Demon Lord VI - Son of Chaos (4 page)

Nikira nodded.
“Looks like it. And whatever it is, it’s protecting the dra’voren,
but it’s not using the dark power.”

“
A creature of the light wouldn’t protect a dra’voren,” Enyo
stated.

“
Unless he’s not a dra’voren.”

Enyo snorted.
“We know he is.”

“
Then it can’t be a creature of the light.”

The engineers
arrived with a heavy duty light gun and set to work on the door.
Nikira glanced at Jonar. “Why were you going in there?”

He held up a
syringe. “Another dose of poison.”

“
Try to hold onto that one.”

Jonar nodded,
grim faced, and they waited while the engineers set up the light
gun. Half an hour later, a sizeable hole had been burnt in the
doorframe and the dagger inside fell away. Enyo activated the door,
which slid open with a screech. The engineers removed the light
gun, and Jonar approached the door with obvious reluctance,
glancing around as he stepped through it.

The guards
followed, their weapons ready. The medtech went over to the table,
the syringe gripped tightly, his eyes darting around. He lifted the
syringe, but, as he was about to push the needle into the
dra’voren’s arm, something yanked it from his grasp. Jonar yelled
and sprinted for the door, the guards reaching it first this time
and leaping through it. The door slid shut, and Enyo activated the
stunner.

Nikira peered
through the observation window, frowning. “Whatever it is, it’s
either extremely fast, or the stunner doesn’t affect it.”

“
Either way, it’s bad news for us,” Enyo said.

Jonar sat down
on a chair. “How many times do you expect me to do that,
Commander?”

“
As many times as it takes to either get the poison into him or
stun whatever’s taking it from you.”

“
Why don’t we just kill him some other way?”

“
What makes you think whatever’s protecting him won’t still
stop us?”

Jonar shook
his head. “Send in a bunch of guards and fill him with bullets. Do
you think they could be stopped?”

“
Perhaps. We don’t know what we’re dealing with, do we? Let’s
try it again, only this time we’ll use the stunner as soon as it
grabs the syringe.”

“
Oh, great, and I get a filthy headache.”

Nikira
shrugged. “A small price to pay.”

The medtech
grunted and left to fetch another dose of toxin, and she turned to
gaze at the dra’voren. The repeated concussions had caused more
blood to ooze from his nose, and a puddle congealed on the table. A
few more and he would die anyway, she thought, angered by the wave
of sorrow that washed over her.

***

Drevarin
stopped atop a rocky hillock and surveyed the vast, glittering city
that spread across the plain below, protected by its massive blue
fire dome. His old trail continued into the domain, which he had
explored on a previous excursion, when he had discovered the
presence of the unborn god who kept the domain alive. Tryne had
said that the tar’merin was close to the domain, so he was not in
it. He turned to stare into the darkness beyond the black river,
his eyes narrowing.

“
Tryne.”

After a
moment, the angel stepped out of the air beside him. “Lord
Drevarin. We must make haste; they are trying to kill him.”

“
Where is he?”

“
In a strange vessel that floats through the air, just an
hour’s travel across the black river, if you fly. It is invisible,
a cloak formed with the blue power. When you arrive, I will guide
you to it.”

Drevarin
nodded. “Go back and protect him. I will be there soon.”

Tryne stepped
back into the Channel, and Drevarin became airborne and flew into
the darkness beyond the black river.

***

“
What the hell do you mean, it’s all gone?” Nikira demanded,
glaring at the hapless Jonar, who shook his head.

“
It’s gone, Commander. Even the anaesthetic and tranquilisers,
and the cabinet’s still locked. All that’s left is medicine, and
the medtechs who’ve been working in there the whole time saw
nothing.”

She clasped
her throbbing head, wishing she had some painkillers for it. “This
must be the work of the dra’voren’s protector.”

“
I would say so, yes.”

“
Then we’ll just have to find another way to kill
him.”

He nodded.
“I’ve ordered poison gas to be pumped into the room. We’ll have to
suck it out with scrubber units afterwards.”

“
Good.” Nikira glanced through the window at the dra’voren, her
heart leaden. “Let’s see if this protector of his can snatch a
cylinder as it did the syringes.”

“
The only problem is, the cylinder will be outside, so we won’t
be able to stun it.”

“
And we won’t be able to shoot it, since it’s invisible.” She
sighed. “Our main objective then is to kill the
dra’voren.”

Jonar glanced
around as two medtechs came in carrying a cylinder of toxic gas.
They put it down beside the door and rigged a rubber hose through
the hole the engineers had burnt earlier, sealing it in place with
a quick drying plastic sealant. The cylinder vanished.

Nikira gaped
at the spot where it had been, stunned. “Bloody hell!”

Jonar cursed,
and the medtechs looked around with wide eyes.

“
Get that hose out of the door and open it,” Nikira said.
“We’ll have to shoot him.”

The medtechs
pulled the hose out, and Enyo activated the door, which slid open
with a wail of tortured metal that made Nikira grit her teeth. The
two guards unslung their weapons and stepped into the room, and
Nikira’s throat closed as they stopped beside the dra’voren. Every
particle of her being wanted to let him live. He was a helpless
captive, why did he have to die? Yet he must, a small, cold,
duty-bound part of her insisted, and by her order.

Nikira averted
her eyes, unable to watch the bullets tear the dra’voren’s chest to
bloody shreds. A light from the containment room door caught her
attention. She looked around and gasped. A glowing winged figure
stood just inside the doorway. The guards spotted it and charged
from the shredder room, opening fire as they leapt through the
doorway, and everyone dived behind the consoles as bullets whined
around the room. The winged being turned and ran out into the
corridor, the soldiers racing after it. Nikira left the shredder
room as Enyo stood up.

“
Was that what you saw before?”

The senior
contech nodded, his face pale and his eyes wide. “That’s it.”

“
What the hell is it?”

“
No idea. I searched the database for something matching its
description, but found nothing.”

Nikira rubbed
her brow, found that she was shaking and sat on the nearest chair.
“At least we can kill it now that it’s become visible. It’s
certainly determined to save the dra’voren. Despatch more men to
search the ship, arm them with light guns.”

“
And the dra’voren?”

“
I want to kill that thing first, then we can worry about him.
If we kill him now it’ll leave, but he’s not going
anywhere.”

“
Commander, that thing is just going to become invisible again
to elude the men. It’ll be like chasing a damned ghost.”

Nikira
frowned. “Yes, but we know it will always come to protect the
dra’voren, and become visible to distract us. Get some more guards
in here.”

Tryne stepped
out of a Channel ahead of the men, who had slowed when they lost
sight of him. They shouted and raised their weapons, spraying the
corridor with metal projectiles, and he leapt back into the Channel
in the nick of time. Passing through the wall next to him, he
entered a room filled with smoothly moulded tables and chairs,
where dozens of people sat eating. Soft light shone through
colourful hangings that draped the walls between bright paintings.
Tryne stepped out of the Channel and raised his wings, assuming a
benevolent pose. The diners leapt up with a crash of falling
crockery and overturned chairs. Some yelled and ran for the doors;
others pulled weapons from their belts and fired blue light at
him.

Tryne
re-entered the Channel and moved along it, passing through several
walls and rooms that served obscure functions. One was a kitchen,
where cooks prepared hot meals in strange, humming devices that
required no fire. Tryne stepped forth again, got the expected
reaction and vanished once more, chuckling. Deciding that it was
time to check on the tar’merin, he found a Channel near the metal
room and stepped across. To his dismay, four more of the
black-suited, weapon-toting men stood outside it, ready to enter it
and kill the mortal god.

Tryne stepped
from the Channel, and the men swung around, spraying the area where
he stood with metal projectiles. Tryne slipped out of the door,
avoiding all but one of the bullets, which hit him in the leg. The
men charged after him as he sprinted down the corridor, his injured
leg protesting. He would have taken to the air, but the corridor
was too narrow for his wingspan. Once more he took them on a wild
chase through the ship, leading them on with tempting appearances
before vanishing again. If not for his injury and the possibility
of others, it might have been fun.

Sensing
Drevarin approaching outside, Tryne found a Channel close to him
and stepped out.

“
Lord Drevarin.”

“
Tryne. It is near here, this ship?”

“
You are almost standing under it.”

“
Ingenious.” Drevarin gazed upwards. “I cannot sense it at
all.”

“
If you fly upwards, you will pass into it. Make haste, they
increase their efforts to kill him. Once you are inside, rise
through five floors, and you will arrive on the one where he is
held. From there I shall guide you.”

Drevarin
nodded and ascended, murmuring the word that would prepare him to
pass through solid objects. The thick metal hull slowed him, then
he rose swiftly through thin floors, counting them as he did so. At
the fifth he stopped and landed on a dark blue carpet, glancing
around at smooth white walls. Tryne appeared beside him, and
Drevarin made them invisible so he could see the angel. Tryne
turned and limped down the corridor, Drevarin close behind, his
expression grim.

The angel
rounded a corner and slipped through a door just ahead. Drevarin
followed, noting the strange equipment in the room with a frown.
The angel stopped just inside the doorway, and Drevarin thrust him
aside. In a chamber on the far side of the equipment-filled room,
four armed men stood over an unconscious man lying on a steel
table, his wrists and ankles clamped to it. Their strange black
weapons were aimed at his chest, and Drevarin shed the cloak of
invisibility as he strode forward.

“
Stop!”

Drevarin’s
shout shook the floor, and he knew Tryne would enjoy the mayhem his
intervention would cause. Seldom was the wrath of a light god
unleashed, and when it was, it tended to be awesome. Most of the
people swung around and froze, gaping at Drevarin, some ducked
behind the strange solid tables with glowing squares upon them,
their tops covered with flashing lights. The four men in the
chamber rushed out of the door, raising their weapons.

A great roar
shook the air, and fire spat from the ends of the weapons as metal
projectiles flew at the light god. Drevarin raised a hand, and the
bullets stopped a mere foot from his palm, hanging in the air. More
and more bullets gathered before him, until the soldiers stopped
firing and gaped at him. Drevarin lowered his hand, releasing the
simple air shield he had employed, and the bullets fell to the
carpet with a soft patter.

Drevarin
headed for the small room again, and Tryne hastened to his side.
“Lord, there is a machine in there that will rob you of your
senses, as it did the tar’merin.”

The light god
stopped. “A machine?” Tryne nodded, and Drevarin cast his eyes over
the flashing consoles. “No doubt one of these things controls
it.”

Drevarin
stepped towards the nearest console, and the soldiers backed away.
A brown-haired man touched the flashing board before he reached it,
and a bawling alarm sounded.

Drevarin
glared at the man. “Fool!”

The light god
placed his hand upon the board, and sparks flew from it, then the
lights on it went out and the noise stopped. Moving to the next
one, he did the same. People scuttled from his path as he made his
way around the room, destroying the equipment. When all the lights
on the consoles were extinguished, Drevarin approached the prison’s
door. The soldiers fell over each other in their haste to get out
of his way. Drevarin entered the brightly lighted room and
approached the table. His eyes raked the unconscious man and came
to rest on the rune scars.

“
By the light,” he murmured, “a living legend.”

Nikira peeped
over the console she had taken refuge behind, her heart hammering.
The blond man stood over the dra’voren, his expression shuttered,
and the winged being waited by the door, watching him. The guards
had retreated to the far wall, their spent guns gripped in
white-knuckled hands, their eyes fixed on the blond man. Enyo
crawled up beside her.

“
Any idea what that one is, Commander?”

“
They’re all dra’voren. These two have come to rescue the one
we captured.”