A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 32

He heard her low growl in his face from very close up, "Do not tell me that you think you are blind in one eye, enemy. I can grant your wish with joy. Tell me next that you think your leg is broken and I will make it so.

I am not here to brawl with you. I struggle here, trying to remind myself that I am only here to weaken you so that you are just as feeble as your sister was when her end came to her.

There is no yielding here, as there was none for Xunafae. This is your death which comes to you, nothing less. Be glad that it is not my part to finish it, for by now I would have flayed your skin from you.

It is what Drow girls do to worthless males such as you where I am from. Kneel."

He was slow about it, trying to fathom what she'd said. She cursed and kicked him behind one knee and he went to his knees anyway as she walked behind him.

"Raise your arms and bring your hands back behind your head," she said quietly.

When he took too long with it, she wrapped her left hand around his throat from behind and the punch that she laid between his shoulder blades caused his spine to crack so that he heard it in his head as he gasped for air.

She took him by the wrists and in that instant; he knew a lot more about her. She was every bit as strong as she was blindingly fast. She could hold his arms here easily, though he struggled feebly once. Her knee in his kidney solved the issue and he held still, on his knees being bent over backwards.

"Cousin," she called out, "Bring your lovely friend, the taller one. No one has told me her name yet."

Vadren looked at Ksyusha, "Cha'Khah holds him for you."

Ksyusha walked into the clearing. Cha'Khah's face was fixed in concentration, but she did manage a smile, "How are you called?"

"My name is Ksyusha," she said.

Cha'Khah nodded, "My cousin has told me the tale – at least some, and I wish to hear it all later. I wanted to kill you at first and I am still a little angry, but I understand how you spun the chase out, never hounding much. It was for your own reasons and for Xunafae as well.

What would you have done if you have found her today and she still had a chance?"

"I would have slain the dogs," Ksyusha said and Cha'Khah smiled, knowing the truth when she heard it.

"And if you had gotten there as she passed? What then?"

"I would have slain the dogs and tried to find someone for her child, since I had to call this one to come every night. It was what I wanted to do, once I knew and I ran, but I was much too late. You had been there and gone by then."

"Then I have heard what I needed to hear from you," Cha'Khah nodded, "I am told that you wish to weaken him further to make it even with his sister's run. I have seen your teeth. You are no blood drinker?"

Ksyusha shook her head, "My teeth are like all of my kind. I have no blood thirst. I am closer to the one called Selena, but ... I draw from darkness." she shrugged.

Cha'Khah smiled – in spite of everything, "There is a very uncommon kind of beauty to you, and ..." she dropped her voice and leaned a little, "He would kill me to hear it, but I can say that Vadren looks to be badly hit, if you like him as well as it seems to me. Now," she indicated Garrend with a nod, "we are here to do something other than behave like a pair of hens."

Ksyusha stepped in front of the beaten brute and considered carefully for a moment. He stared at her with cold beads of sweat standing out on his forehead. Her hands began to move a little. It held the eyes of everyone present so much that it came as a complete surprise to them all when she kicked him in the bag solidly.

He twisted in Cha'Khah's grasp and retched, but she held him fast as she laughed, "I was not ready for that, "she chuckled, "What was that for?"

Ksyusha shrugged, "A year of having to listen to his threats with his spittle flying into my face almost every night."

She reached for his chest with one hand and laid her fingertips over his heart very lightly. It was done a few seconds later, Ksyusha shuddering a few times in the process and Garrend looking to have aged a bit, besides being a bloody ruin.

"He has, ... little strength, "Cha'Khah said, amazed," I feel it."

Ksyusha nodded, "He has enough to stand up and run. I think that Vadren knows."

Cha'Khah released Garrend and he collapsed onto the snow.

"I would hate it if he got away," the Drowess said, "I would not stop myself if I hunted him and found him."

"There is nowhere for him to go," Ksyusha said, "He killed Verrick and that one hangs in my power now. Garrend has no way to go home from here, other than walk, and it's a long, long way."

Nika was back and she'd gotten dressed again while Garrend was being humiliated. She walked up to Vadren and Ksyusha with a pleased little grin and asked Ksyusha something.

"Can she ride on your shoulders?" She asked Vadren, "Nika has spent much of the day in the air flying and she is a little weary now – but she still has enough of her boldness for this."

Vadren couldn't help his grin and he nodded. Ksyusha stood behind him to move his long hair forward, and he felt Nika climb up onto him easily. As she settled herself, she moved back just far enough to bend a little so she leaned over and kissed his forehead with a little smile before moving up again.

"Thank you and mind the tree branches, Nika," Vadren said as they began to walk.

"Nika was not there when it was said, but she often hears my thoughts as I hear hers. We wish to know of something that was said earlier," Ksyusha began, "Nika and I think that we know, but please, tell us of the Parted Flanks of the Maiden."

Vadren began to chuckle, and in a moment it had turned into a laugh as they walked.

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Garrend got to his knees several minutes later. He found himself alone again and he was – he was amazed to find that he was clothed and had his long knives.

All the same, he thought as he spit a half-mouthful of bloody drool onto the snow, he was in bad shape.

He looked around and saw only one being. It hadn't been there only a moment before, a huge canine with flinty-looking fur. As their eyes met and the ones that he looked into began to glow hotly, the growling snarls began.

He stood up and drew one of his blades.

The huge shape came nearer.

When he was close enough for it, he thrust at the throat and the dagger was turned as though it had hit a boulder, and he felt the teeth as they sunk in through his coat.

Only one bite, and his guts were blazing agony and the thing hadn't even broken his flesh yet.

Garrend backed away and turned, starting to run.

Shaevre stood there watching to give him a little time and a head start before she began to lope after him. He was large and hefty - especially for an elf after all, but he could still move at a good clip. When she judged the time to be right for it, since he was running uphill at the time, she broke into a run and it drove him over the rise to the shallow valley where one or two of Nika's lights still burned.

Garrend didn't see them, but Shaevre did; the dark shapes which watched him run almost into the middle of them as they sat watching in the forest outside of the light.

Shevre didn't know what these beings were, and she'd ask when she got a chance, but as the last lights flickered out, the growls began in the valley.

Sheavre turned and trotted back when his screams began.