Wysper

  "How dare you interrupt the sacred chant?" Hedieh was close enough for Wysper to see that her eyes had an orange glow, meaning she was calling up her inner power. The fire-mage stopped within striking distance and pointed at Myra and Thalia, who were in the last row of priestesses. "Get over there with your heathen sisters right now and pray for Yun-Kax to deliver us."

  "Yun-Kax is not coming," Wysper practically shrieked at her. "Muzen has abandoned Bukhara."

  Several women screamed, the rest talking all at once as Hedieh's eyes widened, then narrowed, as if she knew the truth about who Muzen truly was. "You lie. Muzen would never abandon us."

  "That explosion you heard a while ago was Muzen activating his Gem of Return, which sent him back to Tesiphon."

  "The blast was from another source. You will—”

  "Stop arguing with me!" Wysper wanted to shake her, yet did not dare. "I watched it happen. If anyone here wants to save themselves, they have to leave right now."

  "No one is going anywhere." Hedieh stabbed her finger at Wysper’s face. "You are a priestess of Yun-Kax, and will do—”

  "No longer." Hedieh broke her words off in shock as Wysper lifted her chin, giving the chief priestess a defiant smile. "I have freely given my maidenhead to the demigod Greywolf, son of the Wolf Mother goddess Asena, and have life-bonded—”

  Her slap rocked Wysper backwards, making her ears ring. "Blasphemer!" Before she could recover, Hedieh slapped the other side of her face and knocked Wysper off her feet.

  From the passageway behind her, a clicking sound like claws on stone was getting louder as Hedieh grabbed Wysper by the front of her tunic. "I am going to take you to the Room of Punishment, strip off these clothes, and whip you until you scream for mercy before—”

  "Leave Wysper alone!" Hedieh screamed and stumbled backwards as Castor stalked into the room, the other priestesses screaming and clutching each other as he bared his fangs. Then he reached down and helped Wysper to her feet. "Are you alright?"

  Anger burned inside Wysper as hot as her cheeks. "I am now. Where is the mob?"

  "Running across the plaza right towards us, with swords and axes in their hands. We have to leave now."

  Ignoring Hedieh, Wysper turned towards the others. "Myra, Thalia, and anyone else who wants to, follow us out the passage. The Crimson Horde warriors will protect us."

  "They will turn us into slaves," Myra wailed.

  "Better a slave than gang-raped and burned alive," the Daemo from the pool said as she joined them. "My race enjoys rough handling, but there are limits."

  "My people respect priestesses," Castor growled, "and the Ogri with us most of all."

  Wysper beckoned and both Myra and Thalia joined her, as did several others. The rest of the women began to do the same, but stopped as Hedieh turned with her right hand cupped. "The next priestess attempting to leave," she said as a spinning ball of fire appeared in her hand, "shall feel my wrath. Yun-Kax rules this house, and I will not allow any of you—”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  A crash like bodies slamming against locked doors echoed from the front of the building, then shouts, and the splintering sound of axes against wood. Priestesses began screaming and clutching one another, the fire dying in Hedieh's hand as Castor pulled Wysper back out into the hall. "We're leaving right now," he snarled at the others over his shoulder. "Live or die, it's your choice." He took off running and she followed, with the slender Daemo right beside her.

  Fat-boy met them at the hallway intersection. "Everyone needs to leave," he panted. "The doors will be down any moment, and there are not enough of us to hold them for long."

  Wysper stopped as the others raced past her. "Hedieh will not let them go." Fat-boy rolled his eyes as she tugged on his arm. "Come with us."

  He shook his head. "I will not abandon my post. Wysper, find that boy who kissed you and make a new life for yourself." He shook her gently. "Find your way home to Britannia, if you can."

  Wysper hugged him without answering. He smelled of sweat, of onions, and especially the musky perfume the eunuchs all wore. I am losing one of the only friends I have ever had. He hugged her back, but as he released her, his eyes went wide. "Oh, that is not good." Wysper glanced over her shoulder.

  Just inside the archway, a priestess was on fire, her hair and robes going up like a torch as she shrieked. Hedieh screamed, "No one else leaves. I control this sacred place, and you will all do as I command."

  Fat-boy pushed her into the arms of Castor, who was bouncing in frustration. "Keep Wysper safe," the eunuch said as more shouts and the ring of steel echoed down the hall. "I will draw them into this hall and hold them as long as I can.”

  He and Castor nodded to each other, warrior to warrior, then the wolfish man pulled Wysper with him as Fat-boy moved into the hall and took his position with his back to the stone arch.

  The other priestesses had gone on except for the Daemo, and as she began running with them, she said, "Hedieh keeps a knife in her robes she can use to chop off her hair, if she needs to."

  "What good would that do?" Wysper panted.

  "Hair is the place your body normally stores mana when the nodes are full, which is the reason they kept your hair so short."

  Yet another thing no one ever told me. "What would happen if she chops it all off?"

  They went through the passage back into the cold night as the Daemo answered, "Explode like a fire blast the moment she casts a spell."

  The three of them joined the others huddled together as Titan, at the far edge of the building, glanced back. "This is it?"

  "Not unless someone sticks a knife into that crazy chief priestess," Castor growled as he looked into the passage, "and they don't seem the type. Wysper, can you close this so we aren't accidentally discovered?"

  "Just step on the statue's bare feet," the Daemo replied before Wysper could. "The mechanism responds to pressure." Castor stepped on the statue's feet; the toenails glowed blue, and the wall closed up once more.

  All of the other priestesses, including Wysper, stared in amazement. "Hedieh told us the mechanism only worked if we pressed our foreheads to the statue," Myra said.

  The Daemo only smiled. "Of course she did. Good Ogri, is it safe to move yet?"

  Titan peered around the corner. "Hold on... yes, the mob must have overwhelmed the guards, for they are all rushing inside." He waited a few more moments as a feeling of sadness welled up inside Wysper, then motioned with his hand. "Move quickly, before anyone notices." Castor led the way at a lope and she raced across the empty space between the building and the back of the small pyramid, glancing towards the plaza. The entire mob was gone, though screams and shouts were coming from deeper inside, and as Wysper made it to the opposite side and turned around, Hedieh's voice rose above the rest. "Think you to defile this holy place? I shall see you burn!"

  The upper windows glowed faintly red a moment as the voices of men and women alike inside shrieked in agony. Wysper clapped her hands over her ears to try blocking out the sound, and the other priestesses did the same except for the Daemo, who stopped beside her. "Hedieh always did want to go out in a blaze of glory."

  Too much had happened tonight, and Wysper could not stop the tears flowing down her cheeks as the screaming continued, her body racked with sobs at the terrible sounds. "Come on," the Daemo said, placing her slender arm around the girl’s waist and drawing her away, "it is time to begin your new life. My name is Sybil, by the way," she added as Titan and Castor got the others to follow, "and I am going to become your new best friend."