Son of hell: Blood of wolves

by Michaela Burdová

  Aragen inhaled sharply and congratulated herself. She had him in her pocket.

  "Well, you thought wrong. You can´t get rid of me," she whispered.

  The demon turned to her. "I'll find a way."

  "You can try," she smiled and the demon vanished.

  * * *

  Neran ran a few miles. When he felt that he could go no further, he paused. They found themselves in a different forest. This one was a pine forest. He recognized the place. The border was close.Soon, they would be back in the Ariellan Forest.

  He rested his hands on his knees to briefly catch his breath. He had never run that far in such a short time. His calves ached horribly. It was only then that he noticed that his wounds had not had enough time to heal.

  Liadel stood beside him and looked at her hands. One of them was still slightly bleeding. Then she looked at her shoulder. The infection was gone. "We’ve escaped," she whispered, as if only just realizing the fact.

  Neran straightened up. "Yeah, we have. I honestly thought we were done for."

  "Yes," she agreed. "I had come to terms with my death."

  "A little premature, don’t you think?" he sneered and took a step towards her. "Show me," he said brushing her clothes off her shoulder. He raised his eyebrows. "Not a scratch." He could not help himself and gently brushed his thumb over her skin. Liadel looked at him.

  "You could have left me there, Neran. You didn´t have to risk your life to rescue me. I am grateful you did."

  "You weren´t supposed to know. I thought you were unconscious."

  Liadel smiled. "I'm serious. I appreciate it."

  "Whatever. When you almost died, I sort of forgave you your lies."

  "I´ve never lied. I’ve only guarded my secrets."

  "That could have saved me a few problems, but never mind, right?" he quipped.

  "I thought you had forgiven me," she smiled innocently. "And ... I have something that might help you."

  Neran raised one eyebrow. "No kidding! What?"

  "I'm very sorry that the last Étarlina flower was destroyed," Liadel began seriously. "I know how much it meant to you."

  Neran’s heart ached. In all the confusion he had had no time to really curse the fact. Now he would have to figure out what to do next.

  "That's why you may be pleased to know," Liadel continued, "that I managed to salvage something."

  Liadel took her medallion and opened it. A few drops of dew glittered in it. Neran couldn´t believe his eyes, it was surely a dream. The drops were neither dew nor water.

  "Are they really...?"

  Liadel nodded her head in agreement. "I managed to salvage a few drops, so let’s hope that it will be enough for your brother."

  Neran watched Liadel close the medallion gently and then took her in his arms. Full of joy, he lifted her in the air and put her back on her feet. "You're unbelievable," he sighed. The unexpected gesture took Liadel by surprise.

  "I hope that they´re safe in your medallion," Neran remarked immediately.

  "More than you know."

  Neran felt as if a big load had fallen off his shoulders. He had finally made it ... In fact, Liadel had made it. Thanks to her, Gerrat had a chance.

  Then something strange happened. The thoughts of his brother and everything they had experienced together made him suddenly feel uncomfortable and he felt a pang in his stomach. It dawned on him that he was no longer so sure about his goal. Maybe, the wild and carefree life with his brother was not what he really wanted any more.

  The thought alone scared him and he swept it immediately away. His single life had for many years been the only thing that had made sense.

  "What happened there..." he said, returning to the chaos from which they had escaped. "You could say that the demon sort of rescued you. Of course without me, you would have been dead long ago."

  Liadel grimaced. "Of course."

  "I hope he didn’t kill Aragen. I would like to have the pleasure of doing that myself."

  "I don’t think he can kill her," Liadel said hesitantly. "The two of us ... are connected, Neran. I'm afraid that if he killed her, he would kill me too, and vice versa."

  The horrifying reality suddenly struck home. "Are you telling me that ... you mean ... I can´t kill her?"

  There was silence. Neran could not and did not want to comprehend the situation. Killing Aragen had been one of his main motivations. He simply couldn´t accept the fact that he couldn’t tear her head off, without killing Liadel. There had to be a way. He was convinced of it.

  "Neran? What happened between you?" Liadel asked suddenly. "What happened with your brother?"

  Neran looked away. He did not want to answer. Suddenly he froze.

  He smelled that familiar stench. The thick, choking whiff of rotten air, raw and pungent. A black swirl,quivering like a swarm of flies,rippled through the trees and cut through the night. It inhaled the air as if it was nourishment and turned into a giant billowing black silhouette.

  Neran instinctively reached for his sword. Unfortunately, he had forgotten that the darkwolves had disarmed him. Do I have to lose every sword given to me by the elven rulers?

  The demon took on a material form and ran unexpectedly fast directly towards them. Neran threw himself at it, but at that moment the matter turned into smoke and Neran leapt straight through it. He did not manage to turn quickly enough around before the demon had transformed himself into a human figure. He grabbed Neran by the neck and yanked.

  Neran´s spine snapped and his thread of consciousness broke.

  Death was swift.

  Liadel cried out. Her heart nearly stopped and she was overwhelmed by a chill. She felt the taste of evil on her tongue. It tickled her nose and entered her throat. She became dizzy, but was able to contain herself. She wanted to bend down to Neran, but the Twelfth stood in front of her and she knew that she had to remain vigilant. Neran’s body lay motionless, with no signs of life.

  He broke his neck, kept going through Liadel’s head. She could not collect herself.

  The man draped in black robes approached her. She held her breath and looked away from Neran. Ancient memories bombarded and tortured her newly reborn soul.

  The man took off his hood. His face was exactly the same as she remembered it. It was captivating, expressive, not beautiful but beguiling. He had sharp features, high cheekbones, a long nose, stubble beard, and his eyes ... They were a pale green, bordered by a dark blue stripe, with wide pupils. His raven-black hair, stuck to the sides of his skull, was carelessly indifferent to any trim.

  "Liadalla," the man purred, his beguiling eyes gleaming wistfully. "At long last."

  Liadel just stared at him. She felt a chill in her heart.It numbed her and left her without any emotion.

  "Is it possible?" the man continued with a soft, pleasant voice, while his eyes eagerly roamed over her body as if inspecting new prey. Then he stretched out his hand. "Let’s go."

  She looked at his long, slender fingers. "I'm different, now, Gariel."

  He let his hand fall to his side. He frowned slightly and a small wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows. She remembered it. He looked youthful, but his age was close to hers. "I know. They´ve ruined you. Never mind, we can fix it."

  Liadel´s heart began pounding. "Have you been looking for me?"

  "Eagerly. Our time has come, Liadalla."

  "Together…"

  Again he stretched out his arm towards her and opened his hand. His eyes flashed. "Come with me. We’ll set them free."

  Liadel hesitated.

  Chapter 18

  Memories

  Centuries-old memories flashed before her eyes. They were memories of times when she was still innocent, when she first tasted pure darkness. Things had happened so fast after that. The evil that she still felt in her blood. Love. Love in its perverted form, such that only a dark being is capable of if it still has a soul. Then, she was unable to feel anything. Not even Gariel was capable of that any more. She no
w looked into his eyes and saw the same man whom she had loved in a way, long ago, in another life.

  "Come on," he beckoned her again with his hand outstretched, his open hand waiting for hers. There was a time when she would not have hesitated. There was a time when she would have surrendered and let him lead. Not today... She had received a great gift, her soul. She knew that she would not trade it for anything.

  "No," she replied with a tough and indomitable look. "I'm not going back, Gariel. Never, ever."

  His hand slowly dropped, but his smile did not disappear. He still had allure, he could capture any woman he wanted without any qualms, but Liadel was immune to his charms.

  "Don’t you understand, silly?" he said gently. "There is no going back. Do you think that you’ve bettered yourself? That you have become an elven again? That you are alive once again? It isn’t so. You're still one of us. Your material form will not change it. Your power is still inside you, but it is restricted by one annoying, useless thing." He smiled, but then his lips curled into an angry grimace. "Your soul."

  Liadel backed away. "You will not take it away from me. It´s not possible. It was a gift from the Gods."

  The Twelfth Demon burst into laughter. "I am more than any God!"

  "I can see that you're even more arrogant than I remember you were," Liadel said coldly. Gariel went silent and his face twitched.

  "Your tongue is just as nimble as ever too. You're much more beautiful..." he approached her and Liadel backed away again. "You’ve gained an enormous power, Liadalla. An incredible one ... one about which each of us could only dream of. It wasn´t enough for you that you were already superior to all of us. You had to have more of it. You’ve never settled for anything less. Now you've become this. It's the soul ... But I'll help you, I will save you, my love. I promise."

  "I don’t need to be saved," she snapped. "I've been saved already."

  "That's enough!" he barked suddenly so that she jumped with fright. For the first time, she felt real fear. For the first time, she was below him. She trembled in front of his burning gaze and looked for a place to run. There was none. Even if there had been, she could not have hidden to escape from him. They were in the middle of the forest and the darkness was slowly engulfing them.

  Liadel frantically thought about how to get out of the mess. Everything had become so much more complicated, confusing, and slower ever since she had become a mortal being again.

  She slammed into a tree with her back. She had not been aware that she had continued to back away from him. Gariel smirked like a predator about to strangle its victim. "I hope you don’t want to run away from me, Liadalla? Especially after such a long separation?"

  "What are you going to do about it, Gariel? Do you want to lock me up forever just to look at me?"

  "No. You will be with me until I find a way how to rip the abomination out of your chest and then together we´ll set our brothers free."

  "Forget it," she cried out. She picked up a small stone from the ground and struck the demon’s head with it. Gariel did not move, but a bloody imprint stained the stone. A crimson trickle ran down from his temple, but the wound healed instantly.

  "What was that for, Liadalla? You know that something like that can´t stop me."

  "I know," she replied, drawing a silver dagger. "But this can." She brushed her clothes off her shoulder and cut her skin where her heart was beating. Her blood mixed with the blood on the stone. Gariel's eyes widened. "NO!"

  "Eka sa anto!" Liadel shouted. There was an instantaneous flash of white light. She blinked twice to re-focus her eyes and ... the Twelfth Demon was gone.

  She dropped the stone to the ground and leaned back against the tree trunk, exhausted and relieved. She caught her breath and inspected the wound. The skin on her chest was burning and the wound was still bleeding, but it was nothing serious.

  It had worked. She knew that she had not got rid of Gariel permanently, but at least she had managed to send him far enough away for a while. It would take him some time to find her again. It was the only thing that worked with demons. Magic that worked just among them.

  Liadel rushed over to Neran. He lay on his stomach. When she had managed to flip him onto his back, she was appalled at his stupor. She placed her finger onto his carotid artery, searching for a pulse.

  Her whole world then turned upside down.

  By all the Gods, he was dead.

  Gone.

  It made her sick. An icy hand grasped her heart. She did not want to believe it. He couldn´t be dead, he just couldn’t!

  In desperation and hopelessness, she shook him as if trying to wake him up.

  "Neran!"

  Her eyes were full of tears. Panic slowly and cruelly took over her.

  Suddenly, Neran opened his eyes and briskly sat up, convulsively sucking air into his lungs.

  Liadel jumped away from him, trembling with shock. What just happened? How is it possible?

  Neran was as pale as a corpse. His chest continued to heave violently. He looked around cautiously. "Where is he?" he uttered.

  Liadel could not take her eyes off him. How long had it been since she had felt such fear? When was the last time that her heart had nearly stopped beating for somebody? When was the last time she had been so overcome and cried about someone? When was the last time she had felt that her soul had been torn to pieces? How long had it been?

  "He’s gone," she gulped. "He killed you, Neran."

  Neran touched his neck. "The bone has already grown back into one piece. He broke my neck, the bastard."

  Liadel stared at him in disbelief. "Not even a spinal fracture can kill you?"

  "No, only silver can, my dear, only silver. How many times do I have to tell you?"

  Liadel frowned. "Sorry, but I saw you die! Seriously, it didn’t occur to me that..."

  Neran understood. "You worried about me!"

  Liadel felt heat rising in her cheeks, but she quickly hid her feelings. She put on an icy look. "I was just accepting your death."

  "Sure," Neran grinned. "You were afraid for me. You care for me, don’t you?"

  Liadel got up. "As usual, you are overly pretentious, werewolf!"

  Neran got up, continuing to smile as he did so. "If you say so." He looked around again. The pale light of dawn had begun to appear among the trees."How did you manage to get rid of him?"

  "I know one way."

  "What did he want? Did he harm you?"

  "No, he doesn’t want to hurt me, Neran. Have you forgotten? He needs my help to set the other demons free."

  Neran thought about her words and for the first time understood that the situation was much more serious than he had initially realised. He had foolishly thought he could simply stop the Twelfth. If he couldn´t, Liadel was in real danger. The demon would definitely come after her.

  "We’ll go to the dwarves," he said suddenly. Liadel was surprised.

  "A friend of mine, a dwarf, is guarding my brother. There is also a legend…."

  Liadel raised her eyebrows. "Do you mean the legend about the Mountain Gods?"

  "Yes. According to the legend, the Mountain Gods descended from the souls of the first dwarves. They fiercely and indomitably guarded their mountains, especially the treasures hidden within them, until they died of exhaustion in the mountain mines. They became Gods of the Mountains and legend has it that the remnants of their power still hangs over and protects the Dwarf Kingdom."

  "The legend is ancient, Neran," Liadel maintained. "Actually, it's more like a fairy tale."

  "Maybe not. If you think that your elven deities exist, why couldn´t dwarf deities exist?"

  "I'm not saying that they don’t exist, but I just don´t believe the story about..."

  "You mean the power of the Gods to protect their own people? Why not?" he shrugged. "Think of it as a little ray of hope. Anyway, you have to accompany me there because your task isn´t over yet."

  "Why do you have to always remind me about your superior
ity?" she objected, but set out on the journey with him anyway.

  They spent most of the next day in silence, both absorbed in their own thoughts. They had no more food, so Neran caught a rabbit at night despite Liadel’s warning that the Hunting Day had not yet come. She herself collected only berries, but found barely a handful of them.

  In the evening of the next day, they crossed the border into the Arnnolen Kingdom. Neran took the lead, their goal being one of the three bridges leading out of Arnnolen to the Dwarf Kingdom of Kiantel. The two countries were separated from each other by the mighty River Syren.

  It was the largest river in all of Vellwetia, wide, calm and translucent like a huge lake. It was named after mysterious creatures called Sirens. According to local myth, they were notorious for their singing. The Sirens would lure men to accompany them to father children and then they would suck out their blood. It was said that the Sirens lived in the river, near the rocky shores, but that they went hunting in the depths. Some people confused them with mermaids, while others argued that they were merely similar.

  Neran had never had anything to do with the Sirens. He just remembered the stories he had heard from sailors in taverns. The River Syren served as a trade route from Arnnolen to the Northern Seas, from where one could sail to the Kingdom of Erinol. Sailors told of the special, wonderful sounds that drifted through the nights and about beautiful, drowning women. When the sailors rescued them, the women would seduce them and try to throw them overboard and drown them.

  Along the way, they stopped in a village to buy food for the journey. Neran needed a new sword, but none of the work of the local blacksmiths or armourers appealed to him enough.

  They soon came down from the hills and walked along the banks of the River Syren. Darkness fell slowly like a veil. The river actually looked like a large lake, its surface reflecting the metal darkness of the night sky. It was said that hanging around the river at night was not a good idea, so Neran led Liadel away towards the surrounding grassy hillsides, where they set up camp.