Coils

So I basically took chapter from a longer story and turned it into a CAS inspired bit of  "flash fiction".

Check it out after the jump.

Amid those abasing themselves in dionysian indulgence in his marble clad  hall, Terpsion sipped wine with no small amount of satisfaction. As chamberlain of Epirus, he had long despised King Crantor as the henpecked tool of the witch-queen Audata. Crantor had produced no heir, reinforcing Terpsion’s opinion that the king was incapable of impregnating the queen due to some shortcoming.

Terpsion was self-aware enough to know he had neither the ability or inclination to rule, so he gave secret counsel to the barbarian warlord Kasandros, stoking the fires of the savage’s ambition. Now his machinations came to fruition with Crantor’s head paraded through the streets by the victorious Kasandros.

To evade violation at the hands of Kasandros’ horde, Audata immolated herself in the fires of Hecate’s altar, all the while swearing vengeance upon Crantor’s betrayer. Terpsion was untroubled by this. Soon he would bask in the gratitude of the usurper and be exalted as the architect of his victory.

Terpsion drained his cup. Wiping purple droplets from his beard he leered at a dancing girl with libidinous ardor. Suddenly the doors of the hall were thrown open by a blast of hot wind that extinguished the lamps and cast all into darkness. The throng cried out and Terpsion sought to calm them.

“Fear not this breeze from Olympus, heralding the arrival of our new liege.”

A strange shape at the archway stilled his tongue. Backlit from the red glow of  burning Epirus, a sinuous blot slithered into the hall. Terpsion’s ears were assailed by wails of agonized terror. 

Terpsion’s courage failed. Bowling over his guests, he fled to his chamber and armed himself with a sword. He crouched near a shuttered window and glared at the doorway. 

There came the sound like a heavy sack dragged along the tiles, then an explosion of shattered timber. The inky shadow from the great hall burst the door and slithered into the chamber. Terpsion whimpered like a whipped dog. 

The intruder’s body was that of a serpent, wide as a fat man’s belly and covered with obsidian scales. From this sprouted a womanly torso with four sinewy arms, scaled from the taloned hands to the elbow, where scales faded to pallid flesh. Two hands gripped bloodied swords, while two writhed in perverse anticipation. Atop alabaster shoulders glared the raven-tressed head of Queen Audata.

Wailing, Terpsion cast aside his weapon and threw himself through the window, sprawling on the grass outside.  Audata was upon him ere he could rise, embracing him in obsidian coils.

 “Witch!” He gurgled through gouts of blood. “Kasandros with fire and blood will cleanse Epirus of your diabolism!”

Audata pressed her lips close to his ear and hissed.

“May that comfort you as Charon ferries you to hell.”

The coils tightened until Terpsion was reduced to a crimson, oily paste.

The End.