Demon Games [4] (12 page)

Piranhas
, was all Trey could think, imagining the deadly swarms of fish that lived in the rivers of South America and dealt out death to anything foolish enough to stray into their territory.

Trey let his legs fold beneath him so that he dropped to the floor, the unexpected reaction causing Dreck to cry out in alarm and almost lose his grip on the boy’s hand.

But it was not the teenager that the Fae attacked; the swarm headed straight for the Fire Imp, hurling screams and curses at the djinn as they hurtled through the air at him. As their illuminated bodies closed in on their target, lighting him up, Trey could see that Dreck was completely calm. He even had a small smile on his face. And as the first Fae reached him, Trey saw why: instead of sinking its teeth into the Fire Imp’s flesh, the little creature careered off into the darkness, as if it had struck some invisible barrier surrounding its intended victim. The same fate befell the rest of the Fae in the attack force, the air filling with their frustrated screams as they were thwarted in their attempts to get at the nether-creature and sink those terrible-looking teeth into him.

Trey could not understand why none of the creatures had attacked him. He got back to his feet and looked over at the main body of Fae – those that had not participated in the attack, hovering above, watching. Trey heard some of them hissing with anger, others – those in the front of the throng – looking on impassively, as if they had known from the start that the attack was futile.

At some silent signal, the onslaught was called to an end. The attack force rejoined the main group, and the Fae began to disappear from view – their lights going out one by one until there was just one left, its internal glow brighter and of a different hue from the rest. This was the Fae that had been at the forefront of the observing group, and Trey guessed that it must be the leader.

It flew towards the teenager, hovering in the space just in front of the boy’s face, and it seemed to be studying him. Dreck shouted something out at the creature, leaping up and swatting at it with the hand not holding on to Trey’s, but the Fae was too fast and agile. It easily avoided the clumsy attack, returning to its hovering position in front of Trey. When it had studied the human for a moment or two, it looked to the right, in the Fire Imp’s direction, and scowled and spat into the darkness that cloaked the djinn. Then it took one last hard look at Trey before slowly extinguishing its light and fading from sight.

There was a perfect stillness then. Trey somehow knew that the Fae were still out there, watching them, and he was glad when Dreck tugged at his hand and said that they should get out of this place.

They walked on, the Fire Imp somehow knowing the way to go, until eventually Trey felt the temperature increase by a fraction; a hint of warmth on his face. Dreck stopped, and Trey almost walked into the back of him. He felt the Fire Imp take a long and deliberate step forward, and knew that Dreck had crossed a threshold and exited this place. He felt a pull on his hand, and was about to follow the djinn through to the other side, when a Fae lit itself up before him. The creature flew towards him until it was no more than a few centimetres away from his face.

Trey felt the Fire Imp tug again, this time more vigorously. He could just make out the muffled sound of the demon shouting for him to follow.

The Fae’s bioluminescence suddenly glowed bright green, and Trey looked into the wondrous and fascinating light.

‘Beware, lycanthrope,’ the Fae said in a menacing voice. It blinked and the darkness around them was transformed so that Trey found himself standing in a huge room between two nether-creatures. It was clear that they could not see him – they looked straight through him at each other. They were in conversation, one huge demon, sitting on the throne, giving its orders to the other, who bowed and scraped in supplication throughout the exchange.

He was aware that the Fae was showing him this scene, projecting it directly into his mind by a magic similar to his own thought-transfer spell.

The scene changed and this time he witnessed an Incubus demon looking into a hotel building in which a young girl stood, her back to the window. The Incubus transformed into the figure of a man and stepped forward, raising its hand to rap against the pane of glass. The girl turned round and, recognizing the man, started to run towards him. She was pursued by members of staff, but they were too slow to catch her and she fell out on to the street, skinning her knees on the pavement. As she did so, the hotel and street disappeared, replaced by the Netherworld, and a huge winged demon swooped down from the sky, took the girl in its claws and carried her off.

The scene changed again. Alexa was in a cell. She was covered in cuts and bruises. Her hair was matted and stuck to her head, and there was grime and filth all over her clothes and skin. Her chin was resting on her knees, and though she was looking forward defiantly now, it was clear from the streaks running through the dirt on her cheeks that she had been crying.

The scene faded and Trey was left alone in the darkness. He felt a knot of anger in his belly, and his eyes welled with tears. The visions had taken only an instant, but the revelations and the messages that had been transmitted with them were comprehensive in warning him of the dangers ahead.

He felt a wrench on his hand, this time so hard that it almost pulled him off his feet.

The Fae appeared again, hovering just in front of him, and showed him one last scene. This one was about the Fae themselves: how they had ended up here, tricked by a duplicitous nether-creature which had deceived and entrapped them, taking them away from their own realm and imprisoning them in this one.

‘Thank you,’ Trey said, with a nod in the creature’s direction.

The Fae looked back over its shoulder as if it had been called by something. It turned as if to leave, only to pause again, looking at the human and whispering five words to him. ‘Get the Fire Imp’s ring,’ it said, and disappeared.

Trey stepped through the doorway separating the two worlds to rejoin the creature he now knew to be a traitor.

Dreck’s knowledge of the keep’s layout was faultless. He knew the exact route that he and Trey needed to take to avoid the guards, sometimes taking them down what appeared to be a dead end, only for him to reveal a secret doorway hidden behind a rotting tapestry or cleverly disguised to be indistinguishable from the masonry surrounding it. With the Fire Imp leading, they made rapid progress through the citadel. So much so that when Dreck stepped out into a small courtyard without so much as a glance up at windows that looked down into it, Trey hurried to catch up with him and asked if they shouldn’t proceed with more caution.

Dreck waved the question away and kept moving. ‘Do you want to get to the dungeons and free Alexa and the other girl?’ said impatiently.

Trey spotted the slip and had to bite his lip not to respond. Instead, he fell in behind the demon, stepping through the doorway on the other side of the open space.

‘Good,’ Dreck continued, taking the boy’s silence as a sign of his acquiescence. ‘Then I suggest you leave the method of our progress through this place to me, and keep moving as quickly as possible.’

Trey had no other option. He was hopelessly lost. When they’d started their journey through the complex maze of interconnecting passageways he’d kept looking around, trying to remember features along the way in case he should have to try to find his own way out. But he soon realized that he hadn’t a chance of retracing their steps. Most of the narrow stone corridors they had taken had looked identical, with few features to mark them apart. No, he just had to follow, relying on the demon’s knowledge of the place and its workings – even if he could no longer trust the creature in any other way.

When they finally came to a halt, it was at the T-junction of an arterial passage that led on to a much wider corridor. Dreck stopped, holding a short arm out to indicate that the teenager should do the same.

‘This is the main corridor,’ he said in a low voice. ‘It leads up to the Great Hall. There is a guard station to our right, and there’s no way past it but along this corridor.’ He placed his face close to the wall at the apex of the corner, carefully peering round the bend, then quickly pulled his head back and looked up at Trey. ‘Only two guards – they must be between shifts.’

‘Then how do we—’

‘We need a distraction,’ Dreck said. ‘A big one,’ he added with a smile. He took a deep breath, holding it, and Trey watched as the nether-creature began to change colour. Even though he’d seen the same thing earlier, during the fight with the demons at the hell-hole, it was fascinating to watch. Dreck’s skin went from a dull grey through pink to red in quite a short time, but whereas before he had spat the tennis-ball-sized fireball out at the onrushing Shadow Demon at this point, he now went on holding his breath, the colour deepening and strengthening until his skin was a livid, dark burgundy and Trey could feel the heat burning off the creature. The Fire Imp’s eyes bulged in his head, and he motioned with his hand for Trey to step back down the passageway and get down on to the floor. Happy that the boy was far enough away, Dreck turned and spat the fireball into the corridor away to their left. Trey looked up from his prone position, and saw how the burning globe doubled in size as soon as it left Dreck’s mouth, and continued to grow even in the short time that he could see it before it disappeared from sight.

When the fireball struck the floor somewhere down the corridor and detonated, Trey could feel the wall of heat even from his place of safety. He looked up and saw the guards running down in the direction of the fire, already shouting out for help to extinguish the blaze.

‘Let’s go,’ Dreck said, and Trey thought he detected a new weariness in the Fire Imp’s voice.

The teenager got to his feet and quickly walked over to where his guide was standing. The demon looked terrible, his skin almost white, and there was utter exhaustion on his face. ‘Abig one like that takes it out of me,’ he said, waving away Trey’s hand. ‘I won’t be able to manage another for some time yet. Let’s go.’

They ran out into the corridor, not bothering to look behind them to see the guards battling against the fire – it was clear from their shouts and screams that they had their hands full. The Fae gate that led into the Great Hall was directly ahead, and Dreck reached out to grab Trey’s hand seconds before they jumped into the black opening.

There were no light displays for them this time. No Fae attacked, but Trey had the same feeling that he’d had before of being watched by a malevolent force.

Initially he allowed the Fire Imp to guide him, and he wondered again how the nether-creature knew the way in the inky void. But when they had walked for about thirty seconds or so, Trey came to an abrupt halt.

‘What are you doing?’ the Fire Imp said.

Trey stood in silence, planning his next move.

‘Let’s go,’ Dreck hissed.

‘How did you know that Alexa
and
Philippa were being held in the dungeons?’

‘What?’

‘Back there in one of the passageways. You asked me if I wanted to “get to the dungeons and free Alexa and the other girl”. How did you know that they were both there?’

‘It was just an expression. I’m guessing that Alexa is here somewhere. If she is, and she’s ahead of us, I would have thought that she’s made it to—’

‘How would she get past the Fae?’

‘What?’

‘You told me that there was no other way in or out. And yet you’re assuming that she somehow made it past the Fae.’

‘Look, are you going to stand here, of all places, and argue about some silly slip of the tongue that I . . .’

The Fire Imp’s words were cut short as he felt the teenager’s hand, which he held in his own, transform into something huge and hairy.

The werewolf grabbed the djinn’s wrist, wrenching the nether-creature up off its feet and into the air.

‘Put me down!’ Dreck bellowed. ‘Put me down this instant, or so help me, I’ll . . . ’

While one hand suspended the djinn above the ground by the wrist, the werewolf’s other hand was exploring the Fire Imp’s fingers, and Dreck realized too late what he was searching for. The Fire Imp tried to clench his hand into a fist to stop the lycanthrope, but Trey was simply too powerful and wrenched the hand open again. Dreck screamed out in anger as he felt the Fae ring torn from his finger.

‘Give that back!’ the Fire Imp screeched into the darkness. ‘That is
my
ring. You give that back to me. Now!’

Trey had a problem. The ring was too small – it was the perfect size for the Fire Imp, but even though the nether-creature’s hands and fingers were fat, the teenager knew that there was no way he would be able to put it on while in his werewolf state.

He transformed back into his human form. The sudden weight of the demon he was holding out at arm’s length was too much for him, and he dropped the nether-creature.

Dreck screamed. At first Trey thought that the creature must have been hurt by the fall, but listening to the Fire Imp revealed that these were screams of a different sort.

The teenager slipped the ring on to his forefinger, and the Fae world was transformed.

He could see. Not see in the conventional sense – there was nothing much
to
see. But he was no longer blind to the things around him in the blackness. The first thing he noticed was the bright coloured aura that seemed to burn off him. It was a deep blue and it danced over his skin as if he was on fire. The next things that caught his eye were the Fae, who were hurtling in at a terrific speed, their teeth making that same sharp snickety-snick sound as they snapped them together. He looked down at the screaming Fire Imp by his side, and realized that the demon could no longer see: Dreck was floundering in the darkness, his arms flailing as he sought Trey out, oblivious to the Fae that were hurtling towards him.

The Fae had not illuminated themselves this time, and it was clear to Trey that they had only one thing in mind: to inflict death on the creature that had taken them away from their homeland and trapped them here in this place as slaves to the demon lord Molok. But Trey, thanks to the stolen ring on his finger, was able to make them out; their bodies, like his own, were covered in wispy flame, although theirs were of a deep purple colour which, coupled with their transparent bodies, made them difficult to see against the black background.