Chapter 277

Zesshi's departure with Brain that night turned out to be more pleasant than she expected. He paid for a sack full of hardtack, dried meat, and other minor travel supplies, and they were on the road an hour after sunset.

"So have you really traveled as much as you say you have?" Zesshi asked when they were well out of sight of the town. The bright stars overhead were beautiful in their own way, their constant twinkling down from above in defiance of the darkness below was almost enchanting.

"Yes, I really have." Brain answered with a crooked little smile on his face, "Does it seem so strange to you?"

"Yes." Layali and Zesshi answered at the same time, and at that Brain could only shrug.

"When you've got nothing but a dream you can carry at your side, there's nothing to hold you back." Brain said with a spring in his step. "All I want is to be at the peak, and if I can't be there, I want to look at it."

"And how does…" Zesshi glanced down at the little half elf, "she, fit into that? Do you usually just pick up random runaway children?"

Layali looked up at Brain's back, he didn't look over his shoulder that time, instead he answered as if she weren't there, "I'm just dropping her off somewhere, she can travel with me to Arwintar, I'll kill Cerebrate, and then take her somewhere safe, and that'll be that."

Layali was quiet when he said that.

"Somewhere like where?" Zesshi asked and fell into step beside him.

"Maybe the Kingdom of Nazarick, or the Kingdom of Carne. They're both peaceful places, there's got to be some place that would take in a kid too stubborn to die." Brain said it with a firm sense of admiration in his voice. "We'll stop for a day or two and check out a few places on the way." Brain added, "Anyway, other than not wanting to get lost, since you're with us anyway, what are you hoping to see out here?"

"I… I don't know." Zesshi frowned, "I always assumed elves were the evil ones, I never thought about it the other way around… maybe if I see more of the world, I'll know what I'm looking for. Maybe I'll even find it at the tournament." She guessed and gave a shrug.

"So what were you even supposed to do there? When you win, I mean? You don't strike me as the sort to play Queen." Brain asked, the road crunched underfoot where their feet met hard packed earth, and for several seconds that was the only noise around them.

Zesshi shrugged, "Hand over the Baharuth Empire to the Slane Theocracy, I suppose. They'd put a council in charge, maybe a puppet ruler, I talked about that with Raymond sometimes. They're worried about the growing influence of the Kingdom of Nazarick with its 'pro nonhuman' stance. I guess they figure having that empire at their disposal is the best way to counter the influence of this 'Ainzolgon…' or whatever his name is."

"Isn't that like… a secret or something?" Brain cocked his head at her as she spilled out the secret as if it were a discussion about the weather.

"Do I look like I pay attention to that sort of nonsense?" Zesshi asked with yet another indifferent shrug.

"I guess not." Brain matched her 'shrug for shrug'.

The chatter was amiable to the point of nonsense until the sun began to rise and they reached a bend in the long river. "We're near Ikari city, the farthest northern city of the Slane Theocracy." Brain explained and pointed across the river, a stone bridge wide enough for six men to pass abreast lay minutes walk away. "If it were just me, I'd stop in the city, but since you and Layali are here, I recommend we bypass it."

"If you think it's best, you're the guide, but if we have time, I'd really like to see it." Zesshi said. The city wasn't visible from where they stood, but she looked where he pointed anyway. "We can just hide my and Layali's ears to be safe, and I promise I won't cause trouble, I just want to see."

Brain scratched his head and looked behind him to where Layali stood, the small half elf was shivering as if she were cold, "You're not- not going to get rid of me, are you… Brain? If we go there, I mean… not going to… not going to sell me, are you? I'm carrying your bag, just like you said…" She held up the little sack of food that he'd given her to carry as her 'job' after leaving the inn, it swayed a little as if pushed by the breeze.

The blue haired swordsman crouched down and looked at her little trembling face. With both her eyes intact, she was a pretty young thing, and it was hard not to be moved to pity. "No… no I'm not." He answered her and put a hand on her head, "You're a good porter, and I told you, you can stay with me till Cerebrate is dead, that was the deal, and Brain Unglaus always keeps his deals." He tussled her hair and she settled down, expelling a sigh at his reassurance.

He pulled the hood up over her head, "We'll make camp here for now, then resume this evening," he looked back over toward the older half elf, "Zesshi, time to earn your keep, let me show you how to make camp, and Layali, why don't you get the bedrolls laid out, then I'll catch some fish for us. After that, maybe you can show me something else I've never seen before. That arena match looks a lot less certain now, and I'd rather not die if I can avoid it."

Zesshi snorted, "I'll show you what I know… but we're both fighting in it, so you'll face me again. Aren't you worried I might kill you then?"

Brain paused mid step away and turned to look at the half elf, he held a hand up to his mouth and yawned, "Are you really going to fight for the Theocracy still?"

That gave Zesshi pause.

And while she paused, Brain went on, "I might die, but then, you might be the only one there who can beat me, and after what you're going to see in Ikari city, I don't think you'll feel like fighting for the Theocracy. But even if you do… if you show me the peak, I'll surrender. I don't think you'll kill me without a reason, and I'll wager the peak on that."

'What in the world is he expecting me to see there…?' Was the only thing Zesshi could wonder while he and Layali began to direct her on how to make a campsite.

Queen Draudillon stood shivering in line. Arriving at the encampment of their captors, any doubts about who was behind the attack on her party were wiped away by the first handmaiden's scream when she was taken within the tent.

She stood in the same long line as the others, their chains bound them together so that none could run without the others, and elven bows, spears, and swords promised to make that impossible.

A woman's chains were undone, and then a pair of towering behemoths of elven males each grabbed her at the biceps, she kicked, her scream pierced the air, "No! No! Don't! Take your hands off me! Please!" The maid shrieked as she was bodily carried toward the golden tent and then thrown through the flap. The elves who hauled her along looked vaguely disgusted, but a sense of relief was about them at the same time. They moved like golems, hollow and soulless, mechanically moving but not really understanding the meaning of what they did.

'There's no way they don't know…' The Queen told herself as she took another step forward.

Inside the tent, the steady slapping of flesh against flesh was audible between the woman's long screams. "No! Take your hands… ple- no- augh… it hurts… it hurts!" The woman screamed within, none of the ones before her emerged, and none of the ones to go in made any audible sound that the Queen could hear.

'Are they even alive?' She wondered, this time she was close enough to hear the elf king's vicious and brutish grunt of satisfaction, and the woman within, one of Draudillon's many attendants, was as silent as the grave, just like the others.

There were eight more in front of her, and the elves who guarded the tent entrance seemed to know what the silence within meant… they approached and grabbed the next woman in line, and the shrieking futile pleas began again…

A nightmarish assembly line which produced weeping, silence, and shame continued until at last Draudillon found herself the only one remaining. Her body was sweating enough to turn the fresh sea salty, 'No… me too…' A part of her was ashamed of her selfish thought after having borne even distant witness to the suffering of her surviving people and the deaths of her small band of escorting warriors, and yet at that moment the overwhelming thought was a fear for herself, shame or no shame.

The pair of elves stood at her shoulders and traded a glance at one another, "A child?" One said to the other.

"He said 'all' and it's this one or my daughter, sorry… little girl, this isn't a choice, this is a lack of options." The behemoth muttered, and prompted by his words, the other elf began to work the manacles as well, the metal clinked and fell away, and Draudillon immediately attempted to run.

Her muscles tensed, her feet sprang forward, and she shrieked, her arms outstretched, her face red, free of any chains or impediments for the first moment since her capture, she made a break for it. 'I can't go in there! I can't go in there!' She wailed in her head, but before she made it even two steps she felt the heavy body of an elf on top of her, she fell with a thud to the ground, the wind knocked out of her and his great weight on top of her small body, she began coughing and heaving, choked half sobs coming out of her mouth, the tight muscles of the powerful elf clung around her body like ropes of flesh.

"Just stop struggling! It'll be easier!" He grunted and picked her bodily up, she was not walked like the others, but carried, her feet kicked at his iron like abdominal muscles, she sank her teeth into his arm, and though he grunted when her teeth left their mark on his flesh, he refused to release her. She scratched and clawed and bucked against him, arching her back, trying to push herself free.

"You're going to have to kill me!" She howled, and then he proved her words a lie when he simply tossed her in through the tent flap.

The fabric caressed her skin like a lover before she flew past and landed with another thud on the ground just inside the tent. She tumbled over and over, and could feel the promise of future bruises where she hit until she came to a stop and found herself staring up at an elf almost twice the size of any of the others.

A mountain of lightly tanned flesh and blonde hair that tumbled down his back, supreme arrogance on his face in the form of a sneer that she doubted ever left him.

The whole tent stank of sex, and now within, she could hear faint moans from those who entered it before her.

They lay curled up on their sides, tattered remnants of once good clothing scattered about the royal's private space, and those whom he had brought to him now wore only tears and flesh. Bruises were obvious where he'd beaten the more recalcitrant into submission, and they either looked at nothing with now vacant, hollow eyes, or they looked at their Queen with pity.

None had the strength to properly move. The King of the Elves reached down and grabbed Draudillon's hair at the base of her skull and picked her up so that she was hung by her hair several feet off the ground. She howled and kicked and swung, struggling to free herself. "Let me go! Let me go!" The Queen shrieked, but the elf king, naked though he was, showed no sign of desire that was obvious in naked men, nor did he seem to care or even notice the pain in the Queen's eyes, nor did he seem to hear her words.

"A child? I can't breed you!" He snapped and dropped her at his feet, she fell in a heap and clutched at her skull. "Useless… useless servants…" He cursed and began to mutter something in a quiet fury. "I might as well dispose of you…" He said and balled up a fist.

'By the gods, this is… this is it…' The Queen thought and looked up with horror as he struck a monk's combat stance with one foot back.

"Wait!" A voice cried out.

The elf king, not used to being interrupted, stopped his swing and looked over at one of his new playthings. "You interrupt… I should kill you for that…" He spat, literally, and the spittle struck the woman's cheek and began to run down her skin over the red mark where he'd slapped her at the start of his use of her.

"She's the daughter of Queen Draudillon, on her way to join her mother at the tournament, you can trade her for time with the Draconic Queen! The Draconic Queen is the granddaughter of a Dragon Lord… she might give you what you want!" The servant cried out, her wide green eyes darted between the white haired Queen in disguise and the towering naked King of the elves, and it worked enough to give their captor pause.

'Someone like that… forget 'time', it will give me the chance to capture someone powerful… someone who might give me a useful set of brats…' He thought, and lowered his fist.

"I don't care to keep useless whelps around…" He muttered, it wasn't 'quite' an argument, but it was something of an objection.

"Hostages aren't useless, O King of elves… and… and she can help look after your… everybody… she can work…" The servant objected, and the King lowered his fist the rest of the way, his combat stance ended a moment later.

"I suppose…" He leveled a finger at Draudillon, "Go, fetch some water, and help my new toys survive, it's a long trip the rest of the way, don't make me speak to you again, understood?" The Elf King growled down at her, and Draudillon bowed her head and nodded, then slowly rose to her feet, and scurried for the tent flap as fast as her legs could carry her.

'If we survive this… that woman, she will be given the highest honors I can give to any hero in my Kingdom…' The Queen thought, and prayed to the gods that she would not hear the sound of flesh slapping flesh again as she was made to obey.

And again her prayers went unanswered.