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The gateway out was small, only big enough for two to
pass through at a time. It was one of the side gates, not the huge main one.
The immense Uni steeds made it awkward for them
to get past. Dienal slashed wildly, aiming for the Unis. Surely they wouldn't
be able to move very fast once they were forced to walk. Behind them he could
see others running to him, to help.
The Unis were encased in armour, however, and the
Skunk Aisha was unarmed. He flailed about awkwardly with his sword, instinctively
moving it to parry the thrusts aimed at him. Then one of the armored pets jerked
a small battle spear hanging from his saddle, drew back his arm and thrust.
Pain like nothing before rushed through the Aisha.
He dropped his sword and clutched his belly, where the javelin had entered. Dienal
fell to his knees, looking pleadingly up at them. "Please," he managed to gurgle,
"give it back." He felt suddenly so much weaker, and cold, so cold. Painfully,
he drew the image of his Morguss and Ileiya before his eyes even as their green
light slowly dimmed and went out. And then he fell, and the knights dug their
heels into their Uni's sides, ordering their mounts to run out, out of the Citadel,
over and crushing the limp body of the Aisha who had died trying to stop them.
As the thieves fled, there was
an earthquake. The once fair land slowly changed, and it's inhabitants changed
with it, mutating, changing, slowly and in great pain.
And Dienal lay crumpled at the
gate.
~ * ~
"Mother?"
Morguss shook herself out of it.
She suddenly realized that her eyes were filled, filled with the clear liquid
that she usually abhorred.
"Mother? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, Ileiya. Nothing at all."
* * *
She lay pondering the problem Kass had told her about that night. If the Three
were displeased, this was bad. Something had to be done. But for the life of
her she could not think how.
As they always did, her thoughts
wandered back to her life partner. Dienal was dead now, dead twenty years. Yet
always she felt his restless shade in her heart, saw his piercing eyes reflected
in their child. And for a moment, just a moment, she could feel his arms around
her, his kiss on her cheek as he assured her he would come to no harm. How she
had blamed herself as she had flung herself over his limp body that one fateful
afternoon. How she had cringed from the sight of herself in the mirror, watched
her child helplessly as Ileiya writhed and screamed in pain and terror as her
body fought against the changes imposed on it. The girl had once confided to
her that that horrible, searing pain and the red haze over her eyes was the
earliest of her memories, the thing at the back of her mind when she reached
back into her early childhood.
How her grief for Dienal had turned
into a bitter hatred, hatred for those who had stolen their happiness away.
Tears had not been enough -- she
wanted revenge. And so she had gone to Darigan, after Dienal's funeral. Offered
him her services as one of the best potion-brewers in the land. Of course he
had accepted. She rose slowly in his ranks, delving deeper and deeper into the
dark magic and curses into her bid to exact her revenge on the knights who had
killed him. And Darigan, consumed by anger and misery at seeing his people suffer,
had agreed to her scheme to attack Meridell.
And then Darigan had fallen. She
had blamed herself bitterly for that, too, until Kass had approached her, asking
her as her childhood friend to assist him in ruling the kingdom.
And so here I am, she thought
bitterly.
Whatever happened to the innocent, beautiful brown Moehog I once was? What
happened to the happiness, what happened to the joy? Stolen, all stolen. Stolen
the day the thieves came. Now I have nothing left, save revenge.
And Skarl will pay for all he
has taken. Pay it tenfold.
Somewhere along the line, she
fell asleep. But even in her dreams the past haunted her. They always had, ever
since that day when her beloved Dienal was taken away.
* * *
Ileiya was dancing.
Her mother watched her, somber
eyes still pondering the problem of what to do. She pulled her thoughts back
from the past irritably. In a way, Morguss lived in the past, for the past.
Her thoughts continually wandered back to the happy days of long ago, and when
she was jolted back to reality, the harshness of it as compared to the loveliness
of yesterday always seemed to strengthen her resolve for revenge. In her own
reasoning, it was due to her. Due to all the citizens of the Citadel.
Ileiya spun in a graceful pirouette,
leaping up into the air and coming down again perfectly. She danced to the beat
of the music, swaying with perfect timing. Her ginger hair flew behind her like
a bright banner, adding color to her slender figure.
Both Morguss and Dienal had always
loved music, always loved dancing. But Ileiya by far surpassed all they had
been able to do. Her grace and agility was unrivaled, and once the music began,
she seemed to be no longer the fatherless young girl, no longer an ugly Darigan
Aisha - she was the music. And she was beautiful.
"Lovely, isn't it?" Kass whispered.
Morguss jolted in surprise, and
tried to cover it up. The enormous Darigan Eyrie did not seem to notice.
"It's almost hypnotic."
Hypnotic. The Moehog's mind turned
that word over almost absently, looking at the possibilities implicit in that
one word.
Hypnotic.
No, she rejected the idea. I
won't put Ileiya in that kind of danger.
But how many others had she already
sacrificed?
She is my daughter! She is all I have
left of Dienal... I cannot take her innocence away from her!
But then would they lose the war?
Then so be it. I will not sacrifice
Ileiya for this. I cannot.
If you lose the war, she will
die. And then what will you have?
"Dying would be better than this!"
she burst out angrily. Ileiya stopped dancing, and stared at her. Kass gazed
at her perplexedly. The few other pets who had been watching the girl's performance
craned their necks around to look.
"Morguss?" Kass asked uncertainly.
"Nothing," she snapped. And then
she pulled her hood further over her head and stalked off, talking to herself
and gesticulating occasionally with her hooves.
* * *
Her dreams that night were different than they usually were.
*Morguss.*
"Who are you?" she asked, frightened.
She seemed to be standing on a
plain. Flat, tinted a greyish-purple and shadowed in mist, it stretched on before
her and she could see no end to it. There was no grass beneath her feet - only
bare earth, hard and unyielding rock without any green. The mist deepened, and
turned slightly purple in places. Morguss turned in panic. It seemed to surround
her, cutting off all escape routes.
Three dark shapes in the mist.
She could not make them out. "Who are you?" she asked again, her voice quavering.
Surely... surely not... but they only spoke to Kass!
*Don't be a fool, Morguss. Surely
you did not think we were as powerless as that. You might not be able to see
us, but it's good enough, isn't it?*
Another voice spoke.
*Skarl must fall, Morguss. And you
will use anything and anybody to do that.*
"Anyone except Ileiya!"
*You are not in a position to deliver
that kind of command to us.*
*Ileiya may or may not turn the tide
of battle. If Skarl is incapacitated, Meridell is ours.* She could not make
out who was speaking now, but it didn't really matter. The Three spoke as one.
*And your foolish protectiveness will
not stand in our way.*
"I can't!"
*That does not matter. Whether
you will or you nil, Ileiya will do this. The difference is whether you
go along willingly, or we simply kill you and blame it on Skarl.*
*Think about it, Morguss. I'm sure
you'll arrive at the right decision.*
And then they were gone, and Morguss
crumbled to her knees and cried, all alone in that strange plain filled with
mist.
* * *
"Are you sure about this?" Kass asked dubiously.
"It'll work, Kass. Don't worry."
"I thought you had some... inhibitions...
about letting your daughter get involved in this war."
"I don't seem to have a choice
anymore," she snapped at him. If only he'd quit poking around. Not that
she could blame him, though.
"Choice? What are you..."
"Just leave it alone, Kass," she
said, a little more harshly than she had originally intended. His red eyes suddenly
looked hurt, and the ends of his beak dropped a little.
Morguss turned and walked away,
regretting rather that she had been so snippy with her friend, but she certainly
did not want him to start poking around in things that he did not need to know.
"Morguss?" Kass called uncertainly
after her. "Morguss... I'm sorry."
~ * ~
"I'm sorry," the little purple Eyrie whimpered. "I won't do it again."
Dienal smiled at the Eyrie kit,
perhaps ten years younger than he was. "It's alright, Kass," he assured. "Morguss
will forgive you, won't you, Morguss?" Dienal's voice was just breaking, one
minute in a childish high voice and the next in the deep, smooth tenor of adulthood.
Morguss glanced at the two sets
of eyes pleading at her, and even had the grace to laugh. "Of course," she told
the woebegone Eyrie kit. "If you'll help me to clear up this mess," and she
swept one hoof around, indicating the tiny crater in the ground that had once
been her bag. "Just promise you won't meddle with my potions anymore, Kass."
He nodded enthusiastically, clapping
both his front paws together and grinning again. "I promise, Morguss! I promise!"
"I appreciate it," she grinned
back at him.
~ * ~
Ileiya was dancing again. Morguss sighed, steeling her heart for what she
had to do. She knew exactly where to find her daughter at this time of the day,
and she had been right.
The young Aisha girl laughed in
pure delight as she danced, clashing one paw against her tambourine and twirling
expertly on one hind paw.
She's perfect, Morguss thought
bitterly. There's nothing else but to admit it. She's perfect for what I
want her to do, and perfect for what I'm going to sacrifice her for.
"Ileiya?" she called.
The girl stopped dancing and ran
over to her.
"Come with me. I need to speak
to you - alone."
* * *
"Go there? Down to Meridell Castle?" Ileiya exclaimed in surprise and horror.
"No!"
"Please, Ileiya..."
"But Mother... mother, why must
I do this? Why must I dance for that horrible fat king?"
Morguss closed her eyes in pain.
She had not wanted to say this, nor to manipulate her only daughter this way.
"For the war, child. Everyone
has to play their part... and so do you."
"But what have I got against the
Meridellians?"
The old Moehog was silent, hating
herself for what she had to do.
"Ileiya... has anyone ever told
you -- what happened to your father?"
To be continued....
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