Daughter of Hell

by Thomas Green

  He could have added who asked him to tell this to me. Raven shook his head and went to rest. On his way, he saw the real Luna in the smithy, furiously hammering a red-hot lump of steel.

  ***

  When his evening shift ended, Raven ascended the easternmost watchtower. Kayleanne already awaited him there, her hay-like hair dancing in the wind. She sat by the outer edge, gazing at her own army sieging the second layer of walls.

  He sat down next to her, feeling an overwhelming feeling of familiarity as if he had done it tens of thousand times.

  She smiled. “What made you think this wasn’t a trap I set to kill you?”

  He returned her smile. “Because you want to know what he told me.”

  “Do you think I don’t already know it?”

  Raven shook his head. “Need to know if the version you know matches the one he told me. But before that, what’s with these robes and heeled boots you keep wearing. They are too impractical, no matter how I look at it.”

  She chuckled. “So you noticed. Fighting is normally too boring, so I’ve started putting a handicap on myself to make it more fun. The robes are four hundred pounds heavy while the boots are a hundred pounds each. Now, who am I?”

  He shrugged. “Didn’t tell me. Nor about myself. Gave me a history lecture and then soulstepped away.”

  Kayleanne laughed. “So, what do you plan to do now?”

  “I don’t know. Who’s the Red God? That’s another name Lucas mentioned.”

  “My creator and the reason Lucas needs to kill me.” Her eyes became glazed, distant. “He’s imprisoned in hell, held by the barrier the Fallen One created before his death. We, his creations, were sent to find a way to free him from his prison.”

  Raven squinted. “How is that connected to Lucas?”

  “We all have a connection to our creator, but since Lucas wasn’t made by him, he found a way to sever his. And, well, he is vengeful over the Red God torturing him for a touch over five thousand years.”

  That makes Lucas’ holy war personal. Anger flared through Raven. This sealed his options of talking this through with Lucas. He cleared his throat. “Anyway, want to know who I am and why I do remember you… or whoever was the person who looked like you.”

  “I’ve got a solution for that.” She grinned. “I need to get Lucas off my lands, and while I will win this siege, I could use a hostage for future insurance. I think you are the right candidate to let me live happily ever after in my lands.”

  Raven tensed his muscles and readied his aether. “Afraid I can’t do that.”

  “That wasn’t a question.” With blinding speed, her fist shot toward his head, and Raven stopped time. Her strike ended a fraction of an inch away from his temple, her gauntlet almost touching him.

  Faster than I thought. He sighed, rose to his feet, and descended the watchtower. By its base, Lucas stood leaning on the wall.

  Raven unstopped time, throwing Lucas an apologetic look. “Before you say anything, I know this was stupid.”

  Lucas smiled. “Not really.”

  “Why do you want to kill her?”

  “Unwillingly or not, she acts as a beacon for the Red God. There is no other way to get his stain off this world than to kill the beacons, the demon princes.”

  I couldn’t care less about that right now, but telling you wouldn’t help. Raven nodded. “All right. Let’s win this siege.” While making sure Kayleanne survives.

  ***

  Raven could barely sleep at night and went to his next shift early. He realized the mess hall was a lot emptier than he remembered it being in the first days. He had his portion of bread and dried pork, downed a couple of beers and headed out. Yet this time, he aimed not for the battlements, but to find Zoey. He found her sitting on a roof in the inner circle, her legs crossed beneath her.

  She threw him a smile, but her face was grim. He sat down next to her. “You know what’s going on, don’t you?”

  “We will lose in about two days.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”

  “Look around, do you see anyone from the militia? There aren’t any left. We are down to six, maybe seven hundred soldiers.”

  He pierced her with a glare, angry at himself for not noticing. “How did that happen?”

  “You are blind, aren’t you?” She cut her finger with her dagger, letting a drop of blood fall onto the stone. “See?”

  Raven scanned the drop of blood, seeing nothing out of ordinary as it rested upon the polished wood.

  “Come on, you can figure this out.”

  He stared at the drop of blood for another minute.

  Zoey slapped her face with her palm. “It doesn’t clot.”

  Oh, right. That’s why the corpses rot so fast. “How did that happen?”

  “You tell me. Lucas wouldn’t say a thing no matter how I try to ask and well, you are the wizard in here. I guess that either the water or the air is poisoned with a very light toxin that does nothing but slows down the clotting of blood.”

  Raven’s eyes widened as it dawned upon him. “The reason they barely attacked in the first three days was that every minor wound led to large blood loss, so small-scale attacks were sufficient.”

  Lucas cleared his throat, drawing attention to the fact that he has been standing near them for a while. “If you want the full picture, the poison is in the air, and there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it.”

  Raven frowned. “What’s the plan then?”

  “Nothing new. We hold the town for as long as we can to drain their supplies, and then we make a run for it. Or, better said, I make a grand display of running to draw away Kayleanne’s and Ebilezerhar’s attention to give everyone else a chance to survive.”

  Raven huffed. “Do we have an escape tunnel?”

  “Yes, but it isn’t spacious, so we cannot use it to transport the wounded.”

  In other words, we are doomed. “I guess I should go to my shift.” With his mood sinking, Raven rose and left for the battlements.

  ***

  The second circle of walls stood taller than the first, but the houses huddled by the walls served as platforms for the attacking forces. For the first time, Raven was disinterested in the enemies before him as he searched for Kayleanne while killing anyone who approached his post.

  He found her during his second shift when the sun had passed the zenith. Guarded by a unit of heavily-armored soldiers, she walked toward the walls next to a strikingly handsome man dressed in green-black robes.

  Raven bolted across the battlements, flung himself over the edge and slid down by the wall using his strengthened sword to slow the fall, landing between them and the wall.

  “Oh, you are a brave one, aren’t you?” The handsome man, apparently Ebilezerhar, said with a broad smile while Kayleanne started laughing. He extended his hand and a soldier next to him handed him a long spear, one fashioned into twin, intertwined snakes.

  I can’t let them break through the wall. Raven took his stance, lowering his shield before him while pointing his sword over the shield. As Ebilezerhar stepped forward, Raven stopped time.

  He walked past the time-frozen soldiers and positioned himself for a perfect swing at the snake demon prince’s nape. Raven unfroze time and slashed.

  In a blur, his sword severed the demon prince’s head. Ebilezerhar’s body, Kayleanne and all the soldiers surrounding him exploded into bright-green liquid. Raven stopped time, a split second before the acid would touch him.

  With utmost care, he maneuvered through the liquid that hung in space before he unstopped time. The acid melted everything it touched, leaving a hole in the stone pavement he stood upon.

  Dread crept up his veins. The trap was set up knowing well the extent of his power, of his aether manifestation. His and everyone else’s. That was the reason the siege was so smooth, so errorless on the demon prince’s side. He didn’t have time to ponder this more, for the attacking soldiers noticed him and conver
ged at his position. Raven cut through them, fighting toward a ladder.

  He reached it soon. After he scaled the ladder, kicking aside the soldiers pursuing him, he saw the gaping hole in the wall at the other side of the second circle of fortifications. Kayleanne and Ebilezerhar stood within the breach, smiling as their soldiers rushed inside.

  Raven’s heart sank. I shouldn’t have fallen for that. He sprinted to rejoin the Palai soldiers who were falling back into the main keep. The demon princes and their men didn’t pursue them, happy with capturing of the second circle of walls. We’re going to lose.

  31

  The Battle of Snowhaven

  Luna stared outside the window, watching the Order’s soldiers retreating toward the keep. Her eyes darted to the excuse of a sword that was cooling off behind her. If she ever presented a sword like this to Jean Pierre, he would throw it into the smelter to make a steel ingot out of it. The blade was straight, hardened, but she hadn’t managed to sharpen either edge, one being half done and the other one not started. The hilt was more of a prototype she made so she could begin to sharpen the sword. Also, the point of balance was too far up the blade, she did zero decorations other than the cross on the guard, and the tip wasn’t nearly acute enough. And it was too heavy. Lucas did say he wanted the sword made from the full ingot, but she doubted he wanted the sword to weight over sixty pounds.

  Yet she spent too much time hammering it to shape and thus had no time for the rest. The sword needed at least an extra week of work to be presentable, but with the second circle of the walls broken, her time was up. She hoped she would have the time to at least polish it before Lucas came.

  The door burst open, and Lucas entered. “We need to move. Is the sword ready?”

  She formed an awkward smile while gazing at the ground. “Somewhat.”

  He grabbed the sword by the hilt, weighted it in his hand and did a few test swings. Luna stared at him, petrified, wondering which slash would be aimed at her. She wasted all the time and the metal on what wouldn’t pass as a prototype.

  Lucas finished swinging, rested the sword over his shoulder and waved his hand, making all the smithing tools he borrowed her disappear. He threw her a kind smile. “Good work. Now, we need to go.”

  Perhaps she wasn’t completely useless. The thought made Luna explode into tears. She was so overwhelmed she could neither speak nor move.

  “Sorry, but we don’t have the time for this.” Lucas grabbed her by the shoulder and led her forward.

  She bit her inner cheek and dug her nails into her thighs to calm down. She didn’t want her company to see her as the crying pile of mess she was. There was nothing she could do about the blisters covering her arms or about how much she had to stink after a week of working and sleeping by a forge without washing, but at least she could keep her face.

  They crossed the courtyard together with the retreating soldiers and entered the keep. Lucas disappeared in the upper floors while Luna went to rejoin her company. To her relief, nobody commented on anything about her. They went to catch sleep because their shift was over, anyway.

  ***

  Lieutenant Redeye shook Luna until she woke up from the nightmare of billions of ants eating her body over and over again. After they untied her, she rose, trying to ignore the piercing headache. A smile crept to her face when she saw Chief Bull, Rod, Willem, and Sparks were still asleep. The lieutenant led her from the room hidden deep within the keep.

  When they were out of the hearing range, he finally spoke. “We’ve got a meeting with the Dreamwalker.” She nodded. The lieutenant led her to a modestly-decorated room, a former study, where Lucas, Raven, Zoey, Lieutenant Akku, Captain Hellwind, and Commander Li Mu already awaited, sitting in a circle on ornate chairs. She eyed Li Mu, the commander of the 1st Legion, who was subtle, had long hair arranged into a ponytail and wore a loose cloak over his armor.

  Wait a second, this looks like the remaining leadership of our force, which is about ten levels above me… what am I doing here? She formed an awkward smile and sat down.

  Lucas was the man to start the meeting. “Li Mu, give me status.”

  “We are down to forty healthy men, six hundred and thirty men who are alive, but unable to fight. The wounded from the local militia are gone as their infirmary had fallen to the enemy while the escape tunnel is gone since I had to have it collapsed to stop Ebilezerhar’s demons from using it to enter.”

  Lucas’ face remained impassive. “For how long can we hold the keep?”

  The commander kept his expression grim. “Until tomorrow afternoon, which is when I expect Ebilezerhar to regain enough strength to use the stone-melting acid he used to penetrate the second circle of the wall. After the keep is breached, our only option is to collapse it upon ourselves in a planned explosion, faking our deaths, hoping they leave before we starve.”

  Lucas nodded. “Prepare the collapse. Lieutenant Redeye has a private capable of crafting explosives, so that should help.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Lucas smiled painfully. “Tomorrow afternoon, everyone other than me, Raven, and Luna is to move to the cellars while Li Mu executes the collapse. Afterward, I will lead the escape to draw away the demon princess’ attention.”

  Zoey clicked her tongue. “You aren’t getting rid of me this easily.”

  Lucas’ face remained calm. “You will die if you don’t hide beneath the collapse.”

  Zoey kept glaring at him. “I will take my chances with the demon princes rather than to suffocate beneath a destroyed fortress.”

  Lucas sighed. “Any other questions?”

  Nobody said anything. Luna’s head whirled with questions, but none managed to crawl up her throat.

  “Then let’s make it happen. This shift exchange is the last one.” Lucas rose and left. Everybody exchanged awkward looks and left as well.

  Luna and Lieutenant Redeye followed Lucas to their shift while the rest went to rest.

  ***

  To hold the keep felt like the most meaningless task Luna had ever done. Everyone knew the fighting was mostly for the appearance, so the soldiers in blue-black and green-black uniforms scaling the walls of the keep did their best not to get wounded while Luna and her company kept knocking them down.

  Their shift ended without any notable events, and their company started descending to the cellars while Luna stayed behind. Lieutenant Redeye gave her a firm pat on the back that made her hunch. “Good luck.”

  Luna’s eyes filled with tears as she realized this might have well been the last time she had seen him and her entire company. She watched them descend the stairs and seal the door behind them.

  Luna whirled and returned to the walls, where Lucas, Raven, and Zoey kept fighting off the attacking soldiers. The attack ceased, marking the moment Ebilezerhar would use the acid to break into the keep. They returned inside. The moment the demon princes’ soldiers swarmed into the keep through the hole within the walls, a deafening explosion shook their world.

  The keep collapse went exactly as they planned, leaving Lucas, Raven, Zoey, and Luna in a semi-crumbled room atop the now-squashed keep.

  Raven cleared his throat to break the silence. “So… how do we go about it?”

  “Give me a moment to change,” Lucas said, sat onto a chair and pulled off his boots. In a surreal moment of awkwardness, they watched Lucas change from his leathery tunic into steel boots, gauntlets, and a thick, demon leather tunic with a crude symbol of Palai etched onto its chest.

  Like a specter made of darkness, Lucas rose, pulled a golden cloak out of his soul chamber, and threw it over his shoulders.

  Zoey clicked her tongue. “Now that we are done dressing, care to share with us your plan?”

  Lucas pointed out the shattered window at the mountaintop carved into the snake’s head. “Yes. You and Raven wait here, and two hours from now, break out and meet me by the cavern entrance at the foot of that mountain.”

  She and Raven stared at him with mouth
open wide. Before they could speak, Lucas motioned for Luna to come to him. When she did, he punched the wall of the room. The stone crumbled beneath his fist, making it collapse in front of him, separating them from Raven and Zoey.

  “Come.” Lucas led Luna up the fallen rocks, up onto the crumbled keep. Not knowing what to say, she followed him. He stopped at what was once the roof and sat down. The soldiers of the demon princes swarmed around the ruined keep but weren’t quite close enough to approach them yet.

  “So… we let them capture us?” Luna asked, still avoiding his gaze.

  “No. Do you remember Merewen?”

  He knows I lost memory. Did he… asked around about me? Luna shook her head, blushing.

  “She as tall as you are, wears a spike-covered armor, and will be under the biggest Palai banner you see. When I give you the signal, sprint forward to the other end of the valley until you meet her, and then assist her with whatever she needs.”

  “Okay…”

  “Calm down.” Lucas smiled as he traced the approaching Kayleanne with his eyes.

  Breathless, Luna watched his expression sink into sadness that bordered despair.

  He closed his eyes, pulled a dagger out of his soul chamber, caught his long hair behind the back of his head and cut them off. The world changed. For a second, everything lost color, turning into shades of black and grey. Instead of the silver-haired Lucas, she saw a young man, dressed in the same armor, but with a cross instead of the Palai symbol. His hair was crimson, eyes emerald while they were atop a mountain of skulls with a sky of blood above them. From his head sprouted a crown of horns while a tail weaved behind him. Luna stared at him, breathless. He rose, bracing the longsword she made over his shoulders. Bloodlust exploded from Lucas, infinite like the Void, all-encompassing like air, filling every fiber of Luna’s body with terror. “Go.”

  She bolted forward, and everything else turned to normal, except that the soldiers of the demon princes stood petrified in their spots, pale and covered by sweat, unable to move.