War of the Races

Chapter 29- Sons of Destruction

Dragonspine Mountains-

Aalyn watched Sinaan disappear into the foggy night, and even as confident as she was in her training of him, she couldn't help feeling flutters in her belly. He was capable. Truthfully, he was better than her now. The only leverage she really had over him was in martial prowess that was because of being built taller and more robust. He wasn't as strong, but he was very agile. More than enough to compensate for any lack of brute strength.

The tent flap flipped aside and Thurdain and Illglan strode into her tent. They smirked as they met her gaze as she asked, "Who will cast the barrier spells?"

"I will," Thurdain answered then gestured to Illglan with a twitch of her thumb, "Illglan will cast the spells of entrapment."

"Good," Aalyn said with a nod, "I also had Sinaan set traps all around the tent, and I have warned the guards not to wander from their posts too far lest they find a trap and then a dagger in their guts."

Thurdain and Illglan nodded, then Thurdain gazed at Aalyn's bed longingly before purring, "It has been a long day."

"How long has it been since we three shared a bed?" Illglan chuckled.

"A long time," Aalyn said, though the memory turned the corners of her mouth up into a grin.

"We had best get what rest we can then," Thurdain mumbled from behind her hand as she yawned.

Aalyn started undressing. It was a lot more work for her than for her sisters as she removed plate and leather armor and then clothes. Thurdain and Illglan simply removed their silver underwires and disconnected the chains that barely hung on their hips. Each of them kept a dagger nearby, and Aalyn's sword and shield lay just beside the cot.

Thurdain crawled under the covers first, Illglan next, and then Aalyn. With three people it was more cramped than when it was just her and Sinaan. They rolled on their sides with Aalyn facing the interior as all three of them spooned.

"Good night my sisters," Aalyn whispered, "Pray that we all wake in the morning."

She could feel them nodding as she laid her head down and tried to find sleep.

----(!)----

If Aalyn hadn't been awake and worrying about what was happening and who they were facing, she never would have heard the soft whisper of canvas being cut.

She scanned the tent in the infrared spectrum, but didn't see a heat signature. She could see the knife tearing through the canvas, and she knew with absolute certainty that once the assassin was inside somebody was going to die. She had to be patient and pick her moment.

The cutting sound stopped. Seconds passed and nothing happened. She knew that with her and her sisters beneath the blankets that their temperatures were elevated. With luck it would obscure small movements as she readied herself and the dagger in her hand.

The tear in the tent wall was pulled open. With a flourish Aalyn tossed the covers up and threw her dagger underhanded. Thurdain and Illglan gasped in surprise. The knife sailed through the air of the opening, and then there was a thunk and a strangled feminine gasp, a gurgle, and then the now floating knife reversed and arced down. There was a thud as an invisible body hit the floor.

"Well," Thurdain said from behind Aalyn, "That was anticlimactic."

"We still don't know who sent them, or how many," Aalyn replied as she shook her head, "We only know they used three priestesses body's as puppets."

"True," Thurdain agreed as she followed Aalyn and Illglan out of bed.

Aalyn picked up her sword and shield and then carefully approached the invisible corpse. As she started to prod the body the invisibility magic dissipated. An average sized, svartalf female lay sprawled, covered only by the cloak. Other than the cloak there was a dagger in the assassin's right hand.

Aalyn confiscated the cloak and dagger. Flipping her over, Aalyn recovered her dagger while Thurdain and Illglan examined the girl. When they were finished Aalyn asked, "What are those?"

Thurdain pointed with the nail of her right index finger at the shards of pearl embedded in the girls forehead, in the sternum between her breasts, and the shard buried in the girl's pelvis just above the slit of her sex.

"I have no idea," She answered.

"Are there any more?" Illglan asked.

The question was answered when they turned the body over and found a fourth stone embedded in the middle of the back along the spine.

"I saw them before on the first assassin's body, but I thought they were decorations. What do you think they do?" Aalyn asked as she tapped the pearl with the tip of her dagger.

"I don't know," Thurdain said while shaking her head, "But, if they're not decorational then there is a possibility that they are part of a ritual. Maybe they are what steals away the innards of the priestesses, and why they feel completely hollow."

"I see," Aalyn mused thoughtfully.

"What do you want to do with the corpse," Illglan asked.

Aalyn looked about as she thought over the question, then her eyes settled on the cut in the wall of her tent, and she pointed as she replied, "Let's take her back out through the whole. I will carry her to the woods, then you two can dispose of the body the same way we did the last."

They nodded. Illglan left the tent through the rip first, then stood aside and held it open. Thurdain stood to the opposite of her on the inside and held the other half of the sliced canvas open. Aalyn hoisted the dead girl up onto her shoulder and then trudged through leaving Thurdain to follow after.

They walked in silence, their bare feet barely rustling the leaves for nearly a half mile before Aalyn laid the dead priestess down. As she did, the pearl shard in the girl's chest crumbled and fell away. Aalyn's dagger had hit the shard then deflected off just enough to slip through the girl's ribs and impale her heart.

"What was her name," Aalyn asked.

"Ophimaev Druganor," Thurdain answered.

"She was of no House," Illglan added, "A commoner. Her family's first priestess. I met them once. They were so proud of her. They had such high hopes for her future."

"Make sure her effects make it back to her family," Aalyn grimaced.

"No priestess that came on this expedition expects to be killed like they were fighting on the front lines with the warriors," Thurdain growled, "We are support and healers. At the most I expected that if we met fierce resistance we would be taken prisoner. Dying was only a slight possibility to me. Of course I expect that we will be victorious as we always are. Ophimaev had no expectation at all that her life was in any real danger!"

"It's hard to live," Aalyn said as she gave her sister a pitying gaze and a nod for her loss, "But it is easy to die. We must always struggle, always be vigilant, or we may be next."

"I couldn't have said it better myself," Hayden chuckled nastily as he stepped out from behind a tree.

"By the goddess!" Thurdain gasped while Illglan shrieked and jumped into the air like she'd been pinched. When she landed it was with her back to Thurdain's and both of them in a crouch ready to fight or flee.

"Shit!" Aalyn cursed as she spun around to face Hayden Faline and demanded, "What are you doing out here?"

"Why General, I could ask the same question of you!" Hayden retorted from behind a broad innocent smile that looked anything but, from the gleam in his eyes. But as she stared at him he just chuckled as he answered, "Like you, it would appear, I was just out for a midnight strole... looking for a good place to dispose of bodies."

He let the end of his sentence hang in the air like a dead body from a tree. His words came out like pure honey, his smile as innocent as a babe's, but his eyes. His gleaming ruby eyes were pure murder, and she knew. Aalyn knew the death he sought was her own.

"Run!" Aalyn screamed but Thurdain was already mumbling under her breath a spell of Divine Protection.

There was a pop, then another, and another of crossbows firing in rapid succession as a bolt bloomed in Thurdain's breast spinning her around as the second missed, and then a third punched into her back, cut through her intestines and came out her belly. Two more pops of crossbows being fired and a bolt shot through Illglan's stomach while the second punched through her right breast spinning her around to crumple to the ground beside her sister.

"Really? Spellcasters," Hayden sighed exasperatedly, "I knew you three were together. That is why I sent the assassin. To kill you or ferret you out. Either way, of course I am going to have back up!"

"I will kill you for this!" Aalyn screamed as she rushed to her sisters' sides and checked them to see if they were still alive.

Thurdain wasn't breathing. She didn't even stir. Turning her on her back Aalyn saw her sister's eyes. The bolt that struck her in the chest had punched through her breast and straight through her heart. Thurdain's eyes were dead. Illglan's chest gurgled every time she breathed, but she was trying with all of her strength to reach her sister.

"Aloufina, resurrect Thurdain," Hayden commanded as he gestured for her to move along, "Don't worry Aalyn, Thurdain and Illglan will die, and you will get to watch. But first, you will get to watch my men enjoy themselves."

"Don't look at me like that." Hayden chuckled, and Aalyn realized she was glaring pure murder at him. Walking over he grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her backwards away from her sisters. Gesturing to two of his personal guards, he commanded, "Bind her hands so that she is hanging from a tree. Make sure she has a good view of what is about to happen to her sisters."

Turning to two more guardsmen he commanded, "Stake out Thurdain and Illglan so that you may enjoy your spoils. Aloufina, heal Illglan as well. Porendot, as soon as they're resurrected and healed, cut out their tongues."

The guard, whose name was Porendot, nodded and turned towards his task. Thurdain didn't move or resist. She was too weak from dying and resurrection to fight. Illglan fought as hard as she could against hands that grasped her wrists before ropes were wound around them and she was being stretched out and tied to tent pegs. More ropes bound her ankles to her thighs while her knees were stretched out and tied to more pegs hammered into the ground. The position arched their backs uncomfortably and positioned their hips upward for what the men had in mind next.

Tongs were used next to pull out their tongues out of their mouths and they fought, and then Porendot put his knife to their throats and said, "This can be done the easy way, or the hard way. Either way I will soon be wearing your tongues on a string around my neck. The question is, how much damage do you want me to do to the rest of you before I get your tongues? Now, be still!"

Despite his warning it took two men holding Thurdain and Illglan's heads before Porendot was able to cut them out of their mouths. As soon as he finished, and the other men finished their knots and rope work, Aloufina healed Thurdain and Illglan once again so that they wouldn't drown in their own blood.

Thurdain and Illglan's cries were great guttural moans that left them shuddering against their restraints as the first of Hayden's men pushed their pants down and knelt between their thighs. Aalyn refused to cry from what she was made to watch. Not that tears didn't form at the corners of her eyes, or run down her cheeks, but those were tears of frustration and fury.

"I am going to take great delight in killing you," Aalyn promised in a tortured growl directed at Hayden specifically, and then she panned across all of the men in front of her and said, "I will howl in delight as I kill every one of you!"

Hayden watched his men and affected to ignore her completely. When he did finally turn to her she could see the delight in his eyes, and satisfaction. It grew as he watched her trying to not watch what was happening to her sisters. Instead, she tried to focus on him. On how she was going to kill him. His satisfaction waned once he realized she was not going to give him anymore reaction for him to enjoy. Finally, his mouth twisted into a sneer as he taunted, "The high and mighty Aalyn Abendroth. The master strategist. The expert swordswoman. Top of the class. Oh how you have fallen!"

"I always knew you hated me," Aalyn growled but as the realization of motive hit her, she began to laugh. A bitter, ridiculing laugh that took all of Hayden's satisfaction away and left him looking like he wanted to stab something. Most likely her.

"Is that what this is all about?" Aalyn laughed now, openly derisive, "You couldn't handle the fact that I, a woman, out performed you and your brothers?"

She laughed harder, her legs buckling so that she swung from the rope tied to her hands. She laughed until a fist was planted in her stomach driving the air out of her lungs. Then another, and another until there was no more laughing, there was only the struggle to breathe, and maybe to stand.

Tied the way she was, when her legs buckled she really didn't sag far. Hayden's men had tied her so that she had to stand on the balls of her feet just to take some of the tension and weight off of her shoulders. Years of training with the sword and shield, and moving in armor made her muscles strong. But even so, it didn't take long before she felt like she was one good shove from her shoulders popping out of their sockets.

When Hayden was finished using her as a punching bag, he took a step back and glared down at Aalyn. He spat in her face and then slapped her hard before he commanded his men, "Let her down, then tie her up so that she is kneeling before me, but make sure she is facing her sisters. I want her to witness everything that happens to them before they die.

As soon as two men released the knots from the pegs driven into the ground, she struck out. A foot to the groin of one guardsman followed by a knee to his face. She drove his nose into his brain and he crumpled to the ground like a sack. Dead before he even fell. A quick twist of her wrist and hand-chop in the throat of the second guardsman's throat, and she felt his esophagus crunch morbidly. Before he crumpled backwards, unable to breath. It all happened in seconds, but then the guard recovered and four of them tackled her to the ground as they strained to hold onto wrists, ankles, or waist.

She bit and clawed and twisted as nails cut into skin. There was a brief glimpse of movement and then she saw Hayden's face large in front of her before a dagger punched through her abdomen, just below her ribs. She was sure he had targeted the area simply because there were no vital organs that would kill her quickly.

The air in her lungs seemed to be blasted from her body like she had just been punched by a massive fist. She crumpled to the ground, and the guardsmen made short work tying her up so that her buttocks were high in the air for their enjoyment. Her knees were tied to stakes that spread her open invitingly, her elbows were tied to her knees, and inelegant rope work tied her chest and head so that she was at a painful arch with her head back forcing her to watch her sisters' struggle against the men on top of them.

"Very good work men," Hayden chortled as he slapped Aalyn's behind as he strode by, "Now this is how every woman should be posed. This is what you are good for, and not much else. This is what you deserve for reaching beyond your ability and sex!"

He stepped in front of her and stuck the toe of his boot beneath her chin. She couldn't see anything above halfway up his boot as he purred, "If you kiss my boots, right now, I might consider sparing your life."

There was a dramatic pause as he chuckled over his own humor before he continued, "Of course, you will never be more than you are now. But, you will be alive."

Gathering what moister she could she spat at his boots and received a kick in the head for her trouble.

"Go, enjoy Thurdain and Illglan men," Hayden commanded, "Aalyn is mine!"

Tears ran down her cheeks as she felt Hayden settle in behind her. But they were tears of frustration and murderous rage. Nothing more, she told herself, as she felt him push inside her.

----(!)----

Junovein walked up with his companion Eydanth to relieve their sisters Polymeira and Olianti who were standing guard on General Aalyn Abendroth's tent. Their leader and heir of their House, Aalyn had entrusted only her most trusted guardsmen with her protection and that of her sisters.

Junovein worked hard to earn his lady's trust so that he could be promoted to her personal guard. To him, she was his entire world. He would worship her if she asked. He would most certainly go to her bed happily if she would but look at him. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for her.

Polymeira and Olianti both nodded in recognition of him and Eydanth. It always made him strut just a little more flamboyantly when the others of Lady Aalyn's personal guard recognized him. He was the only male and as he had to work to gain Aalyn's trust, he had to work twice as hard to earn the rest of his fellow guardswomens' trust and respect.

Walking past Polymeira and Olianti, he and Eydanth circled General Abendroth's tent. They were halfway around and nearly passed by the cut in the tent wall before they saw it.

"Goddess!" Eydanth gasped.

Junovein wasted no time in pulling the cut canvas apart and sticking first his head inside the tent. When he didn't see anyone inside he stepped in before turning back Eydanth. Finger to lips he whispered, "There's blood on the floor. Fresh. Complete the circuit and report to Polymeira and Olianti what we've found."

Eydanth was senior to him, and it spoke to her shock that she simply nodded her platinum cast strawberry-blonde head before trotting away. Junovein cast about the room noting that Aalyn's clothes and armor were laid over a chest. Two more silver underwires and waist chain wraps must have been Thurdain and Illglan's priestly habits. Aalyn's sword was beside the cot.

All three had been scared to sleep this night, and thought it safer to sleep together. Of course he knew why, all of her guards did. There had been an assassination attempt yesterday. They knew there were more assassins, but still, against the wishes of her guardsmen, Aalyn commanded them to be on high alert but keep everything as it was. She wanted to draw the assassin, and the one behind it, out of the shadows. And so, the Guard of the Scarlet Shield complied.

Polymeira and Olianti charged into the tent followed immediately by Eydanth.

"Oh goddess!" Polymeira gasped as she shook her head which whipped a braided, platinum white, mane of hair that fell to the backs of her knees, "There wasn't so much as a sound or moan all night!"

"Surely you heard movement if someone was killed in here," Eydanth said as her eyes fell upon the puddle of blood.

"There were no sounds of conflict or struggle," Olianti replied as she looked around as if she hadn't a clue what to do next, "We all know our lady's proclivities, but there wasn't even a sound of her and her sisters' bonding."

Polymeira nodded in agreement, "We watched them prepare and go straight to bed. I think even our ladies were a bit nervous tonight."

"What do you see, Junovein," Eydanth asked.

He was looking at the bed, then at the puddle of blood, and then the slit cut in the canvas wall. Without a word he laid on the cot and positioned himself so that he could see the rip in the wall.

"I think Lady Aalyn caught the assassin by surprise," He said finally, "I think she killed him, or her, as they were entering the tent."

"Then we're are they now," Polymeira asked, exasperation and worry thick in her voice.

"If she didn't call you to dispose of the body," Eydanth surmised, "Then the circumstances must have warranted her wanting to dispose of it herself, or with her sisters' help."