by C. Swallow
The sun priestesses who were burnt at the stake.
They walk through the camp, their eyes glowing white. Like martyrs. I think they’re angels from heaven.
They touch weapons and caress the hands of the demons they walk by.
They don’t speak to me, but they do their invisible work.
While I’m frozen to my spot, I feel a vibration from my feet and the earth cracks apart. I look down from a burst of steam and I see two slender hands reaching up, for my ankles. I don’t walk backwards, I watch as those hands desperately grasp onto my toes, then the soles of my feet and then my shins.
Andoll pulls herself up from the earth, hissing and spitting while her body is covered in welts and burns.
She’s crying into my knees and I can’t talk, or move. I just listen and see.
“Queen Chyronex,” she sobs into my legs, “I am resisting death. I want to be a ghost. I want to be a spirit. Please. Don’t go. Help me?”
If you want her to travel as a ghost, you’ll have to promise me one thing, Draconess.
I look down and I see red eyes coming from a face I can barely make out.
Lucifer? Oh. Hell.
Offer yourself to Torrent over his little brother. And you’ll allow me to grant Andoll the ability to traverse the Spirit Planes. You will be able to communicate. All I require is a trade.
I thought the devil bought souls, I speak fluidly, through my mind.
You’re a Draconess. You’re already tied to hell.
Why Torrent?
Smart question. That’s the second part of my deal, Chyronex. You’ll convince Torrent to return to Hellfire over Eden. You’ll do so and then I’ll grant Andoll full resurrection. For now, I can only promise one thing at a time to a young spirited demoness such as yourself.
Don’t you favour Reyn?
Accept my terms or Andoll’s mine for eternity.
Lucifer grabs Andoll’s ankles, pulling her back down. She lets out a blood curdling scream and her eyes, her soul, clasp onto mine through our locked gazes.
I just nod. I agree to the terms.
It’s just a dream, after all.
****
I wake up, and I feel a cold chill run through my spine. I see, in the moonlight, a quiet camp, rowdier noise emanating by the centre bonfires. Beside me, I see a grey ghost. Clear as day. Andoll sits, breathing heavily. She grins and I simply turn and witness Zarcar and Lixar, with bandages around their wounds.
My Mystifyers are both awake and watching me.
And I’m watching them, trying to process that the dream that I just experienced was real.
“What are you looking at?” Lixar asks me, “Why is there light in your eyes?”
“I just –” my voice is back, and Zarcar jumps in on the fact my tongue has returned, almost immediately.
“Quiet,” Zarcar hisses, “Shut up.”
I know what he means.
“Oh, if only we had a moon priestess who could spell aloud,” Lixar kicks his heel into the dirt, “We’re… with… you… just get these damn chains… off… our wrists,” he whispers each part, quietly.
“No. Morning, wait till morning,” Zarcar sounds panicked.
I feel a chill on my shoulders and I look over to see Andoll clutching me from behind. At least I think it’s a hug, until I feel my ropes slacking around me, they’re still tied but I can wrench my wrists out if need be.
Thank you, Andoll.
They come with a flaming sword for your hand, Chyronex.
“Can you not hear or see her?” I whisper to both my Mystifyers.
“Who?” Lixar asks.
“Stop talking,” Zarcar snarls at me again, warning me.
“Mystifying scum, turning on their own kind?” I jerk when I hear a centaur trot forward into view. She’s the female commander of her kind, and by her side I see a baby female centaur, who’s clutching onto her mother’s front legs, “Stop bickering. Now, you watch what happens next. Same for you, Zest, watch how Mystifyers break.”
“But, mama,” Zest shakes her head, “I don’t want to –”
“We will also break your idiotic innocence before you cry again, do not embarrass your mother. You will laugh when you see grown men cry,” the mother is brutal, Zest is hiding behind her front legs, and I’m confused until Reyn’s favourite soldiers come into view.
One is holding a flaming sword.
Andoll was correct.
Reyn himself waltzes forward, wearing nothing but leather pants, grinning down at all three of us.
“What the hell are you doing?” Zarcar asks Reyn, boldly, “You got what you need –”
“I’m sending my son a gift,” Reyn squats to my level, watching me.
I’m trembling and it appears as if from fear. But in truth, it’s pure adrenaline.
I was ready.
I look to Zarcar and Lixar, my eyes wide as I hold their gazes for three seconds each.
They both understand.
I think.
“Look at me,” Reyn grabs my chin, and turns me to him, “Which one, left or right?”
I nod to my left hand.
“You’re right handed, are you darling? Okay. Right it is.”
Bastard.
I try to kick the King in the balls, just to show I’m a ‘stupid useless whore’ who doesn’t know any better moves.
You know, just for the contrast that was about to happen when my Venatores was unleashed.
“Don’t harm the whore,” Lixar gasps, “King of Hellfire, you handsome devil, don’t maim her pretty body, she’s Rey’s prized whore. He’ll consider her useless if you take her best wrist and ruin it –”
One of the Goblins approaches Lixar, preparing to back hand him across the face.
Reyn stands up and stops his soldier.
“Leave him. I do enjoy the words that flow past the mouth of Highborn men. There’s always something useful to hear from a man who’s about to die before the sun rises, when they anticipate their excruciating end, they always think… strangely,” Reyn turns to Lixar, “Any advice for war? Your own army was so talented back in that first battle,” the sarcasm is deep but I see it hurts Zarcar, who instantly goes red in the face, “They were so weak, did you train them, Warlord?” Reyn smirks lastly at Zar, rubbing in the defeat.
I instantly notice that Zar is about to explode with passion.
I decide to change the tide.
While I can. While I have the advantage of surprise.
“Why did you abandon Rey, your son?” I speak for the first time to Reyn, loudly, clearly and confidently.
It does the trick, Reyn spins right around and faces me, his eyes popping.
He’s caught so off guard and he’s furious for it.
“You were simply silent this whole time?” Reyn snaps, curiously raising a brow, “…the resilience of a whore does astound me sometimes…” he takes a step forward and kneels beside me instead.
“Why leave your son behind, making him the sole Vampyre in the realm for over a century?” I repeat the question, pretending to be the curious and caring lover of Rey, only interested in his welfare.
I needed to know, before I shifted, who’s side Rey was on.
I needed to know what happened between father and son.
“I will delight a whore with a whore’s love story, shall I?” Reyn smiles as he recounts, “…well, you see, there is a thing on this earth called a Draconess,” Reyn catches me off guard, and for a second, I believe he knows what I am, but I keep a straight face and I pretend to listen in, intently, “A Draconess knows no bounds. They seduce who they will. They’re very good at it… breaking hearts, and all…” I’m spellbound yet confused, and Reyn’s snarl grows on his face, “A Vampyre, a Hellfire Commander, slays those creatures of the Moon. Without thought. One day, I decided to think a bit too much. I thought I could play with one first. A horrible mistake. She seduced me, took my seed, ran and had my bastard spawn… he’s kind shouldn’t exist. He doesn’t
belong anywhere. She was a loner, that one, and dropped off her babe at my feet. Why, oh why would I tolerate the company of a bastard that belongs nowhere? It’s shameful. I let him live. Until he was a young adult, he was my splitting image… a tad endearing… but his views were different to mine. He was outspoken. I banished him. Simple. The last Vampyre on his own in this realm, for a time… funny… that he is now a King. I didn’t expect that. I guess he had more of me in him than his mother,” Reyn stands, smiling down at me, “Did you enjoy that tale? It’s time, I’m afraid, to lose your hand, whore.”
“Watch, Zest,” The mother centaur grasps her child’s shoulder so she cannot run, “Don’t make a sound. Just watch and be proud of your King.”
Before he swings downward, launch and punch into his right ribs, he has soft flesh there and will collapse for a time, time enough for you to shift, I hear Andoll whisper into my ear, My Queen, I will taunt the Goblins. I will whisper terror into them. Rip them in two. Rip them all in two.
I glance to Zar and Lix, and they’re both as shell shocked as I from Reyn’s story.
But at least we now knew whose side Rey was on this whole time; and it wasn’t with his father.
I understood Rey’s need for vengeance. His conflicted soul. Draconess blood tainted Rey’s veins, and made him uniquely one. A chosen one.
For Rey, it was a Venatores to keep? Or a Venatores to join?
Rey was on our side. I glance to Zarcar and Lixar. The three of us were Rey’s only hope to beat the Surge of Hemon and his father’s appetite for cruelty.
And it started with a Venatores, under a Vampyre’s reign.
Chapter 39
The flaming sword is lighting up my face and as I lift my head to meet Reyn’s swing – I see his silver orbs contract while the pupils pause in recognition. The Hellfire King knows there is something wrong with my bravery.
Andoll was helping to surge that boosted confidence through me as I see her walking behind Reyn, preparing to circle around the Goblins next, to whisper terror into their ears.
While Reyn is paused above me, I take my wrists from the ropes very, very slowly. I hold his gaze without flinching, confident my own expression has triggered some kind of memory in his.
Reyn’s eyes shine inward and the Moon shines down on my skin, allowing me some extra information. I have a few seconds to hold his sudden trance. I stand, while watching the sword frozen above the enemy, Reyn seems to realise… this was everything he didn’t see coming.
Draconess, breathe through me, I attack by striking out a sharp hand into Reyn’s rib cage, into the soft flesh. The King bends over and I leap up, stealing the sword out of his grasp, while the Goblins are confused by Andoll’s whispering, I swing the flaming sword right through their waists, one at a time.
The nameless mother centaur watching on with her daughter, Zest, screams in a fury – but as she rears up on her hind legs, about to retaliate – she’s pushed down violently by the blast of powerful magic that consumes me as I shift.
I become smoke, before I become scale and talon and fangs and horns. My tail is long with super sharp edges, and it’s already slashing violently through tents and unsuspecting soldiers as I use my talons to free both of my Mystifyers from their iron chains.
Kill with me, I drool over the top of them, my tongue lolling out and licking over Zarcar’s wounds, then Lixar’s wounds. It’s instinct, but it seems to help them stand and shift for me on command.
Direction? Zarcar snarls into my mind while I watch his scaly beast form from the smoke on my left, while Lixar appears to my right.
No direction, just kill everyone… my eye randomly catches Zest as the Demons start screeching a war cry… kill everyone except the demon pups.
The mother centaur below me has regained her balance upon her hoofs, reaching for her bow and arrows.
My eyes gaze over the camp and I see spellbound, entirely shocked demons even as they scream. They were waiting for my first move.
I give it to them.
My head strikes down, my jaws opening and closing around the top half of the leading centaur, breaking her in two.
Venatores. Rip them in two, rip them all in two; in memory of Andoll, I speak while half the centaur is melting on my tongue. I whip my head back and snap it forward so the top half lands in a heap before the largest bonfire; almost igniting the war.
However, all bad demons await their direct command from their King.
I look down to Reyn now, on his knees, clawing at the dirt, writing symbols.
“Fight! Fight now before my return! I’m calling on the rest!” Reyn orders his already huge battalion, while the ground cracks apart and Reyn disappears into steaming mist below the surface, even as my talons slowly pass through the vapour to try and catch him.
Zarcar and Lixar charge straight into bonfires, eating alive the demons with ferocious snarls and pulsing magic that knocks any attacker right off their feet. The winds, with Zarcar’s help, also increase to help push the enemies off balance.
But then I look down.
And I see red eyes in the lava below… but as I glance up… I see a silent child centaur.
Zest is standing behind her mother’s hind, the blood pooling and curling around her small hoofs. Zest isn’t making a sound, just watching me after I killed her mother.
I ignore it, my Draconess pushing that part out. This was war.
All around me, I see demons chasing weapons that move on their own accord, rolling and sliding through the soil, as if possessed by poltergeists.
I can’t see Andoll, but I can see my next targets at the back of the camp.
My head slowly turns and the ground starts to shake.
I think nothing of it, until I realise the ground is quaking and that is causing the movement of the weapons.
The ground starts to crack and my senses pound with excitement. Demons. More demons to eat.
Yes.
More!
I lunge over a red crack, seeing Lucifer himself grinning in a confusing red eyed mist just below the ground. I rip into the demons that are his children.
I get lost in my rage of slaughtering the bad demon soldiers, yet I can’t shake Lucifer watching me through the cracks in the ground. He’s absolutely everywhere, trying to shake me.
I do my best to stay vigilant, throwing flames of fire over arrows and spears being thrown in my direction. One sword flung at my tail is simply flicked back with the tip of mine, with perfect precision as it lodges through the forehead of the assailant.
I turn and shred. I turn and I dance in my own flame as my talons pierce, rip and maul the enemy.
And still, at the corner of my eye, I see Lucifer watching me from the cracks as more steam rises.
I finish my killing spree over the back of the camp, with not one enemy standing on my burnt patch.
I swing my head to the rising mist and I see Lucifer’s eyes floating in that stream of steam flowing up hot and steady before me.
I watch it, feeling nothing but confusion, hatred and terror.
What did the Devil want from me?
Those haunting crimson eyes mist out as I see a large bronze head poke through the mist over the crack.
Pitless black eyes hold mine now; Zarcar.
My first instinct is disgust, a feeling I’ve never felt, a feeling I can’t deny, as if I’ve been…
When I look into Zarcar’s eyes, all I see is him. Lucifer.
I can’t separate the two.
I shake my head.
What’s wrong? We need to prepare Rey, Chyronex. The Surge of Hemon is going to overrun the valley but we need to fall back behind Swendula’s walls. It’s what they want to overtake; the city, a central location.
Zarcar’s straight forward words cause me great discomfort.
When Lixar appears beside him, in the flames, the steam and the empty ground… I notice I feel okay for Lix. I’m relaxed. So, I look into his hazel lizard orbs, and he licks his scaled blood red lips.
Ready to retreat before we eat some more? Lixar asks, disappointed.
Yes, I answer with one word.
Lixar snakes backwards, a splitting Mystifying image of Zarcar except Lix is black while Zar is bronze.
I turn to face Zarcar again and the illusion of Lucifer waiting, is officially gone.