local settlement date 35,989
Follow a dead lie long enough and the truth will leave you to die.
King Namor Zujahrah
10 woman's game
Shortly after Barbaralba met the Drave who had given Barbaralba her life and her name, she landed in a cell with her and 34 other Draves. All women. Drave women who had committed a crime against the royal family. She knew what await them. She had Zauqir tell her his story while they sat under the night sky with the moons and countless stars. He had warned her often to stay out of the game. And she had trained every day knowing it was likely that she would end up being told what to do by a royal family king or queen.
She did not do what she was told. She killed the first tax collector who wanted to rape her. Barbaralba had not told the Royal Family member. A King with no name. That she would rather kill him than have him use her as his sex toy. The King did not rape her. He ordered guards to take Barbaralba away.
Away meant the games.
If she was careful, she would not end up burning in the beast.
Everyone in the cell knew her life of comfortable servitude was over. They knew about Drave games. Barbaralba looked around to see whom she might have to kill. She found the idea absurd. Killing other Draves for the pleasure of the royal family. Most of the Draves were much older than her. Softer. Not used to killing anything. Serving. Slowly. Getting weaker over the years. Falling into a sleep. Believing it was their lot to kill each other because of their crime.
Barbaralba would kill whom she had to so that she could kill who she wanted to.
She thought about the unfortunate event with her mother. Instead of freeing her. Taking her to the ocean. She was most likely soon dead.
"I am sorry, Mother. I thought I could get you out of the castle."
The guard rattled as he turned to look at Barbaralba. She looked back at him until he turned around.
"They own us because we allow it. We have been too beaten to stand up and fight back."
"It is how it has always been. We are Draves, Barbaralba. Draves serve the royal family."
"It is how it has been but I will change that."
Barbaralba was allowing herself to condemn the royal family with the wrath of long imprisoned gods. She would not give them her fear. War is what she would bring them.
"I don't see a way, Barbaralba, but I can see if there is a way, you will find it."
Barbaralba kissed her mother. She felt her mother's tears on her breast.
Two guards came for every Drave waiting for the death game. The Draves were taken to their areas on the playing field. If they were Alois or Urskins, they were given help with their armor.
Barbaralba was a drawl. She had a stick. A blunt spear. She busied herself working out a better point to it by scraping it on the floor.
When she was satisfied with her spear's point, she stood and looked up at the crowd.
"You have made me your enemy."
No one heard her. It was much too loud already. The crowd was cheering for the first fight.
Except one in the front row. He was looking at her with obvious dread. The Book King.
He jumped up out of his seat and ran to the official's booth. Barbaralba watched him pushing through the crowd of game watchers to get to the command booth.
"I want that Drave removed from the game."
"Too late. She has committed a crime of insubordination. The game is sealed. You may reserve her body, alive or dead."
"Drave 36. I, King Namor, proclaim."
The officials filled out the proclamation that King Namor could have the Drave after the fight. She was free to go, if she lived. Namor did not know what else to do. His proclamation was quickly sealed and many kings waited behind him to make random proclamations.
Always proclamations. A family making up rules.
Namor went back to his booth with his brother's. His mother and two of his uncles had joined them.
"King Namor. You look flustered."
"King Rosh. Good to see you. Clean and looking like a king."
"I'm happy to see you. Also clean and looking like a king."
"It will be the last time you see me at a game. I already don't like it and there is still no blood."
"I can see that, King Namor. It isn't a sport for everyone. This is only the second your mother has attended."
"Maybe it is in our blood."
"Namor, King of Kings. I've heard you have found the old library."
"Yes Mother. We have finally broken through to the inside of the library. We are still digging. But we have a crawl space. So many books. Sealed. Twice. Or three times. The library one seal. A vacuum glass case and a thin coating around the books. Each individually. They were likely put there near the beginning of Castle City. Over a thousand generation ago."
"What have you found in the books."
"The few books that I have looked through are Royal Family Patent Registries. The one I've seen include countless fish, grains and grasses."
"What are patent registries."
"I don't know. Somehow the royal family has their name and classification on everything. If it means they own everything, I'm not quite certain. It is, however, likely. If it means anything after so long, I don't know."
"How long have they been there."
"A very long time. If our date is right. They are all at least 30,000 years old."
"I will have to come see this library that my son has discovered."
"I hope you do. You will find me there most days. I have a small flat in the Drave village now."
Orthia smiled.
"Hey you two. Watch the game. There's something happening already."
"We've missed only a few drawls, King Morhart."
"Try to watch. Sometimes the drawls are the most interesting. They put the strongest and youngest in the drawl position. Makes for a bloody good fight most times."
"Yes. No need to make a proclamation. We will watch. At least I will, my mother is not really under contract."
Orthia smiled and also turned her eyes to the field after giving King Morhart a silly look.
Barbaralba awaited her first fight. She had worked on her point a few more times while other Draves killed one another.
She was working on the spear's point when her fight was called. Her opponent charged her before Barbaralba looked up to see the terror on her opponents face. Barbaralba knocked the outstretched spear out of danger and drove her sharpened spear into the belly of the fish. Her opponent.
She held the other Drave until she crossed over to dead meat. Then Barbaralba let her kill fall to the floor, sliding off her spear.
"Bloody Beast, did you see her move."
Queen Orthia smiled at King Rosh and put her arm around her son.
"I am happy to see you don't like the game. King Namor."
"Why have you come, Mother."
"To see you. King Rosh told me you would be here today."
"Who was my father."
Namor looked at his mother.
"I think you know what he is. It was the only time I felt I knew what love was and I had seen him for the first time in this hall. He was a drawl. I was certain I knew him. That he was a part of me that I had lost. I left the castle to live with him."
Namor could figure out fast enough why she came back.
"Outside the castle, they call me the Drave King. Many of them believe I have come to deliver them."
"There will be those in the castle who believe it as well. King Namor. My Drave son."
Orthia kissed him.
"Namor. King of Lost Libraries. Again you are not watching."
King Morhart and King Rosh were looking at Queen Orthia and King Namor. They knew who his father was.
"You know what I am. You have known."
"We have known your mother a long time, King Namor. We are your uncles."
"And still you call me King."
Namor's brothers turn from the game to take notice of the last words of their brother.
"The King is obvious in you, King Namor. I will always be in the service of your mother, my cousin, Queen Orthia and her first son. My nephew, King Namor."
"As I."
"And I."
"And I."
"I take your word and put it to my armor."
"Good man. Now watch the bloody game, Brother."
An Urskin was ordered to Barbaralba's area. She ran at Barbaralba screaming, with her ax overhead. Wasting most of her air. Barbaralba took in another breath and waited until the ax was swinging down at her head. She twisted out of the way in the last instant and took the ax off her hip. Throwing her opponent off balance. Barbaralba thrust her spear into her opponent's throat. She pulled it out again and smashed the blunt end into the back of her opponent's head.
"Bloody screaming Beast. She is a killer."
"She'll throw the ax."
"Like Turan."
"At us."
Rosh laughed.
"No. King Namor. She fights like your father. Even though there are no rules, she will break them."
"Yes, Rosh. I agree she is a true fighter. But I say she doesn't throw the ax."
Namor hoped this was a good thing. He wanted to have another chance to talk to the Drave, have her look at him like she had the first time he saw her.
"Pay attention. She has another fight."
"She has not picked up the ax."
"She is standing on it."
"She is not watching the game."
"She is watching me."
Everyone who heard Namor in the din of the crowd looked at him. As they did, he jumped up. He did not make a sound. He was certain he was screaming above the crowd.
Barbaralba twisted around and threw her spear like a file out of her bow. She watched it fly. She had thrown a spear countless times at the boarder of the desert. She had helped Russam kill sharks with a spear.
Barbaralba's opponent's arm ripped open and the spear penetrated her leather vest ripping into her flesh. Barbaralba bent to pick up the ax, spun around and chopped through her opponent's knee. As she fell, Barbaralba smashed the back of her head. Kill the fish fast. You do not need to eat its fear.
"She did not throw the ax."
"She through the spear."
"That happens all the time."
"First time in this game, however. And she threw it with brute force and trained accuracy. She is a strange creature, this one."
"True enough."
"She's bleeding. Why doesn't she take the skins."
"She's mad."
"Mad. But she's fast. It is her advantage and even the skins would slow her down. And she is also smart enough to know this. This is going to be a very good game."
"Namor. She keeps looking at you."
"I think she wants to kill me."
"She might want to kill all of us."
"She should want to kill all of us."
"Luckily, Draves can not do what they want."
"As long as we have the means to not let them."
"King Namor. What do you propose, please tell."
"I suspect we must get a few new ideas in our heads about protocol before something really bad happens to us. I think we have run our course."
"Run our course. King Namor. What course do you speak of."
"Our course. Our way of life and its direct influence on the Drave's way of life. It is a way of life that can not last. And it has run its course. Come to the end. We must quickly figure out a new way. Our family is quite mad."
"I can not argue with that. We are quite mad. But at the end of our course. I can't imagine this course being done."
"Well, dear brother. You must look at little more. For I see it as obvious."
Barbaralba looked at her mother. Her mother smiled at her. She had just been ordered to her first fight. She had not moved yet. She knew killing someone on Barbaralba's team lessened her only daughter's chance of survival. If her opponent did not want to fight, they would both become the voice of the beast.
She had heard the cry of the beast many times. She decided to fight. Rage had been waiting for an outlet for much of her life. Her opponent was an Urskin. She was attacking with her ax. It bounced off her Alois armor. An Alois almost always won in a fight against an Urskin. One good poke in the face with a sword and an Urskin fell like a drawl.
The crowd had seen many such fights. It was the first time Barbaralba's mother had seen one at the end of her sword.
"That leaves only the obvious."
"What. What is the next move."
"Your Drave has won the fans, though she hates us, and her reward will be the next three fights."
Namor was getting uneasy. He was wondering if his bloody fish patent book had been worth his concession to watch Draves kill for his entertainment. He was grinding his teeth when he was not consciously trying not to.
"She doesn't want to kill you, my son. Even if she could kill us all. She won't kill you."
"What makes so certain."
"You are already lovers."
Namor looked at his mother. The royal family side of him. She had loved a Drave.
"I want to believe it. When I first saw her, like you said about your lover, I thought I had found something I hadn't even know I was missing. The last part of me to be me."
"The gods know more than we do. And in such things it is better if we don't try to fight against them."
"I would like to believe that."
"King Namor. You don't need to believe anything. The gods have there hands on you. Any fool could see it if they took time to look."
"Then why don't I see it."
Orthia laughed at her son.
"You are either a fool or haven't looked."
"I find it a little hard to look at myself and take me seriously."
"Look at how those around you look at you and you will see the gods."
Barbaralba had her first Alois fight. She had not decided how to fight her. She stood and watched her. Without thinking about it, she touched her leg then lifted her hand slowly to lick off the blood. She was only looking for the connection.
She shifted her weight from one leg to the other to feel their ability to carry her. She had enough air.
Barbaralba threw her spear at the charging Alois who lifted it easily out of danger with her shield.
Barbaralba spun around, leaving the ax fall from her left hand to catch it with her right. She ducked down and chopped up under the raised arm of the Alois. The ax cut under the Alois arm, glanced off the metal breast armor and dug into her armpit.
"She's awful fast. She fights like she has trained for this fight her who life."
"I would not want to stand against her."
"Brother. She's a killer like no other."
"We put her there. We are the killers. How many moves left."
"I said three. If I did, I meant three after this one. They all must die before she is finished the game."
"She has other team members."
"King Namor. You simply don't understand the ways of the game."
"No, my brother. I know what it is I am seeing. It is my curse and my blessing."
Barbaralba twisted around once more to chop through the foot of the Alois. She fell. Her life stopped with the smashing of the back of her skull. Severing all connections to her body. Blunt numbness.
Barbaralba understood that the next fights belonged to her. She had to choose her weapons. The chain and the sword. The noise of the crowd pressed down on her like the pressure of the shallow ocean. The fish had been killed and there lurked a shiny shark. Laughing. Mocking her with her superior armor. Appearing as though she were ignorant of Barbaralba's last kill. Not aware of the nature of her enemy.
Barbaralba spun around twice and let the chain fly high above the head of her prey. The Alois was forced to raise her arms. The chain pulled them back. She knew she had exposed herself and tried to protect her outstretched neck. The sword went in under her jaw and came out the back of her head. She fell back with the chain around her arms. And did not move.
"Bloody fast."
"Maybe you should just let her keep the book, Brother."
"She can have it. Even if she wants to kill me, I want her to look at me and tell me."
"You are embarking on a dangerous course."
Namor laughed at his laughing brothers.
Barbaralba's next opponent was her mother. She dropped her protective armor, her sword and held only her chain.
"Come to me Barbaralba. Drive your sword through my belly and save your energy for your last fight."
"I have just started fighting, Mother."
She drove her sword through her mother's stomach.
"I will be done when there are no more Draves in Castle City."
"Barbaralba. Don't smash my head. Let me die quietly. I want to hear the crowd cheer for your last kill."
"Last Drave kill."
"I will come back to you, Barbaralba."
Barbaralba let her mother fall to the floor with her sword still through her stomach.
"She didn't even try to fight her."
"They did more talking than fighting."
"I do not like my lack of control in this game."
Namor ran over to the official's booth and made many ignored proclamations. Far too many Kings were demanding that Drave 36 fight. Namor's voice was lost in the noise.
Barbaralba looked up at him. She smiled a little smile.
She had her last Alois to fight. Namor could see her wrath. Yet her short smile at him was real. She wanted the Drave King's attention. His intention.
Her opponent was swinging her sword. She put it in its sheath and started swinging her chain. She had not fought yet. Her opponent, the angry killer drawl, was still naked. And bleeding. And getting tired.
"You can not make her fight again."
Barbaralba dropped her chain and looked at the floor between her and her waiting opponent. There were a few dead Draves and many weapons.
Barbaralba started running and threw her sword. She picked up a bloody ax and threw it. She fell and rolled over, grabbing another ax and throw it. Beside it, a spear. She threw it. Another spear. And she threw it. She kept hitting her target but she had spent most of her air and her opponent was yet to bleed. Or move.
Barbaralba threw another ax at the same time the Alois finally let go of her chain. She hurled it with all her strength and caught Barbaralba's legs. Knocking her to the floor. Onto a sword. It pierced her stomach under her breasts. Her hands were on the handle.
Her opponent was almost on her. Barbaralba knew her opponent needed time to draw her sword and raise it above her head to bring it down on the back of Barbaralba's neck.
All were quiet. Even breathing had stopped.
"She's done. She's down. She's dead."
"No Morhart. She's still. Watch."
Namor screamed when he saw the sword coming down. He did not know her name. He did not know his own voice. He saw Barbaralba move. She rolled and flipped under her attacker and drove her sword between her legs. Cutting her open like a fish. Her attacker's sword fell out of her grip and stuck into Barbaralba's leg. She pushed herself to her feet taken hold of the sword in her leg. She eased it out and drove it up through the Alois' neck.
She heard the screams of the crowd. She had to sit down. Her legs would not hold her. She looked at her mother. There might have been a little life left in her. And a slight smile.
chapter 11
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