Demonified (Hawkblood Chronicles Book 1)

by Stephen Schultz

A crossbow bolt whistled past Esselles’ ear and caught one of the guards in the shoulder as he was working to pull the far doors shut. A second guard was hurrying forward with a large beam, getting ready to drop it into the arms of the doors once they were closed. Esselles slowed, drew his club overhead, and swung it towards him with all his strength.

  The disk exploded out of the end of the club, blew through the uruk’s hand holding the beam, and tore right through the beam itself. The force of the impact, combined with the severing of the guard’s hand, ripped the beam out of his arms and it fell to the ground with a loud clunk.

  The delay was enough for Kyell to get to the door before it was pulled fully shut. In a blur of motion, both beautiful and gruesome, he sliced the first uruk dead as he threaded his way between the open door and then decapitated the second after spinning into the room.

  As Esselles and Laris entered the room, Kyell suddenly looked up and sprinted to the far end of the room. “Close the doors,” he called back over his shoulder.

  While Laris pulled the doors fully shut, Esselles dragged the beam over and Laris helped him drop it in place. Esselles marveled at the strength of the uruk able to carry the heavy beam all by himself.

  No sooner had the bolt dropped in place than the far door opened up. But Kyell was already hidden behind the doorway and as the two uruks that had raced in raised their crossbows to fire at Esselles and Laris, Kyell jumped forward, slid on his knees with his longsword up and back, and sliced through the wrists of each of the two uruks as he slid underneath the crossbows. With the upward jolt of the slice, the bolts shot high into the wall above the doors, shattering as they impacted the stone.

  Laris and Esselles raced forward but Kyell had already cut the two uruks down before they could reach him. “There are more in the next room,” he whispered as he stood up from his latest kills. “I suspect they have crossbows trained on the doorway.”

  Esselles scanned the room quickly. It was a half oval chamber. There were two dead uruks near the entry door, one missing both a hand and a head, the other sliced deeply across his chest from shoulder to naval. And there were two dead uruks near the exit door, one with his stomach slashed open and the other with the left side of his neck laid open. Other than the uruk’s dropped weapons, there was not much else in the room. Then he spotted it. Against the far corner of the one flat wall of the semi-circular room was the disk. For once it was not embedded in anything. It must have spent its energy going through the uruk’s hand and the thick beam. He carefully picked it up and dropped it back into the club.

  Laris had just finished reloading his crossbow and Kyell had tested a couple of the shields carried by the uruks and held the largest and thickest in his hands with a grim smile.

  “Get ready to follow me through,” he said, his eyes burning with fury. He grabbed the shield with both hands, although one also held his longsword crossways against the back of the shield, and he lifted it above his head like a hat. He then charged the door and dove through into the next room, diving forward as he crossed the threshold.

  Esselles heard the unmistakable sound of crossbows firing and bolts hitting home into wood. Ahead he could see Kyell land, roll, and toss the shield aside, now sporting four bolts. He continued his roll, bringing his sword into position, and closing on the nearest uruk.

  As Laris and Esselles burst into the room, the last two crossbows fired. Esselles managed to dive to the side but Laris was not so lucky. He took a bolt to his upper right chest and it drove his shoulder backwards, causing him to drop his sword. Esselles did not have time to help him or even see how he faired for he had two uruks bearing down on him after dropping their crossbows and drawing scimitars.

  Esselles took a step to his right, putting the two uruks in a straight line, and swung overhead with his club. The disk shot out, ripped through the chest of the lead uruk and buried itself in the chest of the second. The first crumpled to the floor, but the second continued on, although with a pained and quizzical look on its face as it stared at the narrow slit in its chest now spewing blood. Esselles swung the club sideways, hitting him in the head and hearing a loud crack of bone. The uruk dropped to the ground lifeless, falling across his partner.

  Esselles drew his sword to help Kyell, but before his sword was fully out of its scabbard, Kyell sliced the last remaining uruk across the chest with a scimitar, clearly taken from one of the other uruks. Possibly the one with Kyell’s longsword sticking out of its rib cage. Then he remembered Laris and wheeled around.

  He had managed to roll onto his side and was gripping the bolt against his chest. Esselles knelt down next to him.

  “I don’t dare pull it out,” he said. “I think it has punctured my right lung, but somehow doesn’t seem to be bleeding too massively. I’ve got a healing seal in a pouch on my belt. Break it in half and touch it to my chest. It will need to be bare skin.”

  Seeing that his chest was completely covered in his chainmail, Esselles looked quickly to see if he could open it up. However, there did not appear to be an easy way to do so. He jumped up and ran over to the two uruks he had dropped upon entering the room. He rolled the second one onto his back and looked at his chest. Sure enough, the disk was just peeking out of the wound. He used his sword to widen the wound some and then reached in and carefully pulled the disk out. It was tough to see with all the blood pooling in the wound and he sliced his finger on the edge of the disk, but not too badly. Once he had extracted the disk, he ran back over to Laris. Kneeling back down, he carefully used the disk to cut through the chainmail near where the bolt stuck into Laris’ chest. When he was finished, he set the disk down and found the pouch Laris had mentioned and pulled the magical seal from inside. He took the clay disk in both hands, held it near Laris’ chest and cracked it in half. He could feel the energy surge as he did so and he touched it to Laris’ chest. The skin around the wound tightened up and the bleeding stopped.

  “I’m sure it is going to be a bitch pulling that bolt out now that we healed it in,” Laris said, “but I was afraid of rupturing a major artery if we pulled the bolt out and that seal wasn’t super powerful.” He sat up and scooched over to the wall. “I won’t be any more help this fight, but I will live.”

  “Let’s get you hidden over to the side here,” Esselles said, indicating one of the hidden alcoves off the left side of the room. He called to Kyell who came over to help carry him, but not before giving one longing look to the far end of the room where he appeared convinced more enemies lay.

  “They’ll still be waiting for you. But I want Laris out of the way in case someone comes through when we’re not here.”

  “Of course,” Kyell agreed. “I’ll load his crossbow for him.”

  Esselles took the bloodied disk and wiped it off a bit before putting it back in his club.

  “That’s an interesting weapon you have there,” Kyell said as he cocked the crossbow. “Where did you get it?”

  “From a demon lair,” Esselles said, adding with a smile, “There are apparently some advantages to chasing demons through their magical portals.”

  After they had Laris situated, Kyell pointed to an alcove to the right of the throne that sat on the far side of the room. “I saw one take off in that direction. I expect he was warning those who live here and organizing the remaining forces. Are you ready to finish this?”

  “I am,” Esselles said. “I want to see these bastards pay for all the people they killed.”

  “Then let us be at it,” Kyell said as he hefted another heavy shield, again taking it in both hands while holding his longsword across its back side.

  They crossed the small bridge that led to the dais, went to the right of the throne, and charged through the doorway hidden in the alcove. To their surprise, there were no uruks waiting there. But that did not last long because as they turned the corner a little further down the hallway, there were two uruks kneeling with crossbows leveled at them.

  Kyell dropped to his knees, ducking behind t
he big shield at the same time. The heads of two bolts protruded through the inside of the big shield, but did little more than scratch his arm. He tossed the shield aside, bringing his sword to bear and took off after the two uruks who had dropped their crossbows and ran.

  As Esselles followed Kyell down the hall, he passed a stairwell on his right. Looking up he saw four uruks at the top, each with his bardiche pointed down the stairs at them.

  “Kyell, I think Renamir is this way!” he yelled after the Uranthian.

  “But they are getting away!” Kyell called back.

  “We can get those two on our way back out,” Esselles assured him. “Let’s focus on Renamir and Malicar.”

  Reluctantly, Kyell stopped his pursuit and made his way back to the bottom of the stairwell. Looking up at the four guards he said quietly, “Well, at least they do not appear to have crossbows.” He turned to look at Esselles, then back up at the guards, and finally back at Esselles. “I am going to charge up the stairs. Just before I get to them, launch your disk at the two on the right,” he whispered.

  “But I might hit you.”

  “I trust my battle instincts. I will duck in time,” he assured Esselles. Then with no further discussion, he charged up the stairs with a battle cry.

  Another came up behind the other four and looked down the stairs. The four uruks in front had a nervous look on their faces as Kyell charged at them, but stood their ground, polearms at the ready. Esselles drew back the club with both hands, reaching way behind him and then bringing it forward with all of his strength. The disk shot out and up the stairs.

  True to his word, as the club came forward, before the disk was even out, Kyell had dropped flat to the stairs. The disk shot right over him and into the right shoulder of the uruk on the right. His shoulder exploded, sending bone, muscle, and blood flying. The disk careened into the neck of the uruk next to him and went right through. It then embedded itself into the skull of a third, just on the other side of him. They fell like dominoes, leaving only a single uruk guard standing, and the uruk onlooker behind him, both dumbfounded by the instant carnage.

  Esselles was slightly dumbfounded as well, but he quickly recovered and raised the club like he was going to swing it again. The eyes of the uruks went wide with fear. The one ran left, the other ran right. Kyell jumped up from his prone position and ran after the one sprinting left. As he neared him, he dove and swept the ground with his longsword. It caught the back foot of the retreating uruk and he fell to the ground. Kyell was on him in an instant, driving the point of his sword through the back of his rib cage and into his heart.

  Esselles ran up the stairs and stepped around the fallen uruks and turned to the right. Suddenly, he was awash in flames. But as before, he was covered in the opalescence and though he felt the heat, the fire did not consume him. It did however consume the uruks around him.

  He looked in the direction from where the fire came and saw a robed figure retreating into a room, followed by two uruk guards. They quickly closed the oaken door behind them.

  Kyell ran past Esselles and the burning uruks towards the door. He threw his shoulder into it but the door did not budge. He tried kicking at it, but also to no avail.

  “Stand back,” Esselles said as he pulled the disk from the uruk’s skull. It was red hot, but again, though he could feel the heat through the opalescent film that covered his skin, it did not burn him. “Stand back,” Esselles repeated when he noticed Kyell was still trying to break the door down.

  This time, his request registered through Kyell’s elevated combat state. He stepped aside as Esselles loaded the disk into the club and then walked closer to the door. He took the club in both hands, swung it behind his head and brought it down, angled downward, against the surface of the door itself. He was rewarded with the sounds of splintering wood and a scream of pain from the far side. He stepped back and was going to tell Kyell to smash it, but the request was unnecessary. Kyell ran forward and drove his shoulder into the gash the disk had left in the door. It burst in two and he went flying into the room.

  The guards on the far side of the room were even more surprised by Kyell that he had gone through the door. One was already on the ground with blood gushing out of a large wound in his thigh. The other had been knocked backwards, falling into a sitting position a few feet from where Kyell landed. Kyell did not even bother getting to his feet. He rolled over his shoulder, onto his knees, and brought his sword around, all in one motion. The tip of his blade danced across the neck of the uruk, spraying blood across the books that lined the shelves in the room. The uruk reached to his throat, falling backwards, as blood gurgled out of his shocked mouth.

  At the far end of the room, two uruks stood facing them, but were backing up. From beyond them, Esselles heard Renamir’s voice call, “The door, you idiots.”

  Kyell started sprinting across the room, but Esselles could clearly see he would not get there before the uruks would be able to close the door. He took the club and threw it at the open door. It bounced off the door and off the door frame, and fell between the two, keeping them from being able to close the door.

  One of the uruks quickly reached down to pull it out of the doorway. But instead of closing the door, he swung it back over his head, as he had seen Esselles do on the stairwell, and gave a great heave, swinging it towards Kyell and Esselles. He was quite shocked and disappointed when nothing flew out of the end. He was even more shocked when he looked down and saw a three-inch wide blade sticking out of his stomach.

  Kyell pulled his sword back out of the uruk as it crumpled in the doorway. Then, without seeming to even look, he swung his hips to the right as a sword stabbed out of the doorway, right where his chest had been. While still bent to the side, he plunged his sword forward and down and a second uruk tumbled out of the doorway, this one with Kyell’s sword buried deep above its clavicle.

  They pulled the two uruk bodies out of the doorway and stepped through. On the other side of the door was a spiral staircase heading up, clearly into the tower. Kyell raced up the staircase with Esselles right behind him. At the top was another oaken door. Kyell braced his shoulder to throw it at the door, but Esselles grabbed him saying, “NO!”

  Kyell turned to look at him.

  “I think it is magicked,” Esselles said.

  “You!?” came a dry, raspy voice from beyond the door. “You are the one who has invaded my abode?”

  “I am,” Esselles said. He mouthed “the club” to Kyell and then continued to talk. “I am going to make you pay for all the people you killed.”

  Kyell ran back down the stairwell.

  “Me? I distinctly recall it being you who slaughtered them,” the voice taunted.

  “I know it was you who sent the demon, Malicar. Or should I say Lord Malik?”

  “Either will do,” Malicar said. “But how are you here? Renamir told me you were dead. Left in an ethereal bubble to either be torn apart by a demon or drowned in the ocean.”

  Kyell returned with the club.

  “Obviously, he was wrong,” Esselles said defiantly. “I survived both demon and ocean.”

  “I will deal with his incompetence after I dispatch the two of you.”

  “Why me? What did I do to you?” Esselles asked, stepping a few steps back down the stairwell, raising the club, and slowly mouthing a “one, two, three” count.

  “Why nothing, of course,” Malicar said. “You were just a pawn in a game of chess well beyond your comprehension. A game piece to be disposed of at my leisure.”

  On the count of three, Esselles threw the club at the door with all his strength. As he expected, when the club hit the door, it exploded with energy. It shot out, sending the club flying and engulfing Esselles. But his opalescent shield deflected it away. The door, however, was not so fortunate. The energy had blown the boards apart, revealing a magical study beyond. In the center of the room stood the man in the flowing black robes. Kyell charged in ahead of Esselles.

  �
��And here it shall end.” Malicar raised both hands and unleashed energy bolts at both Esselles and Kyell. The missiles hit them each square in the chest and they were sent flying backward.

  Kyell was thrown backwards against the wall of the room, and he slammed hard, his sword clattering to the ground after falling from his lifeless grip.

  Esselles was knocked back through the door and had to catch himself against the wall to avoid tumbling further down the spiral stairwell. Although it had thrown him back, the majority of the damage from the energy bolts dissipated on the opalescent shield that sprang from his chest.

  Malicar stepped forward. “That appears to be a very versatile pendent you have there. It can deal with fire. It can deal with electricity. How does it deal with cold?” He raised his arms and a blast of ice and freezing water covered Esselles who had backed a few more steps down the spiral stairwell. Even before the ice had covered him, Esselles broke into a smile, thinking back to the grishmagi attack and how the pendant had protected him them. He could feel its warmth spreading through his body.

  “So, you are equipped for cold as well. Are you equipped for having your life force drained?” Malicar asked as he put his hand on Esselles’ head while the cold was still making him sluggish. As soon as Malicar touched Esselles, his muscled all locked up and he could feel a pull on his life force. He expected Malicar to rip his life force from him. Instead, Malicar coughed and slumped forward. His eyes registered surprise, then defiance, and then intense concentration. Black magical tendrils licked at the edge of his wound and then his eyes went lifeless.

  “Are you equipped for steel?” Kyell asked as he pulled his sword back out of Malicar’s body letting it crumple to the stairwell. It rolled down the stairs and continued to tumble past Esselles.

  “Kyell?” was all Esselles could manage in his shock and his tenseness from the various magical attacks he had suffered.

  “You are not the only one with magical protections, my friend,” he said, wiping his sword off on his cloak. “Three years ago I saved the life of one of the masters from Balderon’s school. He rewarded me with this.” He lifted the edge of his cloak to reveal a red and gold broach. “Not as flashy as yours, but more than enough to absorb his energy blasts.”