The Skull Throne (22 page)

Jardir had the coreling prince on the ground, wrestling, but the demon was stronger than it appeared, and while the crown kept it from summoning help or fleeing, Jardir could not access its other powers while he maintained the trap.

The demon prince shrieked, and its mimic responded, moving to come to its aid. Arlen drew a cold ward in the air, freezing it solid, and Renna delivered a kick that snapped one of its legs right off. The limb struck the ground and shattered as she spun to deliver a killing blow.

But before the blow could land, the mimic melted into a puddle, and she overbalanced as the kick struck only air. Instantly, tentacles formed, whipping out from the pool of goo. The wards on Renna’s flesh and Shanvah’s shield prevented the blows from making contact, but the rebound against the forbidding still knocked both women from their feet.

But these were no novice fighters. Shanvah never lost control of her tumble, landing in a crouch and coming right back in. Renna was less graceful, but with her night strength she caught herself quickly and was ready before the demon could reform.

The mimic demon was not to be underestimated. Brute bodyguards of the minds, they were also captains of the coreling forces, with intelligence beyond that of simple drones. Already, Arlen could sense it calling for reinforcements. All the drones close by were dead or insane, but soon the mimic’s call would carry to those beyond the reach of the minds’ psychic screams. They could not rise inside the warded tomb, but the tunnel outside would soon be thick with scale and claw.

Arlen looked back to Jardir, locked in his struggle with the mind, and knew where his priority must lie.

“Kill the mimic!” he shouted to Renna and Shanvah. “Ware reinforcements!”

And with that, he turned from the women and launched himself into battle with the mind.

Renna and Shanvah struck as one, Renna’s knife stabbing into the reformed mimic’s chest even as Shanvah struck it in the back.

Neither blow hit home. The demon’s flesh melted away from the warded weapons as wax from a flame. Shanvah’s speartip passed within inches of Renna’s face as her thrust overbalanced.

“Guard the door!” Renna shouted. “I’ll deal with this!” The demon struck at her, but her mimic wards flared, and its huge talons only knocked her back instead of cutting her in half.

Shanvah looked at her doubtfully, but nodded, running to the doorway and readying her bow.

Renna drew a mimic ward in the air as Arlen had taught her, drawing hard on the magic of Anoch Sun to power the symbol. The demon was thrown into the far wall, and again the ceiling shook. She tried to draw others, trapping it, but the mimic’s claws sank into the wall, pulling free a great sandstone block and hurling it at her. Renna flung herself to the side, but she wasn’t fast enough and felt the stone clip her shoulder, spinning her to the ground. Her head struck the stone floor and she saw a flash of light.

It took only seconds for her to recover, Drawing magic to heal the damage and clear her senses, but the demon had already pulled another stone free, heedless of the impending collapse of the tomb, and would have crushed her if not for Shanvah. Her first arrow took it in the arm, causing it to drop the stone. The second took it in the face, the wards sending streaks of killing magic through its body. The demon shrieked before melting away. The arrow hung in the air a moment before dropping to the ground even as the coreling reformed.

It grabbed a third stone to hurl at Shanvah, but Renna threw her knife, skewing its aim. The stone exploded off the door frame, and Shanvah was able to throw up her shield in time. Before the mimic could recover, Renna was in close, punching and kicking with warded fists and feet. Some of the blows landed hard, and she felt a touch of the demon’s power leach into her, but others met only mist, and while the demon could not touch her skin, the impact of its return blows against her wards was not easily shrugged off.

A glance at Shanvah saw the woman pressed as well. She was firing rapidly down the corridor leading to the tomb entrance, and Renna could hear the shrieks of the sand demons struggling to answer the mimic’s call.

Arlen watched as Jardir and the mind demon writhed in the demon shit covering the tomb floor. Jardir had managed to get behind it, the Spear of Kaji held crosswise under its chin, pulling back its bulbous head as it hissed and gasped. Its flesh sizzled and smoked where the shaft of the spear touched it.

Seeing that Jardir held it prone, Arlen paused a moment to Know his foe before attacking. While it remained distracted, he pulled a touch of magic through the coreling prince and tried to absorb it into himself, reading for weaknesses.

But the mind was wise to the trick, and even amidst its struggle with Jardir, it caught the magic Arlen Drew and held it fast, revealing nothing.

And then the mind began to swell, soft skin toughening and growing sharp, spiny ridges. The minds were not changelings like their bodyguards, but while they might consider physical conflict beneath them, they were not helpless.

Nearly seven feet tall now, the mind demon struggled to its feet, lifting Jardir clear off the floor. It was unable to flee or call for help so long as Jardir maintained the field, but the other powers of the crown were denied him while he did, and he could not bring the point of the spear to bear lest he kill the foe and all this be for naught.

Arlen came in fast before Jardir lost the advantage, punching the demon repeatedly in the ribs and face. It was like striking a wall. He felt the coreling’s bones crack under his warded fists, but even with his inhuman speed, he knew they were already knitting together before he could pull back for another blow.

The demon leapt back, smashing Jardir against the wall and driving its sharp spines deeply into him. Jardir grunted but held on as it took a step forward, that it might smash backward again.

Arlen gave it no chance, kicking hard at its knee and collapsing the limb. It dropped to one knee, trying to pull at the choking spear, but the wards kept its talons from gaining purchase. Again and again Arlen hammered at the bulbous head, giving the demon no chance to counterattack.

But then suddenly the demon shrank, smaller even than it had been in the beginning. It slipped from the loosened hold and drew a quick ward that burst the stones at their feet, knocking Arlen and Jardir onto their backs.

The Crown of Kaji slipped askew in the tumble, and in that instant, the demon dematerialized and attempted to flee.

But Arlen had worked too long and hard for this moment, and had no intention of letting it go. Instantly he dissolved and gave chase. He had faced demons in the immaterial between-state before, and knew battle there was more a matter of will than power. Three minds had proven his undoing, but he was confident in his strength against one. With all humanity at stake, there was no way the demon’s will could match his.

The tomb was warded, and the cut-stone blocks of the floor offered no paths to the Core. The demon raced for the entryway where Shanvah worked her bow, desperately trying to hold back an assault from demons fighting to answer the call of the mimic, vibrating in the air.

Arlen caught it before it could cross the room, mingling his essence with its, locking on as he forced his will upon the creature.

But this mind was like nothing he had ever faced. Even the three he fought at once had not breached his defenses as effortlessly as this one did, slipping into his mind as easily as a man might pull on an old pair of boots. As he had done instinctively in his first confrontation with a mind, Arlen let go his own defenses as lost, striking hard against the mind’s own thoughts, hoping to find a weakness, but he might as well have tried to run through the great wall of Fort Krasia. The mind’s thoughts were impenetrable even as it raked through his own memories—his very being—with ease.

Had he a voice, Arlen would have screamed.

It was Jardir who saved him. In the moment Arlen delayed the demon’s escape he had reestablished the barrier, and now he raised the Spear of Kaji, firing a lightning strike into the cloud of mist that was the struggling combatants. Whether he had sensed Arlen’s lost advantage and had chosen to risk killing them both—or he simply did not care—was unclear, but the surge of agony through them both broke the demon’s hold for an instant, and Arlen quickly solidified, dropping heavily to the floor, his mind wards back in place.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Not for the first time, his overconfidence had almost proven his undoing. He would be a fool to match wills with this one again. They would have to find another way.

Jardir moved to his side, but did not offer a hand as Arlen struggled to his feet, never taking his eyes off the glowing mist of the mind demon, floating just out of reach at the edge of the barrier. In its immaterial state, the demon could not draw wards, or do anything to harm them. It drifted along the edge of the forbidding, seeking a gap it could exploit to escape. Across the room, Renna and Shanvah fought for their lives, but they dare not take their attention from the mind, even for a moment.

“What do we do, Par’chin?” Jardir asked. “We cannot wait like this forever.”

“No,” Arlen said, “but we can wait a lot longer than it can.” He moved to the wall, pulling aside the heavy stone that lead to their secret tunnel to the surface. “Drag it up with us. Sunrise’ll be soon enough.”

But with those words, the demon solidified and attacked.

Renna was hurled into the wall again, the breath blasted from her body. She pushed off hard, dropping back onto her hand even as the lid of Kaji’s sarcophagus, hundreds of pounds of stone, smashed against the wall where she had just been.

In an instant she was back up, punching and kicking, striking with elbows and knees, hammering at the demon. She could see its magic drain slightly each time it healed, but it was no different for her. One of them would exhaust its supply first, but it was anyone’s guess who it would be.

The mimic remained solid, gripping a large piece of the shattered lid in its talons, slashing with it like a blade. Renna dodged one blow, but it caught her on the recoil, breaking her jaw and shattering teeth.

She rolled with the blow, ignoring the pain, knowing that to lose focus was to die. She was drawing heat and impact wards even as she hit the ground, and the remaining stone exploded in the demon’s face before it could strike her again.

The drain dizzied her, but she Drew hard on the magic beneath her, flooding herself with more power. So much it burned her from the inside, drying her throat and sinuses. She put all of it into a mimic ward that threw the demon into the wall so hard it shattered a pillar and part of the ceiling collapsed atop it. Crushed, black ichor squirted from the debris, but it flowed with purpose, and Renna knew it would soon reform. She choked on dust, her dried eyes stinging. Night, was there no killing this creature?

She glanced at Arlen and Jardir, still locked in battle with the mind, and Shanvah, battling with spear and shield to hold the door, and knew it was up to her to hold the line. The mimic could tip the balance if she let it, destroying all their hopes.

She drew a magnetic ward, and her knife, lying amidst the rubble, flew to her hand. A tentacle formed from the mass of black slime pooling on the floor, and she caught it, cutting the limb free. It was melting even as she threw it aside, turning back into a lifeless black stain. It could heal, but it could not regrow flesh she cut away.

If need be, she would take the demon apart a piece at a time.

The demon knew it, too, and the puddle fled her, running up the wall to gather on the ceiling. Renna leapt high to stab at it, but there was nothing vital to target, nothing to cut off. The gelatinous lump flowed away from the blade, growing another tentacle that slapped her down from behind.

It only took her a second to reorient, but the demon, fully formed once more, dropped down from above. Her blackstem wards were weak, her flesh coated in ancient dust, stuck to the oily blood and sweat that covered her in a sheen. It grabbed at her with two great claws and she caught its wrists, but even as she strained to hold the creature back, its wrists stretched, talons closing about her throat, crushing.

Renna kicked hard, but the demon had her now, and accepted the blows, its grip only tightening. Her face swelled, head throbbing as she desperately tried to draw breath that would not come. She watched as the demon’s great maw opened wider and wider, growing row after row of teeth. She twisted and put her heel into them, shattering a handful even as she tore open her foot. Unlike hers, the demon’s teeth grew back even as her vision began to go black.

She had to get away. Had to escape. She pulled uselessly at the demon’s arms, but they were harder than steel. She tried to draw wards, but it grew tentacles to slap at her hands, preventing her from forming the precise symbols. She tried to shift its weight, but it had driven talons into the floor, holding fast.

Her vision was gone when she felt its teeth sink into her, but she had no voice to scream.

Jardir had not dropped his guard and had his spear at the ready when the demon solidified, but instead of dropping down into their midst, the
alagai
prince hovered in midair as if standing on solid ground. It extended a single talon, drawing complex wards in the air as easily as Jardir, who approved hundreds of documents a day, might sign his name.

The effect was immediate. Jardir had the spear ready to absorb a blast of killing magic, but he was unprepared as the sandstone floor beneath him turned to mud and he slipped under with a wet sucking sound.

Jardir stifled his gasp before he swallowed a lungful of muck, flailing to find purchase. The tip of his spear scraped stone, telling him it was only a local effect, but his attempts to reach the edge failed. Like most Krasians, Jardir had never learned to swim.

There was no knowing what was happening above, but Jardir knew the Par’chin’s life, and that of all the Ala, depended on him maintaining the trap. He embraced his fear, concentrating on the crown’s forbidding, keeping the demon trapped.