Legends of Marithia: Book 2 - Darkness Rising (13 page)

“
It is impossible to be
sure in these dire times. I need to know that
you
are not a demon,” said
Yuski.

“
How could I possibly be a
demon? I am
obviously
a sorceress,” asked Anakari with an offended tone.

“
A demon would say no
different and they are magical beings. If you attack me, then I can
only assume the worst in you. Lower your fists or I will have no
choice but to defend myself,” challenged Yuski.

Anakari reluctantly lowered
them to her side, narrowing her eyes in annoyance and signed, “If
I
was
a demon,
why would you have saved my life?”

“
It
is
unusual for demons to attack
another demon, but I have been wrong in the past by putting my
faith in the comfort of that rumour. Just stay still and I will
make sure that you are who you say you are. I will not harm you if
you truly are just a sorceress.”

Taking quick glances into
her pocket, she circled to the back of Anakari’s horse and neared
the barrier of flames. Anakari did not trust Yuski to have a weapon
drawn behind her and decided that enough was enough. She chanted a
spell, “
Permoveo mihi quo meus os tantum
animadverto
.”

With a flicker of light, Anakari
disappeared from the back of the horse.

“
What in the name?”
exclaimed Yuski. She released her arrow to rip through nothing but
thin air. It landed with a solid thud in the trunk of another
tree.

Anakari peered around the
corner from the tree that she had transported herself to and
chanted another spell. She observed Yuski from afar, desperately
searching for Anakari. She whispered another spell,
“
Deceptus suus intus orbis
terrarium
.”

Yuski yelped as two hands reached up
out of the earth to grab her ankles, knocking her off balance. More
hands of earth reached up to grab her arms and lock them into
place. She struggled to free herself from the ground, but could not
move.

“
By the gods!” grunted
Yuski, “Who
are
you?”

Anakari approached from the woods with
flaming fists at the ready and spoke firmly, “I told you that I was
no demon.”

“
If I set you free, will
you put out these flames and let us go?”

Yuski stared at the sorceress in shock
and disbelief and asked, “You aren’t going to kill me?”

“
Why in the name of
Marithia would I want to kill you? I am not foolish enough to allow
someone I do
not
know to point an arrow at the back of my head!”

“
Of course I will free your
horse, but I was only trying to make sure you were not a demon,”
she replied.

Anakari straightened up and spoke
proudly, “You have saved my life and I owe you thanks for that. I
may be new to these parts, but do not take me for a fool or a
weakling.”

She chanted,
“
Solvo habitum in suus
.”

The hands released their grip, moulded
back into the earth and disappeared, allowing Yuski to stand. She
dusted off the dirt, pulled out a small bag from her coat,
sprinkled a small amount of sparkling dust onto the magic circle of
fire cast by the arrow, and the flames disappeared in a puff of
smoke.

“
Obviously you aren’t a
demon or you would have killed me when you had the chance,” staring
at Anakari’s flaming blue hands, “and you do look like you could
take care of yourself,” she laughed, turning away.

I’m still lost in these
woods and I could use her help
, she
thought.

“
Wait,” said Anakari,
shaking her fists to extinguish the blue flames.

“
My name is Kari, I am a
sorceress and am obviously lost. It appears that we have met on
rather unusual circumstances. I could really use your help getting
to Crondor. Do you know the way?” she asked, smiling in an attempt
to gain the woman’s favour.

“
The name’s Yuski and I am
a demon hunter. I have been in these woods long enough tonight, so
it will not hurt for us to head to Crondor together. After all, if
we
do
face any
particularly dangerous demons… I could use the help of a sorceress
like you to destroy them. It may allow me to prevail unbruised, for
once,” she replied, shaking hands.

Picking up her lantern, Anakari
mounted her horse again.

“
Would you mind if we ride
together on horseback? It would get us to a warm bed more swiftly,”
asked Yuski with a smile.

“
You don’t have a horse?”
asked Anakari in disbelief, reaching down to help Yuski climb
aboard.

“
It’s somewhat of a
challenge to hide in the woods with a horse, is it not? Crondor is
this way,” she answered sheepishly. Yuski pointed west, and they
headed quickly through the forest.

“
That was a beautiful song
that you were singing, but I would suggest avoiding drawing
attention to yourself in Marithian woods. Has anyone ever told you
that you have an enchanting voice?” asked Yuski.

“
That is very kind of you;
and thank you for the warning. My master Aldorus told me often how
much he loved me to sing for him. I was wondering what demons would
be particularly dangerous as those demons looked dangerous enough
to me.”

“
These are dire times and
ever since the day the red shaded moon rose into the night sky,
demons that would otherwise never see daylight made their way back
to Marithia. Those demons should
not
be here and I intend to return
as many as I can to the underworld with their tails between their
legs. Although some demons have been in Marithia all along, hiding
among us,” began Yuski.

Anakari shivered, looking on the
surrounding forest with even more terror than she had before. She
felt very unsafe despite having a demon hunter perched directly
behind her. She gripped her reins tighter.

“
What are these demons and
how do you know so much about them?”

“
Demons are my life; to be
more precise, hunting them is my life. I was born into a family of
demon hunters and that calling runs through my veins. Demons have
been around for hundreds of years and we work tirelessly to rid
them from Marithia. I take great pride in banishing them to the
underworld by a blade or arrow. The demon I was waiting for in the
woods tonight is of particular concern,” said Yuski.

“
What makes
that
demon so
special?”

“
I suppose I better tell
you the whole story, but this may take some time, are you sure you
want to know?”

“
Of course,” answered
Anakari.

“
As you wish, let me tell
you how the elder demon, Wumvarn, came to be. What we know has been
obtained from many sources. My father collated all of that
knowledge into a book which was then passed on to me by birth
right. Many years ago, far before you or I were in this world,
there was a great war with the almighty demon of darkness, Shindar.
The details of that war are not important for this story, but after
Shindar’s defeat by the dragons and most of the Forces of Darkness
had been destroyed in battle, something awful happened,” continued
Yuski, pausing to drink out of a water flask in her
coat.

She offered the drink to Anakari, but
the elf wasn’t thirsty, just impatient to know more.

“
No, thank you. Please
continue,
what
awful thing happened?” said Anakari, drawn to the story and
forgetting about the bite of the cold.

“
There were stragglers
after the war and a large number of Shindar’s army had been left
behind in the retreat to the underworld. One town managed to trap
one of his survivors in the nearby woods one night, a shadow demon
called Wumvarn. With flamed torches in hand, they circled it.
However, instead of killing it quickly, the townspeople decided to
exact revenge for those who had fallen to the Forces of Darkness.
For many hours which must have felt like an eternity, they used any
weapons that they had to slowly torture, and cruelly kill Wumvarn.
Their bloodlust was quenched by the demon’s blood curdling screams
before it eventually disintegrated, falling into the ground,” said
Yuski.

“
By the gods!” exclaimed
Anakari, wide eyed.

“
The gods had no part to
play in this. The townspeople didn’t realise the consequences of
what they’d done. They had themselves turned to evil to punish and
kill the demon. Wumvarn fed on their fury, on their malice. They
gave the demon a new purpose and reason to cling to life; it was
not as easy to destroy as they thought. Wumvarn’s soul hung on with
whatever essence it had left. Rather than dying, it possessed a
nearby tree, letting go of its tortured remains. The townsfolk,
thinking there were no Forces of Darkness left in the surrounding
lands, failed to stay vigilant. Slowly, over time, people started
to go missing. Wumvarn, still safely sheltered in the tree, would
take anyone who neared it. Its tentacle like roots would drag them
deep into the ground below, where the demon would feed on their
carcasses. Each victim’s death added to its growing power. Men,
women and children were all taken.”

“
Those poor people,” said
Anakari.

“
Indeed. Nobody knew that
Wumvarn was silently gathering strength, and inside the tree, it
was also building a new body in readiness for a return to the
world. Using the strongest parts taken from its victims, it created
a new body for itself. More and more people went missing as
Wumvarn’s need to feed increased. It needed to sustain its new
body. More people had to be taken or its body inside the tree would
rot and be unusable.”

Anakari raised an eyebrow
in suspicion as she asked, “How do you
possibly
know that?”

“
Much later, when the demon
had taken its human form, they found the tree ripped open like a
casket. The shape of a human body was missing from within the
wood.”

“
Oh,” whispered Anakari,
wishing she had never asked.

“
The final victim that was
found buried near the tree was of a skinned woman, with her heart
ripped out. Wumvarn, now released from the tree and walking free,
only consumes hearts. We think that she does this to keep her skin
young.”

“
Her?” Anakari
asked

“
Yes. She walked into the
town as one of their own; they had no clue that she was a demon.
One by one, she despatched nearly all of the town’s people.
Eventually, with so few hearts to feed her, she abandoned the town
and walked the lands of Marithia. To avoid suspicion, she would
change skins and live different lives. Nobody knows whose skin she
wears now or has worn in the past,” said Yuski, pausing to take
another sip of water.

“
She is the demon who I was
expecting to be coming this way tonight, but it looks like I have
met
you
instead.
Can you see why I had to find out if you were a demon? I have been
tracking her victims across Marithia. With all the bloodshed from
the war, most of her kills go unnoticed. If a poor soul has their
heart ripped out, most Marithians would just assume they died at
the hands of the Forces of Darkness. And in truth, they did. But
this demon’s interests are solely her own. I don’t think anyone
could control her… she appears to answer to no-one.”

She reached into her coat pocket and
pulled out the orb she used earlier, reaching around to present it
to Anakari. She whispered, “This is one of the greatest weapons
that I wield. It will glow in the presence of a demon. A regular
shadow demon glows green. An elder demon, like Wumvarn, will glow
blue.”

Anakari took a moment to look into the
orb, noticing a faint blue glow from within.

“
Yuski, should we be
concerned that your orb is glowing blue?”

Yuski laughed, putting her orb back
into her coat pocket.

“
The orb can find demons
over lands far away; the faint blue glow is exactly why I was
waiting in the woods. I know that Wumvarn is somewhere nearby. Why
do you think I checked my pocket before accepting your invitation?
I certainly wouldn’t want to ride a horse with Wumvarn anytime
soon, it would be a heart wrenching experience,” she joked, “So,
and now it’s your turn… what do you want to go to Crondor for
anyway?”

“
Actually, I’m not sure. I
heard that it is a safe town and I want to ask some of the locals
if the name ‘Daessar’ means anything to them.”

“
Daessar? I am sorry Kari,
the name means nothing to me… but I might know someone who can help
you. He lives near Crondor and is more knowledgeable in Marithian
history than anyone I have ever met. If there is meaning to the
name… he will likely know what it is,” she answered.

Anakari looked up as the
forest thinned and she found comfort as her familiar stars returned
to her view. She smiled as she said cheerfully, “You were right,
Crondor
is
this
way, but I suspect it will take some time to reach
there.”