The demons howled with glee when the smoke cleared and the dragons were gone. They began to rush through the yard, searching forthe slayer. One rushed right past Tora. She used a sword to try to take his head, but the shield around him shattered the metal.
You’re going to have to find a way to bring down their shields, Silke,Tora advised.This mage is powerful in one way yet is completely oblivious to the fact that I’m here.
Is it possible they can’t see you? They haven’t actually attacked you personally, have they? They saw your dragon, but maybe they can’t see you.
That makes no sense,Tora objected.How could that be? The mage seems pretty powerful to me. He’s managed to introduce anxiety into you when that has never happened.
Silke had been hoping Tora wouldn’t notice, but of course she had. They’d been together battling both vampires and demons and were in and out of each other’s minds.
He’s extremely powerful using his voice because ordinarily, a compulsion won’t work on me. I can’t even hear it, but he’s broadcasting loud enough or tuned specifically to me enough that anxiety is slipping in. I’m on it now. I’m actively hunting him.
How will you find him when there are so many? You’ll have to examine each one individually. That will take you hours. We can’t hold off that long.
His voice is projected toward me. He isn’t just commanding the demons and casting dark spells. He knew where I was, and that allowed him to push deep enough into my mind for me to be affected. That also left him open. He created a path between us. I just need to find that path and follow it back to him.
Her voice rang with confidence now. She had pushed the doubt from her mind and once more completely assumed the role of demon slayer. Blocking out the growling demons as they sniffed around the yard hunting her, she concentrated on recalling each word, each phrase that had been impressed on her mind. Once she was able to hook into the exact memory, she searched for the footprint. There was always one. Even a very experienced mage would not be able to completely obliterate his mark. The compulsion wouldn’t work if he did.
There it was. So faint, but she found that small, faint dark stain.Once found, she allowed her energy to expand slowly, to cover the smudge and begin to trace it back to its origin. She wouldn’t be able to identify precisely which demon was really a mage in disguise, not at first anyway. She would have to have a very delicate touch, enter his mind and bring down the shields covering the demons.
Three demons shrieked taunts and raced through the shrubs, nearly stepping on her. The flower bed reacted the way she knew it would, protecting her, striking at the demons with poisonous stalks. The toxic sap hit the demons’ armor, revealing what the shields looked like. They were thin, very thin, as if the mage had in haste sent out one dark spell to cover the many demons and the shields were imperfect. She could see cracks in one of the three demons’ armor.
She kept her mind moving slowly and gently, almost drifting over the footprints leading back to the mind of the mage. It seemed to take forever, but there was no hurrying the process. The mage would detect her if her energy wasn’t low and steady.
Demons ripped at the outside walls of the house and tore at the roof. The stones withstood the assault, and Tora countered with whips of electricity, knocking the demons off the structure. The whips cracked and sizzled as they leapt through the air at the demons.
Silke felt the reaction of the mage as he tried to tune himself to the one attacking his little army. Again, she found it interesting and very telling that he thought the slayer was behind the attack. At no time did he consider there was a Carpathian with her. His mind was consumed with finding and killing the slayer.
She could see red ribbons of rage floating through his mind. Each ribbon had a single command attached to it—find and kill the slayer. That was their one task, what each demon had been bred for. This plot had been in the making for a century, and the mage was the one chosen to carry it out. Should he fail, he would be condemned to centuries of torture, and his mistress had no forgiveness in her. She enjoyed the various cruel punishments she thought up, each one more brutal and merciless than the last. She also had a tendency to forget those she sentto the torture chambers, so they could be there for the rest of their existence, which was endless.
Carefully, she searched through his memories to find the spell for the shields. She studied it with meticulous care. While he concentrated on calling to her, pushing more compulsion into his voice, she slowly, very, very slowly, began to unravel the spell. It took a few minutes to reverse the order without drawing his attention. The shields, other than the one covered in poison, were invisible. The demons—and the mage—failed to notice when they came down.
Now, Lily. Tora, call to Peony.
Lily burst from where she had hidden herself, flying low straight toward Silke. Silke leapt on her back, banked and came around, directing Lily’s dragon fire to the demons in the yard. She caught two of them on the first sweep, incinerating them on the spot. The others went into a frenzy, throwing spears and shooting arrows at the two dragons, who once again had taken to the skies.
Silke felt the instant reaction in the mage. He called out, his hands moving in a pattern. Unfortunately, the demons on the roof and the ones on the porch lifted their hands as well. At least that narrowed her search down.
Destroy as many as possible, Tora. He’s weaving another spell.Silke leaned over her own dragon.Hurry,she whispered to Lily.Take out as many as you can.
Silke angled Lily toward the porch to sweep the deck with dragon fire, hoping to rid them of the mage. Her favorite chair burst into flames right along with two of the three demons crouched on the porch trying to hide from the fire.
A sound swelled in volume, becoming so loud it grated on the ears. Flying insects turned the sky from charcoal gray to black as they swept into the yard. There were thousands of them, and they attacked the dragons, stinging and biting. They were so small they could get between the overlapping scales.
The insects tangled in her hair and stung and bit ferociously. It wasTora who countered, throwing a hardened shell around the dragons, which prevented them from using their dragon fire but also prevented the insects from continually attacking. It also trapped hundreds inside the shield.
Silke ignored the terrible burning sensation as her body swelled where each bite or sting had found her. She had to get rid of the insects attacking Lily and Peony. The sheer number was overwhelming. Lily trumpeted her anger and discomfort. The weight of the insects pushed her toward the ground and interfered with her ability to use her wings. Peony was having the same trouble.
Silke had to push aside her fears for the young dragon, the pain both of them felt, and the shrieks of joy the demons emitted as they rushed to circle the dragons. She had only minutes to reverse the spell the mage had concocted. Fortunately, she was already in his mind, hovering in a little crack, undetected. It wasn’t difficult to find that moment when the mage had bidden the insects to destroy the dragons and the slayer.
The really great part was the insects were real. These were not manufactured in the underworld. The mage had managed to call hordes of them to him. Because they were real, Silke could find a way to wrench control from the mage. The spell was quite simple but very dark. She hesitated. It wouldn’t do to be caught before she could identify him. There were other ways to rid themselves of the insects.
Tora would be able to counter the spell and better protect her dragon, but Silke could feel Peony’s distress right along with Lily’s. Even Tora was having trouble with the sheer number of insects crawling through the scales, stinging and biting. It didn’t help that the demons had grown aggressive, certain they could kill the dragons the moment they brought down the barriers Tora had erected around the two creatures. They surrounded the large bulks, pounding on the transparent shells, jabbing at them with razor-sharp spears. Two even began to build a bomb to set under the dragons.
Silke reached for the tiny creatures. As a child, she had practicedconnecting with all kinds of insects and reptiles. As a slayer, it was a requirement to be able to control bugs, animals and birds. It required a quiet mind. She had to pull out of the mage, so she marked the pathway to his mind and reached for the insects. Because it was a familiar path, she connected almost immediately.
She tuned herself to the group. Many were nestmates. She couldn’t use odor to communicate so she chose substrate vibrations, using the scales of the dragon to warn the insects to leave immediately, that there was danger to them. The bugs responded by backing out of the scales and flying straight at the invisible barrier.
Are the insects abandoning Peony?
