Ice and Fire

Note: Ice and Fire was first published in Uruk Press' fantasy-erotica anthology Sex & Sorcery: Volume 3.

*

The last skeleton disintegrated as Euphoné drew her longsword from its body. Its skull toppled to the chamber floor and shattered, but the knight was already striding across the stone, her eyes fixed on the red-robed wizard rising from his throne.

"Fool!" cried the wizard, spittle coating his wild black beard. "Fool knight! You think that you can defeat me, Ondskap, Dark Wizard of the--"

Euphoné broke into a run. The wizard, eyes goggling, grabbed the gem around his neck and spat out dark words which scraped at the knight's brain. Red light poured from the stone.

In two leaps she was up the stairs. Ondskap's eyes went wide as Euphoné's sword pierced his chest and with an anguished cry he fell backwards. Her blade slid free and with it came thick black ichor.

But she was too late to break the spell of summoning. The gemstone flared and Euphoné wheeled about as a pillar of flame erupted from the centre of the chamber.

Euphoné sprinted back down the steps, leaving the now dead wizard slumped forward on his throne and bubbling out the last of his dark life-force.

The fiery column fell away, the flames parting to reveal a tall black-skinned woman, totally naked. No, not a woman. Her small horns, furled black wings and pointed tail revealed her for what she was: a demon.

Euphoné knew she must strike quickly. Demons were powerful foes! Sword raised, she threw herself at her new enemy.

The demoness, her eyes wide and her mouth an O of horror, threw up her hands. "No, wait! I surrender!"

The knight came to a skidding halt and checked the fall of her blade. Her blue eyes narrowed.

"Begone, devil," she hissed. "Your dark master is dead!"

The demoness grinned, a flash of sharp snowy teeth. "I know. At last! And I have you to thank for it."

Euphoné frowned and did not lower her sword. Demons could not be trusted!

"If you truly surrender, then leave this place," she said, "Return forthwith to your foul domain."

The demoness placed her hands on her hips and pouted. "There's no need to be rude, you know. But I will go home, just as soon as you do me this one little favour."

Euphoné raised her sword. Ah, so here came the deceit that characterised her kind!

The demoness's eyes fell on the sword-point. A droplet of sweat trickled from her temple.

"I'm not trying to trick you," she said quickly. "I mean, I can't return to my 'foul domain', as you call it, until you free me from the wizard's magic." She inclined her head towards the throne.

The knight glanced momentarily in the same direction. Ondskap was dead, but around his neck the gem still glowed and spat with energy.

"That's right," said the demoness, nodding. "The necklace. The summoning stone still binds me to this world. I can't leave until it is destroyed." She smiled, then, a smile Euphoné suspected was meant to be ingratiating but which came across as alarming with its array of pointed canines.

Euphoné, keeping one eye on the demoness, climbed the steps. She avoided the thick dark blood pooling around the wizard's feet and nudged the stone with the tip of her sword. Black energy still squirmed within it.

"It won't hurt you," said the demoness. "There's no protective spell. A sharp blow should do the job."

Euphoné lifted the necklace from around the wizard's neck with the point of her sword. She descended the steps, holding it before her.

"Yes," said the demoness. Her violet eyes were eager. "Now destroy it, milady, and release me!"

Euphoné let the necklace slide to the floor and raised her sword. Bright yellow light suddenly flashed across her face and she looked up. The demoness, eyes glowing, had thrust a burning hand in her direction and flames were pouring forth.

"Treachery!" cried the knight, leaping aside. The column of fire roared past her and there was an anguished scream as Ondskap's corpse, animated by some dark magic, was enveloped in flame.

Euphoné rolled, leaped back onto her feet and with a swing of her sword cleaved the wizard's gibbering head from his body. Slain again, the necromantic magic failed and head and body fell to the floor where they burned, raising a noisome greasy smoke.

The demoness stepped back, hands raised. "No treachery! No treachery! See, I saved your life."

Euphoné kicked the head away with a curl of her lip and hurried back to where the necklace lay on the ground. She lifted her sword.

"Yes," murmured the demon. "Yes, milady. Do it. Strike!"

The knight's blade slid down, but she did not strike the gem. Instead, she again hooked the golden chain and lifted it up.

"It will not harm me?" she asked.

The demoness shook her head. Her eyes were hungry on the stone. "It won't. Like I said, it's just a gemstone. Now quick, destroy it!"

The knight grabbed the chain and drew the necklace off.

"Yes," said the demoness eagerly. "Now smash it. Toss it against the wall or crush it beneath your heel!"

But Euphoné, a grim smile on her lips, lifted the necklace one-handed and slipped it around her neck.

The demoness's face fell. "No," she said. "No. Please. Destroy it. Free me, I beg you!"

Euphoné shook her head. "Not yet, hell-spawn. I shall free you, but only after you have done me a favour."

The demon's eyes flicked over the knight's face. "What-- what is it you want me to do?"

Euphoné swung her hand through the air. "This is the centre of Ondskap's lair. The way I came is blocked with boulders, some magical trap. I must still fight my way through to find another exit. I require your help. Aid my escape and you have it on my word that I will free you."

The demoness opened her mouth, ready to plead her case, but when she saw the hardness in the knight's icy blue eyes, she slumped her shoulders.

"Very well. But I have your word, yes?"

Euphoné's eyes flashed. "Yes, as a Knight of Aeovel. And our word is our bond." She knelt down, tore a strip of rag from the bones of a fallen skeleton and fastidiously wiped the remaining ichor from her blade. The demoness watched her.

Soon Euphoné rose. "Let us leave this place."

"Well," said the demoness. "I sense a hidden door behind the throne. Perhaps that will lead us to the way out."

"Open it," said Euphoné, sword raised.

The demoness sighed. "As you wish."

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The demoness walked ahead of Euphoné at sword-point as they traversed the corridors of the dungeon.

"There's really no need for this," she said, offended. "Even if I wished to harm you, I can't with the gemstone around your neck."

"Silence, hell-spawn!"

The demoness sighed. "I have a name, you know. It's Vervain."

"I said silence!"

Vervain stopped and turned, her hands on her hips. "Look, are we really going to do this the whole way? Can't we make believe we're civilised for a while, at least?"

Euphoné frowned. "I am civilised."

Vervain smiled. "Oh, I don't doubt it. You Knights of Aeovel are famed not only for your skill with the sword but also in poetry and the way of chivalry, aren't you?"

The knight's eyes flashed with confusion, but her scowl dropped away at the demoness's compliment. She nodded.

"So it is said."

The demoness pressed her advantage. "Then please, oh noble knight, lower your sword. I won't harm you. I want to get out of here as much as you do."

Euphoné, after a moment's hesitation, sheathed her sword. She glanced about the dripping stone walls. "I would have thought such a gloomy place was like home to you."

The demoness was taken aback. "My home? Like this cesspit?" she snorted. "Hardly." She raised herself up, her tail stiff and tall. "My 'odious abode', as you called it earlier, is a place of beauty and light and opulence."

Euphoné smiled grimly. "I did not call it an 'odious abode'. I called it a 'foul domain'."

Vervain gasped. "Even worse! If you saw it, you'd beg my pardon."

The knight laughed, then. "Beg your pardon? The pardon of a demon? Never!'

The demoness sighed. Well, at least she wasn't pointing that sword at her any more.

"Let's keep going," she said. "But before we do, perhaps you will grace me with your name, milady?"

Euphoné looked at her, unsure. But then she shrugged. "Euphoné," she muttered.

"Euphoné," repeated Vervain. "A pretty name. It means 'beautiful of voice', does it not?"

Euphoné's eyes went wide. "You understand the Sacred Language?"

The demoness snorted. "Of course I do. I'm an Agathos Daemon. I happen to be fluent in over one hundred languages, I'll have you know."

"So you are not a succubus?"

Vervain gasped. "A succubus? Oh no, we are far higher up the hierarchy than that." She placed her clawed hands on her hips. "What on earth made you think I was a succubus?"

Euphoné's eyes fell from Vervain's, slipped down over the length of the demoness's naked body. "Your form," she muttered. The knight fought back embarrassment, but a flush still came to her face and she looked away at last.

Vervain stared at the human's rapidly pinkening neck and cheek. Blushing? A Knight of Aeovel? Really?

"My form?" repeated Vervain, amused. She let a clawed hand slip over a pert breast, slide down her flat stomach and over the curve of a thigh. "What's wrong with my form?"

The knight glanced back, but just as quickly looked away again. "It is intended to produce lust," she said. The last word, 'lust', came out hoarsely.

"Oh," said Vervain. She smiled, delighted at the compliment. Then she was silent for a moment before she added, "So this body produces lust in you, does it?"

Euphoné wheeled around. "No!" she cried. "Why on Earth would your body do that to me? I am a Knight of Aeovel!"

"Well," said Vervain, fighting back a smile at the knight's spirited consternation. "If this body doesn't do anything for you, then it doesn't matter if I walk around naked, does it?"

The knight frowned. "It is still unseemly."

Vervain clucked her tongue and let her eyes skim over their surroundings. The walls weren't dripping any more, but the webs and the mould and the scuttling of unseen creatures left no doubt they were stuck in a dungeon. "Unseemly? I don't think any around here cares, milady."

"I care," said Euphoné. She slipped her pack from her shoulders, knelt down and untied a roll of grey material from it which she handed to Vervain.

The demoness looked down at it as though she'd been handed a dead rat. "What's this?"

"A blanket," said Euphoné. "Cover yourself with it."

Vervain unrolled it. "What an ugly colour."

"Is it not intended to be fashionable," said Euphoné.

"Well, in that is most certainly succeeds in that task," said the demoness, pinching the material. "And how am I supposed to wear this exactly?"

"Around your shoulders," said Euphoné. "Like a cloak."

"Like a cloak," repeated Vervain. "Very well." She draped the material over her shoulders and tied it quickly around her neck. Her slender fingers were agile, Euphoné noted.

Vervain looked herself over. Her whole body was covered by the blanket. She glanced up to find the knight staring at her.

The demoness batted her eyelashes. "So how do I look?"

With surprising grace on the tip of her slender toes, she did a twirl. The blanket splayed out, revealing flashes of her nakedness: the swelling of a breast, the taut gloss of a shapely buttock, the startling copper V of her pubic hair.

Euphoné swallowed. If anything, concealing the demoness's body had made things worse. But it would have to do.

Vervain fell back onto her heels, the blanket ending its dance to cover her again. The knight's consternation amused her. The blanket did not seem so bad any more.

"Come on," growled Euphoné. "We have a long way to go."

Vervain performed a satirical bow. "As you wish, milady."

Euphoné had obviously forgotten her earlier rule of keeping Vervain ahead of her at all times, but Vervain knew it was merely due to distraction and not growing trust. Had her body really been so repulsive to her? But then the Knights of Aeovel were chaste, were they not? They did not allow any distraction from their dedication to chivalry. And yet her nudity, which should have counted for very little, had flustered her.

Vervain pursed her lips. Humans and their strange ways!

She ran to catch up with her.

"So," began Vervain. "Let's have a conversation."

The knight snorted. "Keep your peace. I am trying to concentrate."

"Now don't be like that," said Vervain. "We need to get to know each other if we're going to find a way out of this dungeon safely. "

Euphoné stopped. Her eyes were hard. "I have no desire to get to know anything about you, demon."

Vervain sighed. "Again with that 'demon' word. You know it sounds like a slur from your lips, right?"

Euphoné's eyes narrowed. "Is this some trick?"

Vervain feigned shock. "I don't know what you've been told about my people, but we're not all involved in trickery." She brought a finger to her lips. "Except imps, perhaps. They can be real tricksters. Why, I remember a time when an imp--"

Euphoné broke in. "If we have your 'conversation', will you stop talking so much?"

"I will," said Vervain.

"Then tell me what it is you wish to know," said Euphoné "But make it brief."

Vervain raised an eyebrow. "Brief? Well, I'll try."

The knight had already started walking again. Vervain caught up with her. She was sick of tagging behind her like some faithful dog.

"So your name," said Vervain. "Is Euphoné."

The knight turned on her, eyes flashing. "You already know it to be so. Are you going to ask such stupid questions?"

Vervain pouted. "You really are prickly," she said. "I was merely asking you for your full name."

Euphoné looked forwards again. "It is Euphoné du Evren."

"There," said Vervain, smiling. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" Euphoné walked faster and Vervain did the same to keep in step with her. "du Evren, is it? A famous family. So you are aristocratically born."

Euphoné snorted.

"Well, I too come from a noble family," said Vervain. "My sire was an Agathos Daemon of Sabethel, while my mother was a Cacodaemon."

Euphoné made no reply. Vervain continued.

"That's why I have this black skin, you know. My mother's. All Cacodaemons have it. And yet the copper hair is my father's." She ran a hand up through her long straight hair. At least it was free of that awful blanket! "My hair is rather famed, you know."

Euphoné glanced back. Her expression was one of contempt, but still she said nothing.

Vervain acted as though she hadn't noticed. "But you too must be famed, Euphoné du Evren. Your hair is most strikingly beautiful as well."

Euphoné stopped dead. This time the look on her face was murderous. "This is your idea of conversation? This litany of trivialities?"

Vervain shrugged. "Aren't all conversations so?"

"I do not know," said Euphoné. "I have never cared much for conversation."

"Knight since a child, huh?"

Euphoné frowned. "How do you know that?"

"You just seem the type," said Vervain. Her eyes scanned Euphoné's hair -- short, and in a bob. A very... well, militaristic style of hair, she supposed.

Euphoné felt Vervain's eyes on her hair and her face grew hot. She turned away so she wouldn't see the blush spreading across it. Better to stare right ahead. She realised now she had made a mistake keeping that demoness here -- what was her name? Vervain? She was a distraction rather than a help. Talking about her hair! Complimenting it, even. Euphoné frowned. Of course she enjoyed compliments, but every word that came from a demon's mouth was almost certainly a lie. She was just saying those things to ingratiate herself.

And damn the demon, she was right. This was how they had worn their hair back in the Chapter House growing up. There were no precepts that demanded she kept it like this now that she was a knight, but she had simply never bothered to change it. Why was that?

"I love your hair."

The words popped unbidden into Euphoné's head, and with it the ghost of slender fingers drawn across her cheek. The scent of vanilla.

Luella's hands. Luella's scent. A memory.

That was why she had never changed her hair. To do so would have been to cut away a memory she cherished.

Vervain watched the back of the knight's head. She was deep in thought. Had her compliment offended her? It had been meant in all honesty. Euphoné's hair was beautiful. Was it gold or was it platinum? It seemed a mix of the two seams of metal. Blue eyes, too. Glacial, but gorgeous despite their hardness. Perhaps she should have complimented them as well.

Vervain sighed, a little puff of smoke slipping from between her lips. No, she would have taken that badly as well. If only Euphoné had been a male knight. Then things would have been much easier. By now she would have had her thighs wrapped around his waist, engulfing his beautiful hardness, drinking deeply of his orgone.

Her stomach shifted. Oh no. Better not to think about feeding. She would be free soon, and then she could hunt for some delicious fare. Vervain scanned the dungeon. Far drier now. A smell of monsters, though. She did not want to have to drain the orgone of monsters. They tasted so awful! And this body was designed to feed off humans.

She glanced back at Euphoné. Her head was slumped. Vervain tutted. She'd get in trouble if she didn't pay more--

Euphoné cried out, but the cry was stilled as quickly as it had been produced. Her feet left the floor and she rose into the air.

Vervain gasped and took a step back. Had she triggered some sort of trap?

Euphoné was twisted around by some unseen force and hung there, staring, her mouth open in a silent scream. Her sword hovered beside her, but then the air shifted and the sword was spat out.

The clatter of the metal at Vervain's feet broke her shock. The sword was coated in a glistening jelly. No, no magic. A slime! Euphoné had not seen it, and with the slime being cold-blooded Vervain's infravision had been useless.

Vervain, cursing herself, dashed forward. Euphoné was squirming about, trying to fight herself free of the translucent jelly. Smoke began to rise from her armour, leaving the slime through pores in its skin. It was starting to eat her!

The knight was still close to the surface of the slime and Vervain plunged her hands up to the elbow. She strove to reach the knight's armpits, to pull her out, but could only reach her neck. The jewel in the necklace around it glowed.

Vervain's eyes were drawn to the stone. It would be easy to pull it off, take it for herself, smash it and be free of this knight. But then--

Euphoné's mouth gaped. Her surcoat was gone now, eaten away, and her cuirass and greaves had begun to darken from the creature's digestive enzymes.

Vervain pulled her arms out and stepped back.. Euphoné's eyes and mouth widened.

"Oh, don't look at me like that," muttered the demon. She raised her hands and fire was born from her finger tips.

The slime, sensing its mortal enemy, quaked. Vervain did not hesitate. She thrust out her fingers and flame coursed over the monster. A torrent of ooze flowed forth from the boiling hole and the knight spilled out with it onto the stone floor.

The slime, its bubbling body now visible, retreated with an anguished sloshing. Vervain lowered her hands, letting the fire fall away.

"Yeah, that's it!" she shouted after the retreating creature. "You better run, slime!"

But the knight at her feet, gasping and scrubbing at the smoking goo coating her body, demanded her full attention.

Vervain tried to help her to her feet, but Euphoné pushed her away.

"I do not need your help," she muttered.

Vervain opened her mouth, ready to retort, but sighed instead. There was no point arguing with her.