230 Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty – We’re Getting Closer (1/2)
Zone 19....
Zone 19 was a dark faerie wonderland, outside instead of underground. That unhelpfully added a lot of twisted dark magic plants, fey, animals, magical beasts, scattered undead, and various undead capering around, all with a huge amount of Unseelie Court and demonic influence competing to see who could be more wicked.
They weren't happy to see us cutting through miles of animated corpses caught in an eternal Danse Macabre; burning through an entire forest trying to maze around us; slicing through an abattoir that specialized in flesh of sentients, artfully prepared; torching a choir-woods of elves, humans, fey, and others melded into trees and forced to sing of their pain and suffering for the idle relaxation of their noble listeners; hewing through battlefields literally thigh-deep in bones where necromancers raised armies over and over again to duel one another with undead warbands in endless variations of battles; chopping our way through a blasted tor where cambions and alu'ri led slave armies of fey against Unseelie Sidhe-led armies of demon minions, and drow cheered at the side...
We did learn from some gossipy demonic korred that the Brotherhood of the Void had swept through here several years ago, and slaughtered their way through the noble houses in an orgy of violence that was still talked about to this day. The fighting between the various noble families had never really stopped since then, factionalizing for fun, profit, and entertainment value.
There was too much crap in every direction, and teleporting demons could indeed hound and intercept us. Ergo, we moved much more slowly than we would have liked. Forests of animated trees didn't help, especially when we ignited all of them...
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I heard someone clapping slowly, and turned around.
She was standing up on a balcony, leaning over to give full view of a pair of Succubus Standard Issues. She was making absolutely no effort to hide her identity, as she had a set of ivory-white horns curling back from her temples and around her ears, almost the same silvery hue as her hair, which was set off against skin like polished jet. Her eyes were glowing pale white, and the dress she was wearing was shimmering like phantom moonlight and snowflakes in the flames accompanying our passage through the area. The bat-like wings rising up behind her were shadow chased with silver, as were her fingernails, even her lips.
She was also so damn beautiful that every man behind me swallowed at the same time.
The manor yard of this Hoary Hunter, his pet Hunt, and personal guard of Sidhe and Banshees were all burning right now, adding some billowing foggy remnants to the falling ice and snow. She was leaning out from an upper balcony, having watched us slaughter everything down here without lifting a single finger.
”Are you taking passengers out of here?” she asked directly, and even Ancientaxe swore at the sound of her voice. You couldn't put that much syrup and honey into words, could you? Even I was impressed. She definitely had Ranks on me in all the appropriate Skills.
And she was looking right at me when she was talking. Not AA, not Briggs, not the dragons, or the knights atop them. Which meant she had identified me as the heart of the company here while watching me during the fighting, despite no vocal orders being given.
”Interesting.” I met her glowing eyes without any trouble. ”I gather you had no attachments to the dead lord here?”
”If by attachments you mean a frozen ball and chain, I did. But after a few centuries of being his little prize songbird, well, it's time to move on... and I believe you can take me out of the zone.”
”My lady-” Sir Harbrom began, and I just held up a finger in his direction. If he thought I didn't know about succubi wiles, then he was a fool. He clamped up.
I sheathed Quaver, Tremble was already doing her healing circuit, and my Arms faded after I hooked down Stand and holstered Fall. ”Come on down. Brother, give her a swirl.”
She slid over the railing so gracefully it might have not been there, and more men swallowed at the sight of some extremely exquisite legs, flashing high heels... and four slender tails behind her, all black of scale, and tipped with hooked jetsilver scorpion tips.
Not a succubus, a lilithi. The Priestess princesses of the succubi...
She glided down with one flap of her wings, alighting with weightless grace just a couple steps away from me. Brother AA's Helices swirled out and through her, and she just raised an amused eyebrow as they danced through every part of her, lingering only a moment on the glittering diamonds and black sapphires on the jewelry at her slender throat and wrists. She looked and held herself like a noblewoman and a queen, and even the elves couldn't deny that she fit the bill.
I didn't see him pop any personal Wards on her, so she wasn't carrying any magic spells ongoing. ”Ah, Sama,” he murmured, his crimson eyes a little wide. ”She's not a demon priestess. Her Domains are Travel and Stars...”
”No shit?” I vocalized for just about everyone. ”Errant!?” I demanded.
”She's True Neutral, right there in the Green,” he said, not failing to hide how impressed he was. ”I do not even want to know what kind of willpower it would take a lilithi to turn from The Dark...”
She favored him with a smile that could melt a glacier. He looked away and coughed despite himself.
”Very brave of you to come down so readily.”
She met my eyes, amused. ”I watched you specifically wade through Lord Geunheff's magic like he was tossing air at you. I watched you carve him apart, while your allies chewed through his pet Hunt, his house guards, and destroyed a score of banshees made from the women who had failed to amuse him down through the centuries. I find myself incapable of actual flight, I am definitely not faster than people who can outrun a Huntsman's Horse, and I am not Lord Geunheff's equal in magic.
”So, bravery, or knowing that the only way I was going to get out of this through talking, not fighting?”
Well, it was most definitely one of her strong suits... ”Being a captive must have been quite the test for a Travel priestess...”
Just a flash in her glowing, icy eyes. ”Well, I would occasionally amuse myself by running away. However, one does not just lose a Hunt, and when one's area of travel is limited, the time free is not overlong.” She sighed, and all the guys went weak in the knees.
I threw a thumb at the sky, naturally diverting her attention to The Wake. ”That's a spatio-temporal intrusion into this place from true reality. This realm is a temporally-accelerated, spatially expanded dreamworld. If you were trapped by the zone before, you can follow the pathway out, and it will eventually take you all the way back to reality.”
The glow of her eyes sharpened greatly. ”Ah, that explains a great deal...” she purred. ”You have been able to destroy the Obelisks set up by the great Hags...”
Given, we hadn't talked much with those we killed, but it was still interesting to hear the Hags mentioned so casually.
Her eyes flicked down to me. ”You are going to... destroy more of them?” she asked directly.
”Only the ones that are in our way,” I admitted, and she lifted another eyebrow, smiling slightly down at me. Yes, she was taller than I was.