He grinned as he pushed harder, while I struggled to keep his sword from touching my face. I could see the sharp edge just a couple of inches above. My skin felt cold just from the close proximity of that deadly steel.
One way or another, I had to get myself up and back on the offensive. I heard swords clashing somewhere behind, most likely Hansa and Jax tackling other daemon guards. I couldn’t see, as I was too busy staring into the hellish red eyes of Shaytan’s firstborn son.
I held my breath at the sound of metal slicing through flesh. That sound was impossible to miss. The glimmer of a steel sword’s tip reached me, glazed in blood. Cayn stilled, his eyes suddenly wide and glassy.
Someone had stabbed him from behind. Caspian.
Cayn croaked, then coughed and sprayed blood. I turned my head to the side so it wouldn’t smear me. It wasn’t water, but it was still going to stain my invisible form. Cayn died right there, almost on top of me, and I needed more strength to stop him from collapsing and crushing me beneath his massive frame.
I managed to bring one foot up and push it against his stomach. Someone else pulled him away. He landed somewhere at my feet just as his killer withdrew his sword. It was another daemon.
“What in the…” I breathed, then realized he was a pacifist.
There were two of them, in fact, wearing red lenses. And Pheng-Pheng. She’d gotten them out and brought them back to us, right in the nick of time.
Pheng-Pheng rushed over and helped me up. I was quite sore from my strenuous fight with a now-dead Cayn. Jax and Hansa finished with two other daemon guards, then rushed over to Caspian. Jax administered some of his blood and some healing powders, giving him a few seconds to decompress before pulling him back up to his feet and retrieving his sword.
“Thank you,” I said, nodding at the two pacifists, who were both burly and mature daemons.
They both replied with curt bows and warm smiles. “No, no, thank you,” one of them said. “I’m Merus, and this is my brother, Iskias. Thank you for giving us back our freedom.”
“We don’t have much time,” Pheng-Pheng interjected with a frown, her gaze constantly darting around. I could hear them, too, the dozens of daemon boots on the ground, slowly but surely getting closer to our location. She put the skeleton key in Iskias’s hand. He stared at it for a couple of seconds, then at me.
“What do you want us to do?” he asked, while Merus wiped Cayn’s blood off his sword. I owed him a life debt, for sure.
“Free your people. Tear Draconis down from the inside,” I replied with a smirk. “That key opens every charmed lock in the city. Go wild and get your kingdom back from the claws of these soul-eating vermin.”
Merus and Iskias both looked at each other, then chuckled softly. “If only I could convey how much I’ve wanted to hear someone say these words to me,” Iskias replied. “We’ve been waiting for such an opportunity for years.”
“We’ve always had a plan to demolish everything in one, swift rebellion,” Merus added. “But we never had the guarantee of an ally, an outside friend who could help us, who could make sure that our efforts weren’t plain suicidal.”
“We have you, now,” Iskias said. “If we die, we are martyrs. Rest assured, you’ve unleashed something that not even Shaytan himself can ever shove back inside a meranium box.”
Just then, a fireball shot through the sky, bursting into a bright orange flash not far from us. That was Caia, from the flat roof of a meranium box, showing us where the hostiles were. Dangerously close, at this point.
“We need to go,” I said, then shook both Merus and Iskias’s hands. “You do what you have to do. It’s time for the pacifists to have their say in how the daemon kingdom is run. But we… we need to get the hell out of dodge!”
“Leave this with us.” Iskias nodded and held up the skeleton key. “We’ll free as many people as we can.”
“And get them out, fast,” Caspian added, coming back to my side with a slight limp, holding his gradually closing abdomen wound. “We’re about to blow the top off this city. It will collapse.”
The daemon pacifists nodded, then ingested the invisibility paste that Pheng-Pheng gave them and shimmered away. They ran off in the opposite directions. One by one, the meranium boxes’ doors popped open, and out came a variety of daemons, Exiled Maras, and Manticores. Pheng-Pheng gasped at the sight of them, but I had to cut her moment of joy short.
She sighed, then we both looked out toward the main street. A large mass of daemon guards had just reached our alley. They stilled at the sight of open meranium boxes and prisoners spilling out. Those with red lenses on could see us standing in the middle as chaos unraveled just behind us.
“This is it, kids,” Hansa said from behind me, then sheathed her sword. “It’s time to make a run for it.”
“I’m ready,” I muttered, then put my swords away.
“Good, because it’s about to get crazy,” Hansa said, and slapped us both over the shoulder. “Run!”
And we ran back between the meranium boxes, as fast as our legs could carry us. Behind us, the daemons roared. The alarms blared all over the city. We left the daemon pacifists to do their thing. With a little bit of luck, some, if not all, of the prisoners they’d released so far were going to hold the guards at bay and away from us.
We had the survivors of a Druid delegation to bring back to the surface, an entire city of daemons to dismantle, and a swamp witch to rescue from the claws of Exiled Maras. Just another day at the office…
Caia
With Ryker, Rush, Amina, Idris, and Rayna under our protection, we had our work cut out for us, mainly because they were all quite weak. It would take more than some basic nourishment and healing potions to get them back in shape. They’d spent thousands of years locked up in meranium boxes, deprived of fresh air and, in the non-Maras’ case, sunlight, all while daemons fed on their very souls. The debilitating weakness they had to live with would take months, maybe even years to wear off.
After I launched the fireball to notify Harper and the others of the incoming hostiles I’d seen headed toward them, Blaze and I escorted the delegation survivors back through the maze of narrow alleyways. We were going back to the secret tunnel, and it was our turn to lead the way. We also had to move fast, stay invisible, and keep our red lenses on, making sure we weren’t spotted along the way.
“Where are we going?” Ryker asked, struggling to keep up as we ran past the outer prison block.
“There’s a secret tunnel nearby,” I replied, looking behind us. “We need to go through there if we’re to make it out alive. It’s rigged to explode as soon as we’re out.”
“You outsiders really don’t play around, do you?” Ryker replied, wearing an appreciative smirk.
I could see Hansa and Jax just a couple of minutes back, followed by Caspian, Pheng-Pheng, and Harper. They moved fast and were bound to catch up with us soon, as they dodged attacks from incoming daemons. The alarms were blaring all over the prison city, and troops were coming in from multiple stations.
We had only a handful of minutes to work with in order to avoid a direct confrontation with a horde of bloodthirsty daemons.
“I know I’m asking a lot, but we need to go faster,” I said, increasing my running speed.
Ryker gave me a brief nod and picked up the pace. I could see beads of sweat blooming on the freed prisoners’ faces as they summoned every last ounce of strength they had left. While running, I took out the charmed vials we’d used to collect daemon blood and handed them over to the rest of our group.
“Smear some of this on you,” I breathed. “We’re about to go through a cloaking spell.”
“Watch out!” Blaze warned, then dashed ahead of me, just before we reached the stairs leading up to the cloaked entrance. Two daemons came down, wearing red lenses and growling as they drew their rapiers.
They didn’t stand a chance in front of Blaze, who blew a column of fire at them, temporarily obscuring them. They screame
d from the burning pain, but their torment was cut short, as Blaze took his sword out and slashed their heads off in two gracefully swift moves.
I led the prisoners up the stairs, my lighters ready in my hands as I prepared for more hostiles.
“That’s quite the skill!” Amina said, impressed.
“Yeah, Blaze is a very special dragon,” I replied, filled with admiration and pride. It was enough to make Blaze blush and grin like a happy little boy—and enough to make me fall even deeper in love with him.
Just before we passed through the wall, I glanced back to check on the rest of our team. Hansa and Jax made it to the bottom of the stairs, while Harper, Pheng-Pheng, and Caspian cut down several daemons before they caught up with the rest of us. Daemons flooded the streets several yards behind them. Their rapiers were out, blades glistening with a thirst for blood. Pit wolves weren’t too far behind, either, the swamp witch symbols engraved on their charmed collars glimmering amber.
“Time to go!” I said, then passed through the cloaking spell’s faux wall, welcoming the momentary chill.
Two daemons awaited on the other side. Someone had spotted the lack of guards and had summoned replacements. It didn’t matter. I flicked my lighters open and shot two jets of fire at them before they could even fully draw their weapons. The flames swallowed them whole, just as Blaze jumped in and cut them down. Their heads were still burning as they rolled on the hard ground.
I darted over to our left and around the large stones concealing the secret door, which I pushed and held open, motioning for our delegation prisoners to go through. “Go, go, go! All the way up to the top! Vesta and Laughlan are waiting!” I shouted.
One by one, they vanished into the dark tunnel, with Amina and Rush leading the way. Blaze took my place holding the door, then gently pushed me into the tunnel.
“Go, Caia, go!” he said, just as Hansa and Jax reached us.
“Not leaving you behind!” I shot back and held my ground.
Hansa chuckled, then ran into the tunnel, joined by Jax. They put their swords away and headed back to the surface. “You two are incorrigible,” she muttered, her voice echoing through the passageway.
Blaze wanted to insist, opening his mouth to say something, but I gave him my “Don’t even try it!” glare, and he seemed to get the message.
Harper, Pheng-Pheng, and Caspian passed through the wall, their swords still dripping with daemon blood as they sheathed them and joined us in the tunnel. Just then, daemons poured in from the city. With everyone going up through the tunnel, it was time to close it off.
Blaze pulled the door shut. I used my fire to melt the lock and hinges, making it more difficult for the fiends to break through.
We then joined the rest of our group and made our way up through the tunnel. “So far, so good,” I muttered. Blaze was right behind me, and I could almost feel his breath on the back of my neck.
His mere presence filled me with gusts of energy, adding strength to my muscles. I ran faster. A loud clang behind us indicated the inevitable had come to pass: the daemons had broken through the door and were now spilling into the passageway.
“Time to fire them up a bit,” Blaze chuckled.
I flicked my lighters open. “I’ve been looking forward to this all day,” I replied.
And I had been looking forward to it, from the moment Harper had first laid out her plan. The daemons had their movements and range restricted by the tunnel. My fire didn’t. My fire burned and spread through everything, consuming all that stood in its path.
Looking back, I counted at least fifty daemons that were going to be reduced to piles of carbonized bones, with more coming in from behind. Part of me thought I shouldn’t enjoy it too much, but, after all they’d put us through and for everything they still wanted to put us through, I figured I deserved this moment.
Harper
Caspian’s injury was healing quite fast, allowing him to keep up with the rest of us almost effortlessly. I could still see the occasional frown crossing his face whenever he increased his running speed, but I was thankful to have one less thing to worry about, given what lay ahead.
We kept running through the tunnel, the sound of daemons’ rapiers and pit wolves’ growls sending shivers down my spine. They’d just broken through the bottom door. The entire passageway lit up yellow, inundated by the wails and squeals of fiends burning. Both Caia and Blaze had unleashed hell on our enemies.
Bodies tumbled to the ground, while the smell of burning flesh followed us.
The blazes they released were enough to give us a good advantage, though I doubted it would last long. Knowing the daemons and the access they had to swamp witch magic, it was only a matter of time before they produced something to withstand our dragon attacks, which was why it was imperative to get Lumi out as soon as possible.
One of the pit wolves dodged the flames and jumped over the collapsed daemons, making its way toward us at a scary speed. Caia’s fireball missed it by inches. Blaze pulled her out of the creature’s way, leaving Pheng-Pheng and me to deal with it. More daemons were coming in from behind, with more collared pit wolves.
I tried to knock the beast’s collar off with my sword, but there wasn’t enough room to evade its snapping jaws. I had no other choice but to push out a strong barrier. Pheng-Pheng immediately stung the creature with her tail, and we left it behind. It fell flat on its face, almost instantly paralyzed. I couldn’t risk getting Caspian hurt, or worse. I’d already noticed the pattern of pit wolves trying to go for their weaker opponents first when they caught the scent of blood, and I certainly couldn’t let them work their way to the top, where the delegation prisoners were.
“I feel terrible for doing that,” I muttered, then resumed running, with Pheng-Pheng right behind me.
Caia and Blaze covered our backs with another round of deadly fire, filling the tunnel behind us with bright orange flames. I squirmed at the sound of daemons screaming. It wasn’t necessarily that I felt sorry for them but writhing in agony as fire ate away at one’s flesh was not something I wished upon anyone, even as I watched it happen behind me. It was just awful.
“We have no choice,” Caspian said, running ahead of me. “It’s too narrow down here.”
“How long till we reach the library?” Pheng-Pheng asked, her gaze darting between the front and the back. “I’m running low on venom.”
“Don’t worry about that,” I replied with a smirk. “You’re just as deadly with swords, plus…” I added, pointing a thumb over my shoulder at Blaze and Caia. “Plenty of firepower over here. We’re good.”
“I’m more concerned with what happens once we reach the library,” Pheng-Pheng said.
“They can’t breach the cloaking spell,” I reminded her, even more amused by the glimmer that the realization brought to her eyes.
“They’ll be stuck in the tunnel!” She gasped, then chuckled with devilish satisfaction.
Caspian and I couldn’t help but laugh as we moved forward, picking up speed. I heard a grunt behind us, a sound that never brought anything good with it, not when it came from Blaze. A quick glance over my shoulder made me stop and draw one of my swords, nodding to Caia to get behind me.
Another pit wolf had made it through the flames and had nipped at Blaze’s ankle, bringing him down with a loud thump. “No, you don’t,” I hissed, then pushed out another barrier just before the beast could sink its enormous fangs into Blaze’s ribcage.
Caia gasped behind me, just as the pit wolf rolled backward into the tunnel. I sent out another barrier, this time with an extra kick, as I figured the beast would be helpful in keeping the other daemons back through the laws of physics.
The tunnel was now at a forty-five-degree angle. A third barrier would send the creature down at significant speed. Caia slipped next to Blaze and helped him up. His ankle was bleeding, and he was going to need some vampire or Mara blood, but there wasn’t enough time—not while we were still in the tunnel.
Th
e pit wolf scrambled to get back up and come after me, snarling and snapping its humongous jaws at me, but it didn’t get a chance. I released a third barrier with a growl of my own, feeling my temperature rise from the sheer mental effort. That beast was huge, and it required tremendous effort to knock it back down.
Fortunately, my third barrier worked. It smacked the pit wolf over the head, sending it down into an increasingly fast tumble. The daemons still pouring into the tunnel stilled, their red eyes wide and their mouths gaping, as the saw the creature rolling toward them—a large mass of heavy bones and rock-hard muscles hurling right at them like a bowling ball.
I chuckled as I watched them frantically trying to duck or dodge the pit wolf, but, in the absence of space, there wasn’t much that they could do. The beast rammed into them, crushing them into the ground and against the tight walls. I could almost hear their bones breaking.
“I really should start keeping score,” I giggled, then ran after the rest of my team.
I noticed the delegation prisoners coming to a halt at the top, facing two familiar figures. Hansa yelped. I ran faster, briefly using my True Sight to get a better look. My heart skipped a beat, and a grin cut across my face.
“You sly little thing!” I quipped, thrilled to see Fiona by the open library door, accompanied by Zane. “You did it!”
“I totally did,” she laughed, then nodded to someone out of sight to come into the tunnel. Just then, as I watched Velnias’s head pop in, I experienced the kind of hope I hadn’t thought I’d feel until we got Lumi out of Azure Heights. “And look who’s back in action!” Fiona added, stating the wonderful obvious.
“Come on, go in!” Hansa said to the delegation prisoners. Fiona cut her palm with a small knife and gently smudged each of the new team members with her blood, so they could easily pass through the cloaking spell.
A Charge of Allies Page 11