by Cat Wilder
"Varissa, give me strength!" Ciara cried, and threw herself at the monster.
Her attack distracted it, though her plain steel blade did little more that annoy the otherworld monster. But holding Tara tightly to its chest with one arm, it backhanded Ciara with the other. She struck the wall again and fell to her knees stunned.
That distraction was all Tara needed. Her arms had been pinned down by the creature’s bear hug with her sword clutched at her chest. Exploiting its momentary distraction, Tara pushed up with all her strength and drove the sword point deep into its neck. Then as its arm relaxed a bit more, she dropped low and slipped its grasp. At the same time, she pulled the blade brutally across its chest. It roared its pain again and stepped back, but she pressed the attack.
Tara savagely attacked its chest, arms, and legs as she drove the creature across the kitchen. It was unable to defend itself against the magic blade and her vicious assault. She pushed it all the way across the kitchen until its back was pressed against the very door it was suppose to defend. There it roared one last time and leapt at her, impaling itself on her sword.
Stepping back, Tara pulled her blade from the twitching creature. She watched it in disgust a second, and then turned to her friend after ensuring it was indeed dead. Tara ran back to Ciara who was still on her hands and knees gasping for breath.
Dropping to her knees, Tara cupped Ciara’s face in both hands, "Are you all right?"
"I must be. I hurt too much to be dead."
Tara laughed with relief, hugging her friend.
"What a time for you to get romantic," Ciara said.
"Can you stand?"
"Sure, it just knocked the breath out of me. I’m fine." She stood up on wobbly legs and surveyed her slimy clothes. "Ew."
"Varissa preserve," Tara said, face screwed up as she brushed at the slim soaking her cloths. "Help me get this slime off."
They found some small towels and started cleaning the slime off themselves, casting worried glances at the dead creature the whole time. One could never be too careful with otherworld creatures. They may look dead one minute and attack you the next.
Chapter 8
"What’s that?" Yarus asked, holding his breath and turning his head to hear better.
"What’s what? I don’t hear anything," his companion said.
Masi was starting to become truly irritated with the young guard. Yarus had been ‘hearing’ things every since hiring on three weeks past.
Yarus looked at Masi with pain in his eyes. He was well aware of the jokes told about him behind his back. Perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him. Nobody else ever seemed to hear anything and the few times that they had actually investigated the noises he heard, there was nothing to find.
The two guards were as opposite as you could find. Yarus was the scion of a disenfranchised minor noble house. Though trained in weapons, he possessed no affinity for fighting. The human's thin frame, bright red hair, and mousy demeanor reminded people of the child the neighborhood bully always beat up. Whereas Masi was a great apelike man, being a quarter orc as well as a quarter ogre. His stout build, long powerful arms, and bald head gave the impression of a much bigger man. He was an old mercenary who was too old to go on campaign anymore.
Both men considered themselves lucky to be house guards in Padraig’s stronghold. For one, neither could endure the hard life of a pirate, and neither wanted to. House guards didn’t receive the glory and loot of pirates, but they had a warm bed and hot food every day. They wanted nice safe positions, and being house guards of a brutal pirate captain had proven right for them.
The faint roar came again and Yarus started to say something, but stopped himself. But this time Masi had heard it. Yarus saw the former mercenary cock his head and frown.
"Sounds like an animal or something," Yarus said. "Maybe a dragon?"
"Naw, I done heard lots of dragons, and that was different."
"Should we do something?"
"You wait here, I’ll go tell Baart," Masi said walking away. "He’s our glorious Captain, so we’ll let him go see about it."
The old soldier walked down the passage the short distance to the guardroom. Baart and seven other men were involved in a heated game of dice. Most of the guards were mixed races: orc, goblin, elf, and human blended in some form or another for the most part. None of them wore any armor, just their old tunics and trousers. Some of them were even barefooted. Baart glared at him.
"What do you want, Masi?" Baart demanded. "Did the runt fuck something up again? I swear, I'm gonna skin that little pup alive."
The old mercenary hesitated. The guard commander was scary. The orc warrior wasn't large by orc standards, but he was still half a head taller than Masi, with massive shoulders, thick neck, and powerful arms. Baart's fierce blood-shot eyes bore into him.
"Boss, we might have a problem," Masi said. "Both me and Yarus have heard some strange animal noises upstairs. I thought you might want to send someone up to check it out. Just in case."
The big orc scowled at him. Baart was a former mercenary officer who let bad luck and alcohol drag him down, but he was still dangerous to an old man like Masi. The orc also had a temper, and he looked like he was losing at dice, too. Masi braced himself for abuse. And then the roar came again.
"Go back to your post Masi, me and the boys here’ll check her out," Baart said. He stood up and stretched. "Come boys, let’s go find out what all the noise is about. Probably just some old dog that’s lonely is all."
Masi watched Baart lead the others up the passage carved out of the bedrock, joking and arguing. None believed there was anyone up there. There never was. Who in their right mind would break into a Padraig’s stronghold?
~**~**~
Tara and Ciara had totally forgotten where they were after the attack. They were still shaken and had been overcome with disgust at the slime and gore covering their bodies. By the time the guards arrived, they had cleaned their clothes as best they could and had just finished rinsing the gook out of their hair. Both groups just stared at each other a second.
Tara watched a rather sinister looking orc step over to the carcass and examine it a second. While his attention was distracted, she elbowed Ciara and signaled they should work their way back toward the hallway. They eased over to the hallway door as the man studied the strange creature.
"Hey! They’re getting away!"
Everyone froze an instant and stared wide-eyed at each other, then Tara darted through the door followed by Ciara. They charged down the hallway and back into the parlor. It was full of waking men and women. Heading for the front door, they could hear the guards and pirates following a short ways back.
"They’re at the front door!" a shrill woman’s voice called from the parlor.
"It’s locked!" Tara screamed, pulling on the handle. "It’s locked!"
She quickly examined it, trying to ascertain the locking mechanism. No bar. No keyhole anywhere around the handle. That meant magic.
Giving up on the door, they headed back up the stairs. Tara heard several women telling the men where they had gone. She silently cursed them as she forced her legs to greater efforts. The sounds of guards and pirates following them grew louder as the distance closed between them. At the second floor ramp they turned to make a stand. Tara threw the vase she had tried so hard earlier to save down at the quickly advancing men. It shattered over the head of one goblin who took out another as he fell. Both rolled all the way back down. Then Ciara threw the small table, but it was batted away by the orc.
The guards slowed as they approached the two women. Tara knew she had the advantage of the high ground, but the guards and pirates outnumbered them. Knowing her situation was hopeless, she did the only thing she knew. Tara attacked.
Screaming, Tara and then Ciara charged down several steps at the men. The guards and pirates were completely taken by surprise and jumped back instinctively. Several lost their balance and fell. They instinctively reached out to their
comrades for support, and managed to pull most of them down as well. The two women stopped and surveyed their handiwork.
"Gods, we’re good," Ciara said and grinned.
Tara smiled back, "I know."
They turned and ran back up the stairs to the top floor. Tara stopped at the top of the stairs. She couldn’t remember which door led to the roof. It was toward the middle, she thought, but which way?
"Which door?" Ciara asked.
"I was hoping you could tell me."
"Shit, shit, shit. This is the last time I go out drinking with you."
The thud of boots on the stairs below alerted them. Turning, they saw the men on the second floor ramp starting up toward them with blood in their eyes.
"They look pissed," Tara said matter-of-factly.
"I hope it’s not something we did?"
"Could be. Men are so sensitive and take offense at every little thing. Let’s get out of here."
Tara sprinted down the hall to her right. Halfway down, she opened a door and looked in. It was pitch black inside, but she could tell that it wasn’t the stairs to the roof. She was starting to close the door when Ciara shoved her in and closed the door. Feeling around the wall, they located a large chest of drawers and manhandled it before the door as their pursuers started pounding at it.
Opening the window's shutters, they found themselves three floors over the hard cobblestone street below. If it had been a canal they might have tried jumping. Now they were trapped, and the door would only hold a short while. Soon the men would bring up axes.
"I have an idea," Tara said. "We can make a rope out of the sheets and shimmy down to safety."
She leaned out the window and studied the floor below. Satisfied, she began stripping the sheets from the bed and tying them together. They pushed the bed over to the far right window and tied the sheets to one of its legs. It was the only piece of furniture in the room that was heavy enough to support their weight.
"You go first," Tara said, as she opened the shutters and tossed out her makeshift rope.
Ciara looked out the window, "But it doesn’t reach the ground. The fall with surely kill me."
"Not that. Look, see the window below us is open," she said, leaning out and with her friend. One side of the shutter was open, probably to let the breeze in. "We’ll enter there and make another go for the front door."
Ciara tested the sheets and climbed into the window as the first ax struck the door. Tara watched her repel down the side of the building to the next level. She easily climbed through, swinging the other side of the shutters wide as she went, just as the door splintered behind Tara.
Men began scrambling through the opening as Tara climbed into the window. She looked up to see one man charging her with his sword raised high over his head. Realizing he would cut the sheet with her on it, she pushed off and fell with the sheet sliding through her hands. Then as she reached the second floor, she clamped down hard and stopped her fall.
As the sheets pulled tight Tara was flung through the window. Before she could let go of the sheet, it was cut by the guard. She rolled halfway across the room before stopping. Sitting up, she looked around through tousled hair. They were in what looked to be a storage room for old clothes and boots. Ciara was at the door looking out.
"The coast is clear," she said and stepped out.
Tara followed her out and they headed for the stairs. Just before they reached them, they heard the guards shouting and running back down. They darted into another door. Leaving the door open a crack, they watched the men run past. They then bolted for the stairs and ran straight into a straggler.
Tara kicked low at his feet and Ciara swung her sword at his face. He ducked and dived forward, rolling to a defensive stance. But neither woman had stayed to fight. They barely slowed down to engage him before starting back down the stairs, but they were stopped halfway down by the arrival of more men coming up the stairs. The pirates from the Great Hall had joined the chase.
"Great Gods Almighty!" Tara cried.
"They sure are an ugly bunch," Ciara said.
They turned to find the guard standing at the head of the stairs with a look of triumph spreading across his face. They split, Tara going right and Ciara left, and started up the stairs. Standing in the center, he hesitated. He had no idea how to counter their tactic. He couldn’t engage both if they weren’t together. He backed away instead of allowing one to come up on his flank.
Once they reached the second floor again, they jumped for the guard. He chose not to fight and ran. They didn’t give chase and instead headed up the next flight of stairs. On the third floor they started opening doors until they found the stairway leading to the roof.
On the roof they found the two goblin guards they had tied up and two more goblins. All four were waiting for them, and the original two were more than a little upset. The raven-haired pirate captain did a quick evaluation, deciding her and Ciara could take the four much smaller goblins. From the looks spreading across the goblins' faces, they'd made the same determination.
"We're going to butcher you bastards," Tara snarled, presenting her blade.
Tara barked a short command for Ciara to lock the trapdoor before she launched an attack on the guards. Her attack was the last thing the goblins had expected. Tara scattered them quickly and began chasing a single goblin down. In his terror, he ran across the roof and dived over. Tara was stunned. Then she heard the splash.
Smart fellow, she thought, glancing down into the dark waters below.
Turning at the sounds of swords hammering away at each other, Tara studied the situation. Ciara was fighting one of the guards and the other two were circling around behind her. Tara screamed and charged.
As she approached, Tara saw Ciara launch a blistering attack on her assailant. She was driving him back with a cunning series of kicks, feigns, and thrusts. Then one of the other goblins came up on her left rear. Ciara dropped to her back and rolled, tripping the man charging in. She jumped to her feet and attacked her new assailant. As he tried to regain his feet, she ran him through. Then kicking him off her blade, Ciara turned to her original opponent and smiled wickedly.
"Time to die, sweetie," she said.
While Ciara attacked, Tara cut off the other goblin. He had seen her coming and swerved away. Tara chased him across the roof to the far corner. She was confused somewhat by his retreat; he looked strong and able enough being the largest of the four. He looked over and groaned. He had gone to the wrong corner, so there were no canals below.
Tara came in slow and low, both hands on Reaver’s long ebon hilt and a smile on her lips. The battle-scared goblin crouched low and waited, determined to give his best shot. The expression on his face said that he believed he was about to die, but he planned to do as much damage as possible first. He held his sword like a warrior used to using it.
The fight was quick. Tara’s sword moved too fast for him to counter. She carved him up like dinner, the smile never leaving her face. Then she parried his blade aside and thrust her sword straight through his heart.
Tara pushed her face into his before the goblin knew he was dead, "Have a nice afterlife."
She gave him a quick victory kiss and waited for the life to fade from his eyes, then pulled her sword free as he collapsed at her feet. Then she reached down and cut off his purse.
"To the victor go the spoils."
Returning to the trapdoor, Tara found it secured and holding up well against the men trying to smash through. She was confident it would hold. Ciara was lowering the rope back down. Tara found Ciara’s last opponent lying in an ever widening pool of blood next to a chimney.
Chapter 9
Tara looked up into the dark cloudy sky. The stars weren’t visible, so she couldn’t tell what time it was. She figured it was very late though, no more than a couple of hours to sunrise. More than enough time to go back and get the Eye of Varissa.
"You know, I’ve been thinking," Tara said, walking up behind
Ciara.
"Varissa save me!" Ciara cried. "She won’t be happy until I’m dancing on top of an impaling stake."
"Please," Tara said. "This is the most fun you’ve had in ages."
"Fun! I’ve been chased all over, beaten, and nearly crushed to death by some hellspawn, and as we speak, men are trying to beat down a door to kill us. I’ve had enough fun for one day."
"If that’s how you feel, let’s go. But I was just thinking that our failure to get the jewel might be perceived as proof of our inferiority to men. We might not ever live it down," Tara said, casually looking over the edge at the dangling rope. "You go first and I’ll defend the rope."
"You know," Ciara said, looking around. "The night is still young."
Tara laughed, "I thought so."
"How do we get past our friends there?"
"Why the chimney, of course," Tara said, indicating the largest of several chimneys. Tara explained her plan while Ciara climbed up to look down the chimney. "It's large enough for her to go down. We've gone up and down chimneys before. Plus, we'll leave the rope hanging over the side so those morons will think we escaped."
"And won't bother looking for us anymore," Ciara said. "I like it."
They left the rope hanging off the side of the building and crawled up atop the chimney. With their backs pressed against one wall and their feet against the other, Tara went first, followed by Ciara. It proved slow going. During the descent, Tara was constantly bombarded by the soot Ciara was scraping loose above her. She had to keep her eyes closed to protect them and had no idea how much progress she was making during most of the trip. But eventually, after what seemed an eternity to her, Tara’s rear end came into contact with the fireplace’s damper.
"Whew, that was on long flue," Tara said, finally after to stand.
Ciara crawled down and joined her upon the small area behind the damper. The women screwed up their faces in disgust. It was ankle deep with water and bird droppings, and smelled horrendous. Tara crawled over the huge iron damper, thankful it was still open, and peered through. The previous night’s fire was little more than smoldering embers now, so it would be easy for them to exit. Since there was no light or voices evident, she slipped through and down into the fireplace. She found the kitchen empty. Ciara soon joined her and they were barely able to contain their giggles at the sight of the other.