The Demon City

by Evan Currie

  “What’s she talking about?” he asked Sindri.

  The short man shrugged. “The girl is speaking with someone through her armor. Don’t worry about it. We’ll explain more another time.”

  “What are elder?” Elan asked.

  “Bad things, like we told you already,” Brokkr snorted. “For your purposes, consider them demons. They’re not, not exactly, but that’s close enough. Just not normal demons. They’re powerful.”

  “They’re also indescribable,” Sindri said, “so don’t bother asking for more. Each elder is not only different from their fellows, but they can appear as different things to different observers. All that matters is that they’re extremely bad for anyone local. Once they come through, the game is over. Even some of the smarter demons will be looking to hop to another world.”

  Elan shivered slightly at the idea of something that drove even demons to flee, and Merlin seemed unnervingly quiet as he processed that information.

  “That tallies with what little I have been able to hunt down,” Merlin acknowledged finally.

  “We have to do something,” Elan said. “They’re doing the same thing here, aren’t they?”

  Her last question was accompanied by a glance at the brothers, who both nodded.

  “We assumed that’s why you came,” Sindri said. “From what you just said, I assume here isn’t the only location, then?”

  “No,” Elan said. “It’s happening . . . elsewhere.”

  “Endgame,” Brokkr said flatly.

  Sindri just nodded.

  “Agreed,” Merlin said to her over the armor. “This must be the demons’ final action, to end the long war for good so that they can move on to other places to conquer.”

  “We have to stop them,” Elan said. “I can see what we can do here . . .”

  “Caleb and Simone are organizing an attempt on this side. I do not know if they will succeed,” Merlin said. “There are . . . odd things happening at the summoning site.”

  “What do you mean, odd things?” Elan asked, again confusing those who couldn’t hear who she was speaking with.

  “Odd things?” Jol asked, confused.

  “Silence, Jol. Let the lady hear what’s going on,” Sindri said with a grin.

  Meanwhile, Merlin had gone on as though they weren’t speaking.

  “Animal attacks on the demons have rendered the area extremely hostile,” he told Elan. “Whether Caleb and the others will be able to penetrate that circle without being subject to similar attacks is highly unlikely at this point.”

  “Animal attacks?” Elan asked. “Really?”

  “Blood wards.” Sindri nodded as he cut in. “They set similar ones here. Those are fundamentally unnatural. They’ll put everything around them with connection to the natural balance into a rage. Even humans will be affected given time. However, it will vary from person to person. The more mastery they have over their instincts, the longer they’ll be able to remain fully in control of themselves.”

  “I will warn Caleb,” Merlin said.

  “Is he okay?” Elan asked, her voice going quieter.

  “He is fine,” Merlin assured her. “His mastery of the armor has a distance to go, but he shouldn’t be a threat to those around him at the moment . . . unlike someone else I can remember.”

  Elan’s lips twisted. “You shoved me in the suit and told me good luck. What did you expect?”

  “I don’t recall wishing you good luck,” Merlin told her, amused. “I will keep you informed . . .” He paused before saying, “Good luck.”

  Elan let out an exasperated noise, rolling her eyes. “He’s such an ass.”

  “The elementals all are at times, girl,” Brokkr told her, clearly amused despite not hearing half the conversation. “Comes from the whole eternal thing.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “That would explain you two and Kaern, I suppose.”

  “Oooh,” Sindri chuckled, “the little girl has a bite to her. We’re not eternal, exactly, but I suppose it’s close enough for you to have a point all the same.”

  Elan sighed, looking around as she tried to get her bearings. The massive city was impossible in that regard. Every direction looked the same, and while her armor had compass directions, that meant little to her without landmarks.

  “Where is the circle?” she asked finally.

  “Back that way,” Jol answered, pointing casually off to the left. “Near where we first met.”

  “I know. I followed you from there,” she admitted. “But I can’t seem to keep my bearings in this place.”

  “Cities are like that if you don’t know your way around,” Sindri told her. “Jol wouldn’t know the confusion of coming in new, though. He’s never seen anything else.”

  Elan just nodded absently as she played around with the display of her armor, trying to get the mapping system to work. When Merlin was paying attention to her, everything just seemed to be where she needed it as it was needed. Now, however, with him splitting his focus, she was continually running into little things that she knew the armor could do but couldn’t seem to get figured out for herself.

  She had the common stuff down pretty well, but Elan was learning that there was a lot more to it than she’d thought.

  Isn’t this just a lovely time to be working that out?

  *****

  The prow of the dugout sliced through the waves, sending water spray in all directions and occasionally digging in deep enough to put several inches of water in the bottom of the small boat. Caleb ignored it, letting others bail it out, and focused on paddling.

  Oddly, he was finding that his armor-enhanced strength really did nothing for them in terms of added speed. The other boats were easily keeping up, no matter how hard he tried to paddle.

  After a few minutes of trying, Simone had made him stop splashing around uselessly and let others with more skill take over..

  Still, they seemed to making decent time, despite having to circle around all the islands between them and their target and taking care to approach from the most sheltered side of the demon-infested location. So far they hadn’t encountered any enraged animals either, for which he was eternally grateful.

  I do not need to see a shark bigger than this boat.

  Sharks were common enough around the old city. Stories were told by the fishermen who helped supply them with food, but he’d never seen one in person. A few dead ones caught by fishermen with more luck than sense, sure, usually small ones back in the city . . . and the one Merlin insisted on showing him when he started talking about how easy it would be to handle while he was wearing armor.

  Yeah, that was a theory Caleb was in no hurry to test.

  I didn’t know they came that big.

  “Elanthielle has acquired news about the target.” Merlin’s voice came from nowhere.

  Caleb almost jumped out of the boat.

  With the small craft rocking and everyone glaring at him, he steadied himself before responding.

  “Don’t do that,” Caleb snapped. “I’m trying to keep my balance here!”

  Everyone looked at him like he was crazy, aside from Simone.

  “What does he have to say?” she asked, curious.

  “He says Elan found out some information. Hang on,” Caleb said. “What information?”

  “The standing stones are, indeed, there to open a summoning portal,” Merlin answered. “The elder are likely worse than previously estimated. Her sources indicate that if they succeed in coming through, then it is the final end for this world.”

  Caleb paled a bit, swallowing. “Right. Okay, so same mission, maybe just a little more important.” He glanced at Simone. “Elan says that we were pretty much dead-on right with our worst fears.”

  Simone grimaced. “Understood.”

  That didn’t really help them much, sadly, but it did confirm the importance of what they were doing, which was nice. Caleb was certainly willing to kill demons whenever possible, but potentially revealing their loc
ation was a risk . . . even with the possibility of escape through the transport centers.

  “Elan is going to attempt to deal with another set of standing stones in Lemuria,” Merlin went on.

  “She’s what?”

  Caleb hadn’t even considered moderating his voice and succeeded in startling everyone in the five boats until they were all staring at him as progress through the blue-green sea slowed drastically.

  “Caleb, what is it?” Simone asked, now worried.

  “He says that Elan is going after another one of these circles,” Caleb blurted, eyes wide. “She’s alone in a demon city! That’s crazy!”

  Simone shook her head. “That sounds like her, Caleb.”

  “I know,” he blurted, “but we should be with her!”

  “We cannot be in both places. Deal with the problem here,” Simone said, “and when we can, we will deal with the problem there.”

  Caleb didn’t have anything to say to that, and in short order they were moving again as he fell silent and paddled with much less enthusiasm. His mind was, literally, thousands of miles away.

  Chapter 16

  Jol watched the girl from the corner of his eye as they stood on the edge of a building, overlooking the central square of the city where the stones had been placed. They’d left the docks as quickly as they reasonably could move, attracting too much attention as they did, though Jol suspected that the brothers intended just that. Why they wanted so many useless slaves following them, he had no idea.

  Whatever their reason, Jol could feel the eyes of watchers on him from the shadows. He knew they weren’t looking at him. They were focused—as he was—on the girl.

  She was younger than he was, but he didn’t think by much. It was hard for him to say, of course, since he had no real idea how old he actually was.

  He’d been an orphan as long as he could remember; he grew up on the streets of Lemuria alone until the brothers found him.

  Or, rather, he found them and got caught trying to steal some food from them.

  Jol smiled reminiscently. As prideful as he now knew himself to be, there was no question that he’d been an arrogant little brat in those days. Surviving by outwitting demons, hiding even from other humans, and generally being a rat in the machine, he had thought he knew it all. The brothers showed him otherwise and taught him to be more than he was, more than he’d ever imagined.

  The demon city was a hard place to live for anyone . . . but more so for a human child with no support.

  Her story was not an unfamiliar one to him. It mirrored his own in some ways and that of dozens of others he personally knew of . . . …and hundreds or thousands he had heard of. Losing parents to demons was one of the most common stories in the city, probably the world.

  Less common was being discovered by someone like the brothers or this Kaern person they spoke of.

  For him, the brothers had been a revelation. Not everyone was trying to murder him or worse. Some people actually wanted to help. He didn’t know what the girl thought of Kaern. She’d had parents before the demons came. Jol wondered how that would have affected him. Would he still be the person he was? Or would loving parents have left him one of the slaves, cowering from shadows of demons, begging for life and one more day of food?

  She isn’t cowering. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so different than I am now.

  That was both a gratifying thought and a depressing one.

  The object of his attention shifted, pulling her weapon from her hip and resting it on her knee as she looked over the work progressing on the stones just a short distance away.

  “I can destroy the stones from here,” she said. “It’d be simple.”

  “Less than you expect, I’ll warrant,” Sindri told her. “Certainly less if the warder down there has prepared the site properly.”

  Brokkr half nodded. “Aye, there’s truth there. Still, do you think he has?”

  Jol watched as the two brothers considered that for a moment before Sindri shrugged.

  “Unknown. A master would have,” he said. “However, a master wouldn’t have used blood to twist the local nature as he has. If he believes that his only threat is the Earth Mother, then he may have left a hole we could exploit.”

  Elan looked between then, expression uncertain.

  “So do I attack,” she asked, “or not?”

  “Not just yet, girl,” Sindri admonished her. “Never strike merely because you can. Strike only when you feel prepared to handle both the strike itself and what comes afterward.”

  “And always make sure you have a way out.” Jol spoke up, repeating the end of the lesson he had received many times in the past himself.

  Brokkr smiled over in his direction. “Only took you a few hundred times to learn that lesson, boy.”

  “I wasn’t that bad,” Jol complained.

  “Very nearly,” Brokkr snorted.

  Jol felt himself flush and hated his complexion all the more for it, knowing that his face would be blotchy and red; he just hoped that the shadows of the buildings around them would be enough to hide it from Elan. The brothers were a lost hope on that angle, of that he was certain, he’d not be able to hide from them in pitch darkness.

  Elan, however, didn’t appear to be paying any attention to him. Instead, she was looking over her shoulder, eyes intent as she scanned the area with a considering gaze.

  “I can get away,” she said finally. “There are maps of the buildings available over the security system the old people left behind.”

  “You have access to the old grid?” Sindri asked, amused. “That would make the job easier.”

  She nodded, looking at them, specifically at Jolinr. “I don’t know about you, though. Some of the paths need . . . strength to travel.”

  Jol stiffened, unable to believe for a moment that the little girl there was implying that he might be lacking in strength of all things . . . and then he remembered—with more than his share of chagrin—how easily she’d handled him in their earlier encounter.

  Of course, he’d made the mistake of underestimating her then. He’d treated her like a human, rather than a demon, and while she might be human, it was quite clear to him that she was far closer to the demons in terms of power. More so than most, which made him wonder whether he might have a chance if he went all-out from the start and used the skills he’d been mastering since the brothers began training him.

  Probably not, Jol decided in a rare moment of honest introspection.

  She’d managed to surprise the twins, after all, and he knew that he was nowhere near their level.

  Still, she didn’t have to be pointing it out like that.

  He sulked a bit.

  It was just impolite was what it was.

  *****

  Commander Korel looked at the scorch marks that adorned the streets of the docks with irritation as his squads scoured the area for witnesses. So far they’d come up empty, which was a good sign that someone had seen what happened and knew that being caught in the area wouldn’t go well for them.

  “It’s a human weapon alright, Commander,” his chief arms master growled, walking back to him. “The smell of thunder is still in the air.”

  Korel hissed but didn’t dispute that. He could smell it himself and feel the charged energy floating about. The human weapons were distinct, especially the late-war models that stopped holding back their true power.

  He had often wondered what would have happened if the humans had waged all-out war from the start, though it seemed unlikely to have affected the outcome. The circles had far too much fodder to throw into the masher for the humans to have had a significant chance, no matter how seriously they took matters at the start.

  Not with the massive disadvantage they had begun with. The initial subterfuge of the circles’ assault had been devastating, and he really didn’t think there was anything the humans could have done to come back.

  We likely would’ve lost a hundredfold more demons before the war was ov
er, he supposed.

  Korel was one demon who refused to underestimate just how much damage even one human could accomplish. He knew that most demons didn’t see humans as much more than food or fodder, and most of them likely were one of those two things. Not one human in a hundred truly stood out in his eyes.

  But those who did were monsters the likes of which no demon he had ever known could quite seem to match.

  Are you a monster? he silently asked as he looked on the damage done by the human weapon.

  One thing was certain: with the standing stones raised to summon the elder and now an authorized human warrior running around the demon city, the endgame of this little drama had just gotten interesting.

  “Dispatch a runner to Her Lady,” he ordered the closest demon. “Inform her that she may consider her worries confirmed and tell her that I am now beginning a sweep of the city.”

  The demon nodded, waiting only for Korel to gesture before he ran off.

  Korel looked back to the arms master. “Teams of no less than ten, Arms Master. Any humans are to be interrogated immediately for anything they might have seen. Someone watched this happen. I want their story.”

  “It will be done,” the arms master grunted out before turning to bark out orders to the groups under his command.

  Very interesting indeed.

  *****

  Sindri watched as the girl-child struggled with the task of mapping out a plan to accomplish her task, with the added difficulty of working out her withdrawal path while he and Brokkr took turns poking holes in whatever she suggested. She wasn’t bad, he decided as he watched, just unschooled, which wasn’t something to be surprised about given the days they were living in. With the weapon she carried, though, that lack of schooling would get her, or someone else, killed in short order.

  It had only taken a glance between them for Brokkr and him to decide to teach her what they could in what time they had, as they had done with Jol. How much that would be remained to be seen, since he and Brokkr were not long for the dimension, Sindri was certain.

  The forsaken, like he, Brokkr, and Kaern, had been fighting this war for a long time, long before humanity in this universe had been a glint in the Creator’s eye. They fought and withdrew ahead of the circles’ advance, rarely seeing a dimension that could stand up to the wave of demons the circles threw into the grinder of war.