Chapter Nine
Air Demon
Bane looked up at a horse’s squeal and scanned the field. Men who had been dying now wandered amongst the dead, pale with shock and disbelief. A grey stallion, a moment ago lying down, now reared near a white-garbed form. He frowned, wondering what she was doing, and how she had healed the men and horse without power. Had she been lying about that too? Did she have power still? His gaze sharpened. She was awfully still, sitting rigidly as if frozen, and the warhorse pounded the ground beside her as if attacking an invisible enemy. He tensed. Yansahesh! She had strayed too far from him.
Bane Moved. Instantly he was beside her, and sensed the invisible air demon. Dark power flashed from his hand, and the demon coalesced involuntarily as it was struck, its substance burnt to ash. Bane experienced a moment of remorse as the demon perished, but the girl slumped, her skin reddened and cracked, seeping blood, her lips blue and her eyes glazed.
Bane sank to his knees beside her, experiencing again the mystifying sense of loss. An icy lance of pain impaled his chest, and conflicting emotions warred for supremacy, most of which he discarded as inconsequential. Fury goaded the darkness within him while weakness drained him and his wounds throbbed afresh. The runes scars glowed as he bent over her, finding a weak pulse. The Black Lord had not won yet. She breathed in shuddering gasps, but she was dying, her heart fluttering, blood rattling in her throat. The cold had seared her lungs, and she was drowning in her own blood.
The Demon Lord flung back his head and shouted, “No!”
Black fire coursed through him, fuelled by his rage. He raised his arms and Gathered. Darkness rushed into him, filling him with its sickening power, yet even as it burgeoned, hopelessness invaded him. Only the girl could heal. His power could only destroy, and the demon was gone already. Still, the magic soaked into him, and the runes flared, burning crimson. His father would not win. Raising his arms again, he unleashed the dark fire upwards in a column of blackness so dense it appeared that a void tore the sky apart. The power struck the grey clouds and ripped them asunder.
Bane groaned as the shadows seared his wounds. The fresh injuries in his chest and flank, so close to the four burning runes, sapped his already diminished strength. With all his will, he leashed the power, bringing it back under control before it consumed him. As he trapped it within his flesh once more, he experienced the lash of agony that followed its taming. The clouds rolled back with ponderous majesty, and a shaft of sunlight shot down.
It bathed the pale girl, making her flaxen hair shine and her eyes glow. A shimmer of golden power licked over her skin, and the blood stopped seeping, the cracks started to close, the redness receding. Her eyes closed, and a soft cough racked her, blood oozing from her lips. Her flesh healed in the sun, magically restored to pale gold. Her harsh breathing eased, and she sighed.
The light hurt Bane’s eyes and its warm touch made his skin crawl, yet he endured it to watch the miracle of her healing. He forced the dark power deeper within him, making it recede from his eyes and drain from his skin, leaving it coldly burning. The runes dimmed, their power leashed once more. His hand crept to the wound that had warped his magic, and he eyed the girl with fresh hatred.