Quest for the Dragon Soul Pt. 03

Bailla'Tayne Jeva fell silently but before she could touch the ground, one of her quarries had spun and

revealed a bow and had nocked and loosed a deadly arrow – but the archer's aim faltered as the arrow passed Bailla'Tayne Jeva's head and disappeared into the shadowy night. But as Bailla'Tayne Jeva silently touched the ground, a growing shriek erupted from the darkness and a writhing piece of eldritch black fabric fell to the ground next to her. Bailla'Tayne Jeva glanced at it and wondered briefly why it seemed to be bleeding as she sprinted towards Khaln and his captors.

The archer had already knocked another arrow just as Bailla'Tayne Jeva crashed into them, her short spear at the ready.

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Ziel-Tan had caught Khaln glancing at strategic points and understood that the scarred but glowing warrior was about to make an attempt to escape and when his eyes met hers, they pleaded for her assistance, but it was too soon.

Yet, the sound of rocks tumbling down the side of the cliffs caught Ziel-Tan's attention and made Khaln's attempt moot; the Qoazti archer glanced towards the sound of falling stones and saw two things: a silhouette jumping off the high cliffs above the harbor and a dozen ghostly shadows climbing down the mountain. Those, Ziel-Tan knew, were Scything Souls – foot soldiers of the Call of Skaelor. With near inhuman speed, Ziel-Tan had nocked and arrow in her powerful bow and shot it at a Scything Soul. The arrow buried itself where the heart of the creature reposed – it was said that Scything Souls started as pieces of the darkness of the Void that was spread onto the ground. The Matron Tenebrae would lead a man or a woman onto the center of the fabric and offer them a knife and ask if they would answer the Call of Skaelor. If the answer was yes, the chosen would dig the knife into their own chest and carve out their heart. Where the typically still beating and bloody organ fell on the fabric was were the Scything Soul would find its center and it would engulf the corpse from there. The knife would then splinter to better turn into the intricate blades the Soul would use as claws or teeth.

Before Ziel-Tan could nock a second arrow, the haphazardly armored figure had crashed into her and Ziel-Tan had to dodge the deadly, bronze-tipped short spear. The Qoazti archer tried to knock the tip of the spear aside but the armored figure, moving with exquisite grace, used the momentum of the diverted spear to accelerate into a pivot and flow into a spin kick where her heel connected with Ziel-Tan's shoulder, knocking the archer aside and numbing her arm.

Khaln had turned to witness the fight and saw Ziel-Tan fall to the ground while trying vainly to nock a second arrow while a woman wearing a bizarre armor was set to collide with him. She could not be of the Call of Skaelor as she could see them beneath their cloaks – he reasoned that was why the Scything Souls stayed back instead of swarming where their comrade had fallen. He upturned his nostrils in disgust at the thought that people would willingly serve the Call of Skaelor. Yet, he could not forget that the answers he had sought in the devastated city of Videsh'Achar had simply turned into another set of lies designed to manipulate him.

Khaln shook himself loose from the weakened grip of the warrior women holding him and he spun to his right, smashing his left shoulder into a daughter of the vanguard as she rushed to face the attacking armored woman – she lost her balance but regained it swiftly and pushed Khaln forward toward Slodovor and Onia.

"Get him to the boat now!" Slodovor screamed as Onia, her strength belittling her small stature, struck Khaln in the stomach and shoved him onto the dock.

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Bailla'Tayne Jeva pressed forward as Khaln was moving away from her even though he had tried to stop one of these fierce warriors from counter-attacking. But the others had managed to form a line between her and Khaln. They were armed with fighting axes and daggers – Bailla'Tayne Jeva thought this would be fun.

Bailla'Tayne Jeva ducked as one of the axes aimed for her head and swept an arc just above the ground with her short spear, toppling her attacker. Two other of the warriors lept over her spear while the other jumped back. The archer was scrambling to her feet and readying another arrow. Bailla'Tayne Jeva blocked the arc of her spear by switching her grip and bracing the shaft with her forearm before flipping the shaft over so the tip pointed towards the ground – she drove the bronze spear into the mid section of the warrior woman she had toppled. The spear tore through the warrior's stomach and when Bailla'Tayne Jeva yanked it out, blood shot upwards and the woman warrior's entrails spilled onto the dirt.

Bailla'Tayne Jeva then pushed from her crouching position and thrust towards the closest target but the warrior woman used the hook made by the beard of her ax and caught and deflected the deadly spear tip from reaching her face by stepping her right foot back, which twisted her body away from the weapon and she lashed out with a precise kick with her left leg to Bailla'Tayne Jeva's hand that held the base of the spear. The weapon flew from the blade Brides weakened grip and the cloaked warrior woman pressed her attack, her fighting ax slashing diagonally from left to right, then right to left as Bailla'Tayne scrambled backwards, narrowly side stepping the deadly ax. As she moved this way, the cloak from the warrior woman fell and her outlandish hair and pierced features became apparent to Bailla'Tayne Jeva for the first time.

While a second warrior woman moved to flank Bailla'Tayne Jeva, the Blade Bride saw an opening when her defrocked attacker became tangled in the fallen cloak – Bailla'Tayne caught the outside wrist of the warrior's ax hand and, infused with the magic learned from the Blade Brides, Bailla'Tayne Jeva spun in mid air. As her body was suddenly parallel to the ground, Bailla'Tayne hit the flanking warrior woman's jaw with her heels while the arm she used as an anchor for her attack twisted in the first warrior woman's shoulder socket. When Bailla'Tayne Jeva touched the ground she was behind her first attacker who was screaming agony from her destroyed articulation – Bailla'Tayne Jeva opened her left hand and her bronze spear flew off the ground and back into her hand where she leisurely tossed it at the stunned attacker who had tried to flank her. The spear buried itself in the warrior woman's throat and she expired, blood dribbling from her mouth and from the large gash the spear had left. Without hesitation, Bailla'Tayne Jeva drew her bronze short sword and drove it through the back and out the chest of her first assailant, piercing her heart and ending her agony.

Bailla'Tayne Jeva recalled her blood drenched spear and sheathed her short sword while facing the last of her ax wielding attackers. This woman warrior was the tallest of the four and she held both her ax and her dagger – Jeva smiled from beneath her helmet and charged her as two more arrows from the incompetent archer flew past her.

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Ziel-Tan watched in dread fascination as the oddly armored stranger massacred the daughters of the Vanguard Draconis with disconcerting facility – the daughters had been well trained but this stranger was moving with a grace and fluidity the Qoazti archer had never witnessed. But that did not deter Ziel-Tan from also noticing the Scything Souls had perked when of her fallen allies had lost her cloak. Once she was exposed, the foot soldiers of the Call of Skaelor had gained a fix on their escaping troop. Ziel-Tan unleashed two more arrows from her hiding place beneath the piece of fabric taken from the remains of a Scything Soul – the arrows flew around the armored stranger and found the hearts of the Scything Souls with the flawless accuracy Ziel-Tan had gained after her commensuration ceremony as a master archer. It had been a painful ceremony where she heated the tip of the first arrow she had ever loosed and heated it to a burning red. Then, after invoking the name and the guidance of the god Tiengal the Blind, she had plunged the blazing arrow head into her left eye and she thus shared in the god's divine sight.

Ziel-Tan glanced over her shoulder and saw Onia punch Khaln in the stomach, doubling him over and then shoving him hastily across the dock and aboard the ancient troller she had commandeered as her contribution and acceptance within the daughters of the Vanguard.

Ziel-Tan looked back at the two fighting women – the armored stranger was thrusting with deadly accuracy while the daughter of the Vanguard was constantly on the defensive. The stranger's spear had already cut the daughter of the vanguard in multiple places across her arm and stomach. Ziel-Tan fell another Scything Soul just as the stranger had cut the inner arm of the ax hand of the daughter of the Vanguard, severing the tendons that held the ax. With amazing ease, the armored stranger spun the spear above her head and used the spear tip to slash horizontally across the warrior woman's face, crushing her once elegant cheekbones and reaching the upper brain stem. The warrior woman gargled and fell to her knees, her breath a series of wet, sucking rasps until the stranger stabbed her in the heart.

Ziel-Tan was momentarily stunned at the stranger's prowess until she saw the armored woman turn her attention to her. Ziel-Tan loosed three consecutive arrows towards the stranger as she charged the Qoazti archer – the arrows shattered on the stranger's spear as the figure eight shapes the stranger drew in the air connected infallibly with the projectiles.

Before Ziel-Tan could nock a fourth arrow, the armored woman was thrusting her spear at the archer's head – Ziel-Tan dropped to one knee and deflected the spear upwards with her bow and then using it while lunging forward and sweeping the stranger's closest leg, unbalancing the stranger for a second, and seizing the opportunity to tackle the poorly armored warrior.

They crashed to the ground hard and struggled, rolling towards the dock while being stalked by the Scything Souls.

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Khaln saw the ramp to board the old fishing troller -- he had to act quickly. His step faltered and the warrior woman Onia that had made frenetic love to him a mere hours ago shoved him violently. But he had anticipated her gesture and once she shoved his right shoulder, he pivoted to the left while lunging his right leg backwards. It was an awkward position but it had the desired effect – Onia's momentum propelled her forward and she tripped over Khaln's outstretched leg and she toppled over him and onto the boarding ramp. As she fell, Onia grabbed a handful of the cloak he wore and carried it with her.

Khaln was now exposed to all the servants of The Call of Skaelor as his body blazed with continuous pulses of scarlet light that gave his body an eerie, incandescent quality. He turned and dashed for the struggling Qoazti archer Ziel-Tan and the poorly armor clad woman she was struggling with. He hoped he was right in thinking the archer had an escape route planned.

But before Khaln took two steps, Slodovor Ven Tivar, clad in chainmail and his eyes a blaze with anger at the failure of Khaln to simply accept his role, crashed into the glowing young warrior. Khaln was knocked back and grunted when he hit the wooden lattes of the dock.

"Get on that boat or die here!" Slodovor demanded of Khaln. But the unwanted second son had used the distraction and managed to slide the shackles that held his arms behind his back down his legs so that his arms where at least before him and he could mount a semblance of a defense.

"One way or another, your goal was to have me die, old man," Khaln hissed. "At least here, I'll die fighting, and maybe have the pleasure of watching the Scything Souls tear you apart."

Slodovor grunted and lunged for Khaln's legs, the soldier's arming sword aimed for the glowing warrior's inner thigh – a deep gash there and Khaln would bleed out before the servants of the Call of Skaelor could seize him.

Khaln kept his eyes on the tip of Slodovor's sword, knowing that any contact with its steel could be lethal as he was nude and the blade would make short work of him. He had managed to step back from Slodovor's initial lunge but the old soldier's agility with the blade was amazing as the blade suddenly sped upwards towards Khaln's neck. He gasped but managed to use the iron shackles to knock the blade aside, hoping to get inside Slodovor's guard but the weary warrior met Khaln with his iron buckler, smashing the small shield into Khaln's stomach.

Khaln had tensed his muscles at the last minute but the blow was enough to make him double over – Slodovor followed-up with a powerful knee aimed at Khaln's face, but he managed to use the shackles to give Slodovor's knee-lift something harder to strike, but the force of the blow was still enough to throw Khaln backwards.

But Slodovor was also injured from hitting the shackles as the blow had strained his knee. Grunting, he reverted to thrusting his blade into Khaln's glowing chest while he recuperated from the knee-lift. However, Khaln had anticipated the old soldier's tactic and, with impeccable timing, caught the sword just below the tip. Hoping the iron chains of the shackles would hold, Khaln diverted the blade up and towards the right while stepping to the left, bringing his body to the outside of Slodovor's thrust. Before the soldier could react, Khaln yanked the blade towards him and crashed the hilt and Slodovor's wrist across his knee, effectively knocking the sword out of the soldier's grip and he tossed the blade to the ground.

So disarmed, Slodovor swung the buckler with a controlled arc for Khaln's head. Khaln was prepared for the counter attack and weaved below the buckler and caught Slodovor's wrist – Slodovor prudently tucked his arm close to his body to prevent Khaln from trapping the arm, but it also allowed Khaln to get close enough to deliver a powerful horizontal elbow strike to the soldier's temple. Slodovor's knees buckled and Khaln moved behind him, wrapping the chains around the stunned soldier's neck.

"So, the Scything Souls will be denied," Khaln hissed. "But I won't be."

Khaln began to pull on the opposite ends of the chains, the links digging more deeply into the soldier's neck. Slodovor clawed and struggled while the chain slowly crushed his jugular veins, then the tendons that moved his neck from side to side. Slodovor gagged and his eyes bulged while Khaln remained motionless but for his arms. The links of the chain crushed Slodovor windpipe and his throat filled with blood as bits of cartilage tore into arteries and capillaries. Slodovor finally exhaled his last breath once the pressure of the chain shattered his cervical vertebrae and his spinal column was ultimately severed.

But Khaln did not stop until Slodovor's head was finally torn from his body and fell to the ground in a pool of darkly red blood.

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The Scything Souls had circled Ziel-Tan and the armored woman as they rolled around on the ground – the archer had managed to catch glimpses of Khaln finally fight back and she was shocked by how he dispatched a warrior that had once throned as a general in the Uldrund army.

But before she could celebrate, Ziel-Tan screamed as the woman she fought grabbed the long tress that hung from the center of the back of her head and then unceremoniously yanked Ziel-Tan off of her with surprising strength. Ziel-Tan struck the ground hard but managed to roll and keep her grip on her bow – she reached her knees and nocked and arrow and loosed it while the armored woman drew her sword. The arrow flew for the woman's foot but she lifted her leg while slashing with her bronze sword, but Ziel-Tan had swerved away from the deadly blade and they entered into a strange and sensual choreography punctuated by flying arrows and sword thrusts and amazing feats of flexibility and acrobatics. But where the armored woman was seemingly getting stronger, Ziel-Tan was weakening.

Khaln had been ablaze in strobing red lights beneath his skin and after kicking the corpse of Slodovor Ven Tivar into the dark waters of the harbor of Videsh'Achar, he retrieved the old soldier's arming sword and charged the Scything Souls, intent on destroying as many as he can and getting Ziel-Tan out of there.

The Scything Souls hissed as the glowing warrior crashed into their lines – their blades aimed for his limbs as they had a command to take him alive but since Khaln had no such directive, his blade cut through the dark fabric of the Souls, finding their hearts as easily as Ziel-Tan did with her arrows. For each cut across his skin, Khaln fell two of the Souls.

But unbeknownst to Khaln, Onia, the last remaining daughter of the Vanguard Draconis, had regained her senses and had seized her fighting ax and murder inhabited her eyes.

As he fought through the scything Souls, Khaln could glimpse Ziel-Tan and her haphazardly armored enemy and found something familiar in the way the armored woman moved and fought – she could float over Ziel-Tan and strike her from unnatural angles for a normal human while her sword could float from her hand and strike independently while she recovered.

"Tayne?" Khaln said as he became motionless – the Scything Souls closed on him but Bailla'Tayne Jeva, finally recognized by her destined paramour and her magic fueled by his proximity, suddenly unleashed a powerful stasis spell worthy of the most powerful mages and all fighting ceased.

"Hello, Khaln," Tayne said as she approached him. He was unaffected by her spell but he remained still. "I knew you would recognize me."

"What have you done?" Khaln asked as his neck tensed. "What are you doing with the Call? Why are you dressed that way?"

"These are the spirits of my sisters, beloved," Tayne admonished. "If you stopped fighting you'd see their beauty – haven't you noticed the beauty of my armor?"

"Are you mad? You're wearing bones and dried skin!"

Tayne was confused – she shook her head and what looked to her like the spirits of the Blade Brides began to resemble the Scything Souls.

"Asteytis, help me!" Tayne pleaded to the sky as a creeping realization snaked its way into her mind.

A figure descended from the sky – it was a woman clad in a gray cloak. It swayed around her body as she touched the ground between Bailla'Tayne Jeva and Khaln. His body had returned to its natural candor and he sighed.

"You're not Asteytis,are you?" Tayne asked as she realized the beautiful armor she wore was actually the tattered physical remains of the Blade Brides. Tayne gagged and fell to her knees and threw up.

"Asteytis has never been here, but you served her well, Bailla'Tayne Jeva," the Matron of the Call told the deceived Blade Bride.

"Which one are you?" Khaln asked. "I've met the Matrons Sonorous and Tenebrae. "

The matron turned to him – beneath her cloak, her body shimmered and flowed like water trapped in a bubble. When she spoke, her face rippled like pool to which a stone was dropped.

"I am the body of the Call of Skaelor. I am the Matron Chameleonedae."

By her last word, Khaln had rushed her but his cry of vengeance was silenced as a flock of Quieting Angels drifted from the oily heavens, silencing all sound. Khaln was toppled as a dozen Scything Souls seized him and wrapped a piece of dark fabric around his head, extinguishing his scarlet glow; he was then scooped up by one of the flying horrors. Another retrieved the mad Onia that had been frozen before she could strike at Khaln.

With Khaln's departure, Bailla'Tayne Jeva's magic was silenced and the Scything Souls and the Qoazti archer Ziel-Tan could move, but before she could lunge for Bailla'Tayne Jeva, she was seized and disarmed by the Souls and soundly struck behind the head as was Bailla'Tayne Jeva.