KINGDOM OF THE STONE -- a Wattpad featured novel

Chapter Forty

"We're lucky the Daikon found him."  Macander, with the help of one of his men, dragged a beastman into Karux's room and dropped him on the floor.

The man groaned and rolled onto his side, curling into a fetal position.  His nose had been broken and great clots of blood matted his beard and mustache.  One eye had swollen shut and the cheek below it appeared to have been crushed.  It had swollen to a bright purple bruise that nearly matched the wine-colored stain on his face.  He clutched himself with one good hand while the other, its fingers swollen and bent, appeared as if someone had stamped on it until every bone had shattered.  He looked like a piece of raw and well-tenderized meat.

Macander handed Karux a helmet fashioned from a drwg's head.  "The local men are outraged.  The only reason he's alive is because the locals couldn't decide whether to hang him or stone him.  This gave the Daikon a chance to drag him away."

Karux looked down at him in disgust.  "Arm the spears and station them outside the building.  Let none of the locals in without my word."

"You mean to protect him?"

"I mean to talk to him first, find out why they did this.  We'll decide what to do with him later."

"Very well."  Macander turned to leave.

"Also, bring me a drinking bowl of water."

Macander hurried off with a puzzled look.

Karux crouched next to the beastman and listened to the gurgling wheeze of his breathing.  The man's one good eye was screwed shut in pain.  He couldn't tell if the man were conscious or not.

He should hate the man.  He should be filled with rage.  He had found here the same acceptance, caring and good humor he remembered in his home village.  He could understand why Theris would want to settle down near here.  Karux had even thought of making a home here someday, but as he stared at the broken man groaning on the ground, he didn't feel hate, only overwhelming confusion.

He had known men to attack each other over jealousy, revenge or even greed.  The angorym and the drwg he could understand; they saw men as prey and food.  But what would make a man butcher people he didn't even know?  This attack was senseless.  What did they gain by this?  Or were they simply driven by a mad desire to lash out and destroy?

Karux remembered a time as a young child when his father and uncle Naipho had killed a culled animal for the meal.  He, Theris and Amantis, had watched in horrified fascination while Macander had run away crying.  A few days later, Amantis had stuck a knife in the throat of one of the goats in his care and watched it bleed and struggle and die.  Karux and Theris had wasted no time in telling their fathers.  Arrain had lectured Amantis about cruelty, about waste and the need to care for their animals.  As punishment he made Amantis clean and dress the goat.  The task would have crushed him or Theris for they were still young enough they named their animals, but Amantis took a dark delight in pulling out its organs, cutting off its head and feet and ripping the skin from the carcass.

As Karux knelt beside the beastman and wondered if a man might engage in such bloody cruelty purely for the sense of power it gave him over others, he felt the first flicker of hatred.

A reaver returned and handed Karux a cup of water.  Karux put it to the beastman's mouth.  "Are you thirsty?  Can you drink?"

The man opened his good eye, looked at Karux then opened his mouth and tried to raise his head.

Karux cradled his head and poured the water over his broken teeth.  "My name is Karux.  What's yours?"

The man choked and sputtered.  "Kaelis."