Delver Magic: Book 05 - Chain of Bargains (52 page)

"What is it you hope to gain
from me if you win our agreement?" Holli asked, trying to distract the
draevol as she began to wonder if there was some way she could use the
creature's own demon fire against itself.

"You have surprised me with
your cunning," the fiend admitted. "When you are fully within my
service, I will demand you use it for my benefit. Do not fool yourself into
thinking you can hold back. The bargain will guarantee that you use all your
strengths to aid me in whatever cause I deem appropriate."

"That is only if you
win."

"How can I not? You proved
that you can sting me, but you are still nothing more than an insect. You
cannot flee and you cannot accept the assistance of others. The only way I lose
the bargain is if you destroy me or convince me to leave. Neither will
happen."

"But I certainly have your
attention."

"What does that prove?
Prilgrat had my attention and look at what happened to him."

The thought of the steward sparked
another consideration for the elf. Prilgrat had feared death, she did not, but
she also began to see that the steward was short-sighted in his bargain, and in
doing so, left himself open to a future of eternal suffering. In an ironic
twist, he wanted endless life, but found only permanent torment.

She began to see her situation as
a reversal of that twist. She was holding to a belief that death was her last
resort, a path she could travel to avoid defeat. In doing so, she was failing
to see the way to victory. She did not wish to die, but holding to it as some
trump card was a way for her to avoid a more difficult path.

She was hiding from a truth. She
saw the battle with the demon as vindication, perhaps even vengeance. When the
fiend threatened to obliterate her with magic, her concerns matched Prilgrat's
fear of death. She had the means to defeat the demon, but she doubted herself.
She might have gone into battle determined to use all her talents, but deep
down, she viewed them as inadequate against the demon.

She was wrong.

When she placed her magical
talents in perspective, she focused on her connection to nature, but that line
of thinking restricted her abilities. The physical aspects of her power shaped
her concentration as well as the limits she placed upon herself. The emerald
energy, however, represented far more as it encompassed life beyond the mortal
existence. She realized she needed to reach deeper into the concept of life.
The time had come for her to immerse herself into the depth of the spirit and
invoke the power that could conquer disease, sickness and even death. That was
the true strength of eternal life and the force of her magic.

It wasn't enough to simply accept
what she had become—an elf guard and a sorceress—she also had to believe in
herself, believe she had the power to overcome a demon. She shed the doubt,
cast aside her fears of weaknesses compared to the draevol and turned her attention
toward finding a way to overcome the fiend.

The image of Prilgrat showed her
the way. She saw the steward in two lights. When she first met him, he was
jovial and confident, full of life. He was brazen and garish, but he knew how
to reach his goals, misguided as they might have been. His fault was in both
his fear and his selfishness. He traded the lives of many for an escape from
his fear, but his selfishness damned him.

Holli was neither fearful nor
selfish, but she had been short-sighted. She believed in the demons
self-proclaimed superiority. It was a lie, just like the lie that ultimately
led to Prilgrat's ruin.

The sickness of the steward didn't
mean the end for the valley. The people had been saved, they would regroup. The
steward would be replaced and life would be restored to the valley. Prilgrat
was the personification of the plague. He was doubt and fear, the very emotions
that led to weakness and destruction.

Yes, plague and disease could
destroy life, but not
all
life. The
spirit would endure. Trees and plants succumbed to sickness, but new life
always returned. Even people managed to overcome the worst of the plagues. Life
persevered. That was in Holli's magic, and it was stronger than the draevol's.

She counted the arrows in her
quiver. She still had over two dozen, more than enough. It was time to use all
her skills and force the demon back into its dark realm.

She took an arrow in her hand, but
before stringing it to her bow, she focused her magical energy into the tip and
shaft. The arrow glowed a healthy green, and she fired it right between the
eyes of the demon.

The arrow found its mark and
plunged into the face of the creature. It did not pass through, but rather
exploded in a cloud of emerald passion. The green energy pulsated through the
demon and it fought against the plague magic.

The draevol did more than shriek.
It threw its hands over its pale face and writhed in agony. It was suddenly
confronted with a power it did not expect, an energy of life.

Holli fired several more enchanted
arrows and all of them hit their target. She moved with swiftness all around
the basement, firing from every angle.

After eight arrows exploded within
the demon's essence, she changed her tactics once more. She pulled the dagger
from its small sheath and placed a similar enchantment on its blade.

She focused on the perseverance of
life, the will to overcome, the desire to heal. The strength of nature was in
its ability to regenerate. She couldn't deny the strength of the plague, it
could weaken and kill, end many lives, but only individual life, not life as a
whole. Life was a gift from a power greater than sickness and disease.

The enchantment of the blade was
not meant to heal the demon, but to oppose it. It held the strength of life,
the essence of true hope, the true gift of eternity.

With the blink of an eye, she
slipped through the roots that formed the cage around the demon. She thrust the
dagger into the demon's form again and again. Emerald magic burst through the
draevol, forced it to the ground.

Realizing the elf was within
reach, the demon struck out with a gasp of rage. It erupted in demon fire,
emitting nearly all of its energy in one massive blast. It dismissed the
bargain as irrelevant, decided destroying the elf was the best strategy. It
would have to flee and hide from the wizard, but at least it had a chance to
survive. Against the pulsating attack of life, it had no chance. It
strengthened the flames with the rest of its diseased magic as well, hoping to
end the conflict in one swell of hate, which was exactly what Holli expected it
to do, even wanted it to do.

Holli called on her speed and all
of her remaining magical energy as well. She quickly placed a shield of life
around her and held to the belief that her magic was the stronger. The world
around her turned bright white. She felt nothing.

When her vision cleared, she saw
that almost everything around her had been obliterated. The roots and branches
were gone, not even meager ashes remained. The shelves and cabinets were
reduced to nothing and a huge hole opened overhead all the way to the night
sky. There were no flames, but most of the town hall had been washed away by
the demon's flame. Only charred edges of the structure and the brick foundation
remained.

The demon knelt upon the ground
before Holli, its face pointed toward the dirty stone. It would not look up and
lacked the strength to stand.

Holli still held to her dagger and
it continued to glow green with the enchantment she placed in the blade. She
waved it in front of the face of the draevol to get its attention.

"You have no energy left to
fight me," the elf stated with certainty, "but it is always in your
power to return to the dark realm. Leave now or I will end your
existence."

"You don't understand. I have
made my own agreement. To return to the dark realm means banishment to
non-existence. I will be forced into nothingness."

"Face the consequences of
your decisions or face my blade. That is your choice."

The demon howled as it faded away.
No portal opened and no spell of teleportation whisked it to safety. An abyss
of emptiness claimed the demon. Just as the draevol had forced the consequences
of its bargains on others, it was forced to face its own deserved fate.

Holli climbed out of the burnt
cellar and looked to the city. To the east there was darkness, but in that
darkness she sensed safety and calm. The west, however, glowed with the fires
born of inferns. She knew Ryson was fighting the half-demons. Despite being
exhausted and nearly devoid of magical energy, she wouldn't abandon him to
fight off the inferns alone. She ran off to find him.

Scouting near fires burning across
the western edge of Ashlan, Holli located Ryson just as it appeared he was
ready to take off toward the center of the city.

"Ryson!" Holli called
out, not wanting to have to chase the delver through the streets.

"I was just about to go to
the town hall," the delver announced, as he greeted the elf. "I
thought you might need help."

"The town hall has been
destroyed."
"The draevol?" the delver asked.

"Gone... for good. What about
the inferns?"

"All of them are gone as
well." Ryson turned to look at the blazes burning around them. "It's
the fires, though. I can't do anything about them. What about you? Some magic
maybe?"

"I have very little energy
left. Defeating the draevol took most of it, but I can try."

The elf managed to conjure a small
storm, but it amounted to little more than a shower over the city. It could not
douse the existing flames, but it helped slow their progress.

"That is all I can do, for
the moment."

"It's better than nothing. I
could try to get buckets of water on the fire. What do you think?"

Holli looked to the blazes that
engulfed several buildings.

"I think you will be wasting
your time."

"Yeah, not much good I can do
against that." The delver looked back at Holli and revealed an
embarrassing truth. "I'm happy to see you, but I have to tell you, I
thought you made a mistake fighting the draevol alone."

"It almost was a
mistake," Holli agreed, "but just as it was necessary for you to face
the inferns, I had to face my own demon."

After spending many days with the
elf following the paths the valleys offered, Ryson believed he understood. They
had struggled to find answers, and he saw the frustration Holli faced. Every
trail led to another question and they often had to double back to get past the
deceit. It was a greater challenge than he expected—simply to get to the
truth—but Holli seemed to view it as a personal affront.

It was good for him to face the
inferns and to realize the magic within him was not there to put him in harm's
way. He guessed Holli found the same measure of fulfillment in defeating the
draevol, facing the demon that challenged her.

As he contemplated the extent of
what they accomplished, he realized the goblins, the inferns, the draevol, and
even to some degree Prilgrat had all been defeated. The valleys had been
spared, just as it was indicated by the prophecy revealed to them. Still, there
appeared to be a small inconsistency and the delver made one more admission as
he considered the events in full.

"I'm thinking about the
prophecy... the way Rachael told it. I still find it a little unsettling that
all of this was some how predicted. Makes me wonder about what else we might
have to face, and even why, but I guess it missed a few details."

Holli appeared surprised by the
declaration.

"How so?"

"I thought the wizards of
white magic were going to defeat the twins. Turns out it was an elf guard who
cast green magic that defeated at least one of the draevols."

Holli smiled, but then corrected
the delver.

"The prophecy stated the
wizards would defeat the twins' plans, not the twins themselves. At least that
is what I recall. Jure sent the goblins back to the dark realm and Enin stopped
the plague."

Ryson didn't doubt the elf, or
Enin's ability to defeat the other draevol, but he wanted to confirm the good
news.

"You know that for
sure?"

"Yes, I do. I also believe
that Jure is meeting with success, but I base that on nothing more than a
feeling."

"Then it looks like we really
did win." Ryson then looked back at the fires. "Well, at least we
saved most of the valleys. I'm not sure how much we can do for Ashlan
now."

They rested for a while and as
Holli's magical energy slowly recovered she continued to feed the small squall
overhead. The clouds remained fixed above them, blocking out the stars and
adding to the darkness beyond the glow of the flames, but eventually, the sky
began to glow in the east.

"Looks like it's almost
dawn," the delver noted.

With that, the storms above
strengthened and the showers turned into a great deluge of rain. The water
poured down from the sky and rushed directly into the largest fires.

"Enin?" Ryson asked.

"Yes," Holli
acknowledged. "He just teleported back. He saw my storm and added his
power to it."

"I guess Ashlan won't burn to
the ground after all."

The wizard flew toward them,
encased in a small shield that blocked out the rain. When he reached them, he
expanded the magical field to extend over the elf and the delver.

"You shouldn't stand out in
the rain," he exclaimed with a smile.

"It was only a small shower
before you arrived," Ryson noted.

The wizard looked back and forth
between the two of them.

"Everything handled?" he
asked.