Into Darkness

55

Richard twisted the Glee’s wrist harder. Doing so worked just as well as it did on a man, causing the Glee to squeal in pain as he cringed before him on his knees. Richard continued to apply pressure to keep him immobilized.

“This one here is a spy sent by the Golden Goddess,” he announced to the shocked crowd.

At his words, the mass of Glee all moved back away from the one Richard had by the wrist as they hissed in fear, confusion, or Richard didn’t really know what.

“She sent this one to watch the Glee she considers traitors to her kind. She considers all of you a threat. This one was watching and then intended to report back to her on what he heard you saying. Once he did, it would only be a matter of time before she moved against you.”

Sang looked confused as he glanced around at the others watching them. “What are you doing? What makes you think this?”

Richard showed Sang a small smile. “He doesn’t have the green sheen to his skin that all the rest of those gathered here have. This one does not eat flutter weed, float weed, and muscle snails. He eats the flesh of those from other worlds.”

Along with everyone else, Sang stared at the Glee Richard had on his knees. “Is this true?”

“No!” the Glee screamed in Richard’s mind and, he was sure, in the minds of all the Glee gathered around, watching.

“You are lying,” Richard said as he gave Vika a meaningful look.

Without hesitation she spun her Agiel up into her fist. She went to one knee to get down closer to the Glee, and without a moment’s hesitation she gritted her teeth and rammed her Agiel into his midsection.

The Glee shrieked out loud, twisting, trying to get away, but Richard held him tight with pressure on his wrist as Vika kept the pressure on her Agiel. She finally pulled back away.

She leaned in, then, putting her face close to the Glee. “Tell everyone what you are doing here.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” the Glee cried out in their heads. “I am no spy! I am not with the goddess!”

“We don’t do this kind of thing to one another,” Sang said as he held his arms out, trying to urge Vika and Richard to stop. “This is not the way we behave to each other.”

Vika looked back over her shoulder, giving Sang the kind of look that only a Mord-Sith in a rage could give. He went silent as he backed up a step.

“We gave up our lives to come here,” she said. “Lord Rahl gave up his wife and children who are about to be born to come here. He can never return home. All for you, all for the Glee. All to help you stop your own kind from killing and destroying your way of life. We are doing this as much for you as for the lives in our world. And I have to tell you, after sacrificing my life and my world, I am definitely not in the mood to be lied to.”

“I would tell her what she wants to know,” Richard told the Glee he was keeping on his knees.

The Glee defiantly shook his head.

Vika reacted by ramming her Agiel into his midsection again. The Glee twisted and shrieked. The first time had been a warning to talk. She held it there longer the second time and pressed it in harder. When she finally pulled it away, the Glee sagged, one arm raised up only because Richard had a firm grip on his wrist. Tears of agony ran from his big black eyes.

Vika held the Agiel up before the panting Glee’s face. “The next time, unless you start answering our questions truthfully, I am going to shove this in your eye, blinding it, and when you don’t answer, I will blind your other eye. If you still don’t—”

The Glee held up his other claw. “No! Please! I will tell you what you want to know.”

Richard lifted up on the arm, still putting pressure on the wrist, until the Glee was standing on trembling legs. “I want you to tell everyone the truth of what you are doing here.”

The Glee looked around. He glanced timidly at Vika before beginning.

“The Golden Goddess sent me, just as this one said. She is gathering a large force to begin a mass attack.” With a claw he gestured out at the crowd. “She considers all of you traitors because you do not support her. You are traitors! She has promised those with her that she is going to let them hunt you for the sport of it and then eat you all. She will no longer tolerate any of you who talk to her followers, trying to get them to change their ways. She believes it would be better if you and your offspring were all dead.”

Loud hissing that Richard took for a kind of collective gasp of shock spread through all the Glee watching. They clacked their teeth and claws, apparently in a display of anger.

“Why are you here, now?” Richard asked.

“A spy up near the mountain saw that Sang was bringing two of the creatures from the other world down to here. The goddess sent me to find out your plans so that she might stop you. She is very angry. She wants your blood.”

“I would be glad to tell her my plans,” Richard said to the Glee. “In fact, I want you to go back and tell her my plans.”

The Glee nodded eagerly. “Yes, I will tell her what you say.”

“Do you know who I am?”

The Glee shrugged a little. “The one they call Lord Rahl?”

“Yes, that and more,” Richard said for all to hear. “I am also the one called fuer grissa ost drauka.”

“Fuer grissa ost drauka? I don’t know what that means.”

“It means ‘the bringer of death.’ I want you to tell your Golden Goddess that besides being fuer grissa ost drauka, I was born a war wizard. War is my calling. I live for fighting wars.”

The Glee nodded furiously. “Yes, I will tell her.”

“I want you to also tell the Golden Goddess that she has sent her kind to my world to kill us. Because of her, I have gone into darkness.

“Now I am here, and I mean to make war.”

“Yes,” the Glee said, still nodding. “I will tell her your words.”

“I want you to also tell her that I demand she surrender her world to me.”

The Glee winced a little as he shrank back as much as he could with Richard still holding pressure on his wrist. “Surrender her world? What should I tell her are your conditions?”

“No conditions. Her surrender must be unconditional. There will be no negotiations. If she does not surrender her world unconditionally, I will come and kill her and all of her followers.”

The Glee seemed to wince a little as he nodded again. “I will tell her. Fuer grissa ost drauka. The bringer of death. She must surrender our world unconditionally. I will tell her.”

“One more thing.”

“Yes?”

“Tell her that I am going to enjoy hunting and killing her.”

Richard suddenly released the Glee’s wrist. As he did, and before the Glee could leave, he drew his sword. The rage of the sword’s magic instantly surged through him. The unique sound of steel rang out across the swampy water. Before anyone could say anything or had a chance to move, the blade flashed through the air and lopped off the Glee’s claw.

The Glee stumbled back in shock, clutching the arm without a claw to his chest with the other as he shook.

“You tell the Golden Goddess that her kind has shown my kind no mercy, and I will show her none. Now go before I take your head in addition to your claw.”