Veilspeaker (Pharim War Book 2) (12 page)

The lead demon brought its fist down, but Jez’s
crystal sword flicked forward, slicing off its hand. Its closed fist shattered
when it hit the ground. The demon’s skin rippled, but it was too strong to be
destroyed by any incidental wound, and it shoved the remains of its arm into
Jez’s chest, sending him to the ground. He landed on his burned side and cried
out in pain. He tried to lift his sword, but the demon brought its foot down on
his arm. As the pressure increased, pain rushed up his arm. The world blurred as
tears formed in his eyes. Just as he thought his arm would break, a flash of
red crashed into the demon.

It was Ziary. His flaming sword bounced off the
demon’s skin and the scion slammed into it, causing the demon to rock back and
forth. It was only a little bit, but it was enough. Jez ripped his arm free,
clenching his teeth against the pain, and he got to his feet. The demon grabbed
Ziary by the neck. Jez lunged, his sword moving in a blur. The demon’s legs
came off, though it held on to Ziary as it fell. Ziary grunted, but couldn’t
free himself. Jez stepped forward and drove his sword into the center of the
demon’s body. Sapphire cracks spread through the creature, and pieces of it
flaked off, evaporating before they hit the ground. It let out another roar
before collapsing into dust. Jez moved toward Ziary, wincing at the pain
running up his side. He offered Ziary a hand up, and the other boy’s form
melted away leaving a tired looking Osmund. Jez looked around, but the demons
were gone. Several of the soldiers lay unmoving on the ground, and even more
were injured. The crystal sword dissolved as Jez and Osmund looked toward the
king.

“What happened?” Haziel’s voice was
unsteady, and he seemed on the verge of tears.

“It was Lina,” Jez said. “I don’t know if she had her
father’s help, but she’s the one who summoned all these demons.”

The king blinked at him. “Lina? That’s not possible.”

Anger surged through Jez. He stamped his foot on the
ground sending a flow of terra magic into the stone floor. The room shook, and
Haziel started to whimper and sank back into the throne. The sight of the king
on his throne looking so terrified drained the anger from Jez.

“What will it take to convince you?” Jez asked in a
quiet voice. “She tried to kill you.”

“If she tried to kill me, why aren’t I dead?”

“I actually don’t know,” Jez said.

“It was royal magic,” a voice said from behind. Jez
turned to see Villia with Sharim right behind her. She gave Haziel a bow, but
the one she direct at Jez was even deeper, though if the king noticed the
slight, he gave no sign. “Haziel is the rightful king of Ashtar. The rights of
kings were established by Daziel, the Lord of the Veilspeakers himself, and
there are certain magics protecting those rights. A demon can’t easily overcome
them.”

“You mean they can’t kill him,” Jez said.

“They can kill him. It wouldn’t be easy, but a strong
enough demon could do it. So could the one who summoned them since the power
won’t stop a human.”

“Lina.”

Villia nodded. “She is human, and even the power of a
pharim high lord won’t interfere with a human exercising their free will.”

“What are you two talking about?” the king asked as he
stood on shaky legs.

Villia inclined her head. “It’s not something many
people know, Your Majesty. There is very real power in the throne of a kingdom,
and the ability to overthrow that is denied to demons, at least to those
without mortal help.”

Haziel took a deep breath and nodded. His eyes locked
on Osmund. He looked like he was trying to scowl but was too tired to manage
it.

“What is he doing out?”

Jez resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Your Majesty,
he could’ve gotten out at any time. I told you it was demons that killed those
men. I knew about them the same way I knew about the ones attacking you here.
Osmund did nothing to deserve imprisonment.”

“What about when he attacked the nobles at the
Academy?” Haziel asked.

“Your Majesty?” Sharim spoke up and he almost shrank
away as every eye turned to him. He looked like he wished he could call the
words back, but instead he coughed. “It’s like Mage Villia said in the trial.
He wouldn’t have been able to hurt her if it wasn’t justified at least a little
bit. If Lady Lina summoned demons to attack you...”

Sharim let the words hang, and after a few seconds, the
king nodded and bowed to Osmund. “Osmund Jecklson, I thank you for coming to my
aid and hereby absolve you of all guilt relating to the attack on Lina and her
allies while you were at the Carceri Academy, and I release you from suspicion
in the murder of the two men in Lord Varin’s service.” He turned to Jez. “Are
you certain about Lady Lina?”

“Absolutely, Your Majesty.”

“Very well. I’ll send guards to apprehend her.”

Jez took a step forward. “Actually, that may not be
the best idea.”

“Why not?”

“She’s a powerful mage, and she can obviously summon
demons. The guards might not be able to handle her. I’ll go.”

“But you’re a child.”

Jez glared at him, and the king glanced at his broken
door. He paled a little and nodded. Jez motioned to Osmund, and they headed
toward the south wing. Jez summoned his sword and Osmund once again took the
form of Ziary. His wing was still bent at an odd angle, though he no longer
bled orange light. Jez eyed him.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

Ziary cocked his head. “Are you sure you want to go
without me?”

Jez inclined his head in concession. The guards formed
a perimeter around the throne room, and Jez and Osmund began moving through the
hall slowly. Jez kept his attention focused on the path before them, but they
saw no demons as they made their way to the north wing.

The smell sulfur hung in the air, but it was more an
echo of a scent than anything else. Demons had been here, though Jez couldn’t
tell how long ago that was. They could still be here, for that matter. Carefully,
they pushed open the door to Lord Varin’s chamber but found it empty. Their
footsteps echoed through the hall as they moved further down the corridor to
the chambers assigned to Lina, and the smell of sulfur grew steadily stronger.
They came to the door and stopped. Jez had to resist the urge to shiver. He had
no idea what could be on the other side. If he was a demon lord, he needed all
the power he could get, even if it destroyed him. He made his decision quickly
and closed his eyes to reach for Luntayary’s power. Wings emerged from his back
and his robes transformed to sapphire blue. The amount of power coursing
through him made his body ache. Ziary gave him a deep bow, and Jez pushed open
the door.

No one was in the room. The bed had been pushed to one
side to clear a space in the center of the floor where the blackened remnants
of a summoning circle had been burned into the stone. Jez recognized some of
the runes composing it. He bent down and ran his fingers along it, wincing at
the thread of magic that remained. His hands closed on something hard, and he
picked it up out of the ash. It was a crystal that looked like it had been
singed badly. He held up to the light. It had been yellow once, and had been
used to channel a great deal of summoning magic.

“Oh no.”

“What is it?”

“She must’ve realized the book was gone and used what
she knew to do this.” He held up the focusing crystal. “This makes it even
worse.”

“But what is all this?”

“This is a circle used to summon a greater demon, and
she used the power of this crystal to make the summoning permanent.”

Villia ran her fingers across the
circle and clutched the burned out focusing crystal in her left hand. She
turned back to the book and examined the image she’d been comparing the circle
to. She let out a low whistle.

“What is it?” Jez asked.

She shook her head. “You have to understand, this has
never been my area of expertise.”

“You’re the only one who can read the book.”

“All the runes aren’t here either,” she said. “Some
would’ve been in the air. It’s not necessarily this summoning. What she was
doing may not even be in this book.”

“Villia what is it?” Jez asked.

She tapped a rune that looked like a broken crown.
“Maries.”

Jez looked at her blankly. “Who’s Maries?”

“He’s a battle demon.”

“Like the chezamuts?”

She laughed. It was almost hysterical, and Jez and
Osmund exchanged uncomfortable glances. “He’s to the chezamuts what a master
swordsman is to an unarmed farmer.” She snorted. “An unarmed farmer with no
arms and legs. He is one of the generals of the abyss.”

Jez tried to swallow the lump in his throat, and when
he spoke, his voice was pitched higher than usual. “Of what order is he?”

“Fourth.”

Not as strong as Marrowit. Jez let out a breath of
release, but he realized he was being foolish. A demon of the fourth order was
a deadly threat and could take on entire armies and decimate cities. It was
only in comparison to a demon lord such as Marrowit, who had been of the third
order, that the idea of facing such a being could be a relief.

“Still,” Osmund said, “if he’s just a battle demon, he
can’t be that great a threat. I mean he can only be in one place at a time,
right? There are only so many he can kill even if he has access to some sort of
magic.”

“He can’t kill many until he summons his army,” Villia
said. “He’s a
general
of the abyss. If he’s not stopped soon, we could
have a thousand chezamuts on our hands, and that would only be the first wave.”
She looked from Jez to Osmund. “Not all of us have powers suited to battle. A thousand
chezamuts could tear Rumar apart and not leave one stone atop another. Maries
could overcome Haziel’s protection with little effort.”

“What do we do?” Jez asked.

Villia looked around and shuddered. “First, we get out
of here. Lina may have left traps.”

Jez nodded and followed Villia out of the door. Haziel
was waiting outside and raised an eyebrow. Villia shook her head and motioned
for him to follow. The fact that he offered no argument showed how worried he
was.

“Stay on the lookout,” Villia said. “We could be
attacked at any time.”

Jez nodded and kept his sword drawn. He was almost
used to how the power made his skin crawl. Some of the guards escorting them
eyed his sword with something very near reverence. Jez felt like he was being
watched from the shadows, but no attack came. Villia led them to a small room
Jez hadn’t been in. The only furniture was a rectangular table in the center of
the room. Rolled parchments sat on a shelf, and a map of the kingdom hung from
one wall. Numbers had been written on it, though Jez had no idea what they
meant. Villia motioned for them to sit. Jez sat but made sure he could easily
get between the king and the door if the situation demanded.

“Your Majesty, you have to dispatch guards to find the
demon Lina summoned. Send as many as you can spare without reducing the
defenses of the keep.”

Haziel nodded. “What does this demon look like?”

Villia glanced at the ceiling for a second as if
searching her memory. “He looks like a man with blue skin and red eyes.”

“What about Lord Varin and his daughter?”

“We should find them if they’re alive, but our
priority has to be the demon.”

“What do you mean ‘if they’re alive’?” Haziel asked.

“A demon as powerful as Maries isn’t easily
controlled, particularly when his summoning was made permanent with a focusing
crystal. It would take years of study to get it right, and if there’s even the
slightest error, he’d kill his summoner. Regardless of whether or not he’s
free, the result will be the same. He’ll try to summon his army and attack the
keep.”

“How big?”

“Maries is one of the highest generals. He can command
a thousand lesser demons, and each of those can command a thousand more. I
doubt he can bring them all here at once, but he won’t wait to attack.”

There was silence for several long seconds before the
king spoke.

“How could we possibly stand against an army of a
million demons?”

Jez’s mouth went dry. Even if every mage from all
across the kingdom were a master binder, they still wouldn’t be able to handle
an army of that size. They wouldn’t be able to handle one a tenth that size.

“We can’t,” he said, and the silence that followed
felt like it would swallow the world.

The door to the south tower creaked as
Jez pushed it open. According to the king, this tower had been uninhabited for
the last couple of years, and a layer of dust coated the stairs. It was a good
indication that no one had been here, but still, he ran his fingers along the
floor checking to see if the dust was an illusion. It didn’t seem to be, but he
dashed up the stairs and checked every room. They were all empty, illuminated
only by Jez’s lantern. Osmund let out a breath when they had come out again.

“Do you really think they’re still in the keep?”

“No,” Jez said, “but I’m not always right.”

Osmund rolled his eyes. “We haven’t looked in the
dungeon. Why don’t we check there next?”

Jez glanced at him. “You were there when the demons
attacked. We would’ve seen them if they had gone that way.” Jez bit his lower
lip. “I guess it’s possible they could’ve snuck down while we were talking with
Haziel. Good idea. We’ll go there.”

Osmund groaned. “I was joking about that.”

Jez shrugged. “It won’t take that long. After that, we
can help search the city.”

“That wasn’t exactly what I meant either,” Osmund
said. “We’ve been going nonstop for hours. There are plenty of soldiers. Don’t
you think we should take a break?”

Jez’s hand tightened around his sword. He knew it was
hurting him, but the damage it was doing was minor and he could barely feel it
anymore. He shook his head as he led Osmund down the hall and to the stairs
down to the prison. “It’s a fourth order demon, Osmund. Soldiers won’t be able
to handle it. They probably couldn’t even handle Lina.”