CHAPTER 20
With the barrier so thin, Kilos summoned two dozen imps at once. Jez, having limited training in summoning, called six. The small creatures had patchwork hides of many different colors. No two looked the same, and their ears were as big as the rest of their bodies put together. They smelled like cattle after a hot summer day. While not directly dangerous, imps had a tendency to disrupt standing workings. It would wreak havoc on Sharim.
Both Jez and Kilos performed their summoning twice before unleashing the imps into the city. Then Jez, Liandra, and Grania tried to sink into the earth with the others, but it resisted their efforts. It was as though it was made of ice or some other material that was unaffected by terra magic. Jez sighed and shook his head. A closer examination revealed a ward woven into the earth itself.
“Sharim must’ve found the hole in the detection ward. He’s shielded the ground.”
Ziary drew his sword, and flames danced up and down the blade. “Well, there’s always the direct approach.”
Jez turned to Urin. “Is everyone well enough to fight?”
“They could do with a week’s rest,” the former Lifebringer said.
“That tends to be the way in war,” Horgar said. “Haziel’s forces are attacking. That might be distraction enough for us to fight our way through, especially if the imps cause as much chaos as you hope.”
Jez nodded to Grania and Ziary. Ziary smiled. “Just like last time.”
Jez suppressed a grin as they threw open the door to the city. Horgar took the form of a long-toothed cat and bounded through it, followed by Jez. He ran into the streets, prepared to meet whatever attack came and stopped in his tracks when he found nothing. The streets were empty aside from the occasional imp that ran from building to building. Many of the structures had been damaged, and clawed footprints littered the streets, but there was no sign of demons. Ziary looked at him in confusion.
“Smell anything?”
Jez took a deep breath. The smell of sulfur was there, but it was faint, more like a memory than an actual odor. They were nearest to the west wall, and the small group headed in that direction, finding no sign that the demons were still in the city. Even the walls themselves were unguarded. Jez and Ziary exchanged glances.
“The eastern wall,” Ziary said. “That’s where Haziel’s forces were attacking from.”
Jez nodded and they headed in that direction. It wasn’t long before a pair of former Shadeslayers drifted out of the sky. They inclined their heads to Jez.
“Manakel sends his compliments. He does not know how you did it, but the entire city is empty, aside from a few imps.”
Jez blinked at him. “How? When?”
The afur stared at him for a second. “Not half an hour ago. The demons on the walls simply retreated. We assumed you were responsible.”
Jez shrugged. “I wish I was. I mean we did the imps, but the rest?” He shook his head. “Take us to the rest of the army.”
As one, the former Shadeslayers nodded. One took to the air and flew just ahead of them while the other led them by foot. Despite the city being empty, no one put away their weapons. It only took them a few minutes to encounter the outer perimeter of the defenses Istar had set up once they’d come into the city. It only spanned a few blocks, and soldiers, mages, and beast men were stationed at every street corner. The constant sound of soldiers on the march filled the area. The flaming sword banner of King Haziel flew over what must’ve once been an inn, and Jez headed inside. The rulers, along with the Academy masters and the high lords, were in the common room, though maps and other documents covered every table. They looked up when he entered, but the queen’s smile faded when she saw the look on his face.
“I take it this wasn’t your doing, Baron.”
Jez shook his head. “We tried to escape through the earth but it was warded, so we came out here, hoping to fight our way free and found...” He spread his arms.
“We should move to the keep,” Haziel said. “Whatever is going on, we’ll be better able to handle it if we can meet it from a position of strength.”
“Unless it’s a trap,” Jez said.
The king gave him a slight shake of his head. “Jezreel, not every coincidence is a trap set by Sharim.”
“A vanishing demon army is more than a coincidence. I’m not even sure how something like this could be done. Sariel?”
The lord of protection shook his head. “A circle banishing, perhaps, but I do not believe such a thing could be accomplished without us knowing. More to the point, it would take a powerful contingent to craft a circle that strong, and it would almost certainly require you and Besis or even myself. It perhaps could have been done by Sharim’s forces, but then why would he do such a thing?”
“Have you seen any active circles since you got into the city?” Jez asked.
Sariel shook his head. “I will admit that surprised me. I had thought them fairly common, but we have not run into any.”
“They were every few blocks,” Jez said.
Sariel nodded and turned to a pair of afur. The two inclined their heads, opened the door, and leaped into the air so fast that their takeoff threw a cloud of dust into the inn. They came back less than a minute later. One of them, a former Lightgiver, shook his head.
“I believe I can see where the circles were, but they are gone now. I cannot say how it was done.”
For a moment, there was silence in the inn aside from the crackling fire that been lit in the hearth.
“Jez, what if Sharim figured it out?” asked Ziary.
“Figured what out?”
“How to take his army Between. He could be striking anywhere right now.”
Jez thought about that for a second before shaking his head. “Even if he had, I don’t think he would’ve taken everyone.”
The king stiffened. “Maybe he fled rather than risk facing us.”
Again, Jez shook his head. “We were outnumbered and attacking a fortified position. He held the throne room, so we can’t even access the full power of the royal magic. Even if we could, though, it wouldn’t make sense. He had every advantage.”
“Haziel does have a point, though,” Ziary said. “While we’re figuring this out, we should at least try to take the Keep.”
Sariel nodded. “If we advance slowly, we should be able to mitigate the damage any of Andera’s traps do.”
Jez turned and looked out of a nearby window. The imposing walls of the keep stood at the end of the road, gray stone reaching thirty feet tall. He nodded, and in short order, the proper commands had been given and the army started its slow advance toward what had once been the center of power of Ashtar. Jez just wished he could shake the feeling that they were walking into a trap.
CHAPTER 21
As they walked, Jez kept half expecting demons to jump out of the shadows and attack. While there were demons that could do that, the march through the city retained its uneasy silence. He obviously wasn’t the only one who felt that way. The afur walked with their weapons bared. The beast men were constantly ready to pounce, and more than once, a mage launched a working at a rattling caused by a gust of wind.
The army was so large that they moved through several streets at the same time. Both beast men and former Beastwalkers afur darted in and out of the streets ahead of them. They moved at R’Viridi’s command, with Galine having chosen to remain outside the city. Jez joined them at first, but aside from wrecked buildings and footprints scattered throughout the city, they never found any sign that demons had ever been here.
“Do you have any idea?” Jez asked Manakel as the lord of destruction came up next to him.
“It has the feel of a trap, but what would the end be? At first, I worried that Andera was trying to trap us within the walls, but now that we are prepared, anything he does will be of limited effectiveness. You should still be ready to flee through Between, if it comes to that.”
“The ward?”
Jez concentrated, but Manak
el was already shaking his head. “It fell the moment the attacks from the wall stop.”
“We thought Gayel had changed it to allow the summoning,” Lina said in a half whisper.
Manakel shook his head. “It was none of his doing, and I do not see how Andera could be responsible. If you are setting a trap, you do not leave such an obvious escape route.”
“Unless that’s part of the trap too,” Jez said.
“That is doubtful,” Manakel said. “It would be a convoluted plan, far less effective than simply attacking us would be.”
The walls of the keep grounds loomed before them. In the empty city, it seemed even more ominous than normal. Years ago, in the world of dreams, the demon lord Marrowit had made his home in a place that looked very much like this. Though none of his senses detected anything, Jez couldn’t help but feel like he was walking into a place just as evil. He turned to the high lords. Each, in turn, shook their heads.
“There is no illusion hiding any workings,” Daziel said.
Jez shook his head. “This is too easy.”
“You may be right,” Manakel said as he looked the gate to the grounds up and down. “Perhaps it is time for a different approach.”
“What do you mean?” Jez asked.
“You tried to cut off Randak from Between, and Andera was ready for you. When you took us through there to reach here, he had an army of memory shadows waiting. Then, he scattered us. Even when we gathered together to attack, he was ready. When you snuck into the city, he kept you from escaping. You have always been clever, and he has responded in kind. It may be time for an approach that is more brute force than subtlety.”
Jez eyed the wall before him. Rather than discussing the ideas with those with him, he reached into the wall and pushed with every ounce of power he could muster. There was a sound like thunder as cracks spread through the stone. Magic had been worked into these walls as well, but either the years had weakened them or Sharim had. There was a slight pushback from the wall but whatever working had been set to guard it was insufficient to stand against the sheer brute strength that Jez threw at it. A twenty-foot section of wall shattered and fell to the ground, revealing the empty courtyard beyond. Sariel’s glare went from Manakel to Jez and back again. Jez ignored him and nodded to R’Virdi.
The beast mage inclined his head and motioned with one hand. Half a dozen mages shimmered and became great cats and wolves and other creatures capable of moving with speed. They leaped over the rubble that had once been the wall and spread out into the courtyard, darting about and checking every inch. Hardly a minute had passed before they returned to R’Virdi, who turned to Jez.
“It’s clear.”
Jez nodded to Manakel. “Good idea. I’m not sure what, but there was something. It’s been disabled.”
Manakel inclined his head. “When you are out of options, the only thing left is to attack.”
“We were hardly out of options,” Sariel said. “That could have been disastrous if a more powerful trap had been laid on it.”
“A more powerful trap would not have escaped detection.” Manakel returned his attention to Jez. “Lead the way.”
Jez gestured and the rubble parted, creating a path. He stepped into the courtyard and cast his mystical senses outward, but he found nothing. Tools for tending the grounds or seeing to the stables lay scattered about, though none had so much as a spot of rust. Off to one side, a mug sat on its side with what little remained of the brown liquid inside. It was as if the people here had simply vanished, dropping whatever they had been holding. It made the keep seem more like a home to ghosts than men.
He walked to the main gate, intending to allow the rest of the army easier access. It wasn’t even barred. Normally it took two men to open the massive door, but with metal bands strewn throughout the wood, it was a simple matter to use them to achieve his ends. The door swung open on silent hinges and soldiers streamed into the courtyard. Besis examined the hole Jez had made in the wall for several minutes before walking over to Jez.
“Sharim hid something in the wall, but Rumar has all sorts of workings woven through it. Most are subtle and nearly impossible to detect.”
“As was intended,” Daziel said.
Besis inclined his head. “Still there was enough for Sharim to hide it in their shadow. When you broke through, you exposed his working, and it shriveled.”
“What did it do?” Jez asked.
Besis shrugged. “It’s hard to say. It’s been damaged badly. I think it might have been some sort of detection ward, but I caught a hint of something else.”
“If it was just detection, I probably alerted everyone within a mile when I tore down the wall anyway. It if it was summoning...” He considered for a second. “R’Viridi, send flyers over the city. Tell them to look for any sign of the demons returning.”
“I doubt that is what it was for,” Sariel said. “I have not detected any of their kind.”
“Can you get anything more from the ward?” Jez asked.
Sariel shook his head. “I tried as we came through. It seems this ward was built to destroy itself if it were ever pierced, but your destruction of the wall was so sudden that it overwhelmed it. If not for that, we would not have been able to find it.”
Jez looked at the rubble. Most of it had been broken down so far that it was as much dust as anything else. Whatever magic it had held had dissipated when he destroyed it.
“Can we repair that?” Jez asked. “I’d rather have it intact in case we need it.”
“Perhaps you should have considered that before you broke it down,” Sariel said.
Jez rolled his eyes and turned to Besis. The protection master eyed Sariel, though he was obviously hesitant to even appear to contradict the pharim lord.
“It shouldn’t be too much trouble. A lot of the dust has blown away, but we can use those to make up the difference.” He gestured at a small guard house and a wide stone path that wound through the grounds. “Give us perhaps a quarter hour.”
Haziel let out a low whistle. “A quarter hour to repair something that should take days if not weeks. Do you have any idea what we could do if more powerful mages joined the army?”
“Yes,” Balud said as he stepped closer. “Can you imagine what would happen if your enemies raised mages of their own to guard against you, Haziel?” The king’s nostrils flared at the omission of a title, but the chancellor went on. “Right now, your kingdom buckles under the weight of this conflict, and we haven’t even had a direct confrontation. Why do you think only the weakest join your forces? Why do you think no one else has anything more than that? A full conflict of mages would leave nothing but ruin in its wake.”
Haziel started to speak, but Istar put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head.
“It was only idle speculation, Chancellor,” she said. “I, for one, have no desire to see a conflict on that level, but what of the keep itself. Did Sharim leave traps?”
“Almost definitely,” Jez said.
He walked to the large door that led to the receiving room of Rumar Keep. He extended his senses, and not surprisingly, he found nothing. He placed a hand on the stone doorway to open it when the wooden door swung outward. Jez backed up, instantly dawning Luntayary’s form. Istar’s sword was already in her hand. Ziary shrouded his arms in flames, and a thousand soldiers drew steel.
A single figure stood in the doorway. Her yellow robes almost seemed golden and matched her hair which flowed halfway down her back. Wings, seeming to be made of light, illuminated the empty hall behind her. It took Jez’s eyes a second to adjust to the brightness, but he didn’t need to see her face to know the emotionless gaze of the one who had once trapped him in the abyss.
“Mirel.”
Ziary’s sword hissed as it cut through the air. Mirel caught it on her own blade, but she was no warrior, and his next attack cut into her side. She lifted her hand, but a surge of protection magic from Sariel disrupted whatever working she was crafting.
Ziary withdrew his sword, and she doubled over in pain. He was about to strike again when a blade, seeming to be no more substantial than a beam of sunlight, knocked his sword from his hand. Gayel, high lord of knowledge and master of the Lightgivers, stepped between Mirel and Ziary. He held his sword low, not threatening but not putting it away either. For a second everyone just stared.
“What are you doing?” Ziary asked. “Do you know who that is?”
“I know what you have told me about her. More to the point, I know what she is and what she was. I will not permit you to destroy her.”
“My lord...”
Mirel’s voice had a musical quality that persisted even as she coughed up motes of golden light. The wound Ziary had given her also bled, creating a pool of glowing light all around her. She fell to her knees, her robes passing through her blood without being touched by it.
“Aphlel, if you would,” Gayel said.
“Of course.”
The lord of healing knelt next to the downed afur, and an orange light surrounded them both. Mirel must have been near death, because it took over a minute for the healing magic to restore her. Gayel never took his eyes off Ziary until Aphlel stood and Mirel started to rise. In the blink of an eye, he had turned and pressed his sword against Mirel’s throat.
“Do not move, traitor. I may have stopped them from destroying you, but do not confuse that with mercy. By the time I am done, you will tell me all.”
CHAPTER 22
Leziel withdrew his hand from Mirel’s forehead and nodded. Mirel slumped slightly as he pulled away, though she straightened as Gayel put pressure on her neck with his sword.
“Andera has placed powerful wards on her mind,” Leziel said, “and I am not sure I could break through without damaging her. I was able to see that she knows of no traps nor other inhabitants in the keep itself.”
“Are you sure?” Jez asked. “I mean if you can’t see all of her mind, couldn’t she just be making you think that?”
Leziel shook his head. “She is able to obscure what she knows, but she is not able to hide the fact that she is obscuring. With regards to the keep, I got everything she knows.”
Shadeslayer (Pharim War Book 7) Page 9
