The Destroyer Book 3 (29 page)

I tossed aside the covers of my cot and swung my feet onto the stiff wooden boards that made up the floor of my tent prison. I was naked, and my erect penis stood as a testament to the wonderful dream the morning light had rudely interrupted. My body was still painfully aroused a few minutes after I stood and did my warm-up routine.

It would be a long day. A day of waiting for my captors to come interrogate me, a day of wondering how much longer I would be here, a day of planning an escape, a day of dark regrets and vivid dreams. I was beginning to go stir crazy from the solitude of my confinement. I hadn't seen Isslata, Alatorict, or any Elvens for that matter. There were thousands of them walking within earshot, but they hardly spoke to each other, and they sent human servants to deliver me small meals.

I heard half a dozen footsteps approach my tent from twenty yards away and before my visitor arrived I had already figured out who it was.

I was wrong.

"Hello, O'Baarni," Vernine said emotionlessly when she stepped into my tent. She wore intricately crafted mail with twisted green vines emblazoned along the ridges of each linked piece. Her pewter hair was tied up in a tall ponytail similar to the style Nadea would have worn. The wrap dangled the loose cascade of metallic waves down to the mid part of her back. She had a stream of rust red color in her mane, and this particular piece was braided separately but still contained in the top knot.

"Is that for me?" She pointed at my still erect penis without a smile. Her eyes were dark ruby pools of fire, and I had often looked into them while I penetrated her.

"Could be,” I said and a smile broke her face. I hadn't spent much time alone with Vernine. She always joined me with Isslata, so I didn't have the same alliance that I felt with the golden-haired Elven. "What is all this?" I said when a group of Elvens came in with a polished steel bathtub and massive wood buckets of boiling water. Four other Elven female warriors took position by the entrance of the tent and stared at me with open malice. They also wore armor tinted green, although none were as elaborately adorned as Vernine. She clearly outranked them all, as evidenced by both her uniform and the deference the other Elvens showed to her.

"This is for your bath. The empress wishes to have breakfast with you." Vernine's expression had changed back into an unreadable one.

"Where is Isslata?" I asked.

"Do you prefer her to me?" Vernine said without a spark of emotion. It made me smile slightly. If I had asked Isslata where Vernine was she probably would have tried to rip my chest open with her nails in a jealous rage.

"I didn't say that. I thought she was my 'keeper' so I find it odd she isn't here. Will she meet us with the empress?"

"Get in your bath. You do not wish to keep the empress waiting." The pewter-haired woman folded her arms and rested her right palm on her curved long sword.

I nodded and walked across the tent and got into the tub. It was half-full and boiling hot. As I settled into the water an Elven girl poured another large bucket of water into the tub, filling it up most of the way. She glanced at me in fear and looked back to Vernine. I didn't see the nod from Vernine, but the girl quickly dashed out of the tent.

"There is soap on your right side," Vernine instructed. I glanced down and found a large bar of green soap and a few bottles of oil resting on a thick white towel. I picked up the soap and took a deep breath of pine needles, sage, and lavender.

"Your choice of scent?" I asked over my shoulder as I ran the bar around in the hot water and my hands. I could immediately tell it was quality soap as I rubbed it on my chest.

"No. The empress prefers this fragrance. This is a gift from her." I had wanted to ask Isslata questions about the empress, but my illness and subsequent lack of contact with any other Elven hindered my information gathering. I should have been more prepared for this meeting, but I could make the best of it with Vernine.

"Did she want you to tell me this was from her?" I slowed down my cleaning actions a bit. If I could stretch this out a few more minutes, I might be able to get more questions answered.

"If you asked."

"I'll have to thank her over breakfast. Who else will be joining us?" My tone was casual and I hoped she didn't realize I was fishing for information.

"I am not privy to her plans, O'Baarni." I nodded and tried to figure out the best way to ask my next question. Isslata would be more open with information and I wondered if Vernine was here in her stead because the empress knew of the relationship I had with the golden-haired woman.

"I don't know much about your empress. Tell me about her, please." I tried to smile so Vernine could hear enthusiasm in my voice.

"That is an odd question, O'Baarni," she answered.

"Why?"

"Because I find it unusual that you know nothing about Empress Telaxthe."

"I am unusual. I think you and Isslata have come to accept that." I turned around in my bath so I could make eye contact with the woman. Her lips curled up into a slight smile that the guards standing behind her could not see.

"She is our ruler, our leader, our mother. She has freed us from the bonds of the clans and negotiated this world for us." It was impossible for me to ignore the adoration that filled Vernine's voice and ruby eyes. My mind grasped at different possible questions I might ask before I settled on one I thought might reveal the most information.

"Why should I know about the empress? I am just one of the O'Baarni, not a leader of these clans."

"As unusual as you are, I find it hard to believe that you have never heard of your kind's Games." Vernine shook her head in disbelief.

"I know of them." I tried not to smile. Shlara created the O'Baarni Games as a way to ensure I had a personal bodyguard from each general’s army. The competition was difficult and earned the winners great prestige.

"Have you seen one or heard news of them?" Her eyes narrowed, and I guessed she might be jumping to conclusions I didn't want.

"I have seen a few. But that was long ago and I have not been keeping up with such events." Her face showed complete disbelief, and I realized I may have gone down the wrong path. These veiled discussions were difficult for me. I could always be frank with my generals, and my interactions with Elvens in my past had always ended successfully: with me cleaning their blood and brain matter off of my armor. I didn't know how to fight them with my words. Being honest angered them, but it was difficult to craft a lie when I did not know what I wanted them to believe about me.

"What possible world were you on that did not consider the O'Baarni Games to be important?" She raised an eyebrow in mockery.

"Pretend I've been stuck on this world for a long time. I don't see any connection between your empress and these Games." Now even the guards behind Vernine looked at me in horror. Except for the woman farthest from the exit to the tent. Her eyes quickly hardened, and her gloved hand tightened around her sword grip.

"You really don't know, do you?" Vernine finally asked.

"Know what?" I watched the guard who looked the most enraged. She was so angry her hand shook on her sword. It was taking everything she had to keep from drawing it against Vernine's orders.

"Our empress has won your O'Baarni Games for the last fifty years. Five times in a row." Vernine cocked her head sideways slightly, like a dog that couldn't understand its master's orders.

"I don't believe it." I would have laughed, but the guard in the back looked like she would pull her weapon at any second.

"Most of your kind did not. They called the first Game a 'disqualification' and they awarded the second runner up the winner, or at least, they wanted to. Telaxthe had killed him during an event, so the third runner up was awarded first place." The woman in the back seemed to be relaxing at Vernine's words so I leaned back into my bath to ponder her story.

"How did they even let her in the Games?"

"Telaxthe petitioned. She spent many years, over twelve the rumors say, working with whatever clan leaders she could. She eventually persuaded the right people to let her enter. Your kind laughed and thought she was too weak because she was an Elven. But she proved them all wrong. She won."

I thought back to the various contests during the O'Baarni Games. My memory was still unclear, but I remembered a few events, they were all played with sharpened weapons and occasionally we would have a death. I would have never guessed an Elven could stand against us in such an environment. They were to us like humans were to them: slow and weak. This empress must be extremely powerful.

Or the O'Baarni were soft now, and easy competition for an Elven. Our magic helped strengthen and empower us, but it took more than being changed to be a formidable warrior. My O’Baarni had trained and fought constantly. We were fighting for our survival and the existence of our race, and we had nothing else but the fight and preparing for the fight. It was plausible that after generations of peace the O’Baarni took their superiority for granted and no longer trained or conditioned themselves as they once had. Still, the advantages the Elements gave us should have made it impossible for an Elven to dominate in the Games.

"Why enter the Games?" I stopped myself before explaining that there was no Kaiyer to guard.

"You really don't know that much about the Games, do you?" Vernine shook her head and couldn't hide her amazement.

"No. As I explained earlier, I have been busy and out of touch with my people. Explain it to me."

"Are you done bathing?"

"I could be. After you answer my question." I raised up the bar of soap and made a show of washing my left foot.

"The winners from each clan get to make a request. Normally they ask for a chest full of gold or such from their clan leader. The individual that is victorious over all takes possession of the Destroyer's armor until the next Game, and has their request fulfilled by all of the clans."

"The Destroyer's armor?" My mouth went dry.

"Or the Betrayer to you. It is a horrible thing. Cursed by the Dead Gods and all things living." Vernine frowned and shook her head.

"You've seen the armor?" I felt my excitement rise and then I realized I was being distracted from my task.

"Yes. Many years ago. I was young, and it chilled my blood. Some of our kind say it still haunts their memories. If I close my eyes and think of it, I can still see the thing. Your people say it carries the Destroyer’s Spirit, and he seeks revenge through the armor." Vernine's ruby eyes glared at me and I got the message. She didn't wish to speak about the armor anymore.

Too bad.

"Your empress has the Destroyer's armor then? Why would anyone want such a horrible artifact?" I almost laughed at calling my armor a horrible artifact. Sure, it was gruesome looking. But I had planned it that way to inspire fear into my enemies.

And it was still performing the task I had designed for it thousands of years in the future.

"No. Of course not. She just wanted the request fulfilled by your clans. She left them the armor."

"Ahh." I nodded and tried not to sound disappointed. If the empress had my armor here it might make my situation easier. I had changed the composition of the metal when I was flush with the Water I robbed from the two dragons. It was possible I could do it again with another piece of armor or weapon, but I hadn't tried it and I might mess up and kill myself. Entas always warned me against playing with that Element.

"You are done." It wasn't a question, so I nodded and accepted the towel from her.

"Rub the oil in your hair and over your beard," she instructed. I nodded and grabbed one of the bottles. This smelled mostly of lavender and softened the long mane of hair and beard that I should have shaved off when I was in Nadea's camp.

"Wear these." Vernine handed me a pair of silk pants and matching tunic along with undergarments of a light green color. I donned them quickly and found the fabric smooth and cool against my skin. "And these." She handed me thin leather sandals that wrapped around the heel of my foot.

After I finished putting on the shoes Vernine appraised me for a few moments before nodding.

"Follow me. I don't need to explain what will happen if you get creative during our journey, do I?"

"I think you have me confused with someone who is creative." She didn't return my grin.

"We move!" Vernine ordered her guards in our old tongue. I wondered if the belief that I didn't speak their language was still in effect. I hoped that it was. Vernine pointed at the door and I walked out into the sunlight of the morning.

The capital city of Nia sat on the north side of the Stone River. The river flowed east to west and ended in the ocean about eight miles from the last walls of the city. The land seemed to be tempered by its southern location and proximity to the ocean. In summer months it was rarely hot or humid enough to be uncomfortable, and the winter months were never cold enough to freeze water. Surrounding the city were hundreds of square miles of rolling hills, grasslands, and oak groves that seemed to thrive in such temperatures.

To view the landscape, I had to ignore the thousands of tents that surrounded the walls of the city. I was surprised that though I had been near enough to hear the sounds of a camp of this size, I had not heard more than a passing murmur of a few hundred soldiers.