"My lord is not tired?"
"No," replied the smooth, even male voice. "Again- moving from long range to short range."
Silveredge, still in the tree, watched as Vhalan expertly whipped his chain around his body in graceful, but deadly cross-body figure eights, then- with apparently no effort or feeling at all- wrapped his upper arms in part of it to shorten its reach on either side of him.
"To let her embrace you is to let her taste you; to let her taste you is to let her love you. And when you love her as much as she loves you-" Vhalan allowed the chain to swing back out of his hands to its full length, whipped it around his leg, turned, then whipped it around his neck, turned again, then returned to the figure eights, slowing the chain's movement until he it coiled around his hand painlessly with its own residual force. "-she will consume anyone within her reach. There's no reason I should see the blank of your eyes without you having drawn my blood!"
Shanna rattled the branches of the tree. "Please, come and try again. We haven't much time before dawn, now."
"Learn to speak of yourself, and for yourself," Vhalan demanded as he uncoiled the chain and began to get it back to whipping speed. "Do you know how long it will take a wet wit to figure out that when you are asking him how tired HE is, you are telling him that YOU are tired? Let us pretend, just for a bit, that I am such a self-centered pudding brain- let us pretend that I am a master, and that I would like nothing better than to drag you back to a vat of vinegar, or a bed lined with ash and salt." In a flash, Vhalan had swung the chain up and around the bough on which Silveredge had perched. "Are you going to come down, or am I going to pull you down?"
Silveredge curled herself up and leaped forward, hitting the ground and curling into a forward tumble that put her on her feet a little ways behind Vhalan. The vampire turned, brought chain and bough down with a resounding snap, and hissed through his fangs. Within seconds, Silveredge found herself ducking beneath a flying branch, and she had to quickly pick her feet up to avoid their being snatched by Vhalan's returning chain- which still made no sound, for her, as it split the air. Beyond them, the incoming tide roared its displeasure.
"Brother Vhalan-" Shanna begain, unsure of herself.
Ignoring her, Vhalan advanced against his only full-time student, getting a two step start, then leaping into a barrel turn that curled the chain around his leg and sent one of its weighted tips straight toward Silveredge's face. Although she felt much more like shying backward from it, she wrapped her fists in her own chain- which seemed heavy enough to be something that would fasten one thing to another instead of an actual weapon- and put her arms forward to parry the incoming spike. Turning herself underneath Vhalan's chain, she allowed her own to uncoil and attempted to catch either his back or his hips. Unfortunately, her indecisive targeting showed, and he lifted his body into a flip over her attack, pulling the weight of his chain with him and whipping it around his other arm to pull it into a shorter range. He slid down into a low crouch, spinning one of the barbed ends of the whip into a speedy saw, then slung it out toward Silveredge, who was preparing a barrel turn attack of her own. His chain whipped its way up the second leg to leave the ground, was pulled taut almost instantaneously, and caused her to slam onto her back. Vhalan moved forward toward Silveredge, who discovered- when she could open her eyes- that she'd slammed down on top of her chain- but felt the grip of Shanna's own chain whip around his left arm. It was an augmented weapon that had a rough wood handle at one end, so when Vhalan wrapped his arm in it, pulled himself into a full forward flip and allowed his weight to yank the young woman's weapon forward, he had every idea that he was either disarming her entirely or at least making it very painful to go on restraining him.
Silveredge rolled over and looked briefly at the leg that Vhalan's chain had bit into. A flash of cobalt blue appeared, and though she wiped it away with her hand immediately, it was enough to force a nearly whispered threat from the creature's lips.
"Such beauty! I'll have more- pull you into my eternal midnight, where you belong!"
"Vhalan!" Shanna shrieked at once, her bruised fingers clutching the hilt of her chain whip in terror. "Don't give in to that!"
But just her voice was not enough, and Vhalan's sudden flicker of lust-stained hunger poured an unearthly power into his already considerably strong body. With his left arm still held behind him by Shanna's weapon, he managed to get his own spinning back up again, around his leg, then his neck, then flying toward Silveredge, who rocked back onto her upper back just in time to have it miss the wounded leg. As she completed the backward tiger roll, she felt the weight of the dragging chain and pulled it back toward her quickly. A lock of her hair fell free of the high knot atop her head, flapping down into her eyes. While it burned with sand and sweat, she could not afford to move it. With her eyes fixed upon the half-caught male, she slid the wrapped chain from her left hand to her right. He, knowing better than to take advantage of her weaker hand by attacking again, instead worked with distraction, whipping his own chain out toward her side, then toward her face again as though he intended to wrap it around her neck. Behind him, Shanna struggled to keep Vhalan from shaking off her chain completely, cursing rapidly bruising fingers under her breath. Silveredge turned away from the first pass easily, then folded her legs down with the insides of her feet on the ground, allowing her body to nearly fall flat to the ground in order to avoid the second pass. When the chain whipped over, she sat up on her knees, whipped her chain up to speed in two rotations and sent it hurtling toward his one free hand. Vhalan pulled himself into a backward flip as he pulled his outstretched left arm- along with Shanna's temporarily slackened chain whip- close against his upper body. He landed on top of the relatively short piece of remaining chain, forcing Shanna to break her grip as she fell forward into the sand. Without pausing for a moment, Vhalan shrugged Shanna's chain off and began to whip his own up to attacking speed again. Silveredge got to her feet quickly, but momentarily faded into a ghostly image of herself, showing up behind Vhalan in her full physical form.
"Delicious," Vhalan approved, turning down into a low crouch as he slung his chain around Silveredge's wounded leg. "Use every drop of your natural talent- don't stop to be respectful."
"I heard the lady tell you to stop what you were doing," a high male voice managed from the part of the beach that eventually led up toward the city. "I got a staff here says you'll do just that."
Vhalan said nothing. The only clue that the young one had at all that he'd been heard was the fact that the vampire released the bleeding Shadar Kai, then spun the chain out of his right hand and into his left. The whirling attack came so quickly that he hardly had time to get his quarterstaff up to block it. Even then, the chain whipped around it and yanked forward, forcing him to stop the vampire's assault by dropping to both knees and smacking one side of the quarterstaff against his ribs. Vhalan, winded but on an offensive roll, grabbed the young man around his smooth neck, picked him up and slammed him to the ground, forcing him to look at his rapidly reddening eyes.
"Now let's talk, little fighter," he mused, sounding like a wine connoisseur at a tasting. "What lovely ink work. Very tribal chic. Most other Elves I know look down on Sylvans, but you... you have the hawk, the wolf-"
The young man, clearly confused at the way his opponent seemed to reach into his mind and warp his will, was shocked when he heard his staff drop into the sand. "What- are you- doing to me?"
"Making a real beast of you," Vhalan hissed back, gradually forcing the young man's head to the side. "A creature unlike any painted on your skin."
"Oh, brothers- grab him!" Shanna called out. "Rare form this time- he's got somebody's boy!"
And then there was a deafeningly loud clap that sent everyone's hands to their ears. For a few moments, no one could move, and when eyes had been opened again, everyone but Silveredge, whose leg was still freely bleeding, had fallen to the ground.
"Yes," the vampire breathed, rolling onto his back and closing his eyes again. "Yes, thank you. Do that... sooner. Your magic...is... a gift."
"My lord is unwell?" Silveredge asked at once, rushing to the side of the male who had just attacked her.
"Hey, don't you remember what he just did?" the young Elf hollered, turning on his side in the sand. "Get away from that thing!"
"He's right, dear lamb," the vampire sighed, throwing one arm over his eyes. "Your lord is... a little more than merely tired. Appropriate precautions should be taken."
"Dawn will break at any moment," Shanna managed as she crossed the distance up the beach to physically move Silveredge away from Vhalan. "You didn't feed yesterday, and with all this training, the new blood was too much for you."
"He reeks of foolhardy bravery with deep tones of fear," the vampire replied, gritting his teeth. "Your growing confidence is like a mulling cider, lamb- enticing, filling the air. Even the most pitiful of mortals, who know not what they respond to, throw themselves into the arms of those they would naturally flee, felled by the enchanting power of your scent."
"You're sure you were in the priesthood, Brother Vhalan?" one of the robed males smiled as he gathered up the vampire's deserted weapon. "Don't know the last time I've heard one of Bert's Blokes extolling the smell of a woman."
"And they are so much the poorer," Vhalan replied with a derisive snort. "One hasn't lived until they have explored every intimate article of their beloved's flesh. There is a beacon of divine pleasure, a valley of delight sacred enough to be made a temple, that cannot be imagined by haughty celibates and their slack-jawed, cattle-brained adherents."
"Well, he's sure not a priest now," the man who'd almost been made a thrall breathed. "What is he to you all?"
"That is the Elder of the Warrior initiates," the second young woman explained. "The only master chain fighter we have, for reasons that are probably now obvious to you. That was the bitter end of a lesson."
Vhalan lifted his head as one warrior initiate blindfolded him and the other bound his hands before him. Silveredge reached up behind her head and pulled the hard working pins that were holding her hair out, allowing it all to spill down over her shoulders. Vhalan inhaled deeply and smirked.
"Even the stink of your effort is alluring."
"Lesson?" the Elven male sputtered, recovering his staff. "It seemed more like an all out attack."
Vhalan smiled grimly, but the young woman frowned worriedly as both replied together, "It was." Led by the two darkly-clad males who escorted the vampire, Shanna, Silveredge, a third initiate and the Eladrin male walked back from the beach to the city's burial ground.
"Are you here to join the path, or only to speak with someone on it?" Shanna asked, looking down at her swelling fingers.
"I'm Oakarm, Deadriver's messenger," the young male replied. "I'm supposed to be setting up a meeting between Deadriver and whoever sent the clan symbol up from the catacombs, but-"
As the troupe descended into the unmarked entrance to the upper level of the cloisters, they found Aric holding counsel with an Eladrin whose sandy brown hair had been rolled into dreadlocks and one of the warrior initiates. The two warrior initiates escorted Vhalan to his own room, but Shanna, Silveredge and the young Elf behind them came to a halt at the blockage.
"Fear not," Aric smiled, laying his hands on the two males calmly. "It is a gladly-made sacrifice, allowing him to remain- ah! You must be Oakarm."
The young Elf bit his lips and tucked his staff behind his arm a little tighter. "Sorry, Papa, I sure found the Shadar Kai, but-"
"But she was out training, hey, no sweat, Oak. The old man and I had a look in his scrying mirror. You did your father proud, considering you were fighting a brother with about thirty years of experience on you." The Eladrin scrubbed the Human male's head lovingly, tousling his long, loose hair. "Meet your cousin."
"We call him Kennig, but before he became an initiate, he called himself Ironfeather, the name his father gave him," Aric explained calmly. "It seems he has reason to change it back, however."
Silveredge was surprised to note that this was the same warrior initiate who had told her that only Aric should be enchanting the stone. Ironfeather, noting her look at once, moved past Shanna to get to her, and Aric turned to move after Vhalan and his escort.
"I'm sorry- I just- I was hoping you'd turn around and go get Shepherd Aric. When I saw- what I did, I just- I didn't know what else to do. I wasn't thinking things through. The Firebird sigil is the only thing I could mark the spot with, without actually taking a pickaxe to the thing and setting the trap off myself. I don't know a lot of magic at all."
"It was the best thing to do," the dreadlocked Eladrin smiled. "You may not think so, little brother, but it really is. That sigil is a clan sign- one that only another Firebird would be able to reproduce properly. See, I believe in your Queen. I believe she ain't a joke. If you had any doubts, Ironfeather, you put those to bed and kill 'em in their sleep. She had you end up here so that one day, when the Firebirds returned, they'd touch base with the Queen's coven and start talking again. What you did put a lot of bad blood under the bridge, and not a minute too soon."
"Well, now that you're here, you can help us get Elder Svaentok back, right?" Ironfeather sighed. "The sigil didn't do much for keeping him from setting the trap off."
"Yeah, that's why I came myself," Deadriver nodded, "and nearly alone. I can use psionics to tell what happened to your big brother, but I can't control who or what finds us because of tracking me. Here's what I'll need- Oakarm, go back to the city limits and get Smokedog down here. Tell him I'll do all the talking if he goes beast. He should be able to sniff out what I see- or at least give the blood brother some fun."
"Fun?" Shanna interrupted, crossing her arms over her chest. "Elder Vhalan is in delicate condition. It's not fun for anyone."
"There's nothing delicate about the way he'd pull the skin off your muscles, sister," Deadriver shrugged. "You think he's bad, you see Smokedog on a full moon's night. But you gotta let 'em do what they do; gotta trust them. Under the hide is a heart- just gotta move it the right way. Now, Ironfeather, the sigil's way down in the earth, isn't it?"
"It is, but- Elder Shanna, I think I saw something- to do with one of the older initiates. I don't know how to put this-"
"Spit it out, Initiate Kennig," Shanna sighed. "Or- is it Ironfeather?"
The young Human male shrugged, not humoring Shanna's teasing. "I caught it the minute I got down to the-"
"Shepherd Aric!" Quilafae hollered as she ran up the corridor. She came to a sharp halt before the gathering, and her raven, which had been flying behind her, vainly attempted to settle on her shoulder. "Where is the Shepherd?"
"Taking confession," Deadriver replied in a flat tone. "I'm sure he'll be out in a moment."
"Well, by the time he does, you, your long-lost protege and this other excuse for an Elf had better be gone," the Drow female shot back. "There was another exploding fiery bird- it almost hurt one of the monk initiates."
"I didn't do it," Ironfeather admitted at once, putting his hands up in a show of surrender. "I only drew one, and it didn't hurt anybody."
"That's a lie," Quilafae spat. "Who else in here can do that sign? I don't know about any of the rest of you, but I actually paid attention in the history courses. The Coven has been cleared out of this resting space by none other than the Firebirds not more than a decade ago. I say we get these wild mages out of the sacred halls."
Deadriver looked over Quilafae's shoulder and into the eyes of her raven, who was perched as though she were sitting on hot coals. He opened his bare arm, and the raven flew to it at once, scratching his skin and drawing blood.
"Mark me. It'll be the slaver, the blood brother, and a wild mage that saves this place. Every bone in this place will bear witness; you'll be put out before I am. Now, when Aric returns, he, Ironfeather, Silveredge and I have talking to do."
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