One of his other raiders sunk his teeth into an ample bosom, and didn’t stop until the floors were soaked in blood and gore. Women fainted, whimpered, and huddled in the corners. A few made it out of the stronghold, only to find as much savage chaos outside.
Bzorch singled out the lady of the house, who had collapsed into a heap on the bloody floor. Her jeweled necklace, and the many rings on her fingers, gave her away. He carried her to the dining hall, and none too gently laid her out on the heavy walnut table. With a single rake of his hand, he tore way the front of her dress, revealing pale goose-pimpled skin and heavy breasts. He didn’t rape her then. First, he went back into the sitting room, and grabbed a whimpering girl up by the hair. Before the terrified girl knew what was happening, her neck was twisted to the point of tearing free of her body. Bzorch was hungry, and he tore into her, as if he were a starving dog. He drenched the half conscious Coldfrost Butcher’s wife, with blood, as he feasted on her niece’s raw flesh, and then savagely penetrated her, again and again.
When he was done with her, he swept her body from the table, into a pile of cool, sticky human remains as if she were so much trash. A good while later, he ordered his chosen to get some rest. It was a long way to Locar, and only the small trading town of Halter lay in between. Once he had made sure that the chosen would comply, he lay down upon the Coldfrost Butcher’s table board and slept.
At Lake Bottom Stronghold, where Lord Gregory had once taught Mikahl how to ride and fight, the Dragon Queen’s Zardmen had rooted themselves in thickly. The watery lowland terrain was comparable to the swampy marshlands, and the warm water of Lion’s Lake agreed with their slithery scaly skin.
The Breed would not come this far south. Not only had Queen Shaella forbidden it, but the Breed preferred the cooler climates of the north, just like the Zard wouldn’t, and couldn’t for any extended period of time, suffer the colder northern portions of the Dragon Queen’s kingdom. She had allowed some groups of the primitive man-beasts, to terrorize the cities of Portsmouth and Castleview.
The city of Castleview was built around Lakeside Castle. By road, it was a few days journey on geka back, from Lake Bottom to Lakeside, but to the Zard, it was only a short swim across the lake. Having the Breed so close kept the Zardmen at the Stronghold constantly on edge.
Shaella had made it clear that she wouldn’t tolerate fighting amongst the Zard and the Breed, but that didn’t stop the Zard from feeling the internal instincts of hatred and fear that the Breed instilled in them; nor did it stop the Breed from wanting to kill them and eat them.
The Zard soldiers, and their Sarzard captains, loathed the idea of Shaella loosing the Breed giants, but they understood the need to protect the north, and they had faith in her judgment, if not faith in her ability to use her dragon to keep the primal savages in line. Still, the idea of chancing upon one of the wild packs of tree-tall monsters ranging this far south was driving the Zard mad. The not so exaggerated rumors they were hearing about the Breed giants’ rampage through the north, had distracted them enough for Lord Gregory’s messenger, Wyndall, and a few others, to escape from the cellar where they had been held prisoner for some time now.
After receiving Lord Ellrich’s disturbing message, Lady Trella and Lady Zasha had begun preparing to flee the kingdom by ship. Being well bred ladies, they went about it all wrong and spent far too much time worrying about all the wrong things. They wondered what plates to save, which paintings, and dresses to stow in their trunks, and then they ran out of time. Now, they were slaving away in Lake Bottom Stronghold’s kitchen, scrubbing pots, and cooking slugs, turtles, and other strange bug-like things for the Zard who had taken command there.
Wyndall had grown up around Lion’s Lake, and knew every step of ground around its shores. He had hunted every stretch of the thinly wooded hills around the area too. His father, he had learned, had died fighting futilely to save the family’s farm during the initial Zard attack. His mother had been sold to a Dakaneese slave merchant a few weeks later. These things he learned from other captives at Lake Bottom, and from those who were forced to serve the Zard there.
He had delivered Lord Gregory’s message to Lady Trella, but it hadn’t been a timely delivery. He had run into the musters of soldiers gathering in the villages around Eastwatch. Mistaken for the page of one of the attending lords, he was forced to carry out a few miscellaneous orders, but quickly got himself away from there.