Demon Lord VI - Son of Chaos (24 page)

“
The gas didn’t work on you then?”

“
Gas?” He sniffed. “Ah. No, such things have no
effect.”

Nikira knelt
beside Bane’s couch. “Jovan.”

The medtech
joined her and felt for a pulse in Bane’s wrist. “He’s okay, just
out cold.”

“
And the others?”

“
Like him, they’ll be fine.”

“
At least Drontar isn’t a murderer.”

Jovan glanced
at the four men. “What the hell was he doing?”

She went over
to the bag. “I think I can guess.” Digging in it, she found three
vials of blood and held them up. “This is what he wanted, the
bastard.”

Jovan checked
Drontar. “This is strange. They were wearing masks, so they haven’t
been exposed to the gas, yet they’re all asleep.”

Nikira smiled.
“We had help of the celestial kind.”

Drevarin shook
his head and raised his hands when Jovan looked at him. “It was not
I.”

“
It was Lord Kayos,” Nikira said. “He came to my quarters and
woke me up, told me to come here.”

“
So he could be here now?”

“
Probably.”

Jovan glanced
around. “Well, perhaps you could ask him how we can wake them
up.”

The scientists
opened their eyes and gazed at the soldiers with dazed expressions,
groaned and rubbed their elbows, knees and heads.

“
Take them to the brig,” Nikira ordered. “They’re charged with
assault, theft and disobeying orders.”

“
Vengeance is Bane’s,” Drevarin murmured.

“
Then he’ll have it, when he wakes up.”

The scientists
were removed, and Nikira put the vials of blood on the couch beside
Bane. Drevarin smiled, and she ordered Jovan to have the members of
Sarrin’s group taken to their cabins before she left.

In her
quarters, she sat on her bed and stared into space, wishing she
could have stayed with Bane. Drevarin was with him, however, and
she did not want anyone to know. She longed to find out if there
was any chance at all that he could return her feelings, but now he
would be unconscious for at least eight hours. Of course, there was
still the problem of Mirra, whom he clearly doted on, but it was
possible for a man to love two women; she had had a few married
lovers in the past.

Chapter Ten

Vengeance

Nikira entered
the lift and selected the fourth floor. After twelve hours
overseeing the repair work on the burnt-out engine, she had
received a message that Bane was awake and on his way to see the
prisoners. The doors opened, and she trotted down the corridor,
nodding at the two soldiers who saluted her as she entered the
brig. Bane stood in front of the row of ten glass-fronted cells,
and her heart leapt. It had been pounding since she had received
the message, and she was sure everyone could hear it. He glanced at
her, then returned his attention to the man in the cell. Drontar
sat on the bench at the back of it, scowling.

Bane addressed
the guard who hovered nearby. “Open the door.”

The soldier
tapped in the code that unlocked the door, and it swung open. Bane
walked into the cell, whereupon Drontar stood up and glared at
him.

“
You have no right to do anything to me.”

“
But I do. You stole from me.”

Drontar
addressed Nikira. “Commander, are you going to allow this – this
dra’voren to beat me up?”

“
He’s not a dra’voren,” she said, “and do you really think I
could stop him?”

“
I am not going to hurt you,” Bane murmured. “You will not feel
anything.”

Drontar backed
away until he encountered the wall. “What are you going to do?”

“
Just give you something to remember me by, and a little
geas.”

“
A geas? What the hell is a geas?”

“
It is a command that I will place in your mind, which you
cannot disobey.”

Drontar shook
his head. “No, you can’t do that. It’s illegal!”

“
So is stealing my blood. But I do not really care about your
laws.”

“
No one is above the law!”

Bane smiled.
“Then I would like to meet the man who can make me obey them.”

“
If you have power and refuse to obey the laws, you’re a
tyrant!”

“
You really should not annoy me by insulting me. I tire of your
babbling, and if you persist, I will silence you.”

Drontar opened
his mouth, then closed it.

Bane nodded.
“That is better. First the geas, I think.”

Raising his
hand, he drew a dark rune in the air with the shadows that trickled
from his fingers. Drontar followed his movement with white-ringed
eyes, and gasped when Bane flicked the shadow rune into his
chest.

“
I curse you with the rune of Averakon,” Bane intoned. “From
this day forth, you will be unable to contemplate any form of
crime.”

Drontar
clutched his chest, staring at the arcane symbol burnt into his
shirt, shaped like an upside down Y with a circle between its
angled lines. Bane spread his hand towards Drontar’s head, and the
scientist cowered back, raising his arms. A pair of black horns
sprouted from his brow just below his hairline and curved
upwards.

Bane tilted
his head, admiring his handiwork. “Did that hurt?”

“
What did you do?”

“
You are now the proud owner of a lovely set of horns, to go
with your nasty character. They suit you.”

Drontar
clasped his brow, his face going slack with horror as his fingers
encountered the sleek new horns. “You bastard!”

Bane chuckled,
and Drontar stepped towards him and raised his fists, then his face
went blank. He looked puzzled, lowered his hands and gazed at them.
Bane exited the cell, leaving Drontar to finger his horns and
wonder what he had been about to do when his mind had gone
blank.

The soldier
locked the cell door as Bane moved to the next one, where a short,
balding man cowered. This time he did not bother to enter the cell,
but placed the same curse upon each of the inmates, forgoing the
horns. When he finished, he looked tired and fed up, and brushed
past Nikira, leaving the brig. She hurried after him, and he turned
to her halfway along the corridor.

“
I am going to banish the demon hounds now, then you will take
us back to your city. Can you find your way back there?”

“
Yes, Lord.”

“
Good.”

Bane vanished
through the wall. She made her way to the bridge, where she
switched on the main viewing screen. The Demon Lord strode across
the blasted land and halted a short distance from the ship. One
demon hound came to him, and he spoke a single word. The shadow
beast froze and dispersed, its form oozing away into the darkness
amongst the rocks, thinning and dwindling until it was no more than
a shrinking patch of gloom.

Bane went in
search of the second beast, which tried to elude him, but evidently
could not leave the area, and he banished it too. When he returned
to the ship, she ordered the pilot to set a course for base, then
went down to the dining room. Sarrin and Ethra looked up when she
walked in, but the two cloud couches were empty.

***

Nikira sat in
her office and stared at the report on the recorder, her heart
heavy. After Bane had banished the dark beasts, he, Mirra and
Drevarin had vanished. She had been unable to locate them on any of
the internal cameras that monitored every room in the ship. For the
last four days, Retribution had been travelling back towards base,
and she had begun to fear that they had left.

They had been
aboard two days ago, for a shield had enveloped the ship as it
passed through the wild region, but since then there had been no
sign of them. Bane’s group of friends was also unhappy with his
absence, and Ethra blamed Nikira for it, using wild gesticulations
to communicate her meaning, since Nikira could no longer understand
them. Nikira blamed herself for it too, and wondered if Bane did as
well. Had she thought for one moment that Drontar would try such an
insane plan, she would have posted soldiers at the dining room
door.

Sighing, she
picked up the recorder to continue her report on Bane’s
confrontation with Drontar, which she would need for the courts
when they arrived at base. If Bane and Drevarin did not testify
before the court, she feared that it would go badly for her.
Drontar was a senior and highly respected scientist. He would claim
that she had colluded with a potential enemy to destroy valuable
samples, and then to inflict the disfiguration upon him. Drontar
would accuse her of treason, a crime punishable by death.

Nikira looked
up when the door opened, and the recorder slipped from her hand as
Bane entered. His pale skin glowed with health, and the shadows of
exhaustion were gone from his eyes. For what seemed like an
eternity she gaped at him, stunned, then she jumped up and stepped
towards him with a grin.

“
Bane!” His brows rose, and she realised her mistake and fell
to her knees, bowing her head. “Lord.”

“
Get up. I no longer require that you kneel. Do not do it
again.”

Nikira rose to
her feet and leant on her desk. She fought to keep her delighted
grin to a more acceptable smile. Even so, he tilted his head,
looking intrigued.

“
You seem pleased to see me.”

“
I... Why wouldn’t I be?”

He shrugged,
his eyes raking her dress. “Why do you still wear that gown?”

She looked
down, smoothing it. “I thought you liked it.”

“
Why would my likes or dislikes mean anything to
you?”

“
I... I like it too.”

“
Indeed? How odd. No matter.” He glanced around her office.
“How long before we reach your city?”

“
Only another two days, Lord.”

“
Good. When we get there, you are to tell your leaders that
Kayos has decided to awaken your god, so he or she may bring order
to your domain and put an end to your destructive
practices.”

“
Destructive practices, Lord?”

He turned to
face her, and her heart skipped a beat. “Defeating dark gods and
thereby allowing them access to domains.”

“
Oh, right. But we’ll stop now that we know it doesn’t destroy
them. It’s pointless.”

“
Good, but there are other things that must be rectified. Your
Realm Gate is open, and so is the World Gate between your mid realm
and light realm. Tainted souls are being reborn, and your people
are becoming devious and uncouth. Drontar is an excellent example
of this.”

Nikira burnt
with shame. “I’m sorry for what he did to you, Lord. I would have
prevented it if I’d known what he planned to do. It was wrong and
-”

He raised a
hand. “That is of no importance now. You will tell your leaders to
send all the people in the city outside your Realm Gate into your
domain. When your god is born, the Gate will close.”

“
But... That will cause a lot of problems... They won’t do
it.”

“
If they do not, they will be left outside to
starve.”

“
My leaders don’t believe in gods. The closing of the Great
Gate will be seen as an act of war. They’ll try to destroy it, and
they’ll try to kill you.”

Bane shrugged,
lowered his gaze to her desk and studied the items on it. “They
will not succeed. In fact, Kayos says that the smaller fire dome is
in the path of the Gate wards, and will be destroyed when the Gate
closes. Your young god will have much work to do, and will close
the World Gate too, denying mortals access to the light realm. He
will also cast out all the tainted souls from the city of the dead,
and they will be forced to remain in the mid realm until they have
shed their taint. Your world will be filled with ghosts.”

“
They won’t believe me, Lord.”

He picked up a
glass figurine. “Then they are fools, and they will die. The fire
domes protect your city from the dark power, and your ships are
ingenious, but you will have no food.”

“
Actually, we will. We have farms that can produce food with
artificial light, and our generators use the blue power. All our
water is recycled, and we take very little from our world, which is
already overpopulated. That was one of the reasons the city was
built.”

Bane put down
the ornament and gazed at her. Her cheeks grew hot, and she looked
away, sure that her feelings shone in her eyes. “Then they will be
cut off from the rest of your people forever.”

“
They’ll keep trying to destroy the Gate. They have matter
disruptors, pulse generators, mass transporters, many weapons to
try.”

“
A realm gate is said to be indestructible, although I believe
I could get through one if I really tried. Can your people use the
dark power?”

She risked a
glance at him. He had lost interest in her and perused an
uninspired landscape on the wall. “No, Lord, but the Gate is only
stone.”

“
No, it is not, any more than my sword was only metal. It
contains wards of white power, which, once activated, make it far
stronger than any material you have ever encountered. Just as the
dark power protected my sword, so the white protects the stone of
the Gate. The only way you could open it is with a key, and you do
not have one.”

“
Why must our god close the Gate?”