Veilspeaker (Pharim War Book 2) (20 page)

It took him ten minutes of examination to find what he
was looking for. He took several steps back and threw his hands toward the
king, sending power into his fingers. A single spark, much like the ones
Shamarion had used, floated forward and landed on the king’s chest, right where
all the strands came together. For a second, to Jez’s mystical awareness,
Haziel flared up as the strands were consumed by his binding.

The king looked up, his eyes widening slightly. Then,
he doubled over and started to cough directly onto Lina. She squirmed, but
there was nowhere to go in the tight room. After a few seconds, the king got a
grip on himself and stood up straight, though he looked a little pale. When he
saw Jez, he took a step back.

“What’s going on? Why am I here? I warn you, Baron, if
you have captured me to get some sort of ransom, it won’t end well for you.”

Jez gaped at him, but a after few seconds, he started
to laugh. The king’s face grew red, but his companions started laughing as
well. After all they’d been through, the king’s threat was ridiculous. Haziel
looked like he was going to explode with anger before Jez stopped.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” he said. “We didn’t kidnap
you. We saved you from Sharim.”

“Sharim?” The king looked confused for a second.
“Villia’s apprentice? What does he have to do with anything?”

“I think you better sit down,” Jez said. Then, looking
around at the crowded room which lacked any furniture, he shrugged. “Maybe just
find a comfortable piece of wall to lean on. This is going to take a while.”

“Wait,” Lina said. They all looked at her, and she
glanced at her father. “Can you do anything to help him?”

Jez nodded and walked over to Varin. He repeated his
examination but shook his head. “Sharim didn’t do anything to him.”

“What do you mean?” Lina asked. “Look at him.”

Villia walked to Lina and put a hard on the girl’s
shoulder. “He means Sharim doesn’t have any sort of magical control on him.
What people see can have a profound influence on them. Given time, an
illusionist can do terrible things to a person, and Sharim had him for hours.”

“But why would he do that?”

Villia shrugged. “Your father was looking for
information about Dusan. Maybe Sharim saw him as a rival.”

“A contingent.” Varin’s voice was barely a squeak.

“You formed a contingent with him?” Jez shivered,
remembering his own joining with Sharim. He’d thought it had been because
they’d done it wrong, but now he wasn’t so sure.

Varin’s head moved slightly and Jez thought he was
shaking his head. “He forced me.”

Jez blinked at him. “He forced you?” He turned to
Villia. “Is that even possible?”

Villia closed her eyes but nodded. “It’s a vile thing.
Through a mixture of illusion and mental magic, an image can be burned into a
person’s mind so that they could think of nothing else.” She gave Lina a sad
look. “It normally destroys a person’s mind. Your father must have an
extraordinary strength of will to be able to communicate at all. It’s actually
a good sign that he’s spoken.”

For a moment, Jez saw the ax descending toward his
neck. The manacles felt cold against his wrists, and the blade gleamed in the
sunlight. It hissed as it cut through the air. He forced the image out of his
mind. Lina was rubbing her neck, an indication that she’d experienced the same
thing. Villia eyed each of them.

“The image will fade in time.”

Jez wasn’t sure if she was talking about Varin or him,
but he nodded all the same. Haziel was looking from one person to another,
obviously confused, and it took Jez a few minutes to explain what had happened
over the past couple of days. The king’s memories since being rescued by Jez
and Osmund were fuzzy, and he had no memories at all after Lina had escaped. As
they told the story, Jez found himself hesitating. He thought he’d seen Haziel
angry before, but the red-face scowl that the king’s face had so often taken on
under Sharim’s influence was nothing compared to this. Haziel’s face was
completely still, but Jez could practically see the rage boiling beneath the
surface. When the story was done, the king spoke slowly.

“They think to take Ashtar from me?” His fists were
clenched so tight Jez wondered if Haziel’s nails were biting into his hand, and
he half expected to see blood well up from beneath his fingers. “I won’t allow
it.”

“Your Majesty,” Villia said, “there’s little you can
do. I recommend finding someplace to hide. If we manage to take the throne
room, we can send for you. If not, you should find a way out of the city.”

“No.”

Villia started. “What?”

“No, I will not run.”

“But Your Majesty—”

“I am the King of Ashtar,” Haziel snapped. He sounded
strong, nothing like the shadow of a man he’d been only moments ago. “I will
not surrender my kingdom to a boy who stumbled into too much power. Rumar still
stands, and so long as it does, I am its king. That boy may have taken my keep,
but I will take it back.”

Without waiting for anyone to respond, the king forced
his way through them as he headed for the door. The movement so shocked Jez
that he just stared for a second. Haziel pulled at the latch, and it clicked,
but Villia put a hand on the door. Though they were the same height, Haziel seemed
to be looking down at her.

“Remove your hand.”

“If you’re captured again, they’d regain access to the
royal magic. I don’t think you understand the danger.”

“The danger doesn’t matter. Ashtar is mine. I am
charged to defend her, whether that be against mage or demon.”

“But what can you do?” Villia asked.

“The four of you can’t stop this demon alone,” Haziel
said.

“Do you know what happened to your mages?”

Haziel’s hand went to his forehead, but he shook his
head. “I don’t remember. I fear they may be dead, but that’s not what I was
talking about. You need an army. I happen to have one.”

“An army that’s under the influence of Maries,” Jez
said.

“When they see me standing before them, we’ll see
where their loyalty lies.”

“Loyalty doesn’t enter into it,” Jez said. “They’re
controlled by magic.”

“Actually, he may have a point,” Villia said.

“What do you mean?”

Villia shrugged. “It’s the royal magic. If the
rightful king goes out to his men and calls them into service, it may well
overcome whatever working Sharim put on them.”

“Really?”

“The magic of kings is the magic of command.”

“How sure are you that this will work?”

“There are no certainties, but it’s no greater risk
than the one we take by opposing Sharim.”

“Still,” Jez said. “He’s the king. We can’t risk him.”

Villia smirked and inclined her head to the king. “How
exactly do you intend to stop him? He’s no demon for you to bind.”

The king grinned. “You’d have to tie me up to stop
me.”

Jez looked from one to the other
before letting out a breath and nodding. The king looked moderately surprised
at the gesture, and Jez realized no one had actually asked for his permission
on this. He felt his face heat up but didn’t say anything. Haziel looked at
Villia, and she removed her hand. He opened the door just as the screaming
started.

Jez followed Villia and Haziel out.
Osmund came right behind him, and to his surprise, Lina was only a few steps
behind. People ran past their alley, screaming. A chezamut leapt through the
air and landed on one woman. Jez didn’t think. He just threw his hand forward
and the silver binding shot out, running the creature through. The woman
scrambled to her feet and kept fleeing, never even glancing in Jez’s direction.
He was out of the alley before he even realized he’d started running. Demons
were mowing through the screaming people. Most were chezamuts, but there were
at least a half dozen other kinds that Jez couldn’t identify. He gripped the
empty air and slashed, his sword appearing in mid-swing. His blade banished two
more of the creatures before his friends reached him. Osmund, once again, had
taken the form of Ziary, but Villia’s sword was conspicuous by its absence.

“You’ve seen me fight,” Villia said when she caught
him looking at her hands. “I’m not good at it. I can do more if I use my power
to hide people from the demons.”

Jez nodded and moved to engage a trio of demons
surrounding a family. The man was wielding a heavy wooden stick, probably a
piece of firewood. It wouldn’t do him any good. The skin of a chezamut was
almost as strong as steel, and there was simply no way the man could hurt them.
Jez’s sword, on the other hand, was a different matter altogether. The
creatures never saw him coming, and he gutted them like they were fish. The
family looked at him, shaking. Villia grabbed his wrist.

“We don’t have time for this.”

Jez tore his arm away. “What do you mean we don’t have
time?” He gestured at the family. “What do have that’s more important?”

“You’re only one person. You can’t fight an entire
army.”

Jez rushed forward and cut down a pair of wolf-headed
demons. Villia ran to his side, but Jez didn’t bother to look at her.

“I can’t just stand by while people are dying.”

“Haziel was right. We need an army. Our efforts would
be best spent helping him gather one rather than engaging these creatures one
at a time. None of these are so powerful that they can’t be killed by an
ordinary sword.”

“Where are we supposed to find an army?”

“We’re not far from a guard station. There should be a
dozen men there.”

“That’s not an army.”

“It’s a start, and they can do more than you can
alone.”

A little ways down the street, Jez saw one of the
large shadows that had attacked him in the keep. A group of men were shooting
arrows at it. Most passed through the creature, but a few stuck, and the
creature was starting to slow. Jez tried to summon his power, but his energy
reserves were depleted. Though he hated to do it, he turned away and nodded at
Villia. Together, they headed toward the king, who was already on his way to
the guardhouse with Ziary by his side.

The guardhouse was two stories high with barred
windows. Haziel pulled on the handle to the door, but it didn’t move. He looked
over his shoulder at Ziary and nodded once. The scion slashed with his sword,
reducing the door to ash. Half a dozen soldiers stood inside, their eyes wide
with shock. The surprise only lasted a second before two of them stepped into
the doorway and drew weapons. Jez lifted his own sword, but the king stepped in
front of him.

“Put your weapons down.”

He spoke in the voice of absolute command. The
soldiers had their weapons halfway lowered before they realized what they were
doing, and they raised their weapons again. Haziel scowled and a violet aura
shimmered around him so faint Jez wasn’t sure it was actually there.

“Now!”

The word cracked like a whip, and the soldiers fell to
one knee, their swords clattering to the ground. They went down so quickly that
they sent up a cloud of ash from the remains of the door. The smell of sulfur
hanging about them was so subtle Jez didn’t notice until it was gone, but a
second later the soldiers looked up. One had tears in his eyes.

“My king. I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened.”

“Pick up your sword. The people of Rumar need you.”

As one, the men rose and drew their weapons. They
charged out into the street. Six other men ran down the stairs, following their
companions. They wore expressions of horror mixed with rage as they saw the
demons in their city. They surrounded a nearby chezamut and cut it down without
taking a wound. Then, they rushed down a street looking for more enemies. The
king looked over his shoulder at Jez and smiled.

“Shall we see who else we can find?”

The soldiers seemed braver and
stronger than they should be. While none of them could stand up to a demon in
single combat, two or three proved more than a match. The dozen men from the
guardhouse formed a core of resistance, but others began to join them. At
first, it was other soldiers, but after a few minutes, ordinary men and women
were fighting by their side. They wielded knives or sticks or rocks. Jez even
saw one washwoman pummel an ape-like demon until it went up in gout of flame.
The woman seemed unharmed and continued to fight with a ferocity equal to any
soldier.

“How are they doing this?” Jez asked.

Villia pointed at Haziel who seemed to be growing
steadily stronger. Their impromptu army had grown to nearly a hundred, and more
people joined them every few minutes.

“A king does more than rule, and he has called on them
to fight. Did you think the title, ‘Defender of the Land’ was ceremonial? So
long as he is with them, they are empowered to do battle with exactly this kind
of foe.”

Jez stared at Haziel with wide-eyed amazement. “Maybe
this isn’t a hopeless battle after all.”

“Don’t be foolish,” Villia said. “These are only the
lowest of Maries’s demons. Once he unleashes his lieutenants, it won’t be
nearly so easy.”

A pair of chezamuts rushed at them. Jez cut them down
and leapt toward a bird demon. He sliced into it. It squawked, and there was an
explosion of feathers that were caught up in a gust of wind before puffing out
of existence. Jez went back to Villia’s side.

“Are you saying he can’t win?”

“I have no idea. Royal magic has never been used on
this level. I don’t know what its limits are.”

They turned a corner, and the keep came into view. The
drawbridge was still down. The king raised a sword he’d gotten from one of the
soldiers, and the impromptu army thundered forward. Demons of every shape and
size materialized seemingly out of nowhere. The army fell upon them like a
tide. The sound of men screaming was drowned out by demon roars. There were
more of the demons than the people, though, and it didn’t take long for the
battle to turn against them. Jez and Ziary waded into the sea of the monsters
of the abyss, swords flashing. With every strike, a demon died, but it was mere
seconds before the creatures recognized the threat and started concentrating
their attacks on the two warriors.