The Demon's Game (18 page)

I could live without food, but only had a miniscule
supply of water and Erono would never allow me to leave the forest before I
accomplished what he sent me for. Realizing that the “demons from the void” had
to be evil didn’t help the matters, and anything that made a home in this
forest was the toughest of the depraved.

After about ten minutes, I got my breathing and the
pain under control enough to climb down. It was nighttime and trees blocked
most of the moonlight. I hit the soft ground a little too hard for my injured
leg, but stopped myself from voicing the pain. I had survived everything Erono
threw at me for over two thousand years; there was no damn way I would die so
foolishly as to shout in pain. If I did, my brother would never let me live it
down.

I stayed away from the sound of water, for the most
dangerous beasts guarded the rivers, so I needed another source of water safe
enough to purify. Two hours later, I found nothing. Furthermore, the zeta flies
had found me. They would only try for my leg wound unless they actually tasted
blood; then they would resort to biting me for it. One or two could be deterred
for a while at least.

Giving up on finding anything in the dark, I sought
the safest looking tree and climbed it. Hiding in a tree was really no safer
than on the ground, but the zeta flies stayed low. I trusted myself not to fall
off the branch in my sleep and I needed to be able to get out quickly if
something happened, so I didn’t secure myself… Not that I had anything to
secure myself with anyway.

A tiny sliver of Duran’s larger moon could be seen
through the trees as I fell asleep.

*          *          *

I woke to a familiar hissing sound. It was so
familiar in fact, that I didn’t realize at first why I was woken. It hit me
like a ton of bricks and my eyes snapped open to find myself face to face with
a naowen. The small creature was fluffy and could easily be considered cute if
it weren’t the most venomous mammal known to Duran. It was said that the venom
produced by one naowen could kill an entire world’s population. I never
understood how Shinobu, Dylan’s pet naowen, could be so gentle with him. This
one was spitting mad.

I fell out of tree, hit the ground hard, rolled onto
my feet, and ran before the pain could register. By the time I was out of the
naowen’s territory, my teeth ached from the sting surging through my body. My
leg was burning. Eventually my strength gave out and I fell.

It was light now, or as light as the forest ever got,
so I rested against the trunk of a tree for a short time. There was movement
all around me, but it was the movement of animals who were as cautious as me,
who wanted only to survive the day. I felt safe for as long as they milled
about.

I didn’t realize I fell back to sleep until I woke to
an odd huffing sound and hot breath blew across my face. Terrified, frustrated,
and exhausted, I opened my eyes to what I was sure was my certain death. The
creature that was sniffing me looked very much like an Earth horse… except it
was snow white and had a silver horn on its head.

I stared with shock until it huffed again and turned
to walk away. “Wait,” I said softly. The… unicorn… turned back to me. I reached
out to pet it and slid my fingers through its thick, smooth-as-silk mane. “My
son would love to meet you.”

The unicorn turned again and walked away. I let him
go with regret that I would never see such a beautiful creature again. But the
unicorn stopped, not looking at me. I went to it, stumbling on my injured leg,
and it only started forward again when I reached for its mane.

“You want me to follow you?”

He tossed his head like he was nodding and nickered,
so I followed the unicorn through the forest of monsters and wondered when the
hell I took drugs. Creatures of the forest moved away from us, either because
the unicorn was just that powerful or because they didn’t know what it was.

I was just overcoming the pain in my leg when the
unicorn suddenly stopped and stomped the ground nervously. I wasn’t fluent in
horse body language, but I understood something was out there. I picked up a
branch and threw it into the clearing ahead of us. Nothing happened. I picked
up a fist-sized rock and threw it. As the rock landed heavily in the thick
vines and moss-like grass, a large trap came up. The serrated teeth of the
comatsuma resembled a bear trap. The comatsuma was a ten-legged creature with
the body shape of a reptile, very similar to the komodo dragon, but with a
powerful, jet black exoskeleton armor. Closely related to arachnids, the
creature was extremely powerful and few things could pierce its armor, though
it liked to bury itself to ambush prey.

Realizing it had snared something inedible, it
dropped the rock and reburied itself. The unicorn contemplated this for a
moment before taking us on a detour.

“Where are we going?” I asked. “I have to find…” The
unicorn ignored me. As much as I trusted the unicorn not to lead me into
danger, I knew Erono would become impatient. I stopped and said, “I think I
will try another direction. Good luck to you, though.”

The unicorn circled around and nudged me with his
head. I was forced to either concede, use magic, or be skewered by the beast’s
horn. I had to contort to get through the brush the unicorn guided me to, but I
stopped when I lifted a huge leaf obstructing my view. I was standing at the
edge of a beautiful creek with moss-covered rocks and vibrant blue flowers. To
the north existed quite a striking waterfall.

The unicorn gave me a sharp nip in the arm and tossed
his head. I had to duck quickly to avoid his horn. “Be gentle with that thing!
I’m not going in there.” I tried to get around the unicorn, but he resorted to
stomping at me. I remembered my brother telling me that horses kicked hard and
could do so from almost any angle.

I backed away from both the water and the unicorn…
until the ground disappeared beneath me. My heart beat out of control and all I
could do is roll and hope I didn’t cut myself on anything before I made it to
solid ground. I managed, miraculously, to avoid hitting my head on a
particularly large rock.

Finally, the ground leveled out and I only rolled
another few feet… but I opened my eyes when a small yip greeted me. About an
inch from my face was a tiny draxuni pup. Shocked, the puppy froze for just a
second, then barked angrily at me. I scrambled away in blind panic until I
backed into something solid… and breathing. I looked up to see the snarling
face of an adult draxuni.

I ducked out of the way as he tried to close his
teeth over my head and struck with lightning. It was a reflex more than a
conscious action. The beast dropped, injured but not dead. As another draxuni
approached from behind the first, the blood red leaves of the thesper tree
caught my eye. I reached out my magic for the branches and wrapped them around
the neck of the draxuni. He easily snapped the branch, but the thick vines of
thorns relentlessly tangled into his fur. The large animal rolled on the
ground, whimpering as the vines tightened instead of releasing him.

The pup barked, confused. A third draxuni came at me,
but before I could do anything, the unicorn placed itself between me and the
beast and reared up on his back legs. The draxuni only hesitated before it snarled
and prepared itself to leap at the unicorn.

I thought it was a trick of the light for the first
moment as the unicorn’s snow-white fur darkened to black as space and his
glowing mane became blood red. The horn lit with an eerie red glow. It occurred
to me that I had been too trusting of this animal. After all, I did meet it in
the Aradlin forest.

The draxuni did relent this time enough to stand over
the pup. The bold little pup tried to rush the unicorn, so the draxuni adult
plopped down to lay over the pup. The draxuni couldn’t retreat, and the unicorn
was advancing on it.

“Stop!” I ran out in front of the draxuni and held
out my hands to the unicorn. “Stop! He was just protecting his pup!”

The unicorn relented and withdrew a step, doubtfully.

I swatted at my leg instinctively when I felt the
sharp sting. With horror, I realized my bandage had torn during my fall and my
blood was exposed to the zeta flies. I pulled off what was left of my boot.
Three flies swarmed my leg, but within ten seconds, there were ten. I reached
one hand into my bag as I swatted at flies with the other. They started biting
my hand.

Finally finding the right bottle, I pulled it out and
popped the lid off with my teeth. It had a special cap on it so that I could
turn it upside down and the liquid would seep out by one drop at a time. I let
my magic control the drop as the heat of the air turned the liquid to mist.
With nominal energy, I fanned the magic over the flies. Though I tried
desperately to avoid my skin, exposure to the chemical was certain. The flies
reacted violently and dropped to the ground, frozen solid instantly upon
contact with the misted chemical. Unfortunately, my aim was shaky as sweat ran
in my eyes, so some of the mist burned my skin. I released the fog once the
flies were all dead and surveyed the damage to my skin.

Most of the skin between my ankle and knee was red,
frost-bitten, and peeling. Worse yet was the sweating, the racing of my heart,
and the pounding headache. I felt my heartbeat throughout my entire body. The
venom of the flies was taking effect. If Erono had let me go home before
sending me into the forest, I would have gotten the supplies I desperately
needed. There was an antidote, but it had to be administered within the first
thirty minutes.

It seemed I was to die because my god was impatient.
I curled up on my side to ease the sudden cramping in my muscles. It hurt to
breathe, but I forced air in and out of my lungs despite that and resisted
vocalizing my pain. The unicorn nudged my head gently. I felt the throbbing
pressure on my eyes as my heartbeat thundered. Even as I closed my eyelids, I
tried to think of a way to survive the next hour.

*          *          *

I woke to a soft trickle of water in my face. Eyes
closed and holding absolutely still, I tried to get my bearings. There was a
cool breeze with the warmth of sunlight. To my astonishment, I felt no pain.
When I drew energy into myself, I sensed a powerful, nonthreatening presence
nearby, so I opened my eyes.

I was lying in a mix of grass and blue flowers, and
unfortunately, right beside the creek. Water dripped on my face from the tree
above me, so I sat up. Standing in the brook before the waterfall was the
unicorn, which was once again white, and a young woman. The woman had white
hair down to her waist and not a stitch of clothing on her body. If it weren’t
for her wings, I could have mistaken her for sago.

Her wings were large and thin. I assumed wings would
be made of skin or feathers… but there was not a feather in sight and the wings
were pure white. When they closed together, they faded to become completely
invisible, only to become opaque again when they opened.

Stroking the unicorn’s mane, she looked at me and
smiled.

At this point I realized why I was cold; I was also
completely naked. My leg was covered in a green paste and “bandaged” with thick
green leaves. Obviously whatever medical skills the woman had cured the zeta
fly venom. Why she had to take off all my clothes to do so, I didn’t know.
There were also patches of the green paste on my hand where the flies had
bitten me.

The woman approached me slowly, as if afraid to
startle me. I stayed sitting both to keep pressure off my leg and to refrain
from intimidating the woman. What I wasn’t prepared for was for her to lean
down and kiss me. The kiss was gentle, but full on the lips.

Strangely, I felt nothing for her. It wasn’t that she
was a lousy kisser or unattractive, as it was quite the opposite on both
accounts, I just didn’t feel there was anything behind it. She pulled away.
“Thank you,” she said in Sudo with a fairly strong accent.

“For what?” I asked.

“For coming to our rescue. We waited for years for
someone to come for us.”

These were the demons I had to vanquish from the
void? “How long have you been here?”

“I cannot read your time well. The sun rises and
sets. I have seen hundreds of sunrises here. We were all at home and at peace,
when suddenly we were here. My tribe was a thousand strong… now we are less
than a hundred. Not everyone made it here with the rest of us and half of the
remaining tribe died in the first three nights. We can hide ourselves with
magic, but the night brings monsters we have never even dreamed about.”

“What are your people called?”

“We are the Erame, a fae race from Dayo.”

I had heard of the Erame in legends and Rilryn even
told me he descended from the magical species. I also knew for sure that if
they ever really existed, they died out over three thousand years ago.

There was only one thing I could possibly be dealing
with. “I’m sorry, but you have no home to return to. Dayo is very different
from your day and I’m afraid you wouldn’t be accepted by the people there.”

She looked startled. “We could not have been here for
more than four or five years.”

“I believe you have been here for five years, but the
Erame are long gone from Dayo. There was a war against magic and all magical
creatures a thousand years ago. Ten years ago, there was a problem between the
walls of the universe… some beings were misplaced in time and space. I can only
think that your tribe was transported here, thousands of years in your future.”

She sat heavily in the grass. “Then we have fought to
survive for nothing.”

“No, I will still get you out of here. Duran welcomes
magic. Maybe I can convince my god to allow you to stay. There is a lot of
forest available on Shomodii that is safer than this forest. Show me to your
tribe.”