Devil's Punch

by Ann Aguirre

  She conveyed to me that her spells couldn’t kill it, only immobilize it, and they wouldn’t last forever. I skimmed the walls and found a spear with a broken haft at the far corner, presumably left from another match. There were bloodstains in here and bits of debris. Urgency sent me sprinting across as the monster struggled with the dispersing magick. With a scream of rage, it chased me blindly. I zigzagged as much as the small space permitted, and it couldn’t hear or smell well enough to place me.

  I snagged the weapon on the run, and splintered wood gouged my palms. Ignoring the pain, I doubled back and came in low. As Ninlil chanted up another blindness spell, I struck, stabbing the thing up through the groin. Its claws came down, and only the demon queen saved me from complete evisceration. With her preternatural reflexes, I twirled and took the blow down my right side. Blood gushed from both wounds, the monster’s and mine, but I hadn’t killed it.

  Join with me, she whispered. Some of yours, some of mine. We are stronger together. If you fall here, Binder, your companions die as well.

  No. But the refusal felt shaky. The demon queen withdrew, leaving me to my own devices. Fear streamed through me like whitewater rapids, drowning me. My wound throbbed twice as hard, twice as hot, and my whole body trembled.

  I slid sideways, but not in time to avoid a blow on the backswing. She made me absorb the full impact, and I tumbled backward ten feet, landing hard on my injured side. The Saremon crowd shrieked, scenting blood. They thought I was done.

  We’ll both die, she said. Is that what you want?

  Do something about those claws. I’ll…think about it.

  Ninlil’s agreement came at once. Cloudbind.

  Then she was speaking the words, driving the magick, as I surged to my feet with renewed energy. Lowering my head to charge, I wheeled toward the beast with a feint and wrested my broken weapon from its crotch. I screamed as I pulled because the motion wrenched my wounded side, and the monster raked at me, but its claws were covered in darklight that offered a magickal buffer. The blunt trauma hurt like hell and I saw stars, but at least it didn’t take my head off. Another hit like that, though, and I was done.

  Let me in, or we both fall. Last chance, Corine Solomon. Even my power is not infinite. Will you let them die of your fear, your weakness?

  Oh, no. Chance. Greydusk. Shannon. At last, my will chipped away, I accepted the unthinkable bargain. Yes. Do it.

  The queen threw her strength into mine, and we merged. I had all her experience, all her power at my fingertips, and the spear pulled free in a bloody fountain. Ichor spewed from the wound. Again, I thought, and I drove the weapon into the vein on the creature’s thigh. It could die. It would die. Even with my wounds, riding the royal aura, I spun away from the injured beast. I came up behind it and stabbed twice more. Back of the thigh. Hamstring. Its chest was too armored for me to penetrate, but it was softer down low. Its sight came back too late. I stabbed. Again. Again. Until it bled from ten separate wounds. The audience was screaming, but it sounded distant, as if through a wall of glass. I didn’t care. All that mattered was that this thing died.

  Final thrust.

  I hit a vein and the black blood spurted like oil, slicking the stone beneath my feet. The monster staggered, moaning, a piteous sound, but there was no kindness in me. I was the demon queen, and I had risen.

  No Mercy

  There was no time to rest.

  They’d arrive soon to escort me back to my cell and then kill my companions. That meant I had to be ready to fight. I had magick to spare; it coiled, lustrous, around my hands like a drowsy snake. I didn’t posture for the surprised crowd, most of whom had expected to watch me die. Instead I ran like hell for the doors where I’d come in. I didn’t expect to break them down. But they had to come and get me, didn’t they? I smiled in delicious anticipation. I whispered the words in demontongue that cloaked me in living darkness, a shield against the suckerpunch of a spell Oz had dropped on me before.

  He wouldn’t get lucky again.

  The Saremon were weak. They’d relied on lazy tricks for too many centuries, being too much mage and not enough demon. I would destroy them all.

  A voice boomed. “Stand back from the doors.”

  Like that’s going to work.

  When they banged open, ten Saremon grunts awaited me. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find me for the dark fog filling the corridor with every step I took. I laughed softly, seductively, and they spun. I whispered and trailed another spell into the air as gracefully as if I had been born for this moment.

  The mania set in at once. One guard grabbed another, and the second retaliated. They swung their weapons in a blood-frenzied madness. I picked a path through the carnage like the ballerina of death, and then paused on the other side to watch. Perfect. They fought until one by one, they all hit the ground. Smiling, I twirled my broken spear and retraced my steps toward the cell where they’d put my people.

  Darkness drifted in my wake as the spell died away. Footsteps pounded the halls, but they came from some distance away, guards from the other entrance. It would be too late for them to catch me and once I had reinforcements, we would level this place. There would be nothing left of the Saremon caste when I finished here. For good reason, they’d feared my coming, but when they interfered with my destiny and harmed one of my blood, they sealed their fate. Excitement quickened my steps. The sooner I released Chance and Greydusk, the sooner my vengeance could begin.

  I passed a number of cells; some held occupants. With a flick of my wrist, I called the sleepy demon magick that sang in my ears like ocean. It was…lovely. For the first time in my life, I felt whole. The darklight drifted into the locks and turned the tumblers. Beautiful sound, freedom. The doors popped open and the prisoners of the Saremon stepped out into the hallways, some injured, some fearful, others bristling with wrath. As one, they stopped. Stared. And they fell to their knees en masse. It was good they recognized me, for I had been gone a long while.

  “You know me?” I said.

  “Yes, my queen.” The awed chorus sent a pleased shiver down my spine.

  “You have my leave to demolish this place. Your enemy is the Saremon. Their whole caste has become Xaraz.” In those words, I exiled the mages of Saremon, stripped them of rights and rank. Henceforth, they would be reviled and driven beyond the Vortex to cower in the shantytown with the other wretches. “Kill as many as you please, so long as they are Saremon. Touch no others inside these walls. If they are not Saremon, they belong to me.”

  The assembled host whispered, reverently, “Yes, my queen.”

  “Afterward, carry the message to the rest of Xibalba that I am ascended. Go. Do my will.”

  And they did.

  I continued down the hall to where they had confined Chance and Greydusk. The door stood open, but they did not emerge. If Oz had kept his word, they had not been tampered with, which meant they were still bound. I stepped into the cell.

  “You’re alive,” Chance breathed. And then he froze, cocking his head. Sorrow surged from him in a tangible wave, so thick I could taste it. “You—you’re—”

  “My queen,” Greydusk supplied in an awed whisper.

  I inclined my head. It was not the time to talk about such things. I knelt and cut their bonds. With a whispered command, I made the dampener drop off the Imaron’s wrist. The demon rubbed his arm in quiet gratitude.

  “We should get the hell out of here,” Chance said, low.

  I smiled. “After.” He cut me a sharp look, and the echo of the human woman I had been stayed my hand. When I said, some of you, some of me, I hadn’t told her that as the stronger, older personality, my will would often be dominant. She wasn’t destroyed in our merger, but it would take her a long time to fight back to the surface again, apart from the occasional impulse.

  “I must burn their stink from my city, First,” I went on.

  “First? Why’re you calling me that?”

  “First male,” Greydusk explained.
“You’re her consort. Be honored that she explained herself this once and did not take your head for the insolence. She is…not the woman you knew.”

  Chance swallowed and then nodded. His silence hurt me because it cradled heartbreak in its depths, but beneath my need for retribution, it was a distant pain, a torch flickering in gale-force winds. With a practiced gesture, I called them to battle, and the males flanked me. I handed my makeshift weapon to Chance, still slick with demon blood, and he stared at the evidence of my conquest with a set expression.

  “It was my first kill upon coming home,” I said dreamily. “I shall have that blade set in a proper haft when we finish here.”

  Neither of them spoke. There was nothing they could add.

  The hallway was dark and quiet; my minions had gone to do to my bidding with flattering alacrity. It wasn’t in delight at my return, however. Some of them were merely angry at the Saremon and wanted to make them bleed. So long as they touched nothing I had claimed for my own, the arrangement worked to our mutual benefit.

  “We need to find our belongings and then my father,” I said.

  Those words sounded odd to my ears. Part of me scoffed at the idea of a human male siring any creature so glorious as myself, but I could not permit anyone else to use him as Oz had done. Harm done against my blood was the same as injury to myself, and if I could not defend my line, then I deserved the damage.

  “Can you find the creature you call Butch?” Greydusk asked.

  It was an excellent suggestion; the Saremon compound had protections in place to prevent interference from the Vortex, and I was familiar enough with the dog’s life energies that I could easily seek for him. If they had left him with our things, then it would be a two-for-one solution. Closing my eyes, I built the animal in my mind’s eye, and then coiled the dark energy around the image. I whispered the right words in demontongue and then set the spell free. It soared from my brow like a raven, dipping and swooping on the shadows, rebounding off the walls, and then flitting almost out of sight. Belatedly, I signaled them to move and I ran.

  The spell tried on several occasions to pass through solid walls, only to be stymied by various runes. They sparked in warning and the air stank of fresh lightning where the light died. Those moments gave me a chance to catch up and to find more passages where we could turn. This chase culminated at a storage closet near the front of the building. From inside, as we approached, came the frantic yapping of a confined animal.

  Still alive. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why this filled me with ambivalence. Part of me wished the creature to the pit, and the other half felt suffused in ridiculous, impossible joy. I ignored the schizophrenic reaction as I popped the lock with a burst of magick.

  Butch lunged out the door at me, growling, but his tail started to wag, and then he drew up short. His barks grew more hysterical when he sniffed at me, and then he scrambled away toward Chance, who picked him up without a word. With graceful hands, he soothed the small creature, and I spared a thought for how lovely it would be to recline in his arms later and receive that same treatment.

  But first we had work to do.

  “Greydusk, our bags.”

  The demon complied with a small sound. He radiated pleasure, as if he had been waiting a lifetime to hear my commands. And the Imaron was, unquestionably, male—one with submissive tendencies, which made him an ideal servant. I wondered why I hadn’t been sure of that before; it seemed so obvious now.

  I reclaimed my athame. The demon slung one bag over his shoulder, the colorful one that belonged to the girl I’d come to save. At the moment, I didn’t remember why I had been so alarmed at finding that she’d been taken to Sheol. My home was no more dangerous than the human realm, and even less so for the queen’s companions. Here, she would be well. Safe. Protected. Yet the same lesson must be taught to those who had stolen her. The Drinkers would be humbled too.

  Chance took the other bag and stashed the dog in it. I was pleased he’d taken charge without being asked. As first male, it was his role to find ways to satisfy my needs, whatever they might be. This was a good start.

  As I closed the closet door, shouts came from down the hall. Chance pulled his gloves from the bag and donned them, then he handed me back the broken spear. “This is yours,” he said softly.

  I nodded.

  Greydusk took a defensive position on my other side. As soon as I saw the enemy coming, I crooned their death in demontongue. The magick flowed in me like blood. I could pull it from the endless flowing river of energy beneath our feet. Here in their stronghold, the Saremon had done something impossible…and clever. They were leaching power from the Vortex and had built up a private supply that flooded the foundation itself. The rock had channels cut into it with microscopic precision, so when I gazed into the astral, I saw the dark tracery swimming through the stone.

  This time Oz had sent more grunts to kill us…or capture us. Twenty, instead of ten. Unfortunately, they were low-ranking Saremon, so they didn’t have much magick. The leaders, like Oz, kept them stupid and feeble, good for nothing but frontline fodder. I watched them struggle for minor charms and fail to connect to the energy surging beneath our feet.

  This will be…delightful.

  “Kill them all,” I said softly.

  Chance whispered and flames formed around his fists. Greydusk shifted forms, as he had done in another fight, and whirled into motion with threshing claws. My consort stayed clear, and with each blow, he set the Saremon soldiers alight. They screamed and slapped at their own clothing, their skin, and in their distraction, Greydusk gutted them. It shouldn’t have been such a slaughter.

  When there were twenty corpses, I stepped lightly through the pile. “Where do you suppose they’re keeping my father?”

  Greydusk considered. “Hard to say. Oz said they had been experimenting on him, so the labs would seem an obvious place to start.” He paused, as if weighing whether to warn me. “They’ll send spell casters from this point.”

  “I am aware.”

  “We’ll kill them even quicker,” Chance said.

  “You are worthy.” Surprised and pleased, I leaned over to kiss him. He must know how favored that made him, for me to show affection before witnesses. The queens of Sheol had never been known for their softness.

  In another part of the complex, the released prisoners were rioting; they would thin the resistance we faced. Distant noises hinted at marvelous destruction—booms and thumps and shudders and the faint, delicate scent of smoke. Perfection.

  “I’m surprised they let you fight,” he said as we pushed deeper into the compound. “I mean, you’re such a powerful sorceress that they should have suspected it would be hard to restrain you afterward.”

  “I suspect Oz didn’t know I could tap their secret well. He imagined I would be spent after the battle and subduing me would prove no challenge.”

  “Secret well?” Greydusk asked.

  Which answered my next question. The Imaron couldn’t sense it, apparently. “Tell me about the Saremon,” I ordered.

  “They’re descended from Solomon’s line, as you are, Your Majesty, through scions who interbred with demons. In time, they organized sufficiently to form their own caste. They focus on events in Sheol over the human realm and are concerned with increasing their own arcane powers. They maintain an occult library which is the envy of the other castes.”

  I thought about that. “That’s probably why I can sense their source.”

  “And I cannot.”

  After that, I fell silent. At length, I passed from the arena complex into the main compound, where the sounds of fighting became sharper. I joined the battle from the flank, throwing another cloud of chaos at my enemies with a whispered shaping in demontongue. The darkness drifted and maddened everyone it touched. They fought like wild things, screaming as they died, then Greydusk and Chance whirled into the fray like twin dervishes, born for death.

  When the screaming stopped, four sla
ves were still standing. “Go,” I told them. “Spread the word of my coming.”

  Though one was too injured to walk, the demon pulled itself along at a crawl, leaving smears of blood on the ornate tile. The other three ran toward the doors at the other side of the courtyard. I watched their obedience for a few seconds more and then turned toward the broken doors that led into the compound proper. The Saremon had guarded the egress to the best of their abilities, but it had been insufficient.

  Instead, I found more wreckage. It was sad that the angry captives had been so thorough; there was little left for us to kill. But they’d had my permission, and so I swallowed the tang of disappointment and pushed on. They wouldn’t have gotten to the most powerful mages; those would be holed up somewhere, seeking a spell strong enough to kill the queen.

  I went room by room, clearing each. A couple of times, we killed survivors who had hidden from the fight. Their cowardice did not earn them mercy. There was none for what their leaders had done. Should any Saremon be outside the caste compound on the day of reckoning, they would be sent from the city to shelter among the Xaraz, whose ranks they joined when they moved against me. A whisper in my head said it wasn’t fair to judge everyone the same way for the actions of a few, but I banished it like a buzzing insect.

  At no point in my long and storied reign had I ever cared about “fair.”

  Several rooms smoldered as I passed through, the result of spells gone awry, I guessed, before the mages went into hiding. As if that can save them.

  Eventually I came to a tall, imposing door that didn’t open. I opened my gaze to the astral and examined the runes etched over it; the wards sealed it against all comers. Nobody was meant to get inside. Which only increased my desire to see what the Saremon prized so highly.

  “This is the entrance to the library,” Greydusk said. “I have been here for research a few times.”

  “Excellent. Stand back.”

  The two males did as I requested, and I found the source running beneath my feet, boiling the rock. With a mental touch, I stole the magick in a smooth, sweet rush. Part of me realized, somewhat belatedly, that it didn’t hurt anymore, but instead of being relieved and thankful, that portion of my soul wept as if it had lost something precious. I ignored it; that was weak and would distract from my mission.