Revenge of the Drow

When the girl had fallen asleep in the dwarf's arms, he extricated himself from her and got dressed. Jade slipped out of her hiding place. Then the four drow stepped out from the alcove. As Jade expected, the woman was first. She received Jade's bolt in her neck, and was dead before she hit the ground.

"What the fuck?" grunted the first male drow in line. He hesitated slightly before entering the room, and this gave Jade time to throw her dagger at the dwarf, who was trying to escape. Jade was now in some danger. She was unarmed; her dagger was sticking out of the dwarf's neck, and her crossbow was unloaded. And three fully armed guards were advancing on her.

Jade slipped off her robe and muttered a spell. She was now naked, apart from a slender thong around her nether regions. Her firm breasts sent out an invitation.

"Come and get it boys," she trilled.

The guards removed their breeches and started advancing.

"Take it all off, boys," she said. "I like skin on skin".

Jade's charm spell and the natural lust of the sex-starved drow male soldier conspired together and they willingly threw their swords, shields and armour aside, and followed Jade to where she was reclining on the couch, next to the dead dwarf. The first one was a bit too eager to plunge himself on top of her reclining body.

Jade had pulled out the remaining garotte from the only place one could be hidden, and slipped it round his neck. As he thrashed around on the floor, the other two guards hesitated. Some sense of danger seemed to be penetrating into their charm-befuddled, lust-filled brains.

Jade recovered her dagger from the dead dwarf and stabbed one of the hesitating naked guards in the guts. He doubled over and started to spurt, and Jade knew he was out of the fight. But the last standing guard was now ready, and had picked up a sword. This was the most dangerous moment of Jade's adventure, as the two naked adversaries circled each other. Jade had used most of her mental energy on the charm spell and did not have enough for more than a very weak mind probe.

Fortunately it was sufficient. This tiny spell, together with Jade's alluring sex appeal was enough to distract the fighter. He stared long and hard at Jade's firm breasts. A mistake, because the breasts would not bite or sting him. The sting came from the dagger, propelled at high speed into his heart. Jade put her whole weight behind the blow as she launched herself on the drow. She twisted the knife and felt the warmth as the blood spurted out of the hole she had made. So much mess, she thought ruefully as the fighter's life ebbed out of him.

Chapter 3: Terry's escape

In the drow dungeon, Terry contemplated his fate. He had been tortured to the limit of his sanity, had told the priestess torturers everything he knew, and now he was being put in a dungeon to recover. He was not being treated badly. The drow gave him a pallet of straw to sleep on with a soft covering. He was fed three times a day. Not dainty food, but nutritious and filling -- mostly based on grain and mushrooms. There was a water barrel in the dungeon, and a bucket for a toilet, which was emptied by drow guards daily. He was provided with a copper of warm water, soap to wash with and a towel to dry himself.

Terry had no illusions. He knew that their seeming solicitousness was part of the treatment. Round two would be beginning shortly. It just made torture more poignant when it could be contrasted with good treatment. Sometimes he knew, enemies even tricked prisoners into thinking they had escaped. This was the cruellest torture of all, because once they had been recaptured they lost all hope and even the most reticent of them became garrulous when the pain began anew.

So Terry knew that the drow still wanted something from him. Though he had no idea what, or why he was still alive. A young priestess came to visit him one day. She was slim and beautiful like all priestesses -- ugly drow women don't tend to live long -- and she told Terry she was there to keep him company. She spoke to Terry about the drow customs. The disembowellings, the ritual hate sessions, the fights and skirmishes. What made Terry's skin crawl was the dispassionate way she recounted acts of extreme barbarity. Not as if she was proud of them, but more as if she was bored and indifferent.

But she was friendly and pleasant to Terry, and after a while, starved as he was of any other company, Terry even started looking forward to her visits. The name he gave her was Elspeth. She was willing enough to answer questions about her own life in the Temple, but did not ask Terry much about himself. Probably because I already told them everything under torture, he thought grimly.

Then Elspeth started telling Terry something very interesting. The High Priestess Xiana had usurped the old High Priestess using some sneaky tactics, including causing the death of a senior drow commander, while she was still a fairly junior cleric. Terry heard about how she had used the false reports on the defences of the dwarfen stronghold, and then how she had arranged for the murdered warrior's daughter to be sold into slavery, with the intention of totally crushing her line.

Terry asked her more. Elspeth told him how Xiana had made a secret deal with some of the dwarfs, occasionally stealing particularly interesting female specimens. Those with talent were worked in the mines. Those without were sacrificed at the altar.

"She told me she took a dwarf healer once," Elspeth went on. "And then she just used her for battle fodder killing a mind slayer. What a waste. Why didn't she keep her here? We could have used her." Then she put her hand to her mouth, conscious of the fact she had spoken treason about the High Priestess. She looked at Terry, who appeared totally ignorant of any cultural breach. She relaxed again.

Terry was quite a hunky bloke, Elspeth decided, and much nicer to her than any drow or orc prisoner would have been. He was nicer than the male drow who serviced her, who were rough and oafish, and would only take her from behind, as though they did not like to see her face. Elspeth on the other hand had caught Terry staring quite intently at her face, and her chest, and obviously liking what he saw.

She wondered what it would be like to couple with him. Was it true that human men had forked dicks, or was that just propaganda spread to discourage half-caste brats? Elspeth's allotted time with the prisoner was almost over, and she had also been warned on pain of death not to start any funny business. But maybe next time, could she possibly risk a quick grope? She would love to find out whether the rumour was true.

But there was not to be a next time. Terry was ordered to be moved. His hands were tied together behind him at one end of a long rope by a guard of four female drow fighters. One of the soldiers held the other end, and Terry was pushed and shoved, until he understood that he was to march with them to the surface. When he got there it was night time, and Terry was made to march above ground all that night, and for several nights to come.

Terry tried to ask them where they were going, but none of them spoke any language but their own. Apart from keeping him tied up, and making him follow them on a rope where he stumbled behind them on dark nights, they did not mistreat him. He was fed when they stopped for food, and was not assaulted in any way.

In fact it appeared Terry was treated far better than his captives treated each other. Hardly an hour would go by without one of the drow women making a snide remark. Sometimes this only merited a snarl in return. At other times, there would be retaliation; kicking, punching and pulling of hair, together with squeals and screams. Then the leader, a brutish thick-muscled woman, would wade into the fray, flailing in all directions, sometimes literally banging heads together to keep the peace.

Terry had served in militia with men and dwarfs, and recalled the easy camaraderie of the outdoor marches. He wondered just what sort of society he had got himself involved in. He wished he had a friendly voice to talk to. And that led to thoughts of Elspeth, and whether he would see her again.

The march continued for three nights. Then, as they started to skirt around populated areas on a particularly dark and cloudy night, Terry heard shouts and running feet. Next moment, there was a sharp jerk on the rope, as something attacked the drow on the other end of it, and Terry was thrown aside. He lay still and all he could hear around him were shouts, blows, and then the sounds of bodies being dragged away. He wondered whether to announce his presence to the attackers, and then decided against it. After all, the enemy of your enemy is not always your friend, especially when they attack so unerringly in pitch darkness.

Terry stayed in his place all night. When the sun rose he looked around him, but saw no sign of his captors, or his captors' captors, except a few marks of scuffles, and a discarded scabbard. Whoever had attacked them had certainly been thorough. Terry's hands were still tied behind him, but he was nevertheless able to stumble his way to the nearest village, where he was eventually led to Formen for questioning. The drow were enemies of the people, and anyone who had been captured by them was eagerly questioned by the city leaders.

#

There were six people in the large council chamber. Jim sat at the head of the table; his deputy at his left. On his right was the captain of militia, and his second in command Maxi, commander of the drow contingent. A scribe sat at the foot of the table, recording everything that was said. The four senior officials in the room quizzed him just as thoroughly as the drow priestesses, wringing every piece of information out of him. Because so few people had been captured by the drow and lived to tell the tale, he was questioned even on details such as the colour of the Priestess's robe. In fact, while their methods were less unpleasant, their skill in information extraction was just as meticulous as the drow, with the result that by the end of the session, Terry felt as if he had been sucked dry.

The first part, Terry did not like at all. A scream by scream account of the torture sessions. The council insisted in knowing exactly what he had told the High Priestess under torture. They did not explicitly blame him for giving in to the treatment -- one might as well blame water for flowing down hill - but their tuts, head shakings and sighs as each revelation came from his mouth were expressive enough. Maxi in particular appeared to be staring hard at Terry, and the mercenary remembered the warning he had been given before the drow captured him.

So Terry told them how the Priestess had learned about the drow officer and the drow enchantress. Maxi stopped him. "There are no drow enchantresses in this city. The woman you met is my girlfriend. She is human."

Terry was about to speak, but the city leader butted in. "Maxi is right. Officially, our bard is human. She is recorded as such on our census. She speaks our language fluently. And after all, our illustrious dark elf warrior knows her body better than any of us, and could attest to any drow markings. Eh, Maxi."

The leader guffawed. Terry could see puzzlement and resentment in Maxi's face. Obviously he was not used to the kind of ribald good natured bantering that goes on amongst men when they are together. Terry remembered his consort, and their continuous bickering, and thought how easily cultural misunderstandings might occur. But Maxi eventually appeared to realise that the leader's bluff, bawdy comments were meant as a joke.

"That's right, Jim - Sir," he said, forcing a smile, and the others laughed.

Terry then told them of his revulsion after getting his first sight of the High Priestess. A beautiful lady, in a purple robe with no underwear, her perfectly formed pubic mound peeping out coyly from the folds of the purple priestly garments, yet full of cold insatiable cruelty.

Terry described how he was kept in prison but otherwise well treated. The others were particularly interested when he mentioned Elspeth, and her many visits.

"Very strange," said the leader. "I know drow like to toy with their prisoners, cat and mouse, but I have never known them provide a prisoner with a girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend," protested Terry.

Jim laughed. "Oh, aye, then why are you so daft on her. You went into a glazed look when you mentioned her. You're in love with her, aren't you?"

Terry turned red and stammered. "Well, yes, I think she is a very sweet girl. A bit wayward, perhaps..."

Maxi slapped his thigh. "'A bit wayward!' That would be like describing the High Priestess's ministrations as 'a bit painful'".

Terry opened his mouth, but Maxi leaned towards him and hissed. "Listen mate, Priestesses are psycho. I mean all drow are psycho -- and I should know -- but priestesses are the lowest of low life scum. You know they are brought up in the temple from babies. Encouraged to attend tortures and ritual disembowelling as soon as they can walk. Then when their baby fingers can grasp a knife, they are made to stick it in. They worship some completely mad female mumbo jumbo in the shape of a spider that bites the heads off its men. They have no feelings for anything at all except mayhem and carnage. And your heartthrob is one of these. We know you're stupid -- you proved this by getting caught. But this raises stupid to an art form. This is completely wacko."

Terry stammered again, trying to speak, intimidated by this brash soldier who had bested him so easily before. But before he could do so, the leader stepped in.

"That's enough, Maxi," he said in a stern voice, though he was grinning as he said it. "Our Terry's in love -- can't you see. He won't hear anything bad against his girl. Just don't let her give you a blow job, Terry lad. Not if you value your dick."

The rest of the company roared with laughter, but Terry couldn't see the joke..

Everyone's smiles soon disappeared when Terry delivered his next piece of news, and told them what Elspeth had said to him about Xiana's part in the murder of Trieste, and the attempted murder of Jade.

"So it was her all along," said Maxi.

"Was the victim a friend of yours?" asked Terry.

"Mother of Jade," replied Maxi shortly. Then realised he had revealed Jade's drow heritage.

"Who you were bonking, according to Elspeth. And now you're doing the same to the daughter. Happy families, drow style." Terry taunted Maxi, hoping to get some revenge from Maxi's last attack on Elspeth.

But Maxi was not to be drawn. "Aye," he said. "So now you know what we're like. So best keep away from drow women. Unless, as our leader says, you want to wake up with bits of yourself missing."

"Maybe Elspeth can get away from them. You did. So did your lovers. How did you all do it?" asked Terry.

Maxi stared hard at Terry. "It's true," he said. "It's hard to throw off the bonds of our culture, but not impossible. But none of us are priestesses. They're so steeped in their spider fetish, it will take a miracle to extricate them."

Terry, was silent, his head full of romantic dreams of rescuing Elspeth from the Spider's web and claiming her for himself. He noticed Maxi glancing at him with what appeared to be some semblance of fellow feeling.

#

Xiana looked with disdain at the thick-set sergeant. Brutal and bulging. Almost like a man. If it were not for her prowess in battle, and her physical strength, often called upon to bend bars, open badly built sticking doors and other mundane tasks, she would have been strangled long ago, along with all the other man-like women and effeminate men.

But the sergeant had certainly done well on her previous mission. She had fallen on her own companions, beat them unconscious and dragged them across miles of open country so convincingly that she had fooled everyone, including her companions. After they had woken up, bruised and battered in a cave some miles from the scene of the contrived skirmish, their first thought was that they had been kidnapped by feral orcs or some other night hunting demi-human; perverted product of the original separation of men and elves. But then they noticed their leader peering down from the cave entrance and grinning at them.

"What a bunch of talentless wusses," she sneered. "Took you totally by surprise. This was part of the plan. When we get back, you tell them we were attacked by orcs, and they took our prisoner. And anyone who says anything different dies a painful death."

The three women looked at their leader sullenly. It was quite possible that she was hatching some elaborate scheme of her own. That she herself had sold the prisoner to marauding orcs. But then they came to the conclusion that her story was likely true. After all, their sergeant, in spite of being an ugly hairy brute, was a favourite of some of the officers, who were in turn favourites of the priestesses. So they agreed with her demand.

And so now Xiana laughed maniacally after hearing the sergeant's report. The hapless human would make his way to Formen and tell them everything Elspeth had told him. The drow pervert and the half caste temple trash would find out. And they would come looking for her, with their pathetic notions of honour. And what's more, the temple slave was familiar with the temple customs and would know exactly where Xiana was supposedly the most vulnerable. Trapped like a fly in a web.

Xiana gave some further orders to the sergeant, spinning her threads and chuckling to herself in anticipation of revenge. She would not torture her captives to death. She would not do anything so crude. Instead she would break them. The Spider would get back what was hers by right. By the time she had finished with them, they would forget all feeling for each other, their spirits completely crushed.

The half caste would go back to slavery, where she would serve the Spider till she died. And this time there would be no powerful patron to protect her from the worst abuses of the men. The male pervert would go back to the army where he belonged. But not as an officer. Xiana would place him under the command of that thuggish man-hating dyke. That would be punishment indeed. The two renegades would never see each other again, but nor would they want to. They would never love again. Not each other, nor anyone else. Their world would be filled with hate, misery and pain.

Chapter 4: Journey to the dwarfs

Jade looked at the naked girl on the couch, still sleeping off the drugs she had been given. She stroked her gently on the back, chuckling softly to herself over what the innocent creature would find when she woke up. The room splattered in blood, and seven corpses littered around, three of them naked. Perhaps the shock would teach the little fool to be more careful who she falls in love with.

Jade retrieved her gold, and some drow gems she found in the clothes of the dead acolyte -- payment for the girl. "I'll take that, girl," she said to the naked figure. "Cost of your foolish, sorry arse. Payable to me for saving it."

Jade left via the passageway in the alcove behind the one-way mirror. As expected, it sloped upwards towards the surface about a mile from the entrance to the dwarf settlement, but, unexpectedly, there was also a side passage going down.

Possibly a connection via an underground labyrinth to the drow complex, thought Jade. She considered following it down to see where it led, but then turned abruptly away and took the straight passage towards the surface.

Jade made this decision for two reasons. Firstly, she was on her own, drained of spell energy, and in no state to meet whatever unpleasant inhabitants she might meet in the caverns. And secondly - she may as well admit it. She missed Maxi. Jade had been travelling at walking pace with the dwarf caravan for three days, spending every rest period sprawled on the ground. Jade was used to privation, and the hardness of the ground in itself did not bother her. But she was lying alone. Maxi's warm body was not beside her. And Maxi was amusing, lively, a source of fun who could distract her from the deep depression she often felt.