At the Behest of the Dead (36 page)

“It’s huge,
” Glenda whispered.

“I honestly don’t remember it being this big. Something weird is happening in the ward.”

“In the ward. I can’t believe I let you drag me here.”

“You came willingly if I recall.”

“I came to keep your butt from getting smooshed like a bug.” Glenda went to stand by Collin’s side.

We stayed near the wall
, but I picked out huge chunks of rock that we would be able to sneak toward as we sought Salazar.

“
Peaches, attack!” I said.

The Pomeranian stared
at me with something approaching contempt, and that was no easy task for a fuzzy faced teddy bear of a dog to pull off.

“Cowards die many tim
es before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once.”

“You and that dog need to
join a talent show when this is over,” Glenda said.

“Where’s the enemy?” Doc joined us.

“The last time I saw him he was in that giant pool over there, or maybe it was that giant pool. It’s kind of hazy. There was a giant pool of lava, that’s for sure.”

“Do I need to point out the obvio
us? That we don’t possess the ability to pursue?” Doc said.

“Yeah, that’s why we’re going to call him back.” I said.

“So you do have a plan.” Glenda smiled.

I skirted the edge of the domed room for a minute before I spotted the altar I’d been strapped too. Walking in the open left me exposed
, but I was sure that whatever power Balkir had at his command was no longer in this realm, just like him. If he had a presence here, I was sure we would have been attacked by now.

The altar was as I remembered it and covered in glyphs and my blood.
Son of a bitch, trying to sell my soul to a demon. I wanted one good punch to knock Balkir on his ass.

I took a potion from my bandolier and popped the cork.
Then I poured some of the liquid on the surface and reached for the cusp. I didn’t have to go far because the power that had flooded me before was already here. It rushed into my body and then it was a battle to keep from self-immolating. Here, in this demonic realm, I had so much power I couldn’t even fathom how to expend it. The downside was that I had to rely on the realm’s elements, and those were fire and rock, so the potion became my catalyst.

The altar froze as the liquid spread. I called to the rock and it answered by opening millions of pores and taking the ice to its center. Soon I had an ice cube the size of a really big refrigerator.

“That’s great. Now if you had a big enough glass you could make a drink large enough for a third ward demon to consume.” Glenda smirked. She had a tiny wand in hand that she was putting to use by etching glyphs in the air.

Collin waited. I wondered what he would bring to the party once it started. Maybe he had the
warlock version of a surface to air missile tucked away somewhere just waiting to unleash its power.

I added a couple of vials to the surface and t
hen broke them. The liquids sat inches apart as a layer of ice formed over the top. I scratched off a tiny chunk and put it in the palm of my hand. Then I coaxed it before it could melt, and blew on my components. A solid slab of ice hardened, with rock forming a dome over it.

“That is a very fine trick, Phineas,” Doc said as he watched me work.

“All right, everyone. Let’s get this into the lava pool over there,” I said and pushed. It didn’t move and may have actually pushed back. My hasty plan seemed to have an awfully large flaw.

“Really?” Glenda asked
, but my army gathered and we pushed for all we were worth. The altar, now a giant ice cube, at least did us the favor of moving a few feet before we stopped out of sheer exhaustion.

“Well, shit.”

“I got it,” I said, and ripped a wave of sorcery from the cusp.

The power lashed but I tempered it with a little air. The force of the blow stressed the ice
, if all the cracking was any indication. I lifted one arm and coaxed the chunk to follow my lead. It was propelled hundreds of feet into the air then dropped as I severed the link. It struck with a splash of lava that splattered the edge of the pool, some of it covering Peaches. I gasped but she seemed to revel in the heat. She shook some of it off like it was water.

I just knew I’d be dealing with burned dog hair when she insisted on coming.

“Now. We should run!” I said, and did just that.

I looked back to make sure the others were following. Doc did his best
, while Collin looked very annoyed. It was better than the alternative, which arrived in less than thirty seconds.

A WHUMP sounded under the foundation as the potions combined. I’d used a
high grade accelerant of moonwater combined with a liquefied version of saltpeter. When they met, in a marriage that lasted all of three or four seconds, a geyser of molten lava burst forth and reached almost to the ceiling.

I called to the elements and they responded by doing battle with the fire for dominance. The two coalesced and formed a giant rock sculpture
, but not before lava rained down. We hid in the cavern and I leaped back more than a few times to get out of the way of falling fire.

My work of art started to sink almost immediately and I didn’t even have a camera phone to get a shot.

It didn’t take long for my calling card to get attention. No one likes a pest in their house, and I’d counted on Balkir to be the prickly one here.

He rose from the giant pool of lava, took one look at my shitty artwork, and smashed it with one giant fire encased hand. Demons, small and large, came with him. They rode his shoulders and
arms, dropped from his waist.

I ripped a vial of blood from my bandolier and tossed it on the ground. The glyph was already on my lips but my tongue was dry, my mouth parched. I’d need a gallon of ice
d tea to slake my thirst. The vial was from the blood-mire I’d visited a few days ago and it was being returned to its realm. That’s right, Balkir, you dick. I brought it just for you.

Regardless, I let the words fly and juggled the glyph, splitting
it into two as it flew. It continued to divide as it struck the splash of blood.

A howl
sounded as souls raced to my command. Bodies, some desiccated and missing parts, others fully formed but sporting wounds, rose to do my bidding. They came from every direction to form in hundreds. More howls rose as the dead answered, set sights on the demons, and went to give battle.

I might not
have been a great necromancer, but I knew the basics. My newfound power simply multiplied my ability. See, no one wants a bunch of skeletons or zombies wandering around after a fight. One of those things gets loose in a city and it’s damned hard to find and put them all back down. In the cusp, surrounded by nothing but fire, they wouldn’t last long.

“Give
’em hell!” Doc called from his corner.

One horn rose
, curved, and pointed while the other remained a jagged stub. Glowing yellow eyes, one brighter than the other and surrounded by deep gouges, sought me out. His skin was red but black cracks shone through with malevolence.

“That’s the guy. I’ll,
er, distract him, you guys spank him,” I said and strode forth, stupidly, to meet the demon.

Our opposing armies clashed
, and sure mine didn’t exactly have the fire and fury of the demons, but there were an awful lot in my camp, thousands to meet his hundreds. Screams and howls filtered through the room as they engaged in battle.

I had more than a trickle flowing into my
shield, certainly enough to deflect anything light weight. The potion thrummed in my head still, making my skull feel like it was vibrating. I poured more power into my chest piece until I was sure it would soon glow.

“That you,
Balkir?”

The demon’s massive head turned to regard me. I was still half a football field away
, but he could easily clear that if he just took a few steps.

Up to his waist in molten lava, steam rose from his body. His
form moved back and forth, making the pool sway with tiny waves. It took me a half a minute to realize he was laughing.

Demons poured out in tens,
then there were at least fifty. Within a few seconds there were hundreds of them. The little monsters each had eight segmented legs that ended in stiletto sharp feet. These points skittered over the ground as they came at us.

I lashed out with a blast of power a
nd uttered my new favorite word, “Rend!”

The hideous little spiders were swept into the air and ripped in two as I called stone to turn obsidian sharp edges upon their carapaces.

From the ceiling, I ripped a chunk of stone the size of a small building and dropped it right on the demon’s head.

My army met the rest of the larger demons. It wasn’t much of a battle. F
lesh and bone was a poor weapon against fire and brimstone. Still, there were a lot of my guys so they got a few. A pair of skeletons the size of NBA basketball players picked up a four armed demon and ripped its legs off.

A group of skeletons stomped tiny
demonoids, but often came up with stiletto appendages stuck in bone.

“Welcome back.” The demon growled in a voice loud enough to get the attention of an entire football stadium. Then the stone struck
, and Balkir was crushed under the blow and sank beneath the lava.

He wasn’t gone for long.

Glenda and Collin came to stand by my side. She looked at me from the corner of her eye and raised an eyebrow.

“Li
ke that one? I’m here all night,” I said, then swept up another batch of the creatures and ripped them to pieces before throwing them back at Balkir.

The giant form moved toward us, parting the molten lava as it came.

“This is not good. How do you expect us to fight that thing, Phin?”

“I do remember saying that we were going to battle a building sized demon. No one took me seriously.”

“I thought you were exaggerating,” she said.

“Hey
, look, a giant fucking building sized demon.”

I called to the elements I’d sent into the pool and some responded. I strained to push as much power as I could into my broken artwork in the middle of the lake. It responded by exploding. Giant chunks of blackened rock lashed out to strike the demon in the back
, but none were large enough to impale the bastard.

I risked a glance back toward the pillar Doc had picked to hide behind. He had a vial of blood and was liberally splashing it around a giant glyph he’d drawn on the ground. I couldn’t help but gasp because I’d never seen anything like it in my life. It was cruel and complex, meant to summon and imprison. If I spent another fifteen years with Doc I might be able to understand the complexities that went into it but wouldn’t be able to duplicate it.

He reached for us.

When a Volkswagen sized ham hand comes at you, all covered in fire and shit, you move out of the way. Glenda and Collin went one way while I dove another.

A rumble of laughter filled the chamber.

A couple of my summoned pals grabbed onto the arm and went for a ride. They howled as they attacked
, but that ended as soon as Balkir shook them off over the lava.

Collin had a book in hand and was etching with what looked like a pen in the air. He leaned over and whispered to Glenda
, who nodded. The next thing I knew a massive blast of lighting shot from her outstretched hand and arched toward the ceiling. Well that was just great. My allies were terrible shots.

I glanced at Doc’s pentagram and an idea formed in my head.

Before I could act on it, a rumbling that I felt in my chest started. It built, and within seconds the pool was being pelted by boulders. Stalagmites the size of small buildings also fell. I smiled at Glenda and Collin’s ingenuity. The rocks, like the one I’d dropped earlier, might not kill him but they would most certainly distract him.

I called on raw power and lashed out. A wave of sorcery ripped across the ground, made a wake as it rushed over the lava pool, and then erupted when it struck the demon.

He was pitched to the side and roared with anger, or pain. Hopefully pain. Reassured that he could be hurt, I pulled more power in and repeated the process, this time with a flourish of the hand. Leave it to a warlock facing certain death to still try to gain points for style.

This time my aim wasn’t so great
, but the wave hit the pool at an angle and when it struck it nearly knocked the demon over.

“Phineas!” A voice that was something like
Balkir’s crossed with a giant demon issued forth and rattled my head.

So I hit him again.

I could do this all day, I thought, as the potion thrummed against my chest.

“Can I use that?” I asked Doc. He glanced down at his pentagram and mouthed why?