The Trouble with Demons (21 page)

“And don’t piss him off,”
Tam just had to add.

I was about to ask how the hell they expected me to do one without the other when I saw them out of the corner of my eye. One moment they were at the weapon cabinet, the next they’d literally blended into the woodwork. Vegard had likewise vanished. I’d seen Mychael and Vegard do it before, but it didn’t make it any less spooky. I knew they weren’t gone, at least not yet. It was an illusion that would enable them to move along the wall until they reached the door on the far side of the room. I imagine Tam had all kinds of hidden exits. And armed as they were, I knew where they were going. Downstairs. The three of them against a horde of undead warriors. Warriors who were waiting on the bobbing head in front of me to give them the signal.

And I had to keep him distracted. Wonderful.

“My mistress seeks the Scythe of Nen. She says that you know of its resting place.”

“She heard wrong. Not only do I not know where it is, I don’t know
what
it is. If you could tell me—”

“Dost thou call my lady and queen a liar?”

Way to go, Raine. “Not at all. She’s merely misinformed. Happens to the best of us.”

“You refuse to assist my queen?”

In my career, I’ve had some lowlifes try to hire me, but Hell set a new record for low.

“Not refuse,” I clarified. “I’m merely unqualified to be of assistance—seeing that I don’t know
what
this Scythe of Nen is, I can’t possibly know
where
it is. If you would tell me what—”

“She said you would respond thus.”

“Your lady is as wise as she is... uh...”

“Demonic?” Talon said helpfully.

Those red eyes fixed on him and the kid yelped. “I meant that in the most respectful and honorable and... and... Oh shit, I’m so dead.”

The red flickering in the head’s eyes dimmed and the ruined face actually managed to look like it was listening to a voice we couldn’t hear. I had a sinking feeling I knew who he was talking to.

The eyes flared, enraged. “My lady says that it is you who are the liar. You
will
bring it to her.”

I was losing what little patience I’d managed to scrounge up. Every second I stood here talking to an arrogant, floating head put Piaras that much more out of my reach. “Perhaps if you would tell me what it was, I could—”

“You insult our lady with your denial. She would question you herself.”

“My schedule’s a little full just now, but I’m sure we can set something up for next week when—”

“She would question you in person—and she will question you
now
.” The lips spread in a smile, and more flakes fell off. Talon made a strangled sound.

I’d had enough. Apparently I couldn’t talk to anyone—living, dead, or undead—without pissing them off. “I got that invite from her purple sidekick this morning,” I shot back. “I told him no by stuffing him in a bottle. There’s a full bar downstairs; maybe we can find something to fit you—if there’s anything small enough.”

The red in the center of his eyes spread until what had been milk white was blood-red. “Disrespect like that shall not go unpunished. My men and I are here to take you to where our lady waits.”

I helped myself to one of Tam’s blades on a stick. “Come and get me, shorty.”

And he did, straight through the glass wall as if it weren’t there. Apparently being undead lets you do all kinds of nifty tricks. Like move entirely too fast for a disembodied head. Not only was the head in the room with us, he’d brought his mist with him, mist that froze anything it came in contact with.

Like my leg. One swooping pass barely brushed me and I couldn’t feel anything below my knee. It was all I could do to stay on my feet.

“Your queen won’t like it if I’m frozen solid,” I managed through pain-clenched teeth. “I can’t exactly chat with her that way.”

“You will thaw quickly where we’re going.”

Oh yeah, that would be Hell.

Phaelan came up directly under the head and impaled it on his sword. At least that was his plan. The head darted away, leaving Phaelan’s blade sticking into thin air, and my cousin completely creeped out.

I considered a fireball, but I didn’t think Tam would appreciate a fire in his nightclub.

The head swooped at Talon, the kid dove and rolled, and I swung the pike like a club, sinking the blade into the back of the thing’s armored head.

And my blade got stuck.

Part of me thought this was progress; my blade was in the head. That was good. The other part wanted to drop the pike the blade was attached to and run. Some things were just too gruesome to stick around for.

Phaelan lunged again, and the head whipped around, jerking me with it. If I hadn’t had a death grip on that pole, the thing would have flung me across the room. As it was, I had a head on a blade on a stick that was dragging me around Tam’s living room like a rag doll. Phaelan was darting and weaving looking for an opening, and Talon was jumping around with no idea what to do.

“Grab Raine!” Phaelan yelled to Talon.

The kid stopped jumping around. “What?”

“Grab her! Keep that thing from moving!”

I saw where he was going with this. Goblin teenager as anchor. Talon wasn’t that big. The only thing him grabbing me was going to do was get him flung around with me—or get his ass kicked if he “accidentally” grabbed me the wrong way.

Talon grinned at me. I glared at him.

The kid got the message and grabbed me around the waist. He was heavier than I thought, and stronger. The head was still for only an instant, but Phaelan was fast.

He brought his blade up in a slashing arc and severed the thing’s ear, which fell with a wet plop to the floor. Black goo oozed and dripped out of the ear and the hole that was left in the head. Talon made a strangled sound. Phaelan followed his slash with a straight stab right between its eyes. More goo, also black.

Talon’s grip on me turned to jelly and I actually felt the kid’s skin go clammy.

“Not feeling good,” he managed before fainting and dragging me down with him, his full weight landing on top of me.

A noxious vapor came from inside the helmet, and when it cleared, the helmet and head were gone.

I pulled in enough air to speak. “Get him off me,” I gasped.

Phaelan looked down at us and grinned. “The kid’s really gonna hate that he was unconscious for this.”

I scowled up at my cousin. “Move. Him.”

Phaelan dragged Talon off of me and tossed the kid like a limp doll across one shoulder.

We went downstairs—and saw a pair of masters at work. They didn’t look like they needed our help or anyone else’s.

Mychael and Tam were working as a team to take on the undead horde, with Vegard taking out any stragglers. They were doing a fine, workmanlike job. The phantoms could turn back into mist and rematerialize to fight again—that is if the glowing blades didn’t get them first. Anything their blades put down didn’t get back up.

I saw why Mychael was commander of the most elite magical fighting force in the seven kingdoms. I didn’t impress easily. But damn.

Mychael and his blades glowed with a white light that blazed so brightly I couldn’t look directly at him for more than a few seconds at a time. His blades sliced through and felled corporeal warriors, and the slightest touch of his light turned phantoms to harmless mist that sank back through the floorboards. Some turned to mist but retained their shape, their mouths moving in silent cries as they sank back through the floor. The phantoms were desperate to keep that light from touching them, but getting away from Mychael put them squarely in Tam’s range. Tam’s hands, blades, and entire body glowed red. What few attacks that made it past his blades to him glanced off in a shower of fiery sparks. They couldn’t kill Tam, but Tam was decreasing their numbers with every spin of his weapon.

Soon there wasn’t anything left of the demon queen’s undead horde except more black goo that Tam was going to have a heck of a time getting out of his theatre floor.

Phaelan carried Talon over to the bar and laid him out on it. Tam was there in an instant, checking his son for signs of life.

“What happened?” His dark eyes reflected concern, relief, and rage all at the same time.

Talon groaned and started to stir.

“He’s fine,” I assured Tam.

The kid tried to sit up, weaving unsteadily. “Did I faint?”

“Yeah, you did,” I told him.

“I don’t normally have a problem with blood.”

“That’s okay; it wasn’t the normal color.”

Talon swallowed and looked like he might be sick. “That must have been it.”

Phaelan tried to muffle a grin and failed miserably. “Next time I’m about to kill something that bleeds black, I’ll warn you.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

Vegard was poking the floorboards with his boot. I guess he was making sure nothing else was coming up through it. “You’re borrowing buckets of trouble today, ma’am.”

“I don’t have to borrow anymore; I’ve got plenty of my own, and so does Piaras.” I checked the blades strapped across my back. “Now let’s go get him.”

 

 

Outside Sirens, it wasn’t completely dark yet, but it was close. I
guess when you’ve either been in a tunnel or a theatre for most of the day, dark happens.

A couple of city workers were lighting the streetlights; though on an island of mages, they didn’t use fire on a long pole—a whispered word and gesture got the job done just fine.

Phaelan looked around. “Time flies when you’re not having fun.”

Tam wasn’t with us. He was staying with Talon. I think the kid’s dating urges were gone—at least for an hour or two. When we’d been locked in Sirens, Tam’s dark mage buddies had been locked out. When the last of the undead was sent back to where they came from, the doors and windows unsealed themselves, and Tam had all the dark mage backup he and Talon would need in the unlikely event the demon queen’s minions put in a second appearance. Since I was leaving, I should be taking my trouble with me.

“Elven embassy or Balmorlan’s yacht?” I asked Mychael.

Those were the two most likely places Jari Devent and the impostor Guardians would take Piaras. Balmorlan could be using a less obvious, temporary prison, but I was betting he’d go for quick over creative. I was a seeker; I could find Piaras, and I was going to, but it always helped to know the most likely direction.

“They’re headed for the embassy,” Mychael said. “Jari has four Guardian impostors with him. Sedge and I have the city covered with patrols, and they’ll know those men aren’t Guardians. Jari wants to get out of sight as soon as he can.”

I felt my lips tighten into a thin line. “Meaning they already have Piaras knocked out, tied up, and carried off.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t need to. What’s between the
Fortune
and the embassy?”

“Conclave government buildings.”

I snorted. “Now conveniently empty for the night. And if someone is working late, they wouldn’t think twice about Guardians apprehending an unruly student outside their window.”

“Unfortunately no.”

“Can you track him?” Phaelan asked me.

“I can find him, but I have to be out in front,” I told Mychael.

Mychael didn’t like it, but he didn’t have to. For me to find Piaras, that was how it had to be. Mychael was still virtually glowing from battling those phantoms. With interference from magic that powerful, I couldn’t find my way out of a ripped fishnet, much less locate one abducted spellsinger.

When Balmorlan had Piaras kidnapped before, I’d been able to use my seeking skills to track him right to the elven embassy’s front gates. I hadn’t had an object then from Piaras to track him by, and I didn’t need anything now. He wasn’t related to me by blood, but that didn’t stop me from loving him like a brother. Family knew their own, no tracking objects required. Conscious or unconscious, it didn’t make any difference. I’d known Piaras since he was about eight years old, long enough that my seeker self wouldn’t even have to break a sweat.

“I’ll alert Sedge and my patrols on this side of the city,” Mychael said.

I nodded and watched for a moment as Mychael’s gaze became distant. He almost instantly made contact. Show off.

I quickly crossed the street and stepped out of the lamplight into the shadows next to a building, resting my back against the rough brick. I didn’t sense any magic users inside to get in my way. Good. The less talents between me and Piaras, the better. I closed my eyes and tried to relax, breathing deeply. Breathing I could do, relaxing took a few minutes that Piaras didn’t have. I shoved that thought aside. When I’d calmed myself enough to work, I focused my will on an image of Piaras in my mind until it was almost real enough to touch. Then I reached out, down the streets, around the buildings, seeking, searching, methodically eliminating options.

Until I found him.

He was alive, he was conscious, and he was not a prisoner. But he was definitely afraid, though not of the men surrounding him.

Piaras was scared to death of what he was about to do.

I clenched my teeth against the flutter of panic in my own chest. I took one deep breath, in through my nose and slowly out through my mouth, repeating it until I had the calm, cool center I had to have to track him. Emotion was my worst enemy right now, not the men I could sense about to move on Piaras, not Taltek Balmorlan, or even Sarad Nukpana. Only I could screw this up.

I opened my eyes. Mychael was standing in the street, directly in front of me, but about a dozen feet away, giving me my space. “You have him?”

“I do.” I described what I saw in my mind’s eye. “White marble buildings on either side of the street, no windows on the bottom floors. Street’s wide enough for two carriages; the cobbles are smooth. I smell . . .” My brow creased in confusion. No, that couldn’t be right. I closed my eyes. Those two smells shouldn’t go together. “It’s something sweet, almost like perfume; but there’s this burnt-fat stench.”