by John Hook
Roland looked at Rox.
“He would do that?”
Rox laughed. “Oh, trust me, you have no idea.”
Roland turned back to me.
“I could just imprison you now.”
“Oh, bloody hell, Roland, stop it! This doesn’t turn on me. I’m just the annoyer- in-chief.”
Roland sighed and the front he was trying to put up melted away.
“You really believe we can do this?”
We waited out in the hall for what seemed a very long time while Roland met with his captains. I wasn’t sure what that was about. He might have been seeing if his captains had spotter reports on our troop strength. We were mostly quiet, although at one point Rox snickered and muttered “annoyer-in-chief” under her breath.
Kyo was on high alert. I suspected she was spending most of her time doing what Blaise might have done. She was noting all doorways off the hallway, noting the beams she might have been able to jump to, and in general making sure that if an escape route was needed we had one. Saripha just seemed to be meditating.
Finally, Roland’s captains came out and filed off. Then Roland emerged.
“Let’s go.”
He didn’t need to elaborate where we were going. We headed upstairs to the large gathering room and then up to the wing that the boss occupied. He knocked and a booming voice told us to enter.
Gerod sat in his chair with a couple of guards lurking near. They were alert as we entered the room. Gerod saw me and frowned.
“Roland, I have a feeling you have brought me trouble.”
“Boss, I suppose I have. “
“I take it Quentin has been emboldened by surviving the first trip.”
“He has a plan, sir.” Roland continued evenly. Roland laid out the plan and I was in fact impressed with how many of the details he had worked out in his head when I thought he was too mad at me to even be listening. I now began to suspect why he had called in his captains.
When Roland was done, Gerod sat back thoughtfully.
“You are convinced this can work?”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Can you guarantee it?”
Roland looked at me.
“No, sir. Too many unknowns.”
“And if I say no?”
“Sir, with all due respect, I think that puts us in grave danger. We will end up fighting a force that should be our allies. It will likely cost many lives and change our usefulness to the demons anyway.”
Gerod turned to me. His eyes were dark and held mine and then he broke out laughing.
“I was about to ask if you would really do that. Of course you would. You are in Hell and you still think there’s a good fight to fight.”
“No reason to go on if there isn’t.”
“Sir, you have always trusted me with our men. I’m asking you to do so now.”
“You are convinced?”
“Sir, I am.”
“Then make sure we win.”
19.
It took two days to pull everything together. When we really sat down and created strategy and tactics, I had to admit that I really didn’t have any good military experience to bring to the table. The battle of Rockvale was a big ball of chaos that somehow ended up working out in our favor. Blaise pointed out that, in his experience, that seemed to be how most everything I did went. While the dark men had never had any real military challenges—they had never dared go up against the demons—they operated with the skill, discipline and well-developed tactics. It was admirable as long as you didn’t think too hard about what those tactics did to other humans.
Roland and his captains were skilled planners. They put together a plan for taking the walled city that included several alternate scenarios for things that might go wrong. Our main plan was based on the assumption that it would look like just a normal delivery to the demons. The usual group led by Roland would go in and present themselves to the Demon King and then, unexpectedly, the other troops would rush in the open gate, including the unit from Rockvale. Some troops would rush forward to strengthen Roland’s group and the others would rush down into the city attacking demons and opening the cages. They would then fight their way back to the others. Archers would be set up on the roadway and would get onto rooftops. Under that scenario, with demons unprepared, our odds were pretty good.
The question was, what if the demons were prepared for our ruse? We knew that Baron Steel was out there, keeping his distance but stirring up trouble. For that reason, we made sure our preparation of troops was done in areas not easily seen from afar.
Saripha and Rox worked with the captive Zaccorans to convince them that this was as much for the liberation of Zaccora as for anything else and that they needed to help their former tormenters achieve this. Against Roland’s wishes, though he was informed, some Zaccorans were given sharp wooden daggers they could use to defend themselves in the ensuing fight. Saripha seemed to be able to show them sufficient empathy and compassion that they accepted her and I was grateful she was there.
Izzy showed up about midway through the second day. He would lead the archers and made sure the bows and arrows and training for the dark men elite squads were up to snuff. He also came bearing gifts. Taka, who was working with Lazar and several others from Rockvale, was transporting rock and lava. However, he and Izzy had conducted a number of experiments. Izzy pulled back the flap on a bag he was carrying.
“You’ll like these. We created them for our tests.”
“What are they?” I asked. “They look like egg timers.”
“A small clay pot with a solid clay stem between two pods. One pod has a small bit of the reactive rock, the other a small amount of lava. Throw it and you may have a bomb.”
“May?”
Izzy grinned. “You noticed that, huh?”
“I pay attention to scientific terms.”
“The reaction is instantaneous—that was one of the experiments we did. Therefore you can’t build in any manual way to combine the rock and the lava.”
“No delay after the pin is pulled.”
“Afraid not. So you throw them and hope that when they break open at least a drop of the lava finds the rock.”
“Which doesn’t happen every time.”
“Taka and I may be able to design something with a delay mechanism in the future, but it won’t be right now. Still, these may come in handy.”
“Just don’t go swimming with that bag.” I smiled.
“Have to watch for rain too.”
“Good thing we don’t get much.”
In preparation, before the sun came up, we stuffed the side streets and alleys with troops. Kyo commanded the Rockvale ground assault team while Roland’s captains headed up their forces. Izzy was in charge of the archers. I would lead in the first group of dark men to storm the gate—my plan was to go straight for the Demon King and try to cut off the head. Of course, I had no idea how I was going to do this given his size, teeth and claws.
Blaise was going to go in with the normal retinue bringing prisoners led by Roland. Not to sound like a bad joke, but he blended in well with the dark men and it would put someone I trusted with Roland. Not that I didn’t trust Roland, but Roland’s agenda wasn’t always mine. Roland went alone for one last briefing to Gerod and we were ready. When he came back, he seemed a little uneasy. I assumed he was worried about the unknowns. So was I.
We gathered the Zaccorans who were posing as being taken to the demons. The dark men were a bit chagrinned that the Zaccorans were not intimidated and did not want to cower and cooperate. They viewed this as their fight as well, but everyone fell into line and played their role before we got to the gate.
Two of Roland’s men walked forward to the gate, pounded with their clubs and stepped back. As before, there was a pause before several demons looked over the top and assessed the situation. Even from up there, they couldn’t see the forces waiting to spring in from the side streets and alleys, although they looked around. One demo
n nodded and there was the sound of the beam that held the gate shut sliding away and the gate swung in.
We watched as Roland took his procession in. Everything seemed to be going according to schedule, all normal routine. We poised to begin the rush. Then, unexpectedly, the gate swung shut. I rushed forward, my squad right behind me, but we were too late. The gates slammed shut before we could get there and we could hear the beam sliding shut. Demons popped up on the wall, screaming their laughter and projecting into our heads, “They are all going to die in here. Horrible deaths. And then we will come for you!”
Above us, Baron Steel floated down and hovered. He looked at me, smirking.
“Oh, I’m sorry, was I not supposed to reveal that you were probably going to try an attack?”
Then he turned to all the others.
“Don’t you see the danger following this man has placed you all in? This is hopeless. You are in Hell. There is no freedom for humans. There is only obeying the demons and their overlords. We hold all the power. Look how I have been rewarded.” The Shade pointed at me. “He will get you only more punishment!”
Suddenly there was an arrow in his shoulder. He screamed in pain, turning immediately to metal, almost falling off his platform.
“Good luck with the Demon King.” Baron Steel flew away at top speed and disappeared over the horizon.
Izzy lowered his bow and ran over to me.
“Archers! Formation!”
Izzy’s archers immediately formed two lines, one on one knee and the other standing so all could fire simultaneously. I ordered my unit to line up on either side out of the line of fire.
“Plan B,” Izzy said.
A couple of the demons were still looking over the wall to see what we were doing. Archers killed one with a head shot and sent the others diving for cover.
Izzy took down his bag and unwrapped some of the bombs.
“Here’s hoping.” Izzy threw a bomb. It broke, but the rock popped out and rolled into the street. Izzy threw another. It exploded, causing the door to shake and blackened its front. I threw another, hitting the seam in the two doors. The explosion was accompanied by a loud crack. Izzy threw one that exploded, setting fire to the doors with another snapping sound.
“We are going to be pretty low when we get to the tower if we have to throw many more,” Izzy noted.
“Wait!” One of Roland’s captains shouted. He picked up the rock that had rolled into the street. The doors were starting to part at the bottom and some of the lava had flowed into the space. The captain slung the rock underhanded with the skill of a softball pitcher and got it to go in between the doors before hitting the lava. The resulting explosion forced the doors apart and finished breaking the wooden beam that held them. They flew open.
The tableau in the walled city was grim. Roland’s group was down the street near the Demon King, who was shouting in rage. The demons had all poured out of the city streets onto the main roadway behind Roland’s troops and were ready to attack in overwhelming numbers.
“Archers! Cover fire!” Izzy shouted.
“You really get into this army stuff. You must be a terror at paintball,” I laughed, actually more impressed than I sounded.
The two rows of archers in front of the now-open gateway fired volley after volley into the demons. Demons were trying to get away but were getting tripped up by their own dead, and then getting caught by the arrows instead.
Then the volleys stopped. As per our plan, I raced in with my unit and plunged into the remaining demons while Roland and his unit, with Blaise, waded into them from the other end. I couldn’t keep tabs, but I assumed everyone else was doing their parts. Kyo and Roland’s captains were taking fighters down into the city. Izzy had archery units picking off more demons around the road behind us and climbing into trees and onto rooftops to fire down on demons in the streets.
I was also dearly hoping the small special squad from Rockvale that had been assigned to stay hunkered down with Saripha was resisting doing otherwise. I knew that seeing the violent chaos would make it tempting to rush in. However, Kyo had always commanded good discipline with her charges and they knew what the stakes were for Saripha.
I was pressing through the crowd of demons, taking a number of swipes of claws. Blood was everywhere, but none of the wounds were serious. On the other hand, I was able to slash throats with my short sword. As I finally made it up to join Roland and Blaise, they were doing well enough with just clubbing demons.
“Did I mention this was why I wasn’t crazy about your idea?” Roland’s voice was annoyed but his face said he was glad to see me.
I stepped in so that Roland, Blaise and I stood facing in three different directions, dispatching demons as best we could in all directions.
“I think we might have bigger problems,” Blaise remarked with only a little emphasis, which in his case I took as alarm. Roland and I turned as best we could while holding our own. The Demon King was suddenly becoming animated in a way we hand never seen before. Moving with surprising speed for such a large creature, he grabbed two dark men with his clawed hands and flung them both against the wall. Then his enraged eyes locked on us.
“And I do mean a big problem,” Blaise added.
Kyo and her forces burst out of the streets. A mob of released Zaccorans who had found their inner anger fell over the demons we were fighting like a wave. Izzy rushed up with his archers.
“You cannot stop me. How dare you!” the Demon King roared in our heads. Izzy’s archers fired several volleys, but they were getting low on arrows. The arrows all hit their target. The Demon King looked almost like a porcupine. Apparently, although the arrows stuck, his skin was tough enough that they couldn’t penetrate deeply. All those arrows had only enraged him more. We scattered as it lunged at us.
Izzy came up with an arrow ready. I started to suggest he save it. Then I saw where he was aiming. He let loose the shaft and the arrow went into his eye. The Demon King reared up and made a haunting shriek that had my ears ringing, however either the arrow wasn’t long enough to reach his brain or he didn’t have enough of one to damage. He glared at us and prepared for another attack, gutting two unfortunate fighters who had stepped too close.
Without thinking, which seems to be how I do my best work, I ran obliquely to the side of the Demon King. He was having trouble tracking me as I ran to the side of the bad eye. With short sword in hand, I jumped up on him and used the arrows in his skin as footholds as I scrambled up. Several arrow shafts broke off, but they provided just enough resistance for me to keep going if I didn’t stop and try to balance myself. The Demon King screamed and flailed, making me fall. I was able to catch myself by plunging in my blade and then pulling myself up the rest of the way with the arrows. The Demon King slashed himself with his own claws in an effort to try to dislodge me. I finally reached the top of his head and plunged my short sword as far as I could force it into his skull.
He twisted and howled and I had to keep ducking and grabbing to hold on as he tried to dislodge me.
“Okay, that’s proof frog face—you don’t have a brain.”
“Quentin!” It was Kyo. I looked up in time to see her toss her long sword to me in its sheath. I almost didn’t have time to prepare and nearly lost both it and my grip.
“Forget the brain pan,” Kyo called. “The throat.”
The Demon King bucked and I went flying to the ground.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Roland said behind me. Blaise put the long sword back in my hand and Roland and Blaise threw me back up onto the Demon King. I scrambled to neck level and sank the long sword into his neck. I had to drive it in, but it cut through the skin like butter. I then grabbed the hilt and using it like a gym bar, swung myself under his chin, using the weight of my body and the momentum of my swing to pull the sword with me. Green and yellow goo flowed everywhere.
Instinctively, the Demon King threw his head back which just accelerated the separation of its neck until its head flopp
ed against its back and a gaping hole appeared where his neck had been. The Demon King collapsed thunderously to the ground.
It was cornball, but like the proto I had been in the woods, the tension and the adrenalin of being in such a deadly situation overcame me. I leapt atop the Demon King’s corpse and covered in both my and demon blood and looking like a possessed demon myself, I held the sword aloft and bellowed at the sky. Around me, demons were immobilized by the loss of their king. All of the humans, Rockvalers, dark men and Zaccoran’s alike, held their weapons or fists aloft and joined my bellow. Then all turned on what was left of the demons. And so I stood, sword raised in a circle of carnage having liberated my second city in Hell.
Not me. I realized now there were those in Hell ready to fight to take their humanity back. I wouldn’t have lasted very long here without them.
What I dearly had to hope was that the magical beings who ran this place would continue to underestimate us.
As the adrenaline of the moment spent itself I realized how silly my stance was and jumped down and joined Kyo, Roland, Blaise and Izzy. I gave Kyo back her sword.
“We’d probably better have a pow-wow over what comes next.”
“I think you’d better pull together your troops first,” Kyo offered.
“I don’t understand. They’re not my troops. Yours and Roland’s maybe. I don’t even know what I’m doing.”
“Nonsense.” Saripha came up to join us. “Since the day you first appeared here, your passion has moved those around you. You wanted people in Hell to fight. You now have them and you need them. More, they need you and your passion to keep them moving forward. You are going to have to accept your responsibility for what you are asking others to do.”
Kyo nodded. “Exactly. You got us to give up the safety of the mountains. You got the dark men to do the right thing and give up safety they paid for with others’ pain. You need to stand up and bring all of them together with that passion.”