The Great Betrayal

EPILOGUE

Sevekai awoke in a feverish sweat. The nightmare was already fading, evaporating in the chill night like the heat from his cooling skin.

A darkling forest. A frantic flight into a barren glade filled with such a terrible gloaming. The trees alive, and the chittering, snapping refrain of their pursuit…

‘Hush, my love…’ soothed Drutheira. Her hands upon Sevekai’s half-naked body were like pricks of fire against his icy skin.

‘Did you see it again?’

Sevekai nodded weakly.

‘It is always the same.’

‘Visions always are.’

Sevekai turned to face her, lying naked next to him under their furs.

‘You believe it is real? That the dreams are prophecy?’

Drutheira was playing with her hair, more coquettish and much less the viper than she had once been. Strange, Sevekai thought, that their alliance had brought them to this place in their relationship. ‘Perhaps,’ she conceded, but was unconcerned. ‘It was a vision that brought us here, was it not?’

They had left Athel Maraya several months ago, bound for the mountains, when the dwarfs had begun to amass near its borders and their subterfuge as refugees of Kor Vanaeth had started to slip. For one, Sevekai was glad of it. By the nature of their work, spies and assassins needed to blend in to their surroundings, to escape notice, to become nothing more than backdrop. For twenty years, since the dragon rider had left them alone, he and the others had done just that. Asleep until their dark master chose to wake them again. If ever.

Escape was unconscionable. Malekith was silent and travel almost impossible without armed escort. Even for a warrior as gifted as Sevekai, the passage south would have been difficult. They would lie low until summoned again, and if not they would try to endure until the war ended or Malekith attacked and conquered Ulthuan.

The dark dreams had been recent. Drutheira believed they presaged the will of their lord and that he would make himself known to them again soon. She was right, at least about the latter. One night, as they were sleeping fitfully in their bed, Malekith had returned. Seemingly possessed, Drutheira had risen from slumber. She had gone off into the night and killed the innkeeper of their lodgings, slit his throat wide until it painted the wall in the dark lord’s image.

Malchior and Ashniel had risen too to form the blood communion with their mistress.

Orders were given, and they had all left that night, meeting at the outskirts of Athel Maraya.

‘There are times,’ said Sevekai, as his breathing slowly returned to normal, ‘that I wish we could have stayed.’

‘Stayed where?’ asked Drutheira, carving out a graven rune upon the floor of the cavern. She had left the warmth of their bed to do it and was crouched naked in the half-light.

‘In Athel Maraya, or perhaps some other city.’

‘After the ritual slaying of that slave, that would have been unwise,’ hissed a voice from the shadows.

‘Kaitar.’ Sevekai didn’t even try to hide his vitriol.

The other dark elf nodded. He looked to Drutheira.

‘Are you close?’

The sorceress had finished her malediction and spoke words of power unto it.

‘It is here, the creature we seek. Deeper in the bowels of the earth, it slumbers.’

Sevekai glanced around at the cavern, the endless rock surrounding them. He had forgotten how deep they had already penetrated in the mountain.

‘We must go further into the dark?’

‘Yes, but Bloodfang is near.’

Sevekai was on his feet, getting dressed. ‘I’ll rouse the others.’ He looked over to Kaitar but the shade was already gone. In all the years they had been travelling together, he couldn’t remember ever seeing him sleep.

‘I have not forgotten our pact,’ he said to Drutheira.

‘Nor I, my love,’ she purred, uncoiling to reveal the curves of her sinuous body.

‘We will still kill him, and the dragon rider?’

‘Why else do you think Lord Malekith has brought us to this place?’

‘I honestly don’t know.’

‘Yes,’ said Drutheira, slithering to her feet. She padded over to touch Sevekai’s arm, sliding her hand behind his back and whispering in his ear. ‘We shall kill them both. Soon, my love. Very soon.’