Legacy of the Devil Queen (Eve of Redemption Book 4)

by Joe Jackson

  Aeligos and Serenjols were still down a side street, disabling as many undead as they could. They were working well in tandem, Jol doing more to draw attention so his agile brother could disable the zombies with his katars. Erik turned away from them and rounded a corner, and came face-to-face with a trio of spellcasters. Another flash of green light barely fazed him, and though a sheet of wind force staggered him back a couple of steps, these necromancers didn’t seem particularly powerful outside of their ability to raise corpses. Erik snarled and raised his blades, and began to give chase when the three humans broke ranks and ran.

  Screams sounded off to the left, and Erik assumed Sonja was faring well against some of the other necromancers. He kept himself focused, however, on the one before him that was lagging behind the others. Even fully armored in plate, Erik’s long strides, superior strength, and half-guardian constitution let him catch up to the slowest of his enemies easily. He overtook the necromancer and dropped her with a single, quick thrust to the spine. He wasn’t sure he’d killed her, but as she flopped limply to the ground, he was certain she wasn’t going anywhere.

  The others split up, one moving north and away from the village, while the other turned south toward their other companions. Erik was already leery about how many enemies Sonja might be facing, so he turned and pursued the southbound man. He chased the human along the edge of the village, but both stuttered to a stop when they saw the carnage on the end of the west road. Three bodies lay in a wide pool of deepening blood, impaled through by uncounted metal spikes. It took Erik a few moments to realize they were nails, but he soon got his wits back about him and threw his longsword end over end at the nearby necromancer.

  The human dodged and turned to run again, and Erik followed in his wake, picking up his sword as he went. That cost him even more distance between them, but he skidded to a halt and brought his blades up before him defensively when the necromancer suddenly rose up into the air. Erik braced himself for an arcane attack, but it didn’t come. Instead, he watched wide-eyed as an unseen force tore the necromancer clean in half, dropping a rain of gore and innards to the ground before the body itself fell with a wet thud.

  Erik’s heart was beating wildly in his chest, but he could hardly force himself to draw a breath. He took a few steps forward and saw Sonja’s back as she paced into the center of the village. All about her were the strewn bodies of the necromancers, some shredded, some torn asunder, while one was nailed to the side of a building in a crucified pose. Sonja turned to the side, and Erik could see her eyes glowing golden again as she used her eagle eye enchantment. Then, in the blink of an eye, she disappeared.

  “Sonja…,” Erik muttered quietly, looking around at the gore. He could hardly believe any of it was her doing. His sister had gone through almost the entire Apocalypse without killing a single thing, whether person or serilian demon. Even during their work on Tsalbrin a few years before, Sonja hadn’t killed anyone, lending her strength to the group in terms of support and utility from her arcane magic. She had always been the sweet one, the most tempered hand, and almost too level-headed in combat.

  All trace of that was gone to Erik’s mind, as he looked at the scene before him. He was hesitant to criticize his sister when she’d finally found some confidence and consistency in her arcane power, but it was hard not to after this display. Aeligos and Jol eventually found Erik, and the looks on their faces – at first, it was obvious they thought he had done this – said that he was far from the only one surprised, or concerned.

  “Sonja?” Aeligos asked simply, and Erik nodded. “Gods. Did you get them all?”

  “One got away; ran off to the north,” Erik said.

  There was a rush of wind at his back. “No, he didn’t,” Sonja answered from behind him. “All nine of them are dead. The twins are headed this way with Sharyn and… reinforcements.”

  Erik glanced at her, curious to why she paused before saying reinforcements. The ground began to tremble and the sound of hooves split the air, and Erik gestured for his siblings to follow him to the edge of town. Sherman, Katarina, and Gabrius rode by and waved, but they made a circuit around the village without stopping to talk first. Erik watched them ride, and then turned his attention to the approaching half-demon warrior with the black wolf at his side.

  “Holy gods, is that dad?” he said.

  Serenjols stepped beside him and patted his shoulder. “Yes, it is,” he answered.

  Aeligos made a sound, and Erik glanced at him over his shoulder. The rogue walked back into the village, surveying the damage and the number of bodies. It was a lot to consider; Erik would need to alert Lord Ferreira and let him know the extent of the tragedy. The bodies couldn’t be left to rot or be picked at by scavengers, but neither could Erik and his companions stay and bury or burn all of them. There was too much at stake to stop here, which meant he was going to have to send someone back to Ballycastle, or else ask Sonja to go deliver the message by teleporting.

  Corbanis reached the edge of the village and stood straight before his two eldest sons. Erik saluted him in the demonhunter way; Corbanis was his superior, which trumped even their blood relation. “Father,” he said.

  “Are we so formal now?” Corbanis asked, returning the salute quickly and then moving forward. Erik embraced him, and Corbanis patted his back a few times before he split off and hugged his eldest son. “Gods above, have you boys been growing since last I saw you?”

  “Not that I’ve noticed,” Erik answered.

  Corbanis turned to his daughter, who was eyeing him skeptically. “You look even more beautiful than I remember,” he said to Sonja, whose stoicism gave way to surprise at that comment. “You’re really starting to look like your mother now. How have you been?”

  He started to move for a hug, but stopped and looked past Sonja at the carnage on the streets. “What happened here? There wasn’t a mess like this when we passed by, chasing the Tilcimer.”

  “Sonja killed a bunch of necromancers,” Erik explained, stepping over next to his father. “I helped, but not much.”

  Corbanis looked sharply at Sonja, and then he shook his head. “You’ve really come into your own as a wizard, then?” he stated as much as asked, and Sonja chewed her lip in seeming embarrassment. Corbanis paused a moment while the twins and Gabrius approached, and once they dismounted, he asked for further details. “But there were necromancers, you say? They’re all dead? And what of the townsfolk?”

  “The necromancers are all dead,” Erik reported. “The townsfolk had been animated, but I think we managed to put them all back down. We’re going to need to send someone back to Ballycastle to let Lord Ferreira know what happened here, and what we’re dealing with. You’re sure it was another of these…Tilcimer demons you and mom hunted before?”

  Corbanis nodded. “Sharyn and I confronted it at a noble’s house to the east. Turns out that ‘noble’ was another werewolf, one who was involved with the first Tilcimer’s destructive path. We killed him, and drove the demon off. I think I hurt it; I hit it with my shield, and not only did I rattle its senses, but that seemed to take all the fight out of it. I believe it’s headed west.”

  Erik looked down at the wolf sitting amongst them, and then back up to meet his father’s own blue-eyed gaze. “Where are Sharyn’s clothes?” he asked with a chuckle.

  “Lost in the fight with the Tilcimer,” Corbanis explained. “I think it would be best to send her back to Ballycastle, perhaps with Sherman, so they can get her outfitted and pass along word to Lord Ferreira about this tragedy.”

  “We can do that,” Sherman agreed, and Corbanis handed over Sharyn’s greatsword.

  There was silence for a moment, then Erik realized everyone was looking at him. “You don’t need my permission to give orders,” he said. “You outrank me.”

  “This is your group. I’m here to help you,” Corbanis said. “You give the orders.”

  Erik nodded, glad for his father’s respect, but at the same time, he wou
ld’ve been happier letting his father give the orders, with his broader experience. “All right then, you two, get to it,” he said. “Sonja, can you make sure all of the animated townsfolk have been disabled? Let’s do a quick sweep, make sure these necromancers – well, the ones that are still in one piece, anyway – aren’t going to rise under their own power, and then we need to keep pushing west. How far behind this thing are we, dad?”

  Corbanis didn’t answer right away, his stare drawn off to the slowly-approaching form of his fourth child. Aeligos stopped a dozen feet away and folded his arms across his chest, and Erik could see things had not changed a bit between his brother and father. It wasn’t lost on the others, either, and after an awkward pause, Sherman mounted up and rode northeast with Sharyn following close behind in wolf form.

  “Good to see you again, Ghost,” Corbanis said.

  Aeligos didn’t even respond, and there was a hardness in his eyes that Erik had never seen before in his brother. Aeligos was a natural actor and a phenomenal poker player, and rarely did he let his emotions show unless there was a definitive reason and goal in mind. The way he stared at their father further reminded Erik of their tense relationship, and he wondered what it was that had happened between the two so many years ago that neither could seem to forgive the other for. Even Sonja turned and looked at Aeligos with some surprise, and Erik understood that whatever Aeligos was thinking, it was setting off Sonja’s empathic sensitivity emphatically.

  “We’ve got work to do,” Aeligos said finally. “The longer we stand here having a family reunion, the farther this thing is going to separate from us, and the more lives we’re going to put in danger. So let’s save the pleasantries for later, shall we?”

  Corbanis hesitated only a moment before he turned back to Erik. “I can’t say for certain; this thing moves too fast to keep up with, but I don’t know how long it can maintain top speed. Last Sharyn and I saw, it was headed west by northwest, almost like it planned to avoid any more large settlements. But there’s a lot of farming villages like this one in that direction, so Aeligos is right, we shouldn’t delay.”

  They got their things together, and despite no one wanting to leave the village behind in its condition, they had little choice. Erik trusted that Sherman would get Lord Ferreira to take care of things in short order. He and his companions weren’t going to be able to put too much distance between themselves and the slaughter before they’d need to rest the horses and stop for the night, but Erik surely didn’t want to stay near the site of the carnage. They pushed on for as long as they could, to the limits of their human and half-brys companions’ endurance, along with that of their trusty steeds.

  They made camp on the open fields, several hours west of the slaughtered village. Erik had everyone work in tandem to create a safe camp, and his companions soon had some fresh food cooking over a well-protected campfire. There wasn’t a lot of chatter while the work was being done, but once everyone was seated around the fire, waiting for the meat to finish cooking, Erik could see that his father was taking in each of his children with a studious gaze.

  Eventually, that stare fell over Erik, and Corbanis tilted his head to the side. “So, would it have killed you to send word to me that you were all right after the War?” he asked. “I’ve heard a lot about you all as the Silver Blades since, but one visit in the last few years would’ve been nice.”

  “We’ve been busy,” Erik said, feeling rather sheepish. “I tried to pass through Latalex on my last patrol, but the Order’s timetable was too strict; I couldn’t get there.”

  “Do not look at me,” Jol said, throwing his hands up under his father’s blue-eyed scrutiny. “I own a business in DarkWind now. I hardly have the time to travel or visit people, except when I accompany our family on missions such as this.”

  “Maybe twenty years of living with you was more than enough,” Aeligos said, and the entire camp went quiet, every eye turning his way.

  “Yet you’ve had no issue living with your mother the last few years?” Corbanis shot back. Aeligos and Sonja both bristled at that, but their father didn’t back down. “Do I have to remind you that she walked out on us?”

  “If you came here to tear down our mother, get back on the boat and go back to Latalex,” Aeligos spat, gesturing east toward the river. “This is precisely the type of help we don’t need. In fact, I think maybe we’re going to need to have a chat with Kari when we get back home.”

  “And tell her what? That you call the shots for the Order?” his father barked. “That ought to be a short conversation.”

  “Can we tone things down, just a little?” Erik said. He could sense his group was on the verge of collapsing, and they were in no position to come apart at the seams when they finally knew what their quarry was, and were right on its heels.

  “Should we give you some private time?” Katarina asked in the ensuing silence, and Gabrius’ expression echoed her sentiments.

  “No need,” Corbanis said with an upraised hand. “I think my son is finished sniping at me for the time being.”

  “Arrogant prick,” Aeligos said.

  Erik nearly spit out his water. He had never heard Aeligos speak that way to anyone. Corbanis rose to his feet, the fire reflecting dangerously in his eyes, but Erik was on his own feet in a moment’s time, and put his hand to his father’s chest. “Dad, that’s enough,” he said. “We can settle this another time. We’re hunting a demon; we don’t have time to fight each other.”

  Corbanis sighed but nodded, and he turned and paced off into the fading twilight. Erik wasn’t sure what the issue was; he never remembered anyone having that bad a relationship with their father. Things had certainly been far from ideal, and times were tense and tough for them all growing up, but the way Aeligos reacted to seeing their father again felt out of place. Erik had clearly missed something growing up, and he wasn’t sure who he should address the issue with first.

  Katarina and Gabrius felt out of place among the family in strife, and Erik felt sorry for them. He made an apologetic gesture toward them and shrugged, and both seemed to wave off his unspoken concern. He sat back down and grabbed some food out of the fire, but his thoughts were stuck on his younger brother and sister. Both of them had shown a scary side this day, a side Erik had never known existed. He was shocked and a little dismayed, mostly because he felt ill-equipped to deal with either of them. He simply had to hope they kept it together long enough to complete this hunt, and then Erik would have the luxury of additional support back in DarkWind to sort through things.

  Erik looked over at Aeligos, but his attention was on Sonja. Aeligos had always had a tense relationship with their father as a teen, but Erik had attributed it to the typical rebellious attitude of a teenager. Now, with Aeligos in his early thirties, that clearly wasn’t the case. Erik had missed out on some incident between the two, and he honestly had no idea what it could have been. Corbanis had always been strict, and had never spared the rod in disciplining his children, but Erik never felt his father went too far. His children had all grown up disciplined and moral, however imperfect their childhoods had been.

  Staring at Aeligos and Sonja, who appeared to be having a silent conversation – and now Erik had to wonder if maybe they truly were – he couldn’t help but wonder how little he really knew about the siblings he’d helped raise and traveled with most of his life. He had always considered his sister the purest and most noble among them, and yet the way she had torn the necromancers apart shocked him. Surely, Erik wouldn’t have felt at all sorry for putting any of the necromancers to the sword, but seeing them torn apart just struck him as unnecessarily cruel and vicious, particularly from his sister. He wondered if there was any tactful way to bring it up with her without seeming too judgmental.

  Erik glanced at Katarina and Gabrius, and wondered if they were thinking the same things.

  Chapter XI – Wounds

  The Silver Blades pushed westward the next morning. They agreed that the Tilcim
er was unlikely to try attacking the fortified city of Bantry again, so they followed its previous course to the west. After several hours, they spotted a plume of smoke, and Erik was pretty sure they were on the right path. He hoped the village ahead wouldn’t be as bad as the scene of carnage they had left the day before, and that there wouldn’t turn out to be another band of necromancers wreaking havoc with the dead.

  Gabrius and Katarina offered to ride ahead and scout the area, but Erik had them keep pace with the rest of the group. If it turned out the Tilcimer was drawing them into an ambush, he didn’t want his group splintered and easily destroyed one at a time. They all picked up their pace as much as possible, and the plume of smoke drew closer and closer. Erik waited for his father to give them some orders or guidance, but the Tesconis patriarch held his tongue.

  “Sonja, see if you can sense whether the Tilcimer is still ahead, and whether we have any more necromancers to deal with,” Erik said. “Just keep your magic under control.”

  Sonja skidded to a halt. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked with a defensive scowl, even as her eyes began to glow golden and she looked around at something the others couldn’t see.

  “Just…don’t tear anyone else in half,” Erik said, trying to keep his tone soft.

  Sonja blinked away the golden glow of her eyes and fixed him with a hard stare. “If you don’t want my help, Erik, I’ll teleport home.” Erik looked to Jol and Aeligos for support, but neither of them seemed intent on joining this conversation. Sonja huffed, then continued, “I don’t know what you’re so concerned about, Erik. Those necromancers got exactly what was coming to them; exactly what they wanted to do to us.”

  “Sonja, it’s not that you killed them, it’s just–” Erik started.