All I heard was the Hellgate’s thrumming distortion. Tam’s thoughts were his own, and he was determined to keep them that way.
That was fine; I knew what he was thinking. Tam wasn’t going to betray Mychael, regardless of the offer. However, if the queen forced his hand, he would go along—up to a convenient point of betrayal. Tam was a goblin to his core. Manipulation was his kingdom’s national sport. As for the demon queen, I knew that tall, naked, and nuts had no intention of keeping her word. As a Benares, I’d been told that our word wasn’t worth the air it was spoken into unless we wanted it to be. Demons probably weren’t much different.
But the demon queen wasn’t lying when she predicted that Mychael would take her offer in a heartbeat. And that heartbeat would be the last one he had without the demon king’s soul in his body.
The thought of Mychael’s soul helpless and imprisoned in his own body kicked every last bit of panic and fear out of my head. Rage replaced it, and it felt good. A tight, searing knot blazing in the center of my chest. It fed the Saghred, and the stone’s white heat joined my own. Seething, scorching, eager for a way out.
Except there wasn’t a way out, for either it or me.
Magic wasn’t an option. Even the Saghred couldn’t get in on the action as long as I was on the dais. Beyond the columns, I would have my magic back. But beyond the columns there were monsters. Cavorting monsters. Going there would be a bad idea; it’d also be the last idea I’d ever have.
“If you do not convince the paladin to return with you within an agreed length of time, I will begin to persuade the elfling that she desires nothing more than to assist me in any way that she can. Tell me, lovely one, can you feel the elfling’s pain? Has your bond become that strong? Defy me and we will find out together.”
“Perhaps there is an easier way, Your Majesty,” said the Volghul behind me. “The elfling’s bodyguard is a Conclave Guardian.”
The queen’s eyes lit with renewed interest. “A Guardian?”
“Of the highest order. He reports directly to Paladin Mychael Eiliesor. It is said that they can communicate with each other over great distances. We can take him into the hall where he will be able to contact Eiliesor, and you will not have to relinquish any of your captives.” The Volghul’s smile showed every last one of his razor-sharp teeth. “Or perhaps you can use the Guardian’s mind to reach Eiliesor yourself. This way there would be no need to damage the elfling since you will have need of her later.”
I’d had my life threatened before, many times. I’d even had people threaten to slice and dice me up. It scared the hell out of me every single time. Especially when it came from the ones who were serious. The demon queen was serious, eager even. The enthusiastic ones always wanted to get started before the time was up.
But no one was going inside Vegard’s head.
I tried to do some fast thinking.
Something besides the brimstone didn’t smell right. The demon queen had Carnades and Rudra Muralin on the dais where the Hellgate distortion was the strongest. I was brought here. Tam was brought here. None of us could use our magic. She kept sending flunkies after Mychael instead of going herself. This thing was the queen of the freaking demons; she was beyond ancient, with enough power to do anything, slaughter anyone. I could feel it. I knew it.
I suddenly knew something else. I put on my best poker face. There was a reason for the flunkies, the minions.
She couldn’t leave.
Every ounce of her raw power was the only thing holding the Hellgate open. Attacking Rudra Muralin had broken her hold on it. Only for a moment, but it had happened.
Move the queen. Close the Hellgate.
And probably kill us all.
Brilliant idea, Raine. And if you don’t end up vaporized, why don’t you hand her the Saghred on a silver platter, and set her up on a date with Mychael?
Tam said it took days to get a Hellgate open and stabilized. Somehow I didn’t think closing one was as easy as slamming a door. Doors didn’t have black magic backlash that could turn us all into piles of ash—or do the same to every living thing on the island. But it wasn’t like I was exactly flush with options. And if Tam had any brilliant ideas, he wasn’t sharing them with me; and thanks to the Hellgate distortion, our bond was worthless. I knew he was plotting something, and since he’d opened a Hellgate before, I thought it safe to assume his thinking was running in that direction. But I’d found out the hard way on more than one occasion that a wrong assumption could very well be my last assumption.
I’d counted five mirrors at the base of the columns behind me. Each was linked to another mirror somewhere on the island. One of those mirrors had to be inside the citadel. The demon queen said as much. The Saghred was there, the demon king was there, a mirror had to be there. Mychael already had one Guardian who had betrayed him to elven intelligence. Selling your soul to the demon queen might actually be a moral step up. Someone had to have put a mirror in the citadel, and it was as close to the Saghred as they could get it. There were hundreds of cells and containment rooms in the citadel’s subterranean levels. The one and only time I’d been down there, all of those doors had been closed. Oh yeah, there was definitely a mirror in one of those cells. A big one.
I needed to know which mirror here led to that mirror there, because we sure as hell couldn’t get out the same way we were brought in. We needed an exit, a fast one, preferably to the citadel teeming with heavily armed Guardians. I hated mirror magic with a passion, but better to jump through a mirror than to be a demon queen’s Saghred-powered plaything for the next eon or two.
With the queen pondering how best to use Vegard’s mind, I raised my hand level with my ear, like I had an itch. Tam saw what I was doing. The Volghuls couldn’t. With the barest movement, I inclined my head in the direction of the Hellgate, then slowly brought my thumb and forefinger together until they touched. Then I turned my head ever so slightly in the direction of the mirrors, and raised one eyebrow in a silent question. Was it possible?
Close the Hellgate. Jump through a mirror.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tam’s lips form a word that not only told me what he thought of my plan, it perfectly described what the grunting demons were doing in the dark. I clenched my jaw and squared my shoulders, my body language telling him that if he didn’t like my idea, he’d better come up with something better, and quick. Tam had to know why the queen hadn’t gone more than a few feet away from the Hellgate. He’d opened a Hellgate before; he knew how to close one. And if there was any chance that he could close this one, we needed a way out.
Or we needed the mother of all distractions.
I couldn’t use magic right now, and I couldn’t fight the demon queen, at least not on her terms. I’d leave the Hellgate to Tam. I had to find out which mirror led to the citadel. And I’d do it using a tactic that had gotten members of my family killed about as often as it’d saved our asses. I drew a ragged breath to do what I did best.
I knew how to piss people off. What can I say? It’s a gift.
“Excuse me,” I said to the demon queen.
“Raine,” Tam growled in warning. Bond or no bond, he knew me too well.
“How long has your husband been in the Saghred?” I asked her.
Wary replaced smug on her flawless face. “Why ask you, elfling?”
“I have a reason, a reason that would concern any woman.” I was trying for calm; my heart was trying to beat itself out of my chest. “How long has it been?”
“Millennia.”
“You have had access to . . . uh . . . amusements.” I paused and forced myself to breathe. “He hasn’t. I’ve been inside the Saghred twice. There’s nothing in there but a lot of gray void and rotting wraiths. I imagine His Majesty has been doing a lot of sitting and waiting. Believe me, there’s nothing amusing about that.”
The queen’s red eyes narrowed. “What are you implying?”
I spread my hands defensively. “I’m sure it’s not
hing. I don’t know all that much about mirror magic, but I do know that your husband can’t get back here through whichever one of these mirrors leads to citadel without a body.”
She didn’t glance toward one of the mirrors. Dammit.
“Then he will take a body,” she said.
I nodded. “Chances are he’ll grab himself a Guardian body, seeing that they’re guarding the Saghred. A big, strong, manly body. With manly urges,” I added meaningfully. “Urges that he hasn’t indulged in a long time.”
The queen’s full lips curled into a sensuous smile. “Then I shall welcome his return.”
Again, no glance at a mirror. Double damn.
I played my last card. “I’m certain your husband has no problem with impulse control. His only desire will be to come home to wife, dinner, and brimstone hearth.” I hesitated thoughtfully. “However, he’ll have the Saghred, a Guardian body, and all the nubile coeds he can . . . whatever. The seven kingdoms at his mercy, the works. He’s been penned up in the Saghred. I’ve been in there; it’s not a resort.” I jerked my head toward Carnades and Rudra Muralin. “You’ve set the table, but do you honestly think he’s coming home?”
“You have a point, elfling.” The queen contemplated something over my left shoulder. I casually turned and looked where she was looking.
Mirror number two was escape route number one. I gave a little silent cheer and bit my lip to keep from grinning.
The demon queen gestured and at least a dozen chittering purple demons scrambled up onto the dais from the dark. Volghuls in miniature. She bent to speak to the mini-demons. “The citadel air passages, my children. Use them quietly and use them well. Go.”
The little demons leapt through the mirror to the citadel and were gone.
“They will bring me the Saghred,” the queen told me. “Instead I will release my husband once the stone is here.”
The bottom fell out of my stomach.
Last week, Piaras’s voice carried through an air duct into the Saghred’s containment room and put the stone to sleep. Now tiny demons were scrambling into those same ducts on their way to the Saghred, and the demon queen hadn’t budged an inch.
That could have gone better.
“Satisfied?” Tam muttered.
Chapter 28
I didn’t know how much time we had until the mini-demons grabbed the Saghred and came back through that mirror, but depending on how close the exit mirror was, we might only have minutes.
There were no Guardians in the room with the Saghred. The containments on the rock had all failed, so Mychael had pulled his men back. And if the mini-demons managed to keep their chittering to themselves, they could get back here with the rock before any Guardians were the wiser.
Here. Right here. We’d be in the same room with an unshielded Saghred and a demon queen who had the key to open it. And once she did, the demon king might not be the only one to escape. Sarad Nukpana was in there, as were thousands of other things that should never be allowed to leave.
But my father was also in there.
Every last one of them was a soul without a body. And here we all were, lined up like sheep for slaughter—or in this case, possession. Sarad Nukpana could possess Piaras for real this time.
I felt a growl starting in my chest and I let it grow. I figured I couldn’t be scared out of my wits and growl at the same time.
If the queen was using all of her strength to keep the Hellgate open, that meant she couldn’t spare any magic to obliterate me. She could stick me up there next to Rudra Muralin, but she wouldn’t kill me; she needed me. And if she did get off a shot, her concentration would waver, and the Hellgate would flicker. I’d have to trust Tam to act when that happened. He’d never let me down before, and I had to believe now wasn’t going to be the first time—and the last. I dug deep into my rage, trying to scrape up some courage to go along with it. To do what I was going to do, I’d need every last bit of both and then some.
The queen’s nails were all twisty; I told myself they’d never last in a real fight. And that was what I was going to give her—a fight like she’d never had. If I died doing it, fine. At least I’d die; it’d be a damned sight better than being a Saghred-wielding demon slave.
I was a Benares. If I was going out, I was taking that bitch with me.
Of the five of us, I was the closest to her and she was mine.
I looked over at Phaelan. He smiled, showing me all of his teeth. Whatever I had up my sleeve, he wanted to be in the middle of it.
Vegard was like Phaelan; he’d wanted to kill something ever since we’d been grabbed. If he died doing it, not a problem. He was a Guardian; it was his job. Piaras’s eyes were determined—and warm brown. There was no sign of Sarad Nukpana. The goblin was probably too busy shoving his way to the front of the line to get out of the Saghred.
I felt Tam’s eyes on me. I turned just enough to see the barest nod. I let out the breath I wasn’t aware that I’d been holding. When I moved, so would he.
I shifted my weight, ready to spring. The demon queen was within range. As she turned toward Rudra Muralin, it was as though everything went into slow motion. She was turning to taunt him, and it was like I had all the time in the world. I bared my own teeth. I didn’t need all the time in the world, just two seconds to get her on the ground and get that dagger.
The queen froze, then spun around, her eyes glowing and locked not on me, but on the back of the Assembly.
I heard it. Voices coming from beyond the doors, in the halls with the eggs and their Volghul guards. Mortals and demons shouting, screaming, struggling.
“Children!” The demon queen’s voice rang out. “I release you to feed!”
A deafening roar went up from the demons in the darkness, and shapes and shadows surged up the stairs and through the massive doors surrounding the Assembly chamber. Their triumphant roars and starved shrieks added to the din.
“Go with them,” she ordered the Volghuls standing on guard around the columns.
I took a look and did the math. Only one Volghul was left for each of us. One on one. Now that’s what I called better odds. Yes, they were demons and we were unarmed mortals who couldn’t use our magic, but I knew for a fact we had something going for us that they didn’t—the desire to survive at any and all costs.
I felt a pressure building, and the air in the room contracted, tightened, as if something in the hall beyond was trying to suck all the air out of the Assembly. I covered my ears with my hands, trying to stop the stabbing pain against my eardrums. Everyone else did the same, demons included. Then the pressure stopped, suddenly and painfully. I lowered my hands, half expecting to see blood on them. All around us, the Assembly doors began slamming with resounding booms until they were all closed.
Beyond the doors was silence. On the dais, no one moved.
The doors didn’t open. No demons appeared to report victory to their queen. No mortals stormed the Assembly to rescue us. Nothing.
That was either really good or very bad.
“Kuitak!” the queen snapped at a Volghul.
“Your will, Majesty?”
“Take the Scythe and go free my—”
Oh, hell no.
My shoulder took the demon queen in the midsection with a satisfying thud. The Scythe flew out of her hand and skidded across the dais, disappearing over the side onto the floor below. We both scrambled for it, but not before the queen’s foot gave me a solid kick in the head, and black flowers bloomed on the edge of my vision. I shook them off and threw myself on top of her, grabbing for her throat, my weight and momentum taking her to the floor. The demon queen hissed and twisted sharply, putting us face to fangs with her on top. One of my arms was pinned between us, but the other got in two solid punches to the side of her face and she had a few less fangs.
The second punch snapped her head to the side and gave me enough leverage to flip her onto her back. Problem was I’d miscalculated how close we were to the dais stairs. I think I
hit every bone in my body rolling down those stairs entangled with the demon queen. She was hissing; I was snarling. Her claws were going for my eyes; I was going for anything I could knee, elbow, or punch.
Everything was pretty much a blur while we rolled down the stairs, but from what I could hear, the boys were giving as good as they got. From the stench of burning demon flesh, I guessed that Vegard had gotten clear of the Hellgate distortion and was lobbing fireballs. Piaras’s voice rang out in a single, imperious word, and a Volghul flew by overhead, arms and legs desperately flailing. Tam’s sibilant incantations from the dais above us were tight with effort, fighting for control. I’d taken on the queen, leaving Tam to replace the void of her power with his own, to single-handedly try to keep the Hellgate from exploding, imploding, or whatever it was that a loose Hellgate did.
Tam was powerful, but he was mortal. His power had limits, and time was not on our side.
The queen and I rolled to a stop as a needle-thin shaft of white light exploded the head of the nearest Volghul. I didn’t move. It didn’t seem smart with skull-piercing lightning bolts flying around.
My mistake. A big one.
The demon queen got her hands around my throat and dug in. I screamed, searing pain following the hot wetness of my own blood running down my neck. I’d been right, her nails hadn’t survived the fight, but broken nails left jagged edges, and they were razor sharp.
A dot of blazing white light appeared in the exact center of the queen’s forehead. The fighting around us immediately stopped. The only sound was Tam’s unbroken stream of incantations and hissing, labored breathing.
The light remained where it was, unwavering.
“Her death will be your doing!” the demon queen shouted into the darkness.
The Trouble with Demons Page 30
