(Continued from Ch 43, Shadow Land)

The Chronicles of Rapina
Chapter 44, The Best Laid Plans


Spring had brought with it the prospect of new battles between Avengene and the orcs, and with it renewed forays to collect bodies. Already Rapina had been on two collection missions, one of which had necessitated a run through the shadow plain to reach the destination. Thane's new spell had been quite handy, allowing the group to reach the location of the battle, consecrate a graveyard and then use it to bring in skeletal horses and body-collecting skeletal soldiers via the graveyard mists spell.

By this time Rapina had mastered a small repertoire of cantrips and a relatively long-lasting mage-sight spell called "first sight" that let her see magical emanations. She had also attained a certain degree of adeptness with her energy draining and channeling spell variations. The last of these that she was able to perfect was the mouth-full version of her channeling spell. Thanks to her new channeling spell, if her lover came in her mouth, she swallowed more than his cum.

It was late afternoon, morning for Rapina. She had risen a bit early, made breakfast, put it on to warm, then disrobed to give Uhler his morning wash. She was now practicing her channeling spell. Moans, suckles and smacks came from her mouth as she swallowed a great portion of Uhler's cock and rode her mouth and throat up and down. She was hungry and she could feel the energy in him building and building. She began the sequence of sounds and caressed his backside to shape the minor magic she was weaving. Rapina shuddered as more than the shaman's cum bolted down her throat. His energy surged down into her loins then back up her spine, into her heart and from thence it radiated into her breasts to join her reserves. 

Thane poked his death-masked head into the lab. "Did you get something out of that?"

Still kneeling before the shaman, Rapina turned her head and smiled. Just a bit of cum dribbled over her full lips. She had swallowed the rest. "Yes, I took a segment from the drain spell, and I now use it to channel the natural energy of my lovers to hit just the right spot. It's the only cantrip I can do with my mouth full. The entire drain spell is too difficult for me to shape with something in my mouth. Would you like me to demonstrate my new channel spell on you?" Rapina grinned lustily.

"That won't be necessary,"  Thane said.

Rapina giggled and shook her head. She stood up, giving Uhler an affectionate rub under the chin. I can't imagine how you stand to do without sex, Kroz. I suppose it's time for breakfast and our lesson. Rapina grabbed the deep purple panties and bustier she had chosen for this morning's breakfast service, and put them on. Then she joined Thane as he walked back towards the lounge.

"Your choice of fashion certainly doesn't make celibacy any easier, my dear," Thane said.

Rapina grinned, "Maybe not, but I enjoy your lust and Rames as it tingles through me, besides it's not like I'm just teasing you. Since I have two regular lovers, I have much better control and a channeling spell and variations that give me more flexibility than I ever used to have. I need not take any more than a man gives naturally if that's what worries you, and I won't try to bend your mind anymore than it's already bent."

Thane gave Rapina's full moon a swat, "You're saying my mind is already bent, Vixen?"

Rapina squealed and danced to the other side of the necromancer at which time she grabbed his skeletal left hand from behind and pressed the fingers into the right cheek of her derriere. 

Thane stiffened involuntarily.

"Well you are a little undead, and a necromancer," Rapina said.

"You have no idea what that feels like to that hand," Thane said.

"I can imagine, though," Rapina said. "I'll bet it feels like a flood of life force, something your hand lacks but craves. Yet if you killed me as most undeads seem to be wont to do, you would get only a brief moment where you felt more life force, and then nothing. It's so sad. Skeletons would really be better off just giving friendly little squeezes. You could immerse your bone in my flesh."

Thane groaned at Rapina's play on words.

"Do you avoid sex because you fear you would kill me because of your undead hand or because you might loose your objective perspective? If it's your perspective you think you would loose, is it really fully objective where I'm concerned anymore?"

"Are you saying I am in love with you?" Thane asked.

"Not exactly. You react to my body, but that's just lust and you dismiss it as meaningless. Your fondness stems from your appreciation of my budding intellect, not from other budding things. That's really very impressive. Most women would think you a rare gem because you did not just see them as an object of desire. I think it's sweet too, but I also appreciate men who think of me as an object of desire more than most women do, for obvious reasons."

"This fondness you think I have, do you see it in the cold light of your own ability to see men as little more than food?" Thane asked.

"Oh come now, you are attributing a cold, calculating manner to me. It is true I can think that way. I have a good teacher, but I happen to be quite fond of the men I make love with, all of them, especially those I see on a regular basis. Just because I get something out of our liaisons, doesn't make it a cold business transaction, anymore than a man's getting something out of it necessarily causes the same attitude. Perhaps I am just projecting my fondness of you as a great wit and fine teacher to reflect back on me. Maybe you really have no feeling for me at all, chess master," Rapina said.

"Thane chuckled, "The matter is academic. I am a mortancer. Whether I am fond of you or not is immaterial. I must do what is best for the cause whether I like it or not. The future of our church and hundreds, even thousands of lives rest on my shoulders, and to serve their needs I must retain a great deal of objectivity. 

Consider Daelrath, what are the odds that such a man would side with a mortancer? True we offer him a vastly better deal than Avengene, but our methods run against the man's grain. Without you, my dear, Daelrath would be in Avengene's pocket. The Order knows that full well, and that is exactly why you are now a full member."

"I see your point. Perhaps since you are my teacher I think of you as superhuman. I have always thought of your objective judgment as something that you would exercise no matter what. If I would warp your judgment too much, I guess it's just as well you don't get too close to me," Rapina said.

"You are also young enough to be my daughter, perhaps even my granddaughter if I stretched it," Thane said.

Rapina grinned. "True, but that seldom stops a man."

Thane swatted Rapina's rump again as they entered the kitchen nook. Rames was already there serving himself up a bowl of oatmeal.

"Good morning-afternoon, naughty." Rames held aside his bowl of oatmeal while he embraced Rapina with his other arm. Good morning Guardian Thane, is this wench giving you trouble?" Rames grinned.

Thane took his death mask off and smiled, "She is a creature of lust, as ever," Thane said.

"Oh, she's wondering why she can't have you the two or three nights of the week that she makes me rest up," Rames said.

"Indeed," Thane replied.

Rames chuckled. "I'm not even going to touch that one. If you were a soldier I'd rib you good, but your role is different, so I figure you must have your reasons." 

"Yes," Thane said.

Rapina set Thane's oatmeal down in front of him, Then took the omelet out of the warm oven where she had hidden it and set it out on a platter. She gave each person a plate and sat down.

"You know you are a quite a vixen, Rapina, but I cannot complain about your work or your cooking. For a moment, I thought we would simply have oatmeal, but I should have known better. You always feed us better than we would feed ourselves, and serve us in the finest lingerie fashions of Argos."

"There's nothing like Rapina in Argosian fashions to get your heart started." Rames grinned saltily."

"At least we know we living men," Thane smiled. "Tell me, how are things going with your bestowal spell?"

Rapina sighed. "I can practically do the prescribed syllables and gestures in my sleep, but I have not been able to get it to work."

"Hmm, show me your technique after breakfast and I will give you some things to try so that you can narrow it down. I believe your knowledge and command of the drain spell is more than sufficient, but bestowal is something a little new for you, and it requires more power than what you are used to mustering. I do believe it within your capability now. We simply need another breakthrough," Thane said.

A few hours later as dusk approached, Thane found his living servitors as they came in from weapons practice.

"I have been doing my daily skrying, and there is a battle going on at one of the half-reconstructed forts in Avengene. The orcs appear to be winning. Wash up, a few hours after dark when things settle down we must prepare to make a run through the shadow plane from the nearest graveyard. Presently we do not have a graveyard near enough to this fort."

A few hours later the shadowy forms of Thane, Rames, Rapina, Elizabetta, and two reaving skeletons arrived at the scene of the battle.

"That is odd," Thane's shadowy voice echoed. "There are some recent dead here but just before we left tonight, I checked my magic pool and the orcs were busy looting."

"It could be cavalry arrived more recently. There are a few dead mounts," Rames said.

"Indeed, it might be that the Avengenes sent out a rider at the very beginning of the battle and received cavalry reinforcements at the very end of the battle, yet there is no one on the battle site. I suspect the Avengenes would have held this fort if they had won, but the orcs may have left the scene," Thane said.

"The cavalry men have been stripped of loot, so I would say the orcs must have weathered the reinforcements. Perhaps they fled for fear of further reinforcements," Rames said.

"I concur. We must search in a wide circle around the fort before we come out of the shadow plain. I have no desire to be set upon by more Avengene reinforcements or orcs, although I wonder if sane men would try to fight orcs at night, since the orcs can see in the dark and they cannot. It could be that both sides have camped. The humans because they cannot see, and the orcs because they are licking their wounds from a tough battle. We must see if we can filch the bodies before either group decides to check out the fort. Let us first scout." 

From the plain of shadow, the group was able to cover a great deal of ground rapidly. They found no one near the ruins of the fort.

"Let us make our graveyard here. We are only two hundred yards from the fort, yet the foliage is thick between it and us. Here, however we have a more open area where our train of skeletal horses could move easily," Thane said.

"Elizabetta, you will be perimeter sentry. Reavers you will be guarding our immediate area. Rames, and Rapina you will dig the graves and plant the bagged skeletons. I will cast darkness on each of us as a precaution. Let us hustle, we do not want to encounter scouts without the full complement of guards we normally have when using the graveyard mists spell for transport. Thane pronounced the syllables to end the shadow spell for each of his servitors.

Rames handed short swords from his pack to the two reaving skeletons and then took up a small shovel he had hanging on the side of the pack.

As soon as she was corporeal again, Rapina drew a small shovel from her back and began digging furiously, as did Rames.

Thane cast a darkness spell on Elizabetta, and then did vision in darkness on himself and his living servitors before casting darkness on them as well. 

After getting the darkness spell cast on her, Elizabetta took her weapons belts from Thane's shoulders. Since she had no aura, the necromancer had to carry her things while they were in the shadow plane.

When he completed the casting, Thane drew a bagged skeleton from his pack and tossed it into Rames' first finished hole. Because the bagged skeletons were so compact, the graves were small, only about a foot in diameter and two feet deep. Thane drew a second skeleton from Rames' pack and tossed it into the warrior's second hole at about the same time as Rapina drew a bagged skeleton from her pack and tossed it into her first finished hole. 

Rapina had just started digging when Rames came over to displace her. She knew he was the faster digger so she went to the other holes and quickly began to bury the skeletons Thane had planted. Rapina was kitty-corner from Rames and Thane when she heard it, the sound of rapidly approaching hoof-beats. "A horse," Rapina whispered.

"We must take no chances. Rames, you will serve as our beachhead in the shadow plain. Stand here where the moonlight filters through the trees. If there is time we will consecrate, if not we will make a clean escape," Thane said.

Thane pronounced the words of the shadow gate spell. Rames stepped back and disappeared. At about that moment, Elizabetta entered the clearing. 

An orc galloped past not twenty yards from Rapina, his horse bearing the blood-splattered tack of the Avengene cavalry.

"Elizabetta, you must remain on the perimeter to run interference if need be. Should we get separated, preserve yourself and I shall pick you up when I can. Reavers, get behind that tree and guard me only if I am about to be attacked," Thane ordered.

Elizabetta moved into the trees. 

Rapina had already buried two of the holes, and she could hear more horses coming.

Thane hid behind a thick tree and motioned Rapina away from the holes to do likewise.

Nine cavalrymen galloped by in the direction of the orc.

Thane waited for a minute as the hoof-beats receded into the distance. "Quickly," he whispered.

Rapina burried the second last hole while Thane buried the last, pushing the dirt in with his feet. She had just finished when Thane started with the consecration.

"Hail Mortaebius guardian of the dead, we the dead who lie here entreat thee, hallow this ground that we may rest," Thane intoned.

Rapina had never heard the first prayer of consecration said quite so rapidly or so softly. "Hail Mortaebius, keeper of the deceased, we the living entreat thee, hallow this ground that the dead be held in thy embrace, to rise only in the direst need."

"Hearken, ye buried and departed, to the power of Mortaebius coursing through thy rotting flesh and bones," Thane intoned.

"Hearken, ye living to the call of thy ancestors in Mortaebius' embrace, and know his power will preserve thee, until death takes life's grace," Rapina whispered.

"And thus we close the circle, life and death, the cycle is complete." Thane and Rapina completed the consecration.

Rapina heard a twig snap, a whisper in the wind and then suddenly she was blinded by bright light. She drew her blades and backed towards the nearest tree blinking as she did. She could hear men coming from all sides. By the time she could see anything they were practically on top of her. She had missed the nearest tree and was actually behind and beside it. There were two men coming across the graveyard from the front and two coming through the trees from her flanks. 

Thane had retreated behind a tree on the other side of the graveyard. He took his light enspelled cape, balled it up and tossed it towards the enemy casters as he put a tree between them and him. The cape had been illuminated by the second of two light spells that had hit him. The first had dispelled his darkness spell and the second had left a spot on his cape glowing brightly. 

Rapina realized the side of her cloak hood had a brightly glowing spot on it. The men across the open area had cast light spells. Originally there had been four, now one was part of the advance, three remained; she could hear the droning of their voices. She hopped quickly to her left and turned, putting a tree between them and her, cutting off their line of sight. Rapina knew there were too many of them. She would have to draw them so Thane would have time to escape. She began repeating the words to the drain spell and waving her blades appropriately. She knew she could not cast the spell without her fingers shaping the power, but perhaps they did not.

"Caster over here!" a soldier of Avengene shouted.

A man came from the forward right and another directly from the right. The reavers met the two men and blade rang on blade.

"Undead!" A cavalryman hollered as one of the reavers engaged him.

Thane heard the casters running to draw a bead on Rapina, whose apparent spell-casting was just loud enough for them to hear. The necromancer jumped forward and to the right, skirting the battle between the reavers and two of the Avengenes. There was a tree on the right side of the graveyard. The light from his tossed-off cape was hitting it so it cast a deep shadow. With his back to that shadow, Thane began casting.

Rapina dove forward between two men about to surround her. She came up standing and ran. She could hear a caster droning and both warriors chasing her. She tried to put trees between them and her. Unfortunately, the warriors were right on her heals.

From the corner of his eye, Thane realized that one of the casters had held himself in reserve. He had moved towards Rapina's side of the graveyard but he had not actually run forward to intercept her, as the other two had. He pointed at Thane and drew in his breath. Thane held to his iron discipline and continued casting. If the man had a quicker spell, Thane must suffer the consequences.

The priest of the vindicator raised his hands and in the commanding voice of a word of power shouted d--. A crosbow bolt transfixed his throat from behind, sundering his Adams apple and ruining his spell. He choked on his own blood and collapsed.

Thane took a step backwards into the plain of shadow.

Reverend Juston slowed the shaping of his spell, trying to time the release for when the enemy appeared briefly between trees. He saw the runner and loosed.

Rapina squawked, as her feet seemed to stick to the ground. She could not lift them, but she could slide them enough to twist, although it was not easy. She wanted to remove a packet of dust of disenchantment from her belt pouch, but she could hear that she would have no time. She half turned, have twisted. One of the pursuing warriors was about to run her through, This is going to hurt, Rapina told herself as she crossed her blades and deflected the warrior's sword over her head. She might have blocked it aside, but that would have risked the other warrior running her through. This way the first one served as a shield. "Uuu! she groaned as the man bashed into her and landed her on her back. 

"The rogue is held, lieutenant Harms!"

"I yield," Rapina groaned as loud as she could, considering she had no wind left in her belly after having been crashed into.

Harms rolled off the enemy and quickly got to his feet. The soldier's voice was not at all what he had expected, and the feel when he crashed into the man had been peculiar. He looked at the enemy's breastplate. "It is a woman. Drop your weapons and keep your hands where I can see them," Harms said.

Rapina sat up and dropped her blades.

"Herald Bode, keep a blade on that one," Lieutenant Harms ordered.

The first soldier ran towards the battle with the reaving skeletons, as did the other men of Avengene. She could hear the priests casting. One of the priests stopped and fell headlong.

"Sniper! Reverend Deam is down! The lieutenant whistled loudly, "Let's get the horses back. If we can't find that sniper we are in trouble, but the men should be here soon. I see a spot of darkness over there I think."

Rapina saw bits of the battle through the trees. Lieutenant Harms was fighting as he yelled comments and orders. He was obviously good at what he did. He and a man in leather armor brought a reaver down, but the other reaver killed a mailed soldier before the lieutenant and his partner were able to come to the soldier's aid.

Reverend Rhymes started casting but then stopped, "The spot of darkness is gone."

"We've got one of your people, desist or we shall slay her!" Harms hollered, and then he spoke to his partner at arms; "You take the skeleton warrior's back, Parkman, and we will have him down in no time."

The reverend Juston droned a spell and then accented the last words, "and SMITE thee in the name of the vindicator!"

Rapina saw the reaver stagger as blast of force hit it, but it kept fighting. She heard the sound of hoofbeats. A single rider pulled a string of nine horses. Reverend Rhymes was casting a spell that sounded suspiciously like the one that reverend Juston, who had immobilized her, had just cast against the reaver. Had it not been for the Harold's blade at her throat she would have used the dust of disenchantment in her belt pouch to free herself, but she was stuck.

"... and SM--Aagh. The reverend fell over with a bolt sticking from the base of his skull.

While the lieutenant held his own against the reaver, he enabled the scout behind the monster to carve it to pieces. Rapina saw the man push his helmet back and wipe the sweat off his brow when the battle was done.

"Reverend Juston, get in among the horses!" Harms ordered. "I think the sniper is after the priests. Has anyone seen reverend Clemont?"

Rapina saw the light on the lieutenant's helmet directed towards where the priests had cast their first volley of light spells.

"Damned sniper got Clemont!" Scout Parkman, gather up that cape as a light and use the shovel there. I want to know what's in those holes. Maybe it will tell me who the hell these rogues are."

Rapina heard the sound of men marching, several dozen men by the sounds of it, and they were close. "So much for being rescued by Elizabetta," she brooded. 

"Is there any reason I shouldn't kill you, witch, to make good on my threat?" Lieutenant Harms asked.

Rapina shrugged. "I cannot command it to stop it's assassinations, if that's what you're asking. The real power left with the one who vanished. If you knew more about spell-casting, you would have known it was impossible for a warrior with blades in her hands to cast spells."

Harms frowned as he realized he'd fallen for the witch's misdirection, "It?"

Rapina nodded, "A monster similar to the warriors you just fought, but an assassin."

"Mayhap my superiors will want to question you." Harms picked up Rapina's blades and made her give him her equipment belt. He strode back to the horses to stow her gear and threw some manacles from his saddlebags to the Harold who put them on Rapina's ankles and on her hands behind her back. Reverend Juston poked his head out from behind cover to release her from his spell, and then she was marched into the midst of the infantrymen who had just arrived. They poked, prodded, punched and kicked her forward in an attempt to make her keep up with the double-time march in spite of her manacles. She kept falling down.

"This stupid woman keeps falling down!" a soldier growled.

Harms rode into the midst of the men. "Toss her over my saddle. We don't have all night, we have a fort to rescue."

A burly soldier threw Rapina over the lieutenant's saddle like a sack of potatoes. Now she would not fall, at least not if she didn't slide off the horse. Of course, she could not help sliding, but maybe that wasn't so bad.

Harms reached down and placed a hand on the woman's rump to keep her from sliding. He could tell she had a nice set even through the black bear fur cloak she wore. "They sure are building better witches these days," he thought sourly.

Rapina could feel the officer's lust. It was not too bad for a man of the vindicator. The priests were usually more twisted. She tugged at it ever so subtly as the infantry approached the ruined fort.

"Too late! Look at this mess! Harms said. "It looks like the cavalry got here, but they were not enough. Another hour, maybe two faster and we'd have saved the day."

The fort only had two stone walls and one was only three feet tall except near where it joined the other. There it was six feet tall. The better stone wall was about ten feet tall. The wooden stockades that had served as temporary walls had burned to the ground.

Put my command post in the corner! Get a detail together and cut some trees! We need four walls not two! Reverend Juston, can you get us some more light? Parkman, where is that sorcerer's cape with the light on it? Waste not, want not. Sims, give me your cloak. This witch has one about your size, with a spot of light on the side of the hood from our priests. You can trade her for as long as it lasts. The lieutenant dismounted, pulled Rapina down and stepped on the chain between her ankles. He unchained Rapina's wrists from behind and traded her cloak for a soldier's, and then he re-manacled her wrists behind her and spun her around to button the new cloak. Harms raised his eyebrows. The witch's breastplate was custom formed, but it had more chest room than she probably needed. 

Harms hoisted Rapina back over his horse and rode around barking orders, "Make me a tripod of steaks, nice and broad-based, with a crotch we can stick a big rock in." The lieutenant squeezed Rapina's rump. "See that big rock by the wall, reverend, it's mostly white. Give me as much light on it as you can, especially in a ring around the middle. I want to put it in the tripod up on top of the highest wall as a beacon. If there are still any orcs around here, I want to be able to see them."

Rapina saw why Rames respected Avengene's military machine. With officers like Harms, it was no wonder he had been so successful against the orcs. In a few minutes, a man on the wall hoisted a large tripod of stout wooden steaks up onto the highest corner of the wall. Rapina watched as reverend Juston cast a couple of light spells on the large white rock, and then walked to the wall and handed it to a soldier who handed it up to another soldier on the higher wall. The soldier put the rock in the stand and began to climb down from the wall. Suddenly the light flickered out and reverend Juston stiffened as a black crossbow bolt transfixed his skull. Dust wafted down from the wall on Rapina's side as Elizabetta hit the ground on the opposite side of the finished wall. Somehow the assassin had snuck up there, and hid just below the rim of the wall. Once the soldier had put the rock in place and left, she had sprinkled the dust of disenchantment and brought her bow to bear on the caster of the light spells.

"Shit!" Harms slapped Rapina's butt hard. "What is that thing?"

"Ow! It's an undead assassin, and I think it decided the priests were the ones most dangerous to it. Its master told it to, 'run interference if necessary.' It was a very vague order, so it is hard to say what it will do. I'm sorry you didn't just miss us. No one would have died if you had."

"Well that takes care of that, we don't have any fucking priests left! Harms trotted around the wall to see if there was any sign of the assassin."

"Damn priest had a see magic spell running, saw some magic shadows, and you turned out to be in them. How old are you anyway?" Harms asked.

"Seventeen," Rapina said.

"Have you been a witch for your whole li-"
-------

This ends, The Best Laid Plans, chapter 44 of The Chronicles of Rapina.
The story continues in chapter 45, An Unfriendly Wager.

Copyright 2001 by Rapina