|
Her child's terrified cry rang through the air, and Morguss
started to her feet in sudden shock.
"Ileiya?"
Then the ground began to shake. The floor
cracked, a horrible hole in what had once been her kitchen, and a tendril, or
perhaps more like a tentacle came through. Morguss wheeled around frantically,
and her eyes caught sight of the open window. The pale blue, cloudy sky was
now grey-tinged and overcast. There was no longer any grass in the parks and
fields and forests where greenery had been abundant. Instead, more of those
tentacle-like plants had sprouted, choking the natural green and waving around
in the air. Never before had she seen such a thing, such a corruption of all
beauty.
Then came the pain.
It burst through her skin like fire, screamed
through her brain like a blizzard. She was dimly aware that she had fallen on
the floor, writhing under the terrible scourge of pain, more than she had thought
she could endure. It ran through her arteries, burst into her veins... and reached
her heart. For a moment she was still, then a fresh surge of pain jerked her
numb body back to reality. Her brown fur withered and dropped away, and in it's
place there was green, dark green striped fur, and bat wings. Her tail had changed,
becoming pointed at the end, her tusks yellow and deadly, capable -- no, more
than capable of killing another.
It was Ileiya's cries which roused her. The
many tentacles that had sprouted up had brought much of their ceiling down into
the small house, exposing them to the black and overcast skies above. Ignoring
the sudden rush of pain that movement brought, she limped into the living room,
hoping against hope for her child to be safe.
"No..." she whispered. "No....."
Her baby daughter, the light and center of
her life, had been replaced by a monster. Scarlet eyes blinked back at her from
a purple-scaled face, and jet black spikes had torn great holes in the cloth
plushie she had been playing with. She was screaming, crying in pain and terror.
Without thinking, Morguss snatched her child
up, then cried out involuntarily as the wicked ridges along Ileiya's back and
tail drew blood from her arms.
She raised her head to look at the mirror
across the room. Just one glance confirmed what she already knew. "No..." she
whispered. What evil could have caused them such pain, such terror? What malice
or hatred could have possibly sufficed to do this?
And where was Dienal?
Morguss fell to her knees, the tears streaming
down her face and clutching her baby daughter to her breast, heedless of the
sharp spikes that stuck through her fur and hurt her. "Why?" she cried helplessly
to the unfeeling heavens. "Why?!?!"
The echoes bounced back from the clouds above,
through the ruins of her house, mocking and laughing their scorn at the stricken
young Moehog, and as she gazed up, the rain began to fall.
~ * ~
She recited the story in a mechanical, emotionless
voice. Ileiya listened with wide eyes, and she believed truly all that Morguss
said. The old Moehog could tell.
"You... you don't have to go if you don't want
to, you know," Morguss finished awkwardly. "Nobody would blame you. I could
think of some way to appease Them..."
The blazing fire in her daughter's eyes brought
her up short. The silence seemed like hours. Then Ileiya spoke slowly, and in
a voice struggling to control her emotions.
"You mean to say that... that Skarl killed my
father?"
"Well... in a way, I suppose."
The girl's scarlet eyes flashed in sudden anger.
Gone was the innocence, gone was the beauty. Her mouth twisted in pure hatred,
and her teeth were pressed together in an effort to contain her rage. Her fists
clenched in the rage that Morguss had not expected. She had thought there would
be tears, weeping, grief, but not this. Not this calm, icy hatred mixed with
determination.
"I'll do it," Ileiya announced suddenly, her
voice like ice. Bitter and cold. And emotionless.
Morguss nodded silently. She had succeeded,
against her will and at a horrible price. "Then go prepare yourself. Meet me
in the south tower - Kass's meeting room - in half an hour."
Ileiya nodded, turned and ran out from the room,
slamming the door behind her.
And as Morguss gazed after her daughter, she
knew that all that was left of Dienal and what she had once been in the girl
was gone. She could do nothing but admit it to herself. I've created a monster.
* * *
"You're determined to do this?" Kass asked unhappily.
"Yes, my Lord."
"Very well, then." The Darigan Eyrie reached
for a paper and pen and began writing, pausing once in a while to think. "What
do you think?" he asked Morguss finally, handing her the sheet.
She glanced at it carefully. "Don't put your
name -- say 'The Lord and Master of Kass Citadel' instead."
He canceled the words out and rewrote it. "Doesn't
that sound a little tacky?"
"It'll be fine, Kass. Oh, and put 'peoples'
instead of 'land'. It'll appeal better to the common pet."
"Whatever you say. Are you ready, Ileiya?"
The girl nodded, her eyes still set in flinty
determination.
Kass stood and went to the door. "Command Sarinth
to this room immediately," he instructed one of the guards curtly.
"At once, my Lord," the guard saluted, and ran
off down the corridor.
"One last thing, my daughter," Morguss told
Ileiya softly.
"What is it?" she asked.
The old Moehog held up a small bottle. "Drink
this."
Ileiya took it, popped open the cork, and sniffed
suspiciously. Then she drank the liquid in one gulp.
A fuzzy pale light began to surround her. Kass
blinked and looked away as it began to glow brighter, but Morguss continued
to watch, used as she was to it. Pale chocolate fur shimmered and covered Ileiya's
scales, and her red eyes were now a luminous emerald green. Her torn dress suddenly
found itself devoid of the spikes which had ripped it down the back, and the
beauty which she had always had came back in full force.
Ileiya gasped. "What did you do to me?" she
asked incredulously.
"It's an illusion, Ileiya. If someone knows
the right spell, it won't last. This is how you used to look like, before the
Orb was stolen."
Her eyes narrowed. "That's just another reason
to get back at Skarl, isn't it? If he'd never been so greedy, I'd always have
looked like this."
"Yes," Morguss agreed. "Here," she said, handing
the girl a change of clothes. "Go change. The rips down your current dress would
look very out of place."
Ileiya rejoined them a few minutes later. She
wore a simple white blouse and a tight-fitting red dress over it. A simple golden
band encircled her forehead, and there were golden hoop earrings in her left
ear. In Darigan form, she had been prettier than normal. In her original form,
she was breathtakingly beautiful. Again Morguss felt that pang for something
she knew she would never have again.
There was a knock at the door, and Kass answered
it. "Ah, Sarinth," he greeted the Eyrie at the door, one of his many commanders.
Sarinth was efficient and intensely loyal, and Morguss sort of liked him.
Sarinth gave a short, curt nod in reply.
"Take the young Aisha Ileiya to the edge of
the Citadel. Bear her down to Meridell Castle and give Skarl this." He handed
Sarinth the rolled up bit of parchment he had copied the rough draft onto.
"As you command, my Lord," Sarinth replied with
a short bow.
Morguss embraced her daughter fiercely. "Be
careful, Ileiya," she cautioned.
"I will, mother."
And then she stepped out to follow the Eyrie,
glancing backward one last time to her mother. Morguss held her eyes for a short
while, then dropped her gaze. And the patter of feet down the corridor told
her that her daughter had gone.
* * *
"Are you really sure about this, Morguss?" Kass
asked nervously, pacing up and down the circular room.
"Ileiya has many reasons to do her job well,
Kass. Don't worry."
He sighed. "Very well, then. Once she casts
her spell on Skarl, we'll need to attack. Come, Morguss. There's much to do
still." The Darigan Eyrie went out of the tower room, shutting the door behind
him, He went out, presumably to call for the other generals.
Morguss remained behind. Almost involuntarily,
she walked over to the window, where she could see her daughter climbing onto
Sarinth's back far below, clutching the bit of paper in one paw and taking firm
hold on his mane with the other.
"Would you be proud of me now, Dienal?" she
whispered. "Sending our only daughter out alone and into danger, using her beauty
- - your beauty -- to corrupt, to kill? Or perhaps to be killed? My life is
one thing. I gave it up the day you died. And I exchanged my soul for the chance
of vengeance. But would you weep now to find that I have given our daughter's
away as well?"
"Morguss?" Kass interrupted her, coming partly
back into the room. "We need you in the council chambers."
Morguss cast one last glance at the slight form
of Ileiya, sitting proudly on the Eyrie's broad back even as Sarinth took flight
and bore her down into the green fields and white castle waiting below.
Then she turned from the window, turned her
back on her only child, pulling her hood further over her face. "But if she
succeeds," the old Moehog whispered in an effort to console herself. "Then,
perhaps... perhaps this might be the turn of the tide."
She closed her eyes, and one tear dripped from
her eyes onto the thick carpet, the first crystal droplet she had truly shed
since Dienal's death. And perhaps the last.
The End
Authors note: Well, you all know what happened after the Court Dancer arrived
at Skarl's court. This is just my idea of what happened before that. I owe this
story to the Neopian Times Writers Forum (http://ntwriters.proboards7.com),
because it was their speculation on Morguss' most recent Gallery of Evil thingy
that got me thinking about this. I mean, it doesn't make much sense for her
to be bad all the way through since she was born, right? Shallow villains tend
to lose wars, after all. :D
Feel free to Neomail me if you want!
| 
