“Birch, someone’s coming,” Nuse said. “Look over there and see.”
Birch looked to his left and saw a flaming red dakkan soaring through the sky so high he was little more than a speck of winged color in their sight. Then it abruptly turned and flew away, back toward the woods.
“Never mind,” Nuse said. “Must be a wild one.”
“No, look closer,” Birch corrected him. Gliding through the air were three humanoid shapes, cloaks billowing out behind them. As they got closer, Birch saw one was blue, one red, and the third was a gray-dyed cloak of lesser quality like those used by trainees. The three bodies disappeared behind a hill, and a few moments later they came running into sight.
“Get everyone together, and please tell my brother to find me,” Birch said. “I think he’ll want to be there.”
Birch had already recognized two of the three figures, and his face broke into an unaccustomed grin. He left Nuse behind and quickly strode to meet his old friend and his nephew.
“Danner, Gerard,” he said, clasping hands warmly with each. Birch was wearing full armor, but neither of the other two were, and he would have crushed them had he embraced them as he wished. “I can’t tell you how good it is to see both of you, much less together.”
Birch smiled in approval of the blue cloak on Danner’s back. Before he could say more, however, Hoil appeared and hoisted his son off his feet into a fierce bear hug. Danner’s breath left him in a whoosh of air, and he awkwardly patted his father’s back and tried to convince Hoil to let him go.
“Hoil, you’re going to kill the boy in your happiness,” Gerard said.
Hoil let Danner go, but his face was bright red and beaming with pride and pleasure. Danner’s fears about his father’s approval melted away as Hoil clapped a hand on each of Danner’s shoulders, gripping the blue material in his strong fingers.
“I’m happy to see you’ve done something with yourself, boy… Danner,” Hoil said. “Far too respectable an occupation for your old man, you understand, but I think it’ll do for you.” He paused. “You wear it well, son.”
Danner wiped tears from his eyes.
“Thanks, dad. I… Thanks.”
“I don’t mean to break up the family reunion before it reaches the cloying stage, but I’m afraid we’re not on a social visit,” Gerard reminded them brusquely. “There’s work yet to be done tonight.”
Hoil scowled at the Red paladin. “I know it’s been a while, Gerard, but were you always this much of a curmudgeon?”
“You were saying, sir?” Danner said before Gerard could reply.
“What’s this?” Birch asked.
“One of The Three is sitting in the middle of that camp, directing its efforts against Nocka,” Gerard said. “He’s posing as an advisor to the emperor of Merishank, but James Tarmin and the others found him out and reported to the Council earlier this afternoon.”
“So they returned safely,” Birch said, relieved.
“Aye, they did,” Gerard said, “but the Council claims there’s not enough evidence to justify the assassination of the advisor. I haven’t received any official orders not to kill him yet, though, thanks to the speed of my young messengers here,” he said, indicating Danner and Trebor, “so we’re going to move in tonight before the Council has a chance to bind our hands.”
“That’s a little underhanded for paladins, isn’t it?” Hoil asked wryly.
“Simple strategy, Hoil,” Gerard said. “If something’s in your way, destroy it or go around it. I’d rather not destroy the Prismatic Council, so I’m going to go around them.”
“Good point,” Hoil said. “When do we leave?”
“We aren’t leaving at any time,” Gerard said pointedly. “Danner, Trebor, and I have a meeting with my company in a few minutes, and we’ll handle it. You can stay here sitting on your ass. I only came out to touch base with you all and to keep you and your elven friends from doing something monumentally stupid around that army.”
“But…”
“Dad, I don’t want to sound rude, but you’d only be in the way,” Danner said. “We’re trained for this sort of thing, and as good as you are, there’s nothing you could do to help, and lots of things you could do to jeopardize our mission.”
Hoil looked at his son in surprise.
“Now see here, Danner, just because you’re wearing that cloak doesn’t give you the right to talk to me that way,” Hoil said with some heat in his voice.
“No, but because he’s an officer in my company and knows exactly what he’s talking about, he has every right to explain it to you however he wants, you thick-headed lump,” Gerard said. “He said it a mite bit nicer than I would have.”
“Hoil, they’re right,” Birch said. “Surely you remember Gerard well enough to trust when he says you’d be a hindrance, and I trust Danner knows his job well enough to say when something or someone would be a hazard. You may need to start getting used to the idea that your son’s an adult now.”
“Well then,” Hoil said grumpily. “Got that fancy Dividha deck of yours? Might as well pass the time pleasantly.”
“Sorry, I don’t have time to play,” Birch said. “I’m going with them.”
“What?”
“Now wait, Uncle Birch.”
“Not a bloody chance in Hell.”
“Silence,” Birch said in a quiet bark that hushed them all immediately.
“You have every right to override Hoil’s desire to accompany you, Gerard, but I have precedence over both of you in this matter,” Birch said firmly. “I am a member of the jintaal sent to destroy The Three, and since James left me in charge of this particular group, I effectively have command of the jintaal until he resumes control, which he can’t do from inside while we’re out here.”
“That may be so, Birch,” Gerard said, his voice bleak, “but the reason against Hoil still stands against you. You don’t know what you’re doing, and we do. You’d only jeopardize our mission.”
“I realize that, and under normal circumstances, I’d agree with you and keep my nose out of it,” Birch said. “But these are not normal circumstances. You’re going in to deal with one of the most powerful demons from Hell, and I’m the only one who’s faced one so far.”
“That’s not exactly so, uncle,” Danner said. “I killed one of the others myself about two months ago. From what we gathered from James, it was almost exactly the same time you faced yours.”
Birch stared at his nephew in surprise. “You’re sure it was one of The Three?”
“Positive.”
“Then this is the last one, in which case I must accompany you, to see this through to the end,” Birch said. “I don’t know what kind of mandate you have from the Prism for this company of yours, Gerard, but you know a jintaal takes precedence.”
“I know.”
“But you still object to my going?”
“Absolutely.”
While they were arguing, Danner stared at his uncle and asked Trebor mentally, “Treb, can you get anything about this from my uncle?”
“What are you looking for?”
“I don’t know,” Danner confessed. “Just curious, I guess.”
Trebor fell silent a moment.
“Danner, something’s wrong,” Trebor sent to him. “I can’t read a damn thing from your uncle. It’s worse than trying to read something from you, because you don’t always intentionally block me, so sometimes things slip through. But I can’t get the merest hint of a thought from your uncle. It’s all locked away behind some fiery-red barricade.”
“Huh?”
“When I try to kythe into your thoughts when you’re blocking me, your barrier is a sort of blue-white color,” Trebor explained. “Your uncle’s is flaming red.”
“You can see the barrier?” Danner asked.
“I’m not really seeing anything, just like I’m not exactly hearing your thoughts,” Trebor kythed. “It’s just how my brain perceives it. I can’t explain it any bette
r than that.”
“Can you get any hints as to its source?”
“Whatever the source, it’s obviously behind that wall where I can’t see it,” Trebor replied. “But if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say whatever it is, it’s the same thing that makes your uncle’s eyes burn.”
Danner focused again on the conversation between Gerard and Birch, putting Trebor’s revelation in the back of his mind for later consideration.
Gerard was trying not to get angry, but the scars on his face were beginning to turn red and pulse with his suppressed irritation. He stared at Birch. “I’m asking you as a friend not to force this, Birch.”
“I’m sorry, Gerard, but I don’t have any choice,” Birch said. “It’s my duty.”
“Alright then, I guess you leave me no choice,” Gerard said.
“I’m sorry,” Birch said again. “I’ll try not to…”
Birch stopped as Gerard stepped closer and delivered a swift jab to his jaw, momentarily stunning him. Gerard followed in the same heartbeat with a hammer-like blow from his right fist to the left side of Birch’s neck, dropping the Gray paladin to the ground.
Danner looked down and saw that Birch had been knocked unconscious by the blow.
“Look after the damn fool,” Gerard said to Hoil, then turned away, “and get that Green paladin to him quickly, just in case. He’ll be plenty angry with me when he comes to, but try not to let him follow us. That could be even more dangerous than him coming with us in the first place.”
“I make no promises, Gerard,” Hoil said, his face angry. “I don’t know that you needed to resort to that.”
“I do know,” Gerard said. “Trebor, Danner, let’s go. We’ve got to hurry.”
Danner turned an apologetic look toward his father, then hurried after Gerard.
- 3 -
Garet wheeled his yellow dakkan in a tight circle and sliced the head off another monstrosity, then looked for another target. He found a cluster of three winged creatures sweeping toward the defenders on the wall, and he pointed with his sword.
“There, Shelly,” he told his dakkan.
Shelly let out a terrific bellow, caught up in the excitement of the battle, and plunged toward the three beasts. As she tore into one from behind, Garet leaned forward in his saddle and lopped a wing off the second, then Shelly bit the third creature in half. The wounded creature Garet had maimed shrieked and plummeted to the ground below, where Nocka guards hacked it to pieces.
There was something terribly human about the creature’s shriek that disturbed Garet. The flying monstrosities were vaguely humanoid in appearance, but their flesh was mottled and leathery, and they had bat-like wings. Their arms and legs were grossly twisted with over-sized muscles, and the one or two that had survived on the ground limped around awkwardly until they were slain.
But what most disturbed him about the creatures was their faces. Whatever they were, the beasts had either once been men or else had been altered to look like them, at least in the facial area. If a human being had the leathery skin of a lizard and was totally hairless, his face would resemble one of these creatures. Each was distinct, as no two men look exactly the same. Their expressions were human-like, and they looked with horror and hatred on the human defenders they were attacking.
The battle was absolute chaos with little coordination between the units on the ground and those in the air. Even the companies assigned to protect each of the courtyards of the Barrier were operating mostly autonomously. The ranking officer on the Barrier had been torn apart by a pair of winged monsters, and the subsequent attempts to reestablish the chain of command were meeting with limited success. The city’s defenders were simply unprepared for an invasion of such magnitude, the likes of which hadn’t been seen in generations, perhaps not even since the original Merging War.
On the ground below, more creatures that perhaps had once been men crawled about on four legs in an awful crouching position. They moved with terrific speed and had been the first to reach and assault the walls of Nocka. Before the defenders had fully assembled, the beasts had leapt to the walls and hooked their claws into the stone. They swarmed up the walls like a plague of rats and nearly overwhelmed the defenders in the first few moments of the battle. Then the paladins had arrived, and the tide had turned in the mortals’ favor, at least for the time being.
Even the paladins were, in their own way, only adding to the chaos at the Barrier. In limited groups, such as a jintaal, one paladin was assigned command. No such authority had been bestowed by the Prismatic Council as every available paladin in the city rushed to defend the Barrier, although many of the Reds were naturally assuming command of the areas around them. Still, there was no unified command structure or coordination among the paladins any more than there was among the other defenders.
Still, the chaos among the mortals was nothing compared to the roiling mass of Hellish fury that moiled beyond the Barrier.
The plain before Nocka was a dark mass of churning bodies seething and howling with frustration as they fought past each other to attack the city gates. Some of the beasts tore each other to pieces in their frenzy to reach the Barrier. Normally Garet would have been pleased to see such destruction in the ranks of an enemy, but the horrible glee that lit the human-like faces as they shredded each other made the Red paladin sick to his stomach.
As Garet watched, a man-sized sphere was hurled over the Barrier from the inside, and it crashed down into the Hellish ranks and split open. A thick liquid splashed forth, spraying and flowing from the cracks in the ball. Everywhere the green liquid touched, it ate through flesh and bone with astonishing speed. The Hell-spawned creatures screamed in agony as their arms and legs dissolved in the vicious stuff. Some who had lost two or three legs were still clawing their way forward with their remaining limbs, but these were more often than not trampled under the over-eager claws of the other creatures as they rushed to escape the lethal green substance.
Three more spheres were hurled over the wall, each taking a terrible toll on the enemy as they literally ate through their ranks. A fifth sphere was launched, but didn’t break when it hit the ground. A group of the grotesque creatures snuffled and snarled at it a few moments before deciding it wasn’t a danger, then they left it alone and continued their maddened advance on the walls. Behind them, an unending wave of monstrosities stretched all the way back to the Merging.
“How the Hell do you fight a force like this?” Garet asked himself in horror.
Then he directed Shelly toward another group of flying creatures. There wasn’t time to think about how to fight, just the necessity to fight and to survive. Garet plunged downward and lost himself in the swirl of chaos.
Chapter 22
A true hero is a man like any other who steps forward and does something momentous for no other reason than because it is required of him. To raise a hero as something more than this is to insult his accomplishments and belittle the rest of the world.
- Birch de’Valderat,
“Memoirs” (1013 AM)
- 1 -
“You’re still not happy about the way I handled your uncle, are you?”
Danner turned toward Gerard and stared at the Red paladin a moment. They had just rendezvoused with the rest of Shadow Company, which now assembled in the same place for the first time since they had begun guerrilla tactics two months before. The denarae were hidden in the woods, waiting for Gerard’s say-so to begin their insertion into the enemy camp. Only a select group would be entering. One squad from each of Danner’s and Trebor’s platoons, along with Danner, Trebor, Garnet, and Gerard. This once, Gerard had insisted on accompanying them on a mission.
“I understand why you felt you had to do it, sir, and I probably agree that it had to be done,” Danner admitted. “That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“You think I enjoyed it, Danner?” Gerard asked seriously. “Your uncle was one of my closest friends back in our training days. I’ve thrashed and beaten
him many a time, but in practice. Fair combat. He may not soon forgive me for this.”
Danner thought a moment, then nodded.
“To be honest, sir, I barely know him myself,” Danner admitted, “but I think he’ll come around. Assuming we kill the demon and survive, of course. If one of us dies, he might never forgive you, or himself.”
“And you say you barely know him,” Gerard said, shaking his head ruefully. Then he laid a hand on Danner’s shoulder. “Now that we understand each other, I think it’s time we moved. I don’t know if that motherless fiend from Hell has to sleep or not, but its guards do, and they won’t be expecting us. There’s been no indication they’ve noticed your nighttime raids deep in the camp, so they’re probably not prepared for this.”
“And if they are?”
“That’s why we have Garnet and me along,” Gerard said. “If things go wrong, we’re more than a match for anything we’ll find in the immediate sense of guards, and Trebor’s and your boys should be able to give us enough warning to abort or adapt as necessary.”
Before they left, Gerard insisted they all pray an altiara – the paladin rite of forgiveness. As warriors of God, they were prohibited from needlessly killing another mortal, and Gerard was certain some would die this night. Ever since his conversation with Flasch, he encouraged the Shadow Company paladins to practice the prayer any time they went into combat against the Merishank soldiers.
“Any time men kill men, it’s monstrous,” Gerard had told them, “but that doesn’t require that we become monsters.”
After this final prayer, Gerard looked around, seeking any last-minute inspiration or corrections. Seeing none, he whispered, “Let’s go,” and echoed the command with his mind. From that point on, there were to be no verbal commands. Everything was to be done via denarae kything, with Gerard, Danner, and Garnet using Trebor as their go-between when necessary.
The Devil's Deuce (The Barrier War) Page 31