The Living Sword 2: The Road Ahead Page 17

  But it seemed it had other plans as it opened its maw to reveal two rows of sharp teeth the size of short swords and twice as sharp. The head reared back for a strike Leraine had no hope of blocking or deflecting.

  “You’re not eating me!” Misthell shook in her hands. “Eat this.”

  A light as bright as the sun enveloped half the demon’s head, centered on the point between its eyes. The readied strike became a flinch as it screeched loudly, tossing its head to dislodge the bright object.

  “Oh, oh wow, I’m light-headed. And I don’t have a head. Is that normal?”

  Leraine ignored the sword’s complaints; she was getting all too good at it. “How long can you blind him?”

  The living sword’s single eye narrowed in thought for a moment. “I don’t know?”

  Leraine grimaced, but it was better than nothing. Still, she needed to make use of this opening. But where to strike? Her attacks had done little but open superficial wounds that had bled for only a moment. Even if she sank the sword fully into the demon’s body, its organs would be deeper still.

  The demon tried to claw the light away. Blood and skin fell away under those tearing claws. The ground under her right foot stirred. She shifted her footing, but it wasn’t the demon’s doing. A crude arrow pointed in the direction Rock had stood not so long ago, and more earth rose as he emerged, beckoning her to come to him.

  Leraine hesitated, glancing back at the demon. Did the light flicker? No, Viper had thought her better than to hesitate. With a loping gait, she ran over to Rock. “I’ve underestimated the protection its sheer size would offer. I’m sorry, but I can’t land a telling blow. Can you trap it? If I could reach the head, perhaps then.”

  Rock frowned at her and did not respond right away. Ah, yes, she’d forgotten to switch to Linese, and his mastery of her own language was still shaky. Another look at the demon told her they had no time as it threw its head back, opened its mouth wide, and let its flame breath wash over itself. The fake sun vanished in an instant and even from here she could see several of the links in the chain wrapped around and into its neck corrode.

  That was not good. The only thing worse than a demon of that size and power rampaging around was one that had slipped its leash and was free to rampage as much as it liked. Say what they would of the evil of men, it paled in comparison to the maliciousness of a demon.

  “Oh, a trap. Yes, that is why I wanted you here. You bought me the time to dig a pit deep enough, but I need to lure him closer.”

  The ground shook as the demon landed on all fours once more, and its three eyes glittered in the morning sun as they all trained on her and Rock. “I do not think that will be a problem.”

  ***

  Eurik saw the demon open its jaws and knew what came next. As he slammed his open hand into the ground, a circle of stone he’d already prepared sank down, taking both him and Silver Fang with it.

  A wave of his other arm closed the earth above them. Not a moment too soon, as he felt something eat into the chiri, eroding his hold. Pieces of earth started falling down on them and he pushed their platform deeper so he could raise a second roof above their heads.

  “Misthell, could you create a small light? Like a candle.”

  “Think so. Give a moment, this is harder than it should be. There. You’re welcome.”

  With his eyes closed, Eurik didn’t know exactly what Misthell had done but there was some light filtering through his eyelids. But his attention was on the world above as the demon set itself into motion.

  Now came the test. Had he made the cover too thick? Had he guessed wrong on the size of pit necessary? To distract himself, he reinforced the lid covering the hole above their heads. He could feel the giant claw into the earth, its weight pressing down, its presence eroding the chiri around it.

  “Rock, how deep is this pit of yours?”

  “Haven’t measured it, deep enough. I hope.”

  “Very well. Can you collapse it once the demon has fallen in, and bury it?”

  The compressed dirt covering the pit held—long enough, anyway. “Not without us getting swept along as well. But I can let one half of it collapse,” he said as he felt the moment arrive.

  Eurik yanked at the chiri, the demon’s presence scraping against his senses as he did so, and he could feel it collapse. Everything shook as the falling demon hit the bottom of the pit.

  “Brace yourself.” The top layer of the ground above them had been scoured of chiri, so he couldn’t affect it. Not directly. One punch sent the lid above them upward, bursting through the melted dirt while a lifting hand raised the platform after it to the surface.

  ***

  Her feet left the ground when it came to a sudden stop, nearly causing her to fall, but Leraine managed to catch herself with a few stumbling steps forward. Those steps took her to the lip of the pit and Rock’s words had not done justice to the labor before her.

  She’d come across settlements that would fit snugly in this hole and it certainly held the demon. Even its head was now below her. The creature scrambled to its feet, its angry bellow quickly drowned out by the rumbling crash of the pit’s side across from her collapsing in onto the demon.

  It slammed the monster forward, smashing its jaw into the wall below Leraine’s feet. Braced for the impact, she rode through the quake. This was a foolish thing she was about to do. And it was their best chance.

  “Keep it in place!” And with that shout she jumped into the pit herself with a leap fit for the stories. The distance gave her enough time to reflect that this wasn’t a foolish course of action after all. It was very foolish.

  Worse, the demon saw her coming. Trapped beneath tons of earth and rock, it couldn’t move fast enough, but most of its neck wasn’t so encumbered. Yet it did not open its maw and try to swallow her whole, but instead it turned its head aside and exposed its neck at the last moment as Leraine brought Misthell down, and hit one of the corroded links of the chain that bound this demon.

  Multicolored sparks flew as the bronze link shattered under the blow, a wave of force blowing her away and against the crumbling wall.

  “Aah, that tingled.” Misthell wriggled in her grip. She’d managed somehow to hold onto the blade during her tumble. And not impale herself with it.

  Leraine paid no heed to the living sword, too busy trying to puzzle out the demon’s last move. The chain had not been her target, but it made a fine substitute. Without that artifact to anchor the demon to this world, it would disappear in short time. Of course it could do much damage in the limited time it was free.

  Was it truly that desperate to be free? Or had those wizards summoned some dumb brute? Horror twisted her gut as another possibility came to her. Had they been insane enough to summon a demon without an anchor? Bring it fully into the world?

  Surely not. Few had done so since the Rift War. Yet when was the last time she’d heard of anybody summoning a demon of this size or power? Her eyes gave her the answer as the chain broke, link after link exploding or simply dissolving as the flesh around them melted and shifted.

  The demon became far less dragonlike as it wrested itself from the earth, its jaws splitting apart along the middle while its second row of fangs grew into a full secondary maw. The eye she could see split apart into three, and long sharp spines grew all along its back, one pair furling out into another set of smaller wings.

  A third set of legs clawed at the dirt as the demon lifted itself out of pit, one of its tails—this one sporting a scythe on the end—swiped almost negligently at Leraine in passing. Leaping up, Leraine stabbed down as the tail passed by.

  It nearly yanked Misthell out of her hands, then she was dragged along herself as the tail followed the rest of the demon out of the pit. The moment she was clear, Leraine heaved with all her might at the blade and pulled it free, jumping—or falling—off the tail with the same motion.

  Flying through the air, she remembered the ruins. Saw them, too, as she passed over what had
once been a smithy. Landing in a roll, she still had the air knocked out of her, while the collision with a low stone wall knocked the light out of her.

  ***

  Eurik jumped back as the demon sent a short burst of its scouring breath in his direction. He’d lost track of Silver Fang; whatever she’d done seemed to have only increased the demon’s presence.

  He couldn’t sense the ground underneath the demon, could only hear its steps. And then it spoke. “Chalax’rath.” There was a bubbling rasp, which Eurik belatedly realized was supposed to be a laugh.

  Pustules grew on its belly and flanks which began to leak a greenish miasma and the demon lifted its head toward the city. It stretched its wings, all four of them, while bones popped and membranes flexed.

  With a mighty heave, it launched itself into the air. The slow beating of its wings could not possibly be enough to hold it in the air and yet it remained aloft. Indeed, it slowly ascended.

  “Mother warned me about undervaluing people’s foolishness. Underestimating,” Silver Fang said.

  “What is—” Eurik broke off when he caught sight of his friend. Her helmet was gone and her hair was matted with blood on her left. Her left eye, too, was bloodshot and didn’t open fully. Silver Fang still held Misthell in a steady grip, but she was using her left hand to lean against the crumbling remains of a chimney.

  “I can still fight,” she stated with some force, then gave Eurik a lopsided smile while she pointed the living sword at the flying demon. “If it would only come a little closer to the ground. Can you bring it down?”

  “I don’t know.” Further words were interrupted by a cough. One puff of the fell gas had drifted down and enveloped them. Eurik could feel the wind chiri unravel and his internal energies followed suit as he drew breath. “Have to get out of here.”

  Silver Fang nodded, also coughing. But she was already running before he could offer her help. They fled north, out of the path of the demon.

  “Keep an eye out for me.” Eurik lowered his hands and brought a boulder up from the earth, catching it. What seemed like ages ago, though it was less than six months, Chizuho had used a devastating attack on him. It combined wind and fire chiri, compressing it until it became something else. Combining two elements like that was still beyond him, but the principle could be useful.

  He grunted as he pulled more earth chiri from underneath his feet, channeled it through his body, and forced it into the boulder. The rock shook, dust falling off of it even as it grew heavier somehow. His hands came closer together, more dust falling, the chiri within straining against him, but Eurik willed it deeper into the stone.

  The boulder smoothed out and darkened as it shrank, Eurik’s muscles bulging as he struggled to hold it all up and together. He could see the demon gaining speed, drawing ever farther away. It was a race against time and he had no idea what the range on this attack was. It might already be too late.

  No room for doubt. Be the mountain. Reach for the sky.

  With a cry he channeled even more earth chiri, but this energy didn’t go into the black orb. His muscles screamed, every fiber of his filled to the bursting, as he reared back and aimed for the demon.

  Eurik punched, his knuckles barely touching the stone before it shot off. A black streak whipped through the air, wind plucking at his clothes as he held his arm up with willpower alone. He’d aimed for the demon’s bloated belly and it hit dead on.

  The flying monster folded around the hit, curling up midair. Eurik wondered how it stayed up like that, only to find out a moment later that it could not as it plummeted to the ground, clawing at its own flesh.

  The ground shook at the impact, but Eurik barely noticed as whatever strength had kept him upright fled and his knees hit the dirt. His fingers dug into the earth as he sucked in air and chiri. The fight was not over yet.

  ***

  Leraine spared Rock a glance as she sprinted forward. That attack had taken much of him; the strange energies he commanded seemed to have burned the strength out of him. Perhaps he would recover, but there was no time.

  The world trembled as the demon bellowed in pain, scrambling and clawing. The orb Rock had created was buried deep within it and it seemed it did not agree with the monster. Yet the demon’s own ability to regrow its flesh in seconds now worked against its attempts to remove the offending projectile.

  It was distracted and only she was in any position to take advantage of it. On what was left of Glinfell’s walls, a few people stirred. A lone arrow arced toward the demon, missing it entirely. But at least someone had gathered their courage.

  She could have used some of that herself; fear made her thighs weak and her feet heavy. Not simply the fear of failing—she was afraid to die. But to falter would be to display that cowardice before all, and that she would not allow. So Leraine ran.

  “Are you sure you want to do this? There’s green stuff and blood everywhere.” Misthell shuddered. “And it’s looking in enough trouble already. I’m sure that if we just stand back and wait—”

  “Quiet. It must not hear us.” She wasn’t heading straight for the demon, but was circling around to get to the head. Compared to the demon’s body it was small. She should be able to reach the brain if she could stab Misthell through one of its eyes. But how to reach the head in the first place?

  She was looking up at it, at least ten steps up in the air as the demon was on its back and furiously digging its claws into its own belly to try and get at Rock’s projectile. Leraine could not jump that high. Her only option then was to climb up at its shoulder and along its neck. The demon would not fail to notice that, but it was her only chance.

  Yet she hadn’t set a foot in that direction when a claw of earth and stone rose up from the ground and closed around the demon’s neck, just underneath its jaw. There was no time to think, to wonder what Rock was planning.

  The claw was already falling apart where it touched the demon, but not fast enough for the surprised demon to break free. Not in time. Its head descended and Leraine called upon the Mother to lend her strength to the strike as she gripped the sword with both hands. The blade ascended and met the demon’s skull, slicing through.

  The claw broke, the earth shook as it and the demon’s head slammed into the ground. Its eyes stared at Leraine, blinked. Was it still alive? She pulled Misthell back and readied herself, though her arms shook. She’d put everything in that swing and it hadn’t been enough.

  The demon opened its mouth and shrieked, and her bones rattled with the force. But rather than heralding an attack it kept going as the demon’s body shrank. Where the bulk of it went, Leraine could not say, but it didn’t take long before only a few things were left.

  Three demon hearts, silent at the moment. Sickly green and with several spines, they looked like they were made of bone, or metal. Hard to tell which, it seemed to shift with the blink of an eye. Those would still be dangerous, but they could be disposed of. Something for Mayor Rozenbruk to see to.

  “It is done.” Leraine almost fell to her knees, but across the battlefield horns sounded from the besieging camp. Clambering on top of the collapsed remains of the claw Rock had made, she could look out over the unearthed ruins and found she had been wrong.

  Riders streamed out of the camp, not away, but toward Glinfell. Forming up behind a multitude of banners, she could see one well-armored horseman pointing its sword in her direction. They had seen the demon die but also the hole it had made in the defenses. She could imagine what was being said over there: We must act swiftly; attack and we yet might still carry the day.

  And on their way to assault Glinfell they could easily kill two lone, exhausted warriors.

  “I can only hope that my new owner will take better care of me than you two have,” Misthell said.

  Chapter 18

  Save Yourself

  Eurik could feel them, so many hooves falling in step with each other, turning many small waves into a single large one. Silver Fang came running to him
, almost falling twice, and when she finally reached him she fell to her knees.

  “We can not stay here. The army is coming. Their aim is the gap in the wall but we are in their path. Can you run?” Silver Fang breathed hard, her face covered in a mixture of blood and sweat.

  He wanted to say yes, but wasn’t sure he could even stand. He grasped for chiri, but it was like grasping sand. He lacked even the strength to draw upon the strength of earth. He shook his head. His head was swimming; he couldn’t tell the direction all those people were coming from. “You go. I just need some time to recover, then I can hide in the ground. I’ll be fine.”

  Silver Fang blinked. Her expression didn’t shift even a little bit when she slapped the back of his head. “Do not lie. You are no good at it. And if you think I will shame myself by abandoning you to save my own skin, you will apologize for that insult. After we have survived this,” she added, looking around.

  “I’m open to ideas.”

  “How about surrender? You lay me on the ground,” Misthell said. “Not throw! And then you just give up. Or is that also an insult to your honor?”

  Silver Fang shook her head. “I saw only cavalry and their only chance at victory is speed. No, they will not take the chance we can still resist and delay them. They will kill us, from a distance if possible.” Her arm went under Eurik’s and she planted Misthell’s point into the dirt, drawing a muted complaint from the living sword. Then she heaved them both up. Eurik could only add a little bit of effort to the task.

  “We move away from the breach and hope they are too busy to notice us. I—” Silver Fang fell silent as they both looked at Glinfell for the first time since the demon died. Men and women were pouring out of the city, led by a contingent of riders.

  Only some of those on foot wore armor, and many of those were injured. The rest had bits of it at best and many lacked a proper weapon. They had taken up what was at hand, and for many that meant the tools of their trade. Thousands marched out of Glinfell to meet the attackers on the field of battle.