Delver Magic: Book 05 - Chain of Bargains (46 page)

"You are a demon," Holli
declared without hesitation or apparent concern. "You can see any fear
within me. Why don't you tell me how worried I really am?"

"I see you're not," the
demon allowed, but then decided to alter the circumstances. "You believe
you divided your forces wisely to deal with the most pressing needs, but are
you aware of all the threats? I don't think so. I also took the liberty of
releasing my inferns. They are now free to destroy the city they once
protected. You thought you saved Ashlan, but you will see it burn. I have also
ordered the inferns that guard the edges of the valleys to set fire to
everything in their path. If I can't spread disease across the land, I will let
them turn it to ash. The result will be nearly the same."

Holli did not hesitate for an
instant.

"Jure, take care of the
inferns surrounding the valley. Ryson, go back into the streets and stop the
ones in the city. Leave this draevol to me."

"I should thank you,"
Holli declared, her focus narrowed on the draevol. "You actually did me a
favor. I wanted to be the one to face you."

If she harbored any concern about
standing alone before the demon colossus, her desire to meet the creature in battle
overshadowed it. The elf crouched ever so slightly, kept her weight on the
balls of her feet. Her bow was in her right hand, but she had not yet removed
any arrows from her quiver. The magical energy within her was at its peak, and
she had many spells in the forefront of her mind. She was not lying. In every
way, she wanted to defeat the fiend, and defeat it without the help of others.

The resentment and bitterness,
even the self reproach, had all dissolved away. She immersed herself in the
moment, a moment she viewed as a gift, a chance for redemption. She fully
intended on washing away every mistake she made since entering the valleys.

She did not, however, fool herself
into misinterpreting the full aspect of the encounter. The draevol was more
than a worthy opponent. The demon possessed great powers, and its weaknesses
were few. In regards to magic, the demon could cast spells of substantial
magnitude and pull from a vast pool of energy. As for physical combat, draevols
did not often succumb to swords or arrows.

Her own disadvantages were many.
She understood that she was vulnerable to her foe's capabilities. The draevol
could successfully attack her in different ways, use a variety of methods to
end her life. It could rely on magic or utilize demon fire. It could even
summon additional inferns.

While the options of attack open
to the demon remained wide, Holli's path to victory was thin. As an elf guard,
she learned the principles of battle long ago. Direct combat was not usually
the desired course of action under such circumstances. She was taught to attack
when she held the advantage, and utilize strategic retreat when the odds were
heavily against her. Every aspect of the confrontation pointed to withdrawal,
but despite the conditions, she believed she retained the advantage.

Encounters were not always won by
the strongest. Powerful armies were often defeated because they could not match
their opponents will. Though she believed the demon certainly possessed the
desire to survive, it could not possibly surpass the need for her to
acknowledge her own identity.

"I wanted to fight you
alone," the elf continued, "without the help of the others. Enin
would have just sent you back to where you belong. I want you to crawl back and
never
want
to return."

The draevol nearly disregarded the
elf. The words were pointless bravado, nothing more. Of the four that once
confronted it, it feared the elf the least. As a demon, it could see into her
heart and inspect the essence of her power. Her magic was puny, especially
compared to the two wizards that had left to deal with other dilemmas.

The demon's own magical prowess
was superior to the elf's as well, and it felt no peril from emerald energy—the
power of nature. Disease could overcome field after field and forest after
forest. The monster possessed the power to wither the entire valley, and there
was nothing the elf could do to stop it.

The demon also viewed the elf as a
minor annoyance in comparison to the delver. The elf lacked the physical
talents of Ryson Acumen, who was immensely dangerous with his speed and
quickness. The threat of the delver went far beyond his physical abilities. Any
demon could sense the pureness of his heart. The magic that was deep inside
that particular delver was endowed with a grace of its own, the kind of
benevolence that could shatter a demon's diseased existence with but a wave of
the hand.

In an act of obvious arrogance,
the elf had sent the delver away as well, and Ryson Acumen took with him the
enchanted sword. Such a weapon in the hands of one with incomparable speed
could have destroyed the demon in mere moments, but the elf relegated the
delver to face the inferns, a tactical error in the eyes of the fiend and a
waste of true power. The draevol probably feared Ryson more than any other,
save for perhaps Enin, and it was pleased to see him leave. If Holli spoke of a
favor, it was a favor to the demon that she sent the delver to battle its foot
soldiers.

No, the true dangers to the demon
had departed. The elf's strength was her tactical awareness, her ability to
lead, but she had proved lesser in that regard than the demon expected. As a
direct menace, she was nothing more than an insignificant irritation, and the
draevol revealed its disrespect with a booming voice of impatience.

"Be gone elf. You waste my
time and I warn you, I have little patience for such annoyances."

"That is how you view me? As
an annoyance?" Holli demanded.

Unable to ignore the request of a
brave soul who stood before it, the demon was forced to admit certain facts.
Agreements and considerations—even if not entirely spoken—held significance.
Despite not wishing to waste precious time with the elf, the existence of more
favorable circumstances came at the elf's bidding, not its own. Acknowledging
the benefit it received from Holli's actions, the draevol offered but one
consideration in return.

"No, not a complete
annoyance. You have given me what I want. You have sent the others away and
allowed me the opportunity I need to escape and cover my trail. I give you your
due in that. Do as I once suggested, go home. I will allow you that as part of
a new bargain."

Holli would have none of it. She
did not send the others away for the demon's benefit. She did as she saw fit,
and she based her decisions on the dangers they faced. Though she wished to
face the draevol on her own, she knew she sent each individual to confront a
challenge based on their abilities. It was her good fortune that left her alone
with the demon.

"We have no agreement,"
she announced with authority, making it clear she renounced any unspoken
contract, "and I have no intention of allowing you to leave."

It was not quite a sigh of
exasperation that came from the demon, more of an irritated grumble. Its own
red eyes glared down upon the elf before it, and the fiend painted a picture of
the truth.

"I am a demon plague mage and
you are nothing but an elf sorceress. You cast the green energy of nature, I
can sense that in you, but I am the power of disease, decay, even death. You
have no chance against me. If you wish to deny any agreement, so be it, but
leave while you can."

"You think I will rely on my
magical abilities?" the elf questioned.

"What else do you have? As an
elf, you are potentially more dangerous than an ordinary human, but I am not
human. If you had planned to match me in a contest of physical abilities, why
would you have sent away the delver?"

"I did that for him."

"How noble of you, but you
are wasting my time. Leave now... elf... sorceress... whatever it is you wish
to consider yourself. I no longer care."

Holli, however, found the demon's
viewpoint of the truth more than lacking. She was not prepared only to battle a
draevol, she was ready to accept everything she was.

"I am not just an elf
sorceress... and I am not just an elf guard. I am both, and I will use all of
my strengths against you."

#

Jure never considered questioning
the elf guard. Though he believed he was better suited to deal with the draevol
than Holli, it was not his position to question her orders. Instead, he focused
all of his energy on locating and neutralizing the inferns that surrounded the
edges of the Great Valleys.
It was a daunting task, and it would require all his concentration and energy.
Arguing tactics with the elf was not only out of character for the elder
wizard, it was a pointless endeavor.

The thought of an infern, or even
hundreds of inferns did not trouble him. They were half-demons, very quick, and
masters of demon fire, but his natural power originated from blue energy, the
power of water. While he mastered his control over all the hues, his control of
blue magic remained extensive. Even demon fire would not be able to cut through
his defenses.

Unfortunately, the challenge
rested not with defeating inferns, but in overcoming space and time. When the
full force of the Heteera's magic flowed within him, his perception of the
valleys extended to every border. He had seen the number of inferns and the
vast stretches of land they covered. If they were set to unleash their fiery
wrath over all the regions they guarded, the Great
Valleys would soon be surrounded by
demon flame.

Heteera's great flow of magic,
however, no longer coursed through his essence. He had to rely on his own
ability to reach out to the energy and utilize it as efficiently as possible. Reaching
each destination and confronting every infern, that was his true dilemma. He
could not fly like Enin. It would consume too much energy, and he would need
every ounce in the battles to come.

In a decisive move, the elder
wizard decided to utilize two of his superior abilities. He would concentrate
on shifting dimensions to overcome the obstacle of space. Once upon his
adversaries, he would depend on his skill over the element of water to engage
his foes.

His first target set, he
teleported himself to the southwestern edges of the Great
Valleys, to the border of the Oachet
Mountains. He would begin his
assault there and ride the waves of blue magic and dimensional travel around
the entire outer borders.

When he set his anchor point for
where he would arrive, he did not place it on the ground. Instead, he placed it
high in the night sky so that he would command an expansive view below him. Of
course, because he couldn't fly, he would not simply float above the mountains
indefinitely.

The moment he appeared over the
Oachets, he began to plummet. At his age, he did not seek out such thrills, but
he could not deny the exhilaration of soaring through the air as if he was
indeed flying of his own will. As he dove downward, he could see several
inferns marching across the forest floor below. He couldn't miss them. They
glowed bright in the dark night of the wilderness. They would have appeared
like flickering white stars in a black sky had they been surrounded by
darkness, but fires spreading through the trees created an orange glow that
looked more like sunset breaking though late afternoon clouds.

The half-demons had already begun
their work by setting the surrounding forest ablaze, and the roaring flames
were only part of Jure's challenge. The smoke billowed up quickly, filled his
nostrils with the smell of sulfur. Thankfully, a northeast breeze kept the haze
from engulfing him. It still managed to mix with the night sky and decrease his
visibility. He wished his awareness had remained as extensive as it did when he
removed the goblin threat, but without Heteera's magic, his perception returned
to its normal state. It was enough, however, to target his enemies.

The inferns never looked up, never
concerned themselves with what was above them. They were, in fact, the very
same inferns Holli and Ryson had spotted upon their arrival into the Great
Valleys, but they no longer cared
about watching for the activity of others. They were also no longer bound to
the dwarf plan of ensuring humans fled west through Pride Gap. Even monitoring
the pass became inconsequential. The draevol had delivered its message to them
telepathically, and the half-demons took to their newly appointed task with
overwhelming zeal.

They spit fire from their mouths
like dragons, and the demon flames spread quickly across even the healthiest
sections of forest. They walked through the fire without harm, as they were
resistant to the flames, and they spread out through the blazing trees to
inflict even greater devastation. They ignored each other, they ignored the
smoke swirling around them, and they ignored trees bursting apart from the
boiling sap within thick trunks. They were only interested in inflicting their
tortured existence upon the lush lands around them, on turning everything
before them into a blazing inferno.

As Jure sailed downward through
the sky, he spied a wide and mighty river back in the lowlands of the valleys.
Despite the darkness, he could see the running waters that created a clear path
past farmlands and small towns. The rippling surface reflected the starlight
and the sheer expanse of the waterway filled the elder wizard with confidence.

He called on the river's power,
allowed the energy of the water to be both his sword and his shield. He cast
his spell in mid-fall and torrents of liquid rose up out of the river bed and
soared above the surrounding lands. It was an incredible sight, like a
waterfall that traveled across the sky.

The great mass of liquid met with
Jure just before he reached the ground. It surrounded him but did not engulf
him. It encased him in a pocket of air at its center. He never reached the
ground for the water of the river held him aloft over the tree tops and above
the flames that flared even higher.