“It’s as good a place as any.”
Jez nodded. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
The lower levels smelled of dust and old paper. Osmund’s large footprints crisscrossed the room and led to several glowing runes scattered about the chamber. A smaller set of footprints led toward the other end of the room. Through a door, Jez could see a faint yellow light pulsing.
“What is she trying to summon?” Jez asked.
Osmund shrugged. “Some kind of knowledge spirit? Maybe something to guide her through the library.”
They walked more quickly. On instinct, Jez sniffed for the sulfuric smell that always accompanied demons. He found none. Something tickled at his memories, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. They stepped into the room, and Jez stopped in his tracks.
“Enki.”
The scaled demon stood at the edge of a summoning circle with its hands raised. Its snake-like eyes focused on him and gave him a toothless smile. The hairs on the back of Jez’s neck stood on end.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were destroyed.” As soon as the words had left his lips, Jez’s blood went cold. “I never smelled sulfur around you, not even when you were first summoned. You’re no demon.”
“No.”
“You altered the circle, didn’t you?” Jez asked. “That’s how you survived Ziary’s attack.”
“It was a simple change, and it summoned me a few yards, though it used up all the remaining energy in the sand.”
“It blew out the ceiling.”
“And I simply flew away, only to return when you summoned the afur you had seen.” His form shimmered, and Mirel stood in his place. “Our forms are determined by our self-perception. This is the form I wore when you saw me, but I can alter it if I choose.”
“You see yourself as a demon?”
The smile she gave was even more unnerving than Enki’s. “Why not? I did, after all, rebel.”
“But you regretted it.”
Mirel laughed. “Do you know how much secret knowledge the demons hold? It’s more than you can imagine. More than is contained in this place. It is knowledge forbidden even to us. Why would I regret seeking it?”
“Then why did you help us?”
“Few pieces of knowledge have escaped the demons, but those few are in this place. I could’ve never come here without you. It required a mortal. The goal was to bring you here alone, and it surprised me when you pushed passed my interference and brought your friends here, but it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Osmund,” Jez said. “Run. Activate your runes.”
“No,” Mirel said.
Shadows swirled around the room. Lina let out a yelp but drew Jez’s sword. It only took Jez a second to realize that these creatures hadn’t come in response to Mirel’s summoning. However she was controlling them had nothing to do with the circle she’d drawn. That was too similar to Jez’s own. It wasn’t a circle of summoning. It was one of banishing.
Osmund was halfway to the closest rune before the shadows fell on him. He cried out and clutched his head. More shadows rushed toward Jez. His sword materialized in his hands, and he cut one down as soon as it got close, but there were too many, and a dozen of the creatures entered him. Lina impaled one, though the gold-veined sword only slowed it down. A second later, the shadows swarmed over them.
All around Jez, there was fire and death. Beings as old as time screamed in pain. Jez knew this was all terrible, but it felt somehow muted and far away. His eyes wouldn’t focus on it.
“Do not look at it, Jez.”
Luntayary appeared before him looking far more solid than he had the last time Jez had been drawn into such a vision.
“How are you here? Sariel locked you away.”
“Yes he did, and I still am, but Sariel’s barriers were meant to keep me in, not to keep creatures like the shadows out, and they have brought you into my memories. This is where Sariel put me.”
Jez resisted the urge to look around. “You exist here?”
Luntayary inclined his head. “I am the sum of my experiences as you are. This is only the smallest portion of my memories, though it is among the worst.”
“Doesn’t it bother you to be here?”
“It is not pleasant, but it is no worse than the first time.”
Jez looked up just as a Shadowguard drove his crystal sword into a red-robed pharim, a Shadeslayer.
“What is this place?”
“I believe this was once the southern reaches of what you call Nakior, though I can’t be sure. The land was quite different then. It was before your kind came to walk the earth, of course.”
“I mean what happened here? Why is this memory so bad?”
“Did you know there are two types of afur?”
“Two?”
Luntayary nodded. “The first are like your friends Villia and Welb. They turned against their duty for reasons of their own. They still hold to their purpose, after a fashion. The others...” He raised a hand just as a green-robed being that looked more like a lizard than a man struck a Shadowguard with a sword that resembled a large tooth. “Took up arms against their kin.”
“What happened to them?”
“Those that weren’t destroyed were cast into the abyss. We tore their very essence from the Keep of the Hosts. Even their names were burned from our memories, and the knowledge of them was hidden away. We thought they’d be destroyed by the demons, but even if they weren’t, they would be beyond reach. After all, who would think to summon an afur from the abyss?”
“But the shadows gave us a name.”
“And only with that name could such a being be summoned.”
One side was winning, though Jez couldn’t tell which side they were. A group of pharim from all seven orders were gathered in a large circle. Their captors surrounded them, otherworldly blades bared. One Shadowguard, whose wings shone like a second sun, flew over the captives and hovered directly above them. He waved his hand in a wide circle, his fingers leaving a burning blue line that persisted in the air. Inside the circle, he drew a jagged symbol with lines that connected at odd angles and formed a shape that seemed to shift under Jez’s sight. The pharim prisoners cried out in protest as the air around them became distorted, as if by heat. The lizard-like being in the center, a Beastwalker, vanished. The ones closest to him disappeared. The effect rippled outward until they were all gone.
“We lost much on that day,” Luntayary said. “They were a part of us. We had been created for the same purpose, and not only did they betray that purpose. They made war on us. Their banishment hurt nearly as much as the passing of the pharim they destroyed in their rebellion.”
Jez could feel the shadows within him swell with delight as they feasted on Luntayary’s pain.
“How are they doing that? I thought it didn’t bother you.”
“It bothers me, young human. The pain it causes me is more than you can imagine, but compared to what I have endured over the course of millennia, it is insignificant.”
“But still enough to feed them.”
“Shall I deal with them again?”
Jez stuttered for a second. “Um yes. Please.”
Luntayary inclined his head but paused.
“There’s one that’s too deep. I can’t get it out.”
A chill ran down Jez’s back. “What do I do?”
“It requires more knowledge of mental magic than I have. I can trap it though so that it can’t do any harm. The binding will only last a few days, however. When you get back to the Academy, have your master of secrets deal with it. It should present no problem. With your permission?”
Jez stared for a second and nodded. Luntayary inclined his head and vanished, taking the vision with him. From the screaming Jez heard in his mind, he guessed far more of the shadows than he’d been aware of had entered him. A few seconds later, Jez was back in the library.
Mirel chanted in the circle’s focal point, and her
eyes went wide when she saw Jez rise. He was shaking, but he managed to call his sword. As he took a step forward, however, Mirel spoke the last word of her working, and the ground shook. Her circle, which was almost identical to the one he’d drawn in the receiving room, pulsed. Jez’s eyes focused on one of the few runes that differed from his own circle. Jez had drawn the rune of water overlaid with the rune of earth and linked with fire and air, the symbol for the mortal realm. Mirel, on the other hand, had drawn a jagged symbol with lines that shifted under Jez’s sight, the same one from his vision.
The shaking stopped a few seconds later, and the ambient light vanished. The only thing illuminating the area was the quickly fading light of the circle and the dim runes Osmund had left scattered everywhere. A chill washed over Jez. He launched himself at Mirel, his wings emerging while he was in midair. She uttered a word and a circle at the other end of the room flared to life. Mirel vanished and appeared in it. Jez’s sword cut through the air where she’d been a moment before. Then, Mirel let out a piercing cry, and the library rumbled in response. He didn’t have time.
Jez rushed over to Lina’s still form and placed a hand on her forehead. He couldn’t affect the creatures within her directly, but he could offer then a much more tempting target. As soon as he touched her, the shadows flowed into him and latched onto Luntayary’s memories before being destroyed by the pharim. She started to stir, and he practically dragged her to Osmund. The shadows left him just as easily as they had left Lina. Almost instantly, his eyes shot open. He only took a second to observe the situation before calling a ball of fire to illuminate the area and hefting Lina onto his free arm. He glanced at Mirel, who stood against the back wall with her arms raised. She didn’t take her eyes off them as she chanted. Osmund hurled his fire ball, but a bubble of green light shimmered into existence and the fire splashed against it. Osmund called up another ball of fire, but he didn’t throw it.
“Should we go after her?”
Jez gave her one last look before shaking his head. “I have a feeling that in about ten seconds, the hordes of the abyss are going to rush in. It would be a good idea not to be here when that happens.”
Osmund nodded. They ran toward the stairs, though Osmund stopped as they passed one of his runes. He touched it and mumbled a word, but the rune went dark.
“She disabled them, somehow.”
“There’s nothing we can do about that now,” Jez said.
Osmund nodded and started after him. It didn’t take long for Jez to confirm his fears. Different laws governed this place and unlike running Between, here their swift pace quickly left them out of breath.
They were almost to the door in the receiving hall when it exploded inward. A creature that was more fire than flesh stepped into the library, leaving blackened footsteps in its path. Jez didn’t hesitate. He rushed forward and cut off the creature’s right leg at the knee. The flame man’s form of nearly twelve feet toppled over. Jez didn’t wait to see if it survived before stepping out of the library.
A searing blast of wind hit him in the face, and the sulfuric smell of it almost sent him to his knees. At first, he thought he was being attacked, but he soon realized that was just the wind of this place. They were on a hill, though rust colored fog obscured much of the area below. Pools of magma glowed throughout the landscape. What little ground Jez could see was all scorched earth, and dark clouds covered most of the sky. A dim sun shed pale red light that painted everything the color of blood.
“Are we where I think we are?”
A screech sounded from high above, though the smoke hid its source.
Jez tried to force down the lump in his throat. He nodded. “We’re in the abyss. We need to get away from here before we’re overrun.” Jez picked a direction at random and started descending the hill. Osmund caught up with him a second later.
“Why can’t you ever have a plan that goes right?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
They hadn’t gone very far before Lina stirred to full wakefulness, and Osmund put her down. After a rushed few seconds of explanation, they continued down the hill as quickly as they dared. The air was thick and difficult to breathe. It made Jez’s lungs burn and his eyes water. The smell constantly made him feel like he would throw up. It seemed to be getting hotter too. His throat felt dry, and if he breathed too quickly, he would fall into a fit of coughing that left him breathless. In an unexpected twist, Lina seemed to be handling the situation the best, which made Jez wonder if this place somehow attacked the pharim nature within him and Osmund. He tried to search within himself to see if Luntayary knew, but apparently without the shadows to drive Jez into the past, the memories of the Shadowguard were beyond reach.
Several times, the sound of roaring or screeching drifted from overhead. Once, they saw figures in the fog, but Lina raised an illusion to hide them. They all held their breaths as beings that looked like walking stones rumbled past them. No one moved until the demons had been gone for several minutes.
“What were those things?” Lina asked.
“I have no idea,” Jez said.
“I thought you studied demons.”
“There are some who say there are more types of demons than there are people in the world,” Osmund said. “The abyss is supposed to be boundless.”
“So how do we get out?” Lina asked.
“We don’t,” Jez said.
“What?”
“You remember what Villia said last year? You can’t go into the abyss, not and come back out again.”
“Jez, that’s dumb,” Osmund said.
The frankness caught Jez off guard, and he glanced at his friend, though the fog was thick enough that he could only see a vague outline.
“What?”
“You’ve spent the last six months trying to figure out how Sharim could escape, and now you’re suddenly sure we’re trapped here? We even know where to get that information.”
Jez looked in the direction they had come from though the red fog obscured the building. The ground rumbled in regular intervals as if something huge were walking nearby. “The library is surrounded by demons.”
Osmund went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “Even if we didn’t, that’s not what Villia said. She said you can’t go into the abyss of your own free will and come back again. We didn’t come of our own free will. Mirel brought us. We can get out. We just have to figure out how.”
“That’s it?” Jez asked. “Just figure out how to escape from what’s basically a prison world built to contain demon lords?”
“Can you banish us to the mortal realm like you were trying to do to the library?”
Jez thought about that for a second before shaking his head. “I don’t think that would work from here. It would’ve with the library because we were in Between. Plus, we were in a stone building, and I know the rune for stone. I don’t know the runes for flesh and blood.”
Osmund waved to the ground beneath their feet. “There’s stone all around us. Can’t you just build something for us to get into out of that?”
“Use stone from the abyss? Are you kidding?”
“Why not?”
“Why haven’t you cleared out this fog?”
“We need it to hide.”
Jez raised an eyebrow and though he doubted the other boy could see the gesture, Osmund sighed. “It gives me the chills. I don’t want to touch it, but I would if it were the only way to get out of here.”
“So would I,” Jez said, “but you have to admit the air here is different.” Osmund nodded. “So is the earth, and I’m not about to surround ourselves in it and try to ride it back to our world.” Jez pursed his lips. “Not unless we don’t have another option.”
“Jez, we’re in the abyss,” Lina said. “What other options are you expecting to find here? I think you should try it.”
“It’s not that simple. I could accidently kill us trying to get out, and our souls could be trapped in the abyss for eternity.”
Lina
gaped at him. “That couldn’t happen, could it?”
Jez shrugged. “It’s a world created to keep spirits in. I have no idea what will happen to ours if we die here.”
“But you will soon find out, I think.”
The voice came from everywhere and resonated oddly as if spoken by many at once. Instantly, Jez summoned his sword. Lina vanished, though Jez could still see the outline of where she was standing in the fog. Flames flickered around Osmund as he held himself ready to transform. The mist swirled around them and began to take the shape of tendrils moving through the air. One wrapped itself around Jez’s neck and suddenly became solid. It squeezed, and Jez’s sword fell from his hand and vanished. His vision started to go dark. He tried to grip the tendril, but his fingers passed right through it.
Ziary slashed, and the creature hissed as the flames of the scion’s sword left an acrid smell that overpowered the ever present odor of sulfur. Jez fell to the ground, coughing and wheezing. More mist entered his nose and mouth, and he felt it grab him from the inside. Ziary was occupied freeing Lina who’d been entangled by the fog creatures. Jez flailed for his power, drawing more deeply of Luntayary than he’d done since his battle with Marrowit, when he’d nearly been consumed by the pharim’s power.
Nothing happened.
He would’ve gasped if he could have. The creatures were somehow entwined around his soul as well, and while Luntayary might be mightier than they, the demons had effectively come upon him sleeping and had tied him up so completely he couldn’t move.
Ziary cut away the last of the tendrils holding Lina and turned to Jez. He shouted something that could’ve been a curse and streaked forward with fire rushing out from his outstretched hands. Jez cried out as the flames engulfed him, but though he felt a little warmer, he didn’t burn.
The creatures squealed and released him. Instantly, his form became that of Luntayary. Some of the mist still billowed from his mouth as he slashed. It was only then that he saw it wasn’t many creatures, but one, a massive being as big as some buildings. Its form was vague and indistinct. It shifted constantly, and hundreds of tentacles flailed about it. One lashed at Jez, but he felt a well of protection magic spring up a few feet away, and the tentacle turned aside and sliced through it. Jez slashed, severing the appendage.
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