Prince of Demons 3: The Order of the Black Swan (8 page)

She could tell by the way Brave couldn’t suppress his groans of pain that getting up took an effort of heroic proportions. But it seemed to be a little better once he was fully upright and leaning against her.

They managed one slow step toward the river. Then another. On the third, Brave blacked out and crumpled to the ground. Lana tried to grab for him, but had no chance of even easing his fall. She was trying to turn him over so that he wasn’t lying in a position that looked uncomfortable when she heard the distinct sound of a huff.

Something about that sound made all the hair follicles on her skin stand up. She raised her eyes to scan for what had made the noise and looked right into the beady eyes of a black tusked boar the size of a prize winning hog. While she stared at the animal, frozen either by instinct or fear, he seemed to be studying her.

Trying not to move anything but her eyes, she looked around for something she could use to defend them. Anything. She spied a branch that looked like it had been torn from a tree during a storm. It even had blackened marks like it had been struck by lightning.

It was about one inch in diameter and had a jagged edge. If it turned out to be dry wood, the boar would run through it like it was air, but if it was a green hard wood, it would be better than nothing. The burn marks indicated that it was too green to burn all the way through.

In any case, she knew she wouldn’t be the one to make the first move. Maybe the beast would get bored. He raised his snout and sniffed. Or maybe he would decide they smelled bad and just move along. That was best case scenario.

She knew that wasn’t going to happen when he lowered his snout. She would have sworn that he narrowed his little black eyes just before he lunged forward.

Lana felt like the seconds that followed were played out in slow motion. As she dove for the branch that lay nearby on the ground, she gave up praying to the god of the Episcopal Church in Dallas, and started praying to the pagan gods of the hunt.

As if she was channeling the instincts of ancestors who hunted for survival, just before the creature reached them, she rolled to her back and angled the crude spear so that the pig would run headlong into it and impale himself with his own momentum and weight.

She dug the end closest to her deep into the sandy soil to give her the leverage she’d need. Everything was riding on the hope that the animal was stupid as well as vicious. Terror helped her to hold on with a death-like grip. Coursing adrenaline boosted her natural instinct and judgment so that, at the last possible second, she adjusted the angle of the spear so that it was lower and more to the right.

The force of the boar’s charge did indeed result in a violent and ugly suicide. It also turned a sharp but harmless branch into a catapult so that he flew over where Brave and Lana lay, and landed on the ground with a mighty thud.

On impact, Lana had dug her heels into the ground, gritted her teeth, and brought every muscle in her body to bear on the task of aiming the arc of descent away from Brave. Then she lay exhausted, breathing hard, listening to a full minute of ear-splitting pig screams and death squeals.

When the boar exhaled his last sound the forest was once again quiet except for the sound of rushing water nearby. She crawled to Brave’s comatose body, laid herself over his chest and listened to his heart beat.

CHAPTER 3

Brave opened his eyes a sliver to see what was tickling his nose. Lana’s head lay on his chest and a lock of her hair blew in his face with the movement of the morning breeze.

He winced when his arms tried to wrap around her of their own volition. She felt good under his hands. Even the throbbing of his injuries couldn’t completely douse the pleasure of feeling the warmth radiating through her clothes.

He turned his head slightly and almost jumped when he saw the dead carcass of the boar. Its tusks were long enough and yellow enough to indicate that he’d been a mature male, probably wily, and not that easy to kill. Brave’s chest filled with pride as he imagined Lana killing the boar while he slept. At the same time that image filled him with fear.

There was no time to let the conflict of those emotions settle before he heard the barks of straithgard. Either the Callii were back or the Reinlitegen were almost on them.

He shook Lana to wake her, not that they could run, but he thought it would be better to be taken awake than asleep. Just then he would have given his good arm to turn back time and choose to leave Atalanta Ravin safe in the strange world of Edinburgh.

She roused then groaned out her body’s weariness. “Brave?”

Lana raised herself up far enough to look at Brave through sleepy eyes that were only half-comprehending.

“Lana, I want you to know that…” His attention shifted past her shoulder where he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. There was a shimmer in the air just a few feet away. He hoped it was Callii. The second he saw skin with a slight tinge of salmon color, he breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Cavalry’s here, beautiful.”

One of the Callii took hold of Brave to take him through a pass. The demon stabbed Brave with a syringe-like tool then looked at Lana. “Sorry, human. I only brought serum for Brave.”

Brave was looking at Lana with wild eyes and struggling against the Callii who were separating them.

Lana heard a loud raspy voice behind her. She didn’t turn around. Her eyes were fixed on Brave, but she knew it was the Reinlitegen. “Son of Roanald. Come to me or be the catalyst for the death of the Callii.”

Brave only had the chance to scream, “NO!”, as he was carried away through an invisible door and disappeared.

Lana wondered if the Reinlitegen were going to think Brave had replied no to whatever they’d said or that they knew he was telling his captors not to take him without her. Regardless, she was there and he was somewhere else.

She was somewhat impressed by her own ability to accept the turn of events calmly. Or maybe she was just too tired to do anything else.

She turned around to face a dozen Reinlitegen who were gathered behind her. Even though their expressions were cruel, they were undoubtedly the most beautiful creatures she’d ever seen. They spoke to each other in a language composed of sounds that were alien to any linguistics system she’d heard.

She remembered Brave saying that demons, at least Callii, could grasp new languages on contact. Reasoning that there was nothing to lose in trying diplomacy, she said, “My name is Atalanta Ravin. I’m human from Loti Dimension.” She doubted they had a version of the Geneva Convention, but since she didn’t have a rank or serial number, she hoped name, species and world of origin would do for identification when captured by an enemy. “Do you speak my language?”

The one nearest her seemed to study her more intensely than the others. “I know your language. I’ve been to Loti Dimension once.” He sneered and looked deliberately contemptuous. “There was nothing there to draw me back a second time. We’re looking for the son of Roanald. Where is he?”

“A human?” They looked at each other then back at her. “Why do you want him?”

“Female. I will ask questions. You will answer. I know you were with the son of Roanald. I smell him on you.” He sniffed and narrowed his eyes. “Is he leaking life fluid?”

“Bleeding. Yes. He was hurt.”

“I’ll ask you one more time. I strongly suggest that you answer this time. Where is he?”

“I don’t know. His friends took him into a pass. That’s what you call it, right? I’m human so I couldn’t go with them.”

The Reinlitegen narrowed his eyes. “If you can’t travel the passes, how did you get here?”

“Special potion.”

They turned to each other and conferred in murmurs as if they thought Lana could understand what they were saying. The mouthpiece turned back to her.

“Are you his female?”

Lana thought about it and decided that the best answer was, “No.”

“If you are not his female, why is his life fluid on your clothing?” She remained silent. “We’ll see if you are or are not. You better hope he thinks enough of you to come back.” He leaned in so that she could feel the menace then said, “We won’t wait forever.”

By sunset she was being thrown back into the same prison where she’d met Brave, while loudly declaring, “Hey! All I’m saying is give peace a chance!” Only that time there was no discernible bright spot, like an appealing companion. The Reinlitegen found it most amusing that the Callii had provided them with a place to hold human captives. Prisons were not often found on demon worlds.

What would be the point since none of them could be held by walls?

The biggest problem was that Reinlitegen didn’t understand anything about the care of humans. Like for instance that the species requires food and water. Since Lana had gone for nearly two days on one energy bar and only the water she took in involuntarily when she was dunked in the cold river, her body had reorganized its priorities and was telling her that hunger pangs were going to override everything else until she was fed.

The Reinlitegen were beautiful and brutal, but they weren’t especially smart. They retained Lana as bait, for the purpose of luring Brave back to claim her, then left her in a cell and walked off without understanding that humans require fuel.

CHAPTER 4

During the hours when he was conscious, Brave had not stopped shouting about Lana being left behind since he’d been forcibly brought to the Callii secret stronghold. His personal physician, whose job it had been to learn human physiology for the purpose of caring for Brave, finally administered an elixir that contained a sedative. She kept him asleep for two days while she boosted his own body’s repair mechanisms.

When he woke on the third day, he was healed, but he was also furious about Lana having been left behind in the hands of the Reinlitegen.

Brave pushed Fortuity, his physician, aside. She called after him, but he ignored her as he stormed down the halls toward the regent’s temporary Court. He barged in to find a Council meeting in progress, but couldn’t have cared less about insult or impropriety.

“Have you sent someone to retrieve her?” Brave demanded.

Abide dismissed the meeting and the council members left quickly, while Perry gave Brave a disapproving look.

“The cell where she’s being held has been warded. We can’t get in or out.” Abide spoke with his usual unreadable calm.

Brave yelled out his frustration and shoved a basket of mirrored balls off the table so that they cracked and rolled on the floor. He watched them roll about for a few seconds before asking, “Who’s the son of Roanald? What were they talking about?”

Abide rose and walked into his antechamber, which was a smaller room about the size of a private study. By Callii standards it was cozy, complete with a hearth burning a real wood fire. Brave glanced at Perry then followed his foster father.

Brave sat without being invited. Perry closed the door, but stood just inside, leaning against it like a henchman.

For a little while, the only sound in the room came from the wood being burned. At length Abide seemed to have this thoughts together and began.

“You are my son. You are also the son of a human named Roanald. I am the father of your heart and mind. He is the father of your blood and bones.”

Brave felt everything in him go very still. As he waited for Abide to continue, he had to prompt himself to breathe.

Abide continued. “For the past score of years we have kept you with us to save the Elemental balance, and the relative peace that exists, from destruction by your father. Your other father.

“Roanald invented a genetic splice that would enable humans to travel interdimensionally as easily as Elementals. They would have the same freedom of movement as demons, angels, sylphs, all of us. When the genetically altered material is injected into the placenta of a pregnant human, the splice would be absorbed and permanently reprogram the DNA of the infant and its offspring. The length of time necessary for the conversion of humanity would depend entirely on how many women were injected. By our calculations, if a thousand women received the splice, it would take less than a millennium for the entire human species to get the keys to
all
the doors.”