This one is of the Dark Lord's twin sister.This one is of the Dark Lord's twin sister. It takes place just before he leaves on the Elven campaign. Sorry for the delay folks. Things have been real hectic with me. No, Alex still isn't here. Angel ****** Copyright 1989, Michael Raleigh. ****** "As you bind me with this symbol, so shall you be bound to me by it," he says, tracing a pentagram on her wrist. He releases her. Her name appears on the pact in her blood. Vendan the Destroyer looks at the woman kneeling before him. Reaching out again, he touches her temple with a hand that is icy fire. "You are mine now, body and soul. Farewell for a while, Zara beht Llewella." Then, the Demon-God vanishes, leaving behind only a small scar, shaped like a pentagram and a blaze of white in her coal black hair. Exhausted in body and spirit, Zara sinks to the cold stone floor and sleeps. The oblivion of exhaustion faded into the realization that she was awake. The pentagram was still on her wrist but it was old now. She had worn it for many months. She was relieved that it had only been a dream, but wished she could rid herself of it. The living had been bad enough. She opened her eyes and stifled a scream. "Greetings, Zara." The voice was deep and mellifluous, a beautiful, soothing voice. Coming as it did from the being that stood in the center of the inlaid pentagram, it generated an intense horror. The creature was a foul glob of shapelessness, forming and reforming; a hand here, an eye there, an internal organ in other places. "Master?" she whispered, unsure. "I have come to claim that for which you contracted." "Yes, Lord. As you wish." She stood and with an effort of will, removed the sleeping robe. "I have expended much energy to enter your plane. I require nourishment." "Yes, master of my soul." She pulled the bell-cord near her bed and picked up a knife. It had amused Ternec to assign his mistress as his wife's maidservant. Even after moving, she had kept Rosella with her for just such an event. Now the final score with her late husband could be settled. Rosella appeared, yawning, wondering why she was wanted at such an hour. Zara clamped one hand over the girl's mouth and held the knife at her throat. Forcing her to her knees before the thing in the ward, Zara cut the servant's throat without a qualm. The red geyser burst over Vendan the Destroyer and he changed. |