Gale dodged a heartbeat too late. The claw struck him along the arm. Golden light exploded in his eyes, knocked him backward a step, and nearly blinded him. The demon shrieked louder still and jerked back its clawed hand, now blackened by contact with the protective spell. Gale* stood unscathed, body and soul, by the attack, though the protective aura that surrounded him had dimmed to a soft yellow.
'Gale, the gate!' Jak yelled from behind.
Screaming in pain, the demon pulled itself fully back into the gate. As it retreated, its flesh grew increasingly opaque, its body grew smaller as though the gate was a tunnel over a bowshot long. One of its claws-the unwounded one, Gale noticed-still clutched the edge of the shrinking portal. The demon's arm seemed to stretch for miles, half shadow, half blue flesh. The gate shrank as the demon shrank, diminished with each heartbeat. The demon was pulling the gate closed behind it.
Desperate, Gale slashed crosswise at the demon's exposed hand. The enchanted blade bit through the demonic flesh and severed two long, daw-tipped fingers. They fell to the floor of the abyssal guildhouse and for a nauseating moment squirmed and flopped like thick worms. Gale sensed in his soul rather than heard with his ears the demon shriek as it released the edge of the gate and retreated farther within. Its screams grew more and more distant until they finally tapered off to nothingness and it vanished from sight. The portal stayed open, albeit smaller now, and the demon was gone.
Alive with the colors of home, the swirling gate hung in the drab air. Only as wide as a man's forearm, Gale realized that he and Jak would have to go through one at a time. He turned to the little manJak's wide-eyed gaze went from the demon's fingers to Gale's face. Trickster's hairy toes, Gale! You're not afraid of anything!'
Gale ignored the compliment and indicated the gate. 'You first,' he said. 'Ill lift you through.' Jak began to protest, but C'ue cut him off. 'Ill be right behind you, little man. I can make the jump up by myself. You can't.' He looked into Jak's eyes. 'This could be our only chance out of here. You saw, the demons open and close the gates themselves. It's not a random event. We need to go now.'
After a moment's consideration, Jak nodded and stepped beside him. 'All right. Let's do it.'
Gale gripped him under the armpits and lifted him halfway toward the gate. In one hand Jak held his short sword, with the other he clutched his luckstone.
'Wait, Gale, Yrsillar must know we're here now. What if he and the other shadow demon are waiting on the other side?'
'Then we kill them right there,' Gale grimly averred. 'Don't worry. HI be right behind you.' In truth, Gale hoped the demons were waiting for them. He would welcome the chance to put an end to this.
'All right* Jak said, but didn't sound convinced. Gale lifted the little man toward the portal home. Jak led with his sword.
Before he got Jak fully into the gate, a sudden pressure assaulted his eardrums, like the thickening of the air that occurred before a heavy storm. The sensation affected his equilibrium and he nearly lost his balance.
'Gale?' The tip of Jak's blade already stuck through the gate.
'I feel it,' Gale acknowledged with a grimace..
'Put me down. Hurry,' Jak ordered.
Nodding, Gale set the little man down and tried to get his bearings.
A charge ran through his body. The hair of his arms rose and stood on end. His breath left him. A wave of nausea washed over him and he retched.
'Gale…'
Abruptly and without warning, the sensation vanished.
Jak bent over and held his stomach. His breath came hard. 'What was that?' he asked.
'Don't know,' Gale replied. Intuitively though, he did know. Another gate had been opened, opened by something more powerful than the shadow demon.
He felt a presence manifest. A palpable wave of malice radiated out from behind the closed shrine doors. Hate rained down on him like a sleet storm.
'Gal-' The sheer power of the presence lurking behind the shrine doors choked off Jak's words. Breathing hard, the little man turned to face the shrine. Gale placed a hand on Jak's shoulder and did the same. The doors began to pulse like a heart.
'YrsiUar,' Gale hissed through gritted teeth. The demon's hate seemed so substantial as to be a physical thing, the only physical thing on this plane of emptiness. Gale answered the demon's hate with a rage equally substantial. Here was the cause. Vengeance was at hand. He took a step toward the doors.
Jak clutched his hand, pulled him to a stop, and fairly jumped into his arms. 'Lift me through, Gale,' he said urgently. 'Lift me through!''
Eyes on the pulsing doors of the shrine, Gale made no response. Anger consumed him. He felt no fear. Yrsillar was waiting for him.
Jak gripped Gale's hand in both of his own, 'Erevis!
Gale! Dammit, you can't fight him here. He's strongest here.' Jak shook his arm as though to bring him to his senses. 'Let's go through the gate and fight him on our own plane. Erevis! Don't.'
'You go, little man,' he said, and lifted Jak toward the gate. Gale wanted to fight Yrsillar here.
'What? Waitvwait.' Jak squirmed in his grip like a fish. Gale turned the little man around so they could look into each other's eyes. Gale's resolve must have been evident from his expression, for Jak's protests fell silent. The little man visibly wilted.
'Why, Gale?' he softly asked.
'Because when I kill him here, he's dead for good.' Nothing less could satisfy him now.
Jak said nothing for a moment, merely hung in the air between Gale and the gate home.
'Put me down,' he said at last.
'You don't need to-'
'Put me down, godsdammit,' Jak ordered. 'This is our fight, Gale, not just yours. Those bastards hurt me too.' Jak looked at him meaningfully. Fear had given way to resolve, or resignation. 'I said I'm with you and I am. Put me down.'
Gale did. Both drew blades and turned to the pulsing doors of the shrine.
'He's waiting for us,' Jak observed. 'He thinks it'll make us more afraid.'
Gale started for the doors.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
V›ale strode boldly for the pulsing double doors. The wooden slabs beat faster as he neared, as though in anticipation of his touch. Prom behind the doors he heard only silence, but he could feel Yrsillar's brooding presence. The demon was waiting.
Beside him, Jak's breathing came in fearful gasps.
'Easy,' he said, and reached down-to-pat Jak on the shoulder.
The hpHHng nodded, struggled to get himself under control. 'I'm all right,' he said, though his breathing still came hard.
Cale saw that Jak had sheathed his dagger. He now held his magical short sword in one hand and his holy symbol in the other.
Frightened, the little man had fallen bade on his god for strength. Jak had sheathed a weapon of steel to draw a weapon of faith. Gale envied him.
The felt mask in his pocket brought him small comfort. Perhaps someday faith could be a weapon for him, but for today he would rely only on his steel.
Standing before the doors, he took a breath and kicked them in.
The moment the doors flew open, a wave of terror blew from the shrine like a black wind. Gale's throat constricted and fear threatened to overwhelm him. With great effort of will, he fought down the supernatural terror and stood his ground. It's not real, he told himself, it's only magic.
