Page 51 of Snake Eyes & Bad Luck

Someone chortled, “Welcome back!”

Avelina stood on a pyre of wooden planks; her hands bound in chains around a familiar pillar. Of course. Because they couldn’t simply behead her, why would they ever do that? No, they strapped her to a giant marble column in the temple and opened the skylight. A large, sun shaped door over the front of the temple. It faced the rising sun. As the temple was up higher than anything else in the stronghold, the walls didn’t get in the way of its view. The sun would rise and hit the special crystal pane in the window. That beam of light would ignite the wooden planks around her.

Back in the day, when plague tore through the country side, Paladins dragged the dead into the temple and used it to burn away the sickness. Not doing so is how the Wastes filled with undead. SunBringer demanded the cleansing to keep the continent safe. The Paladins built a temple in her visage. The whole room was meant to withstand the flames of SunBringer’s mercy.

“Which means you two assholes are supposed to burn with me.” Avelina glanced at Grahm, then at Daggertooth Dan. They were both strapped to yellow, discolored marble pews with wood piled up to their knees. At least she was merely bound by her hands. The other two were strapped in three layers of chains. Must have tried to fight too hard.

Grahm scowled at her with great disdain. “I wouldn’t have to, but your little light trick brought them right to us.”

“Wouldn’t have been caught with me if you didn’t try to kill me,” she countered.

“She’s got you there,” Dan sighed, letting his face lull to the side. He sported a broken nose and one of his tusks was only a nub of jagged bone.

“Oh yeah, and what’s your excuse?” Grahm spat.

“Shame on me for thinking the Paladins had more honor than Cottonmouth,” Dan sneered.

“Ha! Yeah, alright,” Grahm snorted, rolling his eyes. “Trust the assholes who stomp through the swamp lookin’ for a fight at every turn. They burned down buildings lookin’ for you before, why would they give a shit about if you ratted us out?”

Avelina let the men bicker as she inspected the temple. The inside was all enchanted marble. While most of it was yellowed and there were a few cracks, it’d lived through most of time since the plague. She hummed thoughtfully, “Odd that they chose to burn us.”

“What was that?” Dan called out.

Both men glanced her way and she sighed. “I said, odd that they chose to burn us. Beheading is so much easier. And public.”

“Oh, that’s because of you.” Dan nodded at her.

“Me? Because I’m a warlock?” she grimaced. Tugging on her chains, she regrettably found them stiff and unforgiving. No quick fingered escapes. She might be only chained by the wrists, but they were tight. Her knuckles scraped against the pillar. There would be no freeing herself.

“Maiden of Madness, from what I hear.” Dan shrugged as he continued.

Avelina scoffed, “Everybody’s so worried about this Maiden of Madness thing. What? Are they worried if they lop my head off I’ll start the second plague?” Dan made a face, same as Grahm. Avelina rolled her eyes. “I can’t actually do that.”

I don’t think. And unfortunately, her goddess wasn’t around for a quick interview to see if that was a thing she could do. No, probably not. But there were no records of what started the first plague, so for all she knew, the Paladins could be justified.

“The burnin’ is symbolic,” Grahm huffed, glaring at Dan. “Ya idiot. Don’t matter if you can or they think you can release a poison cloud anyway, since you turned Murderin’ Mary into ash, there ain’t no other big guns in the game.” Grahm hung his head down to stare at his boots.

“Except Cottonmouth,” Dan harrumphed. “Slick bastard’s probably laughing all the way to IronGarde right now.”

“Nope, they got him too. Found his tail in an alley.” Grahm jutted his elongated snoot toward Avelina’s feet.

Her heart stopped as they all glanced down to the base of her pyre. At her feet was a massive slathair tail. Avelina choked on the rapid emotions that went through her. No. That’s what he deserves. Wait. No! But, the longer she stared, the softer all those voices got. Dan and Grahm bickered again, lobbing accusations of misdeeds at each other. Avelina reached a foot out to his tail to touch it. Her toes barely scraped it, but it was enough to bring back all the times she spent curled up in his bed. Back concaved to his tail, a pattern of scales she unconsciously memorized. Not to mention that curious three finger wide dent in his tail where nothing grew, a weakspot. She’d seen it and thought about driving a knife through it the first night only to concede that it wouldn’t do enough to kill him.

The tail at the base of her pyre was wrong.

That’s not him. It’s a decoy.

“That rat bastard,” she spat.

“What?” Grahm interjected. She didn’t say anything, stewing in her hate. Because the more she thought about it, the more she thought about him, the more contradictory her emotions got. On one hand, Callum clearly played her in some fashion. Why have a decoy tail set up if not to get away? He was running from something. Since Dan sat on the pew, and from the argument he had with Grahm, she gathered he was the one who sold them out to the Paladins. Mary seemed like a wild card no one expected, but then again, with a name like Murderin’ Mary…was anyone actually surprised?

The whole thing was a mess.

“You know what,” Grahm exhaled heavily. “I’m glad they’re burning your ass, warlock.”

His words sparked a much deeper, unfiltered loathing. She spent too much of her life shirking away from bullies and men to let one get to her now. Thrashing in her chains, she erupted, “You hate me so much and I didn’t do a thing to you!”

“You did! You fuckin’ privileged little shit! Callum was givin’ you an out!” Grahm snarled back.