Shadeslayer (Pharim War Book 7)

  Shadeslayer

  Pharim War Book 7

  GAMA RAY MARTINEZ

  Shadeslayeris a work of fiction. All incidents and dialog, and all characters are products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover illustration and design by Christian Bentulan, http://www.coversbychristian.com/

  Copyright © 2017 Gamaliel Martinez

  All rights reserved.

  Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER 1

  Jez and Lina stood between Sariel and Manakel, the pharim high lords of protection and destruction. Sariel’s shining wings illuminated the small room, while Manakel’s, seeming to be made of flame, set odd lights dancing along the stone walls. The room they were in had been a storage area in saner times, though necessity had transformed it into an interrogation chamber. The prisoner standing at its center had shining wings of his own, though they were dim when compared to the light of the high lords. In spite of the illumination, which should have been enough to light up every inch of the room, a shadowed figure stood before the prisoner. He wore deep indigo robes that seemed to be more shade than cloth. His hood hid all but the vaguest features of his face, regardless of how bright a light was shone into it. A wispy blade of shadows hung at his waist, and dark wings rose from his back. A quiet power pulsed within him as he searched through the prisoner’s mind. Few could long hide anything from Leziel, the pharim high lord of secrets.

  The prisoner, a former Lifebringer named Illeon, had once been among the greatest healers of the pharim, but that had been before he had betrayed everything he had once stood for and joined the human demon Sharim. Six months before, he and his companions had almost succeeded in causing a war between several major factions opposed to Sharim. Both of the afur he’d worked with had been destroyed, though he himself had been captured and sealed away here. Complex wards and powerful workings that even the masters of the Academy did not understand filled the area. Even Jez couldn’t enter or leave without the help of at least one of the high lords, all to hold a prisoner who had already been divested of most of his power.

  “Well?” Sariel asked.

  Leziel nodded. Despite the shadows obscuring his features, Jez had the impression that he was smiling. “It appears we have finally removed all the wards Andera placed on his mind. His thoughts are open to me.”

  “And?” Manakel asked.

  “And I am afraid he knows little. Andera found the triune shortly before he marched against Tarcai. He knew that if he was defeated, we would ultimately come here. He has not contacted them since then.”

  “There has to be something,” Jez said.

  “There is something about a beacon that Shanel left, though he himself knows little.”

  Illeon sneered. “Perhaps you should have captured her.”

  Leziel started to speak, but Jez stepped forward. Leziel eyed him for a second before backing up and allowing Jez to approach.

  “We would have,” Jez said, “but she was destroyed by a two-foot-tall otter man wielding her own sword while she tried to attack an unconscious pharim lord.” Jez grinned. “That has to be the most embarrassing way anyone has ever died. I’m almost ashamed at how close the three of you came to actually hurting us.”

  Illeon shot to his feet, but before he could take a step, three swords, one of fire, one of shadow, and one of crystal, pressed against his neck. The pharim lords had moved faster than Jez’s eyes could follow, and Illeon froze. Manakel seemed a hair’s breadth from decapitating the prisoner, but Leziel withdrew his sword and nodded.

  “I see. Very clever, Jezreel. I would not even have thought to look for that had you not angered him so that his mind touched on it.”

  “What is it?” Manakel asked, taking neither his eyes nor his sword off of Illeon.

  “Andera is trying to deploy his demons by going Between.”

  For a moment, silence filled the room. It was Lina who finally spoke.

  “Is that even possible?”

  Jez nodded. “I’ve taken us Between. There’s no reason he can’t do the same.”

  “But they’re demons,” Lina said. “Can demons even go there?”

  Again, Jez nodded. “They pass through it every time they’re summoned. It’s just normally too fast for anyone to notice, but I took Marrowit there, the first time we fought. He could control it at least well enough to get where he needed to go.”

  “We have to stop him,” Lina said. She paused. “How do we do that?”

  “There is not much we can do,” Manakel said. “Short of binding his power, he will be able to craft the proper working regardless of what we do. If we could do that, we would have done it already.”

  “We can still prepare,” Sariel said. “An attack could come at any time. We should plan how to defend against it.” He looked at Jez. “The manor should be safe. No one can enter save through the front gate. The surrounding area is another matter, however. Andera could deposit his demons in the middle of the army camp, or in the beast men’s forest, or within the walls of Randak itself.”

  Jez suppressed a shiver at the thought of a horde of demons tearing through his city. At the moment, there were probably more afur in Randak than anywhere else in the world, but that didn’t mean the city could withstand a demon attack of the sort Sariel meant. His people would be ripped to shreds.

  “What can we do?” Jez asked.

  “Do you remember how Dusan protected his summoning site when he attempted to summon Marrowit?”

  Jez thought for a second before nodding. “He cut Kunashi off from Between.” His eyes went wide, but almost immediately, he shook his head. “It wouldn’t work. Kunashi is a small town, not even half the size of Randak. That’s not even counting the forest or the army camp. Even Dusan couldn’t have done an area that big.”

  “You are considerably stronger than Dusan was,” Sariel said, “and you have the advantage of using what he left behind.”

  Jez considered for a moment before a smile crept onto his face.

  “That could work, but I still don’t have enough power. You’ll need to send for the former Shadowguards in Haziel’s camp and the forest. I take it you can’t help directly?”

  Sariel shook his head. “Not for something on this scale. The others should be enough, though.”

  Jez nodded. “Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER 2

  Jez and Lina stepped out of the manor to be greeted by the heavyset Master Besis. The protection master met Jez’s eyes for a second before inclining his head. Jez gave him a wide grin.

  “Master Besis, when did you get here?”

  “A few
hours ago. Most of the others will be arriving later today, but I rode ahead. Lina, it’s good to see you well.” She bowed her head to him, and the master looked up at the pillar of fog and cleared his throat, looking just a little pale. “I would’ve gone in, but I didn’t want to disturb you.”

  Jez smiled. Months prior, when Aphlel had been incapacitated, the high lords had worried about what their unrestrained influence would do to ordinary mortals. As a result, they had taken Jez’s manor and transported it, placing it halfway in Between as a way to shield the world from themselves. The only way in or out of the manor was through the front gate, but few people, other than Jez, were entirely comfortable passing through. Even Master Horgar, who had arrived weeks ago, spent most of his time in the new forest outside of the city rather than in the manor. Still, somehow Jez hadn’t expected it to so unnerve his mentor. The stocky man fell into step beside them.

  “It’s perfectly safe,” Jez said.

  “Still, I can’t shake the feeling that it’ll fall all the way into Between while I’m inside.”

  Jez grinned. “Master, it’s anchored pretty tightly. It’s not just going to fall off the world.”

  Besis chuckled. “Whatever happened to that child who was terrified at the idea of attending a school in the caldera of a dormant fire mountain?”

  Jez looked away and spoke softly. “He learned that there are worse things out there.”

  Lina’s fingers brushed against the back of his hand, and Besis’s grin faded. “Yes, I suppose you did. Where is Osmund?”

  Jez shrugged. “We need more allies. He’s getting them.”

  The master nodded. They walked for a few seconds before Besis spoke again. “Jez, why haven’t you marched yet? We expected to meet up with you halfway to the Telag Mountains. We certainly didn’t think you’d still be here.”

  Jez shrugged. “There wasn’t really much point. We wouldn’t have been able to cross the mountains until the snows melted anyway.”

  Besis narrowed his eyes. “You could’ve left the day Master Horgar arrived and still not reached the southern passes before the snow melted.”

  They walked in silence as they moved through the city. Their mages robes didn’t attract nearly the attention that they would have even a few months before. The people of Randak had seen too much to be easily awed. Eventually, Jez looked back at the pillar of fog that swirled around his manor.

  “Illeon,” he said. “I wanted to see what information we could get out of Illeon.”

  Besis’s expressions softened. “You could have just as easily arranged to have information sent to you through a speaking stone.” Besis stopped walking and put a hand on Jez’s shoulder. “What’s wrong, Jez? You used to be the one pushing the hardest for action against Sharim. Now that everyone else is moving, you hesitate. Why?”

  Jez didn’t meet Besis’s eyes. “Because it’s what he’s expecting, and the last time we did what he was expecting, Sharim almost captured three pharim high lords and came close to setting off a three-way war. Because the last time we actually marched against him, he sent demons to fight while we were still on the way, and in the end, he destroyed one of our major strongholds.”

  “You’re afraid.”

  Jez shook his head. He glanced at Lina who nodded, and when he spoke, his voice had the odd resonance of one behind a silence working. “No, not really. I’ve just realized that if we go up against him head to head, we’re going to lose. He has a practically limitless army, an eternity of experience, and more raw power than anyone else in the world. We need an advantage. If we don’t have one, he’ll just chip away at us while we’re marching, and by the time we reach Rumar, we won’t have nearly what we need to take it from him.” Lina’s lips tightened in a smile and Jez raised an eyebrow. “What?”

  “Nothing, it’s just that I’ve never seen you act this careful. Every time you’ve seen Sharim, you’ve charged in, ready to fight.”

  Jez’s shoulder’s sagged. “And because of that, the high lords were bound to the world, the Academy was destroyed, and almost a thousand people were killed when mount Carcer erupted.”

  Besis shook his head. “Jez, that wasn’t your fault.”

  “I know that, but a thousand people are still dead.” Jez let out a breath and shook his head. “Look, I’ll give the order to march when I’m sure we can actually make it to Rumar.”

  He started walking again, not checking to see if the others would follow. The crowd parted for him, as if giving him a silent reminder that he wasn’t like them, but he kept going. A part of him recognized that he was just running from the problem, but he didn’t care. It took Besis a few seconds to catch up.

  “Certainties don’t exist, Jezreel, least of all in war.”

  “I know. We can talk about this when the rest of the masters arrive. For now, I’m glad you’re here. I could use your help. We’re forming a contingent.”

  Besis cocked his head. Jez grinned and turned down a small alley and through a series of side streets that would avoid the city’s main roads. As he led the group to the eastern edge of Randak, he explained about the working Dusan had used to shield Kunashi from Between. The power required to craft such a working on the scale that they needed was staggering. Sariel had already sent word to the former Shadowguards among the three camps, but though contingents could be formed with such beings, mortal magic worked best when joined with mortal magic. Afur had a great deal of power, which made forming a contingent with them worthwhile, but a powerful protection mage, such as Besis, would be worth more than all but the strongest afur.

  “A bold plan, but shouldn’t you leave that to the afur? They would have access to more power.”

  Jez shook his head. “Unless we want to craft the whole thing from scratch, which would take months, we have to use the carrier working Dusan left behind. He linked that to Korand. We still haven’t been able to figure out how the triune used it. As far as we can tell, only a true steward of the land should’ve been able to. Haziel could do it, if he knew anything but the most basic illusions. That only leaves me.”

  He pointed at a small house. There was a covered area on the side of the building that had once been used to hang fish to dry, though it hadn’t been used in years. The house itself was well kept. Jez himself had seen to it whenever he could find the time, though he hadn’t actually started living there. On the edge of town, it was too far removed from everything else. Still, a part of him would always see this old house, the place where he’d grown up, as home.

  When Dusan had been the baron of Korand, a nexus of power had run under the manor. The old baron had used it to craft a sort of carrier working in order to use magic on the entire city. The triune had used it to craft an anger working that nearly drove three powerful factions to open war. When the high lords had moved the manor to Between, no one had expected that nexus to move, and it had eventually settled under Jez’s old home. The carrier working itself was large enough to encompass the entire area they needed, provided he had enough power.

  The sun hadn’t quite reached its zenith when nine figures appeared in the sky to the north while four came from the west. In under a minute, they had resolved themselves as humanoids with brilliant white wings and shimmering blue robes. It was only a matter of seconds before the former Shadowguards landed, and Jez saw that Leziel had come with those from Haziel’s army.

  The two groups gave each other uneasy looks. While they had all betrayed their calling in a time so long ago that it was as much myth as history, they had come together now to face Sharim as a unified force. They had done it in different ways, however. Some had gone to King Haziel’s army, believing that by serving with humankind, they could best serve their original purpose. Others had gone to the beast men, wanting little to do with humans. While they were technically allies, they had a hard time trusting one another.

  Jez cleared his throat, and the afur formed up in a circle around the house, with Jez standing before the front door. With the inclusion of Ma
ster Besis, only eleven of them were needed to bring the contingent up to thirteen, the maximum that could be joined. Leziel himself provided the initiating thought, which allowed for a nearly perfect union. Jez had never understood why the rules binding pharim seemed to apply less to the Darkmasks, but he was grateful for it as he drew on the massive well of protection magic that the contingent had made available to him. The working itself was fairly complex, and would’ve been beyond Jez’s abilities even a year ago, but the conflict with Sharim had sharpened his skills.

  Sweat beaded on his brow as his hands drew complex figures in the air. Power rushed out of him, at first in a steady stream that grew to a torrent. After a few minutes, it changed to a series of irregular pulses. The strands of Dusan’s carrier working tightened and loosened as power rushed through them. Jez’s mind spread out until it covered an area spanning miles. He could see everything, though his mind couldn’t comprehend so much information. He concentrated on the flow of magic spreading throughout his city. At the northern edge, there was a slight pressure, but the working was taking all of Jez’s concentration and power, and he couldn't focus on the anomaly.

  His fingers finished the last of the motions. As the working settled into place, the pressure to the north expanded. A sharp pain blossomed in Jez’s mind. He cried out, gripping his head. The pressure exploded, and the world went red. The next thing Jez knew, he was on the ground. The sun had jumped in the sky, indicating that he had been out for nearly an hour. His friends had gathered around him and were shouting, though their words were incomprehensible mumbles. He closed his eyes and reached outward with his mystic senses, but the working he’d just laid was gone. More than that, the carrier working he’d used was unraveling. In under a minute, it had vanished completely. Jez met Besis’s eyes and shook his head. His mouth was numb and his words came out slurred.

  “It was a trap.”

  “What...”

  Besis stopped speaking as Lina pointed to the sky to the north. A hawk circled above, gradually coming closer as it glided down. It seemed to see them an instant before it tucked its wings in and dove. It pulled up at the last second, fluttering to the ground next to Jez. He recognized the mottled brown pattern, but even if he hadn’t, he would have known the too small arms that barely showed beneath its wings.