~*~ Author's Musings ~*~
After three and a half years of being the ONLY Corrosa there are now 23 of you in the armory. I'd believe it's just a coincidence if two-thirds of you were not also warlocks!
Confessions or no…I'm flattered =^_^=
~*~ Chapter 44 ~*~
The rain seem to make all the animated corpses of Lordaeron swell as their dry flesh drank up the moisture. Unfortunately it was followed by a period of rotting once again as they dried out again. The smell was unbelievable and it made sneaking up on the living much harder. The death toll in Loarderon dropped dramatically after a rainstorm.
One of the archers spewed in the grass while watching the Dark Lady run her sharpened nails through the war horses scraggly mane. The smell caused two others to follow. The Dark Lady didn't take notice; very accustomed to seeing such a thing wherever she went. The rest of them had arrows trained at her though; they knew without the infusion of Light all they would do is annoy her and the hidden guards. They had seen what happened when the Dark Lady got mad and had a face to pin that anger too.
"Give the nice man back his axe, Pili, he has worse things to worry about than me and you."
As if she could very well understand every word the horse obediently reached her neck out to give the man back his weapon. The Queen was all smiles, as if this gesture of friendship would somehow repair all the damage she had wrought on Tirisfal Glades in the name of propagating and protecting her Forsaken.
The gate was fully open now. The Commander hefted the axe up again and was about to bring it down when the Banshee Queen lifted her hands in truce. "You have bigger problems. Arthas minions are breaking through even as we speak. Go save your civilians. I'll take care of your traitor Priests."
"Ill not let you run lose threw my compound-"
She smiled at him, white teeth half hidden in shadows, "You have little choice, Commander. Your fighters are all dead or dying. This paltry band here is about all you have standing between you and him." She didn't need to say who him was.
She waited a moment for the facts of his situation to sink in. He had lost control of the situation so fast he wasn't even aware. And here she sat telling him she was friend to his cause and was going to help set things to rights…
"I was at the Battle for the Castle, Windrunner. I saw your true face that night. Allot of us here put our trust in you once and lost the Castle. You left us without a home, without protections-"
Her head sank back far enough for the hood to drop off and then forward again with an exasperated sigh. "There was a Dreadlord if you remember." One sharp-nailed hand came up to refix the hood in place, pushing each long ear threw the tailored holes one after another, "He was going to kill you all. Similar to how Artha's minions are attempting to do to your lay-persons as we speak." One finger pointed towards the open gate.
"We barely escaped with our lives!"
She looked at him then, steady and very regal, "And whom do you thank for that escape, Commander? The Light? Or me? Your lives I gave you for I had aught else to give. The dead and the living should not reside together; of that we both agree. The Castle had to belong to someone and it was going to be me. I'll let you keep your enclave, provided my Druid comes to no harm. No promise for if you harm the Warlock. Serz Huzad does not belong to me."
"The Monastery-"
The Banshee Queen swung her sword so fast it cracked across the man's temple. He staggered back, eye rolling and fell to the ground in a heap. The Scourged woman spat on him, "That is what I think of you and your want of wagging your jaw when you should be protecting your people!"
She locked eyes with Salira and the Scarlet woman froze, heart threatening to skip beats under that angry gaze, "You. You're in charge now. Would you like to save your people from the Scourge or field more questions about those already dead and raised?" Dead and raised.
Without a word Salira wheeled around, running headlong into Cathedral Square. As soon as she heard the civilians had been herded into one place she had a dread feeling it was a ploy to get them into one location so the Scourge could slaughter them easily and raise them up at leisure.
The Dark Lady did not follow. Whatever she did now she did without anyone to stop her. The civilians were who were important to Salira, especially the children.
"Out!" Salira bellowed as soon as she got close. The downpour turned the roads into rivers of mud and debris. She slipped and slid as she went but rushed as fast as he could to get there before the Scourge broke in. The gate was on the other side of the square and far enough away to be hid behind buildings and mausoleums.
Light help us if even one of Arthas' necromancers makes it in here!
The closest of the people gave her alarmed looks. Blankets and tarps blocked the worst of the rain but mostly everyone was barefoot and ill-dressed.
"Out! The gate is being breached! The Scourge are coming threw! Everyone has to evacuate!"
Cries of despair and the crying of children leaked up out of the assembled crowd. It was than that Salira noticed the mass of orphans in the middle of the bunch. The innocent faces and the frightened gazes sent her mind reeling back to an event that took place more than a decade ago in her cliff house overlooking the sea. Then, as now, innocent eyes stared up at her and trusted that she would keep them safe.
Biting down on the rise of pain and anger she straitened as a good leader should and pointed, making gestures that everyone was to file out the gate. To one of the archers she instructed that they would see them safely out the back gate. The compound had been utterly breached and it was not safe inside as long as even one of the traitor Priests were on the lose.
Not that outside was a much better option.
The archers obeyed, leading the civilians away. Last came the Archbishop. A finger on his arm and he stopped, looked at her and waited till the last of the innocent were out of the gate and around the corner.
"Your Priests are corrupt, Father."
He did not look surprised and Salira knew that in his scheming he had never expected to see the sun rise with mortal eyes, "I know, my child."
"What did he promise you?"
"The same thing he promises them all. Power. Life. Safety we don't have to fight for tooth and nail every second of every day. To be what is feared instead of being afraid."
Salira's mace was in her hand the same time the Priest uttered a quick shadow word that would have been the end of her if not for the spot of blood that bloomed on the front of his rain soaked robes. She hadn't even seen him standing there but when the shadow moved and Cigar stepped out she sighed in relief of one kind and sucked in a breath of fear in another. The balanced throwing blade was stuck in the man's throat, the thick poison cutting into his voice box, preventing him speaking the words that would heal him and numbing his mind even if he had the power to just think them and conjure healing.
Salira breathed out his name, "Cid…"
The – at least compared to the way he normally dressed – scantily clad man tossed a square of cloth to the ground. "Salira." Whoever had provided the poison must have instructed him not to touch the weapon at all least he accidentally poison himself.
"You work for her now?"
His brown eyes were blank, almost hollow, "Do you?" He looked healthy?
"She said…" The Scarlet woman glanced down at the dead Archbishop. "She was right. She said there were people lying to us about what was really going on. How could he get to them, all of them, and no one knew?"
Cid came to stand next to her, put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. There was warmth coming off his body, and dry blood on the gash in his thin armor. He was still alive. Still bled. "Is she mean to you?" Her voice caught, almost too soft to hear over the thunder, "Did she hurt you to make you obey her?"
After a moment he relented to the questions, "Maybe. I don't remember the first two days." The voice was soft without trying to disguise the truth, " In the end it really doesn't matter. I kill the undead for her the same as I did for the Commander. I'm still doing the same job, but now I can make my own hours. The pay is non-existent but room-and-board is included."
"Your lame attempt at joking at a time like this is lame. Where is the Druid?"
Something hostile slid out of the space between them. "Headed to the back gate last I saw."
Salira's eyes went wide. Headed to the gate the civilians are headed to – no doubt with Scourge in tow. "And the Warlock?"
"Headed to the back gate as well." It was the elven man, the Rogue from the wall, winded and panting slightly, "Scourge reinforcements have arrived and all our outside forces are routed. They're all headed for the back gate now that the civilians are moved." He rubbed a hand up and down his ribs as if trying to soothe away a pain.
"Does the Lady-" Cid began.
The Rogue shook his head, "Left out the front gate when I told her."
Salira asked a dangerous question in the company of two men who served the Banshee Queen, "Is she running away? Does she think he's coming back to get her?"
"Not her." The Rogue answered, "The Druid."
Oh, sh- Salira pulled away from them both, breaking into a flat our run for the back gate.