The Mutant World (26 page)

“Wait, Sister! That is not, Cato!”
Gorgo looked at the warrior closely and with a sigh of disappointment nodded.
“By the goddess!”
said Bellasaris.
“This boy is no distant descendant or grandson. Goddess take me, this is a second generation cat. This surly cub is Cato’s son!”

Gorgo nodded again. Barrat looked almost exactly like Cato, even his hair, but how could that be? Cato’s natural hair color was black. Unlike theirs, which turned white naturally with age, Cato’s turned white from the trauma of his seeing his family murdered by humans as a small child. Barrat wasn’t old enough for his hair to turn white naturally. So how…? Then she saw the scars on the young man’s body. His face bore signs of age that he should not have had considering his bloodline, and she remembered the other things that were done to the boy. He had much in common with his father sadly, but in his case it was his own kind that had done the deed.

Barrat slowly rose to his feet as the women approached. Both women were beautiful beyond compare in both face and form. The big brown skinned woman at first seemed to recognize him, actually the smaller beauty did too, but both seemed to realize their mistake and the big woman didn’t hide her disappointment. Barrat was very curious about these two, now even more than before. Still, manners were required. These women were obviously very, VERY old. Even the Barratians respected age. Bellasaris smiled at this sign of respect from the king.

“You honor me, King. I am pleased that you would rise to greet my sister and I, women though we be. Your warriors also treated us very well and showed us that the Barratians do indeed have manners and respect for their elders…even female ones.”

“If you have passed through Mavieland, I would imagine you
would
be surprised, honored mothers,” said Barrat bluntly without anger. “Indeed, I am surprised that after hearing their tales, you would risk entering our land at all. But be at ease, you are not Mavie, thus I have no quarrel with you. Still, I have been told you seek me out, why?”

“We wanted to see you,” said Bellasaris truthfully. “You see, our man has gone missing, and every so often, one of his descendants will pop up somewhere giving us a clue to his trail. Also, we wanted to see for ourselves if women truly are mistreated and dominated in this land. I must say young man, that there is meat to these tales the Mavie have told.”

Barrat grinned at this and nodded. “Better to hold the leash than wear the collar! I suppose they left out what their women have done to us, hmmm? I wonder, Mother. Why did your mate run away from you? You and your sister are not hard on the eyes at all. Indeed, I wish you
were
Mavie! Then I could slap a collar on the both of you without being a bad person and put you with my women.” The Mavie guards and guides nervously looked at each other. “You would undoubtedly birth exceptional young,” continued Barrat. “Ah, but I tend to forget. Thanks to Queen Maya and her women, I am no longer capable of siring warriors. Still, you would make pleasing pets for simple pleasure. I swear! I’ve rarely seen women of such face and form as you!”

Bellasaris laughed out loud at this and even Gorgo smiled. “Boy, I am flattered beyond words that a cub like you would be so taken by an old lady like me. To be honest, you are so alike to my mate in face and form that my sister and I nearly raped you on sight when we first saw you! We are both bonded you see, and it has been a
very
long time since…Well, you know.” Then she frowned. “And I do know what happened to your people and to you. I am truly sorry, my son.”

Barrat looked at Bellasaris and Gorgo for a long moment. They’d yet to answer his question, but he slowly believed that they were sincere.

“Honored, Grandmothers, (Bellasaris noticed immediately the rise in respect) you are welcome to stay in peace here for as long as you wish. None will harm you or disrespect you, any who do will answer to me. That even includes the Mavie with you.” Barrat looked around himself to be sure his words were heard and passed on. The Mavie women were visibly relieved.

“Thank you,” said Gorgo. “Please young lord, who was your father?” she asked, desperately looking at Barrat.

Bellasaris nodded as well. “Yes, please. This is very important to us.”

Barrat shrugged and said, “My father’s name is Cato Curtis. I have been told he was a mighty lord in the east. Now, what is the name of the man
you
seek?”

“The same, King,” said Bellasaris. “I believe we all knew or suspected the answer to both questions, yes?” Barrat nodded.

“Do you know where he is?” asked Gorgo hopefully.

“Unfortunately no,” said Barrat with a sigh. “My mother sent him away when I was still small because of Mavie law. I haven’t seen him since. Another score I have to settle with the Mavie.”

“But he
is
alive!” said Gorgo quickly. “Who is your mother? Is she here? Where did they meet?”

Gorgo was forgetting her manners, but Barrat was moved by her obvious longing and concern. “I can see you both love my father very much,” he said. “My mother’s name is Tamara and they met much farther away from here in the deep forest. She too is a mutant such as he you see, and that’s how they met. Several years ago, she left this region herself to find him. I have not seen her since either. If she has found him I know not. Why did he leave you? You still have not said.”

Bellasaris shook her head. “Well, we tried to keep him to ourselves. He loved to roam and hunt, and unfortunately, other females liked to hunt him. You have many, MANY brothers, sisters, cousins and other kin back east, child. And for all we know…west as well now. Hmmm, why don’t you come back home with us, eh? You’re a prince of our land by blood. I promise you, our women are
much
nicer than the women here and there you will learn many things. Are you literate?” Barrat shook his head. “All the more reason to come!” cried Bellasaris.

“Grandmother,” chuckled Barrat, “I would be a prince there, but I am a king here. I
would
very much like to see my kin…one day, but I have unfinished business with the bitches of Mavie first. I may send my son though.” Bellasaris and Gorgo looked surprised. “He was sired before I was maimed,” explained Barrat. Both women nodded in understanding. “I must ask though, who ARE you?”

“We can speak of that privately, my lord,” said Bellasaris smiling. “For now, let us just say we are retired elders looking for our man.”

Barrat looked at Bellasaris closely and then grinned. “Alright, Grandmother, it shall be as you say. Tomorrow we head to the town of Pratt. You will be comfortable there. Also, it is my base of operations against the Mavie here.” Barrat then ordered the two women shown to proper accommodations within the camp. Bellasaris and Gorgo wasted little time in sharing their opinion of Barrat’s character and intelligence.

“Well, now we know what and who we are up against, eh Sister?”
said Bellasaris.

“Yes,”
said Gorgo,
“we sure do. Goddess he looks so much like his father! I…I feel…I’ve haven’t had this feeling in a very long time.”

“I know,”
said Bellasaris with a chuckle.
“He turns me on too! But he is NOT our lord. When we find Cato, and we WILL find him, it would be very, very bad for him to find out that we’d relived ourselves with his son. We’ve waited. We will wait some more. (Giggle) When we do find our man, he’d better be prepared to work very hard paying us back for all the trouble he put us through. But for now, we must try and bring this boy around. He is very cunning, but also unstable. I still can’t believe that they did that to him! That slave girl chained to his chair was there for a reason. I read her mind. She is human and normally performs less intimate tasks than waiting personally on the king. Today she was used as a clear message to us that men were the masters here not women, and that he didn’t give a shit about how we felt about it.”

Gorgo snorted in disgust.
“I realized that too. I could smell the human reek coming off of her! But I also noticed that he chose not to humiliate a mutant woman in such a fashion…not even a Mavie.”

Bellasaris looked again at the human slave girl and said,
“You’ve never stopped hating the humans have you, Sister? I have never truly forgotten their cruelty either or how they used me. And you’re right about the rest too. The boy was also lying about having a harem. He did indeed find us to his liking though, especially you. He really did desire you, you know.”

Gorgo tossed her head and smirked.
“Of course he did! He is his father’s son!”
Her large breast bounced and several of the watching Barratian warriors nodded in admiration and approval.

Bellasaris sighed.
“Indeed. But he does have a woman back at his stronghold. The human girl’s mind was most helpful. The female is a big woman, much of the same shape as you, but shorter. She is his son’s mother. Fortunately, she is his elder by at least two centuries and has helped to keep things from becoming even worse for the females taken captive in this war. But she has no love for the Mavie and their queen either, I’ll tell you that!”

“Yes,”
growled Gorgo mentally.
“Because of them she can have no more babies with her man. I assume she would have liked more, a daughter at least. Besides, knowing that the man you loved was tortured in such a way…the pain he endured! I remember what we did to the humans who raped us. But THEY were humans…AND guilty! Oh, she’ll hate them for that alone.”

“Exactly, you are correct on all points, Sister. But perhaps I could help in that area. The boy’s privates have been partially removed, but if I could regenerate his missing stones and make him whole again, he and his woman would be in our debt, and we could finally start to bring closure to this barbaric war.”

******

Lady Sonja looked on anxiously as Bellasaris examined, Barrat. “Great One, c…can you fix it? Can my man be made as he was?”

“Evil bitches!” muttered Bellasaris under her breath. “They cauterized the wound when a healer could have closed it painlessly.” She shuddered as she thought about what that must have been like for Barrat. “I will have to reopen it. There will be much pain and bleeding.” Sonja began to wring her hands and shake her head. Tears were forming in her eyes.

“I do not fear pain!” snapped Barrat. “Real pain is living life as a eunuch or futanari woman!”

“Can’t you use anesthesia?” yelped a human slave girl attending the group. Quickly the girl covered her mouth in fear and dropped her head to the floor begging forgiveness.

Bellasaris looked at the trembling girl and smiled shaking her head. Obviously, Lady Sonja was not capable of reading minds, if she was she would not allow this lovesick child near her mate. She wasn’t a feral either, or she would smell the girl’s heat. Barrat it seems was just as magnetic to females, metahuman
and
human as his father.

“It is not possible little human,” said Bellasaris gently. “Our lord’s own mutant healing factor would fight this. Indeed, even the task itself will be hindered because of it. I suppose, in this instance, it would have been advantageous to us if he was a human.” Then Bellasaris’s eye brows knitted together. “That’s it! My lord, I believe the best way to go would be for you to surrender your gifts for a time. I am loathed to say it, but I want you to wear an inhibitor collar until the healing is done.”

“Never,” said Barrat.

“My son,” said Bellasaris gravely, “I will need to remove the burned skin and flesh inside the area to work. The pain will be excruciating. Worse, as you are now, your body will immediately begin to repair itself as I work. Do you understand the problem here?”

“It is precisely because I trusted a woman once and foolishly placed an inhibitor collar on my own neck that I have no balls now,” said Barrat grimly.

“I know, my son,” said Bellasaris sympathetically. “However, if you want to become a fully functioning man again you must trust me.” Barrat looked at Bellasaris and Gorgo. He saw Sonja biting her lip and crying behind them. He knew this meant as much to her as to him…perhaps more.

“Very well,” said Barrat slowly.

Nearby, Prince Ken watched in more than a little apprehension. He knew who these old women claimed to be, but he had his doubts. They were too beautiful and well-made. Any fool could dye their hair white! They looked no older than his mother, who was only a little older than two hundred. He doubted that these birds were really over a thousand years old.

Bellasaris heard a voice in her head as the control collar was being fetched.
“I don’t care if you are ‘THE’ Bellasaris of Bain! I don’t care if you’re the empress of the entire planet! If this turns out to be a stinking Mavie trick and my father is killed, you and that big bitch with the huge tits will never leave this place alive! Then I’ll burn all of Mavieland to dust and send Queen Maya’s body in pieces to every nation of Bellasaria as a warning of what comes of offending my family!”

Bellasaris looked at Prince Ken glaring at her and smiled.
“Oh, I LIKE him!”
she said mentally to Gorgo, who nodded and grinned. “If this is successful, and it will be, I would like you to do something for me,” said Bellasaris to Barrat.

Barrat laughed. “If you are able to heal me, I will truly be in your debt. Name what you will…within reason of course, and it will be done.” Bellasaris nodded and smiled grimly.