The Black Shriving (Chronicles of the Black Gate Book 2) (54 page)

Audsley closed his eyes. Retreat. Flee – that was the wise thing to do, the smart thing to do. Surely the demon couldn't do any harm in just a few more hours.

He opened his eyes and sighed, shoulders slumping. Who was he fooling? He couldn't run away from this. He turned back to the great chamber and smiled sadly down at his firecat. "Come on, Aedelbert. Let's go see what we can do about that demon."

With a push he rose up into the air, the blade's demon powering him in flight once more. Nothing ostentatious, just a couple of feet, but enough for him to glide forward silently, gauntlet extended before him, the flickering fires of hell smoldering in his palm.

Audsley tried to prepare himself for what was to come. This was one of many demons the Sin Casters had summoned through the Black Gate and then trapped in a leaden prison. Being summoned, it didn't need a host body, nor did it need one now. That would make its shape mutable. It was constrained only by its power level, which meant that whatever form he might soon confront would be limited only by the demon's imagination. He shivered. That was hardly a comforting thought.

Aedelbert flew alongside him, out into the cyclopean chamber. The sheer scale of it almost defeated his impetus to hunt the demon. How could he find something in so much space? Where to begin?

Audsley bit his lower lip. If he were the demon, who would he be trying to free? He'd go for the most powerful demon present. He felt his heart lurch at the prospect but forced himself to gaze down the length of the stone cubes that ran down the center of the room, each slightly larger than the last. The final cube was massive, a roughly carved block of stone as tall as the curtain walls of Kyferin Castle.

There.

Audsley gulped and flew forward, then corrected his trajectory and rose till he was skimming just below the roof of the cavern. A fall from here wouldn't just kill him, it would smear his remains across the entire floor. Not a comforting thought.

Audsley fixed his gaze upon the distant cube. It inched closer as he flew on, slowly, gradually. How would the demon be attempting to disrupt the prison? Would cutting through the runes be enough?

Aedelbert's presence by his side, swooping through the air with each beat of his feathered wings, was of tremendous comfort. He knew he should send the firecat back, remove him from danger, but he couldn't imagine flying on without his company.

There. Movement. Audsley felt his bowels clamp and froze to a hover. A dark shadow was writhing on the cube's surface. Even with the goggles, he couldn't make out details. What now? Descend like a hawk from above, blasting fire, and then finish the job off with a swing of his sword?

Yes, all right. That sounded good. The execution, however... ah, therein lay the rub.

Audsley flew forward slowly, nearly scraping his back against the rough cavern ceiling. The final cube came ever closer. The shadow was like a patch of webbing extended across the rune-inscribed surface. The central leaden plug was terrifyingly large, nearly five yards across. Awful. Just awful.

Audsley stopped again. Now for the wicked dive. Now for fire and death! The thought did little to stop his shaking. This creature, this demon, had torn off Bogusch's jaw. He took a deep breath, as if he were making a dive off the Fisherman's Balcony back home.
And once committed,
he told himself,
go all out. Full speed. Hold nothing back!
His only advantage lay in surprise.

He gripped his sword tightly, extended his gauntlet toward the writhing shadow, gave Aedelbert a hopeful grimace, then commanded the demon in the blade to dive.

Audsley nearly screamed, biting back his terror as he plummeted down like a dart. Sword and gauntlet extended before him, the cubes and corrugated stone floor rising up to meet him, the wind shrieking in his ears. He was going to die. He was going to die!

Down, down, he went, and just as the shadowy mass came into range, it seemed to sense him, startled, and looked up.

It was a girl. A young girl, eyes wide with terror.

Audsley did scream then, snapped his gauntlet into a fist, fought to bring his sword up, and arrested his fall just enough that he could swerve aside and land so hard that he collapsed onto his side, rolled, and fetched up like a beached whale, puffing and gasping for breath.

Then he was up, gauntlet extended.

The young Noussian girl was staring at him, looking as shocked as he was. Her eyes were large and dark, her cheekbones pronounced, and her black hair was combed back into cornrows that became braids tipped with cowrie shells.

Silence hovered around them as they studied each other. Then the girl's eyes filled with tears. "Thank you," she whispered, and fell to her knees, hands forming the Ascendant's triangle, her gaze lifting to the hidden heavens. "Thank you!"

"I. Ah. Um." Audsley fought to react appropriately. "Who are you?"

"Lania," said the girl, wiping the tears from her cheeks with the back of her wrist. "Though it's been forever since anybody called me that. Who are you? Are you going to kill me?"

"What? Kill you? My dear, I can assure you that I'm not in the habit of killing young girls. Though I must admit I still don't understand what you're doing here." Audsley looked around. Where had that writhing shadow gone?

"I was frozen by the Flame Walkers. My last memory is of being placed in a lead box. But then I awoke, and the lid was open. How long was I in there? They said I would sleep for a thousand years." Tears filled her eyes again. "Has that much time passed?"

"Since the Sin Casters? No, no, no. Not a thousand years. Only... well. Four centuries." He felt like a cad as her tears overflowed and ran down her cheeks.

"Four hundred years?" She shook her head. "Then my parents, my little brother, Nana - everyone..." She looked aghast. "Dead?"

"I would imagine so." Audsley shrugged apologetically. "Unless they were also frozen with you."

Aedelbert finally arrived, his descent having been much slower, and landed beside Audsley. He stared at Lania and hissed. "Aedelbert!" Audsley crouched down beside him. "What is the matter?"

The girl lifted both thin arms in front of her face. "Is he mean?"

Master
, came a voice from deep in Audsley's mind. The demon from the gauntlet.
You are in danger.

Audsley fixed a genial smile on his face.
Of course I am. As is this little girl.

No, master. That human girl is my brother in disguise.

"Oh," said Audsley out loud. Aedelbert continued to hiss, fur standing erect.

"What is the matter?" Lania rose to her feet. "Why are you looking at me like that? You said you weren't going to hurt me!"

"Well, this
is
awkward," said Audsley, also rising from his crouch beside Aedelbert. "Do you know where the toilet room is?"

Lania froze, eyebrows rising. "What?"

Audsley raised his gauntlet and whispered
Fire
. His entire arm flew back as if a mule had kicked him in the shoulder, and livid, furious fire spewed from his palm with a horrific roar. Audsley's vision blanked out, but he swept his arm from side to side, then up for good measure, then closed his palm into a fist.

The flames cut off. Silence reverberated around him, and the air smelled of sulphur. Audsley blinked. Lania was still standing before him, arms crossed in front of her lowered head, her clothing burned away, her dark skin gone from a human hue of brown to charred black. For a horrible, heartbreaking moment he thought the demon had tricked him, had led him to kill a child, but then she raised her face and he saw her burning yellow gaze and his fear kicked up into real terror.

It was still wearing the shape of a girl, but her skin and face now were cracked and charred, showing red, raw flesh beneath which glowed as if illuminated from within.

I had thought my act convincing.

Audsley took a step back. There was a savage, pulsing hatred and anger to those words. He couldn't tell if he had heard them or felt them.

Lania lowered her arms and stood tall.

"It was," said Audsley quickly. "It was a truly marvelous act. Very detailed. Very authentic. Can I ask you a question?"

The demon child raised an eyebrow, and Audsley opened his palm again, unleashing once more that torrent of demon flame. This time the demon Lania was ready. She leaped up into the sky, and Audsley raised his fist, following her trajectory with his endless tongue of flame, but she moved too quickly, soaring overhead and behind him, his flames just a fraction too late and behind her.

She landed less than a yard from him, stepped in and under his gauntlet so that she was inside his range of fire, and slammed her open palm against his sternum.

Audsley flew back, all the wind gone from his lungs, his entire ribcage afire with pain. He hit the rough rock, tumbled, dropped the sword, and came to a stop. "Oh," he groaned. "Ow."

Footsteps approached him, barely audible. Audsley pushed himself up, saw Lania approaching. She was growing taller, extending to the height of a teenager, becoming more asexual as she did. Her eyes continued to burn that hateful yellow. Audsley scrabbled forward, grabbed the sword, and flew straight up.

Lania leaped and followed right after. Audsley swept his gauntlet across his line of sight, flame shattering the darkness and again blinding him as the view through his goggles went white. He ceased flying as he did so; it was too much effort to attack and fly at the same time. He dropped precipitously, and just in time: he felt more than heard the sweep of claws through the air above him. He tumbled down, screaming, caught himself, and then dove forward, urging the blade to take him as fast as it could.

He speared through the darkness, sword extended like a lance before him, then rolled around so that he was flying back to the ground and peered behind him. Where was Lania? Where was she? He cast around, couldn't find her, then saw a hint of movement above him and looked up.

Lania was upon him. Her fingers had distended into claws, and as she dove past him she raked him in the gut, opening up his belly and spraying his blood through the air. Audsley screamed and fell, the pain obliterating everything. Everything felt liquid and loose, his pulse was ragged, he was tumbling, falling, and then with a crash he hit the stone floor. He felt something snap in his leg, felt flesh tear, screamed again, and blacked out.

When he came to, it was to an ocean of agony. Sobbing, he raised himself just a little and looked down. His torso was black and slick with blood. He could see gleaming coils of something hanging out of his side onto the floor. White bone protruded through his thigh. He could barely breathe, barely suck in air.

It hit him then with utmost clarity. He was going to die. Nobody survived wounds like these. This was it; he had moments to live. He was going to die alone in the bowels of Starkadr.
Oh, Iskra. I'm so sorry.

Lania landed beside him, light as a feather. Her head began to distort, a crown of thorns or horns emerging through her scalp, puncturing through the blackened skin. Her gaze traveled over his body as Audsley lay weeping and shivering, feeling his life's blood pulse out over the floor.

Lania leaned down and slid her hand into his belly. It was the worst and most disgusting sensation he'd ever felt. He nearly passed out again, but then he saw her straighten, a coil of intestine in her hand.

She bit it in two and dropped one end.
This is how you die, fat man. I will unspool you.

Then Lania's feet left the floor and she began to rise, and Audsley felt his intestines slurp and slither within him as she pulled them out. A yard, two yards, three.

He threw back his head and screamed again.

A yowl split the dark and Aedelbert dove at Lania, clawing at her face and spitting his six-inch tongue of flame. Lania didn't even flinch. She swiped with her free hand, and Aedelbert swooped off again into the darkness with a yowl of pain.

Audsley's mind blanked. He inhaled so as to scream, a soul cry that would sear the heavens - and then everything went dark again.

He was hovering in nothingness. His body somehow whole again. He blinked away tears, choked with fury and despair, stared down at his torso and patted at his healed belly.

He looked up. Three figures were hovering before him.

You relaxed our bindings,
said the first. He had appeared in the form of a Sigean monk, handsome and middle-aged, strong-jawed, hair cropped close to his skull.

"I - I - what?"

We do not desire to spend eternity trapped in those objects,
said the second. This was a Zoeian woman, her hair hanging to her shoulders in thick ropes, her skin almost blue-black, necklaces of thick wooden beads draped over her chest.

"You - you're the demons. In my mind." Audsley had never felt so slow in his life, so unable to put two and two together. He saw again Aedelbert flying away, his body wounded by those claws. Felt again that rising grief -

You are dying,
said the third. He was an imperial Aletheian man of advanced age, his eyes little more than slits, his mouth a severe line, his heritage betrayed only by his peerless poise and many-layered robes.
We can speak like this only because we are already in your mind.