The Black Shriving (Chronicles of the Black Gate Book 2) (62 page)

A man was flying before him, huge wings of flame beating in sensual undulations, each downbeat casting a hail of sparks and cinders upon the horde below. He was crowned with fire, a jagged circle of living flame that caught the fire in his eyes and gave him a malevolent authority and presence that took Audsley's breath away.

Now, this I have not seen in millennia,
said the man - no, the demon.
Shall I draw my brothers from your soul, human? Grip each one by the throat and tear it free?

Audsley quailed.
What is he? Is he an ur-destraas?

No,
whispered the Aletheian man.
But still too powerful for us. Flee!

How do I kill it?

You can't kill it,
said the monk. Audsley thought he heard it whimper.

Audsley raised his hands, pressed his thumbs together and fanned wide his fingers.
A little fire. Now. Please?

Power gathered in his hands with tremendous speed, building up to a painful level as the three demons panicked and poured their very essence into the attack. A hideous gout of flame blazed forth, knocking Audsley back as it shot toward the demon, perfectly aimed dead center on its chest.

The demon made no effort to avoid it. Instead, it threw wide its arms and laughed, a fell sound that mocked Audsley to his core. The flame spattered off him, a shower flowing to either side of him as if it were little more than water.

Audsley caught his fall just a few yards above the horde, staring up aghast the demon as it hovered in the air above him.

You think to destroy me with their essence?

Audsley let out a wail and put all his mind into flying back and up as quickly as he could, up and over the wall, catching one knee on a parapet and sending a flash of pain through his leg. Only the demon's laughter followed him, and Audsley felt a shaky wave of relief flood through him. Asho and Kethe were being swamped by the shadow corpses that were climbing the walls, so he extended his hands again and dropped back inside the courtyard, alighting on the ground. He took a deep breath and unleashed blast after blast of fire against the castle wall.

The shadow demons blistered and burst. "Have at thee!" yelled Audsley, moving his hands from side to side, charring the stones and destroying every black skeletal figure in sight.

Each burst of flame forced him to stagger back, buffeting him and rocking him onto his heels. He felt like laughing, a maniacal laugh that he knew he'd never be able to stop. His moment of elation died, though, as a wave of demons came pouring in through the gatehouse, a deluge that turned and began to climb the wall, ignoring the remains of their fallen brothers.

A lanky, many-limbed demon akin to a spider clambered into view at the corner of the hold's wall. Audsley saw it out of the corner of his eye; saw it lift a limb, then let out a scream and sent a silver blade of some kind whipping past him, end over end, nearly shearing off his face. Turning, Audsley saw that it had another seven such blades in hand. It raised two of them and threw them at him.

Audsley dropped his hands and flew up, felt a flare of pain in his thigh as something cut along the side of his leg, and turned to blast the spider demon – only to see a giant step up to the outside wall.

Audsley gaped. The monster had to stand fifteen yards tall for its head to clear the wall in such a manner. It was wearing a huge helmet of warped black metal, twin horns extending from the sides like the jaws of a stag beetle. Though its face was hidden in shadow, its eyes burned with livid light. It tore a crenellation off the wall and hurled it at Audsley, the huge chunk of wall whistling through the air and nearly removing his head as he ducked and twisted back down.

Winged shadows slashed at him. Audsley cried out and dove awkwardly to the side, but there was nowhere to escape.

The spider monster hurled another two spars of silver. Audsley heard the giant tear out another chunk of the wall. Desperate, with sweat pouring down his face, the flames that licked along his fists beginning to die down, he backed away, floating toward the far wall. He threw bolts of fire at his weaving opponents, dropping a couple of yards each time, his growing panic making him miss more often than hit.

There was no way he could win this battle. There were too many fighting against him. He could kill a hundred and make no impression on the horde. He couldn't breathe; his throat was on fire, and pain suffused his wounded thigh. The demons in his mind were screaming at him, their commands and pleas melding with his own desperate cries. He hit the inside of the far castle wall, the mossy stone blocks arresting his retreat. Almost immediately the spider demon hurled another silver spear, which missed him by an inch but pinned his tunic to the wall.

Audsley threw out another cascade of flame, incinerating four shadow demons as they swooped down at him, his tunic jerking tight as the silver spar arrested his fall. The giant hurl a second boulder at him. He screamed again and tried to fly to the side but was held in place - the spear had him pinned. Horror dawned on him as he realized that he didn't have time to tear free. He turned to see the boulder sailing toward him faster than he could have thought possible – and then it exploded in a sheet of black flame.

The sound was ear-shattering. Chunks and shards of rock flew in every direction. Audsley gaped and looked down to see six individuals striding out into the courtyard, their yellow and purple robes whipping around them, their faces alight with wonder and determination.

The Agerastian Sin Casters.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Were talons and maws not seeking to rend his flesh on every side, Asho would have stood and stared as Audsley fought his terrible if erratic path through the sky. But he didn't have the time, didn't have the luxury of doing more than focusing on sheer survival; out of the corner of his eye he saw Audsley flit here, blast flame there, drop out of the sky and then retreat from the demon lord, but the whole time, Asho was fighting. He swung, blocked, ducked and pivoted, swapping places with Kethe so smoothly that they might have spent their entire lives training together.

Even if they had, they would still never have come close to this level of unity. She was an extension of him. He felt her pain, felt her exhilaration, felt her desperate need to fight on for just one more minute, one more second, to block one last cut, to kill one final demon. And just as he sensed her, he knew she felt him, anticipated his maneuvers, turning to swing her blade over his head as he ducked to kill an attacking shadow even as he hacked the legs out from under another.

The demon corpses fell from their attacks, toppling over the edges of the walls left and right, none of them gaining a foothold, but there were always more. More skeletal hands clasping the edge of the parapet to pull their grinning, cadaverous faces into view, the shadow-stuff of their bodies wrapping around the rock as they hauled themselves up to rake and strike.

Audsley screamed, and Asho saw as he turned an actual giant stride up to the castle wall, dripping black water from the lake, to tear off a hunk of rock and hurl it at the flying magister. Audsley was beleaguered, being attacked from all sides. Asho felt fury surge up within him, anger at his inability to help his friend. He redoubled his attacks, crushing a skull, booting a second corpse in the chest and off the wall, lunging past Kethe to block an attack that was about to take her in the side.

Another scream from Audsley. Asho risked a look and saw the portly Noussian pinned against the far wall -
How by the Black Gate is he flying?
- then the giant threw a second boulder.

"Audsley!" Asho's cry was lost in the roar of battle, and then totally eclipsed by the shattering crack as black fire destroyed the rock in midair. Asho actually stopped fighting and stared down into the courtyard. Six men and women were running there, power boiling off them, dressed in purple and yellow robes.

Agerastians! Lady Kyferin had done it. She'd –

A hand grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him down. He fell to his knees as wicked claws scythed through the air where he'd been standing, then Kethe's white-burning blade passed clear through the corpse. Asho fought back to his feet, but the pressure on him and Kethe was lessening. Panting for breath, he blocked a swipe, taking off the corpse's arm as he did so, and saw that the shadow corpses on the inside of the hold wall were swarming back down to attack the Agerastians, some of them leaping clear off the wall only to be burned in midair.

"Asho!" Kethe's voice was a desperate cry. "I can sense them!"

The Agerastians were flush with power, but that did nothing to stave off the taint that was corrupting their flesh with each blast of black fire they threw. A quick glance showed Asho that they were already feeling the effects of the taint. One already had his arm over another's neck, and a third was reeling.

"I'm going to shield them!"

"Kethe, no!"

But it was too late. She closed her eyes, trusting her defense to him, and he felt her withdraw some of her power from their bond. She reached down to the six people below, her white light seeking blindly and then finding the six flickering fields of black energy in the courtyard.

As one, the six Agerastians stared up at where Kethe was standing.

"Kethe, you can't!" Asho fought around her, extending himself to his utmost, battling and slashing to keep the shadow corpses away from her. "You'll burn out!"

She didn't listen. One by one, she connected with each of the Agerastians. Blindly, just as he had the first time, they forged a bond with her. One by one, she took on the load of their casting, accepted the punishment of their taint. Each bond weighed her down further.

She couldn't do this. She'd snuff out like a candle.

"There," she gasped, little more than a whisper. The white fire that engulfed her was but a shadow of its former self. She stood stooped, effort contorting her face, her lips a thin line. "Now. Fight."

Asho leaped up and kicked a shadow corpse in the face. Bone shattered, and he landed on the crenellation, staring out at the demonic horde. Had this army lain in wait all this time up in the ranges? The causeway was still covered. More winged creatures were flying down from the mountains, and giants were wading through the lake, the water surging around their shoulders. And above them all flew the demon lord, his wings stretching out a dozen yards to each side, beating with massive, slow strokes as he watched, eyes burning, a smile carved into his human face.

"We have to kill him!" Asho turned to Kethe, and fear lanced through his heart. She was barely blocking the attacks that were coming her way.

He leaped back down, hewed a shadow in half, and dragged her away in time to block a cut, then reversed his blade, spun, and plunged the tip into the shadow's chest. It fragmented into cinders and ashes that were blown away by the wicked beat of wings above them.

Asho looked up. A massive serpent - a dragon? - was coiling down to strike at them, endless loops of ebon nightmare that terminated in teeth and burning eyes and a flickering tongue. It opened its mouth, and Asho saw vermillion flames flickering in its gullet just a moment before it spewed forth a gout of flame.

Asho screamed and threw up his hand, not drawing from Kethe but rather from his own body, summoning in an instant the black fire with which he'd destroyed the Virtue. He flung his own fire right back up at the dragon snake so that their infernal plumes met halfway and there spread out into a great flickering disc.

Ask for my help
, came the voice from the sword.

Asho felt his body revolting, his muscles spasming. The dragon snake's flame had a terrible weight to it; it was pushing him down to a crouch. The heat was tremendous, searing his hair.

Ask for my help, and I shall grant you strength beyond your own.

Sweat poured down his face. The very stones around him were starting to glisten from the blistering heat. His own black fire was diminishing, shrinking back toward him. Kethe defended his back, fighting off five shadow corpses, but she was too close. The dragon snake's flames would incinerate her too.

"Yes," he said through gritted teeth. "I accept!"

The sword seemed to leap up, dragging him to his feet, and the runes incandesced, sending out sheets of red fire in a single burst before Asho felt his strength augmented tenfold. He felt the presence in the blade roar with delight, and the black fire emerging from its tip doubled, tripled, became a torrent.