Chapter 7 THE COLLATERAL RESENTMENT

Lord Golrus took four steps forward towards the pentagram. Immediately after he halted, he shook his head smilingly. "I knew that I've said some words a snake in the grass ought not to have said in front of your very eyes," he said, "but you know not jack shit. Did you expect me to ask you to come and help a sorcerer? Who am I-a wealthy gobshite?" He took two steps further towards the pentagram. "I sent words to you in Darlia. Three gold ingots and several expensive gifts and my cry for help had reached you. You received them all.

Unfortunately for you, but fortunately for me, you never really wanted to know who the fuck I really am.

"You never even thought why I had decided to summon you from Darlia to Zedzka after a long time. Are there no seers here in Zedzka? Will my word not hurt if I should say that you're a numskull? I'm not the man I claimed to be. I'm not that same man you once thought I was before you lost your father. This island shall be my empire and there is nothing anyone will do to stop me."

"I can see that you're not in your right mind," Zeranah frowned angrily. "You were my father's friend, but there is something you do not know. Agron would have long turned one great empire if ever there was any possibility."

"That is what will make me very special in the sight of all the Agronites," Lord Golrus smiled. "This entire island shall fall to me. I've known you to be a good seer from your childhood. Doubt not the prophecy, numskull."

"You dream of your own failure," said Zeranah.

"You still pretend to not see how easy this can be for me," said Lord Golrus. "I shall turn every province on this island into a kingdom-what Lanklis failed to do in his time. I shall become emperor forever."

"You speak as if you've already got the empire that you desire," said Zeranah, "whereas it's just an omen. Things change according to the will of the divinities, not according to the will of men."

Lord Golrus gave a cackle for a short while, his eyes shut. He stiffened his visage just after he set his eyes open. "The divinities were once men on this fucking island and they're dead already," he spat. "Why did they not stop you from coming here? Why did they not tell you that I have become a fucking sorcerer?"

"Think and say whatever you will," Zeranah frowned angrily. "You shall not achieve that imperial desire. I, Zeranah, will do everything to stop you."

"I heard of what you did in Darlia and all those villages in Monti and Radak," Lord Golrus growled. "A piece of advice for you-go find a cave where you can hide. I shall show not mercy to those who will dare to become my enemies." Sans delay his eyes magically morphed into ruddy flames. "Sermonize if you must, or you can well join me."

Zeranah was amazed at the magus' black deeds. Nonetheless, her mien remained utterly void of panic about the odious cast to the face of the baleful wizard since she had inured herself to sorcery.

She was taken aback by Lord Golrus' villainous words, for Lord Golrus had the strong determination to conquer the island, though she knew not how and from where he could procure the invincible foul army. She did not seem blasé about the type of sorcery that was helpful to Lord Golrus. Now she appeared gloomy.

"Do not risk your dear life with the intention to hinder me from doing whatever I want," Lord Golrus warned, "for Death has come under my command."

"Surely, I'll force Death to turn against you," Zeranah rasped. "I shall make you curse the very day your mother conceived you."

Lord Golrus made a guttural rasp as he frowned with spleen. There came peals of cracking in his body while his head began to change into a bestial dab. He sank to his knees and gave a roar, scowling at Zeranah.

What was happening to him was Fortean, staggering the maiden who kept gaping at him. It came about that Lord Golrus' ensemble started to constrict due to its occult transmutation into leonine coat.

The sorcerer balanced on all fours. A golden mane thereupon mantled his neck, and he was turning eagle-headed perceptibly. His arms and legs were fast morphing into the limbs of a lion, and, very soon after his trunk morphed into a lion's torso, two great wings, those of an eagle, sprang up from his back.

He had just turned into a full-size griffin. Here he seemed to be scowling at Zeranah as he was tossing his leonine tail. He made the squawk of an eagle, hereupon he set his wings open all the way. He pawed the concrete floor so that his claws effected longish cuts in the surface of the floor.

Glowering at the beast, Zeranah knew that he was a murderous scourge whose soul was ridden with venom. Before now she had started to abominate him. Now the beast might well induce mortal villainy.

He might yet pounce on the lass. He might yet claw her braw flesh and render her gory and seamed. And again, he believed that Zeranah was hankering to preclude him from making progress in his black path.

Zeranah had a hunch that Lord Golrus was spoiling for a fight. She was not desirous to perish, for 'twas in the mid-autumn of the Agronite year 3351 that she attained twenty-three years old and had not yet spent a quarter of a centenarian's lifetime. A lot of her forebears had outlived octogenarians, and she would rather fall into stand-to than be at the mercy of Lord Golrus.

Glowering at the griffin, she opened her hands wide in the shadow of her hips so that a razor-sharp tongue of ice formed readily and supernaturally on each fingertip; she had girded herself up for a fatal fight, ready to show Lord Golrus how and why she was truly a powerful occultist. She was awaiting the beast's charge and had no intention to live with the detriments that Lord Golrus was planning to bring into existence in the days ahead.

The beast folded his wings just after he effected the squawk of an eagle once again. Zeranah, on the qui vive, thought that Lord Golrus would take on the offensive, but, to her surprise, he turned and skittered away through the passage.

The griffin, over his sudden egress, seemed afraid to embark on a mortal fight with Zeranah. He possibly did not desire to fall into a mortal fight with Zeranah as he might have thought that Zeranah's demise would give him nae advantage back then or in the future. He knew that Zeranah was a dauntless siren and the daughter of his late friend.

Zeranah sighed deeply, then dropped her gaze. Anon the tongues of ice disappeared as a fight had vainly transpired betwixt the griffin and the colleen. Her sudden aim to slay Lord Golrus, alas, had equalled a lost cause.

Would that Zeranah had wings. Would that Zeranah was even now after the griffin. She had not yet known that the intensity of the power of her resistance was less beside the intensity of Lord Golrus' black magic and bloodlust. Upon the mat did she sink to her knees with strong discontent.

For a split second, she was silent, perhaps sombrely listening to her own pulsations, and her eyes were still downcast. Before long she lifted her face and let out a plangent squeal.

Despite 'twas not with joy that she had made Lord Golrus effect a good listen to the prophetic words, she was disappointed in herself because she had dealt with a baneful warlock in such a way that the omen gave hope to the force of darkness.

Indeed, vainly did the portent turn a forewarning to Lord Golrus. Come to think of it, 'twas springtime in the Agronite year 3352.