Kingdom Rattus: The Rodent Chronicles - Softcover

Novelli, Michael A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1440157596 ISBN 13: 9781440157592

Publisher: iUniverse, 2008

Synopsis

For all the rats of the city park, the Citadel is a centuries-old symbol of power wielding unquestioned control over all who live underground. With its keepers on the verge of extinction, two empires seek to seize control, and to destroy any rodent, reptile, or ancient tradition that stands in their way. Bound in secret and blood, the two rulers have sent their finest warriors, Bloodford and Astran, to take the Citadel by force. But time is running out; in four short days something catastrophic will happen. A lot can transpire in four days... It is a race against time as the two killers pit their strength and skills against the might of the Citadel's magic. But both must beware of a mysterious ferret, which might be plotting the downfall of the both of them...

About this title

About the Author

Michael A. Novelli is a descendant of Edgar Allen Poe; he was born into a family of artists. He became a writer, first short fiction, then film critiques, and now he's a correspondent working for agonybooth.com. He wrote Kingdom Rattus while he was deployed in Iraq.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Kingdom Rattus

The Rodent ChroniclesBy Michael A. Novelli

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2009 Michael A. Novelli
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4401-5759-2

Chapter One

Astran

He crouched in his burrow among the nesting-material, idly grooming the fur on his chest with rough, methodical strokes of his tongue. He nibbled at the tangles, reordering the hairs until they lay flat and clean against his skin. Satisfied, he lifted his head and yawned widely, showing his long incisors and the tiny, sharp molars beyond. A moment later a scent caught in his nostrils and he looked up, whiskers quivering. He saw the shape pausing uncertainly in the entrance to his home, and a satisfied smile settled over his face.

"Mystic ..."

Astran stood up at the sound of the voice. "Come," he rumbled. "Do not be afraid."

She smelled of fear and uncertainty as she ventured toward him, but as soon as she came closer, he could sense the hot lust growing inside her as well.

His smile widened. "You are the one I sent for?"

She paused, lowering her snout to him. "Yes, Mystic. My name is Sequis."

Astran bent and nibbled at the fur on her head. "A beautiful name. Raise your snout, female. I want to see your face."

She obeyed, and he stepped back to examine her. She was young and soft-her gray fur still downy with youth. Most likely she had never mated before. Astran thought of that, and his lust instantly strengthened. A fresh female was better than any other. He eyed her fine, delicate snout and black eyes-bulging slightly with fright. Yes, she would do very nicely.

"Come here," he said. "Relax, and let me touch you."

She obeyed, and he began to groom her. His motions were firm and assured, and he soon felt her muscles loosen under his snout and paws. She had been withdrawing from him, shying away, but before long, as she relaxed under his skillful tongue, she began to press herself against him, wanting more. Astran was happy to oblige her. He led her to his nest and bade her crouch down with him while he groomed her back-slowly working his way down toward her rump.

When he reached her tail, she shuddered and went rigid, her snout thrust forward and her ears quivering. He continued to work at her tail until she let out a little cry and suddenly turned and thrust her snout into the spot where his neck met his shoulder, nuzzling frantically. He let her groom him, all over his broad back and shoulders and his belly, relishing every moment of it until, finally, she reached his tail and the great bulge at its base-and hesitated.

"Do it," he said softly.

To encourage her, he nibbled at the back of her neck until she had satisfied him. After that, growing bored with this play, he gently but firmly turned her around and coupled with her, from behind.

It was over in moments, as it always was with rodents. Astran nuzzled her ears as he made the one, quick thrust that was all their lovemaking amounted to, and then let her go.

She lay very still among the nesting material for a few moments, after he had done. "Is that ...?"

"Yes. Did you like it?"

She raised herself and nodded shyly.

"Good."

She paused. "Would ... would you do it again?"

He reached out for her again, in reply.

They mated several more times that night, and when they were finally done they curled up together in the nest and slept, buried in each others' fur. Astran slept deeply, faint snores rumbling in his chest, untroubled by dreams.

* * *

When he woke up the next morning, Sequis had gone. He rolled over and yawned. As he lay on his back, idly scratching his flank, his nose suddenly twitched. There was an unfamiliar scent in the burrow.

Astran started to growl. He sat up, ears aggressively flat against his skull. And then, a split second later, he was under attack. A pair of shadowy figures darted forward and seized his arms, wrenching them behind his back. Astran snarled and lurched forward, teeth bared, but he froze as a knife pricked his throat.

"Don't struggle," said a harsh voice. "We've orders not to hurt you."

Astran spat. "Give me one good reason not to hurt you and maybe I won't tear you apart."

The speaker's response was to press the knife into his throat until a trickle of blood started to soak his fur. Astran moved away from it, and furiously allowed the two holding his arms to tie his wrists together.

"Get up," ordered the one with the knife. "You're coming with us."

Astran strode out of the burrow, his powerful tail lashing. She was going to suffer for this, he vowed.

Chapter Two

Ophiuchus

She too was grooming, in an idle manner that served as a severe insult for her guest. Two mouse slaves opened the door leading into the great burrow where she sat, but she acted as if she hadn't noticed and continued to nip at an imaginary patch of dirt as Astran was led into the room. Astran noticed, as he often had before, that for someone who disapproved of humans she certainly did act like one from time to time.

The trio of powerfully built rats who had brought him stopped in front of the throne and bowed low. They were all large and heavily muscled, but next to their prisoner they looked much smaller. The mystic all but towered over them, radiating aggression. His sandy-gold fur bristled, and his big, ragged ears were laid flat. In a straight fight, Astran could probably have taken them, but his anger had a way of clouding his perspective; had he not been so enraged by his treatment he might have convinced them to allow him to walk in with his head held up.

"Mistress," one of the guards intoned. "We have brought him."

She finally looked up, and her single eye gleamed slyly. "Welcome, Astran."

He glared at her. "Ophiuchus, if you do not have an excellent excuse for this, I'll have no choice but to kill you and toss your carcass into the streets as a souvenir for the mice."

She yawned. "Menudo, untie him and be gone. We shall talk alone."

"Yes, Mistress."

The three rats removed Astran's bonds, and hastily left the burrow. Astran ignored them and rubbed his wrists as he stepped closer to the throne.

"Explain yourself."

It was his custom, when he confronted her, to stand slightly to the side, so that in the extremely unlikely event she got physical with him his punch would have more momentum. He wasn't certain why, but it had become habit by then.

Ophiuchus rested her paws on her bulging white belly. "Well-mannered as always. I am pleased to see your month of binge drinking and whore chasing hasn't changed you for the worse."

Astran rolled his paw and bowed in the manner of the imperial court of Marrow-Vinjia, causing her great consternation, then promptly spat. "Spare me the pleasantries and get to the point."

She watched him for a moment. "You know," she said, "once I wished you would give me grandchildren. Now you give me nothing else. Have you nothing better to do with your time than take every female you find into your nest? You'll run out of rats and be forced to start bedding the mice before long."

"It will be a miracle if I get to bed at all if you plan on making this a habit, dragging me in so early in the morning."

"It's the only time off the day I know for certain you're not drunk."

Astran feigned shock and slapped his cheek. "Well, I'll be," he sang in a mock-genteel voice, "if that just doesn't justify everything. Although, if I may say so, you might have done better to wait. I'm more likely to listen to your tripe with a good brace of wine in me."

"I swear you get more like your father every day ..."

Astran bristled. "Don't insult me. You may be mistress of my tribe, but I won't hesitate to bite you if you do not show me the proper respect."

Ophiuchus sighed. "You are a mystic, Astran, and a powerful one, whether you value it or not. Surely you could spend your days in study? There are so many things you could learn to do." Now, there was an insult of the highest order. All Least-Rogonians knew a little magic, Astran far more than most, but to suggest that one, especially a male, might need to learn magic?

"Well, I'm so very very sorry if my choice in self-destructive habits doesn't mirror your own. I happen to like being drunk, just as much as you like to delude yourself about life in general."

"You have the gift, Astran ..." she remarked, stopping just short of adding "for asinine comments".

"Yes, I do, and I do not need to study, as you put it," Astran sneered. "I have better things to do."

"Such as fighting and drinking and fathering an entire tribe's worth of pups," she observed, and sighed again. "Ach! What were the gods thinking, to put so much power into the body of a jackass?"

"I'm sure you would know better than I would, Mother," Astran said sourly, "about 'jackasses' especially."

She froze, "You know I don't like talking about that."

"We can't ignore it forever."

"Well," she said. "Perhaps we can ask the gods later. In the meantime, we have more important matters to discuss."

Astran resigned himself. It never failed to impress him, the way he and his mother could have conversations and never actually say anything to each other. He leaned forward. "Important enough to have me dragged here like a criminal?"

"Yes."

Her bluntness surprised him. "Do not hesitate to enthrall me with your news," he said, hiding it behind sarcasm. "If it happens to be something important I'll buy you drink!"

Ophiuchus shifted on her flame-shaped throne. "I have received word that Marrow is planning something. It is time for us to make our move. We must win the Citadel before he does. Therefore, I am going to send my own emissary to barter with the Strega-you."

"Oh, dammit, not this again."

"It is a solid plan, and as long as we get there first, the Vinjian threat will be forever neutralized."

"Yeah, and the Least-Rogonians will never forget that it happened on YOUR watch."

"Deceiving the Strega would bring a fair share of glory your way, too."

Astran sneered. "And what makes you think you could possibly win their interest? They have all the power they could want."

"But they have desires, as all rodents do," she said simply. "I plan to offer them their own most powerful."

"And what would that be?"

She rose from her throne-the transition making her look much smaller.

"You will offer them immortality," she said. "they will know it is within your power, Astran."

Yes, Astran thought, if I was willing to kill myself doing it. "I would have thought they lived long enough already," he said.

"But it is not true immortality, is it?" she said. "They suffer by time's paw, they grow old and blind and decrepit. Your power could give them youth and vitality."

"I see. And what would prevent them from turning on us once I had granted them their wish?" As if I don't already know, he thought.

"Oh, it would be simple enough," she said, waving a paw. "Kill them all once you have gained their trust. I know that is well within your power."

Astran scratched at a torn ear, while he thought. "And what would there be in this for me?"

"Gods curse you, Astran, are you simple?" she snapped, suddenly losing her temper. "What would be in it for you would be the defeat of the Marrow-Vinjians! The power of the Citadel would be ours-our territories would increase a hundred-fold, and we would have slaves and gold beyond our greatest imaginations! That is what would be in it for you, and if you had stopped antagonizing me for one moment, you would have realized that already."

Astran grunted by way of an answer. He knew that none of that was what this was really about, but it was enough of a reason to go on. "I see. And assuming I accept?"

"You will leave immediately," she said, ignoring him. "I will send others with you; they will be at your command. Do not fail me, Astran."

Chapter Three

Tranah

As a rule, Astran was not a religious rat; he felt that a true warrior, so much as he could be called one, did best without seeking the blessings of some nonexistent entity-and even if they were real, why would you do any better if you had to worry about them suddenly turning against you over some minor incident you didn't even know about? Nevertheless, upon leaving his mother's den, he proceeded begrudgingly to the Least-Rogonians' "Shrine of The Four Gods". It was a large den; some said it had belonged to a badger before the One-Eyed Witch's two-eyed mother had slain it with a single glance. Ophiuchus's mother was subject to a lot of ridiculous urban legends among their tribe. Supposedly, the statues of the four gods were carved by a human that she shrank down to a mouse's size, whom she then devoured. Or, to quote another story, that they were fashioned by two Capra-Vinjians she'd captured while disguised as a pigeon, whom she then devoured. Personally, Astran was of the mind that they'd been carved by a human for his own amusement, and were then stolen by her subjects, who built a religion around them ...

A sandy female, a half inch or so shorter than Astran himself but with much wider shoulders, was crouched outside the doorway, posed something like those that the humans called "cowboys": her head tilted low as if there were a hat that covered her eyes. Astran would have ignored her immediately had she not finally spoken.

"So, what did Mom want?"

It was the sickening sappiness of her voice that irritated him most, he decided. His sister was the only rat, save Ophiuchus, whom he desperately wanted to kill with his bare paws. If he was less inclined to kill Tranah, it was only because his mother was more likely to intrude on his love-life.

"The hateful bitch who spawned us has a mission for me ..."

"Quest."

"What?"

"We mystic types call them quests. Humans call them missions."

"Are we really having this conversation or is there something you want?"

"That depends. Who're you fighting this time?"

"Aside from various bums around the watering hole?"

"Which will come after your quest, hopefully."

"Gods, but you're annoying ..."

"You still haven't answered my question."

"King Marrow."

"Who?"

"Ruler of the Marrow-Vinjians."

"The ones with the pretty uniforms?" Her eyes were bulging with excitement.

"You know, the One-Eyed Witch would have you hanged for treason if she heard you say that."

"Mom's asked you not to call her that."

He ignored her and proceeded inside. Right beside the doorway was a yellowish figure of a rat with paws that were supposed to look like a mole's, but really looked more like an anteater's. His claws and hands were raised to the sky, as if he was trying to dig out of Hell. This was Chigu, God of the Earth. Astran bowed politely, scooped up a pile of dust off the ground, and ritualistically sprinkled it over Chigu's feet, which were considerably dirtier than the rest of him.

Across from Chigu was a dancing rat covered in flames; this one was Astran's favorite, as he often fantasized about turning Tranah into a replica of it. This was Pul, The Flame God. Before Pul's dancing feet was a ceremonial flame, which was actually a run-down candle-one of few human extravagances Ophiuchus allowed these days. He reached behind his ear and pulled out an ingrown fur which had been bothering him for days, and watched as it fluttered slowly into the fire. To Pul's left was Mul, Goddess of Water, which looked like an ordinary statue of a rat, except that it had webbed paws, one of which was extended outward like a beggar's. Mul only accepted offerings of blood, the water of the body. Astran demurred at the thought of cutting himself, especially since he had no knife, but a quick scan of his body revealed a forgotten scab on his elbow, which he picked at and held over her paw as a single glob of blood eked out.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Kingdom Rattusby Michael A. Novelli Copyright © 2009 by Michael A. Novelli. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1440157596
• ISBN 13: 9781440157592
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 276