The Skull Throne
Page 52

The demon was not intelligent by human standards. Perhaps as wise as a child, though that was far more than the mindless drones that dominated demonkind.
Not intelligent, but its will was strong. It wanted only to protect its mind, would do anything to achieve that end. Renna stood in its way, and it struggled against her desperately.
But while the demon’s will was focused on protecting its mind, for Renna, all humanity was at stake. All humanity, and Arlen most of all. If she did not stop it, everything would be lost, and she might as well have fled to the Core. Might as well have given in and let her father have his way, as Lainie had. What good was her entire worthless life, if she could not do this?
She caught the mimic’s will in the vise of her own and crushed it, scattering its essence. It burst apart in a shower of magic, and was gone.
Jardir drove the butt end of the Spear of Kaji into the frozen stone one last time, shattering the final piece that held him. The Par’chin was howling in agony as he wrestled the alagai prince, but his Sharum spirit remained undiminished. He held.
A single throw of the spear, and he could end them both. His greatest rival and the most powerful alagai he had ever faced. He could end them, and return triumphant to Everam’s Bounty, setting right whatever chaos had arisen from his absence. Without the Par’chin to flock to, the greenlanders’ resistance would collapse, and in the abyss, Nie’s servants would shake with terror at the power of Everam’s warriors.
All he had to do was throw, and live with betrayal a second time. A heavy price, perhaps, but was any price too great, if it meant advantage in Sharak Ka?
We must not become demons in order to fight them. The Par’chin’s words echoed in his mind.
Nie take me, he thought, before I betray my true friend again.
He slipped the spear into its harness on his back, pulled the hood of his Cloak of Unsight over his head, and reached into the pouch at his waist.
The demon was weakening. Arlen could feel it. While he could Draw upon the power of Anoch Sun, the mind was cut off by the forbidding, and its reserves were fast emptying. Still, it was proving his match. He had needed to cut power to the wards that kept it from touching his skin in order to maintain the choke hold, and the bones and skin of its scrawny neck had hardened into what felt like diamond. He was hurting his hands as much as the demon.
But I can breathe, he thought. It can’t.
The demon’s mouth opened in a silent scream, baring black gums and dozens of needle teeth. The jaws stretched impossibly, bringing the teeth closer and closer to his face. He could taste the foul reek of its rancid breath. Its spittle struck his cheek, and he retched.
But then a fist struck the jaws, shattering teeth and knocking them away from him. He looked over, expecting to see Jardir, but it was Renna who stood there, as bright with magic as he had ever seen her. Her face was set with hard determination, and her aura shone with strength.
He felt tears welling in his eyes and wanted to speak, but it was all he could do to keep his hold as she hammered the demon again and again.
Then, suddenly, Jardir appeared behind the demon, whipping the silver chain Arlen had spent countless hours warding over its head. Before it could catch a breath, Arlen let go his hold, and Jardir pulled the chain tight, its wards flaring.
The demon shook violently, attempting to dissipate, but that power was robbed from it now. It shrank back to its former slender size, hoping to find some slack, but Jardir kept the chain tight, and when the demon seemed unable to shrink farther, Arlen slipped a warded padlock into the links, snapping it shut.
All three of them hammered at it now, Jardir twisting with the smooth efficiency of sharukin as he caught each of the demon’s limbs in twists of the silver chain like he was tying a hog at the Solstice festival. It fell to one knee, then face-first on the ground. After a moment it ceased to struggle, and its aura went flat. Arlen snapped another lock two links looser about its throat and undid the first, letting the unconscious creature draw a shallow breath.
They had fought too hard to let it die now.
Only then did he turn his attention to the rest of the room, stone shattered and parts of the ceiling collapsed in the struggle. There was no sign of the mimic apart from a few blackened stains on the rock.
In the doorway, battle still raged. Shanvah, quiver empty and spear broken, held her shield on one arm and her father’s on the other, using both to hold back the tide of demons pressing at the door. Her feet had put cracks in the sandstone floor as she held against the press.
Shanjat stood a pace back, holding his crank bow. Shanvah shifted, opening a gap in her shields, and Shanjat quickly fired through. She closed the gap immediately as he pulled the heavy bowstring back with two fingers and snapped a new bolt in place, then opened another in a different place for him to fire again.
Before Arlen or Jardir could react, Renna burst into mist and shot across the room. He gaped as she passed the two warriors blocking the door as easily as a strong wind, and he could hear the sounds of battle on the far side. The press eased, giving Shanvah and Shanjat a moment to catch their breath.
Then the whole chamber shook as Renna collapsed the tunnel. Heavy stones began to shake loose from the ceiling, sand pouring down at an alarming rate as the whole chamber groaned.
“Time to go,” Arlen said.
“Kaji—” Jardir began.
“—will be buried forever on the spot where his heirs defeated the most powerful alagai the surface has seen in millennia,” Arlen finished for him.
Jardir nodded. “Shanjat! Shanvah! Clear the path for our escape!”
The two warriors stepped back from the door. Shanvah tossed her father back his shield and the two of them ran for the hidden escape tunnel.
Renna materialized at Arlen’s side. It took her a bit longer than it did him, but she was already faster than he had been in the first months he had experimented with dissipation.
He wanted to ask her about the new power, to tell her how proud he was, how great his love, but there was no time, and he trusted it was written on his aura for her to see.
“Skate ahead and ready the horses,” he told her. “Need to be miles from here before sunrise.”
Renna smiled and gave a wink, then collapsed into mist once more.
CHAPTER 10
THE CHIN REBELLION
333 AR AUTUMN
Inevera woke to a buzzing in her ear. Never a deep sleeper, and even in less troubling times, she drifted on its bare edge in recent days and came awake swiftly.
The vibration came from one of her earrings, gifts given to her most trusted servants and advisors, a way to contact her, and a way to spy. Ahmann’s had been silent since he fell, the mountain where he had fought the Par’chin far out of range. She wore it still, praying to Everam each dawn that this would be the day it sounded again, signaling his return.
But it was not her husband’s ring that sounded now. Inevera slid a finger along the cartilage of her ear, counting down until she felt the hum. The eighth. No sacred number for the khaffit.
She twisted the ball dangling from the ring until it clicked, changing the alignment of the wards in circumference around the two hemispheres that housed the bit of demon bone. With the link open, she spoke, knowing her words resonated in its twin.
“It is not yet dawn, khaffit,” she said quietly. “This had better be important or I’ll have your—”