Mundahlia (The Mundahlian Era, #1) (33 page)

“...
She
has broken the pact our ancestors agreed to with the humans. The pact that forced us here to this small kingdom, while the greedy humans took the majority of the land, and murdered those of us who tried to object ...” The King continued. The Queen stared around the room as her husband spoke—bored. How could she ever marry someone so...mundane? “...Back then, we were weak and outnumbered. But now, my fellow brothers and sisters, we are truly powerful. This time we shall show no mercy! We have been waiting for this moment for centuries! Humans won the battle before, but they will
not
win this time. The human era has lasted long enough! A new era shall begin. A grand era that shall forever make us legendary beings, and have our own history marked in the world. It is time for
our
era! The
Mundahlian
Era!”

A loud chorus of cheers sounded, knocking me away from my thoughts.

“Human!” he called from the platform above, pointing to me with his paw.

“I have a name, you ass!” I broke. I hated being treated like I was not important, or as if I weren’t in the room.

The room fell silent. Even the old man beside me gasped as though he were going to faint. Something triggered the King’s attention. “How
dare
you speak to me with such disdain!” He stood and made his way down the stairs toward me—dragging his dark purple robe with a white and black-speckled trim across the steps. “You are in
my
world now.
You
have
no
rights here! We can do with you as we please, so you’d find it in your best intentions to silence yourself.” His paw clasped my throat and his sharp nails began extending out from it. “Got it?” His fur disappeared into his skin and his face morphed back into that of a human. I was right—he looked old. In his human form he had salt and pepper hair and a matching unkempt goatee. The King looked like Jett in so many ways, which to me felt like a bit like déjà vu, given that I was in the same predicament with his son a few days before. Large arms, same shoulder-length hair, even the same nose and bone structure. His hand, now human, tightened around my neck. “Answer me!” he demanded. His eyes were strangely hollow, like Jett’s had been when he’d hurt me and broken my heart. As if there was an outer being controlling him. I knew, deep inside, that that was not my Jett that had hurt me—it was something else making him. And something deep within my mind felt that the King wasn’t always the way he was now, either. A bitter old man. From the face given by his wife, which told me that there was something in him that she once loved, I knew I was right. But what? What on earth had happened to both of them.

“You-are-a-
monster
! No wonder Jett hates you!” I said through my gritting teeth.

He looked astonished. I had verbally hit him in the balls, it appeared. His hand unclenched. “How do you know about my son?” The Queen stood from atop the platform, a question burning in her head, and looking equally as puzzled.

“Oh, a story so rich, it just has to be told,” Bane said, letting out a roguish laugh. “She and your imprudent son had a
repulsive
relationship going on when I’d found them.
Ha!
Can you believe that? A human and a Mundahlian? How
preposterous
!”

“Is this true?” The King asked me, eyes calmed but still assertive.

“What’s it to you?” I said curtly.

“Answer the question!” His fists balled. He was getting close to striking me in the face, I could feel it.

I was hesitant at first, “Yes.”

He huffed. “Then it is a good thing my son kept it from further progressing. Even
we
have morals, my dear. Inter-species relationships are not allowed!” He began his ascend up the stairs. “And as for your sentence,” he said without turning. “
Death.
Take her away.”

“
What?!
No! I did nothing wrong!” I screamed. “Please! I-”

“Kincade!” the Queen addressed her husband in a manner both pleading, yet authoritative. “Perhaps we are being too harsh on her.”

“I think not. In fact, there are far more dreadful things I could do. I see death as a merciful decree. She’ll only feel pain for a moment, then, nothing at all.”

“Dearest,
please.
Maybe a less forbidding indictment is more suited. We don’t know if she did, in fact, kill the Mundahlian. Either way, what was it doing on the human land? Only the royal children and a single guard are allowed inside.”

Bane interjected, sounding like a brat that has just been told they couldn’t get a new toy, “The Mundahlian was there to protect me on the journey to find your family and bring them back to our world. I was only doing the best for our nation when this human used a shiny weapon to terminate the life of my guard. Are you calling me a liar?”

The Queen adjusted her posture, “I believe that we don’t have enough proof to give the human a proper trial. Had you brought evidence of this murder instead of just the proof that you are capable at crafting stories, then it would indeed be different. Besides, you were only allowed one guard, and you chose Paul, did you not?”

Her words struck a nerve. “Unfair! Father tell this incompetent woman you married how you allowed me the other.” Bane roared.

“Bane!” His father warned. But then, he turned to the Queen. “It is true, Ludenia. I allowed him the use of another guard when he’d found them. But he sent for the other later on. Only Paul started with him, the other went in to find them.”

“And it was during that time that the human killed him.”

“Where is the evidence of this?” The Queen persisted.

“Evidence? I’ll get you your evidence.” He removed a picture from inside his shirt. “Here,” he said, passing the photograph to his father. “I took a picture of her standing over the dead remains.” The King inspected the picture. “That is clearly her, a dark-haired woman. Her face isn’t able to be seen here because it was too dark, but I promise this is her. We apprehended her then. Look, she is wearing the same clothes.”

The King hopped down the steps and compared the image side by side to me. I managed to peek at it from the corners of my eyes. There was a dark-haired girl standing next to the body, exactly how Jett had left it. A bloody mess. She had blood on her arms and was wearing the same clothes as me, but it wasn’t me. No, she was too skinny and her hair wasn’t as defined as mine. An impostor. “That’s not me!” I said. “That’s someone else. He put someone else there.”

“Silence!” the King roared, still trying to compare.

The Queen ignored him and continued toward her husband. “Please,” she put a hand to his cheek once she’d arrived at the bottom. “Reconsider it, my love. Besides, the council still has to approve of this before you can even begin to send out the army to the human world.” She nodded over to a group of individuals sitting in the back of the arena. They were all dressed in lengthy purple robes that hid the sight of any of their skin or features. One of them stood and made their way over to inspect the photograph as well.

“It is her,” the King said to the hooded figure, removing his wife’s hand from his cheek and taking it into his. “I am most sure of it.”

The purple figure glided back to the others who took turns looking at the photograph and then me several times.

He turned to me and cleared his throat. “My final judgement,” he announced. “Is that you shall spend the remainder of your dainty life in the dungeon with the Enthiduans.”

The men yielding the massive axes and hammers, strapped them to their backs, and tore the chains from the floor. One of them threw me over their shoulder—and the other trailed behind, as we headed out of the room. I glanced to the Queen again as she and her family left back into the room they’d entered from. The purple robed figures stood from their corner of the arena and exited. The council. The ones who would decide the fate of the humans. The ones who were under the impression that I was, in fact, a murderer.

“You get fed once a day. You missed the food today so you’ll have to wait till tomorrow.” One opened the door to a stairwell—the light from torches across the stone walls lit the small spiraling staircase dimly—and took me in.

I bounced as the man who’d thrown me over his shoulder headed down the steps to a small chamber at the foot of the stairs. The smell hit me hard as he opened up the latches and set me down. It reeked of urine, excrement, and decay, and smelled like an outhouse. I wanted to gag. I
did
gag.

There wasn’t anybody in there. The orange glow from outside lit the tiny tiled room a few feet in. All I could see were chains, scattered across the floor and on the walls. They looked like loose wires or vines. “Get inside.” The man pushed me in after groping my behind, and kept shoving me until I’d reached the end of the chamber. The guard then took the torn ends of my chain and looped it to through a stray chain. Using his hand, he bent the metal to conjoin the two.

“Have a nice life,” he said, walking away and meeting the other guard back at the door. “Don’t let the carpethids bite.” He shut the door, encasing me in utter darkness, and latched the locks back on. It was as if I had my eyes closed. Completely pitch dark.

“God, what did I do to deserve this?” I questioned myself. The chain I was attached to rattled across the floor. “Who’s there?” I asked into the air. There was no response. “Please. I won’t hurt you, just please don’t hurt me. I’ve been through enough already.”

“You are an innocent,” A small voice rose. It was female and soft. “You don’t belong here.”

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I do not have a name. But, what is yours?”

“Rini,” I said slowly.

“Hello, Rini.” The voice in the dark greeted. Her voice was serene like a lullaby, and hushed like a whisper—but still audible.

“Hello. Where are you? I can’t see you.”

“Why are you here?” The voice broke. The chain at the other end of mine rattled again.

“I was wrongfully accused of killing a mundahlian and violating some stupid pact that was made a long time ago. Bane did it, he set the whole thing up.”

“Oh. I am very sorry to hear that.”

“Why are
you
here? Why can’t I see you?”

“I must apologize, Rini. We are sensitive to light and had to hide when the door was opened.”

Crack!

I gasped. “What was that.”

“Relax, Rini. All will be answered shortly.” There was a small glow in front of me that flashed then disappeared. A small neon white glimmer appeared, like a drop of ink dispersing in a glass of water. The first thing that became noticeable was the figure of a woman in a white dress that extended to the floor, standing before me. It traveled around, almost like a glow stick, filling in the rest of her arms and face. When the woman came into full view, she smiled sympathetically. She had no color. All white with eyes of grey. Her long snowy hair flowed to the floor. “We are Enthiduans,” she explained, then peered over her shoulders. “Come on out, she is not harmful.”

There were multiple sounds of cracking. Then, multiple flashes. The dark room slowly became illuminated with the incandescent light of them. The whole area came into view. There were many of them. If I had to guess a number, I’d say fifty or more. They varied. Some were women, and other’s were men, ranging from children to elders. But, like the one in front of me, had no color and eyes of gray.

There was enough slack of the chain for me to stand. “You all are so—pretty,” I said. “Why are you all here?”

“In our home, we are considered criminals. We were all convicted for trying to stand up for ourselves against the harsh indictments. So as punishment, the gods sent us here to be eaten.”

“Why don’t you just fly away?”

The woman turned and lowered her dress. There were black slits in the shape of a V going down her back. “We were stripped.”

“How will you all get home if you escape from here?”

The woman paused for a moment. She looked in her late twenties or early thirties. “Well, we cannot go home in these bodies. They have been marked as tainted. So I would guess, if by chance, we were freed or escaped, that we would simply run, as fast as we could, far away from these parts—and take refuge someplace else.”

“Is it true you all have a pearl inside of you?” I asked, then thought it to be in poor taste to ask.

She smiled. “Yes. It is a small piece of a power encased into a tiny sphere or, pearl, that we are given to guard. However, when the King spoke to the Gods some time ago, they allowed us to keep our spheres, so it could serve as entertainment for he and his children while we are—uh,
devoured
. Every celebratory dinner, one of us is selected and eaten. We lost a dear friend a few days ago when one of the King’s children aged another year older. For now, each of us is safe—for the time being. Until the council approves of the King’s request to start war. I suspect there will be another celebratory dinner then.” She saw me raise an interested eyebrow and told me how she knew of all of this. “We overheard the ruling. This chamber is set directly under the judgment room.”

“I’m sorry,” I said feeling horrible that these beautiful creatures have to wait around until being eaten.

“Don’t be. It is not your fault. You are just an innocent human who’s done nothing wrong.” She heard my grumbling stomach announce itself. “Are you hungry, Rini?”

“Just a little, but I can wait till tomorrow.”

The woman reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a piece of bread. “We have to save all the food we can,” she explained. “Some days they forget to feed us.” She held the bread out to me, “Here you go. I’ve eaten enough to last until tomorrow.”

“Oh no! I couldn’t, really.”

“Please. You need to eat.”

It was then that I noticed that all the Enthiduans looked malnourished and sickly. A child somewhere in the crowd coughed and wheezed. It was a sad sight. This room was filthy and wet, and smelled horrible. They were fed only once a day, in less than appropriate rations, and were forced to sit around and wait until their death. They were living in their own personal holocaust.

“Take it,” she insisted and grabbed my hand.

I took the bread and bit. She smiled and sat beside me, leaning against the wall. I lowered myself down as well.

“You have beautiful eyes and gorgeous hair,” she said, looking as though she wanted to feel it in her hands. “May I play with it?”

“Thank you, and sure.”

She took strands of hair behind my ear, and ran her fingers through it. “It looks as though we are dungeon partners,” she said, looking at the chain for a brief moment, then back at the strand in her hand. The man had bound us together. “They pair us up by twos. I’ve never had one before, until now.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“Well, it means that wherever you go, I go, and like wise. We are chained together at the feet, so we have to cooperate when we need to go relieve ourselves in the corner, or when we go to the barrel for a drink of water.”

“Eww,” I said.

“It is a normal function.”

“I know, but-”

“I understand.” She put the back of her head against the wall—releasing my hair. “But we must make do with what we are given.” She relaxed and sighed. “I wonder what my husband and daughter are doing right this moment,” she murmured, looking into the air.

“Where are they?” I asked, finishing the last bite of bread.

“In Enthidua. I hope to one day be with them again.”

I gave her a sorrowful look. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“That you are separated from your family.” In a way it was just like me. Being separated from family was something I could relate to. I was far from my family, just like this beautiful Angel.

“It’s okay, Rini,” she said softly, gazing into the air again. “I know I’ll see them again soon.” She sighed another time. “And to think, I used to own a bakery.”

“What do I call you?” I asked her. I needed something to refer to her as.

“I do not have a name,” She repeated. “The Enthiduan people are all referred to as
You
in Enthidua. You know, ‘you there’ or ‘you girl, come here.’”

“How about I call you—Angela,” I said after plucking a perfect name. “Get it,
Angel
-a.”

“Angela?” she pondered for a moment, as if she were sizing it up. “I like it.”