The Rise of the Demon Prince

by Robert Kroese

  “Are you awake, Konrad?” Vili asked.

  I grunted and propped myself up on my arm.

  Vili came and sat down on the bed next to me. “I wanted to ask you something.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “What… what did you do to the wraiths? How did you make them disappear?”

  “I broke the link between Veszedelem and Voros Korom.”

  “Did you see my parents?”

  “I saw your mother.”

  “You did? How was she?”

  “She was… Vili, she was stranded in that place for a very long time. It was not easy for her. But she looked well, for all that.”

  “And my father?”

  “I… did not see him, but it seemed that they were both making the best of their situation. They were worried about you.”

  “About me?”

  “Your mother asked me to make sure no harm comes to you. I intend to do that.”

  Vili nodded. “And what… where are they now?”

  “They are at peace.”

  Vili bit his lip. I could see tears forming in his eyes, but he looked away so I would not see them. He got up and walked to the door, leaving Rodric and me alone. I sighed and lay back in bed.

  “You look awful,” Rodric observed.

  “I feel the same. Sorcery takes a lot out of a man.”

  “Is it true? What you told Vili?”

  “I did what I had to do, Rodric,” I said. “There was no other way to stop Voros Korom.”

  “You said you broke the link between the shadow world and Voros Korom. But the wraiths didn’t simply dissipate, as they did when they got too far from the demon. I saw them being pulled into a sort of vortex. Where did they go?”

  “There are many things I do not yet understand about sorcery, Rodric.”

  “But you understand this. Where did the wraiths go?”

  I sighed, realizing I was not going to be able to keep the truth from Rodric. He knew me too well. “They didn’t go anywhere,” I said. “I opened another channel between our world and Veszedelem, pulling them inside with tvari. Once they were inside it, I joined the two ends of the conduit together, forming a loop.”

  “So the beings that comprised the wraiths….”

  “They remain trapped in the loop. I believe Vili’s mother is still in Veszedelem, but his father is trapped with the others in an endless black tunnel. Those inside it could climb for a thousand years and will only find themselves back where they started. There is no way out.”

  “By Turelem,” Rodric gasped. “There was no other way?”

  “None that I know of. I only knew to do it because Vili’s mother asked me to. I think she may have been a sorceress of some kind; she knew much of the workings of tvari. And she begged me not to tell Vili. What else could I do, Rodric?”

  “Then neither of Vili’s parents are truly at peace.”

  I shook my head. “Their souls were separated from their bodies when the wraiths took them. Their bodies died, but their souls were exiled to Veszedelem, in the same way that Beata’s was. Vili’s mother did not seem to have aged greatly, although many years have passed in Veszedelem since they were brought there. I think perhaps a person’s soul may be immortal in such a state.”

  “Then they are trapped forever?”

  “Vili’s mother is trapped in Veszedelem until that accursed place at last dissipates to nothingness. As for his father… the only peace those trapped in the black tunnel will ever know is in madness. Gods grant them the mercy of forgetting what they once were.”

  “Truly, Konrad, I wish you had never met Eben and taken his brand.”

  “As do I,” I said, “but I’ve been given no choice in the matter.”

  *****

  An hour or so later, the four of us ate lunch together. Vili and Ilona were in good spirits, and Rodric seemed to have forgotten our somber conversation. Even I found myself smiling as Vili recounted the previous night’s battle. When Ember had been too tired to stay ahead of the wraiths, he had retreated to a safe distance and watched the events unfold. He had an excellent memory, a sharp eye for detail, and a storyteller’s knack. I was glad to hear him give nearly as much credit for the demon’s fall to Rodric and Ilona as to me, but his account of how I had “put the wraiths to rest” made me shift uncomfortably in my seat.

  Vili had spent some time that morning scouting the city, and he reported that the Torzseki had moved in en masse. Nebjosa had evidently made peace with the council; Vili said several hundred Torzsek warriors were now in the city and they claimed Nebjosa as their chief. They had taken the palace without a fight. The handful of gendarmes who had been manning it had offered their services to Nebjosa and he had accepted. Chief Nebjosa was the new de facto Governor of Nagyvaros.

  Vili reported little looting; in fact the Torzseki, apparently acting on Nebjosa’s orders, were doing their best to keep the peace. This was no doubt a pragmatic strategy on Nebjosa’s part: he had more to gain by earning the trust of the city’s residents than by taking what was left of its wealth. It was working. It would be a long time before the city was back to anything like normal, but when the Barbaroki left, it had looked like it would descend into pure anarchy. Now at least it was possible to start rebuilding.

  Almost no one in the city had any idea how close it had come to being annihilated. Our battle with Voros Korom had taken place some distance from the road into the city; we would have to be content with the knowledge that we had spared the city from an even worse fate than being sacked by the Barbaroki.

  We did not talk of the future. By this time, the Barbaroki would have reached Delivaros, making it impossible for Ilona to return there. I did not know what the future held for Rodric, Vili and me, but we would not leave Ilona when she had nowhere else to go. In any case, I had one thing left to do before I could make any decisions about the future.

  I excused myself from the table and went back upstairs. I sat on one of the beds and readied myself to return to Veszedelem one last time. Before I could reach it, though, there was a knock on the door. I opened my eyes as Ilona entered. She closed the door and sat down next to me.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said, “but I needed to talk to you.”

  “What is it?”

  “I’ve been thinking about what you said. About Turelem bringing us together. Do you really believe it?”

  “No,” I said honestly. “I was trying to provoke you.”

  “It worked. But there may be more to it that you think.”

  “How so?”

  Ilona reached into her robe and pulled out a key than hung on a silver chain around her neck.

  “What is it for?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. Eighteen years ago, I was found on the doorstep of the Temple of Turelem in a basket. This key was in the basket with me.”

  “You were an orphan.”

  “Yes.” Standing, she removed the chain from around her neck and handed the key to me. I took it from her, turning it over in my hand. Other than the fact that it was made of silver, it seemed to be an ordinary key. Ilona walked to the window and pulled the shutters closed. They didn’t block all the light, but the room was now dark enough that I could see the key shone with a dim blue glow.

  “How…?” I gasped, holding it in my palm.

  “It started doing that six weeks ago, on my eighteenth birthday.”

  “It never glowed before?”

  “The acolytes never would have let me keep it if they’d suspected it was a magical artifact. Whoever had left it had known my exact date of birth, and had enchanted the key as a message to me.”

  “What message?”

  “I don’t know, exactly. A few days after it started to glow, I sneaked into the catacombs beneath the abbey, where the records are stored, to see what I could learn about my parents. I found the name of my mother, who lived in a village just south of Delivaros called Salonta. I went to find her, but she died six years ago. The landlord of the building
where she had lived told me she had just showed up one day out of the blue, eighteen years earlier. No one knew who she was or where she was from. She was not wealthy but had a supply of silver that she used to pay her rent. She kept to herself, and occasionally she could be heard weeping alone in her room. The landlord said she overheard her say a name once. She remembered it because it was the name of a wizard she had heard about in a story a few years earlier.”

  “Varastis.”

  “Yes.”

  “You think Varastis was your father?”

  “It makes sense. He fled Nagyvaros with my mother, but he either couldn’t or didn’t want to take us to Magas Komaron with him. For some reason my mother didn’t feel capable of raising me on her own, so she left me with the acolytes.”

  “But with Varastis dead, you have no way to know what the key is for, or why he gave it to you.”

  “Actually,” she said, “I do. I noticed when I traveled to Salonta that the glow diminished a bit. I thought that my father was using the key to lead me to him. As I traveled north of Delivaros, the glow grew brighter and I became convinced the key was leading me to Magas Komaron. At Almos, I turned east, but I noticed after several miles that the glow began to diminish. It seemed I was not being led to Magas Komaron after all. I was certain that my father was at Magas Komaron, but I could not find the way. I was about to turn back when I ran into you. You seemed to know how to get to Magas Komaron, so I decided to tag along with you in the hopes that I might still find my father.”

  “That is why you were so disappointed when you learned Varastis was dead. I’m sorry, Ilona. I did not know.”

  “Nor could you. But that is not why I confess this to you now. Although you are a sorcerer, I had a sense that we were meant to meet. When you said that you intended to return to Nagyvaros, I went with you, hoping that I might determine the reason the key glowed. The glow intensified as we got closer to Nagyvaros. When we were in the cell below the palace, it was so bright that I had to wrap it in my robe and sleep on top of it so it would not be seen.”

  “You think the key was leading you to the palace?”

  “Probably to somewhere near the palace. Perhaps further underground.”

  My thoughts went to Bolond’s song:

  No one knows what Varastis found

  Buried so deep under the ground

  He left that night without a sound

  For Magas Komaron

  I had assumed that whatever Varastis had found, he had taken it to Magas Komaron with him. But perhaps it was too dangerous to remove from the tunnels under the city.

  “Voros Korom spoke of a book,” I said.

  “What? When?”

  “When he lay on the plain dying. He said, ‘Do not let him get the book.’ I do not know who he meant. Perhaps it was this book that your father found under Nagyvaros. He may have left it there for you to find.”

  “Then we must find it!”

  “That will be difficult, as Nebjosa now controls the palace and the entrance to the tunnels. Even if we could get access to them, the tunnels are a labyrinth. We will need more than a magic key to find the book’s hiding place.”

  “But we must try.”

  “Why?” I asked. “I understand that you may never be able to go home, and I am sorry for that. But you are a young, educated woman. You now have a friend in Chief Nebjosa. Your prospects in Nagyvaros are excellent. You have lived eighteen years without knowing anything of your parents or of sorcery. Trust me, you are better off knowing as little of such things as possible.”

  “And yet you pursue such knowledge yourself.”

  “I do what I must. I did not choose this path.”

  “Nor did I choose mine. Konrad, do you really not understand? I spent eighteen years thinking that all the world’s problems could be solved if sorcery could be purged from the land. Then one morning I awoke to find that I possessed a magic key that could explain who I was—and perhaps much more. If the key was a test sent by Turelem, I’ve already failed. I think it is something more than that. I think it leads to answers I was meant to find. Perhaps you were meant to find them as well. This book must be powerful indeed, if it is what Voros Korom was after.”

  I sighed. Ilona was right: if the book was as important as it seemed to be, it was too dangerous to be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. For centuries, the government of Nagyvaros, with the aid of the acolytes, had strictly controlled access to the passages below the city. Perhaps they had known about the book, or perhaps they had simply walled off the areas thought to be too dangerous. With the Torzseki in control, everything would change. Nebjosa might decide that the ancient secrets thought to lie below Nagyvaros would be just the thing to help solidify his rule. And while I considered Nebjosa an honorable man, he knew nothing of sorcery and might very well unleash something he could not control.

  My own motivations, however, differed from Ilona’s. Having defeated Voros Korom, I needed to turn my attention to Eben the warlock. It was not enough that he remained imprisoned in Veszedelem; now that I no longer needed his help, I would see his soul annihilated for what he had done to Beata.

  “Thank you for telling me all this,” I said, handing the key to her. “I will give the matter some thought. Before I make any decisions, though, there is something else I must attend to.”

  Ilona nodded. “I understand.” She walked to the door. As she left, she said, “May the blessing of Turelem be upon you.”

  *****

  This time I didn’t bother to go through the guard tower. Having mastered the ability of traveling to anyplace in Veszedelem where I’d been before, I projected my spirit directly into the courtyard inside the gate of Sotetseg. I made my way to the chamber where Eben had left the bell. He was waiting for me.

  “Well done, Konrad,” he said.

  “You’ve heard of Voros Korom’s death already?”

  “Word of such event spreads quickly here, and I have access to more sources of information than I did when I first arrived.”

  “Enjoy it will you can. I have not come to speak with you. Summon your boss, if you’d be so kind.”

  Eben chuckled. “There have been some changes in Sotetseg since you were last here. I no longer answer to Szarvas Gyerek.”

  “I suppose I should not be surprised you have weaseled your way out of your deal with him. Still, I wish to speak with him regarding my own arrangement.”

  “You misunderstand, Konrad. Szarvas Gyerek works for me now.”

  “What? How?”

  “An intricate set of machinations spanning the last several decades. I will not bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that Szarvas Gyerek is not bright, and I am persistent. Much work remains if I am to take total control of Sotetseg, but thanks to you, I have made a good start.”

  “You mean that the death of Voros Korom was part of your plan.”

  Eben shrugged. “I made a deal with an enemy of Voros Korom, to whom Szarvas Gyerek was indebted. When Voros Korom died, I became the holder of that debt, and thereby the lord of Szarvas Gyerek. But do not fret; If you had failed, you would have become a servant of Szarvas Gyerek, and I would have used you to the same end, although it would have taken longer.”

  “Your schemes will avail you nothing. I will see you destroyed.”

  Eben laughed. “You have shown a surprising aptitude for sorcery, but you know nothing of the history or politics of Veszedelem. Yet despite your threats, I bear no grudge against you. Help me now and I will give you what you really want.”

  “What is it that you think I want?”

  “You want your life back. Give me the brand, and I will see that you have it.”

  “I care not for the brand, but the fact that you want it is enough for me to keep it from you. You cannot give me back my Beata.”

  “That is true,” said Eben. “At least, not yet.”

  “Speak plainly, warlock. I have no desire to play your games.”

  “It is possible that Beata may yet
be returned to you.”

  “You lie. I saw what was left of her fade when the red lantern was extinguished. You and Szarvas Gyerek told me she was dead forever.”

  “So I believed at the time. But since taking my new rank in Sotetseg, I have learned things that were kept from me. I believe it is possible to bring Beata back. Not as a shadow or a wraith, but Beata exactly as she was the day you saw her at the inn six years ago.”

  “I will not listen to any more of this,” I said, and readied myself to return to Orszag.

  “I do not expect you to trust me,” Eben said. “We will make a contract in keeping with the ancient accords that rule this place, the same accords under which you made your deal with Szarvas Gyerek.”

  I hesitated. “And what do you expect in return for this sorcery?”

  “The brand, as I have said. Also, to conduct the ritual to bring Beata back, I will need a certain artifact, which I believe to be hidden in the tunnels under Nagyvaros. It is called the Book of the Dead.”

  I wish I could say that I was surprised, but somehow I had known all along it would come to this. Eben was who Voros Korom had warned me about with his dying breath. The book was what Radovan was after, and the reason Eben had fought him. Perhaps not even Voros Korom cared about the city itself; they only wanted the previous regime out of the way so they could have access to the tunnels. So they could find the Book of the Dead.

  I wanted nothing more than to leave that place, to never think about Eben or the shadow world ever again. I had spared the city from the terror of Voros Korom. Was that not enough? But I knew the answer as soon as the question had formed. Ilona was right: our quest was not yet finished.

  “Tell me about this book,” I said.

  END OF BOOK TWO

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