Demonthorn 6

“She isn’t ready.”

The room was silent, which was extremely unusual given that the assembled people were in the debate room. Kelli stood before a panel of the Elder Amazons of the Fury, her arms crossed in defiance and a scowl across her face.

“To be honest, my dear jangler, none of us quite cares what you think.” Said one of the elders. “Your job is to find them and bring them here. Everything else is our business.”

“I can’t do my job if I have to worry whether the girls I bring here will be sacrificed to a fiery death!”

“They all know the risks-” The same elder began.

“Bull cock to your excuses.” Snapped Kelli. “Each one of those girls that I have brought before you thought that she was going to be the one to walk out of that door transformed into an instrument of the Goddess.”

The room was silent once again.

“And each time they were transformed into nothing more than charred bones and ash. You tell me who should know better by now.” Kelli said softly. “Amanda, Fier, Helena and Imi all gone. You may not have to spend time to them and get to know them, but each time I bring one here my heart breaks because I never know which ones become Amazons and which get the funeral pyre.”

Tears ran down the jangler’s face as she said this. Whispers began to crowd in the room like unwanted insects. Then one of the Elders raised her hand and the whispers stopped.

“I believe you know me well, Kelli. But since we have never met. I am Sister Erin. I am the one who found Jolie.” The old woman croaked.

“Sister Erin, I know of you.” Said Kelli. “You of all people know how I feel.”

“Yes I do. There were forty six girls that went into the room before yours. 45 were removed as metal statues and one walked out as the second greatest warrior the world has ever seen.” Erin paused. “And now that she is gone, we need another to replace her.”

“You weather-beaten witch. You cared nothing for those girls that you led to slaughter. You can’t tell me their names and I bet those statues are collecting dust in some dungeon to make sure you never have to face the women you killed.”

Silence again filled the room. The elders glared at Kelli. She stood her ground though, like the true Amazon woman she was.

“I can tell you the name of every single one of those girls.” Said Erin softly. “Right now their remains are sealed in the altar of the Goddess on top of the mesa. Along with the bones and ashes of your girls. Every generation has made the sacrifice of offering girls to the God to be his wife’s champion. Just be glad that we all think that it will end for you with only losing four.”

“Then we have no need to rush. We can wait until she is ready, until she has had some training in the Valkyrie ways. We don’t have to send her in there with less than a horrible chance to come back out.” Pleaded Kelli.

“We will have to go through with the test in three days. I fear we have less time than anyone has predicted. The death records say we have only months until it begins. Samantha cannot champion us on her own. The prediction of our theorists says that only fire and ice can save us. My girl, Jolie was sacrificed to bring yours into readiness. Do not let her sacrifice go to waste.” Said Erin.

“And what did they find of Jolie?” Asked Kelli. “I knew her, we were friends and… I want to make sure she died well.”

“She did not die well. She fell with her wings ripped from her. Her every opening was punctured and ruined. She died blind, deaf, dumb and alone.” Erin said with anguish as Kelli’s eyes widened in shock. “Do not mock my pain you silly girl. I had to put that woman I loved in a box so light it felt like I was carrying feathers.”

Kelli opened her mouth to say something, but Erin cut her short.

“You must think us unfeeling, sitting up here in our ivory tower and unable to feel the feelings that you, a mere mortal could feel. Our hearts ache for every woman who passes in our sisterhood. Each time a Valkyrie falls it is because we failed to anticipate or plan something.”

“She is still not ready.” Said Kelli after a moment of silence.

“We understand you feel for the child, but time is short and every candidate must be put inside that room as quickly as possible. We all sacrifice for the sisterhood and for the entire realm. You forget, there is a small chance that she could walk out.”

Lora looked up as Kelli came out from the debate room.

“What did they say? Did you tell them about my dream?” Said the girl nervously.

“I did no such thing Lora. If I told them your dream they would piss themselves in excitement. It is a duplicate of the dreams that Jolie and Samantha had the night before they turned., except they were freezing and turning everything to metal.” said Kelli glumly.

“Well, then there is a good chance I will come out, right?” Asked Lora timidly.

“Helena had the same dream. Her ashes are now in an urn in the mausoleum.”

Lora began to feel the prickle of fear again along her skin. She had never thought that she would ever be so terrified in the center of the Valkyrie fortress.

“How much time to I have?” Lora asked, her throat tightening in fear.

“They will put you in three days from now.” Kelli whispered.

Lora set her jaw and attempted to banish the fear and dread from her heart. If this was what the God and Goddess wished for her, then by them she was going to do it to the best of her ability or die trying. She owed that much to her sister.

“How much can you teach me in three days?”

The pain in her head was excruciating, her vision was doubled and she could barely hold her staff. Lora shook her head to clear it and the doubled image of Loreline, her close combat instructor drifted into focus.

“That is what getting hit on the head feels like.” The older woman taunted. “You care for a repeat experience?”

“No ma’am.” Whispered Lora as she regained her footing into the ready stance, her left foot forward, her right leg back, tensed and ready and her arms in front, with the long staff gripped in the center.

“They always say that.” Loreline grinned, her sharpened teeth showing.

The grizzled Loreline was long limbed, with short white hair and toned muscles. She wore a short leather skirt and a tight leather wrap around her small breasts. That left no clothing to snag on ravenous demon claws. White scars crossed her body, evidence of her victories over the monsters of the night.

The more experienced Valkyrie gripped the end of her staff with her right hand and used her left hand as a guide, almost as if she were going to throw a spear.

“Demon’s are smart.” Loreline said. “They will attempt to use any method to distract you. This includes sexual attacks, mouthing off or even insults. But you must pay attention. Lose focus and you are a raped sack of meat.”

After she said this, she leaped into the air and thrust her right arm forward, using the left to guide the staff end towards Lora’s face. The younger woman reacted without thinking. Years of dodging drunken fists had allowed her to escape the black eyes that were so often a death sentence in the whore house.

She leaned her left shoulder into the attack, so that the end merely glanced off of her right and then brought her own staff up to smack the other woman in the ribs. But Lora’s opponent wasn’t there.

Loreline had rolled to her right and now brought her right arm down, smacking Lora in the head, again. This time, the younger woman was knocked off of her feet and did not get back up.

Clapping could be be heard now that the action was over. Loreline turned and glared at the woman who had dared to interrupt her.

“She almost got the drop on you.” Said Kelli, amusement all over her face.

“She was quicker than I gave her credit for.” Admitted Loreline, a frown creasing her hardened face.

“Just imagine what we could do with her if we didn’t have to send her to the flame room in a few days.”

“I can say that if we had gotten to her when she was younger, she wouldn’t have been ready.” Said Loreline.

“Why do you say that?” Asked Kelli.

“She was hardened by her past and sharpened. Like any good spear a warrior must first be forged. She must experience heartbreak, love, betrayal and redemption. She is already very close to being a weapon, all she needs is an extra nudge.”

“The others were all like that too. But I think I see what makes her different. I saw it in Samantha and Jolie when I was training here.” Whispered Kelli.

“I saw it too.” Said Loreline. “Samantha is cold and distant, calculating in the way she destroys her opponent. Her emotion is almost absent. Jolie was stubborn and resilient. Unmovable as a mountain of steel. But I do not understand what you all see in this one.”

Kelli glared at Loreline.

“She is gifted, yes. She is strong. She is smart. I think she has all the makings of a great warrior. But as a hero of the Goddess and a champion against evil? This one has too little control.” Said Loreline.

Kelli crouched down next to the now unconscious girl.

“That is what sets her apart. She is not wood, nor metal and certainly not ice. She is fire. She is rage and pain and fury and the willingness to let it loose upon the world.” Said Kelli. “All she has to do is let loose and I doubt any one of us could stand against her.”

Both warrior women were quiet for a moment.

“You know that if she doesn’t walk out of there tomorrow night we are pretty much all doomed.” Said Loreline simply.

“We all know it.” Kellie stood up and kicked the girl laying in the dirt.

Lora grunted and moaned, coming to consciousness like a man who has gotten too drunk the night before.

“Wake up. Your nap is over. Time for your next tutor.” Kelli said.

Lora groaned as she fell into her cot in Kelli’s room. She was bruised and beaten and not even marrow-root tea could relieve the headache that had invaded her head. She wanted to sleep, but the pain kept her awake, so she whispered to herself.

“There was the armorer Taly who taught me how to repair armor and make a wooden spear.” She whispered to the room. “There was the staff-mistress Loreline, who taught me to fight with a staff or spear. There was the sword-mistress Alena who taught me to fight with my body and use the sword as an afterthought. There was the political adviser Marylin who taught me to win allies while on the road.”

She thought back to all of her lessons. They had each taught her only the smallest shred of what they had to give and already she felt so much more powerful than she had before. She felt important and knowledgeable. She was afraid.

Each lesson taught her how much she didn’t know. Each lesson made her wary of walking into the room with the fire on the door. She shifted from her back to her side on the cot. She knew she should be afraid, not feeling that would only be foolish.

“What is she looking for.” Lora asked the room. “What can I give the Goddess that women who were actually trained for it could not give her.”

The room was silent and Lora’s thoughts turned to despair and hopelessness.

“Maybe I should just run and leave before I am turned to charcoal” Lora whispered.

“Maybe you should.” Said a voice.

Lora sat bolt upright and sprung to her feet, her fists raised. She looked for the source of the voice, scanning the room’s books, gear and furniture for any way that an assailant could have hidden himself. She saw nothing.

“Hello?” Said Lora, her voice quivering slightly.

There was no answer, no whisper of sound in the room. Lora was beginning to wonder if she was imagining voices like Albert the Crazy Man back in the brothel. She did not notice when a figure unfolded itself from the beams of the ceiling and dropped without a sound behind her.

Before Lora could understand what was going on, a powerful hand gripped her over the mouth from behind while the assailant’s other arm wrapped around the girl.

“I have you now!” A voice hissed in her ear.

Almost in the grip of panic, Lora did as she had been trained to do earlier in the day. She went completely limp, allowing her to slip from her surprised captors grip. Just before she hit the floor, she flexed her legs and stopped her fall. Lora spun around and lashed out with a full force punch at her opponent’s hip. She leaped backward a few feet and saw Kelli there, massaging her hip and smiling.

“You bitch!” Shouted Lora in rage. “You scared me half to death and I could have seriously hurt you!”

“Firstly, you couldn’t have seriously hurt me if you wanted to. Second you should have scoped out your surroundings better before you relax your guard.” Said Kelli in a lecturing tone.

“How was I supposed to know my instructor was going to be hiding in the ceiling.” Grumbled Lora.

Kelli’s eyes fluttered open in a rage. She advanced upon Lora, firing punches at the younger woman, who blocked them and turned them away, but not easily.

“You must always be on your guard!” Kelli landed a vicious kick to Lora’s stomach that knocked the air out of her lungs. “You must remember that a demon has no honor, is stronger than you, is faster than you and will never give up.”

Kelli picked up Lora by the throat and pinned her against the stone of the wall. Lora gagged, trying to bring air into lungs that wouldn’t fill.

“You always have a target on you from the moment you step into the Citadel. You are always vigilant. Or you are dead.” Kellie dropped Lora, who lay gasping on the floor. “I expect you to be ready next time. Or you won’t live long enough to go into that room.”

Lora looked at the older woman with hurt and betrayed eyes.

“How could you do this to me as a lesson?” She whispered. “Haven’t I been hurt enough today?”

“No you haven’t.” Kelli said. “My first day, my jangler broke my pinkie finger for mouthing off. My second day I lost a tooth in a scuffle with another student. They have been going easy on you because you have to learn what I did in six months in 3 days and we don’t want to kill you. I however, will not go easy on you.”

“Fine.” Said Lora with steel in her voice. “I will be ready next time you jump me.”

“That’s the spirit. Now lets go and get some food, you must be starved.”

Lora realized that she was and came to her feet, her body aching even more then than it had earlier. The two women traveled to the main hall and from there to the dining hall. It was noisy as always, with women gossiping and laughing and the sounds of cutlery and plates banging together.

They sat down at a table with three other women.

“And who is this little puppy that looks so banged up?” Asked a tall blonde woman with short hair. “Looks like she picked a fight with a troll.”

“Aye.” Said the red haired woman next to her. “Or she spent a night with our girl Kelli here. I know from experience that she likes to be rough!”

All three woman laughed at this.

“Ladies, this is Lora, my newest recruit. Lora the blonde here is Abigail, the rude red-head is Trista and the other girl over there is Jaimie.”

“Hello.” Said Lora, too tired to say anything more as she started in on her food.

“Is it true?” Asked Jaimie in a soft voice that could barely be heard.

“What?” Asked Kelli.

“You know, about her.” Jaimie nodded her head to Lora.

The others were all silent as Kelli contemplated a violent solution to the rude question.

“I don’t know.” Said Lora, setting everyone at ease. “I hope so, or apparently I am going to get burned to a crisp.”

Abigail threw her head back and laughed uproariously.

“You have a razor wit there, you young pup!” said Abigail, still grinning. “I have no doubt that if your soul is as potent as your tongue that you will be the first one to walk out of that room and not end up in a dustpan.”

“How are things with the raids?” Kelli asked Trista, changing the subject.

“They have stopped.” Said the red-head glumly. “After the raid where Jolie was killed they just stopped.”

“That can’t be good.” said Kelli her brow furrowed.

“Nope.” said Abigail. “The Paladins have started saying that they are beaten and have retreated to the Low World. Apparently they managed to beat a pretty big Horde over in Camelhump. My thought is that it was a new commander that they sacrificed to get the village.”

They women ate in silence for a few minutes, Trista gulping down more beer than was customary for her at dinner.

“So what is on for me tomorrow?” Asked Lora after the silence had gone on too long.

“Actually, you will have a tactics class with Abigail and Trista here. You will then have seduction with the Lady Salandish. Demon pathology and vulnerabilities with me after that and then stealth with Justine.” said Kelli.

“That seems like too much for her.” said Jaimie.

“I can take it.” said Lora.

The rest of the meal was spent in chitchat about the newest grades of weapons coming out of the armory and the tactics of Paladins versus Valkyries. Jaimie and Lora were silent through all this, absorbing information.

When Lora’s eyes began to slide shut, Kelli called an end to the meal.

“I will crush you tomorrow.” Said Abigail cheerfully as she wrapped Lora in a bear hug. “Get some rest, you will need it after today and for tomorrow.”

“I will see you in class.” said Jaimie. “I have seduction tomorrow as well.”

As the two women hugged, Jaimie whispered into Lora’s ear.

“Maybe we can try some of it out on each other tomorrow night.”

Lora just smiled.

As Kelli and Lora began to settle in for the night in their now shared room, a few questions popped into Lora’s mind.

“Why teach me things that I won’t need for the trial of fire?” Asked Lora suddenly.

Kellie was silent for a few moments.

“One of the tests in that room will be physical. How you can withstand whatever the Goddess can throw at you. So we will train you a little physically. You are still too thin and weak for my tastes.”

“So I am not to your tastes?” Teased Lora.

“No, I like my women to be fuller and more mature.” said Kelli flatly. “And you are neither of those things my dear.”

There was another silence as the hurt began to blossom in Lora’s chest. Kelli frowned, realizing that she had hurt the young woman in a way that she had not anticipated. But she was a warrior through and through and not used to apologizing for hurt feelings.

“The second part is mental. We don’t know what that is, beyond the fact that it has something to do with the element you are embodying. Everyone who has gone into the fire chamber has died.” said Kelli glumly.

“What about the other Furies, they must have some idea of what to expect?” Asked Lora.

“They will only tell us that they cannot tell us. The Goddess forbids it or some shit like that.” Snarled Kelli, throwing a pillow onto her mattress with uncharacteristic fury.

“Well with ice it might have to do with patience, ice is slow but inexorable and what I hear of Amanda that is true. With metal it is strong and unyielding, which I heard Jolie was very good at. We just need to figure out what embodies fire.” Said Lora thoughtfully.

Kelli laughed out loud until tears fell from her eyes. This brought a hurt frown to the face of her young friend. Kelli stopped laughing after a while, to Lora’s chagrin.

“Lora, the best minds in the entirety of Ravencrag have been trying to solve that riddle since Jolie emerged from the room. They have thought they were close so many times.”

“So what does fire mean?” Asked Lora.

“Well, first they thought it was destruction, so they picked an imposing woman who had potential. She was very strong and skilled at combat. I scooped up her ashes myself.” Kelli said, lost in thought. “Next they thought it was love, so they sent a sweet, loving girl that just burned with the emotion. She came out in a bag too.”

“I think of comfort when I think of fire.” said Lora.

“Why is that?” Asked Kelli, coming out of her reverie.

“We use fire to cook, to see at night and to keep us warm. It is of the earth and humanity at the same time, a bridge between the creations of the Goddess and ourselves. It gives me hope that the next day won’t be as horrible and hard as the one before. Fire is our friend.” Lora seemed to tumble these words out of her as if they were there the whole time and she just then found her voice.

“Interesting idea Lora, but I doubt that the God and Goddess had comfort in mind when they created fire.” said Kelli with a small smile.

“I know, it is just every minute brings me closer to the time when I have to walk inside of that room and either change into the ultimate weapon against The Master or I just get swept up into ashes and put into a jar on a mountaintop.” Lora said, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

Kelli moved over to the small pallet that Lora was sitting on and embraced her, tucking her head into her chest.

“Do you hear that?” Lora nodded. “That is my heartbeat and as long as it is still going I will do two things. I will kill every demon I see, and I will train you to do the same.”

Kelli released Lora and looked into the younger woman’s tear streaked face.

“You do know that tomorrow will be your last day of training, right?” Lora looked surprised. “The night before someone enters a trial is always given to the initiate. It’s sort of a last meal thing. Some women go to the House. Some go back home if they live nearby. Some pray to the God and Goddess.”

“What should I do?” Asked Lora.

“Whatever you want!” said Kelli loudly. “You will have a whole day where nothing on Ravencrag will be refused to you. You can do whatever you want, go wherever you want. That’s the point.”

“Complete freedom…” Mused Lora. “I won’t know what to do with it.”

“Honestly, that is a problem for the day after tomorrow.” Said Kelli, backing away to her own bed. “You will have enough trouble getting to sleep tonight as it is.

It turned out Lora didn’t have any trouble going to sleep at all. Exhaustion overtook her shortly after she lay down, her mind dancing with possibilities and with the hope that she might indeed be able to embody fire and walk out alive.

THE END OF CHAPTER SIX