The Rise of the Demon Prince

by Robert Kroese

  We went down a long, narrow stone passageway and stopped at a door. He opened it to reveal a small, modestly appointed bedroom. The sight of an actual bed nearly brought me to tears. Domokos asked if I would like him to light the candle that rested on a small table near the bed, but I shook my head. I slumped onto the bed, barely able to keep my eyes open.

  “Good,” he said. “I know what you must do, but you should sleep first. You will need your strength. He may be the only ally we have, but he is not to be trusted.”

  I nodded. Domokos bid me goodnight and left the room, closing the door behind him. I took off my boots and lay down. Domokos was right: Eben was not to be trusted. On the other hand, I had no firm reason to believe Domokos could be trusted either. I wondered if he had urged me not to go to Veszedelem tonight so that Eben could not warn me of some threat. Should I have told Eben I planned to go to Magas Komaron? Who was the greater danger? Eben or Domokos? And how did Bolond, who seemed to have manipulated me into coming here, fit into all of this? Not knowing whom to trust was exhausting.

  I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

  Chapter Eight

  I slept until mid-morning. Sunlight filtered through slats in a small window over my bed. The rain had stopped during the night, but the wind continued. The temperature had dropped significantly; cold air wafted down from the window. I heard voices echoing down the hall: Vili and Rodric, laughing and joking. All seemed to be well; at the very least, none of us had been murdered in our sleep.

  I got to my feet and stretched, chasing the fog of sleep from my mind. Then I sat down on the bed, used my knife to cut a small laceration in my thumb, and then sent my consciousness to the shadow world.

  Once again, I arrived on the plain, in the exact spot where I always did. By this time, the process of getting into Sotetseg was routine: run toward the keep, drops of blood creating a path of “realness” across the dismal plain. Put my hand in the impression to open the door; do the same on the other side to close it. Run up the stairs and command the watchman to open the door. I found myself wondering if the watchman was Lorenz, the sorcerer who had betrayed Bolond. There was no way to know for certain, and the matter was of academic concern. I had more urgent matters to contend with.

  I ran across the fog bridge and made my way into the depths of the keep. I’d learned that there were several ways to the chamber where I was to meet Eben; not wishing to meet any of the other inhabitants of the keep, I stopped periodically to listen for footsteps or voices, altering my route to avoid any demons lurking nearby.

  I reached the chamber and rang the bell Eben had left for me. This time, he appeared within a few minutes. “Where have you been?” he demanded.

  “I came here twice a few days ago, but you did not respond to the bell.”

  “I was occupied for some time with some tasks for Szarvas Gyerek. More than a year has passed since then. We are running out of time if I am to teach you what you must need to know to defeat Voros Korom.”

  “More than you know,” I said. “I am at Magas Komaron.”

  Eben’s eyes went wide. “Fool!” he spat. “He will arrive in… what? Days?”

  “The full moon is tonight,” I said. “We have about eight hours until nightfall. A little over a month, as time is reckoned here.”

  Eben shook his head. “No, it is not enough time. You do not have the strength to remain here for more than a few hours at a time. Have you not noticed how this place saps your energy? It is only by the power in your blood that you can remain here at all. How much blood do you think you can afford to lose before facing Voros Korom?”

  He was right: every time I went to Veszedelem, I had to reopen the wound on my hand to produce a slow drip of blood that allowed me to move freely through the shadow world. I was still not fully recovered from my fight with Radovan; if I lost another pint of blood I would be worthless.

  “Then we’d better get started,” I said. “Teach me what you can in an hour.”

  “An hour! The fool wishes to learn the secrets of sorcery in an hour! No. It would be futile. You must run. Leave Varastis and his followers to defend Magas Komaron.”

  “Would it not be preferable to face Voros Korom in a place like Magas Komaron? If we fight him in Nagyvaros, hundreds—perhaps thousands—will die. Even if we can somehow defeat him, our losses will be severe. Do you not wish to save the city?”

  “It cannot be helped. Varastis and his followers will not be able to kill Voros Korom at Magas Komaron. Perhaps with your warning they will have a chance of survival, but I doubt it. If we are to have any hope of saving the city, you must return there at once.”

  “Varastis is a powerful sorcerer,” I said. “And many of his followers are formidable as well.” I had determined there was little to be gained by telling Eben that Varastis was dead.

  “Varastis is a scholar,” Eben said with a sneer. “A theoretician. If you wish to hear a lecture on the relation of the passage of time to the flow of tvari toward the void, there is probably no better teacher. But unless he has shifted the direction of his studies over the past few years, he will be no match for Voros Korom. His students even less so. Flee while you can.”

  “Surely there is no harm in at least telling me how you expect me to defeat Voros Korom? You will have to tell me eventually. Perhaps I can pass some information on to Varastis—unless you are so afraid of a ‘theoretician’ that you dare not reveal to him your secrets.”

  Eben snorted. “Varastis has been an annoyance to me, no more. Nothing I tell you will enable him to defeat Voros Korom. But very well. I will give you your first lesson. Do you know anything of the substance called tvari?”

  “Varastis told me something about it,” I lied.

  “All magic relies on the manipulation of tvari. Because tvari is the energy that underlies the existence of all the worlds, it can be used to travel between worlds. Because it is the substance that gives all things their reality, it can be used to alter reality itself, although doing so is beyond the power of all but the greatest sorcerers. Most practitioners of magic employ simpler methods: by exploiting the variation of tvari in different worlds, they open channels through which energy—and sometimes beings—can move. A sorcerer does this by using the tvari in his own body as a sort of lever. Through years of training and meditation, a sorcerer gradually changes the nature of his own body, allowing it to channel more tvari, which gives him a bigger lever with which to manipulate tvari. In a powerful sorcerer, the change may eventually manifest itself in visible alterations of his appearance.”

  “Ah yes, your gift to me. The markings that disfigure my face.”

  “Indeed. If you knew what it cost me to acquire, you would not be so flippant about it. It represents hundreds of years of work learning to harness tvari. You skipped over that part entirely. You have the power but no idea how to use it.”

  “That is no fault of mine. In any case, I fail to see how any of this is going to help me defeat Voros Korom.”

  “Of course not. That is my point. You understand nothing. You are as likely to kill yourself or one of your friends as you are to do any harm to Voros Korom.”

  “Very well. Teach me.”

  “There are many ways to use tvari, many different schools of magic. There are also many different sources of tvari—different realms from which tvari can be drawn. Very few have the power to draw from Veszedelem. In your world these men are called warlocks.

  “A warlock can travel to Veszedelem at will. The simplest sort of magic a warlock can perform is to open a temporary gateway between the two worlds, allowing a demon to pass from Veszedelem to his own world. This is a simple matter of making a bargain with the demon. Most demons are desperate, stupid creatures, and they can be bribed with a small amount of a sorcerer’s blood, which holds great power in Veszedelem. This sort of arrangement carries risks, however, as you are well aware. If you are not familiar with the ancient accords that bind the demons in Orszag, you may well end up paying more dearly
than you imagined.” I nodded silently. It was just this sort of bargain that had gotten me into my current predicament. “And if you are fool enough to make a bargain with one of the demons outside the keep, you deserve the consequences you will suffer.”

  “Is there any demon who can stand against Voros Korom?” I asked. “What about Szarvas Gyerek?”

  Eben laughed. “Szarvas Gyerek is far from the most powerful demon in Sotetseg, although his position has improved somewhat since I took charge of his affairs. No, the only demon who might be able to defeat Voros Korom is Arnyek himself, and attempting to summon Arnyek would be like trying to put a leash on a hurricane. Even if there were a demon inside Sotetseg who could stand against Voros Korom, neither of us has anything to offer such a demon that would make it willing to take the risk. No, I’m afraid you will have to face Voros Korom without the help of any other demons.”

  “How can we possibly defeat him, even at Nagyvaros, if he is as powerful as you say?”

  “You must take advantage of his weakness. You cannot harm the wraiths, but their attacks will be uncoordinated. They will swarm around Voros Korom, killing at random. You may be tempted to try to save people from them, but you must not. Their inability to distinguish between civilians and soldiers is one of the few advantages you have. This is why I urge you to face him at Nagyvaros. In any case, avoid the wraiths and focus your attacks on Voros Korom. Voros Korom can shift almost instantaneously between your world and Veszedelem, allowing him to evade arrow and other attacks. You must attack him with something that can follow him through this transition.”

  “Like what?”

  “It is possible to draw an amount of tvari from Veszedelem and imbue it with some of your own will. Do you remember how I blocked the door in the alley when we first met?”

  As if I could forget anything from that day. Eben had burst from the rear door of the Lazy Crow, holding a knife to Beata’s throat. The gendarmes could not follow because of a spidery creature that held the door shut. I suspected it was the same sort of creatures that had killed Varastis and his followers. “Of course.”

  “Such creatures are called kovets. They are not truly alive, but simply globs of a shadowy substance drawn from Veszedelem and animated by tvari. A kovet has no will of its own, but a sorcerer can imbue it with some of his own will, in order to accomplish some task. Kovets can take any form, but they most commonly look like snakes or giant spiders. They only have as much energy as the sorcerer invests tvari; usually they dissipate after a few minutes. While they are manifest, though, they are incredibly powerful. Perhaps even powerful enough to bind a demon like Voros Korom, at least for a short time.”

  “Bind him? What good will that do?”

  “It will hinder his movement. He will still be able to shift between worlds, but he will not be able to avoid attacks as easily as while he is in your world. And he must continually return to your world, or the wraiths will die. If your comrades keep up their attacks while you have him immobilized, you may be able to defeat him.”

  “It doesn’t sound like much of a plan.”

  “It is the best option we have. Hold off the wraiths, pin down Voros Korom, and attack him with all you have.”

  “These kovets,” I said. “They do what the sorcerer wishes, like puppets?”

  “No. They are autonomous beings. The sorcerer imbues them with some of his own will and the lets them loose. Once he does that, he has no more power over them than a man does over his grown children. Less, because you can’t reason with a kovet. It has no real intelligence or sense. It simply has a goal and some rudimentary inklings about how to achieve that goal. A kovet cannot be recalled and can only be destroyed with great difficulty. Once it has been loosed, it will pursue its goal relentlessly.”

  “How does it know what its goal is?”

  “When you summon it—or, more precisely, call it into being—you must focus your will on it. It requires great mental discipline to summon a kovet. If you allow your mind to wander, the kovet will become confused and conflicted. Its behavior will be unpredictable. Not a few sorcerers have been murdered by their own kovets.”

  “And how would I learn this discipline?”

  “Time. You would start by summoning a very small kovet and assigning it some minor task. Even a kovet the size of a mouse can kill you, so you must be very, very careful. Ordinarily, it takes years to master the skill. If you are particularly strong-willed and single-minded, you might gain a rudimentary command of the ability in a month. In a day? Impossible.”

  “And there is no other way to defeat Voros Korom?”

  “None that I am aware of. There are many other ways to channel tvari, but none of them as effective as a kovet, and many of them are even more dangerous. My suggestion would be that you leave Magas Komaron immediately. Go to Nagyvaros and gather as many allies as you can. Fighting men who are skilled with the bow or spear. Appeal to the Governor himself, if you think you can do so without being thrown into Nincs Varazslat again. By this time the Governor may have heard of the march of Voros Korom across the plain, and he might be willing to assist you. Then you must spend as much time as possible attempting to learn how to summon a kovet. Return here for guidance as you need it. Now I’m afraid I must get back to Szarvas Gyerek before he becomes suspicious.”

  “That’s it? You’re not going to explain how to summon a kovet?”

  “I just did.”

  “You said I must channel tvari, using my body as a lever. I don’t have the faintest clue what that means.”

  “Nor will you, until you do it. Good luck.”

  Chapter Nine

  I met the others in the room where we had talked the previous night. Domokos offered me some soup and I accepted; it seemed to be the only thing in the castle to eat. The others talked about nothing of consequence while I ate. Domokos told Vili stories of about the history of Nagyvaros while Rodric and Ilona chatted quietly at the far end of the table. When I finished eating, I asked for their attention.

  “We have a decision to make,” I said. “Tonight, Voros Korom will come with his horde. We came here to warn Varastis and his followers of the threat, and to ask for their help in defeating the demon, but we found only one survivor, who, by his own admission, is not up to the task of facing Voros Korom. I have just spoken to Eben in the hopes of learning something that might give us a chance at victory in this battle, but he was of little help. Eben urged us to flee Magas Komaron and prepare to meet Voros Korom at Nagyvaros, and I am afraid I must agree with him. We don’t stand a chance against Voros Korom and his horde if we stay here.”

  The others were silent. For some time, the only sound was the howl of the wind outside. At last, Rodric spoke.

  “We don’t disagree, Konrad,” Rodric said, “but there is a factor you’ve not taken into account.”

  I frowned. Clearly they had already discussed the matter while I’d slept. “What is it?” I asked.

  “Come,” said Domokos. “I will show you.” He got up from the bench and went out of the room. I followed. He opened the door into the courtyard and I immediately saw the problem: the temperature had fallen below freezing during the night. The ground was covered with ice. The sun was nearly halfway to its zenith, low in the southern sky, and seemed to be providing little warmth. The ice was unlikely to thaw today. Gusts of wind reached us even inside the walls of the courtyard; I could only imagine what it was like outside. Trying to descend the stone steps down the mountainside in these conditions would be suicide. We retreated inside.

  “It may thaw tomorrow,” Rodric said. “We can leave then.”

  “If we are still alive,” Ilona said.

  “Is it possible the ice will dissuade Voros Korom?” I asked.

  “It is possible,” Domokos said with a shrug. “I would not count on it.”

  “How can we face such creatures?” Ilona asked. I found myself wryly amused at her predicament: an acolyte sworn to eradicate sorcery, she was now forced to ally with sorce
rers to survive. Then I reminded myself that I had allied myself with the man who had murdered Beata.

  “You cannot,” Domokos said. “You must seal yourself deep under the castle. There are hidden passages where the wraiths will not find you. Voros Korom is expecting to find a sorcerer. He has never seen Varastis; perhaps he will be content with me.”

  “You cannot face Voros Korom alone!” Rodric cried.

  “I certainly can,” Domokos said. “Perhaps I cannot defeat him, but I can put up a fight. I may even be able to buy you some more time.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “I am no warrior,” Domokos said, “but for the past seven years my greatest fear was that Bolond—if that is who it was—would return and do to me what he did to Varastis—or worse. I spent many hours practicing spells to ward off the sort of creatures the murderer used against us.”

  “Kovets,” I said. “But Voros Korom is not a kovet.”

  “No, but the wraiths are similar to kovets. They are souls manifesting themselves as energy. Wards against kovets may work against them.”

  “’May’?” said Ilona. “You do not know?”

  Domokos shrugged.

  “Are you able to summon kovets yourself?” I asked.

  “No,” Domokos said. “I am no warlock. All I know of such things I have just told you.”

  “Even if these spells work,” I said, “they will not help you against Voros Korom. He will crush you like an ant.”

  “I also have spells that I planned to use against Bolond himself. They will work on any living creature. Even Voros Korom.”

  “You intend to battle Voros Korom singlehandedly while holding off dozens of wraiths at the same time?” Rodric asked. “You may as well cower in the cellar with us.”

  “No,” I said. “Voros Korom expects a fight. If we all hide, he will seek us out. If we stand and fight, we may have a chance to repel the attack. If Domokos can hold off the wraiths, I can handle Voros Korom.”