Slawter

  eight arms extended, smiling viciously. “What now, poor Grubitsch?” he murmurs. “Have you the strength of character to fight a demon master, or will you run like a cowardly hyena?”

  “Run!” I roar, then race away from him. Bo and the other girl hurriedly join me.

  Lord Loss laughs and sets off in pursuit of us, savoring our fear and flight. He doesn’t have the slightest clue that I’m running for a reason other than sheer terror, that I’m trying to lure him into a trap. He glides along after us, calling to me, the usual crap, telling me how desperate the situation is, how I’m going to let myself down, the pain I’ll suffer, the tears I’ll shed. He says I’ll betray Dervish and Bill-E, abandon my friends, beg for mercy.

  I know he’s messing with my mind, trying to stoke up my fear, to wring more misery out of me. But it’s hard to ignore him. I feel myself losing hope, seeing the future through the demon’s eyes. Part of me wants to surrender and accept a swift, painless death. And perhaps I would — except I Remember his look of hate when I beat him at chess, his vow to make me suffer before he killed me. There will be no quick, easy death if I fall into Lord Loss’s hands.

  A strange skittering sound. I look over my shoulder. The dog demon is chasing us too. It’s almost upon us. It uses its spikes to move, a bit like a centipede crawling, only a hell of a lot quicker. It has a head like a dung beetle’s, but dog-sized.

  “Go, Malice,” Lord Loss says, and the demon leaps high into the air, coming down on Bo’s head, mouth opening wider than its narrow body, fangs glinting.

  I shoot a bolt of magic at the demon called Malice and knock it sideways. It squeals, hits the ground, twists sharply, launches itself at my face. Without thinking, I turn my right hand into a blade, drop to one knee and slash at the demon’s underbelly. Malice sees the threat but can’t change direction. My hand slices its stomach open from neck to tail. It’s finished by the time it hits the ground, entrails spilling out, whining feebly as it flops into the dust.

  “Fool!” Lord Loss snorts at his dying familiar. “I am ashamed that one of my servants should be defeated so pitifully.” He spits on the dying demon, then looks at me and smiles. “You are stronger than the last time I saw you fight. You were unable to kill Vein or Artery then, yet here you have killed two just as powerful. You must be feeling confident, like you could even defeat me?”

  “Maybe,” I growl, magic bubbling up within me, picturing the demon master dead at my feet, tasting the triumph of revenge.

  Lord Loss chuckles. “Do not delude yourself, Grubitsch. You are not that strong. A demon master will always outrank and outpower a human.”

  “Dervish beat you,” I sneer. “He fought you on your own turf, and won.”

  Lord Loss’s features darken. “That was not a fight to the death. He had only to get the better of me in battle. He could not have killed me. Just as you cannot kill me now.”

  Lord Loss reaches out with all eight arms, pauses, twists slightly, and beckons. The girl whose name I didn’t ask for goes flying towards him, screaming. I try to pull her back, but before I can, she’s in the demon master’s embrace.

  “Poor little Karin,” Lord Loss sighs. “You had such fine dreams. A movie career, marriage, children.” The girl screams, struggling to break free. I try to pry her out of Lord Loss’s grasp, but he deflects my magic easily, then kisses her. She goes quiet. Stiff. Her skin turns grey as he sucks the life out of her. I hear bones cracking. Her feet jerk a few times, then stop.

  Bo’s crying. She sinks to her knees, defeated, staring at the demon master as he drains the girl of the last vestiges of life. I want to give up too. But I know I won’t be killed as smoothly as this if I do.

  “Come on!” I roar, grabbing Bo’s arms, yanking her to her feet.

  “I can’t,” she sobs.

  “You can!” I shout, pushing her ahead of me. “Run! Now! Or I’ll kill you myself!”

  Bo curses me but does as I command, lurching forward, running blindly, wiping tears from her eyes. I look back at Lord Loss. He casts the girl’s ruined body aside and smacks his lips. “Karin was a tasty little girl,” he says with relish.

  “I hope you choke on her!” I scream in retort, then wave a hand at the building above him and cause the outer wall to explode. It showers Lord Loss with bricks and chunks of cement, taking him by surprise, driving him to the ground. I know I haven’t killed him, but I’ve delayed him, and that’s all I wanted. Turning, I race after Bo, screaming at her to run faster, trying to judge how much distance is left and what our chances are of making it to the barrier alive.

  Lord Loss is soon on our trail again, scratched and bruised but otherwise unharmed. He congratulates me on the way I brought the wall down on him, but adds that if I’d thought of it a bit earlier, I could have saved poor Karin. Making me feel guilty, as though I’m to blame for her death.

  I ignore the demon master. Turn corners wildly. Race through the streets of Slawter. I stumble occasionally, fall hard twice, and scrape my hands and knees. But I keep ahead of our hunter and force Bo on, making her stay ahead of me so I can see when she falters and roar at her for support.

  Two more of Lord Loss’s familiars join him. One is the giant cockroach I saw earlier. The other is even more familiar. A young child’s body but with an unnaturally large head. Pale green skin. Balls of fire instead of eyes. Maggots for hair (it used to be cockroaches). Small mouths set in both its palms. The hell-child, Artery.

  “No need to introduce you two,” Lord Loss says. “Although, if you are interested, this fine specimen” — he nods at the cockroach — “is called Gregor.”

  “Very amusing,” Bo snorts, but I don’t get the joke, so I just keep on running, saving my breath for a scream of triumph. Or a death cry. Whichever proves more appropriate.

  Finally, as I’m starting to think we’ve lost our way, I spot the old hat shop. Seconds later we dash past it and are out of town, racing across soft, grassy ground. Lord Loss and his familiars pursue us casually, taking their time, confident we can’t escape.

  “You should have tried to hide,” Lord Loss taunts me. “You stood a better chance that way. This was a poor call, Grubitsch. It will cost you your life. Bo’s too. I will make you watch while Artery eats her from the inside out. That will be the last thing you see in this world.”

  Looking for Dervish and the others, but there’s no sign of them. My heart sinks like the Titanic. I’d be able to see them if they were here. No trees or bushes for them to hide behind. It’s open ground. Maybe I got the meeting place wrong, but I doubt it. I think they’ve fallen. They didn’t make it out of town. They ran into some bad-ass demons and are dead now. Just like Bo and I soon will be.

  “Where...are... they?” Bo gasps. She looks more petrified than ever.

  “Keep going,” I reply. “Find the barrier.”

  “But —”

  “Do it!” I roar, then whirl and yell a spell at Lord Loss and his familiars, prompted by my magical half. The ground in front of the demons bursts upwards. Blades of grass thicken, lengthen, and entwine. They form a net that wraps around the startled demons, tightening, choking them, holding them in place.

  I look for Bo. She’s still running. I jog after her, keeping one eye on the Demonata, hardly daring to hope. And I’m right not to. The grass around them turns brown...red... burns away. Seconds later, Lord Loss is free and his familiars are soon clawing their way out. There are blades of green jammed into many of the cuts on Lord Loss’s body, but unless they turn septic and he dies of disease much later — some hope! — he’s going to be fine.

  I try the same spell again, but this time Lord Loss is ready, and with a wave of two hands the blades of grass bend downwards and spread out, flattening, not getting in the way of the demons.

  “Fool me once, shame on you,” Lord Loss says. “Fool me twice . . .” He pulls a smug expression. “But nobody has ever fooled me twice, Grubitsch. And you will not be the first.”

  Bo yells with pain
and surprise. My gaze snaps forward. She’s come to a halt and is struggling with an unseen force, arms and legs jerking slowly, as if caught in a web. Moments later she frees herself and falls backwards.

  We’ve reached the barrier. Nowhere else to run. With an empty feeling in my gut, I stop and face the approaching demons.

  Showdown.

  Battle

  ARTERY and Gregor spread out to the left and right of their master, falling a couple of yards behind. They’re here to make sure we don’t escape, and perhaps they’ll get to kill Bo as a bonus. Neither will be allowed to harm me. Lord Loss is keeping me for himself.

  “Grubbs,” Bo whimpers.

  “I know,” I say softly.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “Be brave. Fight.”

  “But I don’t know any magic.”

  “Just do what you can.” Eyes on Artery and the cockroach. Trying to believe it’s not hopeless. If I can pin one of them to the barrier and kill it, Bo and I can escape. Too bad we can’t take anyone with us, but I mustn’t think of that now. I have to focus on getting us out alive.

  “Did you forget about the barrier, Grubitsch?” Lord Loss sniggers. “You are slow to learn. I would have thought, after running foul of it once, you would have had more sense than . . .” He stops, frowning. “But you are not stupid. A cunning boy, as I learned to my dismay the last time we clashed. Might you have had another motive for coming here?”

  He’s close to the truth. I have to act now, before he makes the connection. My eyes flick from Artery to Gregor. I settle on the baby — smaller, hopefully easier to manipulate. With a magical cry, I unleash my power. Artery shoots forward, into the air, wailing with alarm, propelled towards the barrier. I step closer to the spot where he’s going to hit, readying myself to kill the hell-child.

  But then he stops in midair. I feel a force working in opposition to mine. I scream a phrase of magic and tug harder. Artery jolts forward another yard, stops again, then falls to the ground. He scuttles back to his master, hiding behind him like a child seeking shelter behind a parent.

  “That was a very nice attempt, Grubitsch,” Lord Loss murmurs. “You had me tricked until almost the very end. I should have known you had an ace up your sleeve. Dervish must have told you how to create a rip in the barrier. You planned to kill my sweet Artery and skip out of the party early.” He tuts mockingly. “That was rude. I shall have to...”

  I hear noises in the background and spot people running towards us from the town. Lord Loss looks around, casting his eyes over the various faces, searching — as I am — for Dervish. But my uncle isn’t part of the crowd. He’s not racing to my rescue. These are just ordinary, terrified movie folk. They won’t be any help.

  “More victims,” Lord Loss laughs. “See how they run towards me? Perhaps, from a distance, I look like an angel. Should I pretend to be good? Sweep them to my breast, shower them with kisses, only to turn vile and make my true intentions known when it is too late for them to escape?”

  I focus on the cockroach. I try to pitch him at Lord Loss, hoping to knock the demon master off-guard, then hurl Gregor or Artery at the barrier. But the demon doesn’t even slide an inch off balance.

  “No, Grubitsch,” Lord Loss says. “We will have no more of that. Leave my familiars alone. Your battle is with me, not them.”

  “Then come on!” I scream. “Step up if you think you can take me! What are you waiting for? Do you want to reduce me to tears before you attack? Afraid to fight me on even terms?”

  Lord Loss’s face goes dead. The snakes in the hole in his chest stop hissing. “So be it,” he whispers, rising three feet higher into the air, arms spreading outwards with a slow, dreadful, majestic grace.

  “Grubbs,” Bo mutters.

  “Not now!” I hiss, trembling all over, preparing myself for whatever Lord Loss is about to launch against me.

  “But...over there...it’s...I think I can see... Dervish!”

  That word startles me so much, I look away from the threat of Lord Loss. Thankfully, the demon master is also taken by surprise, and instead of piercing my defense and finishing me off, he too glances aside.

  Bo is pointing off to my right. At first I don’t see what she’s gesturing at. The land looks devoid of life, just grass and weeds. But then I notice the air shimmering slightly. The shimmer intensifies, thickens, then fades to reveal...

  Dervish! And just behind my uncle, between him and the barrier — Bill-E, Juni, Vanalee, and the boy whose name I don’t know.

  “An invisibility shield,” Lord Loss groans. “I don’t believe I —”

  A wind blows up out of nowhere. It smacks hard into Lord Loss, driving him backwards, bowling him and Artery over.

  “Grubbs!” Dervish yells, focusing on the wind, veins stretched across his face like ridges of blue putty. I know instantly what he wants. Pointing at Gregor, who has been un-affected by the gale, I shout a word of magic. The demon flies forward, jaws gnashing together in a mixture of hate and fear. He strikes the invisible barrier. Sticks. Dozens of tiny legs kick at thin air as he tries to tear himself free.

  “Juni!” Dervish shouts. “Kill it like I showed you!”

  Juni steps up to the struggling cockroach. She makes a fist and takes aim at the brittle shell of its stomach. Then she pauses and half turns away, lowering her fist. She’s smiling. She starts to say something, but before she can, one of Gregor’s hairy, spindly legs strikes the back of her head. She falls with a startled cry, tries to rise, then slumps, dead or unconscious.

  My first instinct is to rush to her aid, but I ignore it. Instead I look for Artery. Concentrating on the fire in the hell-child’s eye sockets, I magically rip the flames out. As Artery squeals and slaps blindly at his eyes, I transport the flames to inside Gregor’s stomach — like cutting and pasting on a computer.

  I hold the flames tight for a second, letting them increase in strength but keeping them compact. Gregor is frothing at the mouth, glowing from the inside out. I flash the cockroach a wicked grin. Then, snapping my fingers for emphasis, I release the flames and they erupt in a ball of destructive red and yellow fury.

  The demon explodes with a cry of delicious agony. There’s a crackling, throbbing sound. Then a jagged line appears in the air around the demon’s remains, a rough semicircle of discolored light — a hole in the barrier!

  “Get out!” Dervish barks at Bill-E and the others. The wind is still blowing, but Lord Loss and Artery have stopped tumbling backwards and are facing into it now, the demon master furious, Artery confused, waving his childish hands at his empty sockets, trying to ignite fresh flames.

  As Vanalee and the boy race to safety, Bill-E hurries to Juni’s side. He turns her over, checks quickly, then shouts, “She’s alive!”

  “Then take her with you!” Dervish roars, struggling to maintain the wind.

  Bill-E hesitates — I can see that he wants to stay and help — then grits his teeth. Propping Juni up, he slides his hands under her armpits and drags her through the hole. As they exit, the quality of light changes and it’s as though I’m looking at them through a thin, semi-translucent veil.

  Bo scrambles to the opening but stops and looks back at the crowd racing towards us. She’s panting hard, squinting. “My father and brother. I can’t see them.”

  “Forget them,” I growl.

  “I can’t.”

  “You must. They’re —”

  “I’m going back for them!” Bo cries.

  “No!” I shout, but she sets off regardless.

  My left hand rises. Magic flows. Bo comes to a forced stop. She turns her head and looks at me pleadingly. “Grubbs,” she whimpers. “Let me go. I have to do this.”

  “But you’ll die if —”

  “Probably,” she interrupts, “but not necessarily. Maybe I’ll find and rescue them.” She shrugs helplessly. “I have to try.”

  “But your father was working with the demons. He helped bring this on us.”
r />   “He’s still my dad. And Abe did nothing wrong. Besides get on your nerves, like I did,” she grins.

  I grin back and reluctantly release her, knowing I don’t have the right to deny her, figuring I’d probably do the same in her place. “Don’t spend too long looking for them,” I warn her.

  “I won’t,” she lies. And then she’s gone, racing past the people escaping town, leaving me to marvel at how poorly I judged her.

  I wish Bo silent luck, then block her from my thoughts and step up beside Dervish. I want to bolt through the hole in the barrier after Bill-E and the others, but my uncle needs me. My magical half shows me how to link up with my uncle. As I add my power to his, the force of the wind increases. Lord Loss slides backwards again, straining against the wind, but — momentarily at least — losing ground.

  “You could have let me know you were here,” I growl.

  “Couldn’t risk tipping off Lord Loss,” Dervish disagrees. “We were lucky. You normally can’t fool a demon master with an invisibility spell, but he was so focused on you, he didn’t see through it.”

  People from the town spill past us, then through the hole, called to safety by Bill-E, who’s laid Juni to one side and is now directing the survivors.

  “You sent the message to everyone?” I ask.

  “Yes. As soon as I saw you coming.”

  “How come Bo and I didn’t get it?”

  “I excluded you. I —”

  “— didn’t want to tip off Lord Loss,” I finish for him.

  “Sorry,” Dervish says.

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  The wind suddenly dies away. Lord Loss straightens himself.

  “What does that mean?” I ask.

  “We should get the hell out of here.”

  There are still people running and limping towards us from the town, chased by demons, some missing limbs, many bleeding and screaming, all terrified but hopeful. Because Dervish told them to come. He said this was their way out. He promised.

  “You’re staying,” I note.