by Kate Gallwey
Lucian pulled me close and nuzzled into my hair and grimaced, “You are not going to like this but if you could humour us in an old custom I would appreciate it.”
I pulled away, “What sort of custom?”
He sighed, “Feel free to adapt it to your own style, but I have to ask you to do this for my….our people.” He bowed and placed my hand in Tuvak’s which I immediately removed. He then left me and strolled down the long table to the throne at the end. The warriors all cheered and thumped the table with their swords. I was about to lose my temper.
I crossed my arms over my beautiful white wedding dress and asked sweetly.
“What is it that you need me to do?” I asked in Latin refusing to speak his tongue.
Tuvak wasn’t fooled by the sweetness and moved back a bit.
“It is an ancient custom; you must have come across it on my home world.” He replied in Hellion and I glared at him. I could not remember his world but wasn’t going to tell him that. So I turned and made for the door and he caught my arm.
“Please My Lady it is necessary that you get up on the table and walk to Our Lord Lucian.” He asked in Latin this time and I stared at him. “Why?”
“The warriors must get a good look at the bride,” he hesitated and continued, “the bride is not considered married unless this is done.”
He tried to help me up onto the table but I pushed him back into a crowd of Hellions and they all went down in a heap. I considered my options and leaped to the top of the table, paused for dramatic effect and started to move down the table. There was a huge drunken cheer. I took two steps forward.
A great big hairy hand grabbed me around the waist and I disintegrated him, showering all around us in blood and gore. I stopped for a minute to clean my dress with a thought. The room had gone strangely silent and then some idiot jumped on the table in front of me and tried to remove my head with his sword. I caught the sword in my hand and melted it and then him, very slowly into a white glowing puddle, he screamed quite a bit until his throat and lungs melted and this upset the revellers even more.
I stepped over the puddle and carried on down the table, the jeering had stopped.
Another idiot reached up to pull me down and I threw him against the wall and then ever so slowly crushed him into a fine powder, he screamed quite a bit as well.
“Are you all so stupid?” I asked “How many more lessons do you need before you understand?” I insulted their manhoods and their ancestry and then summoned my sword. I shook my hair out and it flared around my like a cloak of blood, I called magic to my sword and it glowed green/blue, “Any more?” I asked nicely, and started to move to the end of the table.
A big block of a Hellion stood up; he was dressed in brown and had the symbol of a priest of Stone around his neck.
“ Woman, you are forbidden to do magic and carry a weapon, it is the law.” He spoke in Hellion and I answered in Latin, insulting him further by refusing to speak his tongue.
“I am not a woman, and I am not now nor never will be, subject to your laws.” I smiled at him but it was not friendly.
His eyes goggled a bit and his neck and face went red and he started to draw in power for a fight.
“High Priest Azeel, I ask you not to do this.” It was Tuvak.
“She has defied me and must pay.” He threw a fireball at me.
Now, energy is a wonderful thing that once created, belongs to its creator no matter how far you throw it. I caught it and then pulled some more. It created a great sound and light show and drained the Priest dry. I could feed on this energy.
I held his energy in one hand and then with a motion with my other, pinned him to the wall. I did allow him to curse and scream as I fired his stolen energies back at him, straight at his dick.
It swelled up and disintegrated taking his balls with it. The heat cauterised everything. I let him scream some more and was about to put him out of his misery when Tuvak stood between us.
He bowed and asked that I spare his people’s last Priest.
I sighed and let him slide down the wall.
Tuvak has made it a habit to take big chunks of fun out of my life.
I turned away and put my hands on my hips, “Any one else?” I asked innocently. The rest of the table was clear and in the silence I walked to Lucian, his face was unreadable as he took my hand and helped me off the table and onto the newly added throne next to his. We turned to face the assembled horde.
“I present my wife and mate, the Lady Lillith.” He announced and we sat down.
“ You did say that I could adapt the tradition to my own style.” I said with a smile on my face. “Yes, I suppose I did. I have to be grateful that only three were horrible tortured to death and one maimed forever.” He smiled and said, “You certainly have your own style.”
“This whole thing is a mistake, there is no way I can live here with these people.” I muttered. Looking at the Demons getting drunk around me.
Lucian heard and reached across the arms of the ornate chairs to scoop me out and on to his lap, “We will make it work.” He kissed me softly and then with growing need. “I think we have done all we need to do here.” With me still in his arms, carried me through a door behind the throne and up some curved stairs, to his tower room bedroom and the big white bed.
CHA
PTER TWELVE
Castle On the rOCk
This became a very quiet time in my long life, I was given a large room with a spectacular view of the sea and I cleaned the fire place and added a few deep warm couches and chairs and a deep thick gold rug. I went shopping for a huge mahogany desk and matching chair and magnificent crystal chandelier. Through that first wet cold winter I kept the fires burning bright in that dreary dark castle. I moved a big chunk of sorcery books into my new study.
Lucian and I went to varies human plays and musicals and I still worked at spreading the Sisterhood around the world, I didn’t really feel the need to share certain aspects with Lucian, what he didn’t know wouldn’t worry him. I also didn’t feel the need to mention Shambala, let him think that my Empire fell at Atlantis as his did at Babylon.
He worked with the Hellions down the hall from my study; he mostly sorted out disputes with in the many Demon species – that was nearly a full time job. His main concern at the time was building a new home for his people in the mountain range across the water and the desert from La Linea. The people there called it the Mountains of the Moon. When Lucian took me to see what he was doing I saw a ‘U’ shaped valley where he was constructing a wall and a huge castle behind it. The architecture was very different from the dark and damp crumbling castle we lived in at the moment. The weather was warmer and it was beautiful with a waterfall tumbling down into the valley and into a clear blue lake. There was rolling meadows that turned into steep grasslands then to craggy peaks. Lucian, ever the warrior was building watchtowers and walls around the entire valley and patrols were setting the perimeters. The barracks were under construction as were the stables and varies homes for the different demon species and their mates and young.
A new small city was being born.
I had known about Lucian’s move for some time now, Shambala always kept an eye on the destroyer of Atlantis.
The construction site at the Mountains of the Moon was having a slight problem with migrating trolls, who considered the Valley their home but it gave the Hellions something to do while building their new home.
I travelled to Shambala and helped out with their summer storms and the flooding that was damaging the underground city and came back every evening to the wet wintry La Linea Castle. I was studying rifts through time and space and the beginnings of what is now called Quantum Physics, how to be in two places at the same time among many other things.
It was the weak cries of a baby that had me opening my door and what I saw was not what I expected, Lord Tuvak, Lord of the Hellions was walking back and forth rocking the weakening cries of a sick baby. Any other pro
blem I would have closed the door again and left him to it, but the baby sounded in trouble and Lord Tuvak had a helpless hopeless look about him that I knew all to well.
I sighed, and got involved.
I went over and took the small baby from his arms with little resistance from Tuvak; he had been exhausted by the days of crying and looked at me blankly when I snapped at him to come in to my Study. He followed and I pushed him into one of the deep chairs by the fire where I unwrapped and examined the baby, he was too small but perfectly formed, when I pushed my finger into his mouth he sucked weakly than wailed when there was nothing to eat.
“He is hungry, where is his milk wife?”
“She says he will not latch on or feed.” He replied wearily.
“Hmmm, how many other babies is she being paid to feed?” I muttered, as I created a bottle and found a nanny goat to translocate. She appeared in my Study with a bleat. I wrapped the wailing baby up again and gave him back to his father. I milked the goat and handed the bottle to Tuvak, who after some tries managed to get the baby to feed. About a minute later up it all came again, and I tried not to laugh at Tuvak covered in baby sick. I refilled the bottle and we began again, this time most of it stayed down and the baby fell asleep. I helped Tuvak clean himself and he bowed in thanks.
I sent the goat back with some fresh grass and my thanks.
Goat’s milk is second best only to breast milk though it is missing some of the minerals needed for growing humans and Hellions, it sounds disgusting but if you add some blood to the milk you have a mixture that can keep a baby healthy, growing and strong. Ask the human tribe of Masi Mara in the area of Kenya if you don’t believe me.
Tuvak brought his son back the next morning for some more and I had a mixture made up for him. The baby’s name was Marius and after a bottle of milk and my blood for a week began to put on weight and thrive.
Marius was a happy cheerful baby and I offered once to look after him one morning and Tuvak looked at me.
“I thought you do not like my kind?”
“Babies have no ‘kind’; I will look after and protect your son. I will not eat him just because he has the misfortune to be born your son. I give you my word.”
He bowed and left Marius in my care.
I liked looking after a baby again and he was an easy child, every morning for about two years I watched over him. Sometimes I looked after him over night if Tuvak was called away on business.
I once or twice took Marius to my Island home and he loved playing in the waters, it was safe, warm and shallow in the sea there. He grew up happy and loved during that time.
The winters at La Linea were bitter and bleak and the sea beat against the foundations of the Castle like it was enraged. One night there was a particularly strong storm and one of the towers collapsed as the base cracked and splintered. I helped rescue the survivors with my magic and we were pulling Hellion females and their young from the sea most of the night.
One female that I rescued clutched hold of my arm and said, “You are the Lady Lillith. You will help us.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.
“What do you need from me?”
“My four daughters will be ‘walking the tables’ in a few years. I don’t want that for them.”
“But that is your tradition.”
“I don’t want that for them.” She repeated, looking me in the eyes. “I would rather them dead than to continue this way.”
Ok, finally a Hellion female that I could understand. “What is your name?”
“I am Savannah.”
“I will help you.” And I did.
Over the next five years I helped over one hundred female and their daughters quietly leave the Castle.
Tuvak was livid, he could not find out where and how these females escaped. He asked me once and I looked at him and told him to go away. I will lie if I have to but after several thousand years of living learnt that lying is not a healthy way of living. Conscious Lying has a way of lodging inside of you and twisting things until you really regret it. Humans can get very sick through this twisting and I have seen cancers eating the bodies from within because of those ‘little white lies’.
At night I found a huge cellar under the main hall, and used it to practice with my weapons and swords. It was mostly deserted as most of the warriors were building the Castle of the Moon across the sea.
But there I was late at night with four shadow warriors battling against me when Tuvak’s Commanders came in and they hadn’t expected me to be there as they just stood and watched for a while. When I ‘killed’ the last shadow, I found them sparring against one another with swords, spears and axes. They would form a circle and two would enter and they would fight until there was a winner. I got the feeling that that was a new rule as it looked like they were fighting to the death.
I stayed away for the next night but the one after that I returned, and so did they. We stuck to different ends of the cellar but they watched me like I was an alien with six heads. This continued for many months and eventually one of the huge Hellion warriors came over to watch me defeat my shadow warriors with my sword. He was young and was having difficulty with the sword as he was much better with an axe, so he tried to swing the sword like he was chopping wood and was easily disarmed.
When I finished he said, “That was good, can you show me how?”
I looked at him hard to see if he was serious. His friends were ignoring us. He looked earnest so I nodded and beckoned him forward. He held the sword all wrong and I corrected him and we sparred for a while, I corrected his moves and grip a various intervals and soon he was getting the hang of it. I started teaching him some moves and basic attacks and blocks. We didn’t talk much, it wasn’t necessary.
He improved and later another one wanted help, soon without much discussion I was sparring with them in the circles and teaching sword craft. Triook was the grizzle old Commander that I vaguely remembered from Babylon turned up one evening and watched us for an hour or two and later returned with Tuvak.
Tuvak took on the huge young warrior that I had started with and with skill drew out all the new moves I had taught the young one. After he turned and bowed low to me, my teaching could continue. I wasn’t sure how I had fallen into this but for the next five years I taught sword skills to the Demon Commanders.
CHA
PTER THIRTEEN
Castle Of the MOOn
It was at the Castle of the Moon that we all went to war together. There was a large tribe of migrating trolls that had used the valley that Lucian was building his new home in for their mating and raising of their young. This happened every hundred years or so the builders of the wall and keep were very surprised when over a thousand strong horny trolls came to visit.
A troll is what the fairy tales remember so well as an ugly, deformed, slightly human shaped being with very little brain, what the tales do not remember is that they are on average about eight feet tall and very fast. They have huge hands and favour waving around trees as clubs as their weapon of choice, they are also all magic wielders to a greater or lesser degree and have a high degree of cunning. Over a thousand of them knocking on Lucian’s wall was a big problem.
It was the Priest of Stone that suggested to Lucian that he call on me to help as I was visiting friends at the time. The blasts of raw magic were giving the wall some serious damage, and he couldn’t deal with it. But Lucian called and I answered. I could hear my name being called anywhere on the Earth when I was the Snake Goddess of the Temples and this was a variation on that spell that I had given Lucian.
I arrived in a beautiful deep red evening dress with a gold tiara and matching necklace feeling that this better be important or I would be very cross. I quickly erected a shield around the wall working it away from Lucian and his nullifying ability and changed into more appropriate clothes to fight trolls in. I joined Lucian and his Commanders above the partially finished gate and they bowed as my shield turned red under the barra
ge of wild magic.
“Interesting evening you are having.” I remarked, as I gazed across at the highly aggravated crowd of rather smelly huge trolls and behind them the setting sun.
“What are they waiting for?” asked Tuvak, “Why are they not attacking?”
He asked no one directly and since there were no others answers forthcoming I replied. “They wait for nightfall, their magic and strength becomes stronger after dark.”
“How do you know this?” he asked.
“I have studied most of the Demon races residing on this world, especially those with magic.” I looked at Tuvak, he was watching me intently his silver eyes glittering red in the sunset, like he wanted to eat me, he irritated me and I wanted to lash out at him and turn that look to pain.
“What is their battle strategy?” asked Lucian.
I shrugged, “They have never gone to war together like this before, and they traditionally prefer to fight each other. They are more likely to just attack all at once but you can see that some family groups will fight together.” “Can we stop this or negotiate?”
“No, they consider this their lands and territory; you must kill them all or leave.” The sun had nearly gone now and the world was awash with deep purple with rose streaks. The noise level from our visitors was increasing.
“Will you stay and fight with us?” asked Lucian. He had summoned his deep blue black sword that leaves a bloody red trail behind it. I looked at it warily; I had not got fond memories of that thing. He grinned that old magical grin that made my blood leap.
He held out his hand to me and said, “Fight beside me once again, my love.”
“Well, this makes a change, being on the same side and all that.” I muttered. He pulled me into his arms and kissed me hard. The trolls attacked who a howl and my shield glowed an ugly red.
“Excuse me, my Lord. My Lady but how long will your magic last?” The shield fizzled out and Lucian and stopped what we were doing in a shower of green stars, and I winced as my shield spell went down. That answered Tuvak’s question. Lucian and Tuvak started to issue orders to defend the wall. The wall was mostly finished but it was about fifteen foot wall and there was eight foot monsters trying to get in, it was very rough in many places and the trolls were excellent climbers, breaches in the walls were happening within minutes of the shield failing.