The further south their great procession had traveled, the more things had changed. Some of that was purely geographical, of course. They'd left the mountains and the great pine forests long behind them, trading them in for fields and rivers made mighty by the runoff from the mountains that only stopped when the weather turned water to ice. They
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"Ma-harva," Fetya wept. "Not my si-hister...Not Marva. Oh, the rats! The raaaaaats!"
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Karla was fairly certain that Marva hadn't been just clouding Fetya's mind, but actively shredding it. Now to see just how deep that damage went.
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And from there, he was just about to ask Morton what in the world to do with her. Except that was when the door flew open, and the room was full of men with swords.
It was probably obvious by the silence that followed that most of them were actually not quite expecting the scene that was set out before them once they'd entered the room.
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Marva grinned up at Warren for a second before howling, "WE HAVE BEEN BETRAYED! THEY ARE TRYING TO HURT OUR QUEEN! HELP HER! SAVE HER!"
Hello turned tables. Marva was so pleased to see you!
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Look, wishful thinking was a wonderful thing.
What probably helped more was the fact that, when half of the men turned to face Karla, to protect their Queen as they'd been instructed, it didn't seem to be Karla that she was shying away from. In fact, judging by the way she was curled up and clinging to the young Queen, they could almost spot a case for things not being as they had been presented to them at all.
It was unfortunate that there were still rats in the army, though. Not all of the men in the room were more loyal to Fetya than to her wicked sister and her promises of power.
For every man that stood confused, there was another moving to turn their swords against Morton, against Warren, and against Karla.
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"Don't listen to him!" Marva wailed. "Help me! He's hurting me!"
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...Or, more likely, from an aural shield. But it seemed better if it was Karla's presence.
"She lies. Look at her right hand. The ring finger is an illusion. She's Hobart's creature and she's been driving your Queen slowly mad."
This was an excellent pronouncement and all. To bad the people aligned with Marva decided that would be an excellent time to attack.
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There wasn't much of a chance that she'd remain conscious through that. He let go, and she crumpled to the floor in a heap.
Nice of her to leave her knife embedded in his hand. Less great was the effort that it was going to take to rip it out of knitting flesh in order for him to pick up his sticks and fight these men properly. How fortunate for him that he had a pretty okay sort of wingspan, and just flaring them out as he spun to face his attackers was enough of a blow to knock two men off their feet at once.
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*You'd better have your shields up,* he thought furiously to Karla, *or by the Darkness, I will throttle you when this is all over.*
Technically, his place was in front of his Queen, keeping her safe from all comers, and Lady Fetya as well. Over here, however, he would be more use to them all around--so long as Karla remembered to shield and didn't end up with a sword to the throat, anyway.
"In the name of your Queen, stand down!"
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Fetya, who was currently clawing at Karla's skirts, crying and babbling. "See, I told you," she wept. "The rats are here, they're all here, we're going to be devoured..."
"That Black Widow bitch has ensnared her mind!" One of Marva's pets screamed. A few others blinked at him in surprise, considering this wasn't actually all that different from the way the Queen usually behaved, but most of the squad simply accepted it, blood up and adrenaline charging. "For Fetya!" they cried as they swept forward to renew their attack.
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That was how you used a knife, Marva.
"That Black Widow is the Territory's rightful Queen and currently the only one with a chance of keeping your Queen from wandering lost in the Twisted Kingdom," he snarled, making a dive for his sticks, "and you'll treat her with the respect she's due!"
One of the men saw Warren moving for his weapons and threw them out of the way with his Craft. He got a punch to the jaw, with all of Warren's upper-body strength backing it up, for his troubles, and then Warren simply grabbed his sword as he fell like a sack of bricks instead.
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The male he'd blocked countered that with a blast of Purple Dusk to Morton's face. Morton's shield absorbed the power, leaving Morton to shake his head and slam his opponent to the floor with the Blood Opal. "Yield honorably and I won't have to kill you."
The male's response was succinct, but most definitely not of the yielding persuasion.
"Had your chance," Morton sighed, and finished him off in short order.
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What he respected even more was the young Summersky Warlord who stood back a moment longer, long enough to draw his own conclusion, and then moved to stand between the Queens and the fighting, blade drawn, but not pointed at Warren or Morton. He stood with back to the pair of females, stood in full trust that this young woman who was cradling his Queen wouldn't do him harm.
Warren smiled, something almost soft that turned into something far more fierce as he dove out of the way of a blast of Tiger's Eye, and then doubled back to neatly sever the hand of the male that had used it.
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Heh.
...The situation in which they found themselves in. Her macabre sense of humor was only one such example.
"ENOUGH!" she shouted, both aloud and on a psychic thread, both enhanced by the power of the Ebon-gray. Winces around the room showed her strategy was effective, especially considering it gave pause to everyone, even the most die-hard of Marva's attackers.
Karla didn't pause for smugness, though. "You are disturbing your Queen," she continued in a voice closer to normal volume. "The next person to raise a weapon will have to deal with me."
Any takers on that?
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One by one, the swords vanished.
Warren made a note of those that were slower doing so than the rest.
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