by Tony Donadio
There was a moment of quiet as the two recovered from the violent exchange. Incanus Thad brought Destruction before it in a defensive stance, and the other demons quickly followed its example. Their arrogant bravado now gone, they regarded the King with cautious hostility.
Danor stepped back, seemed to waver for just an instant, and then planted his feet firmly on the ground. Guardian swept around once more to point, flaming, at the Captain of the Horde, ready for the next attack. The blue shield firmed again. It formed two barriers now, one to either side of the King, protecting those who guarded his flanks.
The moment of quiet stretched on as everyone present struggled to grasp what they had just seen. The demons — and indeed, most of their prey — had expected an easy slaughter. The King had just shown them the error of their presumption.
It was Aron who finally seized the moment, and the opportunity it presented. He dropped into a fencer’s stance, and, Flamebane’s point extended before him, lunged at the nearest demon. The creature leaped back as the tip penetrated easily through the blue shield. The enchanted blade caught it in the leg and opened a gash that dripped with black ichor.
“For Danor the Defender!” he cried.
His resonant challenge echoed through the room, and the power of his voice roused the hearts of the others. Cries of “Danor the Defender! For King and Carlissa!” rang out in its wake. Emboldened by Aron’s example, they surged to attack.
Danor’s sword spun in an arc of fire, slashing the air around him until it became almost a fiery shield itself. Lord Rugon fell in at his left, and Aron his right. The rest of the guards, and the lords that were with them, formed a wedge behind him. The Queen stood at their center, protecting them with barriers of magic.
Despite their surprise the demons held their ground. Incanus Thad roared, its axe striking again and again at the King, trying to beat him down by sheer force. Wicked steel, claws and demon fire lashed at the defenders, parried by weapon and shield or blunted by Elena’s magic. The blades of the King’s men struck back, reaching easily through the protective aura that surrounded them.
And nothing seemed to be able to touch Danor. His immolated form drove mercilessly against the Captain of the Horde, countering his every stroke, his sword moving to block any attempt to close with him and his people.
~
Aron spared a glance to take in the situation around them. The conference room was spacious and designed with high ceilings, but not so large that it could easily accommodate two score men and as many powerful demons. The monsters were having difficulty trying to flank them. Several of the attackers turned to threaten the second group of councilors where it was trapped at the east end of the room, but the high priest’s own shield of magic was keeping them at bay.
He felt his mother linking his mind with hers, and with the King’s.
Salmanor Darden is holding off the rest of the demons, he thought to them. I think the rest of the council is safe, at least for now.
Remarkable, Elena replied with a note of surprise. I didn’t think he had it in him.
One of the smaller demons tried to leap on Lord Rugon, claws outstretched. The blue aura before him flared brilliantly and the creature stopped in mid-air, as though it had run headlong into a wall. The lord’s weapon lashed out, slashing the monster across the midsection. A hint of the azure magic lingered on his sword for a moment as it passed through. The creature sprang back with a howl of pain, and a shallow gash across its belly.
How are you holding up? Danor asked. Concern edged his thoughts, and Elena’s reply seemed strained.
Not well. The demons are powerful, and there are a lot of them. These shields are taking all of my strength. I won’t be able to keep them up for long.
A creature with a spiked flail charged a guard on their flank. The weapon’s head glowed with an eerie black aura, and it passed through the azure ward. The soldier tried to parry the attack, but his sword and arm were shattered by the blow. A quick back-swipe from the glowing weapon crushed his skull.
Aron lunged through the barrier to plunge Flamebane through the demon’s throat. It stumbled away, coughing dark ichor.
They’re starting to counter my defenses, Elena thought in alarm, as Aron withdrew again behind her shield.
We can’t last much longer like this. No one except father and I seem to be able to hurt them much.
Demon hide is resistant to non-magical weapons. Thank the Light mother gave you that blade of yours!
Stand fast! Danor thought. We have to hold until reinforcements arrive!
The King was hit by a demon that came at him from the side. His fiery armor absorbed the blow, and he turned and struck off the creature’s arm with a swift stroke of his sword. Incanus Thad tried to take advantage of the diversion with a killing strike from its axe. Guardian was almost too late in coming around to parry it.
We don’t have time! Elena thought desperately, as another demon tore through her shields. Insectoid mandibles ripped out the throat of a second guard. We need a new strategy!
The blue aura surrounding the group suddenly vanished, and Elena turned toward the demon. The guard’s neck was still caught in the creature’s jaws, and its head lolled lifelessly from side to side. With a violent twist the monster hurled the body away and turned to face her. For the moment, no one stood between them.
Aron spun in panic. “Mother!” he cried.
He stepped out of position at Danor’s flank to intercept the demon. The move left the prince’s rear undefended, and another demon lunged forward to strike at him with a long, scorpion-like tail. He saw Danor jump to the side out of the corner of his eye, bringing his sword around to defend him. The King sliced through the appendage; it fell, thrashing like a snake, onto the marble floor.
Incanus Thad’s face twisted in a monstrous grin. It withdrew from fighting the King, allowing two other demons to move in and take its place. It began to sweep around the group of defenders to one side.
A sweet, metallic odor assaulted Aron’s nostrils, and he felt a charge of static fill the air around him. His hair stood suddenly on end as the Queen, body glowing with a nimbus of bright blue, gestured toward the monster that was charging her. A bolt of lightning sprang from her outstretched hands. It struck the insect demon in the thorax with a brilliant flash and a deafening concussion. The creature flew backward, slamming into and scattering a group of monsters behind it.
The prince’s ears rang from the thunderous report as Elena spun toward the defenders’ left flank, gesturing again. With frightening swiftness a vortex of flame formed around the monsters pressing toward Lord Rugon. One creature was rearing up, preparing to crush him. He stood, braced for the attack, his sword held desperately before him. The column of fire enveloped the creature from behind before it could strike, lifting it into the air and hurling it away.
A shadow fell across the group of defenders, and Elena turned to face Incanus Thad. The demon stood before her, wings extended to their full span. It held Destruction in one hand, and its other was pointed toward the Queen.
“Impressive magic, elf-bitch,” it growled. “Let’s see you try it on me.”
Elena gestured. Another bolt of lightning sprang from her outstretched hand, striking the monster’s axe. With a humming and crackling sound it vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
Danor turned, seeing his wife’s peril. He tried to move to her side, but the defenders’ line had been broken. Without Aron to guard his flank demons had surged around him to bar his way. He struck out at them in desperation, but they parried his blows, holding him back. In horror, he realized that he would not be able to reach her in time.
Elena’s eyes widened as Incanus Thad drove toward her with a roar of triumph. In desperation, her azure shield sprang into form again between them. It caught the monster in mid-strike, wrapping around it like a net, trying to force it back. It struggled, hacking at the rippling curtain of magic, trying to sever it with its axe.
Aron l
eaped into the space between them and struck. Flamebane’s tip slashed the creature’s arm. With a bellow of pain and surprising agility, the demon leaped backward and into the air. Its wings beat to catch it in flight, and it landed quickly on its feet.
It turned to regard the prince. A smile of long, gleaming fangs broke out on its face.
“Very well,” the demon mocked. “My master bade me to convey his regards to you in particular, princeling, before I slew you. It’s time I delivered his greeting.”
“Back, monster!” Aron cried, stepping forward. “You will not touch her!”
Attackers were coming at the group from all sides. A blow from a demon fist sent Lord Rugon sprawling a dozen feet across the room to lie, crumpled and insensate, against the west wall. Another of the guards was lifted into the air, screaming, by a demon that seemed to be composed mostly of claws; he was torn in half. Elena spun barely in time, summoning a gout of fire that blasted a demon coming at her from behind. Danor struggled to reach her, slashing at the burning and howling monsters that grappled his incandescent form, trying to drag him down.
Aron circled his foe, his enchanted blade held out cautiously before him. Incanus Thad turned with him. There were no other demons near the pair; the massive form of the Horde Captain, with its wings extended, was blocking their advance. A rivulet of black ichor ran down its arm and onto the hilt of its axe, which seemed to glow in response with a hot red anger.
The pair exchanged blows, testing each other’s defenses. Then the demon struck.
Feinting again with its axe, it extended its other hand toward the elder prince. A blast of fire erupted from its outstretched fingers, engulfing Aron in a blossoming inferno.
It had reckoned without Flamebane’s magic. Aron braced himself, weapon held upright, blade outward. The torrent of fire parted as it reached the saber’s edge and flowed harmlessly around him. Then he lunged, the enchanted sword slipping below the surprised demon’s guard. The point pierced its thigh, opening another wound that began to flow with black ichor.
Incanus Thad roared again in pain and anger. It swung its axe down; Aron launched himself into a backward somersault, leaping out of its way. The strike shattered the marble floor where he had stood only moments before.
The demon did not relent. It slashed at the prince, again and again. Destruction spun around its body in a red blur.
Aron was renowned throughout the kingdom for his speed and agility as a fighter. Now he was forced to call on all of that skill and finesse. As fast and as powerful as Incanus Thad’s strokes were, it could not score a hit on its prey.
In desperation the prince spun, dodged, and leaped to evade the enraged strikes. Unlike his father, who had withstood a similar attack, he knew that he could not parry a blow from the enormous weapon. A single hit would be his end.
When it came it looked like just another wild stroke of the demon’s axe. Aron dodged it easily with a spinning leap to the side. One of the demon’s wings dipped as the prince launched himself into his move, sweeping toward where he had committed himself to land.
In a split second of horror Aron realized his mistake. He tried to turn, to bring Flamebane around against the unexpected attack, but it was too late. The wing slammed into him in mid-air, hurling him back into the path of the descending axe, and the blade passed cleanly through his neck. His severed head flew spinning across the room to land next to where Lord Rugon lay crumpled against the wall.
~
Incanus Thad threw back its head to roar in triumph — but to the demon’s surprise, no sound escaped its lips. Instead, its great body spasmed uncontrollably. Its cry of victory was choked off and replaced by a scream of agony.
It wrenched its head around to face the Queen.
Fury and despair raged in Elena’s face as she stared at the Captain of the Horde. Her eyes began to blaze brightly with her characteristic blue magic. Shining azure tears ran freely down her cheeks.
“Killer!” she shrieked. “Murderer!”
The power in her eyes built in intensity until the demons could no longer stand its radiance. All around her they recoiled from its menacing light. Danor slammed through their startled ranks to come to his wife’s side, and raised his sword to guard her. Shock and determination at what had just happened to his son were mixed together in his incandescent face like an alloy of molten golden metal.
“Die, demon!” Elena cried. “I will have your life, even if it costs me my own! You face the daughter of the Peregrine King, and your soul is forfeit!”
Pain lanced through the monster’s skull as the Queen’s consciousness burned into its mind. Her grief and rage became a weapon of pure thought that tore into its brain like wildfire. It felt her seize its psyche as though it were a physical thing, straining with all her will to tear it apart.
Incanus Thad was the Captain of the Horde of the demon lord Borr. It had the size and strength of a giant, and commanded magic that few beings could even begin to match. But through a haze of agony and with the last of its vanishing thought, it knew with cold certainty that it was no match for the Queen’s attack. Elena’s mind was more powerful than any that had ever challenged it, save that of its master itself.
She was using that power now to rip the demon’s consciousness apart. She attacked with suicidal abandon, heedless of the toll on her own mind and strength. She meant to kill it at all costs. In her despair, she truly did not care if the effort cost her own life as well.
The monster staggered away from her. Destruction slashed back and forth blindly as it fled, sweeping aside anything that stood in its path. One demon was too slow, and found itself parted at the waist. The others leaped wildly out of its way.
It reached the outer wall and began smashing at it with its axe. The vicious blade tore through, shearing away slabs of stone that fell with a thunderous crash down the mountainside below. Then it hurled itself through the opening. Its great wings unfurled to beat wildly, carrying it away from the palace.
Elena sagged like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Danor caught her with one arm, holding her limp form firmly against his side. His fiery golden aura spread to envelop her as well, but it had dimmed visibly since the start of the battle. She was exhausted and helpless, and the King had spent most of whatever reserve of power he had drawn on to sustain him. Now only his waning strength stood against the remaining creatures.
Sensing his weakness the demons began to surround the royal couple. A blade leapt cautiously at them; Danor staggered as he parried it. He waved Guardian with his free hand, trying futilely to warn the creatures off. His gaze moved across the council chamber.
“Darden!” he cried. “For the Light’s sake, help us! You’re the only one left!”
Salmanor Darden stood before the group of councilors trapped at the east end of the room. He had stayed there throughout the battle, maintaining his shield of power to protect them. Some of the demons had attacked the magical barrier without success. A few still stood before it now, occasionally testing it with bursts of fire and lightning. Most of them, however, had concentrated their assault on the royal family and their guards.
The high priest shook his head. “I must defend the council,” he said flatly, his tone cold and hostile. “The house of Killraven has brought this scourge upon itself. Now it must pay the price.”
Danor suppressed an oath. Emboldened by the exchange and screeching with glee, the closing demons rushed him. Guardian slashed, more slowly than before, trying desperately to drive them back or to parry their attacks. Bursts of magic washed again and again over the King’s fading aura of fire, weakening it further.
One bear-like demon managed to get an ursine appendage wrapped around his sword arm. It grappled him, slowly forcing him toward the floor. Danor went to one knee, trying to turn his weapon back to hack at the creature. With only one arm free, he couldn’t. And if he tried to bring his other arm to bear the Queen would fall from his grasp, defenseless.
Do it, Elena’s voi
ce said weakly in his mind. Do what you can to save yourself, my love. You cannot save us both.
That will not happen, my starlight princess, Danor replied. He clasped her fiercely into his embrace. We live or die together. That is how it has always been with us, and it will not change now.
Elena surrendered, resting her head on her husband’s shoulder. Ursine jaws slowly forced themselves toward the King’s throat. He braced himself, his fiery armor now all but gone, and waited for the end.
A flash of silver magic streaked over his shoulder. The demonic fangs abruptly stopped their descent. The bear-demon’s head reared back in a ruin of scorched hair and flesh.
With the last of his strength Danor threw the monster into the ranks of its fellows and staggered backward. More flashes of silver and scarlet magic streaked by him. The fusillade slammed into the attacking demons, driving them, howling, toward the ruined wall of the chamber.
Then soldiers were suddenly racing past him on either side. They were fresh, and the points of their spears and the blades of their swords glinted with the characteristic gleam of bluesteel alloy. They surrounded the King and Queen, throwing their armored bodies between them and the demons. Reinforcements had finally arrived — and they had armed themselves with enchanted weapons from the palace armory.
Danor turned and stumbled toward the doors to the great hall. They were thrown wide, and a company of soldiers was streaming through them. On one side of the entrance stood the court mage, Palanad Lantar, staff in hand; on the other stood Prince Gerard with his wand. The pair sent bursts of magic flying at the invading monsters with deadly precision. Beside them a line of archers had formed up, and were doing the same with a hail of bluesteel arrows.
The surviving demons were wounded and spent, while the two wizards and their guards were fresh and well-armed. And the invaders’ leader had been driven in humiliation from the field. As if at a silent command they turned and fled, leaping through the breaches in the north wall. As swiftly as they had come, their wings beat back toward the center of the city.