For a second, it looked like Horgar wouldn’t answer, but then he let out a breath. “Because Osmund and the others are not out on patrol.”
“What? Where are they?”
“They went to make a raid on the central spire.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you would’ve gone after them, and in your condition, you would be a liability.”
Jez glared at him. “Were you going to tell me before or after I activated the library’s defenses and locked them out?”
“I don’t know that you can activate the defenses, but even if you can, I suspect it won’t be quick. In all likelihood, if they’re not back by the time you get them up, they won’t be coming back.”
“You were just going to sacrifice them?”
“You were going to sacrifice us all.”
For a second, the weight of the lives that this attack had already cost weighed so heavily on him that they threatened to crush him, but Jez closed his eyes and let out a long breath. He nodded. He and Horgar walked the rest of the way up the stairs in silence, aside from the sound of their footsteps echoing through the stairway. They came out of a small hatch in a stone floor. Jez’s robes rippled in the warm wind blowing in from the east. The smell of sulfur hung thick in the air. The bronze brazier stood cold nearby. Once it had housed a powerful working capable of speaking and thinking, and if it hadn’t truly been alive, it had certainly seemed that way. Sharim had destroyed it. Jez, Osmund, and Lina had fought him, ruining the tower in the process. Terra mages had since repaired the damage, but the brazier had refused all attempts to light it.
Jez placed his hand on the bronze and closed his eyes. The hum of power that he’d come to expect from magical items was absent, and he certainly found no sign of the defenses Luven had spoken of. Above, flying demons threw themselves at the barrier, which no longer had the strength to banish them on contact. Instead, they were thrown back several feet only to try again. He could sense its power weakening by the second.
“We need to hurry.” Jez scanned the tower. “I don’t see any runes. Are you sure the defenses are centered here?”
“As sure as I can be, given the information comes from a book thousands of years old written in a language we only have a loose understanding of. Maybe they were on those pieces of stone you broke off.”
Jez shook his head. “There should still be something. I’m going to transform and check the walls.”
“I’ll do it. You shouldn’t damage yourself more than you need to. One way or another, we’ll need your power before the end.”
Jez started to argue, but Horgar had already taken on the form of a giant eagle, and he flew around the tower once before landing and resuming his human shape. He shook his head.
“There’s nothing.”
Jez sank his power into the stone itself, but it was just ordinary rock. He pulled back and eyed Horgar. “Has Master Rael been up here?”
“Not as far as I know. Why?”
“We know this brazier has to be magical. Otherwise, we’d be able to light it. There has to be some sort of illusion keeping us from sensing it.”
“It makes sense.”
“What if there’s another hiding the runes?”
“So dispel them.”
Jez raised an eyebrow. “Just dispel an illusion that’s managed to stand for thousands of years?”
Horgar huffed out a laugh. “Now you worry about the impossible?”
Jez gave him a level stare and nodded. He wove a ward against illusion, but it had no effect. He didn’t even feel the characteristic slamming against a wall that had happened when he tried to dispel a working that was too strong for him.
“Of course that could be part of the illusion too,” he said under his breath.
“What was that?”
“I need more power. I’m going to have to transform.”
“Did you ever consider that you rely on that too much?”
Jez nodded. “We don’t really have a lot of options, though.”
Horgar scowled but didn’t say anything. Jez shed his human form for that of the Shadowguard. Horgar was right. All of his transformations, along with healings, were burning out his flesh, but there was no other choice. Power swelled inside of him and once again, he wove the ward against illusion. This time, he did feel a slight pressure, but it wasn’t just one illusion. It was dozens of them, layered on top of one another so that the whole thing was far stronger than the sum of its parts. He doubted he’d be able to pick out any one individually.
“Jezreel,” Horgar said.
“Not now.”
“There may not be a later.”
Jez opened his eyes. Horgar was staring at the sky. Jez followed his gaze to see Ziary, along with two large birds, flying toward them. Behind them, a thing that looked like a giant serpent made of green light slithered through the air. Other flying demons battered at the barrier, which now lacked the strength to even throw them back. They had mere moments.
“I guess there’s no time to be subtle.”
He focused his power, sharpening its edge like that of a razor, and he sheered through the illusions. They puffed out of existence, releasing a wave of violet energy. Runes appeared in the stone all around them, though most were only partial with the other pieces having been torn away. Still, he could sense the lines of power within them. If he’d had hours, he might have been able to understand how they worked. If he had days or weeks, he might have been able to repair it, but he was out of time.
Osmund passed through the barrier. The serpent slammed into it. For just an instant, Jez harbored the hope that it would hold, but there was a sound like shattering glass. A dome of blue energy shimmered into existence around the library and then shattered. Jez grabbed the strands of power and shoved them together.
The serpent demon reached a spot a few feet beyond where Besis’s barrier had been. Then, it vanished. Jez blinked. A legion of other demons followed and disappeared as soon as they reached the same spot. Horgar pointed at where the demons had disappeared, but he was struck silent. Molten rock bubbled from nowhere for a second before vanishing.
“By the seven,” Horgar breathed. The expression caught Jez off guard. The beast master has always struck Jez as the most practical and down to earth of the masters. While he had sworn on occasion, Jez had never heard the reverent tone that his speech carried now. “It’s a transport shield. I didn’t think those were really possible.”
“A transport shield?”
Horgar stared at the sky for several seconds. He didn’t look down until Ziary and the others had landed and resumed their human forms.
“A transport shield is…” He looked for the words before letting out a breath of frustration. “It’s difficult to explain.” He held up a closed fist. “This is a transport shield.” He tapped the knuckle of his middle finger. “Something hits here…” He touched the tip of his middle finger on the opposite side of his fist. “It comes out here. They’re virtually impenetrable because no force directed against them actually hits them. It just gets transported to the other side.” He pointed up to where magma was constantly appearing and disappearing. “Right now, the other end of that goes to the molten heart of Mount Carcer.”
“Isn’t that bad?” Osmund asked. “I mean we know they’re looking for Marrowit’s cage.”
Horgar shrugged. “This might give them easier access, but we weren’t exactly stopping them from getting into the mountain anyway, and there’s something you’re forgetting.”
“What’s that?” Osmund asked.
Horgar grinned. “Demons might be creatures of destruction, but most of them can only survive so much heat. If I’m not mistaken, we’ve just banished about two hundred of Sharim’s demons.”
Osmund smiled. “Well, that does make me feel better. Can things get out?”
Horgar pursed his lips. “I’m not sure.”
Osmund shrugged. He flung his hand toward the nearest demon, and a ball of scarlet fi
re shot forward, burning a hole through a creature that looked like it was made of mist.
“I guess so.”
Horgar cleared his throat. “Were you successful?”
Osmund nodded. “More or less. We couldn’t do anything about the lower levels of the spire. They haven’t gotten in yet.”
Horgar nodded. “I didn’t think you’d be able to. There are still layers of protection around that area. Most of the truly dangerous items were already taken anyway. What about the rest?”
Osmund turned to a tall girl who had been a large falcon. She reached into her robes and pulled out a fist-sized sapphire. Jez smiled. It had been left largely because, as a magical item, it was rather common. Right now, however, a speaking stone was exactly what they needed.
Horgar took the crystal and held it in front of him. After a few minutes, Balud’s face appeared, tinged blue by the sapphire. The chancellor would be looking at a similar stone they’d acquired from Hiranta. The surprise on his face only lasted for a second.
“I have to say I didn’t expect to see you again. When you didn’t return, we assumed you’d all been killed.”
“It was a near thing, chancellor,” Horgar said and proceeded to explain what had happened.
For his part, Balud took the news of the transport shield in stride. “Are you safe?”
“For the moment,” Horgar said. “I don’t imagine it will last, though. Sharim is probably already working on a way to take this down.”
Balud nodded. “We’re getting ready to attack. It would be best if we could coordinate. Can you get out?”
“It looks like it,” Horgar said. “Osmund was able to throw a ball of fire at one of the demons. We won’t know for sure if the defenses will allow a person through until we try it, but I think so.”
“Good. We’ll be attacking in a few hours.”
“How?” Jez asked. “We took down the passes.”
“With a lot of terra magic and excessive use of the demon cages,” Balud said. “We had more than one mage pass out from the strain of using them, but we’re making progress. The illusionists are keeping us hidden, so it should come as a surprise to the demons. If you can manage a distraction at the same time...”
Horgar nodded. “We’ll do what we can, but Balud, there are fewer than a dozen of us. We can hardly distract an entire army.”
“Marrowit’s cage,” Jez said.
“What?” Both masters said.
“They’re looking for Marrowit’s cage. If we had it, Sharim would put everything he had into getting it from us.”
“But we don’t have it,” Horgar said.
“We don’t have to have it,” Jez said. “We just have to make them think we do.”
“How do we do that?” Horgar asked.
Jez hesitated. “I need to summon a nightmare demon.”
CHAPTER 31
“Jez, are you sure you should be doing this?” Horgar asked as Jez stepped into the focal point of the summoning circle.
They were in one of the library’s lower levels. Unlike the exterior, this room seemed to be made of marble. Its floor and walls had an almost glasslike smoothness to them. Runes had been carved into the ground with lines so fine, Jez couldn’t imagine the tool that could make them. There were a half dozen other such rooms in the library, specifically built for summoning otherworldly beings.
Jez nodded. “I can’t think of any other way to convince Sharim we have Marrowit’s cage.”
“Have you considered that summoning a demon into the library might dispel the protections around it?”
“I’m pretty sure that won’t happen.”
Horgar raised an eyebrow. “Pretty sure?”
Jez shrugged. “I don’t really know how this shield works. A summoning circle can interrupt a binding circle, but usually only if the lines of power intersect. If the summoning circle is entirely contained within the binding one, it should be fine.”
“Should?” Horgar asked. Jez gave him a level stare, and the master sighed. “I wish you’d at least let me bring the other mages in case things go badly.”
Jez shook his head. “They need to be watching in case Sharim breaks through. Besides, it’s only a mid-level demon. If it gets out, Osmund can handle it.”
Osmund nodded. “I won’t even need to transform. At least I won’t until something goes horribly wrong.”
Jez glared at him, but Horgar turned to look at him.
“What makes you so sure something will go wrong?”
“You don’t have a lot of experience with Jez’s plans, Master. Something always goes wrong.” He turned to Jez. “Seriously though Jez. If you don’t know how this shield works, what makes you think you can make it bigger?”
“I felt it when I activated it. It seems to be the kind that just needs more power to expand.”
“You know, you’re not inspiring a lot of confidence.”
“And you’re not helping. Just be ready to attack if things go badly.”
“If?”
Jez almost glared at him but instead turned his attention inward as he mentally reviewed the working to summon the appropriate demon. He hadn’t known it off hand, but the library provided a wealth of information, and the summoning of a mid-level demon wasn’t so extraordinary that the masters had seen fit to take the relevant books with them.
Jez raised his hands and began to chant. He sent power into the circle, and the runes that had been engraved into the ground began glowing yellow.
“Voldure.”
His voice seemed to hang in the air, and the word echoed several times, though the room was too small to have such an effect. The air seemed to vibrate against his skin. The two headed snake began taking form, but before it congealed, Jez snapped his hands forward. Bands of blue energy lashed at it, some wrapping themselves around the demon while others impaled it. The creature should not have been able to scream before it had formed a throat, but somehow it did, and Jez resisted the urge to cover his ears.
He’d crafted the trap before he’d begun the summoning. It would drain the demon, feeding its power into the defenses of the library. It was an inefficient working. The energy the defenses would drain from the demon weren’t even a quarter of that which Jez had used to craft the trap and summon the voldure, but it wasn’t energy that he desired from the creature.
Quickly, he crafted another working, one intended to allow the demon to feed on Jez’s own power to strengthen it. As the demon’s power increased, so did the flow of energy to the transport shield. Jez felt it start to grow, and his awareness became bound up in the defenses.
The movement was slow at first. For reason’s Jez didn’t understand, the working didn’t affect the stone that made up the ground around it. The demons standing on that stone were another matter. As soon as they touched the expanding shield, they were transported to the other side, but the transport shield had never been intended to be used while it was growing.
A clawed hand touched the barrier and appeared on the other side, but as the shield grew, that part was then transported back to the side where it had come from, right where the creature’s partially transported arm still was. Two pieces of the demon attempted to occupy the same space. Then, both portions were reduced to a fine mist.
Jez pumped more power into the voldure, and through it, into the shield itself. After a few seconds, he realized he’d transformed, though he had no memory of the change. The transport shield continued to grow until it was twice as big. Then three times, and four. Every second that passed, the growth became faster. The growing field destroyed the demons like some great beast consuming its prey. By the time it stopped getting bigger, the shield stood six times the size it had originally been. Jez fell to his knees. He hadn’t drawn deeply enough on Luntayary’s power to seriously damage himself, but he’d still spent a lot of magic, and he was exhausted. The shield was huge now, having consumed the demon utterly. More importantly, the energy to expand it had come from a nightmare demon, and Jez was w
illing to bet that Sharim would detect that. With a little luck, he would assume it was done with Marrowit’s power and not that of some random voldure.
A heavy set man named Jarin rushed into the summoning chamber. His face was red from the exertion of running.
“Master,” he said between heavy breaths. “The demons are attacking.”
Horgar gave Jez a sidelong glance before inclining his head. “It would seem you were right.” He turned to the mage. “How many are attacking, Jarin?”
Jarin panted for a few more seconds. “As far as we can tell, it’s all of them. The barrier is shimmering too. I think it’s about to fall.”
Jez pursed his lips. He hadn’t anticipated that, but of course, the expanded shield would require a steady influx of energy, which he was no longer supplying. Osmund narrowed his eyes.
“I told you things would go horribly wrong.”
CHAPTER 32
Jez drew lightly on Luntayary’s power. It was enough to transform and call his crystal sword, but not enough to do any lasting harm. To Jez’s surprise, Horgar didn’t insist he stay behind. Rather, he looked at Jez’s changed form and let out a breath of frustration before they started up.
The summoning chamber was on the first basement level of the library, so they rushed upstairs and out the front door. The rest of the beast mages had gathered outside and were staring upward. The sky was alive with demons, most of which Jez didn’t recognize. Land-bound demons covered the ground for as far as he could see. The creatures lashed out at the barrier with fire or lightning. A few struck with physical weapons, though they had no noticeable effect. In the distance, Jez caught a glimpse of three hagine with their arms lifted.
“By the seven,” Jez said under his breath. “They’ve formed a contingent.”
Horgar nodded. The mages around him shifted into the forms of lions and wolves. Their collective growl made the air vibrate against Jez’s skin. He pointed to the demon contingent.
“That’s our target.”
Horgar’s form shimmered, and he became a creature that resembled a tiger, though it was at least twice as long and had teeth almost as long as Jez’s forearm. Its sleek body seemed well suited to running and pouncing, and if those teeth could crush stone, Jez wouldn’t have been surprised.
Darkmask (Pharim War Book 5) Page 12