Mirror (part 23 of 28)
Back to Part 22"So," the giant rumbled as he knelt in front of the
gates to the castle, "you want to bargain with us,
sorceress.?"
The blonde haired sorceress Hectate met his eyes
calmly, the beautiful young woman keeping any traces
of her deep distaste for him from her face. "If you
and your men stop Lina Inverse," she said as her blue
cloak swirled around her, "I will give you a powerful
enchantment of your choice, Ymir."
The giant Ymir frowned, the massively muscled war
chief scratching at his dirty beard. "Yet you won't
offer what we most want?" he asked. "You know we most
need the shape shifting spell," he complained.
The warrior Jira put her hand on her sword, standing
protectively by Hectate's side. "She already stated
her position, sir," she said, her brown hair flowing
past her lightly armored shoulders, "don't pretend
stupidity."
"Lord, we should just take the spell from the bitch,"
a smaller giant rumbled, his black hair matted and
dirty.
"Maybe so, L'oki," Ymir rumbled, clearly considering
the younger giant's point as he studied the three
humans who had come out of the castle to meet them.
"He insults you, m'lady," Jira bent down to murmur in
Hectate's ear, "may I?"
Hectate hesitated a second then nodded, "Do it."
With astonishing speed Jura was gone, disappearing
from where she had been standing so casually seconds
before and racing towards the giants. Her sword
flashed as she leapt and swung, then L'oki staggered
and dropped, blood fountaining from his thrashing body
as his head rolled free with a shocked look on it's
face.
"L'oki!" a female giant called out in horror, the rest
making loud growls and angry comments as they moved to
attack.
"How dare you..." Ymir started.
BOOM!
Hectate summoned and casually tossed a fireball into
the road in front of them, the blast silencing
conversation as she glared at them all. "He dared
insult me in my own home," she said dangerously, "and
threatened my people." Her gown shimmered as she
stalked to Jira's side, "You knew my conditions when I
called you here: I will not grant you the disguise
spells to rape and kill human girls."
'She's incredible,' Gwenyth thought as she stood close
to her mistress' side, the pink haired woman offering
what support she could.
"You are a hard woman, Hectate," Ymir finally said
after a moment.
Hectate raised her chin, meeting his brown eyes. "To
survive, one has to be," she answered, the three
looking ready to face a army if need be.
Ymir actually smiled as he dropped his voice, "Well, I
suppose that ended well. L'oki was planning to stab me
eventually anyway."
"Does that mean you'll stop Inverse for free?" Jira
asked with a smile.
Ymir looked startled then laughed quietly. "Oh, I like
you girl," he chuckled. He shook his head, "We'll we
wanting our spell, when we're finished with Inverse."
"I'll be ready," Hectate agreed seriously.
"All right," Ymir straightened up and turned to
address his band of giants, "we've got a job to do.
Let's go."
Gwenyth, Hectate and Jira watched the giants drag the
body away then she sighed softly. "I was frightened
for a minute there," Gwenyth confessed.
"I wasn't," Jira lied convincingly.
Hectate chuckled as they headed back towards the
castle. "You might want to restrain yourself next
time," she noted to Jira, "I didn't expect you to kill
him."
"I've dealt with giants a few times," Jira admitted,
"they only respect power. If you show any kind of
weakness, they'll stomp all over you."
"I'll try to remember that," Gwenyth said, the shorter
woman smiling wryly. She looked up towards the castle,
"Is that...?"
On a upper balcony they saw a figure, then in a swirl
of black hair she returned to the inside of the
castle. "Naga," Jira noted.
"Hopefully she didn't see us kill that thing," Hectate
frowned as they neared the guards waiting by the main
gates.
"M'lady," Dan nodded, not looking any worse from being
assigned to travel to the land of the giants.
"Well done," Hectate nodded as they went past them.
"Why would you not want her to see that?" Gwenyth
asked. A slight smile teased her lips, "Maybe it would
teach her some respect, seeing your power like that."
"That isn't how I'd want to win her respect," Hectate
said dryly.
As they passed through the outer wall they passed
another set of guards then through the inner gate to
the castle's main building, where surprisingly Naga
the White Serpent was waiting for them. While looking
cool and collected there was a faint sheen of sweat,
showing he had hurried down from the upper floors.
'What is she...?' Hectate wondered.
"Oh ho ho ho ho!" Naga laughed, "I was very impressed,
Hectate. You handled those giants nearly as well as I
and my tiny former partner would have."
"Thank you," Hectate smiled wryly.
"Well done, killing that giant," Naga added as she
turned to walk away, "I would have done much the same
myself."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
As Naga walked away, the tall, busty sorceress tried
to bring her confused thoughts in order. She had known
that Hectate was plotting something from listening to
the guards and servants, so she had ventured out of
the balcony to see what was going on.
'Why is she dealing with giants?' Naga wondered,
frowning as she walked along the hallway aimlessly.
Giants were powerful but unruly beings, and possessed
of bad habits. They were big, smelly, rude and
violent, but their worst habit was how they dealt with
females. To deal with how few girls were born to
giants, they cruelly misused shape shifting spells to
mate with human women. They could successfully breed
that way, but the spells did not change their true
nature and human women rarely survived the birth of
their half breed children.
Using a bit of magic Naga had listened in on the
negotiations, and she was glad that Hectate had
refused to grant the Giants that spell. 'Though in
truth I wasn't expecting her to,' she admitted,
'Hectate is many things, but not needlessly cruel.'
She was faintly surprised at the admiration she felt
for her captor, frowning a moment.
Pausing before her rooms Naga hesitated, then smiled
as she turned around and retraiced her steps. "Boo!"
she stuck her head around the corner, badly starling
the guard who was supposed to be shadowing her.
"Aaah," the lady jumped, her spear clattering to the
ground. "Don't do that!" the redhead squeaked, a hand
to her chest.
"Got you again," Naga smirked, "Seres."
"It's rather hard to follow quietly in leather armor,"
Seres bitched, bending over to pick up her spear. "All
right," she grumbled, "what do I owe you for nailing
me this time?:"
Naga smirked, "A extra beer ration tonight?"
"I'm astonished at your ability to drink," Seres shook
her head wryly as they walked off together, "even
Mistress Hectate doesn't manage that much."
"Maybe I'll challenge her to a drinking contest," Naga
winked.
Onwards to Part 24
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