“We’re not with them,” said Caliban. “Not our demons. We want tostopthem.”
Her ears went back. “Lie, you.”
“No. We’re going to where these demons come from. To stop them.”
The antlered doe fell back and paced around them in a circle. Caliban got a crick in his neck trying to watch her, and looked at Brenner instead. The assassin shook his head minutely.
“I wonder why she thinks they’re demons,” Caliban murmured.
“Maybe they are.”
Her face thrust next between them. “Those demons kill me, take territory. Kill me, take territory, you?”
“We haven’t killed any rune. We don’t want your territory. We’re just passing through.”
“Lie, you! Else bring demon why, why, you?”
“I swear, I don’t want your territory. My demon is dead. It doesn’t want anything.”Except maybe to be left alone.
She wrinkled her muzzle. “Not believe, me.”
“I don’t know how I can prove it to you.”
She grinned. Her teeth were flat and herbivorous, but she had wickedly sharp canines. “Know, me.” She turned away, leaping out of the sunken circle, kicking up the bodies of dead rats like dust.
And just like that, watching her move, he knew.
Oh, Dreaming God…
“There’s a demon in her,” he said aloud.
“What?” Brenner stared at him.
Caliban tried to swallow, found his throat tight, and spat blood on the dirt floor. “There’s a demon in her. A live one. I should have realized from the rats—some of them can control vermin, but I never saw anything like this. She’s possessed.”
Shit, I must be out of practice. A year ago I would have known the minute I looked in her eyes.
There was a slim possibility that the rune shaman had accepted possession willingly. It did happen. Not oft en, but it did happen. Such demons were nearly impossible to spot, as Caliban knew to his sorrow.
“I wonder if they know,” said Brenner, glancing at the other rune. They were as silent as the rats.
“I doubt it.” Caliban’s heart ached for the rune, that their shaman, who should have been wise, was host to a monster instead.
“Well, so, you’re a demonslayer, then,” said Brenner eagerly. “What do we do now?”
Caliban sighed. “We die.”
“What? You’re the bloody Knight-Champion!”
“I’m theformerbloody Knight-Champion, and I don’t have a sword to kill her, or salt and holy water to exorcise her, and my purity of heart with which to exhort her has been pretty shaky lately, assomebodykeeps reminding me!”
“Bloody hell,” said Brenner, with feeling.
The rune returned. She was carrying an abalone shell which trailed a thin stream of smoke.
A collective moan went up from the rune watching. They were sagging where they stood, their mouths open and panting. Whatever force had slain the rats did not seem to be treating them much better.
The demon rune crouched before Caliban, her antlers hanging over him. Bands of shadow crossed his face like bars. He could see inside the abalone shell now, a pile of leaves burning atop a bed of clear white salt.
