Runestalker

Flight

A quick spell and the drake's manacles fell away. The torc however, was a different matter, resisting every spell I tried. Nearly blinded by anger and frustration, the drake pushed past me to where a moaning Krastahn lay.

It fuelled his strength as he rolled the elf over, kicked open his legs and in one motion, took hold of his manhood and tore if off his body. Instantly the elf shrieked as blood spurted onto the deck. Without hesitation, the drake then stuffed the ragged organ into the elf's open mouth and, in the same motion, took hold his head and snapped his neck with a hard twist.

I looked at the drake with narrowed eyes as the chamber abruptly went quiet.

"Satisfied?" I rasped.

"Getting there." The drake replied, throwing me a hooded look. "You have my thanks for my freedom and granting me my revenge."

I jerked a nod. Time for me to get mine. Turning from the blood-covered drake, I made to leave the cell.

"Free my sisters, and I will find a way to carry you to Valindor." The drake offered before I could go a step.

"Bound by the torc?" My eyebrow lifted as I looked over my shoulder at him.

"Do you have greater magic in hand that I'm not aware of?"

The drake shrugged as he returned my gaze.

"All is not what it appears." He rasped cryptically.

"It never is." I retorted, then sighed. "Very well, I'll remove their manacles. But you'll have to carry them. I'll not have naked high elf rubbing against me, even if they are bound drakes in elven form."

The drake went one step better. After I destroyed the manacles, he used some sort of dragon magic on the unconscious pair. They immediately began to stir.

"Brother?" One asked, her voice thick with discomfort and pain as she looked from her stirring sister to the male.

"We are free, thanks to,..." He paused to look at me. "I'll have your name, drow, so I will know who to thank when I pray to the Sun Aspect on the morrow."

"You may call me Vrendase." I rasped.

The drake's brow lifted.

"Retribution in your tongue?" He shrugged. "So be it. We are free, thanks to Vrendase." He said, helping the two females climb to their feet.

"I am Bratak-ryu. My sisters, Setsia-rya and Mrova-rya."

I jerked a nod to each.

"Now we need to go. It won't be long before Krastahn is missed." I turned and quickly stepped to the cage door. My drowish eyesight granting clear vision even in shadow, I strode confidently to the stairs leading up and out of the hold, the drakes close behind me.

I was about to ascend when I saw it: a heavy, dwarf-forged wrench, carelessly hanging from a peg nearby. With a pleased smile, I grabbed it. The fools obviously didn't know what they had. Dwarf-forged tools contained enough magic to become anything you needed to get the job done: a wrench, a chisel, a measuring rod or a war hammer. A war hammer would be very useful for the job I was about to undertake.

In the many wars my people fought with the dwarves for control of the underground, I had picked up enough dwarven to command the wrench's magic. A whispered word and it was a segmented metal belt, glowing with angular dwarven runes. Buckling it on, I continued on up the stairs.

The sky overhead was heavy with storm clouds as I came on deck, now revealed in the pale light as tall for a drow, meaning my head came to a high elf's shoulder. Lean and muscular as most elves were, my blue-gray skin was liberally covered with the sinuous, mystic tattoos of my people and the equally sinuous runes of my craft.