The Fanged Throne

Chapter 27

A chunk of raw flesh flew from Elora's mouth and sailed across the room landing with a loud plop, and then everything happened all at once. The moment Elora had sunk her teeth into the snake's body Ameda yelled out in pain, stopped her chanting and cried at the sight of her mutilated snake. The snakes loosened their hold on her body and Elora pushed herself up as Thayer used the distraction to whip the soldier's weapon from their fist.

Ameda dropped to the floor cradling the snake in her arms, wailing so loudly the walls had shaken. Not sparing a moment Elora ran at Banu who was distracted by Ameda's cries and lunged for her sword, he sidestepped her at the very last moment. In return, he lifted the sword and whizzed it at her head, just nicking her ear. Elora pressed her hand against the cut and ran at him again, this time she made sure to duck out of the way of his weapon.

Behind her Thayer fought off the soldiers, the flail he had acquired banging off their armour, barely denting it. Another pair of soldiers appeared behind him and swept their spears under his feet tripping him up. Elora watched him fall onto the ground and changed course. Leaving Banu to run to Ameda's side, she stormed towards the backs of the soldiers standing over Thayer and threw herself into them, sending the three of them tumbling into a heap. Struggling against her dress, Elora reached under the pile and pulled out a sword that belonged to one of the soldiers. The steel underneath her moved and she rolled over to the side as the soldiers stood up and faced them. Thayer and Elora stood still as they all eyed each other in a standoff, waiting to see who would make the first move. Nervous and breathing shallowly Elora twitched her hand, the soldiers moved first.

Trunks of steel charged and the two of them stood their ground,  their weapons met with a loud crash. The force with which the soldier collided into her sword almost sent her flying backwards and she bent her knees to steady herself. Beside her Thayer matched each attack he was thrown with finesse and precision. The soldier who stood in front of her reached behind him and pulled out a small dagger and flung it at her, its pointed end landing on the ground next to her.

She was grabbed from behind and twirled around to face her new attacker, another armed soldier. They raised their arm and wrapped a steel hand around her neck. The hand squeezed hard lifting her feet off the ground. With one hand gripped onto the soldier's arm, Elora rammed her sword into the armoured kneecap until it lodged itself in between the steel. The soldier let go of her and pulled the sword out of his leg, the weapon came out perfectly clean. Elora took a step back and the soldier dropped his weapon onto the ground and took a menacing step towards her. She could hear him growling underneath his helmet. He reached out and sent a punch hurtling her way, she ducked. Again, he pushed forward closing her in, punching as she ducked, again and again, her thighs had started to burn and her arms were tired from fending off his attacks.

Thayer gave a mighty kick and sent his attacker skidding across the room and turned to yank away the soldier that lunged at Elora. "Thanks!" She grunted, standing up on her trembling legs. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a streak of silver fly by, she lifted her sword and met a longsword with a shuddering clang.

"I'm not sure how long I can keep doing this." She called out to Thayer, out of breath and sweating under the heavy fabric of her dress. Thayer swept his arm across his attackers' chest and twisted, sending them tumbling to the ground in a tangle of limbs. "The sword." He shouted from under the torso of the soldier and rolled them over until he was on top. "Get it from Banu so we can get out of here!"

Elora nodded and turned to look for Banu, spotting him across the room, crouched alongside Ameda his hands wrapped around her shoulders, his face worried. With a nod at Thayer, she ran across the room, hiking up the fabric of her dress from under her feet. She ignored the soldier that ran at her, trusting Thayer to deal with him as she came up behind Banu. He hadn't noticed her yet, and she stood watching with silent breaths calculating her next move. Her broken sword lay on the floor alongside him, the hilt pressed against his thigh. Desperately he urged Ameda to get up, but she swatted his touch away. Elora's fingers tingled with indecision, one wrong move and they were done for, she needed to get her hands on that sword.

Behind her Thayer valiantly fought off the soldiers but she could see more approaching, he wouldn't be able to hold them off for much longer. Steadying her breath, she took a step forward keeping her approach silent until she was inches from the sword. The hem of her dress caught a loose piece of a broken dagger and sent it skittling, the small sound loud enough to attract Banu's attention. He swung his head to face her.

Not wasting a single moment, she dived towards him landing roughly on her chest, knocking the air from her lungs. Her fingertips had barely curled around the hilt when Banu brought his hand down on her forearm to stop her. His touch reminded her of that night in Alzoh, her heart clenched painfully. He suddenly stilled and gasped at her, his eyes filled with disbelief as he gazed down at the sword that was embedded into his thigh, the dark blood flowing over Elora's hand that was still attached to the hilt. Looking away from his paling face, she pulled the sword out of his thigh and scrambled away from the blood that abruptly sprayed from the wound.

Ameda stopped wailing and turned to see Banu sprawled on the ground pressing his hands against the river of red that was pooling around him. She stared at him for a short few seconds before lifting her face to look at Elora. Ameda's face was pinched and turning a dark pink, her eyes filled with rage and hatred, pure unadulterated hatred. Elora flinched and hastily clambered to her feet holding tightly onto the hilt of her sword. Ameda rose from the ground and straightened out her spine, standing proudly like the Queen she proclaimed she was and then screamed.

Her scream of rage was so loud it shook the roof and little bits of dust and stone floated in the air around them. The scream grew and took on an inhuman sound, like a beast and roared savagely. Even the soldiers startled and froze as they watched their Queen release her true might. Elora stood frozen in fear as she watched Ameda's eyes grow blacker and she wasn't sure if she had imagined it or not, but her teeth seemed to grow longer, sharper. From under his breath, Thayer sent a prayer to his gods as he stood watching evil unveil itself.

Ameda stopped screaming and marched at Elora. "You! You have ruined everything." She roared backing Elora up against the wall with nowhere else to run. "Now I'm going to kill you and sweetie, if you thought earlier was painful then you're going to wish you had never been born when I'm through with you." She reached up and cupped Elora's face, her long nails digging into her cheeks. "I'm going to start limb by limb, breaking every bone in your worthless body until you're begging me to stop." She squeezed her fingers tighter as Elora tried not to look into the pools of black where Ameda's eyes were supposed to be. "You're probably wondering what I'm going to do after that, but I'm not going to tell you. Let us make it a surprise!"

With the flick of a delicate wrist, Ameda lifted Elora into the air and flung her across the room, grinning as she skidded across the hard ground with a loud thud. Thayer winced and hesitated, before running to help. Ameda swung her arm out again and an invisible force stunned him, making him drop to his knees. Elora groaned as she lay there on her back, her entire body crying out. Her sword had come loose from her grip and had landed a short distance away from her. She could hear Ameda behind her, her heels slapping on the ground getting louder.

Breathing heavily Elora rolled painfully over onto her stomach and started to slowly crawl towards the sword. Ameda had now reached her and stood above Elora. "How pitiful you are." She laughed and snapped her finger. Pain instantly flooded Elora's hand and the fingers were bent grotesquely in different directions. Elora cried out and cradled her broken fingers to her chest, using one arm she pulled herself away from Ameda and continued to drag herself across the ground. Ameda tutted and stepped over her again when Elora was within arm's reach of the weapon, Ameda grabbed a fistful of Elora's hair and pulled her backwards.

"Oh, give it up darling. Really, this is humiliating to watch." Elora moaned as her broken bones bounced against the ground and she tried to twist her body away from Ameda to no avail. Sharp pain in her shoulder told her another bone had been broken and Elora sucked in a sharp breath, blinking away the spots that blurred her vision. Bile rose in her throat when her body was flipped around and Ameda leant in closer, her face inches away from Elora's and her mouth opened in a wide grin.

What both women didn't notice was Thayer who had made his way across the room, keeping out of Ameda's line of vision. The soldiers hadn't noticed him either for they were too entranced by what was happening with their Queen. He made his way as quietly and quickly as he could, making sure to keep an eye on the two of them. The snapping of Elora's bones and her cries of pain urged him to move faster, he glanced over to see her back arching in agony as Ameda fulfilled her promise.

When he reached the weapon, his mind flipped through hundreds of ways this could go wrong, before tensing his body and yelled out at them.