Demon Lord VI - Son of Chaos (11 page)

“
Move closer to the cliff,” Bane ordered.

The ship
drifted towards the massive expanse of cracked brown rock, where a
strange set of stairs protruded.

“
We must ascend to the next level, but first I will summon a
demon hound.”

“
The next level, Lord?” Nikira asked.

He turned to
her. “Yes. The one above this one.”

“
We can’t do that, Lord. Our engines can raise us a little
higher, that’s all.” Nikira tapped several keys on the console and
the image on the main screen swung upwards to show the massive
cliff that the glowing redness above swallowed. “We can’t go that
high.”

Bane frowned.
“Carrying your ship up there will tire me.”

“
Carry it?”

“
I will do it,” Drevarin volunteered, and Bane glanced at
him.

“
That would be helpful.”

“
You need to conserve your strength.”

Bane nodded
and faced Nikira again. “Take me to a door that leads out of this
vessel.”

“
Yes, Lord.”

The lift took
them down to the ship’s bowels, where she led them along a short
corridor to an armoured portal. She typed the unlock code into the
keypad beside it, and Bane glanced at Drevarin.

“
You intend to watch?”

“
I would not miss it for the world.”

Bane snorted
and smiled, then the outer door slid open and a ramp extended from
it. Nikira stepped back from the hot, foetid air that rushed in,
wrinkling her nose in disgust.

Drevarin
sniffed. “A dromon?”

“
If that is what it was called,” Bane said. “I have already
slain it.”

“
Good. Nasty things.”

Bane descended
the ramp, Drevarin at his heels, and Nikira followed them,
wondering what Bane was going to do. What the hell was a demon
hound? A large, nasty dog? Somehow she doubted it.

Bane stepped
onto the convoluted stone and paused to glance at Drevarin, who
moved to one side. Nikira stopped at the bottom of the ramp. The
Demon Lord turned, studying the terrain, then spread his arms. The
shadows rose from their dark clefts and rushed into him while
Nikira stared at him in horror.

***

Vigilantor
Montar jumped as an alarm brayed nearby, swinging around to stare
at the scanner screen, which showed a shadowy man form.

“
A dra’voren!”

“
The ship’s going into auto stealth,” one of his fellow
obstechs said.

Montar rolled
his chair over to another console and consulted the vidscreen,
focussing it on the reason for the alarm. It showed the tar’merin,
and standing close by, the creator and Nikira.

“
Override and cancel auto stealth,” he ordered.

“
Sir?”

“
It’s not a dra’voren, it’s the damned tar’merin.”

“
Yes sir.”

Montar shut
off the alarms and watched the tar’merin drawing shadows from the
surrounding darkness, his stomach knotted with revulsion.

***

Bane lowered
his arms, allowing the remaining shadows to sink back into their
gloomy nooks. The dark power surged through him with its familiar
malevolence, but its presence was bearable now. He had only
Gathered enough to summon and control a demon hound, and the dark
power whispered a name in his mind. Bane spoke the harsh words of
summoning followed by the name, then gestured to the spot where he
wished the demon hound to appear.

The shadows
there drew together like skeins of black silk on invisible strings,
mingling where they met to form a tenuous shape. It thickened and
darkened as more shadows flowed into it, filling out a form that
swelled as it solidified, taking on a lupine appearance. Bane
glimpsed the dull red soul that shot up from the ground to inhabit
the newly formed creature just before it opened bright yellow
eyes.

Bane regarded
it coldly, knowing all too well the nature of a Hellhound from his
encounters with its kind in the Underworld. They were vicious and
deceitful, endowed with a cunning intelligence and a thirst for
blood unmatched even by demons, which tended to be fonder of
tormenting than killing. Demon hounds killed for sport, and cared
nought what their prey was. They seldom left a dark realm unless
summoned, since they lacked the power to do so easily, and were
usually weak and tenuous when they succeeded.

On those
occasions, they rampaged through towns and villages, killing
indiscriminately until a priest armed with holy water, the words of
banishment and a great deal of courage banished them. Most priests
perished before they could finish the ritual, foiled by the
lightning speed of a demon hound and its immediate and deadly
response to the presence of one who had the power to banish it. Of
all the dark creatures, Hellhounds were by far the most dangerous.
Only a dark god could control one, and many black mages had met
grisly ends after making the mistake of summoning one. Demon hounds
fed on their victims’ life force, becoming more powerful as they
slaughtered, and more difficult to banish.

The demon
hound continued to swell and thicken, its form empowered by Bane’s
summoning, drawing its strength from the words he had spoken. The
more powerful the god, the more powerful the Hellhound that formed
in response to his summons. This one was becoming solid, with long,
gleaming barbs forming along its spine and in its thick mane, its
back level with Bane’s hips.

It opened its
mouth in a lupine grin, revealing crimson teeth and a dull red glow
within. Its yellow eyes flicked over Drevarin, dismissed him as
potential prey and fixed upon Nikira. Bane glanced at the
commander, who stood on the ramp, her eyes filled with horror. The
demon hound took a step towards her, but stopped when Bane turned
to face it again, looking at him. It could not break the leash of
obedience that his summoning placed upon it, but it longed for its
freedom and hated his power over it.

“
Tarquilar.”

The Hellhound
laid back its pointed ears and lowered its head at the speaking of
its name.

“
Seek the trail of a Grey God here and follow it. I will follow
in this vehicle.” Bane indicated the silver bulk of the ship that
hovered behind him. “Do not leave my sight, and do not harm
anything.”

The demon
hound looked around, then lowered its nose to the ground in search
of a trail. Its lithe, deep-chested form rippled with muscles under
its sleek hide, and its tail hung straight down, brushing the
ground. Bane watched it for a moment before striding back to the
ramp, where Drevarin joined him, glancing at the demon hound.

“
A powerful beast indeed.”

Bane shrugged.
“It will suffice.”

Nikira had
retreated into the ship, and when they joined her, she tapped in
the code and the door slid shut.

On the bridge,
the crew gaped at the main screen, which showed the demon hound
casting about for a trail. They were so engrossed that they did not
notice Bane’s entry, and those nearest to him jumped and moved away
when they found him beside them. Tarquilar found the trail and
followed it to the base of the steps, bounding up them. Bane
glanced at Drevarin, who spread his hands, palms towards the floor,
then clenched them as if gripping invisible ropes. Tilting back his
head, Drevarin closed his eyes.

The ship rose.
Operators cried out in alarm as the ground in the main screen
dropped away in a dizzying rush, clung to their consoles and gaped
at their screens. A navigation officer read out the numbers in
stunned tones, and Nikira sank into a chair, her expression
shuttered. The Hellhound bounded up the stairs, the ship keeping
pace. They passed through the glowing red clouds in a flash of
crimson brilliance and a beeping alarm that was swiftly
silenced.

The cliff face
passed in a blur, and the increased gravity forced everyone except
Bane and Drevarin to seek chairs. The light god’s expression was
blissful, and his power verged on visibility, rainbow ropes
shimmering in his fists. The ascent took several minutes, then they
passed the top of the cliff, and the ship slowed so quickly that
everyone except Drevarin floated off the floor. Bane landed on his
feet, but the crew sprawled with grunts of surprise and pain as the
ship resumed its static flight, hovering over the crevasse.
Drevarin moved his arms forward, and Retribution drifted over the
edge of the ravine, orange land passing under it. He opened his
hands and the ship sank a little, drifting away from the lip of the
ravine.

The demon
hound bounded away, and then paused to glance back.

“
Follow it,” Bane ordered.

“
Yes sir.” The pilot ran his hands over his console, and
Retribution moved towards Tarquilar, who resumed his lope. Bane
turned to Drevarin with a nod of satisfaction, and they left the
bridge.

***

Kayos
dismissed the Eye and sagged against the wall, resting his head on
it. Bane was still two days travel from him, and he was not sure
how much longer he could hold Torvaran at bay. He had to reset the
shield sphere’s ward patterns every few hours to ensure the key did
not match them, and each time he did, Torvaran struck the sphere as
it unravelled. Every blow weakened the sphere, and Kayos could not
feed it more power while it was solid, nor did he have enough time
to do so in the instant of flux when he changed the patterns.

Left
untouched, a shield sphere would last forever, but this one was
weakening at an alarming rate. It would last longer if he did not
change the patterns so often, but then he ran the risk of the key
unlocking them. The fact that Bane was on his way gave him hope;
all he had to do was last until then. He had only snatched naps
between pattern changes, and the stress of his situation made those
light and restless, so he suffered from sleep deprivation now, and
the fatigue weakened him.

***

Nikira sat at
the observation room’s main console and studied the scanner
recording again with a frown. Bane’s form was shaded only lightly
with shadows, making it grey, as it had been when they had captured
him. It did not change when he summoned the dark beast, and she
watched once more the horror of its forming. It turned from grey to
black as it filled with dark power.

“
Are you sure he can control that thing?” Montar muttered
beside her.

“
He seems to think so.”

“
But look at him; he’s far less powerful than it is. Perhaps he
can’t hold any more dark power than that because he’s
alive.”

Nikira glanced
at him. “Perhaps. But he was able to summon it, and command it, so
we have to assume he controls it.”

“
And who controls him?”

“
He’s not a dark beast.”

Montar leant
forward. “Neither is that, by our standards. What we call dark
beasts are creatures who’ve been changed by the dark power, and who
contain a little of it. That thing is made of it, like a dra’voren.
That’s a beast dra’voren. What if he can’t control it?”

“
Then we’ll have a problem, won’t we? Are you going to accuse
him of endangering us?”

“
What good would that do?” he asked.

“
Exactly. Drevarin wasn’t alarmed by it, and he knows more than
us.”

“
It probably can’t harm him, but could he protect the rest of
us?”

“
I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Nikira touched
a key on the control panel to restart the recording, which held a
morbid fascination for her.

Chapter Five

Wraiths

Bane dismissed
his cup of ambrosia and created an Eye with a wave of his hand,
seeking Kayos within it. The image swirled, and then formed a scene
identical to the one he had seen in Drevarin’s Eye. Drevarin rose
and moved behind him to gaze into the Eye. The dark god stood
beside Kayos’ sphere, holding the key. Sensing Bane’s Eye upon him,
he swung around, but instead of the wolfish grin he had worn when
he had sensed Drevarin’s Eye, this time his expression was
murderous. Bane smiled when the crimson-clad stranger shook his
fist at the Eye, and Drevarin recoiled as the dark god unleashed a
bolt of shadow at it, momentarily darkening it.

Bane said, “I
am coming, you damned dead piece of filth.”

Drevarin
returned to his couch and flopped down as Bane dismissed the Eye.
“Are you strong enough?”

“
Not yet, but hopefully I will be by the time we get
there.”

“
Hope is not enough. I can give you more strength.”

“
I will have to cast out my power again.”

Drevarin
cocked his head. “Will you lose control of the demon hound?”

“
No.”

“
Then there is no problem.”

“
I suppose not. Unless something happens that requires our
help.”

Drevarin
smiled. “It takes only a moment to break it off and awake. You need
not sleep at all, but I do recommend it, you need the rest.”

Bane inclined
his head, glancing at Mirra, who sat beside him. She rose and went
to join Mithran and Grem at a nearby table, gazing at him. Bane
closed his eyes and unleashed the dark power in his bones,
spreading his hands as he let it trickle from his fingers in skeins
of shadow.

Drevarin said,
“I never thought I would witness a dark god using his power, unless
I was his prisoner.”