The 13th Demon (Demon's Grail)

by Amy Cross

  “I don't care.”

  “You don't want to know where I felt it?” she asks with a smirk.

  She stares at me for a moment, and then she glances at Oncephalus, and it's clear from the look in her eyes that she's desperately trying to think of a way out of this situation. When she turns back to me, I can already sense her panic.

  “So you've come to attack the spider palace, huh?” she continues. “That's brave, Abby, it's really brave, but we're stronger than you could possibly imagine.”

  I frown. “You are?”

  “You have no idea how many spiders are up there right now at Karakh. Thousands. Millions. Oh Abby, it's a glorious thing to see them in their home, finally restored to the seat of a vast empire, poised on the verge of -”

  “They're all dead, Emilia,” I say bluntly.

  There's a flicker of recognition in her eyes, but only for a moment. “Nonsense,” she continues. “I'm sure you'd love it if they were gone, but the truth is -”

  “The truth,” I reply, interrupting her, “is that you and the other spiders were fooled into coming back to Karakh, and that in reality you were being used as pawns by a race of demons. There's no point pretending otherwise, we've pieced the whole thing together.”

  She opens her mouth to reply, but I can see that she realizes the game is up. If I didn't know better, I'd swear there were actually tears in her eyes.

  “Get out of here,” she says firmly. “Abby, you need to run. Don't stop to argue, don't stop to think, don't stop to act like a spoiled little Daddy's girl with abandonment issues, just run and never look back. I'm serious, you need to get the hell out of here!”

  “Why do you care what I do?” I ask.

  “Those creatures are evil!” she hisses. “They killed all the other spiders without even breaking a sweat!”

  “I heard.”

  “They're monsters!” She tries again to get free from the ropes around her arms and ankles. “Where did you even get rope from in a place like this?” she mutters with evident frustration. “What, do you just carry some with you wherever you go, in case you need to tie someone up?”

  “More or less,” Oncephalus says dourly.

  “Give up on this one, Abby,” Emilia continues, still trying to pull her arms loose. “I know you've got this stubborn, ingrained determination to fight any battle you come across, but this one's way beyond you. It's beyond either of us. Turn around and get the hell out of this place! Go find somewhere to hide, and pray that the demons never find you!”

  “How did you end up down here?” I ask. “Why would they kill all the other spiders, but leave you alive?”

  “Must be my winning personality,” she mutters, before letting out a gasp of anger. “Can you please untie me? What possible threat could I pose to you right now? I'm weak, I'm hurt, and I'm the last of my...” Her voice trails off for a moment, and I can see the shock in her eyes. “I'm the last of my species,” she adds finally, and this time I'm certain that there really are tears in her eyes. “It's over for me, there's nothing I can do now, but you can still get out of here. You can save yourself.”

  “If I didn't know better,” I reply, “I'd think you were trying to help me.”

  She stares at me for a moment, and I can't help noticing that something seems a little different about her this time, as if some of the fight is gone from her soul.

  “You killed Keller,” she says finally.

  “That was more than a year ago,” I point out.

  “I know, but...” She pauses again. “If you hate me because of what I did to that Absalom guy at Gothos, if you're holding some kind of grudge, you have to understand that I was just getting revenge for Keller's death.”

  “I know.”

  “It's that same old cycle of violence,” she continues. “One of us does something, then the other gets revenge, then more revenge, then -”

  “We don't need lectures from the likes of you,” Oncephalus sneers, interrupting her. “Vermin.”

  “Don't get your ancient panties in a twist,” Emilia tells her. “There's already enough dust around this godforsaken place.”

  “This isn't about grudges,” I say firmly, hoping to break up their little argument. “This is about the race of demons that's building its strength more and more with each passing second.”

  “No,” Emilia replies, “they're not building their strength.”

  I let out a weary sigh. “Emilia, can you stop playing -”

  “They're weak,” she continues. “You haven't come face to face with them, Abby, but I have! If they were truly a race of all-powerful demons from the dawn of time, do you really think I'd have been able to get away? Do you really think you would have been able to get so close? Wouldn't they have done whatever they wanted to do by now?” She turns to Oncephalus. “I don't know who you are, I think we met once at Jagadoon, but you must know I'm right. Something about this whole set-up doesn't ring true.”

  When Oncephalus doesn't answer, I glance over at her.

  “I have concerns,” she admits cautiously. “The demons aren't fools, Abby. We'd be wrong to assume that they simply wish to burn their way through all the worlds again. They might have something else planned.”

  “The old war is over,” Emilia says firmly, with fear in her voice. “It ended a long time ago, and it was our parents' business, not ours. Whatever bad blood there was between you and me, between your people and mine, it's ancient history. The spiders are dead, I'm the last one and I doubt I'll make it much further. We were so busy with our pathetic little squabbles, none of us noticed the much bigger threat that was sneaking up behind us. Hell, maybe we all deserve to get swept away.”

  “So what do you want to do?” I ask. “Run away?”

  “And go where?” she replies with a sigh. “You can still run, Abby, but not me. My species died here at Karakh and I'm going to die with them. That's just the way it has to be. I broke out of that prison because I wanted to prove I could, because I hated being caged like a beast, but now...” She pauses, before sighing again. “Now I figure I might as well go right back up there, walk into the great hall of Karakh one final time, and let them kill me. Go out in one final, futile battle, make a stand and take a few of them down with me. It's all I have left.”

  “I'm going to take a look around,” Oncephalus says, getting to her feet. “I won't go too close to the palace, but I want to get an idea of their defenses.”

  As she walks away, I can't help watching Emilia with a mixture of caution and pity. She's a broken figure now, damaged and worn down, and she's clearly come a long way since the days when she was slipping through New York high society or leading a military charge against Gothos.

  “Our time is over,” she says suddenly.

  I shake my head.

  “Looks at us, Abby,” she continues. “We're squabbling in the dust, we're playing in the ruins of our fathers' achievements. We're alone, desperately trying to represent the best of our species even as the tide of history comes crashing against us. Spiders, vampires, humans...” She pauses, and this time a tear actually trickles down her cheek. “Maybe it has to come to an end. Maybe nothing lasts forever. Maybe the spiders should have stayed gone, and maybe your father should have accepted the inevitable instead of trying to fight to save the vampire race.”

  “Emilia -”

  “Maybe we're on the wrong side of history,” she adds.

  I open my mouth to argue with her, but no words come out.

  “No-one wins every fight,” she continues. “Even us, Abby. I think we've hit a wall, and there's nowhere left for us to go. Unless you think we can march up to Karakh, fight off all the demons, and save the day like a couple of heroes. I don't know -” She breaks into a sudden coughing fit, and for a moment she seems barely able to catch her breath. “I don't know about you,” she adds finally, “but I can't pretend to be a hero anymore. I can't save my species, either. Even if I survive, there are no males left. I can't mate. It's over.”
<
br />   Looking up at the palace towering high above us, I can't help feeling that she's right. At the same time, I know I can't just turn around and try to go back to New York. What would I do, anyway? Wait for the demons to show up in the human world?

  “Abby?” Emilia continues. “Seriously, the only smart choice for you here is to leave.”

  Getting to my feet, I walk around behind her and then I crouch down. It takes a moment, but I'm able to untie the rope around her arms, and then I do the same to her ankles.

  “Abby?” she asks cautiously. “Why are you doing that?”

  “Because you're right about one thing,” I tell her. “Our war is over. We've got something much bigger to deal with now.”

  “What the hell are you doing?” Oncephalus shouts, from a rocky outcrop above us. “Abby, tie her up again!”

  “No,” I reply, maintaining eye contact with Emilia as I hold a hand out for her to shake. “We're in this together now. Live or die, our fates are the same.”

  Cautiously, Emilia shakes my hand.

  “We can do this,” I tell her. “We're not beaten yet.”

  Jonathan

  “My feet are sore,” the old man mutters distractedly. “I think I should get some new shoes when I -”

  “Listen to me,” I say firmly, grabbing his shoulders, “and try to focus. What happened here? Who came and destroyed the books in this aisle, and what did they say about my sister?”

  “You're awfully talkative for a tree,” he replies. “Perhaps -”

  “Focus!” I hiss. “You were scared earlier, you said something was coming! Who?”

  “Well, I...” His voice trails off.

  Pulling his hair aside for a moment, I see his old, wrinkled face. He seems genuinely confused, as if he can't quite answer my question. Whatever's going on inside his head, it's pretty clear that he's not exactly playing with a full deck.

  “It'll be dinnertime soon,” he whispers. “I should -”

  “What did they ask about Abby Hart?” I continue, shaking his shoulders. “This is important!”

  He opens his mouth to reply, but for a moment he seems too shocked to say anything. “They came at night,” he stammers finally. “Three of them, dark creatures with claws. They knew exactly what they were after and they were very well organized, they... They came to my home and dragged me from my bed, and then they forced me to bring them out here. They demanded to see all the books on... on...” He frowns. “I'm rather hungry, I think sausages -”

  “Focus!” I remind him. “Who were they?”

  He pauses again, and it's clear that he's struggling to remember. “They came for the books about the demon race,” he says after a moment. “They knew I was an expert... Wait, was I an expert?” He seems cheered by the memory. “I was, wasn't I? I was a scholar, a man of knowledge, and one of my areas of expertise was the demon race. I mean, almost no-one else in the Great Library ever believed that the demons were real, but I did! I knew! Even Abby Hart, when she was here once, told me I was wrong, but I kept on with my research.” A hint of fear returns to his eyes. “Until the night those creatures came and forced me to show them all the books. They said they had to destroy every trace, every scrap of knowledge about their species.”

  “So they caused all this damage?” I ask, looking around at the ashes between the battered shelves. “They burned the books?”

  “They clawed them off the shelves with such fury,” he continues. “You should have seen their claws, they were huge, and you should have heard they way they scratched through the wood. They dragged the books away until every volume in this section was in a pile on the ground, and then...”

  Looking at one of the damaged shelves, I can't help noticing thick, deep grooves that seem to have been carved into the wood recently. After a moment, I turn back to the old man. “And then what?”

  “And then they set fire to all the books,” he stammers, his eyes wide with horror. “Every book in this section, every book that even mentioned the demons... I honestly don't think I've ever seen anything so awful in my life. I screamed at them to stop, but they just laughed and asked me how much I knew. Then one of them came closer and...” He pauses. “He asked me how much of the knowledge from the books was in my head. I told him he could never destroy knowledge, I told him...”

  I wait for him to finish, but it's clear that the strain of remembering is almost too much for him.

  “They...” he whispers. “I used to be such a learned man, not an old fool wandering in circles for weeks on end, not...”

  “What did they do to you?” I ask.

  “They said they had to destroy all knowledge of the demons,” he continues. “They said they couldn't let anyone come along and find out...”

  Again I wait, but it's almost as if his mind is slipping away. Just as I'm about to ask him more questions, however, I realize that there's blood dried into the matted hair around his ears. Stepping around him, I see more blood on his scalp, and finally I take hold of the hair on the back of his hair and lift it up. When I see what's underneath, a rush of shock fills my chest. The back of the man's head has been torn away, leaving just fragments of his skull, while most of his brain appears to have been gouged out, with thick wounds running diagonally through the wound, almost as if...

  Almost as if whatever clawed the books from the shelves, then clawed the back of his head away.

  “All the knowledge had to go,” he stammers. “I remember them laughing, and then... Ever since they left, I've just been wandering the aisles, I thought I was going home but now I think perhaps I've been going in circles. It's so hard to remember, and to think, and to focus, but I knew...”

  Letting go of his hair, I step back in front of him.

  “These creatures,” I continue, “you said they mentioned my sister.”

  “I don't...” He pauses. “I'd like to get something to eat now. I think it has been quite a while since -”

  “Please try to remember,” I say firmly, crouching in front of him again so I can see into his eyes. “What exactly did they say about my sister?”

  “Your sister?”

  “Abby Hart!”

  “Abby Hart?” He frowns. “Who are you, anyway? I've certainly never heard of anyone named Abby Hart, or -”

  “Think!” I hiss, shaking him again. “They obviously didn't scrape every last scrap from your mind, so concentrate! What did they say about Abby?”

  He stares at me for a moment. “They said she couldn't be allowed access to the knowledge in this library. Not concerning the demons, at least. They said they'd come here to... to make sure she would never be able to learn about them. They left me alive as... They said as a warning to others, to never seek the same knowledge.”

  “But you know about the demons, right?” I continue. “You're, like, some kind of scholar?”

  “I think so,” he whispers. “Maybe. Once.”

  “There was obviously something here that they couldn't let Abby find out. Please, you have to tell me everything you know about the demons. You have to remember!”

  “They destroyed all the books,” he replies. “How awful...”

  “And they tried to destroy everything in your head,” I tell him, “but maybe you can still remember something.”

  “The claws,” he whispers. “I remember the claws, in my mind, and then all the lights went out. Oh my wonderful mind, I was so brilliant before...” There are tears sin his eyes now. “I had the finest mind in the whole of the Great Library, but now I can't even remember my name or find my way home. My notes are still there, I think. They didn't destroy my notes. I was ready to die, but I knew I had to wait, I knew that eventually Abby would ask for my help one final time.”

  “I need those notes,” I tell him. “Please, if there's anything you remember that might help us, you have to focus. We've got to find your home!”

  Emilia

  “It's beautiful up there,” I mutter, staring up at the palace. “You have no idea, Abby. T
he spiders of old, they had such a rich culture, such a great civilization. I know you and the other vampires hate us with a passion, but you have to believe me, there was a time when nothing measured up to the spider empire.”

  “I believe you,” she replies.

  Turning to her, I realize she's telling the truth. “If our fathers could see us now,” I say cautiously, “they'd cut our goddamn heads off for fraternizing. You realize that, don't you?”

  “A spider and a vampire talking instead of fighting?” she continues with a faint smile. “Yeah, I guess it's not exactly how things are supposed to be.”

  “I don't feel the anger anymore,” I tell her.

  “What anger?”

  “The burning hatred I used to feel any time I saw a vampire.” I take a deep breath. “I don't know where it went, but suddenly it's just gone. I guess maybe somewhere deep in my soul, I know that there's no point anymore, that the battle is over. I mean, you and I could try to settle it once and for all right here in the dirt, but the whole thing would seem kinda pointless. Not that I'd mind a quick wrestle, you understand.” I pause for a moment, before taking a step back and looking around. “We're being watched,” I say after a moment.

  “They're called Bibophem,” she explains. “I don't think they'll hurt us unless we try to turn back. They've been shepherding us to Karakh.”

  “That's nice of them,” I mutter, watching the rocks and quickly counting ten, no eleven, no... fifteen creatures trying to stay hidden. When I turn back to Abby, I see that she's once again looking up at the palace. “You must think I'm a complete idiot, huh?”

  She turns to me. “No.”

  “Why not? I was fooled. Like Keller, I allowed my fantasies to get the better of me. When I was trapped in that cell, I imagined I could hear Keller's voice and I berated him for being duped so easily, but deep down I know I'm just angry at myself. I should have known better than to believe my father was miraculously coming back to life, and that I was going to take my rightful place at the head of a new spider empire. I mean, seriously, look at me. Can you imagine me as a princess?”