I nodded slowly, finding it hard to speak. A knot formed in my throat at the thought of leaving them behind. I knew I wouldn’t, but still, it hurt. The mere thought of leaving my friends with Shaytan, the king of daemons—it tore me apart on the inside. My resolve was stronger, though. I chose to focus on freeing them.
We’ll cross that bridge when we get there…
“What do we do after we get them out?” I asked.
“We head out to the western plains,” Jax said. “At least one of us will head back to Azure Heights, to warn the others of what we’ve seen and learned, while we seek out the rogue Imen. They must have the answers we seek. We might even get them on our side, forge some kind of alliance and rally our forces against the daemons, until we figure out what’s keeping us from reaching out to Calliope.”
“In that case, I know exactly how we’re going to do this,” Caspian replied, then grabbed some ragged cloaks off the floor and passed them out. “I know where to go for hunter daemons. They’ll have invisibility paste with them. There’s an access tunnel not far from here. They use it to deploy to the surface. We can catch them there, then head to the tower near the square. Provided we make our way out through the southwestern side of the palace, we can reach the surface through one of the tunnels there. At least two of them lead directly into the western plains.”
“I still can’t wrap my head around how much you really know about this place,” I muttered, irritated.
“Trust me, I wish I could tell you more,” he grumbled, looking away as he put a cloak around his shoulders and scooped a handful of ashes from the firepit.
“We will have to talk about this later, Lord Kifo,” Jax said, fastening his cloak under his chin. Hansa rubbed ashes over him from head to toe.
Once we were ready to venture through the daemon city, we snuck out of Mose’s hut and followed Caspian through a series of narrow alleys and side streets, keeping to the so-called slums, where the weaker, elder daemons lived.
We kept our heads down and covered as we slipped farther east, where crates and barrels were stacked into thick walls, against uneven sets of carved steps leading to several exit tunnels—round, dark holes beckoning us to escape, to run out and never look back. Not until I get what I came here for.
“This way,” Caspian whispered.
He dashed behind one of the barrel-and-crate faux walls, pointing at the staircase above. I joined him, followed closely by Hansa and Jax. We avoided eye contact with the daemons around us—most of them seemed absentminded, staring blankly at the dirty ground beneath their bare feet as they shuffled up and down the roads snaking into the slums.
They all seemed tired and worn out, with little to no interest in their surroundings. It was as if they were practically braindead, but their bodies, though brittle and old, could still move enough to get them from one place to another, despite having no specific purpose.
“They’re reaching the end of their lives,” Caspian explained briefly, following my gaze. “They’ve seen thousands of years in this world. Their bodies can’t keep up anymore. Time doesn’t forgive the daemons, especially once they stop feeding on souls. Most of them age faster once they stop, if they can’t afford to increase their meat intake to counteract the effects. So, they just… wither away, like old trees.”
“This is where they come to die, then?” I asked, while Hansa and Jax kept a lookout, checking the stairs above.
“Sort of, yes,” Caspian replied. “They lose direction after a while. They just wander around, aimlessly, with nothing to do. Most of them were hunters, spending most of their lives on the surface, roaming freely through the gorges. Once they can no longer provide for themselves, given their old age, they wind up in the care of the kingdom. And as Mose mentioned, the kingdom doesn’t care if you’re old. It only cares if you can provide for yourself and your people.”
“Coast is clear. The crates are filled with something, they’re stable to climb,” Jax breathed. He gently pushed one of the crates, then climbed up until he reached the stairs.
Hansa, Caspian, and I swiftly joined him, careful not to be seen or heard. We then made our way up to one of the exit tunnels, hiding behind a couple of the broken crates on either side of the opening. Someone was bound to come up sooner or later. All we had to do was jump them.
It didn’t take long for two hunter daemons to come along. They were dressed just like the one we’d taken down to the infirmary in Azure Heights, with wide leather belts, off-white loincloths, and various small leather bags hung around their waists, along with thin, curved knives mounted in ivory scabbards on their backs.
Jax took one, and I handled the other. We gripped our swords as we snuck up on them, then slit their throats. Crimson blood gushed out, the daemons falling to their knees. They choked and gurgled until they gave their last breaths. We removed a total of four satchels of invisibility paste, and then Hansa and Caspian dragged them away and hid their bodies behind nearby rocks.
“How long do you think these will last us?” Jax asked, weighing two satchels in his hand as he looked at Caspian.
“I estimate about three to six hours each,” Caspian replied.
“We should get more, for Caia and Blaze, too,” I murmured. “Besides, we could use some extra for ourselves, and I don’t mind killing more of these bastards for it.”
A brief smile flickered over Caspian’s face. He nodded, and we resumed our positions behind the crates. Not ten minutes later, three more daemons came up. They stopped at the top of the stairs, noticing the dried-up blood on the ground, right in front of the tunnel opening. One of them frowned, letting out a low growl, and sniffed the air.
“I think our non-Nerakian friends were here,” he muttered, his red eyes darting around.
I noticed the air rippling behind them, before his partners’ throats were split open. Jax and Hansa had already used some of the invisibility paste. The daemon didn’t stand a chance, with the other two already down. I jumped out from behind the crate and dashed over to him, thrusting my swords right through his neck.
He stared at me in disbelief, his eyes bulging, as he choked from the two blades cutting through his trachea. Blood poured from his mouth and wounds, glazing his chin and chest. He dropped to his knees. I pushed him down with my foot, pulling my blades out, and Caspian collected six more satchels from him and his dead partners.
We then disposed of their bodies, piling them on top of each other behind the rocks. Caspian and I swallowed the contents of two satchels, putting the remaining six away. We watched each other disappear in faint, colorful shimmers, until all we could see were delicate ripples through the air whenever we moved.
I caught glimpses of his jade eyes when he looked directly at me. It dawned on me then that this was definitely the result of a difference in using Nerakian ingredients for this particular swamp witch spell.
“The invisibility spell looks different,” Jax replied from my right. “It’s not as powerful as the original one. I mean, we sort of knew that already from what we’ve seen of the hunter daemons, but it’s interesting to witness it on ourselves. It basically confirms it.”
“If you look at me directly,” Hansa said, “I can even see your eyes. I think we have to be careful about where we look, once we get back in there. Avoid eye contact with anyone at all times.”
“We should also agree on some kind of sound signal, so we can identify where we are in proximity to each other,” Caspian replied. “We can’t exactly hold hands all the time. Perhaps a triple whistle?”
Hansa gave out three short whistles, clear enough to be heard, but not loud enough to be overheard past a twenty to thirty-yard radius. I responded with a similar set of sounds, which Jax and Caspian returned.
“Okay, we’re good to go,” Caspian said. “We’ll go back down the way we came, then take the main belt road to the north, past the slums. Let’s regroup at the red tower outside the main square.”
“I think, for safety’s sake, we should sp
lit into pairs until we get there,” Jax replied. “I’ll take Hansa, and you take Harper, Lord Kifo.”
“Agreed,” Caspian breathed, then found my hand, wrapping his long fingers around it and squeezing gently. “Let’s move.”
I realized then just how aware of my presence Caspian was. He paid attention, in our invisible form, to my breathing and low heartbeat. He most likely followed my scent, too, thus knowing exactly where I stood at all times. It was perfectly reasonable for us to use our other senses when we couldn’t see each other.
Caspian and I rushed down the stairs, making our way back into the city. Hansa and Jax were not far away, and we all advanced up the main belt road toward the north side. We’d made this trip before, when we’d first gotten into the city.
Once we reached the neighborhood housing Mose’s hut, we made a sharp turn left and followed the sinuous and narrow roads into the city center. I could see the palace and its majestic tower rising in the distance. Not far from it was a smaller red tower where we were due to rendezvous. It was also going to be my vantage point, from where I would use my True Sight to scan the area and find Caia and Blaze.
It was an easier trek through the city of daemons when they couldn’t see us. I could breathe better, even though we were surrounded by bloodthirsty enemies. And to think, just a couple of months earlier, I’d been dropping hints to Derek and my dad that I wanted to score a field mission. For a brief moment, I wondered if I would’ve been better off going to Tenebris and dealing with the incubi rebellion instead.
The warmth of Caspian’s hold spread through my arm, raising my temperature as we darted through the streets. No, there is nowhere else I’d rather be.
Our predicament was far from pleasant. Our lives were at risk, our friends were prisoners, and our families were millions of lightyears away. And yet, with Caspian so close to me, I had to admit… I was right where I needed to be.
Hansa
We kept an eye out for red garnet lenses, as there were plenty of daemons throughout the city who could be using them. We stayed in the shadows, waiting for larger groups to pass by before we went back into the streets, on our way to Shaytan’s palace.
The rowdy crowds that we’d seen earlier, during the general assembly, had scattered, with just soldiers left patrolling the alleys, and the occasional civilian. Amber fires burned at junction corners and in wall-mounted iron sconces, casting an orange light over the black stone and obsidian structures.
Half an hour later, we reached the main square. On the right side, facing the wide-open space, was a large rectangular building made entirely from black bricks, with a six-story tower that had been painted in deep shades of red.
Jax and I waited outside, by the northeastern corner, the closest to the entrance. I scanned the area around us, looking for signs of air rippling, movements that could suggest that Harper and Caspian were close by. I caught a brief glimpse of jade eyes, and I knew that they, too, had made it. I gave out a low triple whistle.
I felt Harper bump into me, making me sigh with relief.
“Good to see we all made it,” Caspian whispered.
“We need to make our way up there, into the red tower,” I said slowly, keeping an eye out. Several daemons passed by, a combination of males and females in elegant leather attire, with plenty of gold and precious gemstones adorning their necks, chests, and shoulders. They were some kind of nobility, I figured.
There were also soldiers moving up and down the stretches of road framing the main square. I could see red lenses hanging from slim gold chains, and mounted on their belts. At least they didn’t have them on at all times.
“We can go through the main entrance,” Harper breathed. “I checked—there are barely any daemons for us to worry about. Mostly common workers, and just two guards on the ground floor. We can go all the way to the top.”
“Okay then, I’ll sort of see you upstairs,” I quipped, then made haste toward the main entrance, without letting go of Jax’s hand.
We rushed through the wide-open double doors, darting past the two guards that Harper had mentioned, then up the six flights of stairs to the top. I nearly bumped into one of the workers coming down. He was carrying a burlap sack on his shoulder, filled with what I assumed was rubble, judging by the crumbling sound. Jax swiftly pulled me back to the side, holding me as the daemon went about his business.
“Thank you,” I whispered, and Jax responded with a tight squeeze of his arms around my waist, his hot breath tickling my face.
“I’ll never pass up an opportunity to hold you, no matter what the excuse,” he replied, murmuring softly in my ear. He always had this way of setting me on fire with a handful of words, but it was all the more intense now that we were actually together and openly flirting. It warmed me up on the inside, as I knew that he was there for me. Jax was my fuel to keep moving and fighting, slashing my way through an entire city of daemons if it meant emerging alive, with his arms around me.
“And I’ll never deny you such an opportunity.” I whispered, as we continued our race up the stairs.
I could almost feel him smiling. We took two steps at a time, until we made it to the top. I let out another triple whistle, and Harper responded.
This level was empty, just the smooth floor and several small, round windows carved into the stone, with no glass. I saw the air rippling near one as Harper moved closer so she could use her True Sight and scan the entire palace. She needed a high vantage point to get a better spatial assessment of the building, as seeing through layers of stone and marble from the ground floor didn’t do much in the absence of a high angle.
I kept quiet for a few minutes, listening to the noises below. The daemons were hard at work, lugging sacks of rubble from one level farther down to the next, while their foreman barked orders from the first floor. From what I’d seen on my way up, they were renovating two of the upper floors, breaking down several walls in the process.
Had it not been an urgent situation of rescuing Caia and Blaze, I would’ve taken the time to further observe the daemons at work. They had their customs, their routines and processes, an interesting hierarchy, and a rule of law. If not for their eagerness to eat our souls, they would have been a joy to study, as a foreign people from another world.
Unfortunately, they had decided to snatch two of my people. My diplomacy had flown out the window a long time ago as far as the daemons were concerned. All I could think of were ways of making them pay, of making them suffer for what they had done to us—not to mention the thousands of innocent Maras and Imen.
Harper
(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)
I took my time with each wing of the palace. I memorized every hall, every set of stairs, and every corridor, down to the last detail. I made mental notes of the guards’ movements, noticing their patterns and routes throughout the palace. Most importantly, I identified two areas of roughly fifty square yards that I could not see through, even with my True Sight.
Shaytan and a couple of his advisers were in the east wing, in his throne room—a superb, enormous space with gilded panels and soft, red velvet curtains covered in gold embroidery and delicate gemstones. Farther down from his throne room, five of the seven princes were chatting around a long, rectangular dinner table, as daemon servants loaded their plates with strips of raw meat. At the end of the table, four Imen were bound to their chairs, watching in horror as their captors talked and laughed over dinner. I had a feeling that the Imen’s souls were meant for dessert.
A shudder ran through me, and chills traveled down my spine. I couldn’t wait to run the princes’ throats through with my swords.
I shifted my focus back to the areas that I couldn’t see through. They were basically two large metallic boxes—I assumed they’d been cast from meranium, judging by their polished finish and peculiar shade of gray. Whether it was a charm or something else, I couldn’t get past them.
“I think I know where they are,” I muttered, then fumbled through my ba
ckpack for some chalk. I always kept some with me, in case Patrik needed it for an impromptu spell. “There are two small sections in the palace that I can’t see through. I spotted them before, when we were running away from the crowd, but I didn’t get a chance to study them properly.”
“Could they be charmed in any way? Swamp witch magic, maybe?” Hansa replied.
“Could be,” I answered, then got down on my knees and started drawing a rough schematic of the palace, marking all the key areas and possible access routes to the meranium boxes. “This is the main entrance into the palace.”
I drew a tiny X on the stylized map, then drew dotted lines to mark two ways in, reaching through both the east and the west wings, before they met in the middle of the south wing.
“I’m guessing you want us to split up?” Jax asked.
“Yes,” I replied, circling the locations of the meranium boxes on both sides, along with a number of X’s, representing the guards’ positions throughout the palace. “They could either be here… or here. Our best bet is to cover both sides simultaneously. One of us will come out with Caia and Blaze. The king is here, talking to… counselors, I guess. The princes, or at least five of them, are in here, enjoying dinner. They are also about to feast on the souls of four Imen. I would love nothing more than to chop their horned heads off, but Caia and Blaze are our priority.”
“I agree,” Caspian said, and I heard him moving closer to me. “Harper and I will take the west side, and Jax, you and Hansa should take the east wing.”
“There are approximately three hundred yards from the nearest set of stairs to the meranium boxes on both sides,” I added, drawing slim lines as I further explained the best routes through Shaytan’s palace. “From what I could see, there are plenty of archways, massive sculptures, large decorative objects, and curtains mounted throughout the hallways and corridors, giving us a plethora of hiding places along the way. We can check both meranium boxes simultaneously.”