A Clash of Shadows (17 page)

“Come now,” she whispered and kept going. Doorways slid past her like dark pits. There was always one on either side, opposite one another and all were missing the doors. Katja felt strangely vulnerable every time she crept between them.

She held the sword in the air.

She was on the right track. She knew it. The demon lay somewhere ahead. Unless the Moon Wing led into some other part of this monstrosity. She tried to remember what the manor had looked like from a distance and where she was currently located in that memory. She was angry at herself for not memorizing it better.

Focus!
she thought and steeled herself.

Finally there was something different about the doorway on her right. Katja stepped closer and realized that the door was still in the frame. It was just slightly ajar.

This is too narrow for the demon
, she thought and positioned herself before the door.
But still...

She looked over her shoulder, at the empty doorway. Then she pushed the door with her foot. The hinges creaked terribly but yielded without much resistance. Katja pushed until she could slide through without lowering her guard.

This large room was relatively bright. Katja felt night air caress her cheeks and looked up. The ceiling sported a rather large window but the glass had long since fallen out and clinked beneath her feet.

Book shelves stood along each wall and both stood and lay out on the floor. She stepped a bit further in and saw remains of reading tables and chairs. This had been a library. She put her hand into a few shelves but found only dust and what garbage had blown in through the skylight.

She closed her eyes and searched. She still sensed her enemy. But it wasn’t here.

Katja went back out into the hallway and continued.

She could tell from the echo that she was reaching the end and soon she arrived at a turn to the right.

Katja looked around the corner and saw a double door on the left. Evidently she had reached the outermost part of the Moon Wing. The hallway ahead seemed to turn back to the right. It probably led to the right-hand way she had seen at the beginning.

The double doors were big and regal; she saw as much readily in the scant light. That was no storage. And one of the doors stood open.

Katja carefully walked along the wall to the doors. The darkness did not react to her in any way.

She took a moment to steel herself and then stepped in front of the open door. The demon did not leap into her arms. There was nothing to hear except the wind outside and nothing to see except darkness.

She snuck inside. The room was large. Very large. And she couldn’t quite see what purpose it had served.

It was relatively bright. The reason was a large, circular, iron-bound window in the middle of the ceiling. It hadn’t been cleaned in decades but still let a bit of moonlight in. Katja couldn’t help but think for a moment that it had to be a beautiful sight when the moon hung over the window.

She scolded herself for letting her concentration slip and continued looking around. There was some kind of pool in the middle of the space, directly beneath the window and behind the rest of the floor was elevated. There stood the rotten remains of furniture and shelves and frames that had fallen off the walls.

Katja turned and looked at the wall she stood by. She started when her shoulder met resistance and something moved in the darkness.

A terrible clang echoed through the wide space and Katja felt dust fly up in front of her. Her reflexes catapulted her to the side and she raised the sword for a slash.

A giant chandelier had fallen down from the ceiling. Katja heard a whizz as the rope that had held it up rushed through the pulley and down after the chandelier.

Katja looked back again and then saw the fitting. She had bumped it earlier and the old rope had snapped.

Stupid bitch
, she thought and tried to calm her heartbeat.

How far had the noise carried? Could it have drawn the attention of the mercenaries?

She went further into the room and tried to figure it out. Just what was this place? The pool was too small to be for more than one person and too shallow to be a bathtub. And the room itself was far too big for just one.

She had arrived at the elevated portion when she stopped in her tracks.

She was being watched. Without eyes.

Katja tensed up. She had sensed something like this before. In the Brotherhood’s secret stronghold by Mooncape. This world was being watched from a different one.

Katja looked back quickly. Should she fetch Serdra?

The entity knew what she was and she felt something dark and nasty shimmer in the air; hatred.

“Are you awake?” she said defiantly, but couldn’t keep a tremor out of her voice.

The lighting in the room changed and Katja heard a scream. It knew what she was. And it hated her for it.

It screamed again, except now the sound echoed between the walls. It stepped into the world opposite her and the room lit up.

The enormous monster raised itself until it seemed to almost scrape the ceiling. It stretched out those long, long arms ending in claws that had no purpose other than to rip and tear. The fire shone from the eyes as well as off the head and cast an unnatural light upon the walls.

It opened the oversized mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth, roared for the third time and attacked.

Katja didn’t think, doing so would have cost her life. She just dodged the charge and slashed at it before it managed to turn around. The blade damaged the bark-like hide slightly but it would take more.

It struck at her again. Trying to deflect this much force would be madness, so she had to let herself be driven back by the attacks. The monster swung and swung its arms as if it were harvesting with a scythe and if it hit the results would probably be similar.

She arrived at the elevated portion and leapt up on it. The monster struck at her and broke a piece out of the edge. When it stepped up after her Katja moved closer and slashed it in the chest. The blow would have killed a man, but only opened a shallow rift in the hide and made it angry.

Katja dove beneath yet another wide attack and back onto the room’s lower portion. She tried to create some space between them and position herself but it was too fast and aggressive. It drove her ahead of it towards the doors and was unbothered by the minor wounds she managed to inflict.

She saw the chandelier from the corner of her eye.

I could have used that!

The demon stopped the attacks for a moment and then ran at her as fast as those long legs could carry it. Katja had nowhere to go but back. She darted past the door and tried to slam it as she went by. She ran the same way she arrived and heard the doors splinter behind her as the demon squeezed into the hallway.

Katja turned on her heel and looked at it. The ceiling was too low for it, but that only seemed to underline the size even further. The monster attacked, but the hallway was too narrow and it had to stretch one paw at her rather than swing. Katja slashed at the outstretched limb with all her strength and was immensely relieved to see that it sufficed to hold her foe back a bit. She retreated and the demon ducked its head, roared and pushed frantically forward.

Katja held her hand out and lit the Sentinel Flame between them. The demon hit it and screamed with rage as its head singed on contact.

Katja stood and stared into the horror’s face; she looked into those inhuman, flaming eyes. This was her enemy. This was what she was born to hold back. And she was afraid.

The demon squeezed back a couple of steps and stabbed its claws into a large piece from one of the doors. Katja was too slow on the uptake and had to drop to the floor to evade the piece when the demon threw it.

The guardian flame went out as she lost her focus and the demon attacked with renewed fury.

Katja swung up on her feet and ran around the corner with the demon’s loud, hot breath behind her. She felt claws at her back and dove into a roll. She narrowly escaped and the demon let the world know how frustrated it was.

Katja stood up and slashed at her foe. She tried to keep it in the corner and slashed and slashed at the claws it waved at her. She inflicted one wound after another, but knew it wouldn’t do.

She retreated a bit and waited an instant as the demon squeezed closer and so had less space. She seized the opportunity and made a powerful attack. The floor
smacked
into her back.

What did it do?
she thought dazedly and tried to get back on her feet. The demon had exited the corner and attacked again and she threw up the Sentinel Flame again as she lay.

The Flame worked again but Katja felt how wobbly her focus was at the moment. Things did not improve when the monster began to throw itself straight at the Flame, in spite of the damage it inflicted.

The Flame was a part of her and the attacks on it did her no good. She rose with the sword in her right hand and used the left one to channel the Flame into the world. She tried to use the focused breathing method Serdra had taught her, but the blow to her back made it difficult.

This won’t do, she thought as the demon threw itself at the Flame again. The misshapen face hit the barrier and some of the ‘flesh’ burned off. Katja stepped closer and stabbed through the Flame. The tip went into the monster’s eye socket.

The demon reared back and bumped its head on the ceiling. It slammed its claws in the wall and Katja was startled to see it tear a large rock from it. The throw was powerful but predictable and she dodged it with more grace than she had the door.

The library!
she thought.
There I can manoeuvre!

She let the Sentinel Flame die out and ran along the hallway.

The demon was everywhere. As a Redcloak she sensed it in her soul, heard immensely heavy footsteps and the loud, pained breath. And the flame that came off it danced on the walls as it chased her.

I am crazy,
she thought as she saw the door in the demon’s light.
I love this and hate this and I am crazy.

The door was closed.

Katja groaned and stopped by it. She turned, raised the sword with both hands and made a powerful stroke. The demon took the blow right in the face. It delayed the monster long enough for her to throw the door open and leap inside.

The room had changed. Things had been moved around a bit and there were signs of a search for something. She wasted no time thinking about it. The demon burst in through the door and Katja ran for the middle of the room.

She positioned herself beneath the ceiling window, on top of a fallen bookcase. The demon ran at her but the case gave her ample elevation to slash it in the face.

The blow mangled the jaw and knocked out some of the knife-teeth. The demon took a step back and grasped the end of the bookcase with both paws. It yanked before Katja could react and she fell backwards onto the floor. It lifted the case like a pillow.

Katja twisted on the floor like a cat and got behind a standing case before the throw came. There was a loud crack as the case’s corner smashed on the floor. The rest of it then fell up against Katja’s cover and felled it.

The case was empty but rather big and landed on Katja and pinned her to the floor. She immediately began to thrash with all her power and saw the demon’s feet approach as she lay there.

It threw the first case to the side with one swing and then tore the other one off her and raised it in the air.

Katja slashed it in the ankle.

It was stunned for a moment, which sufficed for Katja to dart between its legs. It turned and threw the case. Another standing case almost got her killed by being in the way, but she narrowly evaded the missile.

This isn’t working!

She dodged yet another throw and only barely avoided tripping of debris on the floor. There were plenty of cases in this room, both as a weapon for the demon and as hindrances for her.

The platform. There’s room!

She took up position opposite the demon and made it seem like she meant to run to the right. The demon picked up more debris and prepared to throw it at her. She then shot to the left, to the doorway she had arrived through.

The demon had to shift position to aim at her and the missile didn’t smack into her back until she was in the hallway.

The blow threw her towards the open doorway opposite the library and she hit the frame.

No pain
, she thought as she fought for breath.

She turned and saw the demon at the doorway.

No pain. Not now.

She stepped toward the platform and the demon ducked its head and began to squeeze through the doorway with a grasping arm outstretched.

Katja slashed at it and inflicted the deepest wound so far. The demon screamed and exited. A part of the frame came with it. Katja fled with the monster on her heels and heard a raven caw out in the hall.

Finally she saw the turn to the left and she ran out onto the platform, under the gazes of the misshapen faces the Clan of Roses had left behind.