Darkmask (Pharim War Book 5)

by Gama Ray Martinez

  Jez gaped at him for a second before letting out a long breath. “Fine. We’ll go together.”

  “But Jez—”

  “You haven’t shaped them, and I don’t think you realize how hard that’s going to be. It’s probably best if two go in anyway. That way, if one falls, the other can pull them out.” She pursed her lips but nodded. He turned to Horgar. “Can you make a ward without me?”

  Horgar huffed. “I’ve been making wards since before you were born, boy. I can hold my own.”

  Jez nodded and took Lina’s hand in his. Their fingers twined together, and he crafted a minor ward around her thoughts. It wouldn’t stop the shadows completely, but it would, at least, slow them down and hopefully give her time to deal with them on her own. If she noticed his working, she gave no sign, and together, they walked into the shadows.

  Once before, Jez had gone into the room with the memory shadows holding someone’s hand. The first time, it had been Master Linala, but though he had studied under the master of knowledge, he didn’t truly know her, not in any meaningful sense. Lina was one of his closest friends. They had spent years together. They had fought side by side. They knew each other and had a bond that had nothing to do with magic, and so when the memory shadows plunged into Lina, Jez too was dragged into her past.

  CHAPTER 37

  Chapter 37

  “But father, he’s so old.”

  “Lord Ordon is only thirty. It won’t be until you’re fifteen, at any rate.”

  “He’s had three wives.”

  “He hasn’t found the right person yet. If we bind our house to his, we could secure our future for a hundred generations.”

  Lina stared into a mirror, unwilling to meet Lord Varin’s eyes. Tears welled in her eyes, and the bed reflected in her mirror became a violet blur. Her father could be a hard man, but it was only for the good of their family. Before he died, her grandfather had often spoken of his time as a farmhand before he’d saved the life of the crown prince and gained a lordship. They had risen quickly, and if they weren’t careful, they could fall just as fast. In spite of the fact that they were currently highly regarded at court, they were still a weak family. Lord Ordon’s family was almost as old as the king’s. It would be an excellent match, politically speaking. Tears were in Lina’s eyes as she nodded, and the vision faded into blackness.

  Lina fell to her knees. Her hand felt cold in Jez’s grasp. He knelt next to her, putting up a ward that would give them a few seconds of respite.

  “That’s not how it happened, Lina,” he said.

  “Yes, it is. You weren’t there.”

  “No, but you’ve told me about it. Why do you think the vision stopped there? The shadows didn’t want you to think about what you did next. Do you remember?”

  She blinked at him and took in a breath. “I told him I wanted to attend the Academy.” For a second her voice cracked. “He was happy. He said Lord Ordon might see me as a better match if I were an Academy-trained mage.”

  “But that’s not why you came. You went to the Academy because once you were a mage, you could decide your own future, regardless of what he said. You did it because you’re strong.”

  “I failed my family.”

  “No, Lina.”

  His ward shattered, and the shadows rushed at them. He was in a cavernous room. It was so hot that breathing would’ve burned his lungs if he had needed to breathe. A throne of molten gold sat in the center. Jez’s father lay before the throne, not even having the strength to stand. He gave Jez one last look before he melted, his essence consumed by the throne. Atop the seat, the demon lord laughed.

  Jez took in a sharp breath. He could still feel the tears wetting his cheek at his failure to save his father. With supreme effort, he forced the thought aside and focused on the idea of Marrowit. Such a being would have countless memories and experiences beyond comprehension. He could practically see the memory shadows salivating at the idea. From there, Jez’s mind went to a still greater demon, one who had lived as a human for nearly two decades. He offered the thought to the memory shadows and let them in again.

  The creatures seized on it, and a sense of pure joy surged through him. They retreated so fast it felt like an arrow being pulled out of a wound, its head causing more damage as it came out than when it went in. The chamber rumbled as the shadows crashed against the wards holding them in. Jez took a step toward the door, dragging Lina with him, but as soon as he moved, half a dozen of the shadows dove into him.

  A child watched his father depart, leaving him to his new home with the evil mage.

  A sword cut through her face, revealing herself in such a way that she could not hide.

  His mother died screaming in bed, the cut that had been made by a rusty fishhook had been stained by the infection.

  Pain wracked her mind as she tried to bring forth the consciousness of the transformed pharim.

  Over and over, memories washed over them. Jez couldn’t tell his from Lina’s. He clenched his teeth and forced himself to take a single step forward. That done, he took another and another, pulling Lina behind him. He reached the door and practically fell through it. Horgar gaped at him, and he met the beast master’s gaze.

  “Now.”

  His voice was hoarse, and as he spoke, the air had the coppery taste of blood. He realized he must’ve been screaming. Horgar stared at him for a second before lifting his hands. He uttered a few harsh syllables. Protection magic surged around Jez as the ward keeping the shadows in cracked. He could practically hear the scream as they threw themselves around the weakened barrier. Osmund rushed forward, picking up Jez in one arm and Lina in the other. He pulled them back into the room where Horgar was crafting a ward to protect them.

  One of the shadows broke free and headed right for the beast master, but Narva attacked. Her gold veined sword barely slowed as it cut through the shadow. Its image wavered as it crashed into Horgar’s ward. A second later, it rose up through the ceiling. A torrent of shadows followed it, and the next thing Jez knew, the shadow room was empty. It took all his strength just to sit up. Horgar sighed as he looked to the ceiling.

  “There are some who say those things are worse than demons. I hope they’re wrong.”

  CHAPTER 38

  Jez and Lina could barely walk as they began their slow ascent to the ground level of the Academy. Their more able bodied companions gave them a shoulder to lean on. Narva insisted on walking before then and kept her sword drawn.

  “How do you think the battle went?” Osmund asked as Horgar disarmed a ward.

  “Badly,” Narva said without turning around. “We were losing when I found you. The chancellor hoped you’d be able to do something to turn the battle.”

  “Maybe I did,” Jez said. Lina shivered and moved in closer. “Are you all right?”

  She gave him a weak smile. “Not really. How did you stand it? I couldn’t even move.”

  “It doesn’t have as much to do with magic as some people think. It’s about will. It probably doesn’t hurt that I had one of those things stuck in my head for a few hours when we were in the abyss. That probably built up my mental defenses.”

  They stopped just in front of the door that would lead to the chamber at the base of the tower. Jez and Osmund exchanged glances and each took on their otherworldly forms. Horgar disarmed the final ward and threw open the door.

  The gate leading to the outside had been ripped off its frame with such force that the stone around it had cracked. People had crammed into the spire, though holes had been knocked in some of the walls. Soldiers and mages fought with the desperation of those who knew that they could not stand for very long.

  A minos demon, a creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull, swung a heavy cloven hoof at the human defenders. Besis raised a hand and crafted a wall of blue energy, a ward strong enough to repel an avalanche. As soon as the minos hit it, the ward shattered. Jez gaped, but Besis had apparently been expecting it. His fingers were alrea
dy moving, crafting the string binding that would banish this creature back to the abyss. The binding was still in the air when a catoz swooped down, and the string impacted uselessly on its wings. Narva leaped forward, her sword flashing. She cut off one of the bat demons wings, and it squealed. As she dispatched it, a second string binding passed over them. It wrapped around the minos’s horns and flared brightly. The creature roared and vanished, but in the time it had taken to banish those two demons, four others had stepped up in their place. Meanwhile, the pharim high lords stood mutely in their circle prisons.

  “Where is Sharim?”

  Besis made a slash with his left arm, and a line of brilliant violet energy rushed forward, crashing into a man made of sickly green light. Their energies collided, and there was a sound like wood splintering before the demon evaporated.

  “I haven’t seen him since the initial assault.”

  “You must go to him,” Luven said as an indigo light faded from within his hood. “He’s repairing the circle.”

  Jez’s blood went cold as he looked over the imprisoned high lords. Sharim summoned an army in an instant using the power of Mount Carcer. What could he do with the energy from the seven most powerful beings in all of creation guided by a circle large enough to encompass the entire Academy?

  His wings burst into existence, and his robes shone brilliant blue. He staggered but managed to keep his feet. He spread his wings and was about to take off when a deep rumbling voice that sounded like every animal he had ever heard called out.

  “Jezreel.” Jez’s eyes immediate went to the dark skinned man in one of the circle prisons. He hadn’t noticed it before, but Aniel had eyes like a cat’s. “Step into my circle.”

  Jez almost argued, but a level looked from the high lord of beasts silenced him. He nodded and did as he was told. Aniel stood nearly seven feet, towering over even Jez’s transformed state. He placed a finger on Jez’s forehead, and the burning subsided. Jez felt strong.

  “I have wrought a change to your flesh. It won’t last long, but it should allow you more power for a few minutes. Enough, at least, for one fight, but be warned. It will be virtually impossible to heal you for some time after. It is too much magic.”

  Jez nodded and drew deeper of Luntayary’s power. “Thank you.”

  “Be careful,” Sariel said. “Power aside, Andera has an eternity of experience to draw upon.”

  Jez met his gaze. “I’ll do what I have to do.”

  “Let’s go,” Ziary said.

  They spread their wings as a dozen chezamuts crashed through the stone walls and started tearing into the defenders. Other demons poured in through the breach.

  “Osmund, you’re needed here,” Jez said.

  “But...”

  “I’ll try to lure him here. Be ready. Then, we can end this.”

  Ziary only hesitated a second before rushing into the horde of demons. Jez took to the air, heading for the place they had come into the Academy, where he had disrupted the circle, and where Sharim would no doubt be found.

  CHAPTER 39

  A veritable sea of demons flooded the Academy. The skies around the spire were alive with them. As Jez flew away from the battle, a trio of creatures seeming to be made of smoke, rushed after him. He flew a hundred yards then turned and unleashed a silver wind, which dispersed them before they even had a chance to cry out.

  Jez rushed toward the spot where they’d burned out the circle. Others tried to stand in his way, but Luntayary had been among the mightiest pharim of the Keep of the Hosts. While so many demons might have been able to overwhelm him in time, they had not been expecting a pharim of his strength. Caught off guard, he tore through them like they were made of paper, and soon he’d reached his destination. The circle had already been mostly repaired, though Sharim was nowhere to be found.

  “Not again,” Jez said under his breath.

  He crafted a ward against illusion, making it as large as he could. It sliced into the workings Sharim had put in place and revealed the human demon hovering just a dozen feet away. A startled expression painted Sharim’s face for a second, but then, he held out his hand, and his burning blade materialized as a smile appeared on his lips.

  “Oh come now. We’re not going to do this again, are we? We both know it always ends the same way.”

  His face twitched. It was barely noticeable, and on anyone else, Jez might’ve missed it, but he knew Sharim. This was no mere facial tick.

  “How many shadows do you have in your mind?”

  Sharim’s face twisted in anger, and he cried out something that was closer to a roar than words. Jez rushed at the demon. In the instant before their swords clashed, Jez pulled water out of the air and formed it into a rope to bind Sharim’s hands together. The demon stopped flapping his wings and fell. Jez’s sword missed him by inches. Fire swirled around Sharim’s arms, reducing Jez’s binding to steam. With a flick of his wrist, Sharim sent it at Jez. Only at the last instant, did Jez realize it was still scolding hot. He cried out as it hit his face and blurred his vision. Transformed as he was, it was only a minor inconvenience. The effects lasted a bare handful of heartbeats, but in a battle, it may as well have been an eternity.

  Sharim’s blade burned a gash nearly a foot long into Jez’s right wing, and he plummeted to the ground. He sent power into the earth, softening it into mud. It was only in the instant before he impacted that he realized he had no idea how thick the caldera actually was. He splashed into it, and clenched his teeth, preparing to be incinerated at any moment, but he went down less than a dozen feet before turning his power back onto the earth, causing it to shoot him upward.

  The instant he came free, bands of hardened air constricted around him. Jez reached at the mud still clinging to him. He compressed it around the air and forced it inside. The mixing of the two elements weakened the working. With a surge of power, Jez shattered it just in time to raise his sword to meet Sharim’s weapon.

  The explosion of force sent them flying back, though Sharim recovered first and rushed at Jez. Jez tucked his wings in and dove. Even had Jez been at his peak, Sharim would’ve had too great an advantage in the air. Wounded at Jez was, it was only a matter of time. He needed an edge.

  Jez landed and reached into the earth, forming stone spikes and flinging them at Sharim, but the demon was too agile and avoided them easily. Jez hadn’t really expected them to hit, however. They crumbled to dust forming a cloud that enveloped Sharim from behind. Jez clenched a fist, and the dust hardened into rock around the demon. Sharim started to fall, but he had only gone a few feet before the rock exploded outward in all directions. Jez reached for the shards and turned them back on his foe, but an aura of red flame formed around Sharim, so hot that it consumed the fragments, not leaving so much as a drop of molten earth. Jez pulled water out of the air and quenched Sharim’s shield. A thick cloud of steam filled the air, covering the entire area.

  Before Jez had a chance to do anything else, the wind howled. Sharim dove out of the mist, propelled forward by a blast of air and impaling Jez’s right shoulder. The force of the blow sent him to the ground. Sharim smiled and started to speak, but Jez reached into the earth directly beneath them and transformed it into mud.

  Jez seized Sharim and dragged him through the earth, swimming through it as if it were water. A steady flow of power changed the stone ahead of them to mud and allowed them to go at a pace nearly as fast as flying. Jez wasn’t sure how far they’d gone when searing heat rose from beneath them. With a shock, Jez realized Sharim was calling magma from within the mountain. He flung himself into the air and off to one side just as the ground thundered and cracked open, spewing lava into the air. Jez’s terra magic was just strong enough to direct the molten rock away and keep him from being incinerated as he rolled across the ground. Sharim, wreathed in flame, came down and placed a foot on Jez’s neck. The rock beneath him melted and washed over him. Even his transformed state couldn’t endure that without harm, and he let out a scr
eam of utter agony.

  “You should’ve surrendered when you had the chance. With the power of the high lords and the rune to the Keep of the Hosts, I no longer fear killing you.”

  He raised his sword just as a flurry of fur and claws crashed into him.

  Sharim tumbled to the ground as Jabur slashed again and again. The fires around Sharim seared the transformed warrior. As soon as the shock wore off, Sharim flung Jabur off of him. The guard flew a dozen feet into the air before crashing to the ground, unmoving and covered in burns.

  Sharim stood, bleeding fire and ash. He took a step, and flaming bars appeared around him. The human demon laughed and raised his own hand to dispel them, but they remained. Ziary came down next to Jez and offered him a hand up. Jez had managed to drag Sharim nearly to the central spire. The bulk of the Academy forces fought less than a hundred yards away.

  “You were lucky Jabur was so close,” Ziary said. “I couldn’t have reached you in time.”

  “Is he...”

  Ziary put a hand in front of Jabur’s face. “He’s breathing. If he can get help, he’ll be fine. You should’ve come in closer.”

  Jez coughed. There was hardly a part of him that didn’t ache. He pointed to the crack which still shed a fiery orange glow. “Sorry.”

  Ziary shrugged. “It worked out fine. What do we do with him?”

  “Send him back to the abyss.”

  Ziary nodded and closed his fist. The flaming bars around Sharim shrank in on him.

  “How are you keeping him from stopping you?” Jez asked.

  Ziary shrugged. “A trick I learned from Manakel.”

  “Is it?” Sharim asked as his eyes glowed red. In the distance, someone screamed so loud it could be heard even over the din of the battle. “Ah, I see.”