Shadeslayer (Pharim War Book 7) Read online

  “Good,” Gayel said. His sword hadn’t moved from her throat. “King Haziel, if you would lead the way to an isolated room, I will question this traitor.”

  “My lord, please...”

  Jez gaped when he saw tears running down Mirel’s cheeks. He had never seen an afur cry, but Leziel broke in before he could say anything. “That is a lie.”

  Jez blinked. “What is?”

  “The tears. She feels neither sorrow nor fear. It is as if she is in complete control.”

  Almost instantly, Mirel’s expression went stoic. She stood, completely ignoring Gayel’s blade, and fell into step behind Haziel. Jez shivered. “You mean she’s leading us into a trap.”

  Leziel shook her head. “No, I do not believe so. It is more like she has already led us into the trap and it is only a matter of time before we realize it.”

  “And that doesn’t concern you?” Jez asked.

  “Of course it does, but she was a Lightgiver. We cannot destroy her without directly opposing Gayel, and we dare not risk that. When Aphlel was held unconscious, you saw how quickly an internal conflict nearly turned to disaster.”

  “When we attacked, you saw how quickly following Sharim’s plan can lead to the same thing.”

  Leziel nodded. “And what do you suggest we do? There can be no denying that the traitor is a valuable source of information, and we would be fools to throw that away.”

  Jez sighed. “Still, I can’t help but feel like we’re just Sharim’s puppets.”

  As they walked, Jez gave orders to have the soldiers secure all portions of the keep. He sent an afur and a mage with each group, just in case there were things here Mirel didn’t know about. By the time Haziel led them to the stairs going down to the dungeon, forces had been dispatched to every area of the building.

  “Watch out for a trick,” Jez said. “The wards in the dungeon interfere with all kinds of workings.”

  Daziel snorted. “We know that. Who do you think laid them?”

  “You?” Jez asked. “I thought that was just a story. Isn’t that interference?”

  “It is seeing to the protection of the rulers. I have more latitude in that area. It will not interfere with pharim, however.” He eyed Mirel. “Though perhaps it was a mistake to make the exclusion so broad.”

  Haziel stepped aside. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll see to strengthening the defenses of the keep.”

  Jez raised an eyebrow. “I would’ve thought you would want to be there.”

  “So would I, a month ago.” He sighed. “I never really understood why the most ancient laws put such matters outside of my authority until now. I could never do what you have done. I’m little more than a child in this situation. Do what you need to do, Baron. I will stand with you.”

  As the king walked down the hall, Jez stared after him. “Well, that was a surprise.”

  “Not really,” Daziel said. “He may be argumentative and bull-headed, but in his heart, he loves Ashtar, and he would do whatever it takes to protect his kingdom. He has often been wrong, but that does not change the fact that he has never wavered from that goal.”

  “I guess so,” Jez said as he followed Gayel into the dungeon.

  Their steps echoed for what felt like an eternity. Lina couldn’t call a light because of the wards on the prison, but Daziel extended his hand and suddenly everything, save Leziel’s face, was illuminated. The musty smell of the prison seemed not to bother the pharim as they reached the top level of the prison. The lord of the Lightgivers picked a cell at random and forced Mirel in. She gazed at him with that same emotionless stare she had used on Jez. Gayel didn’t flinch as he returned her glare.

  “Who are you?” Gayel asked.

  Mirel waved at Jez. “Ask them.”

  “They do not know your name.”

  “We don’t?” Jez asked.

  Gayel’s eyes flickered, and his sword of light grew brighter for a second, leaving a purple afterimage in Jez’s vision. Gayel shook his head.

  “There was never a Lightgiver named Mirel.”

  Mirel grinned but didn’t say anything. Jez thought for a second. Lightgivers couldn’t lie, at least they couldn’t with their words. He turned to Lina and saw his own thoughts echoed on her face. Then, her mouth formed an ‘O’ as she realized what had happened.

  “When we first met her, she said ‘They called me Mirel.’ We just assumed that was her name.”

  Gayel nodded. “Telling you no lie yet causing you to believe one.”

  He glared at the afur with a stare so intense that Jez half expected him to cut her down. He spoke up before Gayel could do anything.

  “Enki. When we summoned her the first time, she pretended to be a demon. A chanori. She said her name was Enki.”

  “Ah,” Gayel said. “That is a name I do recognize. You were one of the few whose betrayals were terrible enough for us to cast you into the abyss.”

  “What did she do?” Jez asked.

  “She sought knowledge among the demons, and when some of their numbers rebelled, she sided with the abyss.”

  Enki smiled. “And in my time there, I learned things even you do not know, Gayel.”

  “We are not Darkmasks.” Gayel’s wings glowed so brightly for a second that when they faded, color had been bleached from some of the mold growing on the stone. “We do not seek out such secrets.”

  “And even we know that some secrets must remain secrets,” Leziel said.

  “You would not say that if you knew.” Enki’s voice has lost the musical quality and had become the dry gravelly voice Jez had first heard when she’d been pretending to be a demon.

  “Where is Andera hiding?” Gayel’s voice was like thunder. He made even Manakel’s anger seem cold.

  “Andera could not escape the abyss on his own. He needed human flesh so he convinced the mage Dusan to summon him into the body of an infant child, giving it life and, after a fashion, a soul. He hid among humans for nearly two decades before being discovered.”

  “That is not what I meant, and you know it,” Gayel said as he pressed on the sword on her neck, piercing the skin and releasing a glowing mote of yellow light.

  “Andera left the keep once he realized the elad had been destroyed.”

  “How?” Jez asked. “We were hidden behind illusions.”

  “You did not know about the signal it was supposed to send to Andera every few hours.”

  “You have changed the subject,” Gayel said. “Where is Andera?”

  “I do not know.”

  Jez sighed, but Gayel narrowed his eyes. “You mean you do not know his precise location at the moment. That is not what I asked. Where is he? Give me a generalization.”

  Enki smiled. “Rumar.”

  “You said he fled when the elad was destroyed. Where did he flee to?”

  “There is a passage beneath this dungeon that leads to the city.”

  Jez glanced over his shoulder at Lina, and she nodded. “We used it once when Sharim took over the keep a few years ago. If that’s where he went, we should follow.”

  He took a few steps toward the stairs down, but Gayel raised a hand. “Do not allow her to deceive you. She never said that was where Andera had fled.” Gayel twisted his blade. “Did you?”

  “I did not,” Enki said. “That does not mean you should not go investigate the passage.”

  “What will we find in there?” Gayel asked.

  “I do not know precisely. It depends on when you go.”

  “What if we went right now?”

  “I suspect you would find it empty.”

  Gayel’s nostrils flared. “Stop wasting our time.”

  Enki gave him a half smile. “I was not wasting your time.” A rumbling came from below, and Jez caught a faint smell of sulfur as irregular footsteps moved toward them. “I suspect you would find nothing in the passage because in all likelihood, the chezamuts sent to attack you have already made it into the dungeon.” Jez transformed and summoned his
sword just as the soldier demon jumped out of the shadows.

  CHAPTER 23

  Jez’s blade flashed as he swung, sending the head of the demon rolling. He didn’t have time to celebrate, though, as almost instantly, three others attacked. Jez took out two while Ziary dispatched one, but by the time those were dealt with, they were surrounded by the creatures.

  “You cannot seriously expect this to defeat us,” Gayel said.

  “It is not meant to defeat you,” the afur said. “It is meant to distract you while the rest of the strike force makes its way into the keep itself.”

  Jez lurched forward, his sword moving at a blur. Ziary moved just as fast. This was a type of battle they knew well. They stood back to back in front of the cell door. The demons rushed at them, and Jez and Ziary’s blades mowed through them like flames on dried grass. Twelve demons fell to their blades before the dungeon went silent again.

  “We have to get above,” Jez said.

  “Go,” Gayel said. “We can handle ourselves here.”

  Jez and Ziary flew through the corridors of the dungeon and up the stairs. They reached the ground level just in time to see dozens of chezamuts scatter, heading for every part of the keep. Ziary disappeared after a group that went down a hall leading to the east wing. Jez followed a group headed in the direction of the throne room. He didn’t have to go very far before he ran into a battle already underway in the large hall that stood before the throne room.

  Welb, in his wolf man form, tore into the demons as beings with cat claws or bull horns tossed the demons around like they were toys. A man with the golden fur and claws of a cat swung a sword with a skill and grace that defied human ability. Jez joined the fray, cutting into them with a skill honed over years. At first, Jez thought they would win easily, but more and more demons started pouring in from the side passages. In short order, they were outnumbered three to one, and then four. It wasn’t just chezamuts either. Shadow demons slashed with bladed arms that left limbs numb and unresponsive. Stone-formed sidens slashed with claws that gradually slowed their victims until the demonic venom crystallized their blood. Other types Jez didn’t recognize slashed and bit and stabbed. Individually, the beast men were stronger, but there were so many of the demons. It would only be a matter of time until they were overwhelmed.

  “Find out where they are coming from.” Welb’s voice was almost a growl and could barely be understood. “Stop them!”

  “I can’t leave you to fight alone.”

  Welb ducked under a lizard demons bite before slashing with his claws and opening the demon’s throat. “We do not need another warrior to die by our side. We need someone to stop them. Go!”

  Jez threw his hand forward and shot out a beam of silver light that pierced three chezamuts. Shimmering cracks spread through their skin before they collapsed into dust. He spread his wings and leaped over the combat. Some of the shadow demons, which stood nearly eight feet tall, tried to reach up with their bladed arms, but he dodged them effortlessly. He dove into the hall where a pair of wolf demons had just come from.

  He didn’t bother to land as he zipped through the passages. Every once a while, he would run into demons. Those he could deal with quickly fell to his sword, but at the others, he just threw bindings to slow them. At times, he just ignored the demons, searching for their source. The smell of sulfur, which had been absent until they’d first been attacked in the dungeon, hung thick in the air. Every time he reached a fork, he tried to determine where it was coming from, but it felt equally strong in all directions. He picked passages at random, desperately hoping that they didn’t all have a summoning circle at their end.

  A flash of yellow came from an open door at the end of the hall. The thing that walked out of the room looked like a man with dull gray skin and no hair. The ground shook as it walked, and it looked at him with empty eyes. He wasn’t sure what kind of demon it was, though he guessed it was a stone demon of some kind, and he knew how to deal with those.

  Jez brought his hands together, sending out a wave of force that distorted the air as it moved. It crashed into the demon, washing over it and forming cracks in its skin. Jez prepared to send out another wave, but as the demon took a step, its leg crumbled, and it fell to the ground with a thunderous crash. The working hadn’t been strong enough to completely banish the creature, and it thrashed on the ground, the left half of its body having collapsed into dust. That didn’t stop it from reaching with its remaining hand as if to strangle Jez. He approached it, easily dodging its grasp, and one quick blow from his crystal sword dispatched the creature. Then, he turned his attention to the room it had come out of.

  It wasn’t a large room. Most likely it had been used for storage, and Jez even thought he caught a faint smell of flour beneath the demonic sulfur. The glowing summoning circle on the floor and the brown-robed demon that stood at its focal point, however, were not the sort of things one would expect in such a room.

  The demon’s robes covered almost its entire body. Only its long nose and claws showed its leathery skin, deep purple and covered in warts. Matted gray hair hung from inside its hood. The demon, a hagine, lifted its hand and a wave of darkness rushed toward Jez. On instinct, Jez lifted his sword and caught the working on his blade. The darkness wound around the sword. Then, the weapon vanished.

  For a second, Jez could only stare, unable to believe that any working could banish a pharim’s blade. He tried to summon it again, but it was like reaching into a deep pool. He could see his sword at the bottom, but it was beyond reach. In the next instant, the hagine’s hand closed around Jez’s throat. Dark power rushed into his body, and it felt like his blood had turned to ice. He threw his hands forward, trying to summon the black fire binding that had been so effective against the sorcerer demons the year before. Rather than a fire large enough to consume the demon, however, a half dozen sparks trickled from his fingers. They sizzled on the demon’s robes and went out.

  The hagine squeezed. Jez clawed at its hand, but he may as well have been banging his fists against stone. It locked onto his gaze with its yellow eyes. The world started to go dark, and he feared those eyes would be the last thing he would ever see.

  Jez reached for the barrier in his mind, prepared to unleash the consciousness of Luntayary. At the last second, however, a shadow glided into the room and slashed at the demon. The hagine released him, and he fell to the ground, coughing. As his vision cleared, he looked up to see Captain Narva held against the wall by some unseen working. Her gold-veined sword sat on the ground at her feet, and black blood dripped from the demon’s back. The hagine’s eyes glowed yellow as its dark power strangled her. Jez threw forward his hands. Freed of whatever interference the demon’s grip had caused, the black flames engulfed the sorcerer demon and Narva together. She screamed, but his binding wasn’t normal fire, and it was only demonic flesh that it could burn. The fire faded, not leaving so much as a wisp of smoke or a pile of ash where the demon had stood. Narva collapsed to the ground but picked herself up a second later, completely unharmed and with sword in hand.

  “Thank you, Baron.”

  Jez huffed. “I should be the one thanking you. It would’ve killed me if you hadn’t come in.”

  “It is my honor to serve, Baron.”

  Jez rolled his eyes. “I’m pretty sure I’ve told you several times to call me Jez.”

  Her lips tightened in the beginnings of a smile, but she didn’t take anything back. Jez sighed. Rather than pursuing the issue, he eyed her sword. “I’m glad I gave you that. How did you find me?”

  She cleared her throat and pointed to where the hagine had been. “Actually, I found that. Demons attacked us at the base of the east tower. I got separated from my group and decided to try to find where they were coming from.”

  Jez gaped at her. “You came after it alone?”

  She hefted her blade. “You didn’t give me this to sit around and watch while everyone else did the fighting.”

  Jez inclined
his head and sniffed at the air. “I think there are others. I could use someone to watch my back. Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER 24

  The next time they came to a summoning room, Jez launched the black fire as soon as he had a clear shot. The hagine was consumed before it had a chance to react. The third one was ready for them, however. A shimmering green shield appeared in front of the demon, and Jez’s flames splashed against it. The hagine tried a flame working of its own, but Jez pulled water out of the air to extinguish it. A pair of quick slashes from his blade shattered the shield, but by then, the demon had already launched a swirl of sickly green light. Jez shot a similar working, though one that swirled in the opposite direction. The two workings crashed into each other and evaporated.

  Jez and the hagine hurled magic back and forth at each other for almost a full minute, neither able to gain an advantage over the other. The air crackled with energy, and while the hagine was focused on Jez, it didn’t notice Narva creeping up behind it. Better prepared this time, the captain threw her whole strength behind her blow in a two-handed strike and separated the demon’s head from its body. The dark smoke it had been summoning dispersed. Jez nodded once.

  “I’m not sure anyone who wasn’t a mage has ever banished one of those.”

  She grinned. “Give me a medal when this is done.”

  Jez laughed. “I will.”

  They banished two more hagine before they encountered a division of soldiers. A Beastwalker afur was with them along with a protection mage Jez didn’t know. They had taken down a pair of hagine as well, and the two groups joined together. These hadn’t been part of his original entry into the keep, though. Apparently, Galine had returned with most of the army, which was the first bit of good news Jez had heard in a long time.

  The group moved through the keep. Occasionally, they found other demons, but more often, they passed dead soldiers or mages. Every once in a while, other groups would join them. They had been going for half an hour when a creature that looked like a cross between a man and a wolf stepped around the corner. He led a group of other beings with forms that weren't quite human. One of the destruction mages launched an arrow made of fire before Jez could stop him. The wolf ducked out of the way and moved toward the mage in a gray blur. Those with him howled in defiance. Jez sent a surge of terra magic into the ground, transforming it to mud. It only slowed the beast men for a second, but it was enough for Jez to step in front of them with wings spread out and sword bared. Welb skidded to a stop, and Jez rounded on the mages. The one who shot the arrow had gone pale.