Kingdom Born

Well this is the original first chapter (now 1 & 2 here). Are you interested in more? Is it unbelievable? I'm looking forward to some feedback (aka reviews) Thanks!

Kiix

Chapter 2: Interrogation

"Up and at them!" A sharp pain in my buttock roused me from bed. "Get up or I'll snap you again." My hair was hanging in my face and I had to brush it aside to see Karl standing near the foot of the bed twirling a piece of cloth between his two hands. A ready smile flashed over my nakedness. No wonder it had stung. I rubbed the small spot carefully, then stretched back out on the mattress. The cloth snapped over my face.

"Touch me again and you'll regret it, Grey Eyes."

"I thought you liked me...because of the way I touched you." He struck a manly pose, his kilt hiked a little bit higher than was socially defined by the Council.

"I'm tired."

"Sunny..."

I rolled over and buried my face back into the pillows. I was just drifting off again when all of a sudden ice water poured over me. I screamed something rude then lifted my sopping hair off the back of my neck. Karl just stood at the foot of the bed, the emptied bucket still hanging from his hand.

"I've got breakfast all ready for you. Now, since you've had your bath..."

I lunged at him. He wasn't expecting it...or maybe he was because he just stood there and let my wet naked body drag him over the end of the mattress. My ankle still throbbed but I made sure that I kept it free from our bed. "Where's Kyle?"

"Off to school..." He tired to pull his wrists free from my hands. I shifted my weight forward until I was laid almost full across him. "Sunny.....ugnnn."

He wasn't wearing anything underneath his kilt. "Hussy..." I ran my lips up his neck.

"I love you." He twisted his head sideways and buried his face into my hair. Then he attempted to pull free again but I wasn't in any mood. He woke me up so he'd had to entertain me.

"What kind of man walks around without any underclothes on?"

"Yours?" He jerked as my knee lifted his kilt higher up his thighs.

"I know you not, young man? What would your mother think of your actions?"

"I have no idea? Phara..."

"What kind of man, without underclothes, throws water on a woman who is in the arms of her Goddess?" I let my hair trail on his chest..."What sort of punishment does that man deserve?"

"Punishment? By the Goddess, Phara, all it was some water..." His beloved grey eyes widened with some alarm.

"I decree punishment upon this wanton man....four days and five nights in the arms of the offended. Is that too harsh?"

He smiled the smile of a man who had got his heart's desire. "Far too lenient."

"A full week then...day and night."

"Would you?"

"Of course I would. I am a symbol of justice and what kind of symbol would I be if a man, such as yourself, were allowed to wander around the town prey to any wench who thought that you could be her fancy. You must be taught the error of your ways."

"Teach me anything you want." His eyes grew stormy with desire.

"DAD!" The outer door slammed open.

I sighed, kissed my husband on the lips then rolled off and began to get dressed. I yanked a tunic over my head and was pulling my wet hair out of the neck hole when a timid knock came to the door. "Dad?"

Karl groaned then pulled his kilt back down to his knees.

The door creaked open and a bloodied face peeked in. "Kyle!" Karl slid off the bed and yanked the doorknob out of our son's hand. Dried blood caked beneath his nose and ran down his neck. I jerked the lacing tight on my breeches and hobbled after the pair as Karl lifted him to the kitchen.

"What's the happened?" Karl was dabbing at the blood. Kyle just flinched as the cloth scrubbed at the bruised area.

"Your father asked you a question."

"OW!" Kyle pushed the cloth away. He touched his nose gingerly then looked toward the floor. "Jerei wouldn't let me go fishing."

"So why is your face all bloody?" Karl leaned back and dunked the rag into a basin.

"I fell." Kyle's eyes never left the wood on the floor. Karl and I had spent a long time polishing the wooden planks on the floor but they were not that impressive to look at.

"You're lying to us." Huge hurt grey eyes looked up to me. My little man of ten years was still my baby and would always be regardless of how old or how big he grew. "What did you do to Jerei to make her do that?"

Karl stiffened abruptly. "Why do you automatically assume that Kyle's at fault?"

I met my son's stare with one of stern disappointment I had cultivated in my rise up to the captaincy. "I asked you a question."

"She kissed Zedric...So I hit her."

Karl hissed, turned and threw the bloodied towel into the basin. I reached out and took a firm hold of Kyle's chin then raised his face so I could assess the damage. He would have a messy black eye but his nose was not broken. "Did Maryanne send you home from school?"

"No...but..."

"You asked for this beating. Jerei is three years older than you and will soon be entering into her womanhood. Who she kisses or does other things with is her concern...unless she approaches Karl or me for your betrothal. You should have been ignored as you are younger and are expected not to know any better but Jerei will answer to me..." Kyle's eyes widened with concern, "You lied to us and you ran away from school. Karl will have to speak to Maryanne when he goes to teach this afternoon."
"I'm sorry." Kyle hung his head.

"Words won't make up for the mistrust you have planted. Are you hurt or bleeding anywhere else?" I dropped my hand away.

"No..."

"Then get back to school. You'll be punished when you get done with your lessons."

"Yes, Mom." Kyle turned and headed back out of the door. I waited for the door to latch and Kyle's footsteps to fade away before turning back to Karl and our interrupted pleasure.

He stood with his back towards me, arms braced against the basin and head low on his shoulders.

"How did you know?"

"I know his father well. When you try to hide something from me your grey eyes cannot even look at me. Besides, Kyle's been following Jerei everywhere like a little puppy...it was only a matter of time."

Karl turned around, "If you knew that why didn't you talk to him? There was no need for him to get hurt."

"Would he have listened? Kyle will do what he pleases whether we warn him of the consequences. He is too headstrong to learn any other way."

"There are times I hate this town as much as I hate the land I grew up in."

I sighed. There was not going to be any more love play now. "What would you have me do Grey Eyes? Wrap him up in cloth and guard him every single hour of the day against life? Life is pain...and joy. There are lessons to learn from both sides of the
experiences."

Karl sat down heavily on the kitchen chair, "No...It tears me apart to see him hurt and I know there is nothing I can do."

"We can only prepare him for his future life...we cannot live it for him."

"I know."

There was a sharp rap on the door. "Captain Longsword."

I met Karl's eyes evenly before turning away to answer the knock. It was the same woman who met me the night before. She must have impressed Yana to no end to have been trusted with so many errands. She snapped off a quick and precise salute, then took her helm off. "Captain, The Lieutenant ordered me to bring you the news that one of the prisoners has started talking."

"How long ago?"

"The time it took me to get here. The Lieutenant has me under the strictest orders to talk to no one else but you."

"Acknowledged. Wait for me outside."

Karl had disappeared when I closed the door. Sometimes there was no dealing with men. I grabbed my harness from off the peg by the door and slipped it on, letting the heavy weight settle between my shoulders. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a sudden movement. I brought my hand up and caught my helm. Karl scowled and crossed his hands in front of his chest. "I knew what you were when you asked me to marry you. I thought that I could handle it. But I'm finding out that I can't live like this..."

"What do you want from me?"

"I don't know but we cannot go on like this."

"Send Kyle over to his grandmother's. We will talk tonight." There was little hope in my heart that simple conversation was going to cure our problem. I swore to protect the village with my life if called upon when I first picked up a sword. I had lived by that Oath for most of my life. Yet, I had sworn to cherish the man I had pulled from the sea.... I could not live without him...and I could not be content without the Guard. Something would have to change. Karl turned on his heel and headed back into the bedroom. Something would have to change or I would lose both things I deemed important.

I cast a glance down at the guard. "What is your name?"

"Hilso Tanzeer, constable 3rd class."

If Yana had her way, Tanzeer would be constable 1st class before the year was out. I had not seen her in action last night, my concern being directed to Jafee, but she must have been a Daughter with the blade to impress my Lieutenant.

"Lead the way." I hung the helm on a peg by the door and followed my escort back to the Garrison.

The Garrison was the old fortress that originally had been the site of Sandshore after the Fire. Unlike the rest of the town, it was an ugly building. The mothers had built it out of the stone that were strewn on the ground, giving it a rough and forbidding exterior. The small windows that had been set in place were about twice the height of a woman and narrow so no one, not even a malnourished child could squeeze her way inside. At the eastern side, it was rounded and there was a high crack that went from north to the south that let the defenders see who or what was coming and in what direction with safety. A second level had been added after a few years. You could tell it because the upper half was carved stone. It gave the Garrison...for the lack of a better word...character.

I saluted the outer guard and headed into the coolness of the main hall, it was hell to keep warm in the winter, but it was a haven in the heat of summer. What beauty the Garrison lacked on the outside, the inside was a damn sight better. On the floor in the main hall was a colourful mosaic of different coloured tile, alternating black and white. It looked like an off colour checker board. It was cracked and faded now, but the beauty of it still hit your eyes. Beyond the main hall there was a smaller chamber that served as a sentinel point and work station, complaints and other details were handled there. At the back, in the rounded portion was the main armoury. The high unscalable walls and the narrow sight made it the perfect spot. There was only one way in and out and I made sure that it was guarded at all times.

On the second floor were our quarters for the unmarried guardswomen. The married women had a choice of living within but who would want to sleep with fifty snoring women when one had a warm man back in her bed. I didn't. The Garrison had expanded with the city, exiting off the eastern side, there was now a walled exercise/drill area. It was large enough to easily accommodate all our Guard for morning drill. The fact that the Garrison once upon a time used to be in the centre of the village isn't as hard to believe as I used to think it was.

Sandshore had grown so much in my lifetime. Strange ships are now docking in our harbour and unloading silks and other fineries that used to be available in places such as Coveport or F'arhaven further north up the coast. The merchant street was growing longer and when it touched one of the outer walls it simply turned to the next street and began to work itself back across the city. Coin was floating everywhere, but there was a price to pay for all this commerce. The streets to the Garrison were filled with richly clothed and brightly plumed merchants and other visitors. My companion and I were poor grey birds compared to the exotic. But then in nature as in life, the drab were the protectors of the young and the colourful the vain. Thievery was becoming a way of life for some women now. Just last summer a foreigner started to built a brothel. The flames of that building had burned high into the night sky when the Council finally gave the Guard permission to rid the city of this type of vice.

We quick marched down the main hall, toward the hidden stairway behind the armoury,

"Has the Council been informed of the interrogation?"

"No Captain. The Lieutenant wants you to hear the information before passing it onto the Elders for open debate."

Debate. That was a word that I loathed. The Council of Elders consisted of the thirteen of the most stubborn women ever to have lived. I had tried to move the Garrison either closer to the harbour front, now that it was fast becoming the shadows thieves hid in, but they had to debate the costs and the other necessary considerations. It was too expensive. It would send out a wrong message to the newly arriving merchants when one of the first sights to greet them was the town Garrison--a symbol of order in a place that desperately needed it. The had talked my plan to its grave. When I brought forth another plan of smaller stations throughout the town, once again they buried it before its first breath. Finally this alarm system, with accompanying costs and safety factors, when presented before them couldn't be buried or hacked apart. I made sure of that. Last night, I was vindicated. A thin smile crossed my face. No, the Council would not need to hear this information yet. If I needed to act upon it immediately, I would bear the consequences.

If this was being petty, it was the Goddess's will.

Inside the high cut stone walls the Garrison was a beehive of activity. The sword drills were ringing all over the narrow exercise ground. The rhythmic pounding of the armory echoed through the yard. A few of the higher ranking guards waved from the high parapets and called out my name. The extra rest I had taken this morning had filled me with some vitality again. Maybe it was time to take a vacation...

We crossed into the white stone hall that lead down into the deeper recesses of the Garrison to the Hole where we kept those who broke the laws of the city and those who challenged the ways of the Goddess. The clear air gradually became stifled as narrow dark corridors closed up around us. The Hole was not a pleasant place to look at or to smell. The stench of unwashed prisoners and the waste assaulted my nose. I hated coming down here but my face was schooled into an unruffled calm.

Yana straightened up from her reading over the back of the scribe, who was assigned to record the entire interrogation, when we entered. "You're looking better." She picked up the flat page and carried it over to me. "We had discovered some very interesting stuff."

Yana had the flare for understatement. I took the pale parchment crossed over to a torch and began to read over the scribe's scrawl. I could feel the blood drain out of my face as my eyes beheld the depths of treachery. How could a woman, born and raised within these walls turn out so horribly? Misha Righthander had given these women detailed maps of the town. She had told them where to attack and what to steal, who to steal.

"What was in it for Righthander?" I didn't know that I had even spoken aloud until Yana spat at the lumpy mass in the middle of the floor. It huddled almost lifelessly in a pool of its own blood and waste. Except for it's cat like mewlings I would have mistaken it for a pile of garbage.

Yana gestered to the Badlander. "From what it was screaming, Righthander has a line of transportation set up from one of the tip of the continent to the other. She will 'acquire' anything any woman asks for...including men."

"Apparently, the price for healthy men in the cities is rather high. These Badlanders are given a quota of how many blondes, dark hairs and even eye color to get. As long as the quotas are met, they can keep the excess for themselves." Yana's voice was tinged with sorrow.

I turned and walked away from the rest of the gathered group. Away from the faint light the torchs painted on the black walls. Yana followed after me. Lowly I whispered to her,

"I knew her Yana. We were bloodsisters. How could someone turn out like this?"
Yana shrugged, "She turned from the Goddess. The Badlanders have been raiding the coast for orders for the past two years. They were hitting the smaller fishing villages who didn't have a lot of protection."

"Well they made their mistake by coming here." The record of confession crumpled underneath my fingers and tossed it back on the scribes small gray table. "None of them will stand before the Council. Is that understood?"


Yana nodded her head. "Crystal. Captain...we also got the location of their base camp. Red Hollow. The remainder of the raiders should still be there come nightfall waiting for this motley bunch to return."

"This information doesn't leave this room." The scribe set down the pen and accidentally tipped over the ink well. A blue blob spread across the remaining record, slowly, like blood winding its way to a deep set drain, making it illegible. The scribe was also one of my loyal sisters. If we were to have any hope of rescuing their other prisoners we would have to move quickly, without the Council's usual lengthy debate and the Priestess's blessing ceremonies.

If the Badlander's targets were materials and fortune I would never have considered breaking one of my Oaths to the town. But to prey on the weaker sex for profit was beneath condemnation. The Goddess's laws were far more important than any law woman could make.

"Gather the First Squadron in the courtyard--full battle gear. If anyone asks what we are doing, say we are going out of the walls to do full armor battle drills. I don't want any of the novices or anyone you suspect to be a toadie in the party. We will deal with the Council when we return."

"We'll be ready within the quarter. Let's get busy." Tanzeer pulled out her dagger and dragged across the Badlander's throat. The whimpers bubbled away as the life blood pooled on the floor. Tanzeer knelt and wiped her blade on the sleeve of her dispatched prisoner.

I called to her. "My armor is at my house. Go and get it then help me suit up. Get back here as soon as possible."

"Is this wise, Captain?" Her youthful face was pinched with concern. Tanzeer was going to make a good officer with a little more seasoning.

"Get going." She snapped off a quick salute then loped out of the room.

I had better battle armor in the Garrison but this was the only way I could keep Tanzeer from getting involved with this action. If the Council wanted to roll the heads of those involved, the young and promising need not be axed.

Looking around at the remaining fourteen faces, I could feel the strength of their determination burning forth. "Burn the bodies and get a crew down there to clean out this place."

Yana smiled her ready smile. "It's been ages since we went hunting."

"We can't afford to come up empty, Lieutenant." A horrid sickness wells up deep in my gut. The penalties I would have to pay to the Council was nothing compared to the type of life the captured men would have to face, if you could call how they were treated a life.

Slaves to any woman who had the lack of conscience to command them. In my younger days, my mother, Moko Longsword had taken me with her on a trip to the northern city of Coveport. My amazement was uncolored with the darkness of human nature. We came into a secluded courtyard, heading for the shady trees when we saw the 'sport' some women were entertaining themselves with. Several men stood naked in plain sight of everyone striking poses that were best left in the bedroom. When Moko called out the teaching of the Goddess, the women turned on us. We were out numbered more than four to one. My mother and I hold the rank of First Daughter of the Blade but odds like that time were more for the attackers. One tall blonde woman brushed her way out of the bustling pack and gave use the only formal invitation we were likely to get to leave. We did. My stomach roiled at the thought of having backed down on a principal even if I was too young and too out numbered to have accomplished anything.

"Armour up." My women headed toward the exit leaving me alone with Yana. I looked dispassionately at the corpses on the floor. I felt nothing.

"We'll turn Red Hollow really red." Yana sneered down at the corpse.

"I mean it, Yana. None of them is to escape us. We'll send a message to the cities that the coast is more than just a rich hunting ground."

Tanzeer came hurrying back down the stairwell. "Captain...A messenger from the Council is here looking for you. Apparently they heard that there were some prisoners."

Yana stepped toward the stairwell. "If the messenger gets to you before we leave, you'll be Oath bound to stand and report to the Council."

"Then I leave it to you Lieutenant to keep my Oath intact."

"With pleasure, Captain." She gave me a quick salute, "As soon as Tanzeer gets your armor back here." Tanzeer turned and disappeared up the stairs. Yana stared up after her, "If you want to armor up, the messenger and I will start at the north end looking for you." Her foot steps faded back up the stairs.

Misha Righthander was behind all this. I had racked my mind and soul before the Goddess trying to understand how someone raised in the same manner as I could turn out to be so vile a woman. I still had no explanation. Maybe I never would. The Goddess would reveal things in her own time and way, whether or not I understood. But I knew, one day Righthander would stand before my blade and answer for her crimes.