Darkmask (Pharim War Book 5)

by Gama Ray Martinez

  “I have no idea.”

  “What kind of demons?” Besis asked.

  “Chezamuts mostly,” the beast mage said. “They’ve put themselves between us and Mount Carcer. They’ll reach us just after the sun sets.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Fina sent orders to have the contingents disbanded. Against such a strong force it was better to have many individually strong mages than a few overwhelmingly powerful ones. Everyone who had the slightest ability in protection magic was taught the silver binding that was most effective against chezamuts. The soldier demons were deadly in combat, but they could be dealt with as long as one knew the proper working.

  As the sun neared the horizon, Jez felt uneasy at the prospect of fighting demons at night. He knew he was being foolish. Night didn’t increase a demon’s power, and many, including chezamuts, could see no better than humans in the dark. Still, every child feared the monsters that came with the night. It was an almost primal feeling that came to the surface now that there really was an army of monsters coming with the setting of the sun.

  In spite of the healers’ protests that he wasn’t ready, he’d placed himself on the southern edge of the army. Osmund was nearby, though Lina had chosen to remain behind the battle lines where her abilities might be of use if one of the demons should break through. Off to one side, he saw Jabur in his half beast form. Near Osmund, a squad of soldiers stood led by a short haired girl with raven black hair. Jez inclined his head.

  “Captain Narva.”

  She jumped. “Oh, hello, my lord. Thank you again for what you’ve done for me.” She gave a nervous laugh. “I never expected to be put in charge of a squad, though.”

  Jez nodded and unbelted his sword. He held it out to her. “Here, this might help you.”

  She stared at the weapon, as if afraid to touch it. He moved it closer to her, but she pulled away.

  “Oh, no sir. I could never do that. You’ll need it.”

  Osmund snorted, and Jez glared at him before looking back to Narva. Behind her, the soldiers whispered and pointed, though they went silent when they saw he’d noticed.

  “I’ll be using my...other sword.” He hefted the gold veined blade. “I made this as a backup in case I was ever separated from my power. I’d rather have a capable warrior wielding it than have it just hanging from my belt.”

  She met his eyes briefly before looking away. She took the sword and uttered something that might’ve been a thanks before scurrying to the front of her squad.

  “Was that a good idea?” Osmund pitched his voice low. “If she’s killed, you could end up losing that sword.”

  “I can make another one.”

  “Didn’t that take you six months?”

  “Four,” Jez said. “She can use it well, though. She took out at least a couple of demons by herself.”

  The wind carried a faint whiff of sulfur, and Jez stiffened. Osmund raised an eyebrow.

  “They’re coming?”

  Jez nodded just as the earth began to shake. The soldiers looked at each other, trying not to let their fear show. If the demons came up behind them, it could be disastrous.

  “Jez,” Osmund said.

  “I’m on it.”

  He sank his power into the earth. While he didn’t have the skill with terra magic that he did with the other schools in the dominion of protection, he was strong. He felt the dark presences passing beneath them. Dozens and dozens of the creatures moved through the earth. He sent a surge of power downward. It wouldn’t be elegant. He wasn’t sure something on this scale could be done elegantly. Sweat broke out on his brow. He clenched his teeth and tensed his muscles, drawing deeply on Luntayary’s power, and the earth moved. It wasn’t a big move. Those on the surface might have felt a slight tremor if they had noticed it at all, but the weight of the earth was vast beyond imagining, and the shifting of that weight ground the demons to powder.

  Jez’s shoulders sagged, and his knees buckled. Osmund moved to help, and Jez winced at his touch. He let out a breath and steadied himself.

  “Are you all right?”

  Jez pulled his arm away. “Sorry, I burned myself drawing so much. I wouldn’t want to do that again.”

  “Did you stop them?” Jez nodded. “How many?”

  “I’m not sure. A hundred or so.”

  “You just banished a hundred demons?”

  Jez gave him a sheepish grin. It was only then that he noticed Narva’s squad staring at him. He groaned. This wouldn’t help their perception of him.

  “Jez, you need to get back to the healer’s wagon,” Osmund said. “You can barely stand.”

  Jez nodded and started to limp away, but the ground shook again, and his blood went cold. He grabbed Osmund’s arm.

  “I need a contingent.”

  “Jez, I’m not good at terra magic. Maybe one of the others.”

  “There’s no one close enough, and we can’t let them come up under us. Think of the library’s tower.”

  Osmund only hesitated a moment before nodding. It was a complex image, far more than they would’ve been able to manage a year ago, but they had practiced joining their power for just such a situation. Before Jez closed his eyes, however, a girl’s voice cut through the noise.

  “Baron?”

  Jez glanced at Narva. She was pointing at the horizon. “I don’t think it’s earth demons.”

  He looked where she was pointing. A cloud of dust was rushing toward them, spreading from one end of the horizon to the other. If Jez squinted he could make out the demons running at them, so many that they shook the ground as they marched.

  “How many are there?” Osmund asked.

  “More than I want to count,” Jez said.

  He called his crystal sword. His clothes transformed to sapphire robes, and he felt wings emerge from his back. His pain vanished, though he knew even now the power was consuming him. Osmund inclined his head, and when he raised it again, he had grown a foot taller, and his face had gone as pale as new fallen snow. He held a flaming sword in his hand and had grown wings of his own. The soldiers looked like they were on the brink of running, but Jez pointed at the oncoming demon horde.

  “Hold the line.”

  He sent power out through his voice. It wasn’t a working, not exactly. There were things written into the very fabric of humanity. Jez was a Shadowguard, one created with the explicit purpose to protect against the darkness, and when such a being told one to hold, all fear vanished. The soldiers formed ranks as dozens of archers loosed arrows. They only got a few shots off before the demons crashed into the assembled warriors and started to break through.

  CHAPTER 11

  Jez mowed through the demons, death made manifest among them. The otherworldly creatures screamed as his sword passed through them. Whenever he had a chance, he threw out his hand and a beam of silver light shot out, impaling a chezamut and generally two or three behind it. The air was alive with power. Those who could, used the silver binding, but others fought with flame or lighting, with tooth and claw.

  Ordinary soldiers had a limited ability to destroy their foes. The skin of a chezamut was stronger than steel, but Jez had known that when he’d started recruiting and had instructed his officers accordingly. These men and women hadn’t been trained to destroy demons. They’d been trained to hold. Soldiers darted in to strike and moved out while others distracted their foe, intending to do nothing more that keep them busy until someone more capable of fighting the creatures could deal with them. As far as Jez knew, no one had ever trained an army to fight like this, and it was surprisingly effective. Soldiers still fell, of course, but it was nowhere near as much as it should’ve been when facing an army so large.

  Almost as quickly as it had started, the attack was over. Jez released Luntayary’s form and collapsed under the weight of his damaged body. Strong arms lifted him, and there was the rush of wind as they zipped through the camp. There was a cry that might’ve been Lina’s voice. There was a pulsing and warm
th filled him. He wasn’t sure how long he lay there before he regained the strength to open his eyes.

  A healer along with a transformation mage stood over him. He wasn’t sure if he knew them. His head was swimming in pain, and it was hard to focus. The pairing of the mages made sense. He’d learned long ago that ordinary healing magic couldn’t restore flesh he’d damaged by drawing too much power. Mixing healing with transformation, however, had been shown to be much more effective. He just hadn’t realized anyone at the Academy knew how to do that. A hand closed around his, and he looked to one side to see Lina. As soon as she saw he was awake, she scowled.

  “What were you doing?”

  “We were attacked,” Jez said.

  She rolled her eyes. “I know that. Osmund said you stayed to fight even after you had exhausted yourself by banishing a hundred demons. Dusan’s guard had to carry you here.”

  He sat up and shook his head. The motion dizzied him. “They were underground. I needed to stop them before they came up under us.”

  “I’m not disputing that. By the seven, there’s no way we could’ve survived an attack like that, but why didn’t you retreat after that?”

  Jez blinked at her. “Because there were more coming.”

  “Jez, you can’t—”

  “Yes, I can. Lina, this isn’t like before where I was so obsessed with Sharim that I couldn’t even think of anything else. This is to stop an army of demons from taking over Ashtar, maybe the entire world. Everything depends on this. If I have to push myself to the very edge, then that’s what I’ll do. If I have to go beyond the edge, then...”

  “That doesn’t mean you have to do so much on your own. Others can take on some of the burden.”

  He pitched his voice low so that the healers couldn’t hear. “No one else is a Shadowguard.”

  His words seemed to hang in the air. Lina gaped at him. She’d known what he was, of course. She’d seen it more than once, but he’d always been resistant to claiming that out loud, worried that if he did, it would mean surrendering a portion of his humanity. Things had changed. No one had actually said it, but they all knew they had reached a turning point in history. One of the most powerful demons in existence, the high prince Andera, walked the earth in human form, going by the name of Sharim. He’d managed to summon a demon army the likes of which the world had never seen. He had to be stopped, and the ones best suited to do so, the pharim set to guard over the world, had retreated beyond mortal reach for fear of what Sharim could do to them. That left only Jez. If he had to surrender his humanity to see the world through this threat, he would.

  “Jez—”

  “Where are we?” he asked.

  “Hiranta,” Lina said. “You did it. You helped us break through so we could reach it. Master Fina says we’ll retreat up the mountain soon.”

  “The Academy.”

  “Yes,” Besis said as he stepped into the wagon. His robe was torn in several places, and his face bore scars it hadn’t when Jez had last seen him. “We will make our stand there.”

  CHAPTER 12

  Jez had been through Hiranta several times. It was neither the major port that Randak was nor the bustling metropolis of Rumar. In truth, it was a rather small town, sustained by the gem mines in the Telag Mountains. Chancellor Balud had ordered the town evacuated, and though the head of the Carceri Academy didn’t technically have the authority to give such an order, when one of the most powerful mages in the world spoke of a coming demon army, only a fool wouldn’t listen, and now the streets stood empty.

  “This is a good spot,” Osmund said as they walked into a wide alley that dead-ended after going about twenty feet. The smell of flour hanging in the air said one or more of the surrounding buildings had once been a bakery or something similar. “The path up the mountain is just beyond that building.”

  “Do you expect them to just break through the building?” Lina asked.

  Osmund shrugged. “It’s an army of demons. I pretty much expect them to break through the entire town. A lot of them will probably come through here, though.”

  “I’ll take the ground,” Jez said.

  He knelt in the middle of the alley and began drawing in the earth, sending power through his fingers so that they left a faint blue light. Without the proper rituals to sustain them, the runes would last, at most, a day, but that should be more than enough. By the time he stood, Osmund had completed two runes, one on each wall. They looked to Lina. Her eyes glowed violet for a second, and the runes faded. Even the sense of them vanished from his mystical awareness.

  Before anyone could say anything, the ground rumbled. The trio exchanged glances, and Jez felt a prickle against his senses.

  “That was one of mine,” Jez said.

  “Already?” Lina said. “There wasn’t a signal.”

  “Maybe the demons came from below,” Jez said. “Either way, we have to go.”

  They rushed out of the alley and into a courtyard as half a dozen other small teams of mages did the same. They had been scattered throughout the city to set traps for the demons. The masters were supposed to send a signal when the demons were close so they would have time to get out of the city, but one of Jez’s traps had been set off with no warning. They could see rock dust rising from a nearby street. Everyone in the courtyard was looking to Jez, in spite of the fact that two of the groups had full mages and each of the others had at least one adjutant. Jez motioned for the street leading to the trail up the mountain, and everyone headed in that direction.

  “Why exactly did they need me to tell them that?” Jez kept his voice low so only his friends could hear.

  “Give them a break,” Lina said. “Before last week, most of them had only seen demons summoned in controlled circumstances.”

  Before he could respond, the ground behind them rumbled. He looked over his shoulder to see a large crack rip through the town square. What looked like a boulder, at least a dozen feet tall, rose out of the ground. It had stubby legs, and a mouth full of teeth appeared on one side. It had no eyes but seemed to be able to see in spite of the lack. It took a step toward them.

  Jez clapped his hands once, sending power out in the moment they impacted. A distortion of air rushed forward and washed over the stone demon. It grunted and was driven back several feet. A crack appeared just beneath its mouth, but after a second, it started coming at them again. Jez sent out another binding, and though the crack in the creature widened, it didn’t stop.

  The third time Jez crafted the binding, six others, identical to his aside from being smaller, surged forward. They impacted the creature at nearly the same time, and cracks spread through its body. It tried to take another step, but its leg broke off. It shook the ground as it fell, crumbling to dust a second later. Jez inclined his head to the others, and they all headed out of the city.

  “It took them long enough to do anything,” Osmund said in a quiet voice.

  Jez rolled his eyes. “I didn’t see you helping either.”

  “I was your backup. If it had come close enough, I would’ve taken care of it.”

  “Fine,” Jez said. “I’ll let you handle the next galb. I think they’re immune to fire, by the way, so good luck with that.”

  They had gone two miles up the path when a brilliant ball of violet light exploded overhead. Jez rolled his eyes. That was the agreed upon signal, if a little late. Fortunately, they hadn’t waited for it. Jez glanced over his shoulder, and his breath caught in his throat. He had avoided looking back as they moved up the mountain, and he couldn’t believe what he was seeing now. The demon army stretched out like a sea. There had to be thousands. Tens of thousands. So many they could overrun the entire mountain. Many were funneling through the city, but others were content to go around it. They would be at the mountain in minutes.

  “They made a mistake,” Jez said.

  “That doesn’t look like a mistake,” Osmund said. “That looks like an army big enough to do whatever it wants.”

&
nbsp; “I mean they shouldn’t have sent galbs into the city. All that did is warn us. If they had waited, we never would’ve gotten out, and we wouldn’t be able to send the counter sign.”

  Runes exploded within the city and buildings collapsed on the invaders. The damage to the army was insignificant, but the trap runes had only been intended to slow the demons down. Jez nodded once at Lina. She waved her arm in a wide ark and a band of purple light appeared in the sky. It only lasted a second before vanishing. Jez smiled at her and turned back to Hiranta.

  The rumbling started softly. The mages with them stopped and stared. The buildings vibrated. Then, they shook. The earth trembled so hard Jez lost his footing. Osmund caught him before he hit the ground, and he looked up just as the massive circle that had been drawn around the city came to life. It shone, and its color shifted from red to blue and back again. As one, the demon army paused. The air above Hiranta shimmered and the rune brightened.

  A ball of blue-hot fire erupted from the middle of the city as the ground beneath it collapsed. The newly formed crater expanded a mile past the edge of the city, and the mountain itself groaned as a portion of it was sheared off.

  The ball of flame expanded, rushing at Jez and the mages with him. The realization hit them all at the same time. He wasn’t sure who shouted first. Maybe it was him. They were too close. The explosion had been too strong. Jez reached inside for Luntayary’s power, but there wasn’t enough time. He threw his hands up and prepared to meet the oncoming flames.

  CHAPTER 13

  The ground gave way beneath Jez. There was a rush of wind, but he didn’t have time to cry out before he slammed into hard stone, driving the breath from him. Darkness swallowed him, and several people cried out in pain. The ground rumbled, and it was only when he saw the cherry red glow above that he realized what had happened. He sent power into the surrounding stone, strengthening it to prevent it from melting. Still, the glow provided just enough light to see by. Lina scrambled to her feet and created a ball of light.