Dryly, the voice in the air said, “Nothing can help.”
Then another voice sounded, and it was as if the winds of hell had been given the power of speech. “Let me out of here!” commanded the other presence, and the body on the altar shook and the islander pulled back, obviously terrified.
Jim hung back in the shadows, now totally uncertain what to do next.
CHAPTER 17
SUMMONING
The pit exploded.
Pug and the others were thrown to the ground as a tower of green energy ripped up through the air from the pit to a point equally spaced between the four towers. There brilliant white energy lashed out like angry lightning, sizzling through the air with a hiss loud enough to make them want to cover their ears.
“Gods,” said Brandos. “What was that!”
Pug felt the hair on his arms and neck stand up as an all too familiar and evil power began to coalesce. “Oh, gods, indeed,” said Pug as a deep thrumming sound and a powerful vibration came from the ground beneath them and set their teeth on edge. “It’s a summoning!”
“What?” asked Gulamendis. “I have never seen anything like this, and I’ve summoned my share of demons.”
Laromendis said, “I have never seen its like, either.” The Taredhel had found his brother, Amirantha, and Brandos while Pug had encountered Jim. Pug had just finished explaining what he was going to do when the mad energy erupted from the pit.
Pug turned to Brandos and said, “Here, take this.” He handed him a Tsurani orb and said, “Push that button and you will find yourself in the keep on Sorcerer’s Island. A magician named Pascal will be there, waiting against such an appearance. You tell him ‘bring everything.’ He’ll know what to do.”
“I’m not leaving,” he said, looking at Amirantha. “He’ll get himself killed if I’m not here to watch his back.”
Amirantha took the sphere from Pug and pressed it into Brandos’s hands. “I was keeping alive before you were born, boy.” If anyone found the younger-looking Warlock calling the grey-haired fighter ‘boy’ odd, no one felt the need to remark on it. “Do as you’re told and then get back here if you can; otherwise wait at the keep with your wife. Understand?”
Looking from face to face, Brandos realized that he was indeed the most expendable person there, so he grabbed the sphere and suddenly he was gone. “What now?” asked Gulamendis.
“Something beyond your ability to imagine may be coming through that portal soon.” Pug saw that whatever guards were in the area, they were hurrying back inside the wall, a look of panic on their inhuman faces. “If you see anything heading for the small building against the far wall, kill it,” he shouted, taking off at a run.
The two elves and Amirantha didn’t hesitate and were off a half-step behind Pug, who sprinted past the wooden barrier and through the empty gate. Several demons of varying sizes were screaming at one another, looking for anything to vent their rage and terror against. Amirantha shouted, “Pug, to your right!”
Both the Warlock and Gulamendis began banishment rituals, but before they could get halfway through, Pug put out his hand, palm outward, and unleashed a withering beam of silver energy that tore the demon closing on him in half. The two portions of the demon fell to the ground, smoking, and erupted into flames, while the two Demon Masters and the Conjurer looked on in awe. “Remind me never to make that human angry,” said Laromendis.
Gulamendis nodded, then shouted, “That got their attention.”
A dozen demons had seen the display, and Pug had provided them with a convenient target for their fear and rage. They bellowed and shrieked as they charged him and the others. Pug made a sweeping gesture with his hand and a curtain of flames erupted on the ground in front of the demons. They were engulfed by flames and screamed and roared in outrage and pain and Gulamendis chose to stand next to the nearly frantic magician. “Those are demons. Fire will mostly annoy them.”
“It has slowed them down for a couple of minutes,” said Amirantha.
They reached the building and Pug made a quick decision. “Amirantha, go down the stairs and find Jim Dasher. Be careful.” To Laromendis and Gulamendis he said, “We have to keep those creatures on the other side of the door.”
The Warlock hurried down the circular stairs while Pug’s right hand shot outward, palm forward, through the door. A ripping in the air, tainted an evil green glow by the light from the summoning device, showed a wall of force speeding outward, striking a dozen demons and knocking them backward. Several lay stunned and motionless, but the others seemed only to get madder.
Gulamendis took a talisman from his belt pouch and pointed it at one particularly nasty-looking demon, a thing of scales and crocodile teeth, bat wings, and blood-red armor. He spoke a quick phrase and suddenly the demon’s yellow eyes blinked and it reached out with clawed hands to rip out the throat of the demon next to it, another scaly horror, but this one looking more like a lizard.
Laromendis closed his eyes and muttered, “Something big.” A moment later the ground shook from the enraged bellow of a massive golden dragon as it sprang into being above the thirty or so demons ringing the hut.
Gulamendis said, “This will only buy us a few minutes, Pug. The bigger the illusion and the more violent, the faster Laro fatigues.”
The dragon was a thing of beauty, looking exactly like the one the brothers had ridden with Tomas. It opened its maw and a scorching blast of searing hot fire rolled over the demons, scattering them. Pug felt the heat wash over him until he noticed that while some demons ran screaming, batting at nonexistent flames on their arms, their flesh blistering, there were no flames and there was no smoke or char on the ground. The moment he realized it, the heat stopped. He could still see the dragon, but it was now insubstantial and clearly an illusion.
Knowing the demons would soon come to understand their minds were playing tricks on them and they were the authors of their own suffering, he sent out another blast of flame, exploding in a tower of orange and yellow that did inflict real burns on the demons. “That will keep them confused a little longer,” said Pug.
“Confusion will only work a while longer,” said Gulamendis. “Whatever reserves they had outside the walls are now joining in.”
Pug said, “They probably were given orders to return when the summoning started. I wonder what chance let these live while their companions lay at the bottom of that pit?”
“That battle we saw on Telesan was not an illusion, Pug,” said Gulamendis. “There’s a demon war taking place, and it’s our good fortune, all of us living here on this world, that the demons are now warring on one another—I’ve lived through losing two worlds to them. A third is one too many. Look out!”
Pug saw the fliers attacking the dragon illusion and Pug responded with a lance of purple light that caused one flier to burst into flames above the dragon. As the flaming corpse fell, it passed completely through the dragon and several other demons realized something was amiss.
“They’re stupid,” said Gulamendis, “but not that stupid. They’ll turn on us in a minute.”
Pug shot out another bolt of energy and said, “If we can hold out for another ten, fifteen minutes, the marines from Roldem should be the first here.”
As more demons swarmed into view, Gulamendis said, “I think they’re going to be overmatched unless we can help.”
“We’ll help,” said Pug.
Gulamendis used his ward and reached out and took control of the largest demon he could clearly see and set it to attacking its neighbor. It didn’t take much provocation for that conflict to spill over into a free-for-all as several other nearby demons were drawn in.
“Something is breaking down in their conditioning, Pug. These are battle demons and they’re reverting to their old habits and starting to create makeshift alliances and start fighting for domination.”
“Why?”
“I have no idea, but I think that whatever was controlling them is losing command of them.”
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As they watched, the demons began to turn on one another. Enough of those continued to rush the small building that Pug was forced to use all his skills to knock them back with another pulse of energy. “I can’t keep doing this all day,” he said, obviously fatigued. “There are so many of them.”
“If they fully turn on themselves, we just need to bar this door.” The Demon Master again selected a demon in the fray and had it turn on its neighbor. Then the illusion of the dragon vanished.
“That tears it,” said Laromendis, coming out of his trance. “I’ve got little left to offer.” He pulled out the wand he had harbored since they had fled the battle of Hub and pointed it at a particularly nasty beast charging the door. It went down in convulsions as energy consumed it.
Pug said, “I wish I knew what was going on below.” He pushed aside thoughts of his son and the others and returned his attention to the battle before him.
Amirantha held up in the shadows, uncertain of what was occurring before him. He saw Jim Dasher hugging the wall by the door; the only hint the noble turned spy was there was the odd refraction of the light at the door’s edge, which moved slightly, and if Amirantha stared at it for a moment, he could make out the vague shape of a man along the edge of the visual boundary between the door and the room beyond.
Then he took in what was occurring in the room beyond and his eyes widened. His brother, Belasco, was lying motionless across a sacrificial altar, and Sandreena, Kaspar, and Magnus were bound and kneeling before the altar. Amirantha assumed the bindings prevented the two magic casters from using their abilities, or this situation would have been resolved before either Jim and he had arrived.
A strange-looking man, thin with ragged hair and an impressive-looking set of pointed teeth appeared to be weeping piteously over Belasco, and seemed to be imploring Belasco to tell him what to do. Even more perplexing was a dialogue between two entities not visible. Amirantha stopped to ensure he wasn’t losing his mind, because while his brother lay motionless on the altar, he could hear his voice, and then another voice, both demanding some sort of behavior by the witless man.
Amirantha came up behind Jim and as the cloaked figure tensed, he said, “It’s me; what is happening?”
Jim gripped the Warlock by the arm and pulled him back into the tunnel and said, “I have no idea. That lunatic cannibal has been talking to your unconscious brother for five minutes, and I have no idea who the other voice belongs to.”
Amirantha said, “I need to explain the subtleties of demonic possession to you, but now is not the time. Can you kill that man without giving him time to harm anyone else?”
“Easily, but why?”
“Because if he makes the wrong move, we’re all going to die.”
“That’s a fine reason,” said Jim, and Amirantha saw a dagger appear out of thin air, held by a hand and part of an arm, while the rest of Jim was still shielded by the cloak.
“Wait,” said the Warlock.
“Why?” asked Jim. “Either we want him dead or not. Which is it? Our friends are stupefied and our enemy is overcome. As I see it, with two quick kills, this issue is resolved.”
Amirantha whispered, “Ah, if it were that simple.” He pointed to the confused islander. “Why is he so perplexed?”
“Because his master lies prostrate and he has no concept of what to do,” said Jim. “I do not know a lot about magic, but I know enough to understand that sometimes a price is paid that was unanticipated. If that evil bastard on the altar made a mistake, why not advantage ourselves and end this?”
“No, to both. We can’t end this, not yet, and moreover, that distraught minion is confused because there are two beings within that one body!”
“Two beings?” whispered Jim. “What does that mean?”
“It means my idiot brother summoned a demon recently who tried to take over his body. Now they’re struggling for control.”
“Is that why he’s lying there motionless?”
“Apparently. Neither one has enough control to command the body and fight off the other entity.”
“What should I do?”
“For the moment, regarding Belasco, nothing,” said Amirantha. “As for the rest, can you kill that sharp-toothed fellow without bringing harm to our friend?”
“At any time.”
“Do so now, if you don’t mind, then cut the others loose. I most likely will need Magnus and Sandreena’s help with whatever happens to Belasco, and if there’s some lingering effects of their confinement, the sooner that’s over, the better.”
Jim faded into the shadow and for a moment Amirantha felt as if he were alone in the tunnel. Then there was a blur of motion on the left wall and the wailing Shaskahan islander’s body went rigid and his eyes widened, then he slumped to the floor. Jim pulled back the hood of his cloak and stood over Belasco, and then motioned for Amirantha to enter. The Kingdom spy moved then to unfetter his companions.
Magnus and Sandreena were both tied with silver netting, while Kaspar was bound and gagged in a more conventional fashion. Kaspar gasped for breath when Jim pulled the gag from his mouth. “Gods! I thought I was going to suffocate they pushed that so far back.” He cleared his throat and said, “Help me up. My knees are not what they once were and I have been kneeling too long in one position.” Jim gave him a hand and said, “What did they do to Magnus and Sandreena?”
Both magic-users were mute, wide-eyed, staring into space. Kaspar said, “They went that way when those nets were cast on us. They quickly got me out of mine, but they kept those nets on them the entire time.”
Jim nodded. “Slavers’ nets. They use them in Durban if they’re trying to snag a magic-user. The really fine and costly ones not only dampen magic but render the magician tractable.
“Help me get them out of those nets,” said Jim.
Kaspar was stiff-legged for a minute and then set to on Sandreena’s bindings, while Jim cut through the netting holding Magnus. When they were free, both went limp and Kaspar caught Sandreena and lowered her to the floor while Jim did the same for Magnus. Jim said, “Now we wait for them to recover.”
“How long?” asked Kaspar.
Amirantha stood over the prone figure of his brother, whose eyes were trained on him. He said, “The effects should wear off shortly.”
The lips on the altar’s body didn’t move, but a voice sounded in the air. “Is that you, little brother?”
Amirantha said, “It is, big brother.”
“You don’t find me at my best,” came the hollow reply.
“I never did.” Pulling out a dagger, he said, “Is there any compelling reason I shouldn’t end this now?”
“Besides me wishing not to die any time soon, you mean?”
“Obviously; as you’ve shown little inclination in giving me that consideration, I hardly feel moved to grant it to you.”
“Fairly stated,” said the disembodied voice of Belasco.
Suddenly another voice, loud, raspy and harshly accented commanded, “Kill him and I will make you powerful beyond your dreams, Warlock!”
“That’s the other reason,” said Belasco’s floating voice. “If you kill me, then Dahun here will get free. I’m the only thing keeping him from entering this world.”
Amirantha glanced at Magnus and Sandreena, who were still both stunned, though both were now blinking as if coming slowly out of a trance. Knowing that time was not in their favor above, Amirantha still knew that he needed a little more time here. “If Dahun is in you, what is that contraption on the surface about?”
“Ah, that would be telling,” said Belasco with an evil chuckle.
“What madness have you undertaken now, brother of mine?” said Amirantha, prodding Belasco’s shoulder with the point of his dagger.
“That hurt!” said Belasco with an almost petulant tone.
“Injure me at your peril!” shouted Dahun’s voice. “A clean kill to set me free, I will accept, but torment will earn you repayment a thousandf
old.”
Kaspar said, “Not very reassuring, is he?”
“Neither of them is worth saving,” said Amirantha, but his eyes flickered back and forth a moment between Kaspar and the others, and with a twitch of his head, he indicated he needed the General to play along. “Still, there are some things worth knowing that might prove interesting.
“Belasco, I can only assume you’re controlling this monster inside of you for two reasons: your usual pure spite at serving anyone else’s interest but your own, and because you have some idea that somehow you can manage your way out of this impasse?”
“You know me well, brother. But until I can conceive of a way of telling you anything is to my advantage, I think I shall keep my reasoning to myself.”
“Well, you always did have an unwillingness to share.”
“Blame Sidi. He was always beating me and taking my things.”
“True, and both of you treated me the same until I started summoning help.”
“That was an unfortunate day,” said Belasco’s voice.
“Warlock!” came the demon’s voice. “Release me and I shall make you a Prince of men, my first servant on this world.”
Amirantha sighed and shrugged at Kaspar. “Sorry, Dahun, but experience tells me your promises are of little currency.”
Belasco said, “Actually, he might keep that one. He doesn’t plan on eating everything in sight. He plans on settling in and ruling things. That was our original arrangement, and he was as good as his word.”
Amirantha closed his eyes as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He sighed slowly and then said, “Until you betrayed him,” he said flatly.
“Of course.”
Amirantha was silent for a moment, then said, “So, if I kill you, the demon within is freed, but if I let you live…well, sooner or later you’re going to die if you can’t eat or drink, unless you tell me of your plan.”