Empyreal

by Helsel, Spencer

“She is armed!” one screamed.

  The centaurs advanced. Dani quickly backpedaled, only to nearly impale herself on the weapons behind her.

  “Now, now, wait a minute!” She cautioned, hands away from her swords. “Let’s all just calm down. I’m not here to hurt anybody.”

  Caesar swooped down from overhead and landed on her shoulder. The centaurs did the opposite of calm down. Weapons rose higher.

  “Kill the intruder!”

  “I’m not an intruder!” Dani argued.

  “To arms!”

  “No! Wait!”

  Caesar’s crown plumage rose threatening. This was getting out of control.

  But before any centaurs attacked, one broke through the front lines and galloped in between Dani, Caesar and the rest.

  “Hold!” Nessus cast off his helmet. “Stay thy blades, brothers! They are allies!”

  Another centaur cantered forward. “Allies they are not,” Buer growled, his own sword drawn threateningly. “That Numen girl was warned to stay far outside our borders, yet she returns to wreak more havoc! It is because of she that we are being banished!”

  That didn’t go over well. Angry centaurs glared in her direction. More than one stepped forward, but Nessus cantered around Dani and Caesar threateningly. They quickly backed away.

  “It is not the fault of any man here, nor she that stands behind me!”

  Buer raised his sword. “You would defend her after everything that happened?”

  “I would seek to defend the innocent!”

  “Innocent, she is not!”

  “Stop it! Both of you!” Dani stepped between them. Buer’s sword turned to her. “That’s enough! I’m not here for some sort of equine pissing contest! I’m here for your help.”

  “Our help? Are you daft? Have you no notion of what pain you caused this village? To hell with you!”

  “Sorry. Hell is already here.” She turned away from him, not caring he pointed a sword at her back. To the rest of the village, she warned. “Demons have entered Empyrean. We are under attack. They’ve killed dozens already and now they’re planning to attack the Citadel. I’m here to ask for your help.”

  Whispers flew through the assembled soldiers. Swords lowered, but no one moved.

  “Where is your proof?” Buer demanded.

  “Are you insane? Why do you think I’m here?”

  “We do not have permission to be in the Citadel by decree of the Elders.” He shot back. “The whole reason we depart for Hell is because of your interference. If we anger them further, our village could pay harsher penalties.”

  “And if you don’t come with me, a lot of people may die. And if they die, who’s here to protect your families when you leave?”

  “You would lead us to ruin. I have heard vile tales of thee!”

  “Oh my God, will people please stop blaming me for crap that’s not my fault!” she threw up her hands. “Are you stupid or do you really believe half the crap you hear? Because if you’re stupid, at least I can forgive that. If you really believe I’m some kind of monster, then you’re still stupid, but also gullible.” she was almost three feet shorter than the centaur, but she scared him with her anger. “Get it together! Why the hell would I tell you we’re under attack if we’re not under attack? What would I get out of that?”

  Buer had no retort. Next to her, Caesar said to Nessus, “Darling, she’s telling the truth. They’re here. We need your help.”

  Nessus glanced first to Caesar, then to Dani, then to his fellow centaurs. He raised his sword. “To arms. Prepare for battle.”

  “You do not have the authority to give such an order!” Buer growled, moving in front of him.

  Nessus moved quick; too quick for Buer. His sword came to the other’s centaur’s neck.

  “Will you listen to this girl once more?” Buer demanded. “You are exiled because of her.”

  “I am my own man.” Nessus shot back. “And I said to arms. An enemy comes to our gates and you do nothing? You will not stop that which threatens your home?” he looked to the other centaurs. “Will you, brothers? Will you allow demons to come for your children and beloved because you mistrust one who asks for aid?”

  The other centaurs were silent, but Dani recognized the looks of shame.

  “If it be my error that we are sent into the depths of the Underworld, then I take such fault, but I will not allow shame to keep me from my duty. An enemy entered our lands. I mean to kill them! Who is with me?”

  Swords drew. Several centaurs stepped forward, bowing, placing their swords to their brows. After a moment, even more did the same.

  Buer scowled, but he reached back and removed his helmet from a saddlebag, placing it onto his head. “Form ranks! Numen, where be these demons?”

  “The river gate.”

  “To the gates!” Buer ordered. As he galloped off, the other centaurs rode out behind him, flowing downhill.

  Caesar landed on Nessus’s shoulder. Her voice was all honey. “Darling, you are definitely your own man. You’re my kind of man, too.”

  He smirked. Dani almost gagged.

  ______________________

  They stormed downriver; centaurs galloping ahead full speed, Dani and Caesar above them. They passed under the bridge and headed for the river gate.

  Ahead, she could see same lattice of water columns as before. The portal. And from it, a dozen demons emerged. She recognized the familiar human shapes of the wraiths mixed with the ranks of putrid, rotting imps. Their skin looked sickly brown or green. Their lips rotted back from thick gums and teeth. If they had a nose, it turned up into the air, smelling oncoming meat. They would have looked almost cartoonish had they not carried an assortment of armor and weapons made from black steel. What had Castus called it? Stygian?

  The centaurs fired a volley of arrows as they descended the stones, leaping from one boulder to another deftly. The arrows struck down the first few demons pretty easily, either washing them into the river to be swept back down the ladder or killed by a shot to the head.

  The demons collided with the oncoming centaurs. They trampled most, but a few took down some of the Hellion defenders. Nessus stumbled, falling over a long-shafted spear.

  Caesar screamed. “ Nessus!”

  She rocketed downward, talons spread. Her claws snatched the creature up by the eye sockets and launched it over the ladder. It screamed as it fell out of sight down the mountain.

  Nessus rose, swinging his longsword wide and decapitating a wraith. Dani landed beside him, empyreal sword flaring to life. More demons leapt from the ladder onto the bank. They had to close it.

  “Nessus! Portal!” Dani’s sword collided with a heavy two-handed blade of an imp. Only her own power fueling the brilliantly-lit blade made her strong enough to stop it. “Close it!”

  He cut down his opponent and raised his hand, palm out. He spoke in the magical language; the one Ethan used to cast a spell keeping Nathaniel alive. The angelic language. The interlocking pillars of water dissolved.

  Dani parried another blow with her sword and drew Pigsticker. She shoved the white-hot dagger into the demon’s side under the arm. It screamed and burst into a cloud of stinking ash, demonic armor all that was left.

  More demons rushed towards the entrance of the ladder, but before they could reach it, it collapsed. They screamed as the river washed them back out and they tumbled into the clouds below, gone forever.

  The centaurs dispatched the remaining demons.

  Caesar dove down, landing on a rock beside Nessus. “Are you hurt, baby?”

  “I am fine.” He sheathed his sword and announced to his fellows. “We drove them back!”

  The centaurs cheered.

  “We have to keep going.” Dani told him. “More will cross the bridge. There’s an entrance on this side somewhere. Do you know it?”

  “Yes. Go. We will follow.” Nessus called out to the others. “Brothers! We have slain the enemy, but more still come! My sword is not yet bloody
enough! Who is with me?”

  Cheers. The centaurs ascended the boulders upstream. Apparently, flat ground really wasn’t required. These guys weren’t just half-man, halfhorse. They were more like half-man, half-Billy-goat. They climbed quickly.

  “Come on Caesar.” Dani launched into the sky.

  Beside her, her friend cooed, “Mmmhmmm… Can my man fight or what?”

  ______________________

  Dani landed on the cobblestones of the Citadel streets. Her muscles ached from near-exhaustion, but she took off at a run, Caesar above her. She had to get back to the others.

  The dark was afire in an orange radiance. From the Keep, Fyreballs lanced outward across the Vale from defenders. Arrows, ballistae, and other projectiles followed. The acrid smell of smoke and brimstone filled her nostrils as she descended the slope to a line of defenders. Among them, Asaph shouted orders.

  “Novice!” he yelled. “What are you doing here?” “Elder Asaph, the centaurs are coming. I ran ahead to see what I can do.”

  “Do?” he shouted. “The enemy is within our walls. And don’t think for one second that you and your companions have escaped my suspicion for this. First Novices, now demons circumvent our defenses. Mark my words this is not the end.”

  Fine, whatever, she thought. They had bigger problems. “In the meantime, what do we do to stop them?”

  “Our defensive line is here. We are within range of the Keep. We must hold them here to secure the time necessary to bolster the defenses of the Keep.”

  “Where are the others?”

  “Others?”

  She looked around. Ethan, Dink, Bouden; none of them were there. “Where is everyone from across the Vale?”

  Asaph looked to the bridge. There were dozens of Numen and demons fighting along the walkway. Dani’s horror dawned on her.

  “We need to help them.” She said.

  “And if we do, we give the advantage to the demons. Here we are strongest where they cannot bring their numbers to bear.”

  “Those are my friends! We have to help them!”

  “And we’ll die if do.”

  “Well screw this then!” Dani stormed off.

  “Novice Daniella! Get back here!”

  But she wasn’t listening. Sword drawn, she hurried across. Dozens of bodies and piles of ash littered the ground. Mangled corpses, half-dead defenders; the bridge was thick with bodies, mostly Powers and Gatekeepers unlucky enough to be here when the fighting started. As Dani moved towards the thick of it, the bodies of black-clad Guardians and brown-clothed Novices began to appear. She tried not to see if it was anyone she knew.

  As she ran, she looked out over the Vale. A large group of demons scaled the cliffs from the dark valley below. Above them, something dark flapping large bat wings led them over the rim. As she watched, by twos and threes, a large contingent of demons poured into the Citadel far from the Keep.

  She couldn’t deal with that now. The main fight was here. Wraiths and imps poured onto the Bridge, the last of the invaders. If she could, she tried to stop them before they could fully climb over, kicking some off the side to fall to their deaths below or cutting them down with her sword. In other spots, she attempted to help wounded escape or overpower demons who outmatched the defenders, trying to turn the tide in the Numen’s favor.

  She wasn’t paying attention, battling an imp back over the side, and didn’t see one behind her. It raised its dark mace, but an arrow shot by Dani’s ear and struck it through the neck, forcing it off and into the abyss.

  Dink notched another arrow and screamed, “Dani! Duck!”

  She did and he fired, striking an second demon in the chest behind her. Dani stabbed back into its heart, killing it. She ran for where Dink and Bouden knelt.

  “You guys okay?” she asked, the three of them hunkering to one side. “Where are Mastema and Ethan?”

  “Farther back!” Bouden pointed. “They told us to make for the Citadel.”

  “Good idea. Go! I’ll get them!”

  They reluctantly left, fighting through the ash and soot that clogged the air, creating a haze across the Bridge.

  Next, Dani found a single Gatekeeper, armed with a spear, fending off two wraiths prowling around him like wolves on the hunt. His back was to the edge. Dani recognized him; the same Gatekeeper who attacked her in her house. She wanted to leave him to get eaten.

  Wanted to, but couldn’t.

  With the wraiths distracted, Dani ran in. Sword swung in a wide arch, she sliced open the back of the nearest wraith and spilled black blood from its torn skin. It howled, turning to swipe at her with claws. She dodged back, striking down hard and cutting into its shoulder. Dani kept hacking until it went down.

  Unfortunately, the other decided she was a better target than the Gatekeeper and tackled Dani, biting into her shoulder. Her Arachne-weave held up, but pain shot up her arm. Pointyend dropped from her hand and the blade faded.

  An adamantine speartip lanced through its shoulder and yanked up. The demon screamed. Behind it, the Gatekeeper skewered the creature sideways, using the tip to pull it off.

  With a snap, the spear broke. The wraith turned on the Earthborn and attacked, gnawing into his neck and throwing them back against the ledge of the bridge. Dani watched in horror as thick red blood splattered from the neck of the screaming man.

  She grabbed for her dagger, but her left arm wasn’t working very well. She could barely stand. Her eyes locked with the Gatekeeper as she feebly tried to rise, but her knees gave way. She couldn’t help him.

  As if he knew, the man wrapped his arms around the creature. With no weapon and no way to fight it off, he pulled back with all his might and screamed one last time. Together, he and the beast pitched over the side of the bridge and out of sight. He was gone.

  In pain, bleeding slightly under her armor, Dani stumbled to the edge. A wave of nausea hit her, crippling her to her knees again. She grabbed for her sword but couldn’t lift it.

  An imp howled, seeing her and stalking towards her with a stygian axe. He rose to strike, but the demon only got that far. A single stroke hacked it in half through the back of the head and it dissolved. Behind it, Mastema landed. He flicked his blade to clean ash and blood off.

  “Rise, Daniella. Death is not something to wait for, but rush towards.”

  “You sound,” she swallowed hard, “like a demented fortune cookie.”

  “You have said that before. It was not funny then. It is not funny now.” He offered a hand and helped her up. “By the by, I believe you wanted my sayings on bumper stickers and Tshirts.”

  “Is that a joke?”

  “Battle is the only appropriate venue for humor.”

  Ethan appeared, large sword in hand. “We’re pulling back. Most of them are on the Bridge. We need to go.” He saw Dani and ran to her side. “You’re hurt!”

  A sound turned them back across the bridge. A wave of demons, like the sea over the beach, churned over the remaining Numen defenders.

  “Go!” Ethan told them. “Get her and anyone you can to safety! I’ll be right behind you.”

  Mastema pulled her against him. “Come, we must away!”

  The two of them launched towards the Citadel. Around them, the remaining defenders fell under the demons. There was nothing they could do and Dani turned her head away. She didn’t want to see.

  But something she did see. Ethan raised his sword in both hands, pressing the blade flat against his forehead in meditation. Overhead, thick black clouds rumbled and crackled with thunder. The wind picked up. In a blinding flash, a streak of lightning snapped from the heavens. Ethan extended his sword, taking it across the blade and slicing outward. The fork of energy exploded towards the advancing wall of monsters. The electricity lanced through them, destroying the first ones and halting their advance.

  Anyone behind Ethan who could run, did. When the flash dissipated, Ethan himself took off. Nothing more could be done.

  Stormthrower. Dani understo
od now.

  They landed before Asaph, who marshalled the remaining defenders. They were the last line before the Citadel.

  “Elder,” Ethan bowed, “we are the last across.”

  He nodded stiffly. “Understood, Guardian. You fought well. Take your people to the Keep. It is secure.”

  “Wait!” Dani yelled weakly. “The demon…” she was fading fast. “They’re inside. They climbed the cliffs. They used the attack to get into the Citadel.”

  The Elder scowled. Already, his last stand was compromised. He drew his scimitar. “We must warn the Keep.”

  “Let me guess,” Dani paled, trying not to vomit, “you volunteer?”

  “No. My place is here. I will not abandon my post or my men. I would die first.” And he meant it. Dani could see it in his eyes. At least that she could respect. “You must go. Take the wounded into the Keep, bar the doors and warn the rest of the Council.”

  “What about you?” she asked. “They could be coming up behind you.”

  “Fortune will either smile upon us or bless us with death.” Asaph told her. “Either way, we come to meet it. Get to the Keep. Warn the Elder Council. Find the demon and destroy it.”

  She could hear the howls of the demons approaching across the Vale. By the sound of it, there were many.

  “You’ll need help here.” She said.

  “Your duty here is done, Novice. Follow my orders.”

  “I’ve never been good at following orders.”

  “That has not gone unnoticed.” Then Asaph placed two fingers to his forehead and bowed towards her. “But there is little else you can do. Follow these orders as I give them for once: go to the Citadel, warn the Council and slay the creature.”

  Dani could barely believe his gesture of respect, but she returned it, knowing what it meant. If Asaph died, this would be their last encounter. If he lived, she would never get that kind of respect again.

  So she left. She followed orders for once.

  Chapter Forty-Five The Keep’s doors were shutting when the last wave of refugee Novices and wounded arrived. The Gatekeepers ushered them into the Throne Room, which was filled with similar refugees.

  Rows upon rows of wounded laid about the Throne Room like a field hospital from Hell. Healers tended to the injured, while gifted aided as volunteers. Dani laid next to the mirror pool, her reflection looking far worse than she expected; pale and sickly, and covered in dead-demon ash. Mastema retrieved panacea, pouring it onto her wound and forcing her to drink it.