That explanation definitely made me feel better. I was being taken back to GASP, who I now knew for a fact were somewhere in the gorge, looking for me, and Blaze was with them. Hope blossomed in my chest, while Zane’s blood continued to fix the damage that the daemons had done to my soul.
At the same time, however, I was dismayed. I’d gotten a glimpse of a daemon’s hunting grounds, sure. I’d learned a couple of minor things about the species. But other than that, I had nothing to bring back to my team, other than myself with my ass handed to me.
Avril
(Daughter of Lucas & Marion)
Several hours passed uneventfully, and I didn’t know whether to feel relieved or worried. The gorge became awfully quiet again as we rode our horses through it, heading farther west, after the tracking spell. The light orb was still constant and slow, and my stomach churned with concern over Fiona’s wellbeing.
The sun had already passed over us, and the noon heat actually felt good through my leather suit. We had our hoods, masks, and goggles on, as there was enough sunshine to give us serious burns if we were to expose ourselves to it.
Our indigo horses were also quiet, their tails flicking occasionally as we advanced along the freshwater stream. I glanced over my shoulder and stifled a smirk, watching Harper, who shared a horse with Caspian. They barely spoke, while Harper looked particularly stiff with his arm wrapped around her waist.
I then shifted my focus to Heron, who stared ahead and spoke even fewer words since we’d left Sienna and Tobiah behind. Jax and Hansa were talking to Caia and Blaze, their horses leading our group, while Scarlett and Patrik shared observations about the ravine’s flora and fauna.
Harper scanned the area every twenty minutes or so, looking for Vincent and the Correction Officers in neighboring gorges, but came up with nothing every time. They’d either gotten lost or killed.
Or worse, they left us here to die.
I shook the ominous thought away, then went over our brief conversation with Sienna and Tobiah. Based on her account and what we’d learned from Arrah and the other Imen servants at the Roho mansion, certain pieces were starting to fit into the puzzle, while most remained obscure.
The daemons were true to their hunting pattern, after all. They’d kept to the Valley of Screams for a long time, until they grew fed up with the Exiled Maras grabbing all the big game. So they started hunting more Exiled Maras and Imen instead, gradually breaching the plain, then working their way into Azure Heights.
They were invisible when hunting, as per Bear and Sinon’s information—the two rogue Imen we’d encountered during our mission to stuff charmed satchels into the mountain base for Patrik’s protection spell. They were ridiculously fast and vicious, their hits aiming to kill. They were territorial creatures that lived underground—and I was getting curious as to what their life looked like beneath the surface of Neraka. Given their appearance and behavior, I could only assume that they were warriors, crude and vengeful. Tobiah had also confirmed that repeatedly: daemons were not nice creatures.
At the same time, there was something off in Azure Heights. The Maras were strict about their laws, and too secretive about their prison. There were plenty of mysteries left to untangle down there—despite what the warden had said, I had a hard time chalking the gate incident up to a technical glitch. The prisoners were in a poor state, and I looked forward to investigating further. Something in the back of my head kept telling me there was a clear connection between Arrah and that place, and that it all boiled down to Demios and the validity of the charges against him.
We knew that Arrah’s brother could be used as leverage against the young Iman girl, who was an enigma all by herself—impervious to a Mara’s mind-bending, and seeming to possess more knowledge about the prison and the daemons than she let on. While Sienna had been an anomaly in the abduction pattern, we did know why: Tobiah had first seen her on the first level, where the hunting actually took place; he’d fallen for her, and he’d followed her around before snatching her. Did Arrah know all that, or was there something else that had pushed either House Kifo or Roho (or both, for that matter) to incarcerate Demios and force her into silence?
I then remembered Cynara, the servant girl we’d met during our first night on Neraka. We’d yet to speak to her and her sister, Hera, after we’d seen Cynara get carried out of the dining room at the Broken Bow Inn. I made a mental note to follow up on that lead once we got back to Azure Heights. Maybe she knew something.
I was also suspicious about mind-bending. The Exiled Maras had been adamant about their motivations: they’d used their abilities on the Imen to force the truth out of suspected criminals, and to help the families of abductees cope with their losses. Nevertheless, one too many of the Imen in the city had displayed symptoms of mind-bending. Another thing that added to my concerns regarding the wellbeing of the Imen focused on their seemingly short life spans, and that illness we’d learned about back at the Roho mansion.
The slumber before death…
“What are you thinking about?” Heron asked, breaking my inner process.
“Everything.” I shrugged.
He pulled his goggles down, his jade eyes piercing through my soul. Our mission on Neraka had been so weird and so confusing that I’d barely had enough time to properly monitor my reactions to Heron’s presence. Our brief exchanges had lodged a bothersome rock into the wheels of our friendship, as we were slowly gravitating toward each other. I feared that if we got closer, we’d both explode.
“The tracking spell is picking up speed, though it’s just an extra mile per hour,” he said, nodding toward the light orb ahead.
I glanced at it for a moment, and realized he was right. We were moving a little faster. My gears kicked into motion, my heartrate spiking. I gave him a half-smile.
“We’re getting closer,” I confirmed.
“We’ll get her back, Avril,” he reassured me with a mild frown.
“I know.” I nodded, and couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking in that moment. Most of his face was concealed by his mask. I only had his pale green gaze to work with.
Noises ahead made us break eye contact. Caspian and Harper’s horse trotted forward, passing us and slowing down by Jax and Hansa’s side.
The gorge walls were widening again. Tall trees lined both sides, their rich crowns spreading outward and concealing most of the blue sky above. They reminded me of the redwoods back home, towering over the world and making everything look puny by comparison. Large slabs of limestone and voluminous ferns and shrubs were scattered along the walls, most of them concealing grottos and smaller crevices.
The stream flowed through the middle of the space ahead, before the walls drew closer together again. And there was a mass of… creatures moving toward us in an organized fashion, about two hundred yards away.
“Get out of sight. Now!” Caspian whispered.
We immediately pulled our horses to the side and got off just after the gorge widened. Harper used her mind control on the animals, her eyes glimmering as her hands gripped the sword handles strapped to her belt. She directed the horses behind a cluster of jagged rocks.
“Stay here. Do not move,” she commanded.
We followed Caspian, sneaking along the righthand side behind tall chunks of stone and between the trees, getting closer to the small crowd. We found cover behind a towering rock, fifty feet from the strange group. I held my breath as I got a better look.
There were about sixty Imen huddled into four large iron cages mounted on wheels, each mobile enclosure being pulled by a giant beast roughly the size of an elephant. The creatures looked like a cross between a bear and a wolf, with no fur and ink-black skin. Their backs and legs were stocked with bulging muscles. Their eyes shone red, and they had huge fangs and claws to go with the whole ensemble. They were downright frightening fiends, as if someone had decided to engineer the hounds of hell, but on steroids. The beasts had massive black iron collars tightened around the
ir robust necks, with several symbols painted in red.
“That’s swamp witch magic,” Patrik muttered, consternation smoothing his forehead and widening his blue eyes.
That wasn’t the worst part, though. The cages were also guarded by at least four dozen daemons, visible, clad in heavy armor, and carrying spears and rapiers. They were different from the others we’d seen before. They were organized and disciplined, covered in protective gear and wielding weapons.
Just when I’d thought I’d learned enough about the daemons and their customs, more questions popped up like mushrooms after the rain. I couldn’t help but voice them in a whispering avalanche:
“Where’d they get the swamp witch magic? Did they steal knowledge from the Exiled Maras, or was it willingly given to them? What the heck are those gargantuan beasts? What purpose do the collars serve? Where are they taking all those Imen?”
“I suggest you save those questions for later,” Caspian breathed, crouching in front of us. “If you want to survive, that is.”
“Fine, but do you at least know what those oversized creatures are?” Harper retorted, gritting her teeth.
“Pit wolves,” Caspian replied, keeping his voice low. “They’re rare but deadly. They’re faster than Maras and most likely faster than you, too. They’ll sniff us out if we keep following them, so stay put. Let them go ahead.”
My stomach twisted itself into painful knots as I watched our tracking spell quietly hover above the crowd, without moving forward.
“What’s up with the tracking spell?” I murmured, and Patrik craned his neck, frowning.
“I… I have no idea,” he whispered.
“What do we do?” I asked, looking at Hansa and Jax, whose frowns didn’t make me feel any better. Heron was next to me, while Scarlett stayed behind Patrik. We turned away from the crowd and huddled closer together, our backs against the rock as we faced the redwoods and limestone walls.
“Those are Imen from western tribes beyond the gorge,” Caspian said slowly. “They were most likely captured during a daemon raid.”
“Daemon raids? Are you freaking serious?” Harper was outraged. I couldn’t blame her. Fire and ice burst through me as I imagined an organized attack on an unsuspecting village, and innocent Imen dragged from their homes and shoved into cages.
“Yes, Miss Hellswan, I’m serious,” Caspian shot back, obviously irritated. By the looks of him, he really didn’t want us to be here. I figured this convoy took him by surprise. “The daemons don’t just hunt in the gorges. They’re an organized society, as you can see for yourself by the cages, the armor, and the weapons.”
“Where are they taking them? They’re headed east through the gorge, and I doubt they’re delivering them to Azure Heights.” Hansa huffed.
“There’s probably a route through these parts that leads underground into their cities,” Caspian replied.
Cities. The daemons have underground cities.
Harper had been right all along. Caspian definitely knew a lot more than he was letting on.
“What. Do. We. Do?” I asked again.
“Do we fight them? I mean, you still have me.” Blaze shrugged, removing his eye bandage. He was completely healed, the muscles on his bare chest and shoulders twitching with anticipation. He was itching for a fight.
“We need to get to Fiona.” Jax frowned, pressing his lips into a tight, frustrated line before he cursed under his breath.
“But the tracking spell is still. And it’s only a matter of time before they notice it,” I murmured. I could feel my nerves snapping, one by one, as I listened to the iron wheels screeching and turning, the cages behind us being pulled through the gorge. I heard the pit wolves’ grunting. The daemons’ footsteps on the hard ground. The yelps and moans of the captive Imen. The poor creatures knew that they were being led to their deaths.
What could we do? The pit wolves alone could represent a challenge, along with fifty or more daemons in full armor and with plenty of blades between them. They carried shields, too. These weren’t the brazen hunters we’d dealt with earlier—even those had been quick and smart enough to poke Blaze in the eye and nearly disable him mid-fight.
If we were to let Blaze loose in dragon form, we would have to drag the Imen out of the way for him to let his devastating fires loose. Otherwise we’d end up tiptoeing around their cages with a lizard the size of a passenger plane, and, in the meantime, Fiona’s tracking spell could dart away after her before any of us even saw it.
We may be a tad screwed…
Harper
(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)
“I strongly recommend that we all stay put and wait for the convoy to pass,” Caspian whispered. “Some, if not all of you, might get killed if you try anything against these beasts.”
“Some of you? Not including yourself in that statement?” I raised an eyebrow.
He gave me an acid smirk.
I could smack him. I could totally smack him.
“I’m not suicidal. I’m only trying to help,” he replied. “You can’t get yourselves tangled in another fight now, even if you do have a dragon. You need to get to Fiona and get the hell out of these gorges before you all end up as pit wolf chow.”
“I hate to say this, I really do,” Hansa sighed, her brow furrowed, “but Lord Kifo has a point.”
No, don’t say that. He’ll give me a smug smile, and… There it is.
Caspian loved being right, apparently.
“There are plenty of them, and those giant fiends are something else entirely,” Hansa continued. “We have to get to Fiona before it’s too late, and we can then gather more forces from Calliope and tear these gorges down altogether, and—”
A bone-chilling growl, like chunks of glass being scraped against a pavement, came from above. We all froze, then glanced up and noticed the elephant-sized pit wolf baring its enormous white fangs at us. Its red eyes glistened with hunger; thick threads of drool hung from its lower jaw.
“Crap,” I heard Jax say.
We jumped back, drawing our swords. My heart nudged into my throat, and my blades were soon up and ready. It was too late to debate this further. We hadn’t even seen or heard the beast move.
Our only choice was to fight.
“Stand back,” Blaze said as the pit wolf growled and wiggled its hindquarters, ready to pounce on us.
We scattered to both sides as Blaze erupted into full dragon form. He knocked over a couple of redwoods. I dodged one of the massive trees, which landed heavily to my right.
The daemons went on high alert, raising their swords and spears. Half of them charged us, while one of the fiends left behind set the other pit wolves loose. The rest guarded the cages, which came to a screeching halt. The Imen inside gathered in the middle, crying and trying their best to cover each other from whatever came next.
We spread out and darted toward the first wave of daemons coming. Caia ignited her lighters and fashioned two impressively thick fire whips, which she used to lash at one of the pit wolves, while Patrik muttered a spell under his breath and summoned a spray of intense blue fire from his hands, aiming it at the armored daemons.
Their protective gear made it more difficult for us to kill them but not impossible, as evidenced by Hansa’s broadsword chopping a couple of heads down like she was an expert lumberjack. In the absence of mind-bending as a useful weapon against the daemons, Heron and Jax made full use of their blades, flashing from one daemon to another. Their blows were swift and heavy, drawing spurts of crimson blood as they tackled multiple opponents at once, dodging hits and veering left and right between them.
Blaze tackled another pit wolf, snapping his fangs at it between brief sessions of clawing and spiking daemons. His tail was most effective in this part of the gorge, flailing and lashing around with deadly precision. Soon enough, bodies started to drop, most of them mangled and torn into pieces.
Avril was handling her fair share of daemons, while Scarlett used her stunning speed to
confuse a second pit wolf, slashing its limbs whenever she managed to get close. Caspian was right—these oversized dogs were faster than the average Mara or vampire. Luckily for us, so was Scarlett.
Speaking of the jade-eyed devil, Caspian stayed close to my side as we fought incoming daemons. I was extremely energized, with an extra kick in my step I instantly attributed to Caspian—I could feel his power burning through me, rivers of bright green fire igniting my reflexes as I swerved to the left and ran my sword through the narrow space between two metal plates mounted on a daemon’s torso. I drew blood. The fiend hissed from the pain but didn’t get his chance to strike back. I turned and stabbed him in the neck, both blades protruding beneath his chin.
“Harper, watch out!” I heard Caspian say.
I heard shuffling behind me and jolted out of the way, just as a spear missed my hip by an inch. I charged the daemon, bringing both swords down in a flurry of repetitive hits. My foot went out to the side, kicking his left knee hard enough to make him falter in his defense. It was all I needed to bring one sword across and cut his shield arm off in one move. I swiftly followed it with a 360-degree twist, both blades extended to separate his head from his neck. Blood sprayed out. I caught a glimpse of Caspian fighting two daemons at once.
Blaze growled as he continued to plow through the first wave of daemons, until two pit wolves tried to sink their teeth into his muscular thighs. He managed to catch one in his jaws, crunching and chewing. The beast squealed and eventually stopped moving. The other yelped and scampered to the side, looking for another attack angle, while Blaze spit his partner out and proceeded to launch his calculated attacks against other daemons.
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