on this trip and then we will be ready to go.”
“Of course, kDira, take all the time you need.”
In less than an hour, kDira had her party together. Winter was going with the intention of staying several seasons. Elick was going down as well, but for only part of a season to learn some things, after which he would come back to allow Guller and Noske to have a chance to learn new things. Agis was going with kDira to spend a few days with the outsiders to learn some things about the outsider’s ways but would return soon to maintain control of the village.
“Mum, I would like to go again, too,” Charlomine said.
“Not this time, my child. Should anything happen to us, you would have to take charge of the tribe,” kDira said, glancing up at Ari with a wink. “Agis and I will be back soon. I promise you can go back down there at a later time and learn the wonderful things they have to teach us.”
“Yes, mum.”
“Okay then,” kDira said, walking over to hug Charlomine and young Star. Then she went to Ari and gave her an equally loving hug. Ari had brought the younger girls to see the party off. “We shall be off.”
The party turned, and with the company of Director Davis, Doctor Philantry, and Mister Brown, they walked out the gate.
The trek to Lexton was not an easy one as there was no trodden path. The city had remained a mystery for so many seasons because of its seclusion and lack of paths to lead people into or out of the ruins. If one didn’t know it was there, they could walk past it time and time again and never see it. But now that the Blackhorn knew it was there, it would not be that difficult to find again.
kDira and the others had walked through the thick Kaiba Forest for close to an hour when kDira brought them to a halt.
“Quiet, I hear something,” kDira said. She cocked her head, turned, and tried to zero in on what she had heard. “Over there,” she said, walking quickly towards the sound.
“It’s a young girl!” she said, stopping and kneeling at a nearly lifeless and almost naked girl lying in the woods, crying. “It’s okay, child. Who did this to you? How did you get here?”
The others gathered around. The young girl was obviously very badly beaten, her lips and nose bloody and swollen. As she wept, she spit a mist of blood. The doctor bent down to get a look at her injuries.
“She’s obviously been severely beaten,” he said. He poked around her abdomen and ribs, and the girl flinched as he did so. “She might have internal injuries or broken ribs.”
“Girl, who did this to you?” kDira asked again.
“It was the leader of the Midlanders. He beat me without mercy. When he slept several nights ago, I crept away. I became lost in these woods trying to find Blackhorn. I had heard that the great kDira would help me. Do you know kDira?”
“Girl, I am kDira. You found me.”
A weak but sincere smile crept over her face. “Oh, Queen kDira, at last I am safe! Will you help me?”
“Of course, of course. Doctor, can you take her in and treat her wounds?”
“Certainly. We do not have too far to go. Agis, can you carry her to Lexton. Once we get her down below and into the railcar, I can tend to her properly.”
“I can do that,” Agis said, walking to the girl and picking her up, cradling her in his arms. “Let us go.”
The party made their way to Lexton and into the building that housed the elevator. They did not know they were being watched from a distance.
cHAPTER 29
Malak and several of his warriors watched the Blackhorn party enter the building and disappear. The Midlanders went down to see if they could figure out how the Blackhorn and outsiders had gotten through the magic doors but could not determine the method.
“Well, we must now rely on our girl to show us the way in. In four days she will open the door near Midlandia and let us in, then we will see for ourselves what the mysteries are that lie behind those doors.”
“What if she decides not to do as you ask?” a warrior asked.
“She will not disobey me. She shall be a queen in Midlandia. Who could pass that up?”
“But you did beat her pretty hard, my King.”
“It was necessary!” Malak snapped. “It was necessary.”
“Yes, my King.”
“Come, let’s gather our things and be on our way. We have to be back and ready for battle in four days.”
The Midlanders made their way back to their temporary camp and gathered their things to prepare for leaving.
Just before the party was setting out, Malak brought them to a halt. “Girl! Servant girl! You. You are forgetting my chair.”
“But my King, it is far too heavy for me to carry,” she pleaded.
“Nonsense! Driden, tie the chair onto the female’s back.”
“My King,” Driden said, “I would gladly carry that chair for y—”
“I thought I was clear in my order. Tie that chair onto her back and she will carry it. I cannot afford to tie up a good warrior to carrying a chair when I have a… a mule… to do the work. Do it now!”
Driden picked up the chair, flipped it upside down, and set the back of the chair on top of the girl’s head. As the girl began to cry quietly, he took a short length of rope, tied one end to an arm rest, and then fed it across the front of her chest, and then tied the loose end to the other arm rest.
“There, that will be much easier. Now don’t fall going down the stairs. You would not want to break my new chair.”
Malak led the group out of the structure, onto the road, and out of town to the east. Whenever Driden could, he would help the girl along, but there was only so much he could do. Occasionally one of the other warriors would grab one side of the chair as Driden grabbed the other and take the weight of the chair off the hapless girl, but it would only be temporary, as Malak would turn around often to talk to one or more of the warriors following him back to Midlandia. It would be a long walk back to their village, especially for the poor girl.
Aboard the railcar, Doctor Philantry quickly sedated the injured girl to calm her down and numb her pain. He did a quick examination to find out what kind of injuries she might have and determined upon preliminary inspection that she had several broken ribs, maybe a broken jaw, and possible internal injuries.
“She will sleep now. When we get her back to our compound, we can see what internal damage she might have.”
“How can you do that? Will you have to cut her open?”
“No, kDira. We have machines… tools that allow us to look inside the body without cutting it open.”
kDira and the others looked at the doctor as though he had just spoken in blackber language.
“Trust me,” the doctor said, realizing the confusion he has caused. “You will see. It’s pretty remarkable.”
“I cannot believe Malak would do this,” kDira said. “I am afraid to say it, but I think he has lost his mind.”
“We must do what we can to defeat him,” Agis said. “Blood or not, he must be eliminated. You saw what he did to Winter.”
“I will kill him if I get the chance,” Winter said with a scowl. “I have no love for the little bastard. Give me a chance, I will pierce his black heart with an arrow, then split that arrow with another.”
“I understand your feelings, Winter,” kDira said, walking over to her daughter and sitting down. “Anyone who has lived through what you did deserves revenge. I know firsthand the feeling.”
“Thank you, mum. Thank you for understanding.”
“It still does not make it easy for me, tho
ugh. He’s still my son; an evil, bastard of a son, but still my son.”
“We are pulling into the terminal now,” the director said as the railcar was noticeably slowing. “Agis, if you could assist Mister Brown in getting the girl out of the car and onto a gurney we have waiting for her, that would be a big help.”
“I will gladly help,” Agis said.
As the car came to a complete stop, Agis and Lucas Brown lifted the girl by her legs and shoulders, while kDira helped Winter to her feet and handed the crutch to her. The girl was taken from the railcar and placed on a gurney where two people in white tunics were waiting. Once the girl was on the gurney, the two attendants rolled her down the passageway and out of sight, the doctor close behind.
“Come,” the director said. “We now have time to show you around properly. Winter, we have brought for you a scooter,” she said, leading Winter to a small, three-wheeled contraption with a seat and a bar sticking up from the front.
Winter was apprehensive about getting into the seat but did so slowly. Miss Davis instructed Winter to put her feet on the bottom of the scooter and her hands on the handlebar.
“Now you just turn this switch on,” she said, “then to go forward you push this lever,” she said, pointing to a small bar beneath Winter’s thumb.
Timidly, Winter flipped the switch and winced, expecting the worst to happen, but nothing did.
“Now press the lever.”
Winter carefully pressed the lever, and the scooter jumped forward, stopping immediately when she let up on the lever. Winter was not the only one to let out a bit of a squeal of surprise when the scooter moved. Everyone was in awe of this magical wagon with the tiny wheels. Agis looked all around it, looking for what might have made the thing move.
“It’s really not magic. It’s electrical. It has its own power.”
“Electrical,” Elick said. “Yes, I have done experiments with electricity.”
“Well, this is what it all leads to. This, and the lights above our heads, and what makes the railcar move. We don’t even think about it anymore. Winter, are you ready to try again? This time don’t let up unless you’re going to hit something.”
Winter again pressed the lever, and the scooter once again started moving. “Wheeee!” Winter squealed gleefully.
“It does look fun,” kDira said, grinning wide.
“Where did they take the girl?” Elick asked.
“She is in our emergency room getting checked out. I will take you there once she is stable and settled into the hospital. We would just be in the way if we went in there now.”
“Then may I ask,” Elick spoke up again, “where does this electricity come from?”
The director stopped and looked at the engineer. “What do you think?”
“In for a penny, in for a pound,” Mister Brown replied. “We might as well show them what is going on.”
“Okay, then. Let’s show them the reactor.”
“What is a reactor?” Elick asked. “Is that like a generator?”
“It is very much like a generator. A very, very big generator.”
“What is a generator?” Winter asked, keeping pace on her scooter.
“What is electricity?” Agis asked.
“You have so much to learn,” the director said, laughing.
cHAPTER 30
“The girl is out of intensive care,” the doctor reported several hours later. “She has some broken ribs, but luckily no internal damage other than bruising, and her jaw is not broken.”
“That is good, right?” kDira asked.
“That is good. She is resting now. But I think you should also know that she has signs of vaginal and anal trauma. Someone has been very rough with her.”
“Vaginal and anal?”
“Um, her female parts and her… backside.”
“I see. We have never used those words before. Can I see her?”
“I don’t want everyone to go in to see her, but I think, kDira, if you would like to speak with her, that would be fine.”
“Yes, I would like to speak with her.”
“This way, then.”
The others stayed behind as kDira and the doctor went into the hospital portion of the complex. There were several people doing various jobs, all dressed in white tunics. Some smiled at kDira as she passed, while others were too busy looking at things to notice the stranger.
“This is her room,” the doctor said, pushing the door open. kDira entered and stopped when she saw the young girl lying in a bed unlike any she’d seen before. It draped in white linen and made of shiny metal that seemed to be polished steel. The walls had strange objects hanging from them, and there was a bag of clear liquid hanging from a pole with a tube that ran into the girl’s arm.
“Go ahead, kDira. It’s alright.”
kDira walked slowly to the bedside. She looked down at the girl whose eyes were closed, and seemed to be fidgeting a bit in her bed.
“Girl, can you hear me?” kDira asked.
The girl opened her eyes and looked up to kDira. “You… you are the one that saved me.”
“I only found you. The doctor here saved you.”
“I would have been dead by now if you hadn’t found me. Thank you. You are kDira, is that right?”
“That is correct.”
“Good, I was not dreaming it. Thank you, kDira. Thank you so much.”
“It’s okay. What is your name, so I don’t have to keep calling you girl?”
“My name is Dahlah.”
“Dahlah. That is a pretty name, Dahlah.”
“Thank you. My Queen Mother gave me that name. She was not of the Midlanders but was taken by them in a wolfpack raid.”
“I am sorry to hear that. Malak did all this to you?”
“Yes,” she said, looking away. “He would have killed me… eventually, I am certain of it.”
“You are safe now. We will protect you, and the doctor will make you well again.”
“Thank you, Queen kDira.”
“Just kDira. You get some rest. I will visit with you again before I leave for Blackhorn.”
kDira walked out of the room and was met again by the doctor.
“She is going to be fine, with rest and some antibiotics,” the doctor said as they retreated down the hallway.
kDira gave the doctor a puzzled look.
“Medicine,” the doctor said. “Antibiotics are medicine.”
“I see. I went through a similar torment from Malak’s father. I do not want to see this happen to anyone else.”
“Nor do we, kDira. But for now, let’s round up the others, and I shall give you a tour of the entire complex.”
“Complex. You use some strange words. Tell me, doctor, what do you call your tribe?”
“We don’t really consider ourselves a tribe, but we call ourselves Survivors. We are the last of the Americans. This continent was once a thriving nation called America.”
“Mericana,” kDira said.
“Yes, over the last century it has come to be known as Mericana.”
“You said it was A-mericana?”
“America.”
“So much to learn. I have tried to imagine what life must have been like in the olden days. I am almost beginning to wonder if I am better off not knowing. There is so much… my head hurts,” she said, laughing.
“I have medicine for that too,” the doctor said with a smile.
kDira and the doctor met up with the others, where Agis and Elick were full of excitement.
“You should see the generator they have!” Elick said, his excitement showing in his face and hands. “It’s as big as a village!”
“It’s called a reactor,” the director said. “And I imagine it would be pretty impressive, but as far as reactors go, at least as far as they once were, this one is pretty small.”
“They have four people running it day and night; it is never left unattended.”
“That is true. Though they are quite safe, we n
eed to make sure it is operating properly always, or it could… fail.”
“What happens if it fails?” kDira asked.
“You don’t need to worry about that. We would lose power until we got it running again, that’s all. But while we are watching it, it will not fail.”
“Can we see the rest of the… what did you call it, doctor?”
“The complex.”
“Yes, may we see the rest of the complex now?”
“Certainly,” the director said, leading them down another passageway.
“Someone better tell that girl back there to step more lively, or I will tie her to a tree and leave her for the blackber,” Malak barked loud enough for all to hear.
Trailing behind, the girl carrying the chair did her best to pick up her pace, but it seemed that no matter how hard she pushed herself, she could not muster enough energy to go any faster. She cried quietly as she made every effort to carry the chair, while not falling over sticks and ruts in the path leading back to Midlandia.
“Keep going,” Malak said, stopping and letting the others pass. Several of the others stopped as well. “Keep going, I said!” Those that had stopped quickly fell back into line to continue the march forward. Malak waited for the girl, who had now fallen a fair distance behind the pack, to approach him.
“Are you disobeying me? Why don’t you keep up with the tribe?”
“I am trying, my King!” she said between sobs.
“Not hard enough!” Malak said, stepping off the trail. He found a green tree limb and cut a long switch from it with his knife. He rushed up behind the girl and swatted her on her behind. She jumped a bit, letting out a small whimper at the blow. “Pick up the pace, girl! Let us go!”
Again, he swatted her, but harder. This time he hit her across the small of her back. She arched her back in pain and cried out at the strike.
“Please, my King. I am trying!”
“Go faster!” he yelled, striking her once again, even harder. A streak of blood could be seen across her back through her tunic. Again, she cried out. “Faster!”
The kDira's World Anthology Page 40