Demon Lost (13 page)

"Sleep late tomorrow," Bel instructed at the end of the workday. "We'll be going out tomorrow night, right at sundown. Drink plenty of water and eat as much as you can between now and then." He dismissed me without saying exactly what we were going to do when we went out. I sighed as I walked out of his office, heading toward the mess hall. I wondered if I'd meet up with Nods again and hoped I wouldn't. Thought about Dane and found myself hoping I'd see him again. He hadn't shirked his duty the night before, cleaning just as hard as the rest of us. Sadly, his uniform was a total loss—he'd discarded the jacket before he ever lifted a rag to clean.

* * *

"Word has it that our girl went through the hazing last night with the other new recruits," Bel sat on Aris' guest chair and crossed his legs comfortably.

"How did that go?" Aris frowned as he went over reports, barely sparing a glance at Bel.

"Re and one other recruit stayed behind to help clean up the shit afterward," Bel replied. "She was half asleep when she came to work this morning."

"If it happens again, we'll provide payback," Aris muttered, signing his name after approving a report.

"They should know better than to pick on the recruits assigned to the wizards," Bel grinned.

* * *

"Re." Dane nodded to me as he sat across from me at the table. Two others came, sitting next to Dane.

"You should have told us you were staying to help clean up last night—we would have helped," one of them said to Dane. Dane just shrugged and tore his roll open to butter it.

"Re, this is Gin and this is Dory," Dane introduced me to his friends. I nodded to them. Gin had blond hair and brown eyes. His blond hair was cut quite short and stood almost straight up. He was also shorter than Dane by about a hand. Dory had black hair and nearly black eyes, was only a hand taller than I was and had a thin build. It seems the Mandil Crown had no height restrictions, just as the Alliance did, although the Alliance often sent the smaller ones home during their initial training; they couldn't compete with the others. My completion of basic training was a testament to my quickness, strength and determination. I'd been allowed to stay, although most of my instructors had shaken their heads the first time they'd seen me.

"Look, it’s the smallest pile of shit." Nods walked by our table, dinner tray in hand and followed closely by the three who'd accompanied him to the bar the night before. How juvenile could you get? They resembled the bullies I'd known from my dayschool classes. These hadn't grown up—they'd just gotten older. I didn't look at them past the initial insult—it was better that way. Keep your head down. Don't seek revenge. It never worked out if you did. None of my companions said anything either, and I think Nods knew if he started something he'd be facing the mess officer on duty. I had a feeling he was watching anyway. Nods and his followers moved on.

"You think they'll hit us again?" Gin's voice held worry.

"Probably." Dane held no hope that we'd escape the bullying. We were the smallest ones at the gathering last evening. The others were all bigger and might be convinced to organize and fight back. Dane and his friends didn't have enough in the way of strength or support.

* * *

Lendill Schaff sat across the table from Norian Keef, Director of the ASD—Alliance Security Detail. Lendill was Norian's second-in-command. "Here are the records. I pulled everything I could find, including her military papers." Lendill handed the comp-vid to Norian. Lendill had dark hair and eyes, was considered quite handsome and occasionally wished it weren't that way. He had attention at times he had no desire to have.

Norian wasn't quite as handsome, with brown hair and green eyes, but Norian wasn't only the Director of the ASD. He was heir to Ildevar Wyyld, founding member of the Alliance and one of the mates to the Queen of Le-Ath Veronis. The fact that he was also a shapeshifter was known only to a very few. Norian kept that information hidden from nearly everyone. Lendill knew—that knowledge had been given only recently.

Norian skipped most of the information on the comp-vid, finally coming to what he wanted. "Here it is—they
ranked
her because of her height."

"Ranked?" Lendill was unfamiliar with the term.

"Put more on her than the other recruits—it's a way of sending undesirables home if the officers don't think they're good enough to stay. Usually, those don't last when they're loaded with extra weight on marches or given additional duties. Reah Desh was carrying twice the load the others carried and still made it." Norian made a face as he studied the other records—Reah's medical records in particular. "Did you see this? All the broken bones and accidents she had under the age of fifteen?"

"I did. Director, I don't think those were accidents. I'm having her brother investigated—the one who supervised her after the age of eight. Edan Desh is his name."

"We'll have to have her cooperation to lay charges," Norian sighed. Both Lendill and Norian knew where Reah was—someone they knew had passed that information along to them. Someone currently stationed on Mandil. Not one of their operatives, but someone they knew anyway, who was there to help with a problem that was likely to spread into the Alliance if it weren't stopped on Mandil.

"If we can get her out of there when this is over," Lendill observed. "I know Aurelius plans to bring her out, but anything can happen."

"How long do you think that will take?" Norian asked, sipping his tea. He and Lendill had met in a coffee shop in Lissia, the capital city on Le-Ath Veronis.

"No idea—last I heard, Aurelius thinks the vermin have allied with the hedge wizards in a few of those small desert villages. That doesn't bode well for the others."

* * *

I carried my weapon and my backpack. I also had something new—a long knife in a sheath clipped to the back waistband of my trousers. We wore black; Commander Aris had given me two black uniforms, in addition to three desert regulation uniforms. The black was to be worn only at night in the desert.

"Re, I shouldn't have to tell you to keep your eyes and ears open and let us know if you see anything," Bel told me before we set out. Aris wasn't coming—he seldom went out with his Rangers. These were the only Rangers the Prince Royal had besides those commanded to guard the Royal city—the other two outposts taken by demons had no Ranger Wizards at all. That had made them vulnerable, according to Delvin. He and I had talked after Bel sent me to the gathering room. The others were already picking up weapons and waiting for instructions. Hish arrived and gave out information, too. Seven wizards and I—that's all that slipped through a small, hidden gate after dark. Bel, Delvin, Hish, Lin, Jorvis, Max and Pell were the seven I now walked beside.

"We'll walk for two clicks—those hits came from the northeast when our convoy was attacked," Bel said softly as we walked along. I was just to his left, Hish on his right. I figured Hish was already providing some sort of shield around us. Delvin and Max came behind, leaving Lin, Jorvis and Pell in the center, spaced out to watch carefully for any signs of the enemy.

We'd walked for nearly the entire two clicks, only seeing or hearing small desert animals. I almost jumped when a predator captured a small rodent, causing the rodent to squeak out his last breath into the cooling desert air. Bel gave me a look and I nodded—we both knew if I'd given the least sound, Bel would have had a hand over my mouth immediately. Working to steady my nerves, I turned back to searching for any signs of the enemy.

Hish clicked his tongue and we turned swiftly in his direction. I saw them—at least six points of light in the distance. Bel had given instructions before we left the station—he would give a hand signal when we were to shoot. We all waited for that signal—right then, the lights were too far away for our ranos rifles to be as effective as they should be. I waited, holding my breath, almost, my rifle at the ready.

None of us expected the lights to turn away from us. Had they seen us? Bel still held us back. I wondered what he was waiting for. Did he want to chase them? He gave the motion to move together in a tighter knot. Hish had his hands up—the sign that he was building a stronger shield. I was in the center of the knot that drew together quite tightly. If I hadn't been so frightened at the moment, I might have been concerned at the press of male bodies all around me.

The first blast came and was diverted to the desert floor around us, outlining Hish's shield held over our heads. Sand and earth sprayed high into the air and then splattered across the shield and the desert surrounding us, causing me to duck reflexively. These beings, whatever they were, seemed determined to kill us.

Another whistling blast was hurled against us—stronger this time, followed closely by another. Both exploded with a deafening boom. Hish groaned with the last one—the earth was cracking beneath our feet from the power thrown at us. I, never having any experience with power wielders of any sort, was frightened out of my wits. What would we do if Hish could no longer protect us? Two more blasts came and it felt like an earthquake. I'd never experienced one of those, either, but had read about them and been in simulations. This was worse.

Delvin shoved me closer against Bel's back. The others were crowding in too; Hish was making his shield smaller. Perhaps it was easier to hold. I hoped so—for his and our sakes. We all nearly fell, the ground shook harder and two more blasts rocked us, spaced closely together. Hish fell, even with Max attempting to hold him up. The last two blasts had clearly broken his shields. We stood there, then, waiting to die while Bel prepared a send-off of his own.

Bel aimed his hands at the last place we'd seen the lights and sent out a blast of light. An explosion boomed and hit, but it had fallen short. Now I knew why he hadn't done this earlier—the enemy had been out of his range. Had this been planned? Had the enemy known what the range of our Wizards was and acted accordingly? I would likely never know. Would Aris know what had happened to us? I barely had time for that thought when another blast came our way, whistling through the air before it hit, knocking all of us to the ground and exploding into thousands of stars around us.

Chapter 7
 

"We're still alive." Bel whispered while Max attempted to wake Hish. Hish was unconscious from his failed attempt to cover us earlier. "How are we still alive?" Bel added, his voice so soft I barely heard. Another whistle was heading in our direction. We all crouched down, expecting to die this time. The enemy wanted to make sure we were dead.

This blast, when it came, blew up the desert around us in a huge ring. We should have been at the direct center of that blast. Instead, we sat on a small island of undisturbed ground—sand, pebbles and bits of earth raining down on us. Some larger chunks made me whimper in pain as they hit. How were we still alive? How? "Get up," Bel ordered quietly. We all rose—Max, being the tallest and strongest of the wizards, hefted Hish over his shoulder after he stood.

"Stay as close together as you can and walk," Bel hissed, and we began to walk behind him, still in the tightest of knots. More blasts came, some almost causing us to stagger and fall, but we remained upright, marching the entire way back to the military station. When Max grew tired of carrying Hish, Pell took over, carrying him the last half click. Aris must have heard or known somehow—he was waiting at the gate for us with a physician and a stretcher for Hish. We hadn't been attacked for at least a click before getting back to the gate. We were all covered with sand and filth when we arrived—I could see it clearly once we were in the artificial light.

"How did this happen? How are you alive?" Aris demanded, once Hish had been taken to the hospital at the station and we'd gathered in Aris' office; all of us dirty, sand-covered and puzzled.

"No idea," Bel rubbed the back of his neck. "I was hoping the Prince's wizards had followed us. Now I know that isn't the case." Aris had blown that idea away immediately as we walked toward the gathering room. He said that there hadn't been anyone leaving the walled city except us. I wondered how he knew that. Perhaps he was in contact with the High Commander, still.

"How did we survive?" Delvin asked, now. "The strength of the blast spells sent against us should have fried us where we stood after Hish's shields failed. There wasn't anything there to stop it from happening." That statement told me what Delvin's ability was—at least in part. He could sense and gauge the strength of wizard's spells. I wanted to ask him how he did that. Sometime. Not now—I was still shivering from our unexpected escape.

"Let me work on this," Aris sighed, rubbing a knot between his eyes. He was just as surprised as the rest of us that we still lived. I sat on a chair at the end of the row where six other wizards sat. Had the enemy been testing them all this time, waiting for enough information and the right time to strike, killing all of them at once? If so, they'd failed miserably. For tonight, anyway. "Go to the physicians if you have injuries or trouble sleeping." Aris dismissed us—there wasn't anything else to be learned tonight.

"Sleep as long as you can tomorrow—we'll meet after dinner in Aris' office," Bel told me as we walked out the door. I was scrubbing myself in a hot shower when the message came and it was wordless this time—an expression of fear and concern that sent me to my knees in the tiled cubicle. Hugging myself while it lasted, it eventually subsided, leaving me with a tender caress as if someone had physically touched my face.