Chapter Fifteen- The Serpent has Returned #2
In that very breath, Lord Ashe stands on the table and drags the knife across his throat in a decisive slash.
I am upon her as she breaks into a sob, driving the sword up into her sternum.
There’s little resistance until the tip of my sword reaches her spine.
With a twist, her body spasms and she collapses into me.
Flashing her a vicious smile, I meet her gaze.
In the reflection of her bloodshot eyes, I see the same cruelty that I once claimed to hate Prince Thorne for.
I let her body fall to the ground and stumble backward.
A chorus of screams erupts around me, but a few of the commoners break out in cheers as the two nobility choke on their blood. They’re in sync, a small chorus of my own making. I could dance to the music they make as they die.
Some of the nobility flee, but I’ve set my sights on only one more this time.
The older gentleman with the beard is not as out of shape as the two who preempted his death, but he’s no match for me in speed.
He’s clamoring over the wooden table, trying to get to the woods.
I raise my leg and kick him over it, he hits the ground with an oomph.
“Come on, at least try to fight back,” I taunt him.
Though, I don’t do it in the common tongue as I can’t have rumors of who the Serpent may be to be accurate.
Instead, I take on the language of Incendria, the Kingdom of Fire.
Switching identities at will has proven useful in my profession, seeing as how success relies on deception and staying anonymous.
I can now change between languages like coats.
Lord Tenebrin scrambles to his feet and takes off towards the woods. I snap my fingers, multiplying the food on the feast tables.
“Take all you want!” I declare to the commoners crowded behind me. I drop my head and saunter after Lord Tenebrin.
The ability to multiply resources comes from a snake’s innate ability to shed, renew, and transform what already exists into something greater. No other Arcanist has this ability; at least, not that I’m aware of, and the crowd stares in amazement at the food before them.
Lord Tenebrin has, pathetically, made it a mere seven yards before stopping to catch his breath. His toupee glue has thinned, causing the piece of hair to flop forward as he leans over to gulp breath.
“Stay back,” he brandishes a rock in one hand and a blade in the other.
I let out a deep chuckle.
“That’s the spirit!” I roar at him and kick a rock in his direction. “Fight for a life you’ve never had to work a day to earn!”
I skip towards him again and he makes a mad dash further into the woods, towards the Stygian Lakes.
“Can you swim?” My voice echoes through the woods.
I continue to saunter in his direction, relishing in his panic, stumbling steps, and heaving breaths. It all draws a laugh out of me as the wind howls, pushing brush around us. I inhale the air, recognizing that a storm is rolling in.
This man had no sympathy when he demanded those who settled on his land to pay taxes while denying them of the food they farmed. I will have no sympathy killing him.
Lord Tenebrin halts at the edge of the lake, trying to determine rather or not to wade into it.
How naive of him. Either way, he’s about to drown in all of the money he took from the mouths of the poor.
I am his reckoning; he will meet his end gulping for something as basic as human breath.
Just as those he stole from met their end simply begging for food.
I swallow bile and push away the visions of emaciated bodies that I’ve seen for as long as I can remember.
There are a handful of lords who have driven people from their land by starving them so badly that cannibalism was the last resort. I was a part of only one round up and execution of commoners who ate people. As the memory surfaces, I snarl at Lord Tenebrin.
I rip a dagger from my belt and run my tongue over it before whispering the spell to coat it in my venom: “Seyno.”
Lord Tenebrin has gotten up the courage to wade into the water, his legs shaking pathetically.
“Reeve!” A woman’s blood curdling scream comes from behind me.
“Go home, Leah!” He yells back at her just as her small frame collides with my back.
Lady Tenebrin, I presume.
When I turn on her, my snake pupils flare green, warning her to back off.
“No!” The scream is beast-like, non-human when she realizes that the Serpent of Netherhelm has come for her husband.
“Please! Our children! They can’t grow up without their father!” She pleads, dropping to her knees. She grabs my leg, actually fucking grabs my leg as tears streak her face.
“The streets here run with the blood of children thanks to you all. Leave now or yours will grow up orphans. Be a better steward of the land than him and your children will live long and happy lives.” I sneer at her.
My fangs elongate, not something I do often.
But it’s finally enough to send her scrambling backward and away.
Somewhere behind me, Lord Tenebrin has taken her distraction to dive into the lake.
The darkness of it would help him if he could swim.
Except he splashes and kicks as though he’s never set foot in a body of water.
I roll my eyes and aim carefully. With a flick of my wrist, the dagger sings through the air and strikes true.
I wasn’t aiming for a kill shot and I grin when it embeds itself in his shoulder.
He wails and spits water as he continues to flail helplessly.
I tread through the cold water towards him quickly before the venom sets in. He’s still wallowing in barely five feet of water when I grab him by the collar and take him closer to shore.
My venom has begun to kick in and his struggling slows, paralyzing him one muscle at a time.
“Pl—please,” he gasps. He’s floating on his back now that he’s stopped struggling and I look down at him with mock pity.
“If you can tell me how many people you’ve killed, I’ll cure you,” I tell him.
“Never, I haven’t killed anyone!” I see him try to thrash and the subsequent moment of terror as he realizes his body won’t respond to his commands.
“Wrong!” I shove him under the water, air bubbles coming out of him as I push harder.
Drowning. What a fitting death. I’d love to draw it out more but to drown without even being able to fight back will have to do. I relish in his panicked last moments, helpless and in pain.
I drag his body from the lake, pleased that no one else has come to check on him. When I haul his body back to the courtyard where the Noble’s Feast occurred, the only people who remain are the few common folk who cheered me on, his wife, and some lady offering her comfort.
The two other bodies lie where they breathed their last, so I make short work of my display efforts. Once it’s clear why I’m tethering the bodies together, Lady Tenebrin is pulled away.
It takes twenty minutes before I hear the guards finally coming to see what’s happened. I imagine it wasn’t the commoners who reported the gruesome activity. About time.
I have made a lovely display. I watch from the rooftops as the guards set their eyes on what must be truly horrific to them.
Limbs and heads hang from the trees above the feast table, dripping blood like a delicate glaze over the torsos of the three nobility who lay upon the wooden surface.
Their torsos lie on a bed of vegetables as a roast duck dinner might.
Their faces are set to stare at their bodies with varying looks of horror. One of the guards vomits.
“Alert the knighthood!” One of them yells. That’s my cue to leave.
I’m able to jump from the roof and sneak to my horse who is still in the woods without being seen.
“The Serpent! It was the Serpent of Netherhelm!” I hear Leah Tenebrin wail only after casting Lino to increase my hearing abilities as the horse storms away.