The Rise of the Demon Prince

by Robert Kroese

  And then suddenly it was gone.

  We got to our feet. Ilona, a few yards away, peered over an intact merlon. “He’s fallen,” she said.

  I stepped forward and looked down. For a moment I thought we were saved, but then I saw him: Voros Korom was lying on a narrow ledge perhaps sixty feet below the place he’d fallen from, his body continuing to flicker in and out of existence.

  The demon slowly got to his feet and resumed his climb. He’d been hit on the head with three hundred pounds of rock and taken a fall that should have broken every bone in his body, but he moved like he’d just gotten up from a nap. Dozens of wraiths wheeled about him, darting close to reinvigorate themselves and then soaring upward in an attempt to reach us before fading into nothingness a few yards below the foot of the wall. With each attempt, they got a little closer.

  I turned to regard our group. Domokos sat leaning against the battlement, his whole body shaking from the effort of weakening the merlon joints. Vili stared into space, the paleness of his face evident even in the moonlight. The wraith had not touched him, but he, Rodric and Ilona leaned against the remains of a broken merlon, panting from exertion. I had thought I was mostly healed from my battle with Radovan, but I found myself barely able to stand. We were in sad shape, and all we’d done is slowed Voros Korom’s advance by a few minutes.

  “This isn’t working,” I said, unnecessarily. “Rodric, ready your bow. Vili and Ilona, retreat to the courtyard. Distract the wraiths and try to buy us some time. When the wraiths get too close, join us in the tower.” Shrugging off my exhaustion, I went to Domokos and threw his arm over my shoulder.

  As I led Domokos away, Rodric retrieved his bow and nocked an arrow. I heard Ilona behind me, urging Vili to move. I couldn’t imagine what was going through the lad’s head, and I didn’t have time to think about it. Domokos’s spells were the only defense we had against the wraiths. To reach the tower in which we would make our stand, Voros Korom and his horde of wraiths would have to cross the open courtyard where we had originally expected the battle to begin. The plan was to get Domokos to the tower, from whence he could see the wraiths advance and be safe from attack, at least for a while.

  I helped him across the courtyard and up the spiral steps of the tower. By the time we reached the top, the wraiths were pouring over the battlement we had just left. Vili and Ilona waited in the courtyard, less than fifty yards away. Ilona stood in a defensive position with her stick. Vili, seemingly recovered from his shock, stood at her side. Rodric was nowhere to be seen; I was struck with the sickening thought that he’d been consumed by the wraiths or had fallen off the wall. I forced my thoughts back to my own situation.

  “Domokos, are you all right?”

  Domokos, leaning against a merlon, nodded. He looked very tired, but he was no longer shaking. He raised his hand as if readying a spell. “I will try… to hold them off.”

  “No,” I said. “Wait until they get closer.” I said it almost without thinking, a reflexive tactical response drummed into me from my time in the janissaries. But of course an effective defense would not help us without any way to go on the offensive. If Rodric was out of the fight, it was up to me to face Voros Korom.

  The wraiths poured over the wall and into the courtyard. Ilona had retreated into the shadow of the garden at the north end of the yard, leaving Vili alone. Seeing Vili, the first few wraiths flew toward him. A massive hand came over the wall, followed by the head and shoulders of Voros Korom. In another second, the demon had vaulted over the wall, landing on his feet inside the courtyard. His limbs flickered in and out of existence as he had need of them, sometimes seeming to appear in multiple places at once. From my vantagepoint some fifty feet above, I could just make out a small trickle of blood from the wound on his head. It was an absurdly minor injury, but a tiny flame of hope kindled inside of me: Voros Korom could be hurt.

  Vili sprinted toward the base of the tower, leading three of the wraiths toward me and Domokos. Domokos raised his hand to begin his incantation, but I put my hand on his shoulder. I counted over a dozen wraiths in the courtyard now, but more were still coming over the wall. Voros Korom had paused, surveying the situation. He had undoubtedly expected more resistance and was trying to discern where all the sorcerers were.

  Vili reached the tower, with the wraiths only a few paces behind. He feinted left and then ran right along the base of the tower. The wraiths, reacting sluggishly, hesitated and then continued pursuit. Vili had put some distance between them, but he could not keep running at top speed for long, whereas the wraiths appeared to be tireless. He disappeared from my view among the fruit trees at the south end of the courtyard. The wraiths faded and then dissolved completely as they tried to follow him; they’d ventured too far from Voros Korom.

  The vanished wraiths immediately reappeared just in front of the demon; he now had the entire swarm around him. Voros Korom seemed to consider pursuing Vili but thought better of it. He looked toward the top of the tower. Domokos and I couldn’t have been more than tiny silhouettes at that distance, but I had the distinct impression he was looking right at me. Voros Korom strode toward the tower.

  “Now would be a good time,” I said to Domokos.

  He nodded and muttered the incantation. For several seconds, nothing happened. Voros Korom continued to advance toward the tower, now flanked by threescore of the wraiths. Vili darted out of the shadows and ran across the courtyard behind the demon, getting within ten paces of him. A few of the wraiths broke off from the main group, but as they began to fade, they seemed to lose interest and returned to the swarm. Voros Korom was halfway to the tower; several of the wraiths, having spotted me and Domokos, screamed upward.

  “Close your eyes,” Domokos said.

  I had just enough time to comply before a sudden flash of light and heat burst over the courtyard, as if a small sun had suddenly come into existence just over Voros Korom’s head. Tortured screams echoed across the courtyard. The burst lasted only a second. When I opened my eyes, I saw that Voros Korom had fallen to his knees, his hands shielding his eyes. The wraiths were gone.

  Domokos collapsed and I managed to catch him before he hit the ground. After making sure he was still breathing, I lay him gently on the stone floor. It was now up to the rest of us to kill Voros Korom. I looked over the battlement and cursed as I saw that Voros Korom had already regained his feet. The sunlight had vanished. How long until the wraiths returned? Not long enough for me to run back down the stairs to the foot of the tower, I suspected.

  Vili had once again disappeared into the shadows. A lone figure was approaching Voros Korom from behind. Ilona. What in Turelem’s name did she hope to accomplish with her little stick?

  The answer came quickly: she sprinted toward Voros Korom, gripping the stick at one end and drawing it back over her shoulder. She slid on the grass just to Voros Korom’s side, swinging the stick as she did so. It caught the demon behind the right knee, causing it to buckle. Voros Korom staggered and fell onto his knee. Ilona, already back on her feet, whirled around and whacked the demon on the thigh. Voros Korom growled, more in annoyance than pain, and swept Ilona off the ground with the back of his hand. She flew thirty feet off the ground, landing in a bank of overgrown juniper bushes. As Voros Korom turned to face the tower again, I heard a voice shouting from the northern end of the courtyard. Vili emerged from the shadows, taunting the demon. As Voros Korom turned toward the disturbance, something flew at him from behind Vili. The demon howled, this time in pain: an arrow protruded from his right eye.

  Vili disappeared back into the shadows. Voros Korom pulled the arrow from his eye and hurled it to the ground. He began to walk toward the shadows that concealed Vili.

  I leaned over the battlement and shouted, “Voros Korom!”

  The demon stopped and turned his head to look at me.

  “I’m the one you want!” I shouted. “I am the warlock who rules Magas Komaron!” I wondered if he could see the brand in the moonligh
t, or if he had any idea who I was. I had seen him up close only once, in the tunnels under the ruins of Romok.

  Voros Korom advanced toward the tower again, body parts still flickering in and out of existence. Blood poured down his cheek from his ruined eye. Points of dim blue-white light began to shimmer around him: the wraiths were returning. If I was going to have any chance at stopping Voros Korom, I needed to act now.

  I closed my eyes and forced my mind back to the place between Orszag and Veszedelem. Dipping into the stream, I pulled away a supply of tvari. Again I was filled with the terrifying energy and the urge to rid myself of it. But this time I let the fear pass, replacing it with anger. Kill Voros Korom. Kill Voros Korom. Kill Voros Korom.

  Still holding this thought in my mind, I reached toward Veszedelem for the shadow substance. Drawing away a glob of the stuff, I allowed it to mix with the tvari. Kill Voros Korom. Kill Voros Korom. Kill Voros Korom. The kovet began to take shape, tentacles writhing wildly, fueled by my anger.

  Then suddenly I was surrounded by hisses and screams. Ghostly faces came at me from out of the void. Somehow the wraiths had followed me into the in-between realm. I lost my concentration and the kovet disintegrated. I had failed.

  I opened my eyes to see that Voros Korom was halfway up the tower. Where there were no handholds, he created them by smashing the rocks with his fists. Slowly he climbed, a flickering chaotic mass of hands and feet, blood pouring down his face. Half a dozen arrows protruded from his back, but no blood flowed from these wounds; the heads had barely pierced the skin. The wraiths had not fully regained their strength; still barely visible, they darted about the flickering form of Voros Korom, only a few of them getting within twenty feet of the top of the tower. If I had kept my nerve, I could have killed Voros Korom.

  Rodric continued to fire arrows at the demon, but Voros Korom barely seemed to notice. Ilona and Vili stood helplessly below, staring up at the demon. Behind me, I heard Domokos stir. He was conscious and sitting up, but it didn’t look like he’d be much help against the wraiths. I was going to have to face Voros Korom alone.

  As Voros Korom neared the top of the tower and the wraiths continued to gain strength, I realized that there was only one possible way of stopping the demon. I climbed onto the battlement, drew my rapier and leapt off the tower. I directed the point of the rapier downward as I fell, gripping the hilt with both hands. I’d half expected to fall right through the demon to the ground, dying an ignominious death at the foot of the tower while Voros Korom proceeded to kill Domokos, but both my timing and my aim were good: I landed on Voros Korom’s left shoulder, straddling the demon with my legs. The rapier point hit first, breaking my fall, and by some miracle the blade did not break. It sunk into the demon’s neck nearly to the hilt. Voros Korom screamed and lost his grip on the tower.

  Voros Korom’s body tumbled backwards as he fell, and I pulled myself on top of him to avoid taking the brunt of the fall. A massive hand swept toward me as the demon tried to crush me against his chest. Then there was the shock of impact, forcing all the air from my lungs. Everything went black.

  Chapter Eleven

  I came to on a gravel-covered plateau surrounded by mountain peaks. Overhead was a dismal gray sky. My chest hurt and the wound on my hand had reopened, but I did not seem to have broken any bones in the fall. I slowly sat up, looking for Voros Korom, but he was gone. Then I realized, as I surveyed my strange surroundings, that I was mistaken. Voros Korom wasn’t gone. I was gone: I’d been transported to Veszedelem.

  It was a part of the shadow world I had not been to before; Sotetseg was nowhere to be seen. I got the impression I was somewhere in the mountains that bordered the plain. Not far off was a rather ordinary-looking stone cottage—ordinary, that is, except for its scale. Although it was difficult to determine exact dimensions without any familiar reference point, I could tell the cottage was unusually large. Was this where Voros Korom lived? I got to my feet and took a step toward it.

  Suddenly Voros Korom appeared before me, his face and shoulder bloody. He must have pulled out the rapier, but arrows stuck out all over his body. I started to laugh, but the pain in my chest stopped me short.

  “Who are you?” Voros Korom demanded. He did not flicker in and out of existence as he did in Orszag. Somewhere in the back of my mind I understood that this was because time moved much slower here.

  “My name is Konrad,” I said. “I am sworn to keep you from destroying Nagyvaros.”

  “You bear the brand of Eben, but you do not have his power.”

  “Even so, I will stop you.”

  “You will fail. Even if you knew how to use the power of the brand, you could not kill me. Do you think I can be defeated with a handful of shadow-stuff? You will have to do better than that, Konrad. If you like, I can teach you.”

  “You are no sorcerer.”

  Voros Korom laughed. “You may as well protest that a tiger is not a woodsman. I am capable of feats sorcerers cannot even imagine.”

  “And the price of your tutelage?”

  “Let Nagyvaros be destroyed.”

  “I cannot.”

  “Why?”

  “Several reasons, one of which is that if I fail to protect Nagyvaros, I will be exiled to Veszedelem for eternity.” I am not certain why I answered Voros Korom. Perhaps I was afraid he could kill me in Veszedelem as easily as he could in Orszag, and I was stalling for time. Perhaps I really hoped he could somehow spare me from my fate.

  “You have entered into a bargain with a demon,” he said. It was a statement, not a question. I didn’t respond. “There are ways around such agreements.”

  “Such as?”

  “I would have to know more about the bargain and the demon you are beholden to. But first, you must pledge not to interfere with my plan to destroy Nagyvaros.”

  I gave the matter some thought. “No,” I said. “Even if I could be spared my fate, I would make no such pledge. Come what may, I will do whatever I can to stop you.”

  “Very well,” Voros Korom said. “I will return to kill you in a moment.” With that, he disappeared.

  Our whole conversation must have taken place in a split-second, as time was reckoned in Orszag. Rodric and the others probably hadn’t even noticed Voros Korom had been gone. By the same token, though, I probably had some time to get away before Voros Korom returned. He must have been facing imminent danger in Orszag to allow me this respite.

  I looked around my dismal surroundings. I’d been to Veszedelem several times, but this time something was different. As I began walking across the plateau away from the cottage, I realized what it was: this was the first time I had physically traveled to the shadow world.

  In the past, I had only sent my spirit to Veszedelem, leaving my body behind in Orszag. This time I had taken my body with me—something that only a warlock could do. The difference was subtle. In Orszag, the distinction between spirit and matter was clear, but here in the shadow world, where reality itself was only a ghost of its former self, the soul was nearly as substantial as the body. Had I unconsciously happened on the secret while I was loitering in the in-between? Or had I simply been transported here by my proximity to Voros Korom?

  One vital difference between this and my previous visits to Veszedelem was apparent: with my physical body present, I did not need to create a path through the shadow world with my blood. The blood in my veins sufficed. I could only assume, though, that such a quantity of sorcerer’s blood would prove an even greater draw to the monsters that lurked in the mountains.

  Academic questions aside, the problem was how to get back. In the past, getting back had been easy: I would simply allow my mind to return to my body, which served as an anchor to Orszag. I had lost my anchor. And even if I could send my mind back, I would—at best—manifest in Orszag as a ghost. My body would remain here, where Voros Korom would soon return to tear it to pieces. Somehow I needed to perform whatever sorcery had gotten me here, but in reverse. I didn’t have a cl
ue how to do that. I was trapped here while Voros Korom killed my friends.

  The one advantage I had was the relatively slow movement of time in Veszedelem. If Rodric and the others could hold out for a minute or two without me, that gave me more than an hour to figure out how to get back to them—and what to do once I got there.

  The first step was to get away from Voros Korom’s house.

  I ran across the plateau and climbed up a low rise, hoping to get a sense of the geography. To my surprise, I found myself overlooking a clump of hills that gradually gave way to a vast plain. Several miles away, visible only as a silhouette against the dull gray sky, was the keep called Sotetseg. If I moved quickly, I might be able to reach it in two hours. If Eben could help me return to Orszag, I might still be able to save my friends.

  I made my way over the gloomy landscape, sometimes running, sometimes walking, sometimes climbing, sometimes crawling. The sky of Veszedelem was lit only by a constant twilight, making it difficult to determine how much time had passed. For a while I kept to the bottom of a ravine, as it seemed the most direct path, but fearing that I had gotten disoriented by its twists and turns, forced myself to climb to the top of another ridge. From there I could see that I was headed more-or-less in the right direction; the edge of the plain was now only a few miles away. As I stood there, though, I became aware of something else: I was not alone.

  The monsters that inhabited the mountains had evidently not dared get too close to the home of Voros Korom, but now I saw the silhouettes of a dozen or more creatures peering down at me from the top of a nearby ridge. As I watched, they disappeared. I supposed it was too much to hope for that they’d panicked and fled the opposite direction. In all likelihood, they were streaming down the ravine and would soon be climbing up the other side toward me. I ran.