Until the observer looked into its solid black eyes. Then, there would be no doubt that this thing had come straight from the bowels of Hell.
And Kate intended to send it back there. In pieces.
The demon raised a great sword, one bigger than Kate’s body, and lunged. Maybe Kate was comparing the fight to the last demon commander she fought, or maybe to the Black she’d been sparring with, but either way, it moved slowly. Too slow to hit her.
She shifted aside, just enough for the blade to miss her by an inch. She slammed her shield into the weapon, and it careened off the magically enhanced metal surface. Her own sword flicked out and traced a scratch along her adversary’s breastplate.
The monster recovered well, circling its great sword around to slash at Kate from the side. Though it was a commander, it apparently wasn’t too bright because it struck from its right—Kate’s left. The shield side. Kate threw her arm up and angled her shield so the sword deflected again and skipped over her head.
This time, Kate thrust with her sword, puncturing the thing’s arm. It howled in rage and backed up to wind up for another strike.
The creature lost its temper and slashed wildly at Kate. She dodged some of the blows, parried one with her own sword, and caught the rest on her shield. She kept track of the other demons in her peripheral vision. She had taken care of the other elites, and the normal demon troops seemed content with watching their commander fight.
After the demon hacked at her for more than a minute, Kate saw her chance. A wild, downward swing came at her, one the demon had put all of its strength behind. It was off-balance and totally committed.
Kate crouched and threw her shield up. The blow glanced off the perfectly angled surface and slammed into the ground. While she blocked, she had moved a half step to the side, shifting her body weight to evade most of the force of the blow.
As the demon stumbled past her, Kate sprang up with all the strength her legs possessed. She turned a quarter twist in the air to reorient herself, tucked into a ball to turn a flip, and came down with the full force of gravity, her rotation, and her considerable strength.
Her sword entered the demon at the top of its head, between the horns, and kept going. It finally ran out of energy just above the monster’s groin. The two halves of its face frowned at the unfamiliar feeling.
Kate slammed her shield downward onto the sword’s crossguard and it sank the rest of the way through the demon commander’s body. The two sides peeled away and fell to the ground on either side of Kate’s sword. She spat demon blood that had somehow gotten in through the small holes in her mask to her mouth and turned to the rest of the demons with hatred in the green eyes none of the creatures could meet.
The demon troops fled back to the gate.
Kate watched the massive gates swing shut, and then let out a breath.
A rush of sound made her jump and spin around, shield and sword at the ready.
In front of her, every single red-cloaked Order soldier was cheering and beating their swords on their shields. Jurdan and Aurel were off to the side, the bigger man nodding and smiling and the other raising his fist in the air in triumph.
Kate relaxed and smiled. The soldiers couldn’t see it, of course, because of her mask, but they didn’t need to. She put her fist to her heart, thumping her breastplate with the pommel of her sword, and walked calmly back to her Black brothers.
“Showoff,” Jurdan said, but he winked as he did it.
“So, that is the Courtenay Crush?” Aurel said. “I like it, Pretty Kate. I like it much.”
Kate’s face hurt from smiling so widely.
9
That evening, Jurdan lured Kate to one of the private meeting rooms in the Black compound. She glanced around nervously as they went. Was he going to try to force himself upon her? He’d never given her a sense of being such a man, but she had heard stories of men who tried to take advantage…
She didn’t know what she was worried about. She could beat Jurdan in a fight. Easily. But what if someone else—or more than one—waited to ambush her? She bit her lower lip and darted her eyes even more frantically, looking for anything out of the ordinary. All the while, Jurdan kept up a constant stream of conversation. Well, it really wasn’t conversation because she couldn’t have crammed a word in even if she wanted to.
“So I told my brother,” he said, continuing his story, “that if I made it into the Order, he would have to give me the family sword. It’s an heirloom, really, and his by rights since he is the eldest.
“Of course, he didn’t think I had a chance. Still, he hedged his bet and said to me, he said, ‘Jurdan, there is no way you’ll make it into the Order to begin with, not with your attitude, and not with how you won’t ever listen for talking all the time. But I’ve heard tell of people bribing or extorting their way past the trials, so you can understand if I’m a little hesitant when it comes to our family’s greatest treasure.’
“Family’s greatest treasure. Bah. Our family’s greatest treasure is my little sister Aonica. Such a beauty she is, and the kindest, most wonderful girl in the world—no offense to you, Kate; you’re fantastic too—but compared to an old sword? She’s worth much more.
“Anyway, so I says to my brother, ‘You’re just looking for an excuse because you know I’ll make it,’ and he says, ‘I’ll tell you what, Jurdan. I’ll give you the sword if you make it to the Black.’
“Of course, he thought he was safe, even when I passed the trial, even when I graduated from basic training. Who ever personally knew someone who made it into the Black? Well, I tell you, when I got leave several years later and showed up at home, all in Black and with the papers containing my official orders, I thought my brother would pass out.
“To his credit, he made good on the bet. I now carry our family sword.” He lifted up on his scabbard to show it to Kate. “I had Molara put the magic on it like they do with all the weapons and shields for the Black. It has killed many a demon, let me tell you, though not as many as my arrows.”
Kate nodded whenever Jurdan looked at her, but she was alert, waiting for him to make a move. Or for someone else to show up. She judged that she could take any two of the Black, though she’d take some wounds doing it.
They got to the meeting room, and Jurdan opened the door and swept an arm out, offering the opportunity for her to go first.
“Thank you. After you,” she said, motioning toward the darkened room herself.
“Oh, why thank you,” Jurdan said, not missing a beat. He walked in while pulling flint and steel from his pocket. “Just let me light one of the braziers.”
Kate watched him warily. If there was a time to strike, this was it. She scanned the shadows for movement. Did something shift off to her right? She focused on her ears, trying to hear any little sound. She sensed…something. It was like when she had felt someone watching her as a child and found one of the servants quietly observing. She shivered and the fingers on her right hand twitched toward her sword.
Light suddenly bloomed up from three different areas of the large room. Kate had her sword out and was in a guard stance before she could even take a breath.
“Congratulations!” several people bellowed. She thought she heard Aurel’s deep voice among them.
A large group of black-clothed men were spread throughout the room. It looked like it might be the entire Black Command.
Kate froze, stunned. “What?”
Captain Achard stepped out from between two other men. “We are celebrating your first battle as one of us. Everyone in the city is talking about it. Your legend has begun.” He laughed and handed her a goblet of wine.
“It’s traditional,” Jurdan said, “to celebrate the first blooding as a Black, though of course, your case is even more spectacular than most. Showoff.” He winked at her and good-naturedly pushed two other men out of the way to get to the food table. “Come, Kate, have some food. This is all in your honor.”
Kate felt her face hea
t as she noticed the captain scrutinizing the sword in her hand.
“No need for that,” the captain said, laughing. “The food is already cut. Relax Kate. You’re with family.”
She chuckled nervously and scabbarded her sword. Maybe she was a little too tense after all. Kate downed the offered cup of wine and felt the warmth and relaxation wash over her.
She followed Jurdan toward the food table, her fellow Black patting her on the shoulder as she went.
The gathering was one of the best experiences of her short tenure in the Order. The wine may have had something to do with it, but it wasn’t long before she felt completely comfortable with the others. She could get used to this, the camaraderie and the belonging.
As the days passed, Kate looked forward to hearing the bell signifying the gates had opened. She felt a little uncomfortable with that notion, afraid it meant she reveled in combat, something Dante had always cautioned against. But the thrill of striding through the ranks to take care of a problem big enough to threaten the shield wall was too much of a temptation.
When problems developed, only one or two of the Black on duty would go and address it, leaving at least one to monitor other parts of the battlefield.
“The demons can be clever little buggers,” Jurdan told her. “In the past, they have used tactics to distract us and then sprung a trap. It hasn’t happened for years, since we changed our protocol for joining the fray. That’s why one or two of us wait while the others fight.”
It made sense. Kate took her turn at being the one to go into battle each time now, or to wait as another Black did. She wished sometimes they would give her priority like that first day, but it also made her feel like she was truly a part of the Black Command. They treated her exactly the same as everyone else, and that was comforting to her.
On one particularly chilly day, Kate was at her station, standing behind the troops and scanning the battlefield. Jurdan had joined the fight to plug a hole in the shield wall, and Kate and her other partner, a man named Visimar Torten, were on the lookout for traps.
A dark blur moved in the corner of her vision, and she thought it might have been one of the larger demons sneaking around to flank the troops. When she turned her attention fully to the area, she saw that it was actually one of the Black, his mask shaped like the top half of a skull with blue-colored inlays and swirling designs across the forehead. He crouched outside the view of most of the demons, hiding on one side of the frame for the gates.
Kate wondered why he was there, but the thought left her head when one of the demon commanders pointed to the Black brother. Several grunt demons peeled off from the main charge and bounded toward him. The commander itself, along with another commander, gathered more troops and headed there themselves at a fast walk.
Kate didn’t hesitate. She ran off to the left of the main troops, skirting the bulk of the battle, and sprinted straight toward the Black brother. Visimar cursed loudly but remained at his post.
The unknown Black brother showed no emotion, though his mouth was clearly visible beneath his half-mask. He exuded control and calmness. She wasn’t sure she could do so under similar circumstances. He straightened from the crouch he had been in and drew his weapons, two large crescents that Kate knew had to be as sharp as any sword.
By the time Kate got to him, he was already in the thick of battle. No less than twenty of the regular troops, three of the bigger, elite units, and the two demon commanders were swarming him.
He was a whirlwind of blades, but even his obvious skill couldn’t stand against such numbers for long. Kate didn’t recognize the death mask, so she wasn’t sure who he was, but it also didn’t matter. His black clothing made him her brother, and she would do everything she could to help him.
With a battle cry, she launched herself toward the nearest demon, one of the big elite types. In midair, she cut a deep gash in its back and bashed away one of the other, normal demons with her shield. Before the big one turned fully, another strike from her sword took its head.
And then the battle was on.
Kate whirled, twisted, and generally positioned herself anywhere but where the demons thought she was. A few claws scraped off her armor, and more deflected from her shield, but she didn’t suffer any cuts. As far as she knew. She cut through the demon bodies like a master sculptor clears away unneeded stone, until she stood next to the man she had come to help.
“I thank you,” he said in an accent instantly recognizable as being from Salornum. “I am Peiros. It is an honor to fight with you, Kate Courtenay.” His accent slightly trilled his “r” sounds and his “o” sounds stretched longer than that of Brasean speakers of the common tongue.
“Uh, yeah,” she said as she battered a clawed arm away and then cut it off the demon’s body. “Likewise.”
They set to their task, clearing away the demon rabble, making way for the one elite and two commanders that were left.
Peiros cut down the one remaining bigger demon and spun to meet one of the commanders. Kate braced to meet the other commander, spotting two or three dozen other demons that had taken notice of their battle and were charging them.
“We need to do this quickly,” she said. “We have more company coming.” She jerked her head toward the charging troops, and Peiros grunted and gave a nod.
Kate lost sight of her partner when the commander came in with a huge sword. It looked like the one carried by the last demon commander she had killed. The weapon didn’t scare her then, and it didn’t scare her now. She shifted her weight, preparing for the incoming blow.
This opponent fought like the last one she had fought. It used brute strength and its huge weapon to bash through an enemy’s guard. Maybe that was what they taught at demon commander school. Kate knew how to deal with that tactic.
Kate deflected the overhead slice enough for the weapon to go wide and strike the ground. The demon stumbled slightly ahead, off-balance from missing its target. As it stepped forward, its body leaning in, Kate thrust her sword up.
The point entered at the neck, and by the time the demon’s own momentum and Kate’s strength had been used up, a foot of ichor-covered blade protruded from the top of the demon’s head.
Kate pulled her sword out, slashing as she did so to destroy more of the demon’s brain. Kate wondered if she had even hit the tiny thing.
The monstrous slab of demon flesh didn’t seem to understand what had happened. Confusion clouded its eyes but then even that faded as death glazed its orbs.
Kate turned to see if Peiros needed any help, in time to see him dance around his demon commander and parry the monster’s sword with those strange crescents he used. Kate wondered how he could be so close to his opponent. The tink and clang of the crescents catching and turning the demon sword was loud, audible above the general din of battle.
Two more metallic rings and Peiros performed a complex, acrobatic move, tucking the crescents in close to his body as he spun and flipped, only to bring them out at the apex of his movement. One, two, three rapid strikes with the many sharpened surfaces of the crescents, and the demon commander’s body was twitching and scrambling around headless.
The troops didn’t run in fear this time. Two or three dozen of them swarmed Peiros and Kate. It looked they had a fight on their hands to get back to the line.
Just before the mass of demons arrived, Kate glanced through the open gates to Hell. Standing there, far enough back that no one else probably saw him, was a demon unlike any Kate had ever seen. He looked like a large human, heavily muscled, but with curved horns coming from the top and sides of his head and merging to form into a shape above his skull. It almost seemed as if hair had grown out and up, then turned solid into a long crown, spikes reaching upward more than a foot.
His coloring, as close as she could see in the darkness, looked no different than a tanned person, or maybe a slightly sunburned one. His appearance wasn’t what struck her, though.
He radiated power.
&nb
sp; It wasn’t just that he glowed, though he did a little. It was that she felt his power from several hundred yards away. A shiver ran up her back and down again.
She was no coward, but this demon scared her.
There was no time to think about it, for the rush of demons had made it to them. The mystery of the eldritch demon beyond the gate would have to be solved another time.
Though Kate had never sparred with Peiros—she didn’t even remember ever seeing him—the two of them fought as if they had trained together all their lives. He had no shield, only his crescents, so when she saw that he might need help, she twisted and blocked an incoming blow.
The rest of the time, they fought back-to-back, inching toward the shield wall. They advanced sideways, never letting the battle stop their progress.
Demons came at them and died. They were all the regular variety, the grunts, so they weren’t much of a challenge to either warrior. Kate’s sword arm was getting tired, but they had already made it halfway. A glance at Peiros showed that he had slowed as well, not fighting as acrobatically as he had earlier. He still looked in control of the situation, though, a true professional.
When they were within ten yards of the shield wall, half a dozen demons charged at the same time, trying to keep them from safety. Kate blew out a breath and set her shield for the impact.
It never came.
Four of the demons were cut down from behind, and the other two halted mid-charge to see what had happened to their comrades. It was perfectly clear from Kate’s point of view. The other two Black had finally finished whatever it was they were doing and decided to lend a hand.
“Nice of you to join us. Finally,” Kate said.
“You wouldn’t want us to get dirty or anything,” Jurdan said. “I was busy telling Visimar here the story of when I was supposed to take two girls to a big dance back home. Have I told you about it?”
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