The Mirror Guardian

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Cake Was A Lie.(part 2)

Mailee only realized she was trembling when she made a step away, to flee as far and as fast as she could. "Mira had been right: this was evil, plain and simple. I got to get to Soveliss fast!" The amulet pulsed at her neck, as if urging her to run. Her mouth dry, her blood pounding in her veins, she stepped back.

Hattie whirled to look at her, and the Daalwal's head shot up, its slitted nostrils sniffing twice. She froze, but as she did so, a massive wind shoved into her from behind, making her stagger into the room.

"It wasn't meant to be you tonight," Hattie said, Mailee's eyes remained in the beast, who began panting. "But this opportunity is too good to go to waste."

"Witch," was all she could say. The Daalwal's eyes...she'd never seen anything like them. There was nothing in them but hunger--endless, ageless hunger. The creature was not of this world. The Punsad marks worked. The gates were real. She pulled her dagger out of her pocket.

Hattie moved so quickly that Mailee could only blink before Hattie was behind her, her dagger somehow now in her hand. No one-- no one could moved that quickly; it was as if Hattie were no more than shadows and wind.

"Pity," Hattie whispered from The doorway, pocketing her dagger. Mailee glanced to the creature, to Hattie, and then back. "I'll never get to know how you wound up down here in the first place. Not that I care." Hattie's fingers wrapped around the door handle. "And from the looks of it too; you had enjoyed my little cake. It wouldn't be long neither before you can't move your body. Good-bye, dearie." The door slammed shut.

The purplish light still seeped from the marks on the floor--marks Hattie had etched with her own blood--illuminating the creature who stared at her with those starving, relentless eyes.

"Fuck," she whispered, backing into the door as she fumbled with the handle. She twisted and yanked. It was locked. There was nothing in this room but stone and dust. "How had I let her disarm me that easily? I really shouldn't have eaten that cake." The door wouldn't budge. "Fuck you too, Hattie!" She shouted, and banged on the door with a fist, hard enough to hurt.

The Daalwal stalked back and forth on its four long, spiders limbs, sniffing her, and Mailee paused. "Why didn't it attack immediately?" It sniffed at her again, swiped at the ground with a clawed hand--striking deep enough to take out a chunk of stone. "It wanted me alive!" Hattie had incapacitated someone else while she summoned the creature; it liked its blood hot. So it would find the easiest way to immobilize her, and then... "The cake..."

She couldn't breathe. "No, not like this. Not in this chamber, where no one would find me, where everyone would never know why I disappeared, and would forever curse me for it, where I'd never get the chance to see Soveliss again. And Mira-- Mira said the old guardian wanted me to take their place..." And then she knew. The answer lay on her left--the left passageway, the passage that led to Soveliss a few levels away.

The creature sank back onto its haunches, poised to spring, and in that moment, Mailee came up with the most reckless and brave plan she'd ever concocted. She dropped her cape to the floor. With a road that shook the palace, the Daalwal ran at her. Mailee remained before the door, watching as it galloped at her, sparks flying from its claws as they struck stone. Ten feet away, it leapt straight toward her legs.

But Mailee was already running, running straight at those black, rotting fangs. The Daalwal jumped at her, and she hurtled over the snarling thing. A thunderous, splintering boom erupted through the chamber as the Daalwal shattered the wooden door. She could only imagine what it would have done to her legs.

She didn't have time to think. She could already feel her body becoming paralyzed by the cake. She landed and whirled, charging back to where the creature has crashed through the door and now sought to shake itself free of the pile of wood.

She threw herself through the doorway and turned left, flying up the stairway. She's never make it back to her chambers alive, but if She was fast enough, perhaps she could make it to Soveliss. "I hope my body can hold out until then."

The Daalwal roared again, and the stairwell shuddered. She didn't dare to look behind. She focused on her feet, in keeping upright as she bounded up the stairs, making for the landing above, illuminated by the torches light leaking from Soveliss' chamber. Mailee hit the landing, ran for the door, and prayed to God's and goddesses names she'd forgotten, but who she hoped had not yet forgotten her.

The creature hit the bottom landing and charged after her, so close she could smell its reeking breath. The door to Soveliss was in reach now. "Please--please..."

Grabbing onto the side doorway, she swung herself inside. She gained previous time as the Daalwal skidded to a halt, missing the chamber. It only took a moment for it to recover and charge, taking off a chunk of the good as it entered.

Her pounding of her feet echoed through the chamber as she ran between Soveliss' tail, who was startled by her sudden entry. Soveliss watched as she struggled to keep up straight, given to her unseen injuries. However, he noticed something was wrong by the smell and the way she moved towards him away from the Daalwal.

Mailee stretched her arms out towards him so she could embrace him for protection; the sensation of fear and comfort were kicking in. He quickly grabbed her and held her close to his chest as his long scale tail whacked the Daalwal away from her.

"Do not touch her, filth." Soveliss commanded harshly at the creature as he bared his canines threateningly.

The creature snarled, and they heard it's deep intake of breath and the scrape of nails departing stone as the Daalwal leapt for them. Soveliss' tail lunged for a piece of the broken door, wrapping around the sharpe wood as he twisted the almost unconscious woman away from the creature and swung.

Mailee only had time to see its eyes and the blur of its skin before she watched Soveliss drive the wood through the Daalwal's face. Pain lances through his tail as both slammed into the wall and fell to the ground, scattering stones. Black blood that stank of waste sprayed onto Soveliss and Mailee.

They didn't move, not as they stared at those black eyes barely inches from Soveliss' own, not as he saw Mailee's right hand held between its black teeth, her blood already oozing down its chin. Soveliss hadn't realized that she had went and put her hand out out of reflex to use whatever power she had, but she forgotten about the bindings in the processes.

Mailee just wanted and shook, not taking her hand from the creature's mouth, even after those hungry eyes turned full and its body sagged down. It was only when Soveliss pried her hand from its teeth did she blinked back to realty. It burned mercilessly. An arc of gushing puncture wounds encircled her thumb, and she swayed on Soveliss as he shoved the Daalwal away from them.

The world became foggy around the edges, she watched as Soveliss throw it out the door by his tail. Still, Mailee looked up at Soveliss' face and could barely stay awake and move at this point.

"Thank you," she said hoarsely. Her vision blurring, clutching her bleeding hand to her chest. Her wound hadn't clotted, and blood was still pouring down her wrist. She listened to it drop onto the floor. Her palm felt like ice. Her eyelids became heavy, so she closed them. "Why is my heart beat so slow?"

She opened her eyes to look at her hand. Her eyesight was blurry, and all she could make out was a mess of pink and red. The ice in her hand reached up to her arm, down to her legs. She heard Soveliss speaking to her, but could barely make out what he was telling her as she laid in his coils.

She heard small squecks--Nooroo--and warm hands grabbed grabbed her face. "Am I dying?"

"Stay awake!" It was Soveliss. He shook her. "Stay with me, Roisin!(Little Rose!) Tha mi duilich. (I'm sorry.)" Mailee remembered little of the next few moments. Strong arms wrapped around her and lift her head up exposing her neck. She soon felt a burning pain on the side of her neck, and she thrashed, but the naga held her firm, and the light in the room pulsed. Mailee felt her skin tingle, and she found her arms covered in glowing crimson marks--Munabharthmarks (Snake marks). The pain stopped as he drew back from her neck, rocking back and forth. "Cadal, a ghràidh, cadal. (Sleep, my dear, sleep.)"

Blackness swallowed her up.