These men were like the Spartans. They’d come here to fight the demon, and they would complete their mission or die trying. I’d have to do my best to be worthy of their faith in me.
When a bugle-like horn sounded and the wispy fog rolled in, hordes of demon soldiers materialized and began banging, stomping, and howling, waiting for their leader to release them. Durga’s men remained brave and steady, unflinching in the face of the enemy.
Durga struck first.
Three catapults whipped large barrels into the cold air. They hit the mountain with a bang. The barrels burst, spilling their contents over the demon army. The demons shook their arms and heads and watched as more barrels were launched. The wooden bang was accompanied by a heavy thwap of canvas as the payload whistled through the air and broke, showering oil over the heads of the enemy.
In retaliation, bird-men took to the sky, heading straight for the catapults. Every man who could string a bow launched arrows at the flying demons. Durga raised her arms and sent thousands of threads into the air that wove thick nets and captured the remaining demon birds. The creatures dropped heavily through the air.
The sounds of battle were replaced with cheers from Durga’s army, filling us with hope. It was a small victory but a victory nonetheless, and my men stirred impatiently, waiting for our turn to enter the fray. The demons doubled their speed and thundered across the field. When the bulk of them passed us, I gave the signal to torch the oil field that we had had created.
The demon army shrieked horribly before falling to the ground, succumbing to a final death. Those that passed through in safety were set upon by Durga and our men who sent up a volley of arrows that I lit with fire power. As the enemy fell, one by one, and the souls of the men and beasts were released, I murmured a last wish, “I hope you find peace.”
When the battle was too close for arrows, my men raised their swords and ran forward. I stayed behind using my fire power and was able to take out a large pack of canine-demons. I cremated them in large groups, but when my men got in the way I had to switch to weapons. Ren sped forward and leapt into the fray with me on his back. My tiger pounced, ripping demons apart with teeth and claws.
He stood on hind legs and raked a paw across a demon’s head. My armor held me tightly to Ren’s body, but I could no longer see our opponent. When Ren sunk to all fours again, the demon had wicked slashes that went from the back of his neck to over the top of his head and ended between his eyes. I finished him off while Ren lashed out at a second foe on the left.
Ren, this is horrible.
It’s how a tiger fights, Kells. Try to distance yourself. Read my thoughts.
I sunk arrows into creatures’ legs, pinning them to the ground while Ren ripped their chests apart. I targeted a demon with a raised ax and hit it with darts from the trident. When one attacked me, I blocked its claws on my forearm cuff, smacked its face with my shield, and then ran it through with my sword. Another came at me with a studded mace. It hit me hard, but my armor withstood the blow and my magnetized connection to Ren kept me upright. Ren swept its feet, and when the demon fell, Ren tore at its neck and crushed its windpipe.
Becoming Durga had somehow turned me into a superhuman fighting machine. Ren and I worked in a deadly symmetry, and nothing could stop us. I was able to borrow from Ren’s battle experience and shut off the part of myself that reacted in horror. Our minds came together as one, and I realized that when I fought with a sword or used the trident, it was as much Ren wielding the weapon as me. Likewise, every time Ren swiped the enemy with a paw or spotted a charging demon, it was as if I were also his claws and eyes.
When a new group headed toward us, I touched the trident to the Rope of Fire and shot jolts of electricity at the demons. The sound it made was like the crack of thunder or a hammer hitting sheet metal. The group exploded. Before one of the enemy died, it had managed to get off a poisoned dart. With preternatural speed, I caught the dart between two fingers and flipped it around, jamming it into the tough hide of a nearby cat-demon.
Others headed our way and when Ren jumped on top of one, I leaned over almost upside down. My boots locked onto the saddle, and I was able to zap two demons with fire power underneath Ren’s chest. Then as Ren landed, I flipped up and spun backward, slashing a demon with a sword in one hand and swinging the gada with another.
Ten came at us at once and instinctively I kicked away from Ren and cartwheeled off of the saddle. My arms seemed to almost function independently. I knocked one attacker over with my shield, cut off the head of another with a sword, and while the hand with the henna tattoo glowed red, I hit others with flame. As I continued to flip, I stabbed an opponent through the heart with the trident, shot an enemy through the neck using my golden bow and a flaming arrow, and blasted two away with a wave of water that I shot from my hand using the Pearl Necklace.
Pushing off the ground as though I had jumped on a trampoline, I flipped into the air. Twisting my body up, I saw Ren tear apart a few of the cat-demons to my right. Below us, a big bear-demon growled viciously and swept the air with sharp claws, waiting for me to fall. Thinking quickly, I unwound the Rope of Fire from my waist, lit it with a blue flame, and snapped the Rope around the demon’s belly with a sizzling crack.
The momentum yanked me sideways, and I whipped around Ren’s body just as he leapt. I managed to grab Ren’s torso with one of my arms. As he shot forward, I slid into place on his back just in time. With another flick of my wrist, the Rope of Fire was once again settled at my waist. The bear-demon’s body fell, sliced into two. Ren leapt cleanly over the body and landed lightly on his front paws.
Don’t do that again, he growled in my mind.
Smiling, I thought. You have to admit it was cool.
Cool? You are a devastatingly beautiful angel of death. If death came for me and it looked like you, I’d go willingly.
Realizing they were no match for us, the demons switched course and headed toward my men.
Ren, our soldiers.
He whipped around and raced back to the small group of our men who were still alive. He rounded their flank and leapt toward the largest of the demons: an elephantman that stood on two powerful legs. It raised a weapon to defend itself but Ren was too fast. With a swipe, the weapon was gone. Then he leapt up, grabbed the beast in his jaws, and with a powerful clench and a twist of his body, threw the creature onto its back. I burned it and a dozen others.
Be careful, I admonished. You don’t heal any longer.
Don’t worry about me, sundari. Today I can do anything.
To prove his point, he used his teeth to crush the bones of one evil demon and leapt upon another, pinning it to the ground so I could finish it off.
When the last of the stragglers were taken care of, we retreated and regrouped with our remaining soldiers. We’d overcome several hundred demons with only a handful of men, but only a few dozen of our troops had survived. I told them they had served me well and told them to circle round the fire and rest.
Ren and I had a mission of our own.
Together we raced back to the grassy field. Smoke from burning bodies drifted into the air. I twisted to see the catapults still standing and cocked my head when I thought I smelled burned sugar. I heard the noise of fighting coming from beyond the fire and the roar of a distant tiger: Kishan.
It’s time to go, Kelsey.
Ren began running, gathered speed, and leapt over lines of fire. We raced toward the mountain, which was guarded by a long line of demons. They stood firm, completely unafraid.
I recognized Sunil standing on a rock jutting out from the cliff.
Raising my arm, I used fire power to take out every demon in my line of sight. Ren never broke his stride.
I glanced up at the overhang, but Sunil was gone.
“Lokesh!” I shouted. “We’ve come for you! Show yourself, you coward!”
Ren paced back and forth as we sought the devil we’d come to fight.
A laugh echoed
deeply through the purple mountains. Wind whipped around my body, carrying sinister words in its cold breath.
“At last we will be joined. The amulet will be mine. You will be mine.”
“I’d rather go with another option if it’s all the same to you!”
Ren’s eyes scanned the barren terrain. Neither of us could tell where the voice was coming from.
Then a swirling dark cloud descended from high above. Cold air moved as fast as a cyclone, and at its core stood the creature Lokesh. Dust and leaves whipped around us. He jumped, and the ground shook. Just as quickly as it swept in, the torrent blew away.
Lokesh looked like an Asian version of a Minotaur, but he was much bigger. He wore a long black robe with a Mandarin collar. His eyes narrowed, and he panted heavily with excitement, sending bursts of steam from his wide nostrils.
“So,” he said, “you’ve returned to me at last. You are even more beautiful than when last I saw you. The power of the goddess suits you, my dear.” He took a step toward me, and Ren roared and swiped at his feet.
Lokesh hissed. “Still have a cat tripping at your heels, I see. We’ll have to remedy that.” He raised his eyes to the flames on the field. “I see you’ve brought more men to add to my ranks.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I said fiercely. “The ones who have fallen have been burned. They will not rise again. I’ve released them from your spell.”
Lokesh shrugged. “No matter. There are more, many more I can recruit. I can simply end the fight with a flick of my wrist. It would be so easy to destroy what’s left of your pathetic army.”
“You wouldn’t do that. You’d harm your own soldiers too.”
He studied me for a few seconds, and then said, “I wouldn’t want my future bride to doubt my word.”
He smiled evilly, clapped his hands together, and parted them. The ground shook, and I gasped to see the catapults teeter and fall, collapsing into the hole Lokesh had created. Men and demons ran in every direction as those in the center fell into the chasm. Madly, I scanned the landscape for Durga but couldn’t see her. I watched horror-struck as the hole began to close.
Kishan!
No. He’s fine, Ren told me.
I saw a flash of gold as Kishan clawed his way out of the closing pit. Durga was clinging tightly to his back. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Is that the younger prince I see?” Lokesh snorted. “His resilience is tiresome.”
As Kishan and Durga ran, Lokesh opened new holes in the ground and laughed. Kishan leapt over them one after another until he and Durga finally disappeared into the trees.
“Leave them alone,” I threatened.
“Or . . . what, my little love?”
I raised my bow and nocked an arrow, infusing it with lightning power. “Or I’ll end your existence.”
He bent at the waist with a flourish. “Please do try.”
I let loose the arrow, and he twisted his fingers. A wind knocked the arrow wide, and it sunk into the side of the mountain. The explosion caused a shower of stone.
“I’m disappointed. I was rather hoping to see you put on a show.”
“Don’t return your ticket just yet.” I smiled and narrowed my eyes.
Faster than thought, Ren dodged around Lokesh and jumped, hitting the side of the mountain. In great leaps and bounds he climbed and flipped over in a barrel roll with claws and teeth aimed at Lokesh. I stood on the saddle and cast myself into the air. All of my weapons were fixed on the demon. At once I fired darts with the trident, shot arrows, and swung the gada.
Lokesh deflected the projectiles with the wind and raised a wall of stone to block Ren, who hit it hard and fell to the ground, but the gada struck the evil sorcerer’s shoulder. Lokesh staggered back, bellowing in pain.
“I’ll make you pay for that.”
“Promise?” I asked as I landed smoothly on my feet and raised my sword.
Lokesh came after me and just as he was about to wrap his arms around me, I closed my eyes and disappeared, reappearing on top of the stone wall.
“How did you do that?” he demanded.
“Give up and I’ll tell you.”
Ren crouched behind Lokesh, momentarily forgotten. His tail twitched back and forth, and he gathered himself to spring just as an arrow grazed his shoulder. Sunil had joined the fight and raced toward Ren.
Lokesh raised his hands, and a cyclone of air lifted him on top of the rock wall next to me. He attacked with a huge scimitar, but I blocked it with my sword. I advanced with a flurry of arms, dancing atop the thin rock wall, but Lokesh deflected each blow with shields of ice and stone. I realized he was playing with me and decided I needed to bring in the big guns. Gracefully, I backflipped off of the rock and landed lightly on my feet. I glanced at Ren, who was trying to overcome Sunil without killing him. One of his paws was bleeding.
Stay focused, Ren thought.
Lokesh brought his hands down and the rock wall sunk into the ground. I raised a hand to blast him with lightning power, but he combated it with ice. He sent a wave of water at me, which I turned to fog. Anamika must have finished off the remaining demons because some of our soldiers joined us in the fight. The plan had been that when the demon army was all cremated, she and Kishan would rally the others to help us.
The men fired arrows against Lokesh but he turned the arrows back on them using the power of the wind and killed many. The rest he turned to stone or ice statues, and I despaired knowing that our army—a half a million men—had been mostly wiped out in less than forty-eight hours. He tried to freeze me, but I gripped the Rope of Fire and moved myself to another location.
He raised a mist that crept over the entire battlefield, obscuring our position but still another small group of soldiers came upon us and threw spears at Lokesh. Once again, he reversed them in the air. In a flash I snapped the Rope of Fire and flicked the weapons away just before they hit our men. I shouted for them to go help Ren.
I felt a rumble in the ground. A boulder tore away, and heavy rocks lifted into the air. Trees were uprooted and then hurtled toward me, but I whipped the Rope of Fire in a circle beneath me and rose into the sky.
My foot touched an outstretched branch, and I leapt from treetop to rock to branch and rode a falling trunk until it crashed to the ground. Scraped but otherwise unharmed, I stood up atop the teetering mess and glared up at Lokesh. In an instant the Rope of Fire moved me to him, and my sword pressed against his throat.
“Impressive,” Lokesh said.
I cut the ancient medallion of black magic from his neck and burned it instantly.
“Your zombie army days are over.”
He shoved the sword away from his neck, grabbed one of my arms, and pressed me close. “If that had been the real medallion, but it’s not. I learned the trick from you, my dear. Remember?”
I glanced down at Sunil. He was still fighting with Ren. An arm hung punctured and broken but he was obviously still under the power of Lokesh. Bitter disappointment washed through me but again I heard Ren’s voice.
We’ll get it.
I wiped Lokesh’s spittle from my cheek and prepared to fight anew, but before I could lift a weapon a rider charged in through the mist below. He bowed before Lokesh and his raven cape billowed behind him.
“General Amphimachus!”
“I delivered your message,” the traitor said to Lokesh.
Lokesh raised his head as if sniffing the wind. “Yes, she is close enough now, and he is not resisting.”
“What did you do?” I asked Amphimachus.
The general whirled. “The other goddess is on her way to rescue you, but that will not come to pass. Mahishasur, the demon king you call Lokesh, is going to make me the leader of his army. All I need to do is pick an animal, and because you love them so much, I will choose . . . a tiger.”
“You may not have this one,” Lokesh said. “You can have the other.”
“But she’s the one I want,” Amphimachus whined.
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“Would you prefer having me remove your other leg?”
Amphimachus shook his head, and Lokesh waved him aside. “Go deal with the tiger,” he commanded.
Lokesh stalked toward me, and a long forgotten story Mr. Kadam had shared flashed through my mind. Taking a few steps back, I held up a shaking hand, fell to my knees, and said, “Please, don’t hurt me or my friends any longer. I . . . I give up. Spare me.”
Lokesh grabbed a fistful of my golden hair and tugged. “Perhaps,” he said lustily, “if you please me suffic—”
Before he could finish his gloating, I whipped my golden sword up to his throat. It cut deep into his thick neck, and he stumbled back, clutching at his wound and bellowing. For a moment I thought I had killed him, but Lokesh’s wound began to heal. The gurgle of his breathing steadied. In that instant, I knew that it would take much more to destroy him.
Ren felt my dismay at my failure. He knocked Sunil over and raced back to my side. I leapt on his back and without breaking his stride we circled widely and headed back to confront Lokesh again.
It’s okay. We’ll get him, but we can’t let Lokesh control Durga, Ren quietly insisted. We have to stop whatever it is that he has planned for her.
As we spoke, the goddess riding the black tiger appeared out of the mist. Amphimachus lifted a spear, ready to meet Kishan and Durga. Kishan fought him with heavy claws, but Durga seemed to be in a trance.
Ren headed toward them as I raised the Rope of Fire and whipped it around Amphimachus’ leg. The blue flame did its work. He screamed in terrible pain, clutching his head. Kishan leapt at his throat and finished him off.
“That’s unfortunate for him. He won’t be able to fully appreciate his transformation. When they’re dead it doesn’t hurt,” Lokesh sneered from behind me and yanked the real medallion from his pocket.
Suddenly, Durga came out of her trance. She touched the Scarf to her sword, gripped the blade with two hands, and formed a kite that lifted her into the air, away from Kishan. She dropped to her feet and drew her weapons, aiming them on me. I whipped my body to the side, barely hanging onto Ren as the chakram flew over our heads.