The Devil's Deuce (The Barrier War)

by Brian J Moses

  “Yes, rather nice of you to loan out my home while I wasn’t even there,” Birch said with a laugh in his voice.

  “You expect me to have taken her to the rat hole I lived in the first time I met her?” Hoil said in mock indignation. They all laughed, and it helped to dispel the uncomfortable atmosphere that had been building around Hoil’s emotional telling.

  “She stayed the night there,” Hoil continued. “It wasn’t until the next morning I realized I hadn’t even asked her name. Alanna. I’d never heard such a lovely name, and it still hurts me to hear it now. San, I loved that woman.

  “She didn’t have a job, but I sort of took her in as a maid, paid her what I could afford, and gave her food and lodging ─ she didn’t even mind the run-down place I lived in, but she did a tender job of touching the place up, that’s for sure. She moved in just as naturally as though she’d lived there her whole life, and after only a couple weeks, I wondered how I’d gotten along without her.”

  Once more, Hoil stopped and stared fondly into the flames, reliving memories only he could see and hear in his mind. When the silence stretched out, Birch cleared his throat, and Hoil snapped back from the past.

  “Ahem, well, to make a long story short…”

  “Too late,” Flasch said softly. Without Garnet around, Danner reached over and slapped him upside the head.

  Hoil glared at Flasch, who feigned innocence.

  “She lived with me for nearly a year before I summoned the courage to ask her out in a romantic capacity, and two more years before we were married,” Hoil said, his voice hoarse. “Three years later, you were born, Danner, and she died almost immediately after the birthing. She held you once, though. Just once before she was gone. She was with me for such a short time, but I loved her every moment.

  “So many times I tried to tell her what she meant to me, but I could never find the words. I used to say her name. Just that. Just her name. I’d put every ounce of feeling I could into that one word. And I’d see by the sparkle in her eyes and the smile on her lips that I’d succeeded. Those smiles didn’t make my day or my week, they made my whole life.”

  Hoil looked up at Danner and smiled, and Danner was surprised to see tears gleaming in his eyes. He couldn’t remember the last time his father had cried, much less where Danner might have seen him. Impulsively, Danner leaned closer and hugged his father. Deft, powerful hands wrapped around Danner, and father and son embraced in a timeless moment of silence. Finally Danner leaned back and settled on the ground near his father’s feet.

  “You know, I wonder if maybe she knew she could only stay for a little while,” Hoil said after a moment. “She sometimes had a very sad look about her. She had this tone sometimes when she said my name in return, like there was something she couldn’t tell me. Something poignant and important. I think maybe she knew.”

  “She’s probably not dead,” Marc said, startling them all. They stared at him, making him shift uncomfortably, but he continued. “Assuming we’re all correct, as everything seems to indicate, and she was in fact an immortal, she’s just that… immortal. She could no more die than the moons or the world itself. Perhaps she only had a limited time allowed here on Lokka, but she wouldn’t have died. She’s probably still up in Heaven, unable for whatever reason to return.”

  Hoil regarded Marc soberly.

  “Lad, I’ve grown too used to thinking of my wife as dead to hold any hopes of seeing her again,” Hoil said sadly. “I pray nightly that when I die, I’ll get to see her again, if only for a moment. I’m fairly certain where my soul’s bound, and I may be too late already to change it anyway, but I’d welcome any eternity I’m given for the simple chance to be with her for another second.”

  “Well, look at it this way, dad,” Danner said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood. “If you do make it to Heaven, she’ll be there waiting for you, and you get more than a moment. You get an eternity.”

  Hoil looked at Danner and smiled again.

  “Well, when you put it like that, I guess I’ll have to do whatever it takes to get to Heaven,” Hoil said. He looked significantly at Birch, who smiled silently and nodded.

  “And since I’m planning on going to Heaven,” Danner said whimsically, “many, many years from now, I hope, I’ll finally have the chance to meet my mother.”

  “I’m going to Heaven, too,” Flasch chimed in, “even if I have to pick the locks to get in.”

  Danner looked at his friend, decided the comment didn’t quite warrant a head-slap, and turned back to the discussion at hand.

  - 3 -

  Gerard and the others returned later that night, after their discussion of Danner’s mother had finally concluded. He looked tired, but pleased ─ or perhaps, more appropriately, triumphant. For perhaps the first time since Danner had met the Red paladin, the red scars on his face did not make him look terrifying or horrible. They seemed to stand out less, especially without Gerard’s customary anger pulsing through them.

  “Congratulations are in order, gentlemen, we may have just saved the world,” Gerard said as he grasped Birch’s hand in greeting. “The Merishank officers have just joined the forces of what I like to call, ‘the good guys.’”

  “They’re going to help us?” Birch asked, surprised.

  “Indeed,” Gerard replied. “We’ll be entering Nocka tomorrow, once I have a chance to inform the Prismatic Council of their change in allegiance.”

  “How did you manage this particular miracle?” Nuse asked.

  “Well, having a demon appear in the midst of your camp has a tendency to shake up even the most seasoned of officers,” Gerard said, “and once the demon was dead, the officers realized they’d been under its influence and were willing to talk terms. Many of the ranking officers apparently died last night,” he added with a guilt-free face. Danner remembered the men in the demon’s tent, most of whom were crushed by the demon in its oversized rampage.

  Gerard continued, “They recognized immediately Nocka’s state as a non-assailable city, because of the Barrier, and were already planning on returning to Merishank. When I explained the situation, the officers pledged themselves to help. I give them the benefit of the doubt in saying they would have helped solely for the sake of the world’s safety, but just to be sure, I made it quite clear that the Prismatic Council would look with displeasure upon their entire nation if they didn’t help.”

  “He also offered to forcibly remove teeth and several vital organs from anyone who tried to refuse,” Garnet said, smiling.

  “Bah,” Gerard said, waving Garnet’s comment aside. “Whatever the methods, it worked.”

  “Good,” Birch said, “because it’s about time we got back into that city. Danner told us about the crossing of the demons, and I have a feeling we’re going to need every available man to keep these unholy fiends at bay.”

  Chapter 24

  Governing is an imperfect balance between dictatorship and mob rule.

  - Orange Paladin Janek jo’Baerth,

  “A History of War” (969 AM)

  - 1 -

  When Shadow Company entered the city of Nocka with the elves and the immense Merishank army in formation behind them, it was to the thundering sound of silence.

  No one stood in the streets to cheer them. No one leaned out their windows to spit on them or call them filthy denarae. There was no one on their way to the market or loitering in a neighbor’s doorway to chat. Not a single living creature walked the streets, with the exception of a few rats that skittered noiselessly across the stone road.

  The footsteps of marching soldiers echoed hauntingly in the empty streets, and what otherwise might have been mistaken for a parade instead resembled an elaborate funeral procession of some fallen general or emperor. The solemn silence did not fail to impress a single member of any race, and denarae, elves, and humans alike stared with apprehension at the forlorn windows around them. Gerard rode on his dakkan at the head of the flock, feeling like a shepherd leading his c
harges to their doom.

  “It is Penday, right?” Flasch asked, looking around apprehensively. “I mean, we didn’t suddenly skip ahead to Niday and we’re missing some city-wide chapel service, right?”

  “At least it’s not destroyed,” Garnet remarked, ignoring his friend’s nervous comments. The command group of Shadow Company trotted on either side of Gerard’s stalking dakkan. The fire-red scales gleamed Hellishly in the brilliant dawn light, and Danner had to block the reflection from shining in his eyes. Birch, Nuse, and Perklet rode their mounts in the same group. Danner looked over at his uncle and was suddenly struck by the fact that his cloak was almost the exact shade of gray as Selti’s scales. The dark dakkan looked over and regarded Danner with gleaming eyes for a moment, then returned his gaze to the road ahead.

  “That means the fighting is still confined to the Barrier,” Gerard said, “or at least it hasn’t reached this far if they have breached the Barrier. But I wonder where everyone is.”

  “They’re in hiding,” Marc answered.

  “I gathered that, young Orange,” Gerard said caustically. “But where? I haven’t seen a single face peeking out of a window.”

  “There are cellars under nearly every building, and tunnels between many of them,” Marc replied, unperturbed by Gerard’s manner. “You were raised in Sella, so it’s not something you’d be expected to know, sir,” he said.

  Danner grimaced, expecting Gerard to react angrily toward Marc’s unintended insolence. Gerard surprised him, however.

  “No, I don’t know, Marc,” Gerard said with a flat voice. “Educate me in what I seem to be lacking.”

  “Nocka is the dwarven word for anvil, yes?” Marc said. “This city was designed and built by dwarves originally – hence the perfectly straight, evenly spaced streets – and dwarves like to dig. So they built cellars and tunnels into all the original buildings, including the Prism’s chapterhouse,” he added. “It seems natural to their way of thinking, I suppose. Most of the houses added since then have cellars as well, but they aren’t linked up to the tunnel network. It’s almost like a second road down there, if you know how to navigate it. It even links to the sewer system in a few out of the way places.”

  “Marc, you’re a sinkhole of useless information,” Gerard said, “but you answered my question. Flasch, take a squad and try to get in touch with someone in one of the houses ahead. See what you can learn.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Flasch hurried ahead with a dozen men and began trying doors. They entered several houses and stayed a minute or so in each, but by the time the main body caught up with him, they had little to report.

  “The only responses we got were from frightened people who haven’t left their homes in at least a day,” Flasch reported. “Everyone’s stockpiled food and water, and they’re just going to try and sit it out.”

  “They’re not going to fight?” Michael asked, incredulous.

  “All the men with any training at all have already left to join the guard, as did men and boys who probably shouldn’t have gone,” Flasch said.

  “Then we continue straight to the Barrier,” Gerard said.

  “Why were there only a few guards at the gates when we entered?” Marc asked.

  “That, at least, I expected,” Gerard said. “I sent word ahead at dawn with a Merishank soldier under a white flag. He carried a signed and sealed message for the Prismatic Council with word of our success and the conversion of the Merishank army. The runner brought back word that the soldiers on the wall were being immediately reassigned to the Barrier, since this army was no longer a threat. The gates there will probably be manned by civilians by the end of the day.”

  “How come I didn’t know about this?” Marc demanded.

  “You were still in your bedroll,” Garnet answered for Gerard. “We know you need your beauty sleep.”

  Marc grumbled as they chuckled, but the mirth died away almost immediately.

  They heard the battle at the Barrier long before they reached the fighting itself. There was little to nothing in the way of clanging metal that most of them associated with a normal battle. The occasional sound of a sword chopping against stone or wood reached their ears, but by far the overwhelming noise of the cacophony was the screaming. Human cries of pain and terror mingled with demonic howls of triumph and destruction. With these sounds in their ears, Gerard motioned and the entire force stretched out behind him began to move forward more quickly. Soon, they were running.

  They burst onto a scene of chaos.

  The inner wall of the Barrier stretched to either side as far as the eye could see, its slightly convex curve making it seem to melt into the buildings of the city itself. All along the inner wall, humans, elves, dwarves, and gnomes stood waiting to rush forward and take their place among the ever-dwindling numbers of the defenders. Beyond them, where the Shadow Company paladins could not yet see, Hell-spawned mutations fought with demonic ferocity and strength, their numbers seemingly inexhaustible.

  “We’re shnieked, aren’t we?” Flasch murmured.

  “Yeah, pretty much,” Danner replied.

  The Barrier was a long, shallow arc that stretched the width of the land jutting into the EarthForge. Seven gates led from the land outside into seven courtyards, with walls dividing each courtyard so the Barrier was cut into seven segments concatenated along its length, and each segment was able to be closed off and isolated from those adjoining it. The back edge of each courtyard was the broad inner wall, which was now choked with mortal defenders awaiting their turn to fight and perhaps die.

  The inner, outer, and dividing walls of each courtyard were set with large turrets, wide catwalks, and spaces where gigantic ballistae were positioned ─ these last defenses were only on the outermost wall, where they could be fired with devastating force into the oncoming army. The window spacing in each wall and in the turrets were no thicker than the width of Danner’s fist, and he knew each would be designed to allow archers a wide range of fire while minimizing the chances of the archers getting shot themselves. Many of the slits in the inner courtyard were shaped like the Tricrus to be more aesthetically pleasing to the citizens, but they sacrificed none of their lethal function and defensive capabilities.

  The inner wall also had seven gates, which led from each courtyard to the rest of the city on the east side of the Barrier. Soldiers teemed here also, either milling about in apprehension or waiting to climb the stairs that led to the walls.

  In the center of each courtyard stood a megalith jutting up from the ground as if it had not been built, but rather ripped up through the ground itself. The Stones were irregularly shaped, approximately seven feet tall, and most men could easily wrap their arms about one and touch their fingertips together on the far side. They were made from angelstone – a substance found only in Heaven – and they each gleamed like diamond in a different color, one for each Facet of the Prism.

  Green. Orange. Blue. Yellow. Red. Violet. And in the center courtyard, between blue and yellow, stood the iridescent white Stone.

  This centermost courtyard was the closest when they reached the Barrier. Gerard gave the order to halt, and looked on the chaotic scene with a critical eye.

  “You there,” he called to the nearest defender, an elf, “how do things stand?”

  The elf glanced at him briefly, but ignored Gerard. Danner frowned.

  Gerard moved his dakkan forward a few more steps until the muscular legs were pushing against the recalcitrant demi-human. The elf let out an protesting expletive which was abruptly cut off as Gerard reached down and picked him up by the scruff of his neck. The elf immediately pulled a dagger and tried to stab Gerard in the hand, but he knocked the weapon free and shook the elf until his teeth rattled. The dagger clattered on the stone street, the noise almost lost amid the din of battle.

  “Don’t,” Gerard said as he shook the thin demi-human. “Now, answer my question before I send your teeth the way of that knife.”

  The
elf stared at him and opened his mouth to say something, either in reply or to curse Gerard, they never found out. A yellow dakkan swooped above them, and a Red paladin dropped to the ground in the beast’s wake as it climbed into the sky.

  “Gerard,” the paladin cried, and Danner immediately recognized Garet jo’Meerkit by his immense size. He was clad in full platemail armor rather than his customary chainmail vest Danner had first seen him wearing. “Thank God above you’re here, man,” Garet said. “I just heard you’d returned to the city, and I was sent to get you. The Prismatic Council wants to see you immediately.”

  “They what?” Gerard asked incredulously. “There’s a war going on, and from the looks of things, they need my boys to help. All of them,” he said with a sweep of his arm to indicate the First Merishank. He relaxed his grip and the forgotten elf fell to the ground, then scrambled to his feet and ran off without a backward glance.

  “I don’t argue that,” Garet said darkly. “I was also asked to deliver a verbal message from Cariah. He said to tell you ‘the green and violet have already fallen.’”

  Gerard immediately let out a string of curses that set his dakkan dancing in agitation. The red beast’s eyes were wild, and it started looking for an enemy to attack.

  “I’m no fool, Gerard,” Garet said. “I know that during the fighting, the green and violet rock pillars in the extreme courtyards were both destroyed. But they’re just monuments. Right?” Garet said doubtfully.

  “How is the fighting in those areas?” Gerard asked, ignoring Garet’s curiosity.

  “Pretty light, actually,” the other Red replied. “Once we drove them back, they’ve practically ignored those courtyards altogether. Oh, they still attack there, but with nothing approaching the ferocity they showed earlier and still show against the other five gates.”