Devil's Gambit

by Nicholas Woode-Smith

  I resisted rolling my eyes. I needed to get to the point. The clock was ticking.

  “Father, sorry to speed this along, but I have limited time. Someone has put a curse on me using my blood and true name. The curse summons demons to hunt me at night. I have until sunset to find the culprit.”

  “And do what?” he asked.

  I hesitated.

  “Kill them?” he suggested. He shook his head. “A shame what has happened to you. Rachel would be sad to see you now.”

  “Don’t talk about my mother,” I hissed, almost yelling. I realised my volume and quietened. “Please…”

  Digby looked at me with accusatory, yet pitying, eyes.

  “You walk a dark path, Katherine. But it is your path, now. I will help you. You say you are beset by demons?”

  I nodded.

  “One thing to come from the Cataclysm was an enhancement of our understanding of God’s enemies. All demons are a part of a hierarchy. Servants to another. Hell is not a purely chaotic place. Oh, no. It is structured. Regimented. Every demon has obligations, rules and fealty.”

  I nodded. I knew this all already.

  “At the top are the Archdemons, who lead their own hosts to achieve their twisted agendas. Every demon owes fealty to an archdemon eventually.”

  He placed his hand on the top of the pew and looked at me grimly.

  “Whatever demon is after you, a greater demon pulls its strings. And true names are no obstacles of these demons. They know our names. They can get our blood. And they can summon hordes to beset us mortals.”

  Digby’s voice slowly faded away as the pieces started connecting.

  Cindy had been called in to hunt an archdemon that escaped. The Titan mages started dying around the same time. And the demon who claimed to have done it knew my name.

  Just my luck. To get rid of this curse, I’d need to slay an archdemon.

  ***

  “Conrad,” I said into a disposable cell phone I bought from a corner shop.

  “Kat? I’ve been trying to call you! New lead on your pet Necromancer.”

  New lead? No, have to focus.

  “Phone was busted. I’m cursed. Void-creeps after me. Have to kill their summoner. I think it’s the archdemon from the mountain. The one who was killing the Titan mages.”

  I was talking fast, rapid-firing all my points over the phone while speed-walking back to my apartment.

  “Woah, woah. Calm down. Are you hurt?”

  “Not anymore. Cindy saved me.”

  “Good old Cindy. Where are you?”

  “Pinelands. Walking back.”

  “Long walk. Why do you think it is the demon? I thought you got rid of him.”

  “I told you that I didn’t.”

  “I was hopeful. So, what hunches do you have?”

  “Someone got my true name. Archdemons can apparently do that. Only living person who also knows my true name is an old priest with no magic to his name. So that leaves the demon from the mountain. He’s the only being that I know who has the capacity to get the stuff needed to curse me. He also has motive.”

  “You think he summoned the creeps?”

  “Who else could it be?”

  “Kat,” Conrad said, hesitantly. “Demons, even archdemons, can’t summon other demons. Demons require a mortal tether. A human summoner.”

  “What?” I stopped in my tracks. I’d seen the entire puzzle complete, but now I realised I was missing half of it. Digby had been wrong, and that was my only lead. Wrong, or lying. “So, a human wants me dead?”

  “Looks that way. Who did you piss off?”

  “Long list, but none of them demonologists.”

  “Void-creeps only come out at night. You’ve got a few hours.”

  “And I should be finishing my assignment. Ugh, will have to give them a curse-note.”

  “I’m sure Miriam will understand. Anyway, got a client to talk to. Good luck and keep me posted.”

  He hung up and I was all alone on this street, hours until demons were gonna come out and renew their hunt for my flesh.

  “So, someone wants me dead.”

  “Someone has wanted you dead before,” Treth responded.

  “Yeah.” I pictured Jeremiah Cox’s mutilated face lying in a pool of his own blood. “Didn’t work out for him.”

  “We’ll pull through this, Kat.”

  I nodded. “But how?”

  “Connect the dots. Just because the archdemon can’t summon demons himself doesn’t mean he isn’t connected to all of this. Remember what he said. He is currently being controlled by someone else. Perhaps, his summoner is the same person who cursed you?”

  “You’re getting good at this, Treth.”

  “We’re getting a lot of practice. The question is: who is the summoner?”

  I stopped underneath the shade of a tree and thought. Who would want me dead? Who, with the capacity to summon demons? Not just demons – an archdemon.

  Demon summoning took extremely powerful sorcerers. They needed all that spark to keep the demons in line, or risk becoming demonic fodder. So, that meant someone with a big spark pool, or an incredibly talented wizard who could find a substitute for their own lack of spark.

  There were no corpses of the missing Titan mages. Only blood. But blood could be falsified in this age of magic. Cloned and sprayed over the place of the ‘murder’. And if people thought the mage was murdered, nobody would go after them if they were abducted.

  A sorcerer’s spark was a raw power source but, with a skilled enough wizard, it could be turned into something reminiscent of a very powerful weyline.

  I got home by the time I had figured it all out. Or at least thought I’d figured it all out.

  It was simple, as things often were in hindsight.

  They had my name. They could have gotten that from my run-in with the demon. They had my blood. Easy to get in my line of work. But who had the motivation to abduct sorcerers? And who would have the raw desire for vengeance to take these sorcerers from the Titan Citadel?

  It was late by the time I got home. The sun was setting. I was running out of time. I phoned Conrad. Before he could speak, I asked.

  “Do you still live in your car?”

  “Why?” he asked, defensively and just a bit embarrassed.

  “The void-creeps aren’t allowed to enter a home without permission. I think I know who set the demons on me. I just need a lift. Preferably a lift which the demons won’t be able to rip through.”

  Hesitant silence. Then…

  “Okay. I’ll come right over.”

  I went into my apartment, ignored the clutter from the party and the empty spot where the creep had been last night, and changed my clothes. My old clothes were still sticky and stained with blood. I put on my full monster hunting gear. Thicker denims, with lots of pockets, a t-shirt topped with a polymer vest, my face-plate, greaves, arm-guards, gloves. And to top it all off, my new coat. I checked my blades for nicks. The dusack had a small one. I hadn’t had the opportunity to test the wakizashi’s hardened edge yet. Lastly, I checked Voidshot. Its safety was on. Its chain shimmered as I clasped it. Would I need to use it? Could I use it?

  I put out some food for Alex and was just about to leave when Duer flew down onto my shoulder.

  “I want to help,” he said.

  “How?” I asked, finding my keys.

  “I can detect the creepers. I can warn you.”

  That would be useful. I gave him my voiceless assent and locked the door. I noted that my blood from earlier had been cleaned up. Would need to apologise to Mrs Ndlovu later. But, for now, Conrad was parked just outside.

  Chapter 17.

  Revelation

  “Why do you need to go to the Titan Citadel?” Conrad asked, screeching through traffic and racing against the setting sun.

  “Suspicions.”

  “I hope more than suspicion. Our contract is basically up. Will take some wrangling with Whiteshield to let us up.”


  “I trust you’ll be able to pull something out of your hat.”

  We screeched to a halt just outside of the cable station. A few Whiteshield guards aimed their guns at us, but they recognised me as I got out of the car.

  “I need to see the mages,” I said in a tone that didn’t brook dissent.

  He tried anyway. “You no longer have any clearance.”

  “Hey,” Conrad said, still at the wheel. “You a private?”

  “Lance Corporal,” the guard said.

  “Well, lance corporal, you won’t be jack-shit if my hunter isn’t allowed to get up there. The Citadel is in grave danger and she’s the only one who can save them. So, if you like getting paid to stand with your arse against that wall all day, then let her through.”

  “Sir…”

  “Don’t sir me. Let her pass.”

  The guard looked at his friend desperately. His friend shrugged.

  “Well, she had clearance once. Should be fine.”

  They let me through. Conrad remained at the bottom, in his car. I suspected he didn’t want to be outside it when the creeps arrived.

  I didn’t note the cable car trip up. I only tapped my fingers impatiently on the hand railing, the sun slowly setting.

  “Come on…”

  “It will be fine,” Treth said again. I felt his anxiety just as much as mine.

  The cable car docked and I ran past the Whiteshield and Cult guards towards the Citadel entrance. Duer was jiggling in my front pocket. The front door of the black tower was ajar. I ran through and moved towards the voices.

  I burst through a door to the sight of a circle of red-robed mages around a conference table. They stared back at me, questioningly. Some noticed Duer in my front pocket but didn’t comment. Stephen reddened with anger and Charlotte raised her eyebrow so high that it disappeared past her fringe.

  “Ms Drummond? There are proper ways to come and receive payment…”

  “I’m not here for payment,” I panted. “The murderer is among you.”

  “Murderer, Ms Drummond?” Stephen bellowed. “The demon was the murderer, and you extinguished it. Finished. What is this about a murderer?”

  I held onto the door frame, making sure not to stab myself on one of the Citadel’s odd spikes again, and caught my breath. I really wished that I could level my accusation at Stephen. He deserved to look a bit sheepish in front of his peers and underlings. But facts were more important than my feelings.

  “Charlotte,” I said. “The night that I complained about no Whiteshield guards to let me off the mountain. Was there really a lockdown? I was told that I could not come in that night due to the Citadel being locked down.”

  She squinted, thinking. “No, there wasn’t. There shouldn’t have been, at least.”

  “Who was on duty at the door at that time?”

  “If you are here to criticise our staff, then there are proper channels,” Stephen interjected. I ignored him.

  “Who was at the desk?” I repeated my question.

  “Cornelius,” Charlotte replied. “But he may have been in the bathroom. Or the system may have failed.”

  “He was probably dozing off,” a Titan mage muttered. It seemed that not only Stephen disliked the wizarding receptionist. There were many bullies here. That just confirmed one of my suspicions.

  “When I first came here, I cut myself on one of these spikes. Cornelius cleaned up the blood.”

  “So?” Stephen said.

  “I have a curse on me, Meister. A curse that requires my true name and blood.”

  “And you suspect Cornelius?”

  Did I? Poor, bullied, Cornelius. I liked him. But, the evidence all pointed towards him.

  “He had my blood.”

  “And your true name?”

  “He could have gotten that from the archdemon.”

  “Archdemon? I thought it was just a demon.”

  “An archdemon of unknown identity escaped Heiligeslicht last month. Around the same time that Titan mages started disappearing.”

  “Disappearances which have now halted.”

  “For now. But I suspect that’s only because they know I’m onto them. They are waiting for me to leave the picture and then they will renew their abductions.”

  “Abductions?”

  “Cornelius is a wizard,” I said, resisting a sigh. How could they not see any of this? “A wizard requires an external power source, as you probably remind him constantly. The archdemon was summoned in Pinelands. A light weyline. If a being of such power was summoned in a light weyline, someone would have noticed the weyline darkening before the ritual was even complete.”

  “Are you suggesting that Cornelius, our Cornelius, summoned an archdemon?” a Titan mage asked, amused.

  I looked him dead in the eyes and said. “Yes, I am. And more than that, I am suggesting that the disappeared mages have been abducted by Cornelius, who used his understanding of surveillance and manipulating footage using magic in order to hide the crime.”

  There was a brief silence.

  “I was meant to die, but the archdemon had other plans, as demons often do. Now, Cornelius seeks to finish the job using demons designed to assassinate.”

  “These…” Stephen hesitated. “Are strong accusations. But worth exploring. Charlotte, where is Cornelius now?”

  “He should be manning the desk.”

  “He wasn’t there when I came in.”

  “How did you enter?” Charlotte asked.

  “The door was open.”

  Charlotte stood up with a hurried anxiety. “The door was what?”

  “Cornelius is gone, I presume,” Stephen sighed. “If this wasn’t evidence enough, then his fleeing his post is.”

  Charlotte rushed past me, seemingly more anxious about the door than the escape of Cornelius. I followed her.

  “When did the meeting start? How long ago did you see him?”

  “Not long. Five, maybe eight, minutes.”

  He could not have gotten far. There was one way up and down.

  “Sergeant,” Charlotte called into her radio, examining the ajar door of the Citadel. “Sergeant?”

  “No answer?”

  “Fucking Whiteshield. The Council pays them a fortune and they are never there when we need them.”

  “He’s probably gone down the cable car. I can catch him at the bottom.”

  “Go,” Charlotte said with finality. I did so.

  I ran towards the cable station and hurriedly told the Whiteshield guards to let me down. The sun was only just peaking out over the horizon.

  “Can you do it?” Treth asked me, when in the confines of the cable car.

  “Do what?”

  “Kill Cornelius.”

  “I don’t have a choice.”

  He couldn’t argue. This time, I didn’t.

  It was dark when I reached the bottom cable station. Only the white, clinical lights of the station provided some sort of beacon in the growing sea of darkness. No Whiteshield guard greeted me. As I entered the foyer, I saw why.

  They were dead. All of them. The sergeant who had tried to stop me from bringing my swords to the peak. The arrogant smirking sorcerer. All of them. Their faces were torn into terrified expressions of rigor mortis. Some had no visible wounds. Others had dark ligatures around their necks – strangled. Others were missing their intestines. Blood pooled on the smooth floors, collecting at the base of the Titan’s fist.

  “Kat, they’re here,” Duer whispered.

  I drew Voidshot. The click of its safety echoed in the silent hall. Still. Silence. I couldn’t even hear the cars on the nearby roadway. No sound, but I saw it.

  The white statuesque, ape-like creature with black-stone eyes. It hung upside down above the front door, staring at me. This time, there was no glass between us.

  I took aim. It didn’t move. I didn’t fire.

  A bead of sweat slipped down my forehead and onto my cheek. Every moment I wasted, Cornelius was getting
away.

  “Behind you,” Duer said.

  I fired Voidshot over my shoulder and turned. The bang set off ringing in my ears. The recoil wasn’t as bad as Brett’s 9mm, but still shocked my arm. The creep over the door had disappeared. A chunk of its white flesh, stained by black blood and ash, was left behind.

  “Thanks, Duer.”

  “There’re more outside.”

  “I know.”

  I exited the building to the sight of a slaughter. Whiteshield guards lay dead, everywhere. The guy whom Conrad had bullied had a bullet in his head. I had no way of knowing if it was friendly fire or Cornelius’ handiwork.

  But that concern was the least of my problems.

  White ape-like demons were staring at me, hundreds of them, clinging from lamp posts, the walls and other adjacent buildings. They were quiet. I was not sure they could make a sound. None of them moved. Well, I wouldn’t be able to tell if they could.

  “Kat? Get in!” Conrad shouted, opening the door to his car. I bolted in. A creep dove in after me, but I managed to let loose a round into its head, before it popped out of existence. I closed the car door.

  “Good fucking Zeus,” Conrad swore, covering his ears. “There’s a reason I fired Brick. Too many misfires indoors. Tinnitus treatment is expensive.”

  “No time! Did you see a robed Titan mage come this way?”

  “Yeah. He looked like he was ready for a stroll. Probably dead like the rest of these poor souls. Couldn’t even let them in. These monsters appeared in an instant and started killing everyone. Our friend guard over there got pegged by his own comrade in the chaos.”

  I looked through the windscreen. Creeps were already clinging to it and the passenger window. I was going to have nightmares after this was all over. Or maybe I wouldn’t. If I finished this, I may have already overcome the fear.

  “Step on it! We need to catch that mage. He’s responsible for all of this.”

  Conrad revved the engine without hesitation and sped off, swerving to knock off the creeps. Some fell but reappeared soon after. I considered firing a round through the windscreen but thought better of it.