by Peter Oxley
“It is,” I said. “My brother Maxwell has taken an interest in your letters and he sent us to bring you to him.”
His affront forgotten, Joshua grabbed N’yotsu’s hand and shook it vigorously. “It is such a pleasure to meet you,” he exclaimed. “All of you!” He darted round to shake my hand.
“No!” shouted N’yotsu and Kate together, but it was too late: in his haste to reach me, Joshua put his foot through the summoning circle, breaking the demon’s containment. With a victorious snarl, the creature grabbed him and held him in front of itself like a shield.
“Make one move and I kill this whelp,” snarled the demon.
N’yotsu shrugged. “Do it. I don’t care.”
The demon frowned at him, but before it could react any further, a gunshot rang out in the confined space. The demon staggered forwards and involuntarily released Joshua, who fell to the floor, covered in the black sticky slime that served as the creature’s blood. I grabbed the young man and pushed him behind me, pointing my sword at the demon.
It turned and snarled at Kate, who had the pistol aimed at its head. “Forgot about me, didn’t you handsome?” Kate grinned.
The beast took a step towards her but was checked when N’yotsu launched himself at it, throwing it to the floor and aiming a series of blows to its skull and torso.
“Bloody fool,” shouted Kate. “I had a clean shot to the head!” She ran to me, glancing at Joshua. “He all right?” she asked.
I shrugged. “Hopefully that gave him enough of a scare to think twice about summoning any more demons in the future.” I was watching the fight in front of us intently; I itched to join in but N’yotsu and the demon were struggling at close quarters, which ruled out the effective use of my sword.
After freeing itself from N’yotsu’s embrace, the demon aimed a kick at our friend’s head, its clawed feet flashing menacingly in the candlelight. N’yotsu dodged aside and punched at the demon’s gunshot wound with a hard jab, causing it to scream in pain as it scrambled away to the far wall. As N’yotsu advanced, the demon used its muscular legs to thrust itself like a missile past him and up the stairs. A further series of thuds and crashes signalled its escape from the house.
N’yotsu followed without a word and I moved towards the stairs before turning back to look at Kate and Joshua. “Go,” she said. “I’ll keep an eye on the village idiot here.” I thought to check whether she would be all right alone with him but then stopped myself; her grim expression told me all I needed to know.
I ran up the steps and out of the house, pausing to check the trail of slick dark blood for the direction in which the others had gone. I turned left and ran, my soul exulting with the pull of my sword as it strained to engage in battle. I felt the runic symbols move beneath my skin and suppressed my instinctive resistance to those changes: at that moment I needed all of the strength and speed that my altered state afforded me. In the heat of action it was so much easier to forget my fears and revulsion at what the changes meant, focusing instead on what they did for me, the advantages they gave me.
The wind whistled past my ears as I picked up the pace from a sprint to something altogether more preternatural. I grinned and let out a low growl, leaping into the air and clearing 100 yards in one bound. The unrestrained joy of my condition at times like this were the main reason I managed to stay sane in the midst of the madness that had enveloped the world. It also had the added benefit of making me useful in our unending battles against the creatures from the Aether. This was fast becoming the new drug in my life, for I had no need of the numbness of alcohol or euphoria of laudanum when I could stand toe-to-toe with gods and devils and fight them on my own terms.
The sound of fighting grew ahead of me and I burst into a park to find N’yotsu and the demon once more confronting each other in a clearing. A dim part of me noted the similarity between this and the corner of Hyde Park in which Maxwell and I had first met N’yotsu, all those years ago when he had confronted yet another demon.
The creature squaring up to N’yotsu was clearly suffering from the wound caused by Kate’s pistol, but even with that handicap it was still more than equal to its foe, dodging N’yotsu’s blows and landing a number of its own. It moved so that its back was to me and I instinctively lashed out, my blade missing by inches but the hilt landing a ringing blow to the side of its head. It staggered and stepped back so that it faced both of us, leering from one to the other with malicious intent. I gritted my teeth against the urge to run away and hide, instead standing firm in front of this creature from the pits of Hell. We stood this way for some moments, feinting forwards and dropping back defensively in turn. I noted that N’yotsu was breathing heavily, clearly exhausted by the pursuit and battle.
“Who are you?” I demanded. “What is your purpose here?”
“I am impressed,” the demon said. “I thought humans were all weak and helpless. But then—ah! I had heard that they had recruited demons to their cause; I did not expect to meet you so soon.”
“Answer my question,” I said, pointing my sword at the creature’s neck. “You are already wounded, we can do far worse.”
The demon sneered at N’yotsu. “You don’t recognise me, old friend? Has it really been that long? Or maybe the rumours of your deteriorating mental state are true after all…”
I gaped at them; while it was entirely possible, nay plausible, that N’yotsu knew most of the demons that we encountered, he spoke so little about his past life that it was easy to forget that he was not of our world.
“I remember you all too well,” N’yotsu growled. “Certainly well enough to know that you were never a friend of mine. That is why I plan to remove your head as soon as I have found out what you are doing here.”
“Why, I was summoned here by your friend the human sorcerer back in that cellar, ripped unawares from where I was innocently abiding. You know how these things are.”
“I do. And I also know that you never willingly stray far from Almadel. To be summoned here you needed to have been in the Aether.” My friend’s face twisted into a mirthless grin. “Have you been exiled too?”
The demon sneered. “That would make you happy, wouldn’t it? To know that I have finally suffered the same fate as you? Maybe I have come here to be your salvation, to save you from the slow decline into oblivion that you are forcing on yourself. Tell me, do you hate your past so much that you would die rather than face it again? Or is it fear that motivates you?”
N’yotsu flinched as though he had been slapped, and the demon continued.
“I wonder how much of that famed pride you still have, whether you would let me help you to live anew? Maybe we could join forces and conquer this world together in the name of the Four Kings?”
N’yotsu grunted. “So the usurpers still rule. But they did not exile you, did they? You are far too canny for that. Even if you had fallen out of favour, they would not let you live. So I would wager that you still act for them. Which could only mean one thing: that you are acting as some form of scouting party, here in advance of an invasion.”
The very thought chilled me, even though it was a threat that had hung over us for many years now. N’yotsu had shared precious little of his background, but what he had told us was enough to populate our most desolate nightmares. Creatures forged in the crucibles of hellish worlds stalked the void of the Aether, hungry to devour the riches of our realm like a hideous swarm of demonic locusts. N’yotsu had always painted a picture of an amorphous mass of evil creatures hell-bent on a single goal, but what he had just said hinted at something else: the existence of a demonic society subject to a form of government. Which meant in turn that these creatures were possibly even as sophisticated as us.
“Care to fill me in?” I asked. “Who are you, demon?”
“I am Gaap,” the demon replied. “A key member of the Almadite Supreme Council, to be feared and dreaded by the likes of you.”
“He is a schemer and a petty functionary,” snapped
N’yotsu. “A toady for a group of demons that now rule my home realm. Someone who I used to trust until he stabbed me in the back and who is no doubt obeying their wishes even now.”
“Why so untrusting?” asked Gaap facetiously. “What makes you think I follow anyone’s plans?”
“Solomon said it best when he described you: ‘He goes before Four Great and Mighty Kings, as if he were a Guide to conduct them along on their way.’ Or do you want to tell me that you have changed your ways so much in only a few short millennia?”
“So bitter, even after all this time,” tutted Gaap as demonic figures emerged from the shadows around us. “I just have a knack for picking the winning side, that’s all.”
“Desist,” said a demon from behind us, “and we will let you live.”
“No, you won’t,” said N’yotsu slowly, turning with wary intent.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Gaap batted my sword aside and thrust a clawed fist at N’yotsu, sending him staggering backwards and leaving us exposed inside the circle of demons. I turned slowly with my sword raised and counted eight of the fiends, including Gaap, who extended a fist and shouted: “Hail the Four Kings!” The chant was taken up by the others as they advanced on us.
Chapter 2
I raised my sword and sidestepped a charging demon, swinging to deliver a raking cut down its side. I allowed myself a brief moment of satisfaction at its yelp of pain before spinning around to parry a blow from another demon. They were fast but I was faster, especially as I could feel the changes taking hold of me ever more, the runic symbols flowing beneath my skin like a volcanic river, consuming my weak humanity and leaving pure, demonic intensity in its wake.
The familiar fugue of battle descended upon me, the whole world becoming imbued with a preternatural focus and slowing everything to a half-pace, enabling me to anticipate my opponents’ actions and react with what must have appeared to the casual observer as an impossible speed.
A demon approached me warily, keeping just outside the reach of my sword. I lunged forwards and growled in frustration as the creature darted just as quickly backwards. Out of the periphery of my vision I was aware of N’yotsu fending off three of the creatures but I forced myself to concentrate on the job in hand: my friend was more than capable of looking after himself.
I redoubled my efforts, feinting to the right and attacking to the left. The demon spun backwards, throwing me off-balance. I fought to regain a fighting stance but was caught by a sharp blow to the side of my head. I fell to the ground, the world flashing a hot red around me as I realised that I had dropped my sword. The panic of being unarmed overrode my pain and I snapped back into the world with a harsh clarity, scrabbling to my feet just in time to see a clawed foot heading towards my face.
The force of the impact sent me flying, a metallic taste in my mouth as my nose and lips split open in a bloody mess. I landed hard and rolled away, casting around in vain for some form of safety. A clawed hand pulled me up and held me, feet dangling, to stare dully into the murderous face of my attacker. My hand flapped loosely and then connected with the LeMat pistol in my coat pocket. Without wasting time releasing the weapon, I cocked it and fired through the fabric of the coat in the demon’s general direction.
The creature grunted in surprise and looked down at its leg. I kicked at the fresh wound and rolled away as the demon instinctively released me with a howl of pain. I batted at my coat to dampen down the flames which had been caused by the gun’s discharge and looked around. I could see my sword just a few paces away and ran towards it; however, my sense of balance had been disrupted by the blows I had suffered and I found myself careering from side to side like a drunk in an alley.
Another demon grabbed me by the throat and squeezed. As the world started to grow dim I put my hands over its face, desperately groping with my thumbs for its eye sockets and digging deeply with the reserves of strength that come from the desperate fight to escape death.
My thumbs found their desired target and the creature released me with a scream, putting its hands over its face as I dived for my sword. My fingers wrapped round the hilt and I felt the weapon’s supernatural energy flow into me once more, lifting the fog of weary pain from my vision and pouring strength into my limbs. I spun round and drove the blade through the chest of the blinded demon and then twisted to meet the charge of another beast head-on. The creature looked at me with a questioning dismay as it slid to the ground off the point of my sword.
Three demons remained, all of which surrounded N’yotsu. I started towards them but was stopped short by a cold, hard pressure at my back. I turned to see a hooded figure standing on the edge of the tree line. From that distance I could make out very little of its features beyond a huddled form and a distinct sense of dread.
I pointed my sword at the figure but before I could issue a challenge my whole body froze. I felt as though someone had opened up my skull and poured in ice-cold water, the liquid cascading down to every part of me so that I was little more than a statue.
The hooded figure raised a cadaverous hand and a succession of words seeped into my consciousness, crystal-clear whispers from ten feet away. Each sound was a dent to my willpower, battering into my mind with an implacable intensity.
The words stopped and my body was returned to me, my limbs flexing as though I had awoken from a long sleep. The hooded figure forgotten, I turned to the fight taking place right by me. I knew exactly what I had to do.
I raised my sword and shouted a guttural roar as I ran, swinging my blade at the vile creature’s back. At the last moment, N’yotsu dived aside and met my strike with his own sword.
“Gus, what are you—?” he said, his words cut short as I threw another blow at his head.
The demonic whispers from that hooded creature had pulled at the threads of my frustrations with N’yotsu, unravelling and stretching them out before binding me with them so that my every movement was dictated by pure hatred born of those feelings, the irritations of knowing so very little about him in spite of having fought at his side for all those years. The way that he refused to tell us about his prior life as a demon and kept us in the dark about the inner workings of those strange worlds that we collided with on a daily basis. He said he was committed to helping us, but was he really? How could we truly trust someone who had done such terrible things in his life and then refused to talk about them, even if it might help us learn how to win the war against the demons?
N’yotsu stepped away from me, dodging each thrust of my sword and enraging me even more by his refusal to engage in battle.
“I do not want to harm you, Gus,” he said, stepping aside from another swing. “But you must know that this is not your doing. You are being manipulated.” His words were mere flies battering at the brick wall of my resolve. I charged at him again and he dodged aside with ease, saying: “You need to fight this. I am your friend!”
All I could think of was that I had to kill this pathetic creature: a demon which longed to be human so much that it denied its own nature. My fury narrowed to a point, a red tunnel with N’yotsu at its centre, a murderous hole into which I poured all of my hatred and rage. On top of all of this, he was responsible for what I was becoming: the slow stripping away of my humanity and replacing it with… God knew what.
I grew more and more frustrated as he evaded me, dodging this way and that without having the guts to fight back. I redoubled my efforts, throwing myself at him with yet more violent intent but then blinking in confusion as my sword swung into thin air with my foe nowhere to be seen. I spun around and then everything flashed red before I sank down into nothingness.
My head hurt. My whole body hurt. I groaned as the cold evening swam back to greet me with a sickening lurch, depositing me on the hard ground. I opened an eye to see N’yotsu standing over me, a thick branch held ready in his hands.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Like I’ve been battered to within an inch of my life,” I said
. I levered myself up onto my elbows and looked around. We were still in the park, but the demons were nowhere to be seen. “It’s all right, you don’t need that club. I no longer have the urge to kill you.”
He lowered the branch but did not drop it as he offered his free hand to help me to my feet. “Do you remember what happened?” he asked.
“There was a figure,” I frowned, trying to make sense of my addled memories. “He—it—did something to me. I couldn’t move, I felt like I was made of stone and ice, and then there were these words in my mind. The next thing I knew, I wanted nothing more than to kill you.” With a start I looked around. “The demons: where are they?”
“Gone,” he said. “They used the distraction of us fighting to make their escape. I have looked around for them, cast some spells to try to locate them, but they are no longer in the vicinity. I did not want to stray too far from you while you were unconscious, so I let them go.”
I nodded my thanks, rubbing my forehead as I thought back on the murderous instincts that had consumed me at the bidding of the hooded creature. “What was that thing?” I asked.
“A Mage,” said N’yotsu, frowning into the middle distance. “If you are feeling better then we should get back to…”
But I was not listening. I remembered the thoughts I had had when I was under the Mage’s influence: my frustrations at N’yotsu for time and again refusing to share information with us, information that could possibly be the difference between us living or dying the next time we confronted the demons. And here he was, doing the exact same thing again. While the urge to kill him had abated, the emotions the creature had manipulated and amplified in me were as real as they had ever been.
“No,” I said. “Not until you tell me exactly what a Mage is and why you have not mentioned these creatures before.”