Demon Singer (32 page)

29 WAR

Lyric focused on their door and sang a short phrase.  The door rattled violently but held.  Acheron laughed.

"It's time to get over your issues my reluctant Lover, this cell is Singer proofed.  But you're special.  So stop being a pansy and use me.  You're not doing anyone any good in here."

Lyric kept his focus on the door and decided Acheron was right.  Drawing on their tie, Lyric sang the song again and carefully directed the flood of power.  This time the heavy iron door blew out completely and took out a large portion of the facing wall.  Fugue stared at Lyric in amazement, then crowed.

"Ha! You
are
the Demon Singer! Let's go kill some things!"  With that, he ran out of the door and disappeared into the cloud of dust caused by Lyric's song.

Lyric and his companions made their way out of the cell and climbed the stairs.  Upon reaching the first landing, they encountered three of the Milleytes Lux.  As one, the soldiers drew their swords.  Before they could attack, Cadence was among them, spinning, kicking and hurting.

These weren't goblins, mindless brutes or silver sensitive werewolves.  These were members of the legendary Milleytes Lux, the Army of Light, defenders of Markhato.  The unbeaten legion.  Cadence managed to relieve two of them of long knives before they recovered from their surprise.  But recover they did.  Cadence's knives met steel as the soldiers parried her attacks.  The battle was brief and furious, until Lyric managed to shout over the din.

"We're on your side, you morons!"  The soldiers were distracted long enough for Cadence to dance under their guard, disarm two of them, and lock blades with the third.  "Don't you have invaders to protect the city from?"

The soldiers were unmoved and unresponsive.  The two unarmed men prepared to fight barehanded while the third threw Cadence back and dropped into a guard position.

Acheron smoked out and reappeared behind them, smacking two heads together and kicking the third in the back, sending him flying into a wall.  All three fell unconscious to the ground.

Lyric, Acheron and Cadence continued up the stairs.  Approaching the large door at the top of the stairs Lyric reached for the tie, ignored Acheron's exaltation as he tapped into her power and sent it hurtling into the enormous iron barrier.  The door blew out so hard Lyric felt the draft from thirty steps away.  A handful of surprised looking green faces peered down at them from around what remained of the doorframe.

"Gremlins."  Lyric growled.  The little green bastards shrieked psychotically and launched themselves down the steps at the trio.  Not in the mood, Lyric sang a song from Mistress Holt's book.  From the lyrics of the piece, he assumed it would make them too heavy to move.  He was shocked and more than a little nonplussed, to see them all squish to goo on the stone stairs.

Acheron laughed through the tie.  
Too much juice, Lover, if you don't want them dead you need to reign it in a little.

Continuing up the steps, they walked gingerly on the wet stone.  Lyric steeled himself against the urge to vomit.  They carried on through the grisly mess and made their way through the hole where the door used to be.

They found themselves on the lower battlements of Markhato Castle.  A large stone apron lay before them.  To the left a mass of bodies both human and supernatural were locked in close combat.  To the right the way was clear.  Lyric assumed that was the direction they'd need to go to get to the upper levels, but first help was needed here.  

"C'mon, Lover, we gots things to be killin' "

"They're not evil, they're misled.  I don’t want to kill them."

"Um, most of them are plenty evil, believe me.  And misled or not, they intend to kill
you
and all your friends."

Lyric looked at Cadence who was still holding the knives she’d taken from the soldiers.  The mute bodyguard motioned toward the battle that was edging closer to them.

Shaking his head in frustration Lyric closed his eyes and called to mind another song from Allison Holt.  This one was under the protection category.  As he sang an odd feeling of being immersed in water covered his body.  He was able to breathe fine, so hoping it was working he covered the three of them and leapt into the fray.

Cadence became a whirling dervish of death as she cut down everything not in the red and black uniforms of the Milleytes Lux.  Acheron jumped in barehanded as usual.  Her beautiful face was smiling and laughing as she tore her enemies in half.

Lyric looked away from her, not wanting to see the joy on her face caused by all the carnage.  He waded into the melee, shattered the knee of a large goblin brute and confiscated his battle-axe as he fell.  Hefting the large weapon, he felt a pressure against his back and turned to see an elf holding a knife and staring at its bent tip in confusion. Realizing the protection song was working, Lyric brought up the back of the axe and clubbed his attacker into unconsciousness.  

He had no time to ponder the nature of Holt's protection song as he was set on by three more huge goblins.  Refusing to take their lives, Lyric beat them down with the flat side of his axe head and the large ballast ball at the end of the handle.

To the side, a member of the Milleytes Lux was on his back, fending off the advances of two more elves.  Dropping the axe handle atop his foot, Lyric grabbed both elves by their shirt collars and calling on his demon strength, he hurled them into the goblins surrounding Cadence.  

Kicking his weapon back up into his hand, he looked around for any immediate threats.  The battle had ended for now.  The remaining enemies were dead, unconscious or held captive by the soldiers. The odd sensation of being covered by water suddenly dissipated, leaving him tingling head to toe.  Shaking it off, he leaned down and helped the soldier to his feet.

"Thank you, sir, may I have your name?"  The older man examined Lyric and his companions closely.

"I'm no one, I'm just trying to help."  Lyric noted that the man was older than he was by quite a bit.

"No offense to you, but a member of the Standard would not travel with 'no one'." The soldier's eyes flicked briefly to Cadence, who was testing the balance of a sword scavenged from the fallen.  "Nevertheless, I will respect your privacy and not press the issue-" he stopped abruptly, his eyes fixed on Lyric's Singer pendant as it swung from his neck while bending down to check the pulse of a fallen elf.  Suddenly he snapped to attention.

"Colonel Avery, sir, at your service."

Lyric had dealt with the Milleytes Lux in the past and he'd always been mystified at the effect soul singers had on the unbeaten legion.  Lomong had explained once that Singers were more legend than real.  The only thing that could be safely said is that they were extremely deadly and served the Composer to protect the Score of Creation.  Highly trained soldiers like the Milleytes Lux found that worthy of immediate respect.  

"At ease, Colonel, just point me in the right direction."

Avery pointed to the south side of the battlements.

"Head that way and climb the steps.  Just keep going, the wall corkscrews up the mountain."

Lyric nodded preparing to leave and turned to ask.  

"What did you mean by ‘member of the Standard’?”

“Your companion,” Avery gestured to Cadence.  “I’ve been around a while, Singer.  The only humans I’ve ever seen fight like that are members of the Standard.  Don’t worry, I won’t reveal you to anyone.  The Composer be praised that you are here to help us.  Now if you’ll excuse me, my men need to secure this area and your abilities are better used upstairs.”  The Colonel saluted smartly and turned to his task.

Acheron and Cadence waited with different degrees of patience for Lyric to join them.  Acheron was covered in various colors of blood.  Cadence was disheveled, but none the worse for wear.  Lyric looked away from Acheron, the bliss on her face coupled with the grisly evidence of her recent fight was so far removed from how he’d begun to see her, it was a jarring reminder of her true nature.  He led the way up the southern battlement around the side of the mountain with the city below and to the left.  Looking down to the right he saw the Milleytes Lux in force engaged in combat with the attackers a good distance from the city wall.  He wondered what happened to the West to allow the enemy to breach the defenses but immediately realized it must be Rondeaux’s work.  Lyric needed to get upstairs as fast as possible.  A sudden dark blaze to his left and a wash of heat caused him to turn and see Acheron clean and flawless as the day they met.  It did little to wash his mind of the memory of her covered in blood.

“We need to get upstairs, fast.”  He said.  Acheron shrugged.

“Let’s fly.”

“I can’t fly, Acheron, neither can Cadence.”  The demoness chuckled.

“I wouldn’t put it past her.  Regardless, I’m certain there’s some pretty tune you can come up with that would allow me to carry you.”

Lyric looked at her doubtfully.

“That doesn’t seem like the best idea.  Singer’s limit songs on themselves for good reasons.  Anything I try would be unstable at best, I’d rather not have it crap out a hundred feet in the air.”

Acheron looked above them at the upper battlements.

“That’s where we need to go?”

“At least that far,” Lyric agreed.

“Okay, I have another solution, but you probably won’t like it.”

“Wha-?” Lyric’s attempted question was cut off as Acheron seized him by an arm and leg and hurled him upward like a sack of flour.  He cleared the battlement by twenty feet at least and had just enough time to dread the landing before he crashed to the stone.  Rolling over in pain, he saw the small, lithe figure of Cadence appear over the edge and land a few feet from him.  She managed to land in a roll that propelled her to her feet.  Then Acheron was standing directly above him, a spiked boot on either side of his head as she smiled down at him.

“You suck,” he coughed as he sat up slowly.

“You’re welcome,” the demoness said, bumping a hip against his head as she walked past him toward the soldiers advancing on them with weapons drawn.  Cadence was immediately beside her and they stood shoulder to shoulder between the soldiers and their Singer.

“Stop!”  Lyric shouted, forcing himself to his feet.  “We’re here to help.  Colonel Avery sent us.”

“Hold,” another soldier shouldered his way through the troops.  “Who are you?”

“I’m a soul singer, I’m here to aid in the defense of Markhato against Melody and Rondeaux.”

“ ‘Bout damn time,” the man looked at Lyric’s pendant but didn’t show the immediate respect Avery had.  “Please don’t tell me you’re all they sent, what are you twelve?  Where are the rest of you?  Why haven’t you answered our calls?  And who the hell is Rondeaux?”

“I’m straight out of the field,
sir
, I can’t speak for my Guild but I’m here.  Rondeaux is the threat.  Melody’s attack on the east is a diversion, Rondeaux has more than a million soldiers mustered and attacking from the West.  Where do you want me,
sir
?”

“Easy on the attitude, boy.  My name is General Brad Tagshout.”  The older man rubbed his jaw, “more than a million, huh?  Why haven’t we seen them then?”

“I don’t know,” Lyric said wearily, “but I assure you they’re there.  Avery has already engaged them on the lower battlements.  We just came from assisting him.”

“None of you look too awful, for having just survived a battle with over a million men.”

Lyric’s patience was evaporating rapidly.  Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to ignore the man’s needling.

“Hope you fare as well, sir.  Since you seem to have everything under control I’ll bid you good luck.”  Lyric turned to walk away, deciding he’d head for the West side and do what he could there.  A rough hand fell heavily on his shoulder and the general whipped him back around, livid.  Lyric grabbed the man’s wrist as Tagshout tried to grasp the front of his shirt.  Slowly he began to squeeze, looking the man in the eye.  “I am more than you can handle, general.  I will give my life to save this city, but I will not do it under your command.”  He could feel the bones bending under his grip.  To his credit, Tagshout didn’t even whimper.  “I’m going to the West side of the battlements to engage the enemy and do what I’ve been trained to do.  You can step out of my way or be thrown out of my way.”  Lyric stopped tightening, but held the general’s wrist fast.  The older man tried pulling away but had no chance against Lyric’s demon-augmented strength.  “I suggest you maintain what dignity you can, sir, and simply allow me to pass.”  Lyric released his wrist.  Tagshout stood staring at him, shaking in rage.  Lyric saw it coming well before it arrived.  Catching the general’s other fist as the man tried to punch him he clipped him under the jaw with his own fist and watched the man crumple.  The soldier’s who’d been watching warily prepared to rush Lyric but the Singer yanked his pendant from his neck and held it up for them to see.

“I’m here to help you!” he shouted so they could all hear.  “You might be tempted to avenge your general’s honor, but don’t.  He’s an asshole.  You obviously know what this is, which means you have some idea of who and what I am.  Would you rather have me fighting for you or against you?”