Ascension (28 page)

She had no idea of time since her cell was deep under the earth.

A demon came and replaced her lantern every so often. Several times the lamp had gone out, leaving her in complete darkness. It was unsettling not to see her hand in front of her eyes. The malleus who replaced it was a welcome sight. The notion that she wished to see one of these demons disturbed her, but the total darkness was far worse.

Even when she was brought up to the ballroom all the widows in the house were draped in heavy black shrouds or blackened, allowing no light to get through.

She could only assume that it was the following day when she was once again brought up the narrow, stone stairs. However, it could have been two days or half a day. She just didn’t know.

Her escort grew in numbers. This time there were eight demons surrounding her as they made their way through the house to the ballroom.

The doors opened and the demons all backed away while she stepped inside. Still, no furniture in the ballroom, the hole in the floor had gotten bigger since the last time she was there. If it had only been a day then it was growing fast. The swirling clouds, which she was sure was a gateway, were light gray as opposed to dark black. She walked all the way around it. Yes, she was sure there was less floor and more gateway.

Peering over the edge, she saw nothing but darkness and more swirls. Her head spun as she stared into the void. Taking several steps back, she shook her head clearing away the disorientation.

The clouds darkened. “Hunter.” This time his voice was softer. It still bounced inside her head, but the pain was minimal.

“Yes, I am here.”

“I find myself curious about your world, Hunter. You will tell me things.”

“Why?”

“Because I demand it.” His voice boomed.

She held her head against the pain. The master had a temper that she would do well not to encourage. “I meant, why do you want to know? You plan to destroy my world.”

“You think very small, hunter. I am going to bring the glory of my realm into the light.”

Belinda circled the gateway trying to think of a way to respond. Finally, she squared her shoulders. She pointed to the windows “You hide from the light. Besides, the result will be the destruction of my way of life.”

“What did you do before you were a hunter?” the master asked.

His question surprised her. “I was young. I planned for my future, my wedding.”

“And when you became a hunter, did the planning for your wedding change?”

He had out maneuvered her, but she didn’t care. “I only became a hunter to destroy your plans. If you were not invading my world, I would be happily doing as others of my kind do.”

“So you do not enjoy the hunt.”

She didn’t respond. How could she? She loved the hunt, but saying so would prove his point.

“I saw you save those puny humans, hunter. I saw your face when you killed the priest. You crave the battle. I have brought you glory you could never otherwise have known.”

“That may be true, but I would not have known the difference, demon. I would have been married, had children, run a home and never have thought my life lacked anything.” She’d had enough conversation and walked to the double doors. Her cheeks and neck burned with anger the master had provoked.

The doors did not open immediately. She turned back toward the gateway. Her gaze bore into the swirls of nothingness to the point where she became nauseated, but she wouldn’t turn away.

The blackness faded to gray and the doors opened.

Belinda expected to be returned to her cell, but instead her escort took her out into the courtyard. It was twilight. She surveyed the different fires burning all around. Demons forged weapons in the superheated burns. She saw a swords and an ax in one fire along with branding irons. A durgot pulled the sword out and plunged the hot blade into the water troth. Steam rose and the water sizzled. The air tasted of metal.

She’d believed the durgot were only priests. Why would a priest be forging steel? Would that mean that these weapons had some significance?

Strapped to the stone embankment two women lay naked. A trebox sniffed at their bodies. He walked back to the pyre and took hold of a branding iron.

Rage and fear replaced good sense and bubbled up from Belinda’s belly. Her hands shook with it. Her eyes narrowed on a point where the steel rested in the water. At least a hundred demons filled the yard. Durgot, malleus, trebox, a small hairy type she had never seen before arriving at Fatum. She didn’t care. They no longer mattered, but some of them would die today. She ran toward the fire and grabbed the sword that had just been set to cool.

The durgot lunged for her. She spun, slicing his throat. Jumping over the water trough, she leaped down between the women and the trebox. He bared his ragged teeth and lifted the hot steel above his head. He rushed at Belinda.

She dodged the branding iron, cut off the arm brandishing it, sidestepped the demon and plunged the still hot sword through his back.

She turned to the women, but their bindings were steel chains welded to a long post buried deep in the stones. She couldn’t free them without a key or a heavier weapon. The demons moved forward closing in on her. She couldn’t win this nor could she save these women. Tears rolled down her cheeks, her body shook and she dropped the sword to the dirt.

It had been a test. The master tested her, and she didn’t know if she had passed or failed. He claimed she enjoyed the battle, she would argue, it was her duty. In the end, he had manipulated her, and she’d done exactly as expected.

None of the demons touched her. She turned to the bound prisoners. “I am sorry. Forgive me.”

One stared blankly up to the sky perhaps in prayer. The other’s dark brown eyes met Belinda’s. Her voice was a scratchy whisper. “This is not your fault, child. Save yourself.”

The words made Belinda even angrier. She would save herself, if only to destroy these abominations. Surrounded by demons she turned, and walked back into Fatum.

Expressionless, the demons walked her to the familiar door leading down to her cell. Their regard for life, human or demon was negligible. They only cared about bringing the master into the world. Why? What was wrong with their own?

She trudged down the steps, her face wet with tears that wouldn’t stop. “Do you have a name, trebox?”

“Trebox will do, my true name is not pronounceable with that fat tongue of yours.”

“Fine. Trebox, what is wrong with your place that you come to ours.”

He opened the door to her cell and pushed her inside. He walked forward with a small knife in his hand until her back came up against the wall. “You should mind that fat tongue, lest someone cut it out of that ugly mouth.”

Belinda said, “Your master likes to talk to me. I do not think he would be very happy if you left me unable to speak.”

Fear widened his eyes. He put the knife away and turned toward the door. “Our world dies.” He shut the door with a heavy thud.

“I guess there are things worse than death.” She said it to the empty cell. The trebox was already moving up the steps before she responded.

* * * *

For two days, Gabriel had watched the courtyard. He covered himself in mud and crawled to the top of the stone embankment. What he’d seen in forty-eight hours turned his stomach. There was no way to save the people held in the courtyard at Fatum. Not by himself and not without an escape plan. Even if he could get in and get them unbound, how would he get them out? It might be better to kill them. The torture they endured was worse than death. He needed help.

When Belinda ran into the courtyard, he didn’t know whether to jump for joy or rush in and get them both killed trying to get her out. He understood he couldn’t succeed on his own, but the temptation to rush over the embankment and kill as many demon’s as possible, threatened to override his military training. He wished there was a way to let her know he was there, that she wasn’t alone.

She looked dirty and tired. Her clothes were in tatters and her hair stuck out in every direction, but she was alive.

His bruised ribs hurt like a stab wound from lying on the rocky surface and his muscles ached from inactivity. He didn’t move, trying to blend in with the dark stones. Each night he crawled back to his hiding place in the trees, ate what berries he foraged and slept a few hours. The risk of lighting a fire to cook meat was too high, even if he could find a rabbit or some other animal to hunt.

The next morning he did the same, crawling back to the barricade and waiting for some sign of Belinda.

The sun set and he backed away a few inches when she emerged from the front door. The minute she saw what was about to happen to the women prisoners, she’d reacted. Besides being furious that she would put herself in that kind of danger, his pride escalated tenfold. While he did the sensible thing and waited for assistance, his wife would risk her life for those two strangers. Perhaps he should have been ashamed, but he was too busy praying she wouldn’t get herself killed with her rash actions.

Staring in wonder, Gabriel did nothing to help his wife. To escalate the situation doomed them both. The demons made little to no attempts to harm her. She was far outnumbered, yet most only watched. The priest’s wound had been quick and mortal. He’d held his gushing throat until falling to the ground in a matter of seconds. The trebox had tried to stop her, but he too never stood a chance. The other demons surrounded her but never attacked or picked up a weapon.

When she realized she couldn’t win, hope drained from her face, and his heart ached for her.

The crowd of demons closed in on her. None of them were armed. They either wouldn’t or couldn’t harm her.

She spoke to the prisoners, but Gabriel didn’t hear what she said. He ached with her sorrow and wanted with all his heart to comfort her.

The demons didn’t touch her. They must need her alive for something. If he rushed down there his death was a certainty. At the very least, he would be tortured until he died. The courtyard was some kind of experimental ground. They tested just how much a human could take before they succumbed to death. The lucky ones died quickly. The strong, lingered for a day or two.

The soulless torture, murder and complete disregard for human life Gabriel had seen, bolstered his determination to win this war. Hating the enemy always made the fight easier. The fact that this enemy wasn’t human didn’t change that fact.

Surrounded by demons, Belinda made her way back inside Fatum Manor.

On his belly, Gabriel crept back to the small stand of wood.

The moon was only a sliver when it came up. Belinda’s time was running out. She was alive and he was thankful, but on the night of new moon, all of that would change.

The demons had kept their distance from her. Other than the one who made a paltry attempt to subdue her with a branding iron, none of them touched her. Only two out of hundreds had even approached her. He found it strange that they had allowed her to kill two of their cell without retribution.

She was strong. They weren’t starving her. What was going on inside that evil place and what did Belinda have to do with any of it?

* * * *

Belinda closed her eyes once the demon locked her back inside her cell. The entire scene in the courtyard replayed in her mind. She did this over and over again, and each time, she saw Gabriel’s face. She must have lost her mind. No one could blame her for going insane. The entire situation was madness. His handsome visage had been dirt covered, but he had been there, in the rocks. Was that even possible? What could he have been doing there? Maybe her imagination had shown her what she most wanted to see. But if that were the case, why would his face have been dirty? If she were to fantasize about Gabriel, he would be clean and healthy. The man she had seen had been covered in filth with wild eyes.

No, she was sure she had really seen him somewhere in the stone walls.

He had watched her try to save those women. He has seen her fail. New tears ran down her cheeks.

She dried her face on her tattered skirts.

The master had set up the scene with the abused women to prove to her that she was no better than the demons she destroyed. He wanted her to admit she loved the hunt and the kill. Part of her would have to acknowledge she felt more alive with a weapon in her hands. She couldn’t change who she was. If the demons had not invaded her world, if they had not captured her, she would be a sweet girl who waited for Gabriel to come home. They would have set a wedding date and sometime next spring they would be married at Saint Paul’s in the grandest fashion.

What she had become, in response to her environment, was a necessity. She was born to embrace the responsibility and no demon, no matter how great and terrible, would make her feel bad about that. She had let the master get inside her head. She had become vulnerable. No more.

Gabriel was there. Hopefully others were near as well. She had to stay sharp and react when the opportunity arose. She couldn’t lose her head again.

She tossed and turned on the hard stone floor. When she woke, she had to shake off the images of those two helpless women on the wall. Her anger and determination renewed.

The door to her cell opened.

“What is it, Trebox?”

“The master wishes to see you again, hunter.”

She got up stiffly and brushed the dust from her skirts. As she preceded the demon up the steps, she asked. “You said that your place is dying. Why?”

“Time destroys all things.”

“How much time?’

They reached the landing and a dozen other demons met them. “You cannot understand such matters, hunter. You think from sunrise to sunset and all places do not function in this way.”

“Will your home die in my lifetime?”

His shoulders lifted in an almost human shrug. “That would be a blink of an eye. Nothing happens in this way. Only your kind sees things in such terms.”

“If things do not happen from sunrise to sunset, how do you measure time?”

“Time is irrelevant. Here we wait for your darkness, but this will be altered in the coming of the master.”