by Aisha Saeed
“We could try to run?” Sakina whispered. “He is stronger, but we might be faster.”
Diana swallowed. They could run. But for how long? There were hundreds of townsfolk. The demon wouldn’t stop. He’d never give up. She stepped back as the man lumbered closer. She’d taken out a lot of people tonight, but this man was different. He looked as strong as an ox. He might not know how to fight, but he wouldn’t need to—he had pure brute strength on his side.
Diana glanced at her belt. The lasso.
This was it!
Perhaps the demon was too far away to corral with the Lasso of Truth, but in a few more paces, Marco would be right in the line of capture. She could lasso him in, and maybe it would break his spell. She could force him to speak the truth of what was happening—the lasso could help him see.
“Stand down,” Diana told Sakina. “Lower your weapon. Let him come to us.”
The man continued toward them with expressionless eyes. His jaw was slack, but his fists were clenched. Diana shivered. Once he was arm’s length away, she pulled out the Lasso of Truth and swung it toward him. It landed in a perfect arc around his middle.
Marco frowned at the rope settling around his torso. He jerked to tear it off. But then the lasso glimmered and glowed. He blinked, and his hands fell to his side.
“What…what is happening?” he asked, glancing around in astonishment. “Why am I out here at this time of night?” Looking at Diana and then at Sakina, he blinked in confusion. “Who are you?”
“Marco!” Augustus cried out. “You have to help us. Please!”
The man started at the sight of Augustus, who was clamped tightly around the waist by his father.
“Brutus,” Marco croaked. “What are you doing to your little boy? What is going on?”
“Enough questions!” the demon shouted. “End it! Get the girl.”
“This demon is controlling our entire town,” Augustus said. His eyes filled with tears. “He’s been terrorizing us since yesterday.” He gestured to Diana. “He sent me on a mission to kidnap her. This thing is evil. We have to destroy him.”
“The boy lies,” the demon said coolly. “I am here to help. To give you more than you can imagine. The girl fetches a large price. And for your help, I will repay you all handsomely and you will share in my wealth. You will never want for anything again.”
“We don’t need anything from you,” Augustus shouted.
Marco stared at the boy and then at Diana. And then he turned to the demon.
“This girl is a child. What on earth do you want with her?”
“That is my business. Yours is to do as you’re told.”
“I don’t take orders from anyone.” Marco shot the demon an angry look. “What makes you think you can come into our town and tell us what to do?”
“I would be careful speaking to me in this way. Someone will get these girls,” the demon said, “and for them there will be a most wonderful reward.”
Marco studied the demon. And then his eyes narrowed.
“If you think you can barge into our town and tell us what’s what, you’ve got another thing coming.”
The demon glared at Marco. And then he lifted a hand above his head. He snapped his fingers once more. With a deep growl, he bellowed:
“Now!”
Augustus’s eyes widened—but before he could speak, Brutus clamped a hand over his son’s mouth.
The next thing Diana heard was movement, rustling through trees behind them. And then a gang of people rushing toward her, Sakina, and Marco. Each of them held thick clubs. Before she could jump out of the way, the biggest of them was upon her. A giant club swung toward her head.
Pain seared through Diana’s skull. In one quick, horrifying moment, everything faded to black.
The first sensations Diana felt when she came to were the dirt beneath her face and then a deep, dull throbbing at the base of her neck. She moved to touch this sore spot, but her hand caught against something. Glancing down, she gasped. Her wrists were clamped together with cold metal cuffs and firmly chained to an iron stake in the ground. They’d captured her.
They’d gotten Sakina, too. She lay steps away from Diana, chained to another stake. She had a fresh new bruise on her face and a welt across her forehead. Her mouth was parted, her eyes closed. Was she passed out, or was she…? Diana’s eyes welled with tears. She couldn’t finish the thought. Sakina had to be okay. Straining against the chains, Diana tried inching closer to her friend, but the thick steel refused to give.
Tears trailed down Augustus’s cheeks. His father still grasped him firmly. Marco stood next to the demon. A red gash slashed across his arm and his chin. Gone was his wide-eyed bewilderment; his eyes were blank. The enchantment was once again rooted in his mind. Three villagers stood a few steps from the bonfire, closer to where Diana lay, their eyes fixed on her. Diana recognized that she was in the town square.
“Up from your little nap?” the demon asked Diana. She couldn’t tell how long she’d been passed out, but it was still dark. The demon floated toward her until he hovered mere inches away. Steam and heat emanated from his body. A glimmer of something in his hand caught her eye. Diana felt the color leave her face.
It was the Lasso of Truth.
He followed her gaze. “This is quite the nifty little device. I have heard legends of it but never knew it was genuine until tonight. It is not much use to me—twisting the truth is far more useful than drawing it out—but I am certain it will fetch a good sum in the marketplace.”
“Let. Me. Go.” Diana gritted her teeth and pulled at the chains.
He watched her strain against her binding. “I admire your spirit,” he said. “But I must tell you, there is the quality of not going down without a fight, and then there is the other bit about knowing when to quit.”
“This isn’t over.”
“You are keeping it interesting, I will grant you that much. My trickiest catch so far, and considering how long I have been in the business, this is saying something. And at least now I can say I earned my bounty in full.” The demon glanced at Augustus and grinned. “And I get an errand boy all my own to build and make potions for me. It is what you might call a win-win-win.”
“I will never work for you,” Augustus spat. His face was pinched and angry. “Never.”
“Once we pluck out whatever is clogging up your ears, you most certainly will.” He nodded to Brutus. “Go on, then. Pull it out. What exactly do you have stuffed in there? I must say I have seen the most amusing items over the years.”
Brutus held the struggling boy and yanked the petals from Augustus’s ears. They fluttered to the ground.
“I will never listen to you!” Augustus shouted. “Never!”
“Flower petals? Well, this is a first.” The demon chuckled. “Your creativity will certainly prove useful. And now that we have dispensed with the dramatics, let us get on with the hypnotism, shall we?” The demon approached Augustus. “I am here to help you and your people. You are very grateful I have arrived, I see.”
The boy stood tense and then his jaw slackened. The furrow in his brow smoothed.
“Very grateful,” Augustus said stoically.
“Augustus, no!” Diana cried out. But it was too late. Faster than she could imagine, the demon had taken control of him.
“I am most pleased that you will accompany me to my land. You will help me with potions and serve as my own personal chariot maker. And I am certain your carpentry skills will be useful to me in other ways as well. Doesn’t that sound fun?”
“Fun,” the boy repeated. His shoulders drooped.
Diana’s heart twisted. Augustus still stood before her, but in the real sense he was gone.
“Now I suppose I could remove your petals, too,” the demon mused, studying Diana. “Though I think—”
&nbs
p; A silver flash streaked suddenly through the air. Mira! She flew through the darkness and dove at the demon. The demon slashed his hands in front of him, the gray in his eyes darkening. Mira furiously pecked at him with her beak but ended up flying through him instead. She circled overhead and let out a great screech. With the moonlight shining down, Diana could see why she’d screamed: the bird had been singed along her tail and wings due to her act of heroism.
“Do my eyes deceive me, or was that truly a gamma gazelle?” the demon mused as he peered into the darkness. “What a marvel of fortune this day is turning out to be. I must have it. A rare demon ought to have a rare bird.” He turned to a teenage boy standing by the fire pit. “You have only one task: get the bird and bring it to me. Failure is not an option.”
“Yes, sir,” he mumbled. He hurried into the night.
“You can’t enchant a bird,” Diana said. “She’ll never belong to you.”
“In a cage she does not get much of a say, now does she? And if she proves herself to be inconvenient company, I can always sell her for a fair price.” The demon shrugged. “Either way, I win.”
The demon swirled closer to Diana.
“I’d think twice before you lay a hand on me,” Diana warned as he neared.
“Worry not,” the demon smirked. “No harm shall come to you. You are wanted as unscathed as possible in order for me to collect your full price.”
Diana shivered; the glowering demon was an evil-enough entity, but a danger far more mysterious lurked somewhere—a being who had gone to untold lengths in order to have her captured alive.
“What would you like me to do with this girl?” Marco asked. He pointed to Sakina. She still lay unconscious.
“Pay her no mind. She can burn with the rest of the village. It is what you all want, is it not?” He glanced at the villagers. “Burning is a rebirth. I am sure you all will welcome it.”
“What?” Diana’s mouth went dry. “You swore you wouldn’t. You promised you’d leave them alone if they did what you said! You said you’d reward them!”
“What can I say?” The demon shrugged. “Demons are not known for keeping their word. And me? I am a master of lies.”
Diana scanned the crowd of people, hoping this piece of information would jar at least someone’s attention. This demon was casually discussing killing them, burning their homes! But no one reacted. The hypnotism turned off any ability for them to think for themselves.
“The people here are chariot makers for the gods,” Diana said. “Do you think the gods will look kindly upon someone who has destroyed the people they were entrusted to protect? Do you have any idea what they will do to you?”
“The gods,” the demon snarled. His expression darkened. “They think they know everything. Everyone trembles, fearing they might grow angry. Not me. They may be powerful, but I? I am far more clever than they.”
“They’ll catch you. Sooner or later they will,” Diana said, “and when they do, they’ll make you pay for what you’ve done.”
“The gods will never know what happened. We will not leave any evidence behind. He was clear on this point.”
“Who is he?” Diana shouted. “Who is the being who wants to kidnap me? What will he do to me? I have a right to know!”
“It will all be attributed to a brush fire,” the demon continued, ignoring Diana. “Or a lightning strike. Happens all the time. An unavoidable tragedy. But for the best, yes, Augustus and Brutus?”
“For the best,” the man repeated.
“For the best.” Augustus nodded placidly.
Diana swallowed and fought back tears. Seeing Augustus succumb so completely was heartbreaking. He’d had so much fight in him before now. The demon was a monster.
“Take torches and light them in the bonfire,” the demon instructed the people of the town. “Hold them at the ready, and wait for my signal. Once we lift off in the chariot, start torching from the center of town and work your way outward.”
Diana watched the lines of motionless people mechanically retrieve torches and light them.
“As soon as I have the bird, we shall depart,” the demon said. “In the meantime—you, boy,” he hissed at Augustus. “Do you have a store of potions?”
“Yes,” said Augustus in a stilted voice. “Thousands.”
“Thousands, you say?” the demon asked. “Surely I have no use for all of them, but take me to where you keep them. I will determine which ones suit my needs best; no sense in letting perfectly good potions go to waste. And you three”—he pointed to the three guards watching Diana and Sakina—“keep an eye on the villagers lighting the torches. When I give the word, pull the stake out and carry Diana down to the runway. But keep her chained until I say so. She is a slippery one.
“And now I must bid you adieu, Diana.” The demon shot her a wicked smile. “But fear not—our parting shall not be for long. We will meet again very soon.”
And with that, the demon slipped away, Augustus by his side. She watched as the demon’s figure grew more and more distant down the cobblestone road until they turned a corner and were gone. She looked at her guards—their backs were turned to her, their eyes trained on where the demon had disappeared from sight.
Diana glared at the empty space where he had stood. The demon was preparing to leave. He planned to hand her over to a mysterious figure who was willing to destroy hundreds of lives just to possess her.
He had won.
No.
Diana clenched her jaw. She strained against the chains binding her.
He was not going to kidnap her.
He would not steal Mira.
He was not going to kill Sakina.
Or enslave Augustus.
And he was certainly not going to destroy this village and all who were within it.
Diana pulled at her handcuffs with everything she had. She strained against the metal. Her face flushed like a fever as she ground her teeth together. She struggled against the cuffs until her wrists turned bright red. The steel dug into her hands and pain pulsed through her body, but Diana didn’t stop. And then—
Diana blinked. The world began spinning. It was as though time was both hurtling forward at hyperspeed and slowing down all in the same breath.
Bearing down, Diana twisted against the metal with all her might. The pain had vanished.
And then—a crack.
The metal cuffs split in half. Diana looked down at her hands.
She was free.
Breathlessly, Diana scrambled to her friend’s side. She pinched her fingers against the metal of Sakina’s handcuffs and, with all her strength, yanked. The cuffs fell apart like glass bangles.
“Please be alive. Please be alive,” Diana murmured like a prayer under her breath. She placed a finger on her friend’s neck and felt weak with relief at the steady pulsing beat.
The guards stood by the bonfire, awaiting the next order. Their backs were to the girls. Twisting off the top of her water canteen, Diana gingerly poured some water into her palm and then splashed Sakina. It worked; Sakina’s eyes sprang open. She sat up and flinched, gingerly touching the welt growing on her forehead.
“What happened?” Sakina croaked softly. “My head feels so heavy.”
“We got knocked out,” Diana whispered. She glanced at the guards, but they remained distracted. “They ambushed us. But you’re okay.”
“You broke me out of handcuffs?” Sakina stared at the broken metal bits on the ground. “They’re made of metal.”
“I don’t know how it happened,” Diana said. The reality of what she’d done settled in on her. It should have been impossible to break out of those cuffs. And yet—she’d done it.
“Where’s Augustus?” Sakina asked. “Is he…? Is he…?”
“The demon has him,” Diana said. She glanced f
urtively at the guards. “He’s hypnotized.”
“No.” Sakina clasped her hands to her mouth.
“He took Augustus to gather potions at his workshop. Once the demon picks the ones he wants, we’re going to the runway.”
“But Augustus has the mushroom and the seed! I have the canteen, but we can’t do anything to the demon without those two ingredients.”
“Maybe we could get them from his pouch somehow.”
“How? He’s enchanted!”
“Still,” Diana said, “there has to be a way. We can figure something out. Let’s head to the runway and wait for them. At least then we’ll be one step ahead.”
There was a rustle in the trees and then Mira flew toward them. She swooped and settled on Sakina’s shoulder.
“Oh, Mira.” Sakina breathed a sigh of relief. But then she paused, taking in Mira’s singed feathers. “What happened here?”
“She tried saving us,” Diana told her. “She dove at the demon and got burned flying through him.”
“Poor thing,” Sakina said softly to Mira. “Thank you for trying.”
Diana nodded to the bird. “She’s the one buying us a little extra time. He wants to capture Mira and take her with him as a pet. I’m supposedly making him richer than he ever could have imagined, but that’s still not enough. What does a demon even want with money?”
“No kidding,” Sakina murmured. “His greed knows no bounds, does it?”
Diana sat up straighter. The demon was greedy. He wanted more and more. And right now he wanted Mira. Maybe that was the key! They could use his greed against him by distracting him with the newest thing he wanted: Mira.
“That’s it!” she exclaimed.
“What is?” Sakina asked.
“His fixation!” She looked at the bird. “If Mira is up for another act of bravery, maybe we have a shot at destroying him.”
“What did you have in mind?” Sakina asked.
“Mira can lure him. Distract him,” Diana explained. “We’ll hide in the woods while she flies to where he is—not close enough to get caught but close enough to keep his eyes off Augustus. While he’s busy trying to trap Mira, one of us can reach Augustus and get the rest of the ingredients.”