CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The queen had to act quickly. She had fed on her husband only to realize what she had done afterwards. The blood was all over her face. She sobbed. What would the royal guards say when they came to check on the king, and what of the dead royal guard that the devil had killed? What was she going to do? She thought of barricading them both in the sanctuary but the guards would eventually kick in the door. There was no way to get eh kings body somewhere it would not be found. She transformed herself into a rat and scurried away.

Alarms sounded a few hours later. During a shift change of royal guards, the king's body was discovered in the sanctuary along with a pile of dust that was presumed to be the remnants of the missing royal guard. The king's body was washed and prepared for burial. The priests preparing the body recognized the wounds.

"The king's body must be destroyed!" One of the priests shouted.

"It is against elven law to disfigure or otherwise cause any damage to the body of a royal figure," the magister argued.

"What will we do then when he rises and begins to feed on all of us?" The priests asked defiantly.

"If that happens then we will deal with it accordingly," the magister said.

"His body must be destroyed!" The high priest yelled and moved in to behead the body of King Solaris. The royal guards blocked his path and stabbed the high priest through his heart. Four swords through the chest at once stopped the momentum of the high priest and killed him instantly.

"We defend the king until another replaces him," the captain of the royal guard warned. The priests all bowed with respect and slowly backed away from the body.

"It would be best if you holy men could use your divine magic to find who or what did this to our king," the magister barked. The priests nodded and took their leave. The captain of the royal guard of the king eyed the priests as they left.

"Magister, my men and I will be watching over the king's body until its burial." The captain informed the magister.

"Something tells me that you will be guarding it much longer my friend," the magister said knowing they could not trust any priest.

"If he does rise as a vampire magister, what would you request for the record?" The captain asked.

"We practice diversity in this city. He will be judged for his actions and not his species." The magister ruled.

"As you wish magister," the captain replied. After the body was prepared for burial, by the magister instead of the priests, the royal guards stood watch over him. The days went by and the only visitor that came was a rat that the royal guards chased away.

On the third day Solaris opened his eyes. There was a shroud over him and it obscured his vision. He sat up and that shroud fell from his face. He looked around and saw four royal guards facing the door. He was cold and very hungry—or rather he was very thirsty.

"Bring me a dog or cat or something, fast!" Solaris gasped. The royal guards jumped and spun around with their weapons at the ready.

"King Solaris?" One of the royal guards asked in confusion.

"Hurry," Solaris gasped as he clutched his stomach in pain. He was fighting the thirst. One of the royal guards ran out the door to find an animal. They had all been briefed on what might transpire and how to react accordingly. The other three royal guards slowly backed towards the door watching their former king clutch himself in pain.

"Where do you boys think you're going?" The voice of Queen Elineth said from behind them. The royal guards spun round to see their former queen, also a vampire.

"They were doing as they were instructed—your heinous." The captain of the royal guard replied from behind her. The other royal guard had gone to grab not only a chicken they had ready but the captain as well who was napping in the hall. The guard tossed the chicken into the room near Solaris. He grabbed the chicken and fed instantly. Feathery carnage spewed everywhere as Solaris fed. Queen Elineth turned to face the captain of the royal guard.

"Are you here to kill us?" Queen Elineth asked curiously.

"That all depends on you," that captain replied.

"Oh?" She gasped.

"You are still our king and queen, but if you can't control your frenzies we will have to deal with you." The captain explained.

"So, you accept us in our current conditions?" She asked.

"As the magister put it, we judge on your actions not your species." The captain assured. "Would you care for a chicken my queen?"

"I would love a chicken captain," she answered gleefully. The captain handed her a cage full of chickens with a wide smile upon his face.

*****

The Spider God left her web in search of its prized minion, the Minotaur. She had thousands of spiders aiding her search through the forest. It wasn't long before some of her minions had found the rotting carcass of the dead Minotaur near another rotting carcass belonging to a green dragon. The Spider God arrived as soon as she got word in the blink of an eye, she teleported to the sight. She took the Minotaur's head and put it near the body.

"Not yet," the Spider God hissed. In an instant, the mutated Minotaur was whole and restored to life. Durge opened his eyes and felt his neck.

"What?" He gasped. The he saw the Spider God. "You really are a god!"

"Yes, I am." She replied and then went to work on the green dragon. She began by first mutating the green dragon into an insect-version of its former self. She then restored the dragon back to life. The dragon roared. It was disoriented and mad with rage. Keltorilax recalled his battle but not his death. Now he was disfigured with insectile armor mixed with his dragon hide and extra limbs. He had multiple eyes that allowed him to see almost in every direction. The dragon was not stupid! He realized what had happened to him in an instant. He turned to see the Spider God watching him.

"You dare do this to me?" The dragon growled.

"Would you prefer a painful death?" The Spider God asked and with a magical gesture Keltorilax fell to the ground wracked in pain. "You are mine or you are dead."

"I am yours!" Keltorilax roared out of pain. A god could make any being submit eventually. Dragons were no different. This wasn't mortal magic they were defending themselves from. It was godly magic.

"Good. Now that we have that settled, what happened here?" The Spider God demanded answers.

"Elves," the Minotaur answered faithfully. Keltorilax slowly rolled back to his feet.

"Perhaps it is time for war then. The two of you will be my generals. Do what needs to be done. Destroy the elves." The Spider God hissed.

"Yes, my goddess." Keltorilax replied.

"Would you like captives to transform?" Durge asked.

"My spiders will bring me some. You two focus on their destruction." The Spider God ordered. She was gone in the blink of an eye, teleported away to her web.

"The great city of elves is massive. We would need an army far greater than we can imagine to even hope of defeating the elves." Keltorilax said.

"We have a near limitless number of spiders, centipedes, and scorpions. It will suffice," Durge replied.

"I'm not full grown. I am not as formidable as you need for such a task." Keltorilax admitted.

"The vermin are our cannon fodder. We will let them do the brunt of the work." Durge said as he inspected his gear. He gasped.

"What is it?" Keltorilax asked.

"The damned elves stole my magical gear that the Spider God forged for me." Durge replied. The green dragon's eyes opened wide with panic. He turned and crawled through the tree-line towards his cave lair. Keltorilax ran into the lair to see no kobolds and his entire treasure hoard was missing. He roared in furious rage.