A/N: Dalamar Nightson: Thanks! Again. Sorry the updating is taking so long. What with Water Polo and school starting up again, I've found I have little FanFic time.
Chapter 21 - The Echo
The squat man fell to the ground in a heap.
"Not him, eh?" the dark woman rasped. "Too bad." She nudged him with her boot to roll him over on his back. "Maybe I'll just kill him anyway." She drew her sword.
The two scouts that had been hiding in a corner now leapt out, drawing their own swords, sworn to protect their lord.
"What's this now?" the woman asked herself. She squinted at the two men, scrutinizing them. She recognized them as the two spies who had come rushing up to the castle just before she and the Snake Man had. The dark woman re-sheathed her sword. The two men remained in their fighting stances.
"Who are you and why are you here?" the man on the right asked. Untitled said nothing, but instead took a step forward. "Stay back," the man ordered. "Stand along that wall."
The woman ignored him and continued to walk toward them. When she got too close the men tried to stab at her, but she was quicker, and managed to grab hold of their blades. The metal began to glow and the men let go of their weapons with cries of pain as the woman heated the blades beyond bearing. She threw the swords away and grabbed each man by their collar, then lifted them up into the air so their feet dangled an inch off the ground.
"What was your errand?" the woman commanded. The two men trembled. She shook them and repeated her question. "What was your errand!"
"We - we were sp - spy - scouting D-Duke Eli's men," the shorter one stammered.
"And?" the dark woman said. "What did you see?" Neither man said anything, so the woman shook them again and banged them up against the hard stone wall. "What did you see!" she demanded more forcefully.
The one man sputtered. "They - they went to the V-Valley, and ran - ransacked this sh-shack." The woman's eyes grew large.
"They set it on fire," the other man told her.
The woman looked anxiously between them both. "Did they take anything with them?" she demanded.
"We saw them drag something out with them. It looked like it could have been a man, but we were too far away to tell for certain."
"Where were they headed?" the woman asked.
"Back to the Duke's Castle Elmont," the man answered.
The dark woman let out a string of curse words as she let the two scouts fall to the floor.
"Listen here, roaches," the dark woman rasped. "You and your lord suffer no threat from me. I am not the Duke's and I mean you no harm, but so help me if you do not tell me everything you saw tonight I will gut you like a fish and them feed you to them, understand?" The two men promptly began to tell her all that they saw of the Duke's hundred horsemen storming the at-first unseen cabin and all else that followed before they retreated.
--
"Damn!" the dark woman cursed. "Shit. F---, son of a…"
"Somethin' wrong, o mutilated one?" Grunthor asked as the dark woman tramped back to the woods.
"Effing, maggot-riddled shit heap!" she rasped malevolently.
"Oi'll take that as a 'yes,'" Grunthor mumbled.
"Aaah!" the woman screamed as she set a nearby bush on fire. There was smoke coming from her ears and sparks flying from her fingertips.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Rhapsody asked. The woman cursed colorfully. "Achmed, why is she angry?"
"Angry?" the dark woman said. "No, it is much more than anger. More than fury, more than rage, more than wrath. It is…" her eyes began to blaze, "…mutinous. No, I'm not angry, just really pissed off!" The others exchanged looks. "Damned him!" She clenched her hands so violently that her fingernails cut into her palms.
"When I find him, I'll kill the little b----d," she vowed through gritted teeth.
"Who?" Rhapsody whispered to Achmed. He shook his head.
"Come on, Temporary, Useless…Greenie," the woman rasped. "If you fall behind I am not coming back for you."
"Where are you going?" Rhapsody demanded.
"To Hell," the woman shot back.
--
Grunthor and Rhapsody stumbled after the two dark figures, the Singer making sure Achmed never left her sight. She was beginning to have a very bad feeling about the gruesome woman, who was just as unnerving when she muttered vehemently to herself as when she remained stock still and silent.
They came upon a bend in a forest path, quite some time later, where four men on horseback were laughing and chortling. The unnamed woman walked right up to the clean-shaven man on the bay, seized his tunic, and yanked him out of the saddle. The other three men, as well as the one on the ground and the companions from Serendair, stared after the dark woman in complete bewilderment as she trotted away.
"What…?" the man on the ground trailed off.
"Hey you! Come back here!" another man shouted.
Rhapsody looked frantically from Grunthor to Achmed to the dark woman, and then back again. "Are we supposed to follow on foot?" she asked. "Achmed, no!" she hissed as she pulled back on the Dhracian's robes as he approached a short man on a tall horse.
"Well Oi sure as 'ell ain't gonna be walkin' the 'ole way," Grunthor grunted.
"Grunthor!"
But the big Sergeant-Major ignored the little woman and shoved two more men off their mounts.
"What is the meaning of this?" demanded the squat, black haired man closest to Achmed.
"Sorry, mate," Grunthor told him, "but we're gonna need to borrow yer horses."
"Wh-what? That's p-preposterous!" the man sputtered as Grunthor approached him. He tried to turn his horse around, but the half-bolg seized the reins and knocked the man to the ground.
"After you, Duchess," Grunthor bowed.
"I do not approve," Rhapsody said.
"Oi'm sure. Now up you go." He boosted the petite Lirin into the saddle before getting into his own. All three then rode hastily up the path to catch the dark woman.
--
It's him. He knows. He'll kill the idiot tinker. We'll lose our chance, AGAIN! the voice inside the woman's head whispered frantically.
"Shut up!" the woman hissed. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
We'll never get back. We've lost it. We will be trapped in this living hell forever.
"What's the difference?" the woman growled. "Living, nonliving; it's still Hell."
Unacceptable! the voice roared. You will get the dimwit back and you will get the…
"Enough!" the woman shouted. "I will take care of it! Now leave me be!"
I cannot leave you be! Every time I let you be you sabotage me! You are a traitor!
"NO!" the woman shrieked. "I am not a traitor! Now let me be! Go away, go away! Now!"
The sound of thudding hooves broke through the twisted woman's thoughts. She whirled around in her seat to see the three others come riding up behind her. The small Lirin woman and the giant half-bolg were looking around as if they expected to find another being hidden in the trees. The Dhracian just glared at her with those blazing, mismatched eyes. The woman growled and rode on, keeping the evil little voices at bay.
--
"I know I heard her talking to someone!" Rhapsody whispered.
"Yeah," Grunthor replied, "herself. She's bloody possessed."
"Quiet," Achmed ordered.
Possessed…the voice echoed.