Lore of the Underlings: Episode 6 ~ Meeting Minyon (4 page)

“You don’t know jack — it was Johnny
Cat.”

“As you please, but I’d say he’s some big
cheese.”

“So sharp!”

“And cut…”

“With a rank like that.”

Axon spat while Eela watched the dude do
battle with his bonds. A fine fettered play-boy, rebuffed and
cuffed. An ironic ironman cast in irons.

“Grrr,” she purred. “I’d call him mine.”

Axon sneered and bared his blade. “Do you see
what I see my sister?”

“Only if you see a godsend, brother.” Her
pouty, red lips rounded into an ‘O’. She gripped her spear’s shaft
even tighter.

Axon gave her an angry glare. “Oh, don’t get
any ideas now girl. I know that hunger in your eye. Gaming to make
him your own plaything — something the oddcat just dragged in.”

Eela hissed, her face aflush and looking
hotter than ever. Yet the brother dared stand astride her pathway
to the stranger.

“You don’t want any part of him, wild
thing.”

“It’s not any part that I want — step
aside.”

Each sibling flung back a long, carmine mane
and stared the other down. The pair seemed destined to come to
blows when there came a welcome distraction… A carnival stunt. An
impromptu sideshow. Courtesy of the captive.

It all unfolded in slow motion, reflected in
Eela’s sultry glow. Like a scene played back from her wildest
dreams, the steamy final fantasy of ensnaring her very own superman
and revealing his secret identity… For at last with a marvelous,
manly scream, this sun-baked beefcake burst at the seams, snapping
the ropes around his chest but leaving himself half dressed. There,
nearly naked for all to observe. A rock-hard body to rival her
brother’s.

Eela’s dark eyes lit up bright, black-hot,
fully ignited. She shoved her big brother out of the way and blew
by him before he could fight it.

“Now, here’s some real man-fruit, all picked
and peeled! No more plucking your Treasured boys, girls —
prickberries all of them by comparison, and a pear short of this
juicy guy. Oh, I’d need a score to make a pie or fill a little
tart.” She laughed. “Jelly and jam, the whole puny bunch. They
can’t even hold his poms!”

Her laugh turned into an impish grin. “Just
as well — that pleasure will be all mine…”

Her voice tailed off in a musky growl, the
sound of a bloodlust she did not hide. It worked on men like jungle
fever, filling their heads with crimson tide.

Cold sweat. Wet heat. Red red liquid
madness.

John Cap looked infected too, her
blood-orange fire in his eyes.

Tauntingly, the huntress continued. “Who’d
like to help strip the rest of his rind and see what he’s got for
seeds inside?”

Of course no lass or lassie stepped forward.
None dared challenge her raw appeal. For they were all too timid by
nurture — church mice in contrast to that hellcat, this feline
force of nature.

Yes they were tempted yet also afraid of the
stranger and what was unknown about him. No wonder their bark
lacked bite in the end. All talk, lips locked, but for
questions.

“Wh-wh-where is the tall woman who was with
him?”

“That blond beauty seen by last night’s
moon…”

“She might be a witch.”

“Or his mistress.”

“Or both!”

“Just itching to turn some hearts to
stone…”

“And how ‘bout the case of the orphan
black?”

“You mean that muddy little Mox?”

“Didn’t his alien crew just abduct her?”

“That’s what I heard.”

“Those are the facts.”

“Maybe so, but I’m still more fearful of
Fyryx.”

“True, brother Treasuror’s never
pleased…”

“To hear of any foreign consorting.”

“Believe me, you’d be tried by morning!”

“Judged like a leaver.”

“On your knees…”

Naturally, Eela knew none of these worries —
a wild, full woman against mere girls. She neared the new man hips
in motion, sneering seductively, breathing hard. Her wide eyes
flashed, her nostrils flared, with each and every step.

John Cap seemed bewitched as he watched her
approach, possessed as much as roped and tied. And he no longer
tried to get unwrapped, accepting his fate as a gift for her. To be
fresh meat for this man-eater…

Eela examined him head to toe like a lioness
sizing her prey. She noticed the dried pit mud at his feet and the
scars on his back where the shirt tore away.

Then she smirked and her lips formed the
shape of a kiss as she prodded his chest with the tip of her
spear.

“We must get you out of those rags, my
dear.”

The Guard, who’d been waiting off in the
wings, suddenly seemed concerned.

“Please have a care there Miss Myne!” warned
Moon-syr.

“That one’s a handful,” the other chimed
in.

Eela smiled and reached in a pouch, producing
a ripe red pom. “So, is it alright to feed him then?”

“Just watch your fingers.”

“Look sharp!”

“He might bite.”

Her eyes opened wider. “Mmm, that’s what I’m
hoping…”

Meanwhile, John Cap’s heart all but beat
through his rib cage as Eela moved closer and closer to him. Now he
could feel her body’s heat and smell the scent of her salty
skin.

She pressed the fruit against his lips. He
willingly bit deep into it.

“Come with me boyfriend,” she beckoned him,
whispering in his ear. “Let’s mark this date with more than a taste
and far away from here.” Her sweet breath blew like desert wind
that filled his mind with storms of sand, scenes of a land made of
mirages… blurry… bizarre… daydreams bathed in half-light.

“Soon you’ll be begging to be my sole
mate.”

John Cap swallowed the pom’s cool nectar then
looked up as if wanting more.

“Intoxicating, isn’t it?” Eela took a long,
slow bite and licked her lips to watch him wait. Then she dropped
the rest in the dirt, crushing the core beneath her feet.

The stranger gazed at her longingly as if
ready to vow his all right now…

Until the voice of Axon Myne broke his
sister’s spell.

“Eela! End it! Cool the heat. And save that
mating dance for your kind.”

She swung her spear at him. “Mind your own
groin!”

But he caught it and cast it to the ground,
all with the might of his meaty free hand. The other still held his
talon blade, which he leveled at John Cap’s open neck — an easy
target, naked and thick.

He squinted, looking the stranger over.

“I see this one’s had run-ins before… By the
marks that score his back, a dungeoner or former convict — no
stranger to the whip and lash. Sister, those scars are not badges
of honor, but signs of thieves and galley slaves…”

“Sounds like just my flavor of man — an
inmate who’s not out for good behavior.” Eela spat in Axon’s face.
“Bad boys make the best toys, brother.”

John Cap, for his part, still seemed dazed,
fogbound despite the sunny day. The love-struck stranger stared
back punch-drunk at the red-haired pair.

“Where am I?”

Axon, reeling from Eela’s attack, did not
seem to hear him.

“Right in the eye this time. Trying to blind
me? Lucky for you you’re blood, you serpent, but keep your venom to
yourself.”

He reached for the bear fur slung over his
shoulder and wiped his swoon-worthy face with it. The singlet he
wore opened wide as he did, to the delight of the gathered girls —
and the approval of their mothers…

“Make hay ladies!”

“Looks like rain…”

“Another storm trooper just dropped in!”

“Send in the clouds.”

“Then a husband monsoon.”

“My kind of weather.”

“Ah men!”

Axon, unimpressed by their forecast, focused
his black eyes on John Cap again. In fact he’d barely raised his
fist when one more squall rolled in from the west.

“Don’t look now, Boxbo.”

“I see it, Ixit.”

“Could this be?”

“Finally?”

“Yup.”

“It’s…”

“The suspect!”

An unkempt band of swarthy plainsmen paraded
a teenage boy toward the tent. The youth, their prisoner, was
slight of stature, light as a feather the wind might take and fly
off into the warm summer air. An easily bent and bowed little twig
with a girlish mop of hair.

But so tightly did they surround him that it
was hard to tell more than that.

“Looks greener than your usual leaver.”

“More of a sapling I believe.”

“What’s his name, his family tree?”

“Something shady, I’m guessing.”

All of a sudden the band branched off and
took a detour, a sneakier route. Heading not to but around the huge
tent, they made for its dark side, a place few went, and whisked
the kid away from view so he could be “readied” for trial.

Quick as he’d neared he’d disappeared. At
least for now. Until judgment time.

A voice from behind surprised the Mynes and
seemed to snap John Cap to life.

“Thank you, children! That will do.”

Minyon sidestepped Eela’s spear and waved off
Axon and his knife.

“Let’s give our guest some breathing
room.”

John Cap exhaled with a wince, shaking the
cobwebs from his brain. He mumbled a few words to himself while
trying and failing to wipe his face.

“Did anyone catch the truck that just hit
me?”

He acted more hung-over now than tipsy.

Eela seemed to enjoy his state, the wake of
her wicked handiwork — though before her father she’d turned demure
and stepped a good six paces back.

Her brother was another story. Axon was known
for picking fights and this time and place was no exception.
Indeed, he stood taller and thrust his chest out, as if this new
rival bothered him even more than the fodder the Keep had to offer,
the usual Treasured fare.

Perhaps with his sire and so many onlookers
there to compare the two of them…

“So, you must be one of the foreign wayfarers
whom I've fore-heard so much about. Welcome, welcome, my newfound
friend. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am elderman Minyon
Myne, a humble servant of this Keep and its simple but Treasured
folk.”

He lowered his gaze in a gracious way and
offered his soft hand to the stranger.

The young man seemed nonplussed by the
gesture, a kindness he had not experienced here. He took it in like
a breath of fresh air, the elixir he needed to sober up.

“John Cap. Happy to know you.” He tried to
reach for the priestly palm but could not extend his hampered arm.
“Anyway — I’m real glad to meet someone who isn’t after my aching
head.”

Minyon replied with mild bemusement and a
twinkle in his eye. “No doubt it’s best kept on your neck, to keep
yourself from losing it…”

Then he turned dead serious.

“And I have a sense you’ll be needing its
wits in the dark trials and tests that you face ahead.”

John Cap did a double-take. “Yes… I guess.
I’ll keep that in mind.”

An awkward silence followed until Eela faked
a little cough.

“Ah, introductions! I’ve been remiss…” And
with that the elder Myne blushed a bit, but pale as if feigning
embarrassment. “Thank the Lord for my miss informer. I’m not a man
for formalities.”

He sent his youngest a telling wink.

“But I think that you may be acquainted by
now with these two, my only worldly treasures…” Proudly, he nodded
toward his twain. “Dear daughter Eela. My son, first-born
Axon.”

John Cap eyed them sideways. “Yeah, we’ve
met.”

Minyon smiled and moved much closer, taking
more of the stranger in. Then he reached for the young man’s arm
and pressed it familiarly, skin to skin.

“I, for one, am grateful you’ve come — that
you’ve found this oasis within our Wild…” His eyes flashed bright,
prophet-like, with the aura of a seer.

“And I know why you’re here.”

John Cap looked stunned by the revelation, a
touch disbelieving if not plain suspicious. “Who have you been
talking to?”

Minyon did not answer head-on but deftly
turned the conversation. “You must know that I am not alone. Other
voices there are, my son, silent ones who would hear you out.”

Those words were music to John Cap’s ears.
“Honest? That’s all we’re asking for.” The prisoner seemed to lower
his guard.

Minyon Myne ministered on. “And yet you were
bound to end up here not by brotherhood but fear. Bile is the
life’s blood of this Keep, the reign that keeps its people sheep. A
flock herded hard and taught to be guarded, under a cold-eyed
shepherd and staff…”

“Sure, well that Hurx fella had us flocked
and rounded up in some stinking pen. Then his guard nearly sheared
us to death.” John Cap gazed out at the crowd. “And these folks,
they’re looking at me like a lamb chop. The last thing they all
seem to want is a guest.”

Minyon motioned toward the tent. “Such is the
will of our would-be warlord, the man you mentioned, Fyryx Hurx. He
and his men police this Keep, keeping the peace with an ironwood
fist and the tip of a sharpened battle pike. And for what? The sake
of a prime directive from the tongue of a king long passed. That
Semperor’s goal was no doubt noble — the preservation of his race.
Yet here and now in this time and place, even he might question the
price… the cost of keeping a purebred beast that feeds on its own
people’s flesh and blood.”

Minyon paused for a wave of memories, face
awash, his eyes aflood.

“Once upon a time in this wood, hearts were
lighter, life was good. Those were the days of another Hurx, the
older brother, Treasuror Ayryx. He was a kind and gracious leader,
letting his people go as they pleased. Indeed, that’s when my
family came to be welcomed in from the Wild and saved.

“Lord knows what would happen to us today,
under the thumb of this lesser kin…”

John Cap had a question he couldn’t hold in.
“So, is there no overthrowing him?”