by Eric Vall
It hit the golden floor with a sickening crunch, and from the top of his broken skull, a red soul orb, the same color as his ruby eyes, rose and floated towards me. As it pressed and was absorbed into my chest, I could feel a new power open up inside me like a blooming hibiscus flower, the ability to create pocket worlds from nothing but illusions.
The upgraded power pleased me.
I turned back to my minions, and they were all smiling at me, happy to be reunited with their master. Rana wiped a smudge of golden blood from Carmedy’s cheek, and Morrigan swiped a few stray droplets from Annalise’s braid. My women, my beautiful minions, were back in my possession, where they rightfully belonged.
“That was awesome!” Rana blew her bangs out of her eyes, gave me a smile, and raised her fist in the air. I nodded in agreement as I held out my hand to her. She took it, and I brought her to my chest and stroked the unruly curls at the back of her head. I motioned the rest of them over, and they came to me, wrapped themselves around me, and surrounded me with their warm and comforting presences.
“After being here for so long … I’m kind of tired of gold,” the cat-woman admitted as she snuggled deeper into my chest,
“What did you just say?!” the fox asked in an astonished voice. “Tired? Of Gold? You’re an adventurer, Carmedy! How could you get tired of gold?”
“I’m tired of gold, too.” The swordswoman chuckled as she laid a kiss on my cheek.
“I would like to point out that I have never specified if I had a preference for gold or not. As a High Elf, I tend to prefer silver because of its magical properties.” Morrigan’s tone was bored and monotone, but from the way she gripped onto my forearm, I knew she too was glad to be reunited with her sisters and me.
“And it looks better with your hair color and skin tone,” Carmedy added as she nodded firmly.
“That is no matter to me,” the pale elf muttered back as her dark eyes snapped to Carmedy, but the cat only responded with a giggle and an adorable smile.
Annalise was the first to pull away, though she still stared up at me with an affectionate look in her eyes as she spoke.“Shall we search for treasure now?”
“Yes, I would like to get it as quickly as we can and get the hell out of here,” I said with a deep chuckle. “Sorry, Rana, but I am also quite tired of seeing gold.” I gestured towards the shining walls around us, and Rana’s face soured playfully as she swatted at my arm.
With that, my minions moved to disperse and search by themselves, but I raised a finger in the air and shook my head. Instead of spending all that time searching ourselves, I summoned my shadow slaves to do all of the work.
By the time we gathered the treasure and returned to the surface, night had fallen outside, and we quickly went about setting up camp. Thankfully, Annalise brought along a Tamarisch tent, which was like the ones we used in Valasara but instead outfitted with heavy outer and inner walls to keep the heat in. Annalise and I had just pounded in the last few stakes to keep the tent in place as my shadow slaves emerged from the dungeon. The floating chests and golden trunks made their way under the flap of the tent, and we followed after them.
Rana was already digging through them as we entered while Morrigan was working at the lock of an exceptionally large trunk. The alchemist picked through a few but quickly left it to Rana as she rummaged through the bundles at her waist to start a fire.
“Anything good?” Annalise asked as she plopped down and began to arrange everyone’s bedding.
“Kaput,” the red-haired fox muttered as she threw aside a few goblets and they clanged against the frozen ground. “Nothing but the same old, same old.”
Annalise quickly crossed the tent to look at the lock Morrigan was working diligently on. After a moment, the swordswoman gave Morrigan a curt wave, a signal for the pale elf to move back, and she did as my wife instructed. Annalise brought her heavy boot up and slammed it down on the lock. With a loud crack, the lock came open and dropped to the packed dirt in two fragments. Morrigan blinked once they moved back to the chest.
“Well, that’s one way to skin a cat.” Rana smirked over her shoulder as she continued to rummage through the treasure, and Carmedy’s head shot up, her mouth pulled down into a scowl.
“Hey! No skinning anyone, especially cats!” Carmedy shouted as she pointed her free hand at Rana accusingly.
“It’s just a saying, pussycat, no reason to get all bent out of shape,” the fox woman said softly, and Carmedy narrowed her eyes at Rana’s turned back and the red and white tail that swished slowly on the ground as she searched. The green-eyed cat rolled her eyes at Rana’s usual antics, caught my eye, and gave me a bright smile as the joke rolled off her back.
“Holy shit,” Annalise whispered as she bent down beside Morrigan and looked into the trunk she had forcibly opened.
“What is it? Is it a sacred item? Please, please tell me it’s a sacred item,” Rana said excitedly as she hopped over and peeked over Morrigan and Annalise’s shoulders. “What’s so exciting about that? It’s just some dingy old horn.”
“No, it’s not a sacred item,” the elf woman breathlessly said as she picked up the copper horn and held it with her fingertips as if it were delicate and would break upon contact, “but it is something of great value and an even longer history. It’s a Draaktoeter, forged by the Elder Dwarves of Hilensia.”
“What’s a Draaktoeter?” Rana and Carmedy asked in unison, and Morrigan looked at me and waited for me to explain. She knew I was around when this very item would have been used.
“Long ago,” I began seriously, “before any of your times, maybe even before your great-great-grandparents’ time, when dragons were still very much alive and took to the skies, there were groups of people called Tamers, some of them were gods and some were humans.”
I now had all of my minions’ attention as my tone grew somber. “We all know for a fact dragons were temperamental savage beasts, leveling villages and cities in one fiery breath, but a small number of people were able to get their hands on some dragon eggs. These people raised the dragons that hatched from the eggs and kept them as pets or, for some, slaves. These tamers were gifted copper horns from the High Dwarves. The dwarves deemed them fit to hold such tools, and they were called Draaktoeters. The Tamers would blow in the horn, and no matter how far away, their dragon would come to them. Each Draaktoeter is rare and makes a specific sound, for as each dragon is unique, its draaktoeter is just as unique. No two draaktoeter are the same, and now that the dragons have gone extinct, the draaktoeter has, too.”
All of my minions bowed their heads as they looked at the copper instrument. The swordswoman reached out for it, and the white-haired elf handed it over. Annalise examined the horn. It fit perfectly in her hand, and she ran her fingers over the detailed flower engravings on its bell before her fingers stopped suddenly. I could see tears in the high queen’s eyes as she took it and held it to her chest. She quickly wiped them away before the others could see, but I could sense the emotion ripping through her usually strong body.
“Annalise?” the cat-woman called as her ears twitched and sensed a change in the air. “What’s wrong?”
“Each draaktoeter is engraved with the dragon’s name because the sound is the only thing the dragon will respond to,” she told all of us even though this was a fact I already knew. “One of my ancestors, one of the first High Kings of Tamarisch, had a dragon. There are a few tapestries in the palace that depict the magnificent creature. Its scales were the color of seafoam, and its eyes were the color of amber. Its tail was long enough to wrap around the largest tower in the palace three times. It's name … was Akeir.” She looked back down at the horn she held to her chest.
“And?” the fox woman asked as she cocked her head to the side,
“T-the name engraved on this horn … is Akeir.” My wife moved her slender fingers over the tarnished surface of the copper horn as she looked up at me with watering, pleading eyes. “Master, I want to keep this.
Please, let me carry my ancestor’s draaktoeter.”
Carmedy gasped and covered her mouth with her paws dramatically from behind us. I held out a hand for the horn and kept my face emotionless. Annalise glanced down at the horn she held protectively to her chest, then slowly offered it to me. The hands that clutched onto the metal were trembling.
I took the horn from her and looked over it. The etchings were beautiful. I had only seen dwarven handiwork a few times in my lifetime, but seeing it once again took my breath away. Vines and blooming flowers adorned the bell of the horn, and small sapphires were pressed into the blooming petals of each flower. I turned it over in my hand, and the handle was far too small for me to hold. I chuckled to myself as I eyed the worn mouthpiece and imagined a man who resembled my warrior queen blowing into it to summon a flying beast.
“I wonder … if you blew into it now, would a flying dragon skeleton show up?” The black-haired cat giggled as she stroked her tail,
“Stop saying things like that,” Rana teased, “you’re starting to sound like Morrigan.”
From beside Annalise, Morrigan frowned at the fox-woman. “I would never say such an absolutely ridiculous thing like that,” Morrigan snapped, but then her expression changed, and she appeared more thoughtful, “but it would be quite interesting to see a dragon’s skeleton.”
“See?” Rana sneered over to Carmedy, and the cat-woman frowned and pouted but giggled as she gave the fox-woman a playful push on the shoulder.
I ran a finger once more over the bell of the horn as Annalise’s dark brown eyes observed me carefully. Then I offered it back to Annalise with both hands.
“It is yours, my minion,” I said with a smile, and she inhaled sharply and brought the horn once more to her chest as a single tear streamed down her freckled cheek.
Chapter Four
It took three days and three nights for my ice demons, shadow slaves, and some spare goblins to dig to the frontlines of fighting. We followed along behind them as they dug, and being burrowed under the earth kept us warmer than if we were on the surface.
We carried enough supplies to keep us well fed, but the cramped space in the tunnels made me remember my days trapped in my own dungeon, and I longed to see the sun again, even if it came with the cold bite of frigid air. Before, when I was free, I didn’t care much for nature or the creatures that lived there. Isolda did, but I found no pleasure in the silence of the trees as she did. Now, though, I found that I enjoyed the outdoors more and more the longer I was out of my dungeon.
On the third day, we were following along behind the troop of diggers when I heard the ice demons snarling and grunting back and forth with each other and knew they must have broken the surface. My minions and I raced forward, and as we moved, the tunnel tilted upward. The pathway was clear of debris, and sometimes I wondered where the ice demons moved the rocks and dirt they cleared away. I liked to imagine the ice demons moving like worms, consuming the soil through their open jaws, but having watched them work a few times, I knew that not to be true.
As our group moved quickly together, light began to filter in from above, and the dark, solid earth was cast in a cold gray light from the oppressive clouds hanging overhead. Annalise, who had learned to walk behind me, broke into a trot and passed the rest of us quickly. I didn’t scold her or call her back because her brothers were up there somewhere, and she had been separated from them for too long.
I watched my swordswoman’s chestnut braid swing across her back as her shapely legs carried her farther away from us. Her heart was beating fast in her chest, and I already knew she was excited to be reunited with her brothers, the three of the four men who truly believed in her skill as a swordswoman.
“Hey, slow down!” the fox-woman yelled as she bent forward, grabbed onto her knees, and struggled for breath. “Some of us can’t walk as fast as you, especially in these damn boots!”
“Come on, slow-pokes!” the swordswoman cheekily called over her back as she moved even closer to the exit, but Rana stopped and leaned against the wall as she caught her breath. Then she pulled down the sleeve of her coat and looked at an imaginary watch.
“I think it’s about break time, guys,” the fox-woman whined as she rubbed at her ankles and feet. “My dogs are barking.”
“Dogs? I don’t like dogs,” the cat-woman whimpered as she grabbed at her tail and twisted it anxiously. Her eyes darted from side to side as she looked around for any of the dogs Rana had mentioned.
“It's an ex--never mind.” Rana laughed as she pushed off the wall and wrapped an arm around Carmedy’s stooped shoulders. “If there are any dogs up there, pussycat, I’ll protect you.”
“Also, I would like to point out that if we were to take a break here, it would be useless as we are nearly to the surface,” Morrigan uttered as she took two steps forward. “We can take a break once we are settled in with Annalise’s brothers.”
“Okay, but think about it this way,” the redhead said as she trudged on, her arm still wrapped around the smaller cat’s shoulder. “We all know and love Annalise, right? There are three men up there exactly like her. Can you imagine how exhausting three clones of Annalise are going to be? I just know they’re going to challenge me to do, like, fifty push-ups or something, and I’m going to have to teach them a lesson.”
She snorted through the joke, and I chuckled under my breath as I held out my hand to Carmedy as she stumbled.
“I wouldn’t say I love her,” Morrigan stated in a monotone voice as we moved on together, the swordswoman’s back coming nearer, “but I do hold affectionate feelings for her and certainly do not wish death upon her.”
“Oh, stop it, Morrigan,” Carmedy said as she reached out for the pale woman’s hand. “We all love each other! It’s okay to say it. We’re all Master’s minions and lovers which makes us sisters.”
“In the High Elf society, it is common for elves to only have one or two children per millennium. I am an only child, never had the pleasure of having siblings, and do not know if my parents have had any others after I was cast out but … ” Morrigan’s dark eyes were heavy on the ground at her feet as she walked, and her voice caught in her throat as she formed the right words to say in her usual bored tone. “ … I am thankful to call you three my sisters and my … friends.”
Carmedy’s expression broke as tears suddenly sprung to the corners of her eyes, and she once again reached out for the white-haired elf. “Morrigan, that was the nicest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
“Damn, you took the words right out of my mouth,” the curly haired fox stated with a wistful expression as she too held out her hands to Morrigan.
Annalise turned with a smile as we reached her, and she nodded in agreement, but her deep brown eyes strayed to mine and stayed there as she examined my handsome face.
“But we must not forget Master is the reason we are able to be this close,” my wife said.
“Ah,” I muttered as I inclined my head to my stunning minions, all of them looking at me with adoration, “I am merely the glue that holds us together.”
“That’s not true!” The black-haired cat said as she shook her head vehemently. “You’re more than glue. I feel like the whole reason we came together and entered that dungeon was fate to find our one and only Master. We’d be nothing without your instruction and love.”
“It is true, Master, we would be lost souls without your guidance,” Morrigan said as emotion creeped into her usually impassive voice,
“As would I.” I smiled and stroked my High Elf’s cheek with my pointer finger as my other hand came up to stroke the soft red fur of Rana’s twitching ear.
“You wouldn’t be a lost soul, silly,” the cat-woman said as she wrapped her arms around me in a warm embrace. “You’d just be a trapped soul in a dungeon.”
I held them all to me for a few passing moments, breathed in each of their comforting individual scents, then parted from them. We were making good time, and I knew we were nearly to
the Tamarisch camp. I could feel the pumping blood and heartbeats of thousands of men waiting above, three of them who just happened to share the same lineage as my swordswoman.
Once we had exited the tunnel, the cold air hit our faces, and our breath rose into the air like smoke. From where we stood, we could clearly see the starched white Tamarisch tents and the billowing blue and gold flags with the roaring bear insignia on it. We were right where we needed to be.
I glanced over at Annalise. Her freckled cheeks were rosy pink with exertion, but her face was glowing, and the smile on her lips was blinding. Her dark brown eyes surveyed the encampment, and the high queen’s breathing hitched as a hulking man strutted out of one of the largest tents and made his way to another.
Even from this far away, I could plainly see the family resemblance. His long, wavy chestnut hair came down his shoulders as he pulled it back with a leather cord. He stopped a passing soldier and said something to him, and the booming voice that echoed back to us sounded almost identical to Annalise’s father’s, but this man’s Tamarischian accent was thicker.
“Ansel … that’s Ansel … ” she exhaled out in wonder as the soldier said something, and the taller, more muscular man threw his head back and laughed. Her face cleared at the sound, and an excited smile burst across her lips. “That’s my brother, Ansel!”