“Hyden?” the thing said in a voice so big and deep that it shook the walls of the castle.
“What have you become?” Hyden asked, as he fought to stay on his feet.
The recognition in Gerard’s eyes was fleeting. The voices and thoughts of too many powerful entities were swirling around his brain. The minute part of him that was still human could find no purchase to grasp hold of.
“I am the Warlord now,” Gerard boomed. He stepped forward, moving his gaze from Hyden to the depths of the black hole beside him. “I am the Master of Hell and Earth,” he called down into the Nethers. “Come, my pets, relish the freedom you have been denied.”
A huge black thing with a buzzard’s head and wide leathery wings crawled out of the darkness and leapt into flight. Behind it, a trio of hellcats shot straight up into the air. They were followed by another winged creature that might have been part insect.
“No!” Hyden yelled as he charged across the few feet that separated them.
Shaella sent a spiraling strand of yellow force streaking out at him. It wrapped around Hyden and squeezed him tightly in place. If she’d let the force go, he would have fallen into a heap. He didn’t have the strength to struggle. Instead, he said a prayer to the White Goddess to help him find the chance, and the strength, he needed to do what she had told him must be done.
Phen had the last word of his casting on the tip of his tongue, but held it in his mouth. He could see what Hyden intended to do now. He whirled and looked back to see King Mikahl kicking and crawling out of the tangle he was in. Relief flowed over him. He hadn’t been sure if the vicious blow had killed the High King or not. His attention was pulled back to the scene before him as the buzz of a few dozen sheep-sized insects came skittering out of the hole like swarming ants. Fear swam through his veins as two of them started toward him. They looked like giant roaches, or water beetles, with sharp pincers extending from the sides of their clacking beak-like mouths.
Phen could cast a spell against them, but he would lose the one he needed to destroy the Silver Skull. As one of them darted forward to attack, indecision froze him. Out of nowhere, Spike leapt onto the creature’s swiveling head and started clawing and tearing at its red glowing eyes. As the thing behind it started forward, another lyna came leaping out of the shadows, then another, and another. Before long, the two demon bugs were in a frenzied battle with a half dozen of the small quilled felines.
“Hyden Hawk,” Mikahl yelled from just behind Phen.
“Let him be,” Phen warned. “Kill the Dragon Queen. Hyden knows what he’s about.”
Phen couldn’t believe that he’d just ordered the High King like he was a kitchen maid. Then again, he couldn’t believe he was standing before a gateway to the Nethers, surrounded by all sorts of terrible creatures. He had forgotten completely that he was invisible. It seemed that all of the demon-kind could see him plainly, and things weren’t looking good.
Mikahl slashed his way through the battling insects, swinging Ironspike around to force them back. The lyna of took full advantage of their fear of the sword’s power and soon had the bugs fleeing over the walls of the bailey garden or up onto the balcony of Shaella’s bedchamber.
Gerard roared and sent a sizzling purple blast at Mikahl as he came up behind Shaella. Mikahl sent a white hot raging streak to meet the demon magic. The two channels of power collided in a blinding explosion and hung there. Mikahl’s magic wasn’t as strong as the Lord of the Hells’, and the surging purple ray moved back toward him swiftly. Using all his will and rage Mikahl fought against it, but it was no use. Already the tip of his sword was turning from its bright white radiance to a dull amber. The Abbadon was draining the power out of it. Mikahl fell to his knees, trying to avoid the tainted magic. He glanced at Hyden, who was still trapped in Shaella’s eldritch rope. He didn’t know what to do. Nearly the whole length of Ironspike’s blade was coated with viscous amber goo. A deathly icy feeling was creeping into the hilt now, and he could feel it reaching into his hand, and up his arm.
Suddenly, Talon’s ear shattering shriek split the night. It was so loud and fierce that even Gerard looked up into the sky.
Like a streaking shadow, the hawkling swooped. Raking claws shot across Shaella’s face. She had no choice but to let go of the hold she had on Hyden as she clutched, screaming, at her ruined eyes.
Hyden felt the magical force let go of him and gave a roar of his own. He stumbled, then charged, leaping onto the thing that had once been his brother. His presence caused the creature to give up its attack on Mikahl. Hyden took a step up. Using Gerard’s thigh, he leapt onto his neck. Reaching around his brother, he rammed his hand into one of Gerard’s eye sockets with all he had left in him. As he did, Mikahl charged up behind Shaella with three running paces, and with a massive swing of Ironspike’s blade, sent her head tumbling through the air.
Gerard saw the blow with one eye. He saw the blood fountain up out of the stump of Shaella’s neck and pour down her cleavage. He saw her body crumple to its knees and then pitch forward. He even saw the shocked expression on her face as her head hit the lawn. What he didn’t see was the blast from Mikahl’s sword that hit him full in the chest and sent him staggering over backwards into the hole that he’d come out of.
“Jump away, Hyden!” Mikahl screamed to his friend. The beast was falling back into its hell and Mikahl didn’t understand why Hyden was still holding on.
Phen understood, and he cast his spell, calling out the name of the man whose skull the wizard Zorellin had once dipped in molten silver. The three priests screamed in fear and pain as the form of the Silver Skull suddenly began to shrivel and melt away.
Mikahl watched in terror as his friend clung viciously to the back of the raging demon god. For an instant, it looked like the powerful beast was going to catch air with its wings. A clawed hand found the edge of the hole and held on, and again it looked like the thing might pull itself back out of the seal, but first one lyna, then another came streaking across the lawn. The prickly-furred cats attacked Gerard’s gripping claw until it let go.
“No, Spike!” Phen screamed as his familiar went over the edge with Hyden. Just as they fell away, the great whooshing sound of the seal faded, and the hole in the earth cinched closed.
A screaming red-robed priest came charging at Phen, but one of the big hell-born things that escaped the Nethers snatched him up before he got halfway across the bailey. Apparently, King Mikahl, Phen, and Talon all had the same thought at the same time, because all three of them went racing toward the shambled gazebo where Princess Rosa was starting to wake from the spell she’d been under.
Chapter Fifty
“Look,” Commander Escott pointed with a face full of confusion.
“By the gods!” Master Amill muttered. “Is it leaving?”
“Let us hope so,” Escott answered in dismay. “If it is, we can walk right into Lokahna.”
“It might be a trick.”
Just after the sun set, the great bone-club wielding demon turned and started walking north. For days it had vigilantly guarded the bridge. Now it was trudging away.
“I would think that since all of Queen Willa’s troops, the dwarves, and three fourths of our men are converging on Oktin, it’s heading there,” said Master Amill.
“I agree,” commander Escott nodded as he moved away. A moment later he was barking orders across the encampment.
Master Amill made a sending to Queen Willa to warn her of the approaching gargantuan beast.
Escott was smart, Amill decided. The man was ready to take Lokahna with the troops he had. They hadn’t seen any foot soldiers across the river, only a small detachment of Dakaneese archers and cavalry. He really didn’t think he would be needed, other than to tend the wounded. Still, he concentrated his preparations on both attacking spells and those of healing. He could tell that the Dakaneese were as surprised by the beast’s departure as he was. He couldn’t imagine the coming battle to be anything less than a rout, but he wanted to be prepared for anything.
