Written 2006
Revised Aug. 8, 2021
THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, CHAPTER 3, Part 2
A story of Necromantra
By Aladdin
Edited by Christopher Leeson
Chapter 3, Part 2
The Den of Vipers
I was staring at the young warrior and she looked at me curiously. “We have not met, my lady. I am flattered that the ladyship already knows my name,” my visitor said.
She had a melodic voice, but that voice was not Arielle’s. If this was a different person, wow was it that they had the same name?
Then it occurred to me that Arielle had mentioned that she'd been named Winola at birth but had, by custom, adopted a different name upon coming of age. She had said that she’d taken the name of a warrior whom she admired. Well, here was a warrior and the likelihood was strong that this older Arielle was a blood relative of hers.
“I am sorry, Madame Knight. I took you for my stepdaughter momentarily. She has honored you by taking your name, I assume.
“That is true, Lady Marinna,” my visitor affirmed. “Your stepdaughter is very dear to me. She has said that you defended her against the selfsame enemy whom I fought not long ago.”
It seemed that Arielle had not given damning testimony against me upon her return from death. Why would she have protected the reputation of the person who had murdered her father?
“T-The same enemy?” I said, my words shaky. “I presume you mean Lord Pumpkin.” I had known that the monster had murdered a former High Lord, along with his heir, and then usurped Ulik by force. The thing had fled during a revolt, but had attacked me to wrest back the throne again.
Arielle had definitely reacted when I named Lord Pumpkin. She must have had a very bad experience with him.
The amazon then glanced back at her retinue. “Hanno, Japet, do you recognize this lady as your former queen?”
I knew these men slightly, officers of the kingdom’s cavalry. They greeted me correctly but, understandably, without cheer.
“She is the image of the queen I met,” one of them said, and the other nodded in agreement.
“Ask her the questions you have prepared,” Arielle said. “Appearances may be deceiving.”
They did as instructed, actually being more blunt with their interrogatives than any of the diplomats and couriers whom I had earlier entertained. I couldn’t help but react to the officers in a positive way. My fellow knights serving under Archimage had been men of similar stamp. But I never like to call those to mind, since betraying them was the worst thing that I have ever done.
The warriors, at length, admitted to Arielle that I had answered their queries correctly. I took the opportunity to ask a question of my own. “Which faction do you favor, Madame Knight?”
The young woman frowned slightly, as if disliking that term of address. But she answered evenly, “To be frank, we favor Princess Arielle.”
“You are for Erhan then?” I probed.
“No,” the Amazon replied, as laconic as any male. In general, my impression of this officer was becoming a good one.
I thought we should speak privately about the polticis of Ulik, but I was being closely watched by attendants loyal to Armand.
“Where have you pitched your camp, my lady?” I asked.
She reacted again and I was sure that it was because she disdained being referred to as a lady. I supposed that in that society it was hard to carry on as a female knight. I surely knew of no one else like her at Ulik.
“We’re encamped on the north side of the pond,” she replied after the briefest hesitation, “under the banner of the slithor.”
“I don’t like silthors,” I responded. One had all but killed me the moment that I had first arrived in Ulik.
“Hoperfully we will give you a reason to like this one,” the warrior-maid replied, the glint in her eyes suggesting a sense of humor.
That trait, too, appealed to me.
Then, without any opportunity for us to get better acquainted, Arielle requested leave to withdraw.
#
During the dark of the night, I used magic to put my maids asleep and avoided the guards outside by shifting into a phantom state and leaving by way of the underground. Soon, having estimated that I was a good distance away from my tent, I levitated above ground level and solidified.
Up to this moment, I had scarcely been allowed a moment to myself in Ulik. But sky-gazing on the Godwheel is a strange experience. It is a cosmic artifact of unimaginable size, a disk with a large hole in it. The disk orbits a pair of twin binary dwarf stars. The sunlight therefore usually falls at a sunset angle. By right, there should have been no regular nightfall on the Godwheel at all, but its makers had provided artificial moons that subjected the land below to very regular eclipses. Their movements are governed artificially and each eclipse lasts several hours. The wheel structure has very many moons moving in perfect sync with each other to bring about this effect. This was probably done for the health and sanity of the billions of beings who inhabit the world. It was “night” now.
Was this miracle of technology really built by some brilliant mortal race? If so, those mortals somehow had been able to create a virtually immortal god race, which – before they destroyed themselves – had protected and given law to the whole Godwheel. It would be easier to believe that an omnipotent Creator had spoken this world into being just by saying, “Let it be!”
The downside was that there were seldom any stars to see in the sky.
Alas, I could not waste my time stargazing. I flew underground again, but this time I began to feel weak. That reminded me that I hadn’t killed in some while. If I do not kill something man-sized with frequency, I become a sorry excuse for a sorceress. Necromantra likes to kill, but this side of my character doesn’t. The world is so dangerous that I have to kill just to survive on it, but I always want to delay homicide as long as possible. King
Q’zon
had been providing me with enemies to execute, but I had no such opportunity here in Ulik.
My dislike of killing was one reason why I envied my former friend Mantra – Lukasz. She was a life-witch able to draw her power from living things.
Ascending again, I went airborne to get a fix on Captain Arielle’s slithor banner. I espied it among several other tents, but didn’t know which tent belonged to the warrior maid. I actually tried to look for feminine underwear hanging on clothes lines, but had no such luck.”
So, I would have to depend more on my magical sensitivity. Fortunately, there is a slight difference between the aura of a man and the aura of a woman. I drifted along slowly, trying hard to feel that difference in the auras below. Failing at that, I decided to check the tent that was closest to the slithor banner.
I alighted behind that pavilion and this close up, I was actually able to detect the psychic traces of a female. I entered my phantom form again and walked through the canvas of the tent, creating a moonlight-intensity glow for my own benefit. I could see Arielle – wide awake and looking at me in the light that I had myself summoned up. She looked at me as if I were a ghost. The war maid must have armed herself the instant at the instant of waking, insofar as she was already holding a broadsword.
I stepped back, lest she react violently. Dimming my light, I whispered, “Captain, it’s Marinna. I’m sorry. I want to speak to you in private.”
“What --?” the woman muttered, still groggy. “Mar-Marinna? Why? What do you want to talk about?”
I was was fascinated by that sword of hers. It was no ordinary blade but a thing imbued with a powerful aura of dark magic.
The lady warrior threw off her quilt and stood up, dressed in a night tunic and warm hose. She was looking at me doubtfully, but nonetheless lowered the sword.
“My word,” I said, “magic swords aren’t that common, not even on the Godwheel. Where did you get yours?”
“It’s a long story,” she replied.
From her expression, I expected that the story was not a very nice one.
TO BE CONTINUED Chapter 4, Part 1
