The King's 11th Wife

Prologue

Screams and cries filled the autumn air. Their deep agony was coupled by the metallic scent that wafted to the air.

Perched on his monstrous beast called leith, King Raithen’s greenish gray eyes surveyed the blood-stained battleground—his enemy’s kingdom, Reocht. The feud between Reocht and Naimheed had been going on for centuries. It looked like he was the one to put this all to end. Today.

“Kill every one of them!” The thirty-year-old Naim King bellowed to his soldiers while the setting sun slowly moved to the west.

Fighter or not, the citizens of Reocht didn’t wish to go down without standing for themselves. However, the king’s elite soldiers, the saighs, went on to behead everyone in their path. Others already burned dwellings, barns and even the castles of the Reoc nobles and the royal palaces.

King Raithen had to be sure though. He had to be certain that none of the Reoc royals were still alive and kicking. He urged his black leith to go to the main palace. Together with his two main and trusted guards—Tallahir and Rhyphas—he rode past the bloody scrimmage.

He unsheathed his sword and struck the oncoming enemy on his own black leith. He parried the enemy’s sword and struck him in the back, making him groan in pain. One of his two guards beheaded the beast while the other its rider. The latter’s head protector created a dull thud on the bloody ground before it rolled away.

With his leith, King Raithen entered the main palace. The fires already licked the thick window curtains, as well as the tables and chairs—and even the thick brick walls. The palace maids fled, screaming in fear. One of the two guards chased and executed them. None must be spared, even the servants.

“Where’s King Zidar?” King Raithen’s deep voice boomed in the vast room despite the raging blaze, groans and screams. “I want his head impaled on a sword!”

The leith, a huge round-faced beast with flappy ears, glowing green eyes and a flat snout, roared loudly. Its huge eight fangs—top and bottom—showed and glimmered. Then, its long sturdy legs folded and marched forward. Clip-clop sounded on the concrete floor as its diamond hooves connected with it.

The Naim King urged the massive beast with elongated hairless body to go up the wide stairs and followed the six-meter-wide hallways. He passed by many vast rooms, and his guards took care of the remaining palace guards and maids.

“King Zidar! Don’t be a coward and come, face me!” King Raithen hollered across the courtyard and adjacent palace.

Some of the saighs already followed him and searched every room in spite of the blaze.

“My liege!” A saighs called out to him, sword in hand while the other held the rope that was connected to the leith’s reins. “King Zidar’s son is captured, and he’s there downstairs with two of his wives.”

“Where’s King Zidar?” King Raithen roared. “I want him dead!”

“H-he’s not with them, my liege,” the saighs slightly stuttered.

“Why are they merely captured? Your orders are clear! No one must be left alive! Execute his son and wives now!” Tallahir ordered the saighs in his loud but gruff voice.

“Yes, sire!” The saighs readily turned around to do as ordered.

King Raithen and his guards continued to search for the missing Reoc King. The Naim ruler was afraid the enemy king had already fled. However, they found him just about to, jumping from the window.

King Raithen smirked. “A hundred pieces of faerum to whoever kills King Zidar first and brings his head to me!” he announced to his army on the ground while he was near the blazing window. He was sure that even without giving them the precious stones that were more valuable than gold and diamond, they would do as he commanded.

From where he was, he watched as his men rode their respective leith to chase the fleeing Reoc King. The latter did not even try to save his family, face King Raithen or beg for his life and his family to be spared.

The selfish coward! King Raithen’s eyes narrowed as he watched two of his men cut the Reoc King’s head and limbs. He took note of rewarding them both as soon as they would arrive in his fortress in Naimheed.

After the huge Reoc castle was marauded and checked for other royal members and had them all executed, he and his men watched until everything was burned down. The smell of burned flesh and blood filled the air, but King Raithen smelled victory. At last.

Upon seeing everything was ashes and ruined walls the next day, he ordered their return home. They rode and saw the clear destruction of Reocht. Dead Reocs were burned by his men. They would all follow him home after their duties were done.

They rode their leith for days and only rested when he noticed his beast slowed down past the Naimheed border. He told them to let their beasts drink water from the river. While his men also rested, he decided to wash his face somewhere upstream to avoid the beasts that removed their bodily fluids in the water.

He finished washing his face and felt refreshed. His eyes swept the fresh-looking tree leaves that were in a myriad of yellows, oranges, pinks and reds. When his peepers noticed a small limb in the opposite bank of the river, he crossed the thigh-deep water to check it, while his men watched him, alerted.

His eyes went round when he confirmed it was a child that was lying there. He wondered who this Naim child was. Judging by the girl’s checkered blue-and-black robe, she was an ordinary one, not a noble one. If she were, a plain-colored silk robe would have told him so. Her orange hair was dull because of the mud that caked it, as well as her face and hands. Her white limb that peeked from the tall blue-green grass was like waving at him for help from across the bank.

He checked her pulse. It was weak. “Hey, hey! Are you all right, child?” he asked, tapping her cheek. However, she was still out, barely breathing. He decided to carry her across the river when his hand touched the girl’s back and felt the blood.

King Raithen quickly barked an order to his men to spread a blanket, and he placed the child there to check her wound. Her wound was a bit deep but only a flesh wound and nothing that couldn’t be medicated by their supplies. But the blood loss might be bad. Nonetheless, he tried his best to clean and treat the wound himself.

“If she makes it until tonight, bring her to your home and keep her, Tallahir,” he said to his head of his guards. “Raise her if you don’t find her parents. Understood?”