Chapter 337

Draudillon sent up her smoke signals yet again. 'I can only hope somebody is watching.' The heat of the fire was such that she turned her face back and forth, her arm ached with exhaustion and with pain from the fire's close proximity.

But she endured. The sound of low moans… that weren't there, drove her on. Her fears, her imaginings, her dread and regret took physical form in the sweat on her brow and the ache in her limbs.

But the hidden Queen kept it up, watching the brief billowing again and again. "Draudillon. Here. Draudillon. Here." She did it from multiple fireplaces around the estate.

But for days… nothing changed.

"Tend the fire, whelp." The elf King said when it started to diminish.

This was his new favorite way to taunt her.

"Yes, master." The Queen said and rushed to the little wood bin, she struggled to hold as much as she could, teetering around on her small feet, leaning back to keep it from falling. 'My toe hurts…' She thought, sure it was bleeding from where a log landed on it minutes ago.

She crouched down and began heaping logs on the diminishing flames. "Not that way. You need practice." The giant elf said from where he sat.

"Yes, master." The Queen said and got to all fours to place one log at a time into the ornate fireplace. She could feel his eyes on her. 'If I weren't disguised… would I have ended my life?' She wondered about that, four had done so, not counting the one to die the day of their capture.

The question haunted her nights, and she began to shake as if his eyes had the piercing power of the sharpest blades. 'Please…' She prayed, 'Someone… please…'

"You'll give me many strong children when you grow up, whelp." The elf King grunted the statement, "I can feel the magic welling inside you… I prefer fighters more, but I'll take a useful magic caster just as quick." He licked his lips.

"Are any of your mother's whores carrying yet?" He asked, and Draudillon dropped the log into place with a thud.

She shoved some tinder into place to rekindle the flames and began tugging the flu at once.

"I-I think maybe, master? I-I will ask… it is hard to tell with humans this early, I can use magic to find out if, if it pleases you." She said as she went up to her knees and continued to send her smoke signal into the air.

The heat was scalding her hand as she held the metal rod, unlike the one in the women's quarters, this one didn't have a convenient chain, the lever was close to the flames. 'I've got to call for help!' She cried out in her head as sweat began to pour down her forehead and her arm from the effort.

"I see… that would be good." He groused, "There's no sense losing any whelps until I know if they're useful or not. Fine, have the magic casters check the stock."

"Yes, master." The Queen kept her eyes down and repeated the smoke signal words, "Draudillon. Here."

"Why are you doing that, whelp?" He asked her as she continued the process.

"Air, master, the fire needs more or it will die." She hastened to answer, "I can stop, if master wishes, but the fire will start to die." Her eyes remained on the floor, and he seemed to consider her words.

"No. Keep at it, a burn on your hand is nothing, it isn't your hands I need." He chuckled and licked his lips, looking directly at her face as he did it.

"I will, sir. I will." The Queen replied until the shouting reached her.

The elf King's face changed, she could see it out of the periphery of her vision, his lustful thoughts went to the only other emotion he seemed to know other than anger… contemptuous annoyance.

"Useless trash, what are they shouting about?!" He snarled.

"Undead!" The screams came up just as the noise of a distant wall caving in rang out over the estate.

"You! Whelp! Get back to the harem… my guards are so… worthless!" The elf King spat on the polished floor, and as towering as he seemed before, even though he grew not an inch, he seemed somehow… 'more so'.

The Queen didn't argue, she shot to her feet and sprinted, her little child sized heart pounding as fast as she could make it as her bare feet ate up space over the shining polished floor until she was at the safest place in the estate… unless the elf King wanted someone there. She rushed past guards who were streaming in, their shouted voices went up, and suddenly the true malicious genius of the elf King… in this one thing at least, was obvious.

The elven warriors took up position in the hall, drawing bows, the noise of the curving came out all at once as they acted in sync, those who bore swords brought them to bear beside shields…

They were not guarding the elf King's harem, they were guarding their wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters. Nobody would suffer or die for the elf King, but for their own… 'That malignant monster…' the Queen cursed as she ran down the hall, the warriors made sure she had a path clear before closing up the way behind her with their bodies so thickly barring the way that when she looked back, she saw nothing beyond their ranks.

"Worthless!" The elf King's booming voice came out as his fist smashed 'something' the sound of a great shield fell with a clatter and a howl of hatred went up before he destroyed some form of creature out of her sight.

"What's happening?!" Dozens of voices, human and elf alike, went up from the great open chamber.

"The undead, somewhere…" Draudillon answered, and a wail of horror went up.

"We're in hell! From monster to undead, how can this not be hell?!" The elder elven woman cried out, and without thinking, she reached down and grasped Draudillon in her arms, whirling the 'young girl' around to protect the little human royal using her own back to do it.

Which was why Draudillon was the first to see it. The whorling vortex appeared within spitting distance just as the elf King's distant bellowing cut off another undead scream.

From within the void stepped a face she knew. Gray faced and squared, regal to the point of perfection as servant or ruler alike, dressed in his fine butler's clothing. "Queen Draudillon, we have received your message and have come to retrieve you. I trust you have no objections?" Sebas said as he took a very gracious bow.

The elves looked at the 'human' with a mix of fear, relief, and suspicion, eyes darting about, sweat sprang onto every body… "The Queen isn't here… her daughter is… and I won't give her to someone who just-"

The matronly elf who clung to the Queen in disguise stopped speaking when Draudillon whispered, "Let me go."

She disengaged herself gently from the elf woman, and her body, her curves, her bosom and body from head to toe, returned to her proper age. "Lord Sebas. It's good to see you, I have no objection but one… I will not go alone."

"I'm afraid I have no time to argue, my lady." Sebas replied.

Gasps from the elven women were many as the child became a woman before their eyes, but Draudillon did not give them time for questions.

"Then you have no time to say no, they are mine. All of them. They go first, and I follow." She said and met the face of the Butler of Steel with stern resolve.

"You are the Queen I remember… so be it. If they refuse, however, we go alone." Sebas answered.

Draudillon made her address to the harem very brief. "Sebas is a friend, a good one, and he is our rescue. I've tended your bodies, your wounds, fed and washed you… I know I've hidden my true state… but please, trust me… go through that gate and we will never be reachable by that bastard ever again…"

They rose, they hesitated, staring from the gate to her and then to Sebas and then to one another. "The distraction will not last much longer." Sebas pointed out.

"If you want to still be here when the elf King finishes off those death knights… stay behind." Draudillon reported, the humans who knew her best and who were familiar with Sebas by sight if not by name, were already rushing toward the vortex.

That set off the rest, and a stream of elves began charging the gate as fast as they could move, streaming around Sebas and Draudillon until they vanished from view.

The elf warriors turned as soon as the noise of it all hit home, and Draudillon pointed to them, "Do you want to explain to him how you lost all your women?" She asked.

Thus did the elf King's methods reveal their weakness. No one wanted to deliver the news, it was as good as capture, and the elf warriors followed after their women, looking behind them as they trudged like captives rather than ran like the liberated, and they too, vanished into the void.

"Now I will go with you, and I hope I will see your master soon." The Queen said as she stepped beside the Butler and bent her arm at her side, he linked his arms with hers as if escorting a lady to a ball, and vanished into the gate.

It closed at their backs, leaving the crackling fire with nobody to warm at all.