Dragon's Tongue (The Demon Bound) (48 page)

“Which means Blood Apples are more deadly than demon venom,” Fenelon said cheerfully.

“Would you care to test that theory?” Vagner asked with a grin, gesturing with claws.

“Not on your life, demon,” Fenelon said. “However, I would be interested in learning the results if you devoured a Blood Apple.”

“I don’t eat fruit,” the demon said sourly.

“Hmmm, my mistake,” Fenelon said. “Probably because you so closely resemble a grotesque version of a large fruit bat.”

“You are the only fruit in this basket,” Vagner said.

“I’m wounded,” Fenelon said. “And here I was trying to be nice to you, too.”

“That’s what you call being nice?” the demon said. “Trying to poison me with poisonous fruit?”

“You’re no fun at all, Vagner,” Fenelon said. “You have no sense of adventure.”

Etienne sighed. Perhaps one needed such patience.

FIFTY ONE

Alaric was tiring. Vagner could feel the young mageborn’s concentration waning. Even though they stopped and rested regularly, the passage of time was taking its toll. The demon pushed more of his own essence into the youth, fully aware such an act could drain him as well over a long period of time. Vagner, at least, could touch the perverse power that ranged through this place. To him, its ancient song was like thick, bittersweet nectar.

Now and again, a Shadow Kin would come close enough for Vagner to see its baleful stare before it would whip away from the burn of the mage light. He got the impression they were accusing him of aiding the enemy. Vagner ignored them. He was demon and had all his powers. Shadow Kin were intangible. Oh, like the darklings of Mallow, they could do harm, but not to a demon. And there was no way he was going to allow them to hurt the little master…

Can it be that I am developing a streak of human-like conscience?
In spite of Vagner’s desire to have his freedom, he felt a certain fondness for this mageborn whose personal sacrifice had saved the demon’s life. Granted, he did not care a whit if any of the others came to harm. Then again, he rather liked Etienne…and young Shona, now that he thought about it. It was the Greenfyn that Vagner could do without. More than once, he had been tempted to bite off Fenelon’s head, and as swollen as it was with ego, it would most likely make a satisfying meal.

In fact, he was a bit hungry, now that he thought about it. His last meal had been a few dead Haxons several hours ago. Something warm and alive would have tasted marvelous just now…

And I would guarantee myself an eternity of pain for it,
the demon thought. For no matter how forgiving Alaric might be compared to Tane, it was rather certain he would not tolerate the devouring of any he considered a friend. Besides, on his True Name, Vagner had given his word not to eat any that Alaric called friend. For better or worse, that included Fenelon.

Vagner frowned and secretly sniffed the air for other game. He picked up the scent of warm blood from somewhere close by. He smiled. So there was life down here after all.

Alaric suddenly tumbled to his knees, and Vagner lurched around, cursing his own distraction. The others rushed to the young bard’s aid.

“Alaric,” more than one concerned voice chorused.

Etienne knelt before Alaric in a swift motion, pressing her hands to his forehead. “This is not good,” she said. “You need to rest.”

“But the light,” Alaric protested and glanced at Vagner.

Fenelon scoured the area with quick glances. The terrain was no longer level. There were plenty of places for Shadow Kin to hide in these gloomy woods.

“I can hold it for a while,” Fenelon said suddenly, and Vagner felt the power shift so the Greenfyn was wielding the light spell on his own, allowing the demon a short respite.

Etienne nodded. Alaric started to shake his head. “Ronan says we are not far from our destination, and we should keep going,” he said wearily.

“I don’t know that you’re going to make it much farther at this rate,” Etienne said. “Or does Ronan propose to take over your body and push you until you are dead?”

Alaric closed his eyes, and Vagner sensed the other in him grew restless even now. Still, Etienne was right. The little master could not keep going this way.

“Actually, I think you should wait and rest a bit,” the demon said. “Because I’m getting hungry and…”

Four faces turned uncertain glances in Vagner’s direction. He could almost smell the outrage and the hint of fear.

“I wasn’t proposing to eat any of you, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he said in an indignant manner. Then thought,
well, any but one.

“Then what are you proposing to eat?” Fenelon asked quite pointedly. “Considering we haven’t seen a single living creature…”

“Just because you don’t see them,” Vagner said and grinned. “Even you mageborn humans have limited senses compared to a demon…

He moved like summer lightning into the trees. Forms burst from the hedges and tangles, small, furry deer-like creatures at a quick glance. One of them stumbled, and Vagner was on it like a raptor. He seized up his prey and returned to the clearing where he was rather pleased to see the startled faces of the travelers when he came back with the stunted, squirming creature clutched in his now massive jaws.

Vagner swallowed it quick and whole, and smiled…

…Until a burning sensation filled his belly with fire. He felt the little creature clawing and kicking until the pain ripped through every nerve. The sensation so frightened Vagner, he heaved and retched until he disgorged the beast. Around him, the others shrieked and shouted. Alaric called out in a voice filled with concern as the strange, stunted deer came up still whole. It hit the ground running on two legs like a man, and only then could it be seen that the fore hooves were actually shaped like hands. The creature tossed a fiendish grin over one shoulder as it fled.

“What in the nine hells was that?” Fenelon cried.

Vagner could only retch and curse for moments. The bitter taste that filled his mouth was enough to make him wish for something sweet.

“Horns, Vagner, are you all right…” Alaric’s hand touched the demon’s shoulder.

“Its flesh was not that of a warm blooded beast. It was cold as a lizard.”

“But what was it?” Fenelon asked.

It was Alaric who spoke. “It was related to a demon,” he said, looking as though he too had bitten something vile.

“Not entirely,” Vagner said as his throat and stomach ceased to pain him. “I have eaten lesser demons to survive. That
thing
is not all demon.”

“What do you mean?”

“It tasted as though it ate the Blood Apples,” Vagner said. “It actually burned me from within.”

I guess,
he thought blandly,
I shall have to go hungry a little longer.

All the more reason to find Tane and get out of this place.

~

Alaric wanted to move on, but Etienne refused to let him take another step until his color improved. Ronan’s restless rage surged within Alaric.
“We’re so close,”
Ronan repeated over and over, and the temptation to shout at the dead bard and order him to be quiet was strong. But Alaric clamped down on the urge. He feared such an outburst would be taken poorly.

He glanced at Fenelon who was draining his own essence to keep the mage lights bright. His face was pinched with the effort, which worried Alaric. If Fenelon found it a strain to hold the spell in the face of the conflicting magic that filled this place, then it must have been a dire place indeed. Almost as bad as being trapped in the void. At least here, Alaric could feel his own magic. In that dreadful hole in the dungeon of that tower, he had been unable to do even that much. Now he knew how mortalborn truly felt.

“But we’re so close.
We must push on.
” Ronan whispered over and over.
“We should not stay here.
It is dangerous…
”

Alaric was about to ask why when a projectile zinged out of the trees and slammed into the bark of the nearest Black Fir. The crack was like thick pond ice shattering. Shona yelped and dove for cover. Etienne threw herself to her feet to look around for the source of the danger while Alaric felt more impelled to follow Shona’s example. Another projectile shot out of the trees on the higher ground above the clearing and shattered against the trunk as loudly as the first.

“What the…” Fenelon hissed.

“We’ve got company,” Vagner said, and the demon moved protectively towards Alaric.

The higher ground blossomed with motion, and a sound like the rutting whistle of roebucks filled the air. Alaric looked up in time to see a swarm of the stunted deer-creatures charging over the edge. They curled back their lips and revealed that they had fangs. Some carried slings, and stopped long enough to load them and fling a hail of stones on the party’s head. Others carried crude clubs, and waved them as they charged and screamed their battle cry.

“Oh, great!” Fenelon snapped. “It brought back the whole family!”

“Leave the little vermin to me,” the demon hissed, and before Alaric’s eyes, Vagner swelled four times his already massive height. As he grew, he shifted into a wyvern shape. His tail swept across and sent a number of the creatures falling to the ground. But for every abomination the demon crushed or stabbed with his tail barb, there were plenty more. And they seemed impervious to his poison.

Alaric had no time to contemplate more. Battle magic would tire him, and with no source from which to draw power. He jerked his sword free as one of the creatures came at him. Horns, even upright, it stood no taller than his shoulder, but it was quick and danced in and out with far more agility than Alaric could hope to muster. Alaric was forced to dodge, and each stroke of his sword met with naught but air. At least he wasn’t the only one having that trouble. In the moments he was able to glimpse Fenelon, Etienne and Shona, they brandished their weapons no more gracefully than he. Even Vagner had stopped wasting time with his tail poison and started battering them.

Alaric’s opponent became two, forcing him to flee more than fight. Light headed as he was, he felt the urgency of the danger enough to want to run.

“I told you we should not have stayed!”
Ronan’s thought rang in Alaric’s head.
“I told you this place would be dangerous…”

You could have warned us they might be here,
Alaric thought in retort. He parried as best he could when his attackers backed him into a corner formed by the roots of one of the massive firs. He fell against the icy bark, and could feel the cold rapidly seeping through his multiple layers of clothes. And his cloak froze fast to the surface, hampering him even more.

“Duck!” Alaric heard Vagner shout, and he did, even though it meant abandoning the warmth of the cloak. The demon’s tail slammed down on both creatures from above, flattening them. A third rushed Alaric, now on the ground trying to ignore the stench of the crushed pair. Vagner’s tail swung around again, this time catching up the creature around its middle and slamming it into the tree just above Alaric’s head.

He heard a fearsome cracking noise and clambered to his feet. The blow had shattered the ice-cold tree as though it were glass, and it began to separate, showering Alaric with chunks of icy, brittle wood. He had no choice but to run, and as he did, he shouted, “Timber!”

Shona turned from the act of cracking one of the creatures with her staff, and froze at the sight of the giant fir toppling towards her. Alaric caught her as he fled, practically wrenching her off the ground over one shoulder in order to haul her to safety. They barely cleared the path before the giant tree crashed to the ground. The mighty truck crushed a number of the deer-creatures before they could flee.

And just when Alaric stopped and let Shona go, he heard the ominous tinkle of many panes of glass being broken. The first tree struck another as it fell, and that one shattered and tumbled as well. All at once, the magnitude of the effect became clear.

“Run!” Fenelon shouted.

Alaric did, clinging to Shona’s hand for fear of losing her in the chaos. They ran away, mages and creatures alike, striking for the hillside as tree upon tree collapsed and brought down others. Most of them seemed to be tumbling into the little clearing the party had previously occupied, but a few fell outward instead. Some of the creatures resorted to four legs and scrambled away with terrified screams. Alaric and Shona stayed together, making for the crest of the hill, rushing over it only to slide to a halt.

What faced them now was a sheer drop into a dark green valley cut by a river. Behind them, trees continued to crash and fall. Alaric turned back and saw that the destruction was heading their way, and the only escape was a leap that would certainly kill them…