Son of The Prisonland (The Myth Shadow Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  “You can’t do that,” she shouted. “I can’t afford to lose these trained apprentices. If you’re that eager to punish them, then do something other than the death.”

  King Khuli got up to show respect to his mother. “Mother, you know that the weight of their crime. Not only they stole the fireballs, but they now know my secrets. And I can’t let it go outside.”

  “I can understand that,” Chaya said, firmly. “I can give you my word that these idiots wouldn’t reveal your secrets to outside. And I think you should ask them why and how they got into the heavily guarded room in the basement. There must be a way in that you don’t know,” she looked at her apprentices as saying this to the king.

  King Khuli nodded to his mother, “Alright, let’s ask them how they sneaked into the secret chamber.” He signaled the Dainees to say something. No one would open their mouth as they were afraid. So, he pointed to the tallest one and said, “You explain it to me. I can’t wait for the whole day.”

  The Dainee stepped forward, but still was looking at the floor. “My King, there’s a trapdoor in the garden that went down all the way to your secret chamber. We discovered it accidentally and followed the ladder to see what’s lying there and got straight into the room. We didn’t realize that it was meant to be a forbidden place. Then we saw the balls and took some of them with us to the garden and tried to play with them. And within a few moments, we have realized what those things were. As we were bored hiding in the garden for a long time, we decided to go to the village and have some fun.” She knelt down and cried, “We now realized that what we’ve done and we’re ashamed of this and begging to you our good King to forgive us and give us one more chance. We give our oath to you that we will keep everything secret.”

  “I’m not a kind King,” King Khuli frowned. “Kindness is a part of weakness. And, I am not weak.”

  “My King, let me say something, please,” Lord Brirar quickly interrupted as the king paused. As King Khuli shook his head, Lord Brirar continued, “I think you better send them to kill Bimb Halehsor, precisely the way they had destroyed the crops in the village. This way they’d have a punishment of risk to kill a Dainee hunter, but if they succeed, they will avoid the punishment.”

  Chaya stunned. What on Duray Lord Brirar was saying? It was no different than getting the death penalty by the king. Then she remembered about what Maya said about Lord Eko Darsor’s time to prove his loyalty to the King. “I’m agreed with Lord Brirar. They should do this for you. Also, I have a proposal to test one of your lords at the same time.”

  Chapter Eight

  After three days Aylan and Cro arrived at the junction of the trail what drawn on the map. As they had two options, either go to the mountains, which had a lot of trouble included path closers by the fallen stones, according to the book or go through the jungle which had gone by the lost kingdom of Ratar Gul where they could get attacked by the baboons. The stone prince gave the information about the baboon, just before they left the Stone Hedge. Aylan decided to take the second option. As the first one had uncertainty and they may have to turn back to take the second one, and since he had the ring, he was a bit hopeful to have a good understanding with the baboons. And also, the map didn’t mention anything about the lost kingdom. That means he was about to add something in it. After some calculation, he figured out that if they keep walking now, they will reach to the kingdom of Ratar Gul by the evening and as soon as the darkness fall they would walk pass it safely. As far as he knew no animals attack in the night if they don’t get attacked. Cro didn’t like the idea at all.

  They were walking based on the assumptions and were ready to face any danger since they didn’t know about from where the border of the kingdom has started. They only realized when Aylan pulled a climber to make a path and all of a sudden, a massive gate appeared in front of them. Both of them skipped a heartbeat. They were standing in front of a castle. Though the wild trees, grass, and climbers covered the front yard, the pathway, the fountains and the main building, it wasn’t difficult to get that they were looking at the king’s castle and that means instead of walking pass the kingdom, they have stepped right into the central city.

  “Do you realize that we are doomed?” Cro asked.

  “Yes, my friend. But on the bright side, we haven’t seen any baboons yet,” Aylan said, though he didn’t trust his opinion.

  “But look at the yard,” Cro tried to make his point. “Don’t you think it is way too tidy for an abandoned castle?”

  Aylan looked at the yard carefully. Despite all the wild plants and grass, it looked immaculate, seemed like somebody has planted all these things on purpose.

  “I’m sure baboons don’t have gardening sense. Or do they?” Cro asked. He had seen many men made gardens. That’s why he had some ideas about the basic look of the gardens.

  “I’m agreed. Let’s find a way to get in to have a closer look. Are you in?” Aylan said. He looked for any nearby tree that he could climb to get on the wall, as the gate was chained up and a big lock was hanging on it. But there were no trees close to the wall. So, he decided to go to check the other sides.

  By the time they found a tree, it was already dusk. Cro looked at the trees around them. All the dark shadows frightened him. He felt like they were being watched. The red colored, human-shaped fruit on every tree gave a weird feeling, too. He pointed Aylan to the trees, “Do you have any opinion about those fruits? They don’t look like any common fruit to me.”

  Aylan saw them before, but he was busy to find a way to avoid the city. That’s why he didn’t notice the unusualness of those fruits. He stood under a smaller tree. It looked healthy as any other trees. The skin or leaves were normal; even the tree looked familiar to him. Aylan tried to remember where he had seen these trees before, but he couldn’t remember. Then he concentrated on the fruits. He saw this sort of fruit before. They were called The Nariphon, usually have the shape of women and green. Suddenly he realized what the unusualness about them was. The fruit were only at the top of the trees, and every tree had five to ten fruits, from tiny to wrinkle-skinned one, they were all red. “Seems like each tree has a family of fruit and they’re being protected, isn’t it?” Aylan asked.

  “Yes,” said Cro. He stopped himself to fly to the top of the tree to check the fruits.

  “Let’s climb that tree,” Aylan pointed the tree they found close to the wall. “I can see the fruit and get on the wall at the same time.” Cro shrugged. He had no problem with climbing. So, he just flew to the top of the wall, sitting there to watch Aylan climb. When Aylan reached to the top of the tree, Cro flew to him and sat on a branch, close to the fruits. He hoped for the sweet, ripped smell, but instead, there was no smell at all. He raised his neck closer to the fruit to have a better look.

  “I guess these fruits are the avocado type, dull,” Cro declared his judgment. Then he went to bite a fruit.

  “Don’t touch them,” Aylan warned him.

  “Why? These fruits might look abnormal, but I’m not expecting any kind of problem from them,” saying this, he proceeded to bite it.

  But before he even could touch the fruit, they heard a low growling sound just on top of them. Aylan and Cro froze. Then another growling sound came from the nearby tree and sound started coming from all around them. They had no doubt what the sources were. Though, they couldn’t see anything, Aylan moved his head very carefully to see the baboons and flinched. He had never seen a baboon in his life, or even hear about how they look. Right now, his wish came true in an unwanted way. He could see the red, angry eyes and the large canine teeth, even in the dusk.

  The baboons raised their growling sound as if they were waiting for Aylan or Cro to move first so that they could attack them, but they remained as they were. That made the baboons even more impatient. One of the baboons from a nearby tree suddenly howled. Aylan understood it was an attacking signal. He quickly grabbed Cro and leaped to the wall. The wall was broad enough as he expected. Once he con
trolled his balance, Aylan looked inside the boundary. There was nothing close to the high wall to climb down. There were some small trees in a few feet distance, in an unreachable place. Before he could have a second thought, the baboons started coming from both sides of the wall, letting him no choice but jump down. Aylan let Cro fly and dropped onto the small trees, hoping they could take his weight and save him from breaking his bones.

  The trees did catch him safely. At first, Aylan bounced on top of a tree and then rolled to a smaller one. That tree wasn’t robust enough to hold his weight. So, it fell down on the ground with him. Aylan stood up. He felt lucky that no bones were broken, only some scratches and bleeding from the elbow. He was about to say something to Cro and realized he wasn’t alone under the trees. Some female baboons were hiding with their kids underneath the trees since Aylan and Cro arrived by the main gate. They were in shock for a moment to see Aylan all of a sudden. As soon as they got their consciousness back, the frightened kids started screaming and their mothers, who were sitting quietly, stood up in an irritable mood.

  Aylan looked up to the wall. The male baboons have seen him jumping down on trees, and now they heard their kids screaming, that made them go even crazier. The baboons started climbing down the wall by holding some invisible things. He didn’t waste a single moment, enjoying the baboon circus, as Cro flew to show the way through the wild plants and trees, Aylan just followed him. But he couldn’t be fast enough to get rid of the baboons. Soon he was surrounded by the beasts.

  Seeing their canine teeth, Aylan had a wild guess about what would happen with him in a few moments. But he wasn’t ready to die quickly. He took his sword out; at least he will fight to the end to life.

  Cro was watching everything from the above, but he could do nothing to save his friend. He looked around for some hope and got stuck in a scene. There was an old man, wearing some funny clothes sitting on an even older throne. And the throne was attached to a cart and was being pulled by at least half a dozen of baboons. Cro stared at the unexpected stranger for a moment and then screamed, “Here, this way. These beasts are going to kill my friend.”

  The old man turned the rope that the baboons were holding, towards the place where Aylan was and arrived there at an unbelievable speed at the very right time when all the baboons jumped to attack Aylan. “Halt!” he shouted, raising his right hand to them.

  The baboons looked like as if they just got whipped. Somehow, they stopped themselves on halfway through the jump and landed beside Aylan, but looking at the old man with frightened eyes. How on Duray, somebody can stop halfway through the jump? Cro thought.

  “Move, all of you,” ordered the old man. The baboons moved to a safe distance from Aylan and kept looking at him. The old man firmly glanced at Aylan and asked, “What have you done that made them angry?”

  “let me thank you first for saving my life; sire” Aylan replied, politely. He put the sword back in the scabbard. “I think the baboons didn’t like touching the fruit at first. While I tried to escape, I accidentally fell by their babies which made them even angrier. But I”m honest with you sire, we were just curious about the fruit and had no intention of eating them.”

  “I see,” said the old man. “Even I am not allowed to touch them for some reason. And you are the strangers, ha-ha. Did you not know that the baboons live in this area?”

  “I knew about that sire.” Aylan explained why they decided to come this way and then ended up in front of the castle.

  “That wasn’t a wise decision, I should say. People typically avoid this place. I’m King Daleem Kumar welcome you to the kingdom of Ratar Gul.”

  Another king? Cro felt sarcastic. He was about to say something, but Aylan frowned at him to stop and introduced themselves, “I’m Aylan Bimbsor, and this is my friend Cro. We are going to the west, near Ashaland.”

  “That’s a long way, my son. I shouldn’t blame you to come this way.”

  “Is that your throne?” Cro couldn’t stop himself asking the question.

  The old king smiled. “Yes, this is my portable throne. I can’t walk properly. That’s why these baboons brought the cart from somewhere and attached with throne to go outside the castle.”

  “Like the tree and the fruits, these baboons are very unusual as well. Have your men trained them?” asked Aylan.

  “I am the only man in this kingdom,” replied the King. “And I have no idea where these animals came from and how they understand me, to be honest. Do what; I am going to tell you my life story; since you’re the first man, I have met you after four decades and probably the last. But before that, let’s go into the castle. It’s going to be freezing soon.” He signaled the baboons to turn to the castle. Aylan saw they weren’t tied up with the ropes, instead were pulling them by their hands, willingly. The other ends were attached to a handle coming up from the cart. He named it the throne wagon.

  They followed the old king, to the castle. The female baboons stayed with their kids where they were, while some of the males climbed the wall to start guarding again and others just spread all around the garden inside the boundary as if they knew what their duty was. Aylan pulled his eyebrows, seeing that.

  From the outside, it looked like that the castle was nothing but a ruin of it. But as they entered the main hall, they realized that it was a luxurious castle. The decorations were out fashioned, but being looked after very well. No odd smell or dust. No plasters were coming out from the wall. There were torches lighten up everywhere, giving the castle even magnificence look. Aylan and Cro understood that it was the baboon caretakers who are looking after the castle. They praised about the baboons to the king. The King didn’t say anything, just smiled and showed a chair to sit. Cro looked at the large and spiral stairs that went all the way to the rooftop, touching every floor. The doors were also massive enough to take the throne wagon into any rooms.

  Aylan waited for the king while the baboons detached the throne from the cart and placed on the ground where it belonged. King Daleem Kumar asked one of the baboons to bring some drinks for them. Curious Cro followed the baboon to the kitchen and sat on the table to see how he made the drink. The baboon looked at Cro and smiled. Cro has never seen any baboon smiling. He thought the baboon was threatening him to leave, so he said, “Come on my friend. Let me just see how you work the man’s chores. You guys are awesome. Trust me.”

  “You can stay. I was just smiling at you,” said the baboon, checking some melons and mangoes in a basket.

  Cro jumped up to hear his voice, “You can speak?”

  “We don’t speak to any other species. But you two are totally different than the others. We felt it as soon as you entered the kingdom.”

  “I’m taking it as a compliment. Please accept my cordial thanks,” said Cro. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “I know what you are going to ask,” replied the baboon, while he was washing the fruit in a bowl full of water. “You want to know how we ended up serving the king, isn’t it?” He then started peeling the mangoes.

  “Yes, that’s what I was going to ask you,” Cro said.

  The baboon gave a moment long glance as if he thought if he could trust Cro to say this. “Well, we were called,” he said at last.

  “Called by whom? The king?”

  “No. We were called by the fruit of the trees.” The baboon started squeezing the mangoes into a jug.

  “By the fruits? But how is it even possible?” Cro was surprised.

  “To be honest with you, I have no idea. It was about forty years ago our fathers suddenly decided to move here, saying they were invited to go to a new place to live. I was born here, and since my birth, I see the elders looking after the king since he was in a long sleep. When he woke up, our leader told me to work in the kitchen with five others, and I’m just following his order.”

  “Wow! That’s, erm, a fascinating story. I’m thrilled. The king probably has an interesting story to tell, too. We better be quick,” said an excited Cro. />
  “Yes, I’m quite interested in listening to his story, too. All this time we just saw him ordering us and talking gibberish to himself. This is the first time he speaks normally.” The baboon was squeezing peeled melon now. He finished making the juice really quick, put the jugs and three glasses on a tray and carried it to the main hall. Cro followed him back.

  “Ah, here they are,” said King Daleem Kumar. “Come, join us Cro.”

  The baboon put the tray on a tea table, poured the juice into three glasses and served them to the King and his guests. He kept his head down while serving to the men, but looked at Cro and shook his head like a friend. Aylan noticed it, “You guys are friends now?”

  “I guess so,” replied Cro. “Aren’t we Mr. Baboon?”

  “Oh, they can’t speak like you Cro,” said the King.

  “They do, my King. Isn’t it Mr. Baboon?” Cro looked at the baboon, which was still standing in the corner, head down.

  Aylan realized that the baboon wasn’t willing to speak in front of King Daleem Kumar, so he said, “I guess he has spoken in animal language to you Cro, which human won’t be able to understand.” He blinked his eye to Cro.

  “Oh, silly me. I beg your pardon, my King. As I’m so used to speak with a human that I thought you’re, too able to talk to any other kinds as well,” Cro corrected his opinion quickly.

  “It’s okay. You are an extraordinary creature Cro,” King Daleem Kumar smiled. “Shall I start my story?” he asked his guests.

  “Please, my king,” they replied.

  King Daleem Kumar filled his empty glass with melon juice. He slowly took a sip of it and looked at the torch, as if the story he was about to say was written in it, “I wasn’t a good king at all, you know,” he smiled, still looking at the torch.

  “In fact, I was a terrible king. I was a selfish, arrogant and greedy man, who abused his power until everything has changed all of a sudden. Anyway, let me give a pause about me and introduce with the kingdom.”