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Home » Great Library at Hoeth » Book of Tales » Tales of Si'anelle » A Further Telling of the Tale: Sebekneru Prince of Battle, Chapter Nine: Tomb King, Thou Shalt Die Twice
| A Further Telling of the Tale: Sebekneru Prince of Battle, Chapter Nine: Tomb King, Thou Shalt Die Twice |
| - by Lady Si'anelle |
With her irritation in the stroke Sebekneru thrust her great sword into the furrow of the plowed field. If any good might come of this night at least the planting had not yet started and there were no crops standing in her fields. A flick of her eye and she could see where the Wood Elf witch was standing like a stone statue as if she was listening to the night. Sharply sniffing Sebekneru dismissed her as near to being useless in their search. Turning to her other side she said one word, a name, "Lu'uk." And in silence a woman, broad of shoulder and lean of muscle, wearing no garment save a wolfskin that was draped across her back, came forward to drop into a crouch hard by her feet. The head of the huge grey beast that had provided its hide as her covering worn like a helmet upon her head.
"Go and see what you can find," Sebekneru told her. "If you come across that she-Elf bring her back." Without a word the woman sprang upright and ran into the false dawn's darkness, her longbow gripped in her hand and with her sheathed sword held close against her naked hip.
At last the Elf witch made up her mind to speak, "Already your women have quartered your lands Sebekneru, - what shall this beast-like woman find that they have not?"
"You go calling Lu'uk a beast when she can hear you and you'll regret it witch," Sebekneru told her before she spat into the furrow. The Elf witch was looking at her now, like she could dip into her head and meddle with her thoughts. Only Sebekneru's patience was running short, the she-Elf had done nothing useful the whole night long except stand around while others did the work.
"If the Lady Ae'thenal is found might well you have a need of me Sebekneru," the Elf witch told her.
"If you're her keeper, you're no damn good at it," said Sebekneru, "You and that haughty Elf shit both." Hauling her sword out of the ground she set it on her shoulder and gave the Elf witch an eye that was just as hard as the one she was giving her. "I ain't no fool witch," she told her, "This Ae'thenal has got some object of power with her and you and that haughty Elf don't like her having it."
The Elf witch narrowed up her violet eyes at her, holding her staff tight like she wanted to hit her with the thing. "It is beyond your knowledge to measure the dangerous nature of the object of power the Lady Aethenal does hold Sebekneru," she said as she looked away across the field. "Even now it does call foul and wicked creatures to your lands in hope that they might win it from the pair who do have its keeping."
"What sort of creatures witch?" Sebekneru asked as her hand tightened up on her sword. Bronwyn was proving to be as sneaky tongued as ever she'd been, because the bitch hadn't said a word at all about any of this when she'd said her piece.
"Orcs have entered your lands this night Sebekneru," the Elf-witch told her.
So what was so special about that? wondered Sebekneru, - the greenskinned pricks were always trying it on. "We stack up Orc bones to make border markers witch," she told her. Cutting a glance at Helene Orcslayer who was standing close by like she always did Sebekneru said, "Don't we sister; - in fact in someplaces we've made ourselves a tidy wall outta them." Helene didn't pass any comment, though she grinned a bit.
"Other kinds do also come," said the Elf-witch looking superior about it. "The Undead are called and they have heard; - soon enough they will be here."
That was all it took to make Sebekneru angry enough to spit. Pack of skinnies turn up on her lands and act like they're the only ones who have it all down pat. Sweeping her sword down off her shoulder she shook it at the Elf-witch. "This is the sword 'Wraith-hammer'," she told her, "Goes with my helmet and my shield; - and all three were made by the magelords of Khemri to be the bane of the Undead. Lifted them outta some dead hero's tomb when me and my women were in that land. Didn't steal them neither because the hero himself came to me in dream one night while I was still in Norsca and told me where to find them."
Scowling at the Elf-witch Sebekneru turned her back on her. And while she was doing that she gave Helene a firm slap on her shoulder just to say that she'd been glad to have her along when they'd been in Khemri. "So don't you go trying to upset me with your witch-sight," she said as she cut a look her way. "Because all of us have fought Undead before and lived to tell the tale."
Now Helene was looking a bit sad on it, reaching out the Norsca shieldmaiden touched her arm, then firmed up her grip her blue eyes on her face. Yeah, Sebekneru knew it hadn't been as easy as she'd just said. More than a few of their number had died in Khemri, then had to be killed all over again by their fellow sisters because that Tomb King shit'd raised them up to be his own while the battle had still been raging.
Then her face split in a fierce grin, only when that Undead hero'd turned up on that zombie dragon she'd smashed in the dragon's head with Wraith-hammer before it'd even got a chance to breath on any of them. Following up with smashing apart the collection of animated rusty gilded armour and rotting skin and bone that'd been the Tomb King's hero and champion. The tide had changed then even though they'd still had to work hard on keeping their shieldwall together and smashing up the skeleton warriors with their maces and swords as the shits kept coming on at them. Things got better once she'd split that liche priest in two from head to gusset; - and when those skull chuckers'd been wheeled out T'amsine'd led her wild screaming pack of Araby women to tear apart their crews and pull the things to bits. The best part of all had been when she'd finally got to close with that Tomb King and carved him up, turning his peeling gold leaf covered throne into kindling wood beneath his carcass. Folks'd said there was giant kind in her blood, and maybe a dash of ogre with the size of frame she had; - well on that day in Khemri she'd felt like she was a real giantess when they'd carried out the Tomb King's gold into the light of day. And no skinny Elf-witch was going to give her any grief by telling her that the Undead were coming after that victory she'd had in Khemri. |
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