Carnival of the Soul

by Cebelius

  "Laina's the weakest girl Boss has? Saying you could beat her?"

  Shy quirked a brow, then glanced behind them. Halla followed her look and was forcibly reminded of the wall of blackberries, along with the curtain of lightning she had to have at least heard from the carnival. "Yeah, okay. I can buy that. Sorry. You just don't look like much of a threat. Where's the Nightmare fit?"

  "I honestly do not know. Isthil has yet to demonstrate her powers in combat, and I am not very familiar with her breed. They are seldom seen in open battle. Tee also has two other women. Cecaelia, who is one of the Powers, cannot stray far from open water. Then there is Sphinx. I do not know the extent of her abilities either, but it is moot as she remained with the Labyrinth as far as I know."

  "One of the Powers?"

  "Put simply, she is one of the twelve goddesses of Celestine ... eleven now I suppose. Ariadne was the twelfth, now deposed. Despite his control of the Corona Borealis, I would not rank Marcus their equal. He lacks experience."

  Blinking, Halla asked, "And Boss fucked her? The sea Power I mean?"

  Smirking at the memory, Shy said, "More like she fucked him."

  "Wow."

  "Very wow. He was enchanted and still managed to make her cum."

  Halla shifted her hips, squirming as she said, "I hope he comes back soon."

  Shy sensed an opportunity and leaned over, kissing Halla's cheek gently as she murmured, "Me too. Care to relieve some of that tension with me in the meantime?"

  "Nah, thanks though. I'm not at all into girls. I messed with a few of the others back home and it always just left me frustrated and hungry. Even their whole arms were too small. You won't believe me, even Laina didn't when I told her, but I'd never gotten off before Boss. I honestly thought when he made me cum that he was killing me. It was mind-blowing, and I thought my heart would burst. He convinced me it was supposed to be that way ... but I admit I kinda made him work for it."

  Halla glanced at Shy meaningfully as she said, "I need a big, thick cock with a real man attached. Nothing else will satisfy."

  "He only fucked you?" Shy asked.

  "Oh, no. First time he used his mouth on me."

  "Any woman with an interest could do the same."

  "Nah. Thinking about that just doesn't get me where I want to be."

  Bemused at her blunt admission, Shy tilted her head and said, "Well, you do realize that Prada doesn't have to be female ... I'm sure if you asked her, she would be willing to give you what you need."

  The oni shuddered and shook her head violently. "Prada scares the shit out of me, no thanks. Even if she didn't give me the shivers I wouldn't do her. If she takes Boss' form I'd still know it wasn't him, and if she looked like someone else I just ... wouldn't be into it, you know? I'll put up with you hanging around but I'm Boss' girl. I only want him. I'll wait."

  Frowning, she added, "I just won't like it."

  "I'll see to it that he takes good care of you, La."

  "Do that, and you bought yourself a friend for life," the oni said, offering a genuine smile. "I'd even let you watch."

  Shy's smile was lascivious as she murmured, "I'll hold you to that."

  "Aw shit."

  Halla got up, snatched her club off the ground, and said, "I thought these knuckleheads were supposed to be gone."

  Shy picked up the Rod of Arcs as she too stood and turned. Coming around the edge of the wall of brambles were four people, and it was immediately obvious that they'd come from the Labyrinth.

  One of them was a centaur, with a uniformly brown coat and pale skin turned red from the sun. She wore leather armor, and carried a longsword in one hand, a kite shield in the other.

  Two others were canine, but the similarities ended there. One was thick with muscle, black-furred and long of tooth and claw. The other was a phase beast. She had tawny hair and fur that draped from her forearms and lower legs, and a bow in hand with arrow nocked.

  The last of the group was easily the most alarming. She was only five feet tall, and at first glance looked to be of canine derivation as well, but her brown fur was patchy and matted. The skin that showed through was gray and her eyes looked like marbles filled with fire.

  A vrykolakas. Did Theseus know no bounds? Surely he would not lay with such a one. Perhaps she was favored in life and resurrected after to continue her service.

  The creature had once been a loup-garou, like the first of the other canines, but had at some point died and been raised. It was now a powerful undead.

  It was the undead that spoke, and her voice seemed rusty with disuse. "You are among those who left the Labyrinth. Yes?"

  "What do you want, Lane?" Halla asked, hefting her iron club over one shoulder as she put her hand on her hip.

  The vrykolakas tilted its head slightly, and the fiery orbs of its eyes shifted to the oni as she said, "I know this voice, but not the body. Who are you?"

  Shy's lips compressed. In one sentence, Halla had managed not only to give away that they had indeed come from the Labyrinth, but that she was one of Theseus' former bonds. It would be practically impossible to lie about anything now.

  I suppose we just hope they aren't here to fight.

  Not only had Terry remained in the Labyrinth for a week to avoid these and others like them, but Marcus had asked the herds that had arrived to set up the carnival to drive any who lingered from the area. That had been done supposedly, but the tauren couldn't be responsible for policing outside the carnival.

  "I am Halla, daughter of Theseus, bonded now to his slayer, Terrence Mack," Halla declared. "I know you, Lane. What. Do. You. Want?"

  Shy winced. Now they knew what Tee was.

  "You have become puny in your bondage," Lane rasped. "But your brazen words answer all questions save one. Where is your template? Where is the killer of Theseus now?"

  "Gone," Shy said, speaking loudly as she cast a meaningful glance at Halla, who looked down at her, then shrugged and nodded.

  "And you? Are you also one of this Terrence Mack's bonds?" Lane asked.

  "I am."

  No point in lying now, Shy thought, resisting the powerful urge to roll her eyes.

  "Fortunate we are," Lane said, her half-rotted lips peeling back from teeth stained black with old blood. "Revenge may now begin."

  The phase beast launched her arrow, and had the second nocked and half-drawn before her first buried itself in Shy's left breast, staggering her back.

  Halla roared and grew seven feet taller in two seconds as she swung her club in a powerful underhand stroke that caught the living loup-garou as she launched herself toward them.

  The blow knocked her up into the air with bone-crunching force, and Halla cocked her arm back, caught her club with her other hand, and swung again, catching the loup-garou before she could land and bending her in half around the iron length of her club. Blood sprayed from every orifice and more besides as broken bones tore through flesh, and the creature sailed away trailing an arc of gore as Halla cried, "Over my dead body!"

  "That is the idea," Lane rasped, before she began to chant.

  Shy took another arrow to the chest, and a third in her right arm before she managed to unleash a bolt of jagged green lightning at the phase beast.

  Unfortunately, she only hit an after-image. That image then slid twenty feet to the right as the phase beast solidified in its new position and launched another arrow.

  Arrows weren't really much of a problem for Shy. She didn't have organs to be punctured and she didn't bleed. She felt pain, and her eyes could be put out, but other than that she feared little from this sort of damage.

  Deciding for the moment to ignore the phase beast, she concentrated instead on the vrykolakas, and spoke the words of a spell she used when attempting to escape danger as she thrust the butt of her staff into the turf at her feet.

  Lightning flared down the length of the Rod of Arcs, then rose up in the form of brilliantly scintillating green energy to coil around the undead woman, wh
ose spell was broken by her howl of pain as the lightning crackled around her before fading to reveal vines that continued to roil and wrap her body.

  Halla stepped toward the undead, her club rising and falling, but the blow was knocked away by the centaur, who angled her shield in an expert deflection, then countered with her longsword, striking sparks off Halla's chestplate.

  It was obvious that either the shield was enchanted, or the wielder was much stronger than she appeared.

  An arrow sprouted in Halla's neck, and she bellowed and took a step back as she reached up and wrenched it out, snapping it in her hands only to have another glance off her forehead just above her eyes. It was clear that Shy hadn't been the only one to switch targets.

  I can't kill an undead with lightning and I can't hit the phase beast, so ...

  Shy concentrated her mana and sent a powerful bolt of lightning coursing into the centaur, who screamed and spasmed as the electricity pulsed through her.

  Halla didn't miss her chance. She roared her fury and swung her club with enough force to ruffle Shy's hair with the wind of its passing.

  The centaur's upper half was torn from the lower, and the equine body stood frozen for a moment as blood gouted before it simply collapsed where it was, leaving the vrykolakas exposed.

  Unfortunately, she hadn't been idle.

  All but encased in vines, she nonetheless managed to complete a spell and her body swelled as she let out a roaring howl fit for a dragon. The vines were torn asunder as she grew, and she caught Halla's backswing with one hand, stopping the club with a crunch of breaking bones that the undead clearly didn't mind.

  Now her equal in height, the undead loup-garou reached over the club and backhanded Halla, staggering the giant with the force of the blow.

  "You might be gifted now, but you are still no match for me!" Lane roared, her voice booming across the Steppe. "I will crush your worthless tree and eat you!"

  Another arrow lodged under Halla's armpit, and yet another found the gap between her breastplate and the leather skirt protecting her upper legs.

  Shy struggled to come up with a spell, something, anything, that would help. She knew the lightning would do nothing to the vrykolas but perhaps set her fur on fire, and that wouldn't be enough. The phase beast continued to pepper Halla with well-placed shots, and it was only a matter of time before one of them found something truly vital.

  'The wall may at least buy her time. I have it ready. Raise me, and let us smite our enemies!'

  Shy poured her energy into the staff and described the ground between the staggered oni and the now giant undead. She did not need to speak the words of the spell. The Rod of Arcs remembered them.

  A curtain of lightning cascaded down, licking at both giants and sufficient to knock Halla back with a howl of pain. The flames rose, and the vrykolakas had just enough time to turn a mocking grin toward Shy before the brambles burst up at her feet, shredding her legs and lower body.

  These were no blackberries. Euphorbia vines clung tenaciously to the undead, and as she struggled forward they tore chunks of flesh from her bones and shredded her skin, doing grievous damage.

  The undead behemoth turned her attention from the staggered and bleeding oni to Shy, snarling as she stepped forward, trailing ribbons of flesh as the vines, anchored in the ground, refused to give up their prize.

  "I do not feel pain, little dryad. But you will. You will. Nadine, finish Halla for me."

  Desperate, Shy backpedaled rapidly as she decided to try one of the spells she had learned from Tee. She had never attempted it before and had meant to today, but Halla's appearance had cut short her session.

  No time like the present!

  Careful to enunciate the words properly, she channeled her power into her body as she cast.

  "By the power in my veins, I demand my speed and strength be increased to the limits of my physical endurance."

  The mana within her dissipated.

  Nothing happened. Her spell failed, and a bare instant later Shy was slammed to the earth as the giant undead creature stomped her flat with a savage growl.

  The Rod of Arcs flew from her grasp and Shy struggled to move, but it was useless. Her back, legs, and one of her arms were shattered. The pain was intense, wiping out any thought of further resistance. For her, the fight was over.

  Confusion and despair washed through her. As the vrykolakas lifted its foot and reached for her, time seemed to slow, as though determined to drag out her torment.

  She felt the massive clawed hand scoop her out of the ground along with great clods of earth, and as she was lifted toward those rotting jaws, clarity came too late.

  Veins. I have no veins. No blood. The spell would never work for someone like me, not even partially. The activation I need is completely different.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't want to see the end. The agony of her wounds mingled with shame. She should have practiced more. Should have revealed what she knew to Tee and asked for his help. It would have taken him no more than a moment to give her the correct words.

  She screamed as she felt the teeth sink into her in a burning line of agony all across her shoulders, front and back. Lane was biting slowly, the better to draw out her agony.

  Then the undead stopped, bite unfinished.

  As she hung impaled on a forest of teeth, top and bottom, Shy sobbed. The pain was unlike anything she had ever felt, but still her torment had no end.

  "Finish!" she screamed through her tears, wanting nothing in that moment more than the death she knew was coming.

  The teeth within her body trembled, but instead of closing, the jaws that held her eased their pressure and the teeth impaling the top of her body pulled slowly back out.

  Unable to keep to her resolve, she opened her eyes, and saw indigo fingers jammed into the mouth ahead of her.

  Halla.

  Bit by bit, the jaws opened wider. Shy couldn't see anything but the jagged teeth surrounding her and the hands that kept them from completely cutting her in half, but she could hear Halla screaming in rage and pain, and then a furious howl tore from the throat ahead, blowing Shy's hair back around her face and washing her in a miasma of decay.

  The teeth still run through her chest shuddered with the force of impacts, and she knew that the undead must be shredding Halla, hitting her with everything she could muster, but still the trembling jaws opened wider.

  Then, Shy saw daylight as the teeth impaling her from below were jerked from her, and she was falling.

  The top of the cavernous maw vanished with an abrupt sound of cracking bones and tearing flesh.

  Halla had torn the vrykolakas' lower jaw off her body.

  Shy was spun around by the force of her disconnection and landed in a heap on her stomach, unable to see the battle that raged directly overhead.

  Feet thundered down around her as two struggling giants slammed and slashed at each other, but Shy fixated on the one thing she could see.

  The phase beast lay crumpled on the ground not twenty feet away, an arrow protruding from one of her eye sockets.

  A scream cut through the sounds of battle overhead, but as she heard it, Shy smiled faintly, and knew that she and Halla had been saved.

  Euryale.

  18

  Should I Stay or Should I Go

  Shy did not witness the destruction of the vrykolakas, Lane. She did hear it, but it was incidental to her own pain.

  Unlike an animal, she could operate under even the most ferocious agony when she had cause. Now though, there was nothing to do but wait to be rescued, and that proved harder in its way than trying to fight through her pain. There was nothing to distract her from her shattered bones, or the punctures in her upper chest and back. She could feel the breeze flowing into each of the holes, and the unnatural sensation had her squeezing her eyes shut and praying that Euryale had brought some of Laina's milk with her.

  Of course, she hadn't.

  Laina arrived only a few m
inutes after Euryale though. They'd been together when the screams of combat had alerted them to the danger. Unlike the gorgon though, the minotress couldn't fly.

  Laina, when she arrived, went immediately to Shy and — apologizing for the pain she was about to put her through — turned her onto her back and straightened her limbs as best she could, in two cases having to go so far as to press her knees against exposed bones to push them back into the dryad's body.

  Shy acknowledged dully through her pain that this fight had not gone well for her. It was the second time she had been seriously injured in combat. The first time her back had been broken, but this was much, much worse. The milk eased her pain almost immediately, but minutes passed as she felt its effects continue, then fade.

  The holes in her upper chest and back remained. Not as deep, and they no longer pained her, but still there. Her bones had reset, but still felt weak, and ached in a way that told her not to trust them with her weight, not yet.

  The fact that even Laina's milk couldn't entirely undo the damage brought home to Shy just how close she had come to death.

  All because Halla couldn't keep her mouth shut.

  The bitter thought fled her mind as soon as she considered it, recognizing it for what it was: an impulse to shift blame.

  I took my ease, watching Tee train as though his reasons for it had nothing to do with me. If I had spent even a little time practicing what I thought I'd learned, I wouldn't be in this mess.

  As she lay still, staring up at the wide blue sky, Shy considered herself not just as she was in the moment, but as she had always been. She was a creature of the present. She did not plan for the future as more than an amusing exercise, always believing in the back of her mind that whatever would be, would be.

  Now she contrasted that with what her lover did, and wondered how her life would be different if she had taken it upon herself to force growth, rather than wait patiently for it. Her mana pool would expand in the fullness of time, but she could have hastened it along if she'd been diligent in her practice. She could have learned so much more at the academy when she'd lived there, but had settled for picking up bits and pieces over the years rather than actively attending any classes.