Benjamin Ashwood (22 page)

The
officer’s quarters proved to be nearly empty.  The men who stayed here must
have been somewhere else or must have rushed outside when the attack started. 
The one body they did find was a half dressed man lying prone in his doorway. 
His head had been torn off and tossed into the room across the hall.  The scene
was surreal.  If it wasn’t for the destruction outside Ben would have thought
it make believe at first.  He made eye contact with Meghan as they passed and
saw the sentiment mirrored in her eyes.

Finally,
they found what had to be the Captain’s room.  It was the only one in the
building that had a seating area and it had a large map of the pass and
surrounding territory on one wall.  Lady Towaal pushed past everyone into the
man’s bed chamber while the rest of the group waited.  Saala stepped back into
the hallway and stood guard.

While
they were waiting for Towaal to search the man’s room, Rhys began examining the
map and called Ben over.  “See these pins?  These tags on them are dates.  It
looks like they started up in the mountains here,” he pointed to a peak about
15 leagues from Snowmar Station, “and they slowly moved towards the Pass.”

Ben
nodded, “yes, but what does it mean?”

Rhys
shrugged, “I don’t know.  Demon sightings maybe?  That doesn’t make sense
though, they had men to hunt down a lone demon that was loose in the hills, and
would have sent for help if it was something they couldn’t handle.  From these
dates, there would have been plenty of time to make Whitehall and back.”

They
were still examining the map when Lady Towaal returned.  “It’s not here and
neither is the Captain.  We must find his body.  He might have kept it on him.”

Rhys
rolled his eyes at her back and led the way past Saala into the hall and out
towards the square.

By
the time they entered the mess hall they had already searched most of the
buildings at the Station and had come up empty handed.  They were all in
similar states as the officer’s quarters and the square.  In some, it was
obvious that the occupants had warning and had attempted to defend themselves. 
In others, they had simply died.

The
mess hall was the first sign of real coordinated resistance.  There was a
barricade of flipped over tables and benches that had been shoved aside.  Ben
cringed when he thought about the strength it would have taken to move the
pile.

They
also found the first dead demons.  Six of the creatures lay between the
barricade and the back of the hall.  The demons were covered in arrows and some
had long spears sticking out of them.  There were numerous wounds from edged
weapons that had come from the piles of dead men scattered around the floor.

Ben
stared at the dark shapes.  They matched what he remembered from the attack in
Farview.  They were barrel chested and had thick overlong arms with stubby
legs.  Despite the appearance, he knew they could move quickly.  The largest
one of these would have come up to his chest but likely weighed twice what he
did.

Small
wings and horns on the larger ones drew the eye but the real danger was the
curved claws at the end of each heavily muscled arm and mouthfuls of sharply
pointed teeth that sprouted out of powerful jaws.  Ben shuddered when he
remembered how easily those claws had torn into William Longaxe’s stomach.

“Six
of them!” exclaimed Renfro.  “Do you think they got them all?”

“No,”
answered Saala.  “The men that were stationed here wouldn’t have fallen to just
six demons.  You saw the carnage outside.  They were quickly overrun by a large
swarm.  It looks like they were able to slow them down in here and took some
with them, but no one survived this.”

Suddenly,
Lady Towaal shot ahead and knelt down next to one body.  The man had taken a
raking wound across his face but the sword next to him was stained in purple
blood.  He hadn’t gone down easy.  Ben watched as she slid out her tiny belt
knife and cut open the man’s shirt.  It was glued to his chest with sticky
blood.  When she got his shirt open, she cut a cord and pulled out a small
silver amulet.  She pocketed it before Ben got a good look at it.  He had no
doubt though it was the artifact she had been looking for.

“Are
we good?”  Rhys was shifting his feet impatiently and looking towards the
door.  “It will be dark soon and we don’t want to be in this place when the sun
goes down.”

“Yes,”
she replied, “let’s get out of here and put as much distance as we can before
we stop.  I hope everyone is prepared to walk tonight.”

They
didn’t need any convincing.  A hot bath and a night under a roof had sounded
nice before they got there but no one wanted to spend another minute in that
butcher shop.

As
they exited the mess hall, they heard an enraged animalistic shriek behind
them. 

“Out,
now!” shouted Saala.  He spun to cover the door as they all rushed into the
square.

Ben
glanced over his shoulder and saw a squat black shape charging across the floor
of the mess.  Saala slammed the door and kept backing up into the clear.  “It
will be through that in no time.  Stay behind and give me room.”

Suddenly,
Ben heard a crash and turned to see Renfro on his back with a corpse at his
feet.  Ben was about to bend to pull him up when he saw a thin black mass
gliding down from the roof of the barracks across the square.  “There, behind
us!”

“I
got it, everyone stay close.  Do not break out of the group,” demanded Rhys as
he swooped in between the fallen Renfro and the demon. 

Ben
yanked Renfro back upright and heard the first demon burst through the mess
door.  Saala was waiting and pounced on it before it could get it’s bearings. 
His two handed falchion cleaved into the neck of the demon, spurting a fountain
of purple blood that he danced back from.  The thing took another step then
collapsed to the ground motionless.

“Bloody
hell,” yelled Rhys.  Three more demons were gliding down on delicate wings from
the roof of the barracks.  Saala flew past the group to assist as Rhys engaged
the first demon.  This one was taller than the first that came through the
mess, near the same height as Ben, but it was thin and didn’t seem to have the
strength of the other as Rhys swiped a taloned hand aside and stabbed his long
sword into it’s chest.  He kicked it back off his blade and he and Saala spread
out to meet the three new arrivals.

The
demons attacked quickly but with no coordination and no thought of strategy. 
One charged at Rhys and two came towards Saala.

Rhys
jumped forward and Saala flowed to his left, taking one of his demons head on
while the second turned at the last second and crashed into the first.  The
first demon turned and snarled at the second and Saala took the opportunity to
lunge forward, slicing into it’s throat.

Rhys
charged directly at his demon.  It did not seem to expect his tactic and kept
coming.  He slashed it across the face.  It stumbled backwards and Rhys dropped
to one knee, pivoting to swing behind him and cut across the back of the legs
of Saala’s second demon.  Rhys continued the motion and spun around to slice
open his demon’s abdomen, spraying a horrific tangle of white and purple guts
across the square.

Saala
stepped forward and neatly lopped the head off of the remaining demon as it
dropped, crippled from Rhys’ attack behind it.

Before
anyone could celebrate the victory, Meredith screamed for help and they saw she
had stepped away from the group and was facing across the square towards a
charging demon.  It was a short squat one and had a single wickedly curved
horn.  It was bounding in huge leaps across the square towards her and she only
had her belt knife as defense.

Ben
started to sprint towards her but knew he was too far away to get there before
the demon.  Suddenly, a dark shape whizzed by from behind him in a blur and
sank into the demon’s gaping maw as it reached the height of one of it’s
leaps.  Ben’s heart soared when he saw the wire wrapped hilt of Rhys’ long
knife.  The demon’s momentum kept it going though and it smashed into Meredith,
sending her flying to the ground, the heavy black shape landing on top of her.

Ben
kept running towards Meredith but nearly had his head ripped off by another
thin black demon that dropped into the square.  It flashed in the corner of his
eye and he dropped into a roll just in time for the thing to soar over with
grasping clawed feet where he had been a heartbeat before.  He sprung up to
face it and between it’s two wings saw three more shapes closing on the other
girls and Lady Towaal.  Saala hurled himself in between to defend them.

Renfro
was to the left of Ben and scrambling to hide under a wagon but a huge slow
moving monster bigger than an ox gripped his leg and easily started hauling him
back out.  Rhys appeared out of nowhere and began hacking at it’s back.  It’s
man-sized wings kept fouling his blade.

Ben
didn’t have time to worry about Renfro or the girls though, his demon screamed
a primordial howl and lurched towards him.  In the second he had time to think,
none of the forms Saala had taught prepared him for this so he slashed quickly
in a steady pattern in front of him, trying to keep the blade between him and
the advancing nightmare.

He
had been right, the thin ones were not as strong as the short ones, but it was
quick.  He got in a few shallow cuts before it clamped down on his weapon with
one hand and raked it’s claws across his other arm, leaving three parallel
bloody gashes.  Ben winced in pain but managed to twist his sword and yanked
hard, pulling his weapon free and severing several taloned fingers in the
process.  The demon kept coming though and Ben danced back quickly to avoid
another slashing attack and a bite.

“Damnit
Karina!”  Ben heard Rhys shout.  He spared a second to look to where the ox
sized demon was lying motionless.  Renfro had managed to crawl back under the
wagon but a new demon was digging and trying to squeeze under after him.  Rhys
was taking the charge of a muscular looking squat one and rolled onto his back
before kicking with both feet, sending the huge flailing mass of teeth and
claws flying over him and trailing a stream of purple blood from his long
sword.

That
second to look almost cost Ben his life and the skinny demon again caught his
blade with it’s other hand and pulled him closer to it’s razor sharp teeth.  Ben
knew he was dead if he let go of his sword.  He’d be dead too if those teeth
got into him.  He held his grip on the sword and struggled desperately.  The
creature smacked at him with it’s fingerless hand but Ben absorbed the blows. 
The demon wasn’t as strong as the shorter ones, but it was at least as strong
as a man and it hurt.  Better than those teeth sinking into this flesh though
as he took another blow on the shoulder and struggled to keep his sword between
him and the demon’s head.

“Karina,
now!  We’re going to lose them all!”

Time
seemed to freeze for an instant and the hair on Ben’s neck and arms stood on
end.  Then there was a thunderous clap and a blaze of brilliant light and heat
flashed across the square and impacted the demon in front of him.  With a
violent spasmodic twitch and howl, the creature flew back away from Ben taking
his sword with it.  He let go in a heartbeat.  The leather wrapped hilt had
suddenly become scalding hot.

The
entire square crackled with energy as more arm thick bars of incandescent light
flashed back and forth.  Everywhere Ben looked, demons were jerking and
flailing crazily as the lights coursed through their bodies then arced across
to another one.  Only seconds had passed but it seemed like half a bell before
over the snapping crackle of the lightning he heard Rhys shout again, “down,
everyone down now!  Shit… she’s losing control.”

Ben
dove to the ground and buried his head in his arms.  Seconds later there was a
huge pop and the feel of electricity in the air dissipated.  When he finally
felt safe enough to raise his head, he saw Rhys had somehow managed to cross
the square and was lying on top of Lady Towaal’s prone body.  Saala, Amelie and
Meghan were huddled down in a corner together.  The girl’s eyes were wide as
saucers and even Saala seemed shaken by the display of pure violent power.

Ben
rolled over and saw Renfro was curled up under the wagon still, the iron wheels
smoking with heat.  He looked like he was crying but he was alive.  Ben looked
for Meredith next.  All he could see was an arm sticking out from under the
demon which was still on top of her.

He
struggled to his feet and stumbled towards her but realized he was too late
before he got close.  A large pool of dark blood, purple swirled with crimson
red, was spreading from the two motionless figures.

In
the aftermath of the attack, Ben felt like he was in a bad dream.  His
companions were like ghosts, all of them moving quietly and using only gestures
to communicate.  They didn’t think anything survived what Lady Towaal had released,
but they weren’t taking any risks either.  The square was now littered with the
bodies of upwards of 20 demons in addition to their victims.  The charred and
smoking demons added an acrid scent to the sickening charnel house odor of the
human bodies.