“Where are you taking us?” the gray one finally demanded. The truth was I had no idea; I simply wanted out. At this point one tunnel looked as good as another. So I was forced to rely upon my guide. When I turned to her and lifted an eyebrow she smiled sweetly and said, “Trust me.” To which I shrugged and prodded the gray into continuing on.
After we’d been wandering around in the semi dark for what felt like several hours, I jerked the gray to a halt and turned to Morai with an exasperated look. The crone was fairly spry for one so old and I had to wonder how long this was going to last. “Am I supposed to be doing something?” I demanded, “Or are we just out getting our exercise?”
“Well it might help if you knew where you wanted to go,” she replied with a huff. At that, I stared down at her with a distressed feeling. The gray hadn’t said a word for the past half hour or more and I began to wonder what he was thinking.
“Please don’t tell me we’ve been walking in circles?” I demanded, and then rubbed at my head when she nodded. “I thought you said to trust you?”
She chuckled and glanced up at me slyly. “And you haven’t been attacked once have you?” she replied smoothly while I just managed to bite my tongue to keep from barking at her.
“Fine, does this place lead anywhere? Like an exit back to the world I came from?”
“Yes, we’ve passed it several times,” Morai informed me and tilted her head to the side while I stared down at her in disbelief.
“Is there some reason you didn’t stop us?” I demanded.
“Yes.”
“And why would that be?”
“To whom do you speak?” demanded the gray, his voice sounding annoyed. I ignored him and continued glancing down at Morai.
“Because, child, you cannot pass through without knowing where you go,” she told me patiently.
“And I won’t know where I go until I find myself,” I replied in disgust. This was just great. “Okay then who can help me find myself?” I finally asked after several moments of silence.
“I believe you’re holding him by the chain at the moment, child,” she replied with a grin.
“Great, why don’t you just take us back to the cell and I’ll just lock myself in with him until I’m done,” I replied sarcastically.
“It’s not a bad idea, safer and more comfortable than these halls,” she replied and I threw up my hand and cursed softly.
“Are you serious?” I demanded.
“I usually am.”
I looked at her for several moments while the gray shifted from foot to foot and finally I shook my head. “Do you swear this will work?” I asked, frustrated at my lack of options.
“If not, it will certainly put you on the right path.”
“But I don’t like him.”
“Since when has that ever mattered?”
“Since he hasn’t declared,” I told her harshly and then pulled myself up short. What was that supposed to mean? I wondered while the gray turned his head and glanced over his shoulder at me. His eyes were wide, and a sly smile covered his face. “And I’ll not play with the likes of this one while my men are in danger,” I warned her softly.
“For what reason do you believe your men are in danger?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.
“Because of my dream,” I told her then frowned. “Are you telling me they are not?”
“Not all dreams are what they appear,” she informed me. “Sometimes… they are false sendings to manipulate you.” And her eyes slid to the gray meaningfully.
If Gareth and my others were not in danger… then, “You did not say what talents the Drow possessed,” I told her as my knife poked the gray into moving forward. It was clear he wanted to hesitate but I stabbed at him again and he hissed and began walking while I glanced down at Morai. “Feel free to take any shortcuts on the way back, I would not wish to wear our prisoner out.”
Morai nodded and then listed off for me the talents one might find amongst the Drow. “They are dexterous, charismatic, intelligent, proficient with all manner of knives. They have excellent night vision. Some can conjure dancing lights, darkness, and Faerie lights. Many received sorcerer abilities from Lolth and can transform themselves into animal shapes. Some can perform glamour and appear to be something they are not. And some can… dream send.””
“Hmmm… charismatic? You are kidding right? And what exactly does the last mean?”
“Drows cannot force a dream upon you, but they can invade a dream and turn or twist it,” she told me as we came to the end of the corridor with the door leading back down to the cell.
I reached around the gray and pushed open the door, holding onto his chain as we navigated the steps. No sound came from the cell and I suspected the gray was poking ahead and had already alerted the silver one of our arrival. “Well that was certainly fun. I feel much better after having gotten my blood flowing. Remind your guard he isn’t supposed to harm me,” I told the gray while we walked down the corridor toward the cell.
I walked him to the cell opposite the other one and reached for the door. As I did so he lunged at me with his shoulder, knocking me back. I think he was trying to knock me over, but apparently things weren’t going his way. He raced across the room and turned his back, while the silver reached through the cell for him and managed to get a cuff undone. By that time it was too late for me to stop him, and putting myself within either of their grasps would have been disastrous. So I merely stood where I was and watched him gain his release.
Apparently the gray had requested a little key service while he was supposed to be reminding his guard not to harm me. I watched him from across the corridor, slipping into a ready position as he pulled his now free hands in front of him and rubbed them. His pale pink eyes seemed to glow in his gray face and he looked... pleased. I smiled back at him and rotated my head on my shoulders, easing the muscles while I waited for him to come for me.
“Now,” he informed me and I reached for my sword.
“Yes?” I replied and held the blade en guard. The silver passed him his own sword through the bars and I watched calmly as he unsheathed it and tested its balance.
“You look worried,” he informed me.
“Do I? Perhaps you should have your pink eye checked,” I replied, then raised my eyebrows several times when he frowned. “It’s an eye ailment where I come from. I believe you get it from goats and other unclean animals… wait, I think it’s sexually transmitted. Have you been having sex with a goat lately?” I asked him and he did not look pleased.
“No, but you will be beneath me very soon,” he growled while his eyes narrowed.
“We shall see,” I told him then shook my head. It was like hearing an echo.
He stepped toward me, his sword held like a mallet in his fist and I raised an eyebrow and watched him come. Morai went to stand down the corridor a little way away and her face looked serene.
His first swing was tentative and I slipped his blade and danced away. He grinned, perhaps thinking that was the best I could do as I rolled onto the balls of my feet and watched him watch me. I had the sense that I’d been in this situation many times and that soon his lovely smile… would not be quite so lovely.
“She thinks my smile is lovely,” he scoffed to the silver haired one, who was now standing at the bars with his arms crossed over his chest, a look of mild irritation on his face. The man seemed to have no sense of humor at all. Too bad he was actually the more attractive of the two. I thought with a wistful sigh and got an angry rumble from the gray in response. He lunged at me and I skipped away again after slipping his sword. “You cannot run from me forever,” he informed me. “Why do you not put down your toothpick and do your duty?”
“Duty?” I scoffed back at him. “What would you know of duty?”
“Careful,” he warned. “You do not wish to anger me.”
“Is this more exercise then?” I asked, and this time when he came for me I parried his blade and my hand struck o
ut, producing a fine red line that appeared across his waist, just above his belt. He stepped back and glanced down at himself and I flicked the blood from the end of my dagger, striking him upon his left cheek with it. Behind him in the cell the silver made a low humming noise and shifted from foot to foot.
“You bled me,” the gray informed me, his voice sounding amazed. As he wiped his cheek off with the back of his arm.
“Yes, do you yield?” I asked, to which he threw back his head and barked out a laugh.
“Do I yield? What nonsense is this?”
I shrugged and stared back at him, watching his eyes. “Just thought I’d ask. There is no shame in admitting defeat.” He frowned at my words and rolled his head about on his own shoulders.
“Shall we do this then?” he asked. I felt my eyes widen while my mouth went dry at the words, and my body tightened as if in pleasure. The question seemed to echo back at me. His gaze narrowed on my face. His nostrils flared while he pulled breath into his lungs almost as if he was… scenting the air.
I shook myself and gave him a nod while I stood waiting patiently, balanced upon the balls of my feet. “Yes, do be more careful. I’ve already had to heal you once today,” I informed him with a wry smile. His eyes met mine and he frowned.
“So you say,” he replied and gave me a look filled with disbelief.
“Oh you do not believe me?” I replied, narrowing my gaze upon him and proceeding to give him the feel of the crushed windpipe I had healed earlier. He choked and coughed sharply and his eyes widened as he stared at me. I held the sending for only a few seconds then released it, lifting a brow while he struggled to breathe normally. “Must I remind you again, I do not lie?” I informed him and he slowly straightened from where he was bent over, struggling to suck in air. And then it struck me what I had just done. My own eyes widened and I glanced toward Morai, who was laughing silently.
The gray used my distraction to attack and I found myself on the receiving end of his full swing. The vibration shook my body, rattling my teeth. Suddenly I was struggling to move my feet and get myself out from under the force of his sword pressing down on me. My mind seemed to exhale and he yelped and staggered back as the feel of my fingers twisting his unmentionables slipped from my mind unbidden. It was as if this was not the first time I had done that. I smiled and quickly moved out of his reach while he glared at me. Wherever I was from, this seemed the natural way for me to fight.
“How did you do that? Your hand was nowhere near me,” he demanded angrily and I shrugged.
“My secret. Want more?” I asked and stared at him innocently while I sent him the feel of me yanking his pony tail… hard.
“Arrugh!” he growled reaching for his head, which surely must have already been hurting, seeing as how I had dragged his unconscious body across the room and up the stairs by it earlier.
“Do you yield now?” I asked, and then sighed when he refused to answer. “Then can we get on with this please? I very much would like to learn whatever it is I am supposed to learn so I can go home. You may like it here, but I do not,” I informed him impatiently.
“Would you but fight fair we could proceed,” he demanded.
“What? You don’t like your man parts squeezed or your hair pulled? Excuse me, for not wanting to be raped,” I informed him dryly. “I tend to be a little irrational about these things. Especially given you are easily twice my weight and have half again my reach with that brute of a sword you are swinging about. You are lucky I don’t just decrease your size permanently and call it a day,” I growled back at him, then watched as he took a step back from me in horror. Oh damn… could I do that? I thought as I chewed my lower lip in dismay. As an effective anti-rape technique, it ranked right up there with castration.
The gray made a strangled noise and I flicked my eyes to him. “So ah… do you yield now?” I asked and he stared at me like I was a contagious disease. He didn’t seem to know what to do. It was clear his man brain was shouting rape, pillage, plunder! While the more feminine side, the side that held the intelligence I was guessing, was begging him to proceed more cautiously. Hey no one wanted a eunuch, and a man with a very small penis was no fun at all.
Laughter erupted from the silver haired Drow, who threw back his head and practically howled. I stared at him in shock, as his entire body shook with the force. In fact he grabbed for the bars and bent at the waist and I had a flash back to someone with pale yellow hair doing the same. The gray turned to glare at him and then shifted his eyes back to me nervously. That nearly made me laugh and I held out my hand palm up as if to say… hey, don’t ask me.
So I was wrong, the silver actually did have a sense of humor.
Chapter 4
He laughed for several minutes and when he was finally done he pulled himself up and used his arm to wipe the tears from his face. “Thank you, I have not laughed like that in a very long time,” he informed me. I wasn’t sure how to respond so I just nodded.
“Are we done here?” I asked the gray. He stuck out his hand to the silver, who proceeded to bend down pick up a sheath, and hand it to the gray through the bars. The gray sheathed his sword then fastened his belt about his hips. I held on to mine a little longer. It occurred to me I hadn’t actually heard him say the words and it wasn’t my habit to turn my back on an enemy. I pulled over one of the chairs I’d created earlier and gingerly seated myself upon it, placing my unsheathed sword across my lap.
“I am called Roa,” he informed me and bowed from the waist. My eyebrows shot up and I stared at him in surprise. He turned to the gray and his eyes seemed to bore into him.
The gray finally sighed and spread his legs to shoulder width, then clasped his wrist with one hand. My heart squeezed at the sight and I struggled to breathe normally. His eyes narrowed but he made no comment, simply replied, “Talon,” which I took to be his name.
“I believe my name is Lexi,” I told them.
“And your designation?” Talon demanded, his gray eyes searching my face.
“I… am not certain,” I told him.
“She does not know who she is,” Roa’ supplied.
“It is one of the hazards of the Everlasting,” Talon agreed. “I have seen it before.”
“So do you boys live around here?” I asked glancing around at the other cells. “Or is this where you simply wreak havoc upon poor unsuspecting women?”
Talon winced then shifted slightly. “Mostly the latter,” he offered.
“Oh… so do you come here often?” I asked.
And this time Roa’ shifted and shot a glance at Talon. “Not often. Will you release me?” he asked in what I suspected was his most innocent voice.
“Will you swear upon your God that you will not attack me?” I replied back and he hesitated a moment, then flashed me a smile.
“I do not wish to be… unmanned,” he replied. “I swear upon Kaela Mensha that I will not attack you should you let me out.” I nodded and glanced toward Talon.
“And I will have your word, too,” I informed him and he stared at me and then finally dipped his head.
“I too swear upon Kaela Mensha that I will not attack you, Lexi,” he replied. I raised my hand and felt the lock give while the door swung inward slowly. Talon pulled air in through his lungs and watched me carefully.
“That does not seem to draw energy from you,” he commented, his voice sounding curious.
“No, should it?” I asked while Talon entered the cell and began sheathing his knives. When he flicked the blood red material aside my eyes shifted to him and my lids lowered slightly. He was not looking at me but his hands stilled and he turned slowly and our eyes met. I stared back at him in silence and felt my body quicken.
“Perhaps if it was sorcery you used,” Roa’ replied softly, his eyes shifting between Talon and myself.
“Mmmm.” I replied. “And what is sorcery? I sense I am unfamiliar with it.” I lowered my eyes and blinked, then realized I was stroking the hilt of my sw
ord and sheathed it.
“It is the ability to manipulate things,” Roa’ replied, “as you have been doing. But you do not invoke or chant, nor did I observe you praying.” he continued, a curious note in his voice and I lifted my eyes to him.
“For what reason would that be necessary?” I asked then frowned.
He looked at me and then glanced at Talon, who shook his head slightly. “For the reason that you must ask your God to give you power,” he replied and I couldn’t help the blank look on my face.
“I wouldn’t know about that. But I sense that it is not something I am burdened with. I merely wish something and it occurs,” I told them, then slowly rolled that over in my mind. That did not have the correct ring of truth to it. “I think,” I added.
“Perhaps it has more to do with your nature,” Morai added and I nodded as her words made sense.
“Yes, you are probably correct,” I replied and both Talon and Roa’ looked at me oddly.
“She has been speaking to someone not there, since she arrived,” Roa’ told Talon, his eyes viewing me as if I wasn’t quite right in the head.
“Perhaps she speaks to her God or Goddess,” he replied, “and she is in fact a sorceress?”
That struck me as funny and I glanced at Morai who winked. She crossed the room and went into the cell heading for the chair I had created for her. “May I tell them?” I asked her when she had seated herself and was leaning back comfortably. Her pale eyes stared back at me and she nodded once. I smiled and turned back to Roa’ and Talon. “I speak to Morai, who is Keeper of Elfin Souls,” I told them and I swear they both paled, though how that can be I was not certain. “She has been keeping me company and assured me I will need her assistance once I… find myself.”
Roa’ glanced around nervously and seemed very tense all of a sudden. Talon simply crossed his arms and stared back at me in silence. I couldn’t tell if he didn’t believe me or what. “For what reason would the Keeper of Elfin Souls be here with you?” he demanded, stressing the words Elfin and you.
Dragon Greed Page 4