<!LUMAR. PART 6. SHE-DEVIL: DEATH.>

<!by KeriAnndr, kerianndr@yahoo.com>

<!Dina's revenge (continued). Queen dies with a whole bunch of others.>

The death of the last guard marked the end of the first, "cleaning" phase of the operation and the beginning of the second, "payback" part. Dina waited so long for this moment, so now she felt a little nervous. She came to the door to the Queen's bedroom, drew a long breath, thought OK! For Birna! Here we go, and walked in. Her Majesty Queen MariKole was lying in the bed on her back, her head toward the door. A dizzyingly beautiful princess was standing over her on the knees rubbing herself into the Queen's lap in fluid, sinuous motions. The long legs of MariKole were wrapped around the girl's waist and her hands cupped the girl's breasts, gently massaging her big nipples with the thumbs. The princess' face was a mask of pure orgasmic stupor. Her eyes were half-closed and unfocused under drooping lids, her mouth slackened open and she was panting, nearly grunting, in short, rapid gasps - a teenage female totally spaced out on a powerful hormonal rush. Though she was looking directly at Dina, her brain didn't seem to register what she was seeing, and she continued sliding back and forth along the curves of Her Majesty's body. Dina came closer, lifted the crossbow to her shoulder and shot the blonde between the breasts, missing the Queen's fingers by millimeters. Killed instantly, the girl swayed backwards, arched, but remained sitting with her head thrown back, still firmly jammed between her mistress' thighs. Then, pulled by the hands on her breasts, she slumped forward and hanged flaccidly in the Queen's hands, her head swinging limply and brushing heavy locks of golden hair across the Queen's face. This woke MariKole from her sexually induced nap. She looked up, saw the closed eyes, relaxed face and thin stem of a short arrow protruding from the girl's chest, felt the dead weight of a lifeless body in her arms and realized that she was trying to make love to a corpse.

"Oh, damn!"

With a gasp of surprise and disgust she unwrapped her legs and shoved the dead blonde of herself. The late queen of orgasms rolled onto the floor with a dull thump.

Another princess was sitting at the bed on a small stool, watching the couple and waiting for her turn at Her Majesty's body. In big-eyed terror she watched what happened to her friend. Nevertheless she jumped to her feet and ran to Dina determined to fight for her Queen even barehanded. Though courageous as she was, the young lady was helpless against brutal force of a forest Amazon. Being brave, are we, sweetie. Dina grabbed the blonde by the throat, bent her backwards and plunged her knife to the hilt into the exposed bosom. Then she watched with malicious satisfaction as life slipped out and the death settled in on a doll-beautiful, perfect face. When a final shudder passed through the body and the girl expired in her hands, Dina draped the limp remains over the stool and turned to face the Queen.

"Sorry for breaking your toys. Couldn't help it. They die so nicely. Actually, I came to kill you", she said conversationally.

MariKole, a beautiful woman of 35, tall and slender, with commanding posture and noble, almost aristocratic appearance, was watching the swift demise of the princess with detached interest. She nodded. "I thought so. So, you are Dina, the green-eyed witch. I knew that we would meet eventually. Too bad that you have to go so soon."

She raised her hand, and Dina found herself looking into the business end of a long-barreled pistol. Carefully stepping over the body on the floor, MariKole came closer, keeping the gun steadily trained between Dina's eyes.

"Do you think I'm afraid of you?" Dina took the barrel's end with her left hand and put it to her forehead. "Shoot!"

MariKole smiled. "As you wish. Good bye, Dina."

Dina watched intently as the Queen's finger tightened on the trigger. At the last moment she jerked the gun away from her head, and it went off with deafening roar over her ear. Before the Queen realized what was happening, Dina reached her right hand into her long, black ponytail, pulled out a big straight ivory hairpin, a gift from Birna, drove it down into the Queen's chest to its full length and started turning it in the wound. MariKole knew right away that Dina killed her. She could feel the sharp needle moving inside her heart, though the pain was surprisingly bearable. Looking into the green eyes of her death, she thought that she could still kill the witch, that she still had some time left to her. She tried to wrench the pistol from Dina's grip, but her hands were quickly getting numb, and her legs started buckling under her weight. She fell backwards landing heavily on the soft body of the dead princess readily spread out for her on the floor. She could still feel it, when Dina pulled the hairpin out and wiped it on her bare breasts, as if she was no more than a pile of used rags. Then, as if some switch was turned, the light went off and MariKole died. We should have killed the bitch long ago, Dina thought bitterly putting the pin back in her hair. She squatted to gather up her crossbow from the floor and saw a pair of white feet under the drapery at the window. Probably another one of their princesses.

"Hey, you, behind the curtain! Come out here!"

The drapery moved, and a very young and very scared princess stepped out. "Please don't kill me!"

"I won't kill you. I'm all done here. I'm leaving. Come closer."

The girl made a couple of steps, saw the Queen's body on the floor and stopped again.

"Please don't hurt me!" Then lowering her lashes she murmured tentatively, "You are kinda cute." The girl has recovered from the initial shock already and was thinking on her feet, trying to talk her way out of the situation.

She really thinks her charms are working. Who cares? Why should the stupid blonde live, if Birna is dead? Dina shot her in the heart. The girl gave out a small cry and fell, slowly, almost sensually, as if her whole body turned into jelly. Boy, they even die as if they rehearsed it. Bitches! All bitches! Dina reloaded the crossbow, put it on a sling behind her back and headed out. At the door she listened for any sounds, then opened it ... and found herself nose-to-nose with a birdlike beaked mask.

"Hi!" chirped the mask cheerfully. Several more masked figures were standing behind her.

"Hi!" Dina shut the door. Tylins! The royal assassins! They found her finally! She whirled around and ran across the room and through the glass doors into the balcony overlooking the garden. Behind her the hall door burst open and she could hear people running. Tylins paused momentarily over the Queen's body, but didn't linger long. Queens come and go, but the reputation stays. They had to kill Dina. Period. Dina looked down. Two floors below in the garden several more Tylins were pointing their crossbows at her. She climbed over the railing, lowered herself down and hung on the outstretched arms from the balcony's edge. Then she swung forward, back, forward again and let go off the edge, sailing under the balcony toward the wall. A foot-wide ledge was running around the building under the windows of the second floor. She landed on it with both feet and pressed herself to the wall, hugging the stone for balance and support. Tylins couldn't hit her with arrows from below, but they knew where she was.

"She's under the balcony on the second floor ledge!"

Dina opened the window into the nearest room, vaulted over the sill and ran to the door. The hall outside was empty, but she could hear running feet going down the stairs. Tylins could show up any second, and they were going to search the rooms of the second floor one after another until they found her. Desperately she looked around for a place to hide and saw a small door near the stairs. A tiny closet, filled with buckets and rags, might be just big enough for her to squeeze in. She slid the crossbow off her back, took one bucket in her hands, sit down in its place, put it on her lap and shut the door. Next moment the first Tylins appeared in the hall. They quickly divided into pairs and started checking the rooms. Two of them were left in the hall to guard the stairs in case she tried to make run for it. It didn't take those two too long to discover the closet.

"What's this?"

"A closet, I think. Too small anyway."

"Let's see what's in."

One of the blondes stood down on one knee, opened the door and bent in to look inside. A moment away from being discovered, Dina took the bucket from her lap, pulled it over the masked head peering in and pushed it out with her foot. The Lumara fell backwards into the hall. Dina shot her crossbow from inside the closet, putting an arrow right between the breasts of the second Tylin, and rolled out. The first Lumara pulled the bucket off her head and was trying to clean her eyes off the sawdust, which spelt from it and was now covering her head and shoulders. Dina hit her with the knife, in-slice-out, Birna style. There were more Tylins in the hall and they saw what happened.

"She's in the hall! She's in the hall!"

Dina turned and ran away from the yells. The hall in front of her was a dead end, no way out. She stopped at a door to her left, opened it and rushed in. Two Lumaras, who just finished searching the room and were heading out, were thrown back, when Dina blasted pass them like a bolide, but recovered fast and went after her. With two Tylins on her heels, Dina whirled to her right, ran through a sidedoor into an adjacent bedroom, took a running dive under a big bed next to the window, slid on her belly on the polished floor all the way through, emerged out on the other side, tore the bedcover off the bed and threw it over her pursuers. Tylins were trying to look under the bed, where Dina disappeared, when the light fabric fell over them like a net. Next second Dina was upon them, stabbing, stabbing, stabbing, aiming at the necks and the backs of their heads. The door in the first room opened. Dina heard the sound of light footsteps and wriggled under the bed again. From below she saw a pair of white feet entering the bedroom. The newcomer came closer to the bed, looked at the mess under the bedcover on the floor ("Oh, damn!"), walked to the window, looked out, heard Dina sliding from under the bed behind her, turned around too late and was killed. Dina hit her upward under the left breast with her knife and hold it there for several seconds, as always experiencing a warm jolt of victorious jubilation when she felt the blade sliding between the ribs and into soft tissue of her enemy's heart. More footsteps in the room next door.

"Ah! Here she is!" Tylins were pouring through the sidedoor into the bedroom.

Dina pushed the dying woman aside, stepped through the window on the ledge and looked down. No one. She looked back at the window crammed with masked faces, outstretched arms and reaching blades, turned around and jumped. She landed perfectly balanced on the balls of her feet and pasted her back to the wall under the ledge. An inverted owlish mask appeared over her head from the ledge and looked at her with big blue eyes.

"She's under the ledge!" yelled the head.

Dina lunged at it with her knife. The head dodged up and disappeared. Taught by bitter experience, Tylins didn't jump down right after her. But they would be down there soon enough; she was sure of it. Dina looked over her shoulder at the wall she was pressing herself to. Behind her there were big glass doors leading into the pool-room, where she had killed three palace guards early that night. She pulled the doors open and walked in.

"She's in the pool-room!" The inverted head was back.

Bitch! Dina reflected with irritation. She came to the pool. The white body of the guard was still floating face-down in its greenish water. Dina heard the voices outside in the garden. Her enemies were jumping from the ledge some way down the side of the building. To create diversion, she lifted a small figurine of a dolphin, standing at the wall, shoved it into the pool and hid herself behind some draperies just to the left from the glass doors. Five seconds later two Tylins appeared at the doors.

The older of the two said to the head on the ledge, "OK, Benara. We are going in. If she gets around us and you see her running into the garden, shoot her."

"Look, Gonta! Waves! She's down there in the water!" The younger Lumara jested excitedly toward the pool.

"OK. Let's take a look. But be careful."

They spread out and approached the pool from two sides with their swords drawn. The younger woman stopped right in front of the draperies, with her back to Dina, craning her neck and trying to look over the pool's edge. Dina slid out and rushed her from behind.

"Look out!!!" Gonta saw her first and ran toward them to save her partner.

Lumara turned around, and Dina stuck the knife in her chest from the full swing. The woman screamed, flung her arms in the air and fell backwards into the water, taking Dina's knife with her. Next moment Gonta lunged at Dina with her blade, and the Amazon dove in the pool headfirst. She swam underwater the full length of the pool, but when she broke the surface on the other side, Gonta was already there, waiting with her sword raised, and Dina had to dive again. The situation was quickly becoming hopeless. She was stuck in the pool with no weapon and no way out, and it was just a matter of minutes before the rest of Tylins were going to show up. Dina was wading to the center, where Gonta couldn't get to her with the sword, when her foot touched something on the bottom. What is that? Dina wondered without interest. She probed the thing on the bottom with her toe. Arbalest! A loaded arbalest! The one that the young palace guard, now floating next to her, had dropped from her hand, when Dina had killed her in the pool. Dina slowly squatted in the waist-high water and, trying not to raise Gonta's suspicions, pick up the weapon from the bottom and hid it behind her back under the water. Now she had a chance! Only one shot. She should play it fast and right.

"Hey, Gonta! You won! I give up! I did what I came here for, and I don't care anymore if I live or die. Let me out, I don't want to die in this soup. "

"And I don't care what you want. I'll kill you as soon as I get close enough."

"OK. I'm coming out anyway."

Dina waded close to the side of the pool, trailing hands through the water behind herself. She looked up at Gonta and arched her chest forward, as if exposing herself for the final blow. Gonta, fooled by her submissive posture, took the sword in both hands, raised it high over her head and... when she was at the highest point of her swing, Dina smiled, raised the crossbow (Surpri-i-ise!!!) and shot her from down below, straight under the breastbone. Before Gonta's body hit the floor, Dina was out of the pool, raced to the wall, where the slain guards had stacked their weapons, took two crossbows and checked that they were loaded and ready for use. It felt so good to have some heavy artillery again after having been chased like a rabbit all over the palace! With a weapon in each hand she walked to the door into the hall of the first floor and listened for sounds from outside. She heard running steps coming toward the door. When she was sure that whoever was on the other side could hear her, she said loudly in her best imitation of Gonta's voice, "We got her!"

The steps in the hall stopped and a young voice said excitedly, "It's Gonta! They got her!"

"Good!"

Dina moved to the right from the door, to be behind it when it opened. A moment later two Tylins walked in.

"Gonta! Where are you?"

"We got her!" Dina croaked behind them.

Tylins turned around and stared at her. Do they look stupid in their birdie masks! She shot them both in the hearts and watched as one after another they crumpled to the floor, softly moaning in their brief agony. Then she walked out through the glass doors, stood under the ledge and said in Gonta's commanding voice, "Benara! Come down. We got her."

"Nice! I started thinking that she's the Devil itself!"

The inverted owlish mask appeared under the ledge. Dina shot her in the eye and walked out into the garden. She didn't see anyone. The place was moonlit and quiet. She walked to the end of the building and listened. Still nothing. Dina made a quick beeline to the old baobab and climbed to the treetop. Perched on a thick bough, she looked back at the courtyard and the Palace. All windows were brightly lit, but she didn't see anyone and didn't hear any movement. Did I finish them all? The whole anthill? She shrugged and began descending down the rope into the shaft. Only when her feet touched the dusty floor of the tunnel, she felt that the terrible tension of the last two hours started to ease up. How many women has she killed today? How many has she killed at all? Who counts? Who cares? Bitches! All bitches!

"Going home?" a pleasant voice inquired behind her.

Dina startled and whirled around. In the dim moonlight sipping from high above she could see a toll, slender young woman with shoulder-long blonde hair. The woman's face was half-hidden under a beaked mask of some predator bird and she had a long knife raised in her right hand. Exhaling sharply, Tylin stabbed Dina expertly, straight in the heart. Fighting sharp, numbing pain in her chest, Dina raised both hands up into her ponytail, found the hairpin, pulled it out and rammed it down with all her remaining strength as deep as it went, aiming for Tylins heart. Caught completely by surprise, that her already killed enemy could strike her back, the masked blonde failed to divert the blow and received it square in her chest. For several seconds two women stood with their eyes locked in a deathly stare-you-down, thrusting and pushing their weapons deeper and deeper into each other's bodies. Finally Dina managed to turn the lethal pin inside her opponent's bosom. The blonde rasped "You...Devil!", her arms fell down her sides, her eyes rolled up into the mask and she started sagging to the floor. Dina was sinking down with her, pushing the pin deeper and turning, pushing and turning, until finally, already lying on the sprawled body of her killer, she felt that there was no more twitching and quivering beneath her. Only after that Dina let herself slide into sticky black oblivion...