The Daylight War (98 page)

Again and again,
Sharum
fell to the mimic’s return blows, but they came on fearlessly. This was the sort of death Krasian warriors prayed for, though Rojer could not understand the notion. Kaval leapt forward, and the demon knocked the shield from his grasp. The drillmaster seemed unfazed, spinning his spear faster than Rojer could see as he parried tentacles, buying his warriors time to strike.

But then the demon’s maw grew several times its size, and it bit Drillmaster Kaval in half, swallowing his head and torso before his legs and abdomen even knew to fall.

The sight shocked Rojer from his daze, and he saw Renna still struggling, caught in the grip of several wood demons attempting to carry her off.

They
want
her
alive
,
he realized.

He was playing before he knew it, stepping out of cover and moving for the fray. He was dimly aware of Amanvah, Sikvah, and Enkido following him as he headed for the edge of the wardnet, but he ignored them, ignored everything but the music as he stepped out into the naked night. He made no effort to mask his presence. Quite the contrary, he drew the attention of every demon in earshot, causing them to lock in on him much as they had on Renna a few moments earlier.

Freeze
,
he told them.
Prey
approaches.
Be
ready
to
pounce.

They did, talons tearing at the soil as they tamped down powerful limbs, preparing to spring. Even the demons trying to steal away with Renna stopped in their tracks, as he had intended.

Only the mimic demon was unaffected, leaping out of the ring of
Sharum
and charging at him like a nightmare come to life.

Rojer allowed himself a smile, and filled the night with pain, the lure of his magic turning to harsh discordance that had the demons shrieking and clawing at their own heads. Even the mimic felt it, pulling up short with a bone-chilling cry.

Amanvah and Sikvah added their voices to his power, the
three of them reaching new heights of union in their disharmony,
hora
magic making the screeching sounds pierce the night for miles. Lesser demons fled the sound, but Rojer and his wives circled the mimic, building on its pain. Rojer experimented, learning more of what hurt the creature the longer he played.

The demon writhed in pain, tentacles pressing against its head as it melted and shifted, becoming a roaring rock demon, and then a howling wood. A shrieking wind demon and even a screaming human man. Again and again it changed form, but Rojer and his wives changed their sounds to match, giving no respite. The shifts became erratic, the mimic’s flesh bubbling and sloughing off into a growing puddle of goo at its feet.

Got
you
now, you son of the Core.
Rojer’s smile was grim as he pressed in for the kill.

But when he did, the demon seemed to perk up, slightly. It looked at him with what almost seemed a smile as its ears melted away entirely, leaving only smooth scales along its skull.

Rojer had no time to dodge as it swept a tentacle at him, but there was a shout and Enkido hurled himself between them, taking the blow meant for him. Sikvah shrieked as the eunuch was disembowelled, but he managed to throw his spear even as he leapt. It stuck from the demon, flaring brightly with magic, but Rojer knew it would not be enough to kill the beast, and his music now held no power over it.

The mimic reared again, and Rojer’s bow slipped from the strings as he dived into a roll, barely dodging the lash of its tentacle. The demon drew back to swing at him again, and Rojer flinched, knowing he could not dodge aside in time.

The appendage whipped forward, but instead of the sharp horns along its length, Rojer was struck by a spray of ichor from the severed limb. He looked and saw Renna standing there, ichor-stained knife in hand. She dropped the length of tentacle to the dirt where it melted into slime as she leapt forward, blade leading.

The demon turned to meet her charge, but this time Amanvah stepped forward, reaching into the
hora
pouch at her waist. She pulled forth a blackened lump of demon bone, pointing it at the mimic as her fingers manipulated the wards carved into its surface.

A blast of magic leapt from the bone like lightning, striking the mimic and lifting it clear off the ground. Renna was on it in an instant, stabbing and cutting. Amanvah swept the dust of the crumbled bone from her hands and reached into her pouch again, pulling forth a handful of demon talons. She threw these, and they shot forth like crank bow bolts, lodging deep in the mimic’s body. It twisted and shrieked, unfocused as Renna threw it to the ground, sawing at its neck. The remaining
Sharum
,
led by Coliv, joined the fray, stabbing and shouting, blocking flailing tentacles with their shields as they kept the creature from gathering its wits once more.

Out of the corner of his warded eyes, Rojer saw the bright glow of demons, no longer held back by his music, beginning to return. He put his fiddle back to work, trying to drive them away, but a field demon had caught sight of Sikvah, who knelt over the still body of Enkido, weeping. It launched itself at her, faster than any creature alive, and Rojer knew he could not turn it in time.

But Sikvah saw the coreling coming. Her thin veil was soaked with tears, and she tore it away with one hand as she touched the choker at her throat with the other. The shriek she let loose at the creature was so piercing that human and demon alike were forced to cover their ears. The field demon stumbled mid-lope, tumbling end-over-end to lie dead at her feet.

The Haveners had joined Renna and the
Sharum
now, all piling on the mimic demon, giving it no time to melt away until Renna finally succeeded in separating its head from its body. She held it high for all to see, and there was a ragged cheer.

‘Enough!’ Rojer shouted. ‘Back to the wardnet! I can’t hold them back forever!’

Two
Sharum
had to pull Sikvah away from Enkido’s body as they ran back to safety. Rojer, still playing, breathed a moment’s relief.

Until he saw the rockets leaving red streaks across the night sky, signalling that demons had breached the wards and were on the streets of New Rizon.

‘O
ot!
They come!’ Coliv called down.

An acrobat himself, Rojer knew a thing or two about balance, but even he was amazed at the ease with which the Krevakh Watcher had planted his twelve-foot-tall ladder on open ground and run straight up to the top rung without using his hands, standing motionless for long minutes as he scanned the horizon.

The two men were alone in the town square of New Rizon, amid the ruins that only a day ago had been a thriving town. Now it was a rotting corpse, almost every structure around the cobbled square smashed by hurled stones or blackened by fire. It was eerily silent.

They had spent the day piling wreckage to restore the greatward, but none had any illusions it would hold for more than a few minutes. They had prevented demons from rising directly in the town, but the corelings had begun dismantling the protection as soon as they solidified, and the Hollowers did not have the strength to prevent it.

And so they waited, Jongleur and Watcher, in the small portable circle Rojer had used all his life. No one liked the plan, least of all Rojer, though it had been his idea. When Amanvah had seen he would not be deterred she insisted that Coliv accompany him, though Rojer thought it would likely mean two deaths instead of one. Still, he could not deny a touch of comfort at the presence of the warrior.

The
man
tried
to
kill
Arlen
,
Rojer reminded himself, but he could not bring himself to feel anger over it. Coliv had assumed command of the few remaining
Sharum
,
and they followed Rojer and his wives everywhere. He had lost count of how many times the Watcher had saved his life the night before.

Rojer lifted his fiddle as the sounds of the demons reached his ears. They would need to come through New Rizon to strike at Cutter’s Hollow, and with most of the town destroyed, the easiest path was through the town square.

It was simple to use that fact to enhance his call.
Come
this
way!
his music told the corelings.
It
is
quicker! It is easier! There is prey!

And indeed there was. Him.

The demons responded. Dozens at first, striking at his wards with flashes of magic. The number quickly swelled to hundreds, then thousands. They filled the square, and still his call went out, drawing them to him. Soon he and Coliv were lost in a sea of teeth and scales, unable to see anything else.

Corelings crawled over one another, fighting among themselves for the privilege of attacking his wards. But the worn portable circle had been well made, and it turned their attacks back on them, the field only growing stronger as more and more of them fed it with their magic.

But then the inevitable happened. The swirling mass of corelings parted to allow wood demons to advance, these carrying giant clubs made from the trunks of trees. It would be a simple matter for them to smash Rojer and Coliv to pulp and knock his circle out of alignment.

But Coliv was ready, producing a twisted ram’s horn, hollowed and polished. He put the horn to his lips and blew a long note.

At the sound, shutters slammed open around the square, archers appearing in the windows and atop the roofs of the ruined buildings. They did not hesitate, opening fire into the mass of corelings. The demons were packed so tightly it was impossible to miss, but a few of the most skilled marksmen were sure to put down the wood demons threatening Rojer. He saw one of Wonda’s unmistakable shafts appear in one of the demons’ eyes just before it fell.

Demons charged the doorways to the buildings, but they were doused in spray pumped from barrels on the floors above. A moment later torches followed, igniting the liquid demonfire and setting them ablaze.

Another horn sounded. ‘Now,’ Coliv said, never one to waste words. He set his ladder and climbed quickly, taking a weighted line and throwing it to a third-floor window.

Rojer stopped playing, shoving his fiddle into the bag of marvels slung over his shoulder. He ran up the ladder almost as nimbly as Coliv, grabbing onto the Watcher as he leapt. Men in the window pulled at the line as they tucked their legs and swung, feeling the puff of air as snatching talons just missed them.

They slammed into the blackened wall of the building, smashing some of the weakened wood, but Coliv was already climbing to the window, hauling Rojer who clung to his shoulders.

They escaped just in time as Count Thamos and Gared led a charge of heavy horse into the press. Rojer looked sadly at the spot where they had once stood, now trampled by hundreds of steel-shod hooves.

‘Gonna miss that circle,’ he said.

Renna paced back and forth, hating that she was forced to wait while battle was met. But as they had with Arlen, the demons knew her on sight now, and abandoned all other pursuits when she was beyond the wards.

The Hollowers were in full rout when they returned, running hard before a swarm of corelings. At least a third of the archers who had stationed themselves in the square did not return. Thamos’ cavalry appeared to have fared even worse, with many horses carrying two, and still hundreds missing. They gave cover to the footmen, but the horsemen, too, were fleeing, their spears mostly gone as they laid about with warded axe and hammer. Coliv had Rojer slung over his shoulder as he ran.

They flowed around Renna as she stood alone at the border, breathing deeply as she felt the magic pooled at her feet. When they were clear, she Drew.