End of the Banquet 2
authors: spiffy/stana
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 17:54:14 EDT

***

Garrick pulled his stiletto from the throat of a 6th army soldier and
headed off towards where he had last seen Finn.  The attack on the
S'kae palace was a much better diversion than the one he had arranged
(the gang war he'd planned out wouldn't have occurred until about an
hour from now), but the invaders getting in his way too often for him
to follow his quarry easily.

***

"This way, Ambassador!"  Elainas and Finn were being led by two palace
guards who had rallied to them at the onset of the attack.  Three more,
including the one assigned to guard Finn, followed close behind to fend
off anyone who followed.

They'd been needed all too often already - not one of them was without
some type of injury.  They wouldn't be able to stand against a
determined attack, and they knew it.  Therefore, they were devoting
their efforts towards getting their charges out of harm's way.

Safe haven presented itself as a thankfully unoccupied guest room,
which they all piled into, bolting the door behind them.

"Are we safe here?"  Finn flexed his fingers around the hilt of his
sword, and wished once more that he had a staff instead.  He have more
experience with a staff, and was less likely to kill an ally with a
misplaced blow.

"We should be,"  The oldest of the guards said, "There's no secret
entrances to this room, and we're three stories up, which makes it
unlikely they'll come through the window.

"Will, Crom, stay here and make sure no one gets through.  The rest of
you, we've a palace to defend."

The guards snapped to attention, and headed out.  None of them wanted
to say they's spent the attack in hiding while their comrades were
killed in battle.

***

  Stana turned, dodging another arrow with a preternatural
awareness. Her mind was blank to what was actually happening, her body
operating without her consciousness.
       Suddenly Teri's words sunk in and she ran, not realizing the
other girl was not following. She broke through a section of the
heaving crowd, shoving through the panicked masses; and almost into the
arms of the soldiers wearing the foreign armor of the attackers. They
all turned as one, and advanced, swords drawn, featureless helms
bearing the same remote, mirror like look. She began to backpedal, but
her feet tangled in her dress.
    "No!!" Stana shouted, falling back against the ground. She hit
hard, gasping at the pain and throwing her arms out in warding as her
face slid  against the grass.
    There was a rumbling under foot as she snapped her head back in
sudden agony flooding through her. The pendant was digging into her
skin,  wedged between her breastbone and the ground.
    With a bass moan, a small impact wave of earth rippled outward from
where she lay, spraying dirt and blades of grass into the air. There
was no relief from the power using her body as a conduit, no reprieve.
Stana arched her back, jaw clenched as the tremors grew worse. Raw
power ripped through her body, raping hands tearing her insides. She
might have screamed, but she couldn't be sure, it was too hard to hear
herself amongst the chaotic noise around.
    There was a disharmonic song shattering against her eardrums, a
terrible *pushing* sensation beating all around. Her head was pounding
with an internal pressure. She felt like her whole body was ripping
apart, she lay there hanging between pain and oblivion, and couldn't
move. She felt the pressure building to climax. And then suddenly,
amidst the hurricane, it broke.
     The sudden release was staggering. The utter silence hurt far more
after the insane noise of moments before. Stana lay sobbing against the
moist, tussled earth. There was a sharp, tangy scent in her nose, and
against the smell she began to choke, retching dryly into the ground.
Her hands were clenched into the rent earth, and she saw the red clay
of the earth, and then she realized what that smell was.
      Her eyes flashed behind her and she covered her mouth with
filthy, torn hands.
      The first few bodies were mangled beyond recognition. One was
half interred by the earth, swallowed with only the face and part of
one arm protruding.  Another was impaled grotesquely puppet like by
several rocky outcroppings. Twin stalagmites through the chest and
mouth, the back of his skull was lifted, the gray matter revealed
underneath quivering its last.
       The other two were by far the most metaphysically horrific. The
one was overrun with moss and flowers, the strands of flora wrapping
from head to foot in a gruesome garland. From within the leaves and
vines, the soldier's eyes bulged from the pale, swelling face. The
tongue protruded, almost in a mockery of her, the flesh was turning
purple.
       But it was the last human her eye alighted on that sent her
crashing dizzily back to the ground. It was the image that would launch
her from her sleep in screaming hysterics for days to come.  The
pulsing tumble of roots and weeds were vaguely human in shape, and
moving.  The final soldier was still alive, and trying to fight free of
the killing, blood drinking roots.
       Teri and several of S'kae's  soldiers rounded the hilltop in
time
to see Stana bend over suddenly and vomit into the grass.
+++++++++++++++
-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Garrick molded himself into the shadows of an alcove as three guards
came out of a nearby door and ran off, with the distinctive sound of a
bolt being thrown in place behind them.  He recognized one of them as
the guard who had been guarding Finn earlier, so it was easy enough to
reason that Finn was in the room right now.

All he needed was an entrance...

+++++++++++++++