CHAPTER 23
From Frying Pan to Fire
Greble decided to scry the vicinity one last time, but again it was to no avail. She had expected to either find the girl’s dead body or to find her so weakened that she could no longer resist her spells. The witch was dumbfounded and furious when she couldn’t find her at all.
Her mistake had been in relaxing her hold on the young Chosen One for the brief period it took for them to fall from the aircraft to earth and for her to backtrack to where the Chosen should have landed. Somehow, the girl must have conserved enough strength to both survive the fall and cast some sort of cloaking spell. Even her Talisman couldn't detect the girl! Maybe the girl's own talisman was responsible!
Much as it irked her, the Witch decided to go on without her prize captive. Perhaps that was best anyway, she decided. Being in the company of the Chosen One at the wrong time might not be good thing. Though the girl in her weakened state was herself no threat, if and when Jewel returned, the dragon would likely go straight to her Chosen One. If the girl stayed here lost in the desert, that would pull Jewel away from the Portal while she slipped back to Narma and rallied the Horde, so keeping the girl alive was actually best, she convinced herself.
Far worse, there was no sign of the White Dragon's Chosen. The roc that captured him had disappeared, and had presumably been consumed by KaKara. Had the boy also been consumed? That would be disastrous! She consulted her Talisman and was relieved to be told that the boy although weakened still existed somewhere in Africa. Should she immediately try to recapture him? Perhaps not. The boy was proving more dangerous and resourceful than she expected. "FLEE TO NARMA," said her Talisman. "ALERT THE DARK ONE."
Yes, that made sense, Greble decided.
Meanwhile she had more immediate practical issues to address. She was stranded in the Sahara desert. She had summoned the last remaining roc that she had not committed to the dragon battle, but the sub-sonic flying pseudo-bird would not arrive for several more hours. In the interim, she wanted food and temporary transport. Even from the aircraft she had surmised that the arid, sandy desert was not rich in life, but she was shocked to find almost nothing within range but a few tiny creatures, none suitable for either food or transportation. Visually all she could see were endlessly vast mounds of sand.
She ended up walking for an hour, until an Algerian fighter aircraft on the way to view the transport wreckage happened to fly overhead, barely within range of her powers. She had difficulty controlling the pilot, but using a surge of power from the Talisman she finally managed to kill him and crash the aircraft nearby. She waited by the crash only half an hour before a rescue helicopter arrived. She had no problem controlling the helicopter pilot after he landed, even though the man had an unusually high pain threshold. The other six humans from the helicopter she only partly consumed, in order to prolong their suffering.
After three hours of flight in the helicopter the roc intercepted it. Greble promptly had the helicopter land, then finished consuming the life forces of all seven humans. Rocs were crude elementals that hadn't fully mastered the fine art of life consumption and Evil application. She fed the dead husks of the humans to the hungry roc.
The witch stretched her arms as necessary to encircle the bird’s neck, than instructed it to fly north-west as she hung below it rather like a necklace. The crude flying elemental was perfect for her current purposes; it was tireless, swift, stupid and unlike KraKara, it was very easily controlled through the control of pain and pleasure. Also, as it fed on flesh while she fed on life forces, there was no conflict from a food standpoint, either.
The roc closely resembled a black eagle in appearance, and didn’t even alarm humans when viewed from a great distance. Only when it came close did it become apparent that it was the size of a small aircraft. When well shielded by spells, roc and witch would not be detected by anyone. On the way to the Portal, she would be able to use her Talisman-amplified powers to feed on American cities, and even on the troll, without even landing. There was no dragon on Earth to oppose her, and their Chosen Ones were missing and if still alive were too weak to be a concern. She could do whatever she wanted with the humans she encountered. She particularly looked forward to consuming the impudent humans of the city known as Washington.
When a dragon traveled through a portal, its shielding spells were temporarily disrupted. She hoped to scry Jewel’s arrival at the Portal, cease her feeding on humans temporarily, and make good her escape to Narma before the dragon realized the she had been tricked yet again.