by John Hook
“Sheesh. Next time I’m going to have to read the job description more carefully.”
I stepped up on the dais where the Demon King used to sit, not sure what I was going to say. I looked out at everyone. Everyone was looking at me. I could see the anger of the Zaccorans had not subsided but was not being generated in the direction of the dark men.
I directed my words at them.
“We have fought a great battle here today. You all put yourselves in danger but you have freed yourself from your demon oppressors. Unfortunately, I have great need of all who are willing to stay and continue the fight. We must keep fighting because there are still humans to be freed and even your continued freedom is not assured.”
There was mumbling in the crowd.
“No one who doesn’t want to join me will be made to. If you must go, go with my gratitude and admiration. However, I need all who will stay. Zaccorans, you especially have shown great temerity and great restraint for not turning on the dark men.”
Roland looked at me with some concern. However, I saw I had the Zaccorans’ attention and hoped I knew how to use it.
“What the dark men did to you was terrible and no one could criticize you for seeking revenge. There is a bigger picture here. This is a world where nothing good happens to humans and when things become hopeless we grab at what we can to find whatever little comfort we can. I’m telling you that, given the right circumstances, you would have done the same to them.”
“Never!” A group of particularly angry Zaccorans shouted
“Oh come on, really? When a demon is shoving who knows what up your ass and ripping flesh from you, you wouldn’t slit your neighbor’s throat to escape the torture? What planet did you die on? I died on Earth and doing the right thing is hard when things are good.”
The Zaccorans started to look a little more contrite.
“Join me or don’t join me, but the one truly great thing you can do in this place, the human thing you can do, is forgive. Let’s do everything we can to try and free humans from being in the position to have to make these choices!”
And with that a rousing cheer rose from the crowd. All of the crowd. They raised their weapons aloft.
I stepped down and rejoined Kyo, Saripha, Rox, Roland and Izzy.
“You’re their leader now.” Blaise winked.
“Oh, crap.”
20.
As it turned out, mop-up took a bit of time, despite the heady feeling of immediate victory.
Most of the demons abandoned the battle once I had killed the Demon King. They left the city by throwing open the doors we had used when we left for Haven, not wanting to face the humans in Zaccora. We still had to move in squads through the city making sure all the demons possible had been flushed from the walled city. We also had no idea where the birth chambers were located and were not going to be able to make it our mission to find them. You never saw female demons because they really only had queens and their purpose was to produce large numbers of young, including a new queen. These offspring would rend her large, bloated body apart being born and then feed on her until ready to enter the world. When we had driven the demons from Rockvale, Izzy and Kyo had found the birth caves and burned them out. I had hoped that maybe these gray demons had created a place to house the queen in the walled city, but no such luck. It meant that, sometime in the future, we’d have to deal with this tribe again. Maybe it was just as well. It would give the dark men and the Zaccorans something to unite around.
While those of us who could hunted demons, Saripha and Rox led the healing activities. Although our glamours did a good job of healing if they were not too severely damaged, Saripha’s poultices and potions, which she carried in a bag, and Rox’s ability to calm nerves helped. I’ve never figured out how the glamours do clothing. They do, and, like our bodies, our clothing is affected by how we think of ourselves. However, the clothes are still removable and separate. As such, clothing can be torn in strips and used as bandages to staunch the worst bleeding. Eventually the wounds heal, the cloth strips disappear, and the original clothing would restore itself and appear undamaged.
Most who had been turned into protos had already fled, unless they had become lost in the city until they calmed down some. One had to be careful because they were still paranoid enough to attack if they didn’t understand what was going on, but we tried to guide any we found out of the walled enclosure and into Zaccora. The most severely wounded, dark men and Zaccorans, we sent back to find their homes. Even with the self-healing properties of the glamours, it would take days to recover for the most seriously wounded.
After all was said and done, there were some Zaccorans for whom returning home was more important than continuing the fight. Roland also dispatched some of the dark men back to beef up security for Gerod in case either Zaccorans decided to strike back or the chased-off demons showed up again. We nonetheless ended up, between the Rockvale militia, the remaining Zaccorans and the dark men, with a sizeable army.
While everyone else rested, Izzy led the archers in arrow recovery. They had used most of what they had and, as messy and unpleasant as recovery was in some cases, it was faster than waiting to make more. I helped Izzy with the very unenviable task of pulling arrows out of the huge carcass of the Demon King. If it was hard penetrating that skin with arrows, it was even harder trying to manually pull them out.
Finally, we found a room and I sat down with Roland, Izzy, Saripha, Kyo, Blaise and Rox. Roland had his captains in the room. In addition, Kyo and I had selected captains among the Zaccoran irregulars and had them in the room as well. It would be a long time before the Zaccorans and dark men would be comfortable with each other, so we had to make sure there was an equitable chain of command. Things were helped by the fact that no one had a particular problem with the Rockvale troops and, in fact, the Zaccorans viewed them as liberators.
“I take it now we head to the tower,” Blaise commented.
“Yes and no,” I answered.
“Some of us head to the tower,” Izzy guessed
“Eventually. We will head to Haven to free the city and the underground tunnels. They’ll expect us to do that.”
“And you want to do what they expect?”
“He wants to look like he’s doing what they expect so that he can do some sleight of hand,” Kyo injected.
“We know that Baron Steel is watching and that he’s playing cat and mouse with us. So far, it has worked out well because he keeps underestimating us instead of throwing all his magic voodoo at us.”
“He is upping the ante each time. This is going to get harder,” Izzy’s face had a look of concern.
“What about your magic voodoo?” Rox asked.
“I don’t know. I guess it is somewhere in me, but I don’t feel it. I assume it will come out if things get too bad.”
“That’s a risky attitude to take,” Saripha warned. “I think it would be better if we took some time for me to help you try to connect to that power and learn how to wield it.”
“I’m sorry, Saripha, there just isn’t time. We have to move while they are off balance because things aren’t going as easily as they thought they would. That’s how I have managed everything I have accomplished here”
“Relying on what worked in the past may not be the best strategy,” Saripha cautioned.
“The thing is we have a nice big army and they are watching. If they are going to make guesses about what we are doing, it is probably going to be based on where that army is headed.”
“You want them to guess wrong.” Roland spoke for the first time.
“I want to go to the tower. I don’t know why the tower is important, I just have this gut feeling that it is. I’m also guessing they don’t want me there. So we head to Haven and hopefully they will think I am retracing my steps and will get to the tower last. They will do their best to stop us at Haven.”
“However, at some point you’ll peel away from the troops and head to the tower.” Blais
e said it as a statement, not a question.
“And we get the brunt of the magical attack,” Roland said.
“Honestly, maybe. However, I suspect not. I’m betting that if I get into that tower, they are going to know it and it will instantly become their priority. I’m just hoping I have time to figure out what I need to figure out because I don’t think I’ll have long. Realizing what I’m doing will split Baron Steel’s priorities and give you an opening.”
“But you’re just guessing.” One edge of Roland’s mouth turned up.
Izzy laughed. “He’s doing that most of the time. Turns out he’s one hell of a guesser, you should pardon the expression.”
“Except when he’s wrong.” Rox winked.
As usual, I was getting tired of talk. I wanted to keep moving. “Anyone have a different plan? I think we should get going.”
“I don’t see any reason not to continue,” Roland agreed.
I turned to the Zaccoran who had taken the lead of their group of captains.
“As long as we can free more humans, let’s go.”
“You sure you’re a writer?” Blaise smiled.
“Hey, I have to do something while I wait for publishers to be invented.”
We didn’t have long to wait for Baron Steel’s next move in the game he was playing with us. Whereas Janovic had been crazy and focused on hurting me as his obsession, Baron Steel seemed to be more focused on simply wearing me down.
We had just passed the gorge and were coming out on the high plain in which Haven was situated when we saw a crowd in the distance. Floating above us, mocking us, was Baron Steel again. The crowd was far away, but they seemed to be humans.
“I’m impressed, Quentin. I really may have to get my hands dirty eventually and kill you off.”
“Any time you like, dear. Just turn off the metal skin trick and come down here. We can do it old school.”
The Baron started laughing. “You would like that too much, I’m afraid. What I can’t believe is what an imbecile you are. You have the blue power in you now. I can feel it. Yet you would rather put all of these people in danger than use it. You should give it to me, if you are going to let it go to waste anyway.”
“Well, we have already established that you can’t take the power.”
“It makes no difference since you won’t use it.” He laughed again. “I dare say, it seems the power is safer with you. We really don’t have to worry about it.”
I nodded to the distance, changing the subject.
“What’s up with the crowd, rusty?”
“Ah, well see, you inspired me. I decided to join you and free all the people of Haven.”
I thought about this for a moment. Because of the subterfuge being enacted on the people of Haven, I had expected a hard time convincing them they needed to be freed.
“I thought the people of Haven were happy.”
“Oh, yes, very.” Baron Steel grinned an ugly grin. “In fact, they were very upset to hear that their happiness was about to be torn away from them by an army of demons.”
“Demons…?”
“Yes, forgive me having a little fun.”
“Someone’s woven a spell over us,” Sarpha whispered. “I can feel it. I think this would have to be the work of the Manitor.”
“They cannot see you as you truly are. To them, you are an army of demons come to drag them from Haven against their will. They have been given crude weapons and told to kill you all. They have been told that they will never have to fear again that they will lose the peace of Haven. They really were quite eager to come.”
“What the hell do you want?” It was a stupid question. I more or less knew what he wanted.
“We can deal with that later. This is more fun. But don’t worry. Your weapons are better than theirs. This will be easy. You can just slaughter them all and turn them into protos like you did before. You don’t care about anyone as long as you get what you want.”
I could feel something alien rising within me. It felt powerful. It might have been useful. Blue tattoos appeared on my skin, but then I felt myself push the power back down and they faded. I couldn’t explain it, it just didn’t feel right.
“Poor conflicted Quentin. You have such power but you will let others die before you use it. Maybe everyone will be turned into protos, but you will keep going.”
He focused more broadly on all the others now.
“Remember who it was who brought you to this. Do you really think he cares for you beyond how you can die for his selfish needs?”
With that he flew off and disappeared.
“He has us under a spell?” I turned back to Saripha.
“They don’t see us. They won’t see any humans. They will only see an army of demons. I am guessing they have been whipped enough to not listen to anything we try to say.”
“Then we have no choice,” Roland said. “We have to defend ourselves, even if it means turning them into protos.”
“No!” It was the one who had emerged as the leader of the Zaccorans. His name was César. He had dark hair, a round face and kind eyes, but behind those eyes shone the memories of nightmares.
“We have to defend ourselves!” Roland insisted.
“We cannot kill them, even if they will be reborn. There has been enough sacrificing others to save yourselves.”
“And what are we supposed to do then?” Roland replied impatiently. “Let them kill us?”
“Maybe we just run. It is better for us to run than to sacrifice others for our own gain.”
I didn’t like the way this was going although I understood where César was coming from.
“Saripha, can we undo the spell?”
“Yes, but I need a little time. I have to create a medium to effect the change.”
I turned back to the others. “We need a way to slow them down without having to fight them. I need ideas.”
Saripha stood in the shelter of the trees, concentrating, and then raised her hands skyward.
The crowd from Haven were still some distance but moving faster.
“I’ve got an idea.” Izzy announced. He called out the archers and huddled with them for a quick conference. He didn’t bother to tell me what was up but I was grateful. Izzy put all the archers out in a line and had them draw back arrows, pointing slightly upward.
“Are they going to shoot them down?” César asked, concerned.
“Wait, César. That wouldn’t be Izzy’s first move. He shares your concern.”
Above us, gray clouds were beginning to fill the sky, but I wasn’t really paying attention to that.
Izzy ordered his archers to fire. The arrows arced through the darkening skies and landed in front of the crowd from Haven. They pulled up and fell back. Apparently, the illusion didn’t show what weapons we carried and they weren’t expecting the arrows. They were startled and pulled back to confer. Then they began marching forward, but slower, more careful. It wasn’t much, but we had gained more time.
From somewhere came a rumble of thunder and I realized Saripha was doing her weather witch thing as she had done when we fought at Rockvale. I grabbed César and Roland. The wind was starting to blow, so I had to raise my voice.
“We just need a bit more time. Rather than running away, start a literal end run away from the middle in both directions.”
César and Roland both understood. They grabbed their captains and ran with their troops to the right and to the left as if the plan was to run past the crowd from Haven on either side. The plain was wide and open so there was a lot of room to do it. The crowd was confused at first and stopped. Then they began to split their mass in the two directions to head off the two forks of our troops. Again, it was costing the crowd from Haven time.
Then there was a crack of lightning that hit the ground between us and them and everyone stopped. The clouds broke open and rain started coming down. At first it came in a drop here and a drop there. They were big, blobby drops that slapped the grass whe
n they fell, splashing everywhere. Izzy grabbed his bag with the bombs and secured it in a hollow in the rocks. He motioned everyone away from that area, knowing what would happen if the clay bombs got too wet.
Then the rain burst out and fell in sheets. Saripha later told me what the effect would have been for the people of Haven. The rain provided a medium for Saripha to re-work the spell. As the heavy rain fell, it became momentarily hard for them to see anything in front of them. Then as the rain slowed and the skies lightened again, our appearance as demons melted away as if it were a trick of the dark, and as more and more light shed itself on us we became more and more human until the crowd saw us as we were. It was as if the illusion were being washed away by the rain and our true selves, at least as revealed by our glamours, emerged in the light.
When it was over, there was little water on the ground and the skies were bright again. The large crowd from Haven stood there, apprehensive, not sure what to do, not sure whether to trust their perception.
“We mean you no harm,” I said.
“How do we know that?” one of the Havenites called.
“We are humans, just like you.”
“How do we know this isn’t the illusion now? How do we know whether you only appear as human? We were told we could keep our freedom if we killed you.”
I stepped closer to the people of Haven.
“Haven is an illusion, just as your battle here was. It just happens to be an illusion you want to have. Why, in Hell, would there ever be a place like Haven?”
“I don’t care.” The young man I was talking to glared at me defensively. “I will gladly take the illusion over what else is here and will kill to keep it.”
I was afraid he was going to whack me with his crude club, and maybe be joined by others. I was starting to back up.
“Wait.” The voice was familiar. “Quentin Case. I know this man.”
Dieter came out of the crowd. He came up to me and shook my hand. He had made an impression on me in the café, and apparently it was mutual.