The Assassin and the Knight

by Rick Bonogofsky

  “More than you are,” Sara retorted. “Have you been to the top floor yet? There’s something there that you demons may want to see.” Her taunt hit the demons’ ears and they felt a powerful feeling of terror wash over them. Zhun quickly realized the woman had put some magic into her words and was trying to affect them. The demoness shook it off and looked to her comrades. Kizrack looked shaken, but no more than Zhun. Vurga was shaking, barely able to keep his composure. It was clear that he was fighting the fear welling up inside him, but it looked to be a losing battle.

  Sara gave them a coy smile. “Don’t you know?” she asked. “Your king is dead.”

  The woman’s words hit the demons like a hammer.

  “What?” Zhun gasped.

  Sara arched an eyebrow. “He’s dead. Killed by your pet angel here.”

  “You’re lying!” Zhun shouted.

  “She’s not lying,” Kizrack said slowly. His knack for discerning truth from lies gave him absolute certainty. “She’s telling the truth.”

  The demons were at a loss. Their king, to whom they had sworn their undying fealty, was lying dead at the top floor of the building. Zhun felt her knees go weak, then buckled entirely. She fell to the floor, too numb to feel the impact. While she felt the loss of her king, the despair she felt in her heart was for Adrian. He would be devastated when he finally came home to hear that his father had died. The demoness was not able to register anything outside of her own feelings. She did not notice Vurga leap forward in anger to attack the woman in front of them.

  The assassin swung his sword in a wide arc, catching Sara in the shoulder. Demonic steel bit into the woman’s flesh and sank into the bone. She hardly even flinched as blood dripped from the wound. Vurga was momentarily stunned, but ripped his blade free and swung again. He barely had the sword at the level of his shoulder when a bright ball of fire slammed into his chest, loosed by one of the dragons. The assassin fell to the floor, writhing in pain as the flames spread over his body. He gave one final cry before the fire consumed him completely. A blackened outline on the floor and a few flakes of ash were all that marked the demon’s existence.

  “And then there were three,” Sara taunted. She glanced at the wound on her shoulder and watched it close, the flesh knitting itself back together. “Does anyone else wish to try?”

  Kizrack looked at what remained of Vurga and felt anger and bile rise in his throat. He had never seen dragon fire before, and seeing what it could do terrified him. Zhun was on her knees, unable to move. Ariel stood beside him, clutching her spear with white knuckles. Seeing the angel’s fury brought a familiar fear to the imp. He had faced her in battle before, during the war. He admitted decades ago that he was on the wrong side of that conflict, and he was still working to reconcile that, but there was nothing he feared more than Ariel’s wrath. He only survived that battle because he ran away. Seeing the white knuckled rage building in the angel beside him brought that fear back to his mind. If anyone could face the woman in front of them, this ancient angelic general would certainly be the best option.

  “The option of a trade is still on the table,” the imp stated. His voice sounded meek and fearful in his own ears. “Or there’s another way we can settle this…”

  Sara looked at the imp, an expression of mild amusement on her face. “And what is that, little imp?” she asked coyly.

  “A contest?” Kizrack squeaked. “One of you against one of us? Winner leaves with their man, loser dies.”

  Ariel looked at the imp with burning anger in her eyes. “What?”

  Kizrack shrank away from the glare, fairly certain that the angel would finally kill him.

  “I like that idea,” Sara said, to the surprise of everyone in the room.

  “Madame, are you sure?” one of the dragons asked.

  Sara silenced him with a wave of her hand. “You two aren’t even a part of this. I’d rather you just leave. Go back to wherever you came from.”

  The younger dragon looked almost hurt by her words, but the other simply looked annoyed. “Well,” he said, “A few demons wouldn’t be able to start another war anyway. Especially with their king dead. Come, Jacob. Let us go home, then.”

  Jake nodded without a word, but made no other move. The elder dragon tugged at his shoulder, shaking the younger man to his senses. He mumbled an agreement and followed his mentor out of the labs.

  “Who do you propose the combatants to be, then, imp?” Sara asked after the dragons had left. “More to the point, who do you think will fight me?”

  “I will,” Ariel said, stepping forward before Kizrack could speak up. In fact, the imp was glad she did. He did not want to see what would have happened if he suggested she fight without her consent. He blew a silent sigh of relief and edged closer to Zhun.

  “You do appear to be the strongest of your little band,” Sara stated. “I accept. If you win, you get your dear brother. If I win, you let Walter go free and I kill you all. I like this game.”

  Ariel gave a determined nod and brought her spear in front of her. She settled into a ready stance, while Sara did the same.

  While they squared off, Kizrack reached Zhun and turned the two of them invisible. He helped her to her feet and ushered her to one side of the room.

  “While they’re busy, we need to use this chance to grab Vincent,” he whispered. “I still have my control rod, we can walk him right out of here and fix his brain later.”

  Zhun nodded weakly, barely registering the imp’s words. She looked up at the knight, who stood as if in a trance. It seemed he was put in a type of stasis while Sara was otherwise occupied with Ariel. It would be simple to sneak around the fight and come up behind him. They simply had to wait until Ariel and Sara began their fight.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Ariel stared into Sara’s eyes, calmly waiting for the woman to make the first move. Her patience won out over the chimeric woman, who lashed out with one hand. A spectral blade made from magical energy flashed toward the angel, who easily sidestepped the overhead attack. She thrust her spear, feinting low. The jab caused Sara to lift her foot, allowing Ariel to alter the direction of her attack and sweep Sara’s other foot from under her. The woman fell to the floor, landing hard on her back. She instinctively rolled away from Ariel, narrowly avoiding the follow-up attack aimed at her exposed side. The blessed spear dug into the concrete floor, and Ariel ripped it forward, sending dust and pebbles into Sara’s face. The chimera was momentarily stunned, and Ariel sent her spear directly into her stomach, twisting and wrenching the weapon about and tearing into vital organs. The angel sent magical energy through the spear, igniting the tip with holy fire born from her own soul. Sara screamed in pain, having never felt this level of agony in her short life. The fire cauterized the devastating wound, sealing it from Sara’s healing ability. But Ariel was not finished with her. She withdrew her weapon and stabbed Sara again, this time in the chest. The flame wreathed spear broke through Sara’s sternum and impaled her heart. The organ was incinerated within seconds. Sara’s screams stopped, and the remaining silence was palpable. Sara fell to her knees, her head lolling to one side, and she fell lifelessly to the floor.

  While they fought, Kizrack and Zhun took their chance, using the distraction to cross the room and sneak up behind Vincent. The imp deftly slid the silver rod up the angel’s spine, taking control of him. Vincent’s body went momentarily slack, but straightened up at Kizrack’s mental command. Without waiting to see the outcome of the fight, he took Vincent out of the labs, followed closely by Zhun.

  Ariel stood over Sara’s body, calm and collected. The fight only lasted an instant, and she was victorious. She looked up and saw her brother running from the labs. The thought crossed her mind that the two remaining assassins had something to do with his escape, and she allowed herself a brief smile. The plan had gone utterly wrong, but the outcome was more or less what they had hoped for. If the demons held to what was left of the plan, they would be on their way back
to her apartment waiting for her return. She slid her spear into its holder on her back and turned to Walter. The captive vampire was staring at Sara’s corpse in shock and abject terror.

  “H-how?” he stammered. “I created her to be so much stronger than any of you. How is it you defeated her so quickly?”

  “Power is a small thing when faced with experience. I was a general, an archangel of Heaven. I am thousands of years old, and I have lived through the worst times. Your petty child is far from the worst foe I’ve faced.”

  Walter sat in stunned silence. He watched as Ariel approached him, helpless and powerless to stop her. He cringed as she pulled a knife from her belt and cut the cables restraining him.

  “You’ve lost this battle,” Ariel stated. “Tell your people to leave Hell alone and you will not have to face the kind of pointless genocide you witnessed today.” With that, she turned and walked away, leaving the labs.

  Zhun and Kizrack fled the Globe Tech building with Vincent in tow. They immediately made for Ariel’s apartment, preferring to be done with the entire ordeal as quickly as possible. They moved through the crowded streets and finally came to the angel’s apartment. Once inside, they slumped into the chairs, breathing heavily from the sprint across the city. Kizrack sent a mental command to Vincent, causing him to slip into a coma. Zhun weaved a spell to keep him locked in stasis until they could find a way to reverse the hypnotism.

  “They’re dead, aren’t they?” Zhun asked at length.

  “Who?” Kizrack asked.

  “Cheal and Loran,” she replied.

  Kizrack sighed. “I imagine so.”

  Zhun stood from her seat and looked out the window. Smoke still rose from where the angels and Berron were killed. More smoke could be seen from the Globe Tech building. “I need to go back there,” she said quietly. The despair in her voice nearly brought Kizrack to tears. Even he was feeling the loss of his friends and comrades. As far as he knew, he and Zhun were the only demons to have survived the day. He felt in his soul that he was right. There was no argument coming from him trying to dissuade the demoness.

  “Why?” was all he could ask. His defeated tone brought Zhun’s gaze to him.

  “To bring their bodies home,” she replied gently. “Berron, Loran, Cheal… King Dante…”

  Kizrack let out a long, sad breath. “Adrian’s not going to be happy. Neither is Vincent. We can’t tell him. We can’t tell him what he did. It would kill him.”

  Zhun nodded her agreement. “You’re right. He can never know. But at least we have him back. Adrian will be glad of that, and then we can bring them both home. The kingdom needs its princes now more than ever.”

  Kizrack nodded. “Go. Bring our boys home. I’ll be here for a bit to make sure we weren’t followed.”

  Zhun gave the imp one last despair filled look and slipped out of the window, turning herself invisible as she did.

  Alone in the apartment, Kizrack let his emotions go, and he cried over the loss his home had suffered. He had counted Dante among his dearest friends, and the four assassins that were killed that day were like brothers to him. The loss he felt in his heart was too great for him to bear without breaking.

  Zhun crept across the city, returning to Globe Tech under the cover of a darkening sky. Night was approaching, and she wanted to be gone before the sun fully set. As she came to the building, she noticed the corpse of a demon apart from any others. When she came nearer, she brought her hand to her mouth as she recognized Cheal. She surveyed the scene and figured he fell from a great height. She looked up and saw two sets of broken windows, one on the thirtieth floor, then another twelve stories up. With tears in her feline eyes, she cast a shrinking spell on the corpse and placed it gingerly into a pouch on her belt. She cast another spell, giving her the ability to cling to any surface, and began climbing. She eventually made it to the top floor and crawled through the broken window. There she saw the bodies of at least a score of demons. Among the dead, she found Loran’s beheaded body, and the king’s skewered corpse. Zhun shrank them as well and placed them in the same pouch as Cheal. She considered going back to the labs to gather what she could of Vurga, but decided against it. With him reduced to ash, there was nothing left to bury back home. Defeated and thoroughly depressed, Zhun slipped through the opening of the broken window and made her way back to the street. Taking a longer route back, she stopped for Berron’s body lying among the bodies of the angel army. As she did, she thought she heard a sound from the nearby rooftop. Looking up, she saw no one, but thought she smelled the scent of someone familiar, but dismissed it as wishful thinking. Her task complete, she made her way back to Ariel’s apartment, where Kizrack was asleep and Ariel lay on the couch, obviously exhausted. The sun had set, leaving the home in darkness. None of them had bothered turning on any of the lights.

  “I’ve got our men,” Zhun said softly as she sat on the floor with her back resting against Kizrack’s chair.

  “I’m really sorry for your loss, Zhun,” Ariel offered. “I wish it had gone another way.”

  “Me too,” Zhun sighed. “But we got Vincent back. Adrian will be happy about that, at least.”

  “But he lost his father,” Ariel added. “Take it from someone who has lost a father; that is pretty devastating.”

  Zhun nodded. “I know. I lost my father, too. He fought in the most recent rebellions in Hell. He was on the wrong side of the battles. Adrian killed him.”

  Ariel propped herself up on her elbows. “And yet, you love him?”

  Zhun scoffed. “Of course I do,” she said with a sardonic smile “Under his constant bravado, he is just as scared and uncertain as you or me. But, more than that, he is a leader. He had my respect long before I met him. He’s a master at what he does, but not because of some natural ability. He trains harder and gets better with practice. That was something he instilled in our ranks from the start. No one could keep him down for long. Even death cannot stop him, apparently. He is quite the singular demon, even considering his lineage.”

  The angel pondered Zhun’s words. “Those are all traits to admire, surely, but not enough to still love him after killing your father,” she stated. “What drives you to love the man who took your father away from you?”

  “He’s… different,” Zhun paused. “I can’t quite say how, but there is something about him that I find entrancing. I’ve loved him for so long now, I don’t think I could pinpoint exactly what it is about him that caused these feelings.”

  “And does he know you feel this way.”

  “I believe he does. If not, it wouldn’t matter. I am happy with things the way they are. We have our fun, and we are free to do as we please. There is no defined relationship between us, and it is better that way in our line of work.”

  Ariel nodded her head, understanding the last part, at least. “It still strikes me as odd,” she admitted, “but it is not my place to tell you how to live your life.”

  “Have you ever loved anyone?” Zhun asked softly.

  Ariel thought back to the days when Artemis was in Heaven overseeing Dante’s rampage on Earth. “Once,” she replied without emotion. “But I got better.”

  “Couldn’t get him to love you?”

  “He was from another time. Truth be told, I think it was just a girlish crush, rather than real love. He was a leader, much like Adrian, and he was powerful. There was so much mystery about him and I wanted more than anything to know more about him. I thought, foolishly so, that he would stay forever and we would be together forever. I actually thought that there was a chance. But, after Dante finished his work on Earth, Artemis left. He left just as suddenly as he had appeared, leaving the ruling council of Heaven in disarray. By the time I saw him again, he had no idea who I was. He seemed… younger. Incomplete, even, as if he was not yet the man I knew. It was not until many centuries later that I realized he had traveled backward in time and I met the older version of him.” She trailed off, her mind wandering back to the simpler time
s of the past.

  “That’s rough,” Zhun commented. They sat in silence for the rest of the night, getting some much needed rest after the arduous day they had. Zhun dozed in and out of sleep all night, while Ariel slept with fitful dreams haunting her mind. Even Kizrack seemed to be blighted by foul dreams.

  Adrian appeared on a rooftop in New York among swirling dust kicked up by the strong gusts of wind caused by his teleportation spell. He looked around and grinned. This rooftop was exactly where he aimed his spell. He stood above his favorite coffee house in the city and breathed in the cool late afternoon air. An odd smell came to him on the light breeze, causing his nose to wrinkle. He smelled blood and burned flesh. Looking to the east, he saw a column of smoke rising into the air with the faint glimmer of magic surrounding it. He recognized the spell work from where he stood as a demonic warding spell. As he watched the smoke rise, he looked harder at it. The magic in and around the smoke was designed to keep unwanted attention from the area. Curious, he started moving toward it, hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Within several minutes, he stood over the scene of the angelic army’s demise. To one side he spotted Berron, and his knees buckled. He fell to his knees and stared in disbelief. His closest lieutenant was dead. Who else had been killed in the attack? And why were the angels nowhere near Globe Tech? As he knelt there, he spotted the outline of Zhun’s invisible form picking her way through the bodies. He watched her kneel down and shrink Berron’s body down to just a few inches and placed it gingerly in a pouch. He smiled upon seeing her still alive, but worried about who else may have been killed. He suppressed the urge to call out to her, wanting to survey the damage dealt by his people. Determined to find his answers, he stood and ran toward the vampire headquarters, summoning his sword as he went.

  Adrian sped across the rooftops, subconsciously silencing his footsteps with his renewed magic, and made it to the Globe Tech building by the time the sun had begun to set. The scene of carnage on the street was shocking enough, but he had seen worse during Hell’s conflicts when he was younger. He saw burned demon corpses and claw marks in the sidewalk, leading his mind to think dragons had been here. Before talking to the old man at Scholomance, the markings would have confused him, but he was willing to believe the legends to be true. After all, Scholomance was real. He slipped into the building’s lobby and found more dead demons, along with piles of vampire dust.