by Cebelius
She took any doubt of her intention away as she glanced at him and said, "Don't take this personally, but it's obvious that a demonstration of my might is called for."
Terry's earlier fear evaporated at the thought of what was about to happen. Given the obviously dead guard on the floor just behind her, this woman was playing for keeps.
He took two quick steps as he loaded up, and slammed a perfectly executed left hook into Asturial's jaw, turning into the blow with every ounce of strength in his body. The dragon lady, utter shock registering on her face just before the blow landed, lurched sideways on impact. She hadn't even tried to dodge.
The ruby-red sash he was wearing flared out between them, but was too small to cover him. The red ball of lightning discharged itself into Terry instead of Shy, seizing his muscles and sending him flying sideways to slam into the stone wall several feet away.
He couldn't see, and his back felt so tight that he felt sure it would break. Pain seemed to hook spikes into every muscle, pulling them all in a vicious tug of war that bent him in directions the human body simply wasn't meant to go ... and then it was over.
Terry didn't realize he'd been deafened until his hearing faded back in, and only then did he realize he was still blind behind a jagged web of purple. The smell of burned cloth and charred meat filled his nostrils, and as he struggled to clear his head, he noticed an orange flicker.
I'm on fire? Yeah ... I think I'm on fire. That's just perfect.
"Boss! BOSS!"
He couldn't think straight. He knew he should roll, knew he had to get up and fight, but he couldn't manage to make his limbs obey. His head hurt, and as the pain in his body began to localize in his side, the agony in his head just got worse and worse. His eyes were open, but the jagged purple afterimages didn't seem to want to fade and he couldn't focus.
Eventually he closed his eyes trying to clear them, and consciousness spun away into darkness.
When Terry came to he was in a bed, and it was pain that forced him to wake. His head hurt, but that was only a severe throb, and nothing compared to the raw, gut-wrenching agony spread through his middle. He had nothing to compare the experience to, but it was so bad that while he wanted to scream, the best he could manage was a faint moan.
A bottle was pressed to his lips, and he drank. The taste was immediately recognizable, but his throat didn't seem to want to cooperate, and it took him so long to swallow that his mouth overflowed and he almost choked. Finally the draught went down, and he shook his head slightly as he gagged, unable to muster the strength to cough.
Warmth spread through his damaged core, and his breathing eased. After a minute, he was able to take another sip, and then to finish the pint of Laina's milk that he was being offered. After the last of it was down, he relaxed, and lost consciousness again.
The next time he woke, he felt better, but for the dull throb that persisted in his head. Opening his eyes, he saw that he was in a room he didn't recognize, but that looked similar to the one he'd spent the previous night in.
Still in the keep ... and still alive. I guess that means the others were able to stop the naked chick the dragon dropped off ... somehow.
He turned his head and saw Euryale staring at him fixedly. When she noticed him move, she asked, "How do you feel?"
"Like I lost a fight," he said. "Is everyone all right?"
She nodded slowly. "Now that you are awake. It is past midnight. The others are asleep. Master, what you did ... that was very stupid."
"Shy is okay, so I'm good with it."
Tears streaked Euryale's face. He realized that she must have been crying since before he woke, and the sight of them made him feel even worse as she said, "Please ... You must not do things like that. You have no protection from magic. Shy does. That bolt was enough to kill you, easily."
He shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, love, but it doesn't matter ... I couldn't let Shy take that hit."
Euryale stared at him for a long moment, then opened her mouth and shrieked at him. The sound was so loud that it sent real pain lancing through his skull. He held up a hand in a futile effort to ward off the sound, and a moment later it stopped, and she said again, "Master, please! Don't throw your life away."
Her wail had been so loud that even after it was over Terry hugged his head in pure reaction, his face contorted with residual pain. Before he got a word out, the door slammed into the wall as Laina flung it open, with Shy only half a step behind.
Euryale turned to them, still crying, and practically screamed, "He won't listen!"
Laina's lips twisted and she asked, "Sure that isn't because you just deafened him?"
Shy scowled as she said, "Not the time, Laina. What are you trying to tell him, Euryale?"
"That he should not risk himself like he did! How can I protect him if he throws himself into danger like that?"
"Ah."
Shy moved to the bedside and sat on the edge, leaning over Terry as she said, "Tee?"
By now he'd recovered enough to take his hands away, but his head still felt like it was caught in a vise and he winced as he said, "Yeah?"
"It would have hurt me, but I would have survived the lightning. It's fire that really bothers me. If someone's about to throw a fireball at me, feel free to jump in."
Terry choked, then started laughing, then stopped and grabbed his head again as he winced. "Noted. What happened to the naked lady?"
"You killed the dragon's proxy."
"I killed her?"
Laina leaned over Shy and nodded with wide eyes as she said, "You shattered her jaw and snapped her neck like a dried-up twig, Boss. She was dead before she hit the floor."
Shy nodded, adding, "If it had been a normal person, you'd have probably torn her head from her shoulders. As it was, dragon proxies are tougher than mortal bodies."
"Damn."
He couldn't think of anything else to say about it, so he tilted his head to look at Euryale and said, "I'm sorry I worried you ... but I honestly wasn't thinking. When I saw what she was about to do, I just couldn't let it happen. Nothing else even crossed my mind. I felt sure she was about to blow Shy away."
"She was! And you should have let her! Your life is more important!"
Euryale swung a brazen claw at the dryad as she said, "I like her too, Master, but you can always get another dryad! YOU can't be replaced!"
A cold wind blew through Terry's mind, and he twisted and sat up, wincing but doing his best to ignore the fact that his move made the room start spinning.
"I would have done the same for you," he said, meeting Euryale's eyes.
Her snakes hissed at him as she lashed out, slapping him hard. The blow caught him by complete surprise. Her metal claws left gouges in his cheeks and he saw stars from the brutal impact.
She grabbed his chin and jerked his head back around to face her as she shrieked, "I CAN'T DIE! Stupid hero!"
"ENOUGH!" Laina bellowed. She caught Euryale's arm and jerked her away from Terry, then flung her back as the gorgon's snakes instinctively struck out at her. Several missed her by less than an inch, but Laina braved the danger as she bellowed, "He's a man, and a man protects his woman. That won't change! If you're so concerned why didn't you just turn her to stone when she stepped through the door?"
"HE commanded me not to!" Euryale practically screeched, both claws out as she faced off with Laina. "What did you expect me to do? He's faster than I am! I barely saw him move! His STUPID hero instincts are going to get him killed!"
Terry heard this, but he was fighting to stay conscious, leaning over his knees and taking deep breaths. Getting cracked in the head with a claw made of brass was enough to really ring his bell. Half of his head was drenched in blood, and it was dripping down between his knees. Shy spoke, and her tone carried a calm resolution that took some of the tension out of the air. "Euryale, please calm yourself. Tee's instincts aren't the only ones that could do with an adjustment. Look at him."
"NNng!"
/> Euryale slammed a fist into the wall, then opened her claws to leave gouges on the stone as she stormed from the room.
Looking up, one eye already swelling shut as the bruising from the blow set in, Terry looked at Shy and said, "I'll go talk to her."
"Let her calm down first. Euryale and you both have similar problems. Just as you jump in swinging under stress, she lashes out when she's afraid."
He opened his mouth but she held up a hand as she said, "Much as I find her words distasteful, I have to agree. You must allow others to fight for you, Tee. You can't be replaced. You did the same thing with the Locutor. I admire your will, but understand that I hold my goals more dear than my life. You must survive if we are to have any hope of ridding Celestine of the Twilight Zone."
"Laina?" he asked, turning toward the minotress and ignoring Shy for the moment. "Would you get me another bottle of your milk? I really can't think straight right now."
She left, and was back within thirty seconds, handing over an already open bottle. He'd been worried she would simply bare her breast, but hadn't given her credit for her ability to read the room. He downed it, and gasped in relief as most of the pain in his head receded, the swelling around his eye went down, and the wounds on his cheek closed.
"I will never get used to that," he muttered.
Turning his attention back to Shy he said, "I'll tell you now what I told you back when we dealt with the Locutor. If we can't handle whatever the world throws at us, we were never going to succeed. I'm not willing to get to the end by sacrificing the people I love to get there. Maybe it's wrong of me to think this way, but you, Laina, and Euryale are more important to me than defeating the Twilight Zone. Disagree all you like, but that won't change. I might be out to change the world, but the whole reason for that is right here in this room, and if I lose you ... I just ... I can't lose you."
He shook his head and looked from one woman to the other and back again as he said, "I'm not some great general and I'm certainly no politician. I don't think in terms of acceptable losses and collateral damage. I think in terms of no one threatens my family without going through me first. No one."
Shy sighed, looking into his eyes. The light in the room was low, supplied only by moonlight streaming in through a window, and her green eyes were luminous in her otherwise shadowed face. Terry stared back at her, trying to convey with more than just words that this was who he was.
"I'm good with that, Boss."
Laina stepped up and set a hand on his shoulder, turning his attention to her as she added, "So long as you trust us. Shy knew what she was doing when she ..."
She paused, then glanced suspiciously at Shy as she asked, "You did know what you were doing, right?"
Shy glanced up, and had the grace to look faintly embarrassed. Laina's jaw dropped as she breathed, "You didn't. You stupid tree! How could you start something like that with no plan!?"
"Laina, I JUST got Tee back! I wasn't going to let some scaly megalomaniacal trollop stroll in and take him away again!" Shy said heatedly.
Terry held up both hands, the palm of one perpendicular to the fingers of the other as he said, "Okay, time out. I'm pretty sure it could have been handled better, but we're all learning, and we all survived. I call that a win. So let's not do the whole blame thing, okay? Euryale!? I know you can hear me. Please come back in here."
The gorgon slunk back into the room and stopped in front of Terry, hands clenched, eyes down. Even her snakes refused to look at him. He reached out and caught one of her balled fists as he said, "Please forgive me for doing something stupid?"
Her lips twitched, and her nod was barely perceptible as she whispered, "Yes, Master."
"Still mad at me?" he asked.
"Furious."
He stretched a bit, and pulled her into his arms. She came willingly, then pressed her brazen claws gently to his chest as she set her head against his shoulder. He ran his hand along the joint of one of her wings as he murmured, "I'm sorry, love."
She rested in his embrace for a long moment as he met first Shy's eyes, then Laina's. While in many ways Euryale was easily the strongest of them, in others she was the most fragile, and a glance was all he needed to tell that both the other women understood what he did. Neither of them spoke.
Eventually Euryale took a shuddering breath and said, "I love you, Master. I hate being afraid. Before you I had no fear. Now it seems I have nothing but fear. I want to lock you away and keep you for myself. I don't ever want any harm to come to you."
"I know."
"But I can't. I pledged you my service. I will do what you want, I trust you ... but my trust doesn't banish my fear like it should. You don't know what you're doing, and I can't protect you like I want to under the restrictions you make me live with. I will never be satisfied until you put your life before all others ... just as I do."
He shut his eyes as he listened to her, kissed the side of her head, and gave her a gentle squeeze. It was all he could do. There were some promises he just couldn't make.
Eventually she leaned away from him just enough to cup his face with one of her cold hands as she gazed at him. Her cold blue eyes were unblinking as she said, "You lied to me, Master."
"I did?" he said, blinking. He couldn't recall ever lying to the gorgon, or in fact to any of his women. He'd deceived Cecaelia, but if she was his woman, it was only in the loosest possible interpretation.
She nodded. "You lied when you said you weren't a hero. Now, please, let me go. I want to go sulk for a little while. I swore myself to a hero, and you know how much I hate heroes."
He opened his arms, bemused. As she got up, one of her snakes struck, but it was only to touch the tip of his nose with its snout. He found the gesture curiously reassuring. Then she padded from the room and shut the door softly behind her.
Shy slipped into his arms without a word, and he held her gently in turn. Her embrace was quite a bit more sensual than the gorgon's had been though, and after a moment it was obvious she wanted more than to simply be held.
Laina smirked and said, "Should I leave the door open so Euryale and I can watch?"
Shy rolled her head along Terry's shoulder to look back at Laina with heavy-lidded eyes as she said, "Why watch when you can stay and help? I have a lot of pent up frustration to work through. I'm not sure Tee will be enough and I seem to recall something about putting that tongue of yours to good use?"
Laina made a rude sound and said, "She's all yours, Boss. Have fun."
The door opened and closed a second time, and Shy pressed Terry back onto the bed and crouched over him on all fours as she said, "I've waited long enough, Terrence Mack. Euryale was right in that you are a hero. She might hate it ... but it turns me on. Shame Laina isn't joining us."
She smirked. "Then again, she's probably still sore."
Terry's blushed. He wasn't used to being called out for his sexual escapades ... particularly by a woman who hadn't been involved.
The dim light turned Shy's body into a play of shadows with details peeking out here and there, and his fingertips traced some of the more prominent ones as he smirked and said, "You really just up and shot someone without any kind of plan?"
She pouted, then shrugged. "You said it yourself. No one died and you're still here with me. Call it a win. The dragon will return, but the psychic damage of losing her proxy while actively controlling it will probably keep her away, at least until daylight."
She quirked a brow and settled herself on him, pressing her warm, supple body to his as she leaned in and whispered against his lips, "Now, are we talking, or fucking?"
He chose not to dignify that with a verbal response.
It seemed to be the answer she was looking for.
7
Inconsequential Concerns
Psychic backlash, it turned out, was serious business. The template's surprising attack and its lethal consequences had shocked Asturial and it wasn't until late the next morning that she returned. When she did
, her approach was much changed, and carefully considered.
Instead of landing on the bailey wall, she landed outside the city and sent another proxy — this one shaped, armed, and armored in advance — toward the city wall of Florence.
Creating a proxy — a golem formed of the flesh and blood of the host — was something any dragon could do, and there were a variety of ways to go about it. The quick and dirty proxy she'd made the day previous had been formed of the substance of her fist, and she'd flown toward the mountains nearby to concentrate on its progress. She had still been airborne when her proxy — in whom she'd invested most of her conscious attention — was abruptly killed. The resulting loss of focus and control had caused her to crash into the mountainside, in turn causing earthquakes and landslides in the surrounding area that left her half buried in rubble.
It was the first time in her life that she had lost a proxy in whom she had her primary focus, and given the solitary life dragons led almost from birth, she'd never had warning how severe the backlash was. She had not regained consciousness until well after dark.
Upon disentangling herself from the mountainside, she'd returned to her lair and formed a second, much more durable proxy. She'd spent the remainder of the night on the project, armed and armored her, and carried her by hand to just outside the city walls of Florence.
Once it was on the road, she flew away again, settling herself well outside the range of the city's trebuchets on a nearby mountainside before returning the bulk of her attention to it. Like yesterday's attempt, this creation had no mind of its own; it was simply a body into which she could pour her conscious attention. Proxies made it easier to deal with mortals ... and the use of one would be crucial for what she wanted.
This time, I will not be stopped.
Her new creation had the same general form as its unfortunate predecessor, but was three times as dense and covered in the highest quality steel plate armor from her hoard. She carried a sword no normal mortal would be able to lift, much less swing, and her new body was even more resistant to magical assault than the last. She was not surprised when the crowds leaving the city and its guards stood aside to let her pass. Some of them simply fled.
