Red Sonja: The Queen of Acheron http://literfull12.deviantart.com/art/Red-Sonja-The-Queen-of-Acheron-456137765 Adorra could not believe it had come to this-- The hiring of his like to secure her prize. It disgusted her, such a beast. "Mmm, what does the tender flesh seek?" The hooded figure spews out, the clicking and choking the most off putting, the smell a close second. "I seek only one thing," Adorra chokes out. "Just one. Red Sonja. My property." And then the beast laughs, and anger rises in the woman with Raven hair and milk white skin. A monster like this, a thing that clings to shadows so not to be seen, it had no right to laugh. "The She-Devil?! Ha! Such interesting game. Such interesting desire," The hooded figure says, trying to ascertain the nature of the woman before her. "But the price, you know the price, yes? And with the such a want, such a desire, it has a cost." Adorra was well aware of the price. "About a mile from here, in the dark woods, there is a woman, drugged and restrained, do with her what you will." "So prepared, so twisted," the figure bellowed. "We have a deal, little soul. Now. I will feed, and in two days time, The SHE-DEVIL shall be yours." This didn't sit well with Adorra. A beast like...dealings like these....there are costs beyond the physical ******************** Her sword cracked under the weight of the man's axe. If she held any longer, her head would be a bloody mess across the dirt of Argos. The people of this trading outpost barely bat an eye at the warriors in conflict. The axe inched closer, forcing her blade towards her body. She could almost feels it touch her flame colored hair. Her brown gloves twist and tear, gripped tightly around the hilt of her blade. Perhaps investing in a more comprehensive armor would be in order after this. But with a different set, would she have the freedom of movement her scale mail armor provides her, along with minimal protection? She thinks not. Red Sonja does the only thing in her mind, the only thing that seems rational. She loosens the grips on her sword, and steps to the side. The man's mighty axe, this large, bald figure's powerful weapon, slams into the ground. Sonja didn't waste the opportunity pressing her blade right against his neck, his back hunched, the weight of the axe forcing him to bend his knees, the blade pressed against him drew a sliver of blood. "Yield!" Sonja demanded, a wry smile grows across her flawless, sweat covered face. "Aye, Sonja. Aye, you win. What was the best? How much gold do I owe ya?" The defeated man said, his words carrying a touch of self-loathing. Sonja can't help but laugh. She hasn't felt like this for quite a bit of time. ******************************* Clear threats, enemies, and motives. Sonja valued this. Especially after recent experiences, she valued this. No longer fighting the mentally ill or sexually confused or monsters seeking to sell her into slavery. Wandering Argos, the gentle, crisp breeze carried by the ocean, she couldn't help but feel happiness flow through her body. Even lost, seeking a local inn in Argos, the uncertainty couldn't, no, it wouldn't bother her. But, happiness can only last for so long. The hooded figure, he watches. Eight Red eyes across his head, he watches his prey. There'd be a fight. That much was certain. And with the She-Devil's reputation? There would be some difficulty. Argos was an advantage. Two warriors, no matter the species, having it out in the streets. No one would care. No one would interfere. "She-Devil!" His crooked, twisted voice echoed! Sonja stopped, and gripped her sword. Another challenge...how lucky, she thought. How lucky. Her blade is already drawn before she can think, her very body eager for another challenge. All she saw was the hooded figure, a long black cloak covering his body. None ever care to wonder what was behind that cloak. Until...it was too late. Sonja was a perceptive sort, and brilliant warrior, but the emotional high dulls her instincts. "Such a thing you are, Sonja. Powerful Sonja. Sonja the Devil. But your scent, it carries something else," the man before her, if he was a man, wondered. "Ah. Sonja the frail? Sonja the broken? Sonja the shackled? Are these right?" And anger gripped her mind and heart. The man spoke of things Sonja had somehow was able to keep out of her mind. For these memories to be carried on her scent? Madness. Madness, to her, at least. But for the man, this was no madness. Through the air around her, he gained understanding. Perhaps keeping her off balance, through cruel words alone, would aid him. Shorten the stress of battle. He understood. His voice, his laugh, he understood why the woman Adorra set him on this woman. "Speak your name, creature." Sonja demanded. "Oh. So you understand. I'm not man, but monster," the cloak falling off his body, Sonja was taken aback by the sight. His fangs, the disgusting red eyes covering his head, his claws, the strange black hairs covering his body. "Monster," Sonja said coldly. "You're nothing but a monster." "Ha. So perceptive. But my name is Davros. And I've come for you, fragile Sonja," he said leaping towards her. So high, he jumped so damn high. Sonja's mood spoiled, she wouldn't hold back. His feet touch the ground, only for Sonja to swing her fine blade at his head. Within a second, the green substance that flows through him, his blood, splashed against the dirt. "Curious. Haven't been wounded like this since...," Davros voiced his surprise. His sickly, clawed hands pressed against his neck. "What prey you are, Red Sonja." "I give you this chance to yield. Limp back to whatever hole you crawled out of," Sonja instructed, her blade dripping with his blood. Davros took a moment to ponder this. Walk away? Such notions rarely occur in his mind. But, the price had been paid. He was bound in blood to do just this. To play the monster that he is. "I think not." His clawed hands struck out, scraping against Sonja's still cracked blade. A few more blows like that, and the weapon would snap. His claws...sharp as steel. Sonja went for the neck again, Davros leapt over her strike, forcing her to the ground. "Fragile Sonja. A delicate flower, soon to be. I see it you know. Your web. Who the woman will give you to. And she is....worse. Worse than Adorra. She will break you." "You speak madness," Sonja cursed, her arms pinned by the monsters hands. "You shouldn't speak at all," Davros retorted. He starts to hack, like he's been struck with consumption. A white glob appearing in his throat...it rockets out of his mouth, over Sonja's nose and mouth. "MmmMff," she groaned. Using her legs, she forced Davros off her, and quickly picked up her sword. "Haven't done that in so long, either," he informs Sonja. She brings a hand to her face, to remove the substance stifling her speech and breathing. It doesn't give. The sticky substance would not come off. Her lungs would soon burn for air if was not removed. Distracted, she didn't see Davros approach again, producing more of the substance and wielding it in his hand. "Stupid girl." She thrashed and struggled. Her protests indecipherable due to the webbing covering her face. Her entire body, head to toe, wrapped in his cocoon of webs. He was gracious enough to not let her suffocate, though. His sharp claws splitting the material over her nose. "I do so love the fighters," Davros spoke. Her adrenaline and anger spiked. How much can she take in one life? How much is she supposed to? ***************** "You did well," Adorra compliments Davros, his cloak now draped over his monstrous form. "So glad the Tender Flesh agrees," Davros said, dragging the now passed out Sonja across the floor. "My webs should soon dissolve. I hope you have ways to hold her. I've glimpsed your failures from her." Adorra knew what he meant. Sonja had escaped her..."custody" before. Her frustration and confusion aided Sonja. That much was certain. Adorra would not give in to those. Not again. She would not fail her mistress. "I know how to restrain Red Sonja, Davros," Adorra replied. "The rest of your payment, another woman, has been left in your cave. Enjoy." ******************* Sonja awoke to such strain, such pain, that she was almost blinded by the pain. It didn't matter though, she couldn't see anyway. A tight leather hood has been tightened over her face, laced from behind her head. A collar at the base of it, around her neck. Her arms crossed and shackled, a chain linking them to the ground. She's exchanged webs for shackles it seems. Her mouth, not only covered with the hood, but filled to the brim with a rag. "She stirs, Adorra," an unfamiliar voice says to the sightless Sonja. "Yes, Queen Calina," Adorra replies. Her voice sending shivers up her spine, and a dagger through her heart. "This is the one who bested you? This woman? The feared She-Devil? She seems to be such a flawed thing. Such a weak thing," the mysterious woman insults her. "She brought you pain? It's so...disappointing. When I found you, a sad, broken thing in the woods, I took pity. Healed your mind, as much I could. In exchange you bring me...this? I'm both disappointed in you, and Red Sonja's reputation." Adorra's eyes hung low. She couldn't bear to look at either women. Calina was a tall, powerful woman. She rebuilt the broken city of Acheron, from nothing. Her long black gown, showed her ample chest, her bronze skin completely flawless. Adorra wondered if she was a cimmerian, like the Mighty Conan she heard tell of. Calina brushed her ash brown her from her eyes, the disappointment she spoke of nowhere to be seen on her face, not that the other women could tell. In reality, she felt nothing. Calina had rebuilt this failed city through murder and death. She was not a kind woman. Sonja could not tell, but she was enjoying the hospitality of her kingdoms dungeon. A personal one inside the castle. "Adorra," Calina started. "This woman wounded you, or brought you shame, correct? Before we met? Despite that, I consider her an enemy of my rule, for shaming you. We will handle her as if she were our enemy. Parade her through the city, to demonstrate what happens to our enemies. And then, like all things who wrong us, we'll end her." "But I want her defeat to last forever. To know nothing but that, if she did, I would know peace, I believe," Adorra begged, unsure if even that was what she wanted. Calina spoke of healing her mind, and yes, she wasn't as crazed, but still. Adorra was confused. "Oh. I see. Then, we'll have to get to that then, won't we?" Calina smiled at her apparently loyal servant. Sonja tugged her chain, hoping for them to give, as if such well forged steel could be broke through strength alone. "MMMMMRG!" She groaned through the restraints holding her mouth. Calina could only stare, through the steel bars separating them. "How should we start, then?" Had they been careful, the guards would've made sure Sonja was relieved of all weapons, anything that could be used as a means for escape. Instead, once freed from her shackles, the hooded and gagged Red Sonja reached for a knife hidden in her boot. Pure luck, that's what it was. She couldn't see, but she was able to drive the knife into the guards unprotected throat. There were two, she was sure of that. She could feel that. Two motions, pulling the knife out of the one guard's throat, and throwing it into the eyes of the other. The satisfying thump of his body cooled Sonja's blood. Pulling the hood off her face, and spitting out the wadded up cloth from her mouth. Her flame colored hair drenched in sweat, and blade in hand, Sonja was free from her bondage. And if she could have her way, CROM, willing, she'd remain free. The freshly dead guards no longer needed their blades, the pure silver armor they wore now stained with their blood. Sonja armed herself. The weight of the sword felt wrong. Felt crude. It would do, but not well. Sonja stepped cautiously out of her cell, both hands gripping the blade. The air was tense, the hairs on her arms were standing. Whoever this "Queen Calina" was, it made her nervous. Adorra had nearly broken her. She was mad and kept Sonja restrained for nearly a week. And again, later, she partnered with a woman of monstrous strength that nearly took Sonja for all she had. This Calina was different. She had...corrected Adorra. How, she does not know. "Going somewhere, sister?" A strained voice asked, a figure Sonja saw the shape of in another cell. "Most do not leave without the Queen's word. And women like us? The warrior class? We need that word." Red Sonja searched for a torch, fumbling in the dark she found one of the many unlit torches along the walls, and quickly lit it. She saw a woman, with blonde hair, nude, bound with rope that covered her chest, and completely restricting her legs, and arms. Piercing blue eyes that strike Sonja with sadness. "Hold fast, sister. I'll free you. Whatever madness this is--" "This is not madness. Guards!" The woman interrupted Sonja. And with that Sonja heard the sounds of footsteps, a dozen set of feet, approaching from behind and from the front. "No." *************************** The sound of laboured breathing and moaning wouldn't stop Calina from enjoying her meal. The meat was exquisite, prepared expertly by her personal chef. A Queen deserves this much. She cut into the meat, and smiled. "This must be difficult, yes?" Above her head, above her table, was a nude woman with Flame colored hair-- Red Sonja. Her escape attempt had led to this ...."punishment." She was bound tightly, ropes trapping her arms, wrists, ankles and knees. Rope above, below, and between her breasts, and more running under her armpits. From there, her head and legs were bent backwards, rope linking them-- tight finely woven strands linking her neck and long red hair to her bound legs. Thank Crom Sonja was exceptionally flexible, or she would be in much worse pain than she was already in. More ropes hung Sonja from the ceiling, a familiar scenario, though she never imagined herself in such a demeaning position in front of royalty. "Ffkkkm," Sonja spat. Her mouth packed well with cloth, with another tied over her lips. "When I heard stories of you," Calina, the bronze woman with a wonderfully revealing black gown, started. "I admit, I was frightened. One day, the devil, Red Sonja would hear tell of the cruel vicious Queen, the breaker of wills, the mangler of Souls, would come for my head. But, I found Adorra, a wonderfully broken plaything. Confused and mad in all the right ways, and she told me if how she bested you." "HMMMPH!" "She was so certain. So sure of what she did, that I demanded she bring you here. I saw it in you. You're such a broken thing. Even before Adorra. You always were. You saw that woman in the cell? The one who alerted the guards? She enjoys her position. She wants to be tied up and enslaved. She's spent years in...in my care...that she knows nothing else. She was a great warrior willing to lead many men and women against me, and I fixed her." Her eyes met the panicked Sonja's, nothing but ill intent is carried in her glance. "Tomorrow you will fight in the arena. One hundred of the most dangerous people in the land, all aiming to end you for their freedom. You beat them? You will still be my prisoner. Restrained and left in the cell. The process will repeat, until you accept your position, or die." There was fury, and there was blood. A hundred men against one woman. A evil, twisted set of women watching as she fought. If this were a lesser person, they would fall. Red Sonja was not a lesser person. To the shock of Queen Calina, the ruler of Acheron, and Adorra, Sonja's raven haired tormentor, Sonja stood proudly. A hundred corpses of the most dangerous men and women before. "What do you make of this, Adorra?" Calina asked, biting her lip in anger. A trickle of blood running down her chin. "You do know who she is, correct? The She-Devil. Her reputation...just because we captured her doesn't mean any of it is not true. I'd rather have left her bound in a cell. You wanted to see if a hundred criminals could kill her. My Queen," Adorra said, choking down her disrespect for this tactic, and her growing disrespect for Calina. Adorra didn't want her dead...she just wanted her. Secured and nude under her control, her scale mail armor Adorra's...this is what she had desired before, and it is what Adorra desired from Sonja again. Wheels within wheels spun. By giving Sonja an opportunity to fight, Calina had doomed herself. How long now, Adorra wondered. How long before she has your head, Calina? "The Queen should face me herself!" Sonja demanded, to a silent crowd. "Is she a coward? I was just a helpless, bound woman, she could've left it at that. Instead she sought to shame and/or kill me? Well. Look where its gotten her!" Calina sat...bemused. Perhaps she'd entertain the challenge. A excited whisper went through the crowd as Queen Calina herself entered the arena. The black gown was gone and instead her tall, spectacular body was now dressed in tight, black pants and a quite transparent, chainmail brassiere barely covering her ample chest. Expensive, metal greaves were strapped to her forearms and shins. Her body was lean and atletic and she was at least a head taller then Sonja. An amused smile was on her face as she walked at Sonja with the grace of a dancer, her hips swaying with each step. In her hands she wielded a long, curved sword. This weapon was her favorite and she had used it to kill countless of her enemies. It would be fitting that this Red Sonja would meet her end by this sword as well. Adorra watched nervously. The Queen wanted to kill Sonja in front of the crowd to show her power. Sonja doesn't know her. Doesn't know what Calina is capable of. It didn't matter though. Calina held her belly, the gash across her midsection stripping her of strength. Sonja stood proudly over the now broken woman. In seconds she was defeated. "Please. Please don't kill me. I...I don't deserve that..." Calina begged. "Do I have my freedom? Will you not pursue me? If you say no, your head will be on my blade, paraded across this broken city." Calina had never felt the sting of utter defeat. It was a hopeless feeling. A prolonged, anxious ache. She did not enjoy it, and would give anything to make it stop. Self-preservation was more important than honor, to Calina. She most certainly did not want to die. "Yes. Freedom. It is yours. Go. I no longer have any desire to pursue this matter between you and Adorra. It is done," Calina conceded. Those twisted eyes were affixed to the flame haired warrior. Again she would slip through her grasp. Again, Adorra would be plagued with her lack of understanding. Sonja was free once more, in no small part to Adorra relying on the aid of another. Red Sonja put as much distance between her and Acheron as possible. She'd crush the entire cursed country, but a once dead nation, even if it was brought back through the.machinations of the sadistic Calina...she could nottear down the renewed structure of support its citizens now possessed. Of course, that does not mean this ordeal did not leave her with some baggage. An unwanted pursuer. "Sonja!" Adorra shouted, her voices filled with madness once more. "Did you think I'd let you leave? Did you think that you'd be free of my grasp? We have much to sort out, She-Devil!" Sonja would not turn to face her. She did not wish to dignify this mad woman with a response. Her lips refused to listen. "What do you want, Child? What is it you could possibly want from me? You have had me kidnapped, drugged, shamed, assaulted, pained and molested. Each time, I have found ways to overcome you. I took pity on you because you are clearly ill. You have no intention of accepting my mercy? My pity? Fine. But hear this: Attempt something else, and know what true wrath I contain within." "Ha. Wrath. If you could know such a thing. If you carried such force, Calina would be dead. No. You are like me, fragile and broken. Only difference is you hide it behind a warriors demeanor, while I embrace the madness, the questions it stirs," Adorra scoffed. She would not entertain such lectures, such threats, from Sonja. Besides that, Adorra could see the exhaustion in Sonja. The flame haired warrior was spent. Even if she resisted, it would be an act of futility. Adorra would defeat Sonja and then she would be her prisoner once more. Sonja turned and met Adorra's gaze. Again, she saw madness, and it the weight it carried. It had come to this. "I refuse to let you hound me. Well and truly, I am finished with your game. If you wish a confrontation for us? Then let it be the last. Here and now, I intend to end this." She eyed Sonja pulling her sword from its sheath. Yes, yes. Let it be the end, she thought. I had bested you before, this will be no different. She rushed Sonja, to her own folly. She didn't once consider the blade. Her eyes only fixed on the eyes of the woman who held it. And with that, the blade slid into get gut. Sonja couldn't bear it though. This was murder. Over challenges less so, but this was a woman not entirely responsible for her actions. It would be murder in her eyes. So, she inflicted a less than mortal wound. "If you rise, your innards will spill out and you will die. The trail is frequented by merchants and the like. Your wound will heal in a few weeks. My final mercy. You will cease this obsession. It has brought you nothing. " Adorra had no strength. The crushing defeat, her emotional state, it was too much. She was a failure. A killer, a thief, a kidnapper, and a failure. She'd rather be nothing. Not once would she pursue the She-Devil again. Never again.