Demon Lord VII - Dark Domain (23 page)

“What is it?”
he asked.

She shook her
head. “You have already been through so much. I thought you would
be able to rest for a while, and now this.”

“They are only
demons.”

Her smile was
weak and clearly forced. “I know they are a threat to you. I have
seen them injure you on more than one occasion.”

He took her
hands. “I will be all right. I can deal with a few demons, do not
worry.”

“Please be
careful. All it will take is a well-aimed spear in your back, like
before, and you could die down there.”

“Kayos watches
over me almost constantly, like a broody hen with a brain-damaged
chick, and Drevarin will be watching, too. I am sure they will come
to my rescue, should I need it.”

“Even so, it
takes but a moment… It is dangerous.”

He hugged her,
bowing his head to kiss her hair. “The only other option is to deny
Tryne his favour and let those people die.”

“I would not
ask you to do that, but do not underestimate demons.”

“I will not
make that mistake again. I will return soon.”

Drevarin looked
up. “The best place to take those people would be a hospital.”

“That would
cause something of a stir,” Bane pointed out.

“But it would
also show that you are helping people.”

“I do not
really care what they think anymore. I have given up trying to
prove myself. Why should I? No matter what I do, they see evil in
it. They will probably think I took those people in the first
place.”

“The people you
save will not, though,” the light god said.

“Then they will
say I commanded the demons to take them and torture them.”

“If you had,
why would you rescue them?”

Bane shrugged.
“To make them think I am not evil?”

“Even after
they see you fight the demons to free them?”

“They will
dismiss that as a false display to dupe them.”

Drevarin sighed
and inclined his head. “You are probably right.”

Bane rose and
walked away before he Moved. He rematerialised in the gloomy
chamber, turning to scan it. The sensations that had been missing
from the Eye rushed in, stifling heat, screams and a nauseating
stench. Demons in man form raped women and tortured men, fire
demons in true form burnt children. Dozens more men were chained to
the walls, forced to watch. The demons had abducted whole families,
and sniggered at the helpless husbands who shouted insults in a
vain attempt to protect their wives and children by making the
demons angry enough to torture them instead. Insults did not anger
demons, however; the men’s verbal abuse only amused them. This was
the sort of sport demons enjoyed the most, although tormenting
people in the mid realm, disguised as family members or loved ones,
was also high on their list of entertainment. Many took one look at
Bane and fled, and he gestured at the rest.

“Begone!”

The remaining
demons slumped into piles of soil or vanished in flares of foul
fire, while air demons simply ceased to be, and a water demon
collapsed into a pool of vile liquid. The presence of a water demon
was somewhat surprising, as they were rare, and usually did not
leave their element. They were the cause of many shipping accidents
and had their sport with people who frequented the sea or lakes.
Perhaps in this domain, with its flying transport, they had been
forced to seek sport on land due to a lack of accessible targets in
their element.

Bane surveyed
the prisoners, most of whom had purer spirits than most he had
encountered in this domain, except for several droges, whose more
diffuse, dark red souls made them easy to spot. The fact that some
were victims was no surprise, and a few furtive droges, former
torturers, crept towards a door in the far wall, apparently hoping
to escape his notice. Whoever the demons and droges who used the
chamber served, the droge victims belonged to another dark god and
were therefore fair game. The droge torturers raced for the exit
when they realised that they had been spotted, bellowing in alarm.
Bane spoke the harsh, whispery words that rescinded their forms,
and they collapsed into pools of grey sludge with despairing wails.
He doubted that the droge victims would thank him for sending them
below again, however. While he had released them from their pain,
he had also consigned them to the Land of the Dead until a dark god
granted them another form, if that ever happened.

The human
prisoners crawled towards each other and huddled together, staring
at him with white-ringed eyes in dirty, tear-streaked faces. The
priestess regarded him with shock, horror and loathing, being the
only one who seemed to know what he was. She clasped her hands to
pray again, probably now to be saved from him. Little did the
others know that they owed their redemption to her faith, even if
her god was dead. Bane summoned a fire demon, and men cowered, the
women and children whimpering when the demon emerged from one of
the smoky torches and bowed to Bane.

“Lord,” it said
in a grating hiss.

“Jentaru. I am
the Demon Lord. Provide light, and go and stand over there.” He
gestured to the far side of the room.

The demon
became a pillar of flame, brightening the chamber considerably, and
moved away from the filthy wretches who blinked and squinted at it,
then Bane. In the additional light, he made out a cage against the
wall beside him, in which a dozen children clung to each other in a
weeping group. He went over to it and touched the bars, and the
black metal oozed into pools on the floor. The children ran to men
and women in the crowd, who embraced them with glad cries. Three
youngsters remained, staring at Bane with wide, scared eyes. They
had undoubtedly watched their parents tortured to death.

“I am here to
free you,” he told the prisoners. “Stand up, if you can, and gather
in groups of twenty in the centre of the chamber. Help those who
cannot walk.”

“Do not believe
him!” the priestess cried. “He is a dark god! He lies! He will take
you somewhere horrible, or kill you!”

Bane cursed
under his breath and muttered, “Here we go again.” He raised his
voice to address the throng. “I am not going to harm you. There is
not much time. If you remain here the demons will return and kill
you.”

“You are the
darkness!” the priestess shouted. “Lord Pretarin will cast you
down!”

“Pretarin is
dead.”

“You killed
him! You have doomed us all!”

Bane shook his
head, annoyed, but schooled himself to patience. “No, I did
not.”

“I know what
you are. I can see it! You use the shadows!”

The Demon Lord
snorted. A light priestess was too certain of her conviction to be
swayed with words, and usually she would have been right. He
stepped towards the three orphans and held out a hand. “Come.”

The priestess
shrieked, “Monster! Leave them alone!”

Snatching up a
stone, she hurled it at him, and he ducked, shooting her an
irritated scowl. Her bravery surprised him, but, considering her
situation, she probably thought a quick death at his hands was
better than a lingering, horrific one, as she expected. He did not
want to have to fight the people he had come to rescue, however,
and if she continued to rant she might sway them. He took control
of her and replaced her dread with gratitude and the certainty that
he was there to rescue them.

She sagged and
turned to the others. “I was wrong. He is here to save us. Trust
him.”

Seeing an
opportunity to spread the word of Sherinias’ birth, he beckoned to
her. “Come here.”

The priestess
ran forward to kneel at his feet, bowing her head. “Lord!”

“When you
return to your church, inform your fellows that Pretarin’s daughter
has been born, and now rules this domain. Her name is
Sherinias.”

“Praise the
light, Lord!” She raised a face twisted with joy and worship.

“Go,” Bane
said. “Help the children.”

The priestess
went over to the three orphans and ushered them towards the rest of
the prisoners, who watched her with wide eyes, clearly unsure of
what had just happened. Bane estimated that there were close to a
hundred and fifty people in the chamber, and a group of twenty was
the maximum he could Move at once. Despite the priestess’ words,
the rest of the prisoners did not appear to know the significance
of his distinctive appearance, or his ability to banish and summon
demons. In this instance, the fact that they did not believe in
gods was a boon, since they discounted the priestess a madwoman,
despite their recent experience with demons. Had they all been
convinced of his evil intentions, the task would have been almost
impossible and taken far too long to achieve.

The prisoners
hobbled forward, some helping their weaker fellows. Women wept and
clutched wailing children, and the chained men held out their
hands, pleading to be released. The dark power’s influence expunged
Bane’s pity for them, and he did not bother to fight it. He just
wanted the onerous chore over with. He approached the chained men
and touched the duron manacle around the first man’s neck. It
shimmered and parted, and the prisoner stumbled forward to join the
rest. Bane walked along the wall, freeing all the men, then turned
to the groups. As he did, a fire demon rushed out of one of the
torches and shot towards the prisoners.

Bane said,
“Begone!”

The demon
vanished with a flare of sickly light, and the people gasped in
shock, a few giving half-hearted screams that tapered off into
whimpers. The fire demon’s attack meant that Bane did not have much
time, however. He summoned Jentaru again, then closed his eyes and
opened his mind to the far-see, locating a medical centre. Stepping
towards the nearest group, which included the priestess, he held
out his hand.

“Hold onto each
other,” he instructed, and then addressed the nearest man, one of
those he had freed from the wall. “If you want to leave this place,
take my hand.”

The man
hesitated for only a moment before he grasped Bane’s hand. He
Moved. The effort of Moving so many people dragged at him like a
great weight, and it seemed to take longer than ever before:
several moments of cold darkness before the aseptic white décor of
a hospital appeared around him. The people doubled over and
retched, some collapsed and writhed, clutching their stomachs.
Alarmed shouts came from the white-clad medical personnel who
populated the corridor, but then they approached to help the former
prisoners. The man who held Bane’s hand released it and stepped
back, staring at Bane as he struggled not to vomit.

The Demon Lord
Moved back to the chamber and approached a second group. Four earth
demons shot up from the floor, raising gritty fists. Bane dismissed
them, but the problem with banishing the demons was that each time
he did it he dismissed Jentaru as well, plunging the chamber into
gloom. Summoning the fire demon again, he held out his hand to a
woman at the edge of the closest group. She seized it, and the
people clung together. Now that they knew they might be slaughtered
while they waited for him to return, they grew more desperate. Some
of the people in the other groups tried to join the one he was
about to Move.

“Get back!” he
said. “Wait your turn!”

“They will kill
us!” a man cried.

Bane addressed
the fire demon. “Jentaru, protect them.”

Bane Moved
again, releasing the woman’s hand in the hospital corridor, close
to the first group, which nurses and medics tended. When he
returned to the Underworld chamber, another group of people rushed
towards him, and Jentaru battled two fire demons, barely holding
them at bay. The fresh corpses of several women and children lay on
the floor, burnt to death, and a few man-shaped ashen shapes
indicated that others had met a quicker demise from fire demon
eyes.

“Begone!” Bane
shouted as the group reached him and grabbed his arms and clothes,
clinging to him. He wanted to shake them off, but time was running
out. He summoned Jentaru and Moved to the hospital again. Wrenching
free of the grimy hands that gripped him, he shoved the people away
and Moved back to the Underworld chamber. This time, Jentaru
battled four earth demons while a fire demon moved amongst the
fleeing prisoners, slaying them with fiery fists and searing eyes.
Bane dismissed them, and the people surged towards him.

“Form groups!”
he bellowed. “If you do not, I shall not return!”

The prisoners
halted their dash and obeyed, the men ushering the women and
children, who wept with abject terror, into groups to be taken
before them. Jentaru could not hope to keep them all safe for much
longer, Bane knew. He needed help. Avoiding the grasping hand of a
woman on the outskirts of the closest group, he murmured the words
of summoning and the names the dark power provided.

Fire demons
blossomed from the torches and bowed to him, earth demons rose from
the floor with gritty grating sounds, and the people wailed afresh,
drowning out Bane’s words.

“Be silent!” he
shouted. “These are mine. They will protect you.” He swept the
fifteen demons he had summoned with hard eyes. He did not have time
to name them. “I am the Demon Lord. You will protect these people.
Nothing else.”

As the demons
bowed, he took hold of the woman’s hand and Moved.

Mirra sat
beside Drevarin and gazed into the light god’s Eye. Mithran, Grem,
Artan, Sarrin and Ethra stood behind her, watching over her
shoulder. The sight of Bane saving people filled her with pride and
joy, tempered by dread that he would be hurt. It made her realise
why Kayos prized him so much and longed for his aid. No one else
could do what he did. Those who would could not, and those who
could would not. Only he could and would. Much as she missed her
home, and Bane while he was away, moments like these made up for
that somewhat.