Rival Demons

by Sarra Cannon

  But I hadn't come here today to talk about Peachville. As much as I cared about the people back there, I also knew there was nothing I could do for them until I was strong enough to fight against the Order. For me to find that strength, I needed two things. Training and information. If I could find the right spellbook, I could end this whole thing forever. I could free all of the Primas from their demons and change the entire game in one instant. In my heart, I knew that spell existed. I just had to find it.

  "Listen, I need to ask Essex something about the library," I whispered, looking around to make sure there were no customers in the tent or people lingering outside.

  Mary Anne's eyes grew dark. Worried. "Here?" she asked. "Can't we talk about this back in the room later or something? I don't want to get him into any trouble."

  "It'll just take a second, I swear."

  She chewed on her lower lip and finally nodded, motioning for Essex to stop his work for a second. He walked over to us, a sweet smile on his face. He placed his hand down on the counter beside Mary Anne and I noticed her pinky slide over to touch the side of his palm ever so slightly.

  "Ask him quick," she said.

  "What do you know about the council's meeting place?" I asked. "I've been trying to find the entrance to the library by following some of the council members around, but other than Andros, I'm not completely sure who is on the council. And what about the scholars you talked about? What do they wear?"

  Essex looked around nervously. Then, he leaned in close to me. "You'll never see the scholars," he said. "They never leave the council's wing as far as I know. They are like monks. Hermits."

  I blew out a hard breath of frustration. Crap. "So how else am I supposed to find the library?"

  The question was more for my own benefit. I hadn't been expecting Essex to actually have an answer for me.

  "Follow your friends," he said. "The princess and the twin. They are going there every day."

  My eyes widened. "How do you know this?"

  "My shop is in a very good location here on the end of the row," he said with a sly smile. "Many believe they are talking in secret, not understanding that those of us inside the shop can still hear them. I hear many things, and one thing I hear is that the council and your friends are meeting in the library almost every single day to discuss a new plan for our people. There are many whispers on the streets of these events. Follow them and you will find the library."

  A customer walked into the shop, not hiding her surprise at finding two humans talking so casually to the shop owner's son. She almost turned around to go, but then changed her mind and turned back toward us, an attempt to smile coming out as more of a grimace.

  "Hello, Essex, I was hoping you could help me with a new dress for a party I'm attending this month?" she said. She kept glancing my way, obviously uncomfortable in the presence of a human.

  "I was just leaving," I said. "Thank you for your help with the new backpack. I sincerely appreciate it."

  Essex bowed to me. "Anything for a friend of Andros," he said. As I walked away, he turned his attention to the lady customer. "Now, what kind of design did you have in mind?"

  I slipped outside and made my way back toward the suite.

  Following Jackson and Lea wouldn't be easy. Especially since Jackson could usually sense my presence from a mile away. But that gave me an idea. He might be able to sense my presence, but I was usually able to sense him too. The feeling had been somewhat diminished here while I was so far away from Aerden, but still, I might be able to use that connection to find Jackson.

  It was too late in the day to try anything now, but after my magic practice tomorrow, that's exactly what I was going to do.

  Close Enough To Feel

  My new goal was to re-establish my connection with Jackson's energy. There had been a time when I could feel him like he was a part of me. An extension of my own energy. I knew part of that connection had to do with his twin brother, Aerden. Since Aerden was a part of me, bound to my family's line for a hundred years, it was only natural for that to extend to Jackson as well.

  But I knew our connection was more than that.

  No matter what was going on between us now that we had come to the Underground, it didn't change the fact that I loved him. We had saved each other's lives. Surely that counted for something. Wouldn't that kind of thing leave a mystical connection to someone?

  I was counting on a combination of all those things.

  I sat alone in the comfort of my bedroom, my legs crossed under my body and my palms facing upward. I became centered, focusing on the feel of my own power coursing through my bones. When I was sure and solid in my own power, I switched my focus from myself to Jackson. I sought him out with my mind, extending my magic like hidden fingers that stretched out to the entire Underground. I searched for any sign of him, wanting to feel that connection and hoping to be able to recognize him even in a crowded space of a thousand other demons.

  That first day, despite hours of meditation, I failed. I couldn't feel him at all. Was he too far away? Meeting somewhere deep in the bowels of this place? Far from my reach? Was the soul stone above our heads messing with my focus somehow? Or was I simply too far away from Aerden to feel any connection to his brother as well?

  The next morning, I spent my typical magic practice time in meditation instead, with the same bitter results.

  It wasn't until the fifth day of trying that I finally found him. In my quiet state of meditation, a whisper of him crossed into my mind. My body lit up like a firefly, the tiny hairs on my arms standing up. Somewhere, he had stepped into my range and my body had reacted.

  At first, I couldn't tell where he was, only that he was close enough to feel. I pushed my excitement down to the bottom of my mind and instead focused on what I knew of the Underground. I started by imagining the suite, then the hall where we all lived together. I rebuilt the place in my mind, like a ghostly map, uninhabited and shadowy, but clear. The process was a bit disorienting at first. My body was here in this room, but my mind was floating, free from the restrictions of flesh.

  I didn't sense him in any of these places, so I stretched my thoughts even further, struggling to stay focused despite the slight dizziness I felt. Finally, near the small cafe where I liked to write in the afternoons, I saw him.

  In my vision, I could see impressions of other energies bustling past, but Jackson's form glowed bright and steady.

  He stood in the marketplace talking to someone, but I wasn't good enough yet to identify anyone else by feel. For all purposes, I might as well have been standing there beside him. I could feel him that strongly. And the longer I focused on him, the stronger my focus became.

  I swam in it, letting the closeness of his essence surround me like water.

  When he moved, I moved with him, sensing his path step-by-step with amazing clarity. Then, he stepped into a cave on the far north side of the marketplace. A cave I had never been in before.

  Like a light switch being turned off, he was gone.

  No matter how hard I tried for the rest of the day, I couldn't find him again. Was it simply that he'd gone somewhere my mind's eye couldn't envision? Or was there some kind of block set up in that particular cave?

  That afternoon, I strolled through the marketplace, looking for the cave he'd disappeared into. The problem was, it didn't exist.

  Do You Know This Word?

  I ran my hand along the stone wall.

  Just like the hidden door where the soldiers went for training, the cave where Jackson spent most of his days was equally as hidden. There was no trace of it from the outside. Similar to the other one, this hidden door was also in a far corner of the marketplace, tucked behind a few tents where no one would notice people coming in and out.

  I couldn't help but wonder why there were so many secrets in a place like this. Hadn't everyone come down here with the same idea and purpose? Why would it be important to keep the activities of the soldiers and the council hidd
en from the rest of the community?

  For that matter, why would they have a library that no one could see? Why didn't everyone have a right to learn what they could about the Order of Shadows? Was the council really that paranoid about spies?

  I kicked my boot against the stone wall. Nothing in my plan was coming together like I hoped.

  The only thing I'd accomplished so far was learning a few extra magic tricks and establishing a new connection to Jackson. A pretty much useless connection now that I knew I couldn't follow him through this door.

  Still, I wasn't going to give up. I may be in hiding from the Order, but that didn't mean I couldn't be working on ways to fight them.

  My two main objectives hadn't changed. I wanted to watch the demons here train and see if I could pick up on some real offensive magic I could use to fight. And I wanted to find the books the Underground's Resistance army had taken from the Order's hunters.

  All of this would have been a lot easier if Jackson had stuck by my side and worked harder to include me in his plans. As I made my way back to my room, this thought made me more and more angry. Why hadn't he at least introduced me to the members of the council? I was confident that if I had my chance to speak to the council members individually, I could have convinced them of my dedication to destroy the Order.

  My anger fueled my steps as I tore through the marketplace with increasing speed.

  If I had to resort to more drastic measures, it was his fault really. He could have made this all a lot easier for me, but instead he deliberately made it impossible for me to do anything down here except sit in my room like a prisoner.

  Well, I had been a prisoner most of my life in one way or another. First, a prisoner to all the horrible foster homes, never really given any freedom to be myself. Then a prisoner in Peachville, forced into a life I never wanted as future Prima. And finally, when the Order realized I wasn't going to bow to their will, a prisoner on death row at Shadowford.

  I'd had enough of being locked up.

  I wanted to be free, and the only way I was ever going to do that was to get more knowledge. I needed to know how to fight, and I needed to know how to break the spell that bound me to Aerden. And down here in the Underground, with or without Jackson's help, I had a chance to learn both.

  I reached the suite and threw open the door.

  Mary Anne and Essex sat on the couch together playing some kind of game I didn't recognize.

  "Hey Harper," Mary Anne said, raising a hand in hello.

  I ignored her, anger and hurt sending me straight toward my room. Then, I decided, what the hell? It was time for drastic measures, right?

  I turned back toward them, my gaze landing on Essex. "What do you know about invisibility?"

  He drew his eyebrows together and stared blankly toward me. "What are you meaning by this?"

  "You know, being invisible," I said. "Going from being able to see something to not being able to see it at all."

  "Okay," he said, tilting his head to the side. "What is it you are asking?"

  I sat on the arm of the couch beside Mary Anne. "Say I was to go invisible right now and start walking around the marketplace," I said. "How many of your kind would be able to see me?"

  "If you are disappearing?" he asked. "No one. Isn't that the point of disappearing?"

  I couldn't help but laugh at his logic. "Yes," I said. "But the point of the dark is that you can't see anything, but some shadow demons see perfectly fine in the dark."

  He nodded, as if finally understanding my question. "You are wanting to know if anyone here has the special powers of seeing through invisibility."

  I thought about the wording of his statement. "Sort of," I said. "The only way I know to make myself invisible is to use a glamour. Do you know this word?"

  He brought a hand up to his lips and narrowed his eyes. "I am not certain, what does it mean?"

  "A glamour is when you change your outer appearance to something different," Mary Anne explained. "Not really changing it deep down, only on the surface."

  He opened his mouth and nodded again. "Yes," he said. "You are meaning an artificial self, in a way. Like the way you see me because of your potion. Human."

  "Right," I said. "Can everyone see through those things? Like if I made myself look like Mary Anne and walked around the marketplace, would people know it was really me and not her?"

  Essex shook his head. "I do not believe this is a magic most of my people would be able to see unless they were specifically looking for it," he said. "Up on the surface, they might be more careful with such things, but down here, I think you would be unnoticed."

  I decided to practice without letting him know I was practicing. "Thank you," I said, standing up from the couch.

  "Wait," Mary Anne said. "Why are you asking about all this?"

  I shrugged. "I was just curious."

  Mary Anne cut her eyes toward me suspiciously, but I just turned and walked back to my room, careful to leave the door wide open.

  In the living room, they resumed their game. I moved quietly into my bathroom and sat down on the floor, concentrating until my power was strong enough to let my body become enveloped in a glamour of nothingness. My body disappeared from the room, and once I was sure it was going to stick, I stood and walked quietly into the living room.

  I took each step extremely slow so that I didn't make a single sound.

  I moved around the couch and stood inches from them, watching them play their game for about ten minutes before I finally cleared my throat.

  Both of them jumped sky-high, pieces of their game scattering around the couch. Essex was so frightened, he was halfway to the door by the time I released my glamour and let him see that there was nothing to be afraid of.

  "I didn't mean to scare you," I said, trying not to laugh. "I just wanted to see if you'd see me."

  "Well we didn't," Mary Anne said, laughing. She held a hand up to her heart. "Jesus, you scared the crap out of me."

  Essex still stood halfway between the couch and the door, a blank expression on his face.

  Crap. I'd probably pissed him off.

  "Are you okay?" Mary Anne asked, hopping off the back of the couch to go to his side. She took his hand, and it was the first time I'd seem them so openly touch.

  Her hand in his seemed to wake him up from his shock. "Yes," he said, shaking it off. "I have never had this experience before now. I honestly did not see you or even sense your presence in any way. You startled me."

  I apologized again, but in my heart, I was satisfied. It had worked.

  Now, all I had to do was make it work in front of about five hundred demon soldiers.

  The Hidden Door

  Early the next morning, I slipped out of the suite long before Lea was even awake.

  I didn't want to miss it when the soldiers went into the training room for the day. Since I'd mostly just watched them come out in the afternoons, I had no idea what time the doors opened. I guessed it had to be pretty early.

  I hid myself between the folds of the tent, just as I had last time, and waited. About an hour later, as my eyes drooped with sleep, the first soldiers arrived at the hidden door.

  I pulled myself together and was able to make myself invisible just as the door slid open. My heart racing, I stepped from the safety of my hiding place and waited. To my surprise and great happiness, no one noticed me. I hung back and waited for the last of the group to file inside, then I followed close behind.

  And just like that, I was inside.

  Magic I Could Use

  Training Day 1, Distraction

  Today the soldiers learned about the art of distracting their enemies. I watched as they each practiced distracting their enemy with one type of magic while they prepared a death blow from behind. The soldiers practice with floating dummies that look eerily human. They are not alive, but are animated with some kind of magic to make them act like living targets. One girl in particular caught my eye, and I watched her very s
killfully throw a fireball directly at her target while simultaneously lifting a dagger from the floor behind the dummy. The dummy easily defended itself against the fireball, but was defeated by the well-placed dagger stabbed through its heart from behind. Watching this gave me chills.

  Training Day 2, Momentum

  It seems that many of the demons here have some connection with one or more of the elements. Some used fire in their training today while others chose wind or water. Except not all demon power seems to use a pure version of the elements. I noticed that some use lightning instead of fire, much like Agnes. Others use ice instead of water. It reminded me of the way Jackson had so quickly frozen the archers in the woods the night we were attacked by the fake witch. I wondered if every demon had its own talent where the elements were concerned or if they each just picked one they liked and went with it? What were the rules of how the different elements could be manipulated? Maybe energies is a better word than elements.

  I watched today as they learned different ways to create momentum with their chosen energy. Fires that began small were infused with power to become raging infernos of rolling fire that reached from floor to ceiling, which is saying a lot considering how high the ceilings here are. One boy with particular skill in wind control created a tornado so large it swept several other students up into the air before the instructor calmed him down.

  Training Day 3, Black Smoke

  Out of all the magic I've seen so far, this was probably the one that I'll never be able to attempt. Today, the recruits learned to use their raw demon power as a weapon in and of itself. I remember seeing Jackson and Lea's power manifest itself in ribbons of black smoke once they passed through the portal. Jackson had said it left a trace or signature behind, but he hadn't really explained how it worked.

  Today, I got to see a lot more of this black smoke in action. Every time one of the demons casts a spell, the smoke seems to come from their hands. If the spell is small or weak, the smoke is thin and barely noticeable. If the spell is strong or powerful, the smoke becomes like billowing ropes that can be used to strangle an opponent or lift them into the air. Many students used their power today as a type of extension of their own hands, letting the black smoke reach out and touch something far away.