We were on a knife edge. If we were too slow, and my uncle managed to complete the sacrifice, the strength of my army wouldn’t matter. Nothing would matter very much at all. The Demogorgon would be permanently materialized in this realm, and that would be the end of it. As powerful as I was now, I was still no match for a demon of the Ancient World. Any battle against the creature and my uncle’s forces—whose strength would be exponentially magnified by the presence of the Demogorgon—would be hopeless.
“Mur told us the fortress is a two-day march,” I said, “but if we rode really hard, without stopping, we could get there in a couple of hours.”
“That would kill my horse,” Friya said. “And any other horse, for that matter. It’s impossible.”
I grinned. “Look behind you, ladies! There are plenty of mounts who don’t need to rest, don’t get tired, and can’t die unless they get pulverized by a fucking Frost Giant’s club! Take your pick; you can ride a skeletal horse, an undead direwolf, or a zombie war-spider. I’m on Fang, who doesn’t get tired either. We can leave right now at a gallop and maintain that pace until we get to Lucielle’s fortress in a few hours.”
“What if we ride into an ambush by Rodrick’s forces?” Friya asked. “Your army will be almost two days away. Even with our magical powers, I can’t imagine we’d be able to hold up for that long against overwhelming odds.”
“It’s a risk we have to take. If it happens, at least we go down fighting my uncle with everything we have, and hell, maybe we can even stop the sacrifice, even if we’re all killed in the process. It would be worth it. And if we wait, and the sacrifice does take place, none of this will matter. We’ll all be dead anyway.”
My reasoning left Frya convinced.
I summoned the rest of my party and explained the plan. Elyse, who after all this time was still creeped out by my undead creatures, was the most reluctant, but eventually, I convinced her to ride one of the direwolves, who didn’t look quite as zombie-like as the others. Friya also decided to ride an undead direwolf; Isu, Rami-Xayon, and Drok each chose a war-spider; and Anna picked a skeletal horse. As for Rollar, I left him in command of the army, to rendezvous with us in two days. Hopefully, we’d still be alive at that time, and Rollar wouldn’t arrive at Lucielle’s fortress and find only ground man meat and prize cuts of god brawn.
“All right, everyone ready?” I asked.
They cheered.
“Let’s ride! Full gallop until we get there!”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
As we set off, I launched my undead harpy into flight, connecting my mind and spirit to it so that I could catch bird’s-eye glimpses of the terrain ahead. Fang, meanwhile, took off like a loosed arrow from a longbow. I had become accustomed to the swaying motion when he ran, but anyone else would have been puking down the side of his neck already.
Behind me, the others kept the blistering pace I was setting. As the miles streamed by beneath the feet of our mounts, we began to see signs of abandoned human settlements. I hoped the villagers had fled, because otherwise, I was sure they had been taken by my uncle. He was leaving a serious trail of death and destruction in his wake. If all these were sacrifices to the Blood God, I wasn’t looking forward to finding out firsthand how much his powers had increased. I was hoping to snatch another skill or two from the gray tree myself before I faced my uncle, if I had the time. The only thing I could really afford to focus on was getting to Lucielle’s fortress as quickly as possible.
We galloped through fields, down into valleys, up and over hills, and charged through fast-flowing, icy rivers. All the while, the sun kept creeping toward the mountain tops in the distance. I kept Talon flying about a mile ahead of us so that I could spot any traps my uncle might have set for us through its eyes.
Finally, soon after the harpy gave me a heads-up, the entire party caught sight of Lucielle’s fortress. It was a mere smudge of white on the horizon, but I could feel my uncle’s power emanating from the place. The closer we neared, the more I sensed the crowded presence of Death.
What if we were too late? What if Lucielle was already dead, and the Demogorgon unleashed on the world?
If that was the case, I’d just have to throw every ounce of my power up against the Demogorgon and my uncle. I might not be able to take them out completely, but I sure as fuck could hurt them badly.
As we galloped across the grassy meadows around Lucielle’s fortress, the castle came into clearer focus. It must have once been a magnificent sight to behold, all blazing white walls, tall turrets, and soaring spires with colorful pennants fluttering in the chilly breeze. But even from a couple of miles away, we could see the place was in ruins. Half of the towers had collapsed, destroyed by siege engines, and the walls around the fortress had been turned into piles of rubble. We were too late to save the fortress, but were we too late to save Lucielle?
Anna galloped up next to me. Her beautiful face was a mess of worry and anxiety.
“Something terrible is happening to Lucielle, Vance,” she exclaimed, her eyes rimmed with tears. “I can feel it, I can just feel it! I think that… that we’re too late.”
“Just keep your calm, Anna,” I yelled, the rush of the wind against our racing bodies taking some of the
