Demon Singer II (23 page)

        "What's your real name?"

        "Stupid," the man replied cheerfully. "My father was dumb as a bag of doorknobs, but he fancied himself a learned man. Always spouting off Latin phrases completely wrong.  Things like "
Veni, Vidi, fugit"
which translates to "I came, I saw, I ran away."  His name for me was very Latin sounding and means exactly nothing. Dispo Sitorem."

*   *   *   *   *

        Ruby snapped awake at the sound of Anaya and Joss knocking their canes.

        "What's going on?" She came running out of the room Maddy had insisted she stay in. Anaya and Joss were in the sitting room.

        "Worse than zombies, Ruby," Joss answered with an uncharacteristically sober tone. He was secreting small, odd guns around his person as he spoke.

        "It's inside the city, little girl," Anaya added.  "People need help."

        Ruby was already headed back to her room and putting on clothes. She picked up the shotgun Joss had given her and returned to the sitting room. Anaya frowned at her weapon.

        "I can't believe you gave her the shotgun." He growled at Anaya.

        "She's not made of glass, little brother." Joss retorted sourly to the giant Knocker as they followed Ruby out the door.  "And without that gun, Maddy would be zombie chow. Stop being so prissy."

        "We're not facing zombies now, and guns are really only effective against fairies. Dwarves are hard to shoot because they’re hard to see." Anaya pointed out from the rear.

        "It's better than my bare hands," Ruby said.

        "Sweetheart, we're your weapons," Anaya wouldn't let go of the issue. They turned a corner to see a handful of the Milleytes Lux locked in combat with at least twice as many dwarves.

        Anaya sighed loudly.

        "Keep the gun."

Chapter 17

        "You're Dispo Sitorem?" Lyric asked in shock.

        "All my life," the old man beamed. "Now let's talk about those lovely girls in the cell next door.  What is a Soul Singer doing in the company of a demoness and the queen of the Verge?"

        The shocks just seemed to keep coming.

        "You know Cadence?"

        "Which one is that?”

        “You said queen of the Verge.”

        “I only know her as the reluctant queen. She passed through a Verger town I was stuck in for a little while."

        Lyric shook his head, which was still a touch groggy and focused.

        "Sir, I was sent by your brother Ervin to find you. The Singer's Guild has fallen, all of the Singers are dead, your brother has vanished. I assumed he was dead until I met his song. My mother is missing.  Ervin said you could help."

        Dispo stroked his chin thoughtfully while Lyric talked, frowning in increasing measure.

        "This is all very serious indeed, lad, but it doesn't really answer my question concerning your companions."

        Lyric stared, dumbfounded.

        "Seriously, that's what you want to focus on?"

        Dispo shrugged.

        "We aren't going anywhere until the townsfolk are convinced I've sobered up. And your friends aren't waking up until I allow them to." The old man offered a friendly smile.  "You're welcome to try to rouse them, if you feel up to it, but I'm fairly certain you can't."

        Lyric focused on the score of creation and noted again the in-tuneness of it all. Sliding his voice in among the music he reached across the tie to his friends. Strangely, nothing happened.  Perplexity rapidly became alarm as Lyric tried again, using a different song.  Alarm came very close to giving birth to panic as he tried song after song, ineffectually.

        The old man chuckled at his distress.

        "Don't worry lad, you haven't lost your voice. Nothing worse for a Singer than to lose their voice. Singers tend to forget they were someone before they could Sing into the Score.  This place has been dampened.  The Score of Creation leaves room for your song.  The genius that built this jail planned it so that there's no room for your song in the score here.  Sing all you want, it won't work inside these walls."

        "Who could do that? Who would even know how? And why?" Lyric endeavored to keep his agitation from coloring his tone.

        "At least two people I know of.  As for the reason, well,  sometimes I get drunk... a lot... always.  This cell protects people from me."

        "You seem to be a pretty high functioning drunk.  Why do people need to be protected from you?"

        "They don't really, but it makes them feel better so I go along with it. I love this town, I love these people, whether they know it or not. Now back to you and your companions."

        "This is weird.  Please wake up my friends."

        "Friends?" Dispo's thick eyebrows made a mad dash for his hairline. "Interesting. Not until we finish talking though. Who are you and why are these two traveling with you? The demoness should be trying to kill you and the queen, well, I don't see her as the Soul-tying type."

        "My name is Lyrical Sound of the Evening. I'm a Soul Singer in my eighth measure. When I cast into the Verge, my song went all the way through it into hell and tied to the demoness, Acheron. Cadence, the queen, was tied as well. Now, the three of us are tied together and our primary goal is locating my mother.

        "My mother is Emerald Gem of Markhato. She is important to me and according to your brother she is important to him too. She and her entire town have been taken by a traitor named Keith Normvy, turned to crystal and somehow hidden from reality. Normvy is dead. A reliable source says Emma is still alive. Another reliable source says the Sprites have promised to help restore Emma and my town if I can find a way to return them from wherever they are. Ervin said you can help me find them."

        "That is quite a story young man. You deal with powerful folk. I haven't heard of anyone speaking with a sprite since a young Singer I knew centuries ago convinced one to make him a unique crystal." Dispo's eyes wandered through memories for a moment before focusing on Lyric's face again.  "So what will you be offering to this endeavor, Lyrical Sound of the Evening?"

        "Call me Lyric. I'll help however I can. Just tell me what I need to do."

        "You need to rebuild the Soul Singers Guild." Dispo answered immediately.  

        "Wait, what? Why?" Lyric couldn't believe the odd request was real. "I'm not fit to lead the Soul Singer's Guild.  Let's find your brother after we restore my parents' town. He's the founder of the Guild."

        "Ervin did the best he could, but this is too important to leave on a back burner. The world needs the Guild, Lyric. Ever since the flood there has been a society that guards the Score of Creation and protects humanity from the fallen. When my brother established the Soul Singer's Guild it grew beyond anything he imagined or intended. The Soul Singers became so powerful the rest of the societies faded out. There needs to be that buffer, otherwise, things will get very bad for humanity very quickly."

        "Your brother asked me to do the same thing.  Even if I knew how, I have no interest in rebuilding the Guild."

        "Ahhhh, but your interest has nothing to do with it.  You asked what you needed to do. That's what you need to do."

        "I'm a fighter, not a teacher. What can I do in the immediate to help find my mother."

        "You can promise to rebuild.  All I need is your word."

        "I wouldn't know where to start. Why do you expect this of me?"

        "Because there's a reason you survived the Guild's destruction. There's a reason you are soul-tied to those two ladies. There's a reason you showed up here and found me in a day when others have searched fruitlessly for years. You are the end of my song."

        "The end of your song, what does that mean?"

        Dispo Sitorem smiled.

        "Watch and listen."

        Dispo began singing an achingly beautiful song that sounded familiar.  Unbidden tears filled Lyric's eyes. A shimmer appeared between them and became a circle, half brilliant white, glowing like captured starlight.  The other half velvety black and depthless.  The circle sat at the center of an impossibly familiar crest. It resembled the crest for the Soul Singers Guild, but was changed in a few ways. Changed in fact to look exactly how he always thought the SSG crest should look.

        Dispo stopped singing and the circle vanished.

        "Look familiar?"

        Cadence's voice startled Lyric and he realized both she and Acheron were awake.

        "We saw this when Rondeaux pulled aside the first veil in his valley." Lyric answered. "It's me."

        "It's you," Dispo agreed. "For the last six hundred years of my life I've sang my soul song every day, begging for an answer to when my brother will find Varia and we'll be allowed to die. Every single time that circle appears. As soon as I saw you in the woods I knew it was you. You are the end of my song, Lyrical Sound of the Evening."

        Lyric's thoughts spun furiously as he tried to absorb and understand what he was hearing.  In a lame attempt to respond, he fixed on the only thought that seemed answerable.

        "How were you able to sing in here? You said this prison was built to dampen soul singing."

        "Easy," Dispo sang a brief phrase and the cell door swung open.  "I'm the one who built it."

*   *   *   *   *

        
Varia Tur moved like smoke through the fighting. He directed his Vergers here and there but mostly just let them wreak havoc.

        Even hating him like they did, they could not resist this opportunity. It was unprecedented, an army entering hell seeking to conquer it. If any army could do it, it would be Vergers who had worked for years to eradicate as many demons as possible.

        Varia did not even bother trying to direct Company Thirteen. Where the Vergers were like precision tools, Connor Lot and his men better resembled psychotic lawn mowers. They attacked indiscriminately and though they were outmanned and out muscled, they managed to bring down more demons than he expected.

        His attention turned to Rapacity, bowling through the battle on his armored rhinoceros. In truth it wasn't a rhino, but it was the closest thing that came to mind. Besides, "fiery, horned beast built like a tank" was a mouthful.

        The giant demon was the power of greed. And greed was what Varia counseled Lisian to appeal to when procuring the help of Rapacity and his army.

        “Hello little Verger!” Rapacity’s hollow voice boomed and echoed as he skewered one of the big demons and used it to bludgeon its fellows. “Where is my sister?”

        “Yes,” a beautiful man came strolling through the fighting. Every time he hit someone, they went flying or crumpled to the ground, unmoving. This must be Trytohn.  “Where is his sister?”

        The grin abruptly left Rapacity’s face. Snarling, he charged. His war rhino lowered its head and hurtled toward the king of hell. Trytohn grabbed ahold of the beast’s horns and flipped it over the top of his head to bring it crashing down on his other side. Rapacity went skidding away into the fighting.

        Varia smiled at Trytohn.

        “You must be the devil. I have a surprise for you.”

        Trytohn smiled back, Varia was struck by his beauty.

        “No, you really don't.” Trytohn replied.

        Varia sang a single word.

Trytohn

                Abruptly the Vergers stopped attacking demons and turned toward the Prince of Darkness. Rapacity reappeared, shouting at his troops.

        “Hold them back!”

        His demons locked onto their brethren and shoved them away from Trytohn.

        As one, the Vergers surged forward to attack Trytohn. He fought back fiercely, breaking and throwing them like rag dolls. His magic flashed and smoked and burned into them. Slowly, they began to lose ground before him.

        The Father of Lies couldn't see the truth. He was being led toward the pit.

*   *   *   *   *

        Ruby sprinted to the end of the street.  She was more than capable of taking care of herself.  Anaya and Joss had seen to that. She trained with each of them daily and had become downright lethal.

        Self defense was a far cry from fighting a platoon of dwarves that for all intents and purposes, were able to vanish. Where were those stupid Knockers?

        They got separated during the fighting when they stumbled across Maddy once again, in the company of a handful of guards and two members of the Milleytes Lux.

        “How do you guys keep finding me?” Maddy hollered as they fought twenty dwarves.