Curse of The Seventh Sword: The Gauntlet of Feona (12 page)

“We all steer the hand of fate one way or another, gods and humans alike.  What a
re you prepared to do?”  And with that she turned around and continued to walk through the opening. 

“Come
Jaynea.  This promises after all, to be the moment you have been waiting for.”

Jaynea nodded and followed suit.  The opening close
d behind them and the light was gone. All that was left was the goddess Lynda and the glistening floor lights that illuminated her sister’s rather dark chambers.

Davydd and Vannera laughed out loud as they lay in each other’s arms on the forest bed.   The space above them was also clear of blocking branches and leaves and as such, they could gaze upon the night sky. 

“All of my life in that castle, I never once did anything like this.” 
Vannera said still chuckling a bit. 

“Of course you didn’t
princess. 
You were too busy being betrothed to every prince and man of note in Terrianus.”  Davydd said jokingly.  Vannera sat up and observed him briefly.

“Is that jealously I sense?”

“Me?  Jealous?  Oh no.  You haven’t made vows with any of them have you?  Have you?”  Davydd nuzzled her tenderly and she giggled embracing him.

“You are silly aren’t you?”
  She smiled at him, rubbing his cheek with her right hand.  Davydd leaned in and kissed her and in that moment they were again lost in each other.  The kisses were long and passionate and eventually got frenetic as they clawed at each other, each desperately hungry for more.  Davydd rolled on top of her as the lower part of her dress fell to her waist, exposing her thighs.  Davydd gasped as his eyes took in all of her.  She rested her palm on his chest. 

“Your heart.”  She said softly.  “It pounds heavily.”

“It is through no fault of mine.” Davydd said breathing heavily as his hips sunk slowly in between her thighs.  “I know not a man’s heart that wouldn’t tremble at such a sight.”

Vannera smiled warmly as she pulled Davydd’s face close to hers and wrapped her lips around his in another loving kiss.  She arched h
er hips up to meet his and the connection between their bodies further ignited the flames within them. 

“Then let us see both hearts erupt in ecstasy.”  She said, smiling seductively. 
Davydd could not resist any longer and they both began a slow and sensuous dance in rhythm to music that only they could hear.

The early morning was filled with a thick fog that enveloped most of the forest floor and extended up high to some tree tops.  The
branches of the trees rustled as unseen figures landed heavily on them and bolted off almost as instantly as they had made contact with the branches.  They could not be seen.  The only evidence of their presence was the depression of the branches under their weight, and the way those same branches sprung back to their original position, when the invisible figures bolted off again.  Above these high tree branches, flying just above the tree line, a figure could be seen, with its bat like wings spread out and flapping occasionally.  Balek surveyed the blenders as they rapidly made their way through the forest.  They had gotten more and more animated and it told him they were closing in on their prey.  He swooped down low and flew speedily over the tree line, howling as he did.  The blenders picked up their pace, and began to spread apart into formations of four.  They were now very close.  After days of searching for Davydd’s scent, they had finally found it along with that of Vannera’s.  To think they had traveled this far towards the shores of Angweleth.  Balek let his mind wander to thoughts of victory.  He imagined the feeling of killing Rikard Miljorn’s son and finally depleting any lingering hopes the humans might have.  He was still lost in these thoughts when instinctively, he barely dodged a black and brown metallic gauntlet that suddenly appeared in front of him, with the fingers pressed together to make a spear like shape.  His eyes briefly caught the figure of two women and a glowing rectangular opening in the sky behind them.  Part of the sharp talons of the gauntlet caught the top of his head, scraping of scaly flesh, arching his head backwards and drawing blood.  As he was falling and spinning out of control, Balek flapped his wings violently, trying to regain control of his flight. He whirled around to see who the women were but was met with a punch to the stomach that felt like the force of an entire mountain of diamond, dropped on him.  The air in his lungs was forcibly expelled from his mouth. His eyes, nose and mouth spouted blood as he plummeted to the forest ground.  Balek realizing he would not be able to regain his flight in time retracted his wings and fell through a series of branches, before hitting the ground with a resounding thud.  He howled loudly and sprang to his feet, while unsheathing a wavy shaped serrated blade that was stored in a strap on sheath, on his right shoulder.  He then caught sight of his attacker.  A slim tall woman with black hair and a dark brown flowing gown, descended steadily until her feet gently touched the soil beneath her.  The early morning fog gave her a ghostly appearance, as her pale skin was barely discernible amidst the cloud cover and yet her bright red eyes illuminated in the dim early morning light.  Balek took a step forward, his face wearing an expression of disbelief. 

“Feona?”

“In the flesh… as it were.  I must commend you on your reaction Balek.” She smiled.

“Why are you here?!”  Balek growled.  “
Gods do not interfere with the fates of humans.  Leave!”

“Do you say that ou
t of concern for me or do you say that out of concern for yourself and your underlings?”  Feona started walking towards Balek.  Her dark brown flowing overall began to constrict on itself and separate into different pieces.  These pieces began to solidify into armor pieces.  The chest piece formed first, conforming to her torso and cleavage, then the shoulder piece, the boots however, remained the same.  The rest of her overall formed a skirt lined all around with metallic adornments and engraved rectangular shaped metal slabs that bore engravings on them.  They clanged with each other as she moved towards Balek. 

“If it is indeed the former that concerns
you, then you are foolish.  However I think it is the latter.  Your life was forfeit the moment you ran into me, Balek.” 

Balek, regaining his composure, growled at her and laughed. 

“You seem to underestimate me on the basis of a few lucky blows.  I am one of the ten principals!  And I have brought with me over a hundred blenders to erase that bastard son of Rikard from existence.  Besides, it would seem you are still without your sword of power, and one of your gauntlets.  Was it wise of you to come here?”

Feona smiled menacingly.

“Enough small talk.  Your life is over.”  At that moment, Jaynea materialized behind Balek with a dagger in her hand.  She thrust the tip towards Balek’s neck.  Balek bent forward just enough to make Jaynea miss her mark.  Before she could react, his tail smacked her viciously into a tree.  Balek had begun to walk towards her, when his jaw was caught by a ferocious kick from Feona.  His body lurched upwards and fell to the ground from the force of the blow.  Balek forced himself to his feet coughing up blood as he did.  At that moment, Jaynea was forcing her way out of the tree trunk she had been slammed into.  Her eyes glared in anger, as did Feona’s.  Balek observed them both for a time.  He wasn’t terribly worried about Jaynea, but he knew if he stayed and fought Feona, she would kill him and he could not imagine how she would choose to do so without wincing.  Feona was the goddess of death after all, and her reputation preceded her in the world of the Dragol.  Balek took a step back and growled at his invisible blenders. 

“Move!”  He yelled and immediately jumped into flight in the direction of
Davydd.  The chase had begun.  Feona and Jaynea rapidly portal travelled in the direction of the Dragol, landing on branches and tree trunks, and propelling themselves forward with their legs on each landing. 

“Get to
Davydd!”  Feona yelled at Jaynea.  “Warn them about the impending danger and kill as many blenders as you can.  I will handle the principal.” 

Jaynea
nodded and portal travelled ahead, fatally stabbing and slashing blenders as she did.  Her immortal eyes allowed her to see them despite their current state and disguise.  She barely dodged a blender’s tail swipe by flipping over it and slicing it off with one of her daggers.  Jaynea landed on her feet and subsequently dodged two otherwise lethal blows to the torso by the blender.  She parried the third blow with her left hand and quickly stepped toward the blender, slicing it from neck to waist in rapid and vicious succession with her daggers.  The blender shuddered for a moment and then fell from the high tree branch, already dead.  Another blender was at that moment, closing in on her, its two three toed feet drawn together in a manner similar to an eagle swooping down to capture its prey.  The lethal intent was clear, as the talons were fully exposed.  Jaynea pointed her left dagger at the incoming blender, as her right pointed in the opposite direction of her left.  A portal opened in front of the blender and it was in it before it could react.  The portal opened up on the other side half way up the blade of her right dagger, and the blender was immediately stabbed through the heart when it materialized on the other side.  Jaynea flipped her blade and cut upwards, splitting the blender in half from the chest up to the crown of the crown of the head.  She jumped away from the branch just in time to evade two other blenders who had crashed through it and used a tree trunk to propel her way forward in search of more to kill, and towards Davydd.  She was moving faster now, seemingly as fast as Sam could move on the ground.  

Feona rolled out of the way of a falling burning tree, and immediately arched backwards evading the tail swipe of a blender
.  She came back up and parried three simultaneous blows coming at her, and almost immediately punched a hole through the chest of the three blenders that had thrown the blows at her.  She jumped away from a stream of fire bearing down on her from above, as Balek attempted to burn her with his flames.  The principal swooped down and using his momentum, swung downwards at her with his curved serrated blade.  Feona parried it with her gauntlet, while her right foot shot out behind her catching a blender attempting to impale her from behind, in the face.  She pushed off Balek’s arm just as another blender launched itself at her, growling loudly.  A portal opened up in front of Feona and she was instantly behind Balek.  The blender hit the ground and Feona’s gauntlet, impaled Balek’s back.  The principal lashed behind him and caught Feona on the right cheek.  The sheer force of the blow knocked her to the ground.  She tried to get up but was struck in the left rib by Balek. The force of the blow pushed her across the forest ground.  Her body tore through the soil, ripping through giant tree roots, and earth in a trail of mud, dust and splintered bark.  A large ball of fire descended on her, and engulfed her.  The impact pushed her further back still, and into the ground a bit.  It was then that Feona realized that the forest had gone up in flames. She slowly got up and glared at Balek who was staggering forward and bleeding rather profusely from the puncture wound in his chest.  A trickle of blood fell from Feona’s lips as well and she smiled rubbing it off.  Balek growled at her as he kept staggering.

“Come goddess of death!  I shall put an end to you!  I shall show you the power of a principal!!”  Balek fell to his knees coughing prof
usely as he labored to breathe. 

“Y
our kind was wise to declare war against humans and not against us… you pathetic lizard.  While it would give me great pleasure to end your existence, I cannot.  I believe we both know that.  However, my work here is done.”

“So you came to slow me
down Feona?  It is one thing to fight against a god in such a condition and it is another to fight against the humans.  I will still kill them.”

“Right you are lizard.  As far as you know, right you are.
”  A portal opened up as numerous blenders descended on Feona.  However, she was gone before they could reach her.  Balek pushed himself up to his feet with much difficulty.  He used his sword as a support while he looked on ahead. 
As far as you know, right you are. 
What did she mean by that?  Balek was suddenly apprehensive about pursuing Davydd and his group, but he was even more reluctant to fail Omni and hence, incur his wrath.  He forged on. 

The sounds had spread towards Davydd and his group’s location.  They had heard the cries, growls and clashes that had roused every forest creature that morning.  The experienced men, Ergol, Ovar and Matilom had concluded that the sounds they all heard were that of Dragol.  However, that was all they seemed to come to an agreement on, as they each bickered loudly about the next course of action.  Sam, Leo and Max along with Ergol’s men and Segmiatus watched on unsure of whom to back with their own words.  It was then that Davydd and Vannera appeared from behind the brushes with a look of worry on their faces. 

“Something’s going on!” 
Davydd exclaimed.

The others turned to look at him with a look of exasperation on their faces.  After a little while, they all turned away to continue their conversation. 
Segmiatus was the only one to come up to Davydd and Vannera. 

“Where have you two been?”

Both Davydd and Vannera moved to respond.