In a room. Not any room. A room filled with noise and laughter, singing and shouting. Smoke hung in the air about the low rafters. Old sailors slouched on benches awash with beer while girls in stained kimonos danced with their younger shipmates.
Skrawan, wrapped in a heavy black cloak, pushed his way into the tavern. He was deep in the heart of the harbour quarter of Xai City. Skrawan walked through the noise and chaos, avoiding the attentions of whores eager to be his girl for the night. He was there for a different kind of business. He spotted a table in the far corner. Two men sat opposite each other drinking alone. The older of the two watched Skrawan approach.
“Is one of you gentlemen Haron?” Skrawan brushed off a girl who thought she recognised him.
“That depends on who’s asking, don’t it?” said the older man.
“I have come with a message from my Master.”
The older man raised a brow. “So, what’s this message?” A waitress dumped two flagons of froth on the table. The older man nodded to her and she left.
“My master’s friend leaves tomorrow and I have payment for you to make sure everything goes my master’s way.”
Both men eyed him. “You’d better sit down, boy,” said the older one. “I am Haron.” Skrawan took a seat. The younger man placed a dagger on the table.
“And I am just a messenger.” Skrawan put three purses on the table and pushed them across to Haron. He snatched them up. “There are fifty golden crowns in each purse.”
A girl put her arm around the younger man’s shoulder. He pushed her away. “That’s a rich hoard.” His tone was hoarse and coarse. “Your Master’s friend is well placed, is he not? We ought to have more than three bags of gold crowns for this.”
“My master’s friend travels with more.”
“Does he travel with guards?” said Haron.
“He will have only six soldiers.”
“Don’t mess with me, boy.” Haron glared at Skrawan. His associate whipped up the knife. “We know who your master’s friend is.” His eyes darted about the room, then his voice dropped. “He’s the Emperor himself. Xai Jeng. He will travel with only six Imperial Guard, right enough. But the reason for that is because the Emperor Xai Jeng enjoys the protection of a dragon called Wokwan.”
“Wokwan will cause you no trouble. My master can assure she has been dealt with.”
“This is high treason.” Haron’s associate spoke as though addressing his knife.
“Are you backing out?”
“We want assurances.”
“My master has taken care of the dragon himself with the help of Bab Yaga of the Crepuscular Forest. The Hinterland sorceress has made sure, gentlemen, Wokwan is no more.”
Haron nodded. “Fine. But if we learn you’ve lied to us, there won’t be no place for your master to hide. You hear me?”
“You do your job right, and my master won’t need to hide anywhere.”
The mist gathered and dispersed as it came. Once more they stood in the Courtyard bathed in the last light of the day.
Princess Kai stared at Wokwan. When she spoke, her voice was as soft and smooth as her gown. “They told me my father was attacked by raiders from Hinterland and you, Wokwan, deserted him. They said you went to Setchii Island to terrorise our fisher-folk on the Yellow Sea.”
“I was tricked, too, and your father, the Emperor, fell to the treacherous blades of brigands disguised as Hinterland raiders. All that was part of Skrawan’s machinations, his treachery. He used your mother and father’s murder as a pretext to wage a war for ten years against Hinterland, and through that build his own influence by bringing it to an end. Skrawan desires nothing but absolute power.”
“But what of you, Wokwan?” A glazed sheen coated Princess Xai’s eyes. “What did Skrawan and Bab Yaga do to you?”
“It is too painful for me to tell.” The scales on Wokwan’s chest heaved. “I will tell you only this. Skrawan came to me with a story of conspiracies from Hinterland, that a renegade band of Hinterland Warriors sought to make war between your nations. I looked into his heart and saw nothing but cloud and mist. I know now this was Bab Yaga’s doing. At the time, I was confused but not alarmed. Skrawan’s story worried me instead. So, I went with him. We did not find Warriors in Crepuscular. Instead I fell into Bab Yaga’s clutches. She threw an elixir over me that paralysed long enough for her half-breed troll to take my heart.”
“That troll took your heart from you, Wokwan?” Hanna recalled the gnarled wort-covered animal who chased her. “And Bab Yaga locked him in that Tower to guard it.”
Wokwan felt Hanna’s memories coated in smoky-black and crimson. “Yes, Hanna.” Wokwan sighed.
Princess Kai looked at Hanna, her eyes bright and gleaming. She looked as she did on the balcony under a full moon and overlooking the simmering sea. The scarf still hugged Hanna’s neck. It was her gift for her champion and a message to a friend. How much Hanna had grown, thought the trincess. She spoke to Wokwan, but her eyes watched the beautiful Hinterland woman. “So, what are we to do with Skrawan?”
“That, I am afraid, is for you to decide, Your Highness.”
Skrawan sprang forward and fell to his knees, cowering. “Please have mercy on me, Wokwan. Please. I can see now you are beneficent and wise, while my heart was clouded with avarice. I have learned my lesson. Please forgive me. Have mercy on my soul. And Your Highness, have mercy on me, too.”
A monotone thump echoed into the great City. Eyes turned to the wall, attention focus on the gate. Imperial Guard stationed on the battlements ran back and forth yelling and shouting and pointing. Archers deployed on the chemin de ronde ready to fire arrows at an approaching menace while orders raced with running feet over the cobbles. Thump. Thump.
A lieutenant approached the Captain. "Sir. It's Bab Yaga's cottage." Incredulity twisted his voice.
Six
"Bab Yaga is come here?" said the Captain of the Guard.
"Aye, Captain," said Wokwan. "Hanna and Your Highness. Stay well behind me. Do not attempt to assail the sorceress' fortress."
"But Mika?" protested Hanna. Her brocade cote clung to her skin.
"Let me deal with this. Captain. You'd do well holding your men back, too, and keep the women safe."
"We do not need their protection, Wokwan," said Princess Kai.
"Hahaha, you are your father's daughter, Your Highness! But this will be no ordinary battle and you will best serve your people and serve me by staying alive."
"But I must get to Mika, Wokwan." Hanna's red eyes implored and Wokwan saw a crimson must over her heart.
"Indeed, and I shall not stand by and watch my champion face Bab Yaga alone."
All sound ceased. The plodding faded. Guards on the battlements turned and bellowed into the Grand Courtyard.
“Bab Yaga,” hissed Wokwan, “is here for me, for my hearts. She will not flinch or falter in her passion for the power they possess. We will fight this to the death. Stay on the fringes of our battle, Your Highness. Hanna. Stay away and wait for your time to act. Patience is priceless.”
A crofter’s cottage appeared above the curtain wall. A straining chicken leg pushed the house up and on as its splayed foot landed on the rampart crushing the screaming guard along with several merlons and crenels. Rubble and corpses flew from the battlements and dashed across the Grand Courtyard. The leg jumped and landed with a thud on the cobbles, settling the cottage on the ground. Arrows rained on the thatch, the wattle and daub, but none pierced a single weft. Wokwan circled ahead of Princess Kai and Hanna. Ranks of Imperial Guard sprinted forward as the Captain ushered his Princess back. Her Highness grabbed a fistful of Hanna’s dress to her. “We will sneak round the side, Hanna,” she whispered.
“Stay inside, boy!” The cracked, vicious voice echoed over the slap of sandaled feet and the rasp of weapons being draw. Arrows sang in the cooling air as the old woman stepped out stamping down her staff as she walked. The arrows twisted in flight and speedily returned to t
heir owners. Bab Yaga stood in the middle of the Grand Courtyard and looked about as anguished cries of soldiers filled the air. Elongated pupils fixed her as Wokwan eeled before her in a figure of eight. More and more Imperial Guard joined the ranks behind the mighty silver-grey dragon.
The old woman stepped forward, her back bent, her rotund torso cloaked in earthy calico apparel with a crocheted shawl. Heavy boots with a gingerbread hue and tatty tufts clopped on the stones. Had she not been surrounded by an army, had Wokwan’s throat not sizzled with burning liquid, the dragon would have said this was a grandmother out for an early evening stroll. Bab Yaga’s wizened face, bent with hook chin and crow’s nose, scanned the area. Malicious emerald eyes set under a bunker brow harvested the scene. She gazed up at the bastion and the wedding cake beyond, at the wide stairs littered with dying soldiers, and the pike-men and archers facing her on all sides. Then her eyes fell on Wokwan. She snatched a worn straw hat from her twisted grey locks. “Delso, come here!”
Arrows continued to twist in mid-air as the troll yanked the door back and stomped towards her. Soldiers on the battlements and around the Grand Courtyard fired and ran from treacherous arrows that clattered against the cobbles.
Bab Yaga turned. “There’s your girly, Delso. Go take her back to the cottage. And that other dragon-whore, Kai, with you.” Bab Yaga pointed her staff at the Princess. “Peepee pushy-pushy them both until they bleed troll spunk. Breed the pair of them!”
Delso grunted but did nothing. The women stood behind a strapping array of warriors.
Bab Yaga rapped her staff on the ground. “You sent your Hinterland whore to break into my tower, Wokwan,” said Bab Yaga, her voice ringing on the cobbles, “to steal something from me. Now I shall take it back along with its sister. Come, Wokwan, let’s decide this feud once and for all.”
Wokwan leapt for the sky. “Bab Yaga,” she said, rising. Her hot breath warmed the air. The sorceress glared at her. “If you want my hearts, they’re both here. Come and get them, if you believe you’re still strong enough?”
“Wokwan.” Bab Yaga grinned. Malice dripped from her yellow teeth. “I broke you once before. This time I shall destroy you. I knew that Hinterland-whore would bleed her little heart to you and you’d come after her little brat. But you didn’t wait for me last night, did you? After you got the little whore to steal from me, you went after her stepmother, Wokwan, didn’t you?” Bab Yaga strolled around the middle of the Grand Courtyard. Arrows rained down and swung back violently.
All the while fiery eyes fixed the sorceress and a long thick tongue licked at leathery lips. The heated breath streamed over the blood-soaked cobbles. “You trade curses at the weakest of us. That shows me your fear, Bab Yaga.”
“Ha!” Bab Yaga spat words up at Wokwan. “So, you have your heart again. No matter. It’s still with the Hinterland-whore, I take it? I’ll enjoy watching Delso have his way with her.”
“Your troll must get past the Imperial Guard first, Bab Yaga!”
“Indeed.” The sorceress stamped her staff. “So, let my wolves have their fun.”
The massive gates blasted into matchwood and two dozen wolves, black and grey and fierce, raced into the Palace grounds.
“After I’ve dealt with you, Mika and I will watch Delso bonk Hanna’s brains out before my pack ravishes her and tears her limb from limb. It will break his little heart, won’t it? And he’ll be mine forever.”
Wokwan rose high into a red sky before curling over herself. Her head and tail plunged down until she faced her foe. Her tail tipped up as her head dipped. Wokwan’s chin rested on the stones and her eyes flashed like brilliant rubies in the gathering crepuscular.
Bab Yaga stepped back. “Hahaha.” The sorceress’s voice carried defiance, but Wokwan felt a deepening shadow in her mood. “You aim to frighten me, Wokwan? I know you still only have one heart, even if I don’t possess the other.”
Wokwan’s lips peeled back, her jaws stretched wide and a jet of orange flame raced across the cobbles. Bab Yaga deployed a counter-hex just in time. The flame burned with ferocious zeal against an invisible shield. The first faded. Arrows pinged off the cobbles around the sorceress or fried in the flame.
“Nice try, dragon.” Bab Yaga sent a blue stream of light from her staff. The narrow beam flashed straight for Wokwan’s lonely heart. Bab Yaga’s cackle followed it.
The beam streaked across the Grand Courtyard like summer lightning. Wokwan didn’t flinch. Imperial Guardsmen watched as the killing bolt struck the dragon’s scales. And passed straight through her. The bolt sailed into the stairway and exploded. Archers and pike-men fled in the face of sundered masonry.
“What?” Bab Yaga’s vexation vented through the staff. Sparks and flames flew in all directions. Guardsmen fell dead from the battlements or steps, scalded to their core.
“You see, Bab Yaga? My hearts are whole. I am whole. While one resides in me, and the other rests in the hands of one who knows love and compassion, I am whole.” Wokwan’s voice soared and a sheet of fire followed it. “So, feel my strength, you fell witch.”
Bab Yaga wrapped herself in a translucent blue light with a sickening hue. An Orb of Power shimmered in the centre of the Courtyard. Flames licked the sphere impotently. But the pressure and intensity drew Bab Yaga’s strength. Her arms felt leaden under the staff. In desperation, she screamed to her wolves, “Tear that dragon-whore apart and rip Wokwan’s heart in two!”
Wolves sprang forward and attacked the ranks of Imperial Guard. As the gates shattered and the wolves appeared, the Captain of the Guard hastily formed for a square around the women. “Soft girly ran from Delso pee-pee,” muttered the troll as he marched towards the melee of wolves and soldiers. “Nice titty-titty girly with small hairy willy-pouch for Delso.” Cries and yells filled the air. The Princess’s lady-in-waiting panicked and ran for the bastion. A wolf caught her, and its teeth tore into her throat. Her anguished cry flailed the great oak doors.
“Hanna,” said Princess Kai, picking up a sword. “Now is our chance.”
Hanna saw Delso bounding towards them. “Aye. Let’s go, Your Highness.”
Princess Kai sprang through a gap in the ranks of soldiers and wolves, but her dress snagged on a fallen pike. A wolf leaped for her. Hanna screamed. Kai swung the sword and beat the animal back. She pulled the dress free, its torn edges flapping wildly. Delso turned slowly and his big flat feet slapped the stones in pursuit. Kai slipped in blood on the stones and she faltered.
Delso caught Kai around the waist and swept her off her feet, knocking the sword from her hand. As he spun her around, a spent arrow bounced from his head and grazed Kai’s robe, tearing through it. Hanna leapt at Delso, her fists pummeling his back, his shoulders, his face as he turned his head.
“Let her down, you beast,” she yelled.
The troll swung his club and knocked Hanna down. He dropped the wood and lifted the Hinterlander up, throwing her over his other shoulder. Two wolves snapped at Hanna, their jaws seeking the pouch swinging like a pendulum across Delso’s back, but he marched on ignoring them as he headed for the cottage. As Hanna slumped unconscious, Kai struggled against the troll’s iron grip.
“Hahaha! The mighty sorceress needs feral dogs to help her in her last battle! What have you now, Bab Yaga? Come, show me your power.”
Howls of pain and rage echoed over the stones. Numo and the Captain and a handful of Imperial Guard had raced from the cordon and fought through snapping, snarling wolves to reach Delso. The Quest Knight put a bolt into Delso’s neck. The troll pitched forward spilling Princess Kai and Hanna and the dead weight landed on the unconscious Hinterlander, burying her and covering the pouch. Two wolves pawed at Hanna and Delso trying to fetch Wokwan’s heart and aid their Mistress.
Numo had reloaded his bow and hit one of the wolves. It yelped and fell away. The Captain held his sword ready. The Knight shot another bolt that thudded into the other wolf’s flank. It squealed, too. Other wolves broke from the me
lee of the cordon and came at the small group near the dead troll. But Archers rained death on them to assist their commander.
“Get the wolves. Get the wolves,” the Captain of the Guard yelled. With Bab Yaga distracted and weakening, her allies ran a gauntlet of arrows, pikes and swords. More fell, their high-pitched screams reaching over the noise of battle. A wolf spun on itself, its hind leg skewered by a barded shaft.
Bab Yaga stepped from the protection of the Orb. It vanished as she summoned all her strength to conjure a death blow. She muttered incantations through her staff, pulling forth her waning power to unleash Armageddon. From the tip of her gnarled staff, a small sphere of glowing apple-green light blossomed, swelling to the size of a grapefruit. Wokwan’s eyes watched the Death Sphere lift from the staff and approach her. Anticipating the move, she leaped high. “Take cover everyone,” she bellowed. “Take cover!”
Guardsmen took fight and ran for nearby alleys and nooks in the battlements. Princess Kai freed herself from Delso and turned to the Captain. “Where is my champion?”
“The Hinterlander is under the troll, Your Highness. It’s all we can do to keep the wolves from her.”
“Keep your men here to help her. Come with me. I need to get Mika from the fell witch’s cottage.”
In desperation, Bab Yaga tried to reconstruct the sick-blue orb as the lithe silver-grey body stretched for the green sphere. Arrows clacked off the cobbles closer and closer to the sorceress. The Sphere hovered six feet above the cobbles. For a few seconds the Curtain Walls, the Bastion and wedding cake shimmered with a brilliant, clear light. Wokwan raced forward. Her jaws gripped the shimmering object, her razor teeth clasped the glowing power of death. Time braced itself against fate as the dragon rounded on the stranded sorceress. For a few heartbeats that pounded in the ears of a million civilians and soldiers alike, Wokwan’s eyes held Bab Yaga’s. In them, she saw those stories again. The tales of treachery and deceit, of lies and murder, of trades and deals and a dragon’s stolen heart. Their memories flashed before their eyes, and Wokwan’s vision coloured with olive and lemon yellow, and she smiled.
Scales and Flames Page 44
