Fate's Hand (11 page)

A cold sweat ran all over his body. He could feel the chill and tension all across his muscles. He tried to pull the covers tighter. At first, he thought his arms were asleep, but he soon realized that was not the case. He could not move his hands at all. He couldn’t even open his eyes! A rush of fear ran through him and swept the cold sweat away.

A sound made him focus in and listen. He felt a slight pressure across his chest. Listening to the noise, he could only guess that his arm was moving up and sliding across his chest. He tried to wiggle his fingers and move, but nothing. He felt his fingers moving, but not at his command. The fingers crawled like a spider across his stomach. He tried to squirm or make a noise to awaken his party, but all that escaped his lips was a slight whimper. The crawling stopped. In a dull way, he could feel the muscles in his arm tighten. He heard his hip dagger slide out of its sheath. The weight left his body, and he could feel his shoulder rotating over his chest.

He desperation tried to take control of his body, to make a sound, but nothing happened. His arm stopped. Suddenly, an explosion of pain rushed into his hand. Val shot up out of his bedroll. All the feeling in his body flowed at once as he jumped to his feet, then immediately fell to his knees, overwhelmed. Shaking and covered in sweat, he held the wrist of his foreign hand and saw a dagger cleanly stuck through his palm. He looked across the dim firelight to see Asher perched, another dagger in hand.

“Asher?” Val faltered.

Asher relaxed his stance and replaced the dagger in its sheath. He calmly placed another log on the fire, then walked over to his travel bag. Val sat very still, watching the man move around and glanced over to Rylan sleeping soundly. Asher appeared over Val with a leather pouch in hand, knelt next to him and began to wrap small leather straps around Val's finger. He took each end and lashed them to Val’s belt. As he cinched them tight, Val grimaced and pulled his hand back.

“Hold still,” Asher said.

Rylan sprang from his bed holding a black-banded bottle he slept with. Spinning around several times, he finally focused on Asher and Val.

“What in the hells are you doing to the boy?”

“
I’m tying his hand to his belt so he doesn’t try to stab me.”

“
Oh, okay,” Rylan replied and plopped back down, where he quickly began to snore once again.

“
Wait, what?” Val asked.

Asher grabbed the dagger lodged in Val’s hand and yanked it free. Val screamed and grabbed his wrist in agony.

“What’s going on?”

Asher placidly turned away and started going through his pouch.

“You made a noise, a small moan. It woke me up. I looked over to see you creeping in the light. Not you. Your hand. You withdrew your dagger and raised it over your chest. It looked as if you were going to stab yourself…so I stopped you.”

“
You threw a dagger through my hand! Are you crazy?”

Asher regarded him briefly, but said nothing and turned his attention back to his pouch. He opened a leather wrap containing an assortment of needles and some fine string. He laid it aside with his water canteen. Asher reached over and took Val’s hand away from him. As Val opened his fingers, the two men saw the wound was almost completely sealed with almost no blood and little scarring.

“Well, it doesn’t look like you’ll need this,” Asher said. He gathered his pack and crossed over to the other side of the fire. “I suggest you try to get some sleep now.”

Val looked at his hand in fixation. Though still shocked and frightened, he felt almost no pain in his hand. It was gone. He laid back down knowing very well he would not be able to fall asleep.

I tried to stab myself?
The thought brought his mind to his weapons. He had another dagger strapped to his thigh. Val popped up and reached for the blade with his unhindered hand, but it was missing.

“
I’ll return it in the morning, Val.” Asher said from across the flames.

Uneasily, Val settled back down on his roll.

How did you get that dagger?
Val thought.
And what is going on with my hand?
Val flexed his fingers, testing the strength of the leather straps. He realized how lucky he wasn’t alone in this.

“
Thank you, Asher.”

A grunt in the dark was all he received.

Drask raged, and sweeping everything off his makeshift summoning table. It had taken him two full days to gain the link with his lost hand and one more to muster the strength to take over the human’s body. He breathed heavy as he realized how taxed his body had become in those two days of meditation and spellcasting. Glass crunched under the footsteps of his invisible guardian as it walked to a dryer spot. The spilled spell ingredients covered Drask's hands, a few of the reagents mixing into his wound, a shard of glass pierced his palm. He hunched over and tried to regulate his breathing while watching the human skin sizzle.

“
Weak,” he murmured. The dark blood poured across the white skin. He resolved not to let the weakness seep into his body.

“
Would you like for me to have the imp set it up again?”

“
No,” Drask answered. “The human found the hand to act on its own and stabbed it. I thought his entire body would be under my control, but he is stronger than I believed or farther away than I thought.”

Drask raised his head to look at where he figured the invisible arch demon would be standing.

“Yusar?”

“
The red wizard needed to heal, but he is ready to help now. He wants to get out of the tower.”

Drask smirked. “Good. Have him go for the giants, then the gnolls. Let him wear a collar until the task is done. Link it to Rurrick and have him chaperone.”

Silence. Drask’s expression of confidence fell as he looked out into the empty room.

”
What?”

“
Rurrick is dead. Killed by the battle mage. He escaped. He had help waiting for him in the woods.”

Drask sighed.

“The tower stays here. Have Sirash start summoning my loyal troops. Cut off one of her arms first. Tell her I will have her head next time she fails me. Then let her have the arm back.”

“
Yes, Prince.”

“
Have this mess cleaned up. I need a few days' rest so I can think clearly.”

Drask grabbed an empty bottle and started collecting his own blood as he walked out the door. “Only disturb me if there is something to report.”

Arihem silently opened the door for Drask. “What about Temo?”

Drask sighed. “He served his purpose perfectly. I already have an messenger sent to bring him a message.”

There was a moment of silence and Drask could sense the Archfiend wanted to know more.

“
I brought the battle mage here to help break Yusar's spirit. Now I will give the wizard an opportunity to redeem himself. Once he is back in my good graces, any thought of banishing me will be completely out of his mind. It will not be long till he tells his guild what happened and where we are. Soon, we will be greeted by the first entourage of humans, and I will be waiting for them.

Sirash sat in the main balcony of the inner tower, supervising the demons below.

“He isn’t happy with you,” said the invisible sentry.

“
Considering I’m not back in the abyss, I can only assume you weren’t sent to kill me? He doesn’t have another who can perform the tasks I can.”

Sirash felt the edge of a shard blade pressed against her lowermost arm. She didn’t look, but forced a smile around gritted teeth. The blade came away.

“An arm is what he wants? That seems a little harsh for the sweet, peace-loving prince,” Sirash said and turned. Standing before her was a lithe devil. His skin was so dark color it reflected the light like black water. His elongated jaw and massive curved horns framed her face, nearly touching it. He stood staring at Sirash, a scimitar in hand and his wings slightly out behind him. The entire scene made Sirash shake in excitement. She turned away and began slithering down the hall toward her chamber.

“
Take it if you will, Arihem.”

She went into her room, left the door ajar, and stood in the middle of her room breathing heavily, waiting. Sirash's hair was sucked into the air behind her as Arihem entered and slammed the door. He glared at the naga with her back to him and grunted loudly. Sirash didn’t cower, but instead held her chin high. Arihem exploded into action, tackling the demon and throwing her to the bed. He flipped her over and mounted her, holding down two of her hands and sliding his legs up to pin the rest. Sirash hissed at him and snapped at his face. He jerked back, then quickly moved in to bite her neck. She instantly stopped resisting, her tail flipping around playfully.

Arihem lingered over her neckline, biting just shy of breaking the skin. Sirash clawed at his arms and legs that pinned her, reeling in anticipation. After a lengthy tease, the large devil moved his legs down and pulled his knees tight around her mid-section. Sirash reached with one of her free hands and removed the sword from Arihem’s scabbard. He smiled and continued his teasing. Her tail wrapped around his neck and pulled him up to sit on her. She bit her lip as she slashed across her body, cleanly taking off one of her own arms at the joint. She let out a feral roar and released Arihem, who drove into her kiss her roughly and muffle the scream. Her yell quickly turned to moaning as she used her other free arms to work a spell and hold the arm back onto its joint.

Arihem worked into her harder, trying to break her concentration. She sank her fangs into his lip as he made her body quake in pleasure. Sirash continued with her spell as the ligaments from her severed shoulder began to reach out and take hold of her disembodied arm. She could feel her muscles reforming and holding her arm tightly into place. She released her shoulder and grabbed scratched her nails down Arihem's back.

When the arm was back in full operation, she arched her back and began to fight against Arihem. The arch demon grabbed her throat and clasped her mouth. She shifted her weight and flipped the large demon over on her bed, using all of her arms to hold his limbs down and began to work her body across his in ecstasy.