by David Aries
Sophie went to speak but stopped herself multiple times. “A half-breed? No, that’s a lie. They’re a myth.”
“Nay,” Diarmuid said, shaking his head. “When I was a wee boy, we all knew of those born of demon. I thought they were all gone.”
“They were. Until now.” I showed them my burning hands. There was no trick. Blue flames sprouted from my flesh and burned without a trace of smoke. “I’m the real deal. I slay demons with my fists. I breathe fire. I can jump higher than this building.”
Sophie shook her head. “Earlier, a fire-breathing demon attacked the guards. That’s what they say.”
“Almost.” I pointed at myself. “Fire-breathing half-breed.”
“This is madness,” Sophie said, scrambling to the wall. “I’ve gotta be dreaming. This can’t be real.”
“It’s totally real,” Titania said. “He’s a crazy demon ass-kicker who’s gonna help me get Blair.”
“What’d you say, Sophie?” I asked. “Believe now?”
“Don’t… I’m not involved in this! Shove your rescue and your demons. This has nothing to do with me. I want you all out of my club!” Sophie stumbled to her feet and bolted out of the dull basement.
I powered down with a big sigh. I’d been warned that not everyone would accept me. Didn’t stop it from stinging. I turned to Diarmuid and Gall. “Anyone else gonna run?”
“Nay, lad,” Diarmuid responded. “The real monsters have my baby. You’re a good man.”
“What he said,” Gall sniggered. “Don’t mistake me for some lily-livered damsel.”
I smiled. “Guys…”
“It ain’t a big deal. I like my men hot. Simple as.”
“Don’t we all,” Dessa purred, hugging my arm.
And that grin grew twice as wide. That was more like it.
“You know, I thought it was weird that the guards got so aggressive,” Gall said. “Guess this explains everything.”
My smile was fun while it had lasted. I glanced at Esther.
“I told you to keep it a secret,” Esther sighed. “As if being an outlaw wasn’t troublesome enough.”
“My bad,” I said, rubbing my neck. “Guess there’s no harm in adding noble-attacking jailbreaker to my resume.”
“Now that’s hot,” Gall laughed. “It’s not gonna be easy. You might be some mythical demon man but you’re still going against an entire kingdom.”
“I know, but I’m not doing this alone.”
“Yeah,” Titania said. “This ain’t The Jake Show. I’m the one saving Blair.” She hummed, eyes rolling in thought. “We. We’re the ones saving Blair.”
“Damn right.”
The night had just begun. We had until it was over to pluck an innocent Blair from Frederic’s hands. It was time to crash a party we hadn’t been invited to.
Chapter 17
My feet squelched in the shallow river of muck lining the brickwork riverbed.
I couldn’t escape the damn sewers. No matter what I did I somehow ended up roaming around the slimy tunnels.
There was a good reason for returning to the maze of filth. It was our ticket into the Farming District. We four hunters navigated through the empty sewers, devoid of both rats and guards once more, until we discovered a rope of light trickling from the ceiling.
“This is the place,” Esther confirmed.
It was a vertical brick shaft with slick moss-covered walls. The open roof was obscured with the exception of a small opening just big enough for a person to slither through. Not that it was used for such. It was a fifteen-foot trip with no footholds in sight. Rogue workers used the well to drop supplies to groups like Sophie’s. They were the reason anybody in the Common District could eat for a reasonable price.
Climbing the wet perpendicular pit was impossible. Not an issue for me. I demon jumped to the top and pulled myself out using one of the hefty roots that masked the passage’s existence.
I gawked as I got my first sight of the moonlight-painted district. It was alive without any sign of the taint which stained the outside world. Lush grass scrunched under my feet. Large healthy trees stood tall and proud, including the oak which hid our infiltration point. Row after row of pristine crop braced against the coming winter. It was a scene fit for the utopia I’d envisioned rather than the dystopia I’d found.
“It’s beautiful,” I said. It was unlike anything else I’d seen on Terix. New Hoffen had a farm but it was little more than a few frail weeds. This was a fantastic wonderland brimming with color.
People starving was a travesty yet understandable in a place where people struggled to survive. This was different. There was more than enough to go around. Nobody needed to go hungry yet they did.
I gritted my teeth. Those greedy noble bastards.
“Jake,” Esther’s hushed voice echoed from below. “Hurry it up.”
It was my bad. I did my job and fed a rope down to the others.
Esther and Titania scaled post-haste. Dessa had to be pulled up.
Convincing Gall and Diarmuid to stay behind had definitely been the right move, if not a difficult one.
So far so good but there was more to do. Guard patrols wandered the land in stark contrast to the generally disregarded Common District. We had to use the large crop walls to navigate around without being spotted. Esther was particularly talented at it. Her enhanced senses turned the darkness into a joke. We knew the guards were heading our way before they did.
Following Esther’s lead, we arrived safely at our target. A steady waterfall of filth trickled down from above.
Yep. Another damn sewer.
It was as Gall had told us. The nobles were so secure in their personal paradise that they didn’t see a problem with having drains pumping muck out of their sanctuary. Perhaps for good reason. You still had to scale upward of fifteen feet and get through the bars to break in. Only a special few could manage such a difficult infiltration. Say a group of demon hunters.
Under the cover of darkness, I jumped up and treated the metal grating like wet paper. After helping the others up, I took my first step where common folk weren’t permitted to tread. So much for impossible.
For a tunnel that funneled shit, it was remarkably clean. Nothing was crumbling and there weren’t any rats. It didn’t even smell that bad, for a sewer. You could tell it’d seen more care than the Common District had in years. Maybe since its inception.
We explored the underground maze until we found the exit we were looking for. It was the closest to Frederic’s home.
I gasped as I got my first taste of the sacred land. After the stark contrast between the previous two districts, I’d expected something big. It still blew away my expectations. Say goodbye to worn roads, reduced to dirt. The floor was maintained cobblestone as far as the eye could see. There were no cramped huts or crumbling structures. Every house was a mansion, gated off from the others. There was enough room in the surrounding gardens to home an entire block. Instead, it was being used for a nice lawn. What a waste. The theme of the area. Down below most were packed in like sardines. Up here they treated space as an infinite commodity.
“This is… it’s like another world,” I said.
“As gross as ever,” Titania snarled.
Objectively, the place was gorgeous. Hollywood worthy. The architecture was on a different level to anything I’d seen before, Terix or otherwise.
In context, it was disgusting.
Space not being used to home the rich was used to entertain. An expansive park gobbled up a portion of the district, filled with greenery those suffering would never see in their lives. A large theatre drew the eye, because those poor nobles needed something to spice up their pampered lives. Same went for the obscene monuments littered around. Something pretty to look at while they turned a blind eye to those less fortunate.
Revolting. Every ostentatious structure made me nauseous. There were slums a stone’s throw away and they chose to live like this.
The most vu
lgar building of them all dominated the entire district, towering over everything else. Slap bang in the district’s center was the royal castle. Walt himself could have designed the place because it wasn’t shy about what it was.
With a leader living like that it was no wonder the rest of the nobles were so self-centered.
I squeezed my trembling hands shut. The viewing I’d wanted upon first arriving in Grabadon hadn’t lived up to that ignorant fantasy. “We need to find Blair.”
“This way,” Esther said.
As promised, there were more guards than we little people were used to. They were more frequent than they’d been on the farm, where they actually had something worth defending. Luckily, they didn’t give us too much bother. They weren’t taking their rounds too seriously. That’s what happens when you spend years ‘defending’ an impenetrable fortress.
After a few roads of navigation, we found Frederic’s manor. Couldn’t exactly miss it. His mansion was as shy and unassuming as he was. It was all lit up, showing off its gaudy design. The largest guard force I’d ever seen surrounded the outer wall. Buckingham Palace had a weaker presence.
“This is ridiculous,” I said, watching from the nearby shrubbery.
“I knew there’d be a lot of guards but not this many,” Esther said.
“Greedy bastard,” Titania snarled. “If he thinks this’ll stop us, he’s wrong.”
Esther grabbed Titania’s arm. “If we cause a commotion here, Blair will be gone by the time we’re inside.”
“But… dammit.”
“Maybe there’s a weak spot?” I said. Video games always have convenient locations with no guards and plenty of construction equipment to climb up. Every digital building is defeated by scaffolding. That’s how gaming worlds work.
Reality is much crueler.
“Nothing,” I groaned. We’d scouted the full perimeter. Frederic hadn’t skimped on the security. There were at least a hundred guards protecting his manor. Every blind spot was accounted for.
“Dammit,” Titania said, pounding the floor. “This isn’t happening. We’re not failing here.”
The longer we wasted admiring Frederic’s thoroughness the closer he came to consummating his new relationship. We couldn’t let that happen. Blair didn’t deserve to go through that. Nobody did.
“Sounds like you need a distraction,” Dessa said.
“Where are we supposed to get one of those?” I said.
She tutted. “Darling, you’re such a simple-minded fool. The answer is right in front of you.” Dessa pulled a pink vial from her bosom and splashed herself in a sweet-smelling liquid. Once her sewer scent was masked under a bouquet of flowers, she sauntered toward the manor.
“Dessa,” I said, trying to drag her back into the hiding spot.
“Hush, darling,” she said with a wink. “Stay quiet and watch the master at work.”
It wasn’t easy, not when she was heading straight for the guards. I tapped my foot on the ground, ready to pounce.
Esther patted my shoulder. “Let her go. I don’t know what she’s plotting but she’s no idiot.”
“True.” Crazy? Maybe. Selfish? Often. Stupid? No. Dessa wasn’t the kind to leap into danger.
“Who goes there?!” a startled guard yelled.
I tensed but Dessa didn’t lose her stride. She skipped into the defensive line and threw herself into the shouter’s arms. “I’m so scared!”
All the nearby guards took notice. As usual, Dessa was hard to ignore.
“W-what seems to be the problem, miss?” the lucky soldier said.
“Like, I got separated from my master. We were, like, gonna come to this party, but then he, like, vanished. Then I was, like, all alone in the dark. It was so scary!”
The guards, who had looked so committed during our observation, gravitated to the sobbing Dessa.
“It’s going to be okay. We’ve got you.”
“You’re safe with us.”
“R-really?” Dessa sniffled. “That makes me so happy. I’m, like, so super lucky to find such strong, brave soldiers.”
“That’s us alright. We won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Really?!” Dessa left her original target and latched onto the next. “Thank you so much!”
“No p-problem, miss. Happy to help.”
“Me too,” another said.
“I’ll do anything I can,” another interjected.
All the guards in range drifted toward Dessa. Gender didn’t matter. They were all caught in her web. Dessa’s feminine charms were too strong to resist.
Can’t blame them. If someone as hot as Dessa gave you that sob story you’d follow her anywhere.
True enough. Do this same scenario back at Pauly’s and I’d be under her spell. Most men would. On Terix, that went for the women as well.
Dessa’s insane sex appeal entranced all the guards. The half-dressed elven beauty swayed her gigantic breasts and rubbed them against her prey. Every move was carefully calculated yet impossible to resist. Twenty guards were wrapped around her little finger.
What a frightening woman.
“Like, will anyone help me find my master?” Dessa purred. “I don’t wanna go alone. You all make me feel so safe.”
“I’ll go.”
“Me too.”
“We’ll protect you, miss. We’ll protect you from anything.”
“So reassuring,” the Pied Piper of the lustful said, leading her suckers away from the wall. Rather than creating a small window, Dessa opened a gaping hole in Frederic’s defenses.
“The fuck did I just see?” Titania said.
“A femme fatale in the flesh,” I snickered.
“Let’s hurry before someone realizes,” Esther added, making her move.
Getting over the wall was a non-issue thanks to Dessa. There weren’t any guards in the garden. They’d put all their efforts in stopping anyone getting that far. Wouldn’t want the staff getting in the way of the party.
We made another jump to the roof, where we could get a better view of proceedings. Glass panels revealed all. The garish manor was packed. The district had come out in force to show off their fancy clothes and have their fill of hors d'oeuvres. Tables lined each side of the room, overflowing with a bounty of food. Yet another indication of where all the farm produce was ending up.
I ground my teeth as I watched them mingle. It wasn’t the kind of party I was used to. Getting hammered, dancing like a moron, and bailing when the host’s parents return early. Now that was a party. This was a gathering of filth.
“Don’t they know how many are struggling done below?” I asked.
“They don’t give a shit. Simple as,” Titania responded.
“Save the morality talk for later. Look for Blair.” Saying that, it was Esther who located her first. “There.”
Even with Esther pointing her out I struggled to spot Blair. I’d been looking for a cute tomboy. Stupid on my part. Frederic had no interest in showing off an overall-wearing engineer girl. He’d transformed her into his own dress-up doll.
Blair was outfitted like every woman at the party and obviously not of her own choosing. She wore an elegant pink gown that pushed up her shockingly large chest and left her lilac shoulders bare. Her hair was pulled aside into an indigo ponytail that cascaded down her front. She’d been robbed of her fringe when she needed it the most.
Frederic was by her side, keeping tabs on her. If he hadn’t been there, I might have missed her altogether. His choice in attire was as loud as always. He sure loved the color red. It’s supposed to make you look more powerful. Made him look like a big sparkly tomato.
They weren’t a couple who would ever look right together.
Even from a distance, you could tell how uncomfortable Blair was. Her movements were as rigid as could be. They didn’t stop Frederic from pushing her around, showing her off like a new toy. The guests treated her the same way. They inspected her. None of them considered her a living being.
She was a commoner who had been allowed access to this world as Frederic’s concubine. Her opinions didn’t matter; her rights didn’t exist. She was an object tasked with following orders and making her master happy. If she failed to do so she would be punished. Even if she listened and obeyed nothing pleasant was coming her way.
“Look how they’re treating her,” Titania snarled. Was that the way they’d looked at her?
“Keep your head,” Esther warned. “We get one shot at this. Don’t waste time. Grab her and get out. Understand?”
“Loud and clear,” I said. She didn’t need to tell me twice. Blair had already spent too long in the world of nobles.
“On my signal,” Esther said, drawing her pistols.
This was it. Party time was over.
Esther sniped every lighting crystal in view, plunging the gathering into darkness. Moonlight alone wasn’t enough to illuminate the vast hall. The visitors fell into panic. Little did they know it was just beginning.
Titania and I crashed through the glass ceiling, making an entrance to remember. My demon eye penetrated the black, locating our target through the hysteria. As soon as we landed, I made a beeline for her.
Frederic didn’t know what was happening. He was too busy trying to maintain order, and his reputation, to run. By the time he noticed us emerging from the crowd, it was too late to escape.
Giving him a smack would have been unbelievably satisfying but he wasn’t worth my time. We had more important business with the woman by his side. I reached out my hand. “Blair!”
Her confused expression lit up. “Jake?!” She extended one of her many hands.
Spikes sunk into my forearm, around the full circumference. They dragged me away from Blair before I knew what was happening.
I stumbled, biting down a grunt. The pain was a hassle but it was the surprise that got me more than anything. I tried pulling away. The weapon wasn’t letting go.
“Honestly, did you think we’d make it that easy?” The spoiler stood on a table, presenting herself for the world to see.
I growled. That tight leather attire. A whip covered in spikes. The sort of mask associated with plague doctors. “You.”
“Good to meet you again,” she said, waving. “I’ve been waiting for you to show up. I’ve been under this table for hours. Such a pain. Worth it.”
