"I know. After what the Black Lord did to you, you would have killed anyone. He made you hate us. Do you still hate us?"
"Sometimes. Mostly I care nothing for you."
"Well, that is an improvement."
"But you still hate me."
"Not I, but most people, yes." Ellese did not dare to lie to him. She feared he would sense it.
"I could live in this world," he said. "It becomes more like home all the time."
"No, you could not. In a year, maybe less, there will be no life in it, save you. What will you eat then? And when you die, you will go to the Land of the Dead, where Arkonen will destroy you before you can gather the power to defend yourself."
He frowned. "Food was made for me in the Underworld."
"No, it came from the Overworld. Beasts, thank the Goddess, not humans, mixed with foul potions to increase the dark power's influence on you. And the only reason the Black Lord took beasts is because they are easier to snatch from the Overworld."
"I see. The curse of a mortal body, then."
"Perhaps, but without it you would have no defence against Arkonen."
"And with it, I am vulnerable. Already he has proven that he can defeat me."
"He is vulnerable too."
"Not as much. Our power is the same. Defeating him will be difficult."
Ellese looked concerned. "Do you have a plan?"
"A plan?" He chuckled. "How does one plan the defeat of a being so powerful he could tear this world apart?"
"You are just as powerful."
"My power cannot harm him, and nor can his harm me."
"What can harm him?"
Bane shrugged. "Light is his greatest weakness. His shadow form cannot withstand it, although he can in a droge body, but that is vulnerable to the dark power. His shadow form can be crushed or shredded, but not as easily as mine."
"I was surprised you were so easily injured. I had not thought you were so vulnerable to mundane weapons."
"Only if I am not expecting them."
"I assume that this time you will be?"
Bane nodded. "I intend to summon a large number of demons, some to guard my back, the rest to distract Arkonen."
"Can they be trusted?"
"Once I have summoned them, they have no choice but to obey me."
"What use are they against the Dark Lord?"
He looked impatient. "They will serve to distract him and guard me from his demons, which will attack me from behind, as they did before."
"Can they not do any more than distract him?"
"Their weapons may do some small amount of harm if they penetrate his wards, but that is unlikely to affect him."
"I see." She gazed out across the gloomy land with its endlessly falling ash, her eyes filled with sadness. "You have the power to stop this, do you not?"
He followed her gaze. "Yes."
"If you did, it would allow the Lady's power to reach us."
"Which would do me no good, but ending this would take a great deal of power."
She sighed. "What about Mirra?"
"He will use her as a shield."
Her eyes flicked to his face. "But you will not harm her."
"No."
"Then how do you intend to defeat him?"
He continued to gaze out across the land, his expression bleak. "I will find a way."
"Of course you will."
After a pause, he turned to face her once more. "What becomes of me when this is all over?"
"That is up to you. Give up the dark power, and you could live a normal life. Keep it, and you will be an outcast, feared by everyone. Should you then seek out a quiet place to live away from people, they will eventually forget you still live. Or, you could take up the blue power."
He snorted. "Blue mages are weak, pathetic."
"All the great ones are dead, and the skill has been lost. You would not merely be a mage, though. You would still be very powerful."
"I have met one of your great blue mages, and his power was nothing compared to mine."
"Yes, but it did not corrupt him. Blue mages are highly respected, and once the Black Lord has been cast down, you will not need to be so powerful. You will not need any power at all."
Bane eyed her. "You would like to see me stripped of it, would you not?"
"Only because it will corrupt your soul."
"And then I would become a threat to you."
"Perhaps."
His expression hardened. "You cannot force me to give it up."
"No, certainly not. We would not try."
"Good. If you did, I might decide to finish what Arkonen started."
"And perish yourself, ultimately."
His eyes glinted with anger. "Your arguments are like a rat gnawing at my mind, old woman."
"Good, perhaps it will find some sense in there somewhere."
Bane glared at her, then marched away in the direction of his room, to rest, she hoped, before the coming conflict. Ellese sighed and walked back to the chapel to join her sisters in prayer.
The following morning, at the breaking of a dark dawn that hardly lightened the gloom, Bane entered the courtyard with his potions. The soldiers who rested there left, not wishing to witness another Gather, and the healers who tended them followed. The dark power that filled the air sickened everyone, and some could no longer eat because of it. Ellese watched him from a doorway, and Martal stood beside her. Bane drew his dagger, then hesitated, testing the thickness of the power around him. The seven runes had been cut only a few days ago, and, although the white fire had healed them, the portals of power remained open. With so much readily available, he decided that he could forgo cutting them again.
Sheathing the dagger, he pulled open his shirt and smeared some of the black potion on his chest, then traced each arcane symbol. He did so in the same order in which he had cut them before, starting at the top right and working his way down to the lowest at the centre of his chest. Each rune glowed as he traced it, and when all seven burnt with blood-red light, he raised his arms.
The power rushed into him with sickening intensity, no longer confined to shadows but all around him, as it had been in the Underworld, only much less. The lack of rune cutting slowed it, for which he was grateful. The faint, banshee howling filled the air as the Gather gained momentum, and the darkness sank into his bones. Once more a vortex formed around him, cloaking him in shadows that owed nothing to the presence of light. He let it flow into him in a burning river, filling him with its foulness that chilled his bones and burnt his blood.
Ellese watched Bane from the doorway, her stomach knotted and her heart heavy with dread for him. Would she lose him to the darkness? Would it triumph in the end, and corrupt his soul? That was a possibility too horrible to contemplate, and all too real. Already he refused to give it up, a bad sign. If he did not, ultimately it would claim him, then destroy him.
What would he do if Mirra died? He was too wild to predict, a man torn by terrible conflicts that could destroy him unless he found something to cherish. That which he had found now teetered on the brink of corruption, threatening to rescind the scrap of hope he clung to and let him sink into the sea of evil that surrounded him. Last night she had looked into her glass and seen Mirra huddled in the corner of the rune room, her eyes wide and blank, her arm a monstrosity of scales and claws.
The shadow vortex thickened until Bane was hidden within it, then it cleared as he cut the Gather, dispersing. Sweat beaded his brow, his lips were compressed in a grim line, and his eyes were filled with darkness. Ellese wanted to go to him and embrace him, to give him what assurances she could, but remained rooted to the spot. He would only reject her, especially now. Tears blurred her vision as he strode away through the gates, heading out into the dead land.
Bane walked to the edge of the hallowed ground, where three demons rose to bow to him, the survivors of those he had summoned. He ignored them, gazing for a while in the direction of the Old Kingdom, where the
gloom was complete. Turning his attention to the task at hand, he lighted a fire with a trickle of power from his fingers and summoned more demons, fire, earth and air. For each one he uttered the guttural god words, ‘eyre myrdrath’, followed by a demon's name.
Earth demons rose all around him, and fire demons stepped from the flames in a steady stream, bowing to him before taking their place amongst the growing throng. All were greater demons in true form. Each was powerful enough to destroy cities and armies. Each one he named, their appellations born in the recesses of his mind, a gift of the dark power. When more than a hundred were gathered around him, he swept them with cold eyes, meeting equally frigid stares that slid away in enforced respect.
"You will guard my back during the battle," he ordered. "Let no threat reach me. And you will attack the Black Lord, draw his attention." He pointed at a group of earth demons. "You will snatch the healer from Arkonen the moment you see an opportunity. You will not harm her. You will carry her at all speed to the hallowed ground and release her. You will allow nothing to harm her. Is that understood?"
The demons nodded, their stony eyes baleful.
"Then you will return to guard me. Nothing else." He raked them with another glacial glance. "Now go to the place where the last battle was fought, and wait."
As they sank into the ground or shrank into tiny flames, he closed his eyes and opened his mind to the Far See. Arkonen stood in the Old Kingdom temple, a bevy of droges and demons, some in man shape, surrounding him. A young Chegdhin girl lay on the bloody altar, ready for sacrifice. Several others had already met that fate. A pile of bodies lay nearby, stacked like wood in a pool of blood. The hearts that had been cut from them burnt in braziers, exuding foul smoke.
A droge wearing a red priest's robe stood with dagger in hand, ready to cut out the sacrifice's heart. This, Arkonen did merely for sport. It served no purpose other than to feed his lust for death and suffering. Now that the Overworld was at his mercy, he had no need of the small amount of power each sacrifice drew from the Underworld. The girl's eyes were wide with abject terror. She had not been given the drugs that eased her ordeal, and her fear added to the Black Lord's pleasure. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as the droge raised the dagger, and Bane opened his eyes, ending the Far See. He Moved.
The Demon Lord reappeared beside the altar. The sensations that had been lacking in the Far See rushed in on him. The girl's scream tore the air, and the smoke's stench almost made him gag. The droge with the dagger stumbled back, his mouth dropping open. Bane spared him a sharp, warning glance, then turned to face Arkonen. The rest of the droges and demons retreated, wary eyes fixed on the Demon Lord. The girl stopped screaming. The Black Lord's momentary surprise was well hidden, but Bane glimpsed it with a twinge of satisfaction. The Far See had been too short for the Black Lord to sense. Arkonen smiled, tilted his head, and spread his arms as if to embrace Bane.
"Bane, my boy! It is good to see you. So glad you could join us for a little sport."
Bane's lip curled. "This is not a social visit, Arkonen. It is time."
"Time? Time for what? Son, we can still patch things up, it is not too late."
"Yes it is. And I am not your son."
Arkonen's smile widened as he studied Bane. "You have certainly made a remarkable recovery. How did you manage it?"
"You do not care how I did it, but it is done. It is time to finish this."
"Ah, Bane." Arkonen chuckled. "Such brave words. Such heroism! The healers must be falling at your feet."
"Do not mock me."
"Why not? This is so foolish. It is a joke. We can no more fight each other than rain can fall upwards." He laughed. "The healers have filled your head with lies. There is nothing you can do. You are a foolish boy, but let us not argue. Have some wine, it is very good."
The Black Lord picked up a goblet from the altar, its base sticky with blood, and offered it to Bane. The Demon Lord raised an arm and pointed at a nearby droge, who shrieked and dived for cover.
"I said, do not mock me."
The Black Lord raised the goblet to his lips and sipped. "All right. You want the girl. You can have her. Just swear to give up this stupidity."
"No."
"You do not want her? I thought you did. Well, in that case I will sacrifice her."
"I will not swear anything to you, and I will get her back on my own."
"Now that will be difficult." Arkonen smirked.
Bane turned, his eyes raking the demons and droges, who cowered. "I know where she is, and I do not intend to go in there. You will come to the place where we fought before."
"Why would I do that?"
"You do not want to fight me here, with a Source so close by." Bane jerked his head at the monstrous new temple. "It would even the odds too much, would it not? In your dark form, you Gather more easily and faster than I, but with that so close, I can match you."
"And what good would that do you? We have already tried this, and you almost died. This time, you will."
Bane shook his head. "You will not find it so easy to practice your treachery now."
"Ah yes, you summoned some demons. I noticed that. To guard your back, I take it?" He chuckled. "But while you have a hundred, I can summon hundreds more."
"And I can destroy them."
"As I can yours. Come now, this is futile. You can summon more, of course, so can I. We could wipe out the entire demon population, but what good would it do us?"
Bane glanced at the watching demons. "I would enjoy it. I always did, I just did not tell you before. Far more satisfying than a human sacrifice."
"Now you are being obnoxious."
"You have to face me. If you do not, I will undo what you have done to the Overworld, and destroy any demon I find. What will you be without your minions? These fawning servants you surround yourself with are all you have. Imagine if I destroyed them all. You would be alone, apart from the droges."
"You cannot undo what I have done here."
Bane snorted. "You know I can. And if you fight me, we will be locked in an endless struggle."
"Not endless. You would die eventually."
"But not before I have destroyed all your demons. And it would certainly spoil your fun. You wanted me dead... Well, here I am. Kill me. Rid yourself of the only person who can challenge you, who can summon away all your demons and send them against you." Bane smiled. "I do not have to destroy them. I can make you do it. I only have to destroy the ones you have summoned."
"I almost killed you once, I can do it again."
"Not the same way. Try it."'
"Destroy one demon, and the girl dies."
"If the girl dies, I will destroy you."
"You cannot," Arkonen sneered. "In a few days the Lady's fire will die, and my demons will destroy the temples. Then you will have nowhere to hide."
"If you do not fight me, I will return to the New Kingdom and fight on the side of the Lady. I shall clear the skies and restore her power to the temples. Then you will never conquer the Overworld. You will have only half of it. If you want it all, you must kill me."
"You would not dare!" Arkonen snarled, his face twisted with fury.
"Watch me."
"Why have you not done it already then?"
Bane shrugged. "I have been a bit under the weather. But I am well now. Defeat me, and you get the Overworld. Refuse to fight, and you only get half. With my powers, I will live for a thousand years."
"You will be corrupted in fifty, and on my side."
"Do not count on it."
Arkonen considered. "Very well, if this is the way you want to die, so be it."
"Good." Bane gave a curt nod. "I shall be waiting."
Before the Black Lord could reply, Bane Moved.
Arkonen stared at the place where Bane had been, furious. The red-robed droge emerged from behind the altar and glanced about to ensure that Bane was truly gone. He straightened, brushing his robes.
"Could he do that,
Lord? Free the New Kingdom?"
"Yes." The Black Lord glared at him. "Quite easily."
"Then you intend to kill him?"
"Absolutely. Fetch the girl."
Ellese gazed at the image in her scrying glass, her heart leaden. Bane stood on a hill in the area that the previous battle had blackened and gouged, awaiting the Black Lord. A demon host gathered at a respectful distance, facing him. She fought back the tears that threatened to blind her, biting her lip. He looked so small and insignificant against the backdrop of huge demons and dark sky. His pale skin almost glowed in the gloom, and his hair shone like a raven's wing. The more power he Gathered, she had noticed, the more the darkness strived to protect him with the powerful allure it bestowed.
The most senior healers of the Goddess' Temple stood before her, awaiting news of the battle upon which their lives depended, while the rest continued to pray in the chapel. Their faces were tense and gaunt with worry, their hands clasped to stop any nervous wringing or fidgeting. These were women whom she had always revered as the most exalted of their kind, given the sacred trust of the greatest abbey in the land. Their seer sat at a table nearby, gazing into her own glass. Her cry jerked Ellese from her reverie, and made the Elder Mothers tense.
"He comes!"
Bane turned as dozens of earth demons rose without warning. The earth was already black and covered with ash, so no rings surrounded them. Their number grew rapidly, and they gathered in a circle a short distance away, awaiting their master. A preternatural hush hung in the still air. The lightning and thunder had ceased a day ago, when the Overworld had accepted defeat, and the storm of its struggle had died. Now the clouds hung like a shroud over a dead land.
A surge of dark magic signalled the arrival of his opponent, and the Black Lord appeared in the centre of the demon circle, still clad in his droge form, Mirra held at his side. He used a little magic to light a fire, and scores of fire demons stepped from it. Arkonen walked closer, dragging Mirra by her arm, his expression smug. Bane noticed that the arm Arkonen held was wrapped in a cloth, and appeared oddly misshapen. After retching in the aftermath of the Move, Mirra stared ahead with empty eyes.
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