The Mutant World (24 page)

“That’s a lie!” hissed Viviane. “I’ve never had sex with you or anyone else since that night!”

“I’m crushed,” said Lady Rachel in mock sadness. “Maybe if I looked like this you’d remember?” And with that, Rachel took on the form of Lord Barrat as he looked twenty years ago. “I made you a woman that night and I’ve missed this little hole ever since!” slobbered Rachel drunkenly, totally oblivious to the sudden silence in the feasting hall. The Lady Viviane looked at her in a mixture of realization and horror and then threw back her head and screamed.

Queen Maya slowly rose to her feet, her face white. “It…It was you,” she breathed. “I suspected you of manipulation, some complicity in a plot, but never as the… It really was YOU?!?”

“What?” said Rachel drunkenly. Then she passed out.

“Seize that bitch! Have her locked in a control collar and thrown into a cell until she wakes!” cried Maya in rage mingled with anguish. Quickly strong hands seized Rachel and dragged her from the queen’s presence. There was an awful silence in the once joyous chamber, aside from the Lady Viviane’s sobs. Obvious clues and missed opportunities now flooded Queen Maya’s mind. Years of taught distrust had never died, but were only pushed to the back of her and the other’s minds, only to be revived under the right conditions. The culprit
had
to be a man, despite the fact that where mutant shapeshifters were concerned, it may very well have been a woman. Even as the years went by, and slowly but steadily, Maya had begun to doubt Barrat’s guilt, she
never
would have pegged a woman as the actually attacker. It had to have been a male accomplice in league with Rachel, and yes…her mother, Mavie! Her mother’s disapproval of the changing Mavie values was well known, and SHE had introduced Rachel to her just around the time the trouble began. Also, after the death of the prince, she had seldom spoken to Rachel and spent much time in seclusion and prayer. She was even very vocal in her disapproval of Rachel as her daughter’s mate, despite the fact that her mutant abilities would make her capable of providing the queen with an heir. Obviously, conscious and personal reflection was at work there, and now she had plenty of company.

Many of the older Mavie could not speak. The victims were always weaker mutants of human or near human level strength. It was now obvious that the true villain could imitate Barrat’s appearance, but not his strength. Also, attacks always happened when Barrat was out of sight, but no one bothered to investigate who else was missing during each attack, at least not among the women…except one. Unfortunately, by the time Kima was ready to bring her suspicions to the queen, events had progressed to the point of no return. Indeed, the other possible culprit was so high in favor with the queen that it was dangerous to say anything about her at all. A woman that would kill her own innocent muteling wouldn’t hesitate to kill a vassal if she believed the accused.

Princess Dalia was looking around herself with great confusion. “What is happening here? I didn’t know Mother Rachel could do that?! Whose form
was
that she took?! It was a man!”

Then the Lady Kima looked coldly at Queen Maya and said, “It seems that Lord Barrat was innocent after all, just as innocent as his murdered son. That,” she said pointing at the shocked Princess Dalia, “is the child of the rapist!” Queen Maya gave a great sob and fled the chamber.

******

Rachel hung from the wall of her cell, locked in the very dungeon that Barrat had been tortured and mutilated in, but not the same cell. Maya glared at her in frustration and rage.

“How long are you going to stare at me like that,” said Rachel dryly.

“I’m sorry,” replied Maya, “but until I have a death prepared for you terrible enough to fit your crimes this is all I can do.”

Rachel laughed bitterly. “Well, to be truly fair and just, I should not be alone in my fate. I assume that you wasted no time in having special telepaths breach my mental defenses. You know who set me to the task, and you know it was more than we who were involved. Most of these bitches sit high in your favor even now or…at least they are now indispensable. Anyway, I sired your daughter. I do not think killing me would go over well with her.”

Maya’s scowl deepened. She knew she was right. “Most of these women had no hand in your villainy, Rachel,” said Maya. “They but trusted you and my mother to sabotage our return to a normal society. You, and a very select few, chose and carried out the method to accomplish this! You evil bitch! My son is dead because of you!”

With that, Rachel threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, no, don’t you
dare
try and put that shit on me! Nor will you blame your mother, who also unfairly detests me because of his death, and the other acts she herself set me to commit. Yes, I’ve much to be judged for, but you bear your share. You are no innocent victim! I am a rapist, a liar and a manipulator. But I’m no child-killer! I
never
would have harmed that adorable little fellow.
YOU
did that all on your own!” Maya felt her insides churn at this brutal, but accurate statement. “I wonder,” continued Rachel, “what
are
you innocent of? You are ‘Mavie’ through and through! You believed everything because you
wanted
to believe! You even threw Barrat into a dungeon after he willingly weakened himself to prove his innocence. He had fifty eye-witnesses to his whereabouts at the time of the crime to boot. I thought I would definitely have to wait and find another target at another appropriate time. But to my genuine surprise you totally discounted the facts and chose to believe conjecture! You had absolutely NO proof to my theory. And it was just a theory, actually a lie. I knew it was bullshit. You approved of me using torture to force those men to confess to a fabricated crime. And then they were all executed, innocent one and all! You stood by while Barrat was tortured without mercy…even castrated!”

“No! No, I never ordered or approved of that!” cried Maya.

“Liar!” snarled Rachel. “You approved of his
believed
victims taking their vengeance on him even though his guilt had neither been confessed from his own mouth nor absolutely proven through mind-scans. You did it with the only conditions being that he not be killed or blinded! You’re a woman, what did you think these women who had been sexually assaulted would do once their perceived rapist was in their power?” Maya was silent. “And you dare to cry innocence of the deed?! I was worried though. With the collar on, he was nothing more than a helpless human. Also, those women were neither trained or in the mood to do it properly…if you know what I mean. We had to cauterize the wound quickly before he bled to death. Mercifully, when the hot coal was dropped into his sack he finally passed out.” A look of horror must have appeared on Maya’s face at this gruesome and graphic narration. Rachel knew that even though Maya did express anger at the deed, she had never asked the details. “I must admit I gained a great deal of respect for that man. Even after all he’d been through, he didn’t beg or scream, most importantly though, he didn’t die. The man was incredibly strong. It really is a shame that his mighty line will not continue. I was actually looking forward to raising little ‘Brac’ as my foster-son. You bitch; you didn’t even give the child a proper burial. I bet his father did though. He cared enough to carry what was left of the body away with him when he escaped.” Maya turned at this, and walked wordlessly away. She walked to the cell where Barrat had been imprisoned and where the body of their child was unceremoniously dumped and abandoned. She stared into the now empty cell and cried silently.

“My queen,” said Kima, now walking up behind her.

“Yes,” said Maya.

“What do we do about your…mate?” said Kima in bitter mockery.

“I have not decided yet,” said the queen.

“What will be done about your daughter?” asked Lady Kima.

Maya did not turn around. She knew that the Lady Kima now hated her. She couldn’t blame her either. She had warned her not to behave too rashly or severely until her man’s guilt had been proven or disproven
clearly
. But she didn’t listen, and now was paying the price. Actually, she had been paying the price for many years, but now there was no shadow of possible rightness to hide behind.

“Hmmm, you were not so indecisive where your last mate and offspring was concerned,” said Kima in disgust.

Maya whirled to face Kima, and the two women’s eyes locked for a long moment. Finally, Maya spoke. “You always liked Barrat…didn’t you?”

“Yes,” said Kima coldly, “I did…‘Child-Killer’.” This uncomplimentary name for the queen was widely whispered among the Mavie, even the worst sort, but the Lady Kima had now thrown it openly into Maya’s face.

“You want to see me dead, don’t you, Kima?”

“Before? Yes,” admitted Kima. “But not now. That would be too merciful. You’ll live and live with the memories of your despicable deeds. For you at least, that is more than adequate punishment.”

“Yes, we are of the same mind concerning that,” said Maya, “but there is another reason I cannot die yet. I must try and fix what was broken somehow. We must try to make peace with Lord Barrat and put our people back on the right path.”

Kima laughed bitterly. “It’s not
‘our’
people anymore and it’s not
‘Lord’
Barrat either. Now it’s
‘King’
Barrat, and it’s his people…against ours!”

******

It had taken several months and several messengers under the sign of truce to finally get the Barratians to talk. Ironically, the meeting was in their territory, near the plain of Nan. That the Barratians had now taken this much territory was sobering proof to the Mavie of how this war was going. Queen Maya had expected Barrat and his leaders to meet with her as equals in the town square and continue as such for the rest of the talks, but this was not the case. Queen Maya and her party walked through the gates of the town and marched into the king’s presence. He was already seated and surrounded by his warriors. They all looked at the Mavie as though they were insects. The Mavie began to grumble in indignation.

“You will not even rise to greet me, Lord Barrat?” said Queen Maya dryly. Maya noticed a powerfully built youth to the right of the king and her stomach lurched. The boy was almost the spitting image of Barrat, except that his body was unscarred and his hair was black where Barrat’s (even before it turned white) was brown. Suddenly irrational panic and hope filled her body with chills as the thought that perhaps Brac was actually still alive when she dumped him in that filthy cell. This boy looked much like an older version of her son; or much as she had imagined him to look in his late teens or early twenties. Woodenly she began to approach the now uncomfortable youth when she realized that it was not her son. Brac was assuredly dead when she brought his tiny body to his father. She of all people should know. It was a stupid, but desperate hope. She backed quickly back to her place.

“What are your terms?” said a large attractive woman standing to the left of Barrat. Maya was shocked to see it was the Lady Sonja, chieftess of that provincial town in the boonies where Barrat and his mother first appeared. She also noticed that she wore a collar and seemed to have little love for her former queen.

“Cannot the great Barrat speak for himself?” asked Maya irritably.

“My lord does not speak directly to Mavie. They are beneath him,” said Sonja simply.

Immediately, there were angry shouts from the Mavie women and some shifted into their more dangerous forms while others reached for their weapons. Lady Kima saw Barrat’s eyes become alive at this and his teeth appeared in a ferocious grin. The youth by his side looked anxiously around himself and opened and closed his hands. Slowly, hair began to appear on his arms and other visible parts of his body.

“Control yourselves, you fools,”
cried Lady Kima mentally.
“They are deliberately trying to provoke you into attacking them. If we are not careful we will all be killed and Barrat will have just cause on his side. Now grow up!”
The Mavie women quickly regained their composure and Barrat frowned. During all of this however, Maya continued to look at Barrat and the large black haired youth at his side.

“My lord…King Barrat,” began again the Lady Kima, “I am surprised at this rude behavior on your part. Please, I remember a much nobler enemy…and friend.”

Barrat looked at the Lady Kima for a long moment and recognition registered on his face. He stood slowly and beckoned the woman forward. When she was close, he sniffed her to be certain and then nodded. “Yes,” he said, “you were indeed my friend. You were the only one who truly had faith in me from the start. You never taunted me in the cell either, as some of these others did after my so-called guilt was proven?”

“No, my lord,” replied Kima. “Your guilt was
never
proven, but your innocence recently was.”

Barrat merely shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now,” he said simply.

“Please, as a favor…Speak now with my queen. I pray the goddess grant us reconciliation and peace.”

Barrat chuckled at this, but then stopped. “Very well, I shall converse with the creature.”

The Lady Kima backed away and Queen Maya looked at Barrat. She could feel the hate from him like a living thing. She remembered the smiling boy she fought twenty years ago and how they fought and parleyed as respected equals. They had been enemies, but there was no hate, no malice and no true grudge to settle. This was not the same boy or the same scenario.