The Dark Blooded Duchess. Ep1

The seconds that pass feel like torture. I don’t know why the hound didn’t make a move, but it was abundantly clear that my moving is an issue for him. Perhaps he’s been spelled to trap and not kill. Perhaps.

Yeah and perhaps you’re half-angel and you’ll go to heaven when it rips you apart. drolls my second shadow.

Well, that was completely unnecessary. I say, irritably.

Slowly I look at Cora and give her the slightest nod.

She confirms with a wink. Before I know it, a sharp chunk of Ice is hurled at the general area above me.

Go! I order the shadows Blind it for as long as you can.

The ice hits home and a roaring whine is my queue to leap as far up as my little human legs can shove me. The whine quickly turns to growls.

Cora’s hand grabs me, pulling me up to salvation as hell seems to want nothing more than to gobble me up. The physical pressure may very well rip my arms out of their sockets, but then I’m weightless, floating and bending through the air. On instinct I bend my knees, bracing.

Too late.

The hound manages to jump up at me, I see the gleaming fangs, the only thing of the giant creature that is not all black and that is not at all comforting since it has pieces of skin and soul stuck in its teeth.

Something slashes into my leg and hell burns through me. I was so caught up with its fangs I didn’t notice the claws. The pain subsides before I can think about it.

I form a curse word in my mind but then I crash to the floor and the ice is just the cold, hard reminder that I could curse much better spontaneously.

‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m something’ I groan, separating my face forcefully from the ice I’d planted in.

The hound scratches and jumps at the crevice. The force of it knocks ice and soot from the walls.

‘It’s going to get us caught!’ Hisses Cora.

‘Yeah we need to get it put down before it howls’ I try my best to straighten up but the human part of my body has been weakened substantially by the scratch. Since my bodies have not yet magically fused, I don’t experience as much pain as I should but what I do feel is enough to dissuade me from putting my weight on that leg.

‘Howling would be bad’ says Cora.

An understatement really, when a hell hound howls it summons all the hounds nearby to assist it in its mission. The problem with that is that even though this hound has been ordered not to kill, it doesn’t guarantee that the others will have to abide by such an order.

‘Where in the heavens is my bag? ’ somewhere in the pole-vaulting act, it flew off of my back and crash-landed somewhere. I think.

Cora, being godly tall spots it in a dark corner of the empty icy cave and retrieves it.

I’m instantly grateful that I had the good sense to place a protection spell on the bag long before packing it.

Everything was intact, not exactly how I’d packed it but nothing was broken so I’d call that a win.

I had to rummage around a bit but I got my hands on a red hex bag.

‘Yes!’ I say ‘Cora, assist me!’

She does, she picks me up and sets me down right at the crevice. I stick my head out in time to see a drooling, gaping, toothy maw coming right at me.

Grinning, I drop the hex bag as I whisper the incantation ’exitio - silencio’

I duck.

There was the slightest whimper from below and I didn’t need to look to know that the hound had kind of exploded a little bit.

Not going to lie, as a witch, I just might be a total badass.

Even if I had to be picked up like a babe.

’Next time I ask for help, Cora’ I glare at her ‘you could just keep me steady with your hand or something’

Cora, who looks as confused as I’ve ever seen her snaps back to her bladed tung self, leaving me to wonder for the millionth time just what is going on in that head of hers.

‘It was faster’ she shrugs ‘as a human you’re slow. So very, very slow.’

Before I could answer her she adds ‘now what?’

I bend over assessing the damage to my leg ‘There’s not much blood. I will take care of it when we’re on the other side’

Cora frowns ‘And you know how to do that?’

‘Of course, I do’ I say, straightening up ‘Cora if you’d be so kind as to fetch me a bone of that hound that I can use as a cane.’

Her lizard-like eyes widen in disbelief.

’Now please’ I say and the order jerks her into motion ‘before the thing reconstitutes’

Cora disappears through the crevice, not very gracefully, I might add, then she curses and curses me specifically before she reappears with a bone of a suitable length.

‘Femur?’ I ask

‘Ankle bone’ she says. Well yeah, I’m small.

It reaches to above my hip bone. Perfect, except that it’s still covered in black blood. Luckily no tendons or meat, hell hounds are mostly magic, blood, and a skeleton.

I wipe the blood off on Cora’s coat.

She pulls a face ‘Well thanks’

‘Yeah’ I say, already planning the next task in my head. I grasp the still warm bone and limp on ‘come on’

Shadows. I call are you okay.

Slowly the reply comes We’re here. Tired.

Rest I say You’ve traveled too far from me. Return to my psyche, so you’ll be safely transported through.

Alright, they say in a ghostly way we’ll see you soon.

We reach the ice wall with a massive, intricate spiral embedded in it.

‘This is it. This is Anima cribrum.’ I say to Cora ‘get me my bag’