Aeva’s Challenge – IX

A tale of angels, demons and dragons…

Thor cleared his throat. “I wondered where all the berserkers went,” he said mildly, “so I went looking for Loki. Found him trying to release a certain wingless demon. I may have lost it a bit down there.”
Lucifer looked to Aeva to be torn between laughter and annoyance, in the end Thor looked so much like a schoolboy caught out in mischief that laughter won.
“Any fatalities?”
“Not that I remember. But there’s a few demons in an iron cage and that wingless bastard has more chains and something has stolen his voice.”
Lucifer pushed out his lip and nodded. “Seems entirely proportionate to me. But your child called.”
“So she did.” Thor looked at Gudrun. “Yes?”
“Seems to me that Draca here betrayed my brother, her husband, and anybody else that got in her way. I want to fight her.”
“No.” It wasn’t Thor who answered, it was Lord Draco. “I’m sorry demoiselle, but you would kill her in ten seconds. That is really nowhere near to the reparation she needs to make. When she has answered our questions and given up her wings I propose to take and chain her. There is a dog kennel outside my house…”
The full horror of what the guardian of half-breeds proposed hit Aeva like a battering ram and she staggered. Adamo braced her.
“Don’t think about it,” he advised, “that creature surely wouldn’t think about you.”
Gudrun stood for one moment with her head bowed. “Very well. A bargain. You can have the lizard woman in exchange for my brother.”
“I wish I could do that. But he was given to the draca by my…”
“Your bed creature,” Draca was awake but forbore struggling against her bonds. “You passed me by for that daughter of a toad and expected me to wait until it bored you. And not for the first time. Only this time I plotted my revenge on you and all the rest of the petty godlings.” She laughed, but it was a sound like the tearing apart of some animal’s vitals and it hurt to hear.
“Condemned out of your own mouth,” Athena shook her head. “These physical passions are not to be so indulged.” She pointed two fingers at Lord Draco, who gave vent to a strangled sob. “You’ll soon get used to it,” she said briskly, “and you’ll function much better without that small flap of skin.”
“Did she do what I just thought she did?” Adamo sounded as if his throat was suddenly dry.
“Yup,” Gudrun grinned at the shocked giant. “She has a bit of a thing about sex.”
“More accurately, not sex.” Aeva and Gudrun shared a purely female smile.
Thor was the first immortal to get himself together, and he shook his head like a dog coming out of a cold river. “Well. I suppose that’s one way out of a recurring dilemma, but aren’t you supposed to seek permission before you do stuff like that?”
Athena shrugged. “Nominally, yes. But who is going to argue?”
Lucifer shrugged. “Not my northern friend obviously. But I will do more than argue if you start waving that particular power about.”
“Me too,” Gabriel moved to stand beside his dark brother.
Athena looked at the pair of them and then shrugged. “Very well. But to business.” She turned her cold blue eyes to Aeva. “Are you sure about this Invigilator?”
Aeva shrugged. “We are taught that there is no such thing as a certainty, but I see no alternative. The berserkers want their princeling back and the draca won’t give him up without a fight…”
“Truly spoken. Lucifer, shall we?”
The Dark Guardian snapped his teeth together and strode to her side. They spoke quietly for a moment, before the sands became a hive of activity. Two hefty demons appeared with a bang and a very nasty smell, they dragged a third between them and its beak marked a deep groove in the ground. While the demons marked out the arena Athena raised one white arm and a red leather case materialised in her hand. She brought it to Aeva and opened it.
“Choose.”
Aeva took a short sword and an obsidian dagger.
The Guardian moved to where the struggling, sweating draca still strove to make the change to dragon form.
“Be still stupid creature and choose your weapons.”
“I will fight with my own claws.”
Lord Draco exerted himself. “Not permitted. You will not use poisoned claws in this arena. Unless, of course, your opponent’s blades are permitted to be as lethal as your claws.”
The draca seemed to shrink into herself. Athena tutted and there came a metallic sound as the draca’s venom-tipped claws dropped to the ground. A grinning imp with a dustpan and brush swept them up and disappeared.
The draca took a short stabbing spear and a jagged-edged sword. She held them as if unaccustomed to their weight, but Aeva wasn’t fooled. Those were not the choices of a novice fighter.
Adamo studied the draca for a moment. “Favours her left hand,” he murmured, “doesn’t seem to be a pose like the ineptitude. You be careful amata.”
“I shall. You and I have unfinished business.”
His smile sent a spark of heat to her belly that warmed her through.
The demons finished marking the ground and Athena called the combatants forward.
Aeva moved quietly to the indicated corner, feeling a presence behind her she turned to see Gudrun take station the regulation ten paces back.
“Your second at your service.”
Wondering who would second the draca, Aeva looked across to the opposite corner. The demoness, who held a towel and bucket, looked bored.
“Why don’t you have a bucket and a rag?”
Gudrun laughed. “I don’t figure it’s going to take you long enough to need a time out…”
Athena now sat on a tall chair with Lucifer and Gabriel on her left, while Lord Draco and Thor stood at her right hand.
The goddess spoke with profound formality. “This duel is sanctioned to the death. Winner to take custody of the mortal known as Ove Gunnarssen.”
A small silver gong appeared in the air in front of her and she struck it with one fingernail. It chimed pure and sweet and the draca leapt slashing with her sword as she landed. It was a prodigious jump and things would have gone ill for Aeva had she not moved with all the speed of the demon half of her ancestry. Coming from behind the enraged draca, she precisely nicked the tendons that kept the creature’s left wing pulled tight to her back. Unbalanced by the change in weight and angered by the sting of the cut the draca lowered her head to study Aeva.
“I was going to make this quick, but now you ssshall sssuffer.”
Aeva laughed and danced closer, flicking her sword at the reptilian face. The draca flinched backwards and all but lost her footing. She stabbed out with her spear, but Aeva was no longer there.
“Cowardly demon seed. Stand and fight.” But even in her anger the draca was obviously a seasoned battler and she began to use her superior size and strength to bully Aeva towards one of the neutral corners where she would be trapped by the magical barriers and at the mercy of draconic fury.

Aeva’s Challenge by Jane Jago will conclude next week.