Kindred Spirit Lodge Presents

Synestra & Aria


Parts 26 thru 50
by Ikarias, Aria, & Lord Sirius
March 2003 thru September 2003
 

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(Part 26 - by Lord Sirius) --

Renzi had just left the room before Ikarias entered. She had business to attend to while that stupid cow B'sylla play acted for the unsuspecting ladies of the Lodge. They would bow and scrape and cater to that idiot's every whim. Their attention would be on the poor suffering woman while Firenzia was free to put her evil plans into motion.

Aria got the strangest feeling when Ikarias entered the room. Her dragon was behaving as if she was at a school picnic. Aria looked around the room to see if anyone else noticed. The other Lodgers were all gathered in two's and three's sitting quietly at their tables. The air was thick with an uneasy chill. The Lodgers talked amongst themselves quietly and kept looking around the room at the other patrons and inhabitants of the Lodge. Mutterings of "not her" and "surely you don't think" were overheard. All eyes at some point during the evening turned in the direction of Lord Sirius' table.

Sirius could sense the eyes upon Her. She had been the target many times of ignorant angry mobs of villagers. She had found some respite at the Inn. The Lodge's latest visitors and Aria's dreams were creating an atmosphere of fear and suspicion. Sirius had seen it time and time again. Divide and conquer, a classic technique used throughout the ages.

The Dark Lord quietly slipped out of the main room and climbed the steps of the large staircase. She hesitated a moment before entering. She wasn't alone in the room and smirked. 'More fires I'll have to hose down' She mused while lighting a small candle. Sirius stripped quickly. She began to undo her harness then looked directly at the heavy armoire doors and left it on. She donned the heavy woolen robe and drew the large cowl over her head. She placed the candle at one end of the mat in front of the open window and sat cross-legged upon the other end She stared into the candle and waited.

The person inside the armoire breathed a silent prayer of thanks. One curious eye strained to see through the tiny crack of the armoire doors. It was not disappointed. At long last the silence was broken by the sound of a distant wind. Almost imperceptible at first, it grew closer. The heavy curtains on either side of the open window billowed inwards and the candle was extinguished. The moon high in the sky cast an eerie glow about the room. The red shimmering mass floated in on the sudden gust and settled over a chair beside the open window.

The eye inside the armoire was seeing things its owner could not believe. A red softly glowing swirling haze. Within its confines it seemed as if a million tiny candles flickered and sparkled. A low crackling sound came from the haze as it seemed to form into an almost human shape.

Sirius looked in the direction of the swirling haze and nodded.

"You summoned me my Lord?" The voice was soft and feminine. It had a teasing quality to it that always pleased Sirius. Both seductive and innocent at once. A potent combination.

"Its time for your payment."

"So she is here I gather. Just as I told you my Lord. I am always at your service. I hoped you would appreciate the information."

Aria cursed herself for drinking too much tea that night. At least it gave her a break from the strange behaviour of her half dragon friend Ikarias. The half dragon had appeared ready to take advantage of that poor slave, renzi. She made her way down the hall quickly, slowing down as she passed Lord Sirius' room. She hurried along to do her business before it was too late.

On her way back the ex assassin heard voices coming from Sirius room once again. She looked up and down the hallway before walking carefully over to the closed door. The muffled voices became louder. It was the same voice as the last time! Aria got on her knees outside the door and peered through the keyhole.

Had she not been trained so thoroughly the ex-assassin may have ventured a scream at what she saw. She recognized the dark robe. But the figure that stood and dropped the heavy cloak! Aria's mind raced and her heart beat threatened to deafen her with its insistent thundering noise. The harness fell to the floor along with the Dark Lord's massive leather cock.

Two sets of eyes watched in awe as Lord Sirius began to glow then shimmer then dissolve into a swirling blue haze, filled with endless arrays of tiny glittering lights. Aria's mouth dropped open when she saw it. The eye in the armoire almost gave herself away. In the midst of the swirling blue haze hung a long thick gristly looking cock of solid blue. As the blue haze continued to form itself into a semi human looking form, the solid blue object within its midst began to vibrate quickly. There was no doubt in the minds of the watchers as to what they were seeing. A huge helmeted bulbous head. Thick veins ran the course of it leading to a heavy set of appendages that hung from what appeared to be a wiry mass of dark blue pubes.

The swirling red form left the chair floated towards the Dark Lord. When they were close enough the shimmering mists seemed to embrace. The voices were lower now.

"She means to kill them all to settle her ongoing dispute with the half dragon." The voice slipped another half tone. "Including the little one who serves you." Then hesitated once more as the words settled in the air. "And the crazy blonde, her as well."

"Shut up Ela and suck Me now!" Sirius ordered her roughly.

Aria's eye moved from red to blue. The tough blonde decided she did not like the red figure. She wasn't exactly sure why, but she wanted to run in and strangle her as the red form lowered itself in front of Sirius, the top of the red bitch began to move back and forth along the hardening blue cock. Sirius stiffened then relaxed whispering words of encouragement to Her cock hungry friend. The formidable cock lunged back and forth into the red heat that engulfed it.

"She plans to use Me" Sirius growled "amongst other things." The Dark Lord gave a furious lunge and held still. Ela moaned aloud, several tones all resonating at the same time.

All unseen gazes held fast to the glittering red form as it worked the huge cock. Though not fully in human form Ela sucked passionately at the burly instrument that filled her ethereal opening. Her moans of lusty enjoyment grated on Aria's nerves.

"Can never get enough of it can you cunt?" The red form was sent sprawling away from the Dark One. Ela hovered several feet away from Sirius, her form now horizontal. The Dark One wasted no time. A tiny whimper came from Ela as Sirius approached. She was jerked suddenly forward, and almost ripped in two by the huge pulsing brute of a cock. The red form glowed like a hot coal, the tiny glittering lights blinking without end.

"So you already knew she was on her way, didn't you?"

A deep throaty laugh came from within the swirling blue figure. The blue pulsing cock stabbed forward piercing the depths of the soft red haze. sarah bit her tongue to stifle her groan of lust as she watched the midst of the sparkling red haze coalesce around her Lord's large cock. Red surrounded blue and seemed to draw it further into its red hot depths.

"Silly woman, of course I knew.' Sirius growled low, blue encircled red.

Both figures fully materialized and shook for several moments. The woman's long legs clung tightly to the waist of the Dark One. Skin the color of the earth's red clay, hair an emerald green long and flowing. Exquisitely shaped large breasts, nipples the size of roman coins. Sirius impeccably muscled, Her large ringed nipples in constant contact with Ela's. The fat blue crowbar of cock plunging brutally into the soft body. It reappeared each time glistening and slick with Ela's celestial secretions.

"Then why did you agree to listen and pay my price?" Her words were cut off as the hulking figure roughly gripped her breasts and pulled her delicate form further onto Her cock.

"Would you prefer that I did not?" Another hard thrust sent the smaller form in motion. Red thighs spread wider as the pulsing truncheon moved rapidly in and out of the red core amidst a series of pitiful sobs from the soft woman.

Aria held her breath as she watched the steel blue club piston in and out so quickly it became a blur. Her own cunt was awash with the excitement of what she was witnessing. She let her hand drift unconsciously to the front of her dress and pressed hard against the swelling mound. The beautiful blonde choked back a hungry moan of lust, quickly working her hand hard against the front of her dress.

Closeted within the darkness of the armoire sarah could resist no longer as with slick fingers thrust deep within her breeches Sirius' faithful slut fingered her smoking clit as wave after wave of climax took the screaming Ela to the limits of even her endurance. Both bodies shifted back and forth between energy and matter. From glittering swirls of electrically charged crackling mists to fully fleshed brilliantly hued human forms.

Words not spoken for eons upon this planet tumbled from both rutting forms. Suddenly Sirius snorted like a beast and bit down hard on a glowing red nipple. She thrust so hard Aria was sure the delicate tramp Ela would be split asunder. The watchers were stunned when a torrent of thick cum burst from Sirius massive cock and drenched the violently clenching walls of Ela's red cunt. Both sarah and Aria watched in awe as the greedy chink contracted and sucked the spunk from the shooting steel blue cock. Watched in awe while showers of sparkling blue cum jetted into the hot red depths. The shapes shook and vibrated alternating between human form and celestial masses of raw sexual energy.

Aria came with them, on her knees, eye pressed against the keyhole as her cunt clenched hard and pulsed wildly against her hand. She felt dizzy and strangely powerful. She rested her head against the hard wood of the door. One eye still glued to the fucking couple.

"So are you ready for her, my beloved Lord? She's made quite a nuisance of herself in these times." The soft red form floated closer, their essence mingled as they rocked slowly back and forth.

"What do you think Ela? I'm here aren't I?"

"Do you think she knows?" Ela asked her head resting on the Dark Lords breast. A green tongue slithered forth and played with a nipple ring before sucking gently on it.

Sirius looked towards the window and began to speak in that strange dialect again. Aria was lost now. sarah was leaning back now, away from the armoire door. Her tiny body still recovering from the momentum of her climaxes.

"Why can't I ever resist you Sirius? god knows I've tried."

"hehehe yes I do know Ela. "

"Mmmmm. One of your endearing qualities you beast! " The feminine haze shimmered violently. "Not again my Lord!"

"Not again bitch, always." Wide eyes stared in disbelief as the steel blue cock moved up and down like a lever.

"Show off!"

"Have I shown you the hot springs?"

Both shimmering forms swirled out the window past the sprawling tree and headed off in the direction of the hot springs. Lord Sirius looked down into the treetop and nudged Her companion. Firenzia was crouched low among the top branches. Her hand sopping wet.

"Told you."

Aria stood up on shaky legs, her face flushed, heart still pounding. She made her way to her room, wetness streaming down her slender thighs. Just what is it that Sirius knew? And why wasn't She doing something about it instead of wasting Her time fucking with some red skinned demon or angel or whatever it was. Aria knew she hated the one called Ela, she just wasn't sure why.

As she changed her clothes, she kept hearing Sirius in her mind. "What do you think Ela? I'm here aren't I?"

____****____

(Part 27 by Aria) --

Aria stood up on shaky legs, her face flushed, heart still pounding. She made her way to her room, wetness streaming down her slender thighs.

The Lady reached her room and washed her desire away with a warm rag then she slipped into a fresh change of clothes. There was a heady scent to Aria as she reached for her lilac water, dabbing some behind her ears and at the base of her neck. Smiling she ran a brush through her hair and she hurried to find Ikarias, anxious to share with her Half Dragon what she had seen. Making her way down the hallway she stopped in front of Sirius’ door… she listened closely but the room was silent. Aria thought of knocking, then remembered the red floozy and thought better of it, instead allowing her hand to caress the door before heading downstairs.

"IKARIAS!!!! WHAT IN HADES ARE YOU DOING?” Aria demanded reaching the last step.

Ikarias lifted her head and turned to look at Aria over her human shoulder. With her pants down around her ankles and a slave girl writhing under her, the half Dragon could say little in her defense. It was obvious from the look on the slave’s face that Ikarias was raping this woman.

“IKARIAS GET OFF OF HER NOW!” Aria said pulling her mentor off and out of the slave girl. Ikarias turned to face Aria with a look the Lady had never seen before. Her good friend glared at her, leaving Aria with the same off kilter feeling she first experienced when the dreams started coming.

“Laaaaady Arrrrrrrrria”…. Ikarias said slowly, “I can only assume you more anxious than I thought, if you felt the need to stop my coupling with the cunt so that I may start now with you”

“No, you over grown clutch bag, I stopped you because you were forcing yourself on a poor defenseless slave girl.”

“And your point is?”

Aria could not find her old friend and lover in the woman before her. She looked unexpectedly at the slave girl and found renzi looking at her Master. This confused Aria even more, it felt to the Lady as though renzi was annoyed that Aria was scolding the half-human for her misdeed. The Dragon then lunged for Aria, grabbing her face in her powerful-scaled hand. Pulling her hand forward a bit, Ikarias exaggerated the ridiculous fullness of Aria’s mouth.

“Now... about that interruption?” Ikarias said to Aria tightening the grip around the Lady’s face.

“Let go of me, Iky!! What the fuck is wrong with you”, Aria told the Dragon through clenched teeth.

Ikarias did not let go, nor did she rescind the whole thing as a joke. In truth, she did not behave at all, as Aria would have predicted her Dragon would have. The smaller woman started to feel a little ill, her normal pre-cursor to fear registering in her body.

“Ikarias listen to me, please… tell me, what is wrong?” Aria asked.

Ikarias brought herself to within an inch of Aria's face and looked deeply in the woman’s eyes …

…take off your pants, Aria.”

Aria started to laugh at the absurdity of the request when it got stuck in her throat. Trying to wrench her face free of the scaly grasp, Aria shook her head from side to side and yet never freed herself.

“Ikarias I do not know what crawled up your ass and died, but I suggest you release me immediately.” The Lady said again trying to free her face from the clutches of her Dragon’s hand.

The blonde woman looked once again into the eyes of her beloved Dragon and found no one she knew. Had she done something to upset or anger her friend? Had someone told the Dragon an untruth? Aria was at a loss, but something in Ikarias eyes scared the Lady. This half Dragon did not love her, did not respect her… not at all, the woman before her planned to use her, possibly hurt her and Aria knew she had to get away.

The Lady started to scout out potential escape routes as the Dragon's eyes bored into her. She needed to give Iky some time to come to her senses, to realize what she was doing, Aria thought pushing down her panic.

With her free hand, the Warrior pushed renzi to the floor freeing up the table…

“Your chariot awaits Milady.”

____****____

(Part 28 by Ikarias) --

After that little peep show produced by Sirius and her big blue attachment to the red-skinned ethereal tart, Renzi found that she needed a bit of stress reduction herself. Preferably with someone who was ready, willing and unable to resist. She clambered down from her perch in the tree and returned to kneel at B'sylla's feet to beg pardon.

"Forgive my absence, Mistress. I had to use the--"

"Silence," B'sylla nodded at the mental instructions from the sorceress. "Please Ikarias, help yourself. As long as I can watch."

"Mistress?' The slave looked from the veiled albino to the strange half-scaled woman.

Ikarias knocked two cups and a low bowl filled with wild asters to the floor in one fluid motion, dragging Renzi to her feet she threw her forward onto the table.

She pushed the girl's legs wide and chuckled, "Looks like your quim's been busy. Nice to know you're already lubed." The half-dragon had her trousers down and the thick cruelly studded leather phallus poking at the dripping slit. "Does she like it like this, Lady B?"

Renzi's gasps and cries as the half-dragon fucked her hard could have been taken for protests. The metal studs rasped over tender flesh and the sorceress' belly was pushed repeatedly into the table. A small piece of her mind added that lesser discomfort to the payback list of woes to be visited upon the scaled bitch. The rest of her enjoyed the powerful thrusts and the angle of the bumpy shaft hitting all the right places, just where she needed it.

Whimpering and responding against her will by the wet slapping sound, the slave bucked and rutted back into her rapist. Scaled fingers found the ready swollen clit and Renzi was so close--

The blonde screeched, the toy slid out and the half-dragon pushed the slave off the table to land on her ass, hardly satisfied.

B'sylla looked to Aria then at her discarded slave.

"Your chariot awaits, Milady."

"Are you out of your reptilian mind? Ikarias, put that thing away."

Her scaled hand closed slowly on Aria's throat. "Think of this as the clutch part of the bag. Have I ever told you I detest those fucking luggage references?" The half-dragon's scaled finger nails stroked Aria's throat in a clawing motion leaving no doubt that with the least pressure she could rip out anything she wanted.

"Iky, what's wrong with you? Let's go somewhere to talk," Aria tried to reason with her old friend.

B'sylla held her white cane tightly, this was not to her liking. She ignored Renzi's sigh language until a particularly painful invisible spike blossomed behind her eyes.

~ Do not interfere, my basilisk bitch, ~ the sorceress said. ~ Enjoy the show. ~

"Talk to this--" Ikarias spun Aria around and slammed her face first onto the table. She ripped the blonde's pants off and with the studded phallus, still slick from Renzi's exertions, imbedded it harshly in Aria's nether hole.

Aria screamed, unable to rise from the weight of the larger woman and unable to get any leverage off the table. The huge embossed cock was a merciless piston punishing her for her concern.

"Fucking a princess up the ass beats a slave's twat," Ikarias sneered down at the trembling slave. "But I may still finish what I started." She continued pounding into Aria, punctuating each thrust with a grunt.

Aria held on to the wooden edge, her breath rushing out in jagged exhales as each entry felt like she was being skewered and split. A warrior's haze? Madness? What was happening to her half dragon?

This was much more to Renzi's tastes. Old lovers becoming new adversaries. After Ikarias finished, Renzi would 'comfort' the poor blonde. Oh yes, by the time she finished here the half-dragon would be dead by a dozen hands. Too bad there wasn't a bigger audience for the assassin's first lesson in interference. Maybe next time.

Little whimpers skittered out from between Aria's clenched teeth and Renzi flung herself on the scaled warrior, "Stop it! She's not your whore!"

Ikarias didn't miss a beat to backhand the slave into a corner, but the mood was gone. She ended with a few more internal punches and withdrew and fastened her pants.

"Don't kid yourself, slut. Aria's been everybody's whore. Later, Lady B." She strode out of the room leaving a stunned bruised Aria.

____****____

(Part 29 by Aria) --

Aria lay shaking and dumb-founded over the table. Ikarias’ words had cut into her very core, much deeper than the studded phallus had cut into her private place. In all their years together, her Dragon had never spoken to her with such distain. Wincing from the searing pain in her bottom Aria righted herself, pulled up her pants and was silently grateful not many of her sisters had to witness the last 15 minutes of Aria’s life.

As the haze of humiliation cleared, Aria remembered the poor slave girl that had come to her aid, looking around she found renzi on the floor looking tearfully at her. The Lady and the slave girl both showing the after effects of spending time with the Dragon, gravitated to each other for comfort.

“She is a horrible woman to treat you that way, dear Lady”, the slave girl offered.

Aria at this point was still too shocked to speak. So the slave girl continued.

“I am confused Mistress, I was under the impression that the reptile was a good friend of yours… how could she treat you so badly”, renzi said dripping with compassion and concern. Aria looked into the slave’s eyes and felt comforted, oddly though she felt more emotion coming from the Master.

“Oh, renzi, you don’t understand, Ikarias loves me, she must be… ill or... furious with me for some reason”, the Lady said.

“No reason… could justify her behavior, Ma’m. Her treatment of me is understandable, I am but a receptacle for my Masters wanton desires, but you Lady, you did not deserve that.”

As much as Aria tried to keep everything in check, the tears came. She could not even recall the last time she cried, but now the water ran uncontrollably from her eyes. She deeply wished it was Sirius or Killian whose arms she was in, but she accepted the comfort from the slave girl and she sobbed openly in her arms.

Aria knew she needed to get to the safety of her room without being seen. Though it was true the Lodge lent itself to rough sex and pain, this was not something her sisters would have understood. Ikarias had done the unthinkable…she had attacked someone unprovoked.

As if renzi could read her mind… “Lady who shall I tell about this atrocity?”

“No one renzi!!…no one is to know about this…incident. I’ll handle it my own way.”

“Others will want to know, you must tell them---”

“RENZI!! Stop battering the woman, come stand by me, now!….”, the Albino ordered.

The slave girl looked sharply at the misshapen woman then back at Aria, she lowered her eyes and went and stood by her Master.

Aria pulled herself together as best she could and thanked the women for their concern. Heading upstairs to her room she turned to bid them a final good night and froze in her spot…Aria felt that strange feeling in the pit of her stomach again when she noticed the Albino looking at her with concern and the slave girl smiling.

____****____

(Part 30 by Ikarias) --

Renzi and B'sylla watched Aria leave. Sure that they were alone, Renzi turned on B'sylla and raised her hand to strike then lowered it.

"Stop battering the woman," the sorceress hissed in an imitation of the albino. "If I didn't need you, I'd…"

"As my part, it was the appropriate thing to say," B'sylla stiffened for a blow as she defended herself. "A slave shouldn't be so familiar with a Lady."

Renzi ignored the woman, "And that fucking, or I should say half- fucking half-dragon." Renzi picked up an apple from the bowl of fruit, stared malevolently at it, set it down, then looked out the window at a semi-scaled figure climbing a tree.

B'sylla watched the bowl with a sick fascination as every apple in it withered and molded then inflated back to its rosy shape. She had no doubt that whomever ate one would get violently ill. She would try to get rid of the fruit before anyone took a bite. Dump them into the jakes, otherwise an animal could eat them. Unlike her cruel sorceress, B'sylla wished ill on no one.

Renzi chuckled, "Serves that blonde bitch right for cutting me off before I got off. Well, there's always another lusty warrior waiting to fill the gap. Mistress Jude will learn a bit…"

*****

Aria opened the door to her room, stepped in and pushed it shut behind her. Her window was open, but she had shut it earlier--how?

"I didn't say I was through with you."

Aria had often heard the expression of 'blood running cold'. Through all the times with Chaenz and her own killing career, even with the recent sorcerous seductions of Sirius--none had ever made her feel the way Ikarias' voice just did.

The half-dragon walked over from the unseen far side of the wardrobe and locked the door. She tossed the key in the air then tucked it into her pocket.

"Ikarias," Aria was determined to get to the bottom of her Dragon's behavior. "You hurt me. Why are you acting this way? What's wrong with you?"

The half-dragon let her gaze slither over the blonde. "I'm getting in touch with my inner dragon, and my feet hurt."

"Your feet?" Aria shook her head at the inanity of it all. "You rape me and then complain that your feet hurt?"

Ikarias' human hand clamped tightly about Aria's throat, pushing her back to the side of the bed. "Everyone knows how you like it with the scary Sirius, or your fucking the mad, bad Dalton. What's one more?" She ripped Aria's shirt open with her free hand.

"My choice!" Aria slapped Ikarias hard. The woman's head didn't even move.

"Not this time," the half-dragon smiled and slammed her fist hard between Aria's breasts, emptying her lungs of air.

Aria could only gasp, purple fog threatened to close about her and she fought unconsciousness. She couldn't stop Ikarias from tearing her pants off again. She couldn't keep her legs together or do more than struggle for a breath as the studded cock thrust in. Ikarias' scaled thumb rubbed crudely over Aria's clit.

Grudgingly, air finally returned to Aria's lungs as she jerked under the assault. The cruel thick length pulled out and sunk back, its passage eased by the assassin's own juices.

Ikarias looked down, pleased at the pink opening greedily swallowing her toy. "Ever little thing gets you hot and bothered, Aria. Just enjoy it," she advised.

"Bas…tard," Aria grunted. Her fingers of both hands stiffened as she saw Ikarias cresting. She rose up fast, hitting the half-dragon hard on both sides at the tender joint between ear and jaw where the nerve is close to the surface.

Ikarias roared and stepped back, harshly pulling out of Aria with a sucking sound. She shook her head, grimaced then laughed. She fastened her pants closed over the slick phallus.

"It was good for me. Was it good for you too?" Ikarias pulled out the key and a small copper coin. She unlocked the door then tossed both metal pieces to the disheveled blonde.

"A couple more quarter dinars from satisfied customers and you can buy back that princess title." She slammed the door shut behind her.

Who to do next? The half-dragon adjusted the heavy toy and smiled.

Killian.

So what if she was with Caitlin and not available for a general fuck anymore. Actually that would work out very well. The bint would be more than willing to bend over backwards for her lover's continued good health and Ikarias had just the ticket to keep it private between the two of them.

~~~~~~~~

Synestra's headache eased as she walked through the gardens. Why did she feel like that slave girl was causing them? Its not like the girl hadn't had a bath in months. Maybe days... The feeling was more like an odor or vibration that she couldn't place her finger on.

Time to consult her Goddess. She went to a sunny spot near a deadfall and sat cross-legged, fingers spread held over the earth. A small garter snake wriggled out and basked in the low rays of the sun.

"I wasss expecting sssomeone bigger," Synestra smiled at the little serpent.

Its ribboned body was pale gold and deep bronze. It tasted the air then eased up half its body over the Priestess' left knee.

"Thingsss are not what they ssseem, protect the weak, watch the ssstrangersss."

"I got that information from my dreamsss little one. Anything elssse?"

"Eat your brusssel sssproutsss," the little snake's head moved in imitation of laughter then slid off into the low brush.

"Aria. I'm going to protect her firssst. I don't care what or who getsss in the way!" Synestra told that to the last bit of tail tip.

"All thingsss come back to Me," was the unseen voice.

Synestra stood, dusted herself off and went in search of her favorite assassin.

____****____

(Part 31 by Aria) --

"It was good for me. Was it good for you too?" Ikarias pulled out the key and a small copper coin. She unlocked the door then tossed both metal pieces to the disheveled blonde.

"A couple more quarter dinars from satisfied customers and you can buy back that princess title." She slammed the door shut behind her.

----

Aria rushed to lock the door the moment Ikarias slammed it shut. Looking down at the coins scattered about her feet, knowing where they came from, Aria thought for a moment, she might lose her mind. She needed to talk to someone, she needed to hear herself say to another person what was whirling around her brain. Her Dragon, her lover, her protector… was turning on her.

At this point, she could not trust her Sisters not to approach the half-Dragon on Aria’s behalf and the Lady knew Ikarias was not in an approachable mood these days. True Aria was running out of patience with the scaled one, but she would not see Ikarias hurt…

The assassin hated to involve Synestra anymore than she already had, but she knew she could trust the Priestess with her secrets. Taking in a deep breath and pulling her collar closer to her neck in hopes of covering the lilac bruise, she opened the door and walked right into Synestra.

“Asssk and you ssshall reccceive”, the Priestess expelled flamboyantly.

The blonde woman looked at her old friend and try as she might to come back with something witty…she just crumbled. Emotionally, physically, intellectually, Aria felt every bit of resolve slip away from her body. Falling into Synestra’s arms, Aria hung on for dear life and allowed all of her hurt, confusion and feelings of betrayal to unleash themselves into the comfort of those strong arms.

“There, there little one, talk to me”, Synestra said kindly.

“Sh, sh…she hates me”, the Lady said, her face buried in the Snake’s ample bosom.

“Who hatesss you, Aria?

“I... I..Ikarias”

“That isss imposssssible, Aria…the Dragon adoresss you, and everyone knowsss that.”

“Would someone who adored me do this, Syn?” Aria asked as she tugged at her buttons and removed her blouse.

Synestra no longer cared why Ikarias was the way she was, she only knew that she wanted to take a bat to the Dragon. Aria’s body from the waist up was littered with bruises, some small, most not. In the middle of Aria’s chest was a saucer sized one just now starting to turn black. Oddly, it was the handprint around the Lady’s neck that bothers the Priestess the most. There was something disturbing about Ikarias holding Aria’s very life in her hand, right now.

“Get your thingsss, you are moving into my room, Aria….now!” Synestra commanded.

Aria had no energy to fight her, she knew if Ikarias wanted her badly enough, it mattered little what room she was in, but she quietly gathered up some things and closed the door behind them.

“Book came to me while I was awake, Syn”, Aria said as if almost in a trance as she was led down the hallway.

Synestra was about to answer the Lady when her head started throbbing uncontrollably, stopping to rub her temples, she cursed silently…"are you near, you evil creature?”

“Good day Priestess”, renzi said respectfully as she stepped out of her room and closed her door behind her. Looking at Aria, renzi focused on her the bruise around the Lady Aria’s neck.

“Let me guess, the reptile my Lady?” renzi asked without any compassion in her voice.

“You speak so boldly, in private… for a slave that is”, Synestra, said her eyes narrowing to slits.

“Begging your pardon Ma’m, but I was there to witness their first encounter”, renzi said lowering her eyes, all the time wondering if Synestra will really taste like chicken when she has her ‘en brochette’ for dinner when this is all over.

“I am fine, the Lady is fine…now go about your business and leave me to tend to Aria”, Synestra said dismissing the slave girl.

“As you wish, PriesTess”, renzi said sharply then turned and walked the length of the hallway to the stairs. Aria’s stomach turned and Synestra’s head ached, but neither of them said a word, they stood perfectly still as they watched the slave girl disappear to the floor below, both aware that renzi was unabashedly pleased about something.

“Come, little one, let’sss get you sssettled in and then you can tell Auntie Sssynestra all about the Dragon, the Book and that horrid little ssslave girl.”

____****____

(Part 32 by Ikarias) --

Ikarias pushed the bartender aside and grabbed a bottle of brandy. She yanked out the cork and chugged half the contents then spat out the last mouthful on the hardwood floor. The tete a tete with Aria did little for her libido. She wasn't finished with the blonde cunt, not by a long shot. Aria whetted her appetite for more. Oh yes, another visit would definitely be in the future. Perhaps the bitch would struggle, that would be even more fun. Bloody her patrician ways and stretch her aristocratic ass with a scaled fist.

She flexed her toes in her boots, her feet sort of itched but she hadn't time to take them off. So many twats, so little time.

"Ikariasss."

The eye surrounded by jade scales narrowed. Ikarias turned around.

"Syn, exactly what I'm looking for."

"We need to talk, half-dragon." Synestra felt an odd distortion from Iky but couldn't put her manicured finger on it.

"In the barn then," Ikarias nodded and walked ahead, her smile was not pleasant. Time to see how flexible the snake priestess really was.

*****

Renzi bowed and left Synestra with the very distraught Aria. As the sorceress suspected, the half-dragon had finished what she started downstairs. Poor little assassin who got buggered fore and aft, witless as to the cause or remedy.

Her speech to bold for a slave? Renzi gritted her teeth. Oh to grab that priestess' tongue and yank the pieces wide, split it all the way to the root. Let her make of speech as she would then… hiss, hiss.

Then Renzi recalled B'sylla's words re: acting her part. As much as she hated to admit it, if she didn't mend her ways to more servile doings, she'd not do near as much damage as she hoped. Her own encounters with servants and slaves was at the top of the food chain with the power and the voice.

Perhaps some lessons in her new role would not be out of line. No lack of dommes, just whom to choose? Not dear Sirius, Renzi would save that for later, when she was a proper slave. Nessa was too close to the fey, though her temper would be marvelous to unleash.

Jude. The cool one. Sure of her place at the pinnacle of order, yet not so reluctant to school those lacking the proper etiquette with stripes and blows. And of course figure in prepayment for the humiliation. Renzi would render an appropriate price.

"Jude who is mistress of things in their place
be not assured of the time nor the space
visit thane own self in surroundings unkind
be thou helpless, lost, naked and blind
turn on they friends an enemy's hand
and wear sparks of madness as they brand
no civil tongue nor thought in thy head
and no release 'til death take thee to bed."

That should do nicely. Renzi knocked on the door of Mistress Jude's domain and waited.

____****____

(Part 33 by Ikarias) --

Synestra followed Ikarias into the barn. The scent of hay and horseflesh was a welcome interlude from the miasma the priestess felt when she was around Renzi. Doves fluttered overhead renovating their nests in the beam joists, mice rustled about in the straw, and soft snorts from contented horses made for a pleasant background music. If only this meeting would be so as well. Though Syn was a betting woman she was not a foolish one to throw away good money on bad odds. The half-dragon definitely went from the good odd to the bad odd category in way too short a time.

"Well Miss Hiss, where do you want it?" Ikarias lewdly rubbed the bulge in the front of her pants as she shifted from foot to foot. "Kneeling or bent over?"

"Neither, you idiot. Aria is in pain from your lussst. What posssible excussse could you have for sssuch bad behavior? She's your friend, but you don't even care anymore, do you?"

The half-dragon turned and looked appraisingly at the titian-haired woman. The warrior said nothing; her smile was neither disarming nor comforting. She took in the sumptuous bosom, the supple waist, and the full hips.

Synestra's pleated skirt in the Egyptian style was of pale mauve silk with four long corner slits at the front and back of her thighs. It was elegant and practical for warm climate and ease of movement. A short tight vest of deep burgundy was trimmed with gold embroidered ouroboros interlinked so that each serpent circle with the tail grasp in its mouth was part of an endless chain. It held the woman's upper charms in excellent view. She found herself in the unusual position of being scrutinized like a particularly coveted piece of meat. Syn didn't like it. She summoned up the patience of the basking adder and took a calming breath. She took two, they were small.

"Sssomething hasss changed you, made you terribly wrong." Synestra tried to find in the off color eyes something of the Ikarias she had first met. The half-dragon couldn't focus on her eyes, they skittered about the way one would find in herding cats.

"Altruism is for weaklings. The strong deserve everything they can grasp." And grasp Ikarias did, holding the smaller woman firmly then spun her around.

Synestra twisted and hooked a foot behind the half-dragon's knee throwing her off balance.

Ikarias grunted and caught herself on a piece of thick rope hanging from a hook. She swung around a post and yanked the priestess' red braids, pulling her head back.

"Tell me, is a priestess' hole holier than thou? You know, channeling the godhood through the cunt has gotta be a rush." Her lips were close to Syn's ear. "Hell, I don't mind ordering for both of us, ass over not too easy with a side of dripping slit," Ikarias sneered before throwing the woman over a bale of last year's hay.

Synestra tucked her knees up and rolled over the bale and was on her feet with a hay rake in her hand. She thwacked Ikarias soundly in the ribs with the handle then reversed it with the tines glinting in the light.

"My love for Aria isss above my concccern for your welfare, dragon. Friend or foe, I have no qualmsss about disssconnecting your libido from your toy and letting in the good air and the good sssenssse with a few extra holessss."

Ikarias wanted the woman but not at the cost of being perforated. "Another time perhaps you'll want to meet the business end of my libido." Ikarias grinned and walked out. There was easier prey. like that trollop Killian.

____****____

(Part 34 by Aria) --

"My love for Aria isss above my concccern for your welfare, dragon. Friend or foe, I have no qualmsss about disssconnecting your libido from your toy and letting in the good air and the good sssenssse with a few extra holessss."

--------

Aria wanted to stay awake while Syn ran her errand, but the Lady could not resist that delicious pulling sensation any longer. Yielding to it, she found her dream there, waiting for her. It was dark and disjointed but it became apparent to the Lady in time that she was just a spectator here, this was not her dream so much as she was inside the dream of someone else. Aria’s minds eye saw another time and space, and then came the realization, she was restricted and unable to move freely. Aria felt as though she had no use of her limbs and she might be blind. She could hear and feel but her vision was scant, as though gauze covered her eyes.

Aria resisted the urge to panic, instead willing herself to remain calm and observe what was happening around her. It seemed someone was yelling at her, berating her for being stupid, careless, and disloyal. She had never heard this woman’s voice before and she could not make her out, but Aria sensed something familiar about her…in fact this whole scenario left her with that same familiar feeling.

“Where am I?” Aria said aloud, not sure who might answer her.

“Shhhh Aria, she will hear you little one.”

“Book?”

“She does not know I have brought you in.”

”Who, Book?”

“Be quiet, listen, and more importantly, learn… feel her, Aria.”

The Lady remained silent and realized she was in Book’s dream and it seemed her friend had been bound and its ability to see had been removed. The sense of immobility drove Aria near mad, but she willed herself still and listened to the words as they filled the darkness.

“Stay away from that blonde cunt, old man, or the two of you still soon feel my full and undivided attention, do I make myself clear?!”

Aria listened for Book's reply, but nothing came.

“I know you have talked to her, in fact you are only alive because she remains blissfully ignorant… make sure the little bitch stays that way,” the woman howled.

Again, Book did not reply.

“You know old friend”, the Sorceress mewed as she stroked the book gently… “When I redesigned you, and I made sure, you could still feel pain. I did that for a reason, little wizard”, she said as she lifted the book to her chest. Aria’s entire being screamed out as she felt the touch of this woman, but before she could hear her friend Book say anything Aria felt intense heat… so hot it burned her skin, then it became unbearable.

“Enouuuuugh! I will not go to her again…just make it stop!” Book said knowing Aria could not endure the flames in the fireplace any longer.

“Good, then we understand each other… oh and if you ever bring that wench into one of our chats again old man, I will not go so easy on her, next time,” the Sorceress hissed.

Aria awoke with a start, aware that who ever this woman was, she knew Aria was there with them… if not all along, then most definitely at the end. She felt a chill run through her, trying to shake it off, Aria knew Syn would be returning soon and would probably love a cup of tea. Throwing the covers back, the Lady could not help notice that she had very definite deep red stripes covering parts of her body, some already blistering.

Hearing footsteps at the door, she covered herself and waited to hear of Synestra’s day…

____****____

(Part 35 by Ikarias) --

Synestra watched the half-dragon leave, licking her lips in anticipation of forcing herself on someone else. Probably with easier prey. The snake priestess hissed in frustration at not being able to save whomever would be the woman's next victim. Aria was her first concern. The hay rake flew from her hands thrumming as the tines sunk four inches deep into the inner planks across the barn. Two horses inside whinnied and stamped at the sudden movement. The big Percheron in the nearest stall sneezed and went back to sleep. The low hum diminished slowly as Synestra cursed at her own strength. Couldn't leave the implement sticking out eye high. She walked over and propping one foot on the wall, tugged at the handle.

Synestra would never be taken for a hard-bitten warrior but the fluff piece that Ikarias thought to label her as was highly inaccurate. Strike fast with every bit of muscle was another bit of serpent wisdom. She grunted and slowly wriggled the rake free. She set the tool back on its pegs and brushed her hands. She hadn't even broken a nail. Walking back to the main building, Syn wondered if even she would be fast enough, mentally and physically to save Aria.

'All thingsss come back to Me,' the snake messenger had said. Rather cryptic but then like most deities, Hyzperzia's utterances were in simple words. The meaning was often very far from simple. Life, death, rebirth. That was the cycle of the universe. Synestra was intimately familiar with that concept. Was it a warning to her or for another?

The high priestess wouldn't hesitate to take an arrow for Aria, or be the shield for any other unfriendly item sent the assassin's way. Would her death save Aria? Or just postpone a terrible unending end?

She knocked and slipped into Aria's room, not waiting to let anyone know she was back.

*****

By the well, Ikarias watched Caitlin turn her horse and canter over to where Killian was dead-heading some flowers. She listened and watched unseen as the two spoke briefly. The dark Amazon smiled and leaning down, kissed her lover.

"So either an enema with Greek fire or your persuasive skills. They may have time to regret not bending over," the feisty sub deadpanned.

Caitlin raised an eyebrow at Killian's quip and laughed. "It's the small disputes that are hard to settle. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Ikarias pulled the bucket up and filled the dipper. She took it over as Caitlin went past her. "One for the road?"

The dark woman nodded, gulped half and tossed the rest away before handing the dipper back to the semi-scaled one. As Caitlin kicked the horse into a gallop, Ikarias let the cup fall into the well.

Killian had seen them but went back to weeding, bending over.

Ikarias wandered over and Killian straightened up, tossing the disenfranchised weeds into a nearby mulch pile. She regarded the half-dragon with a smile. The girl had a small smudge on one cheek and a bit of fallen leaf in her hair.

"Hi Iky. You warriors should try battling the weeds. Sneaky buggers hide behind perfectly legitimate plants." She plucked a wandering two-spotted ladybug off her blouse and shooed it away.

Ikarias shifted her feet and spoke in a low deadly serious tone. "There's actually another battle you could win. With Caitlin's life."

Killian breath stopped.

The half-dragon inclined her head and walked away to the old shed far from any other building. Small and rarely used, half like Killy's cunt which would be very much used.

The girl hurried to catch up to the longer strides of the jade scaled one. What did she know about Caitlin? Was it something her love failed to tell her to spare Kil's feelings?

"Iky, wait-"

The warrior stopped before the shed door, plucked a stray violet and smeared it into a wet purple stain between her fingers. Of course the girl followed her inside. Ikarias shut the door.

Killian grabbed the woman's human arm and turned Ikarias toward her, "What abut Caitlin? Tell me now."

The taller woman hooked a sharp nail from her scaled hand and pulled a tie loose on Killy's blouse.

The girl slapped the scaled hand away. "I'm not in the mood for your teasing."

In response, Iky ripped the entire front of Killian's blouse open, pulling the girl close by the fabric bunched in her hand. "You're going to beg me to fuck you any way I want. Or the antidote to the poison Caitlin just drank will remain forever a mystery."

____****____

(Part 36 by Ikarias) --

B'sylla felt the toxic changes in the auras of the good women of this lodge. You couldn't live as a magical creature and not be a sensitive. Not even when changed from a male basilisk into a woman with eyes like the burning sun and hair like a cold moon. How much longer would Firenzia be content toying with lives before she lashed out like a pack of dire wolves?

She needed help to stop the sorceress, local help since leaving for any reason was not an option. The snake priestess had faith, but little magick, Lord Nessa had some magick but little faith. The subs had their skills, though none could stand against the sorceress for longer than it took to snap your fingers. One felt of the fae kindred, well… the less contact with Firenzia for her the better off she'd be. That particular war had gone on for over a thousand years and Renzi adding another pixie to the body count would hardly be noticed. The one called Klancy would lend a sword arm to any just battle, B'sylla had no doubt again, that the valorous warrior wouldn't last longer than a spell that would turn her sword molten to spread over her body. The ex-basilisk had seen that happen once. It was not pretty.

Lord Sirius. She felt like nothing B'sylla had ever encountered. It was as if she wasn't completely there, that her flesh wasn't exactly solid, nor could that be said of her energy. She had magick, of that the albino was certain. Would probing that otherworldly itch be profitable? B'sylla wondered if this one would even care, or was she more than she appeared?

She stood, taking the cane of bone and went in search of the dark Lord.

*****

This time both Killian's heart and breath stopped. This had to be a joke, a very cruel one. "That's not true. You would never do such a thing." Her breasts heaved nicely as her indignation built.

Ikarias stroked the girl's cheek then slapped her hard, sending her into an old crate.

"Guess again. You really want to see Caitlin with her blood oozing through every pore? I've been places you've never imagined, discovered things little Killy cunts dare not even dream. It's time to put that knowledge to work on my own behalf for a change. Now strip." Ikarias undid the laces to her own trousers just enough to reach in and pulled out the thick studded phallus. She stroked it as if it was a particularly well-loved pet.

Killian rubbed her bruised cheek and drew back at the sight of the hideous toy. It looked more appropriate for a cyclops or kraken than for a human. She shook her head unconsciously, refusing to let the thing near her.

"First your Caitlin will start sweating and get thirsty but neither water nor wine will help. That's because she's starting to bleed inside her gut. Then the coughing, spitting up blood, and fever is stage two. By the end of a fortnight her skin will be like the thin skim of wax over a larger spill. It'll crack and she'll be bleeding on her arms and breasts, her back and thighs. You'd think her face was flayed the way the blood will seep from her scalp and eyes. By that time there's no help but death."

Ikarias just let the words flow, making up the lie as she went along. It sounded like some monstrous plague. This would work nicely if the lack of color to Kil's face was any indication.

This was not the Ikarias Killian knew, the teasing, irreverent, valiant fighter, and good friend. Not with those awful words and that horrible recitation of symptoms.

"By the time it gets to the blood-eyes stage the person's blind and they die in about three to five days. Really pathetic. Then I'd still take what I wanted from you. Or you can spread `em now and keep your bitch in good health."

"Why? What has she ever done--"

"--To me? Yadda, yadda, yadda." Ikarias tweaked a pert nipple twisting it as Killian squirmed, not daring to break away.

Killian couldn't trust the half-dragon, she couldn't not trust her. Her hands slowly went to the waistband of her skirt.

"The strong should take what they want and deserve. The weak deserved to be fucked by any who want them. That's it. Anything else is a waste of time."

The skirt slid over full hips and down to the ground. "You WILL save Caitlin," Killian demanded even as Ikarias' fingers clawed at her curls and nether lips, feeling for a response.

"She'll live, she'll get the antidote. Warrior's promise," the half- dragon pinched the slick nub. "Cross your clit and hope to die."

She watched the girl lean back against the splintery crate. Killy slowly spread her legs.

"And who says you don't want it?" Ikarias grinned, rubbing slick fingers under her nose. "Now say it. Beg me to fuck you."

Killian swallowed hard. This would pass. Caitlin would be whole and the half-dragon--Either get her senses back before Caitlin found out or end up dead and unenlightened. Her Amazon wouldn't waste much time on empty excuses. Not even for Ikarias.

"Thinking about telling your tall, dark, and dullard?" Ikarias slapped Killian across the other cheek. "Tell her and she'll get a second dose. And no antidote this time."

Killian pulled her hand off the old crate and held it to Iky's heart. She had to please the obsessed warrior, had to for Caitlin's sake. "At least, could we do this lying down on that pile of old feed sacks? Relax? Take your boots off?" She took a shaky breath, "I want you to fuck me that way." Killian looked down at the floor, she couldn't believe she just said that.

Ikarias smiled and swiping her fingers between the girl's nether lips, "Makes a great boot polish." She leaned back on a post, took off her right boot then the left.

A flash and the boots were shredded in an incandescent burst. Ikarias fell back yelling at the unbearable light burning her face.

____****____

(Part 37 by Ikarias) --

Renzi closed the door behind her then grimaced as she rubbed her wrists. They still bore red marks from the binding cuffs. Those would take a bit of time to fade though Mistress Jude's madness might well last forever. The incognito sorceress chewed her lower lip as she returned to her room.

Mistress Jude wasn't quite mistress of herself anymore. Alternating periods of lucidity with some very vivid hallucinations made for an uneven sexual encounter. Blindness, paranoia, feeling worms eating their way under her skin, and the touch of invisible pinching, probing fingers really threw off the domme's pace. That rather curtailed the satisfaction and inner peace Renzi had found with a whip handle stuff deep inside throbbing with a steady harsh pace. Perhaps she should fuck first, curse later? Someone had to be strong enough of will and sturdy enough of attachment to give a poor girl relief.

Nessa might be fun, strong arms, a wild gleam that came and went. Renzi didn't know how much longer she could stand to be without tall, dark and definitely decadent Sirius. Just the thought of that lovely blue cock at her service made her shudder. Oh yes, the dark one was quite talented with her toys. She hadn't done a disembodied fuck in ages, and the bodied ones were so inadequate. Soon Renzi would teach that young mage new tricks.

*****

Blinded, Ikarias felt like someone had thrust her face first into Haephestus' forge, though the injury was way low on her list of things to set right, right now.

"Killian? Hun? You all right? O Goddess of fucking possessed half- dragons, let the little one be all right. Or is it possessed fucking, damnit! Killian!" She sniffed but it didn't smell like fire anywhere, no smoke tickled her scorched nose. "Killian speak to me!"

Ikarias ripped the harness off and snapping the inner wooden core of the hateful phallus in two, threw it far behind her. She got to her knees, pulled her trousers to rights and crawled, arms outstretched to find the girl.

At the flash, per her Amazon training, Killian had thrown herself away from it, back over the crate and thumping into the rotten wood of the back wall. The soft deteriorated pine didn't leave a lump on her head though she brushed her fingers through her hair quickly to rid it of any suddenly homeless termites. She stood, nude but for her sandals and was aghast to see the half-dragon's face. Bright pink skin curled and twisted on the human side. The jade-scaled side had turned into umber shingles from the strange fire. She couldn't see Ikarias' eyes under the blackened residue.

Ikarias turned toward the sound, "Killian, please, say something. Anything, curse me, hit me with something, throw a rock at me, let me know you're okay. Are you hurt? Other than me--Killy? Say something! Did the blast hurt you?"

By the rambling blathering and the solid concern in the half-dragon's voice, Killian felt in her gut that this was her real friend back. She shuddered, but she was safe at this moment. The woman couldn't be bluffing, not after that odd burst of a sickly green fire. The warrior had certainly gotten the worse of it. As much as she wanted to pummel the woman into a mass of bruises for what she had done and tried to do, the explosion had taken vengeance out of her hands.

Ikarias' hand brushed a piece of scorched leather, part of her boot. The scent from it was like that of some foul sulfurous pit. She threw it aside. "I am so sorry, what I did is unforgivable. There is no poison; Caitlin is fine. It was all a lie made up on the spot to get to you. It was just a horrible story that got into my head and out of my lips. I have no excuse, something got into me, I knew what I was doing but it didn't matter. If you're not hurt, just let me know. That's all I want." Ikarias knew words were inadequate. Suicide would be more appropriate but after this was over. There was more danger here than her with an unwieldy cock. Dear Goddess, what had she done to Aria? Everything. "Ar—"

Killy mistook the first syllable and finished the sentence, turning it around. "I'm fine, you are not fine however, you're burnt and you can't see." She pulled the half-dragon to her feet. "Let's get you to the lodge."

"Not yet." Ikarias held back, "I damn near raped you. How can you want to help me? I can't stand the feel of my own body. I don't know why I did what I did, or why I stopped."

"Yes, you tried. And you stopped." Killian looked at the damaged face and let a sigh escape as Ikarias shook her head.

She recalled she had made the poor girl strip. "Please dress, I'm not going to touch you."

Killian patted the scaled shoulder, and stepped away to retrieve her clothing. "We'll get that Priestess to help, I bet she's a healer too. And Iky, you tried, but you stopped. Taking off the boots broke the spell." In a few moments, clothed and less disheveled, Killy was back taking Ikarias' arm.

"I owe Caitlin an explanation as well."

"I'll tell her," Killy said, "of your odd moods, and the way the spell broke along with your boots. But why boots? Who did it?" Again she tried to pull the woman out the door but Ikarias wouldn't budge.

"Here's a secret, little one. Being magical themselves, dragons are immune to spells and being half-dragon, most of me is as well. As to the who, I'll give you two guesses, one or both of our guests." She turned her scarred face to the girl, "And don't you dare confront them."

"Why not?" Killian was pissed, no, she was way past being pissed, way past being afraid. One of those bitches had spelled Iky, nearly gotten her raped and threatened, fake or not, her Caitlin. What else did or would they try to do?

"Someone knew that the spell on what I wear would work. Remind me to change my clothes more often if I start getting crazy again. If they can do that to me, much worse can be done to someone with no innate protection. Hurting you would be too easy, Hades… hurting any one -- wench or warrior wouldn't matter to a sorceress this canny and this powerful. Please, until I can find out who is the spell-caster, do nothing. I want you to follow Caitlin, get the hell out of here."

"And you'll find your way by feel to the evil one? And what if you're not the only target? Or if the lodge empties en-masse for safe harbor that'll be a clue to the bitch-bitches." Killian was on her high horse and she knew she was right. "Besides no one would leave you to face her alone, even after what you tried to do. Whoever her is. Can you climb?"

"I've still got ten fingers and ten toes."

"Six on one side and four on the other, "Killian joked softly. "After sunset we'll get you to the subs' nest. Then after you get some healing and some rest and your sight back, we'll see about kicking some magical ass. We don't have long to wait."

"Fine. We'll wait." Ikarias sat down heavily on a crate, her head down. A blind warrior was about a useful as a saddle on a newt. Unless she got training to fight like this, which would take much too long and still be inadequate. Making amends to Killy and to Aria…that she couldn't even see them to let them know her heart was back in the right place. Anything else going to go wrong, better take a number.

"Even if I or someone else were able to kill one of the two women, which is the real master? Kill the sub and the albino might expand into some monstrous harpy the size of a roc. Kill the albino and if the slave is the witch, that would be the harbinger of some very bad news for the lodge and surrounding parts. Exploding boots would look like a firefly next to Vesuvius."

Killian chewed at a thumbnail. This was more than Ikarias trying to rape her. She'd felt things off kilter ever since the Mistress and slave appeared, like milk on the edge of going sour. It may or may not churn your stomach but it certainly wasn't going to get any better. She leaned against the beam and jumped, rubbing her ass.

"Iky, I need you to do something for me."

"Anything, name it."

"Think you could feel your way to get the splinter out of my backside? Platonically of course."

Ikarias chuckled, and felt the girl's arms around her, forgiving her. "Absolutely."

____****____

(Part 38 by Aria) --

Aria smiled as Synestra came through the door and headed towards the bed. The Lady was determined to chat a bit with her friend about her day then send her own her way so Aria could tend to these burns scattered over her body.

“Come dear, tell me about your day” the Lady offered, amazed she could mask her injuries with such aplomb.

Synestra gracefully placed herself at the foot of the bed and Aria could see something in her friend’s eyes, but was not sure what it was. The Priestess meaning only to comfort the smaller woman by gliding her hand over Aria's leg...instead caused the Lady to gasp in pain. Synestra jumped up and pulled the covers back before Aria could finish her "Nooooooo!"

“Did Ikariasss do this before or after ssshe tried to rape me in the ssstable?” the Priestress spit out.

Aria did not hear anything beyond that point… she was on her knees and within an inch of her friend’s face demanding details.

“Ikarias did what?!!”

“Sssweet Aria calm yourssself and tell me how that Dragon could have burned you sssso badly?”

Aria could feel her heart beating in her head, the Lady had accepted Ikarias’ treatment of late, but she could not and would not accept this behavior towards someone that had only come to warn the Lady and tried to keep her from harm… this was the final straw.

“Synestra, listen carefully to the tone of my voice… you know me, you know that I am no longer asking you -- I am telling you – what did the Dragon do to you!!?”

The Priestess was familiar with this particular tone and knew it was pointless to shield Aria from the truth she sought, Synestra recounted the attempted rape as well as her thwarting of the Dragon’s assault.

The blonde woman’s face turned several shades of red, before settling on a scarlet red. She was up and on her way to the door deaf to Synestra pleas, Aria would no longer stand for the Dragon’s behavior despite the Lady’s true love for her scaly friend. Ikarias would have to leave the Lodge and not return until she was her old cantankerous self. There would be no further discussion on this matter.

Aria swung the door open with such bravado that she nearly sucked poor Killian into the room.

“Killian get out of my way, I need to find Ikarias, immediately”, Aria seethed.

“Ah, ah… Aria - I need to see the Priestess right away… someone needs immediate medical attention” Killian said making the ‘come with me now’ head nod in Synestra's direction.

“Sweetie I believe Ikarias is out by the lake”, Killian told the Lady. Aria did not even wait to see if there was any more information before she was out the door and heading towards the lake. Fueled by anger she blessedly did not feel the burns that covered half of her body… she was a woman on a mission.

Synestra got very close to Killian, eyes narrowing… “Why would you sssend her to that creature, Killian…why?”

“I didn’t…now come with me!”

____****____

(Part 39 by Ikarias) --

Ikarias let out a shudder of pain, grinding her teeth. Agony, self-loathing, wrestled with a rape which was still-born without an end, played in her mind. This abhorrence filled the half-scaled woman, wanting to be anywhere but here, wanting to stop whatever was happening, hating herself, and hating whatever set the whole mess in motion.

Tucked away in the subnest, Killian had carefully rinsed and bandaged what she could but the damage to the scaled one was extensive. She insisted on Iky resting on the thick pallet while she set a broth onto simmer.

Situated above the noisiest and best part of the lodge, the kitchen,the subnest was kept warm and well-supplied. It was a simple matter for the creative subs to undo a few stones in the chimney wall and create a makeshift stove. The smoke went with the general mass escaping from below and the extra cooking smells were never noticed.

Clean rainwater filled a deep barrel in the corner. The scent of edibles and potables were on several shelves next to it. The half- dragon couldn't suppress a smile at the familiar whiffs of snitched and borrowed goods. The ever-delightful plum wine that Aria fancied, Klancy's seven star rootbeer, even a bottle of the rich heady brew Sirius favored. Dried herbs, ripe vegetables, and smoked meats kept the aroma of burnt dragon company.

"I'm going to get the Priestess. You need help now, and if this incident is just a small part of a greater mess, we can't wait for a normal slow healing."

Killian was right again, but before Ikarias could explain about Synestra being part and parcel of those she most sinned against, Killy was out the window and down the branches like a squirrel at home.

Ikarias had been quite far from irreverent towards the priestess, she had blazed past foul and nasty and had gone well into irretrievable territory for her spiritual self. Despite the pain she dozed, fitful replays of her activities and heinous alternate endings filled in her mind.

*****

Synestra shook her head, "What has the ssscaled bitch done to you that you would lie to Aria? Hasss ssshe forccced you?"

"No. Not the way you think. Please, we need your healing skills." Killian pleaded with the titian-haired woman, "this is more than what you think."

The snake priestess sighed and quickly retrieved her healer's case. The girl thought she heard something move inside it, possibly something got loose, nothing more? Killy shivered and shook off the feeling.

"I'm going to bring you to a special place, it's just for us subs, and occasionally others. I, um…"

Synestra sighed again and placing her right thumb to her lips, made a small circle then kissed her thumb. "By my officcce whatever placcce and thingsss you wisssh kept sssecret I will remain sssilent thereon. Anything elssse?"

"Can you climb in that?" Killy waved at the split flowing skirt.

The priestess held back a third sigh and curbed her tongue, "Yesss. Anything elssse?"

Killian was full of questions but time for those later. She shook her head then led the older woman around and up the tree, helping with the case. She was sure something was loose inside, something that kept moving.

"Half-dragon."

The susurration of silk and the imperious voice pulled Ikarias from evil dreams. The scent of amber and musk confirmed the voice's owner. A stool scraped across the wood settling close to the burned woman. She rose up on her arms.

"I don't deserve your forgiveness, Priestess. I do beg for your help. Not for myself but to save this lodge—and Aria."

"The toasssting hasss much improved your mannersss." Synestra removed the bandages. She was concerned at the extent of the scaled woman's burns. They didn't smell natural, as horrible as the scent of burning was, an underlying maleficent tang held close. "How did thisss happen?" The sound of hollow bamboo tubes and hardened leather flasks swished together.

"I was attempting to rape Killian. She asked me to take off my boots first and they exploded. I--lost the urge to merge. The boots were ensorcelled."

Killian confirmed this and brought over a clean bowl of water and more bandages. She set several candles for better light next to the head of the pallet.

"Becaussse dragonsss are magick." Synestra nodded and she gripped Ikarias' hand, "I can forgive you for myssself. Who could have done thisss? Made you ssso--?"

"One or both of our guests. I was a test or pawn or damned first. I don't think I'll be the last."

"Then we need you whole to fight thisss evil. Asss I keep your sssilence, you mussst keep mine." The priestess said over her shoulder to the sub. "Have you a pieccce of ssstiff leather? Our dragon mussst keep quiet."

Killian brought over a short scrap two hands long, two fingers wide. She watched wide-eyed as the snake priestess unwrapped a heavy silk scarf of deep purple with runes in gold threads twisting about.

"Ikariasss, asss ssscaled asss you are, the healing will be rapid, though being half-flesssh, it will hurt quite a bit."

The injured woman nodded and folded the scrap in half, "Do it." She placed it between her teeth.

Synestra unfolded the last bit of silk uncovering a pile of scales which glittered catching the candlelight and throwing it off in blues and golds, silvers and reds. Killian had never seen anything like it.

The priestess picked out one, broke it in half and placed it under her tongue. The other she touched to flame. It burst as she began a prayer of summoning in a language that sounded like steam escaping or a snake hissing.

*****

Renzi shifted from foot to foot, all these damned dommes blathering and none of them FUCKING! Nessa seemed to be the laconic sort, a woman of action. Those dark eyes promised and paid in full, of that Renzi had no doubt. She had an itch that needed scratching before she saw Sirius or that poor sweet eager darkness would burn quite brightly but very brief. Time to be servile and simpering.

No magick here or the Celtic twat might feel a twitch and her cover would be gone. Renzi could do this. It wasn't as if she didn't have any will power; she wasn't addicted to sorcery needing to do spells with every breath. And Nessa's fate for later? She could ponder that lovely ending at her leisure. A bit of appetizer before the main course, then Renzi would finish up with a flambé of Aria and pate of half-dragon.

She made inquiry of the cook and heard Nessa was around back, possibly in the barn. Renzi's demeanor shifted, she fingered the gold slave ring and brushed her cheeks free of dust. Move with quiet steps, take up as little space as possible with your body unless ordered to do otherwise. Hurry when commanded, and be still otherwise. Speak only when spoken too, and answer clearly and briefly unless called upon to expound the reply. Receive all things for good or ill with thanks, count every stripe as you were told and take anything and everything from all comers.

Bone white, tan flesh, red blood, seal-dark hair. Renzi could make a new plaid for Nessa, of Nessa. Hang her on a loom and pull a thread every now and again. Get a wildcat to use it for a sharpening post. Renzi giggled with the thought. Later, she would definitely take up weaving.

"Lord Nessa? My mistress has a request of you…" The slave peaked cautiously about the corner, carefully daring to disturb the wild Celt. "…if you would teach me to serve?"

____****____

(Part 39b, by Nessa) --

"Lord Nessa? My mistress has a request of you." The slave peaked cautiously about the corner, carefully daring to disturb the wild Celt. ".if you would teach me to serve?"

Something about the little slave irked the Celt. Still, Nessa saw the scars and other evidence of the brutality the servant endured. If Nessa refused the request, what horrid treatment would follow for the slave? Gone were the days the Celt could stomach wanton cruelty toward others. Besides, Nessa preferred to fuck a lass with some spirit. This little slave had none… or so it seemed. She had something though… something not quite as it seemed… something to be wary of. Nessa decided on tact.

“Of course I would be most honored to comply with the wishes of your mistress, slave” she began. “But I regret that any such ‘teaching’ would be impossible at this time. I am a Druid and I am undergoing a period of abstinence and fasting. Please inform your mistress that I am most honored and will be happy to fulfill her desire at another time.”

Nessa bowed low and looked up into eyes that held a nearly imperceptible evil… nearly.

____****____

(Part 40 by Ikarias) --

B'sylla's eyes hurt, daylight was not kind to those with basilisk vision, especially if that vision was augmented and distorted by sorceress means. It was easier to keep her eyes nearly shut behind the veil and tap softly with the cane of bone to make sure her path was uncluttered. Each tap responded with a shiver as if the woman whose inner structure provided the cane felt each minor buffet and stroke.

If I am able, when Firenzia falls, I will release your soul, let you go where there is no pain, no want, no despair. You too dear Allard. And perhaps myself as well. This being human hurts.

Letting her old senses reassert themselves, B'sylla followed that which never failed her, her nose. Scents were the most ancient of trails, the eldest sense. First hatchlings know the scent of the nest, as puppies know their spot for feeding by the smell of the nipple. All things have a scent, especially magick, the hardest for mundane beings to sense though they do receive the occasional whiff like air burning from a lightning strike.

Lord Sirius' scent was faint, no, more like masked? B'sylla cocked her head as if still in her lost lizard's body and opening her lips slightly inhaled. Power, tempered, not diluted but sparingly used? Once she concentrated she rocked back on her heels, her eyes wide, no longer red but, if anyone had seen, they changed to a silvery violet.

Walls faded, trees muted into standing shadows, the entire lodge and all shifted as if in a step away, outside of time. Rafters scant of form didn't block the starlings wheeling and banking like wisps of smoke. The women about moved in pools of pale color, insubstantial as mist. Clouds moved like puffs of powder revealing the sky, the stars and worlds far from here.

A heavy footstep and the albino gasped, blinking red-eyed again behind the veil, holding the cane tightly in confusion and wonder. B'sylla spoke before she could make sense and wholeness from her vision.

"Lord Sirius, may I have a word with you?"

****

Renzi nodded, bowed even deeper in return, graciously answering Nessa, "I shall tell my Mistress of your reply. Thank you, my lord." She scurried from the Druid's sight before the woman could suspect her of less than sterling motives.

How DARE the oak humper REFUSE her!? No one had EVER said `No', and lived in peace and comfort after declining Firenzia's orders or offers. No that there was a spider's silk worth of difference. The rejected slave ran from the lodge into the fields.

The woman had refused, a druid's excuses easy on her lips. Renzi felt her body shake in rage and sexual frustration that fed on each other like two hydras battling. Each lost head lead to a reeking stump that produced a trio of three more vicious raging heads to battle anew. The sorceress felt close to incandescing if she couldn't relieve the pressure.

Oh the druid whelp would know when she refused Renzi that it was the worse decision she had ever made in her miserable life. Soon she would suffer, but not yet. The disquieted sorceress sent a shaft of potent brutality into a flock of starlings stirring the sky into waves, looking to roost.

Then she stood back smiling, watching.

The graceful stippled arc convulsed upon itself as the hundred of birds each took on a portion of malice and turned on its neighbors. Beaks pecked, plucked, stabbed, yanked at feathers and flesh. Plumes fell in ragged clumps, drops and streaks of scarlet and deeper gouts of gore splattered below. Angry chittering and cheeping, tearing and ravaging even as they fell, unable to keep aloft as flesh disintegrated. Handfuls, scores, then all maimed and shredded, falling and thumping, and the lucky few breaking their necks to lie still. Some with bent and savaged wings twisted and turned still trying to kill their hateful kin. Ravaged gouged blind faces still pecked at air or solid flesh when another got in the way. Stumbling, flopping, flapping to kill and kill until only blood loss or paralysis stopped the individual carnage. Mangled, tattered and shredded, unable to turn and attack or defend, the pitiful defiant cheeping slowly faded.

Softly limp, the first wave dead with gnarled bloody claws and beaks stiff with dried viscera, drenched head to breast in scarlet. Bright red spots and smears over the small once shiny plumes, broken beaks, pierced chests. Here one bird is torn in two, a bit of backbone holding the halves together, there, another's head is deep in the chest of a foe, convulsing in death. A lone starling, unable to find an enemy pecks single-mindedly at its own shoulder, peeping in agony as it pierces its own flesh and finally severs its left wing.

Renzi wipes the red blots from her face absorbing the many tiny torments. Her shift is liberally splattered and she should wash herself before returning to the lodge. Little lives still twitch and shiver, it's not much but each suffering is so sweet, such an appetizer to the real carnage the lodge will see, but there is time to enjoy this. She lies down amid the black and red and laughs, drinking in the dead and dying.

****

Blue and gold, silver and red. The colors shifted, blurred, and burst as Killian watched. Synestra's head fell back, her mouth opened emitting a hiss that shook the room, reverberated in their bones, and set every hair on the sub's head on end. An ectoplasmic substance came from the snake priestess' eyes, nose and mouth. The streams picked up the colors again entwining most definitely serpent-like. Now they glittered too bright too look upon, now they were too faint to see. Here a scale looked round with lines and squiggles inside like a map, the world? Continents, rivers, mountains rose and fell and the image dissolve into a face that studied Kil even as she regarded it with awe. Into her, deeply and thoroughly then away with a snapping feeling as if a tree branch broke underfoot.

The half-dragon felt something, big, sensing her and everything about her, waiting for—what?

The scale blurred became legion and the whole a snake filling the subnest, nook and cranny, scraping the walls with inaudible brushing of shield sized overlapping plates about the priestess, Ikarias and Killian. It rose, slithering through the chests and cots, chairs and victuals as if they too were insubstantial. Taut as a spear, the enormous glittering mass shifted and plunged into Ikarias' head.

Her scream was muffled by the strap in her teeth, not stopped, just quieted…

____****____

(Part 41 by Aria) --

“I must do this”

“I must do this”

Over and over this mantra played in Aria’s mind. She knew she must stay focused and keep her thoughts of the old Dragon at bay. Memories of the first time they met snuck past the rage… the dance, the lovemaking and the beginnings of a great friendship. The Lady wiped the tears from her eyes and checked the knife in her waistband. Aria had finally accepted the reality of Ikarias when the dragon attacked her dear friend Synestra. Aria could rationalize the attacks made on her body, but not on her friends.

Something or someone had turned Ikarias’ mind rancid… and now she had to be stopped. It was because Aria loved the Dragon that she knew she must be the one to do this. The Lady made her way to the pond, her eyes darting, missing nothing. The only sound she heard was a cluster of angry birds in the distance.

“Damn you Killian”, Aria hissed… the Dragon was nowhere in sight. Aria stopped and replayed the conversation that brought her to the pond. There was something odd about the way her best friend had pointed her in this watery direction. Ceasing all movement, Aria willed herself back into her previous life, her senses sharpened, her soul hardened.

Why had Killian come to see Synestra?

Why did Peapod seem so distraught?

Why did she allow her anger to override the signs?

Knowing now where to look, she headed to the subnest, renewed in her conviction that the Dragon must die … and by her hand alone.

____****____

(Part 42 by Ikarias) --

One drop fell on the glass. Another. By twos and dozens and hundreds they spattered, each to a clear spot, warping the view through the pane. From drips to drizzles and rivulets down the window of the subnest, they gathered to each other seeking mindlessly a likely comrade. The summer rain came in earnest.

Ikarias' teeth ground into the folded leather strip, her hands were tight fists, nails cutting little red crescents into her palms. This healing made the burning feel like a soft summer sun kiss. Something tore her face and eyes, her mind shrunk into itself to stop a madness she'd truly never recover from if she let it.

Synestra let go.

Hyzperzia took over.

Ikarias sweated blood.

Killian's mouth fell open.

She snapped it shut as the translucent serpent leviathan wove in and out of the half-dragon. Granted, she wasn't in the path of the elemental creature but no sense tempting the avatar with an open yap. She had no problem with keeping this performance to herself, who'd ever believe her? Side view the snake was the thickness of a ribbon and she'd seen fatter earthworms in the garden, face on it was wide than Lord Sirius best cloak billowing in a stiff wind. The huge slitted eyes, massive jaw and scimitar fangs would usually have the girl hiding behind the nearest warrior but here she trusted Synestra. Its skin flowed like an oiled rainbow, glittered like water in dappled sunlight then faded and flowed like a cloud dancing with the full autumn moon.

The snake priestess submerged herself and opened to all else as her goddess took command. Through closed eyes she saw Killian's expression change from fear to awe and wonder. She watched Ikarias twist under the renewal. The folks of the lodge moved in threads of consciousness. The red-eyed albino B'sylla stood apart, different yet oddly familiar. She felt Sirius flickering then expand, then diminish to the proportions of everyone else. Odd, very odd. She felt Renzi and the hundred of small bird deaths. And Aria, cold, purposeful, coming here.

Under the goddess' effect, Synestra couldn't speak, couldn't move. Vulnerable in this mode, she could neither stop blade nor arrow if one sought her blood. She felt sorrow but no fear, only hoping that her mission of healing would be done, or done enough for Ikarias' sake. Sometimes the goddess Hyzperzia protected her tranced priestess. Sometimes she did not and Synestra had the scars and losses to know better than to rely on that immortal protection. If the half-dragon was the target, she didn't know if anyone could stop the assassin. Lost in channeling her goddess, Synestra couldn't explain the truth, Killian was no match, and Ikarias shook powerless under the agony of regeneration.

Ikarias shivered as she arched her back, slammed her head against the pallet and fought the thing inside. She had to see though her eyes were pierced with white hot iron, she had to know but she was senseless, sightless, helpless. Too bright, too sharp, too much to bear, two eyes watching her.

*****

Warm rain fell on Aria as her lips held back curses. Finding neither hair nor scale of the half-dragon what else could she think but that the fiend in Ikarias' shape had treated her Killy to the terrible phallus that left the assassin bleeding. She held murder close in her heart as she made her way to the subnest. Unlike past times when it filled her soul to use creative means to uncreate a breathing feeling person, this time it was intimately personal. Terribly so. This justice, this vengeance she would do for those who would not, could not make amends.

Ikarias had become foul in speech and fouler in deeds. No goodness or nobility existed in her, that benighted form had never been so dear, now so despised.

The wheel revolved, for fortune as well as life. Aria's hand held firmly on the spokes.

Yes, she would be quick and she would be merciful for all that good Ikarias had done in the past. The half-dragon deserved that much but no more. Poison appropriate for a speedy demise, Aria had not in her possession for years now. Organic means were too unwieldy in the preparation and delivery. Who knew, perhaps the semi-scaled warrior might be immune. She did not have that luxury of time. Aria would not allow Ikarias more than a quarter candle mark of breath.

Simplicity would be best. Her blade would fit between the half-dragon's fourth and fifth ribs, slip into her jugular or up into the hollow at the base of the skull into the brain. All quick, ending the matter in a breath or two.

Aria climbed the tree outside, her hold slightly precarious as the wet bark made gripping a bit difficult. The window hadn't been shut tight and none of the women were looking her way. Consequences? Aria had no doubt that those would come. Much milder than she would deserve. Banishment probably. In any case, she would not stay where she had slain a friend newly become an enemy. Not for all the love of her sisters, even if none other would stop Ikarias. She could take vows with Synestra for a while, be a holy assassin, then move on.

Aria pulled the knife and held it in two fingers by the blade. The perfect balance with a slight adjustment that was second nature, and first.

Synestra rocked back and forth in a trance, eyes shut. Killian knelt by the supine warrior whose side was unprotected save for a torn shirt. Ikarias would never know the moment life left. This death would never let Aria sleep easily. So be it. She drew back her hand and let the dagger fly true to the mark.

____****___

(Part 43 by Lord Sirius) --

Disclaimer :
This is a tale of dark and light. A horrific fantasy of evil intents and courageous women. I in no way wish to offend anyone. Please remember this is a work of fiction. - Sirius Leather

******

B’sylla heard her own voice echoing through thinly the haze. A small but tangible clarity amid the oppressive cloud of shapes without form. Her eyes watered, became slits and refocused.

'What manner of place be this?' B'sylla's mind burned with the effort to fathom a reference. Something, anything stored away in a dark and long forgotten compartment of her tortured soul. Blank! Her mind drew a dammed blank. An old wives tale, a forgotten myth, a bloody clue was all she wanted!

Each form seemed to meld into the other. She was hardly aware she was moving at all. Everything was one, she heard a shrill high pitched whining in her ears. It grew increasingly louder until she though she would burst with the deafening insanity of it.

A great hall, if it could be called that. No walls, no ceiling, no form. Yet things seemed to have an order. She could see activity on both sides of her. She held tight to the cane, fearful that if she loosened her grip on that last remaining shred of her horrid existence she would perish. She clung to her mission as a dying creature to its last stilted choking breath of life. B'sylla was determined to be rid the Lodge and the world of that putrid mass of inhumanity, called Firenza!  And if she failed here then so be it, death was far more preferable than another moment of life as she knew it now. Her unbearable agony of servitude to the murderer of her one true love. 'Yes' B'sylla muttered to herself 'death would be so sweet'.

She felt herself pushed gently forward. A crystal table appeared. Sparkling transparency, laden on one end with food of every kind, the other piled high with neatly stacked triangular piles of scrolls. Each carefully rolled and sealed with a strange writing on thinly beaten disks of shiny metal. She squinted to try and make out the markings. From the land of the pharaohs perhaps or the emerald islands. Or perhaps from the snow covered northlands.

"Ah , B'sylla, so glad you could make it. I hoped you would find your way. Basilisks have a great sense of direction I am told. It rings true I see."

Where was Sirius? The table stretched far ahead of her. She was still moving. Whispers, hundreds of them, some low, others high, many guttural and harsh tones mingled with multi toned speech. Some that seemed to resonate through her very body. She was on the table gliding over it, both eyes wide now. hordes of them, lined both sides of the table. Long lines of them seemingly in queue, yet she sped forward, drawn by an unseen hand towards the far end of the table. It was further than she had surmised, she seemed to be traveling in slow-motion now. The whispers began to fluctuate and take form on either side. Light and dark above them all, the middle a rainbow of gray. Then it arched downwards on either side of the massive hall as she began to make out the form sitting in a great chair.

"Arrrgghhhhhhhhhhh, help me please help me" came from both sides a roaring din of pitiful sobbing. Then laughter, sweet and melodious filled the air. True she herself had been forced into this human form, but what she beheld, now stole the sounds any living creature would make.

"Come now My seasoned traveler of the earths underbelly, what did you really expect? Heaven? Hell?" The voice bellowed with laughter "Certainly not purgatory or the elysian fields, B'sylla!"

A grotesque creature of sorts swung madly at her from the dark side as she neared her now obvious destination. An audience with the person she had been seeking. She instinctively drew back and poised herself ready to strike, just as she used to do when she was in her true form. B'sylla felt the caresses of a thousand hands upon her smooth scaly skin. Her eyes closed in sweet rapture as the rotting carcasses and iridescent beings of light at once beset upon her. They touched not to harm but to soothe her now. From the tip of her long tail to the end of her flared nostrils, she felt at one with them all.

The voice crooned, was familiar, she opened her eyes and forced herself to focus straight ahead. Difficult now with her eyes set on either side. It changed constantly in front of her. It seemed to almost mock her as it stared at her, saw her writhing under the touches, and knew her innermost secrets. And she knew it knew, felt it in her mind, her body , her soul. And still she was moving forward, but was aware that as she moved so was everything around her in motion. The closer she got the distance between them did not change.

A giant glass eyed insect, a great horned and cloven hoofed beast, a unicorn, a hideous winged and deadly clawed reptile, a garden snake. Every form of human and animal that had ever blessed or cursed by its sheer existence. The sun, the moon, stars and heavenly bodies. Colors the like of which she had never seen. The brilliant blue of the oceans and the emerald greens of the lushest earth. Every icon of past and present took shape and then disintegrated before her very eyes. B'sylla was no stranger to sorcery , but was she awake or asleep? Dead or alive? Neither and both!

B'yslla heard herself speaking, her forked tongue moving rapidly as she gave details of the unspeakable horror that had invaded the Lodge and threatened the lives of so many innocents. Even as she spoke she knew her story was already known. She continued to recount the terrible events that had occurred at the mere whim of the ruthless evil that even cursed her very own wretched existence. Her heart beat quickly, her eyes focused dead center on the Dark Lord. Her head swam as she sank deep into the dark recess of her own mind. The menacing dark eyes stared back at her. Penetrating her and working her. Kept her going, kept her talking, made her tell the Dark Lord everything.

Lord Sirius sat quietly reading a scroll, a large bowl of popcorn and a can of brio chinotto sat oddly out of place on the table. A wooden crate?

"Yeah, ok so you do seem to have a problem. I'm sure you can handle it though. After all, you sniffed Me out didn't you?"

B'sylla turned around to the interior of the stables. Nothing but the heavy timbers and mundane planks of wood that were the core of every stable she had every seen. The smell of straw, the faint odor of animal waste, and 'butter'? The pain in her body came rushing back, constant and sharp as she was forced to be upright in the hard chair, assuming this unnatural human posture.

"I came to you for help!" B'sylla said angrily "I sensed your power! Am I to believe all this?"

"Believe what?" Sirius asked innocently. It was gone now. The Dark One raised both her left eyebrows and smirked at the incredulous woman. She crooned in her soothing voice. "You came to see Me about your slave. Am I to believe that you, a woman of obvious power yourself, have come to Me for help in subduing that horny little slave wench of yours?"

B'sylla could not remember! She felt as if she had forgotten something. 'No, no no' She thought to herself 'What is she saying?'.

"Well I'm just saying that you think your slave is some sort of witch or something. There have been some strange goings on but I haven't seen anything more than fuck crazed half dragon with a big wooden dick and a self abusive slave who likes to finger herself in trees."

Sirius held out the bowl of popcorn. "Want some?"

B'sylla did not know why but she found herself enjoying the buttery puffed kernels of corn and the strange fizzling drink from a can.

"So did you enjoy the springs? Very soothing are they not B'sylla? You really should get down there again. Great stuff if I do say so Myself." Sirius was true to form, Her self indulgent monologue and arrogant charm captivated the confused reptile. B'sylla clutched the cane in her gnarled hand and was reminded of her mission. She felt no pain, but that was impossible. Renzi had seen to it that the basilisk suffered in sheer agony every endless moment of every day and every night.

"Lord Sirius, I ask you once again for your help." Still uncertain of just who or what this person was, B'sylla hoped the Lord would at least keep her visit a secret from the loathsome bitch that had cursed her and now fed off her eternal suffering. Renzi consumed her fear and pain, and was ever greedy for more. Physical and spiritual, Firenza's gluttony for the energies of the reptile's endless torment drained the long suffering basilisk. B'sylla's agony was but a tiny morsel to Firenza's cavernous hunger for the dark feast of cruelty pain and death she never tired of creating by her own wicked hands.

Sirius leaned in and looked around to be sure they were not overheard. "By the way, if you get the chance, there is a small patch of ... herbal tobacco out a little ways past the springs. Works wonders for some pains they say."

The Dark Lord stood up and helped the albino up with a firm yet gentle hand and ushered the fragile albino towards the door.

"I'll consider your request B'sylla, but I really do have some work I should be doing right now. " She headed for the stable doors. As the albino stepped past Sirius, she felt a large hand touch her neck briefly. It burned her there for a moment, then B'sylla was fine.

____****____

(Part 44 by Ikarias) --

B'sylla's chat with Lord Sirius did nothing to relieve her apprehension. The dark Lord's cryptic tone mocked her, not with malice, but as if her concerns were no more serious than a child's fear of the dark. Aloof, Sirius spoke of inconsequential matters. How did B'sylla enjoy her story? Wasn't the company stimulating? Did she enjoy the food? Had she tried the hot springs?

"There's a crevice leading deep into a grotto of vents and mineral pools. You'd enjoy it more if you wore your former self. I highly recommend it for personal meditation."

The dark eyes drew the albino in, not as she was, moon-pale and ruby-eyed but smaller, lower to the earth, once again a basilisk, B'sylla's true shape. But how could she know?

Sirius escorted her out with a smile, "They need you. Southside tree back of the lodge."

B'sylla stumbled as the door shut tightly behind her. She gripped the cane of bone and looked at the wooden panels as if the planed maple would speak to her or form a face of knots and whorls.

Tree? Southerly to the lodge? In Lord Sirius definite indefinite way, B'sylla supposed it was a direction as good as any to follow. But why? She limped outside into the rain, her veil again covering her eyes.

*****

Firenzia closed her eyes as the rain fell soaking her thin shift, muting the drops of starling blood on the cloth and washing her skin clean. Not that she wanted it so but with her eyes shut, the sorceress imagined the rain as not being of water but thicker stuff. Warm, plentiful, the blood of her inferiors and her enemies covering her as it poured from the ever-suffering bodies of her victims.

As a slave, she really shouldn't tarry. Back to her Renzi persona, rising and shivering with the pre-orgasmic spasms of anticipation. Enough of unworthy trollops, no more waiting, Sirius should be her focus, Aria and the half-dragon's centuries-long death would make a lovely post-coital treat.

A brief brilliant thunderclap gave her pause. And if the dark lord was merely a flash in the pan? One more body turning and writhing on a spit would simply be more light to read the Book by. Renzi's laughter mocked the lightning.

*****

Chronos is Time. The ancient god holds the ephemeral subject as solid as mist, more immobile than the Colossus of Rhodes, vaster than the firmament with its wheeling constellations. Centuries pass in an eye blink, a heartbeat lasts for eons.

In this heartbeat lies much more.

Crouching just inside and two steps to the right of the window, a drop of rainwater meanders down Aria's raised hand. The dagger is gone, targeted for Ikarias' heart and in the moment it left there was newborn regret smothered by cruel necessity.

B'sylla, having climbed the tree with much more grace, speed, silence, and agility than she ever thought possible, has one leg over the sill.

Killian sees something from the corner of her eye but Amazon training is not assassin's training. She has no time to move.

Synestra holds her goddess within her, her arms still outstretched. She feels the energy of Hyzperzia rippling through her like a breeze under her flesh as the spirit serpent unwinds in a slow dance.

Ikarias didn't hurt anymore. The burning had gone though it felt as if a thin covering of clay or mud or soot lay over her face. Unfettered and aware of all things about her, the half-dragon let the wholeness of the moment, the freedom from the spell, the well-being of her old self cradle her in an indulgent blessed peace. Even the despair and self-loathing disappeared, she could make things right and fight the hellish things that had come to ruin her beloved home and her innocent sisters. She would atone, if it took her whole life, she would make things right. Right as the rain pattering on the roof top.

Killian's instinct to protect drove her forward.

Ikarias felt the sudden sweet weight and grabbing the smaller form rolled with her own innate feeling of immanent wrongness. The dead ashes crumbled from her face.

A golden translucent serpent made up of a thousand sparks shot from Synestra's heart, encompassing the dagger as its edges touched both Ikarias and Killy in their tight embrace, each to save the other. It incandesced and disintegrated.

The sparking snake zoomed toward a stunned Aria.

B'sylla threw her bone cane into the path of the all-consuming avatar then leapt atop Aria forcing her to the floor, away from the destroying power.

The veil fell away; the cane turned to powder.

The envoy of Hyzperzia stopped nose to nose with B'sylla, hovering, transparent eyes stared into ruby ones. A forked tongue touched B'sylla's lips and the whole entity vanished as Aria twisted to see the one who had knocked her down.

Sad red eyes looked hopeful as the albino moved away to let Aria rise.

____****____

(Part 45 by Aria) --

From her current prone vantage point, Aria wondered two things…”how had that frail, pale, little woman forced her to the ground and where were Ikarias' boots?”

Righting herself, Aria stood and realized those were only two of about 514 questions she had.

Shaking off the fall Aria looked around the room, “Killian, get away from her, come stand by me….NOW!”, Aria said, not wanting any more harm to come to her sweet friend.

“Aria, its ok, its Ikarias… she’s back,” Killian almost whispered.

“Back from the bowels of hell, maybe…now come here - IMMEDIATELY”

Aria watched as Killian looked sadly into the eyes of this friend turned monster and offered the dragon a silent apology for the Lady’s accusation.

The ex-assassin held Killian by both her hands and stared firmly into those pools of dark topaz, “why did you send me to the pond, Kil? Why did you protect Ikarias? I want you to tell me the truth this time.”

Ikarias, meaning only to offer some assistance took one-step towards the blonde woman and Killian, but before she could take her next, Aria had pushed Killian aside and pulled out her boot knife laying it against the Dragon’s jugular.

"You forget who trained me, Ikarias. One more step and even your own mother will not recognize you when I’m finished with you.” Aria growled through gritted teeth.

Ikarias froze, Killian gasped, Synestra and the crone remained perfectly still, though each had a noticeably serene smile on their face.

Aria was officially confused. What had happened to her original knife? Had she not seen what looked like a snake made of star beams floating in the air? Where had the albino’s cane gone? The Lady raised her hand to her head and fought off the queasy faint feeling she was experiencing.

“Let me help you to the chair, dear friend, Ikarias said softly.

With that one sentence, Aria’s memory flashed an onslaught of tender moments and kind words these two had shared... with that one sentence, the Lady’s whole world shifted closer back into place.

“Iky?” was all the blonde-haired woman said.

“At your service, Milady”, Ikarias answered her with love shining in her eyes.

Somehow, Aria knew to trust her intuition and lowered the knife. “Say something else, quickly” Aria told her.

“Handpuppet can you ever forgive me?” the Dragon asked with tears falling from her human eye.

“Maybe… someday” the Lady said gently wiping the tears from half of Ikarias' ashen face, “if you can possibly help me to understand what the hell is going on”.

With that, her old friend weaved her scaled fingers through Aria’s hand and told her to have a seat.

____****____

(Part 46 by Ikarias) --

Synestra stood and stretched then wavered and sat down suddenly, feeling weak.

B'sylla moved to the snake priestess' side with her old accustomed basilisk speed. She didn't ache, didn't hurt, her gestures were fluid and graceful.

"Can I get you some tea, or something stronger?" Killian asked.

Synestra took the girl's hands, "You helped Ikariasss heal and offered your life for hersss. Asss much as you are not a follower of my goddesss, all healing comesss from the sssame font. Hyzzzperzzzia appreciatesss your ssselflesss actionsss. If you are ever in need, ssshe will be there for you."

"And I too am grateful, Lady Killian." B'sylla placed her hands atop Synestra's.

The three watched the two, Aria and Ikarias.

The half-dragon's voice was only for Aria's ears. The petite assassin shook her head frequently and kept hold of her friend's hands.

"Do you have mulled wine?" Synestra asked.

"Certainly." Killian went to the corner to get cups and wine. This was definitely one of the strangest days she'd ever had. She didn't realize her movements were slowed to one quarter their normal speed.

Synestra's eyes widened at the obvious powerful spell.

B'sylla's hand shook then stopped. She cradled it in her lap, feeling strange yet good. "We need time. Killian and the rest need to leave this place before SHE calls down balefire." She watched Killian move as if underwater. So did Ikarias and Aria, though they were unaware of it.

`That'sss quite a ssspell, my friend," Synestra remarked.

"I just wished them all to move slower so I may speak alone with you. Since we can't leave here that was the best I could do."

"Bessst indeed isss impresssive. Oh, you should know that the ssssoul of the cane is at peaccce."

"My cane, I had forgotten in all this… Thank you. The woman was another victim of my mistress." B'sylla sighed. Some small good at least had come of this.

"What isss balefire? Isss it like banefire?" Synestra found the albino's smile endearing. She noticed an odd triangular mark on the woman's neck. Synestra could have sworn it had not been there before. It felt of old, very old magics from the beginning of the world.

*****

"I deserve your blade," Ikarias touched the place over her heart. "A vicious spell was set upon my boots since dragons are immune to magic and I'm half. The spellcaster wanted to make sure the evil did as much harm as possible. What I said and did to you, poisoned spell or not, there is no excuse, no reparation I can make. You're right, dear Aria, don't forgive me. Just let me live a while longer to stop this madness, if I can." How crazy would her explanation sound? How could Ikarias relate what had happened in her mind after she had healed?

"I've heard more coherent explanations from the wind," Aria gave a little shake of her head. And blessedly longwinded could her old beloved dragon be. She had a mind to pummel the semi-scaled woman senseless for starters, then kick some hag ass…

Aria glanced at B'sylla and shivered at the softness in the red eyes. No danger there, how very odd, and she really wasn't haggard anymore. She looked strong, graceful, and for the barest moment Aria saw two images weaving back and forth. One of a very tall woman, taller than Klancy or Sirius, like an ancient Goddess, clothed in wisps of vapor like a gentle fog, her knee-length hair white as a winter moon, her red eyes talking to the stars. Then she was small, dark, sinuous, red-eyed and dancing under the summer solstice night on four legs. A second shake cleared her head. The ha—Lady B'sylla must have knocked Aria down hard enough to addle her wits.

"When I took off the boots, as Killian asked, they exploded, ending the spell. As long as I wore the boots, they made me do terrible things, but because the spell wasn't directly on me, the voice in my head couldn't make me do worse to you…"

"Worse?" Aria felt a small cold spot in her heart, not toward Iky. She remembered when she had been punished and poisoned by Chaenz. The half-dragon saved her then, but worse than what she had endured?

"The voice tried to make me cycle and more. It only got this far," Ikarias held her scaled hand up and tensed the fingers, the nails lengthened, became sharp, thick and deadly. She struck at a nearby simple stool, just a piece of cut log, and tore off a sizable hunk.

Aria's cold spot got a good deal larger. The first time she'd met the half-dragon was at a fete, after tracing the scaled warrior's past movements through the land. The nearest path had meandered through a town, oddly quiet and grim. Ales bought tales and the one of a half-scaled woman tearing apart a convicted murderer barehanded as an execution sounded exaggerated.

More brews induced an alcoholic backbone in two stalwart fellows who then snuck Aria into the empty undertaker's workshop. (The currently overworked laconic fellow had fallen into exhaustion from double shifts of building coffins to fit the murdered and murderer's remains.) Aria had peered into a bushel basket holding the bits of Karn the killer. Only by will alone was Aria able to keep her stomach contents inside. Startled, she knocked over a second basket and more pieces splattered the dirt floor. Her drunken escorts promptly ejected their last two meals and multiple beverages over each others' boots before passing out.

Aria saw what Ikarias' dragon hand could do. Her hands held Ikarias' even tighter.

"But you didn't."

"Dearest Aria, touching you now—after touching you then… I never thought I'd be able to feel your hands, your warmth. I haven't the right to ask for more than this. I only ask for time to stop these hideous events. Then, should I survive, I place myself at your mercy—for punishment, death, whatever you wish."

"Once I had orders to kill you. Had Chaenz been the primary in that, we never would have met. I would have been a poorer soul for that. We will speak of us another time, my half-dragon. I don't think Chaenz came back last year to `correct' me on her own. Not with the madness we saw within her. When will this be over? Who—"

"I believe the one who seeks my death is the same person who wants yours. And seeing how our troubles began with our visitors…"

"B'sylla isn't our enemy, is she?"

"She never was," Ikarias turned Aria's small hands over and kissed each palm.

____****____

(Part 47 by Aria) --

Aria never took her eyes off the Dragon as she kissed her hands. It was the most tenderness she had felt from her friend in weeks. The Lady basked in the moment, wishing it would never end. Through watery eyes, Aria stared at Ikarias…and knew it was really her. Her loyal, loving, frustratingly brilliant friend stood before her and for the first time in a long time, Aria was not afraid of the Dragon. In a blink of an eye, the Lady knew Ikarias’ words would no longer cut into her, would no longer steal her breath with their very cruelty.

It would take a long time for Aria to forget the rape and worse the coins thrown at the feet, like some common whore… but for the first time the Lady knew she would get passed it and lock it away with those other horrific moments life caused, dulled by time but never quite forgotten.

“Iky, I have someone I want you to meet, can you come to my room. Please”, the Lady said softly.

Ikarias could deny her nothing at this point and with a bit of a wobble, walked barefooted to the Lady’s bedchambers. Once inside Aria lit the lamp, closed and locked the door and turned to her friend.

“You must swear to me to keep my secret, Ikarias”

“On my life, Aria” was all the Dragon said

Going to the closet, Aria moved and shifted a half of dozen items before Ikarias heard Aria speak softly…

“Come friend, there is someone I want you to meet” the Lady whispered.

Ikarias reached for her dagger and was poised when Aria turned around, cradling an old battered book.

Lowering the knife, Ikarias stood there obviously bewildered. Aria held this old book the same way she would a baby or a young pup. The Dragon watched the Lady stroke the book lovingly and Ikarias heard her say, “Please, talk to her…for me, please."

Ikarias felt instantly guilty… had she in some way caused Aria to lose touch with reality. Had her horrid treatment of the Lady caused her to retreat into some safe fantasy world?

“Arrrrriaaa, you know only you can hear me”

“Please Book, Ikarias can help you, I just know it”

The Dragon was visibly worried now, poor Aria believed this book to be alive. She had to get the Lady to the someone that could help her. Reaching to take the book, Ikarias heard…

“Madame, I decide who holds me”

Ikarias must have jumped back two feet and immediately thought her ears had played a trick on her.

“Book be nice!” The Lady reprimanded.

“A thousand apologies dear Aria, but is this not the creature that physically and mentally caused you great pain?”

Ikarias now fully realized Aria and the Book she held were having a conversation… and she could hear them.

“Ssssshhhhh, Book, Ikarias was under a spell of some kind and now that she is free of that curse, maybe she can help you”

Ikarias needed to sit. It had been a big day. Aria laid the book gently on the bed and went to her friend. Taking Ikarias’ hands in hers, she told the half Dragon, “you could spend a lifetime being sorry… or you could help my good friend here to be whole again and we would be even, my love”

Looking at this sincere woman kneeling before her and then at the book, Ikarias could only wonder how she could be of help. The powers she possessed-- did not lend themselves to this kind of magic. However, how could she at least not try, when it meant so much to her dear friend?

Sensing the Dragon’s confusion Book said, “Take me to the Albino woman Ikarias, it is time she and I talked.”

____****____

(Part 48 by Ikarias) --

The rain lightened, and with it the slowing spell lifted as well. Aria and Ikarias had left with some urgency, leaving the snake priestess and the ex-basilisk. In the cooking corner, Killian hummed a soft pleasing tune as she added reviving herbs and a dash of blueberry honey to the cups.

Time to explain the likely outcome, Synestra deserved to know that much. Though her immortal connections gave her an edge, B'sylla believe their chances were about that of a handbasket tossed into Vesuvius, you could smell the wicker burning.

"Banefire repels supernatural evils, Balefire is an ensorcelled flame that can burn for centuries," B'sylla explained in a low voice. "It can melt rock and metal, and consume flesh only to regenerate it to burn again. It is a tremendous drain on lesser mages. Usually aging them and ending with their death. Those with more power can sustain the balefire until their spirits dissipate into the aether, a score of years is the usual time. In a person such as Firenzia—"

"Renzzzi, your slave? Ssshe is the legendary sssorceresss? By my goddesss, we're up againssst her?" Synestra's hopes fell. She knew that name. More evil and suffering had come from that woman than any other magick wielder in eons.

B'sylla nodded, "Yes, my mistress. She sustains more than a dozen burning men and women scattered about the world. The oldest has been enflamed for 1900 years, and this after many decades of other torture, so Firenzia has bragged to me. Two score years ago I saw her anger ignite the latest burning, a bard of real talent and modest ambitions. The girl burns without surcease. To stop the flames her lover tried diverting a river and piled up a small mountain of sand, but nothing worked. At the last her lover constructed a stone tower about the burning girl, to enclose her screams in that one spot. The lover tried by sheer will to break the flames' hold only to be consumed as she held on. The woman had been a conqueror of nations, yet when her love was doomed she tried to move all under the heavens to stop it. The girl still burns."

"We mussst get Killian and the othersss to leave as soon as possible." Synestra's grim tone echoed the fear she felt for Aria and Ikarias. "We can't sssave all, perhapsss we can sssave a few. A compulsssion ssspell, but I have not the capability alone."

"I have powers now, I don't know for how long or how much, but this we can do."

"Sssend them in all directionsss, with their mountsss and their animal companionsss. I feel your Firenzzzia won't wait long. Whatever happensss, I ssshall ssstay."

"So shall I, and so must Aria and Ikarias. I regret that this must be so. I do not believe in sacrifices, but they will not die alone." The albino did not mention that she had her doubts that Lord Sirius would be so easily moved. Her eyes closed as she focused her powers.Synestra placed her hands outside B'sylla's, feeling the wish become will, and the will take form.

LEAVE THE LODGE NOW FOR PRESSING BUSINESS ELSEWHERE, TAKE YOUR PETS AND HORSES.

The snake priestess hardly felt the pull of magick from herself, B'sylla and Hyzperzia carried the burden.

As Killian poured the last cup of spiced wine time caught up with her.

As much as she'd love to stay and talk with Synestra and Lady B'sylla, she really needed to get to Caitlin. It just couldn't wait. She handed the cups to the two women and grabbing a cloak, she went to the window.

"I've got to now. I'll see you in a fortnight. Behave yourselves." She went out and down the tree.

B'sylla felt the others below grab weapons, pets, a bit of food, saddle up mounts and take off for other places. All thought it natural to want to visit loved ones, go fishing or hunting, meet a potential ally, or take a sabbatical. Her eyes opened, gleaming red. Firenzia WILL be stopped here.

Synestra waved her hand in front of B'sylla's face as she thought the woman still in a daze. She caught back a cry as a third clear eyelid flashed open and shut quickly on both the albino's eyes.

Shaking her head, B'sylla roused herself at Synestra's gasp. The priestess held her left hand in her right, a stunned expression on her face. The center of her palm and the first two joints of her middle finger were pale grey with black veins, like marble, like stone. She looked into the albino's face, stunned.

"You're a basssilisssk!"

____****____

(Part 49 by Ikarias) --

Ikarias had encountered many strange things in her life; an assassin dressed as a peacock, a loving mother who held the soul of a werebeast in her moon cycle, a mad, bad, psychopathic dryad-wanna-be prime assassin with an exploding head, and a gryffon with more self-esteem issues than Medusa. A talking book was definitely a new one. What should she call him? Her? Okay say it's male, that's what the voice in her head sounded like. So Master Book? Sir Book? Lord Book? "Book, as Lady Aria calls me is fine."

Ikarias kept her mouth from imitating a fish at the now gentle tone. If Kirby passed by riding Klancy like a tiny fuzzy white knight on a tall two-legged silvery-eyed steed hollering, `Vive l'amore' it would be par for the course. Speaking of short and fuzzy, and tall and less so, they were ambling out the door. She heard Bracken's whinny from the yard.

"Nice sunburn, scales and tails." Klancy remarked with her usual wry tone, "Try the honey paste, it'll keep you from shedding lil' green pieces all over the carpet. So tacky. Later ladies!" With a courtly nod to Aria, she scooped up Kirby and swung up into the saddle. Bracken snorted and leapt the fence with ease carrying the odd couple of heroes off to parts unknown.

Indeed if the mage Allard turned book could smile he would, for in the brief moments of Ikarias' proper addressing issues he had `read' her. Yes, she had done bad things to his Aria, though Aria herself had been bad in the past she was mortal and therefore subject to change. Now she was good, and so was the half-dragon, mortal too and free from one very evil spell. Book could sense in his vellum sheets
the palpable foul dampness of this tormentor. She made human and demi-human bad behavior look innocent and redeemable.

"That woman does know how to sit a horse," Aria murmured appreciatively.

"Uh huh," Ikarias replied succinctly wondering where the hell were all the lodgers and was she really going to peel? And where was the slave girl who wasn't that at all but something else? This B'sylla didn't smell like herself any more either. The albino felt sort of dragonish, which she couldn't be, could she? Ikarias knew her kin, no matter the origin, from lingwyrm to draken. Nope, not dragon-kind. Then too, Ikarias wanted to have a heart to heart with Synestra. If she survived whatever the hell that advanced like black rain dissolving everything in its path. Making a to do list probably wouldn't help…

Heavy boots clumped overhead in a familiar cadence, so Lord Sirius must be entertaining a visitor. Half the time Ikarias hated it when Aria puttered about with the elegant elusive figure. Then again, Aria always came back with a wide smile to go along with the, `damn, I'll be sore for a week but it was worth it' walk.

They'd left B'sylla and the snake-priestess in the attic room. Carefully taking Book from Aria, the half-dragon let Aria go up the tree first. Besides the great rear view, which Ikarias refused to mentally slap herself for, on the practical side being barefooted made for a better grip on the bark. Adding to the post-survival non-list: either new boots or trim the toenails.

*****

B'sylla gently took Synestra's hand, she stared at the two marble spots. "Is—" She wet her lips and kept her emotions in check. "Does it hurt?" She moved her finger over the smooth cool stone areas that pulsed with life.

"No, not a bit. You didn't know you could do thisss?" Synestra flexed her fingers. A basilisk has looked at her and she lived, not harmed, not really.

"Not for more than half a century. Once I was a male Kamarian basilisk, naturally deaf and speechless, but able to regenerate lost parts. Every score of years, SHE stole my eyes, cut them out and gave me blood ice crystals in return. With them I could see, but I could not turn flesh to stone. Unknowingly, Firenzia would implant one of my eyes into those whomever served her best, enabling her to see all that they did in her name, even their dreams. In brightest sun or darkest night, under deep water or through dense smoke, real, supernatural, or imagined, my eyes saw all and relayed that to her. In time they turned the last possessor mad. My mistress doesn't know that." B'sylla's satisfied smile got a nod from Synestra.

"But you have them back now. What causssed this action? Isss the nearessst twenty yearsss complete?"

"Perhaps by changing me into an old woman of eighty she didn't realize that not all things obey her will."

"You're certainly not that age by any ssstandard now. Sssomething elssse mussst have happened," Synestra said wondering if the woman knew the true cause. Could it have been the sparkling serpent's touch of Hyzperzia's manifestation?

"That time you bandaged my wound, it was self-inflicted. I had a patch of scales that I had to remove. Firenzia could have used them to great harm to all. That's how she changed her shape."

"You have much more than a basssilisssk's power now. I do not believe that they can control time. Nor is the ssscope of the transssmutation to ssstone ssso precissse." Synestra kept to herself the small joy and hope that they may be successful against Firenzia, at least in part. "You may have more giftsss, Lady B'sylla. I for one will not quessstion the sssource."

Aria clambered over the windowsill and turning, took Book from Ikarias to let her enter the attic easily. She knew exactly the view she had presented to the half-dragon. Iky had her usual very pleased `cat with a canary feather in its mouth' look. She smiled back, shaking her head. How she loved this incorrigible Dragon.

She had seen the lodge empty of women, all save Sirius, noting the boot treads overhead. Despite the visiting/provisioning/wanderlust excuses she'd heard, much more lay under the surface. Even the pets had been taken. A great black cat leapt out a window and ran across the yard after Storm. As Ikarias stepped aside leaving the view open, Aria saw the two mounts that B'sylla had brought run from the barn, halter traces ragged.

The elm at the front of the lodge suddenly disgorged a mass of honeybees in a dark ominously humming cloud. They headed north, leaving their hive. In the silence, Aria could scarcely make out a single note of birdsong. The cold spot inside her grew much colder, and much larger. Animals leave areas when they sense natural disasters about to strike, like volcanic eruptions or earthquakes, but most humans don't have that ability. Those leaving seemed calm and cheerful, but driven to the four corners. All except her torrid teasing Sirius, herself, Iky, and Synestra and B'sylla. She'd bet her much admired ass that Renzi was still about though not the author of the exodus.

Ikarias nodded, following Aria's line of sight on the bees. "Nobody here but us chickens, and perhaps a fox or two." She cursed for not bringing weapons, maybe she could go back later.

Aria stepped up to B'sylla, "Someone chased our friends away. I suppose that's a good thing, the fewer casualties the better. (Be safe Killy, Dag, all my loves,) then she came back to the moment. "Lady, here's someone who wants to meet you."

B'sylla stood looking at the Book she held, Synestra put an arm around Aria for a quick hug and smiled, hiding the two cool marble spots in her hand.

"For one who was an embittered servitor, the air here has much improved you, little basilisk." The voice was heard by all in the room.

Ikarias snapped her fingers in an, `I knew it' gesture, then scratched her head. Shouldn't the albino be much shorter, and darker and they all be turned to stone?

____****____

(Part 50 by Aria) --

“Ikarias!! Mind your manners”, the Lady said knowing the Dragon’s focus was solely on her lacy undergarments.

“Good thing I listened to my Mother all those years ago, or you would have to marry me, Iky”, Aria said good-naturedly.

“Forgot how purdy you were Milady”, cooed the Dragon.

Aria dangled her foot over the top of Ikarias’ head then clunked her on the side of her temple… “You are barely out of the dragon-house, now eyes straight ahead, Little Missy!” the Lady growled.

Ikarias reached up, gathered, and squeezed enough of Aria’s bottom to elicit a yelp.

“Little Missy!?” the Dragon spit out.

Aria knew she had crossed that unspoken line, “ok…ok” she said with a gentle laugh… “I guess that makes us even for now.”

The Lady climbed through the window and helped the scaly letch to do the same. In doing so she thought she heard that damn Dragon mumble something about a win-win situation. Smiling, Aria reached for Book, kissed Ikarias lightly on the lips and told her “by the Gods I’ve missed you, you dirty bastard”

“Then find me some boots before I am forced to dig yet another twig from one of my toes…”

“Oh behave yourself”. Aria admonished her, privately enjoying Ikarias’ look of mock recrimination. Something caught the Lady’s eye, looking passed the half Dragon and through the window Aria watched in amazement at the mass Exodus. Her Sisters and their women, even their animals were all leaving the Lodge at the same time. Looking at Synestra, the Albino, her Dragon and Book, Aria realized just how small her army truly was.

“Am I to assume we are all that remain?”… Aria asked as she looked to the ceiling and smiled slightly. The Lady may have been comforted by knowing Sirius remained on the grounds, but Ikarias was unclear as to the true motivation for the Dark One’s decision to stay behind. She would watch that one closely for a while.

“You know there must be some kind of spell on the Lodge that does not affect us,” the ex-assassin said with complete conviction.

“Your reasoning?” B’sylla asked with purpose.

“Because, who ever you turn out to be… Klancy, Nessa, Killian, come to think of it, most everyone here…would not leave without telling us why they were going and making sure we were safe to remain alone”, the Lady said now totally convinced she was right.

“Klancy would lop off her own arm if it would save the life of one of her S/sisters. Nessa would never walk away from the slightest hint of trouble without making sure all was well. In addition, Killian, she would… ok, you have met her, so it’s redundant to mention that she is passionate… but suffice to say she would do whatever had to be done, to save us”

Aria stepped up to B'sylla, "Someone chased our friends away. I suppose that is a good thing, the fewer casualties the better. (Be safe Killy, Dag, all my loves,) then she came back to the moment as B'sylla went to reach for Book and Aria pulled away slightly, tucking him gently against her left side.

Remembering Book’s request, Aria finally said, “Lady, here's someone who wants to meet you."

"For one who was an embittered servitor, the air here has much improved you, little basilisk." The voice was heard by all in the room.

“Book, I would like to hand you to the Lady B’sylla now, would that be alright?” Aria asked in a whisper as she held the friend very close to her mouth.

“Yes my Dear, that would be fine… and Lady, thank you for asking me that, no one ever does”

Aria kissed Book right above his lock and carefully handed him to the Albino. The pale Lady B smiled and touched the book’s corners with great care and Aria seemed to relax slightly. Synestra went to touch the Lady to comfort her, then quickly pulled her hand back and conveyed the thought with a warm smile instead.

"It’s been a long time Allard, I almost thought you dead.” B’sylla told him.

"B’sylla, remember when we talked months back about HER. I told you, you should hate HER. Despise HER for all SHE had done to you. Well old friend today, I believe that you do. Together we have bared witness to atrocities that would have made Satan himself weep… all the innocents, all the wronged, all at HER hands”, Book reminded the basilisk.

Waving the words away, of course, Lady B’sylla remembered that conversation; it was the beginning of seeing Firenzia for what SHE really was. Smiling to herself, the irony of her seeing anything for the first time was not lost on the basilisk. Lady B sat in the armchair by the window and before stroking the book looked to Aria for silent permission. Aria nodded her consent and Book began to groan softly at the soft touch.

“What are we to do old friend? How can we stop HER?” B’sylla asked Book.

“It is not we my ally, but them. These fine women will have to save themselves and hopefully end the madness –“

Aria cut him off and said… “Or we will die trying”

“Aria!, you must promise me to stay farther away than the others… in fact take the Dragon and try to leave. It is you two she seeks the most. --- I know from my own book of spells there is only one thing she cannot control… and that is a certain kind of marble and it is rarer than rare.”, Book told her sternly.

Aria, Synestra and Ikarias just looked at each other...knowing none of them would ever leave. Instead Aria sat on the arm of the chair, looked the odd woman square in her eyes and said, “tell us everything you know about our “little slave girl.

____****____


End Parts 26 thru 50, March 2003 thru Sept 2003
By Ikarias, Aria, and Lord Sirius

Parts 51 thru 70, Sept 2003 thru May 2004

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Ikarias Index // Aria's Index // Lord Sirius Index

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