Again and again, Sharum fell to the mimic’s return blows, but they came on fearlessly. This was the sort of death Krasian warriors prayed for, though Rojer could not understand the notion. Kaval leapt forward, and the demon knocked the shield from his grasp. The drillmaster seemed unfazed, spinning his spear faster than Rojer could see as he parried tentacles, buying his warriors time to strike.
But then the demon’s maw grew several times its size, and it bit Drillmaster Kaval in half, swallowing his head and torso before his legs and abdomen even knew to fall.
The sight shocked Rojer from his daze, and he saw Renna still struggling, caught in the grip of several wood demons attempting to carry her off.
They want her alive, he realized.
He was playing before he knew it, stepping out of cover and moving for the fray. He was dimly aware of Amanvah, Sikvah, and Enkido following him as he headed for the edge of the wardnet, but he ignored them, ignored everything but the music as he stepped out into the naked night. He made no effort to mask his presence. Quite the contrary, he drew the attention of every demon in earshot, causing them to lock in on him much as they had on Renna a few moments earlier.
Freeze, he told them. Prey approaches. Be ready to pounce.
They did, talons tearing at the soil as they tamped down powerful limbs, preparing to spring. Even the demons trying to steal away with Renna stopped in their tracks, as he had intended.
Only the mimic demon was unaffected, leaping out of the ring of Sharum and charging at him like a nightmare come to life.
Rojer allowed himself a smile, and filled the night with pain, the lure of his magic turning to harsh discordance that had the demons shrieking and clawing at their own heads. Even the mimic felt it, pulling up short with a bone-chilling cry.
Amanvah and Sikvah added their voices to his power, the three of them reaching new heights of union in their disharmony, hora magic making the screeching sounds pierce the night for miles. Lesser demons fled the sound, but Rojer and his wives circled the mimic, building on its pain. Rojer experimented, learning more of what hurt the creature the longer he played.
The demon writhed in pain, tentacles pressing against its head as it melted and shifted, becoming a roaring rock demon, and then a howling wood. A shrieking wind demon and even a screaming human man. Again and again it changed form, but Rojer and his wives changed their sounds to match, giving no respite. The shifts became erratic, the mimic’s flesh bubbling and sloughing off into a growing puddle of goo at its feet.
Got you now, you son of the Core. Rojer’s smile was grim as he pressed in for the kill.
But when he did, the demon seemed to perk up, slightly. It looked at him with what almost seemed a smile as its ears melted away entirely, leaving only smooth scales along its skull.
Rojer had no time to dodge as it swept a tentacle at him, but there was a shout and Enkido hurled himself between them, taking the blow meant for him. Sikvah shrieked as the eunuch was disembowelled, but he managed to throw his spear even as he leapt. It stuck from the demon, flaring brightly with magic, but Rojer knew it would not be enough to kill the beast, and his music now held no power over it.
The mimic reared again, and Rojer’s bow slipped from the strings as he dived into a roll, barely dodging the lash of its tentacle. The demon drew back to swing at him again, and Rojer flinched, knowing he could not dodge aside in time.
The appendage whipped forward, but instead of the sharp horns along its length, Rojer was struck by a spray of ichor from the severed limb. He looked and saw Renna standing there, ichor-stained knife in hand. She dropped the length of tentacle to the dirt where it melted into slime as she leapt forward, blade leading.
The demon turned to meet her charge, but this time Amanvah stepped forward, reaching into the hora pouch at her waist. She pulled forth a blackened lump of demon bone, pointing it at the mimic as her fingers manipulated the wards carved into its surface.
A blast of magic leapt from the bone like lightning, striking the mimic and lifting it clear off the ground. Renna was on it in an instant, stabbing and cutting. Amanvah swept the dust of the crumbled bone from her hands and reached into her pouch again, pulling forth a handful of demon talons. She threw these, and they shot forth like crank bow bolts, lodging deep in the mimic’s body. It twisted and shrieked, unfocused as Renna threw it to the ground, sawing at its neck. The remaining Sharum, led by Coliv, joined the fray, stabbing and shouting, blocking flailing tentacles with their shields as they kept the creature from gathering its wits once more.
Out of the corner of his warded eyes, Rojer saw the bright glow of demons, no longer held back by his music, beginning to return. He put his fiddle back to work, trying to drive them away, but a field demon had caught sight of Sikvah, who knelt over the still body of Enkido, weeping. It launched itself at her, faster than any creature alive, and Rojer knew he could not turn it in time.
But Sikvah saw the coreling coming. Her thin veil was soaked with tears, and she tore it away with one hand as she touched the choker at her throat with the other. The shriek she let loose at the creature was so piercing that human and demon alike were forced to cover their ears. The field demon stumbled mid-lope, tumbling end-over-end to lie dead at her feet.
The Haveners had joined Renna and the Sharum now, all piling on the mimic demon, giving it no time to melt away until Renna finally succeeded in separating its head from its body. She held it high for all to see, and there was a ragged cheer.
‘Enough!’ Rojer shouted. ‘Back to the wardnet! I can’t hold them back forever!’
Two Sharum had to pull Sikvah away from Enkido’s body as they ran back to safety. Rojer, still playing, breathed a moment’s relief.
Until he saw the rockets leaving red streaks across the night sky, signalling that demons had breached the wards and were on the streets of New Rizon.
25
Lost Circle
333 AR AutumnThird Night of New Moon
‘Oot! They come!’ Coliv called down.
An acrobat himself, Rojer knew a thing or two about balance, but even he was amazed at the ease with which the Krevakh Watcher had planted his twelve-foot-tall ladder on open ground and run straight up to the top rung without using his hands, standing motionless for long minutes as he scanned the horizon.
The two men were alone in the town square of New Rizon, amid the ruins that only a day ago had been a thriving town. Now it was a rotting corpse, almost every structure around the cobbled square smashed by hurled stones or blackened by fire. It was eerily silent.
They had spent the day piling wreckage to restore the greatward, but none had any illusions it would hold for more than a few minutes. They had prevented demons from rising directly in the town, but the corelings had begun dismantling the protection as soon as they solidified, and the Hollowers did not have the strength to prevent it.
And so they waited, Jongleur and Watcher, in the small portable circle Rojer had used all his life. No one liked the plan, least of all Rojer, though it had been his idea. When Amanvah had seen he would not be deterred she insisted that Coliv accompany him, though Rojer thought it would likely mean two deaths instead of one. Still, he could not deny a touch of comfort at the presence of the warrior.
The man tried to kill Arlen, Rojer reminded himself, but he could not bring himself to feel anger over it. Coliv had assumed command of the few remaining Sharum, and they followed Rojer and his wives everywhere. He had lost count of how many times the Watcher had saved his life the night before.