Bladedancer (The Sword Saint Series Book 4)

by Michael Wallace

  The monster threw back its head and cried to the heavens. The sound was so terrible that Narina could only gape, and she saw the others through the clearing smoke, humans and demons alike, doing the same, every one of them frozen in terror. Finally, the monster cast its malevolent gaze about until it spotted Narina, whose sowen had collapsed in shock at its appearance. She stood exposed in the center of the escarpment. Its eyes seemed to bore into her, and its voice chewed through her head like a hand drill turning in soft pine.

  I see you, Sword Saint. I sense your fear.

  “Who are you?” she cried. The shaking ground, the hot, smokey wind, and the shrieks of demons drowned out her voice, but the monster seemed to hear her all the same.

  I am the master of this world. The Lord of Demons and the Demigod of Crowlords. I will devour you and consume your soul in the fiery lakes of the abyss.

  The first stomp of its foot made the escarpment shake. Its second step found the blinded scorpion demon. The demon lord’s stomp slammed the smaller creature to the ground, and its claws punctured its shell as if it were made of dried leaves. Black, stinking blood leaked out of the scorpion’s shell and caught fire when it struck the ground. When the demon lord pushed off, the scorpion was a crushed, lifeless mess of broken limbs and shattered carapace.

  Katalinka cried Narina’s name again. Narina spotted her companions ducking toward a spot of refuge behind a mound of volcanic debris that had been thrown up by the dying scorpion. The three sohns formed a knot around Kozmer, swords out, while the elder seemed to fold in on himself as he gathered his power.

  Narina recovered from her shock and began to move. She made a feint toward the demon lord, with the hope of sprinting away at an angle, using her nimbleness to get around its huge bulk and join her companions. There they could make a stand as one.

  It flexed its arms, and the fiery maces glowed brighter. Black wings like enormous blades rose from its back, where they’d been tucked out of sight. Instead of swinging with the maces, as she’d been expecting, the monster clapped its wings together.

  A blast of air struck her chest and sent her flying. She knocked into a pair of slave demons, and all three went down in a heap. Before the demons could recover, she sprang to her feet, blades still in hand, and killed one of the two. The second got a burning claw around her ankle and dragged her back down, and then she was rolling dangerously in its grasp while she tried to get a blade into its belly as it snapped at her with flaming jaws. Finally, she pushed back, gained separation, and finished it off.

  By the time Narina was on her feet again, the crow demon was stomping at her head with the same foot it had used to obliterate the scorpion, the lesser monster’s smoking guts still dripping off its claws. She flung herself forward and got past the claw before it could pin her to the ground.

  For a brief instant the way looked clear to her companions, but three of the two-headed crocodile demons had spotted her and came racing to attack, mouths spitting blue flame. She leaped into the air, let her sowen carry her, and then dropped just as suddenly. She slammed onto the back of one of the demons with her sword points down, and by the time she leaped clear again, it was writhing in its death throes.

  The two remaining crocodiles drove her back toward the demon lord. It swung at her with its flaming maces, which briefly saved her as it forced back the crocodiles with her, but soon pushed her to the brink of the escarpment. She crouched on the edge, prepared to take her chances with another jump, but the monster spread its wings, and she knew if she tried to jump for freedom, it would swoop after her and pluck her from the sky.

  “Narina!”

  Katalinka again. Narina glanced over to see her sister with the other two sohns in a knot, fighting their way toward her with a wedge of sowen splitting the enemy and throwing them to the ground for the three to slaughter. Sarika, especially, seemed a woman possessed, her white sword with its obsidian edge slashing in fury while her feral scream rose above the din. In the wrath of her blows was vengeance for the destruction of the firewalker temple. Kozmer followed, his sowen held in a tight knot, not yet thrown into the fight.

  The four of them were making steady progress through the demons, but were still too far away to save Narina from the flailing maces, until Kozmer’s sowen suddenly leaped over the top of the trio of temple warriors and slammed into the demon king from behind. The monster staggered forward, stunned.

  Its wings slashed across the battlefield as it struggled for balance and knocked one of the crocodile demons off the escarpment. The creature fell down the slope, flailing, which thinned the enemies facing Narina. She ducked around another of the crocodiles, away from its two snapping jaws, and charged the demon lord itself.

  She gave a powerful leap and came at the creature’s chest with her arms raised to plunge her blades into its burning heart. It turned, but too late, and she stabbed its chest with both swords.

  Her weapons flared white when they struck, and there was a terrific crack. Rather than penetrating its armor, the swords bounced off, and she flew backward. She landed hard on her back. A fiery whip slashed toward her face from a nearby overseer, but she rolled clear and sprang to her feet without getting hit. She looked up at the demon lord.

  Bits of broken obsidian showered from its chest where she’d struck it, but it was a superficial wound at best. It cocked its head and fixed her with one of its red eyes. It raised its arms, ready to batter her with all four of its fiery maces, and at the same time let out another ear-shattering, crow-like shriek that sent her staggering backward.

  At that moment, Sarika got clear of the lesser creatures and attacked the demon lord from behind. Her first blow glanced off its leg, but then she jumped and stabbed at its underside with the tip of her sword. The crow demon whipped about and knocked the firewalker back with its wings.

  “Get out of there!” Narina shouted as she charged in to draw the monster’s attention.

  But Sarika was beyond hearing. Her sword whirled about her head, striking the monster’s legs again and again as she shouted a war cry that lifted above the fighting, dying demons, and the rumble of the exploding volcano. The demon flailed about, trying to get at the sohn tormenting it from below. It battered the ground with its maces, but each blow arrived an instant too late.

  Narina ducked a wing, drove back a crocodile demon, and fought a pair of slaves long enough to leave them gutted, smoking corpses. She was about to reach Sarika’s side, when a blow from a fiery mace smashed the other woman across the shoulder and knocked her to the ground. A pair of overseers lashed her with whips, and her tunic burst into flames.

  Sarika rose with a shout, seemingly unaware of the overseers and the fire consuming her clothes. She lifted her sword and swung at the giant crow head bobbing for her. The weapon bounced off its beak, and it snatched her into the air before she could recover for another attack. She cried out in pain. The demon dropped one of its clubs, grabbed the firewalker’s legs with a clawed hand, and pulled with its beak like a bird of prey tearing at a rabbit.

  Sarika screamed one last time, and then the beak and claw ripped her in two. While Narina watched in horror, the monster gulped at the woman’s torso, bobbed its head once, and swallowed. The woman’s legs remained in the monster’s talons, a grisly remnant of its meal.

  She was still gaping when Miklos fought clear of the last of the crocodile demons and leaped at the monster with a cry. He pulled his huge, two-handed falchion back for a swing, and Narina threw her sowen at him to strengthen the already bulging muscles in his shoulders and arms. Kozmer’s strength arrived as well, a thick, powerful wave of sowen.

  Miklos swung his sword, and it connected with the monster’s right leg at the knee. There was a sound like a cracking piece of stone. The monster shrieked again, but this time in pain. It turned around, clubs swinging. One of them struck the warbrand and sent him flying. Lying on his back, he lifted his weapon and blocked a stab from the creature’s beak. The demon tossed aside the grisly remain
s of Sarika and grabbed him.

  Narina attacked the monster’s legs before it could finish off Miklos. Her swords flared with white light at each blow, but the blades kept ricocheting off, and when the monster turned away from the downed warbrand to face this new threat, she saw that neither her attacks nor those of Sarika had done it much damage.

  Only the sowen-fueled warbrand had done it damage, and that quite limited. Miklos, temporarily knocked out of the fight, got up and staggered toward Katalinka. He was recovering quickly, thankfully, but was not yet in any condition to renew his attack against the demon lord.

  Meanwhile, Narina jumped backward from another attack by the monster’s maces, and once more found herself embroiled in a mass of lesser demons, but this time Miklos and Katalinka came to her side, and the trio cut a swath around them. The demon lord flared new fire into its maces and tucked its wings against its back. It shook its injured leg, already seeming to heal from its wound. In despair Narina realized they were all going to die if they couldn’t find a way to penetrate its defenses and deliver a more grievous wound.

  Miklos parried a flaming lash from one of the overseers and turned to her with a pant, sweat pouring down his temples. “Fight the monster. Only you can defeat it.”

  “I don’t know how!” she cried. “It’s made of stone. My blades can’t break its armor.”

  A familiar voice spoke next to her. “Go for the eyes.” Kozmer materialized out of the gloom. He looked at her with red, smoke-irritated eyes, the lines on his aged face like canyons eroded in the hillside. “It’s the only vulnerable part.”

  “We’ll hold them off,” Miklos said. “Kill their king—it’s the only way.”

  A quick glance at the battlefield showed how dire their situation had become. More demons continued to emerge from the lava canals, and another half-dozen of the two-headed crocodiles scrambled up the hillside toward the escarpment. An enormous black creature scuttled down from the erupting caldera, still dripping lava from its carapace. It was a giant scorpion like the one that had nearly killed Narina.

  Narina looked up at the demon lord, who stalked toward toward them, wings battering aside lesser demons so it could get at its prey. She felt stunned by its size and violence. By the ineffectiveness of her earlier attacks. By Sarika’s death. The demon had torn the firewalker in half with its beak, and Narina couldn’t stop picturing the final, gaping expression of shock on the woman’s face as the monster tossed its head back and swallowed the upper half of her body whole.

  It dipped its beak to snatch her up, and she stood frozen in place.

  “Narina!” Katalinka screamed.

  Narina ducked aside at the last moment. Its beak slammed into the ground where she’d stood, hitting with such violence that she was nearly thrown from her feet by the impact. Losing her footing would have been a disaster, as the monster was flailing about with the fiery maces at the same time. She rolled, jumped, and parried their blows. She struck back, but her blades still couldn’t penetrate its armor.

  Still, as she fought, she gained confidence, and with it, her sowen came back into focus. She could sense the entire battlefield without looking. Kozmer had once again concealed himself, and he threw his sowen into strengthening Katalinka and Miklos, who’d cut down several more demons and now faced off against the charging bulk of the giant scorpion. It was all they could handle to stay away from its jabbing stinger and its grasping claws. More crocodiles would be on top of them in seconds.

  Elsewhere, dozens of lesser demons littered the ground, dead and dying, turning into rubble and ash as they cooled. The volcano continued to erupt, and with it, fresh demons streamed out of the caldera to race down the escarpment next to the lava canals. A malignant energy poured out of the demon lord, calling them to its side. But they were still too far away to affect the battle. The humans had a chance, if only Narina could kill their king.

  Moments later, Miklos and Katalinka drove the scorpion against the back of the demon king, and Narina spotted her chance. The demon king staggered forward, turned with an angry shriek, and knocked the lesser creature away with one of its maces. That opened space for Narina. She crouched, leaped, and soared high in the air.

  By the time the demon lord turned around, searching, she was above it and flying down at its head with her swords outstretched. She landed on its beak and drove the blades simultaneously into its two eyes. They plunged all the way to the hilt, and the creature shrieked and flailed backward. Narina yanked her swords out and threw herself clear.

  She landed in a roll as the monster crashed to the ground next to her. She wasn’t going to give it a chance to batter her around like the blinded scorpion had, and feared that given time, it could heal its blinded sight, perhaps calling more of the demonic crows from which it had emerged in the first place. Before it could rise, she leaped onto its back, went for the neck, and brought her swords down with all her might.

  Shards of broken scales flew off like flecks of hot, razor-sharp steel. She ducked its pecking beak, then went at the monster’s neck a second time. Even with a flurry of blows, she couldn’t seem to break through its armor, but then Kozmer’s sowen pushed into her, and she renewed her attack with increased speed and power. The scales broke free and her swords bit into the flesh beneath. Smoking, tar-like blood caught fire when it touched the air and ran burning to the ground.

  Narina finally leaped clear of the flailing, desperate monster. An oily black cloud of smoke poured out of its beak and turned to cinders. They swarmed at her like a million burning moths. She pushed them away with her sowen with such strength that they burst apart and fell in a rain of ash. The creature was still alive, still fighting back.

  There were other demons encroaching from all sides, but Katalinka and Miklos were at her side, along with Kozmer, and they formed a protective ring. Kozmer grabbed Narina’s arm with one of his bony hands.

  “Go! Finish this.”

  She left them to face the crocodiles, overseers, slaves, and a giant scorpion demon while she returned to the demon lord. The monster was still bleeding from the neck, and its eyes had gone dim where she’d rammed her swords home, but she could see its flesh closing up, and in spite of the void it left in the auras, sensed it healing itself as it crawled with hands, wings, and clawed feet up the escarpment toward the volcanic caldera. She had to stop it before it escaped into the heart of the volcano.

  Narina closed her eyes and sent her sowen flowing through her hands and into her dragon blades. They glowed with a fierce white light, so bright that she could scarcely see her prey. She raced forward, half-blind, and took a leap of faith when she thought she was close.

  She landed hard on its back and struck again with all the power of her sowen and her twin blades. They bit deep. Its blood, hot and acidic, splashed across her arms. The monster roared in pain and tried to heave her clear, but Narina didn’t retreat, instead redoubling her attack as she hacked again and again. She came farther onto its back to avoid the gushing blood and smoking guts spilling out, and here found its neck again, exposed. She hacked at the scales and this time broke through for real.

  When she finally jumped down, the monster was in its death throes, its neck nearly severed, and a trail of its flaming guts led back down the escarpment to where her three surviving companions were still in a fight for their lives.

  Narina knew at first glance that the others were doomed. At least five crocodile demons had them surrounded, with the scorpion stabbing over the top of them with its stinger and dozens of lesser demons tightening a ring around them to prevent their escape. Kozmer was on his knees, a demonic lash having set his clothing on fire. Katalinka had lost one of her swords. Miklos held one badly burned arm against his side while he tried to wield the two-handed falchion with his other.

  Narina raced toward them, knowing she could never reach them in time. She slammed into several slaves and their overseer, who had their backs to her as they crowded her companions. They crumbled before her fury.

>   It was then that she saw the remaining enemies were all staggering to their knees or collapsing face-first to the ground. They tried to flee, but most died before they could reach the lava canals, and those few who made it vanished beneath the surface, either dissolving or submerging themselves completely in order to stay alive. The volcano had stopped rumbling, with only a smokey residue trickling skyward. Narina turned about in wonder and saw the demon lord itself was dissolving into a mound of ash. The entire battlefield was clearing before their eyes.

  They had won.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ruven convinced a bladedancer frater by the name of Bartal to take him up to the high meadow to watch the erupting volcano, and Andras thought it wise to accompany them. He saw no harm in it; both his son and the dogs needed the exercise, and Andras himself was feeling confined by the temple ground.

  The ratters and dogs alike had stopped working, stopped traveling, and were growing fat. Other than chasing down the occasional squirrel, the dogs had little to do since returning to the bladedancer temple, and the father and son even less.

  Bartal brought some goats to graze, including Brutus, and the surly old beast was in a grumpy mood, tossing his horns at the dogs as if forgetting their companionship last summer, when he’d made a grudging peace as they traveled the post road. The frater set the goats to munch at the grass, while the humans looked down toward the volcano on the far eastern edge of the range.

  Earlier, in the summer, when the ratters had first come up the canyon with their dogs, Manet Tuzzia had been a sleepy old mountain, never having erupted in known memory. Since then, it had blown its top and regrown its cone, and it was now exploding once again. Most of the ash from this latest eruption seemed to be blowing this way, too. Andras worried the temple and the surrounding forest would be covered in a choking blanket of the stuff. Meanwhile, the rumbling explosions were growing in intensity, as if the worst was still to come.