The Devil's Deuce (The Barrier War) (67 page)

Danner cut the harness from his body and soared forward,
losing some of the momentum he’d gained from being towed by the buggy. He
pumped his wings though, concentrating on speed, and he shot over the top of
the Barrier as little more than a streak of blue against the black sky. People
beneath him stared upward in awe and shock, unable to discern who or what it
was flying overhead. Most came to the easy conclusion that he was an angel
coming down at last from Heaven to deliver them from the demons’ clutches.
Danner had already passed by when a thunderous cheer rang out all across the
Barrier.

Danner looked down, but he was too high to see details. Then
abruptly his vision sharpened like a hawk’s, and he could see everything down
to a blade of dried, blood-soaked grass sticking up from between a demon’s
clawed toes. He searched only a second before he found Birch, still standing and
fighting desperately against the overwhelming press of Hellish monstrosities
around him.

Any second now, Birch would be overwhelmed. Flaring his
wings only slightly, Danner shifted his aim and bolted downward like a streak
of lightning. He bellowed ferociously, the sound roaring from his throat with
the force of an avalanche. Everyone on the ground, including Birch, looked up
in surprise and saw Danner rushing down. The demons, sensing the presence of a
holy immortal, backed away quickly, too shocked to think clearly, or they might
have realized their overwhelming numbers were more than enough to stand up to a
single heavenly presence.

Birch, however, recognized Danner and reacted immediately to
his arrival. In one smooth motion, Birch sheathed his sword and scooped Selti
up from the ground, then held a hand skyward. Too late, the demons realized
what was happening and they made a rush at Birch. Danner pulled up at the last
second and grasped Birch’s hand, nearly crushing the bones in his uncle’s
wrist. The two paladins soared into the sky, leaving the press of demons
howling in fury below them.

Danner looked over his shoulder and saw a black wave of
flying creatures sweeping toward him, but Danner was going too fast and knew
they would never catch up to him. He glanced down to see that his uncle was all
right, then concentrated on getting back home. When they were almost to the
Barrier, with no pursuit close behind them, Danner knew they were safe.

- 3 -

 Malith recovered from his shock quickly, his thoughts fierce
and savage. Even as the angelic figure was lifting Birch clear from Malith’s
trap, the Black paladin was reaching for a crossbow. He glanced at the bolt
loaded in the weapon and snarled in malicious pleasure.

He followed the glowing target carefully, leading him with
an expert’s keen eye. Without any immediate danger of pursuit, the winged
figure was flying in a straight path, making it easier for Malith to aim. His
finger squeezed slowly on the trigger until it reached the last possible point
of resistance. When the pair crossed the right point in his sights, Malith’s
finger squeezed back a hair’s breadth more, and the bolt leapt free of the
crossbow with a vicious hiss.

Malith watched the black streak until it became invisible in
the distance. Then suddenly the blue-winged shape lurched in the air and Birch
fell free. The Gray-cloaked paladin caught his descent a second later, but the
angelic being kept going and then fell almost straight down. Malith lost sight
of them both as they disappeared behind the wall of the Barrier, but he knew
he’d gotten him.

Whoever or whatever it was, the mysterious rescuer had
plummeted to the ground unchecked and was likely dead.

Healing works better when the paladin praying has a clear idea of the
injury, but the most complex injuries and nearly all diseases are beyond our
ability to heal. Reds study anatomy to better their skills as a warrior, but
Greens study anatomy to better heal the results of such violence.

- Green Paladin Garth Vetter,

“Anatomy and Healing” (654 AM)

- 1 -

Marc glanced down the street, first to his left, then the
right. The sun was still a ways off from rising, and the streets were dark and
hauntingly empty. A dying torch sputtered in a sconce above Marc’s head, and he
held up a hand to block the light as he peered about. Seeing no one, he hurried
across the intersection, Alicia in tow behind him. Sin slid into view from
behind a tall building and gleamed balefully down on the Orange paladin and his
twin sister.

Danner and Trebor had left nearly an hour ago, and Marc was
just now arriving at the chapterhouse of the Prismatic Order. His concern for
his friends was outweighed by the need to see his sister to safety; and
besides, Danner and Trebor could take care of themselves. But with someone
after Alicia as a means to get to Danner, she was in more danger than she could
handle and would need the protection of those still at the chapterhouse. A
minimal staff of paladins remained in the complex, including the Prismatic
Council. Also, there were a few remaining trainees who had yet to achieve the
honor of becoming paladins.

Marc knew there were at least four young men who still wore
the off-white cloaks that signified their failure to achieve full membership.
Every trainee had put on such a cloak at the end of their official training
(the few that hadn’t received a cloak when Marc had received his had been
granted their own by the time Marc had returned from fighting the Merishank
army), and only a handful had not had their cloaks change to one of the six
primary colors of the Facet. Those few had stayed behind, and Marc had heard
that some of them had at last become full paladins; at least one of them had
quit instead of sticking it out. Now, with the war at hand, the remaining trainees
stayed in the hope that they might become full paladins in time to be of use.
Certainly, as full-fledged warriors of God, they would be a greater benefit
than as just another sword on the wall.

A Red paladin at the gate challenged Marc, but let him
through when he saw his orange cloak.

“She’s here to be placed under the protection of the Prism,”
Marc said when the Red asked him. “She’s my sister, and she has need of our
help.”

“Understood, brother,” the other paladin said. A number of
paladins had brought their families to live in the confines of the chapterhouse
for the duration of the war. Already, many of those families had formed support
groups to comfort the widows and orphans of the paladins who had died on the
Barrier. They lived in daily fear that their father, brother, son, or husband
would return to the chapterhouse on the daily wagons.

The siblings walked through the first courtyard toward
Marc’s old barracks, where he intended to seek out the remaining trainees to
help protect Alicia. Under normal circumstances, Marc might have officially
approached the Prismatic Council, but their immediate history of betrayal and
worthlessness made Marc unwilling to trust his sister in their care. He much
preferred the help of people who had been trained and touched by the hand of
Gerard Morningham. There was also every likelihood that the dybbuk was
controlling one of the members of the Council directly.

Marc knocked on the door to the barracks and stepped into
the room. Three young men rose to greet him, but Marc only remembered the name
of one of them right away.

“
Jorgins
,” he said, shaking the
other’s hand. “I have a favor to ask of you.”

“Anything, sir.”

Marc smiled. “We both suffered through the same training
together, Jeremy. You can call me ‘sir’ when I’m a member of the Prismatic
Council, but not before.”

Jorgins
smiled.

“What do you need, Marc?”
Jorgins
asked. Marc was pleased to note that
Jorgins
had lost
most of the stammer and nervousness that had so marked his training.

“Is this all of you that’s left?” Marc asked.

“Yes,”
Jorgins
replied. “Riken and
Jerome actually just had their cloaks turn yesterday, at the exact same time.
Riken’s now a Yellow, and Jerome is a Blue. Billy and Maki and me are the last
three from our training group. We’re getting a little discouraged by still not
having made it, even now, but because there’s still three of us, we’re working
together to better ourselves. We’re determined to make it.”

“And you will, I’m sure,” Marc said. “Now, about this favor.
This is my sister Alicia, who’s also Danner’s girlfriend.” Marc made sure to
mention his friend, because Danner had been well-liked by all three of these
during their training. Not that he doubted they would help him, but still he
thought it a good idea to bring up the relationship.

“Pleased to meet you,” one of the trainees said, bowing
slightly. “I’m Maki, and this is Billy. Any friend of Marc and Danner’s.”

“I need your help to look after her,” Marc said plainly.
“There’s some people who are after her as a way to get to Danner, and they’ve
already used her once to force Danner’s presence from where he was needed. I
need your help to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

“Have you asked the Council for help?” Billy asked.

“The Council and I aren’t on the best of terms right now,”
Marc said evasively. “I’d rather trust my old training mates.”

“I don’t blame you,” Billy said, surprising Marc. “We’ve
seen something big going on in the Council.”

“How so?”

“There’s two of them that seem to be controlling
everything,” the trainee replied. “It’s subtle, but we’ve caught some
back-corner conversations that have led us to believe these two are using
blackmail and other means to force most of the Council to go along with their
wishes.”

Marc stared at him in disbelief. That a paladin would use
such measures was difficult to believe, but obviously Billy had good reason to
suspect what he did. Marc asked them what they’d overheard.

“There’s a Yellow and a Blue,” Maki said. “They’re the
ones.”

Alicia gasped, and Marc looked at her in concern.

“It was a Yellow paladin who told me to come with him, and I
saw a Blue paladin at some point, I’m sure,” she said. “Maybe they’re the same
ones.”

“I wish Trebor hadn’t gone with Danner,” Marc said, then
cursed. “I could really use him right now. Damn. I should have thought of that
before.”

He saw the three trainees looking at him curiously and said,
“Never mind.”

“When do you think…”

Jorgins
was cut off as a hoarse
scream echoed through the courtyard beneath the nearest window. There was a
loud rumble of stone grinding on stone, and the scream cut off with a
suddenness that left the air ringing in silent alarm. They all ran to the
window and looked down.

In the courtyard a sputtering torch lay discarded on the ground,
casting a small circle of light around the body of the Red paladin who had
admitted Marc and Alicia only a few minutes before. His arms had been torn from
his body and lay beside his bloody torso, and one leg was severed and nowhere
to be seen. The other leg dangled lifelessly into a gaping hole in the ground,
and Marc was reminded of the tunneling demons that had so decimated Shadow
Company a few days ago.

“Stay here and look after Alicia,” Marc said, his voice
firm. “I’m going to go see what’s happening out there. Do you have your weapons
at hand?”

“Yes, sir,” they replied in unison, and immediately they
fetched swords from their bunks.

“Good.” Marc turned to Alicia. “I’ll be back soon, sis,” he
said. “Don’t let anybody in here except me. I’ll knock twice, then once, then
twice more. I don’t care who they say they are, or what they tell you, nobody
else comes in here. Understand?”

They all nodded.

Marc turned and left the room. As he was pulling the door
shut behind him, he heard Alicia say, “Do you have an extra sword?”

- 2 -

Birch landed on the ground as a crowd of paladins and other
people was gathering around the crumpled body of Danner, who still glowed with
the presence of his wings. Birch yelled for them to clear a path for him, and
when some failed to move, he physically lifted them out of his way with his
free hand. Selti was still curled up in the crook of Birch’s left arm,
whimpering in pain.

Finally, Birch knelt at his nephew’s side and looked for a
wound. Danner had told him he couldn’t be harmed by any weapons, so Birch was
at a loss. He looked up and recognized a familiar face in the crowd.

“Perky,” he shouted. “I need your help. Give him room! Make
way!” Birch shouted to the few people who were in the Green paladin’s path.
Perklet came forward and knelt beside Danner. His eyes were wide at seeing
Danner up close, his wings still aglow.

“He shouldn’t be able to be hurt,” Birch said, “but
something definitely hit him and made him crash and drop me.”

“Help me turn him,” Perklet said. “Carefully.”

Birch set Selti on the ground and supported Danner’s
shoulders as they rolled him, and when they shifted aside his cloak, finally
they saw a crossbow bolt embedded in Danner’s chest below his right shoulder.
The skin around the wound was already festering badly, and a large trail of
blood streaked the back of Danner’s leathers.

“How…” Birch asked, but Perklet was reaching for the bolt
and didn’t answer. The bolt was slick with blood and slipped from the Green
paladin’s fingers almost the second it was free, and the metal tip fell against
Danner’s uncovered hand. It started to smoke, and the unconscious paladin’s
hand immediately turned red and irritated until Perklet snatched the broken
weapon up and threw it a safe distance away.

Birch reached down, expecting to be similarly affected, but
he picked up the bolt without feeling anything out of the ordinary besides a
slight tingle in his fingers. He turned the missile over in his hand, and on
the tip he saw a design carved into the metal head. There were three lines
intersecting in a perfectly proportioned triangle, but all three corners
overlapped slightly so that at each vertex of the shape, the two ends of the
lines stuck out from the main body of the triangle to form a small V shape.