They ran down the passageway.
“Now what?” said Giselle and Allun
“We fight.” answered Ellen simply, “but I for one am
going to give this my all. My end is most seriously nigh, but one thing’s for
God damn sure,” she said with added determination, “If I must die I’m taking
that Mortis guy with me, all the way to Hell!”
Picture this. Can anyone
remember that episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where Buffy’s on the way to
kill the Master after being killed by him? Well in this instance it was Ellen
in the place of Buffy and Allun and Giselle where Xander and Willow should’ve
been.
“This is the only weapon that
can kill Mortis.” Ellen said
“How do you know that?” said
Giselle arming herself with bow and arrows.
“I could tell you but It’d take
to long and time’s exactly what we haven’t got much of so let’s just say I know
and leave it at that.”
Allun and Giselle were not
stupid enough to try anything else when Ellen was in this mood so they just
tagged along behind her.
A million thoughts were running
through Ellen’s head. The most predominant one was something like, ‘OK so this
is it’ She had been thinking about death for a while now and if it wasn’t for
Allun and Giselle she would have turned back long ago. In fact if it hadn’t
have been for Einar she wouldn’t have bothered going on this mission in the
first place. It reminded her of a thought she’d had recently. She wasn’t inside
her own computer because she never had a Norn named Einar, this aroused another
question: whose computer was it? It didn’t matter anyway one way or another
this wouldn’t take long.
“You know where you’re going I
hope” said Giselle breaking the uncomfortable silence.
“No but I don’t much care
because if we wander around here for a while, sooner or later we’ll get to the
Grendels.
Ellen couldn’t have known how
right she was. She parted a curtain exposing a grille of the thin leg bones of
norns. The three norns slid the curtain back in case any Grendels came this way
and, hiding behind it , they observed the courtroom of the Grendel leader
Mortis.
Snatches of conversation floated to the norns’ ears.
“How about we torture the new
ones?” said a rough voice
“Yeah especially the cheeky one,
she has just got to go” added another.
Ellen frowned and felt a shiver
of fear
“Hmmmmm” hmmmed Allun
“Now what?” added Giselle
“Stop doing that” Ellen hissed.
“What” said Giselle
“Asking me what to do” Ellen replied,
“because frankly, your guess is as good as mine.”
“But we have to be careful here
and I just want to know what were going to do next.” Giselle said trying to
justify herself.
Ellen sighed “I’m assuming that
we have to attack somehow and then........”
“That’ll be a sight to see”
snarled a rasping voice
The trio whipped round, the
curtain was pulled back and staring at them were the evil eyes of a Grendel
******************************************************************
Ellen’s eyes opened slowly and
she shook her head to clear it. She heard a groan to her left and her eyes fell
on the form of Giselle. Beyond her was Allun and all three of them were chained
the wall
“Now wh-” began Giselle
“Don’t say it!” answered Ellen
“D’you think were in some sort
of torture chamber?” asked Allun
“That would be my first guess.”
said Ellen
Their conversation stopped
abruptly as the door squeeked open.
“Well well what have we here?
asked Mortis in a voice that sounded like a cat being rythmicly drawn back
& forth over a cheese grater.
“You!” exclaimed Giselle
“You know him?” replied Ellen
“Know him? This is the sod who
killed my mother!” snarled Giselle
“Well if it’s any consolation,”
Mortis snarled right back, “You’re about to join her.”
With that Mortis hefted a heavy
hammer and brought it down on the defenceless norn’s head.
“No!” screamed Ellen, but she
knew it was too late as the hammer had shattered the skull with a sickening
crack.
“Who’s next?” The Grendel
remarked savagely.
“This is mindless,” cried Ellen,
“I mean what are you gonna get from this? A little ego boost and a big mess, it’s
pointless.”
“Oh yes, I know who you are. You’re
a Hand right? You’re next then.” the green monster decided
“Has anyone ever told you what a
100%, 24 carat gold plonker you are?” asked Ellen
“You have spirit don’t you?”
asked the Grendel with a note of admiration, “brave too, that is, if you’ve heard
that prophesy.”
“Yes I have” She answered
“Oh ho, so you know you’re gonna
snuff it then?” he asked
“Not without taking you with me”
she said and narrowed her eyes.
“I know what we’ll do. I like to
consider myself a fair ruler and I hate to see bravery such as yours go to
waste, so how about we fight it out, here and now?” he suggested
“Fine, On one condition” she
said, “You let my friend go whatever happens, your quarrel is not with him,”
“Agreed.” he said and went to
undo her chains. He reached up to her wrists and she brought her knee up hard,
straight into his stomach. he dropped the key which she flipped up with her
feet and undid her manacles. She ran to her sword which was in the corner of
the dungeon as it was a Grendel policy to kill the prisoners by their own
weapons. She slashed the Grendel and while he was in agony, she released Allun and
herded him to the door. Mortis picked up the hammer and threw it in Ellen’s
direction. It hit Allun who tripped over it and skidded head first into the
door with a dull thud. Ellen flopped down by him and cradled his unresisting
head in her hands. Tears running down her cheeks, she looked up at Mortis with
pure hatred in her eyes. She leapt gracefully to her feet and held her sword in
front of her.
“We end this.” she hissed.
“With pleasure.” he growled.
Mortis picked up a dagger that
was close by and the fighters circled each other until suddenly Mortis rushed
her. She narrowly missed sustaining a serious injury, escaping with just a
scratch. She whipped round and sliced the Grendel’s belly straight accross so
that the innards poured out and fell on the floor. Mortis staggered forward
and in his dying seconds thrust the
dagger just below Ellen’s third rib. She coughed and choked as the air around
her became harder to breathe. The room began to glow slightly and then she felt
an explosion in her head and blacked out.
*********************************************************
Ellen’s eyes snapped open and
she looked around her bedroom. Bedroom? She pinched her hand and came to the
conclusion that she was alive. Her eyes alighted on the black computer screen
and wasn’t sure whether it really was bust or whether it was just turned off.
Her eyes then rested on the slightly opened door. She got up and walked over to
it. A mug of cocoa lay there.... and it was still hot............
