Pt. 22
"If the Box was your brother's target – why involve Galen at all?" Sarah asked, concern in her voice.
"Probably because he can." Marianne replied, glancing at her brother. "He's meddlesom."
Andre shrugged nonchalantly. "Who the hell knows what goes on in that fluffy blond head of his?"
"You're brother sent you into a battle you couldn't win." Alwyn watched the pair carefully, his sensors collecting and processing information on them as quickly as they could. "Why?"
"Because he could." Marianne replied again, a slight smile on her face. "It didn't quite work out the way he expected."
"It didn't?" Max asked, curious.
Marianne smiled mischievously. "Not even close."
Marianne moved with the grace of a cat, almost flowing out of her chair as she evaded the woman's mad attack. She quickly maneuvered so that she could grab the woman's long, blond hair and proceeded to bash her ruined face into the nearby wall until the creature ceased to make a sound. "Really darling, " Marianne drawled as the other woman slid limply to the ground, "if this is the way you entertain your guests it's no wonder you're all alone up here. This is about as entertaining as watching moss grow." She wiped her hands on her pants and strolled back to the table, giving the prone figure a quick kick as she did.
Galen kept his face impassive as he watched the girl's companion carry his betrayer from the hall. "Is there anything you require of me?" he asked the demon, keeping his eyes on the girl.
"I require your presence and your silence" the demon snarled, waving his whips menacingly in the Swordsman's direction. He peered at the girl malevently. "I require entertainment of you girl."
"Oh well if that's all you require…" she sighed.
"You should mind your tongue" the demon retorted. "You may find my patience is rapidly dwindling"
"You mean you actually had any?" she smiled, her voice sarcastic. "Wow, you hide it really, really well. Here all this time I just thought you were a snarly, smelly, ignorant…."
"ENOUGH!" the demon howled. "You will pay for your insolence!"
"If I had a drachma for every time some slimy toad expected me to pay for my insolence I'd probably be the wealthiest women in the Universe." She grinned, the humor not reaching her eyes.
"I'll have you drawn and quartered!"
"Whatever." Marianne drawled, sitting back and propping her feet on the table. "So are we having dinner or not?"
The Jinn stared at her open-mouthed then glared back at his guard. The Swordsman kept his eyes on the floor and his face blank, though his mind was spinning. "She will force this. She leaves him no choice."
"Perhaps facing death will teach you manners!" the Jinn screamed. "I will have you face my Swordsman's blades." The Jinn swept his goblet from the table, rising to his feet in a rage. He glared at the Swordsman's blank expression.
Marianne tried to keep the smile from her face. Things were coming to a head right on schedule. Damen had said the Jinn wasn't as bright as his brethren and would be easily distracted. "Fine by me. You were boring anyway. Pity your guest wasn't more of a fighter. It might have been very entertaining to beat her into a bloody pulp." She glanced up at the impassive man in front of her. "When do we start?"
The Jinn cackled, shifting in his seat. "I would be entertained tonight wench. And your death will be that entertainment."
The Swordsman pivoted on his heel with his sword suddenly in his hand. His eyes were no longer vivid blue but deep pools of blackness. The collar glowed faintly under his shirt. "Let us finish this now."
"So what happened?" Dureena asked, curious despite herself.
"You should ask our brother Damien" Andre asked, looking towards the conference room door,
Gideon turned quickly and found himself looking into a pair of vivid blue eyes. Damien Draco looked no older than he had in the portrait, with that same arrogant air clinging to his handsome frame. His dark blond hair was longer and wilder than it had been in the family photos and held back by an intricately carved silver crown. He had a sword strapped to his back and the hilt of a dagger poking out of his boot. Draco looked unsmilingly back at the Excalibur's officers and the older technomage. "You have a question for me Captain?" he asked Gideon coolly. He eyed the Apocalypse box with interest. "I see you've found my box for me, little sister."
"We didn't find it exactly, more like it found us. And I think that Capt. Gideon is looking for the end of a certain story" Andre replied, hopping up on the table to sit cross-legged beside his sister's chair. "So are we. Let their friend go and finish the tale before our sister scalps one of us – specifically you. You have some explaining to do."
"Tell me, big brother," Marianne began, tapping her nails on the table in front of her, "when exactly were you planning on telling us about your little game? Am I or am I not your general and head of your security detail? And why exactly did you drag the Technomage into a Dreaming that has nothing to do with him?"
Draco shrugged, ignoring the Earth Force officers. "I wasn't aware I was required to tell you about every hunt I go on. I am King, after all. I may do as I please. Nothing can hurt me anymore. As for the other – I thought it would interest a faux mage to see the actions of a real one. It amused me."
"You are," Marianne snapped, frowning "possibly the biggest spoiled brat I've ever met. I've no one to blame for you but me since I've let you get away with murder – sometimes literally – for years. And now I'm getting very tired of it. "
"Can you tell us anything about our friend?" Sarah interjected, looking cautiously at Marianne.
"Tell us how your first meeting with the Swordsman ended." Alywn moved out of the shadows with a frown.
"How did she beat him?" Max asked gracelessly. Alwyn rolled his eyes while Sarah and Dureena both glared.
"Oh by all means," Andre laughed. "Tell them how she won the fight."
"The way she wins all her fights" Draco said impassively, a small, proud smile lighting his face. "She cheated."
Marianne pulled her dagger from her boot and looked at it quizzically. "I appear to be unprepared" she commented circling the dark figure before her.
Her opponent's eyes coldly watched her every move. He motioned with his left hand and a shorter sword appeared in his hand. He tossed it at her without a word.
Marianne caught it easily, twirling it experimentally to test its heft and balance. "Nice" she said in appreciation. "Looks like it could do some damage."
The Jinn leaned limped to his throne and with a wave cleared the room of all other furniture. "The only damage done here will be to you, wench. You should have bargained while you could."
"I don't bargain with slime" she purred, feinting to the left as she twirled in and out of the Swordsman's range of attack. He batted her away easily, slashing at her arm. She slashed at his upper torso, managing to tear open his shirt yet missing the skin. They danced around each other for a few moments getting a feel for the other's ability. Feint and jab, slash and stab, the battle resembled a ballet more than a life or death experience.
The Swordsman coolly evaluated his opponent. She was good, quick and deft even with a strange blade in her hand. The girl was better than most who had come against him. She stayed just out of his range, preferring to cut him down in inches rather than using brute force. But she couldn't stay out of range forever. Eventually she would grow tired and then his strength and experience would come into play. He continued to back her across the room, slowly taking control of the dance.
Marianne suddenly threw her self across the floor, rolling under his guard to slash at his legs. He lashed out, kicking her as she slid by. She came to a stop beside the dais where the Jinn's throne was located. She snatched up the old sword leaning on the throne and danced out of the Jinn's reach, dropping her borrowed sword as she went. In an instant, the Swordsman closed the gap, pushing down the old sword with one arm as he pinned her to column with his free hand.
"You should have left while you could" he snarled. A silver dagger appeared magically in his empty hand, its tip pointed at her face.
"Maybe" she agreed softly. "But then again…" she laid her palm against his bare chest.
He caught his breath as the white hot heat of power flowed through him, cutting the connection to the Jinn. The darkness left his eyes and for a moment he was free again. His opponent smiled then shoved the dazed man aside hard and hurled her old sword end over end to impale the Jinn to his chair.
"What have you done?" the Swordsman gasped, clutching the collar as pain lanced through his head. The Jinn's pain and terror kept him from reestablishing his control over his fighter but it didn't keep him from trying, with waves of pain flooding over the prone fighter.
"No clue" Marianne replied, running back to the throne. She snatched up a rusty axe she had seen beside the throne and swung it two-handed at the screaming Jinn. The demon's head separated from his slimy body with a sickening thump, dropping at her feet. "I'm making this up as I go." She pulled the old sword out of the disgusting lump on the throne and stared up at the ceiling with a frown. "Why is the ceiling crumbling?"
The Swordsman looked around the throne room in dismay, the pain ending as suddenly as it had begun. "The Jinn's veil of concealment! It's dissolving. The castle is becoming what it was!"
"What exactly was it?" Marianne asked in concern, backing up towards her former opponent.
"A ruin" he snarled, grabbing her by the arm. "If we don't get out it will fall to pieces around our heads."
"So you see," Marianne said with a grin, "I did win – I just had to cheat to do it."
"Indeed." Draco agreed, moving to stand behind her chair. The tall blond laid his hands on his sister's shoulders, twirling a lock of her dark hair between his fingers affectionately. "You did not defeat the demon's servant. But that wasn't the point of the exercise, was it?"
"No" Marianne agreed with a smile. "I was actually there to distract the Jinn, to keep him from seeing you moving your troops onto his territory. And finding that Elvin sword was a plus. And besides all's fair in love and war."
"Which begs the question" Andre commented, looking down at the box he was seated beside. "Which are you playing at big brother – love or war?"