The masked witches

When it got close enough, the pale light seared it, too, but the pain was bearable. It pounced like a cat, landing on the unicorn s back, and plunging its freezing, insubstantial hands into the sacred animal s flesh. The unicorn jerked and screamed.

Raising her scimitar, the witch pivoted toward her ally. But before she could strike or cast a spell at the shadow, an imp the size of a hawk, with beating batlike wings, pointed ears, and a mouth full of needle fangs, appeared in the air directly behind her. It whipped its tail, and the stinger at the end of it, at the back of her head.

The sting didn t seem to penetrate her woolen cowl. But she whirled to defend herself from the hovering devil and left the unicorn to look after itself.

The shadow pummeled the sacred beast repeatedly, as fast as it could. But the animal simply vanished out from underneath its attacker.

The shadow spilled to the ground like water. The unicorn popped back into view on its flank and instantly leaped, its shining horn leveled.

The shadow threw itself to the side, and the thrust missed. The unicorn pivoted, reared, and battered at it with its front hooves. One blow plunged through its arm, and it felt a shock of pain.

A burst of dark red, somehow filthy-looking flame splashed across the unicorn s side. The animal screamed and staggered, dropping back onto all fours. As it struggled to recover its balance, an undead stepped in and clubbed it in the head with a war hammer. Blood splashed and bone crunched. The unicorn collapsed and lay motionless. The haze of silvery glow surrounding it and the hathran dimmed.

The animal s slayer was a walking corpse with three fleshless skulls on his shoulders instead of one. Judging from his mail, his faded, rotting, but ornately embroidered surcoat, and his manifest power, he was almost certainly the captain of the raiding party.

With the unicorn slain, the undead leader rounded on the hathran, but needlessly so. The holy woman was collapsing under the stinging, biting onslaught of half a dozen imps. In another moment, the pale ambient glow blinked out of existence entirely, extinguished along with her life.

The leader looked around, and darkness seethed in the eye sockets of the middle skull. The entity s fallen minions stirred as an infusion of strength repaired the harm the unicorn and the witch had done to them.

The leader whistled and raised a hand that wore a bulky gauntlet resembling a falconer s glove. Snarling and gibbering, bloody-mouthed, the imps rose from the hathran s corpse and flew to their master. As each swooped close to the gauntlet, it disappeared.

The three-headed creature then turned to peer at the shadow.

You re not one of mine, said the middle skull. But you can be. You can join us.

But the shadow knew that wasn t so, because its will wasn t its own. It was a bound thing, made for one specific purpose, and it was time to fulfill it.

The shadow took all its strength and turned that power to a final purpose. By so doing, it perished, and Dai Shan appeared in its place.

Well, not really, the Shou thought as he offered the three-headed undead a deep and courtly bow. He was still a shadow, or perhaps at that point it was more apt to call himself a reflection. Either way, he too would cease to be when the magic that had created him ran its course. Until then, though, he could think and speak like the original, and the original would know what he accomplished thereby.

I take it, said the leader, his tone less cordial than before, that you fancied yourself the master of the shadow that just sacrificed itself so you could appear before me.

Yes, said Dai Shan, taking care not to risk giving offense by reacting to the stinks of corruption and burnt unicorn fouling the cold night air. I created and commanded it. I m Dai Shan of the House of Shan in Telflamm, if those names mean anything to one so venerable as the august magus I see before me.

It s a crime for any of the living to seek to control an undead, the leader said.

Dai Shan arched an eyebrow. Even one that would never have existed in the first place had the living man not shaped it from a wisp of himself? he asked. I m not sure that s incontrovertibly rational or incontestably fair. Still, I humbly apologize for inadvertently offending against your customs.

It s not a custom. It s a law, the creature replied.

As you say, Dai Shan said. It really was cold here, and the Shou instructed himself not to shiver. Not only would it disgrace him, but it might lead the thing with three heads to imagine he was afraid, and that in turn might elicit aggression.

But sadly, it s too late for the enforcement of any law to benefit the shadow, Dai Shan continued. As you so astutely observed, it s already gone beyond recall, and the actual person who made and directed it is beyond your reach. Might it not be more productive, then, for you and his proxy to discuss matters of mutual import in the time remaining before I, too, disappear?

The undead leader grunted, or perhaps it was a single grudging beat of laughter. What do you want, Dai Shan of the House of Shan in Telflamm? it said.

The valiant captain s name, for a start, if you see fit to honor me with it, replied the Shou.

Falconer will do. What else do you want?

Griffons.

The undead hesitated. I don t know what you mean, it said.

Then please, allow me to enlighten you. Dai Shan said. He told the undead about the captured beasts, Yhelbruna, and the competition she d proclaimed.

When he had finished, Falconer said, Then it sounds like you or the phantom that was here before you should have fought on the unicorn s side.

Only if I thought that my agents and I could contribute significantly to the hathrans victory, replied Dai Shan, But what if I question whether such a victory will even materialize? What if I think that you risen Nars and durthans have a better chance of prevailing? Then it would be prudent to throw in with you. That is, of course, if you re willing to part with the griffons to compensate me for the assistance I would provide.

Falconer fingered the fleshless jaw of the middle skull while he said, If I were this Yhelbruna, I might well send an agent or his proxy to make such an offer in the hope that some gullible soul would take him into his confidence and divulge useful information. Especially if there was no true risk to the actual agent himself.

Inwardly, Dai Shan acknowledged Falconer s shrewdness. That was indeed one ploy to attempt in the game in which he was trying to be on everyone s or at least the hathrans, the undead s, and Mario Bez s side at once.

Noble champion, he said, you re wise to be cautious, and indeed, I expected nothing less. But I believe I know how to allay your concerns. Tell me nothing. Not yet. Instead, simply let me help you. I ve explained there are four other groups who truly are seeking your downfall. Let me destroy one of them as a way of demonstrating my good faith.

I have a measure of authority, but I m not the supreme commander of all my kind, replied the undead. I can t say yes or no to such a venture.

Then I suggest we devise a means of communication that will allow such deliberations to proceed, said the Shou.

Cera cried out as the sweet building pressure inside her exploded into release, and Aoth grunted as he finished right along with her. After a few moments, he rolled off her, and they lay for a time, their sweaty bodies pressed together, utterly relaxed and looking up at the rafters of Borilak Murokina s longhouse.

That was delicious, she said after a while.

Glad you liked it, he replied with a chuckle.

I wonder what it would have been like to do it in the Feywild.

We were a little busy, and maybe it s just as well. If it was too good