The kDira's World Anthology

by K R McClellan

  cHAPTER 14

  kDira had been gone several hours when four Ravengard showed up at the quarters she shared with Agis. Sitting at the window resting his foot on a stool, Agis was surprised by the entrance of four armed Ravengard warriors. He stood as quickly as he could and grabbed for the sword next to his chair.

  “There is no need for that, King of the Blackhorn. We do not mean you harm.”

  “I am not the King of the Blackhorn. What do you want?”

  The four Ravengard warriors stepped aside from the doorway, then, as if choreographed, the Queen walked in, her royalty showing in her every move, as though she practiced presenting her image. Her smooth glide, accentuated by her shimmering purple and gold dress, spoke more than words ever could as to her place in the kingdom. Feeling his heart rate increase, her beauty was not at all lost on Agis.

  “King Agis, I am so glad we could finally meet,” she said, dipping a slight curtsy toward the Blackhorn. “It is an honor be in the presence of the great leader of the Blackhorn tribe.”

  “I am not a King. The Blackhorn do not have a King. kDira is the Queen Mother, and she is the great leader of the Blackhorn.”

  “Not the king? In our tribe, you would be King, leader of all Ravengard: King Agis! What a shame your greatness is wasted.”

  “What can I do for you, Queen Lehentis?”

  “Oh my! You are the leader type. Right to the point; I like that. May I sit?”

  “Please, make yourself comfortable.”

  “Thank you,” she said, snapping her fingers in the air. Two of the warriors rushed in, grabbed a chair and pushed it over to where she was standing, within arm’s reach of Agis. Gracefully, she sat down and crossed her legs. Agis noticed that the Queen was wearing some of the battle shoes that Tina Davis and his daughters had worn so proudly. He would not let her get close enough to use them on him.

  “Please, sit,” bade the Queen. “It must be so difficult to stand on that injured leg.” Agis sat down and again propped his leg on the stool, adjacent to the chair the Queen was sitting in. “Agis, I would like to ask of you, a favor,” she said, placing her hand gently just above his knee.

  Agis glanced down at her hand but did not ask for it to be removed. “What kind of favor, Queen Lehentis?” he asked, looking back into her eyes.

  “I need a strong, fertile mate. I see none stronger than you. Certainly, if it weren’t for that broken knee, you would be the leader of all the warriors among the Blackhorn.”

  “I still am; at least I was.”

  “I have no doubt, but now that you cannot lead your people into battle, your usefulness is limited.”

  “I don’t like the way you put that, but you may be right.”

  “I mean no disrespect. You have nothing to be ashamed of,” she said, sliding her hand a few inches up his thigh. “But your strength now is in what you can offer the future of your tribe, and I am hoping, what you can offer Ravengard.”

  “I am loyal to kDira. You will have to find another mate.”

  “Is that how the Blackhorn work? Isn’t it unfair to all the other males in your tribe that you are the only one allowed to mate with the Queen?”

  “It is what we decided long ago. It is the new way of the Blackhorn.”

  “Then might I suggest that we keep it a secret, and I can still fulfill my needs and finally become a mother and grow my own tribe? kDira would never have to know.”

  “What are you asking?”

  The Queen slipped off the chair and knelt before Agis, this time sliding both hands up his thighs to his groin. She began to gently massage his area before he could gather his wits and protest.

  “One of the Ravengard told me there was an emergency…”

  Tina Davis stood just inside the door in shock, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. Quickly, she turned and ran out of the room, continuing back down the passage the way she had come. Agis, wide-eyed at the shock of what the Queen was doing to him, and at the sight of his friend walking in with him in this situation, pushed the Queen away.

  “What are you doing?! What have you done? Be gone! Leave me now, or you and your krebs will find out what this one-legged warrior has left in him!”

  “I am so sorry, King Agis. I was overcome by your magnetism,” she said, as two warriors came over to help her stand back up on her long, skinny heels. “I see I have caused trouble. I will leave you. Please accept my apologies.”

  Stunned, Agis remained seated and watched the Queen and her men leave the chamber. He couldn’t see the smile on her face as she walked away.

  “I get the impression that the Ravengard don’t get out this way much,” kDira said, taking note that the stalking and tracking skills of their warrior escorts left a bit to be desired.

  “They are more of a fishing tribe,” Ari replied.

  “I would rather die than eat fish every day. Even dried meats are better than their fresh sea creatures.”

  “I find it tasty.”

  “Oh, come on, Ari, you must be missing the taste of nice, tender chideer right about now. Even rock-goat is a far better meal than fish.”

  “I think we could convince the Queen to allow for more hunts than they normally have. That could be our contribution to the Ravengard. They provide fish; we provide fresh rock-goat, or whatever else might be roaming these mountains.”

  “Okay, I will entertain that thought for a moment. But what of the Survivors: Tina Davis and the others? What will their role be in this new tribe?”

  “I do not know. We would have to find a place for them.”

  “And if they don’t have a place, then I am pretty sure they would not eat. That is the way of the Ravengard.”

  “I am sure they will eat just fine.”

  “Mum…” Charlomine said quietly, breaking the tense conversation. She pointed to the slope before them. “There is a herd of rock-goat up ahead on the face of the mountain.”

  As if by instinct, Ari and the Blackhorn crouched into a stalking stance, silently moving toward the herd. The Ravengard did their best to mimic the actions. As the hunting party got within range, they all drew their bows, each sighting in on a rock-goat. Seconds apart, they all loosed their arrows. kDira and her daughters each managed to take down a buck, quickly readying another arrow to shoot again. Tuviast missed his first shot but with surprising rapidity, was able to loose a second shot, felling his own rock-goat.

  Ari’s first arrow fell short. She quickly pulled another arrow from the quiver, nocked it and let it fly, but once again it fell short. With a huff, she let her bow arm fall to her side, hanging her head.

  “For a fancy bow, that one sure seems to lack something in the accuracy department,” said kDira as several more animals fell to the arrows of her daughters and Tuviast. “Or maybe it isn’t the bow? Maybe you no longer have it within you to be a warrior?”

  Ari shot kDira an icy look, then turned and started walking back toward Ravengard.

  “Hey, kreb!” kDira yelled. “You can at least be useful in helping bring the kill back to the city.”

  Ari stopped, turned around, and walked quickly and directly to the closest fallen rock-goat. She knelt and began to field-dress the carcass, saying nothing more to anyone for the remainder of the hunting trip.

  “Father, how could you?” Winter demanded, storming into the chamber as best as she could with the cast on her foot. “Tina said you were with the Queen. Is that true?”

  Agis looked at his daughter and could see the deep anger in her face.

  “The Queen came to talk to me, and she…”

  “She what?”

  “She asked me to breed with her. I told her no, that I was only for kDira. Then she knelt before me and started rubbing my… legs. That’s when Tina Davis walked in.”

  “Tina was pretty upset. She said the Queen was doing things to you… She said you were enjoying it.”

  “Tina is wrong! The Queen took me by surprise. I never expected her to move on me like that. Do you
think I would betray your mum?”

  “I don’t know what to think. What is mum going to think?”

  “I don’t know, but I will tell her; I have nothing to hide. She needs to know what the Queen did.”

  “Yes, she does. I am glad you’re going to tell her.”

  “Like I said, I have nothing to hide.”

  “I want to believe you, father. I want to know that you would not hurt mum.”

  “I wouldn’t, and I would never hurt you or your sisters.”

  Winter stood there, and Agis realized that she was shaking.

  “Come, sit down and be with me for a while. You are upset, too, I can see that. Let’s talk. I promise you I did nothing wrong.”

  Winter looked at her father and could see the sadness and vulnerability in his eyes.

  “Okay, father, I will sit with you for a while. It gets lonely quickly when mum and the girls are away, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes, it does.”

  cHAPTER 15

  “She did what?” kDira yelled at hearing the tale of what went on in her absence. “That conniving, sneaking… And you let her?”

  “Mum, I believe father. He said he wanted no part of it. She made advances toward him before he could react, and that is when Tina walked in.”

  “Agis, you have never given me reason to doubt you. I will take you at your word that you are innocent in all of this, but so help me…”

  “Mum?” little Star piped in. “What is conniving?”

  Again, the youngest of the Queen Mother’s children had diffused the tension. Suddenly everyone took a breath, as though they hadn’t breathed from the moment the story was told.

  “Char, why don’t you and Star go find something fun to do? Get Tuviast and go down to the beach.”

  “We did do something fun. I got my first kill today, Charlomine too. Doesn’t that mean we get to celebrate?”

  kDira sighed. Star was right. Both Winter and even her son, before he turned on the tribe, had feasts prepared in their honor to commemorate their first kills.

  “Of course we will have a feast tonight. We must see that we get two of the rock-goats for our own feast tonight.”

  “All the meat was taken away by the Ravengard,” Charlomine said. “I don’t know if we will be able to get any of them back.”

  “I will make sure of it,” kDira assured her daughter.

  “I think they took them down to the bottom floor of the Palace of the Crowne. That might not be an easy thing to do.”

  Omiroe and Acetec both walked into the chamber together, stopping when it appeared that a family meeting was happening.

  “Please come in, you two,” kDira bade. “What did you find on the beaches east and west?”

  “To the east,” Acetec began, “is a wall that blocks off anyone that wishes to go that way. It is connected to a large pier that juts out into the water a fair distance. There are two very large boats tied up to it, unlike any I have ever seen. It’s like they have trees growing from the center of the boats, with cloth tied to the branches. There were workers taking carts of fish from the boats down the pier and up the beach to their warehouse. It would be difficult for us to leave in that direction without being stopped by the wall, or the smell.”

  “To the west, I was able to go a fair distance,” Omiroe said, “but there is a large boat that has been driven up onto the beach blocking anyone from going further. They have connected a wall to it that goes back onto the land, but I could not see how far it went. There are a few warriors on the wall as well… keeping watch, it appears.”

  “Thank you. At least we have an idea now. Can you two come with me? We went on a hunt today and the two youngest each got their first kills. They deserve a feast, but it seems the Ravengard have taken all the rock-goat we harvested.”

  “Of course, kDira,” said Omiroe. “I could use some good rock-goat. How do these people live on fish day after day?”

  “Let us go, then. I want to ask Goffer where they might be storing the meat.”

  “That would be a good idea. Best to be able to go right to where we need to go and not have to search around for it.”

  “Ooh! kDira is so aggravating!” Ari yelled as she entered the chamber of the Queen of Ravengard. “And this bow is worthless, I don’t mind telling you. It looks pretty, but all it is good for is hanging on the wall,” she said, tossing the bow and quiver of arrows onto a couch along the wall. “I wouldn’t trust my life to it.”

  “Come, Ari. Please sit and tell me what happened. Was it not an enjoyable adventure?”

  “It was horrible. kDira has so much resentment for me that she completely forgets about our friendship. I think she is jealous.”

  “Of course, she is jealous. Look at you; beautiful and free. Now you are with the Queen of Ravengard. It is probably eating her up inside!”

  “But I don’t want it to eat her up, I want her friendship!”

  “You don’t need her anymore. You are here with me now. It is time you begin to act like royalty. I will make you a General within my army; you will train my soldiers to fight as you fight.”

  Ari sat there quietly. What the Queen was offering should have sounded good to her, but for some reason, it didn’t. She convinced herself that she would try to find a way to appreciate what the Queen was offering.

  “Of course, my Queen. It would be an honor to be a General in the Ravengard army.”

  “That’s my girl. I hear you brought back some rock-goat. Let us have a feast and enjoy some of the bounty you have brought back for us.”

  “But what of the others? Will they be allowed to enjoy some of the harvest as well?”

  “You didn’t bring back enough for everyone, did you? I think not. This is one of the privileges of being royalty in the Ravengard; you don’t have to share.”

  “Certainly, kDira and her two girls deserve some of the rock-goat? They did most of the killing.”

  “Nonsense! I will hear no more of it! They must learn their place here. It is time they learned some hard lessons about who the Queen is, and who the subordinates are. You must learn your place too. You are no longer one of them. If I must cut that damn mark off your arm to prove it, I will.” The Queen closed the distance between her and Ari, stopping just a few feet from Ari’s face. “You are mine, now. Do not forget that!”

  “Yes, my Queen,” Ari said, dejected.

  “Good. Good girl. I will have the General see that the meat is prepared properly and brought to us for our evening feast. We will dine like the royalty that we are.”

  Goffer insisted on going with kDira on the promise that he and his close friends would get some of the meat. They, together with Omiroe and Acetec, made their way to the Crowne Plaza, keeping an eye out for anyone that took more than a casual interest in where they were going. The workers hadn’t come back from the docks yet, so there were few Ravengard roaming around. The ground floor entrance at the rear of the Crown Plaza was unguarded, so the party was able to enter unchallenged.

  “The meat should be in the basement,” the old man said. “There is a cool place down there for storing meat. We might have to convince the cooks to let us take some for ourselves.”

  “I can be very persuasive,” kDira said.

  “That, she can,” Omiroe agreed.

  As they descended the stairs to the basement, the sound of people talking became louder. They could make out two distinctly different male voices. One sounded very old, and the other sounded young and incapable of clear speech. The older man was yelling at the boy as the sound of a meat cleaver striking a cutting block echoed up the stairs.

  “Are you just going to walk in and take some meat?” asked Goffer. “They probably will not approve—”

  “They will approve. Perhaps you should stay outside, Goffer.”

  “Perhaps you are right.”

  kDira, upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, could see lantern-light shining from an open doorway down the passage, the flickering light within and the
sound of pots and pans rattling betrayed the existence of more than one person in the room. Slowly, she made her way to the doorway, followed just as cautiously by Omiroe and Acetec. kDira peeked in and confirmed that there were only two people inside, and they appeared exactly as she had imagined them. The younger of the two most certainly had some sort of ailment that left him unable to stand up straight and was also likely affecting his speech.

  “What’s the plan, Queen Mother?” Omiroe whispered.

  kDira felt a warmth wash over her that someone still thought of her as the Queen Mother of the Blackhorn.

  “I think we should just walk in and take what is ours. If the old man tries anything, we will simply have to teach him the error of his ways, without hurting him, of course.”

  “Of course. Allow me to lead the way?”

  “After you, Omiroe.”

  Omiroe walked in like he was in charge. The old man looked up, and the young man hobbled backward toward the wall. The kitchen area had a long, shiny, metal table that was covered in rock-goat blood and parts. The old man had been in the process of cutting up the animal when he was interrupted by Omiroe entering the area.

  “What are you—”

  “Just tell me where the rest of the rock-goat is, and we will be on our way,” Omiroe demanded.

  “Better tell him,” kDira said. “He usually breaks arms first, then asks questions later.”

  “I do not!” Omiroe protested.

  “You do now!” kDira said, shaking her head.

  “Right! Where is the meat, old man?”

  “That meat is for the Queen’s personal consumption! She will be furious if it is taken out of here without her permission!”

  “I will be furious if you don’t tell me now,” Omiroe said forcefully. “You don’t want me furious.”

  “You don’t want Omiroe furious,” kDira reinforced.

  “You can’ hab it!” the boy yelled across the room. “The Queen said you don’ get none.”

  “Silence, Stupid!” the older man yelled.

  “Wait,” kDira said. “The Queen specifically said that we don’t get any of the meat we killed?”