And Where had Hadrovel gone? Was he locked behind that last iron door? Had he escaped during the confrontation with the guards? Oh God, what if he had? Jerlo rubbed his neck and staggered toward the holy rod he’d left outside. It might be his only advantage.
“Ah, ah, ah—I wouldn’t move if I were you.” Snake Woman pressed a claw into Sarn’s neck drawing a bead of magic-infused blood. It sparkled as it rolled down into his collar. “You don’t want my grip to slip.”
“Oh, very good!” cheered the demoness as she tugged Vanya’s face over hers completing her transformation. “I love it when prey struggles.”
Arms punched through the rock wall behind Jerlo wrapping him in a bear hug. Cinder squeezed him against the twin boulders jutting out of her chest. Were they breasts? Was the creature back to pretending a humanity it didn’t possess? Why bother with that now?
Unnerved by her sudden arrival, Jerlo bucked and kicked, but couldn’t dislodge himself from her crushing grip. If he could just get his glove off, he could smite the bitch. God’s power was welling up in his palm like a caged thunderbolt. He just needed to give it an outlet.
Cinder rocked as something landed on her back. Rat Woman’s arms locked around the stone creature’s neck and despite her best choke hold, Cinder just cackled.
“Get my glove off.” Jerlo jerked his trapped arm to gain Rat Woman’s attention, but she had her own problems.
Rat Woman flipped over Cinder’s head right before the stone golem ground her back into a wall. Landing too close to the mattress, she stumbled backward out of swipe range. Enraged, Snake Woman let go of Sarn and launched herself with a shriek of primal fury. She and Rat Woman went down, teeth and claws bared as they wrestled for dominance. They had a score to settle, but that left Jerlo trapped and suffocating.
“You short-sighted fools!” Vanya shouted, incensed by her loss of control over the situation. Or was this too part of her plan? The demoness was too crafty by half.
Neither Rat Woman nor Insect Man gained superiority over their opponents, but they kept trying. Shaking her head, Vanya dodged the tussling minions and extruded six-inch obsidian claws as she approached Sarn.
Jerlo struggled to breathe despite Cinder’s constricting embrace. His bones creaked as he squirmed, but there was no escaping asphyxia's darkness. Not until his glove finally caught on a rock spur sticking out of Cinder’s hide. He wrenched his hand this way and that, twisting his wrist at painful angles while waves of blackness washed over him, but he refused to let it take him. This time it might gobble up his present.
Too many people depended on him. He had to stay conscious no matter what. Help me, God. I’m drowning in darkness far from your light.
Andurai corrected the uppity star lodged in his hand. It traveled up his arm glowing brighter as it turned inward toward his sobbing lungs and warmed them, making his chest tingle. Then air stinking of unwashed bodies, rotting food and excrement flooded his lungs. Jerlo coughed and his ribs ground together unable to expand as the blackness crept back into the edges of his vision. But he kept wrenching his wrist. The glove was slipping off in slow increments. Too slow though, for Sarn’s sake.
“Move, and I’ll cut his head off,” shouted Vanya as her claws hovered an eighth of an inch from Sarn’s jugular.
Rat Woman and Insect Man stilled giving Water Girl and Snake Woman the upper hand until a white light flared. A silver root shot out of that radiance and slammed Vanya into a wall. The demoness screamed in rage and pain as she raked her claws across the restraining root. Out of a series of radiant, interlocking circles etched into the floor, the Queen of All Trees rose brandishing her knife-tipped branches. Sarn lay behind her, his fingers resting on her mark pouring magic into it. But his eyes were closed. Sleep still gripped him, but not his magic, and for once, the dreaded stuff was a welcome sight.
Vanya threw back her head and howled. Her skin split and a black winged thing tore out of her forehead. Her forgotten body flopped onto the ground like a discarded sack of meat while the demon flew out of the Queen of All Trees’ reach, laughing.
“You win this time White Witch, but I’ll win in the end. I always do.”
At long last, Jerlo’s glove fluttered to the floor, but the star wasn’t in his hand anymore. It was bouncing around his lungs fighting a losing war against suffocation. Through asphyxia’s chokehold, Jerlo pushed toward the light at the end of the dark tunnel contracting his vision.
Attack, he commanded the Andurai spiraling down his arm.
Thunder cracked when he slapped his bare palm against Cinder’s thigh discharging a bar of lightning that obliterated her leg. Cinder convulsed into an eye rolling, tongue lolling, muscle twitching pile of rock. Jerlo landed in a heap and sucked in a deep breath.
But the Andurai weren’t done yet. They ricocheted inside Cinder’s body punching glowing holes in her core. Chased by the light destroying its host, a black bat-winged thing shrieked as it ejected from Cinder’s forehead moments before she exploded. It flapped to join the demon that was Vanya, and the two merged, enlarging the demon. The Andurai broke off its pursuit and sunk back into Jerlo’s hand. Its job was done.
Water girl pulled away from Insect Man and vomited her own piece of bat-winged darkness. Then her body dissolved into a pool of still water as the dark thing fled the Queen of All Trees to rejoin its maker.
The light flowing up from the Queen’s mark stuttered then died out, taking the Queen of All Trees with it. Though her presence lingered and her ever-watchful eye fixed itself on this cave. She would return if called.
“Why didn’t you destroy the demon?” Jerlo asked between coughs. If that magical tree heard, she didn’t bother to answer.
“It’s another one of her games. We’re all pawns in an endless war,” said the bat-thing that had animated Vanya. It blurred. One moment that batty thing was flitting around the opposite side of the cave. And the next, a human-looking Vanya was dropping into a crouch and tapping Sarn’s jugular with a razor-sharp talon. A smile quirked her lips. “Check mate. Move, and I’ll snap his neck.”
The Kid was still out cold. Damn that boy. Couldn’t he at least participate in his own rescue? Jerlo froze halfway to his feet and leaned against a stalagmite. Its cousin dripped cold water on his head that ran into his eyes.
“Papa!” A child rushed forward, and everything happened too fast.
“No, Ran, get back.” Rat Woman struggled against Snake Woman’s hold, but she was pinned under the cobra-hooded woman.
The little boy stopped and looked for who had called his name. Jerlo stared at Sarn’s bright green eyes and his features miniaturized to fit that boy’s face. If he were more than four years old, Jerlo would eat his boots.
“You’re his—son?” Jerlo pointed from the confused child to his unconscious father.
Snake Woman lunged at the boy. “Die, child!”
“Run, Ran, go!” Rat Woman seized Snake Woman by her ankle and yanked her backward.
The petrified boy stared at Snake Woman’s claws sailing toward him. He cringed at the last second, and her claw caught his trousers opening a rent in the pant leg. Snake Woman crashed to the ground and kicked at Rat Woman who held tight to her ankle, reining the struggling minion in. Terrified beyond reason, Ran rushed to his father, Sarn.
“Jerlo! Catch!”
Startled by the appearance of yet another newcomer, Jerlo turned and blinked at a stuffed bear launching a familiar object at him. What the hell? He caught the crucifix flying at him. Pivoting, Jerlo stabbed Vanya in the shoulder with its sharpened end. She screamed and collapsed onto her side. But the blasted demon didn’t explode or otherwise die from the blow.
“She’s not human. You have to destroy her,” growled the stuffed bear as it ran past.
Indeed, Vanya’s body was shaking and growing. Her skin grayed and split. Three black bat-like things dove into her body, and she swelled until her feet were the size of dinner plates.
Beside her, the little Sarn loo
kalike pounded his tiny fists against his father’s chest. Green light erupted from Sarn, protecting the crying child. “Wake up Papa! Papa, please wake up!”
But he didn’t. Sarn barely seemed to breathe. What had that demon done to him?
The frightened child fumbled in his pockets then held up two spots of glowing white. “Please,” he begged.
White radiance gathered around him and his stricken father, gobbling them up. The stuffed bear dove into that expanding pool of light and the trio vanished in a white flare. Jerlo blinked at the afterimage of purple branches interrupting his sight. Sarn and his son, if that’s who the boy was, were gone. Likely into the Queen of All Trees’ keeping and right now, that was probably the best place for them. Later, he could puzzle out how they got to her.
“They’re safe,” Insect Man said from where he knelt helping Rat Woman subdue the struggling Snake Woman.
“Let go of me! You’ll need my help to defeat that thing.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Jerlo twirled his crucifix-topped spear then realized what he was doing and righted it. Sorry about that Lord. You’d best cobble together a truly heinous penance for me. I deserve it.
Soft laughter followed that thought. Well if he’d given the Almighty a laugh he might escape a smiting. Now to deal with the thing Vanya was becoming.
Vanya grunted as she sat up and swatted Jerlo’s holy spear away, knocking it from his hand. Jerlo crashed into a table and collapsed it. He groaned as every muscle complained at once. I’m getting too old for this.
“Where is he?” Vanya scanned the cave but didn’t see Sarn. “This is your doing.” She pointed at Jerlo who was wriggling free of the wreckage. “I will make you pay for this in blood.”
“You’ll have to catch me first.” Jerlo staggered into a run, but his blood ran cold at the purring laughter trailing behind him. Damn it all. He was still playing her game and losing, judging by the scrapes, bruises, and twinges assailing his aching body.
“Oh, I will catch you. Run little man, run to where you’ve stashed your precious mageling. Lead me to him like a good minion.”
Her insinuation that he was somehow her creature doing her bidding almost slammed Jerlo to a halt. But Rat Woman shoved him out of the cave into yet another damned tunnel. He was sick of them, but there was no escaping their endless twisting around down here.
“Don’t stop. Don’t listen. That’s what she wants. That’s how she gets inside your head. And once she’s in there, you can’t get her out.”
“Because there’s a little demon in all of us?” Jerlo quipped. The thought sent a shaft of fear through him. He didn’t want any demon in him, but he couldn’t deny the logic. How else could Vanya gain a toe hold inside his mind?
Rat Woman didn’t answer, but she did clap both hands over her ears. So did Insect Man.
“She’s trying to get inside our heads,” Snake Woman hissed as she ran like the hounds of hell were chasing her. Maybe they were, inside her mind.
“How do we destroy her?” Jerlo trotted around a bend and fought his body’s demand to slow down.
“Cut off its head, duh,” said Snake Woman from up ahead. “A demon can repair any other damage but not that.” Then she stopped and spun to face them baring her claws and fangs. Had Vanya overthrown her mind?
Rat Woman threw out an arm to stop Jerlo. Vanya’s laughter echoed in the tunnel startling them. They huddled together standing back-to-back, so all four cardinal directions were covered. Their eyes scanned the featureless stone for the source of that piercing laughter. It was everywhere and inside their minds too.
“I see four minions running scared in the dark.” Vanya’s laughter rose several octaves forcing them to cover their ears. The lumir crystal band lighting this godforsaken tunnel shattered, plunging them into darkness as Vanya’s voice rose still another octave.
A fist slammed into Jerlo’s stomach doubling him up, and their formation fell apart as each reacted to blows and jostled their neighbor. A claw dragged down Jerlo’s cheek. Was it Vanya’s?
“Run little man, run. There’s nowhere you can hide from me. I’m already inside your mind.”
Flight won as mindless panic seized Jerlo catapulting him ahead of the others. He ran tripping over loose stones until the icy grip she had on his mind loosened, and the panic faded to what it was—a suggestion.
“Jerlo!”
“Behind you! Duck!”
Jerlo dropped flat wincing when the sudden movement jarred his sore ribs. Something swooped down, and it dug talons into his back.
“It’s in your mind! Shut her out!” Rat Woman shouted.
But how? Vanya was the darkness oppressing Jerlo. Her claws were digging into the amnesia and opening its terrible maw wide enough to swallow all his yesterdays. The fear of losing his identity again compressed his mind into a tiny jabbering ball until his hand heated up. White light shone from his palm, illuminating the tunnel and banishing the fear.
They lay there gasping, three former minions of a vanquished demon and one commander of the Rangers. Vanya stood over them laughing until tears of mirth streamed down her awful face.
“I take back what I said earlier,” Rat Woman said from where she was pinned by Vanya’s will. “She’s better at mind games than our maker was.”
“Is this real?”
The rock under Jerlo’s hand felt solid, damp and cold, but did that mean anything in this phantasmagoria?
“I don’t know.”
A tongue of fire danced on Jerlo’s palm catching his attention. In it, a tiny woman stood. She was light and yet everything about her said tree from the branching pattern of her silver raiment to the long tresses tangling about her shoulders. Light consumed the woman. Her features were a numinous blur.
“Get up. You can’t defeat her like this. Mind games are her specialty. Remember, there are two types of people in this world. You’re the other one. Use that to your advantage.”
“Are you—” the Queen of All Trees?
But she had faded into the flickering flame before his question had fully formed. She might be another one of Vanya’s games. Just as Jerlo thought that, something heavy slammed into his back and squeezed the air from his lungs.
“What do you want?”
The weight lifted. Darkness eclipsed the tunnel. When it receded, Jerlo dug his fingers into a cliff and scrabbled for a toe hold on a vertical rock wall.
Vanya lounged on the precipice enjoying every minute of her mind game. Her purple gown rustled in a passing breeze. “What do I want?” She pried his index finger up, and an invisible force shoved that digit away from the wall. “Oh, Jerlo, why do you assume I want something bad? After all, we demons started out life as Angels. Just because we fell, we’re not evil. What if it’s world peace and prosperity I want to bring? What if your charge is the key?”
Jerlo barked a laugh at that. Sarn bring world peace? Not likely considering how much trouble that Kid dragged around in his wake. “If that’s what you truly wanted, you wouldn’t have staged this elaborate trap.”
“I had to show you the error your ways. How else can I convince you to fix your mistakes?” Vanya lifted two more of Jerlo’s fingers leaving him only the most tenuous of grips.
“You don’t want to fix anything. Breaking things is more your style.” So was tearing the wings off butterflies. And that’s what he was to her. A butterfly she wanted to clip for her collection. Jerlo suppressed a shudder in case this was real.
“What do you really want?”
“Invite me in all the way, and I’ll show you.” She wrenched his hand away from the precipice and held him by his wrist. Below, oblivion yawned devoid of thought or action. She waited a full minute before releasing him.
Jerlo plummeted and slammed into a body in motion. Ahead Snake Woman turned a corner. Was this real? The stitch in his side convinced him it was. Maybe this was the endgame, the final play and he had nothing left except to run until he ran out of tunnels or breath.
In Darkness, She Binds
“You go left, and I’ll go right,” Snake Woman was saying when Jerlo caught up with his companions at a W-junction. She pointed at Insect Man. “You distract her. Do that swarm thing you do.”
“So she can destroy me? No way.” Insect Man shook his head then his face exploded. An invisible hand scythed through him scattering his swarm. A ring of flies, spiders, beetles, and God knew what else expanded away from a spinning gray core. It pulsed like a racing heart as twin black hands swooped down on it.
Rat Woman dove between them and embraced the guttering essence of Insect Man. Hugging his flickering remains against her chest, she sidestepped the disappearing hands.
“Run!” Snake Woman shoved past Jerlo into the only tunnel remaining—the middle one. The other two were blocked by rock slides. That teeth-rattling laughter echoed around them, and something large stomped through the gloom shaking the cavern. Was it Vanya or another minion? Please Lord, anything but Cinder.
Jerlo panted as he struggled to keep up with Snake Woman. His lungs were on fire from all the running, but he could not stop, not even when the ground sloped and turned slippery. He barreled on sliding and tripping by turns. Loose rocks sent him pitching face first onto the ground inches away from a rat staring down a cobra. Wonderful, his allies were falling apart. Jerlo slapped the hissing cobra aside and scooped up the petrified rat.
“I’d better get you back to your mistress.” The Rat nuzzled his palm and Jerlo fought the urge to drop it when Snake Woman laughed.
She stumbled around the thousandth stalagmite he’d seen today holding her arm. Two reptilian heads snaked out of her wrist, fangs bared to take a bite out of him. Rattled by the sight, the rat leaped off Jerlo’s hand and ran back to her mistress. Meanwhile, Snake Woman shook her arm, and the two hissing snakes merged into a lump that sprouted five digits with claws. She flexed her newly formed fingers then part of her shoulder broke off and slid down her arm. A garter snake landed by her boot, but she stepped on it, and a gray lump raced up her bare, shapely legs. With a shudder, it passed under her coarse tunic and rolled over the tops of her breasts heading for her sloping shoulder no doubt to rebuilt it.
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