Chapter 41

Moon blossoms peppered the air as Min paddled the makeshift kayak toward the coastline.

The surface of the lake was exceedingly still and reflected the cloud strewn pink sky, heavens most faithful of mirrors.

They ploughed slowly beneath the tresses of some river-willows and were snared by an outcrop of reeds that held them lovingly.

As Ash Vani splashed into the shallows, fording the Timberwood craft the rest of the way.

Wading Through the currents that were as high as her chest.

“Careful, it’s deeper in places,” said Min, attuned to the dangers.

Vani sunk into her reflection.

The River was frostier than the party had expected and steeper than they had presumed.

The Queen, when it was her turn, splashed around in a blind frenzy. A clatter of arms twisting frantically, as the two soldiers reacquired the monarch and lugged her haltingly, on her back, from the rocks and toward the Riverbank.

“Help, help!” she screamed out like a small, fractious child in an irrational panic, as vani avoided openly wincing at her over melodramatic hissy fit.

“Please ma’am; your quite safe, your upsetting yourself for no good reason,”

“But I’m drowning,” she shrieked hysterically.

Min reached out to capture her.

“don’t snatch Giddy here’s my hand,” instructed Min.

“now your majesty, kick your legs and tread water,” added Ash Vani calmly as she looked at Min.

“I… I can’t… I can’t swim,” sobbed the Queen.

“I never got around to learning,”

After, the tantrums and theatrics had waned.

They floated her to shore on her back like a piece of driftwood.

She lay within a bed of reeds, looking like a precursor of something that awaited to serve you its ill news.

“ooh-la-la,” grunted Vani as water trickled out of her boots. She wiped herself down as the woad dye vanished off her countenance and she looked herself once more.

Drenched, they ascended the bank into an empty field and doffed their wet clothing.

They stood shivering in the sweltering midday sun, exposing themselves, as steam rose off their wet skin. The sun in its pink sky blazed down its halo of radiation, as Min poured out what seemed like half of the River from the contents of her boots. It smelled fragrant, but not in any desirable sense. Wringing out their clothes, their mail and weaponry laid a jumble in the sandy grass of the anonymous farmer’s field.

Min inspected the Queen as she mopped her eyes and hair. She was,

Dressed solely in her damp under raiment, which scarcely covered up her nudeness. Her sodden clothes clung tightly to her bosom showing off the broadness of her areolas and her nipples that almost protruded through the thin cotton of her blouse, “Queenie,” she said dryly “I have to look you over, for parasites,” as the monarch reached out and felt where she was standing, for her own point of reference.

“Vani…… monitor the perimeter,” she instructed as the Leftenant drew her sword and stood in her damp military issue underdress, dripping with her back toward them as Min examined the Queen.

“the coast looks clear, Captain,” said Vani

The Queen drew away for a moment,” it’s so demeaning, Min.” pleaded Giddy as she acted like a poor thespian on a stage that prances and frets its hour in the limelight.

“I know… but please your majesty, am I not, your bondservant?” Gaudete nodded gently, as Min reassured her “just pretend we’re children again,”

But it was much harder for the blind monarch -than it appeared to be. It was like trust falling, a game they played in their youth. Or like leaping without a safety net.

The Queen in her diffidence had not too much of a decision to make. So, like a tangle that slips itself loose, she laid down her guard and her defences, along with her clothes.

Min helped her, cautiously, tenderly, not pressing her too hard, or too fast, shedding her emerald shawl-cloak uncovering her from her priceless platinum leaf gown, that was the sole one of its kind until she was absolutely undone, And stripped naked.

Skin.

She Presumed to uncover the luxurious tanned, glossy complexion of a former Catalunian princess. It startled her to see bruises peppered her body.

Her skin.

It was like a map, a map of where her heart had been.

But since, had known ruin with the best of intention. It had surrendered its mark upon her, like furrows on a trunk of a tree that was awaiting to be felled.

She wondered what on Mars could have happened to her.

Even the royal bosom had scourge marks upon them. She grimaced and cried loudly.” N’anoo Please Min no more, I beg of you, “as shame and frustration resounded in her voice.

The captain’s heart felt sympathy for her, even though she had thought she secretly deserved it.

There were no parasites that she could see. As she gradually recovered the canvass of her body—taking better care than had been previously shown to it. She gestured to remove the scarf that lay around her head.

Undoing the knot in the cravat, she glanced upon the face of her friend. Immediately, as she held her velvety cheeks in her palms. She was drawn to her eyes, or the drought of them, where previously she had known the warm acacia flowerlike eyes of the sovereign, now there sat only hollow sockets,

“my eyes, they took them from me Min!”

Min had witnessed horrors In War before. Done by men and damaged women, for seemingly no principled reason but to assert their control; she contemplated why this had been done.

 

There was something else she remembered from her old Tā zhang teacher when she was a junior. About cruel practices from the ancient kingdom of Hy-Byzantia. Removing eyes when a wrong had been perpetrated. It was an admonition that your leaders were wilfully blind and in the dark, a rudderless ship in the night that had to navigate the rocks that were soon to come.

The implications were dire.

She also remembered a rhyme from the Hyzantine.

From a word to a word I was led to a word,

from a deed to another deed,

from a kindness of a kind,

I heard the wind sing for a while,

a whistling in the reeds.

it was singing to a new tune

looking for the new clue,

and the dogs were hoping that it would come soon.

So that they could lie,

But whilst I was a sleeping,

A shadow came a creeping,

And stole from me mine eyes.

It was eerie and left a knot in her stomach.

Even though she had no eyeballs, Min could see that the Queen was brimming with tears as they showed to journey down her snout. It tugged at her heartstrings and moved Min until she felt her own tears cascading down her cheek.

“I… I have no one,”

“don’t!” implored Min

As she retied the scarf around her head.

“Everything that I thought was important, well it doesn’t matter now,” it’s true what they say, “

“I need to tell you something, Min, for my conscious sake…. about Elkie,”

Min cast a cold, sobering stare over her. It was as if she suddenly had been struck in the face; the pain was too real, and she could not turn the other cheek.” her death, I couldn’t’… I couldn’t do anything about it, by the time I learned about it… It was too late,” she said with an ounce of regret in her voice.

“I’m sorry,” she was an orator of the most exquisite magnitude. However, something clawed at Mins Heart. Something that did not sit well with the captain of the guard, SHE KNEW about it, and yet she still looked the other way—there were other innocents persecuted.

Conscientious objectors.

Many went into exile and others. We executed them, incarcerated away from their loved ones—leaving families without fathers and sons without mothers.

And wives, without husbands.

She quietly swept her eyes as a mixture of sadness and anger overwhelmed her.

“giddy if you value our friendship, you’ll tell me immediately who gave the order,” she said with rage and feckless righteousness.

“I would never sanction such a thing, my captain,”

“Tell me,” she hissed, probing for the answer.

“I knew you’d be angry, that’s why I didn’t mention it. Until now,”

 

“TELL ME!!!, you crusty old Bitch!!!,”

“it… It was. Pri… Primavera, so, so, Sorry min.”

Min walked away and quickly donned her armour and replaced her weaponry.

“CAPTAIN!” shouted Vani

“You can’t leave our Queen,”

“Leftenant you’re going to learn what a poisonous old mugwump she really is,”

“but, we’re in the middle of a war!” Said Ash Vani reminding her of the danger” she looked at the Queen,

“They framed him, Kay…. He was right all along, about you. You think your something special when your nowt!”

“I’m SORRY, Min. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you, despite everything you. You’re, well, like family.”

“family !” she mimicked.

“So long as everything is about you, as long as you still need us.”

“if you didn’t need me, I’d already be dead!”

“Min, you wouldn’t?” Ash Vani pleaded, trying to bring her back to sobriety.

“don’t tell me what I would or wouldn’t do! Even I don’t know what that is?”

Suddenly there was a chilling silence as if all the masks that people often wear were let slip.

“I’m dying min.”

“WHAT!”

“I AM dying,”

“if this is a lie there will be no forgiveness,”

The Queen was visibly distressed as a bead of sweat appeared to hang around her forehead, it was bloody sweat; she cleared her throat and articulated.

“They diagnosed me with Morgoth’s Anaemia. There’s no known cure,”

“the enemy knows that captain, don’t let them win Min,”

“what, your turning…… into…. a wraith?” She asked bewildered, almost in a tone of sceptical disbelief.

Giddy nodded without saying another word.

——

Ūna woke to find herself resting in a bed, as the light in the room was warm on her skin. Her eyes were heavy, and she felt woozy. Above, the ceiling was dignified and gothic-like, in the sense of splendour that was scarcely seen in modernity.

Had she slept late? She shook herself and tried to sit up, but her ribs ached.

“where am I? What hour is it?” she demanded rhetorically to no one thinking aloud.

“a voice came back “10 o’clock in the morning, and this place is Aranmore “

She saw the tired face of the moor that had abetted her rescue all those generations ago. He was sat in a chair near a balcony arch.

“Jai!” She said, “it’s you.”

“yes, I am here, and you are lucky to be here also,”

“I was hoping it was!”

“Vee!!” He answered, beating her to the punchline.

“if it were not for Vee,” his voice trailed off as. “I remember, where is he?” She asked

She turned her face around the chamber until she saw the face of her quiet saviour standing there, Humble in the corner. His face was lacerated, but he looked well. It made her calm as she smirked and peered at him differently. As he shifted closer and took her hand. “you had me worried there old girl,”

“old eh’ you just wait until I get out of this bed,”

“I’ll show you.”

“Is that a promise,” he flirted, beaming, presenting the dimples in his cheeks.

“Absolutely,”.

Her face showed to be genuinely thankful as she pondered a while, “I… I just wish you to know something …. you are my rock, thank you,”

——-

Red sails in the harbour,

Red sails in the bay,

Who murdered the Tai T’ sar?

That scoundrel, Li Kay,

Callously the Ogre Stood, whose ligneous lip and sneer of despotism, portended his grasp on realism.

It was eerie an obsession, born out of blood lust, that teased and tormented him continually since their last encounter at the verge of the warriors’ gate.

The infamous nursery rhyme was some type of slur in the dishonourable sense.

They recited the controversial verse in a mocking tone, as the one-eyed Ogre stood intimidating and fearsome in the now unkempt Temple Square, peeping out on the weather-beaten steps that served  Mārin central temple.

The pathway creeping up to the meeting place was a daunting one, arduous and not for the meek. The air wafted of the uncommon scent that accompanied the dis-corporation of souls, as fragmented objects littered the streets. Looted stores lay idle and defiled. Graffiti was scrawled upon the walls, conveying hostile propaganda.

And then there were the rats.

Statues.

Even the STATUES were unseated, valueless, trunkless relics of the founders of this place. A fingerprint of anarchy. Not content with mere destruction and woe. The Agents of chaos were at work, hellbent at eradicating even the most distant of fond memories.

But there was one thing that gave a glimmer of hope. The banner that was yet flying unblemished. That read “WE WILL NOT …BE COWED,”

He took the sentiment with him, as Slowly he entered the lion’s den.

The Ogre was not alone; a small band of shae soldiers escorted him and made a defensive shield around him.

As they waited at the rendezvous site. Pale drab and ghoulish with their peculiar blue eyes as scornful as barbs that punctured into the skin.

Slowly the notorious li kay strolled into the plaza. Indignant and unbowed.

 

The Puzzled general, Lo Ki, greeted and scrutinised” you’ve come here alone?” almost on a note of disbelief.

Abashed, the grand marshal stood. “more alone than what you are,” he clarified in a very cavalier rejoinder, bypassing the identity and whereabouts of his compatriots.

“you and I, we have… unfinished business,” he said subtly, menacingly as if he meant to fulfil it shortly.

“ah’ Revenge!” he said winking and showing that he was not insufficient in possessing two good eyes.

“Why have you summoned me here, devil?”

“why? To accept your terms of submission, of course, “. He declared, licking his lips with delight at the prospect as if it were an obvious conundrum to anyone with an eye. But he appreciated that it was wholly out of the question.

“turn yourself over to the new vizier of Mercia, and we can broker peace for you and your citizens,”

It would be that simple thought the grand Marshall?

With no executioner to defend him in court. It would be foolhardy at the very least.

Kay shook his head

“I would have thought Primavera, would have allowed himself a greater position, sovereign, OR EVEN GOD!”

“is that your conclusive answer!”

Li Kay knew well how to make pain; it was over spilt and running from his heart. “GO TO HELL,” he replied slowly through gritted teeth as if he were straining out any benevolence from his words that may flee his nature.

“I was hoping you’d say that,”

“of course you were…” Kay alleged with a half-smile, patronising him as he went on in contending. “in the blind state, a one-eyed giant is a king… until the conflict… ends, then you’ll have to abdicate your newfound power back to your master,” he revelled in the irony.

He suddenly realised the enemy assembling around him as he doubled the distance between them. Still, they squawked and scuttled quickly closer to him with murderous resolve. It made him nervous, which one of them would take the merchandise and cement their name in the journals of history.

He drew his sword Nydas and assumed his on-guard stance.

Below, the noise of the seething horde

he detected another distant sound.

They had erred an amateurish mistake. Letting their ambitions get ahead of them meant they were easy prey.

But what of that far off noise of wheels on cue? As a black carriage moved deliberately down the promenade, somehow without a pilot. Let slip and gathering pace. therdump, therdump, therdump, it jolted over the obstacle-strewn street and down the hill. It was making its way from the amphitheatre, hurrying—the type of apparatus for hauling bulky goods.

It was repurposed into runaway missile of sorts with its crosshairs set to kill and locked on, to the eye-patch wearing Ogre himself.

It was accruing more momentum. Until finally, the juggernaut crashed, Colliding with appreciable force as it bowled over some of the Shae troops like skittles and mangled them irrevocably beneath its wheels, squishing them all over the paving like bugs. As the Fiend himself narrowly threw himself out of the way.

The goods vehicle finally was immobile. It was dented and scratched but nevertheless intact as the body of the cart rose to the sound of safety bolts that were heard to be undone quickly one by one as the metallic outer housing rose to its loading position. They saw the hand and arm of a man emerge from its under chassis. It was the soaring white-haired Georgian Wi Sako who was indeed lofty but yet short compared to the awful girth of lo Ki.

“am I late,” he inquired politely.

“no sako, you’re… right on time,”

Retorted the grand marshal, “that was quite some entrance you made,”

“Thank you, sir,” he said bowing and accepting the compliment.

“where is he?” asked Kay

“you know he invariably chooses to one-up me, sir!”

“your arse on a briar, Okota,” he said as Sako laughed along at the countryside slang he had picked up in Kalithia province.

Back to back, they stood in the centre of the square as the two figures stood up against the remaining shae combatants and the Ogre.

As the enemy spilt out and scattered around them. There were perhaps too many to hold off for any considerable measure of time. But the two did their best to find a position and struggle to hold it.

Sako pointed his weapon along his centreline path as he managed his defensive line and awaited to pre-empt any insurgent attack. Finally spinning his glaive and scything down the first row of guards approaching. The 2nd wave was brisker and more aggressive, as Kay hacked and chopped down the rest with his sabre. His sword sashes following the trajectory of his body. But the indisputable fact was, there were still too many as the grand marshal almost received a sword thrust to his side, but narrowly escaped it.

Still…

They duelled on and along the steps of the temple in the streets, moving through every inch. In other days people may have watched a tournament in good sport, but this was not a sport, this was life or death.

And it was becoming wearisome as adrenaline began to run out.

More of the twisted goblins came, as the fighting lulled, and the enemy surrounded them. They stood motionless with their icy blue luminous eyes glaring into the depths of their souls.

They gathered thoughts and fears.

And readied themselves for their ultimate performance.

Suddenly there was a hubbub as tear gas descended from nowhere as the haze cleared from the Temple steps, they saw Vir Okota appear strafing sideways. He was wearing a fearsome mask and totting some type of rifle that masqueraded as bellows. He aimed and pressed the trigger as a humming sound rushed out of it. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz rang out, clouds of

Bees everywhere, angry that cut right through their shield belts. Troubled, some of the soldiers took leave of their positions and fled, and some persisted, while others writhed in agony, wholly unsettled and impaired.

But as the scholars are swift to show. Victory can never be guaranteed.

No matter how lucky you were, there was always that small nagging doubt that your methods could be unstitched. That thing happening that couldn’t be accounted for.

In this instance, failure took on the shape of a small child, of years too young to comprehend the danger.

Suddenly appearing in the wake of the vile Lo Ki.

As he snatched up the boy and held his sword to his throat, and sang “red sails in the morning, red sails in the bay,”

He smiled “whatever happened here today, we will negate it from the testimony of history, “

“This is going to wash the blood off your hands?” quizzed Okota? “ah’ the notorious, the only high-handed-misery, spirit walker, you of all people will appreciate, that the victors write history, we have the numbers, YOU DON’T!”

Kay found some integrity as he implied to be talking from experience.

“People don’t forget so easily. Even your sophistry will not expunge it from the slate. People will only remember you for your cruelty, and we will reimburse it to you, in the resolution, by honourable men with the courage to stand up… you’ll know it too. I promise you, win-win, win-lose, even Knightmares can bleed.”

“sanctimonious claptrap!”

The two chieftains stood deadlocked as both were gripped in a game of who would blink first as a melody almost seemed to play in the background as the danger melted away. All that was left were two sets of eyes diametrically boring into one another, focused seemingly black like the void with merely the slightest gleam of light that were like pinpricks and so faraway.

“you want to know a secret?” said lo Ki as he had every aim of telling him Irregardless of the answer.

“It was I who was up at your villa. We had some fun with that karmarthen sow,” Kay’s stood appalled as he continued with his dark monologue. “oh and she did scream in the end, she did Kay, and weep and beg” as he tightened his hand around the young boy’s throat “I doubt if this little one will scream as much as she did?” he said looking at the face of the young boy, which was terrified.

Underneath his breath kay mumbled to himself “may all my transgressions be washed, make me chaste and pure, I resign to the least and defer to the endless” as if he was uttering a mantra one that would draw him up a path of righteous retribution, even though he had promised Min that he would not wander along that trail anymore” her name was Beiba, ” he said

As he clutched his sword nydas so thoroughly, his hand bled.

He wound his back toward the Ogre as he looked to both of his commanders, in the eyes as he drew his blade quickly, winding and moving so rapidly that the grand Marshall was just a blur as he crossed the distance and struck at his neck with pinpoint accuracy. And continued coasting past him, where he stopped dead and supposed to hear the plop of a head separated from its shoulders. But, to his surprise, he heard not a sound. His hide was too dense for even mercian steel. The Spirit walker dove forward and salvaged the small boy from his grasp as the Ogre fled, clasping his collar.

As sako retorted” you, know… I hate days like this!”