Gazing down at how hideously Malek had shattered Lord Fel's arms, she understood exactly what he met. And underneath the black fury that numbed all traces of horror at her own dark path, Jess too was chilled at how very easy it had been to break Veitsi's arms. How she had managed to stun Lord Soldner so completely with a strike designed for speed, not for concussing an armored man, even through his guard. Yet she was no fool. She had only unleashed the attack because on some level she knew her own terrible strength. She had known that the gambit would pay off.
“'Tis all right, Malek. Come, let us see to these poor girls. Perhaps there is a chance we can save them.”
“Jess! You must hurry!” Her familiar's normally sardonic tone even in the face of dire peril had suddenly grown urgent. Jess did not hesitate for an instant, and did not sicken as she gazed upon the hideously maimed girls. Only their pleading faces, flush with youth and terror, were free of injury.
She did not hesitate to enter the pentagram, even as it began to shimmer with an ill green light, roaring as she tore the girls free of the spikes hammered in feet and palms, desperate to drag all three free before whatever hideous ritual that had been performed came to fruition.
“Malek!” She cried.
Her brother in arms did not hesitate, immediately rushing to her side, aiding her in removing the spikes pinning down the remaining two girls, working desperately to free them before it was too late.
They had but sands of the glass, slowly trickling away, Jess realized; gazing into a pair of eyes darkened by horror and unspeakable pain even as she tore the girl free, heedless of further injury caused, rolling away just as the pentagram blazed with sudden gangrenous flame.
“Josie!” Jess cried to her shaken friend as she and Malek brought the girls to her side. “Help us!”
The young healer looked on with speechless horror. “Heavens above, Jess. These girls have been skinned alive! There is nothing I can do for them. They are doomed to die, slowly suffocating for all that their lungs still draw air. All I can do is ease their pain.”
Jess gave a furious shake of her head. “We are in the realm of dreams, Josie! Reality is what you will it to be. You can heal them. You and I both!”
Josie gave a sad shake of her head, and it broke Jess's heart. But she had no more time to spare.
“Come, brother,” she said, Malek grimacing but following in her steed, as they approached the hideously throbbing pentagram from which something truly awful began to form in the pool of light. A twisted figure, slowly growing. Or perhaps coming closer, using the pentagram as a bridge of sorts.
Terrible laughter could be heard, as if from far off.
“It comes!” Lord Veitsi gave a ragged cry. “You fools! We have no sacrifices, and it comes this way! Quickly, throw in the girls and make your pact! Barring that, we must flee. We must all flee, lest our lady's henchman finds us unworthy, and inflict devastation upon all of Krona!”
Duke diOnni's face went bone white. “By the gods. You really were going to do it. You really were going to sacrifice my child and I to whatever unholy abomination you were summoning forth!” A look of cold fury. All traces of the suave diplomat burned away, replaced by an icy wrath that caused Lord Veitsi to flinch and tremble, raw fear breaking forth, even past his pain.
A desperate smile shown Jess's way. "Lady de Calenbry, you need only ask, and I can turn this folly into glory! All the pieces lay before you, if you have but the courage to use them!"
Jess ignored the pleading man even as the duke continued his interrogation, no longer holding back, as Veitsi's screams ringing through the chamber did attest.
“Jess? It looks like it's about that time again, doesn't it?” Malek flashed a desperate smile Jess felt herself echo.
“Twilight? What the hell do we do?”
“Interesting choice of words, my mistress.” Her familiar looked closely at the bloodstained pentagram, alive with ill green fire and pulsating with a sickly glow. Jess's gut clenched, gazing upon the utterly desiccated robed figures she and Malek had so ruthlessly cut down a short time ago. It was all too obvious what was feeding the portal. Five sacrifices instead of three.
For all that she and Malek had embraced terrible hungers, something else had fed ravenously upon the scraps they had left behind.
She could feel the weight of a terrible presence then, sensing that shadowy figure approach and grow in size in ways unimaginable. And for all that Jess felt herself curiously alive with terrible potency as the chamber itself seemed to stretch in dark ways beyond mortal comprehension, Jess saw the grimaces of pain upon her friends' features. She and Malek alone reveled in the growing darkness.
“We'd best close it soon, my queen! For the summoned abomination stretches this pocket of dream deep into the dark, in ways that will crush the non-Delving mortals among us, dark sigils worn or no.”
Jess grimaced and nodded at her familiar's words, frightened now, desperate to save her friends.
She peered deep into the depths of the pulsating pentagram for all that she loathed it, somehow making sense of the hideous corridor of agony and Shadow that comprised its essence, the wavering image of a massive castle made of bone and stitched with the flesh of living, shrieking souls flashing upon her mind's eye for but a horrific second before she lurched back, stumbling, falling upon her rump.
“Jess, are you all right?” Malek's voice, anxious, his desperate gaze fixed searchingly into her own.
“Yes, I am fine, Malek, and I think I see the way of it.”
“Well hurry then, we don't have much time!”
Grimacing, Jess got to her feet even as she felt the chamber entire began to shake and sheer in ways horrific, the far corners seeming to fade into mist and shadow even as she lost her focus for but a second.
“Jess!”
Grimacing, Jess forced herself to gaze once more into the pentagram, to behold the horror even then approaching, a look of hideous triumph upon a tusked face, eyes puss filled pockets, crooked black fangs caressed by an oddly forked tongue, an amalgamation of swine, serpent, and man, all trapped in one monstrous visage.
It gazed back at Jess and smiled, racing to break free.
Jess focused herself.
Time slowed to a crawl.
Cheeks stinging with a slash she did not see.
Her blade lashed out in one fierce, perfect lunge, the chamber trembling with an awful roar she realized later came from no one but herself.
The hideous creature stopped, gazing at Jess in stupefaction, her blooded sword having somehow torn right through its scale covered chest.
Jess felt a cold, terrible smile overtake her features as the beast's foul, inhuman powers begin to roar through her, the demon's protective magics shriveling to nothing under the fierce, hot connection of her burning blade.
The creature roared, struggling desperately to hold together the massive spellweb it was forging between their realms, unable to fight her and complete his vile ritual simultaneously.
Jess laughed, wedging her blade deeper still into her enemy's flank, crooning with the ecstasy of a demonlord's power pouring into her shivering frame.
The lord of Hell howled in bitter fury, surrendering its spell, hissing foul curses that washed off Jess harmlessly even as it stumbled back beyond her reach, clutching its spurting side, fading away even as Jess gazed on.
Jess found herself suddenly in a chamber of red stone, flayed victims writhing upon crucifixes under scalding fires, a dozen dozen robed figures gazing at her blazing spirit with inhuman eyes before Jess's awareness snapped back fully to her body once more, now stumbling over a pentagram as dead and lifeless of power as the etchings of an old tome.
“By the gods, what just happened?” Malek asked, gazing at his sister-in-arms with awe.
Jess shook, momentarily overwhelmed. “I sensed a terrible working, hideous concentration focused on nothing save breaking through. I glimpsed a truly awful being. A being of power, from a realm far from our own. And f
or all that it was racing toward me, it was perfectly still.” She allowed herself a tight smile.
“And as fierce and terrible as it looked, it was in no position to fight me, so caught up it was in casting its terrible magics. So I did what Eloquin would instruct us to do when facing any coven of wizards, much like we had done ourselves, moments ago. Seize the Vor. Strike with hot, ruthless fury, cut down your foes with all savagery, waste not a moment in doubt or hesitation. If you can catch them flat footed and you are lucky, you just might triumph.”
Jess's smile was bleak. “Hesitate for but an instant, allow him to cast his carefully mastered spells, and your allies will be scraping you off the stone tiles, if you are lucky.”
Malek nodded. “Or such is the case, mayhap, for those without your gifts, or without any ability to ward against a wizard's spells.”
Jess gazed carefully at her friend and smiled. “I see that your own bloodwards have served you well, near ruptured as they are. I take it one of our foes had actually managed to strike you?”
Malek grimaced, raising one singed arm, several bronze plates still so hot that the rawhide underneath smoked. "Thank the gods I was wearing gambeson and lamellar both. And no worries, 'tis not a serious burn, for all that some of the plates are in dire need of repair. My ward did block the brunt of it, and I can move my arm freely. But make no mistake, anyone not versed in bloodwards would have been fried to ash. Infernal magics are a dire and vile art."
Jess nodded. "Good thing we killed them without mercy, cold and ruthless as we were. Any hesitation, had we allowed those five wizards to pull their powers completely free of that dark casting before we had cowed them and struck, and I fear our battle might have taken a far grimmer turn."
“A good point, shieldsister.” Malek shook his head. “Three years of putting every ounce of my limited ability into mastering the one discipline I'm actually good at, casting wards which my bloodmagic actually empowers, and I can still parry but one of their vile, infernal spells.”
"Better than most, Hound," Twilight said. "Rens himself would have perished to that abyssal magic, and he the most potent wizard you know. And you shall find your strength all the greater as you continue your initiation into Shadow, mastering arts you have forgotten for far too long."
Malek shivered, gazing at Twilight with haunted eyes. “Bloody hells, cat. What do you mean by that?”
Twilight's gaze was unrelenting. "I think you know, Hound. But no matter. Best we make our way from here.” He nodded at Jess with approval. “Well done, striking that demon while he was lost in ritual. He was in no position to fight you and he dared not continue his casting, injured and weakened, lest his underlings take that as the perfect time to strike, vulnerable as he suddenly was."
Jess shuddered, nodding. "I sensed his power. His foulness. I knew he was not expecting my blade to cut him. I knew that was the edge I needed. But I swear, seeing that hideous place for even a moment, all those souls impaled and crucified, screaming even as their lungs ruptured, it was a place of horror." Jess grimaced. "But what really scares me was how... grand it felt, drinking from the cup of his power, just as he would have loved to sip from the cup of life that is Dawn, in turn."
Twilight nodded. "Of course, Jess. You touched upon a layer of the Abyss. A dimension of Hell itself. A place of horrors, and a place where your darkest hungers will naturally come to the fore. Now let us tend to your friends and make our way out with all due haste. The evening, I fear, is far from over."
Jess nodded, taking the time to lash out with her pitted blade, still blazing and smoking, against the very stones upon which the dark runes of the pentagram had been inscribed. She felt a dark thrill as the stone itself ruptured in a shower of fragments with her blade's passing, not a single shard daring to pierce her flesh.
Her friends' stares made her increasingly uncomfortable as she approached. But they were still deep within their enemy's camp, so she forced such concerns away.
"By all that's holy, Jess. You were incredible!" Raphael whispered, even as Duke diOnni continued to interrogate Lord Veitsi, the fallen agent gazing at Jess with a look of such awe and horror that Jess couldn't bear to meet his gaze but a moment longer, lest she start to feel for the vile serpent, and fail to do what must be done soon enough, instead turning to an anxious Josie.
“Jess, I'm sorry, I don't know what to do to help them!”
The agonized cries of the three girls still writhing in torment, their pain barely eased by Josie's desperate casting, tore at Jess's heart.
Jess locked gazes with Josie, and would not let her go. “I know what you did when you took my energies in your desperate bid to save Malek back at the chateau. I am asking you to do that now. Don't look away, Josie, don't flinch. Open your mind to me, and take what you need.
And with Josie's trembling nod, it was as if a fierce cauldron of power roaring within her had suddenly been tapped, Jess feeling a curious sense of relief as but the faintest trace of that terrible power was drawn away.
Josie screamed, gazing at Jess with such horror it left her stunned.
But Josie did not hesitate for more than an instant, her fingers seeming almost to blaze with the heat of whatever she had tapped into, even as she desperately plunged her fists into two of the girl's chests.
“Help me, Jess!”
Jess, for all that she had absolutely no training in the magical arts of the healer, somehow understood what Josie meant. Quietly she willed the fierce torrent of hot energies roaring through her to chill like an icy river racing through the Calenbry estates, sensing its cool energies sooth the blisters upon Josie's flesh, even as her friend filled the three writhing girls with that very same power. It was a working of such complexity Josie struggled with that Jess could scarce comprehend it.
Then Jess smiled, gently correcting Josie. “No, silly. It doesn't have to be that difficult. We are in dream. Things are as we will them, as we believe them to be. These three girls? Look closely. They are like cracked vases, leaking their life force. Our power is the glue that rebonds them, smooths over their flaws, heals them as good as new.”
Josie gazed at Jess in disbelief before trembling and nodding, as if cowed by something she had seen. “Very well, Jess. We will try it your way.”
And Jess closed her eyes, smiling, allowing the power to flow through her, even as she felt a curious lethargy gently caress her.
“By the gods, oh by the gods! Jess, Jess, I think it's working!”
Jess smiled and opened her eyes some moments later, startled to feel Malek's hands gently grasping her shoulders. “Easy there, sister. You almost fainted, and this is no place for it, in the realm of Shadow.”
Jess blinked and shook herself, well aware she skirted dangerous ground. “Yes, of course, you are right. Was I really that close to collapse?” She stood up, embarrassed that she needed Malek to steady her once more.
But what made it all worth it was the look of solemn awe upon Josie's features, even as the three naked girls knelt and wept, sobbing their gratitude even as they begged to be brought home, their bodies free of all wounds or injury, though still covered with crimson sigils. But the sigils had changed. Jess tilted her head, gazing at the markings curiously. She felt the strangest shiver race down her spine.
“That is because those sigils are your own,” Twilight explained, catching her gaze.
Jess shuddered and turned away, gazing instead at the two trembling lords desperately answering the duke's questions, their naked fear making it clear that they understood exactly what Jess was going to do.
13
We have answered all your questions, Duke diOnni. Told you the nature of all obstacles set in your path, revealed all hidden serpents set to strike. But spare our lives, Your Grace, and our fortunes are yours!” a panicked Lord Veitsi pleaded, gazing at Jess as she slowly strode to his trembling form, blade raised high.
“Jess?” But a single word from the duke, conveying gratitude, concern, and solemn acceptance,
whatever choice she made. “They have answered every question. I know every man within my House whose hand has been turned by another's coin, for all that I shall jump to no conclusions till all my men are interviewed. I have promised that neither me nor mine would take their lives in turn, and those oaths mean something in our circles. Still, you are your own agent, and my son and I owe you a debt that can never be repaid. I could never speak for you, dear Jess. I only hope that you will consider your actions carefully.”
Jess nodded, favoring the duke with a solemn bow of respect, a genuflection that she would give no other lord save the Royal Family, unless said noble had earned her friendship.
She then turned her gaze to the lords before her, arms hideously broken, pale with exhaustion and pain.
Lord Veitsi began to sob freely, feeling the weight of her unforgiving stare. “My lady, great and terrible mistress of destruction that you are, we were fools to cross those who were in your camp. We beg your forgiveness, and what's more, swear that the Dark Council will not cross diOnni affairs again.”
Jess smiled coldly. “I know.” With that her blade struck out with blinding speed, Lord Veitsi having time only to blink in shock as his head tumbled to the floor in a crimson fountain of blood.
“Why!?” Screamed Lord Fal, his own cry breaking off in a guttural lurch as Malek's blade cleaved his skull in twain in a shower of brain and gore.
“Because, you damned fool, you're a treacherous worm, and Veitsi is a Crown Agent!” Malek cursed, even as he turned his blood-spattered countenance to the pale-faced duke and bowed his own version of an apology. "Those snakes would have assured our downfall, no matter what promises were made, Your Grace. General Eloquin taught us all too well the nature of agents, just as ruthless as Squires of War, whose true allegiances are so convoluted that one would be a fool to completely trust them. No matter what promises they made, one day you or your son or Josie and Raphael's future children would pay a bitter price for mercy shown this day. A poisoned dagger thrust when least expected, calculated to cause you as much agony as you could possibly fathom, even as your clan was picked off, one by one."
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