The Lost Duke

by Kristen Gupton

As the cathedral emptied, the demon lowered her head and bowed forward before starting to charge. She only managed a few steps before an unseen force stopped her and knocked her back onto the ground.

  Randall closed his eyes both in relief and fear. “A demon.”

  Thana moved closer to the priest’s back, whispering. “She didn’t care about the people who ran past her. Should we go? Maybe she just wants something in the building.”

  The old priest shook his head and drew a long breath. “Or maybe she’s after one of us.”

  Thana felt a jolt of fear. “Could it be the same one that Peirte summoned to attack Keir?”

  “Very possible,” he said. “I’ve suspected the smaller ones we’ve seen lately could have been related to that madman’s past activities, so it would stand to reason.”

  “Why can’t it come inside?” Corina asked, placing a hand on the priest’s shoulder.

  “I hate to admit it, but I invoked a bit of magic into this cathedral after realizing we had an infestation of the smaller demons. I thought having a sanctuary, in case the infestation grew, would benefit the people. It’s similar to the spell I used the night we told Keiran about his mother, though this one only excludes demons.” He glanced back over his shoulder. “She can’t come in unless she manages to overcome the spell.”

  “Can she do that?” Thana asked.

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  The demon picked herself up off the ground and looked around, examining the doorway carefully. She reached out with a clawed hand and stepped forward, trying to see what had thrown her back.

  “How do we find out what it wants?” the younger woman asked, feeling a cold sweat prickling across her skin.

  “I don’t know,” Randall replied, lowering his arms back to his sides.

  “Do you think it’s after me?” Thana asked, quickly tucking the vial Randall had given her into the bag hanging from her belt.

  “If it’s the same one Keiran faced down, it is entirely possible,” Father Beezle took several steps forward. “As long as the magic holds, we’re safe in here.”

  The guards who’d accompanied Thana’s carriage to the cathedral appeared on the steps behind the demon, weapons drawn. They had no idea what the woman was, only that most of the people nearby had fled in a hurry after her appearance. They’d seen her neutralize the two church sentries, but felt they had an advantage with the size of their group.

  “Woman! Come away from the doors!”

  The demon spun around and looked at the six men standing behind her. She leaned forward and opened her mouth impossibly wide, showing off her needle-like teeth and giving out a resounding shriek.

  The guards advanced up the stairs, not put off by her inhuman display. The six of them came up the steps together, fanning out to block her from running away.

  The demon neither seemed worried about them nor deterred from her attempts to get into the cathedral. She turned toward the doors and reached out with her hands, testing the magic keeping her outside.

  The guards formed a semi-circle around her, and the one who’d given the order before spoke again. “Come with us or risk being killed.”

  She let out a huffing groan of annoyance before spinning to face the men. “Go away, I only seek Thana.”

  Father Beezle reached back and took the women by their hands and jogged away from the altar while the demon was distracted. He led them down a corridor and back toward his small office, ushering them inside and locking the door.

  “Isn’t there another way out of here?” Thana asked.

  The old man looked over at her before going and using all of his strength to begin pushing his heavy desk across the room toward the door. “If she’s a demon, running won’t stop her from coming after you. The magic I put on this building is the only thing that can shield you from her. If she breaks through that barrier, none of your guards will be able to stop her.”

  Back before the doors to the cathedral, the guards had engaged the demon, but she was dispatching them as easily as she’d taken care of the two sentries earlier. One of the guards was thrown, sailing through the open doors of the cathedral and smashing through a pew.

  By the time he gathered himself up and stood, the demon was again focused on the doorway. The other guards were all dead and no longer bothering her. He stood and stared back at her before turning and looking around the inside of the cathedral, wanting to know where the queen had gone.

  Corina and Thana had helped Father Beezle move his desk before the door, finally getting it into place with considerable effort. With the noise of it scraping across the floor over, they could hear someone in the corridor outside calling for Thana.

  “It’s one of the guards,” Thana said. “We’re in here!”

  “Are you all right?” the guard asked from the other side of the door.

  “Aye, Corina and Father Beezle are inside with me. We’re all fine.”

  “Good. I’ll keep watch. If she leaves or others are able to get in, I’ll tell you,” he said.

  “Thank you. Did the other guards come inside with you?” Thana asked.

  There was a waver in his voice when he responded. “No, she killed them.”

  Thana gasped before turning to face Corina and Father Beezle. “I shouldn’t have left the castle.”

  “If you hadn’t and she’d found you, you’d already be dead,” Randall said. “The only reason she can’t reach you is the spell on this building.”

  “There has to be a way to fight her!” Thana balled up her fist at her side. “Keiran survived her attack!”

  “Aye, he did, but as he told us later, it was Athan who stopped her. She didn’t cease her advance until he ripped off her head, and had Peirte not been killed, she would have reformed and come after Keiran again,” Corina said, shaking her head.

  “But Peirte is dead, right?” Thana asked, eyes switching between the two of them.

  “Aye, he’s most certainly gone. All the demons under his control were cut free once he died. That’s why the little ones have been cropping up,” Father Beezle said. “But for her to be going after you specifically like this, someone had to give her the order.”

  “Who would do such a thing?” Thana asked, on the verge of tears. “What could I have possibly done to spur someone into sending a damned demon after me?”

  Corina wrung her hands together, shaking her head. “Sorna.”

  Father Beezle sighed and looked at the older woman. “Do you truly think she could have sunk to that sort of low? She did come to see me after leaving the castle a few times. She wanted to discuss God’s punishment for not keeping Thana away from Keiran.”

  “She did?” Thana asked, not entirely surprised.

  “Aye.”

  “What did you say to her?” Thana pried further.

  “I told her that the development of the relationship between you and Keiran had nothing to do with her, and God doesn’t fault people for falling in love. Even if you had done something morally wrong, like murder someone, God wouldn’t hold her accountable.” He shrugged. “But Sorna… she seems to turn everything back onto herself. She doesn’t look any further than that. Ordering a demon to come after you, though, that’s assured damnation.”

  “The older Thana grew, the more Sorna slipped,” Corina added. “I can’t think of anyone else who would wish harm on Thana.”

  “Can she honestly hate Keiran so much that she would wish me dead rather than let me live my life with him?” Thana asked.

  “I don’t know. I stopped understanding Sorna a long time ago,” Corina said.

  Father Beezle wandered away from the two women and to his bookcase. He crouched down and found what he wanted, pulling out a massive volume and coming over to set it on the relocated desk. He began to flip through the pages, searching.

  Thana and Corina fell silent and moved to flank him, looking down at the pages. The book was very old, and Corina couldn’t understand what was written in it, but Thana was able to read it
without any trouble.

  He finally settled on a page and read it before straightening up and pulling off his small spectacles. “I fear I know what we’re dealing with if it is the same demon.”

  Thana stooped down and read the page he’d stopped on. “This… this is real?”

  “Aye,” he said. “If this was the demon originally summoned by Peirte to follow his instructions as it did, then it is a familiar.”

  “Like what witches keep as pets?” Corina asked, squinting down at the book, though it didn’t make it anymore legible to her.

  “That’s legend. I’m afraid the average witch out practicing herbal medicine in the forest hasn’t the power to contain something like this creature,” he replied. “True familiars are very powerful and very dangerous. They aren’t pets in any sense of the word. They’re notorious for overpowering their masters and killing them.”

  “I don’t care how deranged my mother has become, she’s hardly capable of summoning demons!” Thana said, turning away from the book.

  “But they don’t always need to be summoned,” Randall replied. “When they aren’t being kept in use by someone, they wander free. If they feel threatened, they will attack, but they are always willing to negotiate with their intended victims to go after other targets. Sadly, once that’s done, they inevitably go back to the original victim and kill them anyway.”

  “Whether she summoned it or not, she had to specifically order it to come after me?” Thana asked, knitting her brow.

  “Aye, she would have needed to provide it with a name, I’m afraid,” Father Beezle said.

  Thana moved away from the other two, her left hand tensed up. The way her mother had confronted them the day they were wed and her absence ever since gave the young woman no reason to believe Sorna had come to terms with her relationship with Keiran.

  “But we can’t know that for certain.” Corina felt the need to backpedal. “There very well could be someone else out there with some sort of grievance other than Sorna.”

  Thana shook her head and closed her eyes. She hated to think her mother would have sunk to such a low, but it made too much sense. “No, Corina, I think your first instinct on this might just be right, sadly. I suppose we won’t know until we ask her ourselves, assuming this thing doesn’t kill her before we get the chance. However, I guess that would also provide an answer.”

  “How do we get to her to find out with that monster outside?” Corina asked.

  Randall locked gazes with Corina. “If that demon is after Thana, then it wouldn’t care if you left this building to find out.”

  “I will not leave Thana in the midst of this!” Corina protested. “We should send the guard outside the door.”

  Thana quickly rushed back over and sat on the desk, knocking on the door from the inside. “Guard? Are you still there?”

  “Aye.”

  “I need you to listen very carefully. You must find my mother, Sorna Leoram, and bring her back to this cathedral as quickly as possible. Go out through one of the rear exits of the building and then bring her once you find her,” she said loudly, wanting him to understand clearly.

  “I can do that. Where is she?”

  “On my uncle’s farm. It’s very easy to get to from here,” Thana said, then giving him the directions.

  * * *

  Keiran and the others had made it out of the tunnel and into the outbuilding behind the manor house. Peeking out the door, he was surprised to see how far away from the palace they’d traveled, moving along in complete darkness.

  The sun was setting, but it wasn’t quite yet night. They’d taken turns looking out the door, trying to see how much movement, if any, was taking place around the abandoned mansion.

  “It would be best to wait for nightfall before we emerged and went into that house,” Stepan said.

  “Aye, but they’re going to notice us missing from the dungeon before long,” Kanan replied. “We need to get this done and then find a way off the property before they initiate a search for us.”

  “Well, whatever it is you decide to do, get it over with already,” Victri said, sitting in the back of the shed. “We’re wasting time.”

  Keiran had found Victri increasingly abrasive, and he chose not to look at the advisor. “All right, if there’s just one man guarding the door, I should be able to take him down myself.”

  “I’m not letting you go out there by yourself!” Jerris said, shaking his head. “Perhaps it’s impractical for all of us to go charging out there, but I need to go with you. It is my job.”

  “Are you going to kill the guard?” Stepan moved to look out the door. “He’s a lazy worker, but a decent human being.”

  “What if we just capture him and bring him to the shed for you to watch while I do my search?” Keiran asked, understanding that Stepan didn’t want to see any of his men die over this.

  “That’s acceptable,” the Alerian guard agreed. “I’d imagine the three of us who remain behind can keep tabs on him.”

  “You and Victri will keep tabs on him just fine. I should be outside keeping an eye out for anyone approaching the house,” Kanan said, discontent with not taking an active role.

  Keiran nodded. “Sounds reasonable. Jerris, are you ready to go?”

  “Anything’s better than sitting in this spider-riddled shed any longer,” the redhead said, moving toward the door.

  Kanan pushed his way out through the door first. “I’ll go with you to apprehend the guard then I can bring him back to the shed.”

  Keiran nodded, and they started to move through the overgrown garden to the side of the mansion. Since it was spring, the foliage on many of the plants had started to fill in, offering them decent cover. There was still a good buildup of dead leaves and plants on the ground, however, and that made silent movement difficult.

  Keiran was the first one to the edge of the building. After listening, he stuck his head around the corner to see where the guard was and what he was doing. He only needed a moment before he jerked back around the corner to face his comrades, his face twisted up.

  “What is it?” Jerris asked impatiently.

  The vampire lifted a finger to his lips before speaking as quietly as he could manage. “He’s not very far away, watering the shrubs.”

  Jerris snorted out a laugh, Kanan smacking him on the back of the head.

  Keiran rolled his eyes. “Let’s give him just a second to pack it back in before we grab him, all right?”

  “Fine, I don’t feel like getting pissed on,” the redhead replied, still amused.

  They listened carefully until they heard the guard begin walking. They darted around the corner, doing their best to move in time with his steps to mask the sound of their own.

  The guard heard something behind him when the sword hanging from Jerris’ belt scraped the wall of the building. He turned, but it was too late. Before he could get a sound out, Keiran was upon him.

  The force of the vampire rushing into him knocked the sentry down, pushing the wind out of him as he landed flat on his back. Keiran went down with him, clamping a hand over the struggling guard’s mouth. Jerris and Kanan were soon there as well, doing their best to keep the guard from thrashing around and making any noise.

  Keiran leaned down close to the guard, looking into his frantic eyes. “We’re not going to harm you, but you need to come with us. If you make a sound after we help you up, it will be the last sound you ever make. Do you understand?”

  The guard struggled to make out Keiran’s foreign accent, but he got the gist of it soon enough. He gave a dumb nod, his chest heaving as he struggled to get air back into his lungs.

  The Tordanians got up and hoisted the Alerian guard to his feet. He motioned with his hands before Kanan pulled them both behind his back. The older man then marched the guard off toward the shed, getting no resistance from him along the way.

  Jerris looked at Keiran with his brows raised. “That went well.”

  “Aye, but we
should probably get through this as quickly as we can,” Keiran replied, already moving toward the door of the house.

  They moved along the front of the building, large flakes of white paint littering the ground like snow. The windows were all covered over with planks, though it looked as if much of the glass had been broken out from the inside. The tattered ends of curtains had been drawn between the boards by the wind. The decaying wood siding of the house bowed out and hung loose in large sections. Moss and vines had begun their inevitable invasion onto the house’s façade, previous years’ growth hanging thick from the walls.

  The porch was little more than a landing made out of slabs of stone. While there had once been a roof over it, that had long ago collapsed and been pulled off to the side where it still sat in a rotting heap.

  The door was in bad shape as well, though it was of heavy construction. Keiran reached out and tried the brass latch, but it was locked as he feared.

  Jerris crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. “I suppose we should have asked the guard back there if he had a key.”

  “We could have done so,” Keiran said, looking back at his friend with a smirk.

  The redhead quirked a brow. “Well? Now what?”

  Keiran pivoted his body and landed a good, solid kick to the door near the handle. The termite-infested doorframe didn’t hold up at all, splintering as the door flew inward on its squealing hinges.

  “I suppose that works,” Jerris replied.

  Immediately, the dank air from the interior rolled out and accosted them with nauseating pungency, causing them to pause.

  Jerris covered his nose and mouth with his hand, scowling. “Dear God, it smells like we are far too late.”

  The stink of the mildewing, rotting house was prominent, but there was more to it that Keiran’s refined sense of smell picked up. The air was laced with the stench of sewage as the plumbing in the building had long ago failed.

  Still, the smell of human decomposition wasn’t present, and there was something else in the air Keiran picked out that made his hackles rise. While he couldn’t consciously label it, the reaction within him was visceral, and he was reluctant to enter.