Deviation Actions
Literature Text
Eternos: the Palace Throne Room Antehall Artwork by: thepolishgirl.deviantart.com
2.7
“He did what!”
The king’s bellow might have been as much shock as anger, thought Man-at-Arms as he went stolidly on with the report he had been making to his liege lord.
“– And stunned the guards with my weapon, and then took a sky-sled and made off,” he completed.
“Prince Adam did this?”
“Yes, sire: resisted arrest, disarmed me with as neat a trick as I ever saw, used me as a shield, sent Lieutenant Andros and his men off for a short nap, and then made his escape. All over in moments. Nothing I could do.”
King Randor looked at his old friend’s deadpan expression as he recited the tale; he knew Duncan well – and knew both his capacity in battle and his great store of guile. And young Adam had overcome all that, had he? Well – he’d had a good teacher in Man-at-Arms; that much was sure. None better. And perhaps there was even a faint glint of parental pride in the royal eye as he questioned further. At his side Queen Marlena was silent, but there was a frown-line furrowing her brow and her eyes were very intent upon Duncan as he made his answers.
“He has not returned, I regret to inform your majesties. We are – looking for him.”
The Queen leaned forward. “And where do you believe that he is gone, Man-at-Arms?”
Duncan straightened yet further. “Madam, I am quite certain, as I earlier warned the King, that he is gone to – to attempt to rescue He-Man.” He ignored the swiftly-strangled exclamation emanating from the rear; so did the rest of those present.
Adam’s parents exchanged a glance, and King Randor sat back heavily in his throne and drummed his finger-ends on the arms. The Queen, however, rose to her feet.
“Our thanks to you all for this report – and for your pains in searching. We must not keep you from seeking the – two – who are missing from among our number.”
Good for her, thought Duncan as he made his bow; she would talk Randor down quietly without there being a Scene. But he knew that this loss would affect the royal couple very badly indeed; even Randor in his crustiest mood would own that a somewhat unsatisfactory son-and-heir is far preferable to one missing in errantry.
No sooner were the doors of the Audience Chamber made to than Teela accosted him.
“Is it true – that Adam’s gone off after He-Man?”
“You heard me say it; I heard your reaction. Yes; it’s true.”
“But – it’s madness! He’s no match for – well – any of them! Not on his own! He’ll get himself captured – or even – even –”
“Calm yourself – people are watching.”
“Then let them! This is terrible; first He-Man taken – and now Adam off on some hare-brained quest of his own. What does the little idiot think he’s doing?”
“The right thing, I imagine. Besides, you don’t seem to place a lot of faith in the lad – especially considering that you – and I – trained him.”
“But he’s barely even competent! He’ll get lost, or fall off the sled, or get caught, or –”
“He won’t – and you know that he won’t, too. You give him less than his due. He’s no fool, isn’t the Prince, for all that he acts the part so well. And he certainly isn’t a coward – in spite of what you imputed of him when first he couldn’t be found. There’s more lies behind your anger than this, now, isn’t there, Teela?”
She looked at the man who was her father, and her eyes fell, some of the glaring anger gone from their green depths.
“I – I goaded him, mocked him – belittled him at every turn. It was in fun – well, mostly – and because he needed to be made more like a proper prince –” She broke off, then steeled herself to the admission. “And because it – it made me feel good.” Her eyes rose to his face again and there were iridescent tears caught in the upturned bronze lashes. “I don’t feel so good now.”
“Oh, Teela – look, it isn’t as bad as all that. Adam is doing what he thinks right – as you would; as you will.”
“But don’t you see? He’s only done this because I drove him to it! He’s trying to prove himself – and it’s all my fault!”
“It’s not your fault – he felt he had to go. You know Adam –”
“Do I? I thought I did – but now I’m not so sure that I do!”
“He’s still Adam, you know – and your friend.”
“He’s been – different – these last months; like he was hiding something from me – like there were things he couldn’t bring himself to say. And sometimes he’s just so – well – silly. It annoyed me – but I never dreamed he’d do something as mad as this!”
“Teela – he –”
“But it’s still all my doing – all of it. First He-Man got taken – I can’t think of anything but the look in his eyes when he handed himself over – for me! And now there’s poor Adam being brave – for me! It’s as if I’ve been a curse on them both –”
She looked so utterly miserable that Duncan broke completely with court etiquette and gave her a hug, right there before all in the Antechamber. And, for once, she didn’t protest at the open display of affection. Duncan held her and wished, not for the first time, that there were certain things he could tell her. But there weren’t.
“And now, if anything does happen to him then it will be my fault,” she murmured into his shoulder.
“Not so. Not so.”
“I just hope that he’s all right – wherever he is –”
He-Man captured by Evil-Lyn. Artwork by: sazariel.deviantart.com
2.8
“Ah, still here, then, I see. No valiant-but-futile escape attempts as yet?”
He looked at her and raised his chin. “Maybe I’m just biding my time.”
She smiled; a predatory look. “Then that makes two of us.”
He was silent; she was indeed biding her time – and with supreme confidence, too – which suggested that she expected neither escape nor rescue for him. This infernal Horde Steel –
“I trust you are comfortable?”
“I’m getting the hang of it.”
“Hah! That’s the spirit!”
“And the amenities here are a little sparse, perhaps; but it’s tolerable.”
“That may change.”
“The amenities?”
“No, He-Man; not the amenities.”
Lyn’s smile had the quality of thin ice glazing a pond, he decided. She circled him, assessing, appraising.
“But, tell me now; did you not make a counter-offer to the bounty hunters? You should have; they even pitied you a little I could sense – and really didn’t care much for me at all; only for their fee.” She shook her pale-haired head. “A conscience must be a very considerable handicap to a bounty hunter, one would have thought. Well; I would have made them an offer, in your situation. Not that I would ever allow myself to get into your current situation, you understand. But, then, I am not afflicted with the curse of finer feelings – of goodness.”
“Yes; I rather think I had noticed that aspect of your character.”
“Unlike you; and just look where it has brought you; right into my trap. Such a touching little scene back there on the plateau between you and the girl. So many unsaid words! I really should have seen that earlier, looking back. Still, it’s largely irrelevant now; now that I finally have possession of my – key.”
“Key? What key?”
“I spoke but figuratively; it is of no importance to you. Or, rather, it is – now that I have you just where I want you. Though I should perhaps rather say very nearly where I want you.”
She stepped back and clapped her hands – and the door opened and admitted over a dozen strange and unfamiliar creatures, all of whom bowed low to her, then fixed their bright and unwinking eyes on He-Man. Short, heavily-built and ungainly with long thick arms, they had a distinct green cast to their skins, were hairless and – frankly – hideous, with features that hovered somewhere between the saurian and the simian. The witch spoke to them in grunting tones and at once they moved forward and set upon He-Man. Swiftly, silently they seized hold of his legs and dragged off his boots; reacting, he pulled himself up high on the chain and swung violently until they were flung off, then followed this up with some well-placed heel kicks, scattering them around the chamber.
Evil-Lyn stood and watched, a smile of tolerant amusement flickering about her lips.
“Bravo! I was expecting some-such kind of reaction. But you can’t hang up there all day, now, can you? Better come down.”
“Come on up and get me!” Even that brief revenge had felt good – and he was ready for more. Not that it could last – but he did feel a little less helpless.
“Silly, brave, boy. Very well then –” Evil-Lyn lifted her staff and directed a bolt of arcane and eldritch power. Moments later a gasping He-Man was struggling frantically but feebly as her creatures swamped over, laying-on claw-like hands and subduing him by sheer numbers. More shackles, connected by another length of chain links, were made fast about his ankles. Then, showing greater animosity than the mercenaries, they hauled on the bracketed chain to lift him off the floor setting him to dangle so that his toes barely touched to support his weight. As he grimaced, still winded from the impact of the blast, they came again and stripped off his chest-harness and his belt; they even took his pelt loincloth leaving him hanging there clad in nothing more than his undergarment. And, throughout, Evil-Lyn looked on, smiling, until with another clap of her hands she dismissed them all.
Into the tense and watchful silence which followed she spoke – and her voice was full of self-satisfaction.
“So; the great He-Man: my prisoner at last – if you will forgive the oft-overused phrase? I just knew that you would come and surrender yourself for the wench – it was so utterly predictable of you. You heroes do not seem to be very original thinkers, I fear. It makes matters so much easier. And now you are mine – and no-one knows that you are here, or would be able to track us to this place even if they so wished. So we have plenty of time to get to know one another properly.” Her purring voice taunted him; she was plainly very pleased with herself. Her hand reached out, laid itself on his shoulder, allowed itself to slide slowly over his skin, downwards over his chest, the creases of his core while he held his breath and gnawed his lips, all too aware that a crimson tide of embarrassment was flowing over his features. “Such powerful muscles; such a strong body – such a determined expression on your so-comely countenance! And – my, my: how very prettily you do blush!” She smiled up archly into his incardined face. We are going to have some fun, you and I. Though – admittedly – you rather less than I, of course.” Her touch lingered; he shivered and felt sweat begin to bedew his skin. “And we have all the time we need.”
“I told you; you won’t keep me here.”
“And I told you that I will – the Horde Steel alone will see to that. But by all means do test its strength again if it so please you – I can watch you struggle all day. Something I shall be doing a great deal of rather soon, in fact. So try, then, mighty He-Man: try to burst free of your bonds!”
He tried – he really tried, throwing all of his raw power into the effort, in part because he could just imagine her face when he got free – and snapped her staff in half. But he could not do it; the metal restraints were admantine. Ordinary steel, even the finest and strongest, would surely have yielded in the end to his immense and channeled strength; but this Horde Steel, of another world, impregnated with its own strange qualities, was not ordinary in any way – and for all his heaving and straining it held him firm. Worse; he was beginning to suspect that she was right; that its constant touch was actually weakening him, slowly but steadily. Certainly he could not break free – there was no give in the metal at all. Now, if only he had his sword – At last, defeated and frustrated, aware of the need to conserve his strength, he quietened and hung there panting, with sweat running into his brows.
“Good. Well then; that answers our chief question about the Horde Steel, does it not?” observed Evil-Lyn brightly – a tone which made him long to make her shut up. “The more you struggle – the more of your preternatural power you exert – the greater the drain as it feeds on your strength, itself becoming stronger. I’m sure that the very obvious inference is not wasted on you.”
He scowled at her but said nothing, concentrating instead on restoring his badly shaken composure.
“Anyway, now that we have that inevitable episode done with, we can proceed to my terms.”
“Terms?” asked He-Man guardedly.
“Yes; terms. Oh, you know how it goes! There are, after all, certain – formalities, rituals almost – to be observed in these matters: I make you an offer; you reject it with scorn, I threaten you, you defy me – and so on. You heroes are so noble – so resolute – so predictable. It isn’t as if we don’t both know how this will end, is it?”
“Is it?”
“But of course it is. You see, when you inevitably defy me, I most certainly shall be able to find it within myself to – do unpleasant things to you – until you change your mind.”
“I shan’t.”
“Defy me?”
“Change my mind.”
“Well, suit yourself – It will be much more amusing this way.”
“This way?”
“Oh, come now, He-Man! Even you in your charming naivety must surely guess what follows. There is information I require – must have – from you. And here you are, my unwilling guest, quite, quite unable to free yourself. And, I strongly suspect, unwilling also to co-operate of your own accord. Which means that – persuasion – must follow; and that, I fear, will be far from pleasant for you.”
He-Man braced up proudly. “You won’t get me to talk: not whatever you do to me.”
“Oh, I rather think that I shall – indeed I do. But there is no great haste; we can afford to take our time, you and I; to make this most of this – opportunity. After all –” she took a pace forward, the light glinting in her fey eyes “– I have waited a long, long time for this.”
“I’ll tell you nothing – you know that. You’ll have to kill me first.”
“Kill you? Now why would I want to do that? No; this way will be much more – fulfilling.” She reached out again, touching at his shoulder, letting her fingers slide, trace over his torso, slowly, provocatively. “So splendid a body – the broad shoulders, the slim waist, the powerful limbs – not least these muscular thighs –” He-Man winced as she touched him, plainly relishing his obvious discomfiture. “And so very handsome, too; hair like the sun itself, eyes like the sky – how simply delightful.”
The chains jangled as he shifted impatiently under the calculated affront to his dignity, the pointed underlining of his vulnerability.
“Quit the play-acting, Lyn; what is it that you want?”
“Cannot you guess? You have even less imagination than I thought, then.”
“Just tell me.”
“Very well, then.” She paced, circling him, while he twisted awkwardly in his bonds and tried to keep her in view. “What I need from you, He-Man, is nothing less than the secrets of Grayskull – access to the power – the true power – that will make the holder supreme in all Eternia!” She paused impressively, but when her captive failed to react, she shrugged and added, “– to begin with.”
But He-Man simply shook his head, laughing.
“And you call me unoriginal! That whole speech sounds like Skeletor’s standard fare – the near-daily exercise of his dramatic talents in the ongoing bid for world domination. I’d stick to sorcery, if I were you!”
Evil-Lyn smiled thinly. “Such bravado! Such wit! Well, we each of us have our parts to play here; let us see who comes out the comedy still laughing, shall we? As I say, I admire your sanguine humor – but please don’t abuse the privilege or I might be forced to deal harshly with you.”
“Which, of course, you would far rather not do.”
“Exactly! So you do know the rules of this game after all! And yet, for some reason, I have a distinct feeling that you aren’t going to prove very – how shall we say? – amenable.”
“You have that part right, then.”
“Which, I must tell you, will result in much pain; some of it on my part, since I am at heart a gentle soul who prefers all pleasant around me – but mostly, I’m afraid, on yours. And, or sooner or later, you will furnish me with answers to the questions I shall put to you.”
“I will not! I will have no part in your schemes.”
“Alas, you will have no choice in the matter; I shall take the knowledge from you whether you wish it or not.” She raised a delicate brow and her pale hand ran slowly down his flank and smoothed appreciatively over his rear. “And that may not be all that I shall take.”
He scowled at the smile she gave him as she indulged herself; it was all he could do in his own defense for he knew his helplessness – and so did she.
“However, for the present, I shall leave you to consider awhile. You know what I want – and I tell you now that I shall get it; with or without your co-operation. The sole question remaining is simply that of how much suffering you needs must endure before your – inevitable – yielding. So consider well.”
“There’s nothing to consider.”
“Really?” She smiled sweetly. “And is that, then, your answer?”
“You know that it is.”
She gazed at him, as if reading his eyes, then wrinkled her nose in a kind of skittish coquetry. “Splendid! Then I shall be back soon – and I shall have something to show to you, too. So don’t you go away!”
Left alone, He-Man swallowed hard – and his expression, no longer forcedly flippant, grew grim.
******
2.9
“I cannot see him – and such sense of him as I had already grows faint.” It was long since she had spoken and the little conjurer jumped with nerves at the sound as it echoed in the great chamber of Castle Grayskull. The Sorceress sighed heavily. “He is far away – and alone. And, I fear, in grave peril – There is a power, a mind of malice at work; it opposes my will, screens my sight as it probes; I cannot as yet penetrate that dark fastness.”
Orko waited in apprehension, watching in silence as she sat, shrouded in the veil of her inner thought.
“No; I cannot reach him. This thing was done well – all too well.” She rose and came towards Orko, her robe a train behind her.
“I – well; I just don’t like to think of him – of them – all alone. I really cannot settle to anything until this is accomplished, lady, and He-Man returned to us. And it is my duty, too, to watch over young Adam. And so – I shall go after him.”
“You, Orko? You would be well out of your depth matching up to such foes as I fear you should have to cope, little one; what would you do in such a fight?”
“Well – my best, of course,” squeaked Orko, hoping that it sounded braver than he felt at this moment.
The Sorceress smiled softly. “None can do more, no matter how valiant. And yet – I fear –” She sighed once more and resumed her throne and sat a long while wrapped in thought. At last she spoke again.
“It seems we have but little choice – and it may well be that stout heart will yet avail more than might and craft in war, though its frame be small.”
“I’m ready,” lied Orko. “I can leave at once.”
The Sorceress concealed a smile; “Once you know whence you are bound, that is?”
“Well, yes – obviously. I meant that,” he covered.
“Then let me scry the shifting patters of power for a sign; be sure that it will come – now that we have a champion.”
A champion, thought Orko, bobbing up and down with worry. Just what have I gotten myself into this time?
******
2.10
“My lord, all lies now in readiness; we do but await your word.”
Skeletor’s deathmask features turned to see Tri-Klops make his bow.
“All?”
“Why, yes, my lord.”
“I would say not all; very far from ‘all’. Do you seek to disguise from me that some of my vassals have failed to heed my summons and send their powers to attend my muster?”
“No, my lord. But the craft you ordered are –”
A clawed hand waved him to silence.
“Mer-Man I hold for the present excused; his own liegemen, though many, are not well suited to the work we have in hand – and so I shall have him prove his loyalty in some other manner. As for Count Marzo, his powers are so shrunken as to be of negligible value – though I shall punish his disobedience in any case. But yet – tell me; what from Evil-Lyn? What word from the witch?”
“Why, none my lord.”
“No answer? You are certain?”
“Yes, lord; no word returned to us from your summons.”
Skeletor sat in thought; the shadows in that dreadful chamber, already ancient in their blackness, seemed to lengthen and grow tall.
“She does not hear me – does not answer,” he said at length.
“Some harm has –”
The cowled skull laughed thinly with malice.
“No harm – at least none as yet – has befallen her! She chooses to prevent my reaching her in thought – and I have at the present no time to employ more penetrative methods. We must be about settling matters with Hordak. And so, for now, her impudence must perforce remain unpunished. But when we are done on Etheria, then be sure that I will see that some harm indeed comes to the witch. You may count upon it!”
So saying he gathered his dark cloak about him and, clutching his Havoc Staff, strode from the chamber.
