Satan's Gambit (The Barrier War Book 3) (76 page)

Siran and the
Elan’Vital returned at a dead sprint, and one look at the elves’ faces told
Danner there was trouble.

“What’s wrong,
Siran?” Gerard asked when he caught sight of the elf.

“Demons.”

“How many?”
Birch asked crisply.

“Impossible to
tell,” Siran answered grimly. “In the immediate vicinity, at least one
thousand.”

“Where are
they?”

“Everywhere,”
Siran said.

“Unless they
anticipated our location, we can assume thousands more cover the rest of this
infernal place,” Garnet said grimly. Siran nodded. “The demon king may not have
known exactly where we were, but he knew we’d have to come through Dis
eventually, so he just flooded the city with demons.”

Siran nodded
again. “Packs of dog-like creatures rove the streets, bloodhawks prowl the
skies, and others wait within buildings.”

“In other
words,” Gerard said briskly, “it’s
possible
for us to sneak through, but
there’s a better chance of an elf and a dwarf siring children together.”

“A loathsome
idea,” Siran said with a serious frown, “but an apt estimation of the odds.”

Gerard turned to
Garnet.

“Well, looks
like all that sneaking you did was just training for this,” the dead paladin
said. “Pair off with Halo Company and lead us through this Hell hole.”

Rivers don’t wander out of frivolity or random chance.
The path they follow is the most economical route to the sea.

- Trames,

“O Musings” (976 AM)

- 1 -

When they
finally arrived, the army of Hell waited four days before beginning their
assault on Medina. Angels occasionally made forays against the demons who swept
the skies overhead, but for the most part they stayed concealed within the city
avoiding notice and conserving their numbers for the coming siege. The demon
army assembled in two vast groups and spread out to encircle a third of the
city, then they stopped and held their positions instead of assaulting.

No one in the
city knew what the demons were waiting for, or if Malith was just playing some
sort of game with them.

Someone is
playing a game with
me
,
Malith thought furiously as he paced back
and forth within his tent.
Where in Sin’s name is the rest of this accursed
army?

He thrust the
flap of his tent aside and glared down at an imp stationed nearby. The
waist-high demon cringed back from Malith’s anger, but dared not run, lest
Malith order him destroyed for cowardice.

“Has there been
any word yet?” he demanded harshly.

“From which
army, my lord General?” the imp rasped.

“Any of them,
you fool, but Khamuel in particular.”

“No, general.”

Malith stared at
the city, trying to bore through walls of crystal and angelstone as if his
missing forces might somehow be hidden within.

“Send for
Molekh,” he ordered, then returned to his tent.

Iblis had
disappeared during a foolish attack against Mikal and his forces. Bearable news
for Malith, but much of his army had vanished with him, and those who remained
had no knowledge of how or to where their fellows had disappeared. They could
not have been destroyed – there simply weren’t enough angels left in Heaven to
mount that kind of offensive, not when Malith
knew
most of them had been
retreating steadily toward Medina. There was no explaining the loss, nor why it
was so selective: only demons had vanished. No damned souls had accompanied
their immortal masters.

Still, Malith
could have shrugged off the setback had it been the only one.

Beelzebub’s army
had arrived – also inexplicably reduced from its original size, though the
majority were still there – but the demon prince himself was nowhere to be
found. No one had seen him in weeks, and none of the remaining lieutenants had
the presence of mind to send word to Malith until they arrived at Medina.

Worst of all,
however, Khamuel and his entire army – all demons – had vanished without a
trace. It was simply inconceivable that the angels had somehow wiped them out,
but every other alternative Malith could think of was even more improbable.
They wouldn’t dare go against Mephistopheles’s will, and the demon king had
been furious when Malith reported the staggering losses. Fortunately,
Mephistopheles’s anger had been wholly directed at the wayward demons and not
at his general, else Malith might not have survived his master’s fury.

While he waited,
Malith studied the map of Medina on the table before him. He had never imagined
the angels would flood their city as a means of defense, but fortunately
Nekushtan had devised a simple method for them to proceed. Malith thought of
summoning the ophidian demon as well and frowned when he realized he hadn’t
seen or heard from the serpent in more than a day. He dispatched a messenger to
request the demon lord’s presence.

When Molekh
finally arrived, the bull-headed demon entered the tent without announcing
himself and stared down at Malith. Fire gleamed in his nostrils as he silently
regarded his mortal general, and his arms were tense and bulged with muscle as
he crossed them over his massive chest. The demon lord had not forgotten the
fate of his favored lieutenant, and Malith could feel the enmity radiating from
the bull-headed creature.

“Have your
scouts reported any sightings of the missing troops?” Malith asked without
looking up from the map.

“I would have
informed you if they had,” Molekh rumbled.

“Then we can
afford to wait no longer,” Malith said, straightening. “Begin your assault as
we discussed. Beware attacks from the water, and keep the air thick with
bloodhawks, imps, and gremlins. Destroy anything holy on sight, and don’t stop
for anything. I expect this will take several days, but the key now is to never
let up. Grind away at the angels as we turn their beloved city to rubble, and
bring victory to the demon king.”

“As you command,
general,” Molekh said, and for once there was no mockery in his voice. The
demon lord was eager to fight, and only prudence would keep him from leading
the assault himself.

Malith dismissed
him and studied the map further while waiting for Nekushtan to arrive. After an
hour, he began to grow impatient. When two hours had passed, he was furious and
strode from his tent with his sword already drawn. His messenger was just
returning with a balrog hurrying behind him.

“Where is
Nekushtan?” Malith demanded. “I asked for the demon lord, not one of his
lackeys.”

“My lord
general,” the balrog croaked in a barely discernible voice, “no one has seen
Lord Nekushtan in a day. He said he was flying to speak with you, but never
returned.”

Malith destroyed
both the balrog and the imp messenger in a rage and looked around furiously for
something else to obliterate.

“What is
happening to my army?” he thundered as every demon within a hundred yards fled
in terror. Malith singled out a drolkul and motioned for the four-armed demon
to approach. The drolkul hesitated, then decided obeying was the best option to
avoid destruction and knelt fearfully in front of Malith. Kneeling, the demon’s
head was still even with Malith’s shoulders, but there was no question who was
the superior.

“Send word to
every army and every demon still loyal to Mephistopheles,” Malith said in a
cold voice. “Khamuel, Iblis, Beelzebub, Azazel, and Nekushtan are all traitors
and are to be destroyed on sight by any means necessary. Those following them
are equally treacherous and will share their fate, as will anyone who spots
them and does not report it immediately. Is that clear?”

“Yes, General
Malith,” the drolkul said in a subdued voice.

Malith turned
and stalked back to his tent. Even with the missing forces they would still be
able to take the holy city, it would just take longer. After he presented the
Throne of Heaven to Mephistopheles, he would take great pleasure in hunting
down the treacherous demons and returning them to the demon king to receive his
wrath.

His only regret
was that Molekh was not among the traitors.
His
screams, Malith would
truly relish.

- 2 -

Molekh stayed well
back from the front lines as he began the assault, but he watched in pleasure
as first one building, then another was reduced to so much rubble. The
outermost structures were set upon by hordes of demons who flew over the lake
of holy water and attacked the stone. Several minutes later, the building
collapsed on one side and fell toward the waiting demons, creating a path over
the water. Another soon followed, then another. The lake that had been created
within the city was only a few stories deep, and the soaring buildings would
provide ample material for the demon army’s impromptu bridges.

Some of the less
fortunate demons and damned souls were swamped when the falling buildings sent
waves rushing toward the infernal army, but few were destroyed outright by
their incompetence. Ten buildings in all were felled to create pathways for the
demons, and more were already being attacked farther into the city. As more and
more buildings fell, they created a web of pathways over which the demon army
swarmed like locusts.

Angels rained
blue death from the skies and from within untouched buildings, shooting through
windows at the unprotected demons below. At least a thousand paladins rose up
from somewhere in the city and surged into the skies to attack the airborne
demons, and small armies of mortals swarmed up from out of the water to attack
the demons’ flanks before escaping back into the lake. Streams of blessed water
poured into the ranks of the damned, knocking scores into embrace of the
flooded city. Dozens of demons and damned souls died with every minute, but it
did nothing to halt their advance. Molekh followed the bulk of his army,
staying well back from the fore of their steady assault.

“Slow and steady
is the way,” Molekh had told his lieutenants. “If we rush about like foolish
mortals, they can lead us into traps and spring surprises on us. If we take the
time to destroy everything in our path, we have the might to crush them beneath
our feet and tear their city to the ground, leaving them no refuge from which
to attack us.”

Elsewhere, he
knew Nekushtan’s army was assaulting, probably with daring tactics that were
more the serpent’s style. Lotan also led an army into the fray, and Molekh
imagined the multi-headed demon was moving with even less speed than Molekh’s
own army. Lotan had a rather limited intellect, and he would smash everything
in sight solely for the purpose of destruction, whereas Molekh saw a valuable
tactical advantage in depriving his enemies of shelter and concealment. Iblis’s
forces were now under the command of an opportunistic balrog, but Molekh hadn’t
bothered to remember the lesser demon’s name, if it even had one.

After he saw
another wave of blessed souls surge out of the water to attack, Molekh summoned
a gremlin messenger and ordered an airborne company bearing crossbows to
advance. The next time the mortals attacked and retreated into what they
thought was the safety of the lake, the airborne company unleashed a deadly
storm of crossbow bolts marked with the unholy symbol. The cursed weapons
sliced through the water and decimated the ranks of the aquatic forces, and
Molekh laughed in pleasure as he saw them struggle to flee. Now the water
worked against them, as few could move fast enough to escape the lethal aim of
the demons hovering overhead. The bolts were not as effective as they should
have been, thanks to the blessed waters, but they were more than enough to
wreak havoc on their Heavenly foes.

“Pass word to
the other armies of this tactic in case they lack ingenuity,” Molekh ordered a
nearby imp, who sped off to carry the message. He turned to another messenger.
“Inform General Malith of our progress so far and request he send in the
Beast.”

That should
keep more of the angels and airborne paladins occupied,
he thought with satisfaction.

Another building
toppled in the distance, and the destruction of Medina continued relentlessly.

- 3 -

It was
inevitable that they would be discovered. With so many demons prowling the
streets of Dis, the odds were too great that some would catch sight of such a
large force trying to sneak through, but they dared not split the group any
more than they already had lest they be easy prey for the marauding demons.
Danner just wished they’d gotten a little further into the city before being
discovered.

All the way
through would have been nice,
he griped silently as he sped down the
street. He was nowhere near the buggy’s top speed – there were paladins and
denarae running in front of him who would be run over, and others following him
who would be left behind.

Gerard’s initial
ploy of pairing off Shadow Company members with the paladins from Halo Company
worked well, up to a point. They moved in groups of two dozen with twelve from
each unit, which was small enough to escape notice but large enough to defend
themselves if the need arose. The denarae stayed in constant communication,
kything to warn each other of demonic search patterns and oncoming patrols, and
the few demons they came across were easy prey for the holy warriors. The
elves, with their uncanny stealth, moved in autonomous groups and were
unobserved by either friend or foe.

Eventually,
however, a group here was pinned down while another group there had to keep
moving to evade a patrol, and they began to cluster and became even more noticeable.
Finally, a pack of hellhounds caught their scent and led a large patrol of
balrogs and drolkuls right to them, and subtlety was thrown out the door – or
“out of the tent” as Gerard had taken to saying – as they made a mad dash for
the inner edge of the city.