Satan's Gambit (The Barrier War Book 3) (52 page)

“I might settle
for your head this time,” Uriel replied. He kicked out to block a strike from
Aesthma’s tail even as he deflected attacks from the demon’s twin blades. Uriel
suddenly dropped straight down and lunged for Aesthma’s tail with his free
hand. He unleashed a burst of white flames as he yanked the demon down after
him and released the tail before the stinger could strike him. Uriel’s hand
burned from the contact, but more importantly, Aesthma’s tail would burn, too.

“You know, you
were a lot prettier as a mindless childris,” Uriel said, jumping backward as
Aesthma whirled to face him.

“Don’t fool
yourself, Uriel,” Aesthma hissed, “I was never a mindless anything. While you
were still learning how not to cut yourself with that sword of yours, I was
plotting the overthrow of Pleroma itself. My sting has brought screams from
countless angels, including your precious Gabriel.”

“Damn you,”
Uriel growled as he again tried to penetrate the demon’s defenses with his
sword.

“Thank you,”
Aesthma replied, breaking away from Uriel long enough to give him a mocking
bow. Uriel closed the distance immediately and scored a glancing hit on the
demon’s carapace that left a searing blue gash beneath his wings.

The two immortal
enemies were consumed by their duel, oblivious to the ongoing battle around
them. Occasionally, a demon or angel would stray too close and was struck down
by one of the combatants, but these were mere distractions compared to the
broiling enmity that fueled their personal war.

One such
distraction nearly cost Uriel his existence. He lacked Aesthma’s
all-encompassing vision, and when the demon twisted about and left him an
opening, Uriel thoughtlessly leapt forward to exploit the weakness. Too late,
he felt a heavy weight crash into him from above, knocking him toward Aesthma’s
waiting stinger. He twisted to avoid the potentially lethal blow, but the demon
was too quick.

An instant
before the stinger could strike, a sharp blow pushed him down and the sinuous
limb shot past harmlessly. Uriel looked up and saw that Camael had soared in to
kick his commander out of the way, then pushed off to avoid the dripping black
blades that slashed after him. With Aesthma distracted by Camael’s antics, Uriel
lashed out with his sword and lopped off the bottom of the demon’s right foot.

Aesthma shrieked
in pain and jerked about insanely. Before Uriel could recover to finish him
off, the insect demon shot straight up and disappeared in the swirl of combat. An
instant later, Uriel could no longer sense his presence.

“Do we give
chase?” Camael asked, hovering over Uriel.

“No,” Uriel
replied regretfully. “Aesthma’s faster than either of us.” Uriel righted
himself in the air and clapped a hand on Camael’s shoulder. “Didn’t I order you
to stay out of the melee and keep those arrows coming?”

“Just doing what
Archangels do best, sir,” Camael said with a stiff bow.

“Bless you,”
Uriel said, grinning back at him.
That’s probably the closest thing I’ve
seen to a Power telling a joke
, he thought to himself.

“Sir, you need
to see what’s going on below, though,” Camael reported without acknowledging
his superior’s mirth.

Uriel sighed.
Just
one laugh, Camael. One smile, even.
He genuinely liked his second, but
Powers tended to be a bit stiff at times. In that respect, Camael was the
consummate Power, all duty and very little joy in his existence.

“Show me.”

Uriel quickly
surveyed the ground and immediately saw the source of his second’s concern. A
dark wave was rushing toward the center of Arthryx’s camp where he could see an
ongoing battle between Shadow Company a small army of damned souls. Uriel had
no idea if they’d been successful in their mission, but in a matter of minutes
the entire company would be eradicated.

“Sir, you know
we have strict orders not to interfere on the ground,” Camael said severely.
“We’re diversion only.”

“So?” Uriel
asked, throwing an amused look at the Power. “Keep the remains of your force
here and engage as you will. As you said, the rest of us will do what
Archangels do best.”

Camael nodded
and sped off as Uriel rallied his force and charged toward the ground.

- 3 -

Danner cut down
another demon and took an involuntary step backward as the body fell forward.
It dissolved into black ash without ever touching him.

“Caret, get
me a headcount!”
Danner ordered without having any idea where his squad
leader was. Blue, Red, Green, and Yellow platoons were scattered and fully
engaged with a virtual flood of damned souls and their demonic overseers.
Denarae linked up with comrades wherever they were available and stood
back-to-back if necessary to protect each other. Larger groups moved as quickly
as they could through the fray to rescue smaller pockets before they were
swarmed, but it was taking far too long to get everyone together again.

I don’t think
we’re in the damn tent anymore,
Danner thought with weary frustration.

The battle had
reached a pitched fury at the outset, and Danner felt like he’d been fighting
for hours instead of a mere twenty minutes. In the distance, he saw the
Archangels battling their way through skies thick with flying demons and damned
souls.

“If this is
their idea of a diversion, we need to have a little talk about strategy,”
Flasch had yelled to Danner a minute or two before. The Violet paladin had
split his platoon into five groups of ten and they prowled the battle, slicing
into enemy ranks with surgical precision to reach their trapped fellows.

“Blue Platoon
reports two seriously wounded, one critical, but zero dead, sir,”
Caret
kythed to Danner.
“Estimates from the other platoons show few fatalities but
plenty of injuries.”

Danner said a
quick prayer of thanks that the news wasn’t worse. He’d half expected his
platoon to be decimated, given the state of things. For a moment, Danner found
himself without an enemy in combat reach, and he took a few deep breaths to
settle his breathing.

“How’s Garnet
coming with that damned demon?”
he asked.
“Does he need any help, or are
we almost out of here?”

“Unknown,”
the denarae squad leader replied.
“Demon’s still alive, and I’m not about to
interrupt Garnet to ask how he’s doing.”

“Good call,”
Danner thought to him. The breathing room he’d found vanished, and he was back
in the thick of the fray. He wished Trebor was still with him. As soon as
Garnet moved in to attack Arthryx, however, he’d summoned Trebor – who was both
a paladin and free of platoon responsibilities – to help him.

“Caret, where
are you?”
Danner asked.
“I’m alone here, guide me in.”

With most of his
attention on the battle raging around him, Danner nevertheless managed to
follow Caret’s directions until he found the denarae with most of his squad at
his side.

“Blue leader!
Watch out, demons incoming on your position!”

Danner didn’t
recognize the mental voice, but with a warning like that, he wasn’t about to
stop and ask for identification. The next words he heard sent ice running down
his spine.

“God help us!
It’s childris! Get the Hell out of there!”

“Move!” Danner
shouted, reinforcing a mental command. The denarae with him split into two
groups and sprinted away at top speed. Even with men supporting their wounded
comrades, one of the injured men stumbled and crumpled to the ground. Caret
spun and dashed back just as a wave of twenty childris demons swept out from
behind a toppled cauldron.

Caret skidded to
a halt and tried to reverse his momentum, but before he took two steps the
foremost demon speared him through the chest first with one, then another of
the razor-sharp blades that made up the creature’s forelimbs. Danner watched in
horror as Caret swung his sword and beat ineffectively against the demon’s hard
shell. Without slowing its headlong rush, one of the demon’s sword-arms slipped
free and speared Caret through the throat while the other held him aloft, then
he was cast aside like a broken doll as the demon raced forward.

Danner’s vision
clouded over with a blue haze, and he saw his wings flicker at the edge of his
vision as they began to take shape. Before he could launch himself at the
demons, a sheet of angelic arrows fell down from the skies and cut a path of
destruction through the unsuspecting childris. Danner fought down the rising
fury and his body shook as he regained control of himself and his half-visible
wings disappeared as his transformation was aborted. He looked up and thought
he recognized Uriel leading the charge as they sped off toward another wave of
childris.

Just then, a
thunderclap of power shook Danner down to his bones, and a soundless shockwave
rolled over the entire camp and knocked demon and denarae alike off their feet.

“That’s it!
Arthryx is dead, primary mission accomplished,”
Brican announced to the
entire company.
“Relay from Garnet, let’s pack up and get the Hell out of
here. Orange, get set to cover our retreat and send the signal to our
extraction angels. Take any of our fallen you can find, but don’t join their
ranks. We have five minutes. Move!”

Danner cast one
last glance at Caret’s body – which was quickly picked up by a husky denarae
who carried his dead companion across his shoulders – then he sped off toward
the river. He kept a constant lookout for anyone who needed his help, but it
was mainly Flasch’s responsibility to extract any stragglers. He caught sight
of the Violet paladin handing off an injured denarae to two others, then Flasch
disappeared again, headed back into the mass of chaos to look for others.

As they neared
the river, Danner passed men from Orange Platoon who were in position to cover
them. He noticed signs of battle even back here and surmised Marc had already
seen some action of his own. Danner caught sight of the Orange paladin
directing the flow of traffic and saw a deep, angry cut down his friend’s left
cheek.

“There’s the
first angel,”
Brican announced. He had taken charge of half the men by the
river, Guilian had the other half, and they managed the flow of denarae
entering the water as the angels arrived. Denarae leapt or limped into the
river – carrying their dead with them – and slipped beneath the cool surface,
where they grabbed the passing rope trailing behind an angel flying slowly
through the water. As soon as the end of the rope was clear, the angel picked
up speed and hurried off toward safety. Danner saw Trebor’s green cloak
disappear into the water and knew his friend had made it out safely.

Brican and
Guilian had the evac well in-hand, so Danner turned his attention back toward
Orange Platoon. Marc’s archers were firing as quickly as they could identify
targets, and their pursuers were kept at bay with the help of the Archangels
flying overhead. Danner saw no sign of the childris and breathed a sigh of
relief.

“We’re all
clear here,”
Brican announced, taking Danner by surprise.
“Orange
Platoon and officers are all that’s left. Orange, relay from Garnet, fall back
by squads. Archangels will provide cover fire while you pull out. End.”

Danner hurried
down to the river next to where Brican and Guilian were now standing together.
Half of Marc’s platoon leapt into the water and disappeared as an angel passed
by.

“One angel
left,” Brican told him.

“Last call,
ladies and gentlemen,” Flasch said grandly as he approached the river. “Last
call.”

The Violet
paladin was one of the last men to reach the river, and he was supporting a
badly limping Garnet on one side. The Shadow Company commander had several deep,
demon-induced cuts on his body that were already showing signs of infection.
Where Garnet’s face was grim and pained, Flasch’s was sharp and somewhat
elated.

I don’t know
how he does that,
Danner wondered.
We all lost men today, and I know he
cares, but he’s still so damn light-hearted.

“Their deaths
were worth the gain,”
Guilian kythed to Danner.
“They were my friends,
too, but they all knew it was worth their lives, that’s why they gave them.
Remember what we lost, but celebrate what we accomplished.”

Danner looked
questioningly at Guilian, who nodded and gave Danner a slight smile.

“Danner, it
might not be my place,”
Guilian kythed hesitantly,
“but I thought it
worth pointing out that you didn’t asolve your wings once during that battle.
I’m sure word will reach Garnet, and I think he’ll be proud of you.”

Danner winced.
“I
came close. I lost Caret, and had it not been for the timely arrival of Uriel,
I probably would have lost it.”

“But you
didn’t,”
Guilian reminded him.
“That was a harrowing battle, and you
kept it together. You’ve changed.”

“Let’s hope
so,”
he replied, unwilling to give himself the same credit Guilian had.
Still, Danner felt more comfortable with his heritage now, and Guilian did have
a point.

Maybe,
he
allowed with a faint smile.

A heavily
bleeding Garnet broke away from Flasch and limped up beside Danner, where he
nearly fell headfirst into the river before Danner caught him. He grunted with
the effort of suddenly supporting his friend’s full weight and motioned with
his head for Flasch to help him. Instead of holding him up, though, Flasch
deliberately put a hand on Garnet’s back and pushed him out of Danner’s grip
and head-first into the river.

“It’s where he’s
going anyway,” Flasch said, jumping in next to Garnet. Despite everything that
had just happened, Danner couldn’t help himself. As he dove into the river, he
started laughing.