The Black Road d-2

by Mel Odom

  Kabraxis guided him to the edge of the bed. Cholik only then realized that his blood smeared the bed coverings. He gasped, drinking down air as the room steadied around him. Anger settled into him then, and he glanced up at the demon.

  "Did you know about the assassin?" Cholik demanded. He imagined that Kabraxis had let the assassin shoot him only to remind Cholik how much he was needed.

  "No." Kabraxis crossed his arms over his huge chest. Muscles rippled in his forearms and shoulders.

  "How could you not know? We built this place. You have wards everywhere around the grounds."

  "I was also making your miracle happen at the time of your attack," Kabraxis said. "I made two whole boys from the conjoined twins, and that was no easy feat. People will be talking about that for years. While I was still working on that, your assassin struck."

  "You couldn't save me from that arrow?" Assessing the demon's abilities and powers had been out of Cholik's reach. Did the Black Road consume Kabraxis so much that it left him weak? That knowledge might be important. But it was also frightening to realize that the demon was limited and fallible after Cholik had tied his destiny to Kabraxis.

  "I trusted the mercenaries hired with the gold that I have made available to you to save you from something like this," Kabraxis answered.

  "Don't make that mistake again," Cholik snapped.

  Deliberately, Kabraxis twisted the bloody quarrel in his hands. Lines in his harsh face deepened. "Never make the mistake of assuming you are my equal, Buyard Cholik. Familiarity breeds contempt, but it also pushes you toward sudden death."

  Watching the demon, Cholik realized that Kabraxis could just as easily thrust the bolt through his chest again. Only this time the demon could pierce his heart. He swallowed, hardly able to get around the thick lump in his throat. "Of course. Forgive me. I forgot myself in the heat of the moment."

  Kabraxis nodded, dipping his horns, almost scratching the ceiling.

  "Did the guards catch the assassin?" Cholik asked.

  "No."

  "They failed even in that? They could not protect me, and they could not get vengeance on the person who nearly killed me?"

  Disinterested, the demon dropped the quarrel to the floor. "Punish the guards as you see fit, but realize that something else has come of this."

  "What?"

  Kabraxis faced Cholik. "Hundreds of people saw you killed today. They were certain of it. There was much weeping and wailing among them."

  The thought that the crowd had lamented his apparent death filled Cholik with smugness. He liked the way the people of Bramwell curried favor with him when he passed through the city's streets, and he liked the desperate envy he saw in their eyes regarding his place in the worship of their new prophet. They acknowledged the power that he wielded, each in his or her own way.

  "Those people thought the Way of Dreams was going to be denied to them as a result of your murder," Kabraxis said. "Now, however, they're going to believe that you're something much more than human, made whole again by Dien-Ap-Sten. Talk will go out past Bramwell even more, and the miracles that were seen here will grow in the telling."

  Cholik thought about that. Although he would not have chosen the action, he knew that what the demon said was true. His fame, and that of Dien-Ap-Sten, would grow because of the murder attempt. Ships and caravans would carry the stories of the conjoined twins and his near assassination across the sea and the land. The stories, as they always did, would become larger than life as each person told another.

  "More people will come, Buyard Cholik," Kabraxis said. "And they will want to be made to believe. We must be prepared for them."

  Striding to the window, Cholik looked out at Bramwell. The city was already bursting at the seams as a result of the church's success. Ships filled the harbor, and tent camps had sprung up in the forests around Bramwell.

  "An army of believers lies outside the walls of this church waiting to get in," Kabraxis said. "This church is too small to deal with them all."

  "The city," Cholik said, understanding. "The city will be too small to hold them all after this."

  "Soon," Kabraxis agreed, "that will be true."

  Turning to face the demon, Cholik said, "You didn't think it would happen this quickly."

  Kabraxis gazed at him. "I knew. I prepared. Now, you must prepare."

  "How?"

  "You must bring another to me whom I may remake as I have remade you."

  Jealousy flamed through Cholik. Sharing his power and his prestige wasn't acceptable.

  "You won't be sharing," Kabraxis said. "Instead, you will take on greater power by acquiring this person and bending him to our power."

  "What person?"

  "Lord Darkulan."

  Cholik considered that. Lord Darkulan ruled Bramwell and had a close relationship with the King of Westmarch. During the problem with Tristram, Lord Darkulan had been one of the king's most trusted advisors.

  "Lord Darkulan has let people know he's suspicious of the church," Cholik countered. "In fact, there was talk for a time of outlawing the church. He would have done it if the people hadn't stood so firmly against that, and if the opportunity for taxing the caravans and ships bringing the people from other lands hadn't come up."

  "Lord Darkulan's concern has been understandable. He's been afraid that we would win the allegiance of his people." Kabraxis smiled. "We have. After today, that is a foregone conclusion."

  "Why are you so sure?"

  "Because Lord Darkulan was in the audience today."

  SEVENTEEN

  A chill stole over Cholik at Kabraxis's announcement about Lord Darkulan's presence in the church. The man had never come there before.

  "Lord Darkulan entered the church disguised," Kabraxis went on. "No one knew he was here except for his bodyguards and me. And now you."

  "He may have hired the assassin," Cholik said, feeling his anger rise. He gazed down at his chest, seeing the crimson-stained robe and the hole where the quarrel had penetrated. Only unblemished flesh showed beneath now.

  "No."

  "Why are you so certain?"

  "Because the assassin strove alone to murder you," Kabraxis said. "If Lord Darkulan had organized the murder, he would have ordered three or four crossbowmen into the church. You would have been dead before you hit the floor."

  Cholik's mouth went dry. A thought occurred to him, one that he didn't want to investigate, but he was drawn to it as surely as a moth was drawn to the candle flame. "If they had killed me, would you have been able to return me to life?"

  "If I'd had to do that, Buyard Cholik, you would not have recognized the true chill of death. But neither would you have known again the fiery passion of life."

  An undead thing, Cholik realized. The thought almost made him sick. Images of lurching zombies and skeletons with ivory grins came to him. As a priest for the Zakarum Church, he'd been called on to clear graveyards and buildings of undead things that had once been humans and animals.And he had nearly been damned with coming back as one of them. His stomach twisted in rebellion, and sour bile painted the back of his mouth.

  "You would not have been merely animated as those things were," Kabraxis said. "I would have gifted you with true unlife. Your thoughts would have remained your own."

  "And my desires?"

  "Your desires and mine are closely aligned at this time. There would have been little you would have missed."

  Cholik didn't believe it. Demons lived their lives differently from men, with different dreams and passions. Still, he couldn't help wondering if he would have been less-or more?

  "Perhaps," Kabraxis said, "when you are more ready, you'll be given the chance to find out. For now, you've learned to hang on to your life as it is."

  "Then why was Lord Darkulan here?" Cholik asked.

  The demon smiled, baring his fangs. "Lord Darkulan has a favored mistress dying of a slow-acting poison that was given to her by Lady Darkulan only yesterday."

  "Why?"


  "Why? To kill her, of course. It seems that Lady Darkulan is a jealous woman and only discovered three days ago that her husband was seeing this other woman."

  "Wives have killed their husbands' mistresses before," Cholik said. Even past royal courts of Westmarch had stories about such events.

  "Yes," Kabraxis replied, "but it appears that Lord Darkulan's mistress of the last three months is also the daughter of the leader of the Bramwell merchants' guild. If the daughter should die, the merchant will wreak havoc with Bramwell's trade agreements and use his influence in the Westmarch royal courts to have his daughter's murderess brought to justice."

  "Hodgewell means to have Lady Darkulan brought up on charges?" Cholik couldn't believe it. He knew the merchant Kabraxis was talking about. Ammin Hodgewell was a spiteful, vengeful man who had stood against the Church of the Prophet of the Light since its inception.

  "Hodgewell means to have her hanged on the Block of Justice. He's working now to bring charges against Lady Darkulan."

  "Lord Darkulan knows this?"

  "Yes."

  "Why doesn't he enlist the aid of an apothecary?"

  "He has," Kabraxis said. "Several of them, in fact, since it was discovered yesterday that his mistress is doomed to a lingering illness. None of the apothecaries or healers can save her. She has only one salvation left to her."

  "The Way of Dreams," Cholik breathed. The implications of the impending murder swirled in his mind, banishing all thoughts of his near death.

  "Yes," Kabraxis said. "You understand."

  Cholik glanced at the demon, hardly daring to hope. "If Lord Darkulan comes to us for aid and we are able to save his mistress from the poison, save his wife from being hanged, and keep the peace in Bramwell-"

  "We will claim him on the Black Road," the demon said. "Then Lord Darkulan will be ours now and forever. He will be our springboard into Westmarch and the destiny that lies before us."

  Cholik shook his head. "Lord Darkulan is no young man to give into his passions with a woman of Merchantman Hodgewell's standing."

  "He had no choice," Kabraxis said. "The young woman's desire for him became overwhelming. And Lord Darkulan's desires for her became strong as well."

  Understanding flooded Cholik, and he gazed at the demon in wonder. "You. You did this."

  "Of course."

  "What about the poison that Lady Darkulan used? I can't believe that all of Lord Darkulan's healers and apothecaries couldn't find an antidote."

  "I gave it to Lady Darkulan," Kabraxis admitted, "even as I consoled her over her husband's infidelity. Once she had the poison, she wasted no time in the administration of it."

  "How much longer does Hodgewell's daughter have before the poison kills her?" Cholik asked.

  "Till tomorrow night."

  "And Lord Darkulan knows this?"

  "Yes."

  "Then today-"

  "I believe he meant to come forward today after the service," Kabraxis said. "Your attempted assassination caused his bodyguards to get him clear of the church. Some of the church's guards-as well as the lord's protectors-were killed in that maneuver, which helped cover the real assassin's escape."

  "Then Lord Darkulan will still come," Cholik said.

  "He must," Kabraxis agreed. "He has no choice. Unless he wishes to see his mistress dead by nightfall tomorrow and witness his wife's hanging shortly after that."

  "Lord Darkulan might take his wife and try to run."

  Kabraxis grinned. "And leave his riches and power behind? For the love of a woman he betrayed? A woman who can no longer love him back in the same manner as before? No. Lord Darkulan would see them both dead before he would willingly abdicate his position here. But even that won't save him. If all of this comes to light and the women die-"

  "Especially when the people believe he could have saved them both by turning to the Church of the Prophet of the Light as they have all done with their own problems," Cholik said, halfway stunned by the devious simplicity of Kabraxis's scheme, "Lord Darkulan will fall out of favor with the populace."

  "You do see," Kabraxis said.

  Cholik stared at the demon. "Why didn't you tell me any of this?"

  "I did," Kabraxis explained. "As soon as you needed to know."

  Part of Cholik's upbringing in the Zakarum Church whispered into the back of his mind. Demons can influence men, but only if those men are willing to listen. At any point, Kabraxis's multitiered scheme might have come apart. Themistress might not have fallen for the lord. The lord might not have betrayed his lady or might have broken the relationship off and confessed his indiscretions. And the lady might have taken a lover out of vengeance rather than poison the woman who took her husband.

  If the plan had not worked, Cholik would never have known, and the demon's pride would have been intact.

  "I humbled them all," Kabraxis said, "and I have brought these lands under our control. And we will have some of the most powerful people here as our allies. Lord Darkulan will be thankful for the salvation of his mistress, just as Merchantman Hodgewell will be grateful for the salvation of his daughter."

  Cholik examined the plan. It was bold and cunning and duplicitous-exactly what he would have expected from a demon. "We have it all," he said, looking back at Kabraxis.

  "Yes," the demon replied. "And we will have more."

  Someone knocked on the chamber doors.

  "What?" Cholik said with some annoyance.

  "Master Sayes," the priest called from the other side, "I only wanted to know that you were all right."

  "Go to them," Kabraxis said. "We will talk again later." He retreated to the back of the room and passed through the secret door.

  Cholik strode to the door and flung it open. The priests, acolytes, and mercenaries stepped back. One of the mercenaries held a small girl before him, one hand clapped over her mouth as she struggled to get free.

  "Master," the head priest said, "I beg your forgiveness. Only my worry over you prompted me to interrupt you."

  "I am fine," Cholik said, knowing the priest would continue to excuse himself out of his own fear.

  "But the arrow went so deep," the priest said. "I saw it for myself."

  "I was healed by the grace of Dien-Ap-Sten." Cholik pulled his robe open, revealing the unmarked flesh beneath the bloody clothing. "Great is the power of the Prophet of the Light."

  "Great is the power of the Prophet of the Light," the priests replied at once. "May Dien-Ap-Sten's mercies be eternal."

  Cholik pulled his robe back around himself. He looked at the struggling girl in the mercenary's hands. "What is this child doing here?"

  "She is the sister to the boys that Dien-Ap-Sten made whole today," the mercenary said. "She also saw the assassin."

  "This child did, and yet you and your men did not?" Cholik's voice held the unforgiving edge of bared steel.

  "She stood beside him when he loosed his shaft at you, Master Sayes," the mercenary replied. He looked uncomfortable.

  Cholik stepped toward the man. The priests and the other mercenaries moved back, as if expecting Cholik to summon down a lightning bolt to reduce the mercenary leader to ash. The thought, Cholik had to admit, was tempting. He looked away from the quaking mercenary and at the girl. The resemblance between the girl and the conjoined twins was striking.

  Tears leaked from the girl's eyes as she shuddered and cried. Her fear had turned her pale.

  "Release her," Cholik said.

  Reluctantly, the mercenary removed his big, callused hand from the girl's mouth. She drew in a deep, quaking breath. Tears continued to trickle down her face as she glanced around, seeking some way to escape.

  "Are you all right, child?" Cholik asked in a soft voice.

  "I want my da," the girl said. "I want my ma. I didn't do anything."

  "Did you see the man who shot me?" Cholik asked.

  "Yes." Her tear-filled eyes gazed up at Cholik. "Please, Master Sayes. I didn't do anything. I would have scream
ed, but he was too fast. He shot you before I could think. I didn't think he was going to do it. I wouldn't hurt you. You saved my brothers. Mikel and Dannis. You saved them. I wouldn't hurt you."

  Cholik put a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. He felt her shudder and cringe at his touch. "Easy, child. I only need to know about the man who tried to kill me. I won't hurt you, either."

  She looked at him. "Promise?"

  The girl's innocence touched Cholik. Promises were easy to give to the young; they wanted to believe.

  "I promise," Cholik said.

  The girl looked around, as if making sure the hard-faced mercenaries had heard Master Sayes's promise as well.

  "They will not touch you," Cholik said. "Describe the man who shot me."

  She gazed at him in big-eyed wonderment. "I thought he killed you."

  "He can't," Cholik said. "I'm one of the chosen of Dien-Ap-Sten. No mortal man may take my life as long as I stay in the prophet's favor."

  The girl sipped air again, becoming almost calm. "He was burned. Nearly all of his face was burned. His hands and arms were burned."

  The description meant nothing to Cholik. "Is there anything else you noticed about him?"

  "No." The girl hesitated.

  "What is it?" Cholik asked.

  "I think he was afraid that you would know him if you saw him," the girl said. "He said that he was surprised that he was let into the building."

  "I've never seen a man burned so badly as you say who still lived."

  "Maybe he didn't live," the girl said.

  "What makes you say that?"

  "I don't know. I just don't see how anyone could live after being burned so bad, is all."

  Pursued by a dead man? Cholik turned the thought over in his mind for a short time.

  Come, Kabraxis said in his mind. We have things to do. The assassin is gone.

  Cholik reached into the pocket of his robe and took out a few silver coins. The amount was enough to feed a family in Bramwell for months. Once, perhaps, the money might have meant something to him. Now, it was only a bargaining tool. He placed the silver coins in the girl's hand and folded her fingers over them.