(s) War's End 4

[Silverblue]

War's End.
Canto 4. The Meeting.

The landscape about Mount Purgatory was lightly forested. The Sibyl
stretched her lean body out and looked up towards the crest of the
mountain.
War's home. People crawled, minitured by distance, in and out long a
wide beaten path. The Sibyl flicked an ear and proceeded to leap
gracefully into the long grass.
Further behind her a smile worthy of Cheshire himself graced the lips
of a stalker.
The Sibyl reached a small promentary and stood up upon it.
Silhouetted against the sunset, her metallic fur shone red. Storm
clouds gathered in the east, bring night faster than it might otherwise
have come. Mount Purgatory was set slightly aside from the other
structures in the range, looming over the buildings that clustered on it
like a violent relative. It was the highest peak in the area, decorated
with a massive steel door.
She focused her power carefully and could see metal shutters on the
mountain as well. War was well fortified. She was somewhat surprised
by the extent of his camp. The rest of the Four had no idea that he had
made himself such a home. The forest thinned quickly into inhospitable
territory that looked shockingly hard to climb. For a human. The Sibyl
smiled and sank her claws casually into a tree trunk. Her devilbunny
heritage gave her considerable benefits.
She continued along the path with an easy run. Months spent in the
camp of the Three of Four had made her healthy. She laughed to herself
at the strange paradox. The Horseman of Pestilance was a lean, strong
creature - and yet still riddled with disease. She hummed to herself
and thought about the problem of her particular instrument of death when
it came to RegBuns. They died so fast...then her thoughts turned as
always to Cheshire and eventually to her own condition. Serving Luna -
Inle - was sometimes hard, she thought to herself a little sadly.
Behind her, labouring a little, but ready in blank-faced submission
came the RogueBunny. Its eyes were flat, hypnotised. It simply
followed its mistress, knowing neither fatigue nor pleasure in rest.
And behind them, quite far behind, a man on a horse smiled cruelly.
Horns twisted spasmodically from his forehead. He patted his horse.
"It's been a while," he whispered to the beast.
The horse's eyes rolled white with fear.
"None of them have come for ages, Istari warns them away. But this
one he drops at the border. We'll wait and see, pretty."
The horse stamped its foot and shook froth from its long face. The
Hornsman rode hard.
The Sibyl could now see a sort of shanty town at the base of the
doors. It looked ragged and rough. People moved in and out of patched
buildings, one obviously a sort of drinking house. Drunks groaned at
the larger men who kicked them from their way. Refuse was piled on
corners and the entire place offended her delicate sense of
smell.
Her lips curled back from her fangs. This was no way to treat Frith's
bounty! What in Luna's name was War *doing*?!
She paused for a rest for a moment and bit the RogueBunny viciously
when it stupidly tried to push her onwards. The creature stopped, ears
drooping uninterestedly as the Sibyl nibbled a few blades of grass
forlornly. She felt like hunting. The idea of devilbunny flesh was
becoming taunting now.
Nothing in Oregon. Nothing but grass.
Fortified by the small refreshment she hopped up the track and
straight into the junkyard town.
The streets were muddy and the buildings stank of rusty metal. The
Sibyl hissed to herself viciously. The small chrome coloured rabbit
with her much larger bodyguard sat in the center of the road, irritably
tapping one hind foot as she surveyed the decay.
A little further back a bleary eyed man looked up from his lunch
"There's...." he started drunkenly "Theresh a largsh devilbunny in the
road."
Those around him laughed "Come on..."
The Sibyl stared blindly at the man who insisted "Theresh a likle one
too. Shorta...shorta..." he was searching for the word 'silvery' but
did not manage to get it out.
"War's blood look, there is one of those bloody murderers!"
People dashed out of houses, and a large man picked up a nail studded
club.
"Well..." he drawled "What do you know? You know what we're going to
do to you, rabbits?"
The Sibyl drew herself up "! @m the $1byl, Pr0phete$$, L@dy Pe$t1l@nce
0f the @p0c@-"
"We're going to thump you and *then* we'll give you to War."
"F()0l! ! @m the $1b-"
The others stopped and the Sibyl's voice trickled away also as the
sound of hoofbeats rose from behind her. A man wearing horns, with dark
burning eyes was galloping along the path and bearing down on her. In
his hand was a rather large barbed spear.
The Sibyl thought about things and just as thoughtfully jumped out of
the way, pulling the RogueBunny with her, as the Hornsman thundered in.
He smiled at her and brought the spear down heavily. The Sibyl raised
her paws as both spiked club and spear came down.
The spear fell apart and the Sibyl shook her paws with a vague pang.
The creature had probably just broken one of her claws. She examined
the metalic sppendages carefully as the Hornsman gaped at her. The long
- very long, prohibatively long - claws were unhurt.
Then she reached up and said clearly "!-"
"She is the Lady Sibyl, the Horseman Pestilance, Hornsman!"
The Lady Sibyl, the Horseman Pestilance, scowled to herself, wondering
if she was going to get a chance to speak.
The voice came from a tall woman who had just come from the metal
doors in the mountain.
"If you had hurt her your life would be forfeit!"
"That's the Sibyl? Live and learn."
The woman and the man looked at each other remarkably coldly.
There was a sudden scream of pain and the Sibyl looked up at the man
who had been holding the club before she had impaled his hand.
"Thanky0u," she said politely "N()w th@t ! h@ve y0ur @ttent10n, w()uld
y0u c0nduct me 1nt0 L0rd W@r'$ presen$e?"
"My hand..."
"Weakling. She could have had it off at the wrist if She had wanted
to."
The Sibyl flicked an ear at the emphasis the woman used.
"My Lady Pestilance, would you forgive our rude reception and be
pleased to accompany me into the fortress? My name is Artemis, a loyal
servant of the Cause."
Artemis knelt down before the astonished Sibyl.
"My Lady, if I may have the honour, I shall carry you. You have
travelled far and are doubtless tired. You will be treated with the
greatest of courtesies."
The Hornsman sneered, and the Sibyl glanced at him and was rather
gratified at his sudden paling.
This was going to be interesting.

The Sibyl stared.
Her room.
They had rooms...waiting. A room for each major member of the Four -
or Archetype, as Artemis said. And if each one were as richly appointed
as this, then War was very well organised.
She shook her head in amazement. Oh, CapeWarren managed to fund
itself and Lawrence reaped ever so many interesting benefits from his
creations, but this...
This was not so much luxury but decadance.
Artemis nodded "War will see you tonight, my Lady. Please do not feel
that you are being neglected. My Lord War prefers the night."
"N()t @t all," the Sibyl managed as the door closed behind her and she
was left in private.
The room was huge - for an uglybunny. But all instruments,
implements, were devilbunny sized. The carpet was the schizoid pattern
present on her BunnyArmour, representing Lawerence's cracked
idea of disease. Rich and deep it felt lovely on her paws.
There was a computer terminal - again bunny sized in one end of the
room, and a bathroom area, but these prosaic points were eclipsed by the
rest of the room.
Delicate velvet chairs and seating areas. Cushions thrown tastefully
onto the floor. Refreshments lined a cabinet, both human and devilbunny
- and uglybunny. There was a bell to call for service and a large bed
lined with furs. There were pictures - and here, she started to feel
somewhat uneasy - of Kralk, Mara, and Cheshire on the walls. There were
games, ivory pieces for chess, rabbit-sized instruments and a closet
filled with costumes - not all necessarially exactly clothes - tailored
to fit her tiny frame.
She tried on a buck-leather chrome spiked collar over her Bunny Armour
and looked into a filigree-golden mirror.
The reflection in the mirror was odd. It was a moment before she
realised that it was showing her *as* Cheshire. Nervously she backed
away only to see a chrome mirror, decorated in abstract spirals. She
stared at it, seeing her own reflection now. The collar looked good -
but then, in this mirror, she seemed perfect. A lithe engine of death.
She pulled curtains over all four mirrors, not daring to look into
Kralk or War's ones.
"Mistress?" said a sleepy voice.
The Sibyl almost screamed, her claws extending as she spun around.
A sleepy-looking black buck smiled at her "Mistress Sibyl?" he said in
a somewhat slurred voice. His dark eyes were severely dialated.
"Wh() @re y0u?" she asked nervously.
"My name's Dinner, Mistress Sibyl," the buck smiled gently.
The Sibyl choked slightly.
'Dinner' moved closer. His fur was immaculate, deep and well
groomed. He touched his nose to hers "You look tired Mistress Sibyl.
Would you like me to groom you?"
Stunned, the Sibyl let him remove her BunnyArmour. Reverently, the
buck placed the armour in a small alcove and tapped on a panel there.
It must have been a dumb-waiter, for it disappeared down.
The Sibyl swallowed weakly as the buck moved around, running a bath,
collecting salts, oils, combs and brushes. He looked back at her,
standing alone in the huge room, claws limply by her sides.
"Is your fur dry or normal?"

Dinner hummed to himself as he combed her fur dry. The Sibyl was in
the peculiar position of at once being quietly terrified, genuinely
shocked by some of the things in her room, and rather
hungry. Dinner was not an Uglybunny, but he did not seem to be a
devilbunny either. She wondered whether he was one of War's Rogues or
just an average lunatic.
"Lovely..." the buck said dreamily and helped her up from the velvet
seat "You look beautiful."
He did not seem to expect an answer, so the Sibyl remained almost
meekly silent. She looked down at her fur. It almost glowed with
light, and was now utterly soft. Her long slender nails had been
carefully sharpened until they could cut falling silk and her ragged
ears carefully brushed until their tatteredness seemed a statement.
"Are you hungry Mistress Sibyl?" Dinner said sleepily.
The Sibyl forgot herself and nodded.
<slash>
Dinner looked down at the ghastly wound where his right paw had been.
Blood spattered onto the carpet.
He smiled at her "Do you cook your food?"
The Sibyl said nothing, paws to her mouth, staring in a horror that
would have made Campion forget himself and laugh.

Lady Pestilance waited for War.
She looked at the glorious gilt carvings around her room. She looked
at Dinner#2, a pure white buck with eyes as blue as her own.
"It is hard, waiting, Mistress Sibyl," said Call-Me-Dinner-Two.
She nodded, miserable in the extreme.
The Sibyl had killed literally hundreds of Devilbunnies in her time,
but never...she had never...
She could not explain it. She knew she had done worse than War had
shown her here. She had tortured and destroyed and slaughtered and
feasted...and twisted mentally those under her tender claws as well.
The Sibyl suffered in silence, unaware even of why she suffered at
all.
Dinner#2 had removed Dinner's body - Dinner had died fairly quickly
from blood loss - and served him up cheerfully enough. The Sibyl was
quite silent as he talked to her, fixed her fur, and gave her a back
massage.
"Your muscles are so stiff, Mistress Sibyl."
The Sibyl shuddered weakly and stared at Cheshire's portrait. She
wished he was here. No she did not. She shook slightly.
Something was so so wrong here. War was wrong. More wrong than the
rest of the Four, and that was saying a lot.
Dinner#2 snuggled close "Dinner did such a lovely job on your fur," he
said, cuddling up to her "It's so soft. He did my fur too. It's soft
too don't you think?"
It was soft. The Sibyl nodded blankly.
"Mistress Sibyl-"
That one paw movement was too much. Suddenly realising why Dinner#2
was there the Sibyl moved without thinking and spun around to draw her
claws across his throat. He thrashed as he died.
No one, NO ONE could take Cheshire's place! She snarled in fury and
quickly finished the hapless devilbunny off.
"Perhaps I should have sent you Dinner#4. He's a tan coloured buck,
very handsome. Much like Cheshire. Dinner#2 was good at what he did,
though. You might have left him alive a tad longer to find out."
The Sibyl looked back "L()rd W@r."

-- The Sibyl. Lord Pestilance.
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http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~paladin
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