Deception

by A. S. Fenichel

  Brice carried the torch lighting their way, and Dorian followed him. Tybee remained at the top of the cave opening. Too old and crippled to climb down, he would call out a warning if Fletcher’s men failed.

  Marius waited with him as the last line of defense before demons breached the cave.

  Once inside, she half expected to find more humans or even demons worshiping at the gate.

  The ground around the gate was empty of humanity. No one prayed to the gate, and they had not replaced demon guards.

  The vortex formed to the left of the hole in the floor. A man of perhaps thirty, dressed in a black coat and tan trousers, stepped out and hovered over the gate. The back of the cavern shimmered visible through his floating form. Not quite in this world.

  “Hunters, I am master.” He spoke and the walls shook. He was beautiful, too perfect. His black hair slicked back from his creamy skin. His eyes were dark, hateful, but no less mesmerizing.

  Everyone clutched their heads.

  He lowered his voice. “I offer you a place in my court. You need not die like the rest. You can be my earthly warriors.”

  Drake said, “The Company stands against your invasion of this world.

  “Your company is irrelevant. I am master.”

  “We have had some success. You cannot survive in our world. If you could, you would not need these vortexes to enter.”

  The master’s eyes darkened. “I am sorry it has come to this. I had hoped to offer sanctuary to the hunters. I admire strength, and hunters have proven formidable. I could have used you, but now I can see that will never be possible. You are relentless in your futile attempts to stop me.”

  Dorian took a brush from his pale and painted the strange knot Abigail called the Triquetra of Harmony on the wall over the anarchy symbol.

  “Your foolish spells and rituals are no match for the power of the master.” The dark rings circling his eyes told a different story. He had no strength left.

  She called, “I do not believe you. If you had the power, we would already be dead, yet here we stand.”

  Dorian continued painting symbols in blood over the demons’ symbols. He painted Earth, Water, Air, and Fire as the witch had instructed.

  Brice, Drake, and she spread out around the gate to protect him while he finished the symbols.

  “My minions will deal with you until my strength is restored. Even now, you have brought me two who can build my power. The blood of kings runs in their veins.” He pointed to Dorian and Brice.

  Drake said, “How can you be sure? Didn’t you think the same of their mother?”

  The specter shrugged, an almost human gesture. “I was misinformed. It was a miscalculation, but my revenge was still sweet. The agony on that one’s face was worth a small delay.”

  Dorian painted the last of the symbols, the Seal of Solomon, over the symbol of the master.

  The master’s image dimmed.

  All three men converged on her location near the exit.

  Lillian chanted the spell that Abigail had made her memorize. She called on the powers of the human world to push back the forces of evil.

  Maybe the master had been expecting a sword fight. His eyes narrowed and a vortex reformed. He slipped through the swirling entrance to purgatory. A lightning bolt shot out as he disappeared.

  Dorian pushed Lillian to the ground. The bolt sliced through her left shoulder.

  An ear-piercing scream filled the cave, and it was her own. She pushed away the pain and continued with the chant. Hot wind circled, whipping against the walls.

  The cavern trembled. Pebbles and dust fell around them. The hole in the floor filled with swirling black smoke. Images rode the smolder. Red eyes, a bull’s horns, and other nightmares swam in the gate.

  Her breath sapped away in the hot wind, but she continued chanting as loud as she could.

  A beast with the face and legs of a bull but the body of a horse leaped from the gate, filling the cave. Its red eyes stared at nothing and its nostrils flared. Riding atop the monster was a trebox twice the size of a man. Rippling with muscle and baring pointed teeth, he wielded a long spear aimed at Lillian.

  The demon pulled his spear back next to his ear.

  Drake ran forward, his sword held high.

  The greater trebox turned black, fathomless eyes toward the movement, roared an ear-rending sound, and turned his weapon on Drake.

  Drake countered and knocked it away.

  Another spear appeared in the monster’s hand. It laughed, but the sound hurt her ears. “You are nothing. Tritors have returned and all humans will pay for dishonoring the master. My durso will feast on your bones.”

  Two more like him leaped from the gate. All three on the hideous durso beasts.

  Lillian chanted louder, and her throat burned. Blood ran down her arm, and the pain shot up her neck. Her eyes blurred and she struggled to stay awake. I’m failing. It was hopeless. The gate didn’t close. They were missing something or the demons were too strong.

  Poised for attack, Dorian stood in front of her. He took up the chant with her while holding his sword high and guarding her.

  Brice and Drake followed suit.

  Four human voices filled the cave with the chant of hope and prayer for a world without demons. They called to the elements to seal the unnatural gate. Repeatedly they said the words better suited to a witch or wizard.

  The cavern shook them off their feet, but still they chanted.

  The gate dimmed to light gray and grew smaller.

  The first of the tritor screamed in the demon language. His companions circled the gate.

  Lillian lay on the ground, clutching her wounded shoulder. She released the pain, pulled her lone sai blade from her boot, drew it back past her ear, and threw it at the center of a tritor’s chest. The sharp, thin blade hit the mark, sliced deep.

  Its black eyes locked with hers.

  She trembled both with fear and fury.

  The demon pulled the sai out and tossed it into the gate. It stared at the gushing wound. The humans present would never forget the sound that gurgled from the beast. Black oozed between its fingers, and it fell from the steed to the stone ground.

  The other two tritors grew as if pulling energy from their fallen leader. They cried out, leaped into the gate, and disappeared.

  All that remained was the dead demon’s durso. It rose onto its back legs and bellowed a deep guttural sound.

  The hunters continued chanting.

  It sniffed its fallen rider, nudged it with its snout, and loosed another wall-shaking bellow. The durso turned red eyes on them before focusing on Lillian. It pawed the stone, sending up sparks, lowered its deadly horns then rushed her.

  Dorian leaped on its back and thrust his sword through the creature’s neck.

  It shook its head but continued forward, kicking and bucking as it went.

  Drake raised the broadsword and stabbed the beast in the side, but still the durso plunged toward her.

  She lifted her short sword, and its horn knocked it away. The durso lifted her with its head. Only the efforts of her fiancé and fellow hunters kept the monster from goring her. She slammed against the cave wall and slid down to the unforgiving ground. She wished she could see Dorian’s face one last time.

  Silence.

  Pain exploded in her head, shoulder, back. In fact, she longed to find a piece of flesh that did not hurt.

  All three men stabbed the beast until it bled from more than a dozen wounds. Black demon blood mixed with her red blood, soaking the stone floor.

  The tritor remained still on the other side of the cave. The gate was nothing but a flat stone floor. No evidence of the gaping hole remained.

  The floor shook. Stone and dust fell around them.

  “Time to go.” Drake pulled his blade from the durso.

  Dorian and Brice followed suit.

  They ran toward her. She tried to push to her feet, but her vision blurred and the room spun. Dorian lifted her to
her feet. Agony and nausea soared to the surface. She had to swallow before she wasted time being sick.

  Dorian lifted her into the tunnel. Scrambling into the darkness, she pulled along the wall inch by inch, until he jumped up and hauled her toward the exit.

  The tunnel crumbled around them, and she was holding him back. “Go. Leave me. You’ll be killed.”

  He ignored her order. “Fight, Lilly.”

  She gritted her teeth against the pain and dizziness and pushed her feet into action.

  At the mouth of the cave, Dorian lifted her straight up. She raised her good arm, grasping for purchase. The world spun out of control.

  Strong hands pulled her up through the cave entrance. Fletcher, face battered and bloody, smiled at her. “We need to get you out of here.”

  “Dorian?”

  “He’s right behind us, lass.” They ran a hundred yards before a thunderous crash stopped them.

  The ground collapsed, flattening the hill and leaving a pile of dirt and rocks.

  The battlefield ran black with demons’ blood. Not one beast stood. Fletcher’s men, some wounded, battered, and covered in filth, fanned out around the collapsed ground. A few lay amongst the dead.

  Dorian eased her away from Fletcher and picked her up. “We need to get you to a surgeon, Lilly.

  His face blurred, and the daylight hurt her eyes. She vaguely remembered being injured. Her shoulder hurt and she shivered. So cold. Unable to focus, she closed her eyes.

  The master’s voice pierced the stillness. “You tiny humans will never understand. You cannot destroy me.”

  * * * *

  Dorian placed Lillian on the ground. She was weak and losing consciousness. She’d lost a lot of blood. Maybe too much, yet there was no time to tend her wounds in the face of the master.

  Tybee rushed over, tore his jacket, and pressed the material to the wound in her shoulder.

  A vortex opened where the cave had been. The master stepped to its edge. He was pale with smudges under his eyes. “I will not give up this world, and you have no power to stop me. I am master.”

  Dorian clutched his ears. “Maybe not, but nor have you been successful in regaining your power and living in this world.”

  The demon spoke in a more tolerable voice. “I offer you my right hand. I will even spare your woman.”

  “No, master. You promised me. You said I’d stand at your side.” Tom ran toward the demon.

  “Ah, here is the deceiver. He may be a child, but he is the only one among you smart enough to take what I offer.”

  Tybee said, “Ach, Tom. What have you done?”

  Tom’s grin was pure evil. “I am to be a god.”

  Anger expanded Dorian’s chest and mixed with sorrow. “You have been deceived, Tom. He will make you a slave just like the demons who follow him.”

  “No. You are wrong. In The Company, I am nothing. A child you all send on errands. With the master I will be a god.”

  Eyes narrowed, the master watched. “Yet you promised me noble blood and have brought me none. In my court there is punishment for disobedience.”

  Tom’s eyes widened and he paled. “He tricked me, master. How was I to know the old woman was a peasant? I got you inside the house. I can get you the blood you need.”

  Tom was little more than a child, but he was responsible for Dorian’s mother’s capture. Dorian pulled his sword. “How did you get the demons in my mother’s house?”

  Tom looked between Dorian and Brice and scooped up a sword from the battlefield. “I’ve been courting the silly scullery, Margery, for months. She expects I’ll marry her, but I’m made for bigger things than the likes of her.”

  “Margery might have let you in, but she would not have allowed demons into the house. She would have died to stop them.”

  “I snuck away from her and let them in. It was easy enough, since the staff had grown used to me being around the house.”

  It explained a lot. Dorian’s gut pulled tight, torn between killing the boy where he stood and trying to save him from himself.

  The master’s voice boomed. “Draw the blood of either and I will forgive your mistake.”

  “Tom, you do not have to do this.” Drake stepped forward. “You are part of The Company. Part of a family. The demon lies. He has tricked you. We will forgive you. Stop this now.”

  “Forgive me? You don’t even know all I’ve done.”

  “I know you were deceived. The lure of power can be overwhelming. You are not the first led astray. Older men with fine educations have been lured in by power. We can go back to the castle now and talk this over.”

  Tybee still held cloth to Lillian’s wound. “Come now, lad. Dona’ do this. You’re a good lad.”

  Tom looked at the old doorkeeper, and sorrow filled his youthful eyes. “I did what I had to do. I know you tried to help me, and when I can, I will beg for your life, Tybee.”

  Rage distorted Tom’s face as he raised his voice in loud, grating demon language. The ground vibrated, increasing with Tom’s every word.

  Dorian expected the two remaining tritors to appear.

  Tom’s voice shook the earth.

  The rings under the master’s eyes lightened and his eyes gleamed. A vicious grin spread across his lips.

  Thunder rolled above them and dark clouds formed above them. Spinning clouds came together, blocking the sun. Lightning cracked and lit the sky.

  “Tom, stop this.” Drake stepped toward Tom.

  The master’s head snapped toward him, and lightning struck the ground between Tom and Drake.

  Tom’s voice grew louder and more impassioned with every ear-grating word.

  The earth split open in front of Tom. The crack widened and stretched toward Dorian.

  Lightning ignited grass and heather twenty feet to Dorian’s left. Thunder sent his heart into his throat. Bolt after bolt struck fires around the humans while Tom’s voice rose between the shattering thunder.

  The master’s flesh darkened, and his eyes brightened as if the chant fed his rotting soul.

  Another bolt of lightning struck. A human scream rent the air and stopped short.

  Dorian wanted to know who screamed, but he stayed focused on Tom.

  Tybee still cradled Lillian in his arms. “Tom, you must stop.”

  Tom’s hatred poured into the prayer. Awkwardly brandishing his blade, he stepped toward Dorian.

  “Tom, I’m not going to warn you again. If you do not stop this now, you will die.”

  “My master will protect me.”

  The master watched with a smirk that Dorian wished he could carve from his evil face.

  “No, Tom. He will let you die so he can destroy everything we hold dear.”

  “You are wrong. My master is going to bring equality to the world.”

  “By making everyone slaves to him.”

  “No. I’m to be a god.”

  “And who will you be equal to when you are a god, Tom Meikle? If everyone is to be equal, how is it you will be above the rest?”

  Tom’s eyes narrowed and he scanned the broken battlefield.

  Drake tackled Tom to the ground.

  Tom screamed.

  The crack widened to a gaping chasm, and heat rose from its depths. Sulfur stung Dorian’s nose and made his eyes tear.

  Lightning charred the ground inches from Drake and Tom, wrestling for the knife. The ground exploded around them and sent both flying, then crashing to the dirt.

  Tom jumped to his feet and looked over the terrain. Hell on earth is what his fraud had caused. Every few feet was charred or burning, demons and men lay dead, he’d torn a hole in the earth, and daylight had been blocked out by unnatural clouds.

  Regret flashed over Tom’s face before hatred twisted it again. He picked up the sword and careened toward him. Tom’s high pitched battle-cry drowned out the cacophony.

  Brice called Dorian’s name and ran toward him, halted by the gap in the ground.

  Utter sorrow fil
led Dorian as he lifted his sword.

  Focused on his master’s bidding, Tom impaled himself on Dorian’s blade. The sword fell from Tom’s hand and his eyes stared vacantly.

  Dorian pulled his sword free, and Tom collapsed on the ground.

  The master’s roar filled the world with horror before it faded with the vortex.

  The clouds separated and evaporated into nothing, leaving behind blue skies and sunshine.

  Drake limped over. “What a shame, but there was nothing you could have done. I do not know what I will tell his mother.”

  “He was as much a casualty of this war as any of the dead lying on this field, Drake. The demon took advantage of his youth and convinced him of his lies. Tell his family he died in battle. They need know nothing more.”

  Drake nodded and Dorian turned to where Lillian lay still as death in Tybee’s arms.

  The doorkeeper shook his head. “She hasna’ stirred in quite some time, son.”

  Fletcher said, “I’ll send my carriage to collect the doctor. Where will you take her?”

  Dorian crouched and eased her from the ground. “Home.”

  * * * *

  The new Company doctor, Dr. Robasan, told Dorian, “You will need someone to keep an eye on her for the next few days. Even if she wakes up, she will need looking after.”

  Dorian’s fists clenched even as he told himself he could not strike the doctor. “She will wake up.”

  The man took a step back and had the good sense to look apologetic. Standing in the corridor outside of the bedroom, he had few options to get away. “Yes, of course. She is a strong woman. I’m not going to lie to you. The fact that she has been unconscious for several hours now is not a good sign. I need you to understand she has taken a bad hit and lost a lot of blood. She needs rest, and there is to be no jostling around. Everything must be done gently. You must have her lifted with great care from the bed to have the sheets changed and such. If—when she wakes up, she is not to walk alone for at least a week. Even to use the privy, someone needs to steady her. Another fall could kill her.”

  The man was new to The Company. He was trying to help, but other than stitching her wound, he could do nothing. It was up to Lillian. She needed the will to live.

  Dorian really wanted the man to go away and let him take care of Lillian. “She will be well cared for. I will take care of her.”