Bloodlust

by Nicole Zoltack

  He turned around to see Ivy already crossing. She held her skirts high, revealing her pale legs, a striking contrast to her tanned arms and face. Her dainty feet pointed as she leapt into the air and landed with grace. When she reached the midway point, the huge boulder tumbled forth from its precarious perch, aiming straight for her. He swallowed back his warning shout as her gaze caught his. Perhaps she read his stricken expression for she glanced up. Before Lukor could take another breath, the boulder pulverized the last remnants of the bridge, blocking her from sight.

  Lukor jumped back onto a rock at the same time Ivy appeared out of nowhere, her skirt billowing up like a cloud, his axe in her hand. She landed in his arms, dropping the axe to the ground. Mercifully, the sharp edge missed their feet, albeit narrowly. The collusion forced him to tumble backward. Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer, saving them from falling. Their hands joined, they made the final jump together, as one.

  Even though they had both reached safety, Lukor still embraced her.

  Her eyes sparkled in the growing violet sunlight. "You did not care for my warning, so you gave me none."

  A chuckle burst out of his mouth. "You managed quite fine."

  "Would you have wept for me had the boulder dashed me into pieces?" She pulled back slightly but neglected to free herself from him. Her heart pounded, he knew, feeling it through her small wrist. "Had it robbed you the chance to kill me yourself?"

  "Perhaps." His voice was low, almost husky. For a moment, he hadn't wanted her to die.

  "Your face..." She shook her head. "You looked so sorrowful." Ivy bit her lower lip, her tone full of surprise. "Didn't you see me scale the boulder and leap off it to reach the last rock? I feared I wouldn't quite make it."

  A tear streaked down. Ivy turned her face aside, but his hand moved it back. His thumb captured the droplet and flicked it away. "'Tis natural to fear death."

  "You do not," she claimed.

  "You speak the truth."

  "So you can join whomever you saw in the Spirit Realm? Your wife?"

  "Sister." Clearing his throat with a grunt, he pulled away and retrieved his axe. "Come. It's not much farther now."

  Past the ruined bridge, the sand changed from beige to darker, ashen tones. Beneath an overhang, a small outline of desert sand colored stone stood exactly where Lukor knew it would be. He shoved his shoulder against the massive boulder — the size of a small mountain itself.

  "Move aside." Ivy pushed him out of the way and proceeded to move the mountain — not.

  He could not prevent his smirk.

  She blew breath out of her mouth, and her hair billowed around her face. "Attack me."

  Lukor furrowed his brows. "Come again?"

  "With your axe. If you incite my Bloodlust—"

  "You'll kill me."

  Now she smirked. "You already survived once."

  Aye, because he had hid beneath the body of a fallen enemy, holding his breath until his lungs burned, trying to think of peaceful things to keep his heart beating slower. Here, he had no place to hide, nothing else to distract her from killing him. He swallowed hard. Perhaps he did fear death to some extent. "You are certain you can control yourself?"

  "Of course not." She tapped her foot impatiently against the rock they stood upon. "Are you too cowardly to try? I... I do not blame you for not trusting me. I can't control it. No barbarian can. It is a boon in battle. Increases our strength a thousand fold. Without that might, we will never be able to move the boulder."

  "Let us try other ways first."

  Lukor insisted they work together to move the boulder, but it would have yawned against their efforts if it could. Next, they secured a tree branch from a hallow beerchcrust tree, whose roots were strong enough to worm through rock. But even the sturdy branch used as a lever snapped, useless.

  Finally, even Lukor had to admit she was right. He gripped his axe and rushed her.

  She blinked, and nothing happened. During the first battle, her eyes had changed from purple to black, her features twisting into feral madness. Now, her lips quirked, and she sighed. "I don't believe you. You don't want to—"

  He slashed his axe toward her head. Her eyes widened — still purple — and she brought up her sword. Lukor funneled his hatred toward her race, allowing the dark emotion to control his arm, picturing another barbarian in her stead, the one who had killed Lucia. Idly, he wondered if the Bloodlust felt like this for barbarians, but her quick arcs and slashes had him occupied, her eyes darker than the blackest of nights.

  As she brought back her sword for a striking blow, he darted on top of the boulder. Ivy tore after him. He tossed his axe back toward where they had just stood, and she blinked her black eyes toward the sound. A flash of confusion flicked across her features, and he could read her thought process. Her eyes dimmed, and he let out a war grunt before throwing her shield toward his axe.

  Once more, her dark eyes emerged, but this time, she discarded her sword on top of his castoff axe, and she seemed to merely touch the boulder. Lukor almost did not have time to jump off before the boulder barreled its way down the rockside, where it wedged itself between two tall hollow beerchcrust trees.

  He rolled to minimize impact, but before he could stand, Ivy leapt onto his back, scraping his face against the rocky mountain. Lukor turned his head to see her fist, and she punched him in the temple. His vision blurred. Desperate to remove her, he thrust his elbow into her midsection. Unfazed, she wrapped her hands around his neck, but having anticipated the move, he'd brought up his arm and easily disengaged her.

  She gripped his arm, bending it behind his back. He swept her feet out from under her and climbed higher up the mountain. After several feet, he paused and glanced over his shoulders.

  Ivy was sitting down, her back to him, head bent down. When she stayed in this position for a solid five minutes, Lukor dared to approach. She offered him a rock-rat. Her eyes, he was relieved to see, were purple.

  As he took the rodent from her, she winced. "I hurt you."

  "We both knew you would. I am merely relieved you did not kill me."

  "Yet." Her laughter was contagious. This barbarian-princess intrigued him. He respected her, and as such, vowed to indeed make certain her death truly would be both quick and painless.

  For, regardless of their growing camaraderie, she remained a barbarian. He must never overlook that fact.

  The rock-rat weighed heavily in Ivy's stomach as she followed Lukor into the depths of the cave she'd revealed. Little light sparked from the luminous moss growing on the walls. Perhaps the plants were dying.

  She'd striven so hard to remember her mission, to not hurt him, but once the Bloodlust consumed her, all she craved was the death of her enemies. His heartbeat had been a siren song she must destroy. At least in the dim lighting, she no longer had to gaze upon the bruise necklace her fingers had imprinted upon his neck, nor the large bump on the side of his head.

  Giving into the Bloodlust was such a powerful temptation for barbarians, and yet, she wished she could never again feel it. To lose her cognizance to mindless battle was not who she wanted to be. But she would never be able to fell as many trolls without it. A problem for which there was no easy solution, if one existed at all.

  Deeper into the cave they wandered. The walls had been curved to a perfect smooth surface, and she touched the warm rock. At yet another fork, Lukor halted.

  "Don't you remember the way?" she asked, her voice a tad more biting than she'd intended.

  "I do." He took a deep breath and leaned against the wall.

  Gripping his shoulder, she forced him to sit and removed a small potion she'd bartered with an elf for in exchange for some drops of her blood. Why exactly the elf needed her blood she never did find out. In fact, he had sought her out and asked what she wanted to procure in exchange for her lifeforce droplets.

  The moss grew more plentifully here, and his eyes reflected the light. "A healing draught?" He shoved it bac
k into her coin purse. "I do not need it."

  Most likely he did not, but several barbarians had sustained hits to the head and never woke up again. "I injured you. Let me do this. Let me heal you."

  "I only need a moment," he insisted.

  So she gave him his "moment," and when he staggered upon standing, she held up the clear bubble jar, the turquoise liquid inside swirling around. "I will force it all down your throat if I must."

  He took it from her and swallowed the smallest of sips.

  "More," she demanded.

  "No. I feel much better. You have repaid me."

  Still, Ivy felt her debt had not yet been repaid. This puzzled her. Caring about another was not something barbarians did. Especially not for someone of a different race.

  Lukor stood and touched his temple. "My pain is gone. Thank you."

  "Do not thank me. I caused that pain." She lifted her nose into the air and tried to look down at him despite his greater height.

  "But you did not have to give me some of your draught."

  Ivy averted her gaze. His firm fingers tilted her chin up. "Do not touch me." Her voice shook.

  He pressed his forehead to hers. For a moment, he closed her eyes. She did likewise, and they stood there for several seconds. When he moved away, she missed his touch.

  The goliath already traveled down the left path, and she rushed to follow, careful not to get too close to him. After they rounded a bend, the passageway ended. The ceiling zoomed up toward the tip of the mountain. Huge wide open spaces carved the rock into nothing. The sight of the rooms and many bridges left Ivy breathless. "They truly lived down here for eons."

  "Ate plants that needed no light. Grew their own barley and grain for ale. They made do with what resources they had."

  "Whyever did they leave?" Ivy snapped out of her reverie and approached Lukor, who crossed a small stone bridge.

  "I pray we do not find out. We must move quickly now." The goliath ran, and Ivy pursued.

  When they passed into another huge opening, Ivy hesitated. The air here felt strange. Earlier, the air had been warm, moist, almost alive, as if the dwarves had opened the earth to a new life. Here it felt cold and dead.

  "Do not dawdle." Lukor's voice lowered, gravelly, urgent, and he grabbed her arm.

  "Are we almost there?" Had he brought her to a trap after all? Or perhaps the dwarves had left behind an unpleasant surprise. Mayhap the reason why they'd left in the first place.

  A strange sound, like a huge bird bellowing, faintly called out, and Lukor shoved Ivy into a rocky crevice. He wormed his way inside as well, his body against hers. She opened her mouth, but his hand covered it. He shook his head, a finger to his lips.

  There was just enough room for Ivy to look out into the opening around Lukor. A huge bird approached, with a barbed tail and a massive wingspan that could not fully extend within the monstrous opening. Not a bird after all.

  "Dragon," Ivy breathed.

  His large, warm hand covered her mouth once more.

  So the dwarves had fled because a dragon forced them out. All dragons tended toward violence first, questions later — if the prey survived their initial attack.

  This one glided around the opening, over and under various bridges until stopping beside the first one they'd crossed. It sniffed, following their scent, creeping closer, its twin heads moving up and down on their independent necks.

  Ivy's heart sunk. If a dragon lived here, surely no one else did as well. Lukor had trapped her.

  But why hadn't he fled then?

  A small part of Lukor, which he promptly ignored, enjoyed being so close to Ivy. Something within him stirred whenever he touched her. He couldn't wait to return home, once the war was over, and find a goliatha to claim as his own. One who appreciated him for all he had to offer. One who made his blood sing, whose touched burned his flesh. Too ambitious for most goliathas, Lukor did not currently have many admirers, save for the few motivated ones who only liked his status, rather than him.

  First, the approaching dragon had to be dealt with. His hand reached for his axe when Ivy gripped his bulging bicep.

  "What are you doing?" she hissed.

  How quaint. He could almost smell her fear. Truthfully, he felt it too. Kennan had sworn he'd vanquished the beast. That it still belched fire — did that suggest Kennan was dead? If that was the case, Lukor might not have long to live, considering the barbarian princess would certainly kill him where he stood once she learned her interpreter no longer breathed.

  Not that she or he had much longer to breathe themselves if they did not destroy it.

  "To battle," he whispered calmly.

  She eyed the beast before looking at the pit. If the dragon grabbed one of them in its claws, it only had to drop them. The mountain cave bottomed out at seventy feet. "How far until we reach where the interpreter is hiding?"

  "You wish to flee a fight? A barbarian running from battle?"

  "Running from suicide." She yanked on his tunic, pulling him nearer. The dragon was ever closer but did not seem to have located their position yet.

  He nodded toward a bridge twenty feet from here. "Down that bridge, back into the passageways. Not far from there."

  Her eyes told all: twenty feet might as well be twenty thousand. They had to cross a small bridge before reaching the one they sought. No way would the dragon miss them.

  "Give me back my shield," she demanded, her voice a trifle too loud.

  "I think not!"

  "Do it." She shoved her silverbow and quiver to him and ripped her shield from him. "Cover me."

  "You have more experience with the bow," he protested too late as she darted out of the crevice.

  The twin dragon heads let out a massive roar, and a rush of fire belched out from their bellies. Ivy leapt into the air, impossibly high, but not quite high enough. The soles of her leather shoes caught on fire. She kicked them off, and they tumbled down the small bridge, falling like burning stars.

  Belatedly, Lukor realized he clenched the silverbow so tightly he risked bending it. Although he knew he could flee now — that Ivy would be trapped here without his aid, would never find Kennan without his help — he couldn't leave, and not solely because she had the shield in her possession again.

  Before the arrow he sent spiraled into the dragon's side, the dragon released another blast of fiery air. This ball Ivy did not attempt to leap over. Instead, she brought up the shield. Crazy fool.

  Without a reasonable thought coursing through his mind, Lukor dashed off toward her. At the last second, she ducked, the ball flying above her head. How she remained unharmed, the shield scarcely singed as it spared her back from the blast, Lukor did not know, but relief flowed through him.

  Until a fireball was launched in his direction.

  And another in hers.

  An object whirled toward him. The shield. Lukor plucked it out of the air and held it up. Ivy raced to him and jumped, her feet scarcely touching the shield before she leapt again. Twirling through the air, she hacked and slashed with her blade and chopped off one of the heads.

  The dragon roared and tumbled to the bottom of the cavern.

  Unfortunately, so did Ivy. She screamed as she fell, and it took Lukor a moment to realize she was shouting at him. Something about the shield.

  Instinctively, he threw it toward her. The shield spun around, the spike in the center unwavering, and she managed to land on top of it. Still spinning, although much slower now, the shield carried her to another bridge. Within a minute, she climbed back to his level and stood by his side, and they ran, hand in hand, to the proper bridge. Soon, they were deep within the passageways once more.

  Abruptly, Ivy halted and pulled back on his hand. "We're on the other side of the mountain."

  "Yes."

  "You can't tell me there isn't another entrance."

  "There isn't."

  "I don't believe you." Her eyes darkened ever so slightly as she tapped her fingers on her cross
ed arms.

  Lukor grinned. "Aye, I do know of one other entrance. However, that one is guarded by a hive of destroyer dreads."

  Ivy shuddered. Destroyer dreads had four segmented body parts. Their teeth were poisonous. Their long antennas caused paralysis to those they brushed against, and their wings sped them from victim to victim. That wasn't even mentioning their tail ends, with spikes that burrowed the dreads into their victim's skin, worming toward one's heart.

  "Perhaps, before this is all over, you will learn to trust me." He leaned against the polished stone, his gaze falling on the shield in her possession.

  "Aye, if you deserve it." She waltzed down the path.

  Her armored bodice had a few scratches in it now, the skirt hanging in tattered strips, clinging to her long legs. Still, she had a picturesque backside.

  Ivy turned her head to the side. "Are you going to stand there and stare at me or are you going to earn my shield?"

  "I never knew..."

  "Knew what?"

  He approached her, their bodies separated by an inch. "Come along." With a nod, he walked on.

  "Lukor..."

  The gentle touch of her hand on his arm stilled him once more.

  "Thank you," she said, her voice a strange mixture of gentleness and gruff, as if she could not believe her own words despite their ring of truth.

  "You are foolhardy and reckless and are going to get yourself killed."

  Her soft laughter echoed throughout the passageway. "Thank you again."

  "Only a barbarian would take that as a compliment."

  "If you don't start leading, I'm going to find myself a meal. I'm hungry for some more pig meat."

  "You try my patience." He growled, the sound rumbling from the back of his throat.

  "And you mine."

  Lukor stalked off but could not bring himself to walk swiftly. He was stalling.