YOU GUYS ROCK. I'LL BE MAKING MORE DRASTIC CHANGES TO SOME EARLIER CHAPTERS TO IMPROVE THE PLOT MORE: MORE SEX, MORE DEATH, MORE INTRIGUE... less capital letters. thank you all.
He had managed to drag his evicerated body over a rock in the center of the open field, but was too weak from loss of blood to free his entrapped gauntleted right hand when it became wedged between a boulder as he was attacked anew by two of these 'things'.
He had 'won', at the cost of his left hand, but was finished as he saw 'IT' crawling toward his exposed gullet.
So, here he was, the once great bringer of death, about to be finished by a corpse reanimated by a plant used as seasoning and cure-all. Irony. Horrible, dreaded irony... fuck fucking fate.
He sat there, watching the inevitable inch agonizingly closer, his entrails hanging out, skill useless, staring coldly at the THING crawling toward his viscera with it's emotionless, milky eyes with what little rage he had left... his precious daggers inches away from one ruined, and one trapped hand. "Fuck you," he muttered between his bleeding, blood driveling mouth.
It inched closer still; it's half eaten face vacuous as he spat at it.
It clawed at his intestine as the air around it, and it's intended prey became unnataturaly still.
He screamed, his eyes closing as the teeth gaped wide.
A moment; and then anoher.
Nothing. No pain, no pressure - he opened his eyes - no 'thing'... just HER.
"I imagine... I am about to regeret... not dying... aren't I? Concubine." the second of Saris's rogues muttered as his once fast legs blued before his dimming eyes.
The beauty before him was well known to him... the Concubine, but what had happened to the undead thing that had been upon him?
She knelt before him, her beautiful eyes showing pity... but not for long.
She tasted the blood dripping from his mangled ear, then the rage showed in her eyes, "Yes...," she whispered, "You are." She stopped his bleeding, but did not free him. "You deserve no mercy, "she hissed, "I will drain you till your heart all but stops... then leave you for these things. But know I will kill that bitch you serve."
He smiled weakly, then laughed, " You? Whore! Only fate and the gift HE gave you put you beyond my blades. Kill away... but...you will be too late to stop her, or her plans. This army I led... the silver skinned wrath upon this place? It marches too far away. My job is done. Saris tasked me with leading this 'army' to Denerem. They... are behaving... oddly. I forgot this was a 'strange' land as so far s the dead go. Too much elfroot... in the ... diet, the air... the dead don't stay dead unless burned. Soulless carcases pontlessly seeking the scent of flesh. Oh well. Die... and... learn. "
"Where is she?," Lilith demanded, "tell me, and if you speak true.I will end you softly till you loose all reason and pass in a state of euphoric bliss. If you lie I'll be less kind."
"You are loveley... and you will make a loveley meal for these things. " He gazed behind her, and nodded.
THousands of the reanimated came at them from all sides, unhurried, oblivious to all but scent and instict to feed the body's need for energy.
"You're... alone, with just... me, and death... is coming for us both... girl. Pity... so pretty. Your skills at seduction, and even those HE gave you... are useless to these... drug addled... mindless things. Saris WILL be disapointed," He lauhed till his wounds leaked.
"Oh," she sighed, "is that so? Well then, I'd hate to get blood on my dress."
He looked at her in disbelief as she slid off her silk dress from her beautiful body, naked now, bereft of even small clothes."Mad woman," he gasped, "They are unmoved by your body as anything short of a beacon to rend it."
She smiled as she watched the approaching throng, sat upon the ground, then kissed his bleeding mouth, "Eric," she sighed as she locked eyes with him,'You really should have chossen the oppurtunity I gave you. I'm certain Mira - your twin sister? - will. As for my... 'skills' I wonder, what will arouse you more? THIS body..." she stood and wriggled her shapely hips and buttocks before him. "No?..."
The undead were now feet away.
"WELL... perhapse THIS one will?"
A sudden, blindidng flash of gold light consumed the night.
As his vision returned, he desired blindness. SHE was terrifying. Bigger than any dragon of legend, Her shinning ebony scales strnger than armor, sharper than swords, loomed over him, blotting out the moon and the stars.
Her great tail swung through the air cutting down the undead like a sythe through dry wheat, followed by her inferno of breath which consumed the unthinking like dry leaves. In minutes the great beast had accomplished what the Inquisition outpost at the crossroads - five hundered men and women - failed to do in a series of pitched battles over six hours; destroyed ALL the reanimated in the Hinterlands.
He was breathless, his eyes wide in awe, and terror.
The beast stepped back, and turned to face him; sweeping the still burning ashes of the newly incinerated dead to the wind. It brought it's mouth within inches of his, snorted, and smiled. It's great heated breath blasted his blooded face dry.
He bowed his head in both fear and reverence, "Lilith... I presume," he gasped, "I will not beg for my life. But I will beg you... for your own ambitions... the army I led... do NOT destroy it."
Gold blinds again, she stands before him, once again, "WHAT?"
"They... are not obeying... Saris . They have slaughtered her agents... slave runners, the wicked, the corrupt. They slay those whose sins and wickedness are unknown, and free those whose innocence is ignored and defiled. HOW... is that not in tune with your will... Savior of the elves?"
She stared at this murderer left untouched by what semed to be an annointed army of the rightious, and pulled her dress back on. "Does she know of THAT?"
He smiled and shook his head, "SHE has no scense of reason anymore. HE has taken over her mind. The immortal, HIM The First."
Lilith shook her head, "HE is not immortal. He is VERY cunning, and gifted beyond all other mages; being alive, and imprisoned for four and a half millenia can do that to a man - but he is no god, demi-god, or elf-human hybrid. He is a prisoner of his own will to live, and desire for revenge. He was trapped in that palace I mated with him in; and if he leaves it without his power, he will be just a man. If Saris returns and walks beyond that seal she will lose her power, he will walk out of the palace, with her in his grasp, kill her earthly body, and absorb her power, and her soul, as it leaves her. Now I know how he will accomplish this. Thank you."
"How do you know this of his imprisonment?"
She knelt beside him, and, just before she sank her teeth into his throat, whispered, "I recently met the elf who trapped him - the one whose power he stole."
