Sword of the Tyrant

by Cebelius

  Terry blinked as he tilted his head to one side and said, "Come to think of it, neither did I. Wasted opportunity I guess. Oh well. Not important."

  Isthil phased through the wall and set her burdens down as she asked, "You were tellin' us why it does'na bother you that Arachne is one o' Thomas' bonds."

  Terry blinked at the Nightmare, then shrugged and said, "I was, wasn't I. Arachne didn't seem to know my intentions when she came into my dream, which makes no sense unless she legitimately hadn't been tasked. So, I'm pretty sure she gave me her advice based on just what she claimed: she wanted what was best for her grandkids."

  "I suppose that is fair, but it relies on a number of assumptions," Mila said as the three walked back outside. She and Terry used the door, while Isthil simply ignored the wall.

  "I'm aware," Terry said wryly. "I'm not exactly a trusting soul."

  "So ... why're ye trusting now?" Isthil asked.

  "Intuition," he said after a moment's thought, glancing up at Isthil with a bit of a smile as he added, "And you."

  "Me?"

  Isthil was clearly startled, and Mila shared the Nightmare's surprise as she asked, "What does she have to do with this?"

  "She wanted out," Terry said quietly. "Isthil said to me that you can get just what you ask for, and still wind up regretting it. Given how the Twilight Zone has been described to me, it's a miserable shithole. No one in their right mind would want to live there, much less try and grow it. Well? Arachne seemed to have her head on straight. It might be an assumption, but it isn't much of a stretch to assume that she doesn't exactly want to wipe out all life on Celestine, not after she went out of her way to tell me how to help her grandkids."

  "Your logic does not have clear lines, Terry. But it does have merit, presuming Arachne is sane."

  Terry sighed as they reached the remainder of the gear. He paused, looking at the five cocoons on the ground before him. Four of them were still, but one shivered slightly with movement not brought by any breeze.

  "Yeah, I'll grant that is a pretty big assumption," he admitted. "Two of the three Powers I've run into so far tried to kill me, and the third was human once, with different motivations. I'm pretty sure all the remaining Powers are or would be out to get me for the same reasons the first two had."

  "Cecaelia did?" Mila asked.

  Nodding, Terry picked up a stack of heavy sacks and turned back toward the longhouse as he said, "I think so, though I didn't know it at the time. She flooded me with power. If I hadn't had a way to cope, or get healing, I'm pretty sure it would have eventually killed me. In fact, it still might. I get headaches, Mila. I get sore. It's not as bad since Prada feeds from me, but even with Laina's milk and your healing and her siphoning off excess ... it still damages me inside. All the time."

  Mila grimaced in annoyance as she realized he'd taken all the rest of the heavy gear, and she'd actually been looking forward to utilizing her newfound strength. So instead, she picked up the largest cocoon. It weighed easily over a hundred pounds, much heavier than she'd anticipated, but she still managed to heft it without too much of a problem.

  It shivered in her grasp. She felt whatever was inside stir, then settle again as she walked.

  "Baba Yaga flat out told me she hopes Thomas and I kill each other," he said. "She said all the Powers know ..."

  He trailed off, then shook his head and said, "There's only two ways this ends Mila, and I think I missed my early ticket out. I've already left the man I wanted to be behind."

  She opened her mouth, then caught sight of Shy. The dryad had caught back up to them at some point and was quietly carrying smaller items along with them but had yet to join in the conversation. Now, she shook her head, pressed a finger to her lips and mouthed, 'Later.'

  They helped him carry the supplies and the rest of the cocoons into the longhouse in companionable quiet before Terry surprised Mila again when he turned to Isthil and asked, "Would you be willing to do me a favor?"

  "Depends on what ye want," Isthil said as she turned, causing her hair to drift in front of her face. She ran fingers through and flipped it over her shoulder. It floated despite the still air, losing its energy to swirl in a lethargic cloud behind her.

  "I want you to chase down those idiots from earlier and make sure they got my message. Don't fight, just watch. If they decide to try again, come give us warning. If they sleep on it ... make sure the decision maker has the worst night of his life."

  Isthil tilted her head a bit as a slow smile spread across her face.

  "An here I thought ye were a nice guy," she said, clearly not meaning it as a rebuke.

  "I was never nice, not really," he quietly admitted. "I try to keep my temper and look for the high road, but I'm not an idiot. Those assholes don't respect good guys. What they do respect is power, and if I have to be the meanest motherfucker on the block before I'm left alone?"

  Terry shrugged. "I can do that."

  9

  The Number One Rule

  Yuri kept a tight grip on one of the metal ribs of the wagon as he pressed tight to the sidewall and did his best not to puke over the tailgate.

  Again.

  He'd had many adventures over the course of his life, but flying had never been in his plans, and he found that he didn't like it much.

  Despite his fear, he caught himself constantly glancing out the back of the wagon. The world beyond was one few mortals were privileged to see. Clouds stretched out in a fluffy landscape below him, and the sun colored them in flavescent shades that shifted as they ambled along under the guidance of the winds buffeting the canvas stretched over the top of the wagon.

  The air was more difficult to breathe than he was used to, the temperature had dropped dramatically despite their being so much closer to the sun, and his ears had popped rather painfully as Asturial ascended, yet ... as long as he didn't get too worked up, he found that the ethereal view was almost enough to banish his many physical discomforts.

  "It's almost like being home, except upside down!"

  Yuri's ear twitched toward Twisted, and he glanced over at her, then back out the rear of the wagon as he asked, "How so?"

  The werewolf, naked but for her dirty white fur and utterly unconscious of it, gazed out at the clouds and pointed as she said, "The sky was always full of high, racing clouds that moved. Now that's all I can see. We didn't have ... that though."

  She pointed at the sun.

  "The sun?"

  "Whatever you call it. Light was always the same back home. If you wanted the dark, you had to steal a roof from someone or cover up. Here it changes all the time. I was terrified the first time I experienced nighttime out here ... though I like it now."

  Yuri glanced toward the front of the wagon and saw that Euryale and Laina seemed to be asleep. The gorgon was curled into Laina's side, her head resting against the minotress' bust as her snakes lay still in all directions. One was even resting along the length of Laina's right horn. She had wrapped her body in her wings but still shivered visibly, obviously fitful from the cold.

  Yuri stood and, moving carefully, pulled a blanket from one of the crates and gently laid it over them both. He wound up covering Euryale completely and Laina up to the neck, but he didn't think the gorgon would mind. He smiled as the snake draped over Laina's horn almost immediately glanced around, then slid off and plopped down onto the minotress' shoulder before sliding out of sight under the cover.

  Glancing up, he caught sight of Asturial's massive head and long neck. He thought for a moment about the fact that his friend ... no, his brother, had taken this gargantuan creature as a lover, if only by proxy.

  Yuri's tail lashed once as he thought about the sheer insanity of standing in a wagon that hung suspended above the clouds by a dragon before he put a lid on such thoughts and turned back to his place in the back corner next to the tailgate. His stomach had already rebelled once, and he didn't want to risk fouling the floorboards. It wasn't as though anyone would be able to ge
t away from any mess that was made.

  "So, tell me about yourself," he said as he settled again and looked at Twisted, who glanced from the majesty beyond the wagon back to him.

  She was not powerfully built, but he could see the wiry muscle beneath her coat. Her naked chest was just full enough to draw his eye, but her ruff hid all the details. It was shaggy and thick over her shoulders. The fur between her ears was spiky and long such that in front it curled down almost enough to hide her left eye. Those eyes were green, like his own, and bright with interest and life. She grinned, showing an impressive set of teeth as she said, "I'm a wolfen by birth, but got a bunch of stuff from dad. I can change into an actual wolf now, that you've seen, and Boss told you about my ... needs. I can recover from just about anything. What else do you need to know?"

  "I did not mean your abilities," Yuri said, venturing a smile of his own. "I meant, who are you? What do you want?"

  Her smile vanished and her previously wagging tail stilled. She tilted her head to look out at the open sky for a moment before shrugging as she said, "Never much thought about it. In the Labyrinth, there was no future. Just the present. I never thought much past the next fight. The next meal."

  "Well, now you can think about it," Yuri said, tilting his head a bit to catch her eye. She looked at him again, tried a smile, but it faded again and her tail stayed limp.

  "Not much to think about," she said. "I'm just a female in the Boss' pack. I was never special to dad either. It's just life. It goes on."

  Yuri's ears twisted sideways as he listened, frustrated by her answer. He nodded and turned his eyes to the view, only to be interrupted in his musing a moment later as she asked, "What about you?"

  Blinking, he glanced back at her to see those lively green eyes fixed on him, tail thumping the box she sat on as she waited for his answer.

  "I am ... well, I am a monster hunter by trade and choice," he began, only to have her interrupt as she asked, "What's a monster hunter?"

  Taken aback a bit by the question, which was one he'd never had cause to answer, he hesitated as he formulated his reply.

  "A monster hunter is someone who makes a living in the dangerous places of the world. Mostly, the job involves finding monsters that have rare properties or collect things of value, killing them, and selling what we find in the civilized places."

  He remembered one of Marcus' favorite phrases and smiled as he repeated it for Twisted. "Find it, kill it, take it's stuff."

  "So you're a killer and a thief?" she asked.

  "No, of course not," he said, ears flattening. "I only take from monsters, not people."

  "What's the difference?" she asked.

  "Monsters are those who have stepped outside the boundaries of society. Those that forsake the social contract or are incapable of forming such bonds."

  Twisted pondered that for a moment, never taking her eyes off Yuri as she thought. He found her gaze oddly penetrating. After a moment she said, "So ... if Boss hadn't taken me on, I would be a monster?"

  The answer to that question made Yuri a bit uncomfortable, but he had long since settled on honesty as a policy unless he had a compelling reason to lie. "Yes. You attacked him, twice."

  "Just the one time," she said.

  He shook his head and held up two fingers as he said, "Twice. When you attacked Shy and Halla, you attacked him."

  "No I didn't!" she said, traces of a growl creeping into her voice. "He wasn't there."

  "That is the nature of the social contract," Yuri said, searching within himself for a way to explain things that shouldn't need explanation. "His women are connected to him, both by choice and whatever magic forms the bonds a template forms. An attack on one is an attack on all."

  "Oh, so those two were members of his circle." She nodded as though that explained everything. "Who is outside his circle then?"

  Yuri said, "Everyone in his pack is inside his circle, as you call it. They are one and the same."

  "Even you?" Twisted asked.

  "Yes."

  "Wow, I didn't think males fucked each other. Or ... are you female down there?"

  Yuri almost choked as he waved his hand frantically in negation as he said, "I am a man, not a woman. Boss and I are brothers, not lovers."

  "You don't look a thing alike, and the one doesn't have anything to do with the other. At least, it didn't with the females in the Labyrinth. We were all related, but we fucked whoever pleased us."

  "Brother's by choice, and out here, sexual relationships with blood relatives are called incest, and are taboo in every society of which I am aware."

  "What does taboo mean?"

  "Forbidden."

  "Why?"

  What did I get myself into here? Yuri thought desperately to himself as he looked at Twisted, searching for words. I feel like I am talking to a four-year-old.

  He thought a moment, discarding the arguments that had to do with laws, customs, or the general revulsion felt by most at the very idea. None of that would have any traction with Twisted. Thankfully, there were other reasons.

  "Be- cause there are curses placed on the children of such unions. They tend to be sickly or twi- deformed. Besides, while I do not speak for others, I could never feel attraction to someone I knew was blood-kin. The scent of my sister in heat is annoying, not enticing."

  "Smelling someone else in heat turns you on?"

  He could tell by the way she spoke that it wasn't something she had any experience with. Given what her situation in the Labyrinth was, it didn't surprise him. Yuri chuckled wryly. "Presuming we are not related."

  "Huh, maybe that's why I never liked it, but I have another question."

  Resigning himself to the seemingly endless questions, Yuri rolled his hand.

  "Why would anyone curse children?" Twisted asked. "That's really mean. Even when I'm black I tend to leave the little ones alone."

  "That is just the way it works," Yuri said with a helpless shrug. "I do not pretend to know everything."

  Twisted seemed to ponder that a moment, then looked at him with disconcerting intensity as she said, "Is that why Boss wouldn't take me as a bond? Because he thinks I'm twisted? That's what you were about to say, right? I know what it means, beyond it being my name."

  "That is not what he told me," Yuri hedged.

  She leaned forward, her tail wagging harder as she eagerly asked, "What did he tell you?"

  Yuri hesitated. He wasn't certain whether what had been said to him was in confidence or not. He certainly wouldn't be telling her that he'd been encouraged to pursue her.

  In the end, he decided there was no harm in telling her most of the truth.

  "He does not want any more women in his harem at all. He told me he cannot keep up with the ones he already has."

  "So if a few of them die off there will be an opening?" Twisted immediately asked.

  "Not for the killers," Yuri replied just as quickly. "He would move to crush anyone that harmed any of his bonds."

  "That's not fair!" she whined. "How else am I supposed to prove I'm worthy? Theseus blessed those who killed the weak among his bonds. How do you think I got my bond gift? I had to kill ten of those bitches before he'd even look my way."

  "The more I hear of this Theseus, the more grateful I am that he is dead," Yuri said, only to jerk his head back as Twisted bared her teeth and snarled at him.

  "He was my father," she growled. "Don't you talk about him like that! I was nothing before he gave me true power!"

  "Whuh? Whuzzat?!" Laina blurted, blinking as she threw the blanket aside and reached for her ax.

  Euryale squirmed and flung a hand out in a vain effort to catch the blanket as she groused, "It's nothing Laina. Yuri's just pissing off the werewolf with daddy issues. Let them fight. Blanket! It's cold up here!"

  Laina blinked the sleep from her eyes and glanced from Yuri to Twisted even as her hand moved from the Ax of the Great Plains to the now crumpled blanket, which she drew back around herself and E
uryale.

  Somewhat muffled by the blanket, Euryale said, "Before you shove your foot any further down your throat, hero, you should know that my mom and dad were siblings too. I suggest you switch topics before you piss me off."

  "I am sorry," Yuri said, looking at Twisted, ears forward and earnest. "I did not mean to offend you. I only meant to say that the cruelty you endured while young was unjust. Had you been born to anyone else, anywhere else, it would almost certainly have been better."

  "Yeah, maybe, but then I'd still be a weakling," she said. Her hackles, risen in her anger, had begun to settle again. "I'd be no use to anyone."

  "I do not believe that," Yuri said quietly. "You are earnest, and have been hard-used, but you are also beautiful, and I think no matter what happens, the rest of your life will be better than what you have known."

  Twisted's tail stopped thumping and she stared at him. His ears half-twisted away, then forward again as he asked, "Something wrong?"

  She stood abruptly, and stepped up to him. He leaned back as she bent at the hip, setting hands on the rim of the wagon behind him as she set her muzzle just under his chin, inhaling deeply.

  What she was doing was definitely rude, but Yuri took no offense. She could not be held to the same standards he knew, not if he wanted to give her a fair chance. Instead, he decided to taste her as well. His lips curled back as he inhaled, and while her scent was clearly not of his kind, it was pleasant, and he found he enjoyed it.

  Well, she looks good, and she SMELLS good. Perhaps I SHOULD do some chasing. It has been a long time since I had more than the relief a few coins could purchase.

  She straightened a moment later, gave him a speculative look, then returned to her seat.

  "Thanks," she said quietly, couching her muzzle on her knuckles as she looked out at the clouds. Her tail shifted, stilled, then shifted again as her ears flicked around, and it was obvious she was deep in thought.

  He glanced at Laina, saw the minotress gazing at him with a raised eyebrow and a half-smile.

  She nodded once and tipped her head in a 'who knows' gesture before her smile broadened a bit, then she closed her eyes and settled back down.