The other twoLords froze in anticipation and their men watched breathlessly.
‘That was the Lord’s wife.’ said Darkmantle. ‘He’ll fight tothe death now.’
‘KILL THE BITCH.’ screamed the Lord to his warriors as hecharged forward. Aquitain created a wall of hardened air in frontof them just in time to block a barrage of several crossbowbolts.
She thencreated a zone of darkness but could see the warriors bodies withher aura sight while they were blinded and slowed to a walkpleading with their Lord for light.
She let out apsychic scream so horrible that stopped the hearts of all within 20paces momentarily and froze them with fear. Then in a blur, shewent from warrior to warrior stabbing their hearts or slashingtheir throats. In the absolute darkness the warriors were indisarray and absolute terror.
The Lord triedto abolish the darkness but each time Aquitain replaced ittargeting those ahead of her with a mental blast which stunnedthem. Those not stunned slashed wildly in the darkness with theirweapons, some tried to run colliding with their comrades ortripping and falling to ground. One by one they fell silent untilno sounds came from the zone of darkness. A minute or two laterAquitain returned to near Darkmantle and removed the zone ofdarkness.
In the eeriehalf-light the Lord was the only one standing amongst a score ormore of dead warriors.
‘By the Powers, you’ve killed them all!’ said Lord Darkmantleas he gazed at the field of dead.
‘I am Death.’ said Aquitain to the Lord. ‘Do youyield?’
‘No! Never!’ he shouted and sent a stream of wizard fire ather.
‘I’ve got it!’ yelled Aquitain as he was covered in yellowflames.
The wizard fireenveloping her had no effect.
‘What did you do?’ asked Darkmantle amazed.
‘It’s a fire shield.’ replied Aquitain then shape shifted to afiery bear shape.
‘This should impress them.’ she whispered as she changed thearmour to golden and grew her body size to twice normal. But as shestood up on her hind legs, a blood rage flooded her mind and sweptaway all control with bestial fury.
She let out aK’wala GROWL that caused massive panic all around her. Experiencedwarriors fell to the ground frozen with fear, others simply ran offinto the night screaming and the two watching Lords’ hair stood onend, a freezing cold sweat broke out over their bodies, they wettheir pants and they thanked their ancestors over and over againfor giving them the sense to make peace with this woman.
The Lordhesitated for the first time in his life. Ten paces away he behelda terrifying sight. The bear stood nearly twice his height withhuge teeth, flaming red eyes and it looked VERY angry.
Aquitaincharged. The Lord levitated upwards into the air trying to evadeher but it was too late he didn’t know how fast bears could move.She leapt upright and clamped her jaws around the Lord’s armouredleg and as she dropped to the ground the Lord came down with her.With one swipe of her mighty arm the Lord was flat on his back. Shedrove her claws down onto the Lord’s throat and ripped his headoff.
The blood lustwas unstoppable as she looked around for more victims. Many ofDarkmantle’s troops were suddenly very nervous and began backinginto their barracks, and the remaining warriors with the two Lordsthat had surrendered carefully backed away. Several remainingwarriors of the dead Lord equipped with crossbows were silly enoughto shoot bolts at her.
The boltsdeflected off the golden armour as she went on the rampage chasingeach one down and ripping them apart. Every few seconds Darkmantleand his men heard another growl or scream as the big bearrelentlessly hunted and killed the men. When it could find no moreit headed back towards Darkmantle and his men.
Aquitain thebear returned with her head, jaws and forearms dripping blood andstopped and looked around for any more resistance. Darkmantleapprehensively moved from the shadows into the light to greet herand accidentally kicked a metal shield that lay on the ground withhis steel clad boots. The sound pierced the quiet like anexplosion. Aquitain let out a ferocious growl. Darkmantle instantlyfroze and his heart almost stopped at the sight of the bloody faceof the huge bear with great red eyes burning with malevolence.
‘It’s me, Darkmantle.’ he rasped through a thoroughly drymouth.
Aquitain stoodthere fighting for control, muscles bursting for more action. Shelet out a terrible growl but Darkmantle stood there defiantlyslowly raising his hands up high.
He wriggled hisfingers and whispered a spell and created an illusion of Mirandastanding beside him.
Aquitainstopped confused. She looked at the illusion of Miranda and slowlythe thought came into his mind that something was wrong.
Darkmantlespoke. ‘Lady Warden we are your friends.’
Aquitainstruggled to say the word ‘forbearance’ and the rage faded.
She changedback to her naked golden body covered with blood mentally chantingthe mantra of calming.
‘I’m sorry!’ cried Aquitain. ‘I’m sorry!’
‘Are you okay now!’ asked Darkmantle carefully.
‘By the Powers Darkmantle, you’ve got no idea how close youwere to death!’ yelled Aquitain.
‘I’m sorry I should have realized you were berserk and waitedfor you to calm down.’ He said suddenly as the two lords and adozen guards appeared out of the darkness.
He could seethe men’s eyes were wide with a mixture of fear and admiration.Aquitain had just killed one of the most feared Lords in the land.The two Lords and their men gazed in awe at this remarkablybeautiful but lethally deadly golden woman covered in blood. Shewas definitely real and what she had done was no illusion. No onewould ever doubt that.
Her terrifyingdisplay of brute power would only get greater with each newtelling. For many warriors this night, Miranda became their newQueen, one that would haunt their dreams and fire their courage forthe rest of their lives. The Elendari loved and respected power andthey would adore her.
Aquitain’s eyesglowed with a golden aura as he re-established his ability to seethe Mentarin spirit creatures but fortunately for them, there werenone around.
‘What of us, Your Highness?’ asked one of the Lordsnervously.
‘You were forced here under the brutal submission of theMentarin spirits. I can’t blame you for that. Go home to yourfamilies. Take your weapons with you and keep them sharp and readyfor when I call upon you to join
