Drachne Ch. 05

Author's Note: I had a huntsman drop on me whilst I was writing this chapter. I screamed like a little girl. Drachne is still hiding somewhere in my office.

---

Smoke filled her nostrils as the elf staggered unsteadily through the building. The floor was heavily slanted towards one side, divided and cracked in places. Sindi winced and leaning briefly onto the brickwork before stepping up to where the floor had shifted.

She left a reddened hand print behind her on the wall.

She looked out the window at the fires burning throughout the city, and clenched her fists. Hot and angry tears spilling down her face as she heard the screams from below, saw the darting shadows dragging people into the dark and into silence.

She yelled in rage as she turned around, "You did this! You fucking monster!"

"No." The voice was quiet. It was respectful, calm and almost had an alluring tone to it. Eight black eyes found Sindi's face as the thing descended lightly from the ceiling before landing on three leather-booted feet.

The creature looked beyond her, to the dying, with both regret and an unwillingness to do anything about it. "You did this. It wasn't me. I'm not the monster here, elf."

She screamed loudly and launched herself at the monster, but her hands found nothing at all. Just a shadow that seemed to run through her hands like liquid. She spun around in a circle and found the thing standing a few paces behind her, watching impassively.

The creature spoke quietly, "Did you really think that your choices wouldn't have consequences elf? This is where they will lead you. This is where they always lead you. Your arrogance is not just insufferable. It will make everyone you care about suffer."

"Beast! Murderer!" Sindi screamed, ears pulled back as she gave up with words and chattered her teeth at the thing that she hated with every fibre of her being.

The woman sighed and tossed something to Sindi's feet with an echoing thunk, and spoke quietly, "Grow up. This was done by your hands, not mine."

Sindi crouched, turning over the soft and wet object in her hands, staring in horror as Suleos' sightless eyes stared up at her from the detached head. His horn was missing, torn free with a bloody gash, and his neck hadn't been severed cleanly.

She burst into renewed tears, sobbing, "Sul."

"You killed me." He accused her.

Sindi sat up screaming, and felt warm arms immediately surround her. She stared at the same man trying to hush her, grasping her tightly. The rocking of the carriage reminded her where she was, and the flashing light and shadow of the passing trees provided some relief.

She was in the Tangles, a less frightening place than her nightmare, as incredible as the comparison was to believe. Her unigrad husband stroked her hair, emitting quiet and reassuring sounds.

She sobbed into his shoulder, "Sul... I... I love you."

"Then why did you kill me?"

Sindi jerked awake, wide eyed and terrified.

---

"Lady Leolian." A royal guard snapped his hand to his chest with a creak of leather armour. He turned and outstretched a hand, "If you would care to accompany me, her grace awaits you."

The bunneko shifted the wolfskin scarf around her uncomfortably, "Hold a moment. I have yet to have reason to visit this part of the wall before. The damages appear extensive. Is this truly only the work of Irrlichdan, a decade past?"

The guard wrung his hands nervously, spreading his feet into a fighter's square stance. "It is as you say, m'lady."

One of her ears drooped, and she glared her marbled eyes at him, "I suppose I could possibly wait for my husband's return before ordering that you be executed for lying to me. Are you so stupid that you are unaware that his rights pass to me in his absence?"

"M-m'lady." He bowed his head, "It is not disloyalty to the House of Leolian that you have witnessed. I was ordered by the empress. She made us all take an oath not to tell you. Only you."

His loyalty to the empress wasn't just lacking. He sounded absolutely insulted that the empress had tried to keep her in the dark. Her husband had risen to a decent rank in the royal guards, and it appeared he hadn't just played politics to get there. His men loved him.

Finia felt herself warming to Leolian. Universally hated by politicians and his family, but adored by those he worked with. At this point she had forgiven him for buying her on a whim. Not quite for intending to make her the butt of a joke, but she was definitely thawing.

She nodded and turned to one of her handmaidens, "Cinnia dear, you are already my eyes. Please, take a moment to also be my ears. I feel the sky is most fascinating."

She looked up at the blurry blue blob, and the guard addressed her handmaiden, "I don't know the full story. However, a number of draug emerged from beneath the palace. Awoken, like we are in a time of war. They broke down the wall. Our dead ancestors, meant to protect us. A woman led them... Some of the men think it was the Crown Princess Astadia. Miss."

Finia shivered at the mention of the undead. That elfkind kept their ancestors around to protect them might be considered endearing by some, but she found the casual employ of necromancy to be incredibly disturbing.

She looked back from the sky, blinking her purple and green orbs, "Hmm. I believe I have kept her majesty long enough. Cinnia?"

The handmaiden took her arm and guided her up the uneven steps. They were just scaffolding. Wooden slats put in place whilst repairs to the wall were underway. As they crested the top, Finia gagged and felt her already upset stomach gurgle dangerously.

She didn't need the story about the draug. She could smell well-rotted corpses as they walked across towards some clustering of people in the distance. Finia could hear their frantic hearts beating almost as fast as hers normally did.

It was difficult to appear confident as she crossed one of the gaps in the wall, a single board laid out. She refused to shuffle over it, stepping deliberately and showing off her riding boots as she did. She was here as a warrior, a fighter. Not as some genteel lady in waiting.

Cinnia was behind her, the elf noticeably afraid of falling. Finia needed to take some time to get acquainted with the woman. Unfortunately, it seemed like time was Finia's most precious resource. She didn't have that much of it.

"The infamous Lady Leolian." An elven woman said, shoving through the crowd. She wore a black leather riding dress and a silver sword at her side. The golden tiara on her head was elaborate, but Finia couldn't really make out the details. Not that it much mattered.

Empress Tresian stuck out a hand.

Finia grasped her along the forearm as the two gave each other a fighter's greeting. The bunneko smiled confidently, and sniffed the air, "Is that tea I smell, your honoured highness?"

"Indeed. Join me?"

"Rather your hip flask." Finia replied without looking. It was a total lie. She would have preferred the tea and greens that were waiting on a makeshift table over some extremely rough whisky, but this was the game she had to play. Little sacrifices, to keep the estate safe, and keep her own head.

Tresian laughed, lifting a hidden flap in her skirt and pulled out the steel object, sipping it before passing it to the bunny. "Interesting. You seem as much fun as your master, m'lady."

Finia took an expert swig of the liquid and passed it back, gazing out at the burned and broken forest. "I do hope you'll return him to me sometime soon. I wouldn't want him coming back just to see my trial for murdering his sister."

"Trescotte is such a bitch." Tresian agreed, "Say, I've never heard of a temple companion having a sparring match. Any interest in giving me a show, m'lady?"

Finia shook her head, "Not if you don't expect someone to die. Elves might be graceful, your grace, but a kick from a bunneko isn't something the victim will be remembering afterwards when you're scraping them out of the wall."

"Strong, huh?"

She drummed her foot on the wall for a moment, causing the nearby scaffolding to shift. She smiled innocently, "You might say that."

"I wonder why we don't have more bunneko recruits?" Tresian said airily, "Our army could do with some... Growth."

"Because people with bells get fucked and killed in the army." Finia growled angrily, unable to hold herself back. "You'd first have to convince elves that they're not superior, and a fucking lone dragon burning down half the empire couldn't do that."

Tresian's eyes flashed angrily, and the elf spoke with barest restraint, "I suppose that attitude isn't endearing to my loyal guards. Exotics are poorly suited to the work."

"Elves are poorly suited to embrace the future. They can barely reconcile being beholden to humanity, after all the hard work her grace put in to ensure the Golden Empire did not become another example of human overachievement, like the nekan tribes became." Finia softened her tone and sharpened her words. "But, I digress. I doubt her grace asked for me so that she might speak of truths known to the blind."

Tresian was enraged, stinking of hatred, and turned from facing her, "It is true I asked to speak to the House Leolian. I had expected to meet Lord Ereoli. Yet, I see the House is well cared for in the absence of your master. I will be frank, as you have been."

The empress paused, leaning onto the rampart and sipping at her hip flask before continuing, "The devastation you see here... This is what I sent your master to hunt. The sister I personally killed is back from the grave. Summoned, and no one can tell me who the fuck would dare."

"That is... Powerful necromancy." Finia said slowly in awe. "Black magic with the power to bind a member of the royal family. To awake the empire's army."

"Disturbing, isn't it?" Tresian gave a grim half-smile.

The bunneko nodded slowly, "I cannot remember the last time the temple became aware of anyone with that scale of black magic. The corruption required of the soul that resurrected... No one could survive that. They'd become a cursed thing. Something is missing from this tale."

"Precisely why you find yourself without a master." Tresian said, sounding just a little bit impressed. "The temple is quite secretive. Moreso under Orist. I am curious how much he did teach you about black magic, my lady. I will tell you of your master's mission, and you will tell me of yourself."

"I'm not a magic user." Finia shook her head, "Most of what I know comes from a... Unique individual. Their grasp of magical theory... I just picked up their dregs by being around them. Dark, and light. They understood the risks and the lines better than most."

The empress smiled in amusement, "A secondary necromantic ritual was detected recently, outside our walls. In the Tangles. Along a road that a lord sent to investigate the draug had taken. A lord, now missing. That is where I diverted your master, instead of his original mission."

"An incubus." Finia replied lightly, "By the name of Raltin."

The empress breathed in, "Oh my. His entire life... He would be threading the line of dark and light magic. I suppose the temple had been training him to become a monk. Throw him to the wilds and hills, far from the people who would be unable to stop him."

"There is a very easy way to control him." Finia felt sick to her stomach as she betrayed her friend. Giving him away so that she could be certain that he had a better future, tomorrow. "As with most men, you must merely take what is dearest to him. In this case, a cat."

"Cookie." Tresian mused, smiling at her, "Oh, I am well aware of your previous... Acquaintances, my dear. And their capabilities."

The empress chuckled and looked back to the forest, "Lady Leolian... There is very little that goes on inside my walls that I am unaware of. I killed my sister for my crown, an act of treason. Yet no one can touch me. You would do well... To remember your place... You fucking exotic."

The woman signalled, and her guards approached, weapons drawn. Dismissing her, and threatening to kill her if she didn't flee before the woman in the stupid crown.

Finia curtsied, despite the anger suddenly flowing through her, "Your grace."

This had all been a test, to see if Finia was loyal to the crown, or if she represented a threat to Tresian. A test that she had just failed.

She didn't imagine the assassin was far away.

---

He crouched to examine the claw marks at the site of the digging. Something had burrowed into the earth here, and uncovered the charred remains of the carriage. It was just a scavenger, but without it, it would probably have taken Leolian weeks to find.

The claws were sharp, but short. Padded and agile hands and feet. He picked a strand of hair from the edge of the carriage and sniffed at it briefly. He glanced towards one of those he led and waved them over, "Dogkind?"

The bell rattled on their wrist as the timid rattan took the hair, before she sniffed deeply. Her pink eyes were consumed by the black of her pupils and her tail stood up stiffly as she felt terror. The magic of the bell prevented her from fleeing, and the creature eventually calmed. "Tanukiki, sir."

Leolian was reminded of his companion's hatred for bells. Enslaved. Even if you earned a golden bell and the freedom that represented, you were still marked out as different. Still treated as lesser by elves and humans.

Rattan were the lowest of the low. Bred in enormous numbers, because it was easy to breed them. Women, like this tracker he had been given, had no hope of a future. They existed to be used and die. To do the dangerous work no one else was willing to. Forced to confront death by the bell.

He frowned, "Tell me anything more?"

"It's a she." The ratgirl whispered quietly, "Was in heat two weeks ago. It was afraid. Not just anxious. Something... Something scared it shitless, sir."

The woman sniffed at the air, and crawled around on all fours for a moment, before stopping nearby. Again, she had a minor panic attack. "Here. This happened before they dug into the carriage. A day or two earlier. Sir."

"What have you found?" He asked curiously.

The rattan swallowed, "It pissed itself, sir. Something scared the absolu-"

She stopped speaking and squealed. The girl tried to run, and the bracelet attached to the bell seared their skin. Smoke rising as it burned her, but she still ran up the nearest tree, crying and screaming in fear the entire time.

Leolian walked beneath the branch and spoke calmly, "Stop punishment. Talk to me, rat. What did you find?"

"Not come down!" She wailed.

He nodded, "That's okay. Just tell me what you found. I can't protect you from it if you don't."

"It... Can't protect! No one protect!" The creature shuddered, "He's going to die. I'm going to die. Going to die. Everyone dead! All dead! Just don't know it, yet!"

"Ostatni Nos!" He growled, asserting himself, "Report."

The girl hissed in pain as the bell punished her, and dug her claws into the tree branch, wrapping her tail around it as well. "Tanukiki met lich. Lich crawl out of carriage, that what scare her. Not just undead. Lich."

Leolian felt a chill run down his spine and goosebumps flare across his skin. He looked back at the carriage, "It met a lich, here... And actually came back? Brave or stupid."

"Not worst part. 'Nother smell." Ostatni moaned, shivering in terror, "Smell I don't know. It killed the lich. Brought it back, too. Smell like poison... Smell around us. Territory marking."

He put a hand to his sword and signalled the soldiers to spread out, "Marking its territory. Is it wolfkind? Give me something. Even if you don't know exactly what."

"Smell... Acidic. Angry. Confused. Scared."

That set of emotions was guaranteed to make the unknown necromancer incredibly dangerous and unpredictable. Not the kind of thing he wanted to hear right now. It also suggested that the kill might have been unintentional. The resurrection might have been an attempt to save them.

"Anything else?"

"Poison. Poison. Poison." She repeated, teeth beginning to chatter in fright, "It's all poison. Just one bite."

Necromancy. Poison. Intelligence. Territory.

Leolian looked further up the tree and groaned audibly, "Eh... Ostatni... Come down here. Slowly."

The woman's head snapped around to see what he had. She squealed and threw herself out of the tree. He caught her, both of them knocked to the ground before his tracker scampered inside the mostly buried carriage and lay there trembling. At least she couldn't cause him worries, in there.

He drew his sword, prompting his men to do the same.

He nodded at his subcommander to come over. The elf crossed cautiously, whispering, "Sir?"

"Arachne." He nodded up the tree to where a silvery thread of webbing was still dissolving in the branches.

The elf's ears flattened against his head, and he looked around quickly. The man swallowed and pointed his sword, "I can see more, that way."

"Could be a trap. Shit, probably is a trap." Leolian replied more cautiously, "They lay false trails. Ambush predator. The moment we entered its territory, it knew we were here."

"Sir?"

He considered the options. He should probably retreat and get reinforcements. He didn't know anyone alive who had fought an arachne and lived. Actually... He did. He knew of a single nearly-mythic figure, but he had no idea if they were alive or where to find them.

On the other hand, he did know with absolute certainty that the empress would have his head if he retreated without having actionable intelligence. He needed to know who the lich was, and where the arachne had made her nest, at a bare minimum.

"We camp here." Leolian barked loudly, and then under his breath to the subcommander, "Triple watch. And use the rat as an alarm. She'll freak out if anything comes even close."

"Yessir."

He scooted down to the carriage, looking for evidence to the owner.

---

Cookie struggled, feeling her magic wavering in and out, even with the help of Maly Oddzial. The neko simply wasn't that skilled with magic. Her mind was too distractable, and it was currently filled with worry for her Raltin, and her own hide.

Oddzial's magic was warding magic. It wasn't particularly well suited to what they were using it for, but it should be helping more than it was. It wasn't the rattan's skill that was the problem.

It was Cookie's.

She was worried about Raltin. Beyond worried. Even if he had abandoned her, he had been right on the edge of feeding. He should have left a trail of fear, if not actual destruction, in his wake. Yet, Cookie hadn't managed to get anything from any of the usual street watchers on her way over here.

So now, she was standing around waiting to spy on the servant of a lord, of a very abandoned estate. Except that for it being all abandoned, it was extremely clean and populous.

Along with the caretaker, she could smell three women. At least one of whom smelled like both grime and soap nuts. They were probably a laundry maid of some kind. One of the others smelled vaguely like elvish baking.

If Cookie had to guess, she would say that there wasn't talk about the lord moving in. He had either already arrived, or was on his way. There wasn't going to be a chance to rob this place before that happened.

She should have been worrying about telling the beggar lord he'd missed his chance. Seemed like the thing he'd cut off a hand for, even though it wasn't her fault at all. Blame fell where the people in charge wanted it, not where it belonged.

Temple or street, that's the way the world worked.

Cookie flinched, staring down at the thing that had stung her foot. Her eyes widened excitedly and she pounced, breaking the back of the scorpion before sucking up the juicy flesh quickly. She grinned and felt her tail go up at the unexpected snack.