Far From Home Two: The Monster's Heir-- a M/M/M fantasy romance

1- the Defiler, the Monster

*****Enter Ember and Sage. Enjoy!!! *****

EMBER—

I voted against the Prince of El'kahr being accepted as Warprize for the end of the war against El'kahr. For generations, time unnumbered, my people have been nothing but animals, slaves, or worse, to the people who share our borders. And even beyond those at our borders. Most especially the El'kahrians. The land of riches, hidden sensual pleasures, and greed.

My tribe shared a border with the greedy El'kahrians, so my hatred for them had festered and grown throughout my 32 years of life. And in the last two years of war and bloodshed, beginning with the outer farms of my tribe being razed, pillaged and raped by mercenaries, that hatred had burned into an inferno that required an outlet.

One the former Warlord, future Tribal Chief of the Moonstone Tribe, was offering me on a silver platter.

Two years ago, I had been beyond frustrated that I was unable to fight alongside the Warlord. Or to be the Warlord. As the son of a Chief, I could have been chosen as Warlord. Unfortunately, I had taken my father's place only months before the war started, and so had to choose a Warlord to fight in my stead, as the other Tribal Chiefs did. The Tribal Chiefs of Akar didn't fight directly— we voted on a Warlord, and he or she was our avatar in the war.

But damn Geir chose to let the El'kahrians surrender, and took the king's son as Warprize. A position of honor, and he gave it to the spineless child of the man who had taken the lives of so many of my tribe.

My people— my tribe— had suffered the brunt of the king's trespasses into our lands. And yet he had suffered nothing. Had paid nothing.

Not until later, and not at the hands of Akarans to appease our dead.

Unfortunately, my place was not to question the Warlord or his decisions. I had voted for him alongside all the other Chiefs, and I had to stand by his decision, no matter how much I wished we could have finally ended the El'kahrian's arrogance and conceit by decimating them. If we had taken their King and their Prince, made an example of them, it would have taken them years, possibly even decades, to recover. If they ever did.

And we could have lived in peace, with no fear of their retribution for taking their Prince into Geir's tribe. I understood the El'kahrians better than Geir ever could, and I knew they wouldn't see the prince being taken as Warprize as a peaceful end to the war like we did. As a joining of two countries in a hopefully lasting peace by joining a family as one— a Chief and one of their royals. No, they would see it as his being kidnapped and taken hostage by their enemies for their compliance.

Which would then fester into resentment and rebellion.

Now I was happy to help in what Geir had asked of me. The Warprize's elder sister, Hestiel, had ended her own father's life and taken his throne. This was information I should not have known— the royal family of El'kahr was keeping the information close to their chests— but I was used to the machinations and politics of El'kahr, and had the information before even Geir did.

As the new Queen of El'kahr, Hestiel was cleaning house, as it were. She had already banished half a dozen of her own nobles, confiscating their lands and distributing them among lesser nobles and even some servants in her own castle. One of those being deposed was Butcger, a man I had heard tales of for years.

He was called Defiler of Children. Or simply the Monster.

There had been nothing I could do, despite the stories that trickled in past our shared borders, for fear of sparking a war with El'kahr.

But now he was being arrested, had set up a last stand in his keep only a day's ride from my own home, and was being set upon by a contingent of Queen Hestiel's men.