"You'll never find her," he said, a hysterical laugh working up his body. "Never. She's too powerful by far. Her kind lives beyond the Alabaster Arch. They ruled this world before even Daemos set foot on it."
"Oh god," I said, a sick feeling working its way up my guts. "Is she one of the people in the murals in the plaza?" There was only one female I could recall with clarity, thanks mostly to the bizarre dream with her in it. "Blonde hair, kind of short, scary as hell?"
His eyes widened. "Yes, yes. That is her. The centuries have not been kind to her mind, but that hasn't diminished her power a bit." A giggle burst from his lips. He stifled it with a hand. "You don't even know the funniest part." He burst into crazed laughter, doubling over. His spawn form withered as he cackled away, thick bands of muscle retreating and his blue skin fading to a pale hue. When his horns detached from his head and clattered on the floor, he abruptly snapped from his bout of hysteria.
"What's so funny?" Elyssa said, taking a step toward him. "Tell me!"
Vadaemos looked up between gasps for breath and said. "You're a Templar and you don't even know. But how could you? She has played us all for fools like the mortal toys we are to her."
Elyssa's jaw tightened. "What don't we know?"
Beck and Fausta exchanged puzzled looks.
Vadaemos narrowed his eyes. His lips curled into a cruel smile. "Daelissa is the Templar Divinity."
Chapter 30
Elyssa's jaw dropped farther than I thought possible for someone who wasn't in a cartoon. Fausta had to grab Beck by the arm as he tried another foolish charge at Vadaemos. A clammy hand closed around my arm and I looked to see Bella, her face slightly less waxy than before.
"I think I have determined the true path from this place," she said in a whisper. "Vadaemos hurriedly marked each exit with an illusion, but the spell he used is of novice quality and the images it casts flicker at times." She nodded toward a passage diagonally behind the huge shaggy form of Yolo, the whatchamacallit. "Watch the green mark there."
I did. A second later, the marks on the passages to either side of it faded and flickered ever so slightly while the mark she indicated held solid.
"You're lying," Elyssa said to Vadaemos. "Why should we believe a thing that comes out of your lying mouth, demon spawn?"
Beck unleashed a torrent of profanities, all the while straining at Fausta's grip on his arm.
I looked back to Bella. "What good does it do to know which one it is? You look on the verge of collapse and Vadaemos has that oversized yak to protect him."
"Let's not forget he can apparently spawn at will," she added.
I furrowed my forehead. "Yeah, exactly. So what does it matter if we know where the right exit is? There's no way in hell we can all get past him."
"I have enough left in me to divert their attention. It should give you time enough to escape."
"You can hardly hold yourself up as it is, Bella."
"As I said, I have enough."
A knot formed in my chest as I realized what she was contemplating. "No. Absolutely not. I won't let you die to save us."
"I am not offering you a choice in the matter."
"Don't you dare." I gripped her by the shoulders.
She smiled a sad little smile. "I've lived a long life Justin. It wasn't an easy life at first, but I eventually found happiness in this little corner of the world. I've done my part. You have a very difficult time ahead of you, and I fully intend to give you every chance to succeed."
"I don't care if you believe me or not, you dim-witted tools," Vadaemos yelled back at Elyssa and the other Templars.
"You must win her back, Justin," Bella said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. "I believe the future depends on it."
A new sound reached my ears as the shouting between Elyssa and Vadaemos reached a lull. Feet shuffled against stone. A whimper echoed.
"Dah nah?" called a querulous little voice.
"Dah nah," replied a ragged infantine voice from the opposite side.
Yolo brayed, the slits of his yellow eyes casting about as he sniffed the air. Vadaemos went absolutely pale.
"No. I waited too long. I should have been—" he leapt atop the shaggy beast's back. "Go, Yolo! Go!"
But the darkness teemed with life, closing in fast. Yolo galloped a few feet before rearing like a crazed horse and yowling as a horde of tiny bodies shambled into range of his glow.
"What the hell are those things?" Beck shouted, the whites of his eyes growing huge.
I opened my backpack and popped the caps off several flares, tossing them into the darkness. As each one landed and illuminated a little more of the cavern, it only deepened my horror. Cherubs waddled everywhere, their shiny black bodies glistening in the flare light. Some of them wailed as the flares landed next to them but the light did absolutely nothing to harm them.
"Why aren't they running?" Fausta asked, drawing her swords. "Why isn't the light killing them?"
"I don't know," I said, my voice trembling. "I've seen them before at Thunder Rock." I glanced at Elyssa. "You were with me when one of those things grabbed me and hauled me away."
"I remember your story," she said. "You made a circle and it kept them out."
"But this time, there's no way out. No arch to go through."
"There will be," said a voice I'd heard sparingly this entire trip. Pokito pushed himself off the ground. He seemed a bit shaky, but otherwise okay.
"There will be?" Beck said. "What, you can make one out of thin air?"
"We need to bring Vadaemos with us," Pokito said, his voice low and determined. "It is part of the plan."
"The plan?" I asked. "Whose blasted plan?"
Vadaemos screamed as another wave of cherubs closed in from his right. The air shimmered azure blue around him as they pressed against his invisible barrier. He strained, both hands held out in front of him until with a loud crackle and blue flash, the barrier collapsed. The concentrated scent of ozone permeated the musty air. Yolo brayed and ran straight for us. We yelled and dove to the sides as the lion-sized beast lumbered into our midst and cowered like a frightened dog.
"Oh my, the poor thing is scared to death," Fausta said, patting Yolo's shaggy head.
He made a tiny little donkey whimper and pressed his shaggy head against her shoulder.
I felt like face-palming in the midst of the pandemonium. We'd run like frightened sheep from a beast with the temperament of a golden retriever.
Vadaemos backed into our tightening circle, stumbling as he approached. The strain of keeping his barrier up had obviously weakened him. The empty space around us was quickly vanishing. What had moments ago been twenty yards of open ground was now down to fifteen. We had no time to lose. I dug in my backpack and tossed a piece of chalk to Elyssa. "Make a circle with me, fast!"
She caught on immediately. We blurred around the group, completing a circle maybe ten yards in diameter. Pokito cut his thumb with a knife and dripped blood on the chalk. Trapped magical energy slammed against my senses the moment the circle snapped shut. Good god, there was a lot of power down here.
I rushed to the small man. "What next? Where's the arch you were talking about?"
"Where's my pack?" he said, fumbling at his waist. "My black pack?"
I looked to Curtis who was groggily coming to and going wide-eyed at the horrors closing in.
"Do you know where Pokito's pack is?" I asked him.
He looked confused for a moment. Shook his head. "Huh? What pack?"
"I don't remember seeing it either," Alejandro said. "I didn't pay attention."
"What kind of pack?" I asked. "A backpack?"
"No, a fanny pack," Beck said. He drew in a breath between clenched teeth. "It was on him when we got to this room. I remember, because it was digging into my shoulder. But it snagged on a chunk of fallen rock and broke the strap." He pointed toward the shadowy outline of a boulder, caught in the flicker of one of the flares I'd thrown.
"Oh no," Pokito said, his eyes widening. "The arch is in my pack."
"An arch?" I asked. "How did you—" I remembered Kassallandra's miniature arch. "You have a portable one, don't you?"
He nodded. "It was part of the plan."
"Whose freaking plan?" I asked, resisting the urge to shake him by the shoulders since he looked ready to hurl his lunch.
"We need my pack."
I stared hopelessly at the mass of cherubs. The first of them reached the circle and pressed against it, their ungainly bodies and huge heads causing them to bounce off and topple backwards screaming and wailing. Fausta covered her ears. Yolo brayed long and mournful.
I gripped Vadaemos. He shoved me off with surprising strength, considering how wimpy his arms looked. "Don't touch me!"
"What are these things?" I asked. "Why are they after us?"
"They crave the light." His eyes were transfixed on the little horrors. "They want what was taken from them so long ago."
"Who took what from them?"
"They were once just like the others until the Nexus was destroyed. Most caught in the wave of destruction were absolutely annihilated. The others were drained and malformed into these—these husks."
"You're talking about Daelissa's people?"
He nodded. "And if they drain you, you'll end up just like the shades."
"The shadow people? That's what happened to them?"
His lip curled into a snarl. "We're all dead. All of us, do you hear!" He gripped me by the collar and stared madly into my eyes. His breath smelled awful, like burnt onions and rotten cabbage. I had a feeling brushing regularly hadn't been one of his fugitive-related activities.