Daughter of Hell

by Thomas Green

  “Given up on that about a year ago,” Raven said.

  Lucas pierced Zoey with a glare. “Which part of you are not coming with us was unclear?”

  “But I am.”

  “You’re not.” Lucas spun on his heel and headed into the forest. With a shrug, Raven followed him while Zoey did as well.

  The next two hours were filled with sharp paced marching. Lucas wondered how he would get rid of her. To kill her was not an option. To knock her out and leave her behind wasn’t either as that would have been the same thing. While he could run away, the idea alone was too pathetic for him to consider it and the Sil Haen needed to sleep less than he did, so slipping away at night was not an option either. Plus, judging by the light chatter from behind him, Raven enjoyed the company so he would not help him.

  As they walked over an old stone bridge that arched above a river, Zoey pointed toward the water and shouted. “To the water, now.”

  Lucas threw her a glare. “No.”

  Raven shrugged and leapt down, falling like a rock.

  Zoey motioned Lucas with her hand. “Chop. Chop. Chop.”

  Lucas drew a sharp breath, wondering if his oath not to kill the Sil Haen was worth suffering her presence. To her luck, it was. He dropped his backpack and stood at the edge of the bridge. Slowly, he fell backward into the river. The free fall calmed his mind, as it always did. The cold water swallowed him.

  Zoey soon landed into the water in an elegant, arrow-like movement.

  The cold water was a welcome release from the sweat gathering beneath the hardened slime that covered most of his body. Lucas let his weight send him all the way to the rocks that made the bottom of the river, where he lay still, watching Zoey swimming above. What do I do about the Sil Haen? Her presence was the proof of their involvement, and he had no desire to fight them, but at the same time, the plan he had put into motion was beyond the point of stopping.

  He focused and a dagger appeared in his hand, brought into reality from his soul chamber by his aether. He started cleaning himself, feeling as if he was shedding a cocoon while the iciness of the water intensified the more it touched his skin. Once he was done, Lucas swam to the shore where he saw Zoey and Raven exiting.

  The fresh scent of the forest hit his nose as the bath returned his sense of smell. The chirping of birds echoed through his ears since they were unstuck for the first time in over a year. Lucas peered at Raven, who was scraping blood from beneath his chain mail. “There’s no need to hide our aether anymore.”

  Raven nodded and in an instant, the muck became liquid and blood fresh, flowing down from him like thawed snow.

  Lucas threw a smile at Zoey. “Liking what you see?”

  Her face remained calm with eyes narrowed. “I have been expecting you two to have a small army tailing you, but I suddenly can’t shake the feeling what killed all tens of thousands of demons in these woods were the two of you.”

  Raven stretched, pumping blood into his stiff limbs before he leapt back into the river. The blood and slime that was liquid but a second ago hardened into its original form.

  Zoey stepped to Lucas. “Who are you two?”

  “We are trouble.” He smiled. “Look, Zoey, this is the point where your mission should end. I gather you have been sent here to investigate us and you have done that. Now it’s time to go report to the matrons and leave us to our fates.”

  She chuckled. “You sound almost worried about me.”

  “I merely have no desire of killing you. We are about to go on a path from which you would be unlikely to return.”

  She clicked her tongue. “Full of yourself, aren’t you?”

  “All right, I will put it differently. There are two teams in this world, Team Demons, and Team Everyone Fucking Else. We are from team two while you are here because your people joined team one and are trying to make some friends from our side. The problem is that we are doing our own thing so whatever relationships you build here will mean nothing when it comes to what is threatening your civilization.”

  She frowned. “You know awfully much about us, don’t you?”

  Lucas reached under his tunic and, from beneath the bandages wrapped around almost his entire body he pulled a golden amulet bearing the symbol of the sword with wings, the symbol of Palai. “I am Agent Lucas from the 1st Legion of the Holy Order of Palai. It’s my job to know, and also this is the last warning I am willing to give you.”

  Her face betrayed no emotion. “Noted.”

  Raven returned from the river. “Give it up, Lucas, you aren’t getting rid of her so easily.”

  Zoey turned to him, smiling, but froze mid-movement, staring at the heavenly beauty of Raven’s face. Deep, blue eyes shone amidst a perfectly symmetric face framed by midnight hair in sharp contrast to his snow-white chain mail armor, skin, gauntlets, and greaves.

  Lucas rolled his eyes. As if Zoey wasn’t annoying enough, Raven using aether to make himself unnaturally handsome was sure to bring trouble. Or at least be annoying.

  Raven cleared his throat. “If we are doing the introductions, then I am Prince Raven, the ruler of Illysaeas and all its holdings.”

  Zoey shook her head as if to clear it. “You two are the weirdest couple I have ever met.”

  Lucas stretched his neck, his joints popping. He had no way of getting rid of Zoey without using violence, which he refused to. Then again, why did he care? There was nothing she could spy on him while, under correct circumstances, he could use her feed false intelligence to his enemies. Plus, at the end of the day, she could become a fun toy to pass the time. Sophiel spent an excessive time convincing Lucas to find himself another wife, to forget about her and leave her in the prison of darkness forever.

  After almost hundred and sixty years of being unable to release her, or at least touch her, he still refused to abandon her. But that didn’t mean he had to live like a monk. “Since you seem adamant in your desire to keep pestering us, I feel the need to tell you the few rules you are going to adhere to when traveling in our company.”

  She laughed. “I’m listening.”

  “Be armed at all times and do what I tell you to. Don’t try to be a hero, that’s Raven’s thing, and don’t try to be smug by betraying me in my face, because I will kill you on the spot if I have to. I have done my share of crimes no man should do, and I don’t care how many more I add to the list. Understand?”

  She nodded. “I agree. Now, my rules for suffering your presence. First, we purchase soap, shampoo and you two use it, daily. Today was the last day you two stank akin to a slaughterhouse. Second, I get to fight. I’m not going to stand behind and pick my nose when you are having fun, and I refuse to get rusty. Third, I like my alter ego. Don’t ask me who I am, don’t try to spy on anything about me and especially, do not use Limbo to find information about me, any information, ever. Understand?”

  Lucas sighed. “You’re going to be a pain, aren’t you?”

  She giggled. “If I wanted to be a pain, I would have said that your hair’s too long and could use some color, like hay blond and that some real clothes wouldn’t hurt either, because this leather tunic is about a decade too old to be worn by anyone.”

  Lucas shook his head and headed off the riverbank. I so wish I could kill her.

  10

  Lucas

  Lucas, Raven, and Zoey left the forest, arriving at the edge of vast plains. Green grass stretched further than their eyes could see while the sky carried scattered clouds. A few minutes of a walk before them stood a square fortification of a small town. The walls were wooden but tall with a watchtower at each corner. No signs of battle could be seen, but the men in green-black uniforms standing sentry atop the towers told a different story.

  Raven stepped to Lucas. “Let me guess, the demonic champion we are about to kill is inside that fortification.”

  “Correct.”

  “What stops us from charging through the main gate and killing it?”

  Lucas shrugged. “Noth
ing.”

  Zoey caught up to them. “I see planning isn’t your forte.”

  Raven threw her an amused smile. “This is an obvious trap, set for us. Guess they have guards evenly spread around the city, and the demons are mostly hidden beneath the ground or within buildings. The champion is at the center to work as the bait while the rest of them are positioned to converge on whoever approaches him.

  “With this in mind, the best strategy is to bite the bait and devour it. I charge in and tie up the champion while Lucas goes around to pick off the archers and smaller demons. Zoey, you can guard the gate since they will try to use it to escape once the champion falls. While we take the most harm in this way, it is the safest for the villagers who are being held hostage since the demons will not bother to use them for extortion if they succumb to the illusion we fell into their trap.”

  Zoey stared at him, lost for words. After a few awkward seconds, she said. “And I thought you would be the stupid one of this group.”

  Raven grinned. “Get that a lot.”

  She shook her head. “Before we go, I need a weapon.”

  Lucas raised his eyebrow. With her aether hidden, she was utterly harmless to him and Raven, and if she were to unseal it, both of them would sense it from a mile away. “I’ve got some extra daggers.”

  “I said a weapon, not something to shave my legs with.”

  “I also have practice swords, longswords, a crossbow, and a dozen spears.”

  Zoey’s eyes narrowed. “Where exactly do you have those?”

  Lucas stretched his hand, and a dagger appeared within.

  Her eyes widened. “Did you pull a physical object out of Limbo?”

  Lucas smiled. The fact that she recognized the spell suggested she was a high-positioned Sil Haen during the era of their queen because she was the only other person in the world who could do this.

  She shrugged, her face becoming neutral as she hid away the shock. “Anyway, swords are for little girls, crossbows for kids to practice aim before they learn with the bow, so give me a spear.”

  Lucas pulled a spear from his soul chamber and handed it to Zoey.

  She weighed it in her hand before she broke it in half over her knee. “I said a spear, not a toothpick.”

  Lucas gave her the heaviest military spear he had stored.

  Zoey frowned. “Hmph, I guess this will have to do.”

  Raven took the shield from his back and drew an arming sword, both fashioned in snow-white. “One thing. Would like to fight the champion alone.”

  Lucas waved the words off. “Be my guest.”

  Raven sprinted forward, heading toward the gate.

  Zoey leaned to Lucas before he could leave. “You are training him, aren’t you?”

  He ignored the electrifying sensation her breath left on his neck. “The prince needs guidance on how the world works.” He made a spear appear in his hand, focused, used his aether to create an invisible mark on the nearest watchtower and soulstepped to it. He killed the men guarding it with a flurry of stabs.

  Beneath, Raven ran through the gate, its wings blasting open as if he weighed five tons. The champion, an eight feet tall giant wreathed in green-black steel plates, holding a mace and a shield while a hood hid his face, roared.

  Lucas soulstepped to the next watchtower, killed everyone inside and proceeded to the other one.

  Raven charged the demonic champion, shield first. The demon wearing the shape of a man met him head-on, their shields crashing into each other. The champion’s shield shattered into a thousand splinters while the impact sent him flying into the house behind him.

  Archers in black-green uniforms and snake demons, creatures with snake bodies and heads, but a pair of arms with claws, swarmed onto the square. Lucas cleaned out the watchtowers and dove among them, doing one soulstep after another, killing all that appeared with the spear.

  The champion rose, grabbed his mace with both hands and stalked to Raven. With a mildly amused smile, the prince bolted to the champion, sliding beneath the demon’s swing. Raven slashed both of his legs. The demon leapt backward, releasing an inhuman screech and the snake demons swarmed toward him.

  Lucas soulstepped among them, his spear but a blur of death.

  The champion swung madly with the mace. Each strike ended with a crushing impact onto the ground, yet Raven dodged everything, weaving among the attacks with ease.

  Lucas shook his head and shouted. “Stop toying with him and end it.”

  Raven blocked the next strike with the shield, making the mace shatter into thousand splinters upon impact. With two swift stabs, he crushed the champion’s knees. When the demon fell to the ground, Raven sunk his blade into his skull, ending the champion’s life.

  The remaining snake demons scattered. Lucas hunted them down to the last.

  Zoey walked onto the square, holding herself over a bleeding wound in her side. “Are you two all right?”

  Lucas measured her with a cold stare. “Really? You got yourself wounded to protect the secret of how much aether reserve you have?”

  She shrugged. “What? Girls have their secrets.”

  Raven threw Lucas an amused smile. “She fits us well.”

  People flowed onto the square, gawking at the carnage. Dozens of men and snake demons lay dead on the square on the roofs of the surrounding houses while Lucas and Raven stood amidst the slaughter, unharmed.

  Lucas turned to an older man who dared approach the closest. “Before this becomes awkward, are you happy or angry that we killed the demons?”

  The old man’s mouth gaped. “What question is that? They have been occupying our city, using us as food for weeks… you saved us.”

  Lucas smiled. “The man in the white armor is Prince Raven, the ruler of Illysaeas and the two of us are his retinue. If you would have a little spare, we need food, water, bath, bed, a blacksmith, and a healer. Also, I suggest you bury the demons beyond the town walls, for they will stink sooner than you would like.”

  The man bowed, and the villagers scuttled around to do as he ordered.

  Raven stepped above one archer, staring at the green-black uniform with the green symbol of a snake with an open mouth etched onto its chest. “Who are they?”

  “Ebilezerhar’s cultists.”

  “Why would humans serve a demon prince?”

  “For promises of power and greatness. If you want to get into the details, then Ebilezerhar runs a cult of himself which worships him as a God while Kayleanne is the ruler of Spalding, the largest city of the Central Plains.”

  Raven nodded. “False Deities, a scar upon the creation itself, an insult to the principle we call God.” He shook his head as if to clear it before he turned to Lucas. “Have you ever heard these words before? They popped into my head, but I think I am not the first to utter them.”

  Lucas shrugged. “Never heard them before.”

  If Raven picked up on the lie, he did not show it. “Anyway, what’s the next step?”

  Lucas gazed over the town. “The death of the champion will bring a counterattack, so we fortify this town while we wait for them to serve the next champion to us.”

  ***

  Lucas lay in a bath. The last time he had sunk into hot water felt like a memory of a life past. The fire beneath the steel van still burned softly, promising the heat not to vanish. He was alone in the dark room where the moon gazed in through the windows.

  The door creaked open, and Zoey slid inside. Even in the minimum light, he recognized her frame and soft step. He raised an eyebrow in the direction. “I don’t know what you are trying to do, but it’s a bad idea.”

  She chuckled as she approached the bath. “They forgot to put a fire under my bath, so it’s cold. I have come to see if yours wasn’t better.”

  Lucas did not bother to cover himself, watching her undress while wondering how good would this night get. “Why do you try so hard?”

  She smiled innocently. “I have spent my life working to protect my
people, the Sil Haen. The best way to do that is by convincing you to help us.”

  “Help you with what?”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  He exhaled. “That won’t happen.”

  She sat down by the edge of the bath, moonlight illuminating her slender yet toned body. She dipped her finger into the water. “So hot it’s almost boiling.”

  While her company was beyond a welcomed change, this was not a part of his plan. She wasn’t supposed to be there, and her presence was a risk he should have eliminated. While his mind knew he should have ended this, the rest of his body had a different opinion. He sighed. “What are you doing, Zoey? To get involved with me will not help you.”

  “Don’t get any ideas. I’m here for the hot water and that you are in it is your bad luck.”

  Lucas shook his head. “Let me give you a fair warning. No matter what happens between us, whether or not I would like to, I will end your life in a blink of an eye should it ever become necessary.”

  “And?” She traced her finger by a set of runes carved into his body in a circle etched around a dark spot straight above his heart. “This is a mixture of celestial, demonic and some alien runes and I believe the dark spot is an iron nail that is piercing your heart. I don’t have to be a wizard to know it’s a seal. One to hold in something so terrifying that a demon, a God and something else entirely teamed up to make it.”

  Lucas arched an eyebrow. “What made you think you would find it?”

  “You forgot yourself in the river and spent half an hour in the water without coming up to breathe. There is only one human-shaped being I had ever seen not requiring to breathe. Kayleanne.” She slid into the water, her soft body leaning onto his, her fast heartbeat a sharp contrast to the unnatural stillness of his body. Her touches made his skin tingle, forcing him to focus on keeping his breathing steady. “And I can’t help but wonder why does a demon prince serve in the Palai Order?”