Demon Bones

by T. G. Ayer

  The commander set a hand at his hip where the handle of a sword emerged from a sheath attached to his belt. “We’d assumed the ward meant to keep us in, but it does make sense that it prevents entry as well.” Then he met my gaze. “So you paid the greatest price by using the Sharaita?”

  “We all know the price.”

  “All?”

  “Yes. My entire team used the relic. We made use of it in order to assist the spell we’d created to counter the ward. The two together allowed us easier access. And we’re alive and acid-free, ready to kick some Division 7 butt. Not to mention Ward’s butt.”

  Fathima groaned and muttered as she walked toward the table. “Does anyone find it ironic that the man’s name is Ward and he’s in charge of the magic that controls us?” Her eyes, met mine and then she tilted her head at her commander when she spotted my shocked expression.

  “Come, child. Sit and partake of some refreshments. Your team is on their way and we’ve found a mode of distraction for our dear Shahbanu.” Mischief flickered in his eyes as a djinn appeared beside me bearing a golden platter filled with plates and decanters and goblets. Though a royal meal was the last thing I needed, I found the food to be sparse enough to avoid gluttony. Dates and soft white cheese, dried apricots and a tangy preserve, thin slices of garlic and butter coated soft bread.

  Logan and Kai, along with Darcy entered the room and were ushered to the table, the commander giving the dragon-shifter a deference that made even me uncomfortable. A few soldiers gathered around, including Akbar whose presence was a surprise.

  Two other fully-armored and armed soldiers hung around the edge of the throng, both older and sober in expression. The woman met my eyes, the gray-white of her hair appearing like a halo against her sharp features. She looked dangerous, the way a lioness would be if her cubs were in danger, and even the thin smile she gave me made me both comforted and terrified to ever be in her cross-hairs.

  “That’s Amira, a general in our army and an elder in one of our most noble houses. Her exploits in the Great War are taught in both history lessons and in military school. Amira and our queen made a formidable pair.”

  “They still do,” I said softly.

  Fathima chuckled. “That they do. I only wish our queen’s position was not of such a precarious nature…”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, curious and suddenly afraid. Were my own suspicions, and that of Sentinel’s, justified?

  Before Fathima could reply—which from her closed expression implied she would spout some made-up white lie—the commander tapped his goblet with a bronze object that at first appeared to be a straw and on closer inspection revealed itself to be a pen carved in such detail as to look like a bronze feather.

  I blinked as a few of the soldiers hurried off, leaving our team alone with the commander, Fathima and the two elderly military reps.

  He looked at us now as though he were staring into our souls, and even when he smiled, appearing to be satisfied with that inspection, I was still left unsettled.

  Chapter 30

  “Thank you for coming to help us. And don’t worry. I know full well that you have begun to wonder why we would even need your help other than the privilege of access to your unique skills to use human weapons and technology as part of our defense against the EarthWorld agencies.”

  I nodded slowly and shared a glance with each of my team.

  “I am much distressed to hear that Saleem’s friends risked their lives on so many occasions in their efforts to get to Mithras to save him and our people. I know this sentiment has been expressed already, but I don’t think we can thank you enough. For now, an explanation will have to be compensation enough.”

  I wanted to tell him that I thought I knew the reason already because Aisha had told me of Saleem’s bound power and the prophecy, but I suppressed the temptation. What if only Aisha knew of the potential for Saleem to cause destruction in Mithras? I figured I’d hear him out first.

  The commander held the attention of the room as he said, “You will know by now that Mithras possesses technology we have seen fit to keep from the many realms of the DarkWorld. Please let me reassure you that the decision was never made lightly and we were never of the mind to hoard such technological advances for the purposes of power.

  “We possessed sufficient knowledge of the workings of the EarthWorld, enough to know that this technology would be infinitely dangerous in the hands of governments and corporations.”

  I glanced over at Logan, catching the acknowledgment in his eyes. The commander wasn’t wrong in his impression, and personally, I wasn’t all that certain that the Mithrasians had any obligations to share tech with anyone.

  “Of course, we did suffer years of doubt in the wake of that decision, given the situation in the EarthWorld after the Conflagration. Our councils would often talk it over and wonder if we ought to reconsider, but we held fast to our decision.

  “This tech would have helped the EarthWorld power cities that were affected by the bleeding of magic and the dead spots of energy all over the world would likely have been reduced.”

  I opened my mouth to say that we understood some of it but the commander kept speaking, his expression again taking on a far-off look. “Then, one of our senior officials made the mistake of trusting the wrong person. He went to the Earth realm with the intention of learning their technology and finding a way to transform our energy production process in order to make it suitable for human use. He succeeded and began to work on perfecting it, but by confiding in his peers he’d started a ball rolling that he had little understanding of. To say that he was naïve would be the best description.”

  I was familiar enough with this story after the discussion with Saleem, and I knew the culprit was King Kassim. The commander’s respect for his late ruler was evident in his evasion of giving the scientist an identity.

  “After several attempts by government officials to broker a business arrangement with our world in order to obtain access to the tech and to the power sources, which our people rejected, the scientist’s labs and offices in the EarthWorld were raided and these agencies attempted to take the tech by force.

  “Our scientists returned, understanding they had ultimately endangered their own realm and regretting the compassion with which they’d begun the endeavor to develop the tech to help the EarthWorld. But again we underestimated the tenacity and determination—

  “Perhaps their greed and desperation too?” Amira suggested.

  “Agreed. And we paid for that underestimation. Not too long after our scientists returned, a delegation arrived intending to broker talks with our King and Queen. Which of course we declined politely. And which went exactly as you’d expect. They left in a fury, promising we would not get away with hoarding technology that would help billions of people. And yet again we underestimated their greed. A few months passed in which we were lulled into a false sense of security. What followed were numerous attempts on the life of the King, which resulted in...success I’m afraid. But, even after the king’s death, our Shahbanu wasn’t as compliant as these agents had expected.”

  “They certainly wouldn’t have expected her to be as powerful and as adamant as her husband,” Amira said, her tone dry. “Despite her status of mourning, the queen attended a diplomatic event in Paris, a meeting with the Supreme High Council. She never returned.”

  The commander nodded to his general before continuing, “Soon after her abduction, Crown Prince Saleem followed, determined to find her and bring her home. He was reluctant to ascend the throne unless he was certain his mother had indeed passed away.”

  “We would have known had she passed. And we checked the astral planes constantly, even hoping she may reach out, make contact. But nothing. Saleem meanwhile, began to work for a paranormal investigative agency which I’m sure you’re familiar with. He sent back reports with the warriors who visited him regularly—though in secret—that he was beginning to lose hope. But by that time, we’d alr
eady been infiltrated. Saleem had been gone just a few months when the Veil was breached and our council ousted.”

  “Agent Blake?” I asked.

  The commander nodded. “He arrived with another man who we understood to be a senior government official representing the United Nations. But the poor man had little idea of the real plot. He soon found himself with a dagger in his brain and his assistant was tortured to death for information she clearly didn’t possess.”

  “Later, they brought in a MindMage who I am sad to say was successful in turning several of our key council members,” the man beside Amira said, eyes flashing with an emotion I was afraid to label hatred. Was he one of the people Saleem had implied would want an eye for an eye from Division 7? I focused on his words as he said, “Those Agent Blake couldn’t sway had to make a choice—toe the line and pretend to play the game, or join the rest of the citizens in the camps.”

  “The camps?”

  The man nodded coldly. “There are industrial outposts located in a number of our main cities,” he snapped angrily. “There the people, men, women, and children are used as labor for the energy production factories.”

  “That makes sense now. Gilfillan was adamant he needed maps to a number of cities around the realm. Can we assume he knew more than he’d been willing to admit?”

  The commander was nodding, his expression dark with anger and yet still filled with sadness.

  “But wait,” I lifted a finger as the antagonistic general was about to speak. “What exactly are the people doing in these camps? Why would they need whole cities of people as labor? I thought this process of energy production you developed was even more desirable because it was clean energy, no pollution, no waste?”

  The commander raised an eyebrow, likely wondering how I came to know that. Then his expression cleared. I could have told him that Aisha had filled me in but I’d already interrupted the flow of conversation enough.

  “I will have Fathima take you to the site so you can see for yourselves,” the—still nameless—commander said

  “How do we go there without being seen? It’s not impossible to be seen within the Ether. And Blake’s mage is extremely powerful.” I looked at the warriors in the room. “Do we have any information about this mage? Who is he? What are his limitations and strengths?”

  Fathima rolled her shoulders, jaw tight. “What we know is that the mage is a woman—they refer to her as the Witch, and sometimes as the Demon. Seems even Blake’s men aren’t sure what she is. Nobody has seen her face. She moves around the palace, cloaked from head to toe, face hidden. Clearly, her identity is something Division 7 wishes to keep secret.”

  The mention of cloaks and female mages stirred a sense of deja vu within me but I ignored it. There were dozens of mages who would fit the description of this mage and we didn’t have the time, or the resources, to investigate her any right now.

  I bit my lip. “I guess we know only what we know. The one thing we can be sure of is she is powerful. The queen needed Barry to help build a counterspell—”

  “Barry?” asked the commander, leaning forward slightly as though anticipating my confirmation of the demon overlord’s identity.

  “Baa’ruk, the demon overlord for the Eastern Seaboard. Pretty sure he has some other fancy title that I can’t pronounce. Not certain if you know him, but the queen did say that he and her late husband were good friends.”

  The commander nodded, a brief smile curving his lips. “Yes. We do know Baa’ruk. And he is trusted, so we are relieved he was able to assist our queen.”

  “Considering she wasn’t able to weave the spell on her own, we can rest assured that this mage, whoever she is, has more power than anyone we’ve encountered before,” I said, aware I’d just admitted to the gathered rebels that their queen hadn’t possessed sufficient power to create the spell on her own, thus revealing her weakness. I swallowed and continued quickly. “Which also means there is a strong likelihood she could sense our movements in the ether, especially when we’re close to a key location like the palace. I hardly think Blake would be complacent enough to dispense with protection around those productions sites either.”

  The commander shared a glance with Fathima and then with his generals. Then he said, “Well, that question is directly related to our next problem. We learned early on how easy it was for this mage to detect astral movement and we did lose a few warriors in the process of this discovery. For which I must accept responsibility for being complacent. The mage does appear to be still learning as her methods are more blast-first-ask-no-questions which isn’t at all tactically wise.”

  I gasped and then shut my mouth quickly.

  “What is it?” asked Amira.

  I shook my head then fluttered my arms at my sides, suddenly restless. “Those tactics would explain why our recent attempt at accessing the Veil with a portal key ended in disaster. And also why I’d been shut out of the Mithras ether a few days ago. It’s almost as though she’s arbitrarily firing magic at anything she senses within the Veil and the astral plane. I’m hoping she hasn’t yet developed a sense of the identity of the interlopers she’s blasted out.”

  “We suspect she hasn’t,” replied Fathima, her sober expression mirrored by the general’s and the commander too. “But, of course, we cannot be complacent either. As such, we’ve used a protective spell that would shroud our warriors as they travel through the astral planes. Unfortunately, it’s old magic and highly unethical, but the realm is at risk so we had to take drastic measures.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Please tell me no newborns were sacrificed in order to create this unethical magic?”

  Amira snorted and Fathima gave me a stern glare. The commander merely shook his head and smiled, almost indulgently despite the sharpness of my tone. “Not exactly,” he said, amusement fading as the reality of his unethical endeavors returned to haunt him.

  My blood ran cold and I sensed the restlessness in my team as they moved, shifting their weight and sharing worried glances.

  Then the commander laughed softly. “Don’t worry. No lives were sacrificed. But, being dark magic, blood was necessary to complete the magic.”

  Eyes wide now, I swallowed. “So the good news is you drained a child of his blood? That isn’t good news to me.”

  Amira chuckled. “Do not fret, child. We were gentle, and the child is unharmed and will not suffer any trauma as a result. It is still a breach of our code of ethics for which we will all be held accountable once all is said and done.”

  I nodded slowly. “Okay, so how does this protection work?”

  The commander waved Fathima over and she handed him a small velvet bag from which he withdrew the vessel of this dark magic.

  In his palm, he held a Kelan.

  “Goddess save me,” was all I was able to say.

  “Is something the matter?” asked the commander, his eyes harder now. The man was astute enough to recognize my recognition of the Kelan, though he didn’t voice the question.

  I took a deep breath. “Well. We kinda already have those, which makes me want to faint right about now.”

  The man’s eyebrows rose, his eyes flickering as he figured out how we could have obtained such magic. Then he sighed. “She is often one step ahead of me.” Then he rubbed his forehead.

  I snorted. “Well, she better not have bled any infants in the EarthWorld or I’m going to have to have a word with her.” I shuddered at the thought, though there certainly wasn’t much I could do about it now.

  Amira snickered and the commander smiled. “It’s likely she used the blood of her own children, so the children of the Earth-Realm are safe.”

  Scowling now, I was about to ask how in the world Aisha would have used the blood of two grown men when it was a child’s blood that was required for the spell to work.

  Then I grimaced. “Crap. Is she walking around with their blood in vials around her neck or something? And how would blood that old remain viable for two decades anyway?
”

  The commander’s jaw dropped and then amusement shimmered in his eyes. Why was it that he too appeared to think I was so damned funny all the time?

  Then I waved a hand before he could reply. “Don’t tell me. The queen is one of the most powerful djinn to ever live. She’s adept enough in magic to figure out a way to preserve blood for however long she wishes.” I shook my head and gave a weary sigh.

  Fathima stepped closer to retrieve the bag of Kelans from the commander’s grasp. “However the Kelans were produced, they have saved many lives, so I personally believe their creation was worth the trouble we will soon find ourselves in. We use the Kelans when traveling the ether, but this protective armor isn’t handed out to just any of the warriors. Partly to avoid leaking the fact that we have such a protection, and partly because one needs a certain level of skill to protect oneself from the armor. Over time, the energy the magical armor creates has the potential of injuring to the user unless they know how to protect themselves.”

  I stiffened and steeled myself against the temptation to look over at Kai. I now understood that her pre-existing injuries made her more vulnerable to the use of the Kelan and a pulse of fear rippled through me.

  Kai’s life had been in danger the moment she’d initiated the Kelan. And Aisha hadn’t thought to inform any of us of the potential danger.

  I took a breath and forced my anger down somewhere deep inside where it would keep until I had the opportunity to discuss the matter with the queen of the djinn.

  Fathima headed over to the table and spread out a rolled up map. “We will travel through the ether to this location—to the city of Kenitra in the Planes of Oezzane. It isn’t a taxing journey despite the distance, though I’m sure you will find that your friends will need an adjustment or two.”

  I glanced over at those friends who all wore expressions of concern mixed with a look of nothing-is-capable-of-surprising-me-anymore.