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Home » Great Library at Hoeth » Book of Tales » Tales of Si'anelle » The Tragic Tale of the Noble Lady Si'anelle of Avelorn, Chapter Seven: The Banepearl Hungers
| The Tragic Tale of the Noble Lady Si'anelle of Avelorn, Chapter Seven: The Banepearl Hungers |
| - by Lady Si'anelle |
On the second day Si'anelle did say to her, "We are watched Ae'thenal."
Quietly she made her reply, "You do but confirm my suspicions Si'anelle. For I also do feel the weight of their gaze; and also your despair has fled and you have become fierce and terrible."
As she did continue to ride beside her Si'anelle did laugh aloud causing Nimine to glance sharply back at her from where she did walk at Finaith's head. "Sweet Ae'thenal," she did say, "would you wish me to hold a mirror to your face, for you are also changed as the Banepearl does gift us the power to serve it." In sudden anger her friend hissed, "Its hunger grows and it does desire to be fed. And if we do not satisfy its bloodlust it will be cruel with us Ae'thenal."
Now Nimine had come to stand at Si'anelle's stirrup. "My Lady, do you sense danger about us? For whatever foulness the Banepearl does demand of you, I do remind you that you are our Lady and do own a first responsibility to your people."
"Before Isha I do need no reminder Nimine Starbrow," Si'anelle did reply in anger her face losing all colour as the Banepearl did punish her again. "I am not yet marked with a Greater Daemon's brand, and I shall be dead by my own hand before such a mark shall be ever placed upon my forehead."
By the tightening of her foster mother's mouth Ae'thenal did know Nimine was annoyed by having been rebuked by Si'anelle, and did also fight with all her self discipline to tame that annoyance. "Your command My Lady," she did say at last her words barely polite as she bowed her head but a little as Cedwyn Brighteye did now come to discover why a halt had been called.
"We are watched," Si'anelle did tell them. "However we are safe enough from these scouts for the main host does lie ahead of us and it is they who will seek to deal with us."
"And it is the Banepearl that does give you this knowledge My Lady?" Cedwyn did ask his frown worn openly upon his face.
"I was never a mage Cedwyn," gave back Si'anelle in a dry tone bordering upon impatience.
"Si'anelle," Ae'thenal did now feel the need to say quietly, "Cedwyn and Nimine do love us well enough, but they do not hold either love or trust for the Banepearl."
"As do neither you nor I Ae'thenal," her friend did say to her, her anger not yet cooled. "If we are to journey together into exile this truth must be understood between us. Before Isha I do swear that I shall not permit my people to be harmed while they do hold to us." And yet again the Banepearl did punish her for speaking Isha's name.
Cedwyn and Nimine could not now meet their Lady's eye as Si'anelle did sit on Finaith her breath ragged and with beads of perspiration standing proud upon her now starkly pale face. "Before Isha," her friend did hiss again defiant, wicked pain like bright knives alive within her nerves, "I shall not become a servant of Chaos, as is she who does await us with an army of Beastmen under her command. For this day I shall bring Death to walk among them and they shall not find the willing ally that they did think they did await." Now Si'anelle's fever bright eyes did seek her out, "Are you with me Ae'thenal?"
"You do know I am Si'anelle," she did say in reply without hesitation. "Both for the sake of my oath, and for the sake of our friendship." And now it was her turn to hiss in agony as the Banepearl did search her body with its knives to warn her that it did hunger and would not be denied.
It was Nimine who did speak first while the remnant of Arhaindir Moonhand's people did stand silent and more than a little fearful beneath the ancient trees. Awaiting the moment in which their Lady and their standard bearers' affliction would pass so that they could proceed upon their journey. "My Lady, you did speak of a servant of Chaos. What is her name?"
"Dechala," Si'anelle did softly reply and while Nimine's face became more pale than its usual shade Si'anelle did smile a fierce smile and draw her pack the closer to her hand. Removing the sky blue silk wrapped bundle that was the Banepearl from her pack and settling it still shrouded within her grip. "Nimine," she did say, "I shall charge you and your guard to ward Elanise and the children for these Beastmen would delight to claim them for their mistress."
Her face still pale in shock Nimine did bow her head saying, "As you command My Lady. While I do live this spawn of Chaos shall not have them."
"Cedwyn," Si'anelle did say next to her archer champion. "When we do come upon the Beastmen form up your archers into a double rank and stand ready to test their hides with your sharp arrows. In the moment when the Beastmen do begin their charge loose your shafts and do not cease until they all are dead."
"My Lady," Cedwyn did say with a wry grin upon his face, "I did have no other intent."
"Only Cedwyn," Si'anelle now did insist her expression having become cruel and hard, "you must hold in the face of more perhaps than Gor and Ungor; and you must not break and run no matter how great your fear."
With his grin now the more forced Cedwyn did reply, "And suffer the searching wit of Nimine and her female guard in the aftermath My Lady; - no, my archers and I shall stand firm before these Beastmen."
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