A Warrior's Quest Page 13

  She looked down. Green light.

  Cerridwen.

  Somehow the children had moved from where she’d put them. She scooped the little girl and the babe up in her arms. Cerridwen’s strange green glow burned her skin, but Aureliana ignored it. She shoved them beneath the stone bench behind her as the largest of the yellow demons wrapped his hand in her hair and yanked her closer to him.

  He hissed something at her but she didn’t understand his language. She drove her sword through his heart, then pulled it free and shoved his body aside. She faced the next set of attackers.

  They rushed her.

  ***

  Ren battled the rhacshas demons with everything he had, trying to get to his female and his spawns. So much separated him from them, despite the relatively small size of his brother’s courtyard. He could see the yellow and red bastards climbing the walls of the inner courtyard, and dropping from the trees his brother had brought from Gaia. The rhacshas were everywhere. He allowed himself no time to think of what had befallen his brother, Kindara, Danae and Zephra, the little healer Bronwen. They all were somewhere, threatened by these beasts. If they still lived.

  These beasts closest to him were intent on getting to his female, his spawn. Why? Were they after the spawn Thas? Aureliana? He roared, the sound filled with the rage running through his blood. Some of the rhacshas demons pulled back. They, at least, knew who they fought, knew what kind of demon they faced. How had they gotten in to his brother’s castle? It was doubly fortified after the last attack; Ren had made certain of that for himself. So how? Why? Someone had to have let them in. Someone had betrayed his brother. And him. Again. And he would not rest until he found that traitor and kill him.

  He sliced with his sword, cutting two of the smaller demons nearly in half. Aureliana was fighting; he could see her across the courtyard. Cerridwen was behind her, the magics his daughter now possessed keeping her and the spawn Thas surrounded with a strange glow of green. His daughter, at least, showed little fear in this battle. She trusted him and her new mother to keep her safe.

  He would die doing just that.

  A cold wail came over the demons, freezing many where they stood. Ren had heard that sound once before, and nothing had ever frightened him more than it did in that moment.

  The Beansidhe. How had it gotten in to his realm? Had it followed her brother? Aureliana must have heard it, too. Her fighting turned more panicked, more desperate, before she regained control of herself. He could feel her fear straight in his heart.

  It would not take her from him. He roared her name, slashing at the demons surrounding him. If he could get to her, he would kill the Beansidhe before it took her.

  A rage unlike any he had ever felt filled him. The creature would not take his female from him!

  He could not live without her. The mere thought of that was terrifying. Now he understood what his brother had meant.

  His roar was louder now, far louder than even the battle raging around him. It had several of the demons—enemy and ally alike—turning in his direction. Two grabbed for his sword, suicidally brave. He dealt with them quickly. More were on his back, but it was a simple matter of dispatching them to follow their brethren. Rhacshas demons were only moderately aggressive fighters, preferring stealth and trickery to accomplish their dirty ways. They were not trained for face-to-face combat.

  But like the Shojo, never had so many participated on a direct assault, especially against the ruling Malickus family.

  No, they were after something other than control of this world. They must have been sent to his brother’s castle for another purpose, by someone after something much more valuable.

  And Renakletos knew it had to be Aureliana or the spawn Thas they were after. Why had such trickster demons invaded his brother’s castle, knowing they would face such obstacles? What hold had the traitor over both Shojo and rhacshas strong enough to compel the lesser demons to act so foolishly as to attack the High King’s lands?

  He cut his path through them, ruthlessly pushing rhacshas demons out of his way. Those that wouldn’t move met their final moments on his sword. Nothing was going to stop him from reaching the warrior girl. Nothing.

  She saw him coming; the hope in her eyes—and the fear—was something Ren knew he would never forget. His gamata needed him. And it spurred him on. He cut the biggest of the rhacshas in half with one strong swoop. He was nearly two hundred pounds heavier than a common rhacshas, more than two feet taller. Stronger, faster, and more skilled. It was only through their sheer numbers that his men hadn’t decimated the invaders, turning them in to fodder for the very gardens in which they fought.

  He would not let it be.

  The rhacshas must have realized that he was the biggest threat to their goal. They switched from fighting his men and guards to surrounding him.

  Or for the warrior girl? All the rhacshas were trying to get to her. Why her? Was it because of the Wolf god’s warning?

  Was this his Aureliana’s fate?

  In his heart he knew it wasn’t the child they’d been sent for. Nor was it the child the Beansidhe sought. He knew it, and when his eyes once more met Aureliana’s, he knew she knew it, too. She knew she was facing death.

  Her face was sad, but her grip on her weapon sure. She would meet that death head-on, his gamata. He realized then that she was a true Warrior female, despite her size and weaknesses. She had a Warrior’s heart, and that was what set her apart.

  The Beansidhe’s wails grew louder. Closer.

  It was somewhere in the lands surrounding the castle. More of the yellow and red skinned demons grabbed for him, greater numbered than ever before. Though he could fight them off in small groups, even he would fall beneath great quantities of the creatures.

  And though they were far from the most intelligent of the demons in his world, they were vicious and capable of killing him if enough got their heads out of their asses and worked together.

  Which was what they were trying to do.

  He fell to the ground under a brutal assault; the smooth stones of the path that wound around the small pond ground into his skin. He grabbed at the rhacshas atop him and flung one into three more. Tried to get to his knees.

  It wasn’t enough. More had poured through the damage done to his brother’s wall. Dozens, far more than the courtyard even had the room for. Were they inside his brother’s home yet, hurting and defiling the very people Renakletos had always striven to protect?

  He threw two off his shoulders, but three replaced them. And then more. He heard himself scream, yelling both in pain and rage.

  He would not give up. Never. He would get to his family, no matter what he had to do!

  One of the yellow bastards sank his teeth, foul nasty razors, into Ren’s arm and ripped, yanking tendon and muscle free.

  Ren ignored it, stabbing the beast through the eyes with the dagger he carried for more close attacks.

  His sword, his proud beautiful blade, was useless in such a close proximity fight. And had been lost somewhere near the pond.

  He clawed his way across the grass and rock.

  The wails overhead grew far colder.

  The Beansidhe was nearer.

  The rhacshas began to panic. Nothing in their world ever sounded so cold and terrifying. They pulled away from Ren, long enough for him to start twisting some heads on necks. When he was finished more than half a dozen of the rhacshas lay dead at his feet.

  But he feared it wouldn’t make much of a difference.

  The Beansidhe flew above the courtyard. Her pale raiment, tattered at the hem, trailed through the clustered rhacshas. All touched by the cloth died instantly, eyes going lifeless as what little souls the rhacshas possessed going to feed the creature floating above them. Her flesh darkened with each successive soul, until she was flushed. Almost full blooded.

  Little rhacshas now remained.

  Ren left them to the handful of his men that survived. He ran toward his female and their
spawn, dagger drawn. But he knew it would be too late.

  ***

  Aureliana had grabbed the spawn and shoved them beneath the stone bench behind her moments earlier. Now she faced the Beansidhe, weapon ready, body braced.

  So brave. So beautiful. A true warrior; he realized that now. Dear demons, why hadn’t he told her that before?

  He yelled at her to run, to hide, do what she must. He knew his orders were futile. She would never do that with the spawn so close to the murderous creature. Never.

  “Do not touch her, Ren! She will take your soul with just a brush of her gown!” His brother was there, holding Ren back from his female. Dear demons no! Ren cursed his brother, but Rathan’s hold was strong. And then there were more males surrounding him, keeping him from his female.

  The Beansidhe had Aureliana in her arms, and his female wasn’t moving, wasn’t fighting. Nothing had ever terrified him more.

  Ren fought the arms that held him, biting, clawing, pulling with all his Warrior demon rage. Five males where holding him back. Five and still he fought to get to her.

  But he would be too late.

  The Beansidhe rose above the courtyard.

  Far out of his reach.

  The rhacshas were all dead in seconds as the Beansidhe started singing. Ren fought not to cover his ears at the horrific sounds of her feeding on souls. He had to get to Aureliana. If the Beansidhe took her from this world, it was over.

  And the least he owed to Kindara and the Warrior girl’s brother was the chance to say their goodbyes and bury their dead.

  And he needed to hold her one last time.

  He didn’t realize he was begging the males holding him to let him go. They did. Renakletos Malickus had never begged for anything in his life. Never.

  But if it would get Aureliana back to him safely he’d beg on his knees if he had to. He was close enough to see the eyes of the creature holding his female.

  They weren’t as dead as he’d thought they would be.

  Weren’t Beansidhe dead, soulless creatures cursed to feed on the souls of the living of her realm? Why then, was this creature staring at him with pity?

  Was it because of her Encantado ancestry?

  “Give her to me!” he yelled, pointing the sword his brother had thrust in to his hands at the wraith floating above him. Aureliana was not moving. “You cannot have her!”

  The Beansidhe stopped her singing long enough to study him.

  Everyone around them stopped moving.

  Or was it just Ren’s perception that stopped? He didn’t know. Nor did he care.

  “Give her over!”

  “If I cannot have her, who can I have, then? Warrior demon? He who could have been king, if he had been but brave enough to take the crown?” She spoke with the voice of a thousand souls. More. Those she had feasted upon, in this realm and Aureliana’s Gaia?

  Had any creature ever chilled him more?

  She trailed a hand through the air toward him. “You? I do not take children, so the littlings—they are as safe as if in their mother’s arms. But you, a Demonkin prince, would be quite a prize.” She twirled midair, the tattered remnants around her hem whipping toward the spawn. His spawn. Aureliana’s. He wanted to dive in front of them, defend and protect them with might and sword, but stopped himself at the smile of satisfaction that hit her icy mouth.

  It was what she wanted, expected him to do. That was what would give her the satisfaction that she sought.

  He never took his eyes off the Beansidhe. Never stepped toward his spawn.

  Never moved.

  “You have their mother! Give her to those to whom she belongs. What good will she do anyone dead and gone? You admire her family, then preserve it, do not destroy.”

  It was not the Warrior way to negotiate; he’d been trained at his mother’s knees to fight his way through any situation. But he knew that if he were to fight this creature he would lose. Instantly.

  He was just that vulnerable.

  He, prince of Demonkin, Warrior and Incubus bred, was vulnerable to a female creature with no corporeal substance. He could not fight her, could not defend against her. She would take what she wanted, and nothing would stop her. Nothing.

  “Take me then!” He threw down his dagger and raised his arms. “Put the female down, and take a male of greatest honor for your soul-filled collection, then. I go willingly!”

  She laughed, loud and long and shrill. Ren’s blood curdled beneath his skin. Several people screamed and wailed. He ignored them all. “You think you are more to me than her? She is the mother of a new Kind; you are but a demon prince. A second born, at that. She holds the key to the worlds in her heart, and cradled strength and power in her arms. Yet you think you can match her in sacrifice, Renakletos Arenus Malickus, son of Luthus Malickus. Tell me, what will you sacrifice, Renakletos, to have this female? What will you sacrifice to have her in your arms again? Tell me!”

  “Everything that I am, everything that I can be! Take what you will, just return her to this world! Take…me!”

  He fell to his knees, prostrate. “Please! Take me! Take me! Take me!”

  The Beansidhe dropped Aureliana next to him. He reached for her, but never touched her. Something yanked him away from her.

  Ren was surrounded by darkness; the only thing he heard was the screams from the courtyard, and the chilling laughter of the Beansidhe as she sucked him away.

  And then he heard nothing at all.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  He woke in a dim place, with the sounds of one thousand whispers surrounding him. The voices were knives against his skin. He, Renakletos Arenus Malickus did not belong in this place. It was for those far more honored than he could be. Shame hit him.

  He was not worthy to be in this woman’s presence. And he knew what she was—a Laquazzean, a goddess of the gods. She was beautiful, with brown skin and green eyes. Beautiful of spirit and form and he found it hard to look at her.

  “Do not feel so ashamed, Renakletos. Or should I call you Ren? You are here because you are supposed to be here.”

  “Why?” He didn’t need to be here; he needed to be protecting his… “My spawn? Cerridwen, Thas? My gamata? Are they safe?”

  “That is what you asked for, was it not?”

  It was. He went down to one knee and bowed his head. That was all that mattered, then. “It was.”

  “Then that’s what you will receive.” She turned away from him and stirred something in a pot on an antiquated stove. She poured it in to a mug, then sipped. She watched him for too long. “Tell me something, Ren, why are you with the warrior girl? Why did you put yourself in place as her guardian? She certainly didn’t ask it of you. In fact, the exact opposite.”

  He thought for a long moment. “I owed her much for what I had done to her.”

  “But she held no ill will toward you; whereas her own brother could not say the same.”

  “It mattered not. I owed her. She was wronged by my hand, yet she sought only to love and play with my child, to protect my brother’s gamata, to befriend and defend my sister and sisterspawn. How could I not offer the only skill I truly had to give?”

  “Obligation and honor. What about more than that?”

  He did not understand; were they not important? “What else could there be?”

  “You chose to make great sacrifices in their names—obligation and honor. Would you say those are the most important of things?”

  “Some of them.”

  “Tell me, Ren, did your mother treat you with love…or obligation?”

  He thought for a moment. His mother had kept him just as long as she had to, then sent him to the father he had never met before. He had seen her maybe a dozen times in the nearly two thousand years since. “Not even obligation; not to me. But to our people, no.”

  “Your people? You are Warrior, but you were raised Incubus. Why do you still claim your mother’s people as yours, when it is to your father’s that your true loyalty
belongs?”

  Because his skills, his strengths, were those he had been raised to cultivate. He was not glib, or smooth-tongued, able to charm anyone of any Kind like his more Incubus brothers. He was Warrior, and had been bred to fight, to defend.

  To protect.

  “To protect.” She looked right at him, and those green eyes read every thought, every emotion he had ever had. “You were born to protect, Renakletos. Your destiny is such, if you seek to meet it.”

  “My destiny?” Ren didn’t believe in destiny, not fully. Yet the Wolf god’s words of Aureliana’s future filled his head. “I have no destiny. Time denies destiny for ones such as us.” Probably more so for the Laquazzean.

  “Does it? I shall have to think about that.” She sat her drink down and it disappeared, mug gone with barely a notice. “Aureliana had a destiny. You know about it.”

  “Yes. I do.”

  “You did not tell her about it. Why?”

  “Because her goddess feared it would bring about her death.” Yet wasn’t that what had happened anyway? Grief unlike any other hit him; was she gone? Had he come here only to lose her anyway? “And that fear came to be.”

  The Laquazzean looked at him, wrapped her hands around his. “When we seek to run from our fears we often bring those very fears to fruition. We must meet all things with courage. And honor. And obligation. And…love, Renakletos Arenus Malickus. Because love is the basis of true courage. Not strength or skill with as sword. Love is courage.”

  She held out her hand and he studied the palm. Her flesh was marred in a way he could not identify. What injury had been so grievous to scar a creature like her?

  That was the last thought he had.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  When next he awoke he was on the grass where he’d fallen. Dead rhacshas surround him.

  Him and the Warrior girl.

  She was not moving. Her eyes were closed, her skin too pale.