Syjen stared at me for a few moments, his slender nimble fingers turning his knife in his hand. I stared right back, not willing to give the impression that he could scare me in any way.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, the echo of a memory flew by, in which my brother was sitting, staring at a young wolf that had wandered onto our family's property. He always seemed, to me, to have been born without natural fear, and I suppose that's what helped him join the army right at the bitter end of a bloody and hopeless war.
"He wants to know whose will is stronger," my brother had told me quietly, without turning to look at me. "If I turn away from him, he will think that he can come back and force me to cower any time he wants."
"If he thinks that, he's a fool," I laughed, sitting down to play Five Finger Catch with a sharpened bone. "You'll stare him blind."
In a few moments, Ylyssa moved away from my side, picked up the remains of Silveredge's clothing, and attempted to cover her with them.
"If you are intending to sell her, it won't do to let her catch a chill," she crabbed. "The witch is just talking, you see how she hasn't made a single move against you. I'll take her back to my room and-"
"Téigh," Syjen whispered fiercely, not taking his eyes from me. In their crystal blueness, I saw a boiling frustration that I wasn't sure I wanted to be left alone with. "Faigh amach, a dùirt mè!"
"You really shouldn't speak to your beloved that way," Uirrigan sighed, crossing his arms. "At some point, she will tire of doing your work."
"And a has-been wizard is telling me to do...what, exactly?" Syjen spat, tossing a hand in the air and turning away. "Where were you when your wife was put to the sword, counselor? Not here? Right here, in this damnable study that you loved more than her? Don't protest my actions against me- you, of all creatures on this plane."
But, for all the angry noise he made, the fact of the matter was that he had turned first.
Again, from the side of the room, Aleksei offered an opinion that could neither be heard nor understood, laughing wearily as he did.
"By the gods, you raw handbag, if you don't shut your mouth, I'll shut it for you and sew it shut," Syjen sighed. "Ylyssane, take Jyklahaimra and the pile of flesh at the door, and leave me. I have another experiment for Uirrigaen to perform."
Completely contrary to her normal attitude, Ylyssa simply grabbed Silveredge's arm and marched toward the door. When she reached Aleksei, she knelt down and poked him a few times.
"Idite so mnoj; my dolzhny pojti," she said firmly.
Aleksei looked up, smiled, and pulled Ylyssa to his level with a power that she clearly hadn't expected. She squealed, which drew the attention of both Uirrigan and Syjen. Syjen rolled his shoulders, but could not apparently soothe his temper that way. Aleksei, who had just managed to cradle Ylyssa, turned most of his body away from the solid bolt of ice that suddenly flew toward the rosy Eladrin, but not fast enough to prevent a bit of it from hitting her. The resulting screech of sheer agony rivaled a banshee's.
Aleksei growled, but not for long. Ylyssa, still panting with the freshness of Syjen's hit, reached up and held the Dragonborn's leathery, snake-like mouth shut with both hands.
"Poydem," she breathed pathetically, barely loud enough to be understood. "My ukhodim seychas."
And the Dragonborn gave one last grunt, then turned and lumbered off. While he still smelled horribly of drink, not one step was misplaced as he left.
I turned from that scene to Syjen, who had crossed his arms over his chest as he sat atop Uirrigan's chair on the dais.
"You said there was nothing useful about her blood?" he asked in a regal tone. Clearly, he had gotten himself back together, and was trying desperately to pretend that he hadn't just had a rather violent temper tantrum.
Uirrigan suddenly disappeared from where he had been, and reappeared at the back of the room, near all his equipment.
"Nothing. I believe there is an increase of chemicals that flow to the brain that-"
"Is it possible to reproduce this chemical reaction?" Syjen demanded, cutting Uirrigan off sharply.
"I do not believe so, no. Like Aleksei's "Arkhosian blessing," this is a reaction that does not belong in an Eladrin body. In fact, it seems that while Aleksei can control his inborn talent, however, our dear Mi'ishaen cannot at all simply decide to turn the rush of power that occurs when her opponent is bloodied on or off. In fact, it did not show itself until Aleksei was indeed bloodied and on the verge of falling unconscious, and I was forced to paralyze Mi'ishaen in order to prevent an actual killing."
Syjen looked over his shoulder at Uirrigan and laughed derisively. "Prevent a killing? Prevent her from killing him? When he's now perfectly capable of walking, talking, and rather thoroughly distracting Ylyssane? Please, Athair, tell me another story, so that I may sleep well tonight."
"If you want someone dead, talk to Bahlzair," Uirrigan replied in a less than patient tone. "If you want someone to live, then talk to me. You know that, Syjengen."
"What I know is that you are lying," Syjen charged, sitting up and turning in the chair. "Are the chemistrals- or whatever you called them- in her body any different than those in any Eladrin body?"
"Not that I can tell without-"
"Then what is the problem?"
"How those chemicals work together, how they change each other, and in what quantities, of course," Uirrigan sighed, frustrated. "Bahlzair cannot drink as much as Aleksei can, and Aleksei cannot live with poison glands under his tongue, because between the two of them, there are different sets of chemicals at work."
"You have become useless, old man," Syjen grumbled. "At last, there is nothing more that can be gained from having left you alive so long. You have studied every captive we have brought in here, and absolutely nothing you've 'discovered' and documented can help those who once helped you."
"You were useless. All of you. You helped the Avariels into early graves, every one. You can't have been hoping that they would adapt, like the Drow?" I laughed, sitting down on the ground to have a look at the tip of my tail, which itched. "Why should a prisoner do anything for their captive?"
"Enough, witch," Syjen commanded calmly, looking at me with a strangely changed face. He looked somehow amused, as though I'd done something of which he approved. "Go down to Bahlzair, and prepare yourself a spell that divines intentions. If I'm going to market you as a soothsayer, I'll have to be sure that you're a good one. Or at least that you can successfully fake it more than once."
And with that, I found my ankles unpleasantly weighted. As could have been expected, Ylyssa stood at the doorway, arms crossed.
"Sell me and be done with it, since I've spoiled myself in your eyes. But know that you tell on yourself, since you never use these on him," I snorted, getting to my feet and cramming myself sideways past Ylyssa in order to leave the room.
Not two minutes passed before an agonized scream came from behind us.
I didn't look back.
No comments:
Post a Comment