Red Queen

by Jolie Jaquinta

  Chapter 38

  Halphas

  At some point, the tenor of the battle changed. The masses still piled up, but the pressure somehow seemed less. Exhaustion gave a surreal edge to what was already a fantastical spectacle. Magic restored life and limbs, banished hunger and fatigue. It was easy for the mind to drift and feel that they were just more of the damned themselves.

  Then light was around them. Waves of magic tore through the heavens from their battle mages, dispelling the darkness and hostile weather. The dull red of the sky filtered through, illuminating the ghastly scene. Scree slopes of still corpses littered the landscape they struggled through. But, as they blinked in the light it was clear that the wave had ended. Knots of witless antagonists still hurled themselves at them, but no more stood behind them. In the near distance the gate they had entered by shimmered gossamer like, being held open by a few remaining mages in Irontree. With renewed energy the stragglers were engaged by the troops as the end appeared to be in sight.

  Queen Jesca locked her armor rigid and sagged in its harness. Coral leaned heavily on the battle standard next to her. She listened to the communications between the armies whispering in her ear. The troops had moved to mopping up, finishing off anything with a Soul. The mages were sweeping, but finding no force moving against them.

  “Is it over?” asked Coral. “Can it be over? Have we exhausted them?”

  “No”, said Jesca, tiredly. “It may be that Halphas has recalled his Paragon and is finally listening to good military advice.” She laughed mirthlessly. “He had to figure out that this wasn't going to work at some point. I fear the real battle will start soon.”

  “That's a happy thought”, said Coral, morosely.

  The final foes fell and a weak cheering broke out amongst the troops. But at that moment there was an indefinable force that stilled all tongues in their throats. Like the air pressure dropping suddenly, or the crack of weak ice underfoot, or the attention of a malevolent god. They all felt it, but could not name what they felt.

  Then the massed cadavers moved. A small jerk at first in a pile here. Then another mound sliding a few feet on another side. Piles of corpses were swept up into larger masses, and then, suddenly, all were in motion, clumping together and being dragged from the scene. All the conglomerations of bodies were yanked in one direction, and, as their eyes followed them, they began to mound up into a colossal shape.

  “I hate it when you're right”, said Coral.

  Even from this distance they could see the bodies contort and become pulverized. They dissolved into their constituent forms and migrated over the surface of the hideous rising shape. Arms oozed up and legs oozed down, collectively forming immense mockeries of the appendages they were.

  The soldiers staggered about, trying to find their original units and form up. All eyes were drawn to the forming behemoth. One by one the detached mages landed by Jesca as her command unit coalesced around her.

  “its fidelity is increasing”, said Lilly, looking at it with magical sight. “There. The arms have broken into forearms, hands, fingers, all moving into position. The heads are...” she left it unsaid.

  “Form up army by army three hundred paces behind my position. Away from whatever that is, and towards the gate”, said Jesca. “Send the vanguard of the 9th to me, and all senior mages.” Acknowledgments came in, and troops marched with purpose.

  The massive mountain of flesh resolved into a grotesque humanoid form. Then was still.

  “Ugly son of a bitch”, said Devonshire, arriving with the others.

  A feeling like a thunderclap sent them all reeling. Only it was not a sound, but a force felt in their very soul. The presence of unbridled evil. The effigy had become engulfed in black flame, searing any eyes looking at it directly with its darkness, as painful as the sun. The flesh had changed into something else. In this cloak the figure moved, and then howled with a thousand voices which struck their ears, rankled their nose, made their mouth feel caked with filth, and seemed to scratch the flesh from their bones.

  Scattered soldiers panicked and broke ranks before being hauled back into place by their brothers in arms. The black flames had subsided and the figure took on the smoky, shifting appearance they had seen in other demons, only immensely larger.

  “I can't pin down its pattern”, said Lilly, her magic stretching invisibly outwards.

  “It's like that other demon”, said Miasma, also concentrating. “Pattern upon pattern upon pattern. It's hard to grab on to. Only this one... it’s got a lot more edges to it.”

  “Abomination!” spat Devonshire. “Foul corruption of Souls!”

  “I want it”, said Jesca, coldly. The rest looked at her, stunned. “I want to take it down. Drain its souls. Finish it.”

  “Majestus!” said Devonshire, recovering first. “This offends the very essence of my being. But the power of it! We've never faced...”

  “It's less than a god is it not?” growled Jesca.

  “If there was a way to bind it”, said Lilly.

  “But there are so many patterns, they keep changing”, said Miasma.

  “Even if we drained the reserve, we couldn't brute force it. There's no telling how much it has in its reserve”, said Bianca.

  “Work it out amongst yourselves”, said Jesca, and stepped forward next to Coral.

  Coral stood, ahead of all of the army, holding the standard and looking somberly at the demon whose myriad forms were stretching and testing the sinews of their manifestation. “Well, this is clearly a superior foe” he said, with false light-heartedness. “I guess I best be about doing the champion thing.”

  “No”, said Jesca. “As my champion you represent the Queen. You set an example on her behalf. You fight the good fight when the Queen is not there to do so. That is not what I need you for now. I'm right here. I do not need to be represented.”

  He looked at her, eyes widening. “You can't be serious. You can't fight this yourself!”

  “You were just about to”, she reminded him. “This is not a battle for the army. As of now their work here is done. We will play through the role that is ours to play, wherever it leads. Even if only to cover the retreat of the rest.” Jesca clapped him on his shoulder. “Right now what I need is a herald.” She pointed to the monster before them. “Get an amplification spell from a mage and go and tell it I offer it single combat.”

  He blanched further. “No! That's...”

  “That's what Scioni would have done”, she said.

  “And look where he is now!” stammered Coral.

  Jesca stared at him sternly. “He is there because of what this demon has done. We are who we are because of what we do. If I fall as Scioni did, I would expect whoever has the benighted glory of being monarch thrust upon them next to do the same. And so on until there are none left to carry our dignity. Now get out there and issue challenge!” she said firmly. Then, more gently, “And stretch it out as long as you possibly can.”