Damien dodged easily enough, but like Sloan’s attack earlier the fire twisted and pursued him.
This time Damien was ready. He spun away, conjured a golden sword, and severed the stream of fire from the demon’s power. The hellfire behind him flared and vanished.
It worked, excellent. He fired a pair of golden blasts at Mikhail’s chest.
The Black Knight didn’t bother trying to dodge or deflect. The blasts hit his breastplate and fizzled. “Is that the best you can do?”
Damien frowned. He hadn’t put much power into the blast, but he’d hoped to at least dent the armor.
Mikhail leveled the sword again. This time he drew a huge amount of demonic energy. “Burn away to nothing, worm.”
A river of hellfire poured from the tip of Mikhail’s sword. More power than the demon Damien killed had possessed in its whole body screamed toward him.
Damien drew deep from his core and raised a shield. He angled it to deflect the blast rather than take it full on.
Black fire hit golden shield. Cracks spread all over in his construct as the corrupt power ate away at it. Damien drew more power and repaired the damage.
Still the river of flames came on, no end in sight.
Damien poured more power into his shield, his vast reserve of soul force draining in a hurry. He had to hold on. If he failed, twenty-four women and children would stand defenseless before this monster of a man.
When only a small fraction of his power remained, the river dried up. Damien reabsorbed the meager energy remaining in his shield. Before him Mikhail’s sword trembled in his hand. He’d used the bulk of his power with that attack.
Maybe Damien had a chance.
“Impossible!” Mikhail screamed in nearly inarticulate rage. “That should have reduced a worm like you to nothing.”
Damien shrugged and began conjuring a pair of invisible swords behind Mikhail. If he could keep the idiot merchant distracted maybe he could take him by surprise. “It was an impressive attack from a halfwit greengrocer. I didn’t think you could manage it.”
“Greengrocer!” Mikhail shrieked.
That hit a nerve.
“I am Sir Darkness, right hand to the mightiest warlock in the land, Connor Blackman.”
Blackman! This fool worked for the missing sorcerer? That must be who opened the hell gate in Port Valcane and gave Mikhail his demon armor. He probably put the hellfire wards in the bandits’ heads too. No way this clown had the skill to do such fine conjuring.
Damien needed to end this and report back. The archmage had to know Connor Blackman had become a warlock and was behind the attack on the barons.
Damien’s invisible swords struck Mikhail in the back. Armor screamed in protest as the soul force blades cut it open. Black fire burst from the rent in Mikhail’s armor, shattering Damien’s swords before they could pierce flesh.
The demon horse’s mouth hung open and with Damien’s enhanced sight it was clear the idiot had drained the beast almost dry. If Mikhail had possessed a fraction of Sloan’s skill combined with the demon’s raw power… Best not to think about it.
“You’ve proven a formidable opponent.” Mikhail turned his gaze to the former prisoners huddling under his shield. “I wonder if the other worms will prove as durable.”
Damien raced for the ground at full speed. Hellfire spewed from Mikhail’s sword. A stream of soul force shot from Damien’s hand, striking and reinforcing his barrier.
Black flames hit a moment later. Palm trees withered and turned to ash. The dirt blackened as the dark flames consumed every shred of life in them.
When the onslaught ended, his shield, cracked and wavering, still stood. The people inside remained unharmed.
Damien needed to end this. Now.
He absorbed and reshaped the shield into a focused blast, augmenting it with most of his remaining power. The golden lightning bolt streaked up at Mikhail.
It struck the side of the demon horse’s head, burning off an ear and exposing its skull. An instant later it struck Mikhail in the shoulder. His armor gave way before the assault.
Mikhail roared in pain.
An armor-covered left arm came crashing to earth.
Damien crafted the last of his power into a crackling javelin and held it ready to throw.
The Black Knight snarled at him. “This is your lucky day, worm. We’ll finish our battle another time.”
Mikhail kicked the demon horse in the ribs and flew north, back into the kingdom. Damien waited until he was well out of sight before he collapsed to his knees. The javelin vanished when he absorbed the energy to refill a tiny portion of his depleted core.
As first missions went this one was turning out to be a doozie.
A gentle hand settled on his shoulder. Damien looked up into the concerned eyes of the Baroness Trasker.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
Damien sighed. He needed to rest and burn away the corrupted arm and armor Mikhail left behind before he flew the baronesses and their children home. “Sure. Just give me a few minutes to catch my breath and I’ll get you people out of here.”
Chapter 46
Lane squinted into the bright noon sky. On either side of her the nine barons did the same. Five minutes ago one of the guards, a loyal one, they’d left on watch had come running into the dining hall shouting about something in the sky flying their way from out of the badlands.
Everyone had rushed into the courtyard then up on the southern wall. Either Damien was returning or he’d failed and the Bandit King was coming to exact his revenge for the barons’ failure to live up to their agreement.
When the object got close enough Lane recognized it as a golden sphere. It had to be Damien. A warlock’s power would be darker. Some of the tension went out of her.
He’d survived. When one day passed, then another, she’d feared the worst for her young bodyguard.
The sphere passed over the wall and Lane realized it was bigger than she’d thought. It settled in the
