Demon Lord V - God Realm (14 page)

Bane smiled.
"No, I did not. Give it back."

Ethra pouted
and continued to clutch it for a moment before she handed it to him
with sulky reluctance. Bane placed it on the small table beside the
bed, where it collapsed into a pile of gold coins.

Artan gaped at
the coins, and then leant forward again. "My lord, if this god is
watching us, he will know what you are from your powers."

"Up to a
point, if he was, which he is not. He would only know that I am a
mortal god, not that I am a dark one."

"Is that a
good thing?"

"Yes, because
he will not consider me a threat."

Artan frowned.
"I dislike that we've been separated. It's not safe. These people
are not to be trusted. Perhaps I should stay here to guard you
while you sleep, My Lord?"

"That will not
be necessary. These walls are sufficient protection, and the door
will not open unless I allow it."

"What about
the rest of us?"

Bane glanced
at Ethra. "Yes, I am remiss. Perhaps you should share a room with
your warriors and my father and Grem, and barricade the door. The
women may sleep in here if they wish, as will my wife, of course.
All ten of us in one room would be a little crowded."

"An excellent
plan, My Lord." He stood up. "I'll go and tell the others."

As the door
closed behind Artan, Bane closed his eyes and yawned. Ethra glanced
at the pile of dirty clothes he had shed before bathing, then at
his dusty trousers.

"Do you intend
to wear such dirty clothes?" she enquired.

He opened one
eye. "Do I have a choice? I lack the strength to wash them, and
although Mirra will doubtless wish to do it, I will not allow her
to."

"Why not?"

"She is my
wife, not my servant."

"I'll do it,
if you wish."

"That would be
helpful."

"Perhaps for a
gold coin?"

Bane chuckled.
"Ethra, if you desire gold, I will give you as much as you want.
Just ask."

She bowed her
head and bit her lip. "No, My Lord, I don't deserve it. You saved
my life many times, and I wasn't nice to you."

He considered
her, raised his arms and rested his head on his hands. "You were
the one who came after me when I fell into the crevasse."

"But your
friend would have saved you anyway."

"Yes, but if
you had not found me, I would have had only Grem and Mithran to
carry me, and they would not have had the strength to bring me this
far, this fast. Kayos would have been forced to leave us before the
dark god who was following him caught up, and we would still have
been out there now, in danger."

She looked at
him shyly. "I didn't carry you."

"Let us not
split hairs."

Ethra stood
and gathered up his discarded clothes, then turned to gaze
pointedly at his trousers. Bane glanced down and grimaced. Pulling
the sheet over himself, he removed them and handed them to her.
Despite the soft splashing she made washing his clothes, and the
interruptions when Sarrin and Mirra arrived and then when Ethra
went to fetch her things from her room, Bane managed to doze until
all was quiet. Ethra closed the curtains and he sealed the door
before he fell into a deep sleep.

Chapter Seven

Blind God

Ethra opening
the curtains to allow the ruddy light in woke Bane. Everyone was
awake and hungry, even Mirra, who smiled and kissed him. They
trooped down to breakfast, and consumed a pleasant repast that cost
another five gold coins. The cowled man watched them from beneath
his hood, or Bane assumed he did, since it was hard to tell if he
had eyes in the cowl's darkness.

After
breakfast they returned to their rooms, Bane to rest and the others
to amuse themselves talking or fixing their equipment. The massive
pillars of fire that lighted and warmed the town made a soft
roaring that underscored everything, and lent an unsettling air to
the place. When they grew hungry again, they went down to the
common room and ate another delicious, expensive dinner, then
returned to their rooms once more.

A
blood-chilling scream jerked Bane awake, and he sat bolt upright.
Impenetrable darkness filled the room, and even when he sharpened
his sight he could barely make out the dark shapes that crouched
where Ethra and Sarrin slept on the floor. Bane yanked the covers
over Mirra and slid from the bed. Sarrin screamed again, beating at
the creatures that crouched over her.

Bane's first
instinct was to lash out with the dark power, but Gathering it
while he was so weak was not a good idea, even if he was not so
loath to suffer its touch again. His second urge, hot on the heels
of the first, was to use his inborn powers, but he had not yet
mastered them sufficiently that he could be certain of not harming
Ethra and Sarrin.

In a split
second he made his decision and summoned the blue power, drawing it
from the air as easily as breathing. As it flowed into him, he
channelled it and flung it at the dark shapes in a blazing blue
bolt. Two of the beasts howled and leapt from their victims, smoke
rising from their hides. Three others charged him, moving with
unnatural speed. Bane tried to avoid them, but his weakness slowed
him, and one struck him in the side, sinking fangs into his flesh.
Bane cursed, and blue fire burst from his hands, scorching the
beast, which howled again. He punched it, sending it rolling away,
then the other two leapt at him, bowling him over.

A shriek from
the bed sent an icy pang of alarm through him, and he unleashed the
power of his mind, sending the two horrors flying away to smack
against the walls with a sickening crunch of breaking bones.
Another two left the struggling women and charged him, and he flung
the blue power at them, consuming one in a fiery flare, but missing
the other, which leapt at his throat. He flung up an arm, but the
force of the impact made his head hit the floor with a resounding
thud, and stars danced in his eyes. Becoming aware of a pounding on
the door, he unsealed it, and it flew open to admit Artan and the
men, along with a little light from the hall.

Bane jerked up
his chin, sending the beast flying away, and it sprayed his face
with something that burnt. Rolling onto his side, he pawed at the
liquid, which scalded his hands as well. His eyes were on fire, and
he rubbed them as the thuds, clangs, shouts and screams of a full
scale battle rang around the room. The ten souls of his group were
all there, assuring him that no one had died. Mixed with them were
the small, dull red souls of dark beasts. Bane rose to his feet and
staggered into the wall, hitting his head again. He slid down it
and lay gasping, clutched his eyes and called Mirra.

After a last
clang and curse, silence fell, then a pale soul light hurried over
to him, and a sword clattered on the stone beside him. A strong
hand gripped his arm.

"Bane! Are you
all right?" Mithran demanded.

Bane shook his
head. "My eyes!"

"Open the
curtains!"

Another two
people approached, and a third ran to the side of the room that had
windows, then smaller, soft hands tried to pull his hands away from
his face.

"Let me see!"
Sarrin cried, her voice cracked with anguish.

Bane swore.
"It hurts! Where is Mirra? Is she all right?"

"Bring water,"
she shouted at someone.

"Where is my
wife?" Bane bellowed.

"She's all
right; she's just unconscious," Mithran's voice assured him.

Bane writhed,
cursing as the pain increased with every passing moment.

Sarrin
crouched over him, trying to pry his hands away. "Let me see!"

Bane's urge to
grip his face and rub his eyes was too strong, however. His panic
mounted as the pain redoubled, making him long to rip his eyes
out.

"Artan, help
me!" Sarrin shouted. "You, hold him down. Get his hands away from
his face."

Several more
people gathered around Bane, and many strong hands held him down as
others tried to pry his hands from his eyes. After several moments
of struggle, Artan said, "It's useless. He's stronger than the lot
of us put together."

"Bane!" Sarrin
gazed down at him, her heart filled with despair. "Bane, listen to
me! Let me see your eyes!"

The mottled
red marks on his pale skin, arranged in a splash pattern around his
eyes, made Sarrin's heart twist with anguish. Tears poured from
under his hands, which gouged at his eyes in a frenzy of pain. Her
ordeal made her weak and dizzy, and blood still oozed from the side
of her neck. Ethra was worse off, and she was not sure the girl
would survive, but she had to save Bane's eyes.

"Bane, I can
stop the pain, just move your hands." She tugged at his hands
again, and this time he allowed her to pull them away, groaned and
drew back his lips in a snarl of agony. Sarrin grabbed the bowl of
water from the soldier beside her and poured it over his face,
washing off the acid.

"Open your
eyes."

Bane swore. "I
cannot!"

Sarrin forced
open one of his eyes to pour water into it. Bane groaned and
smashed his fist into the wall, making her glad that he seemed to
know he was hitting it and not a person. She did the same with his
other eye, washing out the acid, but they were extremely bloodshot.
The pain seemed to lessen, however, and he stopped writhing, but
continued to grit his teeth, the muscles of his jaw bulging.

Sarrin turned
to Artan. "Fetch me some milk."

Artan ran off,
and she leant over Bane, wishing that she could examine his eyes,
but he kept them screwed shut.

Sarrin looked
around at the carnage, her stomach knotted with revulsion. The
bodies of twelve dark beasts littered the floor in pools of brown
blood, their hideous, misshapen forms partially covered with coarse
black hair. Long fangs filled their jaws, and they gave off a rank
stench. She glanced over at Ethra's still form, calling to the
soldier who tended her, "Has she stopped bleeding?"

"It's slowing,
priestess."

She turned to
Mithran and Grem, who knelt beside Mirra on the floor beside the
bed. "How is she?"

"She appears
unharmed, but will not wake," Mithran said with a frown.

"She is a
healer. She will be all right."

"She had
little power left. I think now she has none."

Artan trotted
back in, dragging a terrified girl who shrieked and tried to flee
when she spotted the beasts’ bodies. He twisted her arm and marched
her over to Sarrin.

"I don't get
it," he said. "She doesn't understand me. She speaks
gibberish!"

"Let me go!"
the girl cried, and Artan looked surprised.

"But in the
kitchen -"

"Never mind
that now," Sarrin said. "We need milk, girl, at once!"

The girl
nodded, and Artan released her, then followed her as she ran
out.

Sarrin turned
back to Bane. "Can you get up?"

Bane nodded,
and Grem and Mithran helped him over to the bed, which he sank down
on. Water dripped from his hair and ran down his chest, mingling
with the blood that oozed from two puncture wounds in his side.
Sarrin cupped his face and pried open an eye, dismayed by its
redness and the tears that streamed from it. Artan raced back with
a jug of milk, and she poured some into her hand, dripping it into
Bane's eyes. He groaned, and blue fire sparkled at his fingertips,
making the men step back. Sarrin kept pouring milk into his eyes
until the jug was empty and milk ran down him. When she stopped, he
bowed his head and blinked rapidly.

"Keep them
closed," she advised, then went to Ethra and knelt beside her to
feel for a pulse in her neck, which was weak and rapid. The bandage
the soldier had wrapped around her neck was soaked with blood, but
the bleeding seemed to have stopped. Artan came to stand beside
her, glancing at the dead beasts with a grimace of disgust.

"Vampires," he
said.

Sarrin studied
one of the misshapen black creatures. It had bat wings and bulging
eyes, small clawed hands halfway along its wings and a long,
rat-like tail. "Vampires that spit acid."

Artan glanced
at Bane. "The acid smog we walked through did nothing to him, yet
this did. How is that possible? And why didn't that girl understand
me in the kitchen, yet she did here?"

Sarrin shook
her head. "You will have to ask Bane. Unless..." She looked at
Mithran and Grem, but they shook their heads.

"Is he blind?"
Mithran asked, casting a worried glance at his son.

"For the
moment."

"Will it
heal?"

She stood up.
"I do not know."

Artan
approached the place where Bane had fought the beasts, and Sarrin
and Mithran joined him. The acid that had missed Bane had eaten
deep into the floor and wall.

"I think that
answers your question. If that had been one of us, we'd have no
head left," Mithran muttered.

Sarrin
returned to Bane and sat beside him, studying his face. The mottled
red marks still marred his skin, and tears continued to pour down
his cheeks to drip from his chin. She dressed the wound in his
side, winding the bandage around his waist.

"What is wrong
with Mirra?"

His soft words
made her jump. "She will not wake, that is all. I think she hit her
head."

"Bring her to
me."

Mithran
scooped Mirra up and laid her beside Bane, who pulled her into his
arms and cradled her against his chest, stroking her hair.

"And
Ethra?"

"She is hurt.
You saved us, but the vampires took a lot of blood from her."

"How did they
get in?"

"I do not
know." Sarrin glanced at Artan, who searched the room with the rest
of the men. After several minutes, Grem discovered a hole in the
wall under the bed. Sarrin tended to her injury with Artan's help,
and then sent him for more bandages. He returned empty handed,
dragging the kitchen girl.