Dragon (S)Layers Ch. 21

Iron hatred burned in Briee's soul, anger and fury the likes of which Ammy had never glimpsed- an old fury, older than the gods maybe. She wasn't going to win this fight... Briee seemed to sense it too, she wagged her brow playfully.

Amaranth pushed forward on the heavy blade, shouting back at Richard. "GET OUT OF HERE!"

"No-"

"NOW! GO!"

Markus groaned off to the side, stirring in the shallow ditch.

Briee leaned in close enough to kiss the half-elf, her voice echoed an inhuman purr that rumbled somewhere deep in her chest, "ever wonder what it would be like to die?"

Ammy felt her arms burn with the weight of the sword and the woman pushing down on her. "Ever-" she huffed "Wonder what it'd be like to have a breath mint?"

The woman howled a laugh. "I like you!" Her pressure eased up giving Ammy a precious inch. She opened herself to her goddess's blessings, feeling the power well up in her spine and spark across her body. With the renewed strength, she launched upward and forward shoving the smaller woman off balance, bracing her foot behind the brunette's and shoving hard enough to send her to the ground.

"Unf!"

Richard called out from behind her, "Ammy!"

"Richard! GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Ammy-"

She looked back. "THIS IS MY JOB! YOU HAVE A COUNTRY TO RUN! GO!"

"But-"

"NOW, GODS DAMMIT!"

"So dramatic!" Briee laughed- then kicked out at Amaranth's knee. The half-blood rolled with the blow and slammed the sword into the ground to keep from falling. Unfortunately giving Briee enough time to roll back and recover herself.

Ammy shoved forward into strike range, taking the heavy hand and a half sword with both hands, trying to leverage it up under Briee's arm pit- she misjudged the distance and weight, though and in no time the shorter woman hand the sword trapped under her arm, face to face with her again. Briee chuckled. "Whoops!"

"Ngh-"

"Here, let's trade back," Briee flipped Ammy's sword over, offering it to her hilt first. "I can't stand this toothpick."

Amaran blinked.

"Go on, nothing to loose but your life, may as well do it right."

She grabbed the sword, not letting go of the other. Briee kicked her thigh forcing her to a knee- then kicked her in the chest, forcing her to let go of the heavyier blade and likely breaking a rib in the process.

The elf tumbled and flopped back end over end...

Markus was coming from the left side now, his blade recovered, haand-to-pommel for a piercing attack. Briee tossed her blade up as though it was nothing, started towards Amaranth. "Aren't we having fun- huh-" She saw Markus, snagged her blade-

Oh no.

He was too slow.

Briee had the blade gripped in one hand. She pivoted, bringing up the massive cutting edge-

Right through Markus's face. Through his skull. Through the air after. His body kept going forward- one step. Two steps. Part of his skullcap landed just as his body fell limp several feet away from where Briee stood. "Oh, so sorry!" She exclaimed. "Valiant effort, though!"

Ammy's mouth fell open, "NO!"

"Oh, yes, I'm afraid so!" the short woman twirled her blade. "Why don't you get up and we have another go... Best two out of three- three out of five- whatever."

Amaranth launched to her feet, opening her body fully to her goddess. Raw power meant to fry every piece of her body sparked to life as she crashed into the monster. She slid her blade in between the seams of the monster's pauldron and her cuirass, driving into her her arm pit even as Briee thrashed out. She made the angle hard to get and Ammy ended up putting her weight into it at the wrong time- she let loose with the most profane curse she could muster in the tongue of elves. She forced her entire weight into it, driving the blade deeper and deeper even as Briee- surprised by the force of the attack- stumbled backwards.

Vaguely, Ammy was aware of the searing kiss of divine power rending her own flesh as well. Blisters swelled across her back, blooming into full fields of pain as she started pounding the blade into Briee's upper body. It cracked through the woman's shoulder blade, through her back plate and kept going until the guard smashed into her armor hard enough to dent it. It wasn't enough. It would never be.

The monster dropped her heavy sword in the mud letting out the first genuine scream of pain as they toppled back into the mud. Amaranth slammed her fist into the monster's face. Once. Twice. She grabbed Ammy's hand on the third attempt and roared out a snarl- then snapped her forearm off at an awkward angle.

That brought the pain into clearer focus. Amaranth screamed, Briee shoved her off, coughing and sputtering blood from under her bandanna. A piece of white bone like material- probably a tooth- followed. But sooner than later the woman was getting to her feet while Ammy clutched her mangled hand, unyielding in its steel gauntlet. She braced herself against the pain, trying to stagger up to her feet, looking to Briee with narrowed eyes.

Spirit was one of those things she'd never been able to quantify, but it was something she could understand- duty, honor. Sacrifice. She existed to serve her lord and her goddess. It was her duty to live for both of them and, if necessary, die for either of them, too. Ammy clenched her teeth, bolting for the woman.

She lowered her head intending to smash into her side, but the woman wheeled on her, grabbed her hair when she would've gone past and dropped her elbow into the half-elf's back. Ammy felt the metal give into her back as she slammed down face first into the dirt. She wasn't down long, though, Briee hauled her up by the collar of her armor with her good arm and locked gazes. "There's no shame in giving up... I won't think any less of you."

"F-" the word refused to form.

"Hm? Oh, you think that just because I serve a dragon I can't exhibit honor? Mercy?" Briee turned- threw the broken elf-blood into the ditch. "Compassion?!"

Ammy's entire body was numb but the blisters coating her flesh screamed with the rough treatment as she flopped and slammed into the unforgiving earth. The young knight clawed at the dirt, trying to bring herself up. Briee 'helped' by grabbing her collar once more and slamming her against the tree. They were both breathing hard but for some reason, Briee's composure was slipping. She was loosing focus- maybe blood, too.

That terrifying void of magic swirled around her like a personal gravity well- a place where things went to die. She hefted Amaranth up against the tree and slammed her hard enough to knock the wind from her. They wobbled a little, Briee struggling to keep upright against the slant of the hill. "I should hang you here," she huffed. "By right, I should... But I like you. It's so rare I find a challenge."

"F-"

Briee turned her head. "Hm? Come on, speak up!"

Ammy grabbed her arm, leaned in. "Fuck. You."

Briee looked at her with a perked brow. Her pale lavender eyes flickered with exhausted amusement. "I like you, Ammy, which is why I'm going to be merciful. Tell me where he's going, I'll let you live."

"Fuck. You..."

"Probably best. I wasn't going to anyway." A hammer blow struck Ammy in the ribs causing her to double over. Her plate was dented in and her breath completely gone- so exquisite was the pain. She watched from the forest floor as the dragon's servant reached for Ammy's sword hilt and, with several painful tugs ripped it free from her shoulder. She panted and huffed looking at the half-elf.

Amaranth, the paladin of Elisandra, the stupid idiot who tangled with a dragon's agent and lost but in so doing ensured her Duke- and thus, her duty- was fulfilled, met her would-be killer's gaze and smiled a broken grin. "You'll never find him."

"We'll see..." The impossibly strong woman hefted Amaranth up and in one swift strike, shoved the elven patterned blade under Ammy's cuirass through her padding, the tender flesh underneath- through her back- through the steel and into the tree behind her. "Consider this a mercy."

#

Pain. Everything hurt. Everything screamed in raging fires and piercing agony in a mind overwhelmed with the sensation, how could anything be defined but by the song of life. That mind came out of its stupor only briefly, mere fleeting moments, and she- whoever she was any more, looked to the scattered remains of the wounded soldiers and horses splayed out across the road.

A woman was standing there in bloodied armor talking to, of all things, a dragon the size of a large dog... It wasn't a dragon- a projection. Yes. A magical projection of one. It was speaking in a slithering drawl, "Your sister has failed me..."

"Father, I-"

"Find her!" it snapped. "Find her and the mortal! I want them in pieces!"

Briee lowered her gaze in the presence of such anger. "I haven't failed you, nor will I, father."

"Then prove it to me. Show me you are worthy of my blessings, find Lostariel. Find Sarah Kettar, kill them both. You will take your sister's pact."

She looked up at that, gave a silent nod. "I will, father, after I finish with the Corengi you sent me after... I've found him-" Her words blurred into the sing-song pain as Amaranth tried to push on the sword in her stomach, to loosen herself from the tree.

She blacked out shortly after that.

#

Amaranth slumped forward against her sword, only vaguely aware of pain now, so brilliant was it's razor light. There was blood running down her leg armor in a steady trickle, painting the green with red. She tried to scoop at it, feebly trying to put it back in her body. There was so much of it.

So much...

She was getting tired. Protecting Richard was finally taking it's toll; of course he didn't need the weak little elf-blood to take care of him, but she still tried. What a contrite thought! A lycan protected by a mere half blood! Laughable!

Ammy wanted to laugh but when she opened her mouth a thick, rusty tang burbled in the back of her throat and choked off her voice. She spit to the side, looked down. Her sword was buried through her stomach with crimson vines wrapped around the proud inlay and dribbling down the scuffed basket hilt. Dimly, her mind reminded her that it was her blood. That probably wasn't good...

She was going into shock. Battle mind, she'd heard it called by healers. She couldn't focus enough to channel her god's blessings, all she wanted to do was sleep. But she couldn't. Why couldn't she?

Richard. Richard was still alive.

Amaranth wrapped her hand around the basket of her sword. Two quick breaths. Like pulling a splinter or shrapnel. Yes, just like that. Three... two...

#

Time passed in darkness before she awoke again, staring up at the sky with a thick fluid buildup in the back of her throat. She pushed against the wet earth and gaped her mouth to let it pour out in a thick stream. More blood, she decided. Thick, black fluid had built up around the hole in her stomach and even now it burbled as the built up reservoir of her life fluid tried to escape from her steel casing.

Then it struck her. The baby.

Oh gods.

The baby...

No- no, she had to survive. She had to focus. She tried to move the trembling remains of her right hand under her armor and felt around for the hole created by her sword. She found it when pain exploded across her vision like a hot iron. She focused; prayed; gritted her teeth against the pain. It couldn't end like this. Not for an unborn life.

Please. I'll give my life when it's born. Please-

A stick crunched beside her. Amaranth whimpered and turned her swollen eyes up to the sound in time to see a short woman dressed in a baroque velvet frock step out of the ether. She was impeccably dressed with perfectly polished boots, her short blonde hair slicked back and calm solid white eyes that glowed faintly in the dim light of the fading day. She was as pale as alabaster and nearly as pure, even from a glance. A split second later she was joined, from out of pure nothing, by a ravishingly beautiful middle eastern woman with dusty skin and flowing brown hair that touched her fine sandals. Her flowing white dress was plain and completely unadorned, but it accented every single inch of her body without breaking modesty.

Without waiting for prompting, the dusty skinned woman looped an arm around the shorter woman's shoulders, leaned over so her chin was resting on the woman's head. She sighed theatrically. "Poor thing, look at you."

This earned a slight twitch of annoyance from the woman with the gothic attire. Despite not having pupils, Amaranth imagined her glancing up at the woman using her head for a resting place. She said something in a flowing, wispy sigh of a language. At which point the staggering beauty stepped back with pouted lips.

With that annoyance gone, she stepped into Amaranth's field of view fully. In that position, there was a sense of something wholly familiar about her. She was tangible and connected to Ammy in some inexplicable way; like the taste of her god's blessings when it crossed her soul. Amaranth clutched her stomach and tried to feel that connection now, to will Her energies into her frail body. To protect her child if not herself.

The woman squatted down on her haunches and reached out, a fine silk gloved finger that stopped just shy of Ammy's battered eye. For all her focus, though, Amaranth couldn't bring herself to shy away. She needed to stop the bleeding. She could still protect Richard. She could save her child.

Oblivious to her struggle, the woman in white stepped up beside her, casting a glance towards what remained of Marcus's skull. She looked to white eyes and then Ammy, though she adressed White Eyes. "Well, if you're not going to-"

"Shh."

The eastern woman let out a soft 'hmph!' that lacked any real conviction. "It's not a good idea to snub those you're trying to sleep with, cutie. Just a friendly warning!"

"You came on to me," White Eyes said in a voice like cold steel. Practical, clipped and unforgiving.

"A minor detail."

White Eyes stared at Amaranth for a moment before she chose to speak again, this time her voice was more subdued and almost sorrowful. "You're dying."

"I think she knows that-"

"Silence!-" the woman blushed quickly. "Ah, please... I have a job to do."

The eastern woman shook her head but a soft smile pulled at the corner of her lips. "This is why I don't keep Cherubs... I'd miss out on meeting so many beautiful people. Go on, kiddo."

They talked like she wasn't even there, for gods' sake. She wanted to ask for help, but knew better than to hope. Their diction made it pretty apparent that her health was inconsequential to them. If only she could focus...

"Don't bother," White Eyes said softly. Her gloved finger was still close enough to touch but she kept at a slight distance, probably afraid to get the pure silk. "You're going to die, nothing anyone can do for you will change that."

"W- W- What," Amaranth gargled around a mouth full of blood. "about my duty."

The woman smiled a tiny bit. She was beautiful for that split second before she spoke. "That's why I'm here... I'm-"

"Remember!" the easterner cut in. "We have an appointment!"

"Will you please let me do my job?"

"Tch, fine, but if we're late to the hunt, I'm going to be exceptionally upset with you!"

The woman let out a soft sigh, turned her attention to Amaranth. "We serve the same god. I'm Yamma. I'm your handler. Your Cherub."

Amaranth blinked against tears welling up. "P- Please... Don't... Don't let this child die."

"She's-"

"One thing at a time." The dusty skinned woman said with a soothing voice.

Yamma flicked her gaze towards the easterner. "I've taken the training, I know what I'm doing!"

The easterner strolled around Amaranth's body, prowling around the muddy ditch until she was behind Yamma. She leaned over her without much concern and batted the silk gloved hand away from Ammy's face. With a sad smile, she laid her chin on the short woman's shoulder. "Hi there," she said by way of introduction. "Do you know who I am?"

"N- o-" Amaranth managed weakly.

"Hmph!" Her smile was quick and warm, showing off a glamorous row of pearly whites. "No? Tch, fine. I'm Isiria... This lovely young creature is a representative of your god, come to take you away-"

"Or," Yamma interjected. "I can give you another chance..."

This earned a very dour look from the pleasure goddess. She shifted uncomfortably and looked to Amaranth with a sudden sadness.

Yamma continued, her voice soft now. "You're running out of time, so I will be brief; we've watched your dedication, we've seen your progress. When you stood in front of the soldiers, to protect them from the rampaging miscreant- you knew you'd be killed, but you still tried. Amaranth, your bravery and dedication have been noticed.

Amaranth tried to muster a response, to tell the Cherub that she was nothing special and that it was her job to do the things she'd done. All that came out, though, was a gurgle. "C- hild."

"She-"

Isira put a finger to the younger woman's lips. "First things first, my splendorous elf..." She trailed off, turning her head just slightly so she could take Yamma's earlobe between her pouted lips. "Go on."

Yamma shuddered and sighed, eyes half closing while Isira continued to suckle on the milky bit of flesh. It took the pale woman several moments to compose herself against the goddess's flirtations, but when she finally managed to squeak out "stop" Amaranth was already beginning to slip into the fringes of sleep.

She was so tired but the screaming headache in the back of her mind told her she needed to stay awake. To fight it. Her heart slammed against her battered ribcage as she clawed at the mud, trying to find purchase. She had to protect Richard. She had to stay awake for him. She had to stay awake for their child.

She had to stay alive.

"My, my, my..." Isira was saying as the broken half-elf clawed at the muddy earth, inching her way towards her sword. "She is persistent."

Yamma laid her hand on the sword, careful not to touch the blood. "Your fight is over, Amah."

"R- Richard... Our ch- child."

"She wasn't his." The short woman stood to her full height and stepped in front of the dying paladin, bending over just enough to look her in the eye. "You're dying, Amah. Your child is dead, but it needn't be this way."

"W-"

"Shh, listen now. You're going to die... Right now."

"B-" Amaranth choked on a load of blood in the back of her throat.

"I can save you... You can still protect your lover." Yamma said, Isira shot her a dirty look which she deliberately ignored. She squatted down once more and touched Amaranth's forehead, aiming for the one spot not caked with battle grime. "Your goddess is offering you what you want more than anything; to protect, to live. Don't you think Richard would want that?"

"H- How?"

"Take my hand... Your goddess is offering your a pact for your service." She drew back with her hand outstretched still, ready to be taken. "You'll have the power to fight her enemies, the courage you need to stand tall, you'll be a force for change among mortals. Amah, you can still save Richard. You can save everyone."

"What she's not going to tell you..." Isira clapped Yamma's shoulder. "What she can't tell you is that there's a price here..."

Amaranth's tired, drooping gaze turned to the eastern beauty, now she was vaguely aware of the sense of divinity about her. It was more than just that, though. There was a pull, an ache in her soul that felt as though she was being pulled from her body; things were getting blurry and distant, each passing second slower than the last.