Dark Queen: The Cybelline Prophecies

Chapter 11

"You coward!" Someone in the audience shouted. Gargan looked the Headman, "Do ye object?" 

The headman opened his mouth, but Myrai said quickly, "If he wants to challenge me headman, I have no objections." The headman frowned, "Myrai, yer a woman. Women ain't fit for fighin." Myrai merely shrugged.

The headman turned to Ithos, "Ye should talk some sense into her. Tell her to stop this silliness." Ithos nodded seriously, his face a mask of serious contemplation"Yer right headman, my wife needs talkin' to ." 

He turned to Myrai and smiled like a lackey "Wife, ye should do what ye want to do. I'll support ye either way."

The headman put his head in his hands and sighed, "Ye both are taking years off my life." 

Myrai ignored them and walked over to where Cybelline, Ryion, Berin and Isthan stood. She knelt down by her quietest boy, "Isthan, yer injured, how do ye feel?" Isthan said nothing, his jaw was set in a stubborn line. Ryion looked at his brother and sighed, "Sorry Ma."  Myrai smiled and shook her head, "None of ye did anythin' wrong."  

She looked to Berin and Ryion, "Take Isthan to healer Orta, she'll fix 'im up quick." Berin and Ryion nodded and walked the little boy away. She gripped Cyblline's shoulder as she passed.

"Can she win?" Cybelline asked Yoni quietly. Yoni thought for a moment, "I don't know." He admitted, "The only women who I heard fight are the ones from legends. There was a group of female knight a long time ago, but Myrai ain't a knight." 

Cybelline look at the woman. She looked no different from an average housewife, but there was something about the way she moved that made Cybelline think there there was more to her than meets the eye.

Soon a place was cleared in the square and the two contenders walked on. Myrai had changed into a pair of pants that had wide bottoms. Gargan walked on with two butcher knives and grinned savagely. 

"Are ye going to fight me barehanded?" Gargan's belly shook with laughter, "This match won't last two minutes." 

Myrai stretched, "No I have a weapon. But I agree,  it's going to be a quick." She looked at Ithos, "I brought my hammer. Can ye get it, love?" 

Ithos nodded solemnly, "Say no more." He trotted away.

Gargan spat the ground, "What are ye going to do with a hammer? Build me a chair?" He laughed, the headman rang bell. "Tis the start of the challenge. From here are on out, ye must fight until one yields or dies. The victor will take all that is promised." 

People crowded around to the the tower of a man, Gargan, face off the housewife Myrai.

Myrai inspected her nails, "Headman, is it too late to forfeit now?" 

The headman sighed and nodded, "Yes. Yer too late. The bell has rung." Gargan's grin was widder, "Are ye scared? If ye'd forfeit, I'll leave ye a whole body fer burial" Some people in the audience rumbled with anger. 

Myrai shook her head, "I wanted to make sure that ye can't back out before ye see my weapon." 

Gargan's voice was smug, "Stupid woman. I'll split ye in two fer bein' so disrespectful ter me."  

But the grin on his face faded as he watched Ithos walk back with a huge weapon over his shoulder. 

The hammer was made of pure black material, and five feet in length. One end curved dangerously like a long scythe that morphed into a hammer head, only it was the size and width of a man's head.

"A war hammer?" Cybelline said quietly, it was the biggest war hammer she'd ever seen and could easily weigh up to two hundred pounds. Cybelline looked at the dainty woman while Yoni and every villager's mouth fell open. 

Gargan's face looked as if he ate fresh manure, "W-W-W-What is that thing?" Ithos grunted with effort and set it down on the ground, the staff end thudded on the ground and cracked the stone. 

Myrai patted Ithos' cheek, "Thank ye." 

She gripped the black staff, Cybelline noted that there were grooves on the staff that fit the woman's hand perfectly. Myrai smiled, "Are ye ready?" She lifted the hammer over her head and twirled it easily, the black war-hammer swing like a silent, deadly shadow around her. The crowd gasped at her ease with the difficult and nasty looking weapon. 

The hammer stopped, she easily held the deadly weapon with one hand above the ground, it's head pointing at Gargan, "It's a shame ye brought knives to a hammer fight. Imagine, loosing to a woman half yer size, ye'd be the laughingstock of the village." A corner of her mouth raised derisively, "Yer only known as the village idiot now."  

Gargan's mouth fell open and then his entire  face went purple, "What did ye say, ye stupid cow?!" He ran at her, knives raised, all logic forgotten.

Myrai's eyes narrowed. She flowed like water, and with a five feet of black deadly weapon between her and Gargan, she showed no mercy. 

She swung the hammer and the first blow crushed his elbow. Using the momentum of the swing, she changed the hammer to her other hand and took out his wrist. Gargan's knives fell to the ground, Myrai tsked, "Ye know, if ye had only insulted me, I would have just used my bare hands and ended ye with just a broken neck." 

She was like a bird, dancing delicately from place to place, appearing behind him and cutting into his fat back with her scythe. Long, viciously looking wounds began to appear, and soon his back was a mass of blood and overturned flesh. 

 He howled like a pig about to be slaughtered and fell to the ground, but her voice rang above his, "But ye attacked my children and threatened my oldest. No honorable woman will ye to go unharmed." With a swipe, she cut the tendons in his knees. She came back around to face the man who now cowered in front of her, whimpering and cursing, tears streaming down his face. 

"But this hammer with not take ye life, not like this." She continued, "Because ye are not worthy of it." With a final swipe, she cut off one of his hands. It rolled in the dirt uselessly, he screamed. 

"Do ye yield?" Myrai asked coldly. The heap on the ground nodded and tried to back away from her. 

She raised it again, this time at the face of his wife, "Gargain's wife, go ye home and take only yer clothes. Yer family leaves this village by sundown either willingly or unwillingly without yer limbs." A drop of blood dripped from the scythe of the hammer. The woman fell to her knees, her mouth open in horror. 

No one spoke for a long time,  they all looked at the woman who stood in the center who was casually cleaning her war hammer. 

Ithos clapped and elbowed the Headman, "That's me wife. Ain't she something?" A nervous chuckle flitted through the crowd.

The headman remembered to breathe, "Ithos, remember when I asked ye always did what yer wife told ye?" He croaked out and took a deep breath, "Yer a wise, wise man."