Demonified (Hawkblood Chronicles Book 1)

by Stephen Schultz

  “No. I was there at the end. But I was there to try to stop the attack, not participate in it. I was the one who killed the demon. Certainly someone must have seen that.”

  “We found no dead demon,” Kyell said.

  “What do you mean?” Esselles asked in surprise. “I left it there, in the ecclesiastical square. Before I followed Renamir through the gate.”

  “Is Renamir your accomplice?”

  “No! He’s the one who captured me. He connected my brain to the demon’s so it could draw on my memories.”

  “Where is he? Did you leave him dead in the ecclesiastical square too?”

  “No! I told you. I followed him through the gate. He’s the one who led me to the demon’s home world. When we were coming back to Ostar, he leapt out of the magical bubble, leaving me to be killed by the demon or drown in the ocean.”

  “Laris here is a mage,” Kyell said. “Will you allow him to touch you to verify your story?”

  “Of course!”

  Kyell motioned to the soldier to Esselles’ right. The soldier gave him a confused look but moved forward at Kyell’s beckoning. As he got close to Esselles, fear was again clearly evident in the man’s eyes.

  “Kneel down,” Kyell said to Esselles. “He is going to place his hands upon your head.”

  Esselles did as he was told. The soldier walked cautiously up to him and placed his hands on Esselles’ either side of Esselles head.

  “Thank Uran, it is you!” Kyell exclaimed.

  Esselles looked up in surprise. So did the soldier.

  Kyell sheathed his sword and indicated to his companions to do the same.

  Tarra came running over from where she had been watching in front of the doorway.

  “Balderon told us about your demonic double,” Kyell explained when he saw Esselles’ confused look. “Some feared that if they could make one, they could make a second. Landir asked what his soldiers could do to distinguish between you and a demonic double. Balderon said that a demon would never consent to surrender to a mage. Laris is not actually a mage, but I know you didn’t know him.”

  “What if I had been a demon? Wouldn’t I have known he wasn’t a mage?” Esselles asked.

  “Maybe,” Kyell allowed. “I’m not the most knowledgeable when it comes to magic.”

  “But what if he was the demon?” Laris asked. “I would have been slaughtered.”

  “I was ready to intervene. I should have been able to attack before the demon could have done much harm to you,” Kyell said.

  “Why couldn’t you have been the mage?” Laris asked.

  “That wouldn’t have worked,” Kyell said. “Esselles knows I am not one.”

  “The demon knew it too,” Esselles said. “It was the demon that traveled back with you from hunting trip.”

  Kyell’s brow went up in surprise. He paused, and then said, “That explains a lot. I had sworn you had been fully overborne by the uruk attack. I could not figure out how you escaped their grasp.”

  “Wait a minute. I just realized something. You haven’t arrested me,” Esselles said.

  “No, but we must take you back to Ostar for questioning. However, I do not feel shackles will be needed,” Kyell said.

  “Then you know it wasn’t me?” Esselles said.

  “We don’t know much of anything,” Kyell said. “I’m sure Landir and Balderon know more, but they too have a lot of missing gaps in their knowledge of what happened. There are two leading schools of thoughts. One says you were a conspirator. The other says you were an innocent caught in someone else’s machinations.”

  “It’s the second, I assure you,” Esselles said with a smile.

  “That was always my belief,” Kyell said. “But even so, I must insist you accompany us back to Ostar.”

  “I will, but first, we need to talk. In private,” Esselles said, indicating the small crowd that had gathered around them.

  “Certainly. The inn has a private room. We stayed here last night,” Kyell said, leading the way back into the inn.

  Once the five of them were inside the private room, Esselles asked, “What are you doing way out here?”

  “We were part of the escort that brought Toliver’s remains back to his estate,” he said. “We then had some records that needed to be transferred from Lord Toliver’s keep to Lord Malik’s keep. We delivered them this morning and were just about to head back to Ostar.”

  “I think Lord Malik may have been involved,” he said in a quiet voice, not knowing how well the sound carried out of the room or who might be listening. “Renamir kept talking about a person named Malicar and through his mind I’d seen the keep at the far end of this valley. I think Malicar and Malik are one in the same. And I think that was where Renamir was headed.”

  “Lord Malik did benefit from Toliver’s death but it seems a bit extreme and farfetched to kill all those barons and almost kill the emperor, just to gain Toliver’s lands.”

  “It does when you put it like that,” Esselles agreed. “But my impression was both Renamir and Belgar had a grudge against the empire. Maybe Malicar does as well.”

  “But didn’t you say Malicar was Lord Malik?”

  “I did. I don’t know. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

  “And who is Belgar?” Kyell asked. “The name sounds familiar.”

  “Another abductor. And the one who had attacked me a couple times. I’d told you about him on the ride north.”

  “That’s right,” Kyell interjected. “So what happened?”

  Esselles told the tale of his abduction, his escape, his fight with the demon, his diving through gates, and his return home.

  “That is an amazing tale,” Kyell said. “It sounds like someone up there is watching out for you.”

  “Don’t I know it? Mrs. Kredo’s pendant saved my hide multiple times from the demons. And I’d only just received it within the past month. But you can see why I don’t want to return to Ostar. I want to go to Lord Malik’s tonight. I don’t want to give Renamir any more time to get away.”

  Kyell thought about it a moment. “I agree with you. We can send Tenric back to Ostar with our message and you, Laris, and I can continue on to Malik’s.”

  “Is that wise, sir?” Tenric asked.

  “Perhaps not. It certainly isn’t cautious. But I agree with Esselles’ assessment that we should not give the perpetrators any more time than necessary. We can go and scout out the situation and should be able to hold things until the reinforcements arrive.” Kyell looked at Laris. “I know this is your first year of duty as well. I will understand if you decide to travel with Tenric instead of with us. If we have to go in, it could get bloody.”

  “It would be an honor to shed blood with you, sir,” Laris said.

  “What about me?” Tarra asked.

  “You can remain here and we will pick you up on the way back,” Esselles suggested.

  “Wait behind?” she questioned.

  “What good would having you with us provide?” Kyell asked, looking her over. “You certainly do not have the training necessary for this mission. I’m not even certain these young lads do. Esselles included.”

  “Well, I can wait outside at a safe distance and pass information to the reinforcements when they arrive,” Tarra said.

  “She’s quite stubborn, Kyell,” Esselles said with a smile. “You might as well give in now and save some time.”

  Kyell acquiesced. “Okay. Tenric, head out now. Instead of heading south to Ostar, head southeast to Point Blank. It’s closer. They have the magical means at the naval outpost to contact Ostar there.”

  “Aye, sir,” Tenric said, saluting as he got up to leave the room.

  “And take Laris’ horse as well so you can switch out,” Kyell called after him.

  He looked at Esselles’ sword. “That thing’s a relic. I’ll get you another from my horse.”

  “You have another longsword on your horse?” Esselles asked.

  “Of course.
I always keep a spare.”

  Tarra set the wolf pup down and it scrambled over to Esselles, pleading to be picked up. He did so.

  “Where’d you get the teotealon?” Kyell asked Esselles.

  “The what?”

  “The Uranthian Guard Dog,” Kyell translated.

  Esselles looked at the pup in his lap. “Her?” he asked. “She’s a wolf pup.”

  Kyell reached for her and held her up in front of him to look more closely. “She does look like she has some wolf in her, but she’s definitely a guard dog.”

  “The uruks killed her mother,” Esselles explained.

  “She must have gone feral,” Kyell said. “Or her mother before her. Probably mated with one of the wolves around here. But see these markings? And the way the nails curve back like this? Those are sure signs of a teotealon. They were bred long ago to help protect the tairns.”

  “I’ve seen them around the city,” Esselles said. “So this little girl is going to grow to half my height?”

  “And more than half your weight,” Kyell added. “They’re a great breed. Very smart and extremely loyal.”

  “And this one’s taken to him,” Tarra said. “It wouldn’t let him leave her behind.”

  “That’s interesting. How young was it when you found it?” Kyell asked.

  “I’m not sure. She was fully ambulatory, so over a month old, I’d guess.”

  Kyell stood up and carried the pup to the far corner of the room. “Call to her,” he said to Esselles.

  He did so. The pup struggled and fought in Kyell’s arms. It eventually managed to spring free and run over to Esselles.

  “It’s as I thought,” Kyell said. “They imprint on their owners. But that is usually done at birth. I’ve never heard of an imprinting being done at this age.”

  “The spell!” Esselles said.

  “What spell?” Kyell asked.

  “Remember how I told you Renamir’s spell stayed with me? When I returned to Tarra’s farm, the spell must have latched on to the pup.”

  “That might be it,” Kyell agreed. “When we get back, I’ll take you to my tairn. My brother is a breeder and can explain more to you about the dogs. But for now, she’s going to be coming with us as you’d be hard pressed to keep her away.”

  “She’ll stay with Tarra,” Esselles said.

  “Good. That would be better.” He handed her the pup. “Now let’s head out. In about an hour, the mountain ridge will cast long shadows. I want to be in position to move in while they are there.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Other than the light from the windows of the tallest tower, the castle appeared dark. The sun had set behind the mountain ridge to which the castle was attached and the bright sky above made the castle very hard to see, enveloped in the shadows from the ridge. Like all castles, the land around it had been cleared and leveled, although for some reason, to Esselles’ eye, the land around Malik’s seemed even more desolate than most.

  They had discussed whether they should approach diplomatically or covertly, unsure whether Malicar and Lord Malik were one and the same. They had elected to approach covertly as they realized none of them were diplomats. When Esselles saw the keep, he knew their decision was the right one. It was easily recognizable as the one to which Renamir had called to mind shortly before teleporting away.

  “Okay,” Kyell said, “I want you three to wait here. I’m going to slip in and take a closer look.”

  Kyell lifted his cloak and moved his sword onto his back. He replaced his cloak, covering the longsword. He strapped one of his daggers to his boot, covering it with his pant leg, and removed the other. He took off his badge and a few other items he carried. He then found a patch of mud and liberally covered his hands, face and hair, and then broke off branches and stuck them into various places on his person, in his belt, in his boots, through small slits in his cloak. When he was finished he turned to the group looking like he had gotten in a wrestling match with a forest and lost.

  He smiled at them, crouched down, and then ran out into the field, following a slight depression. When he reached the edge of the depression, he dropped to the ground and disappeared from sight. Though Esselles strained, he had difficulty spotting Kyell and after a few minutes, he lost sight of him completely.

  He returned half-an-hour later, materializing out of the deep shadows and growing darkness, mumbling curses as he came.

  “What’s wrong?” Esselles asked, nervously.

  “There’s uruks on the walls,” he said, spitting when he mentioned the uruks. “I could barely see them, but I recognized their hunchbacked form.”

  “So what’s that mean?” Laris asked.

  “Even if Malik isn’t Malicar, employing Malustreure-spawned creatures is crime enough in my book. But what it really means,” Kyell continued, “is that we have to attack at dawn.”

  “Why dawn?” Laris asked.

  “It’s when their vision is the worst. They can see fine in the night and fine in the day, but it takes a while for their eyes to adjust,” Kyell explained.

  “I noticed you said ‘attack at dawn’,” Esselles said.

  “Is there any question?” Kyell asked.

  “Not on my part,” Esselles said.

  “Me neither,” Laris said.

  “Well there is on my part,” Tarra said, drawing three stares. “Why not wait until the help from Ostar arrives?”

  The three soldiers looked at each other, sharing a ‘do we really need to explain that?’ look.

  Kyell did explain. “Tenric won’t reach Ostar until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. And that’s if he rides the horses to the point of exhaustion. We’ll be lucky if he gets there before sundown. And then he needs to convince someone that it is important enough to employ a mage to open a portal out here. If not, the help won’t arrive for two more days at best.”

  “But three of you against that?!” she said, pointing to the ominous fortress in the distance.

  “It does look pretty impressive, doesn’t it?” Kyell agreed. “But there’s a way in. We’ll have to head back to my supplies for some rope.”

  Esselles looked at the pockmarked cliffs behind the castle. “Are you serious?” he asked.

  “With a deep ravine, a raised drawbridge, a lowered portcullis, two strong castle walls, and an exposed stairwell between them, do you really want to try to go in the front door?”

  “No,” Esselles said. “But I’m not the best of climbers.”

  “It won’t be that bad,” Kyell said. “There are a lot of cuts, cracks, and ravines from the ice. You can see all the debris at the base. I’ll have no problem finding scalable routes for you two to follow.”

  “Don’t you think they’ll have protected against it?” Laris asked.

  “Possibly,” Kyell agreed. “But most keeps are built to keep out invading armies. An army wouldn’t be able to scale the cliffs and drop in unannounced. They’d be feathered before they got close. But three warriors could do it. As long as we were quiet.”

  “When do we leave?” Esselles asked.

  “First, we have to go back for the rope,” Kyell said. “Then we start as soon as we’re ready. I want to be in position to drop onto the castle at dawn when their vision is poorest.”

  Two and a half hours later, they were preparing for the climb. Weapons were wrapped in cloth and put in slings. Laris had his sword and Tarra’s crossbow. Esselles had his sword and his newfound disk weapon. Kyell had just his longsword.

  Kyell led them on a roundabout path where they could not see the castle, and more importantly, those in the castle could not see them. They then moved along the base of the ridge wall until they came to an outcropping.

  “If you go around this corner, you can see the castle. Don’t do it!” he urged in a whisper as Laris started to move that way. “They might be able to see you. But if we stay behind this outcropping, we’ll be out of their sight. About two-thirds of the way up to the plateau, there’s a series of le
dges. We’ll use those to traverse still out of sight.” He paused, then began to uncoil the rope. “Are you ready?”

  At their nods, he tied the rope around his waist, then played out some slack and tied it around Esselles waist. He again played out more slack and then finally tied it around Laris’ waist. He checked each of the knots, giving a couple tugs on the rope, and also made sure the rope was snug around their waists.

  “That’s not too tight, is it?” he asked them. They both shook their heads. Seeing that, he turned to the rock face and began climbing, illustrating how to jam a fist into the cracks and holes in the rock face.

  As Kyell had predicted, the rock wall was full of handholds for the three climbers the entire way up. Surrounded by the rock of the wall and the outcropping, Esselles did not even feel exposed on the side of the cliff. And even when he did glance down, it was dark enough that he could not see very far, such that he had no real impression as to how high they had climbed. It always felt like they were only about ten or fifteen feet off the ground because that was about as far as they could see – essentially just a few feet past the next person in line. Of course, based on how long they had been climbing, he knew they were well off the ground. While he did not have a fear of heights, he did not like dangling high above when there was not solid footing underneath, so while it made the going quite a bit slower, Esselles was thankful for the darkness.

  After an hour or more of climbing, Kyell led them into a vertical slit in the rock wall and showed them how to brace their backs and feet against opposite sides of the slit so they could give their arms and legs a rest. He suggested they move their weapons around to their outer hips before doing so. When they each had gotten into a comfortable position, or as comfortable as they were going to get pressed against cold rock hundreds of feet up the face of a vertical ridge preparing to enter a well-protected castle with depressing odds, Kyell shimmied down to them to give them a drink from his water skin and to eat some dried fruits and nuts.

  “We won’t stay long,” he said as he took the water skin back from Esselles and prepared to shimmy down to Laris. “I don’t want your muscles clamping up. We still have some climbing to do before we reach the ledges and then we have to traverse into position over the castle and the ledges are sure to have rocks, pebbles, and scree on them so it will not be a whole lot easier, just different.”