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Chapter 10: The Rabbit and the Minotaur
"You!"
Mozenrath snarled as he lifted his gauntlet, its aura glowing as it prepared to attack. Dhandi, gasping, quickly grabbed his turban with one hand, pulling it over his face. Furiously, he backhanded her blindly but firmly, the force throwing her to the ground. The sorcerer was infuriated. He didn't even hear the rip of fabric. He pulled back his turban from his eyes, spotting Amin deMoolah and Halim, in his arms, darting from pillar to pillar in an attempt to hide. A shot of dark blue fire from the sorcerer's gauntlet hurled itself towards the pillar, Amin diving to avoid it. Shards of marble rained down around the thief, the babe wailing in his arms.
"You might want to get up," Mozenrath yelled. "I don't miss twice, deMoolah!"
Amidst Halim screaming and the threatening hum of the gauntlet, Amin managed to hear-
"AMIN, CATCH!"
Mozenrath spun around and saw Dhandi throwing overhand a familiar glimmering jewel. In an instant, he spotted the loose threads of where a black pouch once was.
The shard!
Everything seemed to have moved more slowly the instant the shard flew out of the girl's hand. Amin, carrying Halim in one hand, "darted" out, hand out reached. Mozenrath, on the other hand, made a dramatic dive as the shard descended back to earth. Xerxes gaped as did Dhandi at the final result.
Amin, having caught it in his mouth, possessed the shard. Just then time sped back up again, with Mozenrath ramming straight into the thief's stomach. Halim screamed as the sorcerer grabbed Amin's throat.
"Open up," he seethed, throttling Amin's neck. "GIVE IT TO ME!"
Suddenly, Mozenrath found himself knocked down to the floor as Dhandi leapt onto him, pulling at his curly hair. Amidst the struggle, Dhandi called out to Amin.
"Go! Go back to Agrabah!"
Fumbling with Halim and the shard which he had spat out, he clasped it in his hand and muttered: "Agrabah!"
A violet flash occurred and Amin and Halim vanished, leaving Dhandi and Mozenrath alone in the throne room. Dhandi, having seen this, managed a small smile of triumph before the reminder of her dilemma came in the form of a sharp and painful jerk of her ponytail.
"You may have saved the brat and the imbecile," Mozenrath hissed venomously, "but you lost your only way out. And I'm still hungry." A predatory grin appeared as he uttered these words. Dhandi, panicking, thrashed against him, stomping on his foot. The sorcerer let out a howl of pain, releasing his grip on her hair. Skidding upon the marble floor, she ran into the dimly lit hall of pillars.
Clinging to one of the pillars, Dhandi panted, feeling drained. She glanced at the hourglass, the top bulb completely depleted of sand. It didn't really make much of a point to her at that moment to look, other than it being out of habit. Her henna-ed hand, which held up the hourglass, now appeared to have black veins. She glanced around frantically, her body pressed against the pillar as if by powerful suction. Her heart beat quickly as she heard the fall of footsteps and the rustling of fabric.
"Dhandi," Mozenrath's calm, casual voice echoed in the hall, "why won't you come out?" Unbeknownst to the girl, the sorcerer had laid his hand upon the other like an axe blade. "Why don't you tell me where you are?"
Even to him, this was an obviously poor attempt to get somebody to reveal themselves. However, Dhandi, through no fault of her own, blurted out-
"I'm right here!"
She clasped her hands over her mouth, surprised of what she had said. His low and cruel chuckle echoed in the hall.
"A bit of loose tongue we have, don't we?" Mozenrath's voice was growing louder and closer.
Dhandi whimpered softly, growing more frightened.
"I wonder what else I can get out of you. There's an infinite number of possible questions I could ask you, but given the time we both have left-" In the dark, a smirk appeared on his face. "Oh, I always forget. The Chaotic Plains is going to shift again and I can only keep it stable for so long."
Dhandi's eyes widened in alarm.
"So, I've decided to ask you just one question."
Dhandi's heart pounded. He sounded so close now.
"I know you are capable of being a witch," Mozenrath said, now just behind the pillar Dhandi was hiding behind, "that at anytime you could have used magic to aid yourself and Amin in my maze, but you didn't." Frozen in place, Dhandi shivered as he reached towards her chin and lightly ran his fingers across it. "Why didn't you use your magic and please, elaborate."
Her throat salivated, trying to keep her mouth from opening. She rasped through her nose, her eyes watering. Mozenrath tapped his fingers upon her chin, impatiently.
"Tell me, wench," he seethed.
"I-I quit doing magic," Dhandi mumbled, "When I was eleven. It hurt too much, 'cause whenever I thought of my mage light, you came into my head." The corners of Mozenrath's mouth formed an amused smirk. "I hated you. I hated that I wanted to be with you." Big tears began to gush from Dhandi's eyes. "You hurt me, Amir."
Suddenly, Mozenrath glared at her maliciously, his eye twitching.
"Don't call me that," he seethed, his tone cold as ice. Dhandi turned her eyes towards him.
"Why?" she asked, curious now. "Why don't you want me to call you 'Amir'?" Mozenrath withdrew his hand from her chin, wrinkling his nose as if he had smelled something foul. She slowly stepped away from her pillar, approaching Mozenrath. He backed away slowly like one would an angry, rabid animal. "You used that name twice when you got into my head."
"I have no attachments to that name," the sorcerer hissed, but his incensed expression melted down into a face of composure. He stopped, only a few inches away from the girl. "I only used it because of your attachments to that name."
"So why won't you let me call you 'Amir'?" Dhandi demanded; Mozenrath's face faded to a sickly pale green. "You're freaking out over it like you do have attachments and-and I can't just not, because you're right. I'm attached to Amir and you, once, were him."
She glanced quickly at his hand; the mehandi began squirming, metamorphosing into black veins like the ones upon her own hand. She smiled slightly and quickly turned her focus back upon Mozenrath's face, now looking very perturbed and wan.
"That's why," she asserted, "you will always be considered to me as Amir." Suddenly, after a pause, Mozenrath staggered towards her and backhanded her across the face. Dhandi tumbled to the floor, sticky, red blood dribbling from her nose.
"Your stupidity knows no bounds," Mozenrath said in quiet, icy tone. "You shall mercifully be rid of it soon." He let the knife drop from his sleeve and into his hand. Dhandi didn't even see this as she got back on her feet, but when she turned her head, she jumped back as the sorcerer lashed out at her with the knife.
"Well, if I can't have you," he said in a calm voice, "I can at least have your heart." Dhandi had the appearance of deer having light shone into its eyes. She jumped back as Mozenrath staggered forward limply.
Something must be wrong with him, the girl thought as she darted behind a pillar. Indeed, the gait of the sorcerer was more akin to that of somebody suffering from a weak heart. The clash of metal against stone was heard and Dhandi was off.
The girl panted as she ran, but she tripped over her feet, whether by her own or his doing. Whatever the case, Mozenrath quickly gained with her on the ground once more. He held the knife above her head; eyes alit with malice and weariness and beads of sweat running down his brow. Dhandi's head swam with thoughts, feverish and frightened.
Please, don't do this, Amir, she pleaded in her head. Her hand began to prickle. It felt like her hand was on fire. She watched as the knife came down.
No!
Her hand flew to block, expecting the blade to pierce her. However, she doesn't feel it. There was no feeling of cold metal or of sliced flesh. She lowered her hand and noticed that not only Mozenrath was not in front of her, but was slumping against the pillar that was three feet away. She gazed at her hand, when she then heard the sorcerer groaning and slowly rising to his feet. He glared at her like an angry panther. He even started snarling.
"That name has no power over me," he said, though not towards Dhandi. He said it as more of a mantra. However, somebody failed to mention to him that mantras don't work if spoken aloud as Dhandi shot her hand forward and Mozenrath was thrown against the pillar as easily as a rag doll.
"That name has no power over me!" he shouted, now getting desperate in his tone as he repeatedly thrashed against the pillar. Dhandi, her lip curled, kept pushing her hand in the air.
He deserves it, she thought bitterly as gushing tears flowed down her cheeks. He lied to me, he hurt me. He hurt everybody I love. Why shouldn't he hurt-
Her heart stopped when she saw him go limp. In an instant, the massive hatred Dhandi had felt for Mozenrath turned into worry as she lowered her hand, lowering him to the ground as well. She walked slowly towards his still body. Perhaps it was a trick, to catch her off-guard. She now stood beside him, the sorcerer still not stirring. She knelt down and, grabbing his shoulder pads, turned his body to face her. Her eyes widened, alarmed by the massive bruises he had sustained upon his face. Blood soaked into his turban and stained it a darker shade of plum. Her hand shaking, she slid her fingers beneath the silver choker he wore. A strange sense of relief washed over her when she found that his neck throbbed with a pulse.
She then rose to her feet and walked back to the throne room, feeling rather triumphant.
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A/N: This was part of a much longer chapter. Now for some news. Being visited by the angst-y plot bunny, I decided to write two endings. When they're both up in the near future, please review and tell me which one you like. One of them had inspired me to write another story in this arc, which I have dubbed "Tainted".
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, except for Halim.