Legion

by Catrina Burgess

  I scrambled to my feet. “Mildred,” I cried out. “You’re alive!”

  “Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?” she said.

  I laughed out loud at the expression of annoyance on her face.

  Luke slowly got to his feet and looked into the darkness behind her.

  “No one is with me, boy. I’m all alone,” she said, settling down in front of the fire.

  “Where have you been?” I demanded.

  She gave a loud sigh. “There’s a lot to tell. Where do I begin?”

  “The last time I saw you was during the fight in the mining town,” I said.

  She nodded. “That was an unfortunate night. A lot of people lost their lives that night.”

  It took me a few tries before I could get the words out. “Is Wendy…?”

  Mildred raised up her hand. “Not to worry. The last time I saw her, she was alive and kicking.”

  Wendy is still alive. I could feel a knot of tension in my stomach unwind. “You were with her?”

  “For a bit. While it suited me,” she said with a cryptic smile. Her gaze flickered over to Luke. “Settling in well I see.”

  I realized she meant into his new body.

  She was watching him with an intense look. “Have you been practicing the Dragon Guild magic?”

  He looked at her for a long moment before he said, “Yes.” A frown creased his forehead when the word left his mouth. I had the feeling he was thinking back to the Redeemers he’d killed.

  Her eyes got brighter. “Good, good. With what’s coming, we need everyone at their full potential.”

  “What do you mean ‘with what’s coming’?” Even as I asked the question, I wondered, Do I really want to hear the answer?

  There was a rustling behind us. I turned to see Jamie sitting up in her bag, looking at Mildred with wide eyes.

  Mildred watched the child for a minute in silence before whispering, “So you turned the child human. Wendy told me as much, but I didn’t believe it.”

  Her words surprised me. “Wendy knew?”

  “The girl is a powerful reader. She can read emotions and thoughts across great distances. Those dark creatures possessing her have increased her power.” Mildred lowered her voice and said, “Wendy is still being held by Gage.”

  Gage is still alive. The words sent a chill through my heart. I’d had the feeling he was, but hearing it come out of Mildred’s mouth made it real for the first time.

  Dean stood next to Jamie. Whatever Mildred had to tell us, I didn’t know if it was something the girl should hear. The ritual back at the stronghold seemed to have traumatized her in a way I didn’t understand. Hearing about Gage trying to unleash a legion of demons was something that might make things worse. Especially since she’d no inkling of her evil origins. At some point, I had to tell her the truth about how she came into existence. It wasn’t a conversation I was looking forward to.

  I motioned for Dean to stay put, grabbed Luke’s arm, and started to pull him away from the fire, motioning for Mildred to follow us. Once we were far enough away that I was sure our words wouldn’t carry, we stopped. But that also meant we were now away from the warmth of the fire. The heavy shadows of the trees blocked out all but a few stars, turning Luke and Mildred into drifting shadows. In this inky blackness, any number of people or monsters could come within arm’s reach without any warning. The thought was a constant tickle running down my spine.

  Luke studied me as I wrapped my arms around myself. He walked away, and when he came back he had a bundle of twigs in his arms. I watched him pile the wood, and then with a flash of his hands, orange flames slid from his fingertips and the wood burst into flame. The light from the fire only extended a short distance into the trees, but it was a relief from the oppressive darkness of the woods.

  I squatted close to the fire and looked over expectantly at Mildred.

  The old woman settled herself on the ground and pulled tight a green shawl draped across her shoulders. “After the battle, I stayed with Gage.” Mildred saw the surprised look on my face and gave me a smile. “If I didn’t, Wendy would’ve died.”

  “Died? But how—”

  She raised a hand before I could shout out all the questions swirling in my head. “Wendy was hurt during the fighting. I could’ve used my powers and poofed away, but she was badly injured, and Gage’s healers had all been killed or fled.” She looked at the fire for a long moment before saying, “I might not be a healer, but I’ve been around a long time, and I’ve seen my share of battle wounds. I used my magic to heal her. When she was finally out of danger, I popped away and came here.”

  “But Gage is alive.” Luke had been quietly listening to everything Mildred said.

  “He is, and so is Sonja,” Mildred answered.

  Sonja—Gage’s minion, someone who would have been happy to never see me again. “Where are they?” I demanded.

  My mind flashed back to the cave prison Gage had kept me in. Gage was fond of tunnels. I wondered if he’d found another old mining town to inhabit. And I wondered if Mildred had been forced to pay for helping me. Had Gage realized the extent of Mildred’s betrayal? If he had, I doubted she would still be alive.

  Mildred picked at a thread on the skirt of her white dress. The shawl and the dress were both worn and dirty. She picked up a small rock and bounced it in the palm of her hand. “Right this moment, I’m not sure where they are. I left them to make my way to you. When I left, Gage and his people were still traveling. By now he’ll be miles away from where I last saw him.”

  So, as far as we knew, Gage hadn’t found a new permanent headquarters. That hopefully meant he hadn’t had time for more dark spells and rituals. I shuddered as the image of Wendy tied to a chair slid across my mind. The look on her face when the demon had possessed her… I was still having nightmares about it.

  “You left Wendy with that madman?” I couldn’t keep the disappointment I felt from my voice.

  “I had no choice. I knew you needed me. Wendy told me you were in trouble. She told me about the demon poison. Was I supposed to just stay put and let you die?” Mildred leaned over and grabbed my arm. “Let me see, child.”

  I lifted my sleeve.

  She knelt down, carefully looked at my blackened veins, and then slowly traced them with her fingers. My skin felt bruised under her touch. When she was done examining me, she looked over at the other campfire.

  I followed her gaze. I could see the outline of Jamie and Dean in the firelight.

  Mildred said, “The creature did this to you.”

  It wasn’t a question, but I answered it anyway. “She did. It happened before we made her human. I made a counter-poison potion to keep it at bay.”

  Mildred let out a hiss. “Poison to fight poison. Wendy told me what you did. It was a foolish thing to do. You were lucky, child; you could’ve died.”

  I pulled my arm away. “If I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t be here now. Do you know how to fix this? Is there an antidote?”

  “There is,” Mildred said. “But you’re not going to like what we have to do to get it.”

  * * *

  “You want us to cross over another demon?” Luke was pacing back and forth in front of the fire. He’d been pacing ever since Mildred started telling us her plan to cure me.

  Dean had joined us. Jamie was finally asleep, tucked away in her sleeping bag. Dean hadn’t said much as he listened to Mildred’s plan. He just watched her. It was obvious from his expression that he didn’t trust her. It didn’t help that Mildred looked like more of a mad woman than normal.

  “As I said before, the only way to counter the poison is to make a potion.” Mildred looked over at me. “Not a potion like the one you made. Fighting poison with poison.” She pointed her finger at me and frowned. “It was a rash move, child. You’re lucky you’re still breathing. No, this time you’ll fight demon poison with demon power. As I explained, the main ingredient of the potion I have in mind is found in the horn of a dem
on.”

  “A demon horn. You’ve got to be kidding me.” Luke stopped pacing and gave Mildred a scowl. “There must be something else we can do.”

  Mildred crossed her arms. “There’s not.”

  “And how do you propose we bring forth another one of those things?” The first demon I’d brought through had been an accident.

  “We just need the dagger and an old spell,” Mildred said.

  A dagger full of dark souls. The image of a blade glinting in the hands of a madman atop a stone altar flashed through my mind. Macaven used the dagger to sacrifice people. He collected the souls one by one. Is that what Mildred was proposing—that we kill people to power the blade once we got our hands on it?

  As if reading my mind, she turned to me and said, “It’s true you need dark souls, but, child, I’m not telling you to go out and kill people. Gage already has everything we need.” She looked at each of us. “He’s been preparing to bring over another demon since the one he followed disappeared. He needs a demon he can control to help him open the portal and bring across the Legion.”

  “So we find Gage and the dagger, we do a spell and bring over the demon, and then we cut off its horn and make a magic potion that I drink. And then I’ll be well.” I wanted to laugh out loud. The old women had lost her mind this time. It was an impossible plan.

  “Exactly,” Mildred said, a smug look on her face. Mildred wasn’t laughing, she was serious. That made the whole thing more unsettling.

  “I don’t understand why we can’t use the demon that Colina already crossed over.” It was Dean. He spoke up for the first time since we started arguing. “Was the demon banished back to hell?”

  Mildred’s eyes narrowed. “No. When that demon lost its hold on the child, it lost its ability to morph into a physical shape.” She looked around the clearing. “It’s still here on our plane of existence. In the very quiet moments, you might be able to feel its presence.”

  A chill ran down my back at her words.

  Mildred said, “It still follows the child.”

  “Can it take hold of her again?” I whispered.

  Mildred looked slowly at each of us. “Yes, eventually it will be able to gather enough power to take on its original form. Don’t look so shocked. You made the demon human, but that’s all you did. You weakened the demon. True, it needs to gather power in order to transform, but once it does…” Mildred snapped her fingers. “It can become demon again in a heartbeat.”

  “You’re saying that, given enough time, it can change back into its true form,” Luke said. I could see the hellfire gliding across his fingers. “If it does, we’ll be in the presence of the same powerful demon that destroyed Macaven and his dark mages.”

  Mildred looked up into the sky. “Back when demons roamed the earth, there were only a handful of people with the power to truly destroy one.”

  “Demon killers,” I said under my breath.

  Mildred spun around. “Yes, but it’s not like with the dark mages. Mages—those born with magic—can learn new magic. They can do like you did, Colina, and decide to take a different path than the one they were born into. A healer or reader, for instance, can perform the rituals and become a death dealer, but the process is not the same for demon killers.” Mildred raised her hands to the fire. “Someone is born a demon killer. It’s not something any mage can learn. But those born with that type of magic are rare, like a white deer. Imagine trying to find one white pebble amongst a million dark ones on the ocean floor.”

  “But still, they existed when the demons were around?” I asked.

  “They did,” she answered.

  “And now they’re all gone. What happened to them?” Skepticism colored my voice. Everyone seemed to think that no information about demons survived, yet Macaven, Gage, and even Darla had found spells dealing with them. Demon killers might still be out there somewhere.

  “You think people fear the death dealers? That fear is nothing compared to what people felt for the demon killers.” Mildred gave a long sigh. “Once most of the demons were banished—”

  I interrupted her, “What do you mean by ‘most’?”

  She gave me a sad smile. “You think the demon you raised is the only one walking this earth?”

  Her words stopped me cold. I had assumed that all the demons released a hundred years ago had been banished. I thought the demon killers destroyed them all.

  Mildred looked up at the stars. “There is evil in this world.” She looked back at me. “You have felt it. During the great mage war, the demon killers destroyed the most powerful of demons, but they couldn’t catch them all.” Luke started to ask a question, but Mildred raised her hand and stopped him. “How many still roam this earth, I do not know. As for the ones that do walk amongst us, their power is diminished in our world. They can only cause small acts of harm, not mass destruction.”

  “And the demon I brought forth? I asked.

  “It’s an Archdemon,” Mildred answered. “You’ve seen what the creature is capable of.”

  I recalled watching the demon take on powerful dark mages and, with a wave of magic, destroy them all.

  “Archdemons can raise hellhounds.” She looked over at Luke. “They possess hellfire. Their magic is much more powerful than ours.”

  Dean spoke up then. “But the demon killers could destroy them?”

  Mildred gave him a wide smile. “They could, but once they destroyed the Archdemons, attitudes toward the demon killers changed. If you have the power of a god, what stops you from being one? If you decide to take over a kingdom, a guild, or a clan, who’s going to stop you? In the minds of the rest of the mage and non-mage communities, the demon killers became the ultimate threat.”

  “So they killed them?” Luke sounded shocked.

  “Worse: they attempted to destroy all evidence that they ever existed,” Mildred answered. “If someone was born today with the demon killer power, there is no one to guide them in their art, no one to nurture along the flames of that magic so it can grow strong. They made sure no demon killers would ever exist again.” She made a wide sweeping gesture with her arm. “And I fear they may do the same with your kind one day.”

  “Kill all the death dealers.” Dean’s voice was void of emotion.

  Mildred’s eyes were bright again. “And burn all their spells. Destroy every mention of dark mages. Burn all the books, destroy all your kind. Wipe your very existence off the face of the earth. I know you think I’m talking crazy, but I watched them do it once. And history has a habit of repeating itself.”

  “They couldn’t do it. The death dealers are too powerful,” Luke said.

  “There are more of you than there were of the demon killers. It would take a few generations to completely extinguish your kind.” Mildred’s eyes filled with sadness. “But if history has taught us anything, it’s that people with fear will go to great lengths, to inhuman lengths sometimes, to eradicate that fear.”

  Luke shook his head. “It could never happen.”

  “It’s happening now. Your people are being rounded up and murdered,” Mildred answered firmly.

  We all looked at the fire in silence.

  Luke was the first to speak. “None of the demons that walk the earth now will work for your potion?”

  “Maybe we could find one that is powerful enough, if we had enough time, if we had more resources.” Mildred looked over at me. “But those are a lot of ifs, and we are running out of time, boy.”

  Dean looked over where Jamie was sleeping. “What about Colina’s demon? Could we bring it back and cut off its horn?”

  Mildred’s gaze followed his. “Not unless you want to let it possess the child again.”

  “Can it possess someone else?” I remembered how, during Wendy’s possession, Gage’s followers had all seemed to be transfixed, and how Caleb had spoken in an alien voice. Had they all been possessed by a demon at the time?

  “A demon can use its influence on a reader or speak through
someone who possesses hellfire.” Her gaze flickered over to Luke for a split-second. “Gage did a lot of spells to make his followers more receptive to the demon, but when demons are possessing these people, only a piece of them crosses over—a bit of their spirit. And they can only possess the body for a short period.” She picked up a stick and drew a large figure with two horns in the dirt. She poked the stick at the figure.

  “This demon, the one you let loose, came into our world and then morphed into the form of a child. Demons can form a human host that provides them with the aptitude for magic or specific skills that they need. But there’s a huge cost in this approach. Demons can’t create life; they can only warp and twist it to their needs. It takes the life force of dozens of mages to provide enough power.”

  Mildred said. “It might eventually find a home in someone with magic who opens themselves up. And if that happens, then one day it can morph into its original shape and have its full power back.” She suddenly looked over at me. “Darla wasn’t wrong. Wendy told me what Darla tried to do to you. The only way to destroy the demon when it’s morphed into human form is to do the spell she found—the one that turns the vessel back to human. And then, when the time is right, do a spell to exorcise the creature’s shadow form back to hell. If Darla had succeeded in killing you, the demon would have been sent straight back to hell. But now that the demon is in its shadow form, we can’t use it for our purpose—curing you,” Mildred said. “We need a physical demon horn. We need to grind the horn down and use it in the potion.”

  “I’m not going to risk Jamie’s life again.” I would do everything in my power to protect her.

  Mildred reached out and put her hand gently on my shoulder. “Not to worry. The demon who possessed Jamie is far too strong. We need to bring a lesser demon over. One we might be able to control and then hopefully banish when we’re done with it.”

  Might? Mildred said might be able to control. She only hoped we could banish it. What if the demon was stronger than all of us? “How are we supposed to banish it once we have what we need?”