The Devil's Deuce (The Barrier War) (73 page)

“Then we’d better see they don’t fall, don’t you agree?”
Garet asked.

“I don’t see how we can last against this army,” Danner said
wearily. “Even if we could muster all our might in one courtyard, they’ve got
what looks like a thousand-to-one odds against us, and they don’t get tired.
How in Heaven’s name can we beat an enemy like that?”

“Heaven’s name is exactly right, lad,” Garet replied firmly.
“I imagine our ancestors asked themselves that very question when Hell first
came to this world, and look how they prevailed. They drove the demons back and
made the Barrier to keep the Merging in check. They succeeded, and so will we.
Have faith, Danner.”

“That’s a hard thing in times like this,” Danner said candidly.

“Faith is a hard thing at any time, lad, and if it isn’t,
then it’s worthless,” Garet said. “If your faith isn’t tested, you can’t really
know it’s true. This is our test, and I, for one, don’t plan to be on the
losing end of this war.”

- 4 -

Marc led the group of paladins through the city with a sure
sense of direction. He’d grown up in Nocka and knew how to get just about
anywhere. The streets were laid out in his mind like a giant map, which he
easily visualized and navigated. They moved swiftly, trying to reach the
Barrier for some word as to the state of their defenses and the war at large.

Maki handed Marc the bundle of cloth he’d brought from the
barracks, but Marc waved him toward one of the Council members. The Blue
paladin looked at the cloth and, recognizing it immediately, looked
questioningly at Marc.

“You’re going to need it when we arrive at the Barrier,” he
said. “Consider it reparation and one of the hardest apologies you’ll ever have
to make.”

The Blue nodded, immediately understanding. His face was
sorrowful as he tucked the roll of cloth under one arm.

Just as they were about to cross a street intersection, one
of the Violet paladins held up a hand and whispered for them to halt.

“What is it?” Marc asked

“Something feels wrong,” the Violet replied. “I feel wrong
in here,” he said, tapping his steel-encased chest. Like the other paladins,
Marc included, he was wearing plate armor marked with the
Tricrus
. Only
Maki was without such armament, because of his recent ascension into the
paladin ranks. Instead of plate armor, he wore a sturdy chainmail vest he’d dug
up from some chest in the trainee barracks.

Marc frowned at the Violet’s warning, but he was unwilling
to proceed without first checking it out. He motioned
Daevis
and another Red paladin forward, the only two Reds in the group.

“Cross the street carefully, and be on the lookout for
anything wrong,” Marc told them in hushed tones. He found himself wishing for
his company of denarae, who could probe the area with their minds and tell him
if anything was amiss. But without them, he would make due with those he had at
hand.

Daevis
and the other Red crept
forward with their swords drawn, and they made it halfway across the street
before the Violet’s warning blossomed into violence. A drolkul burst from the
ground as a dozen damned souls poured from a doorway into the street. Marc and
the others rushed forward and cut them down quickly, but
Daevis
paid dearly for the assault. The Red paladin’s left arm was torn off above the
elbow by the drolkul, and he went down in a spray of blood.
Jatin
rushed forward as soon as he was able and healed the wound, but
Daevis
was still left without his left arm. Some things
were beyond even a Green paladin’s ability to heal.

“Let’s stop here for a while,” Marc said, but
Daevis
scowled and waved at him, fighting the exhaustion
that normally followed intense healing.

“I’m fine,” he said. “The pain is bearable, thanks to
Jatin
.”
Daevis
grimaced, belying
the intensity of the agony rippling through his body. “Damn demons must tunnel
faster with their bare claws than a company of dwarves.”

Marc stared hard at
Daevis
, then
at the hole in the ground from which the drolkul had erupted.

“Sin, San, and Satan’s teeth!” he exclaimed in frustration.
“God curse me for a mud-brained fool. Why the Hell didn’t I see it before?”

“What?” Maki asked.

“Nocka was built by the dwarves, which is why it’s named in
their language,” Marc said, remembering a similar conversation with Gerard. Had
it only been two weeks ago? It felt like another lifetime.

“Dwarves tunnel, and they built basements in nearly every
house,” Marc continued. “They also built tunnels to connect a lot of their work
places. I grew up here, so I’ve seen a lot of them. They run all throughout
underneath the city like a second roadway. That’s how the demons got into the
Prismatic headquarters so quickly!”

Marc let out a stream of curses and had to restrain himself
from kicking or hitting the nearest thing, which happened to be Maki. The other
paladins looked at him in surprise.

“I can’t believe I was so stupid,” Marc spat. “Janice all
but told me the answer, and I didn’t catch it. They’ve probably infiltrated
half the basements in the city by now, and they’ll be massing for an attack any
moment.”

“Should we go down into the tunnels and try to clear them?”
someone asked, Marc couldn’t see who.

“The tunnels are too extensive, and there aren’t enough of
us,” Marc said. “Hell, it would probably take the entire Prism and half the
defenders of Nocka to clear all the tunnels.
Schneik
!
Let’s haul ass to the Barrier,” he said decisively. “We need to warn them to
expect an attack from behind, or else we’re all doomed.”

The Prismatic Council has come under fire for our indecisiveness and
unwitting role in the Barrier War. It is no accident that the only member to
fully admit this fault and seek no excuse is a Red paladin.

- Orange Paladin Francis
de’Tieroth
,

“Inter-Council Memo #143” (1013 AM)

- 1 -

“Garnet, Marc’s coming
toward the Barrier quickly, and he’s got an emergency!”

Garnet heard the mental message from Brican and felt his
stomach clench as he instinctively knew this heralded something potentially
disastrous. He sent mental commands for all of Shadow Company to assemble,
recalling Michael and Flasch from their places to the north and south. Danner
followed with Michael, and Trebor was already nearby, so in only a few minutes
the officers of Shadow Company had assembled, and the rest of their units were
close behind them. Guilian passed the commands on to his platoon, and
Jak
still led Marc’s platoon in the Orange paladin’s
absence.

“Brican what’s the
word?”
Garnet asked.

“The demons are burrowing under the city and have invaded
a series of tunnels. They’ve amassed a small army behind us,”
Brican
reported, relaying Marc’s message even as he drew ever closer. Danner
volunteered to go pick him up and fly him back, but Garnet decided Marc was
close enough that it didn’t warrant Danner being cut off from the conversation
while he was in immortal form.

“They could attack at
any time, but in the meantime they’re no doubt slaughtering people in their
homes.”

Garnet’s eyes tightened as he considered the possible
death-toll Marc was projecting. It bordered on the unthinkable, at least when
Garnet realized it was mostly women, children, and people too old to fight who
would be at the demons’ nonexistent mercy. Thousands of soldiers had already
fallen at the Barrier, but now it was civilians who would be slaughtered.

“I don’t know what we can do for them,” Garnet murmured, a
comment echoed in his thoughts for all to hear. The denarae tuned in to his
thoughts through their kything were all silent as they realized the harsh decision
Garnet was facing. He could order them into the city to conduct a
building-by-building search to eradicate the demons, which would take days, and
they had hours at most before the demons assaulted the Barrier from within. At
that point, the defenders would be crushed between two armies and ground to a
bloody pulp. Any forces the defenders pulled off the wall to cover the east
would weaken them on the Barrier to the west, and they could scarce afford the
losses there.

Despite the thousands upon thousands of deaths in the city
Garnet would be allowing, he had only one option, and that was to act in the
interest of the greater goal of protecting the Barrier, and through it the
world as a whole. The knowledge was bitter medicine for his conscience, but he faced
it with the same force of determination and grit as had commanders for
centuries. The greater good would be served, but it tore him apart to be the
one to have to make that decision.

“We’ll set up here,” Garnet announced both vocally and
mentally. His face was an unreadable mask, and he carefully masked his thoughts
as best he could to prevent the denarae from reading the sense of self-loathing
he felt. Garnet suddenly wished Gerard was there and still leading the company,
so the decision would be on his mentor’s shoulders and not his.

“That’s the curse of
command,”
Trebor kythed into his mind.
“We
all trust you, and we know you’re doing what’s best.”

“Tell that to the
people who are going to die,”
Garnet thought bitterly, then ignored Trebor.

“Then let us take two
or three platoons out to do what we can,”
Trebor suggested, his mental
voice irresistible.
“We can save some of
them.”

Garnet was tempted.

“No,”
he thought
reluctantly.
“We’re only at half-strength
as it is, and I need everyone here. When they come, there’s going to be one
Hell of a hammer to pound against this anvil, and we might not make it
otherwise.”

Trebor’s kything fell silent.

“Guilian, send a
messenger to Siran and the elves,”
Garnet ordered.
“The defenders on the wall can hold their own now, but we need a small
but potent force to deal with this. I can’t think of anyone better than the
elves.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Relay from Danner,”
Caret kythed to Garnet.
“What about your
father and his uncle and some of the other paladins? There are going to be
demons in this group, and it’ll take more than the five of you to take them
on.”

“See to it, Brican,”
Garnet ordered,
“and give me an update on
Marc.”

“I’m right here,” Marc yelled as he ran toward them from a
nearby alley. He was followed by ten other paladins, about half of whom Garnet
recognized from the Prismatic Council.

“What happened?” Garnet asked.

“The demons attacked the chapterhouse,” Marc said. “Hard.”

“Alicia?” Danner asked in concern. The moonlight lent an
alien cast to his features, and he looked almost elven under their light.

“She’s safe,” Marc reassured him. “I sent her and Janice to
Faldergash’s
place with a Blue paladin as an escort. Don’t
ask,” Marc said to Garnet, who looked at him in surprise at the mention of
Janice. The exotic dancer was well-known to Garnet and their friends, as was
Marc’s interest in her.

“The dybbuk has been dealt with, but two thirds of the
Council was slain, and just about every paladin in the compound,” Marc said
grimly. “This is all that’s left.”

Garnet looked at the remnants of the Council with flinty
eyes, his hostility apparent in every inch of his body. They faced him humbly,
but with dignity, and they eyed Garnet with respect.

“We know you have no cause to bear us any good will,” one of
the Reds said, and Garnet recognized him as
Daevis
.
The Red paladin was missing an arm, and it had come from recent combat by the
looks of it. “We have acted horribly and dishonorably toward your company and
your friend, and I can only extend our sincerest apologies and beg your
forgiveness.”

This last was pointedly directed toward Trebor, who stared
at the paladins with an expression that mirrored Garnet’s hostility. Trebor had
borne the brunt of their racial bigotry, and these men were the reason he was
not currently a member of the Prismatic Order.

“Before you find out for yourself,
Treb
,”
Marc said, “they were largely blackmailed into doing everything we’ve so cursed
them for. Your expulsion, Gerard’s supposed disgrace in being assigned to the
denarae, even our being placed outside the Barrier. It was all due to the
dybbuk and one other holding things over them. But that’s all past, and they’re
here to do what they can to atone.”

That said, a Blue council member unfurled a long piece of
thick, off-white fabric and let it flutter in the breeze. Garnet recognized it
immediately, for he had worn just such a cloak for a brief instant before it
changed into the crimson-colored cloak he now wore.

“This comes with our blessing and apologies,” the Blue
paladin said.

Trebor stared at the proffered cloak, and slowly his hands
started to tremble. He swallowed hard, and Garnet saw a single tear well up in
his eye and course down the gray skin of his cheek. Wordlessly, he reached for
the cloak and took it in his hands. He stared at the cloak in silence,
fingering the material as though unable to believe it was real.

“Tradition states that a paladin place it on your
shoulders,”
Daevis
said. He took the cloak from
Trebor’s numb fingers and awkwardly threw it about his shoulders and fastened
it in place. With his single hand,
Daevis
smoothed
the material, then he stepped back as a verdant wave swept over Trebor’s
shoulders and down to his feet. Without any real surprise, Garnet smiled as his
friend was silently announced into the Green Facet.