Draconess

Chapter 38

Reyn unhands my hair and unties me from the saddle, speaking to his favourite flanking soldiers, "Tie her up near the Highborns, I want to see how they react when we cut off one of her hands later in the night to send to Rey in advance. With a white rose. He'll know to surrender if he wants her and the others alive. It's the only negotiating we'll consider."

The soldiers are some form of goblin, with long ears and large fat teeth that stick up from the bottom, as if their canines are reversed. The two guards hold an arm between them, dragging me through the camp.

They head to the middle, while I'm silent, my eyes are frantically searching for Zarcar and Lixar.

I don't recognise them when we stop near them, I'm looking over heads, still searching, even while they're at my feet.

I only notice when I'm dropped. Lixar is collapsed, half naked, his top burnt off, bite marks along his neck, he is so pale he looks almost as worn out as the first time I saw him in that dungeon. Zarcar is beside him, barely conscious, his head swelling from being punched repeatedly. He has an arrow sticking out of his shoulders.

I'm dragged across the ground towards a wheel attached to a carriage that held war supplies. I'm tied to it with my hands above my head. I'm watching Zarcar and Lixar, but Zarcar doesn't look at me.

I know what he's doing. He's pretending he doesn't care, he knows the demons will hurt me more if he shows an ounce of love.

I try to get comfortable, but not before a foot collides with the back of my head and my forehead smacks forward onto the wood, knocking me out cold.

****

I have a lucid dream before I wake up, where I'm standing in the camp, while sexy nurse female Vampyres fawn over Zarcar and Lixar, healing their wounds with cloths and kisses.

I'm watching, like a ghost, while familiar faced females walk through the camp.

We're on the edges of Swendula, and I can see everything. I can hear everything. All the while, I focus the majority of my attention on those females.

The sun priestesses who were burnt at the stake.

They walk through the camp, their eyes glowing white. Like martyrs. I think they're angels from heaven.

They touch weapons and caress the hands of the demons they walk by.

They don't speak to me, but they do their invisible work.

While I'm frozen to my spot, I feel a vibration from my feet and the earth cracks apart. I look down from a burst of steam and I see two slender hands reaching up, for my ankles. I don't walk backwards, I watch as those hands desperately grasp onto my toes, then the soles of my feet and then my shins.

Andoll pulls herself up from the earth, hissing and spitting while her body is covered in welts and burns.

She's crying into my knees and I can't talk, or move. I just listen and see.

"Queen Chyronex," she sobs into my legs, "I am resisting death. I want to be a ghost. I want to be a spirit. Please. Don't go. Help me?"

If you want her to travel as a ghost, you'll have to promise me one thing, Draconess.

I look down and I see red eyes coming from a face I can barely make out.

Lucifer? Oh. Hell.

Offer yourself to Torrent over his little brother. And you'll allow me to grant Andoll the ability to traverse the Spirit Planes. You will be able to communicate. All I require is a trade.