Chapter 9
-
Havez reacted far quicker than might be expected for someone in his post drunk condition. His foot came up sharply, knocking the table they were sitting around up. It acted like a shield taking the impact of the bolts and protecting them from harm. Chaos erupted and the air was full of shouts and screams.
The assassins drew their daggers and lunged. Selflessly throwing herself in front of Sareth, Xana raised her arms and erected a barrier between them and the elves. It sparked with bright blue bolts and threw back whatever force was used against it.
Graug wasn't idle. The gremlin reached into his robes and withdrew a round instrument. It was made of brass and wood with a hole in the top. A rim of spikes crowned the lid.
An assassin lunged at the small creature with a dagger held high. Graug easily sidestepped and bashed the elf across the head with his weapon as he past. The spikes cracked the skull and the assassin fell to the ground dead.
Lethos moved like lightning amongst them, darting in and out of their attacks slashing at them with a short sword. The blade was clearly poisoned as the elves which had been struck gargled instantly, clutching at their throats as they began to convulse. Lethos kicked the last one over before he reached into his clothes and came out with two glass vials. These he threw with deadly accuracy at their attackers. They broke open on contact with a bellowing cloud of green smoke.
The assassins inhaled in surprise and from that moment they were doomed. The poison attacked their lungs and they fell to the ground going black in the face.
Sareth clenched both fists, channelling the elemental energy he knew how to harness through his fingers. It sparked wildly before being unleashed as bolts of lightning.
The bolt soared through Xana's shield, striking the leader of the assassins directly in the face.
It had been more of a reflex action than a conscious choice. Sareth had never used his magic to kill someone before and even as he unleashed it he knew he had channelled too much into it than he had meant to. He tried to pull back but he had already committed himself.
The bolt of lightning struck the assassin full in the face and it kept going. It scorched the head clear off the shoulders, reducing it to ash instantly as it carried on past until it struck the far wall.
The body swayed there on its feet for a moment, blood spurting out of the severed neck before it toppled down with a loud crash.
He had just taken a life.
The reality of it came rushing in so quickly that it reached down into his very soul and paralysed him.
He stood there, shocked to the core with his eyes fixed on the hideous image of the decapitated elf which he had caused to be.
"Sareth, pull yourself together!" Lethos called back at him but Sareth barely even heard him.
The other assassins, their numbers reduced to about seven took one look at their dead and headless leader and with a scream of rage they leapt at the small group.
Havez grabbed a chair and whirling it over his head, smashed it into an elf and knocking him out of his frenzied charge.
Another assassin did an acrobatic back flip, daggers in both hands as he spiralled with him.
Graug saw him coming and raised his spiked club, pointing the barrel top directly at the elf.
"Cheque please." He muttered and he gave his weapon a sharp shake. There was a loud booming sound and the weapon was revealed to have a secondary usage.
A small round ball of lead about the size of a fist rocketed out of the hole in the top, trailing smoke as it soared forth. The projectile slammed into the assassin, the impact smashing his rib cage to pieces and sending him flying up until he smashed into the ceiling.
"I think we should leave." Havez said, holding one hand to his head.
"Seconded." Lethos replied and then he turned around to look at Sareth.
The young man simply stood there.
He was no stranger to the reality of death by now but this had been the first time he had actually taken someone's life.
The image of that headless corpse seared itself into his mind like a branding iron.
"Sareth, now is not the time!" Xana yelled at him and her voice brought him out of his trace.
Another assassin had made his way around the edge of the shield and the elf leapt at him with a dagger raised high.
It was if his reactions were on automatic even machine-like in its motion.
He reached out and sent a wave of energy directly at him. It wasn't even a spell he unleashed but something else… something far more powerful that consciously he would never have been able to use.
In this moment of horror filled detachment he had tapped into something far deeper than mana.
A thudding at the back of his mind roared into a mind crescendo and connecting with something that lay beneath Sareth simply reached forth his hand.
The air rippled as if caught in a hot up-draught and the assassin was blown back, tossed like a leaf in the wind before he crashed into the far wall behind him. He didn't stop there. The force that pushed against him slammed him through the wall completely and he disappeared through the hole and flew straight outside up and over the market.
He was thrown clear off the platform upon which the district stood, toppling and turning this way and that until he was over the abyss upon which the city hung.
Then he was allowed to fall.
He screamed once, the sound echoing across the cavern and directly into Sareth's head before he vanished into the darkness.
Everyone stooped right then and there. The assassin stood there in stunned awe, their red eyes wide in utter astonishment at the giant hole in the wall.
Graug, who had been in the process of hammering his mortar club against one of them, froze with his weapon still raised.
"What in the name of Asha was that?" Havez asked in utter amazement, dropping the chair he was wielding as a weapon. "That was no spell! That was… that was… I don't even know what that was!"
Sareth stood there, his arm still outstretched. He could still feel the power that he had thrown out tingling down his skin, gently fading as the adrenaline wore off.
Xana came to his side instantly.
"Sareth…" She started, looking into his unresponsive eyes. "Sareth talk to me!"
He blinked and then brought his hand down sharply.
"What…" He started breathlessly as he gazed at the hands that had killed with such ease. "How did I?"
The assassins fled after that.
They would not risk their necks to battle one who could kill them such ease. Their dwindled number simply turned and ran, leaving their dead lying on the ground where they had fallen. They bolted, running up the stairs towards the entrance to the tavern almost scrambling over each other.
"Whatever that is… it was impressive." Graug commented, raising a scaly brow with his ears twitching. "I'd say if he wants to poke around Arantir and he can do stuff like that then he hardly needs us."
"I suggest we continue this discussion elsewhere." Lethos recommended gesturing towards the back of the tavern and Havez nodded dumbly.
Sareth had been left so stunned that he didn't even notice when Xana pulled him towards a back entrance.
-
They retreated away from the market district before the militia could be called to the disturbance. Lethos took them to a deserted building that stood at the far side of one of the stone walkways that connected the cities districts. It was obviously a safe house set aside by the ShadowBrand intelligence agency for its spies to use whenever it was needful.
Sareth sat by himself, his thoughts racing and his stomach churning. Confusion bubbled through him. He had just killed someone, two people, one using magic and the other… using some force that had erupted from within.
"How did you do that?" Havez eventually asked when they were certain they were all safe and hadn't been followed.
Sareth just looked at his hand, the hand that he had gestured with to send the assassin plummeting to his death. The strange power that had filled it was now gone, or at least he could not feel it anymore.
"I… I don't know." He admitted, rubbing at his forehead. His temples itched irritably. Xana was watching him with a curious but clearly foreboding expression.
"Surely it's a spell you just haven't seen before." The Gremlin, Graug dismissed with a toss of his head.
Havez paused to consider this yet he did not look entirely convinced.
"Well you've certainly been making friends." Graug remarked to Sareth. "Dark Elf Assassins? Just who did you piss off?" He paused. "On second thought, I don't want to know. Keep your troubles to yourself. The less I know about THAT particular business the better."
"Perhaps we can pick up our discussion before we were so rudely interrupted." Lethos recommended. The Dark Elf appeared more at ease yet he still stood by the door of the safe house, positioned just so that he could see out of the window in case anyone decided to intrude.
"We were discussing payment I believe." Graug offered, rubbing his scaly hands together. "So… Sareth was it? What can you offer for our services?" The gremlin looked back at Havez. "He'll take a chance to rummage through Arantir's things as payment... as for me I need something a little more immediate."
"Will you take an I.O.U?" Xana asked.
Graug shot her a level gaze that was boarding on hostile.
"I'll take that as a no."
"I'll take anything of value, precious metals, gemstones, currency… at long as its worth something."
Sareth floundered. He didn't have anything to give him. He was penniless without as much as a coin in his pocket. Without even realizing it, his hand went to the amulet he wore around his neck. It was certainly made of a precious metal and might be worth something but… he looked over at Xana.
It was this thing that connected him with her and that he could not give up. Besides, the chain around his neck made it impossible for him to remove it even if he was inclined to.
Then he remembered.
With absolute reluctance, he reached into his pocket and took out the curled up Springer bow that had been Wyngaal's birthday present to him.
It was a precious thing, the first real gift given to him out of true friendship. He barely had in his possession a month and now he was giving it up.
Desperately he wanted to bring to justice the man who he suspected of responsibility for Menelag's murder.
He was certain that Wyngaal would understand.
Graug took the bow and flicked the switch that uncurled it. It sprang to its full length and it held it aloft in one hand to admire it.
"Very nice." He remarked. "Very nice indeed. Certainly would fetch a pretty penny."
"A Springer bow?" Havez breathed and then he glared down at the Gremlin. "You mercenary, Graug! You'd sell this? Have you no concept of its true worth… in Irollan, this is almost beyond priceless."
"Well this isn't Irollan." The gremlin replied. "My mortars good for any marksman work I need doing. Perhaps It'll do well on the black market, sell it back to the Tree huggers at three times the original price."
Havez made a face.
"You're disgusting."
"I know."
Xana turned to look at Lethos.
"And what about you?" She asked and he looked up as if he hadn't been listening to the conversation at all. "What will your price be?"
"If you were to try and employ me officially you wouldn't be able to afford it." He assured her with a quick grin. "This particular service I do out of friendship."
Sareth looked up and studied Lethos for a moment. That wide roguish grin was deceptive. There was clearly more to his decision that he was giving away. That was not an encouraging thought given Lethos' occupation.
"Then we're all agreed." Havez started, adjusting his orange robes. "Arantir's mansion."
"It lies near the citadel." Lethos told them. "Although not patrolled by any of Raelag's militia. I suspect Arantir will have guards of his own."
Sareth told them all about the Wight and described the dark spirit. He was unfamiliar with summoning magic so he could only go by hat he saw of the creature itself.
Graug spat on the floor at the description.
"It's an elemental." He replied. "Same as a fire elemental or water elemental, only their element is darkness."
"And darkness is hungry." Havez added with a nod. "Its void devours the souls of its victims not out of any need for sustenance but rather for a desire to inflict torment." He shuddered. "A horrible thing to call forth."
He paused to tap the end of his chin in thought.
"Now… once we get inside, what we ought to look for is a summoning platform. Any elemental, once summoned, leaves a residue behind. Fire Elements for example scourge the ground and leave a sulphurous smell in the air. A Wight… their traces will be far more obvious and far more odious."
"A few samples of those traces ought to be enough proof to start an official investigation at least, regardless of any diplomatic immunity Arantir may enjoy." Lethos said. "Even Raelag, with his deep political concerns, can't ignore that. Summoning undead within Ygg Chall is forbidden."
"The place will be guarded." Xana reminded them. Graug shrugged.
"That's expected." He remarked. "We'll want to avoid the most of them but I doubt we'll be able to sneak around them all. Undead tend to be loyal to the point of fanaticism. They'll defend Arantir's belongings even if it means their own destruction. We might have to bash a few skeletons apart."
He smiled and lifted his club mortar and tapped it across his free hand suggestively.
"And won't that be a shame?"
They agreed to meet back at the safe house the following night to begin their operation. They would tie it into a late night session of the court that was due to take place. Arantir would be obliged to attend that gathering and none of them wanted to conduct the raid while he was home.
Sareth returned to the citadel to prepare himself for that whole day. Leana had remaind there and when he got back, she was there to meet him with a stern expression on her face.
"Just what have you been up to?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Nothing." He replied far too quickly than he had intended.
"Really? Nothing? Is that why the entire city saw a man thrown from the market place after I saw you and that new dark elf friend of yours had off in that direction?"
It as then that Xana chose to interrupt that conversation. While Sareth was grateful for the intent, her method proved more inflammatory.
She manifested, revealing herself to Leana for the first time.
"Now you look here you hussy!" She told the startled sorceress. "I sure it's painful that your uncles now worm bait, but don't you take if out Sareth. His only thoughts so far have been to bring your uncle's murderer to justice so back off!"
Leana stared with wide eyes for a long moment before she said anything.
"Just… what… what are you?" She eventually managed to stammer, her hand flying up to jab a finger directly at the dark haired spirit.
Xana drifted back to Sareth and draped her arms protectively, even lovingly, around his neck.
"Oh hasn't Sareth gotten around to introducing me yet?" She asked in an innocent tone as she pressed her cheek up against his. "I'm his guardian. Bound to him for as long as he may live."
There was an angry, even jealous flash in Leana's eyes and Sareth realised with dread that he was now directly in the middle of a vicious battle.
"Sareth what is the meaning of this?" Leanna demanded, looking at him with her eyebrows arched. "Where did you get this thing?"
"Thing?" Xana repeated, letting go of the young man and floating forward to violate Leana's personal space. "THING?! THING?! Did you just call me a ..a thing?!"
"Yes I did." Leanna replied not seemingly the least bit intimidated. "Sprit? Little more than a summoned elemental."
Xana looked back at Sareth.
"Are you going to let her insult me like that?" She demanded. Before he could so much as open his mouth to make any sort of reply she about faced and began again at Leana.
"You know nothing about me you little self important mage's apprentice!"
Sareth shuddered.
"Sareth I demand to get rid of this THING, it's dangerous and shouldn't be around us." Leanna began, greatly emphasizing the word 'thing'. "Banish it back to whatever spawned it."
That did it.
Xana 's hand arched around and slapped Leana directly across the face. The sound of flesh striking flesh was loud. It wasn't a soft slap either. A great deal of power had been put into it by the way Leana staggered.
"Leanna, Xana, girls wait…" Sareth started but by then it was far too late.
"You… I'll banish you myself!" Leanna spat, raising her hands to draw runes and markings in the air with her fingers.
There was a powerful green flash that Sareth recognised from his studies as the aura that accompanied the usage of summoning magic.
Xana tilted back her head and laughed as whatever counter spell Leana tried to invoke failed.
"Oooh is the little mage finding her little spell difficult?" She asked condescendingly with a flutter of his eyes lashes. Leana snarled, waving her hands again and once more to no effect. Xana purposely increased her mocking laughter.
It was then that Sareth was grateful to be rescued when the door to their rooms opened and Raelag stepped inside. The Dark Elf lord took one look at the arguing woman, who seemed to be completely ignoring them and then gestured with a tug of his head at Sareth.
The young man eagerly followed him out the corridor as the loud voice screamed back and forth against each other.
"Well, I know better than to comment." Raelag stated with a polite cough. "But I thought I ought to come personally to tell you that I've decided to accept you as a pupil."
"Yes, Lethos told me." Sareth replied. "I appreciate it, Lord Raelag."
The Dark managed a momentary sneer and turned away.
"You have power, Sareth." He remarked and the young lad blinked. "I know you experienced it. In that tavern, what you did those assassins."
Sareth's face paled.
The memory of that despairing scream as the assassin fell to his death, rang in his head like the toll of a bell.
"How…" He found himself saying. "How did I do that?"
"I don't know." Raelag said with a straight face. Sareth glanced up sharply at him. The flat, emotionless way the dark elf had stated that rang greatly in the young man's mind.
Sareth did not believe that he was lying but some, he sensed that some element of truth was being concealed.
Raelag's expression did not alter however and Sareth had nothing upon which to press for more information.
He was still too shaken by today's drama to think too clearly about it.
"You'll have to learn how to control that power." Raelag continued with his eyes becoming thoughtful. "Especially if you want to seek refuge in MY city." Then he glanced through the door which was partly ajar. Just beyond shadows flicked back and forth as first rate cat fight continued.
A moment later there was a thunderously loud detonation as Leanna let off a spell. Smoke bellowed out from under the door.
"We'll begin lessons first thing tomorrow morning." The clan lord remarked with a raised eyebrow and turned to walk away. "I expect to see you in my main hall at first light."
"Yes sir." Sareth replied dumbly.
"Oh and Sareth…"
"Yes?"
"Do try to keep that Mage girl and your succubus under control."
It took Sareth's overtaxed brain about a full minute to fully process that statement.
"My what?" He demanded but Raelag was already gone.
--
Sleep was difficult that night. Perhaps it was nerves, stress by the recent events in his life finally taking their toll. Sareth could not be certain but whatever the reason his dreams were nightmares the likes of which had never intruded upon him before.
All was darkness around him, a terribly cold void that penetrated down to the core of his very soul.
Everything around him was blackness and his body felt utterly numb.
Then sensation came back, a flash of feeling and heat.
Fire burst forth all around him, fires raging with a sudden unbearable heat. Thrown from petrifying cold to intolerable heat all Sareth could do was endure as the nightmare took its course, bringing him deeper and deeper into that new inferno.
Images flew around him, mostly faces some familiar and others unknown. He saw Leanna, Wyngaal, Raelag, Menelag and even Lethos, their faces baring expression of near perpetual agony. At the centre of them all was Xana, standing perfectly still as she looked at Sareth and cried yet her tears were jet black.
She then stepped aside and another figure walked casually towards them. It was a dark figure, wrapped in black robes and holding a bony hand aloft. Through the flames, Sareth could make out the sinister and cold emotionless face of Arantir.
"You're going to die." The Necromancer stated in a neutral tone, jabbing a finger at him. "You're going to die a very painful death."
"Why?" Sareth found himself asking.
"You know why. Now, hold still so I can tear out your soul." Sareth tried to move back and the moment he did, Arantir disappeared as if his form had never been there.
Xana looked at him, her black tears running down her cheeks.
"My son…" A voice whispered to him out of the fire.
Whipping around Sareth came face to face with a woman. She stood there, just behind a veil of fire looking at him with bright green eyes. She was almost unearthly beautifully with short brown hair. All other features were obscured by the flames.
"Mother…" He began without realizing it, reaching out towards her with a great longing in his heart.
She reached out towards him as well, copying him almost like a mirror image and when their finger tips were about to touch her form disappeared. Replacing it was a form so horrible and terrible that Sareth could not even scream.
The flames intensified in this things presence and unable to move, Sareth stood there as a giant mailed fist closed around his arm as this giant glared down at him with glowing yellow eyes.
"My son!" The beast repeated with a triumphant shout that seemed to shatter all around them. The faces of anguish cried out in dismay and pain and disappeared, all except for Xana who stood there and from her eyes more tears like oil flowed.
The titan, indescribable and terrible, lifted Sareth by the arm high into the air and held him close to his face.
His face, that face was the worse.
"My son and my Saviour!" It declared and then let him go, allowing him to fall from that great height.
The flames disappeared as he fell and he landed in water. No… it wasn't water. Blood, a sea of flowing red blood as if it gushed from a terrible wound as if the world itself had been stabbed. Unable to swim in that horrible mess, Sareth could only sinking lower and lower, gazing up at the towering horrible giant as it held Xana aloft in one hand and stared down at him as the blood rushed over his head.
Sareth woke instantly, sitting bolt upright with a cold sweat standing out on his face and running down to soak his chest.
He was shaking uncontrollably and it took several minutes in order to breath normally. He held his trembling hands out in front of himself and watched them, waiting for them to calm enough to stop but they did not.
"Are you alright?" Looking up, he saw Leanna light a candle beside her bed and hold it aloft. Her hair hadn't been combed yet and it was ruffled badly by the pillow.
"Just… just a bad dream." He replied. He was still shaking, the memory of that horrible face stuck in his minds eye like an imprint.
He held his head to his head to wipe off the sweat. It felt as if every part of him was trembling in horror and fear. Each and every hair on its head seemed to be trembling on its own volition, shaking in response to that horrible face.
Words could not begin to describe the horror of that visage, that face on that giant.
And those eyes. Those eyes were the very worst.
They had stared right through him past any and all defences directly into his soul and it seemed as if their slightly glance could rip away his purity and sink him into an abyss so foul it was beyond imagining.
But the woman… that woman… she was just the opposite. She had been everything that demon was not, as if the two of them were opposites… yet not apart either. As if they were the different sides of the same coin.
The woman offered Love.
The demon offered Hate.
And yet there the same thing.
Sareth was more than confused. He was frightened and scared.
Something was coming. He knew that now. Something momentous and terrible and it was rushing at him and the mere thought shook him to the core.
Unable to quiet his shaking, he wrapped his arms around himself and sat there feeling his stomach churn inside him.
Doing so, he barely noticed as Leanna crossed from her own bed and silently slipped in beside him. Before he could say a word she was underneath the blankets and cuddling up to him.
As her smooth skin came into contact with his, he froze and looked down. She felt warm against him and her touch was like the comforting embrace of family and that banished away all fears and doudts.
"Its ok, Sareth, I'm here for you." She breathed as she cuddled up. Her arms wound themselves around his and she held herself to him.
"Leanna." He started. "I don't know where I'm going."
She looked up at him.
"Everything I ever knew was a lie, a warped perception of home that constructed around me. I have no past and no future."
Her answering smile was radiant.
"But you have a present." She remarked. "My uncle used to say to me, neither the past nor the future matters really. It's the present, the now, that takes precedents."
Sareth felt a guilty stab at the thought of the wizard and what the old man had sacrificed for them.
"I've made a decision." She carried on. "I'm not going back to Stonehelm."
"You're not?"
"No. I'm staying with you." Her head rested on his shoulder. "I'm already closer to you than anyone at home."
There was a sudden whooshing sound and Sareth felt a pair of arms wrap around his free arm on his right. Sure enough, Xana was there, zealously hanging onto Sareth with a jealousy expression written clear on her face.
"You're not the only one." She said coldly and Leanna's own expression turned instantly hostile.
"What? I knew him longer than you did." Xana continued.
"You're a spirit. I'm a real person."
"What difference does that make?"
The young mage looked at Xana with anger blaring in her eyes for a moment, as if she were about to launch into another fully fledged sparing cat fight and Sareth winced as he was directly in the middle of it.
Then, Leanna relaxed her muscles and looked away sharply.
"He's…" She began after a pregnant silence. "He's precious to both of us."
Xana blinked, clear surprise written in her features at what could only be tremendous compromise.
The sudden shout from outside broke that awkward moment and near instantly came more cries of alarm.
"Look out!!" Someone cried from somewhere and then, the room around the three of them trembled and shock as if gripped in an earthquake. Fragments of dust began to fall from sudden cracks in the ceiling as parts of it began to rupture.
Acting on gut instinct, Sareth rolled out of the bed and ran to the window that looked out across the front of Raelag's palace.
It was pitch black in the caverns but he could see what the matter was instantly.
On the cavern floor before the palace's main walls was an army. It was a huge mass of infantry and archers, arranged in a siege position around the main gates and trebuchet like weaponry were being brought up from behind.
"Sareth, what's happening?" Leanna asked, half stumbling out of the bed quickly followed by Xana.
"The city's under attack!" He snarled, doubling back and racing past them for the poor.
Flinging it open, he nearly ran into a squad of Dark Elven soldiers as they soared past the door with their swords drawn at the ready. The palace was awash with confusion and loud noise.
Coming to the edge of a balcony, Sareth felt the ground beneath him shudder again and this time he could see why.
The siege engines of the invading army were casting large chucks of stone over the walls of the palace to strike at the city itself.
"Why didn't my secret service tell me about this? It's their job to inform me about threats!" At the sound of that voice, Sareth glanced around and spotted Clan lord Raelag in full armour standing nearby with several Dark Elves who could only be his military generals.
"The enemy have many Shadow Matriarchs, my lord." One of them was saying. "They concealed their movements from…"
"I don't want your excuses now!" Raelag snapped back in his face. "Call for the Black Dragons and the Minotaur elite guard!"
"Rarelg, what's going on, who are they?"
Raelag swung around to face him.
"Soulscar!" He cried with intense venom. "Treacherous resurgent bastards!" His expression them became one of self loathing. "I had the opportunity to exterminate the entire clan but I hesitated." With a loud steely hiss he drew his sword from its scabbard. "I'll not make the same mistake this time!"
Soulscar…Thralsai, the dark elf who had pursued them in the flight from Phenrig. That was his clan.
"Can they get in?" He asked.
Raelag sneered contemptuously.
"My walls will not fall to the likes of…" Before he could even finish his sentence, the ground shock again, only this time it wasn't from siege weaponry. A thunderously loud bellowing noise accompanied it.
Then again.
And again.
Each time the noise grew louder and louder until shrieks came forth.
"They didn't…" Raelag breathed, his eyes going wide. "Not even the SoulScar could be that stupid…"
The army before the walls parted to allow passage for something of tremendous size, lumbering out of the dark towards the palace walls.
A giant beast, shaking the ground with its footsteps, the majority of its body obscured by dust and chaos of the battle.
The creature reared up, a massive body covered in thick orange scales each the width of a man in size. Its goliath front paws slammed down on the battlements of the palace, smashing the defences which were pitiful in comparison. As the walls of the palace crumbled, smashed down to the ground, dust shot up high into the air and illuminated the silhouette of the creature.
It was a true monster, a creature that was nearly half the height of the palace itself. The body was thunderously large with thick legs larger than the tallest trees and wider by far. It was covered in scales and a long reptilian tail swept out behind it, lashing like a whip across anything it failed to trample in his wake.
As Sareth gazed up, he beheld its horrific top. Upon the shoulders of its front legs was not one neck, not two, but five.
Five heads, all heavily armoured, stood out high above. They had small eyes and wide beaked mouths, their jaws held tightly shut by thick muzzles made of the toughest leather and metal.
A dark elf stood atop the central head. In one hand he held the reins of the muzzle, directly the beast where it was ordered to go. In the other hand, he held a banner aloft. Upon this banner was the jagged mark of the SoulScar clan.
Raelag snarled. "A Foul Hydra!"