Quest for the Dragon Soul Pt. 05

As the pouring rain evolved into a full storm, a bolt of lightning flashed and Khaln saw their combined bodies reflected upon the night like a single, rapturous beast.

The Matron Sonorous allowed Khaln to pull from her and maneuver her onto her hands and knees and while she bunched her cloak into a makeshift pillow, he entered her from behind. The matron raised her ass into the air and he grabbed her hips, thrusting into her with all the mighty abandon his hips and buttocks could supply and he laughed at the thunder as his long hair whipped about in the wind.

The Matron Sonorous felt their intimate exchange of bliss and fluids as Khaln rammed into her, and she pondered how the same strength that gave her so much pleasure could pivot and cause vast destruction when need be. But Khaln was dedicated to creating an orgasm she felt would shatter her, and with it perhaps shatter her condition as a Matron and deliver a touch of her humanity back to her.

But beyond such considerations, both Khaln and the Matron were reverting to more primal incarnations, driven by lust and need. Khaln felt blissful madness build in his balls and when his thrusting cock hinted at the slightest twitch of release, the Matron reached between her thighs and fingered her energized clit and, combined with the sensual friction of his cock deep in her cunt, she came with a torrent of hot fluids and arched her back and unleashed a scream of pleasure that displaced a wall of water nearly as wide as the barge that was their bed.

'Aaaahhhhh!" Khaln moaned a second later as reason escaped and bliss blinded him as he poured a river of his seed deep into the Matron's pussy, filling her to the point of overflowing her canal but he had to hold upon her hips as the wall of water she had displaced came crashing upon the barge's forward bow. The vessel was lifted high upon a wall of water before crashing back onto the surface of the fresh Ardent sea.

Even though they were thrown aft of the barge, Khaln never let go of the Matron, ensuring she received the full measure of his seed even as they rolled across the deck. They came to rest against the wall of a grand, triangular shaped structure and as the barge settled on the water, the Matron slipped from his softening manhood.

The Matron turned to her lover, the rain lessening as the sky grew calm.

"I wondered," Khaln said as looked upon the Matron's eyeless visage. 'What was your name?"

"Tiephy," the Matron said. "I was called Tiephy."

"Well, Tiephy," Khaln said as he regained his footing. "We are no longer alone."

The Matron Sonorous, now called her old name Tiephy, stood and joined Khaln as he looked to the west. A fast moving structure plowed the sea on a course to rendez-vous with the barge of the former Dread Lord of Ax'Herith. Its sails glowed pale against the night.

"I'm beginning to reconsider my decision of letting the other Matrons go," Khaln mused.

III

General Dagleon Talveiss stood before a stoic cohort of 50 of the best warriors recruited from among the refugee settlements that lay scattered beneath the city of Melit'Zay. They had all been given a helmet, gambeson, chain-mail shirt, chest plate, shield and falchion sword and a spear. Ahead of the cohort was the empty bed of the underground river that nourished the assembled settlements. An hour long march had led them to a vast plateau that arose around the dry river bed, its sides seemingly touching the top of the cave but leaving space enough to allow a camp.

"Those cliffs are tall," Liervel said as he gazed upwards. He stood at the general's right and glanced at his commanding officer.

"It's a big cave," Talveiss said with his whispery, raspy voice. "The Brerebdari chose their settlement well, so far from the main tunnels."

"No wonder the Seeded Council was blind to what transpired here," Liervel said, looking back at the direction they came.

"It must be shown that the Seeded Council is still in control, Liervel," the general said.

"Would not the presence of the great general Dagleon Talveiss and his sword Eldrath'Zhil cower any resistance?"

Dagleon rested his calloused hand upon the blade at his side and snorted. "We have to find the resistance first."

Upon those words, the scouts they had enlisted -- lightly dressed climbers covered in dirt to better blend with the shadows -- returned and reported: the Brerebdari encampment was quiet. Fires shone but the ground was covered in tattered cloth and the air smelled of blood.

"We climb," the general simply ordered and advanced, leading his cohort to sheath their swords and hang shields from their backs.

"Siege bolts," Liervel ordered and 6 men unbound three large crossbows -- they employed a huge goat's foot lever to cock the bows, loaded the accompanying bolts, targeted the space atop the 100 foot tall cliff and loosed the bolts. They struck their targets and trailed behind them long segments of knotted rope.

General Talveiss looked up and grabbed the rope in his gloved hands and he proceeded to climb the steep cliff walls. He was quickly followed by Liervel and the other soldiers -- they were not used to being clad in armor so most made a clumsy ascension. The general was thankful that they were able to remain relatively quiet as they climbed, keeping chatter and the clanging of armor and shield to a minimum. He was the first to hoist himself over the crest of the cliff and crouched while scanning where the powerful underground river should have crashed down the center of the plateau. He noticed the Brerebdari had erected bridges to join the two shores of their settlement.

Liervel joined the general and peered across the plateau, noticing a single path that lead down the groove the river had eroded in the plateau. He signaled it to general Talveiss and the general nodded while counting the tents and the dying fires before them. Hundreds of tents littered the plateau.

"There must have been hundreds of people here," one of the soldiers said as the host formed behind the general.

"Liervel," general Talveiss said in his naturally hushed tone. "Take half the men and secure the perimeter of the encampment. I'll lead the rest into its center and search outwards -- if anything or anyone tries to run or break into the perimeter, be ready. "

"General ... we don't have enough men," Liervel whispered while some soldiers shuffled nervously.

"I know. But you have discipline and the purview to act -- do so. Be swift and bloody and brutal with anything you perceive as a danger."

Liervel snapped to attention and hurried his men outside the settlement while General Dagleon Talveiss marched into the center of the encampment.

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The Brerebdari had built sturdy tents and had established a smelt in order to smith tools and weapons from the metals mined from the walls of the huge chamber that housed the plateau they had settled upon.

As general Dagleon Talveiss and his men searched the grounds, their torches flickering in the darkness, he deciphered the tracks of warriors who had fought against some kind of force that left strange claw-like marks in the ground and in the poles that had supported collapsed tents. As he turned around a bend, he saw one of his men-at-arms exit a tent carrying a silver goblet encrusted with opals. The soldier raised his head from his prize and was suddenly facing his general -- the soldier fell on his ass as general Dagleon Talveiss glared at him, a ferocious scowl twisting his face.

"You are a soldier under my command, cur," the general hissed. "Not a common thief. Wait until we've ascertained their whereabouts before pillaging their ruins."

The soldier nodded glumly and returned to the examination of the battle scarred encampment. As the soldier stumbled away, the general noticed the stolen goblet had fallen next to a piece of dark cloth from which dangled a broken blade. As he examined the cloth and the metal, he began to re-examine the marking and realization seized him.

"There's movement upriver!" a soldier cried out. General Dagleon Talveiss cursed as he saw his anxious soldiers join their comrades on the outskirts of the settlement -- he tucked the cloth in his belt and sprinted to join his men as they crossed a bridge to the reach the shore where the movement was spotted. As he moved among the soldiers, the general noticed that their eyes were growing feral at the thought of battle. It also explained their lack of sense.

The men formed a line that spread across both shores of the river, its empty bed separating the line in two. The general cursed as he knew the only way to reinforce a single position was to double back to a crossing while turning their backs to any potential pursuer. He scanned the burning torches and spotted his lieutenant Liervel as he searched the darkness for the moving shadows they had just detected a few moments earlier.

"Liervel!" General Dagleon Talveiss snapped, recalling the lieutenant away from the shadows -- the lieutenant turned and stared at his general for a brief moment, his eyes seized with a feral, murderous glint the general had not seen before. But the lieutenant snapped from his odd glare and saluted his general.

"Take command of the men on the opposite shore and have them fall back to a position behind this line," the general ordered paying close attention to Liervel's demeanor. "The battle here left marks like the ones left by the Scything Souls."

"The Call of Skaelor's here?" Liervel asked, alarmed that an enemy they thought dormant was now prowling the darkness of one of humanity's last havens. The look of murder had completely drained from his face.

The general nodded gravely. "Now be swift and be bold," he said to the nervous lieutenant. "And prepare to be bloody."

Liervel snapped to a salute and dashed back to a wood crossing, shouting to the men across the shore to hold their position. Meanwhile, general Dagleon Talveiss pulled the sword Eldrath'Zhil from its sheath and marched ahead of his line of nervous but battle hungry soldiers.

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Despite her closed eyes, she could see the men and women prostrate around her -- they held long knives to their chests and each in turn plunged the long blade into their willing flesh, filling the cave with the coppery smell of gushing blood.

She felt unseen chains hoist her into the air and invisible needles pierce the flesh of her back as her gift was pulled from her essence and used to bind the powerful river that once flooded the caves. She had been the only child of the chieftain of the Brerebdari and was also a mage-maiden -- only one every few generations was born to the tribes. As she struggled to open her eyes and witness her tribesmen be slaughtered by the Scything Souls while others were remade in their image, she feared she was to be the last of the Brerebdari mage-maidens. It was odd though that the extraction of her magical essence would leave her with a sense of contentment. It was then that she realized such effects were not the work of the Call of Skaelor -- its magic effects were usually full of suffering and fear. A different agent was at work here. She could almost touch ... divinity.

Her eyes focused suddenly when the tormentors of her tribe gazed unto the darkness and saw the flickering glow of torch lights and heard the clanging of swords and shields.

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The engagement was fast and furious as the first evidence of the advancing horde was a glint of torch light off the long blades that adorned the extremities of the Scything Souls. General Dagleon Talveiss had yet to even raise the sword Eldrath'Zhil that his men howled as though possessed by a primeval blood thirst and they launched themselves at the Scything Souls, even dropping their torches and fighting blindly.

"Damn it!" the general shouted with his raspy voice. "Second squad! Split from the line and and drive as many as you can into the river bed -- Liervel! Have spear men contain them and use torches to light them up!"

"First squad, converge on me and and we'll split the rest down the center -- spears to the outside flank behind second squad! Drive them onto our swords or onto the opposite wall."

The general used Eldrath'Zhil to pierce and slash through the Scything souls that were corralled towards him, finding the human hearts the creatures used as their power sources, but he also noticed that the tactics of the Scything Souls were erratic. When he had fought them on the plains south of Melit'Zay, they had exhibited military tactics that were bold and difficult to predict, but these Scything Souls were erratic as they threw themselves onto swords -- he saw some climb the sides of the huge cavern and drop onto unsuspecting soldiers. The general cried out, drawing the attention of of some of the spear men but it was too late as the Scything Souls fell upon the soldiers, engulfing them and muffling their screams of agony as blood dripped from the dark creatures.

General Dagleon Talveiss ducked and sidestepped the thrusts aimed at his head as Eldrath'Zhil relentlessly found the weak spots of the Scything Souls, but as he waltzed with the shadow of death the battle he had hoped to lead was falling to chaos. The soldiers, exposed to the Scything Souls, were driven mad -- the general reached out and yanked a Soul from a soldier, only to discover his clawing at his eyes, rivulets of blood running down his cheeks and staining his armor All around him, the soldiers who had survived the swift engagement with the Scything Souls had all fallen prey to a madness that made them mutilate themselves.

The General turned to gaze at the other side of the river shore but his possessed soldiers and Scything Souls joined to form a wall between him and his other men. The general cursed and backed away from the corrupt remnants of his host of soldiers and the servants of the Call of Skaelor. They were forcing him deeper into the darkness, where the mighty river found its entry point into the maze of tunnels beneath the city. Dagleon Talveiss picked up a still burning torch and dove into the encroaching, rustling darkness.

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Liervel heaved urns full of pitch into the empty river bed as his squad tossed lit torches onto the Scything Souls they had managed to drive over the edge, but some had reached out and entangled men and drag them into the fire -- Liervel cursed under his breath as he watched good men scream in agony as their amours heated and boiled them while fire licked at their exposed flesh. Yet Liervel knew they would have to be sacrificed to halt the advance of the Call of Skaelor. The young lieutenant chanced a glance to the other shore and saw with horror that his general and the other soldiers were overrun by Scything Souls. He gasped when he saw some of his own comrades screaming madly and offering their flesh to the monsters that preyed on them.

"Fall back! Fall back!" Liervel shouted as he grabbed the closest soldier and yanked him from his struggle with a Scything Soul -- he drove his sword into the creature's center, piecing its stolen heart and it fell limp. His eyes blazed, reflecting the fire that consumed enemies and comrades and it also reflected his own rage while he oversaw the retreat of the rest of his men. He hoped the runner he sent was able to reach the closest militia and his orders of erecting barricades were followed.

Liervel stabbed a Scything Soul as the last of his squad escaped -- he looked at the other shore and hoped general Talveiss had made an escape. He then turned and retreated with the men in his charge.

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"Why won't you fuckers stay dead?" the general asked beneath his breath as he fought. Torch in hand, he blazed a trail through the Scything Souls that barred his path -- the sword Eldrath'Zhil hummed as it sliced and cut and cleaved whatever stood in its way. But even as they fell, the Scything Souls became upright a few seconds later, reinforcing the general's belief that the were controlled by something else. As he ran, he pondered the mages, witches and wizards who might be powerful enough to commit such a spell but he realized that after the Arcane Ailment decimated the ranks of magic users, not even lord Thierann would be powerful enough to do this.

A pursuing Scything Soul grabbed Dagleon Talveiss's sword arm -- the general pivoted and dragged the Scything Soul off balance and slit it across its mid section. The blow left the general backing away from two scurrying pieces of eldritch fabric until they suddenly stopped. He observed that the other Scything Souls and mad soldiers had also halted -- he glanced over his shoulder and gasped when he saw the blood splattered corpses of the Brerebdari people littering the ground, illuminated by a chilling white glow.

General Dagleon Talveiss understood that he had been unwittingly drawn to the light like a moth to a flame, eager to meet its fiery end. He raised a hand to his eyes to shade his sight and he made out the silhouette of a young woman floating near the ceiling of the great, underground chamber.

"Very well then," general Dagleon Talveiss groaned as he came to recognize the geography -- he had reached the source of the underground river that allowed the refuge from the war with the Call of Skaelor to exist. Foregoing a torch, the general unsheathed a dagger and, along with the sword Eldrath'Zhil, marched at a double pace to confront what he was sure was the glowing source of the present horror.

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"Archers -- loose!" Lieutenant Liervel shouted to the soldiers and members of the Qoazti Companion that had assembled a fortified position alongside the river, some half a league before the first ring of settlements beneath the city of Melit'Zay. The arrows that were released buried themselves into the advancing line of Scything Souls and the rampant, burning carcasses of fellow soldiers that had fallen in the makeshift pyre Liervel had sought to burn them in at the Brerebdari settlement. The Qoazti arrows focused on the Scything Souls, halting the sound of their metal claws scraping across the the stones poking from the dry riverbed, while the soldiers concentrated their arrows upon corrupt comrades, fueled by some eldritch rage.

"Knock and loose at will!" Liervel gave as his second order, just before picking up a bow and unleashing and arrow. Unfortunately, he also knew he would have to hold this position until reinforcements, accompanied hopefully by a mage or wizard, arrived.

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The light emanating from the floating figure exerted pressure upon general Dagleon Talveiss's flesh as he pushed forward against its resistance. Sweat drenched the gambeson he wore beneath his armored breast plate so he had had no choice but remove them both, exposing his scarred, naked flesh to the searing, eldritch light. The sword Eldrath'Zhil showed a disquieting heaviness in his had and he noticed it seemed to grow oddly darker beneath the light. The general spat and pushed onward.

As general Talveiss neared the levitating woman, he began hear painful sobs as he was now better able to make out her condition: she wore a simple, sand colored gown that was torn and tattered and bloodied; from her back, he could see what could only described as snakes made of light emerge and dive in and out of her limbs. Though they left no wounds, the snakes emerged smeared in blood and their movements made the woman whimper -- drops of her blood fell upon his face as rain as he looked up at her.

"Are you here to kill me?" she pleaded as she looked down at the general. Dagleon Talveiss gripped his sword, noting again how its metal sheen seemed somehow darkened before he buried its tip into the ground.

"That will depend on the story you share with me, girl," the general said with his usual raspy hush. "Tell me how you came to be the apparent destroyer of the Brerebdari -- and how you came to control the servants of the Call of Skaelor."