I open my eyes and spot her throwing a punch at Raz. Her fist stops several inches short of his face. She tries again — same result. She grunts with satisfaction. Jabs at Sharmila. Her fist slows but doesn’t stop. Lightly smacks into Sharmila’s chin, not harming her but getting through the barrier. “Try to strengthen it,” Nadia says. Jabs a second time. Again she penetrates Sharmila’s barrier, but with more difficulty. Pulls a so-so face.
“Now you,” she says to me. Makes a fist, starts to throw a punch... then stops. Sticks out her right index finger. Pokes at me softly. Prods my nose. Smiles. “Guess you’re out of this one.”
“It’s not my fault,” I grumble. “I’m not used to magic. I don’t know how to make it work.”
“It’s OK.” She tweaks my nose. “You can be our second line of defense. Watch for any demons getting through. If one penetrates the barrier, do your best to kill it while we plug up the hole it creates.”
“How do I kill them?” I ask.
“With magic. You can stamp on them, choke them, fire bolts of energy — whatever comes most naturally to you. But there has to be magic as well. You can’t kill a demon by physical force alone.”
“What if I can’t make it work? What if —”
“Kernel!” she snaps. “We don’t have time for hysterics. Just do your best, like when you escaped from the demon tree.”
She draws Sharmila and Raz aside to prepare them. While they’re discussing magical barriers, I creep to the edge of the needle to monitor the advance of the Kallin. They’re a lot closer than a couple of minutes ago. Not so small now that I have a better view of them. Two or three feet long. Making soft squeaking noises, barely audible over the roar of the wind.
I think about throwing myself off, taking the easy way out, not waiting for them to clamber over me and rip at me with their fangs. One short step or leap...a few seconds or minutes of freefall... then no more worries. Unless there’s nothing to freefall to. Maybe there’s no ground in this part of the Demonata’s universe. I might bob back up or fall forever, a lifetime of falling... screaming... thrashing.
“They’re almost to the top!” I shout, putting the dark thoughts behind me. “Half a minute and they’ll be all over us!”
“Get back here,” Sharmila calls. They’ve gathered close to Beranabus, who’s concentrating on the slowly forming window. I crouch next to Raz, feeling safer beside him than Sharmila, since he was able to construct a stronger barrier.
“Here we go,” Nadia says shakily. She half closes her eyes. So do Sharmila and Raz. There’s a shimmer in the air a couple of feet in front of us. Then nothing. I wonder if the spell has worked, if we’re protected or not. Then the first of the Kallin wriggles over the edge of the needle and launches itself at us, mouth wide, fangs bared, screeching with hunger and hate.
FRYING PAN
THE demon flies straight at me, like an arrow fired from a bow. A scream builds at the back of my throat, but before it can burst out of my mouth, the Kallin hits an invisible barrier and is deflected. It crashes into a group of other long, hairy demons. Irritated, their fangs flash and they rip the first Kallin to shreds. Bloody bits of it fly everywhere.
I press myself hard against Raz as the demons surround us, gnashing at the barrier, wriggling around and over it, searching for weak points. Within seconds they cover the barrier entirely, blocking our view of the sky, plunging us into almost total darkness. I can see by the light of the pulsing patches, but the others must be nearly blind.
Nadia clicks her fingers and a ball of flame appears overhead. I preferred the darkness. We can see the Kallin in more detail now, their long hairy bodies, the stiff spiky hairs on which they move, their abnormally large mouths and fangs. They drool and slobber as they snake across the face of the barrier. Soon it’s like looking at them through a window streaked with spit and vile juices.
Raz is sweating. So are Sharmila and Nadia. Trembling, not with fear but with the effort of maintaining the barrier. This is hard. I don’t think they can keep it up for more than a few minutes. I glance at Beranabus and the window he’s working on. It’s nowhere near complete. A few minutes won’t be long enough.
One of the Kallin penetrates the barrier with its head. It squeals with triumph, fangs snapping together, trying to squeeze the rest of its body through. I tense, readying myself to fight, but then Nadia shouts a brief spell and the barrier closes sharply around the demon, slicing its head off.
The head falls to the floor but the jaws continue snapping open and shut. It drags itself forward using its fangs, dozens of eyes glittering angrily. I get to my knees, face the head, try summoning magic to use against it. Instead, panic-stricken, I throw up. The demon gibbers — it can still make noise — and crawls at me through the pool of vomit. I watch, repulsed and terrified. Then, as it’s about to drag itself out of the vomitous pool, I have a thought. I reach out, touch the vomit with a finger and charge it with magic, which flows through me from some unknown source.
The vomit bubbles and becomes acid. The Kallin head shakes wildly. Desperate, it hurls itself out of the pool, using an upper fang as a makeshift vaulting pole. I make a fist and, roaring with fear, punch the head back down. The acid eats into it. The head shakes a few more times, then dissolves, bubbling away to a bloody, hair-streaked mess.
A feeling of power and victory washes through me. I’ve killed a demon! I used magic to destroy its ugly ass! I’m Hercules, Samson and Thor rolled into one! I glare at the thousands of Kallin, eager for another to break through, so I can send it the way of its boiled-down brother. “Come on,” I snarl. “I’ll turn you all into stew!”
“The boy’s enjoying himself,” Raz notes, teeth chattering from the effort of keeping the barrier in place.
“I do not think he will be so... anxious to fight... when the barrier breaks... and they come crashing down upon us...in their multitudes,” Sharmila mumbles.
Nadia says nothing. She’s staring ahead, eyes wide open now, sweat filling the pockmarks on her face. Terrified.
Overcome with confidence, forgetting that moments ago I was throwing up and more afraid than I’d ever been, I take matters into my own hands. Turning to where Beranabus is piecing together a window, I watch the pulsing lights for a couple of seconds. Then, impatient, I reach up and nudge a patch of light towards the cluster. It slides ahead of my fingers, slotting into place. I start moving others. It’s simple. I don’t even have to touch the lights — they move before my fingers, weightless, a breeze to manipulate.
“What are you doing?” Beranabus snaps.
“I can do it quicker than you,” I tell him, adding more patches of light to the now rapidly forming window.
“You’re distracting me,” Beranabus growls. “Get out of my way before —”
“You’re too slow!” I shout. “You can’t see the lights. I can. So let me do it. I can make.. .” I pause. The lights around me have stopped pulsing. For a second — absolute panic. I can’t complete the window! Then I realize what’s happened. “Where were you trying to open the window to?” I pant. Beranabus starts to argue. “Just tell me!” I yell.
Beranabus squints, then says, “I was searching for Cadaver.”
I think about the demon which stole my brother. Recall its long legs, stumpy body, thick hairy fingers. Its face, half human, half canine. Its drooping ears and wide white eyes.
The patches of light start pulsing again. Eagerly, I reach up and begin slotting them into place, creating a window. I’m not sure how or why this works, but I know I’m right. I was never crazy. The lights weren’t imaginary. They were there for a reason — and now that reason is clear. I can’t use magic to make sandcastles or barriers, but I can sure as hell open windows to other worlds!
Beranabus stares at me wordlessly. He can’t see the lights. He only sees my hands moving swiftly, fingers flying in all directions, like a mad conductor. But he feels the magic. He knows — hopes — I’m not blowing our only chance of survival.
“Master!” Raz shouts.
“Hush,” Beranabus says. “Let him work. If he can do what I think...”
“But the barrier!” Raz cries. “We cannot hold it! I feel it crumbling!”
Beranabus mutters a quick spell and I sense the barrier thicken around us. The cries of the demons and howl of the wind are muted slightly.
“Relax,” Beranabus says to me. “I can hold this barrier for a long while now that I have nothing else to focus on. You have time.”
I don’t respond or slow down. Too excited. I can see the window coming together. For the first time in my life I feel completely in control of myself and the world around me. I have a purpose. I know what I was born for. This is my gift. Why I always felt like a misfit. I had a great power. A destiny.
“What’s he doing?” Nadia asks.
“Something I’ve never seen anyone else do,” Beranabus says softly. “Not even the most powerful demon master.”
“Are you sure he is not having some kind of fit?” Sharmila asks.
“We’re dead if he is,” Beranabus laughs.
“I don’t like this, master,” Raz says. “To place our lives in the hands of an untested child...”
“Children are often the true saviors,” Beranabus says. “Not knowing the rules of the universes, they can sometimes turn those rules on their head. We must trust, Raz Warlo. And hope.” I feel his eyes hot on my back. “The boy is all we have.”
I don’t think about my grave responsibility. All I focus on are the patches of light, pulsing in the air around me, more gliding into reach from the world outside, slipping through the ranks of Kallin and the wall of the barrier. Nothing can hold the lights back, interfere with them or divert them from their course. Except me. I’m their master. I can do anything with them that I like.
My hands blur. The panel of lights builds, two feet wide, three feet high... four... five. Just as I’m adding a large, hexagonal block of blue light to the mass, the lights pulse in unison a few times, then go a dull shade of steady white.
“By all the gods!” Raz gasps.
“I do not believe it!” Sharmila exclaims.
“No!” Nadia moans with disbelief.
Beranabus just chuckles and says, “My compliments, Kennel.”
“It’s Kernel,” I correct him, looking up at his bearded face and small dark eyes. “Kernel Fleck. Master of the lights.”
He tilts his head, acknowledging my power. I’ve never felt more alive or special. The others gape from me to the window, then back at me.
“How?” Nadia asks.
Beranabus speaks before I can. “Let’s save the explanations for when we’re not surrounded by thousands of demons.” He stares at the writhing ranks of the Kallin. Smiles. Then steps through the window of light. I glance at the others, grinning proudly. They’re smiling too now.
One last look at the Kallin. They’re screeching louder than ever, furious at us for escaping their trap. Laughing, I flip them the finger, then face the window of light and eagerly step forward after Beranabus, figuring nowhere in the universe can be as bad as this place.
Wrong!
FIRE
IKNOW instantly that we’re in trouble. Beranabus is fighting a variety of demons, snakelike, but with arms and claws, heads of tigers, lions, vultures. Several are locked in battle with the elderly magician, ripping at him with talons and fangs, moving incredibly fast. He’s striking back with bolts of lightning. A couple of demons are lying in pieces around him. But there are more to come.
In the distance, I spot another window, and a demon leaving through it. I’m not certain, but I think it’s Cadaver! In a rush of excitement I start towards the window, but then one of the other demons spots me. Shrieks like a bird of prey. Lashes backwards with its scaly tail, driving itself at me. I freeze, losing my new-found confidence. Looking past the demon, I see the window come apart, and I lose hope too. Cut off from my prey, isolated and terrified, I stand motionless and defenseless.
Raz steps through the window behind me. Yells with surprise and fear, then pushes ahead of me and grabs the attacking demon by its arms. Sinks his teeth into its throat. Bites it open, then spits the slimy flesh out. Puts his teeth up close to the hole in the thrashing demon’s throat. Blows into it — but magic comes out of his mouth, not air. Enters through the gash. The demon explodes. Raz tosses its carcass aside and moves to deal with the next in line.
Sharmila steps through, then Nadia. Sharmila gasps, looks around in wild terror, then gains control and steps up beside Raz. A jackal-headed demon leaps on her. She thrusts a hand at its stomach. As soon as she touches it, flames burst from her fingers. Seconds later, the demon’s on fire, writhing in the dust.
Nadia curses, starts forward, then looks back at me. “Shut the window!”
“But...we have to go back...we can’t stay here... there are —”
“The barrier won’t hold now that we’ve moved on!” she shouts. “If you don’t close it, the Kallin will be able to follow us through!”
I hate turning my back on the fighting, but I can’t ignore her warning. I stare at the window of white light, not sure what to do. So I try the first thing that comes into my head. Reach into the window, to rip it apart. But my hands slide through the light and nothing happens.
I can’t see anything through the window, but I imagine the Kallin massing on the other side. They could come slithering through at any second. I should run, get away from here, flee for my...
I force myself to take a breath. Consider the problem. It was easy to put the patches of light together, so it must be easy to take them apart. But how?
I begin to reach into the window again. Pause. Half close my eyes and study it carefully. Although it looks like a solid wall of light, if I squint I can make out thin lines where the original patches join. Tiny cracks running through the window, almost invisible. I run my left index finger around one of the larger patches near the center, thinking. Then, without trying to touch it, I slide my finger at the patch from the side, willing it to move.
The patch comes loose and glides away from my finger, becoming a pulsing strawberry color. After a few seconds it stops pulsing, hangs in the air a moment, then drifts away.
I work on freeing other patches. After removing about a dozen, the window disintegrates. The patches regain their original colors and slide away from one another in a slow, graceful explosion.
No time for pride. I check what’s happening with the demons. There aren’t as many as on the needle of rock, but they’re larger and stronger, and there’s no time to construct a barrier to keep them at bay.
They’re all around Beranabus and his Disciples. A few have caught hold of Raz and dragged him to the ground. He’s lashing out with his fists, trying to chew their throats open. But they stick to him like savage hounds. One rips off most of his right leg and devours the flesh, howling with satisfaction. A claw strikes his head and slices half his face away. He tries to scream but he no longer has a tongue.
I cry out with pity and terror, but there’s nothing I can do to help the fat black man who was so nice to me, who saved my life mere moments ago. He’s stronger than me. He knows how to fight demons. A true being of magic. If he can’t handle these monsters, what hope do I have?
My eyes dart from Raz to the others. More than a dozen demons are at war with Beranabus. Five are focused on Sharmila. Nadia is fending off several more, making the ground explode in front of them, hitting them with bolts of magic, roaring hatefully like I do when I fight.
Two more barrel towards me, tails whipping from side to side, snarling, arms and claws extended.
Driven by desperate instinct, I reach towards two patches of purple and orange light. I clap my hands together, driving the patches hard at each other. They smash together and create a blinding flash of purplish-orangey light. The instinct that told me to try this also tells me to close my eyes — quickly!
When I look a few seconds later, the demons are down, screaming wi
th pain and confusion, eyes melted in their sockets.
I’m stunned by the power I’ve unleashed. Confidence comes flooding back. Once again I’m Kernel Fleck — defeater of the Demonata!
Then one of the fallen demons scrapes the gooey mess clear of its empty sockets. New globes grow, the demon using magic to construct a fresh pair of eyes. I realize I’ve only slowed the creatures down, not put them out of action forever. Different universe — different rules.
Panic sets in again. The Disciples are doomed. Beranabus is finished. Cadaver set another trap for us, and there’s no way out of this one. My choice is simple — perish with the others or save myself.
I don’t think of anywhere specific. I merely scream with all my inner senses — “Somewhere safe!” When nothing happens, I add rapidly, “Earth! A city!” Patches of light pulse around me. Frantic, I push them together, forming a new window as quickly as I can. I don’t look up or think about the demons that might be bearing down on me. Focus on the lights.
I’m working quicker than I did on the needle, learning all the time, feeling power bubble through me. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of a demon lurching at me. I flinch but don’t stop. The demon rushes closer... closer....It’s one of the pair I blinded. Seething with revenge. A few more seconds and it’ll be on me. I should turn to deal with it, but my hands won’t stop moving. There’s nothing I can do.
Then the demon’s knocked aside. It grunts heavily, then screams. I can’t see what’s happening to it, and I don’t look. Keep working on the window. Sweating heavily. Mouth dry. Weeping softly.
Something steps up beside me. I cry out, expecting the worst. But it’s not a demon. It’s Nadia. “Hurry!” she hisses. “Get us out of here!”
“I’m trying,” I groan, hands a whir of motion.
Nadia stands with her back against mine, protecting me. I work faster, desperate to be out of here, somewhere real and normal, where demons can’t get me.
The lights pulse together a few times, then turn red. A window opens.
“Nadia!” I shout.
“Good work.” She yells Beranabus’s name, then Sharmila’s.
I look around. I can’t see Beranabus — he’s completely surrounded by demons. Sharmila’s losing her battle too — six of the monsters are on her, and although a few are aflame, she can’t fight them off. She’s lost an arm at the elbow. Bleeding from deep wounds. Panting heavily, her eyes like a horse’s caught in a thunderstorm.
Raz is dead. A pair of demons have torn his head off. As I watch, they rip it in two, then each retreats with half, dipping their jowls into his skull, scooping out his brains with their fangs and tongues. I get sick again, though there isn’t much to come up this time.
“Let’s go,” Nadia says, taking my right arm.