Using her every ounce of strength, kDira struggled to get free, but the Queen seemed to have strength unlike any other. As kDira's feet began to leave the floor, the Queen suddenly froze.
Looking down, the Queen could see Winter’s sword projecting out from her belly.
“Time for you to die,” Winter said, pulling her sword free.
The Queen loosened her grip on kDira and put both hands over the gaping hole that was now spilling blood on the already-bloody floor.
“No. Please,” the Queen gasped. “Mercy.”
“Like you showed Ari?” Winter asked. “Should I show you that kind of mercy? Look at your people below. They are finished with you, ready for a new start. You are done here.”
Winter and kDira held the Queen upright to look over the edge. The assembly below was busy disarming the Ravengard Elite Army, picking up fallen friends, helping the injured.
“People of Ravengard!” kDira called out over the courtyard. The masses grew silent, all looked up toward the tenth floor where the three stood. “I present you your Queen!”
And as simple as that, kDira and Winter hoisted the Queen over the railing.
cHAPTER 35
In hushed silence, the crowd below watched as the life of their former Queen ended with a thud just a few feet from where Ari had lost hers. Slowly, the mass of Ravengard and Blackhorn pushed forward to confirm that they had, in fact, watched Queen Lehentis herself fall to her death.
The Ravengard, both the warriors and the workers, looked at each other, considering what was next. What path could they possibly take now? Who would lead them?
Most of the workers barely knew any other Queen. The breeding females had been eliminated years ago by a jealous new Queen, and though the youngest males ended up being pushed into service in the Queen’s Army, the older ones were put to work in the factories and fishing industry. The realization that there was no longer a person to figuratively crack the whip hit them hard.
kDira helped Winter, who was feeling the pain of her injured foot again, down the flights of stairs to the ground floor. As they stepped out of the Crowne Plaza, no longer Palace of the Crowne, into the open area outside, they were met by a silent mix of tribes. Some were bleeding, some had bandaged wounds, and some were just sitting on the ground, too weak or injured to stand.
Slowly, as though from an awakening giant, a low rumble built into a cascade of cheers from the masses, fists thrust into the air from Blackhorn and Ravengard alike. The Ravengard, as though a great weight had been lifted from them, a spell broken, knew they were looking at their new leader.
First the Ravengard slowly began to kneel and bow their heads to kDira and Winter, then the Blackhorn followed suit. kDira was breathless at the sight of hundreds and hundreds of Ravengard now bowing before her. And she was not about to have it.
“No! No! Get up! You do not bow down to me. I am not here to be your leader, your Queen, or any of that. I am here for the Blackhorn, and now that we have fought our battle, we shall be moving on.”
All the Ravengard looked around, not certain what would happen next, or who to turn to.
Then, from somewhere in the back, a young Ravengard pushed his way to the front. It was young Cliverly.
“Who will be our Queen, kDira?” he said, sadness in his voice.
“You and the others will have to decide for yourselves.”
“But you said Cliverly could be Blackhorn. Is Cliverly Blackhorn?”
“Of course, you are. If you would like to come with us, then you are free to do so. No one can tell you not to go now.”
“But… if Cliverly is Blackhorn, why can’t all be Blackhorn? No more Ravengard.”
Everyone around, including Ravengard, nodded their heads and mumbled agreement. kDira looked at Winter, whose jaw was slack at the suggestion.
“Winter, I don’t have it in me anymore to rule, let alone a tribe as large as this. There are massive complications… feeding them all, keeping them happy. This will be your headache one day, maybe very soon. What do you think?”
Winter looked over the crowd of strangers intermixed with some old friends and family.
“I think I could do it. I think I could lead this group of people… as long as I have you near for advice.”
“What would you do? Would you stay here? Or move onward? That is a lot of people.”
“I would probably stay here. Besides, I want to go for a ride on the giant boat!”
They laughed, and again kDira turned to address the crowd. She smiled, and looked down at her feet, gathering her thoughts.
And then she spoke. “As of today, should you choose, you are all Blackhorn.”
A cheer went up across the courtyard and echoed through the surrounding buildings.
“But,” she continued, “I shall not be leading you. From this point forward, Winter will be the Queen Mother of the Blackhorn. I am relinquishing my position. I have a mate to take care of,” she said glancing at Agis, “And two more daughters to raise, and I look forward to enjoying my grandbaby when it is born. So, Winter, it is all up to you now. The future of the Blackhorn rests on your shoulders. What you do with them is for you to decide.”
As another cheer arose into the air, much louder than before, Winter stepped forward and hugged her mother, kissing her forehead. “I won’t let you down, mum.”
“Queen Mother, I know you will not.”
Winter stepped forward to address the gathering.
“If you will pledge your loyalty to the Blackhorn, then I will pledge my loyalty to you, and I will do everything in my power to treat you fairly, with dignity, and see that everyone eats as much as I do.”
“I propose that for the remainder of the day, we tend to our wounded, mourn the dead, and heal our hearts and souls. Tomorrow morning, I welcome any that wish, to go on a hunt with me. Tomorrow evening, we will feast on chideer and fish and eat until we cannot eat anymore! Tomorrow is a new day! Tomorrow we celebrate the rebirth of the Blackhorn tribe and welcome its newest members!”
The loudest cheers of all echoed far and wide. Winter again hugged her mother, and the two of them went to be by Agis’s side.
Winter did get her ride on the big boat. Captain Anderstrand took all the Blackhorn on a fun trip around the large islands to the west, and Winter vowed to have a party sent one day to explore them for resources, game, or anything exotic.
The older Blackhorn taught the former Ravengard the true art of hunting, and they began to have weekly hunts to the north, and everyone had a good variety of fish or chideer whenever they wished.
Six months later, Winter gave birth to a healthy baby boy, which as she promised, she named Aaron after his father. Winter vowed that the boy would grow up with Blackhorn spirit and Survivor intellect.
As the years passed, Charlomine found herself attracted to one of the Survivors, whose name was James. He was twice her age, but still young at heart. It wasn’t long before she was expecting a child of her own.
Benithan finally found his way into Winter’s heart by showing devotion to the child Aaron that Winter did not expect. Together they united and became inseparable.
kDira gave birth to no more children, and she and Agis settled in to just be together, and hunt on occasion. They continued to razz each other, still calling the other kreb time and time again. It was only five years later that Agis died. Lucas believed it was complications from his injury to his chest. Though Agis had never complained, kDira and others could tell he suffered a lot of discomfort. One day he just did not wake up.
kDira, now alone, sat in her chair watching out to the sea. She cherished the visits from her girls and grandkids, but her depression and loneliness from missing Agis got the better of her. Two years, almost to the day after Agis passed, she too died in her sleep.
The funeral for her was like no other Blackhorn funeral before. Her body, draped in silk bedsheets, was paraded through the streets of New Blackhorn on the shoulders of warriors before being placed on
a giant funeral pyre.
kDira, Agis, and Isiath watched the ceremony from a distance, arms linked together. Aaron, Winter’s mate from the Survivors, joined them, as did the elder Isiath, and kDira’s mother, Jilleane. It was a new day. It was a grand day to know they had left the world in good hands.
About the Author
Currently living in Kingsley, Michigan, I am a U.S. Navy veteran, father of two, step-father to three more. Somewhere in the course of my life I set some goals that I felt if I could accomplish these goals I would have accomplished something in my life. One of those goals was to write a book. I accomplished that goal in 2014 with the publication of my first book, a short story called Rust. Rust was a story loosely based on my daughter and some of the trials young girls face in their formative years.
Three years later I published my second book, Nora’s Ark. A Novella in length, and at the time it was my crowning achievement in writing. Nora’s Ark was a story that was 11 years in the making, a story that I had start to finish in my head since 2006. When I first got the idea, I began frantically writing the book on an old computer. I managed to get a whole chapter and a half when I lost steam, and the book sat untouched for 11 years. It wasn’t until April of 2017 that I got enough courage to actually sit down and FINISH Nora’s Ark. With the constant whip cracking from my wife, I managed to finish it in early May of 2017, and I had it published on Amazon.com.
With Nora’s Ark out of the way, and some good reviews behind me, I then set upon my biggest challenge, a full-length novel kDira’s World, a post-apocalyptic adventure set one hundred years after the end of the world. And now you have read the sequel, Hayden’s Curse.
And then there is Johnny Rockett series, my tribute to all the things I love about classic science fiction, with a little humor thrown in to jazz it up a bit.
My influences are Isaac Asimov for his Foundation and Robots trilogies, Arthur C. Clarke for 2001 and others, Andre Norton for her countless sci-fi and fantasy adventures and her ability to crank out book after book, Terry Brooks for his Shannara Trilogy (and more!) and Richard Bach for his books Illusions and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. A lover of science fiction, fantasy, steam punk, I try to incorporate something of every book I have loved into every story I write.
Thanks for reading, and PLEASE remember to review!
~ k.R. McClellan
Other Books: Be sure to read
Available on Amazon.com
Available on Amazon.com
The kDira's World Anthology Page 62