“I'm sorry. I thought they were demons.”
“Don't fire unless they attack first, or if I give a command.”
The mage nodded, his words tripping over each other as he assured Jez it wouldn't happen again. Jez turned to Welb. The afur's golden eyes were locked on the mage, and a low growl escaped his throat.
“Welb.” Jez tried to put authority into his voice, though he wasn't sure how well he succeeded.
Welb blinked, and slowly, the sense of threat drained out of him. The beast men with him calmed down a little, though they still exuded a sense of barely controlled violence. It happened so fast that Jez wondered if some emotional working was responsible. That didn’t really matter now, though.
“How many?” Jez asked.
“We banished at least a hundred of them.” There was no boasting in Welb’s voice. That was a thing of humans, and he had put aside humanity long ago. What he said now was a simple statement of fact, but the wild look in his eyes said he had taken pleasure in the hunt.
“Do you think there are any more?” Jez asked.
Welb shook his head. “We have found no demons for the past quarter hour. A number of people were heading for the west dining hall, and I sent any there who could not fight.”
“That’s as good a place as any to regroup,” Jez said.
They headed in that direction, though they moved slowly. Beast men darted ahead, making sure they didn’t run into any ambushes, and they moved through most of the keep without incident. It wasn’t long before they turned a corner and encountered half a dozen soldiers marching down a hall. They were a ragged bunch, and some had rips in their clothes or armor, but as one, they smiled when they saw Jez. The head of the squad saluted.
“Baron, I am glad to see you well. We have secured most of the western wing of the keep. General Osmund says he doesn’t think there are any more left in the building, but he ordered us to move slowly to avoid any surprises.”
“General?” Jez asked.
The soldier looked a little embarrassed. “He’s a destruction mage and your close advisor. We weren’t really sure of the proper title.”
Jez shrugged. “I guess that fits as well as anything.” He grinned. “Is Countess Lina in the dining hall too?”
The man paled. “Baron...I mean...It’s not...”
Jez waved him off, feeling a little guilty for having fun at his expense. “Don’t worry. I know I can’t actually make someone a countess.”
“No, Baron, that’s not what I mean. Lord Gayel and Leziel came in a little while ago. According to them, their group was attacked. The demons seized Enki. Lady Lina went invisible as Gayel tried to recover the prisoner. Lina didn’t reappear when the demons escaped. She hasn’t come in yet. No one knows where she is.”
It took Jez a second for the words to register. Throwing caution to the wind, he shed his human form and flew to the western dining hall, moving through the passages with far greater skill and dexterity than he had ever flown with before. Osmund greeted him as soon as he had entered and landed. The king and queen saw him and headed in his direction, as did Sariel and some of the masters, but Jez didn’t wait for them.
“Is she back yet?”
“Not yet, but—”
Jez turned and was about to fly away when a strong hand gripped his arm and held him down. He looked over his shoulder to see Sariel, who had apparently crossed the whole of the dining hall in the space of a few breaths.
“Let me go.”
“Jezreel, think of what you are doing.”
“I know what I’m doing,” Jez said. “Lina is out there.”
“Jez, she’s not exactly helpless,” Osmund said.
He glared at Sariel before turning his attention to Osmund. “No, she’s just out there in a keep full of demons with hardly an ounce of combat magic to her name.”
Osmund raised an eyebrow. “Remember when she practically fought off a demon horde on her own? Calm down. Think for a second.”
“Our perimeter is expanding, Jezreel,” Sariel said. “We will find her, and we will recapture Enki, but you cannot go out there.”
Jez glared at the pharim lord. “Why not?”
“Because Andera has not made a move that is a more obvious trap than this one.”
That brought Jez up short. “You think he captured her as bait?”
Sariel nodded. “If she has indeed been caught, and that is not certain, what other use do you imagine Andera would put to her?”
Jez shook his head. “That still leaves her as a prisoner for Sharim. Let me go.”
He tried to pull away, but Sariel’s grip remained firm.
“Jezreel—”
“Let me go or stop pretending you care about mortal interference.”
Sariel pulled back as if he’d been burned. Besis and Istar cried out after him as he leaped into the air and rushed back into the hall he’d just come from. He hadn’t reached the end of the passage before Ziary caught up, effortlessly matching his speed.
“You know this is a terrible idea, right?”
“Don’t try to stop me.”
“Jez, you always have terrible ideas. That hasn’t stopped me from being there. That’s not about to change now, but you do realize Lina will be mad at both of us if you get us killed, right?”
CHAPTER 25
Jez had no way to tell where Lina was, but he held on to one slim hope. Over a year before, he had crafted a working intended to take himself and several others into Between to seek out the Library of Zandra. Though he hadn’t realized it at the time, the traitor afur Enki, in the guise of Mirel, had obscured the presence of those around him, causing many of them to slip through Jez’s grasp. She had intended for Jez to go Between without the aid of his friends, but due to a bond formed by years of friendship and struggle, by instinct, Jez had reached out to Osmund and Lina and brought them with him. He trusted that same instinct now, turning down corridors without giving a thought to where he was going. He wasn’t sure he had ever moved so fast. The halls passed in a blur. Even Ziary, who had a mastery of wind that Jez could only dream of, fell behind. After what felt like an eternity, but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, he landed in a long hall. He threw his hands forward, and the stone door frame around a heavy wooden door twisted until the wood began to crack. Ziary landed next to him a second later.
“She’s in there?” Ziary asked.
Jez nodded. “I think so.”
Ziary sighed. “Well, this doesn’t feel like a trap at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“Jez, these were Lina’s quarters last time we were here.”
Jez blinked and looked around. He hadn’t realized where he’d been going. Osmund was right. They’d landed in a wide hall with ornate doors. Tattered remains of tapestries hung from the wall. It was a place meant to house only the most esteemed guests. He and Sharim, before his true nature had been revealed, had snuck into these very quarters, trying to learn who had been summoning demons into the keep.
“Maybe she knew we’d come here.”
Ziary shook his head. “If she could get here, why didn’t she just come to the dining hall like everyone else?”
Jez didn’t bother to answer and sent a surge of power into the door. Lina was on the other side. He knew it. The wood collapsed into splinters as the stone frame around it twisted. Jez didn’t even wait for the dust to settle before he stepped into the room. He was surprised to find it empty. Even the ornate furniture that had been here when it was Lina’s quarters had been removed. For a moment, his eyes flitted to the ceiling. He could just make out the discolored stone where he’d made, and then repaired, a hole.
Ziary stepped up next to him. “Jez, there’s no one here. Look at the dust.”
Jez blinked. He hadn’t even noticed it, but a thick carpet of dust covered the floor. He could see his own footprints where he had stepped, but there was no sign of Lina. He let out a breath.
“You’re right.”
/> “Jez?” The voice was weak, hardly even a whisper. He looked around, but still, there was nothing. Then, the air shimmered, and other footprints appeared in the dust. Lina materialized, sitting in a corner. Her robes had been ripped in several places and were spotted with dried blood. She held one arm close to her chest and was breathing heavily. She smiled. “I knew you would come.”
“Lina, what happened?”
She coughed and winced as the motion disturbed her injured arm. “It was a chezamut. It wasn’t even attacking me. It was going for Gayel. It came up from behind me, but I didn’t see it. I never knew they could be so silent. It crashed into me, and then its claws...” She shivered at her arm. They had claws on their feet too, though Jez had never seen them use those. “Gayel summoned a bunch of shadow creatures, and they attacked the demons.”
“Why didn’t you show yourself once the demons were dealt with?” Jez asked.
Tears mingled with blood as they ran down her cheek. “I’d been hit in the head. I was disoriented.” She let out a laugh that turned into a cough. Jez rushed to her side, and she gave him another smile. “It’s funny. If I hadn’t been so good at holding that illusion, it would’ve fallen and Gayel and the others would’ve found me.”
“How bad are you hurt?”
“It looks worse than it is.” She started to rise, but settled back down into a sitting position after a second and took several deep breaths. “Or maybe not.”
Jez put an arm around her and helped her up, but almost immediately, Ziary was by their side.
“I’ll help her. You’re better at dealing with demons.”
Jez nodded and summoned his sword. It had been a while since they’d run into any enemies, but as Jez took a deep breath, he caught a faint scent of sulfur, and he kept his eyes and ears open as well as sending his awareness into the stone. They crept through the halls slowly searching with every sense they had. At one point, they turned a corner to see an imp clawing at the ground. It saw Jez and dashed down the hall before Jez had a chance to hurl the working he’d crafted by instinct. He almost laughed as he let the magic dissipate, but then, there was a flash of blue where it had been clawing, and a chezamut appeared. Jez reacted without thinking, cutting down the demon. A sneaking suspicion began creeping up on him, but before he could examine the spot where it had appeared, Ziary screamed.
Jez spun, holding his sword ready. Lina had backed up from Ziary, injured though obviously not as bad as she had seemed. Ziary was on the ground, spasming. A creature that seemed to be all legs and shadows sat on his face, prying open his mouth. He tried to grab it, but it passed through his fingers. Jez jumped at his friend, splaying his fingers and dragging them from his forehead to his heart. The lothine hadn’t had a chance to fully possess its victim when Jez ripped it out. Ziary fell to his hands and knees, coughing.
“Lina...” he said.
Jez turned to see Lina’s hand, shrouded in shadows and heading for his face. Her eyes had become pure black, and even the whites had vanished. He cried out and fell back. Her hand passed right through the space his head had been in. The lothine she had been holding jumped at Jez and was mere inches from his face when a ball of fire engulfed it. The creature squealed before being consumed entirely. Jez rolled to his feet and pointed his sword at Lina.
“Lina, what are you doing?”
As soon as the question had left his lips, Jez realized the answer. The lothine lacked the ability of their more fearsome looking cousins, the lotheen, to transform their host, but they had the arguably more terrifying ability of knowing their host’s thoughts and being able to impersonate them. Even worse, when they possessed a mage, the gained full access to that mage’s power.
Jez waved a hand, and the stone at Lina’s feet turned to mud just long enough for her to sink a few inches into the ground. He turned the mud back into stone, trapping her. He took a careful step forward as she growled at them.
“Don’t worry,” Jez said. “We’ll get you out of there.”
He splayed his fingers and was about to touch her forehead when a feeling of cold washed over him. Something with many legs scurried up his leg. He cried out and jumped back, weaving a ward against illusions. The lothine appeared on his arm. In the next instant, Ziary’s burning blade had swept it aside. Jez looked up and shot a wave of energy at Lina, one meant to interfere with possession. It hit her, and she twitched, but it only lasted a second.
“Oh, that can’t be good,” Jez said.
“What is it?” Ziary asked.
Jez rushed forward, keeping his ward against illusion up. Something prickled against his protection sense. The ground near Lina rippled. A pair of lothine broke out of the stone and crawled up to her shoulders, but a blast of wind from Ziary blew them off and slammed them into the wall behind her. Jez reached Lina and splayed his fingers again. He dragged them from her forehead to her chest. She winced as a lothine fell to the floor. Jez dispatched it with his sword, only then noticing that when the demons had come out of the ground, they had cracked the stone at Lina’s feet. She slammed her fist into the side of his face. It wasn’t a hard blow, but by the time he looked up, she had retreated to the edge of the passage. As soon as she had reached the limits of his ward, she vanished.
“Why did she do that?” Ziary asked. “I thought you freed her of the possession.”
“One,” Jez said. The word tasted fowl and he stared at the passage down which Lina had disappeared.
Ziary blinked. “What do you mean?”
“I freed her of one demon possessing her.”
Ziary gaped. “You mean she has more than one of those things inside of her?” Jez could only nod. “How many?”
“A lot,” Jez said. “A whole lot.”
“Is that how she was summoning them? Just taking them out of herself?”
A chill ran down Jez’s spine, and he knelt to examine the spot the imp had damaged. “By the seven.”
“What?”
“She wasn’t summoning them. She was calling them out of the earth.”
“I didn’t know lothine came out of the earth.”
“They don’t.” Jez felt like his blood had turned to ice. “Not unless they’d been hidden there.” Jez flew back toward the dining hall, calling out as he sailed down the hall. “That’s why the ground was warded. The imp must have disturbed it. Lina knew we would realize what it meant and tried to stop us from telling anyone.”
“Jez,” Ziary said after he had caught up. “What are you talking about?”
“The reason Sharim didn’t do anything to stop us from leaving the city was because he knew we wouldn’t, but he wanted to keep us out of the earth. He hid his entire army there.” The ground shook and the blood drained from Jez’s face. “And it’s coming out now.”
CHAPTER 26
Between one flap of his wings and another, a horde of demons materialized in the passage. Most were chezamuts, but about one in three were some other kind, most of which Jez didn’t know. There would be no flying over the demons this time. The ceiling was too low, and too many were large enough to reach him. Too many had wings.
Jez and Ziary waded through the demons, storms of violence. Demons turned to ash or went up in a burst of flames as they were cut down. That wasn’t to say that Jez and Ziary didn’t get injured. More than once, a demon’s blade or claw got through their defenses. In some cases, their wounds burned with demonic poison, but neither allowed himself to slow. Jez lost himself in the battle. There was only the blade and his enemies. The passages were narrow enough that only a few demons could come at them at once. Under such conditions, the pair could have fought through two dozen of the creatures, but there were many more than that. Still, inch by inch, they made their way through the passage.
The dining hall was in chaos. Afur fought demons, and men and beast men fought them both. Limaphs fought with mystical blades or inhuman strength or skill. The heat of dozens of destructive workings made the air shimmer, and roars, both demonic and be
stial, sounded over the din of battle. Near the center of the room, a group of former Shadowguards flung workings intended to disrupt possessions while Beastwalker afur stood guard and prevented any demons or possessed soldiers from coming too close. A second later, Manakel was next to Jez, his massive flaming blade having cut a wide swath through the attackers. Jez’s eyes went wide at the sight of a bone spike that had been driven into his stomach. The pharim lord followed Jez’s gaze, and then gave him a look that said he couldn’t be bothered to be hampered by the wound.
“We must retreat. We cannot fight Andera’s forces and the possessed soldiers from our own army.”
“Where?” Jez asked as he dispatched a pair of lion demons with a wide slash. “The entire keep is like this. Maybe the entire city.”
Manakel threw his hand forward, releasing a ball of fire that incinerated every demon in front of him for twenty feet. A serpent demon spit a jet of acid that sizzled against his wings. The fact that they were made of fire seemed not to matter at all, as the acid left a blackened wound. Before either Jez or Manakel could react, a Shadowguard afur cut the attacking demon down.
“Up,” the lord of destruction said. “If they were hidden in the earth, they won’t have reached the second level in such numbers.”
Jez nodded and threw his power upward. The stone ceiling cracked, and rocks tumbled down. He tried to direct them so that they only hit demons, but there were too many, and even with the aid of a couple of the Shadowguard afur, who noticed what he was doing, some of his soldiers went down under the hail of stone.
Shadeslayer (Pharim War Book 7) Page 11
