Tanys Defiant Read online

  His face was streaked with sweat and his lungs heaved at the exertion of the escape and maintaining his tenuous grip on the spell that held the drowning waters at bay. His pace began to falter, and at last he stumbled, unable to run any further. The bubble of air that protected them wavered as he fell, but held again, and Tanys turned to face the monsters of the sunless depths.

  A scaly beast with lambent eyes as large as the span of her hand hurtled out of the shadows toward Tanys. Needle-rimmed jaws closed where she had stood a moment before, and the beast’s head thumped wetly on the floor, its tattered gills rendered a red-spattered ruin with a slash of Tanys’ blade. Even as the serpent’s body coiled in the violent throes of death, another burst through, its teeth turned aside by the shoulder plates of her witchforged mail. Her dagger punched through its eye into its brain, and another writhing corpse choked the hallway below. Even these fallen beasts were quickly dragged back into the devouring jaws of their kin, leaving no time for rest. Tanys hauled Carathan to his feet again, and they ran.

  Outside the windows of the tower, the beasts kept pace, leering in with their luminous eyes, snapping hungrily at the narrow openings in the stone. Beyond them she saw the sunken city, illuminated now with the ghostly glow of thousands of luminescent sea creatures. Ancient towers and drowned gardens seemed afire with their weird radiance that spread like a call to arms against the invaders from the upper world. In the corridor behind them, the pursuing serpents gained ground again, and Carathan was at the utter limits of his endurance. Tanys was half carrying him by the time she knew they could go no further. She had no idea how far they were from the surface, but it no longer mattered. Carathan’s strength was gone. She turned again to face whatever was to emerge from the shadows below.

  They came as a mass of eyes and teeth. The smallest and fastest of the serpents now led the attack, launching from the darkness like a score of deadly arrows. Tanys slashed at them, cutting them down as they leapt from the wall of water into the airy sphere, but too many came out of the darkness. Overwhelmed, she fought to keep her footing. A serpent coiled tightly around her right leg, its long teeth dragged painfully across her thigh, unable to penetrate the tough spider silk of her bodysuit. Jaws snapped, inches from her face, as she pressed her forearm up under the throat of another serpent to buy time until she could plunge a knife through its head and fling its body aside. Her feet caught in the writhing coils of the serpents that flopped and snapped on the floor, gasping for watery breath, and she fell, suddenly finding herself alone in a world of roiling death.

  Serpent’s coils wrapped tightly around her chest, crushing her breath away. A fiery pain shot through her left arm where vicelike jaws closed upon her and teeth punctured her sleeve. Coils slipped around her throat and tightened, her vision swimming as teeth raked through her raven hair. Blood trickled down her forehead and into her eye, stinging and hot. Darkness closed around her as she struggled to rise, and Tanys stumbled and fell again, clawing weakly at the serpent around her throat.

  There was a bright blue spark, and the serpent fell dead and smoking, letting Tanys breathe again. Tanys gasped deeply and fought with insane resolve, ripping and tearing away the hungry worms of the deep that clung to her body. Carathan shouted another spell, and the last snake fell from her to lie steaming on the floor. On her feet and streaked with blood, she looked to him and saw his eyes flutter wearily as he slumped against the wall with a thin, exhausted smile on his lips. Then his eyes shot open in warning, and she turned to see the biggest serpent yet hurtle through the wavering barrier of air, its jaws wide enough to swallow her whole.

  Without any conscious thought, Tanys leapt forward, into the very maw of the monstrous sea snake. The jaws of the beast closed around her, crushing down as she rammed her knives up into the jelly-soft flesh of the roof of its mouth. All around her, the muscles of the beast contracted, squeezing tight and sweeping her down towards its gut. Nearly losing her grip on her daggers, she fought for leverage in the gullet of the beast, bracing herself as best she could and pushing hard. If Carathan saw anything at all, it was the blades of her twin daggers punching out through the top of the monster’s skull shortly before it died.

  A bruised and slime-covered Tanys emerged at last from the gaping mouth of the slain beast. She stared, hollow-eyed at Carathan who slumped motionless amid a pile of dead serpents. He looked at her for a long time, and then he began to laugh. Tanys laughed too at the absurdity of it all. For now the corpse of the giant sea beast blocked their pursuers, and none could squeeze past it. Carathan lifted his hand and gazed proudly upon the glimmering crystal sphere that was the source of the golden flame that lit the corridor.

  “We did it!” he laughed.

  A warbling hum suddenly filled the air, and something splashed through the wall of the airy bubble, but from the direction of the ramp leading up. Carathan stared numbly down at the small wooden dart protruding from his chest. Meeting Tanys’ eyes again, he moaned, “No!”

  Tanys looked toward the direction from whence the dart flew, ready for an attack, but she saw only darkness in the water there. The light suddenly dimmed, and she looked again to Carathan whose hand was at his mouth, swallowing the fiery treasure they had wrested from the serpents of the deep. As the last of the light failed, she heard him whisper, “I’m sorry.”

  Then the cold black water came crashing in.

  Chapter 6

  Tanys woke, strangely warm and dry though she saw ice everywhere, as she was being carried, toes dragging, between two ghast warriors. Her arms were bound behind her, painfully tight. She could see Carathan, unconscious and slung likewise between two warriors in front of her. They were outside again, and there was smoke in the air. Carathan’s ice ship was on fire, the dinghasts slain, their black blood steaming in the snow. Tanys remembered the helpless girl still sleeping in the hold of the burning ship and tried to scream, realizing only then that she was gagged. The ghasts around her laughed harshly, and she heard a woman’s voice say, “Silence her!”

  One of the men dragging Tanys struck her sharply across the ear with his free hand. Tanys glared hard at him and committed his leering face to memory but kept silent after that. The group of warriors turned toward another ice ship moored nearby, larger still than Carathan’s, its deck teeming with pale-skinned ghasts. Tanys saw now that her captors followed the woman who had issued the order for silence. Tall and coldly beautiful, she was a woman of the Gerridaan. Her alabaster skin and blazingly white hair gave her the appearance of carved ice. Her dress, long and flowing, seemed woven entirely of glossy black feathers that fluttered as she walked proudly before them.

  They climbed a wide gangplank leading into the ice ship, and the bulkhead slid closed behind them, shutting out the light of day and the smoke of Carathan’s burning ship. They followed a broad dark hallway that turned, leading upward into a brightly lit and richly furnished chamber, its air heavy with sweet incense. The guards forced Tanys to her knees before a throne-like chair where the white-skinned woman now sat, regarding her prisoners. Beside her chair, a rattling hiss arose from a small iron box with narrow, barred slits showing only darkness inside. The woman snapped a quiet command, and the hissing ceased.

  The woman’s eyes fell on Tanys, and a cold sneer wrinkled her pale thin lips, before her gaze moved to the unconscious Carathan. “Bring him to me,” she said.

  The guards dragged the sorcerer toward the throne, and, at the woman’s command, lifted his face toward her. Tanys gasped at what she saw. Tears of golden fire flowed from Carathan’s eyes. His eyelids fluttered weakly between consciousness and insensibility, and his mouth moved as though he were trying to speak, but only a golden mist drifted from his lips.

  “What did he do to himself?” the woman shouted angrily at Tanys as she leapt from her seat, “Answer me!”

  Tanys’ gag was yanked clear, and she considered a few clever replies before deciding to answer as politely as she was able, “He has found the fires of creation
.”

  The woman’s large dark eyes flashed dangerously, and her voice was low and deadly, “I warn you to answer me clearly and concisely, girl, or I will have you flayed.”

  “That is what he called the thing that he found,” Tanys said flatly, fighting to keep her emotions under control.

  The ghast woman stared hard into her eyes for long moment, but Tanys did not flinch. At last the woman looked away, chuckling slightly. “She’s just another of my husband’s stupid little playthings. She knows nothing.”

  “Plaything?” Tanys growled, her mind reeling at the revelation of the woman’s relation to Carathan, “I am lord Carathan’s Blood Guard! Unbind my hands, and I will prove my blades on the bodies of every one of your men!”

  “His Blood Guard?” the woman scoffed incredulously, “Has my beloved sunk that low?”

  “She was carrying these, Mistress,” a guardsman spoke, holding out Tanys’ blades.

  “Little knives for his little pet.” The woman smirked, shaking her head in disbelief as she returned to her seat.

  “If you’re going to kill me, at least let me die with a blade in my hand!” Tanys shouted, “You might enjoy the show.”

  “My dear girl, I would derive no pleasure from seeing you or anyone else die. On the contrary, I would rather bless you with an occupation better suited to your obvious talents.” The woman’s eyes fell and rose over Tanys’ toned body that strained against the weight of the guardsmen struggling to hold her down. “Remove her hands and tongue, and then give her to the crew.”

  The curses that flowed from Tanys’ lips made even the hardened warriors that dragged her toward the door catch their breath.

  “Oh,” the ghast woman added, absently straightening the hem of her black dress without looking up, “you’d better have her teeth removed as well, I don’t want any of the crew losing anything important to this animal.”

  “No!” a thin, chilling voice called out from the small iron box beside the throne.

  “No?” the woman laughed dubiously, “You question my orders now, Thael?”

  “No, Mistress!” the thin voice came again from the iron box, “I do not dare question your wisdom… but she is the one, Mistress!”

  “The one who killed you, Thael?” she asked in mock wonder.

  “Yes, Mistress,” the thing in the box answered quietly.

  “And what would you ask of your Mistress, Thael?”

  “Give her to me…” the thin voice hissed hungrily, and muffled, scuffling noises could be heard inside the iron box.

  “Very well, then,” the cold-faced woman said, “take her to the library and let Thael have his new pet.”

  As the doors closed behind her, Tanys saw the woman rise and cross to gently stroke the fiery tears from Carathan’s cheek.

  ****

  The ship’s ‘library’ housed no books, only the flayed and tanned skins of its previous guests, hung on the blood-dark walls. Tanys fought hard, but it was futile. It took four men to strip the raven girl naked and bind her, stretched the length of a wooden table that was spattered with dark stains and deeply scarred with the marks of saws and knives. The leather restraints around her wrists and ankles creaked as she strained against them, her body heaving with rage as the warriors looked down at her, breathing hard at the exertion of binding her.

  “It seems a pity to waste her,” one of them said at last.

  “She won’t be much good for anything once Thael finishes with her,” one added with a shudder, “did you see the last girl?”

  “Yeah,” he said, his fingers tracing circles in the sweat on Tanys’ stomach, drifting down to the dark curly hair between her legs, “wasn’t enough left of her to feed to the dogs.”

  Tanys spat, catching the ghast in the eye. He jumped backward, wiping his face and cursing as the others laughed. “You’ll regret that!” he shouted, jerking a knife from his belt, “I wasn’t gonna make you bleed before!”

  Tanys lifted her chin defiantly, her whole body tensed as he lay the cold blade against her cheek with a cruel leer on his face.

  “No!” a thin, eerie voice called from the doorway, “She’s mine!”

  The knife-wielding guardsman turned to face another ghast, holding the barred iron box with a look of repugnance on his face as though the duty of carrying it were a method of punishment onboard the ship.

  “Aw, Thael,” the spit-faced guard moaned despondently, “What are you gonna do with her?”

  “She’s mine,” the voice in the box cried out again, “the Mistress said she was!”

  “Thael, you can’t enjoy a woman the way a real man can,” the guardsman said, squeezing Tanys’ breast and tweaking the girl’s nipple hard between his fingers, “just give me a few minutes.”

  “From the looks of him,” Tanys hissed, “it’ll only take a few seconds.”

  The ghast backhanded Tanys across the face as the other men laughed harshly. That was second time this one had struck her. She remembered his face.

  “Get out!” the thin voice shrieked, “All of you leave me with her!”

  The guardsmen reluctantly shuffled from the room, the last one deliberately bumping the iron cage as he passed, eliciting a scrabbling hiss from within. The ghast holding the cage set it down in the floor and cautiously removed the pin that held the little door shut before removing himself quickly from the room. As he tried to shut the door, the spit-faced guardsman blocked the doorway and leaned inside to turn the valve of the dimly flickering lamp.

  “Good night, sweetling!” he chuckled, dowsing the lamp. In the last light of the closing door, Tanys saw the little door of the iron cage swing open, and from the darkness of the opening, thick spidery legs spilled out dragging a shiny bloated black body onto the red-carpeted floor. Whereas the body was that of a huge black spider, a grotesquely distorted tiny face shone in the light for a moment, the face of Carathan’s former Blood Guard Thael. A scream ripped from Tanys’ lips as the room was plunged into complete darkness.

  Tanys fought to control her breathing that came fast and shallow in the darkness. Across the floor something heavy scuttled toward the table. She prayed silently that Thael couldn’t climb and strained until she felt the restraints bite into the skin of her wrists. She lay there for what seemed hours, her body tensing at every imagined sound, her muscles aching with exhaustion, her eyes straining to see something in the darkness. She screamed again, hoping someone would hear, someone would come. At last she could bear it no more, and she slumped in her bonds, crying softly. It was then she felt the first touch of Thael’s leg against the sole of her foot.

  Tanys’ body jumped, thrashing violently in her bonds as she fought to master her fear. At last she forced the terror deep inside, choking it down, growing strangely calm as her muscles relaxed and she lay still on the table. “Hello, Thael,” she said with no hint of fear in her voice.

  “You don’t want to struggle anymore?” the spider Thael asked, “I enjoyed watching you dance for me.”

  “I’m too tired right now,” she replied, “maybe if you come back later.”

  “Oh, I will come back later,” he answered with a thin chuckle, “I want to take my time with you, but first I need to feed. Then I will take a nap while you cry in the dark. Then I will wake and feed again. This will continue for some time, and after each of my visits, your crying will be a little softer. Eventually you will ask me not to stop, beg me not to leave for my nap until I’ve finished with you… When that time comes, I will remind you again how you took my life from me, and I will make you cry again.”

  “That sounds very tiresome, Thael,” Tanys said, yawning, “do you think we could get on with this?”

  Thael hissed, and Tanys felt two fangs sink into the soft insole of her foot. She screamed in pain, the panic returning as she fought against the bonds. Finally, the fangs withdrew, and she slumped again in her restraints, gasping at the throbbing pain in her foot.

  “That was just a taste,” Thael gloated through
deformed lips, wet with her blood, “I haven’t decided what part of you I want for my supper yet.”

  “Eat then, you little prick!” Tanys cursed, “Drink your fill of me and choke on it, but do it knowing that you can’t really have me the way you want to, and you’ll never have another woman again! Or did you prefer boys before I fed your balls to the crows?”

  “Voidling bitch!” Thael hissed flatly, “remember those words when I come to your face.”

  Tanys closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable, feeling the tiny hairs on Thael’s long legs brushing against her skin as he crawled up her legs. When she felt his touch on her inner thigh, she strained, trying desperately to crush his body between her knees, but her ankles were bound at the corners of the table, too far apart to give her such small victory. Her body dropped again to the table in defeat, the scarred wood wet with the sweat of her struggles. Thael began to move again.

  He paused straddling her hips. She felt his hot breath on her pubic hairs as she struggled in vain to close her legs. Twin fangs, sticky with her blood, brushed against the tender flesh of her womanhood, and she groaned, writhing in her bonds. “No,” Thael said, “that pleasure comes later.” And he scuttled forward the length of her body, the hard tips of his spidery legs digging painfully into her naked flesh.

  Perched atop her chest, Thael chuckled softly to himself, as he stroked her full left breast with a long bristly leg. “I can see why Carathan chose you now. He got a bodyguard and a whore in one package. It must have appealed to his overdeveloped sense of frugality.”

  “So he didn’t pay you enough?” Tanys hissed through teeth clenched in rage, “That’s why you betrayed him?”