Demontech: Rally Point: 2 (Demontech Book 2)

by David Sherman

  Five middle-sized boys armed with knives and staves ran up behind a Jokapcul and beat on his back. One tried to hamstring him, but his knife was ineffective against the chain mail that covered the lancer’s legs. He spun about, swinging his lance like a sword. Its shaft knocked one boy down, its blade sliced through the belly of another. The other boys ran so the Jokapcul plunged his lance into the chest of the boy he’d knocked down.

  The defending soldiers were bigger and stronger than their foes and their swords were better suited to close combat on foot than the lances wielded by many of the attackers, but the Jokapcul fought with an unnatural ferocity, as though they were possessed by demons—or cared not whether they lived or died. And there were many more of them than there were defenders. They took many with them, but Blood Swords and Eikby Guards alike fell before the fierce attack. Many of the Jokapcul began to rampage among the women and children.

  Then more than a dozen horsemen crashed into the mass of Jokapcul, scattering them, many with red-running wounds or broken bones. The Jokapcul quickly recovered and threw themselves screaming at the horsemen, jabbing with their lances, grabbing at their arms and legs, trying to jump on their horses and pull them to the ground. The horses reared and lashed out with their forelegs, bucked and kicked with their hindlegs. Spinner fended off his attackers with his quarterstaff, smashing bones and pulping faces—he wished for a sword but didn’t have time to draw his. Silent’s huge sword swung in high arcs that carried it from one side of his great mount to the other; it dripped with more red and gore each time it rose. The other swordsmen hacked away at the small men harrying them, breaking lances and drawing blood. But the Jokapcul were like a wolf pack on a stag, and there were too many. An Eikby Guard was gutted by a lance thrust, a Skraglander was dragged off his horse and pinned to the ground by three lances. A hamstrung horse fell, screaming awfully, its rider was stabbed repeatedly before he could pull himself from his downed mount.

  Then the footmen, led by Haft, came through the fence and fell on the Jokapcul. Unlike Spinner and the horsemen who had gone around the fence, Haft and the men on foot raced straight across the enclosed area and didn’t take much longer to reach the battle.

  The fighting was furious but brief. The Jokapcul, surprised one time too many and suffering losses they couldn’t sustain, broke and ran back to the fence and through it to their horses. The defenders who could find bows picked them up and fired arrows after them. Xundoe arrived in time to use his small demon spitter—five mounted lancers went down to the weapon before the tiny demon in its handle popped out and demanded to be fed.

  Beyond the retreating Jokapcul, the heart of Eikby was ablaze, high flickering flames and billowing smoke blotted out the forest beyond. Panicked, screaming people ran in all directions as horsemen galloped about, cutting them down. Other Jokapcul formed up in front of the burning town, facing the campsite and the people beyond it. They began to advance at a trot. Some of them unlimbered the tubes of demon spitters. Two wore magicians robes.

  A double column of fresh horsemen appeared at the southern verge of Eikby’s land.

  THIRD INTERLUDE

  DEMONIC

  WEAPONS

  “Infernal Armory;

  The Weaponry of the Jokapcul”

  by

  Munch Musk

  (originally published in

  Swords and Arrows Monthly

  Reprinted with permission)

  “The Jokapcul are coming! The Jokapcul are coming!”

  For generations that cry was heard only on the coast of Kingdoms of Matilda and Rumpole on the west of the continent of Nunimar. In those bygone days, it was a sounding of the alert rather than the cry of terror it is today. Those earlier coastal raids weren’t intended for conquest, the Jokapcul raided to steal women, food, and sheep. (You can use your own imagination to figure out why they wanted the sheep.)

  Then, within the current generation, Lord Lackland, the infamous “Dark Prince” of Matilda, turned renegade and conjured up a vast library of magical tomes for the Jokapcul. The formerly annoying coastal raiders put those tomes to good use as they learned how to harness the powers of a variety of previously unknown demons to make some of the most horrific weapons ever seen.

  The Jokapcul then set out to conquer the world. Now when someone cries out, “The Jokapcul are coming!” it’s in the nations of southern Nunimar and is a cry of terror, usually followed closely by the thunder of an infernal weapon.

  The demonic weapons employed by the Jokapcul can be divided into two general categories: offensive, and defensive. Here’s a brief overview of some of the main weapons in each of these categories—just bear in mind that almost any weapon can be used either offensively or defensively.

  OFFENSIVE WEAPONS:

  1. The most common are Demon Spitters, which come in two sizes. Nobody, other than the Jokapcul themselves, knows the actual names or natures of the demons used in these weapons—until the Jokapcul first employed them in their conquest of Bostia, nobody had ever heard of demons that spit with such explosive results.

  The smaller of the Demon Spitters is normally used only by a magician. It is held in one hand and can penetrate any armor worn by a man at a distance of one hundred paces or farther.

  The larger Demon Spitter is commonly used by ordinary soldiers who have been specially trained in its use by magicians. It’s a tube about 49 long 2.50 in diameter. This one is explosive. Depending on what the demon’s spit strikes, when it explodes it can scatter fragments at velocity high enough to penetrate the strongest armor worn by men. A man standing close to it can be shredded into bloody pulp. There are unconfirmed reports that the spit can pulverize rock.

  There is another rumor worth noting: Jokapcul magicians are said to be working on harnessing other spitting demons to make weapons midway between the large and the small Spitters and one that is to the big one what the big one is to the small one.

  2. Phoenix eggs. This isn’t the phoenix of mythology, the beautiful bird that lives for centuries and dies in a glory of fire only to be reborn from the fire’s ashes. It’s a fist-size jeweled egg that magicians can cause to crack open, releasing a fiery bird the size of an adult Roc. The released phoenix causes incredible fire damage to everything within reach of its wings as it unfolds them and gains flight. No one has ever seen where the released phoenix goes after it takes off.

  3. Breathing Dragon. Unfortunately, nobody has ever survived a Breathing Dragon attack to describe it.

  DEFENSIVE WEAPONS:

  1. The Azren is a man-size demon normally used to guard prisoners, slaves, and other captive populations. It haunts the dreams of those it guards, and mercilessly slaughters any who try to leave its custody.

  2. The Green Women guard approaches to Jokapcul installations. They appear at night—in the guise of beautiful maids—to men who think about women (and what fighting man doesn’t)? A Green Woman may work alone, or several may appear in the same place at the same time. They attempt to lure soldiers away from their fellows. A soldier who follows one off is never seen alive again though his bones might be found. They are no more than a pleasant diversion to a man smart enough not to get caught alone with one.

  3. Gytrash are also used to guard Jokapcul installations, and are far more dangerous. They travel in packs and are much more offensive-minded than are the Green Women. When they come across anyone other than a Jokapcul in their patrol area, they attack with fang and claw and appear to be impervious to all weapons used by the soldiers of the nations of southern Nunimar.

  The imp is another defensive weapon, but it’s used by many of Nunimar’s nations to guard sensitive borders and installations, so no description of it is needed here.

  Of course this article also makes no attempt to describe the variety of sprites, dryads, elfs, banshees, and other watchers. None of them are used as weapons, they merely watch and give warning of intruders.

  Many other demons are used for weapons by the Jokapcul, but the above are the
major ones.

  University of the Great Rift

  Department of Far Western Studies

  The Editor

  Swords and Arrows Monthly

  Dear Sir,

  I am at a lexigraphical loss to describe to you the most powerfully conflicted emotions that beset me when I received by post the three copies of the issue of Swords and Arrows Monthly in which was published my paper, “An Overview of a Selection of the Manifold Types of Demonic Weapons Employed by the Jokapcul in Their Current Attempt at Conquest of the World.”

  The absolute brilliance of the color lithographs used to illustrate my paper was exceeded only by the magnificence of their faithful detail. I stand in awe of the artful skill of your illustrators and printers in rendering these marvelous prints.

  Equally, I was astonished to the point of bewilderment by the munificent size of the bank draft that was enclosed with the copies of the issue, it is far more than the honorarium rendered by James Military Review Quarterly when that journal published a paper of mine.

  However, I must strenuously object to the changes that were made in my paper.

  Firstly, whilst I understand that the titling convention in “popular” journals is different from that held proper in scholarly journals, I must take issue with the title with which you replaced mine. There is nothing “infernal” about the demonic weapons employed by the Jokapcul, and I made no inference anywhere in my paper to suggest that they are “infernal.”

  Secondly, I am appalled by the changes made to the text of my paper. I readily see that the paper as published follows with a reasonable amount of felicity the content of the paper as I wrote it, but I could scarce find a complete sentence of my own construction! I am almost speechless that you omitted the reference to my earlier papers on the subject of Lord Lackland and his association with the Jokapcul, which papers appeared in The Proceedings of the Association of Anthropological Scholars of Obscure Cultures. Your readers will be hard pressed to find the necessary documentation to illustrate that association.

  Thirdly, I was initially outraged by the egregious omission of my honorific and the misspelling of my patronymic. In final analysis, however, and in regard to the manner in which you or someone in your employ so thoroughly rewrote my paper in a manner which I find unacceptable, I am relieved that should anyone of my acquaintance or any of my scholarly peers come across this issue of Swords and Arrows Monthly, it is entirely possible that they might not recognize the “authorship” of this paper as attributable to me.

  I cannot say this too strongly: I will not submit another paper for consideration for publication in your journal without assurances that it will not be so bowdlerized.

  Respectfully yours,

  Scholar Munch Mu’sk,

  Professor

  IV

  HIT AND RUN

  CHAPTER

  NINETEEN

  The ground climbed steadily north of Eikby, growing more and more rugged until it became, unmistakably, the flank of mountains. The going was difficult for people on foot and hazardous for horses—wagons couldn’t negotiate it at all. Both the slope and its ruggedness were hidden from view from the south by the forest tops, which made the land appear to rise smoothly and gently. It was impossible to distinguish where the mountain ridge that seemed from Eikby to climb so cleanly from the land actually began. The first members of the company to reach the place where the rise was clearly the flank of the mountains, three Zobran Border Warders, scouted for the defensible position that Captain Stonearm had told them about, a valley with space enough for all and a source of fresh water. They found some two hundred Eikby townspeople, nearly all women and children, already there when they arrived. They searched the valley from its narrow mouth to its narrower end and confirmed that it had no other entrances. More important, it was free of both bandits and Jokapcul. The Border Warders left to scout about for refugees trying to find their way there. The first of the company’s people they found were being herded by Wolf. They put the three women and four children in the new campsite and had the five men join in the search for others.

  Haft and Silent reached the rally point before Spinner did. They reorganized the searchers, who had grown in number, and set out a line of pickets to guide people to the valley. They sent the Zobran Border Warders and Skraglander Borderers along with those of Eikby’s hunters who had arrived out to patrol in front of and beyond the ends of the picket line to search for groups and individuals. Wolf ranged farther and found several people who otherwise would have completely missed both the pickets and the patrols. The patrols were pulled in and the pickets relieved at sunset.

  “They didn’t even stop to fight us,” Haft said in bewilderment. “They were just interested in burning the town. They didn’t seem to care about us.”

  He and Spinner sat around a shielded fire with Fletcher, Silent, and Alyline discussing ways to find the rest of their people. Doli was just outside the circle, sitting close enough to Spinner’s back that her knee brushed him every time she moved—evidently she had forgiven him his recent indiscretion. Or perhaps she was afraid and wasn’t going to let what she saw as his infidelity force her out of his protective circle. Xundoe was among the many still missing.

  Silent hawked and spat into the fire, his saliva sizzled into steam. “That’s the Jokaps for you,” he rumbled. “They probably had orders to destroy the town.”

  “But why?” Spinner asked in a weak voice. “It makes no sense for soldiers to bypass fighting men in favor of cutting down civilians and putting the town to torch.”

  Silent shrugged his massive shoulders. “Maybe someone reported armed men in the town and they were after them. Maybe they wanted to make an example, to terrify other outlying towns into surrendering. Maybe they thought if they attacked the town we’d lose discipline and would be easier to defeat.” He shook his head. “They don’t think like real people. They don’t even think like you people, and you people think mighty strange on your own account.”

  “They did it because they like to kill and destroy,” Alyline said angrily. “They could kill more people if they attacked the town first, then attacked us.” She looked around the fire and said harshly, “You remember, they attacked our campsite next. We were mostly women and children in the camp. They must have thought we’d be easy to slaughter.” She stared into the fire for a moment, then said less harshly, “But we weren’t easy to slaughter.”

  “They’re still out there, you know,” Silent said into the quiet after the Golden Girl spoke. “They’re looking for us and they’re going after our people who are trying to reach the rally point.”

  Spinner looked up at the valley’s sides. “When I saw the mountains rising above the forest I thought their foot would be easy to find.”

  “That’s because you don’t know mountains,” Haft said ruefully. “I should have thought of it myself at the time and come up with a better rally point for us.” He shook his head. “But I didn’t.”

  “Don’t blame yourself, either of you,” Fletcher said. “We’d never had to use a rally point. Anyway, this is still the best one in sight from Eikby. Now, Silent’s right, they’re still out there looking for us. So what do we do?”

  “Find them and kill them first,” Haft answered. He was always ready with a direct solution.

  “There’re too many of them,” Spinner said. “First we have to find the rest of our people and lead them to this valley.”

  “And what do we do when the Jokapcul find this valley and trap us in it?” Alyline asked scornfully.

  “This valley’s easy to defend,” Silent said. “We’ve got water, and there aren’t enough of them to starve us out.”

  “That would be true if we had food,” Fletcher said, “but food is in short supply.”

  “Right before we withdrew we saw two more troops arrive,” Spinner said. “How many more have joined them since?”

  “None.” Silent looked at him. “I wasn’t only looking for our people when I went south. I
was also looking to see if more of them came. They didn’t.”

  “We killed one full troop’s worth of them,” Haft said. “Maybe more. We can beat them.”

  “How many of us did they kill or capture?” Alyline asked. No one answered. So far no more than fifty of their people had found their way to the valley. Fifty of their own people, plus they weren’t sure how many Eikbyers who had made their way to the hidden valley over the previous couple of days, or stumbled onto them during their flight from the Jokapcul.

  “Nobody knows what happened to Captain Stonearm?” Spinner asked after a long moment’s silence.

  Nobody replied at first, no one remembered seeing the guard captain since early in the battle with the mixed troop of Jokapcul.

  “He must have been killed while we were too busy fighting to notice,” Fletcher finally offered. No one said anything.

  Wolf slipped into the circle and squeezed between Spinner and Silent. He stretched out and lay with his jaw resting on his paws. He whined.

  “Couldn’t find anybody else, boy?” Silent asked, ruffling the fur on Wolf’s shoulders.

  Wolf whined again and rolled his head side to side, an obvious “no.”

  “Is anyone still out there?”

  Wolf bunched his shoulders, a shrug.

  “We’ll look again in the morning.”

  “Ulgh.” Wolf closed his eyes, and soon his paws began twitching as he chased rabbits in his sleep.

  Soon after, the others also drifted off.

  It took a long time for sleep to overtake Spinner. Had he done the right thing when he ordered everybody to scatter and find their way to the rally point? Should he have ordered a better organized withdrawal, one where they would have come here together? Maybe not. Even Haft had been ready to run. Silent, who never showed fear of the Jokapcul, preferred to be on his own to get away.