"What the hell did they make
that from, fermented horse dung?"
Tallis smiled. "I do not think
so."
"Well that is what it tastes
like, or at least that is what I would imagine fermented horse dung
would taste like."
"Why did you abandon Mirra?" The
question burst from her, and she bit her tongue, wishing it
unasked.
He frowned, his eyes becoming
distant. "So that is why you are here, so you can be the first
person to find out what happened."
Miserably she nodded.
He stared past her. "I knew I
was dying. I tried to reach her. I failed."
"Did the Black Lord prevent
you?"
"No. Although he probably would
have, had she managed to get any closer."
"Why did you leave her? Why did
you not bring her with you?"
"I tried." His
eyes focu
ssed on her. "I had
to be touching her to Move her with me."
"Oh." Tallis looked away,
ashamed. If he was telling the truth, she had no right to blame
him. She lifted the cup again, but he took it with a trembling
hand. He swallowed a mouthful, pulling a face at its bitter
taste.
"Will you... are you going to
try to save her?" she asked.
He paused for what seemed to her
an eternity, studying the murky fluid in the cup. "You do not think
I will, do you?"
"Not after what you did to her."
Again she cursed her truant tongue, which spoke without consulting
her brain.
His piercing eyes impaled her.
"You have no right to judge me, girl." He tried to sit up, but
failed. "I was supposed to kill her, yet I have already brought her
back from beyond death."
She stared at him in
astonishment, too surprised to retreat from his ire. "How...?"
"Evidently the old woman was not
spying on me at the time," he said, "or she would have told
you."
"But you tortured her."
"Did I?" He glared at her. "You
have no idea what I am capable of, do you? Had I chosen to really
torture her, it would have driven her mad, and I doubt she would
have survived. I treated her badly, yes. I chose to think of it as
torture, but it was not. I thought she was my enemy, sent to kill
me. Yet I let her live."
"And you think that excuses
it?"
"Tallis!" Elder Mother's voice
cracked from the doorway, making the young healer jump up,
mortified. She bowed her head and hurried out, receiving a sharp
glare from Ellese.
Ellese turned to Bane. "Take no
notice of her. She is just worried about Mirra."
Bane shrugged and lowered his
gaze to the tonic in his cup, regarding it with deep loathing.
Ellese picked up the bottle and took Tallis' place beside him on
the bed, topping up the cup.
"Drink it all."
"You jest."
"No, I do not. The Black Lord's
army approaches, you must regain your strength."
"This stuff is more likely to
poison me."
"We do not have much time."
He shot her a resentful look and
took another gulp of the tonic, his face twisting.
"Dragonroot?"
"That is one of the ingredients,
with others that prevent its after effects."
He glanced down at the pale scar
on his belly, running a finger along it. "How did you do this?"
"The Lady granted a miracle. The
True Fire aided us."
"She intends me to keep my
promise, it seems."
"Promise?"
Bane shook his head and gulped
down the rest of the tonic, shuddering when it was finished. He
frowned at the empty cup, then raised his eyes, giving her the
benefit of his piercing gaze. "Do you really think I am a god?"
Ellese hesitated, taken by
surprise, then inclined her head, giving up any idea of
prevaricating. It was probably time he knew. "Yes. I do not think
it; I know it. Arkonen made you one before you were born. I watched
him do it. He had to, for no ordinary mortal could wield the amount
of power you do, nor would they be able to control demons as you
can. You would not have the power to destroy a god, as you do,
unless you are one."
He lay back, closing his eyes.
"I do not feel like a damned god."
"You almost died."
"Gods do not die."
"Mortal ones do."
Bane snorted, looking deathly
tired, his skin still pale. Shadows of weariness lurked under his
eyes. She took the empty goblet and moved to the chair, wondering
what promise he had made to the Lady. Mirra's peril filled her with
anguish, not only because of her love for the girl, but because of
how Bane might react if she perished. He was unpredictable in the
extreme. Only half an hour passed before a young healer appeared in
the doorway, her wide eyes seeking Ellese.
"Mother, the monsters are upon
us."
Ellese nodded and glanced at
Bane, who had opened his eyes at the acolyte's words. He swung his
legs off the bed and levered himself upright, paling with the
effort.
"Bring me my clothes."
Ellese handed him a fresh shirt,
which he donned, tucking it into the trousers he had slept in, then
found his boots under the bed. When he had pulled them on, she held
out his cloak, and he clipped it on. His first attempt to stand
failed, and he sank back down, looking furious. Ellese went over
and tried to help him, but he shook her off.
"I can do it."
Ellese glanced
at the bevy of healers
that
now filled the doorway, watching Bane with deep concern. On his
second attempt, he rose to his feet and stood swaying for a moment
before his knees gave way. Ellese rushed to help him up, ignored
his attempts to shake her off and gestured to the healers to help
her. One took his other arm, and, between them, they lifted him to
his feet and walked with him to the door, his knees buckling with
every stride.
The rest of the healers followed
as they half carried, half dragged him through the temple. The
wounded soldiers who lay in the halls watched the little procession
pass with incredulous expressions. An Elder Mother brought the
bottle of tonic and attempted to give Bane some when they paused
for a brief rest in a doorway. He snarled at her, making her recoil
from the faint surge of dark power that emanated from him. It
surprised Ellese, but not a lot, for Bane was in a foul temper
indeed, and it was just as well to remind the healers of who and
what he was. They were becoming immured to his presence, and it was
not a good idea to take liberties with the Demon Lord, no matter
how bad his health.
Martal was in
the inner garden, where his men guarded the hastily barricaded
gates, looking resigned to their fate. Ellese stopped by the
fountain, intending to let Bane sit on
its edge, but he shook his head. Martal stared at him
with a mixture of hatred and disbelief.
"Take me
outside,"
Bane
said.
"You cannot stand alone."
"It does not matter."
Martal walked closer, eyeing
Bane. "Is he going to be any use to us in this state?"
"Watch, if you
have the courage," Bane
said.
"Open the gates," Ellese gasped,
bowing under his weight.
Martal shouted
the order, and his men pulled aside the barricade of overturned
handcarts and bags of grain. The healers staggered towards it, Bane
unable to do more
than move
his legs. Outside the temple walls, the army of dark creatures
blackened the land to the distant forests, shuffling closer. When
Bane emerged, they gibbered and howled, but most held their ground,
only a few moved away furtively. The reason for their bravery stood
beyond the hallowed ground, five earth demons ready to crush any
who dared to flee.
"Put me down," Bane instructed
when they were about two hundred yards from the temple.
Ellese and her helper lowered
him to his knees, and he sank back on his haunches. She
straightened and eyed the massed monsters, her heart quailing.
"Go back inside the temple,"
Bane ordered.
Beyond the host, the demons bent
and struck the ground with their fists, sending deep, booming
reverberations through the earth. The horde howled, the goading
galvanising them and terror driving them to attack. Ellese
hesitated, loath to leave Bane alone in the midst of this snarling
throng, where it seemed certain that he would be torn apart. How
could even he hope to defeat so many?
With a roar, the Black Lord's
army charged, and Bane shouted, "Go! Now!"
Ellese fled, her helper taking
her arm and dragging her along, crying out in fear. As they reached
the abbey, Ellese turned to look back, her stomach churning. Bane
knelt, a small, solitary figure before the charging masses, his
cloak flaring in the cold wind. He waited until the dark army was
about two hundred yards away, then raised his arms and spread his
hands. Black fire poured from his palms in twin rivers of darkness
that struck the horde's leaders as he swept it across their ranks.
Those it touched either burst into flames or exploded in showers of
gore, dying with brief, agonised shrieks.
Bane turned, guiding the searing
conduits to raze hundreds of goblins, trolls and rock howlers. Dark
creatures quit the shelter of the wood and charged into the fray.
Vampires took wing and swooped down to try to rend him with teeth
and claws. Their terror of the Black Lord, who had promised them
death if they failed, overwhelmed their fear of Bane. This proved
to be well founded, however, for as fiery comets they plummeted
from the sky, their screams mingling with the cries of those who
perished on the ground in ever-increasing numbers.
The stench of burning flesh and
torn entrails hit Ellese in a wall of foulness. Combined with the
illness the dark power brought, it made her stomach heave. Martal
watched the slaughter with wide eyes, looking pale and sick.
"Goddess!"
The demons pounded the ground,
urging the army on, promising death to any who fled. The mangled,
burning corpses piled up all around Bane, forming a low wall of
dead. Within the circle of carnage, the Demon Lord guided the power
with negligent waves of his hands.
Bane's stores
of dark power dwindled as he hurled it from him in waves of
burning, deadly shadow, unable to Gather while he was so weak.
Gathering drained his strength, and, at this moment, he did not
have much of
that. A troll in
the front ranks fell to his knees and prostrated himself in abject
worship, and Bane spared him, letting the fire skip over him to his
neighbour.
Others noticed
the cowering, unharmed troll, and followed his example, receiving
the same treatment. Soon hundreds of
dark folk were prostrated on the ground, and many of the
creatures of darkness assumed similar poses and received mercy. The
tide of the battle turned, and the demons beyond the hallowed
ground vanished into the earth one by one. As soon as the last one
left, the remainder of the horde fled, those who had been spared
racing after them.
The Demon Lord sent the dark
fire in pursuit, goading them to greater efforts as he picked off
stragglers who had not bowed to him, sending them to their deaths
with explosions of fire and despairing screams. When the last of
them vanished into the woods or over the distant hills, he let the
dark power die, leashing the remainder into his bones. His arms
fell to his sides and his head bowed in utter exhaustion, then he
slumped to the ground.
Ellese gave a cry of anguish and
ran to him, four soldiers carrying a stretcher overtaking her. When
she reached him, they had lifted him onto it, and he lay like one
dead. She walked beside him as they carried him back to the abbey,
keeping her gaze on his face to avoid looking at the mounds of dead
that lay all around the place where he had been. Martal waited at
the gates, and took her arm when she seemed ready to drop from
weariness and stress. They followed the stretcher into the temple,
where Bane was once more laid on the bed in his room. As the
soldiers left, Martal shook his head in amazement.
"What did he need an army
for?"
Ellese forced a brittle smile
and sank down on the chair. "He was ill when he rose from the
Underworld. Using so much power then would have led to his death
before he broke the wards. Also, he was vulnerable to assassins who
might have shot him from afar. The army was there to protect him.
That is why he always camped in the middle of it. He also had to
sleep. For all his powers, he can be killed as easily as any other
mortal... well, almost."
"And now that he is healed, he
has unlimited power?"
"He will need it to fight the
Black Lord."
"And afterwards? You do realise
that he could rule this world, and no one could stand against
him."
Bane snorted softly, a faint
smile curling his lips.
Ellese gazed at him. "Yes, he
could."
"So, by healing him, you have
given him this option. Otherwise he would have died at the seventh
ward, correct?"
She nodded. "That is right, and
we would be at the Black Lord's mercy now."
"So, instead, we may end up
being ruled by the Demon Lord, and who is to say he will be any
better?"
"Martal," Bane muttered, "go and
jump in the cesspit."
The Baron
reddened
and stepped towards
the bed, then thought better of it and turned back to Ellese. "You
do see what you have done, do you not? You had a wolf in the hen
house, so you put another wolf in to kill the first, but you will
still end up with a wolf eating your chickens."
She smiled serenely. "Except
that the second wolf does not eat chickens."
Bane chuckled.
Martal shot him a glare. "How
can you be sure of that? Even if he does not now, he may develop an
appetite for them in the future."