Law of Kanya
Episode 1: The Family Secret
By Josh Buckby

Chapter 10

“Oh no!” Benita wailed. “I was praying so much Nuran had been mistaken! You have to come with me!”
As if there was going to be a choice; Benita coiled her hand around Kelly’s and thundered out of the hut post haste, dragging the girl haphazardly along behind her. Kelly shielded her eyes as they adjusted to the light, and she took in all the strong and fairly unfamiliar smells that went with her wild surroundings. She was in a village; a maze of boxy, thatched huts and houses, as jarring a shift from her hometown as could ever be possible.
The makeshift streets were crowded with panic stricken Skota. Some of the brown, mangy wolves were trying to scoop up their belongings. Obvious mothers were clinging to their children, murmuring comfort to them as they cried out in terror.
The majority of them, no matter how strong or weak in appearance, were taking up spears and bows, baring their fangs and rushing for battle.
“We don’t have any time left!” Benita urged her. “He’s found us!”
Hearing more frenzied shouts, Kelly’s eyes were drawn to a spiky, wooden wall that seemed to encircle the whole village. It seemed to be the main focus of any warriors amongst the wolves, as archers swarmed the battlements on this side.
Beyond the wall was an enormous mountain range that seemed to stretch into the horizon. Battle cries and jeers were coming from a row of figures standing and taunting along the tip of the closest rocky cliffs. Kelly couldn’t make them out, but they were all cheering and flailing their arms madly at the sight of the disoriented village.
“Who are they?” she whimpered.
“Monsters! Listen to me. Whatever you do, you mustn’t let them know what you are!”
“You mean me being human, or…” Kelly tried to ask over the shouting.
“Grrrr, you know what I mean, Kelly!” Benita snapped. “Either or, it doesn’t really matter!”
“It’s a little late for that, isn’t it?”
“Perhaps not! We have to hide you, and I think I know a way!”
Benita tugged Kelly away from the hut and right into the heart of the camp. Though the warriors were determined, there was no hiding the absolute disorder among the civilians; entire packs of Skota were trampling up and down the perimeter of the village, seemingly aimless.
That was until Makara came lumbering into view, a hard Kanyan to miss in the crowd. “On me!” he roared. “All of you who can fight, I want braced along the northern wall! Everyone else I want gathered in the square! Move it along!”
The warrior chieftain leapt onto one of the battlements himself and took up a spear. After a brief assessment, he raised one enormous clawed hand to the sky. “Archers form up. Aim to disable and fire upon my mark.” At least ten wolves lined up along the trench drew their bowstrings back.
“Make ready! FIRE!”
A Volley of arrows filled the sky, quickly disappearing behind the walls as they dropped like needles. The Skota spared no time in unleashing another, and another. Their relentlessness put a knot in Kelly’s gut as she wondered, fretfully, just what hoard was relentlessly fighting through that barrage.
“Benita!” came a familiar voice. Nuran ambled out from one hut, with two bags slung over his back. When he saw Benita, he scurried to her fast as he could muster.
“I got them!” he shouted excitedly.
Nuran huffed for breath and flung the sacks at Benita’s feet. “Great work Nuran!” she cheered.
“What are you doing with those?” Kelly huffed.
“You can thank me later!” Benita answered, her head held high. “Okay, Kelly, hold still!”
“Hey, wait a min...”

Benita spared no time in tearing open one bag and rubbing the contents all over Kelly’s face. Pale white powder fogged up the air around her. She coughed and flailed her arms in an attempt to shake it off, but as Benita rummaged it on, the powder was sticking to her fur like glue.
“Oh, I think I get it!” Nuran suddenly chuckled. Kelly wondered what she meant as Benita repeated the process with her hands, then showered the rest of her for good measure. The stuff had turned any fur it touched very nearly white. “Wait, what are you doing to me?”
Benita remained silent and scooped up the other, larger bag. In actually, it wasn’t a bag at all; It was a battered and torn robe, looking like the kind of thing a priestly monk would be more comfortable wearing.
“Arms up! Put this on right now!”
Kelly grumbled as Benita wrapped her up in the ragged old cloth, which smelled a little like onions. “You just keep expecting me to play on!” she stammered as it was fastened round her waist, and Benita pulled the hood over her eyes. “Tell me what you’re doing to me!”
“It’s to hide the symbol.” Nuran stammered. “With any luck, you’ll pass for a Madraki like me.”
Benita stood back, smiling and framing it with her fingers. “It’s spur of the moment, but it should work.”
Kelly was as white as a ghost from the powder, what you could see of her, that is. The robe was wrapped round her so tightly, she was practically mummified in thing. Only her forepaws, face and the tip of her dyed tail were showing. Kelly shook her head, feeling like a three year old playing some kind of weird dress-up.
“I don’t get it! Why are you doing all this?”
“Because whether you live or die could depend on it!” Benita’s voice was so shrill and serious that Kelly dared not doubt her. It put the whole moment into perspective. Hastily, Benita turned back to Nuran. “Thank you, for this. You and your sister should get to… Where is Suri? I thought she’d be with you by now!”
“That’s just it.” Nuran now whimpered. “I really can’t find her! I’ve been running laps around the village shouting her name, and I’m not getting any response!”
“What? That stupid little girl could get herself killed if she doesn’t reveal herself!”
“Oh god, you really are serious about this, aren’t you?” Kelly shivered.
The two bickered about Suri until the giant wolf that was Makara came marching towards them, his face wrinkled into a furious snarl.
“What in the name of sanity is going on over here?! Nuran?! Benita?! Why is making her look like a recluse old hag such an important use of your time?”
“Hey, um, the ‘hag’ is just as confused as you are, so you know!”
“We can’t get out of this unscathed.” Benita told Makara. “But this way, she might stand a chance of avoiding his attention.”
“Oh, this is pitiful!” he growled. “Disguise her? That was what Nuran so persisted with? Nobody would be fooled by that!”
“Um, I think I have to agree.” Kelly interjected. “I scream suspicious! All he has to do is take one smell of me and…”
“Unless you have a better idea, I suggest you shut it!” Benita snapped, Kelly staggering back at how bewilderingly serious she had become. The corners of Makara’s mouth began to rise in a snarl, but he relented, if only because it was too hectic to argue now.
“Well, what about evacuating?” Kelly asked. “You said you were getting everyone out of here?”
“Can’t you see it in his eyes, Kelly?” Benita grimaced. “There isn’t one, anymore.”
Kelly glanced at Makara, who struggled for breath. “As I feared, escape is no longer an option…” he grunted.
“What?” she gasped.
“You heard me,” Makara sneered. “The attack was supposed to be coming from the north, but we have battle ready DKI’s marching on us from every direction! There’s nowhere to run!”
“We can use the bunkers, can’t we?” Nuran put forth, to perplexing stares from each of them. “Yeah, some of the houses have hidden bunkers beneath them. We could hide Kelly in them until the battle’s over!”
“I ordered them emptied.” Makara was quick to shoot him down. “Nuran, at this point, hiding in one of those would be suicide.”
“Why?” Kelly snapped, eager to avoid any fighting she could.
With frantic shouts and the sight of many Kanyan’s scampering for safety, the group turned to see part of the forts wall catch alight with fire. They all shielded their heads and watched as that part of the fortifications came crashing down with thunderoud booms, toppling like matchsticks onto several buildings, the fire spreading like a blanket over it all.
“Does that perhaps answer your question?!” Makara shrieked. Evidently. Kelly gulped at the thought of being in that building if it had a cellar. She would’ve been trapped and suffocated from the fumes, well before this had ended.
She was all too familiar with such events.
As the dust began to clear, a tall dark shadow barred the other side of the downed wall. A bright blue light flickered to life, illuminating the camp in it’s gaze. There was an imposing silence, and then that one light was joined by at least ten more. Even more began sprouting up in the forest edge behind them.
They marched.
The forest released a swarm of armoured figures that stormed out and into the village. Knights with shiny black armour and glowing, horned helmets quickly overtook the settlement, swarming in like an army of ants.
Makara drove the spear into the ground at Nuran’s side. “Take it and help me beat them back! Now, Nuran!” With that he was gone, launched into action and bellowing orders as his troops scrambled to recover.
One of those things came their way within moments, and Nuran hesitantly took up the spear. In a flash, he threw himself between Kelly and Benita, and the marching soldier. “Get back!” Nuran shouted.
The monster sized up the three of them. Kelly huddled close to Benita, listening to the unmistakable sound of creaking gears with every step it took.
It wasn’t armour. It was the soldiers’ body.
The attackers were robots, and there was no way they couldn’t be related to the one who had attacked her in the basement. It had just one eye, one glowing blue eye in the dead centre of it’s head like a Cyclops. All of them did.
But one glowing eye was the only similarity these robots shared to the other one. The machines in the village didn’t look as alien as the vacuum cleaner robot. To be perfectly frank, they looked just like… like the Kanyans!
Their bodies had bulky forelimbs and triple jointed legs, and they even had long slinky tails that creaked as they walked about. What Kelly had first seen as horned helmets were actually their ears, sharp and stiff. She highly doubted it, but it looked so much like a Skota, Kelly wondered if it really was a robot, or some kind of mechanical suit with one inside.
Nuran was determined to fight back. He drew tortured breaths from Kelly and Benita as he darted to one side of a massive fist coming his way. Then he literally took the sky; Kelly wondered if she’d blinked and missed it, but after bracing for a second, his long legs flung him high enough into the air to land on the roof of the nearest hut.
He raised the spear, looking as if he was ready to leap again and drive it deep into the attacker. Any hope of that was dashed when it swung round and struck the building pre-emptively. Nuran lost his balance, long enough for that thing to wrap it’s giant hand around his waist and pull him down to it’s level again.
“ARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!”
“NURAN NO!” Benita screamed.
Kelly froze with fear, thinking for a moment that it had crushed him down the middle. The sparks now bursting out of it’s hand suggested otherwise, though it was no less traumatic. Nuran wailed, and every hair on his body stood on edge as the beast flooded him with electricity. It released him in a writhing mess at it’s feet.
Kelly caught sight of Makara ignoring their distress, and charging headlong into the other machines sweeping over the village. Benita screamed for Kelly to take cover, to get out of the robots’ sights by any desperate means. She felt catatonic, almost not noticing until Benita made a desperate grab for her hand again.
Not this time. There was no way she could live with herself if she left Nuran at that thing’s mercy.
Wrenching free of Benita, Kelly scrambled in the dirt for a rock or a stone, anything. All she managed was a tiny pebble, but she got to her feet and flung it at the soldier. It bounced off his head with a loud clank.
As she hoped, he seemed to forget about Nuran… and now she was the one caught in it’s gaze.
Only then did she realise that particular robot had a big metal backpack strapped on, with a cable running to a long, thin pipe on one arm. It raised and pointed it squarely at her nose, and it wasn’t hard to work out what was coming. Kelly squealed as Benita scrambled to grab her, and the two darted behind the hut.
A stream of white, hot fire filled the air, licking at the building and turning it into an inferno in moments. There was a vile sounding creaking and groaning as the supports gave way and the whole hut collapse in on itself.
Kelly and Benita crawled away as their cover evaporated around them. The robot didn’t blink, setting to work on the next closest building with its unmatched weaponry, lest they try to use it as their next barricade.
Aghast, Kelly was helped to her feet by Benita. Everywhere she looked, one of those machines was demolishing the Skota homes, most with flamethrowers of their own, great plumes of smoke filling the sky across the village.
As soon as the robot soldier had nothing left nearby to burn, it turned the weapons back on them again. Kelly screamed and waved in surrender. “No wait! Please! You can’t do this…”
“TAKE HIM DOWN RIGHT NOW!”
Out of nowhere, three other Skota came leaping into the fray and surrounded the giant mechanical beast. It seemed to relish the challenge and was practically toying with them with no regard for its size, ducking and weaving around their spears like a barroom brawler. Slowly and steadily, they seemed to draw it away.
A fourth one, perhaps the leader, took to Kelly’s side, marking the machine with a bow and arrow. She couldn’t tell if he knew just who she was, but the message was clear enough. “Go!” he snarled. “Get out of here while we keep him busy!”
She couldn’t be more relieved. This time, Kelly took Benita’s hand and pressured her into joining the fray. She collapsed at Nuran’s tossing and turning side, and tried to came his frantic shouts.
“Nuran!”
“I’m… ergh, I’m not okay!” he whined, and writhed. “I can’t feel my legs! I don’t think I can move!”
“You have to move!” Benita pressured him. “The effect will wear off, but you have to fight it…”
“RRRRGHHH, you try fighting that many volts running through you!”
“She’s right!” Kelly urged him, frantically forcing one of his arms over her. Benita took hold of the other, and they got him onto his feet. “You carried me to safety, so I guess consider this repayment.” she quipped. “Come on, move it! We have to get you away from… here…”
They didn’t make it more then an inch before things took a surprising turn. Kelly trailed off fearfully, as the ground rumbled lightly. Then again. One after another, Kelly heard both the battle cries and the desperate screams begin to soften, and disappear altogether as the rumbles turned into evident footsteps.
Kelly looked to see that the three Skota who’d saved her had suddenly leapt down softly from the robot, their determination gone and their faces pale. The machine repayed their kindness by immediately beating the first one to his knees.
It was only when Kelly saw a great black shadow wash over her body that she realised why. She turned slowly, and along with Benita and Nuran, she too couldn’t help but freeze in fear. She stared up into a solitary, blood red eye, and just about jumped out of her fur.
The whole valley went deathly silent, not a murmur from any of the Skota. From Kelly’s point of view, the sun had eclipsed behind no less then a giant, an enormous hulking figure flexing its mechanical muscles.
For a robot, he was in a whole different league from the others. He looked more like a human, but seemed cold and sterile, with smooth shiny armour and a round domed head like an old diving helmet. His shoulder’s were broad and huge and covered in industrial black and yellow markings, and he carried on his back an enormous contraption that looked like the cobbled together remains of a jet plane’s engines.
The eye turned along the length of it’s visor and surveyed the surroundings before locking onto something. He raised his arm in parallel with a far off building. This robot wasn’t armed with a flamethrower anything like the others. His choice of weapon was a cannon nearly half as long as Kelly was tall, bolted to that arm. She placed her hands over her mouth at the sight of a charge meter building on the side of that weapon, gradually turning green…
There were gasps from crowds of Skota, and a flurry of shouts to take cover and get out of there. Several jumped as far away from the area as they could make it, and in the last second, a female Skota came tearing out of the house with a child in her arms. Amazingly, the robot delayed, and let them run before making his move.
A flaming, molten ball of fire erupted from the cannon. The home shattered into a million pieces of wood on impact, and was engulfed by a fireball the likes of which Kelly had never seen before. They all ducked for cover as it rained down around them.
A blackened crater lay where the building used to be a moment later. When the debris settled the mother and child ran back and collapsed in a heap in the ruins of their former home, sobbing uncontrollably.
Everyone else…
When they were back on their feet, stillness broke and several Skota began to gather close to Kelly. The giant didn’t need to speak a word. He merely pointed to the ruined remains of the village square.
Unlike the others, he hadn’t intended to kill if it could be helped. An example of his power was more then enough to get a point across. It had worked. Kelly watched dreadfully as one by one, so many of the Skota threw their weapons away and crept towards the square.
The robot exuded command so fiercely that Kelly too found herself unable to stop her legs moving. Stumbling with Nuran, terrified with every step, she backed away from the behemoth and fell in line with the growing crowd of prisoners.
Benita seemed as terrified as she did, and hugged Kelly close like a mother would. “Don’t say a word.” she whispered softly in Kelly’s ear. “Stay calm, completely quiet, and above all do whatever he says.”
Her voice was of little comfort now. Kelly felt every hope of survival in her being dashed by the second.

*

It took them a while, but little by little, the invading army marched others into the growing crowd, until they had rounded up as many as they could find. They were brutes, ordering them with harsh, phonographic voices, and pushing Kelly and the Skota around like sheep.
The Kanyans who had fought were covered in uncountable cuts, bruises and ash. The machines had also taken their fare share of beatings for their efforts, but most still seemed fully functional and ready to dish out against anymore troublemaking. The Skota were rightfully hanging their heads in shame at the defeat, but Kelly, still freshly in shock, knew they’d done the right thing. Against that titan, they stood no chance.
The group built until there were nearly sixty of them all crowded loosely together. She started to see some familiar faces among the many furry mugs that were piling up around her. Not before long, Nuran shrugged her away and stood up on his own again.
“You’re okay!” she exclaimed.
“Sorta.” he grimaced. “It still stings like mad in some places, but I think I can walk again.”
“Better then nothing! I really thought we lost you!”
Kelly couldn’t resist, and gave him a big bear hug. Benita joined in, held both of them together in headlocks under each arm like a school bully. “I thought you’d be squashed or cooked alive! Don’t you two ever do that to me again!”
Kelly shrugged bashfully and Nuran gave her a perplexed stare. “What’s with all the mushy stuff, mom?” she chuckled as she was released.
“Oh, this is no time to joke!” Benita grumbled, her hands on her hips. “I died of fright!”
She put both paws around Nuran’s face. “Nuran, I don’t see Makara!” she huffed. “And there’s still no sign of your sister! What could possibly have happened to her?”
Nuran seemed hard pressed to find an answer, and shrugged nervously.
“That is not an answer! I don’t think I can be put through that again! We have to find her out there…”
Kelly certainly didn’t want to leave Benita’s side, but she took a chance and wandered away the instance her back was turned. There was something she needed to see more of. It wasn’t like she was going far, after all. About ten of the robot soldiers had the group surrounded on all sides. She started jumping up and down on the spot, peeping over the heads of some of the bigger Skota for another glimpse of that enormous robot. A large number of the soldiers were immolating the fortifications, bringing them down and taking their place, forming a square shaped perimeter.
The rest of them were rallying in front of the prisoners. A great roaring bonfire had been spurred to life. Kelly wondered what on earth could possibly be left to burn, until she saw whole handfuls of spears and bows thrown into fire by other members of the horde. The Kanyans had been effectively disarmed.
“Well Performed, Soldier.” she suddenly heard resounding voice say from that direction. It drew jumps from various members of the crowd, since the ground seemed to vibrate with every word. By now, Kelly was practically climbing onto the shoulders of some of the Skota, at great protest, before she got a clear view of the beast.
If what Benita and Makara had said earlier was true, then to inspire that kind of fear, that robot had to be Malik.
One company of robots were standing with one hand against their chest, as if in salute. The giant robot was taking hold of and dragging one out of their ranks with great enthusiasm.
“I think I can see why you were picked for first tier commander.” he boomed. “Very deserving of the honour, your squad followed orders to a tee…”
The giant now zeroed in on another robot, standing solitary away from the others. “Unlike some… I saw your soldiers trying to kill out there.”
“The battle was too hectic to hold back.” it responded, and rather proudly at that. “We lost some of the children and families in the rush. They were fleeing into the open, so I took measures to…”
In the blink of an eye, the big robot slammed his fist into the other, sending him flying clean across the square. There was a collective shrug of fear from everyone in the crowd. “Argh… My lord!” the attacked robot pleaded. “We succeeded in our goal! Who cares if a few Kanyans were toasted along the way?”
“Insolence…” the giant one muttered, before bursting into a roar. “I PERFECTED THIS PLAN! You could and were ordered to detain every single member of this village alive, without fault or excuses!”
The robot struggled to sit up, a morale crushing dent left in its armour from the blow. “I apologise, sir!” he whimpered. “Please! The situation was out of our control!”
“Just as your fate is out of mine.” the monster bellowed, raising his giant cannon to fire.
Just then, Benita had snuck up on Kelly, and announced herself with a tap on the shoulder. “Don’t follow my lead…”
“Wait, wha…”
Benita stepped forward and started pushing and shoving her way through the crowd, trying to break out. Kelly couldn’t possibly obey her and leapt after her. “Wait! What are you doing…?”
“You stop right there, you monster!”
Benita marched out against the bewildered robots, who left the weakened soldier to crawl away. Those robots baring weapons pointed them at her without delay, twitchy and trigger happy. Kelly burst out of the crowd as well, catching sight of the situation and cringing.
“Benita, please don’t!” she whimpered, her paws ready to cover her eyes.
“Blaze, you cretin! Do you remember me?”
Blaze?!
There was a sudden whisper circulating amongst the crowd. The big robot forgot all about his insubordinate, red eye suddenly transfixed on Benita.
“Well, do you?!” she asked again, breaths heaved heavily.
The robot hesitated. “Yes… I remember.”
Benita closed her eyes and sighed peacefully, even though the Skota crowd was on the verge of a mass heart attack. “I’m not afraid of you!” she added, her growl sending out another wave of gossip among the Skota.
“You hear that, Blaze? Most valiant and brave, but if you aren’t… then fear me.”
Just when Kelly wondered what could possibly make this situation any worse, the enormous and awe inspiring robot… showed loyalty. It fell, without delay, into line with all the others, and saluted at the sound of that new voice. It taunted them, the Bony fingernails of a gaunt figure rattled against his thick chest plate, as he stepped to the front of the crowd. So much smaller then the hulking lead robot, and yet somehow, no less frightful.
“You have chosen an opponent of flesh and blood.” it snickered. “An opponent who is willing to bargain, willing to listen to your reason…” All the fear sweeping across the crowd left no question to it. This was him. This was Malik.
If she still had any doubts as to the parallels with her brothers’ story, this had clinched it. This dark knight, ruling and oppressing over the Kanyans with his army of vicious knights, and fire breathing dragon… couldn’t be anything else.
Kelly found herself sinking even more into despair. The only familiar living thing she’d crossed paths with regarded her with spiteful eyes from behind an insidious black mask.
The robots’ master was a human.
“Although if I were you, I’d take my chances with Blaze!” he cried. “Because this… this is not a threshold you want to cross.”

To Be Continued…