The Saga of Tallia the Unwilling Ch. 07

Disclaimer: Everyone is over eighteen. If you are not deeply into fantasy pulp fiction, gender fluidity and pansexuality, you are in the wrong place. We are half way through the first book and I want to make one thing perfectly clear. It is possible to read this story as a metaphor for the transgender experience. Tallia goes from being a man to a woman and feels, for a time, she is cursed. I just want to make clear that however you read this story, it is not the intent of the author to throw any shade at actual transgender people. Yay transgender people! I support your journeys and hope that soon society as a whole will embrace you. I know that trans people take a lot of shit in our world and I hope my writing is never perceived as part of that. Much love!

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Chapter Seven: Pulling Out Just in Time

In the camp of the raiding party, Zara Burning Horn tried to get some sleep. She slept naked inside a pavilion made of stolen silk, guarded by two of the bestial Sons of Arion. In a day or two, they would be back in Arion's fortress. She could report a complete success in her mission at punishing Jiu Shan. Doubtless, the wizard's only reward would be another mission to enforce his will. And then she would go forth once more to bring her hellfire to this world. The very thought made her smile.

Getting to the village had been, as always, the easy part. The raiders had travelled there through one of the wizard's portals to ensure surprise against the villagers. But there was no return portal so they had to hike home across the marshy headlands of the River Deng back to the fortress. It had rained every day, but then what did she care? She had been raised in the depths of hell. What this worse than that?

She hated camping with these beast-men mortals of course. The wizard's transformations had made them into lustful half-men barely in control of their savages wants. She certainly knew exactly what each of them wanted of her. Mother had chosen to send her into this world, after all, clothed in the flesh of a beautiful, lithe female form, albeit one with bright red skin and curving horns. But even possessing such beauty, the beast-men were too terrified of her power to try and force themselves on her. And rightly so. If the brutes tried anything, she would burn them to ash with demon flame.

What did occasionally gnaw at her was how little of her past she could actually remember. As she tried to recall anything about the days before she was summoned forth from hell by the wizard's sacrifices to her mother, she had to admit -- her memories were an odd patchwork of images and half-formed moments. In truth, she remembered little before she been called to this realm from across the void. She had vague memories of living in hell, but little specifics. Perhaps it had something to do with being summoned to the realms of men. She knew not.

In the end, what did it matter? She was not some ridiculous mortal but a demon spawned in the pits of the Queen of Hell. She knew her mission -- to serve her master and her mother. She knew her power -- she was a master of the shaping of hellfire. What else did she need in this life?

But then there were other memories that occasionally crept into the edges of her mind. She usually only encountered them while deep in dreams or on the edge of sleep, like now. She saw herself without her horns and crimson skin, riding a horse across an endless desert without a name. She was not alone in this magnificent waste -- there was another with her. He looked almost exactly like her, but was a bearded figure, handsome and high spirited who road alongside her. They laughed and raced the wind and each other. But where she had seen him or who he was or if he was even real -- she could not say.

She tried to push it all from her mind. She was Zara Burning Horn, hell-born enforcer for the wizard. She was the daughter of the Mother of Monsters, the Queen of Demons. She was death. She was fire. All else was irrelevant and ridiculous.

But even now, as she finally found sleep once more, still she saw herself laughing and riding a horse whose hooves threw up fine golden sand. She raced the sun to return before nightfall once more to... where? At last she found sleep, but no answers.

***

The days and nights began to drag out and blend together in the dungeons of Arion Three-Eyes. After Tallia's return from the arena, it was quiet and keeping track of time became more difficult. The cycle of sun and moon was increasingly a distant memory to the four prisoners. The only certainty they could muster was that they were fed gruel only once per day by the crow-man. Three feedings went by. If those corresponded exactly to a twenty four cycle, it became increasingly impossible to be certain.

This isolated wing of the dungeon was also becoming more and more horrid to inhabit. There was a chamber pot in each cell, but they had not been emptied since their imprisonment began and each was now full and foul. Insects teemed amidst the befouled straw. The air was a foul miasma of awful smells. Liandra had been left unchained, but Mela remained bound and her immobilization was clearly killing her. Her wrists were red, she drifted in and out of consciousness lost in a haze of exhaustion and delirium. And of course, her waste was all about her.

Hilarius also was starting to wear down and hours after the feeding in what he hoped were the late hours of the night, he contemplated a crazy plan. "We've got to get out of here," whispered the rogue to his cell-mate.

Tallia answered also in a whisper, "I want nothing more, but how?"

"There has to be a way out," said Hilarius lost in contemplation. "We've escaped from more closely guarded places than this. Let's face it... this is a terrible prison compared to the oubliettes of Yaath'Xin. The guards are little more than beasts, the locks are shit. I can pick them in my sleep."

"It is not the bars that keep us here," said Tallia.

"Yes," whispered the rogue. "The Eye..."

"The Eye," answered the Amazon.

"We can't disobey the Eye, that's for sure... Wait, how about an experiment?"

"Ok," answered Tallia dubiously.

Hilarius again produced the stolen knife which seemed so far to go unmissed. He picked his lock, Tallia's lock and then the lock to the door of their cell with practiced ease. "Try to leave," he said to Tallia.

"We've been through this," answered the Amazon. "I can't..."

"I know, I know. The Eye commands us, but let's try again anyway," he said.

"Fine," she said. When Hilarius had an idea, there was no talking him out of it. Besides, what else did she have to do? She got up, walked towards the threshold of her cell and then stopped. The Eye could not be disobeyed. She knew that. She felt that. She must remain until summoned. She must! She tried to take a single step, even the smallest of steps. A green fire began to burn within her mind. Nothing save the call of her master could get her out of this cell.

That is when Hilarius rammed her in the back without warning. She stumbled out of the cell, knocked just a few steps forward by the unseen blow, and into the hallway. The Amazon almost instinctively turned around, ready to answer the blow. But then she hesitated. She was out. She was out! She felt the compulsion within her own mind begin to fade.

"I wasn't sure it would work," he said. "You see we were all commanded not to leave the cell, not to get back in."

"You are a damn genius," she said to the smiling rogue.

"It's a burden I've learned to live with," said the thief with a smirk. Hilarius then walked up to the door of the cell and turned his back to Tallia. "Myself, I am completely happy to obey the Eye and stay in my cell. The poop bucket in particular is quite fetching."

The Amazon understood and amidst the rogue's ramblings, grabbed him by the waist and gave him a powerful yank and he stumbled out the cell. The rogue actually tried to grab the bars, intent upon remaining in the cell, in truth desperate not to disobey the Eye. But it did not matter... Tallia was too strong and he was pulled to freedom.

"Wow, breaking the threshold is quite a head rush," he muttered, quickly regaining his composure. "Stand guard." The rogue's words were unnecessary. Tallia was already at the door at the far end of their corridor, lying in ambush if they had any visitors.

Then the thief took his knife and went to Mela's cell. He picked the lock and then freed the passed out sidhe by simply pushing her out of the cell. "She has a fever," he said.

"It's the filth of this place," said Liandra who had been intently watching the unfolding escape. "The poison has gotten into her blood."

Hilarius then discovered he was once more having trouble leaving. He needed to remain here until he was summoned. Still, Tallia was able to repeat pulling the thief out.

"The headrush was less this time," observed Hilarius. "I think the more we overcome the command, the more it fades."

Shortly, by similar technique, Liandra too was released from her cell. For the first time in days, all four of the prisoners were free at least from their individual cells. Liandra put her hand to Mela's forehead. "She is burning up. This is a serious fever. If she doesn't have medicine soon, we may lose her. If only I had my satchel..."

"We'll see if we can find it," whispered Tallia, "but our first problem is there is a chamber full of guards on the other side of this door and we have no weapons but one small knife."

Hilarius carefully cut a strip of cloth from his already tattered and ruined shirt. He folded the strip several times and made a make-shift sling. He then used the knife to pry a few small stones from the floor. "Sling stones," he explained managing to scavenge a half dozen pieces of ammunition.

"I'll throw stones. You get the knife," the rogue said handing the crude weapon to Tallia. "Liandra, you carry Mela and stay back. Look, I know the odds aren't good but I say we try to break out anyway. It is late at night. We might catch them unawares and frankly, I'd rather die fighting than slowly wasting away inside this stinking cell waiting for that damn wizard to restock his arena."

No one needed any convincing, agreeing without another word. Tallia crept to the door, knife in hand. She gently tested the door. It was a heavy but simple portal without windows, locks or adornment. It was little more than a hinged slab of teak with a great ring of brass in its center. She pulled it open but a thin crack and peered into the chamber beyond.

The room was not large and was so cluttered with cots, crates and other junk it had an overall claustrophobic feel to it. There were six of the Sons of Arion within, four asleep on cots against the wall and two awake and sitting at a crude table in the center of the chamber. One, a boar-headed creature looked groggy and bored sitting on a stool that strained to support his weight. The second, a weird frogman with great bulbous eyes and pale green skin was eagerly hunting the few flies that buzzed about the chamber and paying scant attention to anything else. The flickering torchlight was sparse but did reveal that there was a crude signal horn lying in the middle of that table. At the far end of the cramped chamber was another door leading to... well, anywhere but here.

Tallia and Hilarius both silently appraised the situation. Tallia pointed at the frog man. Hilarius nodded. He had the groggy boar. She counted to three and in they charged in practiced unison.

The battle started so well. Tallia lunged at the frogman and plunged her knife into its throat in one savage thrust. She was rewarded with a gout of blue frog's blood and seized the creature's short stabbing sword that hung at its belt. Hilarius bounced a stone hard against the boar's head and it fell backward.

Unfortunately, though the frog-man gurgled in death quietly, the boar fell back with his head gashed, bleeding and making a horrid hog's squeal. The other four monster men were quickly roused by this and howled angrily at the invasion. The room then became a mad and murderous scramble between the guards to grab that signal horn and the escaping prisoners to keep that from happening at all costs. Tallia jammed the frog's short sword into a waking goat creature who bled voluminously into his filthy cot. Hilarius battered the boar with a second stone slung hard into its gut and at last it silenced.

That is when the fight turned brutal. Two of the creatures, a stout black-furred ape-beast and a snarling dog-man, tackled Tallia before she could slash them with her blade. The ape tried to jam a knife into the Amazon's throat, and she deflected the blow but only enough to earn a long laceration across her shoulder. Hilarius was rushed instead by only one beast-man but it was the largest of the guards -- the lumbering crocodile-man who had been tormenting them for days. The quick rogue deftly avoided the creature's snapping jaw and its heavy club but was knocked to the floor as the reptilian creature swept his legs with a swish of its leathery tail. The horror grabbed Hilarius and begin to strangle him with its powerful clawed hands.

Talia's incredible strength took the knife wielding ape-creature off guard. She kicked up at the beast-man on top of her with an impossibly powerful blow, hurling the creature off and entirely across the room. The beast-man crashed into cots and crates. The dog creature answered this blow by biting at her, trying to get its teeth into her face and throat but instead biting down into her left arm. She groaned in pain as the teeth bit into her but did not cry out. The Amazon jammed the blood-streaked short sword into her attacker's upper torso. She felt her sword jam through the creature's breast bone and shatter past it. The monster man fell back, bleeding like a fountain and gasping for air as its lungs collapsed.

Hilarius could feel little rivulets of blood leaking from his throat as the crocodile man tightened its grasp, threatening to crush his wind pipe. Hilarius struggled but could find neither breath nor freedom. He fell to his knees before the cruel crocodilian beast-man. Then the monster made a gurling noise and a single blood-drenched arrow appeared through its scaly throat. Sang the Silent emerged from the far door already knocking a second shaft. She proved to have no immediate use for it, as now all the Sons of Arion in the guardroom were either dead or dying.

Sang, amazingly, spoke, "Took you long enough."

Talia, bleeding in several places regained her feet and jammed her sword into the head of the broken back ape creature, mercifully ending his suffering but also his ability to make noise. She then gave Hilarius a hand up. "Still with us?" she asked.

Hilarius nodded, gasping for air. "Yes, yes I am. Look, guys, I know this hell hole of a prison is great. But I think I must insist we seek other accommodations."

Tallia chuckled. Even half dead, the rogue had time to jest.

Liandra though, still barely strong to lift even the feverish sidhe, smiled not at the jest but at their silent companion's return. "Sang! You escaped! Praise the Lord and Lady of Love!"

Sang nodded but then shushed any further conversation or jests. She well knew there were plenty more Sons of Arion nearby. She silently beckoned for the former prisoners to follow her. They did so, but not before Tallia collected a second short sword and Hilarius scavenged a curved short blade of his own as well as a half dozen knives he tucked in a leather harness.

And then they left their prison behind, sneaking quietly out of the guardroom. For the first time since their ill-fated assault upon the wizard's sanctum all four of the original invaders of Arion's fortress were reunited and once more free.

Sang led the freed prisoners not out of the prison but deeper in, returning them at last to a familiar spot -- this was the crack in the wall that led down into the sidhe tunnels beneath the fortress. This was where they had rescued Melaerryn now four or five days previous from would-be rapists. They were returning to the darkness, but now they bore a brace of burning brands instead of relying upon the flickering light of one precarious candle.

They travelled swiftly but not far through the crack into the winding sidhe ruins. These dark stone passages remained just as winding and labyrinthine as the first time they had made their way up into the bowels of the wizard's fortress. They arrived at last to Sang's hiding spot. She had been sleeping in a small little side chamber scarcely larger than a closet. There she had, since escaping the wizard, thieving from the wizard's servants and had accumulated a small cache of stolen provender.

She had water both in several skins and a bucket. The cool clean water tasted better than sweet wine to the escapees. Everyone washed as best they could, using rags or odd scraps of cloth. Tallia cleaned her own wounds and Hilarius' neck scrapes. Liandra cleaned Mela and tried at last to cool her fever.

Sang also had actual food instead of the prison gruel -- dried meat of some variety as well as a bag full of stolen white rice buns. They were spongy, slightly sweet and filling and she shared her bounty amongst the band. After days of gruel, these seemed a banquet instead of the humble peasant food they actually were.

Tallia put her hand on Sang's shoulder as she was distributing these supplies and said, "Sang, you are truly sent by the gods. We owe you a debt we cannot repay."

Sang nodded, almost shyly to the beautiful and still quite naked Amazon. For a moment, Sang considered asking her for a kiss. But instead she only smiled and spoke, "Time to go."

Hilarius wrapped a piece of cloth around his sore, scratched and bleeding neck. "Sang, I've never heard sweeter words."

Tallia nodded, almost instinctively and then considered. If they left now, what had all of this suffering been for? Arion Three-Eyes was still alive and labored towards his dreams of empire. He would raid more villages and craft more monsters. She sighed. "If we... If I leave now, all of this has been for nothing."