by Simon Archer
Yeah, that wasn’t going to come out anytime soon. I grunted and shoved the bandit off my Brand and me before struggling to get the catch pole off my head. That turned out to be a bit easier when the kitten-girl, tears now streaming down her face as she tried what I figured had to be the taste of spider-man out of her mouth, fumbled with the levers on the pole. With only a few moments, I had the thing off my head, only leaving behind a painful case of rope burn on my cheeks and under my nose.
That was when the orc-girl finally pushed back her fear, and she ran over to her friend’s side. As I got my bearings, the kitten-girl looked up at me with trembling eyes as she and the orc hugged.
“Thank you, thank you, mister!” she mewed. “There was fire and screaming, and some of them came after my father, so we tried to hide, and they found me and--”
I raised my hand so I could get a word edgewise between her panicked rambling. I focused in on the one clear thing the girl had said. “It will be okay now, little ones.” I pushed myself up to my full height and cracked my neck. “You just help the adults, and my friends and I will take care of the rest.”
The kitten-girl stared at me with wide eyes, sniffled once to try to push down her tears to only some success, and nodded. “I-I’ll try!” Her friend mimed that nod as she still shook with fear.
“You’ll do great,” I soothed. “Just like you did great with that monster.”
The girl swallowed hard, thumped her tiny furry fist into her chest in salute, then scrambled to help her fellow villagers, dragging the orc-girl along by a hand.
With that settled, I slung the gore off my brand and turned on my heel, toward the now-familiar sounds of ettercaps in the distance. No doubt Petra was tearing into the next batch of them, and I didn’t want her to have all the fun.
8
The Weaver
“They will all die, Weaver,” my draconian slave began. Her face was a mask of calm. “Can you afford such losses with the return of the Uplanders? Especially when we were to take our entire army to the Treison in support of the orc?”
I only had to swivel one of my multi-faceted eyes, so much sharper than what the softskins used to see with, to glare at my slave. Her name was Shikun, though I preferred to call her anything but. If I used her name too much, she would gain false worth and be… disobedient.
By the lesser races’ viewpoint, she would be regarded as exotic, beautiful, a perfect specimen to rut with, but to an ettercap’s tastes, she was hideous. Her skin was pale and smooth along her delicate face, down her exposed throat to her ridiculous breasts, a mammalian affront to all that was good in this world, and down her muscular abdomen before feathering into the spiky scales all draconians had, hers being a ruddy red that displeased me. A proper female was large, bulbous, with a lustrous black shell and none of those hideous bones the softskins had.
In fact, the only things I could find the least attractive were the wicked claws on her fingers and toes and the blazing fire inside her. Shikun was my premiere weapon of war that gained me my title as Weaver of my tribe. No ettercap challenged my dominance any longer. One look at the tangled web of my Brand burned into her right hip was all the reminder the other ettercaps needed of my control over my draconian. If they crossed me, her dragon-fire would consume them, just as it was currently consuming a third of Kaulda.
She was still staring at me, expecting me to answer her foolish question, so I decided, in my great generosity, to answer her.
“You speak of matters of which you are ignorant, ugly girl,” I rasped back as I kept my steady pace back to Tanglethread, my fortress below the western hills. “Still, as my mistress of war, I had best educate you. I may have to rely on your power in the days ahead.”
The slave’s dragon tail lashed at that, and her powerful frame stiffened, but she knew better than to talk back or to fall behind. As she kept pace beside me, her face remained a mockery of stillness, but I knew better. I could see the flash of fury in her golden reptilian eyes.
I let out a clacking laugh at her discomfort. “The other Black Runes might have wanted me to rush to that idiot Uruk’s aid, but to do so would be a fool’s errand. I thought the very idea of appointing him to defend the Brand of Freedom, dryad or not, was foolish, to begin with.”
My four arms waved dismissively as I continued, “We all sensed Libritas’ escape, and if she is free, the Uplanders would have dealt with Uruk with ease.” I raised a shining black finger of my upper right arm. “That also means that the dryad is free as well. To go into the Treison, the seat of her clan’s power, would be suicide. The entire forest would try to kill us.”
Shikun grunted, her disappointment that I hadn’t been so foolish plain. Oh, how she yearned for freedom… freedom she would never have. I would kill her myself before I let Libritas have her. “So, you attack Kaulda for no reason then, with only a few of your spiders? And we leave them before they finish so as to doom them? I fail to see your immense wisdom.”
“Shall I punish her, Weaver?” the sibilant hiss of my Brand asked in my mind from his place at my side. Karthas was always eager to punish, eager to create… discipline in my slaves. Of that, we were of a like mind, but that would have to wait.
“No,” I sent back as I focused my full gaze on the draconian. Softskins always found such close attention from my kind unsettling, and even Shikun did after so many years in my tender webs.
“We will have a… session later, to still your questioning tongue,” I scolded her aloud, “but let us continue your education for the moment.”
Her steely demeanor cracked, and she visibly shuddered as one hand reached behind her back to the twisted nubs where I had removed her wings when she was but a girl-child. Satisfied with Shikun’s response, my mandibles settled into a smile, yet another thing that seemed to frighten the weak-willed softskins.
“These Uplanders have freed the Brand of Freedom and used her power, so they must be self-described ‘heroes’ of some sort,” I rasped. “They will see the fires and rush to Kaulda’s aid, of course. If my tribesmen kill them, perfect, but you are right. They will almost certainly die, but they are but a small number of my weakest warriors.”
My mandibles clacked in eagerness as I pulled my cloak tighter around my thorax. “Our Uplanders will kill them, save their precious little village, and then the people of Kaulda will cry and mew and tell tales of the vicious Weaver of Tanglethread. And if none of that brings them running, I know that Libritas sensed us before we left. She will urge her new wielder to hunt down one of her brothers, to start some inane quest to kill the Black Runes.”
Shikun’s eyes widened, a motion that made her horns rise up on her forehead. “They will follow us, right into the bulk of your army. If they live through that, then they still have to navigate all the traps and treachery of the hollows of Tanglethread.”
I hiss-laughed as my lower left arm caressed the pearly handle of Karthas, the Brand practically purring from my touch. “Perhaps some of my… lessons have rubbed off on your softskin brain, Shikun. The fool ‘heroes’ will walk directly into my web, my personal domain where I am only a step under a god.”
Though I usually prided myself on my utter self-control, I couldn’t help myself as the humor of the situation struck me. My hissing laugh turned into a clattering cackle as my carapace shook with my joy at what was to come. My slave’s pale skin turned greenish, a mark of distress on a weak being like her, but it did make her more attractive in my eyes.
“I will bind them, break them, and then with Karthas, we will teach them a proper lesson in obedience,” I clacked in excitement between chuckles. “It will be glorious, and my brother and sister Runes will be forced to grovel at my feet once I twist Libritas to our glory.” My mandibles shuddered in anticipation. “What do you think it would be like, girl, to have the power of not just one Brand, but two? What do you think Freedom will become once she is corrupted?”
A low rumbling growl built in the draconian’s throat, and I knew that if
I hadn’t already broken and chained her, she would have tried to burn me into ash with her dragon-fire. Even so, my brand scarred into her scales glowed menacingly at her rebellious thoughts, and that growl turned into a low hiss of pain. To her credit, she had learned her lessons well enough to keep walking despite the agony her disobedience brought.
I was a very good teacher, and I had taught many in my hundreds of cycles on Etria. And soon, so very soon, I would have new students to instruct and then… then I would pay a visit to the rest of the Black Runes and spread my web across the rest of Etria.
9
It didn’t take long for Petra and me to wipe out the last of the ettercap raiders. Not that they made it easy for us. Lib was right about their cunning, once they realized they had become the hunted, the spider-men found any dark corner to hide in, even showing an ability to climb up walls and cling to ceilings just like their smaller counterparts. In the end, though, all their best efforts simply made it take longer for us to root them out of Kaulda.
As for Reggie, he handled the fires by doing what he did best: using that British air of authority to calm and organize the panicking villagers. Kaulda had a staggering five wells dug throughout the village, so once Sir Thorpe managed to get a few clusters of villagers to work, the fires got under control by a barrage of bucket brigades. Unfortunately, while our efforts minimized the damage and saved dozens of lives, we still had a tragedy on our hands. At least twenty Kauldans were dead, more injured, and a quarter of the buildings burnt beyond use.
Still, for all that loss, I had to smile at what I saw before me in the town square. The kitten-girl I had saved was playing with a few of her friends, including the orc-girl from earlier, safe, sound, and happy. It was a symbol of lives saved, and more than that, it filled me with a strange hope to see that the pig-people could be just as good as any other folk in this strange new world. That wasn’t all, while many were grieving, there were just as many people helping the others, handing out food, water, and just warm embraces to their fellows. I could feel the strength here, and that ember of hope in my chest grew hotter.
A warm, soft hand on my shoulder snapped me out of my thoughts. I turned my head to see Petra there, a thankful smile on her face as she looked up at me. Her green eyes glinted in the last rays of the twin suns, and the leaf-and-wood armor she had summoned had shifted into something more like an elegant gown of greenery, the cut of the bodice sweeping low to show both her shining rune and a generous amount of cleavage.
“Hey, Petra,” I said with a smile. “Great work with those bandits. A lot of these people owe you their lives.”
“I would say they owe you more than me,” the dryad replied as a dusting of green came to her cheeks. “If you hadn’t spurred me on, kept me from wallowing in my doubt, none of this would be possible.” She let out a light, airy giggle as she nodded over to where Reggie was holding court, regaling some of the locals with our journey so far. “Sir Thorpe helped as well, but… you. You and Libritas are responsible for this.”
“Petra is correct, William,” Libritas enthused in my mind. “This may be a small step, but a fruitful one toward saving Etria. I only wish your father could have seen this moment.”
I knew when not to fight a losing battle of false humility, so I simply nodded. “How about we all take credit then?” Petra smiled, and Lib pulsed at my side, so I took those for a yes. “Good. Now, we better find out who’s in charge around here, try to figure out if there were any reason why the ettercaps were here beyond general dickishness.”
“I would like to know that too,” Lib chimed in. “I sensed the Black Runes at work here, but why they would engage in such petty banditry, I can’t say.”
Even though I was pretty sure the dryad couldn’t hear the brand, what she said made me wonder a little. “We will get to the bottom of it, I am certain, but for now, you should take a moment and revel in what we’ve accomplished.” With that, she pushed up to her tiptoes and planted a kiss on my cheek, certainly not a chaste one from the heat it left behind. “You’ve earned it.”
I turned towards Petra then, and our eyes met. The desire there was plain, but it wasn’t just raw hunger. There was something deeper starting to burn in those emerald eyes, and I wanted to find out if it was what I thought it was. She blinked slowly as I studied her, but I just smiled, put my hands gently on her hips, and pulled her a step towards me.
“We have, but I don’t think I’m shooting for revelry,” I said softly. “What I’d like is to spend some time with you when there aren’t wolves on our heels. I mean, we’re in this together, and I don’t think we’re going to save the world in a day.”
The green of her blush darkened as Petra took another step toward me, our bodies practically pressing together as she put her warm hands on my shoulders. “No, I don’t think it will, but however long it takes, I will be there for you, William Tyler. Whatever is required, whatever you need, I will do it.”
I felt the whisper-quiet rustle of her vines as they spread from her hands and over my shoulders, little clutching fingers that held onto me. The heat and desire surged inside me, and I’ll be honest, the only reason I didn’t take her then and there was that quite a few of the village children were watching.
Before either of our resolves was tested further, a deep, rumbling cough echoed from beside us. “Excuse me, champion, I don’t mean to interrupt but…?”
Petra and I turned together toward the source of the voice, though I kept my right arm around her waist and her left hand and vines stayed around my shoulder. Who was there to greet us was a barrel-chested cat-man, certainly the same species as the kitten I had saved. In fact, his hair, ears, and tail were the same cinnamon red color. He dressed in simple, sturdy clothes: a green woven jacket with loose sleeves all tied tight by strips of leather and brown leather breeches that came to his knee. From his powerful frame and the calloused pads on his fingers, I guessed he had worked with his hands and his body his entire life.
One thing stood out though, well, beyond the fact that he was a cat-man, and that was the headband of twisted, polished gold on his brow. In the center of it was a cabochon cut piece of Sola crystal, glimmering in the fading light of the twin suns.
On instinct, I held my hand out to him to shake. The cat-man blinked once at it strangely, but he only hesitated for a moment before grabbing my hand in both of his own to shake vigorously.
“Uh, wow,” I said with a laugh. “Nice to meet you. I’m William Tyler, and this is Petra.”
The cat-man finished the handshake of the century by letting go and thumping his chest with the same sort of salute the kitten-girl had. “And I am Sullah Sona, the headman of Kaulda.” A huge smile dawned on his face as he planted his fists on his hips. “My people tell me that you and your companions are the ones we must thank for fighting off the Tanglethread tribe and saving so many of us today… and more so, for saving my daughter, Suli Sona.”
That’s when I noticed that the kitten-girl had broken away from her friends and was now standing next to her father, her golden eyes staring up at Petra and me intensely.
“Thank you, mister,” Suli mewed up at me. Petra smiled at the girl softly while I nodded to Sullah.
“My pleasure, sir,” I began as I imitated the headman’s salute. When in Rome, as Reggie would say. “We just did what any good-minded people would do, I mean, if they had the power to do so. I only wish we had gotten here sooner.”
Sullah nodded seriously as his ears flattened for a moment. “Every life lost is a tragedy, but in time, all their souls shall return to us. I do not know what you Uplanders believe,” he raised a hand to cut off any denial, not that I intended any, “and yes, it is plain that you are from the World Above, but here, in Etria, we are all reborn in time. It is the Great Cycle… and I am getting lost in faith, my friend. I am sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I chuckled. “Honestly, I want to learn a lot more about everything here in Etria, but we do need to prioritize.” With my free
hand, I gestured off towards the western hills, where I had seen the Brand-wielder and his likely slave leave towards. “Not only do I doubt this is the last we’ll see of these assholes, but there’s a Black Rune in the area. They won’t sit around while Libritas is free.” I almost slapped my forehead as soon as her name left my lips. “And I’ve been remiss on introductions.”
Petra giggled at that. “You have been, my savior.”
Sullah and Suli both grew wide-eyed as I drew Libritas from her sheath. “This… this is Libritas, the Brand of Freedom. I’d ask her to say hi, but she can only really talk to me.”
Though she couldn’t talk to them, Lib still said, “Greetings, people of Kaulda,” and her form pulsed with golden light in time with the syllables… and that’s when things got a little weird.
The headman, his daughter, and just about every other Kauldan in eyesight of Libritas’ radiance immediately dropped to one knee, lowered their heads to the earth below, and put their fists together in front of them. Even Petra, who had already felt Lib’s touch, slipped away from me and bowed to the Brand, though she straightened back up in a second, while the others stayed prostrated before us.
Sir Thorpe blinked at his now-kneeling audience then looked up at me with a faint grin. “It seems you and she are quite the important people in this world, Master William,” he noted as he smoothed out his beard.
“Important does not begin to speak the truth, friend of Tyler,” Sullah rumbled as he finally tilted his head up. That seemed to be some unspoken signal to the rest of the villagers as they all started to relax as he did. “You see before you the last uncorrupted Brand, our last pure gift from our world’s creators. Those of us still free… and even most of us marked by the Black Runes… can only still take hope because we know that somewhere the Brand of Freedom remained.”