by John Corwin
"He wouldn't even have to fire a spell from his wand," Adam said. "He could take over from the inside."
"I'm beginning to lean toward Adam's idea about searching Kohvalla," Elyssa said. "If we can find any records of interaction between Victus and Kohval, that might clear up a lot."
"Yeah, but Seraphim don't use paper files or computers." Shelton rolled a small communications gem in his fingers. "They use these tiny things. It'd be like searching for a needle in a haystack if anything actually exists."
"Back before Tarissa was nearly wiped out, every Darkling wore one of those gems," I said. "They called them life gems because they essentially recorded everything about daily life."
"Nice way of keeping crime rates low." Adam pursed his lips. "You think Kohval and his minions wore similar gems?"
I shrugged. "Kohval wore about a dozen gems on his uniform. Any one of them could have been recording video."
"Yeah, but said gem would be on Kohval way the hell over in Tarissa," Shelton said.
Elyssa turned to me. "Didn't you say all those transmissions were sent to a central location for analysis?"
"They had a hub, but I have no idea if people actually reviewed the video, or if it was done magically." An idea nudged my brain and made my right eye twitch. "When Cephus explained their system to me, he said each city had a repository for important records. If that's true, it's probable that Kohvalla has such a repository."
"If we find Kohval's records, does that mean we have to fast forward through this dude's daily life?" Shelton said. "I don't want to suffer through weeks of watching Kohval sit on the toilet with a newspaper."
Adam snorted. "The gems are worn on the uniforms, so you'd be seeing everything from Kohval's perspective, not a third-person perspective."
We reached the ship and climbed the gangway to the top deck then walked down the rampway to the lower levels where we found Illaena and Tahlee talking in the corridor. Illaena raised an expectant eyebrow when she saw me. "Feeling rested?"
I danced a little jig and ended with a show of jazz hands. "Does that answer your question?"
Elyssa covered her face and groaned.
Tahlee shook her head disapprovingly. "It appears his mind was severely damaged in the attack."
"Oh, his mind was damaged a long time ago," Shelton assured her.
Adam barked a laugh.
I looked at Adam and motioned toward Illaena. "Tell her what you told us about the Daskar."
He pushed up his non-existent glasses and cleared his throat. "The Daskar are created by summoning a demon with a ritual pattern and forming a body."
Illaena's forehead pinched with concern. "A demon?"
"Yep." Adam pushed on the bridge of his nose again. "My theory is that somehow a golem spark is inserted into the body so when the demon vacates it, the body doesn't disintegrate."
"We do not have much experience with demons in this realm." Illaena glanced at me as if to indicate I was the exception. "Can the demon control what its form will look like?"
"Now that's a tricky question," Adam said. "Usually, the summoner is the one who forms the demon."
"Here's another thought," Shelton said. "Hellhounds can morph into human and other forms. Could the Daskar be some kind of hellhounds?"
I shook my head. "Hellhounds can morph, but their forms are crude copies and they have limited range."
"Could you summon a hellhound in the shape of a human?" Adam asked.
I waggled a hand. “Yes, but the forms are limited. Most spirits are tethered to their ethereal forms. That's why all scorps look the same. It's why crawlers all have the same number legs, and it's why hellhounds look like dogs most of the time."
Elyssa nodded. "The only variance is size."
"That's right." I'd fought scorps the size of dogs, and a couple the size of school buses. "I don't have a lot of experience summoning higher demons, but even they are bound to their ethereal forms."
Shelton grunted. "In other words, the summoner can't just will a demon to look like a rodent of unusual size?"
"I don't think so." I tapped my left temple as if that might jog loose a memory. "I'm wracking my brain here, but out of all the demons I've fought, none of them looked all that human."
"There are humanoid demons," Elyssa said. "Emily Glass's boyfriend."
I snapped my fingers. "Yeah, I completely forgot about him."
"The Great Banisher," Adam said, awe in his voice. "Man, I wish she was here to answer some questions."
"That boyfriend has a name, you know," Shelton said. "Tyler Rock."
"Aww, did we objectify a man?" Elyssa said as if speaking with a baby. "I'm so sorry."
Shelton threw up his hands. "It hurts okay? Did you know that most of the Arcanes call me Bella's man, or Bella's husband? It's like she gets all the credit whenever I do something really cool."
Adam started giggling like a kid. "Oh man, that's great."
I clapped my hands loud enough to startle the others. "Hey, let's stop talking about Shelton's man card issues and get back to demon facts." I looked at Elyssa. "Did Emily Glass come to Seraphina?"
She shook her head. "No, the Custodians were too busy fighting some major battles of their own when we came through to Seraphina. In retrospect, I think Victus wanted to keep Emily busy because she's probably one of the few people who could have wrecked his plans."
"Victus might be a super powerful demonologist, but Emily could kick his ass three ways from Sunday," Adam said.
"Maybe you ought to marry her," Shelton said. "Sounds like you worship her or something."
Adam looked hurt. "Dude, that's just mean."
"Do you children always speak in circles?" Tahlee said. "I do not see how you get anything done."
"Hey, we ain't kids!" Shelton stuck out his tongue to drive home the point, drawing another groan from Elyssa.
I dragged the conversation back to demons. "I had a conversation with Emily about demons once. She said that you could sometimes tell the kind of demon by its color. Yellow demons are caustic and destructive. They're the ones that like to possess humans, but their presence slowly kills the body. Blue spirits are compatible with humans."
"Your dad was a blue spirit before he merged with a human and became Daemos," Shelton said.
I nodded. "That's why my eyes light up blue when I get angry."
"Or excited," Elyssa said with a smirk.
My face heated up. "Uh, yeah." I cleared my throat. "Tyler Rock is a green spirit. I think Emily said he's extremely rare."
"There are red demons too," Adam said. "I think they're compatible with human bodies to a certain extent, but they're also physically strong."
"What does all of this have to do with the Daskar?" Illaena asked. "Are they possessed by these humanoid demons?"
I shook my head. "No, but I'd be willing to bet a humanoid type demon helped make their bodies. We just don't know exactly how."
"Looks like Heaven is full of demons," Shelton said with a grin.
Illaena and Tahlee exchanged confused glances.
"Can we talk with the prisoner?" I asked Illaena.
She nodded and walked to the wall next to me where a small gem protruded. Illaena shot a spark of aether into the gem. Part of the wall dissolved into a door, revealing a small room with no furnishings. A woman in Daskar undergarments sat in the middle of the room, legs crossed, green eyes staring angrily at the door. Her resemblance to Nightliss stabbed me in the heart.
I realized that the pain in my heart wasn't sadness. It was anger. Burning hatred for Victus. That rat bastard had been behind the crystoid attack on Eden. Everything he'd orchestrated led to Nightliss's death when she'd saved us from a nuclear explosion. It was as if he'd made an army of Nightliss look-alikes just so I'd have to kill her over and over again until one of these monsters finally killed me.
I took a deep breath and cleared my thoughts. Becoming irrationally angry wouldn't help at all. Once again, I looked at her, but instead of noting
the familiarities, I noted the differences between her and Nightliss.
Her hair hung short just below the chin and ran at an angle to match her jawline. Light green eyes glared at me, not the familiar dark jade of my dear friend. This creature's nose was too long, her chin too square, her eyes too small. She was a pale imitation of a beautiful person—gross mimicry instead of true art.
I felt Elyssa's hand on my shoulder. Felt her concern. I squeezed her hand and smiled. "I'm okay."
The Daskar tried to rise, but dark ultraviolet shackles and chains held her in place.
I tried to form the first question, but the question lodged in a dry throat. Elyssa stepped in and started with something easy.
"What's your name?"
The Daskar bared her teeth and snapped them together like an angry dog.
Elyssa knelt in front of the golem. "Look, I want to help you get out of here. I want to get you safely back to Legiaros Kohval, but first, I need to know your name."
The Daskar's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You lie. You mean to kill me no matter what I say."
"What harm is there in knowing your name?" Elyssa said.
"There is no harm," the golem said. "I simply do not care to answer."
Elyssa nodded. "I know you're angry and you don't trust us, but we want to help you."
The Daskar yanked on her bonds again. "I do not want your help, invaders. I will gladly die for the glory of the Overlord's will. I will kill you or die trying."
Elyssa frowned and raised an eyebrow. "Who is the Overlord?"
"My one true master."
"Is Kohval the Overlord?"
The Daskar shook her head. "No, he is the Overlord's proxy. He is the one assigned to lead us to glory here in this world."
A thought punched me in the gut. "Is Victus the Overlord?"
The Daskar's brilliant green eyes lit on me. "Who are you to claim familiarity with the Overlord? You will not speak his name in my presence, or I will surely kill you the first chance I have."
"Promises, promises," Shelton said. "Listen here, sweetheart. You wouldn't stand a chance against any of us, so you'd better calm down and answer questions or we'll make it really unpleasant for you."
The Daskar snarled and leapt. The Murk bonds clanked and jerked her back to the floor. She strained at them, like a dog at the end of its leash, screaming and snapping her teeth until her lips were flecked with spittle.
Illaena took out a gem and channeled through it. A hazy blue beam enveloped the Daskar and the golem dropped to the floor like a sack of flour. "She's asleep."
Elyssa sighed and stood. "This is really, really bad."
"Yeah, we're never getting answers from her," Adam said.
"Worse than that." Elyssa shook her head sadly. "Kohval has an elite army of complete fanatics at his disposal. Unless we find a way to disable them, there's no way our army will ever have a chance of retaking Tarissa."
Chapter 5
Elyssa's words wrapped around me with all the comfort of wet sheets in a freezer. "That thing can still answer questions for us." I turned to Adam. "Experiment on it. Do whatever it takes to find out what makes that thing tick so we can shut down the rest of Kohval's puppet army."
"I cannot permit experimentation on a living being," Illaena said.
"It's not alive," I said. "It's not a being. It's a creation, a thing."
"Does it feel pain?" Illaena asked.
I bit back an angry denial, but I'd heard the Daskar cry out in pain during our battle. "Yes," I said.
"Does it feel emotions?"
"It's only programmed to simulate emotions and pain," Adam said. "It's just a robot."
"Like those metal creatures from your world?" Tahlee said.
"Exactly," Adam replied. "The Daskar are enchanted to behave like people, but everything about them is fake."
"Simulacrum," Shelton said.
Illaena pursed her lips, her expression skeptical. "We cannot be sure. Until you prove to me this soldier is not a living being, you cannot harm it."
"But you killed them during the fight!" I said. "You've killed other soldiers and even thrown them overboard."
"During battles," Illaena said. "This prisoner is completely at our mercy. She is our responsibility and I will not allow torture or cruel punishment while she is in our custody."
Elyssa nodded. "I agree."
I flinched back. "Hang on—you agree with protecting that thing?" I walked over to the unconscious Daskar and jerked its head up by the hair. "Look at it!" I shouted. "It's nothing more than an animated demon shell made to look like Nightliss!" My eyes burned. "That bastard did it just to hurt us—to remind us that he's really the one who killed her!"
"Justin, you're not making sense." Elyssa touched my hand. "Calm down, babe. We'll figure this out."
"It's not real!" I pounded a fist on the floor in disgust and glared at Elyssa. "I can't believe you're protecting this thing." I released the Daskar's hair and let its head thump on the floor. "Adam needs to find out what makes these things tick, and you’re throwing up roadblocks."
"What would Cinder think if he heard you talking like this?" Elyssa said in a calm, cold voice.
Shelton's eyes widened, and he swallowed hard. He shook his head at me, obviously wanting me to keep my mouth shut.
He didn't have to tell me because I didn't have an answer for Elyssa's question. Cinder was a golem, but he was also our friend. If I considered him sentient, what made him any different from this Daskar?
"Look, I've got plenty of harmless tests to run," Adam said. "It's not like I need to cut her up or anything."
"Cut it up," Shelton said. "Best we don't humanize this thing."
Elyssa turned her glare on him, and his face went pale.
I swallowed my anger and nodded. "Do what you can, Adam." With that, I turned and stalked out of the room.
I couldn't hear her, but I knew Elyssa was right behind me. I walked a ways down the corridor and turned to face her. She crossed her arms, raised an eyebrow, and stared at me. I didn't see anger in her eyes. Instead, I saw something a lot worse—disappointment.
So what? You know you're right! I wasn't sure if that was my inner demon or just ego talking. I swallowed it like a bitter pill and sighed. "I'm sorry. I let my emotions control me."
"I understand," she said in a neutral voice. "You were closer to Nightliss than anyone else. You loved her like a sister and then Victus took her away from you. Finding out he modeled an army of super soldiers on her is like rubbing salt in the wound."
"A knife in the guts," I clarified. "Yeah, it is, but it doesn't excuse me losing my mind in there."
Elyssa's expression finally softened. "You haven't been through years of Templar training like me, and half your soul is made up of an angry demon who just wants to watch the world burn."
"Yeah, but—"
She put a finger on my lips. "Justin, let me finish." Elyssa moved her hand to my cheek. "I don't blame you for what you feel. Just try your best not to let someone like Victus turn you into the monster he'd love for you to become."
It felt like a vice clamped around my heart had loosened. I pulled her into a hug and rested my chin on her shoulder. "I'd be lost without you."
She chuckled. "That's for sure."
I pulled back and rolled my neck to relieve some of the tension in my muscles. Images of Nightliss's burnt and battered body kept flashing through my mind. She wouldn't want me to lose my humanity over this. Maybe the Daskar really were just things enchanted to act like real people, or maybe Victus had figured out how to make them into living beings. Just because he'd played god didn't give me the right to do the same with our prisoner. I was just kidding myself if I thought that torturing or killing a prisoner wasn't taking on the role of god.
It seemed like just yesterday I was talking to Nightliss and consoling her on the eve of the arctic battle that claimed her life. I shook it off and squeezed Elyssa's hand. "I think we need to get to Kohvalla and recon the
area in case there are still soldiers stationed there before we start snooping around."
"Spoken like a Templar," Elyssa said with a wink. "Just the two of us?"
I shook my head. "Let's see if Shelton wants to go."
She groaned. "I was kind of hoping we might find a secluded spot."
"We can call in Shelton after we finish the recon," I said a bit too quickly.
Elyssa leaned over and whispered in my ear. "You're smarter than you look."
I was about to jokingly ask what she meant by that, but her tongue on my earlobe made me forget how to talk.
We stepped back into the room where the Daskar still lay on the floor. Tahlee and Illaena spoke to Adam. Shelton shifted worried looks back and forth between me and Elyssa. The stupid grin across my face seemed to reassure him.
"What's the plan?" he said.
"Elyssa and I are going to scout Kohvalla to make sure the coast is clear," I said. "Then we'll poke around a little."
Shelton nodded. "I'll come with you."
I shook my head and a look of realization swept across his face. Shelton snorted. "I know what kind of poking around you want to do."
Elyssa burst into laughter while I turned fifty shades of embarrassed.
Illaena and Tahlee finished outlining the rules of interrogation for Adam then turned toward me.
"What do you hope to find in Kohvalla?" Illaena asked.
"Answers about the Daskar," I said. "Maybe discover any links Victus had with Kohval."
She nodded. "Very well. We have another day of repairs ahead of us, and we must bury our dead. The ritual will be this evening."
I nodded. "I'll be back in time."
Elyssa and I went to our room to grab some equipment first. She reached into a black duffel bag. "I’m glad they found my bow after the fighting was over." She withdrew and unfolded the compact black bow given to her by the human citizens of Atlantis. A tug on the bowstring produced an arrow of shimmering silver light, crackling and humming with energy.
"Where was it?" I asked
Elyssa blew out a breath. "Under one of the bodies."
"It came in handy during the fight." I slid a katana into a sheath on my back. The Nightingale armor we'd worn to Atlantis had been shredded during previous battles, so we were stuck with the Atlantean approximations of jeans and T-shirts that they'd made for us before departure.