For a camp bedecked with horns and furs, the Hall of Horns lived up to its name. Most of the other shelters appeared moveable, but also seemed as though they had not moved in some time. Stakes had been reinforced. Patches had been put into battered furs. Decorative stones lined fire pits that may have been hastily dug, but that were now being developed, tended and depended upon.
All that being said, the Hall of Horns was different.
That place was not meant to move.
It was built entirely of carved horn.
The door seemed to have some writing on it, and I must have gawked at it a little too long, because the leader felt the need to turn back to me and explain it.
"You are right to worry," he commented with a half smirk. "It proclaims the strength of the Unified against the lords of the Nine Hells."
"The Unified?" I asked as I was fairly pushed inside the carved horn door by two Dragonborn sentries.
"The Lady Tiamat, who rules over all chromatic dragons, and the Lord Bahamut, who is the lord of the metallic dragons, are the perfect balance. They are holy, both separately and together, and demand unquestioned servitude-"
I can always tell a sanctimonious rant when I hear one.
"Any god that doesn't let you ask your own questions and find your own answers is a weak one," I reasoned. "He or she is concerned that you may one day discover a truth that will lead you away from their service. And the fact that they are concerned indicates that they have no real means to keep you."
The Dragonborn leader bent slightly to have a silvery white robe put on him by two Human females, who instantly skittered away from him as he turned to me.
"It is no surprise to hear you speak in such a manner," he frowned, walking to stand between two small tables. One had a multicolored cloth covering it, while the other had a brilliant gold one. "The Lord Bahamut values your opinion. The Lady Tiamat craves your blood."
"Who do you listen to, when they disagree?" I asked genuinely. I had the distinct impression that this scaled fool actually believed in every word he said- which made him all the more dangerous.
"Oh, just because the Lord Bahamut values your opinion does not mean that he will not order me to strike you down. It merely means that he sees that you think. You consider. You think yourself wise, with all the knowledge that you scrape together."
Apparently Aleksei had been hustled in behind me. I noted that his left eye had been covered- the sight of the scarring must have been a bit more than an annoyance for someone. I wondered why they hadn't replaced his clothing with the loose robes I had seen the other Dragonborn males wearing when they weren't in armor. The four guards assigned to him brought him to the leader's right side, behind the altar that had been covered with the gold cloth.
"I've heard of Bahamut before, and I didn't think he was on the nicest of terms with Tiamat," I shrugged. "So educate me, if I'm wrong."
"The Holy Unified-"
"Sacrilege!" Aleksei cried at once.
"In time, my son," the leader hissed, glaring behind him.
"What if the horned one is controlling him?" one of the Aleksei's guards fretted. His tail barely moved in her hands, but it was apparently enough to cause her concern.
"Peace, daughter," the leader sighed as though he really wanted to get back to telling me all about the wonderful ways of his cult. Or, at least I thought he was sighing. When I looked up to the guard, however, she momentarily had a blank stare. It was only for a few seconds, and she seemed to return to herself with a renewed desire to hold Aleksei.
I am feeling different, Aleksei had said. Not myself.
I didn't have time to think too much more about it, as the leader redirected his gaze to me.
"This is a sacred hall- a narrow path between life and damnation. It is here that those who hear the Unified's voice are reborn in their image. It is also here that those like you are redeemed from the clutches of the hells. Children?"
And the guards around me grabbed my arms and put a knife to my throat. Their leader nodded, turning his back on me to look directly at Aleksei, who glowered at him.
"My son, you must remember your heritage. You must reclaim your place as a scion of the people. You must destroy your mental link with this witch!"
"Is this how you are making all your converts, master? By threatening their friends before their eyes?" Aleksei spat, twisting in the grasp of his guards.
"When you have severed ties with her, we will be able to pry Asmodeus's hands from her soul. We will be able to make her pure again. She will be Human again- if you were her friend, let alone her mate, you would have leaped at this chance long ago," the leader replied, crossing his arms over his wide chest.
"That's a lie, who can change anyone from one race to another?" I dared, feeling the knife press close against my throat as soon as I spoke.
"You know the power of Bahamut; you know the Rite!" the leader proclaimed to Aleksei, raising his voice as he got very close to his face.
"And you relegate him to a position of consort to Tiamat!" Aleksei shouted back, his voice beginning to become thunder itself. His breath came out in puffs as though it were cold in the room. "Heretic! Traitor!"
"Let him go," the leader growled to the guards, who instantly backed away and plastered themselves on the wall just behind him. The leader grabbed Aleksei's chin and put his forehead right against his. "You dare call me traitor, Petrinovich? How many of us had lost all we had, everything and everyone, and yet kept fighting, while you couldn't be bothered with anything but tall tales and healthy bar maids? Yet you, fallen scion, you from whom the Unified have exacted their revenge in flesh, you call me traitor?"
"I do not know a Petrin-" Aleksei began in a less sonorous tone.
Not myself.
"Let him go!" I hollered.
"Cut her horns," the leader commanded. At first, I didn't think I'd heard him properly, since he was turned around and I couldn't conceive of what he'd just asked. But when I was turned around- again forcibly, since I didn't want to turn my back on what Aleksei was going through- I saw a set of stocks lowered and fitted to hold someone in place before a block.
"Why are you doing this?" Aleksei demanded. I could hear his chains rattle and a stifled grunt of displeasure.
"With the horns gone, she will not be able to control your mind," the leader reasoned. The guards struggled to get me into the stocks.
"Stop!" Aleksei hollered. The stocks closed over me, and in the wood I could smell the fearful sweat of others who had come before me- possibly fairly recently.
"We cannot spare expense in freeing you, fallen scion," the leader replied without feeling.
"I tell you again, I am never a scion," Aleksei sighed gustily. "I am a defector and worthy to be slain. I am thinking that this glory would belong to some clan mate, but if Bahamut sees fit to end my life in this place, with members of my race whom I trust less than the Daughter of Dis in the room, then so be it. But at least let me die by my own name, please, I beg you."
"And what name is that?" the leader scoffed. "As I see no Stonecrusher here."
"Aleksei Petrovich Voyonov. That name is the truth."
"And will you be telling your dear friend precisely what clan you are indeed from?" the leader crowed. I wished I could see the look on his face, as the tone of his voice wasn't far from gloating. As it was, however, all I could stand to look at without hurting my neck was the ground.
"Bloodtalon," Aleksei admitted, sounding somehow distant.
"Bloodtalon!" the leader repeated, his voice vaulting up and seeming to shake the small sanctuary. "You struck down those in opposition to our leaders, you cleared an entire rebellious temple of Io-"
"Da," Aleksei sighed.
"You tore a hole into Turathi defenses when you were barely out of the egg, under the direction of a resplendent red dragon-"
"Da," came the slow reply.
"And you once bent your knee to Tiamat, let her glyph be carved into your soul. But you were gone when the rest of the Bloodtalons let the Turathi walk in unchallenged. You didn't see the islands fall. You let a pack of kobolds tell you as you lounged safely with them underground, letting the rest of the war go by while you spun lies so well that even the Drow goddess would be shocked at you."
"I am being sent away, Mikhail. Maybe the clan father is not saying this to you. Maybe it seems to you that I am just leaving for no reason."
"You have lost your honor, son, and it is time to gain it back," the leader, who I suppose was called Mikhail, replied. "Redeem yourself."
There was some clinking, then silence. Then Aleksei walked over to where I was being held, completely uncontested- I could tell because I suddenly saw clawed, three-toed feet.
"You need to remove her horns first, then you can get rid of the tail. When she looks more Human, the devils and demons will pay less attention to her," Mikhail explained.
There was a pause, and I could hear the heft of a rather heavy weapon as it split the air. Aleksei grunted, then planted a massive two handed axe very close to me. The accompanying sound deafened me, to the point where Aleksei had to take my arm so that I would realize that I could stand up freely again.
"When I am becoming Bloodtalon, this is big mistake," Aleksei panted, winded from his effort. "This is my redemption. The islands fall, and the Tiefling kingdom disappears- this I know. The war is gone."
"You deny your heritage- you are not worthy to be one of us," Mikhail pronounced gravely. "Wherever the creatures are, there is the war. The Unified command us against them."
"Tiamat cares only for riches, power, adulation. And Bahamut is creating us to defy Tiamat's influence-"
There was an audible gasp from the guards, all of whom glared at us as though we would catch fire at any moment.
"Perhaps this will change your mind about the United's influence- and my own. You have doubted me from the start, but I have done nothing but good for you. Come, shadowy daughter."
And from a corner untouched by light, Shadowedge stepped, a renewed vigor in her gleaming eyes. As though the shadow were sucked into her draft, suddenly the torch light that was sufficient for the rest of the room lit that corner. She was wearing one of the loose white hooded robes that the others wore, which instantly struck fear in my heart. But when she knelt and smiled up at me with a rather familiar look on her face, I had a feeling that she had played such games all her life.
I wondered if she'd truly been dominated even once.
"The master has restored my soul by miracle. A great silver dragon appeared to me as I slept, and he breathed on me, and I stood up and walked right to the master without having to ask where he was. He took me to this hall, and I have again heard the dragon's voice, asking me to be his bride."
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