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that time, I will have finished with you, and they will be unable to do anything about it."

  Now she turned genuinely angry. "Traitor! Wasn't running the Order enough for you? Are you so jealous that you lust after the rest as well? Are you really willing to do this?!"

  "Not only willing, but prepared, Niece."

  "Then you're nothing but a bloody rotten scumbag! If you think you can just kill me and get away with it --!"

  She stopped when Mandy flashed a wicked leer. "Kill you? On the contrary, I intend to keep you very much alive!" And she nodded to the nurse.

  She stepped forward, and for the first time Differel noticed she carried a covered pan. She stopped just in front of her, lifted off the cover and tossed it onto the bed, and reached inside.

  She pulled out a monstrosity: a cross between a snake and a slug, six inches long and one in diameter, covered in glistening mucus, writhing and shrieking in a thin, high-pitched, wavering tone.

  "Give it to me!" Mandy commanded.

  She handed the creature over and Mandy bent down towards her.

  "NO!" Differel fought, trying to get loose, as she shook her head from side to side.

  "Hold her!" A guard behind her grabbed her head and pushed his fingers into her cheeks, forcing her mouth open. Mandy inserted the index finger of her free hand and wrenched her lower jaw down. She cried out from the pain and tried to bite, but the guard's grip was too strong. Mandy held the eyeless snake-slug by the tail and positioned it head-down over her mouth. She felt fluid drip of its snout onto her tongue.

  From "Dark Vengeance"

  Medb hErenn knelt to examine the track in the soft earth. Though shaped like the rear paw of a bear, it was at least three times normal size. What struck her as more odd, however, was that, while the line of tracks stretched for several yards along the crest of the ridge, she could not see a single print of a forepaw.

  She stood and gazed down the slope towards the plain below. It was covered with thick, tall grass, patches of ground-hugging herbs, and late-spring flowers, but at the base the land flattened into a broad, shrub-filled heath that stretched off towards a lake. Behind it stood a line of purple, white-capped mountains, still imposing despite their great distance. Closer, a forest filled her view, stretching off to the edge of the lake and to her right beyond her sight behind the line of the ridge, but it ended at the border of an expanse of moor to her left. Its coniferous trees were so thick they formed a dark, blue-green mass that looked as solid as the mountains themselves. And as she studied the landscape, she clearly saw the lone figure making its way through the moor towards its center. Even with her keen eyesight she could discern little, except that it was a tall, ursine creature, flabby, with a dirty-ivory coat of fur mottled with patches of tan. And it walked upright on two short, thick legs.

  A young warrior walked up abreast of her and followed her gaze. "You were right," he said in a stoical manner. By name T'lingit, he was tall, muscular, and very handsome, with copper skin, dark brown eyes, and straight blue-black hair cut shoulder length. He wore a heavy white shirt made from goat wool and cedarbark fiber, which came midway down his shins and was decorated with highly stylized designs in black, yellow, and turquoise, which depicted his clan's animal totems. A thick blanket, made from the same material and decorated with similar designs, was draped over his shoulders and closed over his chest with a whalebone pin. On his head he wore a conical, wide-brimmed, low-crowned hat woven from the roots of spruce trees, and on his feet soft-soled, knee-high sealskin boots. He carried his weapons of honor: a bow and quiver of arrows for hunting; a whalebone knife; a warclub of redwood with a stone blade, dangling from a harness swung over one shoulder; and a trio of spruce spears sporting blades carved from mussel shells, carefully balanced on his other shoulder.

  Without looking at him, she replied, "It gives me no pleasure." She was taller than T'lingit, but only by half a head. She was, however, more massive. She had wide shoulders and hips, with thick arms and thighs, and large, firm, well-rounded breasts and buttocks, but also a narrow waste and a hard, flat stomach. Her long, oval face with its sharp features was more handsome than beautiful, but her amber-colored skin was smooth and perfect, and her emerald-green eyes mesmerizing. She wore her gold-tinted, bronze-colored hair long, straight, and loose, except for two braids that hung from either side of her head down her front to her waist. She secured it with a band of silvered bronze around her head just above her brow, and she wore a neckring made of heavy twisted gold, open at her throat, with the ends capped with two large, uncut red gems. Her own armament consisted of a dirk with a thick foot-long blade and a sword with a narrow three-foot blade secured to a belt woven from leather strips; an oblong wooden shield reinforced with a metal rim, spokes, and a large central boss; six four-foot javelins secured in a special harness attached to the backside of the shield behind the arm holds; and two eight-foot spears with large, serrated metal blades. However, except for the cloak she wore from her native Erin, secured at one shoulder with a brooch of bronze, and the fact that she went bareheaded, she had adopted the dress of her native hosts.

  "Nonetheless," he persisted, "you seem to understand the Crusher better than we do." The "we" referred to his tribe, among whom Medb had been living for the past six years.

  "I have intimate knowledge of the Otherworld and its inhabitants, and I do not exaggerate. Though your culture is foreign to mine, our myths and legends seem to follow the same path."

  The warrior shook his head. "What you say goes beyond my understanding, but that matters little. It is more important that we have found it, and that you know its habits, or at least can accurately guess them. How do you suggest we proceed?"

  "You said there was a hunting lodge nearby?"

  He pointed down the slope to their right. "Yes, at the base of the ridge, built into the side of the hill." Then he realized her purpose in asking. "Surely you do not mean to spend the night there. Why delay? Let us go after it now, while we can still track it."

  Medb looked up at the sky. "No, it is getting late." And indeed the sky was darkening rapidly. "We could not reach the moor before nightfall, and I have no desire to navigate it in the dark. Do you? Besides, we need food and rest, and a plan of attack; we need time to prepare."

  "Very well, the lodge is this way."

  They walked down the slope. Once at the foot of the ridge they turned right and followed its length until they came to a wooden structure protruding from a particularly steep section of its face. Like the houses of T'lingit's village, it was square-shaped, built from wooden planks supported by a frame of log poles, with a low, gabled roof and no windows. The only entrance was round and slightly shorter than either of them, but covered by a thick, reinforced door. Inside was a single, small room, the floor covered in wood planks except for the central firepit. Around the perimeter was a raised platform, for sitting and sleeping. Above the firepit was a smoke hole, but the roof continued into the hillside along with the wooden walls, and a wooden wall formed the rear of the lodge. Despite the shape, interior design, and construction material, it reminded Medb of the dwellings in her native Erin, and she felt comfortable.

  She started a fire while T'lingit went hunting. She considered it an unnecessary risk, what with the Crusher prowling nearby. They had brought food with them, but he wanted fresh game. Medb relented mostly because she believed the creature would spend the night in the moor, waiting to see if they were foolish enough to follow it in after dark. Even so, what with the gloom of approaching dusk, the warrior did not go far, and returned with only three rabbits, which he had already gutted and skinned. Nonetheless, Medb was able to turn them into a splendid stew.

  With the fire burning well, the small space heated up quickly, so he stripped down to his loincloth. She did the same, except she wore nothing else under her shirt. He was neither disturbed nor aroused by her nakedness, since she had frequently gone nude in the house of his clan in the village. In that she was not alone; though the women seldom did
so, the men often went naked when comfort and circumstances permitted. That she emulated the men rather than the women was simply one of her many eccentricities his tribe had learned to accept. That evening though, as they sat after eating and discussed how best to find and kill the beast on its home ground, he found that things were different. Perhaps it was the camaraderie of their mutual pursuit; perhaps it was the closeness brought on by being in that cramped, warm space, or the fact that they were alone for the first time in six years. But now he found himself feeling attracted to her, as he would if she were his wife. As they talked, sitting close enough to catch each other's scent and feel each other's warmth, he could not resist touching and caressing her. Rather than be offended, she responded in kind, and it wasn't long before all thoughts of what they had come to do were banished in favor of other more lustful meditations. They spent the night in each other's arms, and had the Crusher itself ripped down the lodge they would not have cared.

  From "Man Friday

  Differel awoke. Her tiny portion of the