At the Gates of Darkness (24 page)

Gulamendis whispered, “Amirantha and I sense demons, but there are not that many, and they were scattered.”

“Where?” asked Pug.

“All over,” answered Amirantha. “A heavy concentration of them near that big gate where we first crossed over the road, but after that…” He shrugged.

“How about here?” asked Brandos.

“Few,” answered the elf.

Looking at Pug, Brandos said, “Perhaps a direct approach?”

“What do you propose?” asked the magician.

Glancing around at the deep night sky and shrouded landscape, Brandos said, “Unless they have night vision like friend elf here, or a cat’s, I can get close and take a look. It won’t be the first time I’ve crawled on my stomach to get a look at an enemy position.”

Pug thought for a moment and said, “I’m loath to use magic that might be detected until I know what we face. Get as close as you can, then get back here, but secrecy is paramount.”

“Understood.”

Brandos went up over the edge and on to the berm, crawling at a surprisingly efficient rate. Amirantha said, “‘Enemy position’?” He chuckled softly. “He means seeing where the local sheriff or city watch was waiting for us.”

“As long as it works,” whispered Pug.

Time dragged slowly and then they could hear Brandos returning. He snaked down on his stomach to where they crouched waiting, rolled over, and sat up. “There’s a small gate a hundred yards and a bit to the southwest. It looks like it’s the one part of the wall that’s not quite finished. There’s a wooden barrier they have to move to bring anything like a wagon in or out, and there’s only one guard. A demon,” he said to Amirantha with a grin.

“What manner?” asked the Warlock.

“Big battle demon, ram’s head, all decked out in black armor carrying a huge double-bladed axe.”

“Ram’s head?” said Amirantha, looking at Gulamendis.

The elf said, “They tend to be tractable if you can subdue them.”

“If you can subdue them,” echoed Amirantha.

“What are you thinking?” asked Pug.

“If we can subdue that demon, even for just a few minutes,” said Amirantha, “that gives us a point of ingress. If you have the means to get in unseen and look about—”

“I can do that,” said Pug. “I can render myself unseen for a short period.”

“That’s good,” said Gulamendis with a slight smile, “as we should only be able to subdue that demon for a short period.”

“What do we do with him when he stops being subdued and starts shouting alarm?” asked Brandos.

“I expect it will be dead by then,” said Amirantha pointedly.

Brandos rolled his eyes. “They tend to stop being cooperative as soon as you start killing them.”

“Then do it quickly,” he said to Brandos and Gulamendis.

“You hook him,” said Brandos, “and we’ll gut him and cook him.” Gulamendis nodded. “I’ve got one banishment that’s very quick, but it tends to be messy.”

“I don’t mind messy,” said Pug. “If we need to leave in a hurry, we can.”

“What about Magnus and his bunch?” asked Brandos.

“If they hear trouble, they know what to do,” answered Pug.

“I hope so,” said Brandos. “Because I certainly don’t.”

Pug said to Amirantha, “Take the lead.”

Amirantha nodded, but instead of crawling forward as Brandos had, he stood, motioning for the others to follow, and started walking straight to the gate.

The sentry was looking the other way for a moment when Amirantha loomed up in the darkness, and when he turned his sheep-like head in the Warlock’s direction, he uttered a curious sound, “Uh?”

Before he could make another, Amirantha had used a single word spell that stunned the creature, causing the huge axe he held to drop from limp fingers. Amirantha said to Pug, “You have perhaps ten minutes. Five is more like it.”

Pug said, “I’ll be back in five minutes.” He took a quick glance at Amirantha who stood with hand outstretched, his magic controlling the demon. Brandos stood ready to strike a killing blow if needed, with Gulamendis ready to banish the creature.

Pug took a deep breath, then started walking toward the now unguarded entryway. As he moved around the makeshift wooden barrier, he unleashed a spell he had never used
before. It was a difficult cantrip, causing him to be ignored. Not invisible, but rather when someone glanced at him, he didn’t garner notice, as if he wasn’t important enough to remember. It was a spell taught him by Laromendis the week before, and while the elf had judged Pug’s mastery of it sufficient, Pug still had doubts.

He walked through the opening and paused a moment, glancing in all directions.

The four towers rose up overhead, arching toward an open center. This close Pug could sense there was power in them, faint, perhaps dormant was a better word, but there. A tiny flicker of light danced across the tip of each from time to time, but otherwise they were quiet.

Pug could not enjoy the luxury of investigating any one aspect of this place, no matter how much he wished he could. He moved toward the massive excavation in the center of the ring, glancing from side to side to see if he was being observed. A sentry on the wall looked directly at him for a moment, then turned away, looking out over the dark berm outside the wall. Apparently the spell was working or there were other humans in dark robes seen trekking around the facility after dark.

He reached the edge of the pit and glanced in. His stomach knotted. The pit was less than thirty feet deep, but he could see the piles of bodies. The stench that rose clearly indicated they had been dead for days. Elves, humans, dwarves, and even some demons lay sprawled in the mass.

Pug stepped back and felt the freshening breeze blow the stench away. Had the air been still he would have smelled the dead at the outer gate.

He hurried toward the only feature inside the ring that offered any invitation, a small building of some sort, with a single door and no windows. As he hurried to reach the door, a voice from nearby hissed, “Pug!”

It was only by the scantest margins Pug didn’t inciner
ate Jim Dasher where he stood. “You have no idea,” Pug whispered. “Where are the others?”

“In there,” Jim pointed to the door. “There’s a stair leading down to an underground chamber.”

Pug said, “I have one minute before I must start back to where Amirantha and the others wait.” He pointed toward the unguarded entrance.

“Magnus, Sandreena, and Kaspar were taken.”

“What?”

Jim motioned for him to remain silent. “A trap. I think they knew we were coming.” Before Pug could ask how, he continued. “I used my cloak and Laromendis his conjuring skills to stay hidden. He’s heading around after you and if he hasn’t overtaken his brother and the others by now, he will by the time you get back.”

“Me?” said Pug. “My son is down there.”

“And I’m better able to slip in and out than you. Your seeming is good. I had to look at you long and hard for almost a half minute before I realized I was looking at you, but I did recognize you, and if you’re coming down stairs, even if those at the bottom think you’re someone they should ignore, you’ll be somewhere they can’t go, so let me go and I’ll meet you by the gates in five more minutes.”

“If you’re not back by then, I’ll come after you,” said Pug.

“What about the plan?” hissed Jim.

“Everyone is in place, and I’ll send Brandos with instructions if I must. I’ve lost too much to not go after Magnus.”

“Understood,” said Jim. “Now, let me go down there and I’ll find you.”

Pug hesitated, hating to leave this in another’s hands, but one complaint he had always had about his wife Miranda was her seeming inability to delegate important tasks to others. Feeling a rush of bitterness thinking of her, he nodded and turned away.

Jim Dasher knew it had been difficult for Pug to let him go. The recent loss of his wife and other son made him that much more protective of Magnus. Still, Jim knew from experience that this was exactly the situation where emotion would only get you killed.

There was a plan established, and it was the third option that only he, Pug, Kaspar, and Magnus knew of. Three companies of soldiers were assembled and ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

Each was under the command of men who Pug trusted implicitly—his adopted grandsons, Tad, Zane, and Jommy. Jommy waited in a nice quiet estate on the island of Roldem, with three hundred Roldem Royal Marines under his command.

Zane was down in Kesh with a half Legion of Kesh’s finest border Legionaries, “dog soldiers,” nearly a thousand men.

Tad was waiting in Krondor with five hundred more of the Prince’s own. Kaspar had another five hundred handpicked shock troops from the army of the Maharaja of Muboya waiting half a planet away with the young magician Jason ready to bring them here.

Any or all of them could be here in minutes. The only critical thing was one person using a Tsurani orb to get free of here and back to Sorcerer’s Island, where a simple order given would trigger a full-scale assault on this fortification.

As long as one person could get away.

Jim made his way slowly into the building, and down the circular stairs that began with a hole in the floor. He kept one hand lightly touching the wall on his left, while the other held the cloak firmly around him. The nature of this marvelous garment was reduced in proportion to his movement, but the steps were hardly wide enough to allow someone to pass, so he felt the need to reach the bottom as quickly as possible.

Five full circles and he knew he was approximately thirty feet below the surface, with the bottom still not in sight. Ten more and he saw light, and when he reached the bottom, he judged he was easily a hundred and fifty feet below the surface. It would be a wonderful climb back up, he thought, especially if he were being chased.

At the bottom, Jim discovered himself in a large room with ancient stone walls. Another of those damned ancient Keshian fortifications, he thought. This had all begun for him at that ancient site atop the plateau called the Tomb of the Hopeless, and now he found himself in one even more remote and dangerous.

Looking around for some sense of what to do, he noticed that only one of four tunnels leading away had a distant light at the end, so that’s the direction he chose.

The tunnel was also ancient stone, dry and dusty, but the floor showed the tread of many feet. He still had no concept of what this place was and why the mad magician Belasco and his demon minions had chosen to occupy this place, but he suspected whatever the reason, it was something he was going to regret discovering more than he regretted not knowing.

Reaching the end of the tunnel, he hesitated, clutching his cloak around himself and looking into the room with surprise.

A massive altar, ancient and stained black with the blood of the slaughtered centuries past, now was stained with fresh blood. Before it knelt three figures, bound in chains and forced to kneel—Kaspar, Sandreena, and Magnus.

Well, at least they’re still alive, thought Jim.

What had him stunned, to say the least, was that atop the altar lay the still form of Belasco, eyes closed. Dead, unconscious, or sleeping, he could not judge.

And standing on the other side of the altar was a slender man, whipcord strong in his appearance, stripped to the waist. His torso was covered in clan tattoos, and his teeth
had all been filed to points. Jim had never seen one before, but he had to be a Shaskahan cannibal, practitioners of especially dark magic.

Only this time the magic didn’t seem to be intended to destroy the body on the altar, but rather he appeared to be attempting to revive it. When the chanting stopped, the islander reached over and gave Belasco a gentle shake. “Master?” he whispered, loud enough that Jim could make out the word.

From out of the air came a voice. “Yes, my servant?”

“Are you with us again?” asked the islander. He appeared genuinely frightened by whatever was taking place.

“Not yet,” came the answer.

“What must I do? We trapped those coming, as you said they would. We have them bound here in chains that make their magic not work.” He looked at Sandreena and Magnus as he said the last, then at Kaspar. “We can spill blood if it will help.”

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.

T
he 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.”

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.