Knight in Amour

Queen's gambit

21/02/2008 02:45 The stable, Willowcombe manor.

The slave they call Stu comes round with a shock. He sits up panting for a moment in confusion. The stalls around him are unusually still and quiet, his fellow slaves appear all but lifeless. Still something has dragged him from his deep slumber. He pulls on the rough cloak Mistress Boon threw at him when he was dismissed from her sight earlier that evening and heads out into the night. Across the yard he can see the lights shining out of the temple windows but everything else is dark. He glances up at the moon but most of it is dark, the eclipse close to totality. He pauses trying to focus on what awoke him. He expects to feel his Mistresses summons but it is not there. Instead there is some other more niggling sensation, a yearning to be free that he had thought long dead. His eyes drop from the hidden moon and land on the Austin Martin. A smile creeps onto his face. This is a chance he knows may never come again, he has to take it.

'Stu' crosses the yard to the house, heading up the slaves stair case. Warren had said something about the car keys being in his clothes. The car belongs to his mistress so logically they should be in her rooms. He can hear the chanting noise from the temple rooms. The mistresses focused on their ceremony. Suddenly the reason for his new found freedoms becomes clear. The mistresses are focusing all their power on the magic they are performing. It leaves nothing to keep the slaves complaint. For a moment he considers trying to awaken the others, but he can not be sure which of them are willingly submissive to their mistresses. There is too much of a risk that they might alert to woman and he will loose his chance.

It does not take him long to locate the right room. A glance through the window reveals the moon is almost totally obscured. He can not be sure how much longer the ceremony will last, and there is too much a danger of being discovered. Warrens clothes are scattered over the floor, as if they have been recently disturbed. He grabs the jacket and searches through the pockets but there are no keys. In a half panic he checks the rest of the clothes but all he locates is a thin wallet and loose change. He sits back looking round the room. Mistress Morgan must have claimed the keys already. He can only hope she does not have them on her. He searches the draws and clothes hanging in the wardrobe but he can't see them. He is beginning to consider giving up and just risking the trees when there is a noise that shatters the silence of the house. A bestial roar that sets his heart racing in fear.The panic he felt when War looked at him with those predator eyes fills him again and it freezes him in place. It takes all his focus to move back away from the door. He stands staring at the portal expecting attack.

-
The women's chant grows louder, the magically power swirling through the air. The darkness drawing in around them as the light from the moon is slowly snuffed out. With in the sounds of their voices Kirsty can hear the cracking of wood and rustling of leaves. Livvy raises her arm, a spiral of light raising from it. It spins through the air, wrapping round the room. As their voices raise the strand of light tightens, drawing the darkness in towards the centre of their circle. As she stares into the blackness Kirsty can see shapes in it. The shadows of leaves, twigs, branches. It is as if the darkness of the forest has some how invaded the temple. Then she realises it has not invaded. The rite has called them in, and now using the light Livvy is entrapping it and preventing it from fleeing. She almost laughs for joy, realising how close they are to success. She lifts her eyes up towards the balcony. But the brightness of the entrapping cord of light makes it impossible to see her slave. She can only trust that he is obeying her and is waiting there.
The spiral moves, the darkness is pulled down towards the mirror. There is no moon light left now. The only light is that cast by Livvy's spell. Kirsty looks round the women, she can see the joy in their faces that their task is almost complete. The spiralling cord rings the mirror, holding the shaft of darkness over it. Through the brightness Kirsty can see the dark leaves swirling as if trapped in a dust devil. Beside her Garnette rises up on her tip toes and points up the the balcony.
"Slave. Come forward!"
Kirsty looks up she can see her slave staring down at them. He is crouched on the balcony railing, one hand gripping it to balance himself. The chant catches in her throat as she stares at him. His eyes are fixed on the dark pillar, his head thrust forward, his mouth slightly open, the light from the spell reflecting of his teeth and giving them the impression of fangs. The visage is even more bestial than before. Kirsty feels Garnette breath in to give her next command, but before she can speak War leaps. His hands stretching out as if to grab hold of the pillar. For a moment she fears in his confusion Warren has assumed it is a tree trunk and that he can grasp it. He passes into the darkness and she expects to see him emerge through the other side, but there is no sign of the man.
The light cord pulses and she feels an impact against her chest as if hit by a great wind.
Garnette cries in triumph. "We have him."
The cord tightens, pulling in around something now standing on the mirror. Through the brightness Kirsty can see the dark shapes being pushed into it. It writhes under the onslaught and for the first time Kirsty is hit with a deep sense of guilt as she realises it is Warren in there. The shape throws its head back, the jaw opening impossibly wide for a human anatomy. Then the room is filled with a bestial howl of agony.
The women step back, terrified by the noise. As they loose their grip on each other the light in Livvy's spell fails. In the sudden darkness all they can hear is a deep growling breathing. The noise rattling as if they are in the presence of some great cat. Slowly their vision recovers. The soft red light of the goddess filling the temple once more.
The coven stare in fear at the product of their magic, half afraid that the 'beast' may attack, but the shape on the mirror stand stills. Kirsty moves round before it. There is still some semblance of War in there, but his face is distorted by the shadows of mistletoe like tendrils and the shadows of oak leaves erupting from his nose, ears and mouth. The eyes follow her as she moves, the mouth opens and he growls softly.
"Kneel." She commands.
To everyone's relief, the beast obeys.

-

Stu shivers and shakes himself awake. The noise has faded and some how he knows it is only a short matter of time before the women finish with their ceremony. If he is found in a mistresses rooms he has no doubt that the women will kill him. He heads out into the corridor. The building is unusually dark. The eclipse making the sky an unearthly black. The only real illumination is coming from the temple, but he has no wish to go there. He fumbles forward, unsure of himself in the utter blackness. His hand collides against a vase of flowers out side Mistress Kirsty's room. He grasps it quickly before it can fall to the floor and give him away. As he stops it he hears something fall from it and 'tink' as it hits the wood before sliding off into the shadows. In the brief moment he sees it he doubts his eyes, fearing that his hope is causing hallucinations. The object looked very like a car key.
He places the case on the floor and moves forward slowly, feeling his way along the wood and the runner. Towards the temple, through the open door to the gallery he can hear voices of the women, not longer chanting but arguing. The prospect to being discovered makes him desperate. He crawls forward feeling for the key. In his panic he almost misses it. it is pushed up tight against the carpet runner. AS he closes his hand on it he sees a light in the main stair case. He crawls forward quickly but he knows he can not make the servants stairs before who ever is coming up sees him. He pushes open a bedroom door and crawls in quickly. All he can do is hope that the room is not the one the mistress is heading for and another opportunity to flee will present itself before he is discovered.