by Teel James Glenn
in Issue 102, July 2020
“The thing about dealing with amoral people is the certainty of it, Ada,” the blond bard said, “it is never a case of if they will betray you, it is always a matter of when. It makes things simpler and takes the suspense out of life.” The bard spoke with a casual acceptance of the reality while he sipped at his tankard.
“That is my point, Dunal,” his companion said. She was a dark-haired, tall, broad broad-shouldered woman from the Umbrian highlands. “Civilized seems to mean lying as a course of life. I was sure that vorn dealer was working to cheat us yet you would not let me challenge him.”
They had sold a string of pack vorns to a less than reputable dealer at the outskirts of the city.
“If we had pushed back at him he could have made a point of asking for proof we owned them.”
“You are saying he knew we—“
“Yes, Ada,” Dunal said. “He knew we had no real right to them. So it was worth taking a little less to avoid trouble. I’ve never been in Dariak and I would like to see some of it before I end up in a gaol.”
“Well you not pressing the point has left us with not much in our purses,” she said.
“But we have new clothes, I have a new mandolin and we have had a week in this clean inn with two days paid for in advance,” he shrugged. “We will find some way to make ends meet, we both have before.” He strummed the strings of his and sang, “To long for Maidens fair, To pray for an adventure, To pine for some new dare, But the wanderer within me, Fights on against the dull, And hopes that this incarnation, is merely just a lull!”
She laughed. “You never see the shadows, bard.” She finished her own drink and stood, grabbing his empty tankard. “Maybe there is reason to keep you around; I’ll go get these refilled this time while we still have some money left.”
She went across the room moving with the unconscious grace of an animal like the highland warrior she was. Heads turned to follow her progress and Dunal smiled as he watched them watch her.
As was his habit he caressed the mandolin and, almost without realizing it began to sing softly,
Legends dark and somber, Words of death and fear Are ever moving closer, Are ever coming near; And Demons from another age Still linger in the night To steal the waking hope of all–And leave an endless fright! Fan Savs prowl and feed and lust among our hallowed street so if you want to see the suns, be careful how deep you sleep.”
When he strummed the last chord a quiet, voice startled him. “Your voice is far too pretty to sing of such a dark subject.”
The bard sighed and rolled his eyes and turned expecting to see a bar wench.
Instead, the speaker was a veiled woman dressed in layers of silk, though neither fact did anything to conceal her delicate beauty. If anything they enhanced it and focused attention on her ink-black eyes that were hypnotic dark pools that swirled below long lashes.
“Thank you, madam,” he smiled. ”It is just a song I heard a street performer singing yesterday.”
“That is about a dark time best left unspoken of,” she said. “Especially by one who is as pretty as his voice.”
“At it again, bard? I was barely gone.” Ada said as she returned with two mugs of ale and set the tankard down in front of the blond and pointedly sat down on the bench nearest the veiled woman.
“Just being me,” he took a drink.
“I was complimenting your companion on his singing,” the veiled woman said. The veil allowed the suggestion of a smile to occur.
The Umbrian and the woman were as much a study in contrasts as Ada and Dunal, both dark-haired but the warrior was painted in broad strokes and the veiled woman in delicate ones.
“Dunal has many talents,” Ada said. “I’m glad you got to enjoy that one.” She emphasized ‘one’ and her attitude made it clear she was dismissing the other woman.
“I am Ravjot,” the veiled one ignored the dismissal. “And I also heard that you were looking for a way to make coin.”
Ada regarded the fine silks of the veiled woman and said, “He is not interested in fathering a royal bloodline.” Dunal almost snorted his drink. “Or singing for a wealthy merchant’s birthday celebration, he is beyond that sort of thing now.”
“Excuse me,” Dunal said. “There are some things a fellow should decide for himself.”
“You said you didn’t want to do that sort of party anymore,” the Umbrian said.
“Well, the second thing, yes,” he said. “The first never came up in conversation.”
The barbarian fixed him in her stare then he returned her look with a scowl.
“No, good gentles,” Ravjot said. “I wish neither of those circumstances, though I do ask you to perform a task in the service of love. There will be a reward.”
“We have already ruled out me singing at some merchant’s party,” Dunal said. “So we don’t have many other prohibitions.”
“Breeding,” Ada added, “none of that.”
“Yes,” he added. “That.”
“No, no,” the woman waved her hands in exasperation. Her delicate, long fingers showed off numerous jeweled rings and made it clear that her hands had never done manual work. “I must tell you what I want and I am sure it will not be objectionable to you.”
“Talk, girl,” Ada said with annoyance, “Why do you civilized people use so many words to say so little?”
“I am a priestess of the Goddess Makari, devoted to her service, but even such devotion is not proof against temporal love. Or guarantee that the love will be easy; I and Naveen, a devotee of the Goddess Shirra, fell in love. From the first we knew we were destined to be together forever.”
“So,” Ada said with real confusion. “Why are you talking to us, go steal the girl and be off.”
“I wish I could,” Ravjot said, her musical voice dropping to a minor note, “But neither of our orders approved of our relationship and we had to meet in secret.”
“And?” Ada said but Dunal shot her a ‘be quiet look’ which she returned with a sneer.
“Eventually we were barred from seeing each other and then there was a plague that came upon the town and Naveen was taken from me.”
“So, she is gone?” Dunal said, “As in—“
“Yes,” the priestess said, her dark eyes moistening. “The plague which swept across the city two moon cycles ago claimed her.”
“So what exactly do you want us to do?” Ada asked, her tone a bit softer.
“I want you to keep me safe and help me to break into the mausoleum where she is kept.”
The two companions looked at each other with shock then back at Ravjot.
“Why?” Ada asked.
“So I may give my lost love a final kiss goodbye.” She wiped her eyes.
Ada and Dunal sat in stunned silence for a long moment then he asked. “Why do you need us?”
“I have been forbidden by my Reverend Mother from such an act of devotion and Naveen is entombed in the Sanctum Secure within the Temple of the Triad on the outskirts of the city. They would not welcome my quest. Some may try to stop me.”
“Is not Shirra one of the Triad, the patron gods of the Assassin’s Guild?” Dunal asked.
“Yes,” the veiled woman admitted.
“So you want us to break into a religious compound guarded by assassins?”
“They are not active members of the guild,” Ravjot insisted, “Merely Sisters and Brothers of the Sanctum who maintain the local temple and Guild Hall.”
“But still ‘guard’ it,” Ada continued. “Still will kill intruders.”
“I will pay one hundred Mephan zor,” Ravjot said quickly. “I might even be able to raise a bit more later.”
“That is over a thousand tollars,” Dunal said. “That is a lot of crystalscript.”
“I only need you to get me in,” Ravjot insisted. “None would know of it, nothing is to be taken. I must see her, I must have this moment with her.” The tears came now, wetting her veil and sticking it to her face.
“Where did you get this money, girl?” Ada asked.
It took the sobbing Ravjot a few moments to force the words out. “It is my inheritance, it was to be my dowry, but without Naveen I will never need it. Please you must help me.”
“We must discuss this, girl,” Ada said. “Leave us for a while; we will give you an answer after another jack of ale and a meal. I think better with a full stomach.”
The dark-eyed girl accepted the terms and moved away to sit at a table in a shadowed corner of the courtyard where she kept her eyes focused on them most of the time, but often looked to the entrance of the courtyard.
“Women’s tears have no effect on me,” Ada said as she ate. She looked at Dunal who was watching the crying woman across the open space. “Easy, bard.”
“That is a lot of money,” he pointed out.
“You can not spend money if you are dead,” Ada said. “If the guild decides we are enemies there will be nowhere on Altiva we can hide.”
“If we do it with stealth—?”
“It seems a silly quest.”
“Are not most acts of love ‘silly quests,” Dunal asked. He sang, “To your inner voice stay true, For love is without law but one, That I am here for you!”
Ada snorted her ale and almost choked. “Really? You have had enough ale for this day.”
“It is a lot of crystalscript.” He repeated, “If we do this and live we will not have to worry about eating for a while.”
“If we live.”
“Where is your Umbrian courage?”
“Have a care how you challenge me, bard.”
“You know what I mean, Ada,” he sang in a soft voice. “And if a noose await us
On quayside jib at home If we flew the pirate flag, We’ll never swing alone!”
She laughed.
“You will be the death of me, bard, but, as you say at least we’ll die together.” She waved to the priestess who all but ran across the courtyard.
“All right, girl,” Ada said. “Half the script upfront and you have two bodyguard-burglars at your service.”
Ravjot slid the bag across the table with as much stealth as possible then leaned in to whisper. “There is five-hundred tollars’ worth here.”
Ada and Dunal looked to each other and she nodded.
“Take it to our room, Dunal, and bring out cloaks and what gear we shall need for our endeavor,” Ada said.
“And I will also secure my mandolin,” he said. “No sense in risking my new one along with our heads.”
“Where is the best way into this Sanctum?” Ada asked.
“There is a gate near the Street of Martyrs by the Red Well,” Rayjot said.
“Good.” Ada said, “meet us there between sun falls, bard.”
“Be careful,” Dunal said as he rose to leave. “Remember our conversation before.”
Ada smiled. “Always, ‘pretty one’—try not to find any new admirers in the next hour.”
Ada spoke to their new employer. “You will accompany me to the place where we can see the Triad Compound. I wish to study it in the double light.”
“Will the pretty one be alright?” Ravjot asked when Dunal had left.
Ada narrowed her eyes and regarded the woman with a deeper appraisal, having second thoughts about taking the commission, but she was honor-bound now to proceed.
She thought about Dunal, feeling oddly off-balance without him beside her and that annoyed her.
I set out to make my own way, purposely not to be chained to the clan. I never intended to take on a partner.
Unlike most of the lowlanders Ada had met since she left the highlands she felt she could trust the bard. He had proven himself as far as that was concerned, for while he spoke of the want of money she had never met anyone who feared less for poverty or many other things for that matter. He seemed to accept all that came good or bad with only mild annoyance, but never fear.
“Dunal will gather up all he thinks might need for our mission,” Ada said as she led the woman out of the front of the *Hungry Fan Sav Inn*.
Once outside the glare of the two suns was strong, the smaller red orb already slanting toward the horizon, always moving ahead of its older, larger, bluer ‘brother’ sun so that for a period of time there would be a twilight time of lesser light. It was then that Ada had planned to meet him.
Ravjot led the way through the late afternoon crowd of the bazaar and along a maze of souks and alleys. Ada noticed that the woman kept looking over her shoulder with more frequency than that made the Umbrian comfortable.
Dariak was on a series of high, flat selves of land overlooking the desert that had been an inland sea ages before. The remnant of that sea was wide the River Vorgon that wound down from the north to split into several tributaries just south of the city, eventually branching out to a network of great marshes and smaller rivers. It was why the city had become a transshipping point from the larger river ships to barges and small sloops to continue southward.
The Temple of the Triad and the Assassin’s Guildhall were located in the area of the city called “the Second’, slang for the second of the four broad shelves of rock that the city sat on. It had originally a walled town, now known for cheap housing.
The crowded maze of narrow streets made it easy for people to come and go which suited the purposes of the Assassins Guild and also made it easier for what Ada, Dunal and Ravjot planned to do.
“We have to have a plan,” Ada whispered as she stood with Ravjot in the lea of a doorway where they could see the sloping outer walls of the Temple of the Triad compound. It was a dead-end street and empty in the afternoon heat. They could see the gate that the veiled woman had spoken of, an old and disused entrance now confined to food deliveries.
Ravjot explained the layout of the compound, going so far as to sketch an overview on the dirt before the doorway. “My beloved is entombed here,” she said pointing toward one of the buildings both on the map and in reality. “They have her sarcophagus in a chamber on the second floor.” She looked up at the taller woman. “There will be guards.”
“Guards? For a corpse?”
“She was a highly placed person within her temple,” Ravjot pleaded. “They are in honor of her station.”
“I did not take this job to kill assassins,” Ada said. “Or give them the chance to kill me.”
“They are just honor guards,” Ravjot insisted. “Not full guild members. You have but to incapacitate them. I know it by Makari’s blessing and my love for Naveen.”
Ada locked eyes with the woman and was about to speak when a deep voice from behind her caused her to start.
“Makari has no blessing for your blasphemy, Ravjot.”
The speaker and two companions wore crimson thobes and keffiyehs, with broad girdles from which depended short curved blades. His features were sharp as his tone. “Leave us mountain barbarian, this priestess must return to our temple to face discipline from our masters.”
“So this is who you were looking over your shoulder for, girl,” Ada said. The three men had arranged themselves so she could not see all of them at once.
“I told you my temple did not approve of our relationship,” Ravjot said. She pressed herself against the closed door, her dark eyes darting back and forth between the three men. “These are the Crimson Enforcers of the Goddess.”
“Stand aside, barbarian,” the lead enforcer said. “This woman must face the justice of Makari.”
“I have given oath to protect this woman,” Ada said with a voice as sharp as her blade. “And help her complete a quest. Your goddess can wait until it is done.”
“Markari’s patience is eternal but our Reverend Mother’s is not,” the head guard said. “Stand aside.”
Ada locked eyes with the leader of the guards but spoke to Ravjot. “You still want your kiss, woman? It can not wait till Makari’s justice is done?”
“I have been sentenced to death,” Ravjot said. “The justice of the council is final.”
“Nice of you to tell me now,” Ada said with a sigh. “But I have given you my oath.”
Just as she finished ‘oath’ Ada sprang to her right drawing her sword so that the pommel struck the Temple enforcer in the face to send him staggering.
The other scarlet-clad enforcers drew blades and attacked slashing at Ada.
The Umbrian parried one sword but the second blade made it through and sliced through her loose trousers. She jumped back and grabbed her sword in a two-handed grip, holding it before her as the three enforcers fell into a loose semi-circle around her.
“Stay in that doorway, girl,” Ada ordered.
She hefted her sword and regarded the three enforcers. Despite her having taken one by surprise with her quick move Ada could see that to a man they were seasoned fighters. They all held short curved blades that allowed for close in-fighting in the city and daggers in their off hands.
The Umbrian’s sword was an Iskarian gently curved blade though she could use it like the highland short swords she was accustomed to. It was longer than her opponents and that was her only advantage at the moment.
She had only acquired the sword the few days she had been in Dariak but she already wielded it with fierce confidence, now adopting a single-handed stance.
“Leave the girl, priests,” she hissed, “And you will also have my oath to not kill you.”
“Your oath?” the lead enforcer laughed. As he spoke the crimson figure to her left attacked.
Ada parried with a flick of her wrist but immediately slashed right to fend off an attack from that quarter.
The leader charged in then with an overhand blow which she parried and held but the dagger thrust came simultaneously at her waist. She twisted so the point scraped along her wide girdle. She grabbed his wrist with her left hand and pulled him around to block a follow-up attack from the attacker on her left but this exposed her right.
She steeled herself for the blow hacking cut from the third swordsmen but it never came.
The third enforcer grunted and then dropped to the ground. The reason was clear in a moment—a throwing hatchet had slammed into the back of his head though it did not cut him since it rotated incorrectly.
Dunal! Ada thought as she raised a foot to kick the leader and jumped to her left the engage the enforcer there with a furious series of cuts.
The bard came racing out of the darkening street as Ada engaged her enforcer and before the leader could decide which threat to face, threw a cloak over his head.
As the leader fought to untangle himself Dunal jumped on him to bear him to the ground and used the back side of a second hatchet to club the squirming man unconscious. By the time the leader stopped moving the first enforcer was on his feet and charged at the bard with a sword raised.
“Duck, Dunal,” Ada called as she raced forward and actually jumped over the crouching blond to smash her sword down onto the last standing enforcer. Her assault was so fierce that the crimson robed man could barely mount a defense. In half a dozen strokes she had cut the enforcer down.
Abruptly the violence was done and the Umbrian whirled to face the bard and Ravjot.
“We have gotten into a firehawk’s nest,” Ada said to him as she walked to pick up the hatchet he had thrown. “But you were taking a chance just trying to knock this one out with your throw.”
“I was trying to kill him,” the bard said. “I just don’t have your skill with that thing.”
“Good enough so far.” She smiled, “What about that one, do I have to finish him off?”
“Why would you need to,” he said, rising.
She explained Ravjot’s death sentence as she and Dunal dragged the two enforcers she had killed into the shadow of a nearby alley. When they went back for the leader, intending to tie him up they discovered that the bard had been too enthusiastic in his attempt to subdue the man.
“Cracked his skull, bard,” Ada said. “You’re picking up good habits from me.”
“It was not my intent.” He picked up the cloak he had used to blind the man. ”I ruined the cloak; it’s all bloody.”
“It better be your cloak,” she said.
“I guess it is now then,” he said. He handed her the other cloak, her two hatchets and a coil of rope with a grapple that he had brought from their rooms.
“Oh thank you, dame warrior,” Ravjot was shaking though whether from fear or excitement to be near her goal was hard to know. “Know that I can never repay you your devotion.”
“Just pay me what you owe me when this is done. That will do.”
It was dark now and the moons would not rise for several hours. The three conspirators now moved to the wall of the compound by the gate. The sloping surface went upward for a dozen feet before being topped by sharp spikes.
“There is no way I can pick that lock,” Dunal said after examining the entrance gate. ”It has a deadbolt on the other side.”
“How are we going to get in?” Ravjot asked.
“We go over the wall,” Ada said. She stepped back with the rope and considered throwing the grapple.
“I can make it with help,” Dunal said. “Better to be careful in case there are guards on the other side.”
“Yes,” Ada agreed. “Alright, bard. Let’s go.” She moved up to the foot of the wall with her back to it and held out her hands.
Dunal backed away and then ran toward the Umbrian so that it looked like he would collide with her but just before reaching her crouched and jumped. She grabbed him at the hips at just the right time to help propel him upward. It was just enough extra lift so that he was able to grasp hold of the upper edge of the wall.
After a few moments, he pulled himself up, careful to avoid the spikes on top.
He peered into the space beyond. “Wait by the gate,” he whispered before jumping down on the other side.
He was only out of sight for a moment then the sound of a bolt being thrown and the gate swung in. “It’s clear,” Dunal said.
The two women entered and found themselves in a garden.
“The Sanctum is over there,” Ravjot pointed to a building set apart from the others of the compound. “Few ever go there, the main temple is on the opposite side of the compound.”
“And the Guildhall?” Ada asked.
“Beyond that, near the Street of Virgins,” the veiled woman said. She was excited now. “The way is clear now to my Naveen, we must go.” She started to head toward the building she indicated but Ada grabbed her arm.
“Carefully, girl,” the Umbrian said. “We still need to move with stealth.”
They proceeded with caution down a pathway by the wall through the well-tended garden with Ada ahead, Ravjot in the middle, and Dunal walking slowly in the rear, his attention focused behind them.
In a few minutes, it became clear that they had entered a memorial area with death markers and shrines among the carefully cultivated greenery of the garden.
Dunal spent time reading the grave markers as they moved through the maze-like monument area on their way to the building.
They stopped in the lea of a large statue of Shirra across a broad plaza from the mausoleum.
“Why are we stopping?” Ravjot asked. Ada had to put a hand on her arm again to keep her from moving forward.
“Because I want to get you in for your kiss and get out of here alive,” Ada hissed. “It pays to be cautious. There!” She pointed at the far corner of the tomb building.
Just then there was movement around the far corner of the mausoleum building and the three invaders froze.
“Guards,” Ada whispered.
It was two guards, in fact, in echelon, obviously walking a route around the building. They had lances on their shoulders and swords on their hips. As was the case with many soldiers who walked repetitive guard duty, they were more concerned with chatting with each other than scanning the funeral monuments. They were far enough away that their conversation could not be heard and to allow the trio of burglars to whisper safely.
“They seem much more than purely honorary guards,” Ada said. “They look more like they are there to protect something of value.”
“I told you Naveen was well regarded,” Ravjot said. “Perhaps she was entombed with valuables.”
“Yes,” Ada said, clearly skeptical. “Perhaps.”
The two guards soon disappeared around the far corner of the mausoleum.
“Now,” Ravjot hissed, “I have to go to her!” She raced across the open space before Ada could stop her.
The Umbrian had little choice but to follow her. “Come on, bard.”
“Have you noticed the dates on many of these grave markers,” Dunal whispered to the Umbrian as the two sprinted to catch up with their employer.
“No.”
“Dozens in the last six moon cycles,” Dunal said. “Just what was that plague she spoke of two moons ago? No one in the city would talk about it much.”
“What does it matter, Dunal?”
“Well, like that street singer I heard yesterday the plague that happened here was something strange. No one will address it directly. It seems a strange sort of thing and those grave markers all had curse signs on them to invoke the gods’ protection and priest’s blood from some ancient shadowcraft.”
“I’ll trust my sword to protect me from anything,” Ada said. “I leave worrying about musty old legends to you.”
The two of them were just behind Ravjot who had found a door into the building and produced a key.
“If you had that, girl,” Ada said, “Why did you need us?”
“I would not have been able to make my way in without you,” Ravjot said. “Those enforcers would most certainly have stopped me.” She opened the door and made to slip in but Ada stopped her again.
“What else are you not telling us, girl,” Ada said.
“Nothing,” the veiled woman said. “My beloved is in there, we are almost to the goal. You must let me go.”
“Go, then,” Ada said, releasing Ravjot’s arm. The veiled woman moved swiftly in the mausoleum and when the Umbrian moved to follow Dunal stopped her.
“Do you believe her?”
“You were the one who insisted we do this,” Ada said.
“We do need the money; but do you believe what she says?”
“Does it matter?” The two of them were inside the building now moving along a dark corridor with only the faint glowgems. “I gave my word to allow her to get her kiss, after that we will see that she does not cheat us.”
They went upstairs to a barred double door. The veiled woman removed the crystal bar that locked the room and then all but ran inside. Beyond the portal was a wide rotunda with a single red tinged-crystal sarcophagus in the direct center. All was lit only by dim blue light from a line of glowgems around the windowless walls giving the room the quality of a dream.
Ada and Dunal paused at the door.
The body within the translucent red sarcophagus was only dimly visible, a faint glow illuminating it in silhouette almost as if it were on fire.
“She really must have been important to have a grown crystal fresh-casket,” Dunal said.
“I hope so,” Ada said. “The smell of a body dead a tenday would be pretty bad in this heat if it isn’t a fresh-casket.”
“Beloved,” Ravjot said breathlessly as she knelt by the crystal case. “I have come to you.” She began to unfasten a series of clamps that were on the upper lid.
“Wait,” Dunal said. “Why is it clamped shut?”
Ada whispered. “This does not feel right.”
“Yes,” He replied. “Look at the walls.” There were carved images embedded in a frieze above the glowgems, sigils of power.
“What do they say?” Ada asked. She found herself loosening her sword in the scabbard and looked around her, suddenly hyper-alert for danger.
The bard stared at the symbols. “It is Old Mephan script,” he said. “It is a warning against disturbing the peace of Shirra; it is a promise that the blood of the holy will cleanse the world of the scourge of the fan sav.”
Ravjot released the last clamp on the lid of the casket and applied her weight to slide it off so that it rattled to the marble floor with a thunderous sound that was like a chime, reverberating off the walls of the rotunda.
“That sound,” Dunal said with a touch of terror in his voice. “That was not the sound of grown crystal, that was carved crystal.” Which meant it was not a freshbowl case.
The veiled woman pulled off her face covering and leaned into the crystal case to kiss the figure within.
There was the smell of death in the room now, but with a difference then what should have been.
The two companions had no time to contemplate the difference because the next shock was when the figure within the sarcophagus sat up. It was an animate nightmare.
“You have come, beloved. I almost gave up hope,” the figure said.
“But you did not, Naveen,” Ravjot said. “That is what matters.”
The nightmare stood up and stepped from the casket. She was the image of Ravjot in a distorted mirror, her skin a dark grey and stretched tight across sharp cheekbones, her dark hair a tangled, stringy mess and eyes sunken beneath full brows. She even wore silk robes that mirrored Ravjot’s but tattered and bloody.
Naveen raised a hand so thin it seemed skeletal, running talloned fingers along the cheek of her lover in a caress. “I thirst,” she said. “The fools who captured me confined me when I was weak from hunger and have kept me to wait for a clerical executioner.”
Ada handed one of her hatchets to Dunal and drew her sword as the two began to back out the doorway.
“I brought you sustenance,” Ravjot said, turning to look at the companions. “Then you may change me so we can be together forever.”
Naveen turned her head and gave a wide grin to reveal razor teeth as she fixed her glowing midnight eyes on the two at the door. “Yes,” she hissed, “sustenance.”
“Run, bard,” Ada took a stance with her sword held before her.
“No,” he said.
Naveen suddenly made a prodigious and inhuman leap over the crystal coffin, flying at the pair to slam into the Umbrian, bearing her to the ground. The long thin fingers of the nightmare were like coiled steel and fastened around Ada’s throat.
The attack was so lightning quick that Ada had no chance to bring her blade to her own defense. She had to release the sword to try and fend the vixen off, clawing at the fingers attempting to pry them off her neck.
Dunal reacted quickly, hacking the hatchet into Naveen’s back.
“No!” Ravjot screamed.
Naveen laughed, her head turning to stare up at the bard while continuing to squeeze the life from Ada. “Foolish morsel, no unsanctified blade of man can harm me. Only the blood of the ordained can end the existence of a fan sav.” She released her left hand from throttling Ada to reach behind her and pull the hatchet from her back with a grunt.
“Why do you think they were keeping me here to wait for an ordained priest, now stop annoying me so I can feast in peace.” She tossed the hatchet behind her into the room.
Ada was flailing under the vice grip of the monster kicking her legs and squirming in an effort to pull free. The talons of both Naveen’s hands now dug into the Umbrian’s neck.
The fan sav leaned in, the fetid smell of death hanging on her like a cloak, and opened her mouth to feed.
Dunal grabbed for the long stringy hair of Naveen trying to yank her face away from Ada but the beast ignored his efforts as if he was not there.
“Buckrum’s Belt,” He cursed.
“Feast, beloved,” Ravjot called from across the room, her eyes shining with a passion that bordered on madness. “Feast and then we will be joined for all time.”
Ada’s struggles were lessening, her eye bugging out and her lips going blue as she began to lose consciousness.
Dunal released the monster’s hair and ran across the room to the hatchet.
“Give up, fool,” Ravjot laughed. “So easily swayed by a pretty form and long eyelashes.”
“You’re not that pretty,” Dunal said as he scooped up the hatchet and leapt over the casket at full speed.
“Beloved!” Ravjot yelled but her scream was cut off short when the bard slashed the ax across her throat to release a torrent of blood. The bard held the ax in the flow till the blade was coated in crimson.
Naveen reacted to Ravjot’s scream and raised her head from Ada’s neck. “No!”
In one smooth move Dunal spun and launched the hatchet with all his might at the fan sav. This time the bard’s technique was improved, the hatchet flew true. It sliced into the monster’s face as she rose to react to Ravjot’s cry.
Naveen staggered to her feet clutching at her face, but the blade split her skull all the way to her jaw. The blood that dripped from her wound was her lover’s and sizzled and bubbled. She fell to her knees in a final agony.
The writhing fan sav fell over and began to shrivel and dissolve.
Dunal ran to the fallen Umbrian who was coughing and gasping. Her throat was already showing the bruising from Naveen’s hands.
“What?” the Umbrian whispered as the bard helped her stand.
“You can only kill a fan sav with the blood of the ordained,” Dunal said. “The bitch Ravjot forgot she was an ordained Priestess of Makari, so I used her blood.”
The Umbrian had gained her feet now, sheathed her sword.
“Well, she got her kiss,” Ada said as she limped down the hall while leaning on Dunal. “I hope it was worth it.”
“Some kisses are, Umbrian.”
“Yes, they are, bard.” She pulled him close. “Yes, they are.”
©July 2020 Teel James Glenn
Teel James Glenn’s award winningwork has been seen in Weird Tales, Mad, Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Scifan, Fantasy Tales, and Mystery Weekly. This is his first appearance in Swords & Sorcery. Visit him at Theurbanswashbuckler.com.