Page 2 of Horde King’s Claim

“Lex!” I screamed behind her as she ran.

I couldn’t let her go by herself. Not after I insisted that her little sister would be fine in the capitol’s nursery with the other kids. I broke off after her.

“Girls!” I heard the old woman yell.

I raced after Lexanne until I couldn’t see her anymore. Even after that, my feet kept moving. As I turned the corner fully intent on scoping out Magdul’s landing without being seen, an army of Aurrakians came into view. The old woman was right. A horde of them filled the courtyard and beyond. Tall, big warriors. They donned deadly weapons. They were terrorizing. Tirizar, they were called. And I understood why.

They already had many citizens, mostly women, herded up. Many were on their knees, begging to be let go. Every minute, they’d bring another captor and force them down with the others. None of our soldiers were there. If so, I would think that none of this would be happening. On the other hand, where was King Magdul? How could he let these hordesmen round up the citizens like cattle?

One of the gray-toned hordesmen turned, pointed in my direction and shouted.

“Oh fuck!” I bit out.

I tore off from behind the statue that I thought would conceal me and ran for the hills. I was a fool for thinking that I could outrace a hordesman. I was trampled down and then picked up from the ground like I was nothing more than a beetle. After shoving up my sleeve and revealing my arm ring, he carried me like a bundle of logs and dropped me on the hard pavement with the others. My second attempt to run was cut short. I took three steps before the brutish hordesman captured me again. He reprimanded me using vulgar words and then tied me up with raw vines that cut through my skin.

“Sssh,” a girl said beside me. “They’ll kill you.” I knew the girl. She was a willing servant of Magdul, like me. In fact, I recognized almost everyone in the courtyard as having worked for Magdul at some point or another.

“Be quiet, you slaves,” the hordesman commanded, reached down, and yanked the vine to tighten it around my ankles.

I cringed from the pain and then surprised him by calling him every vile name under the book in the Aurrakian language. “You fucking bastard! You brute! Let me loose. I’ll fucking kill you for touching me!”

“This one has a foul mouth.” He pointed. “She’s stirring up the others. Before long they will all be acting like her. Give her a muzzle or something to shut her up!”

Another blue-ish alien hordesman brought a piece of cloth, preparing to cut off my protests.

“We aren’t slaves!” I said. “Why are you tying us up? When he returns, King Magdul will make you pay for this.”

He bent down, nearly stooping to place his knees on the ground, and sneered in my ear, “The treacherous Magdul is dead.” Then he parted and waved his hand toward a giant hordesman striding into the courtyard with what looked like an army of vicious vultures right behind him. “Hail your new leader, King Khol.”

My breath caught in my throat and the next thing I tasted was leather as the alien tied my lips shut. I couldn’t say a thing. Not that I could. I was stunned by a few things…

Our king was dead.

Our village had been taken.

And the new King, with his blue-black hair, looked like the devil himself.