Sinister Seraphim of Mine (Overworld Chronicles Book 8) (8 page)

"Two?" I said, horrified.

"For a Daemos, you certainly know nothing about lower demon spawn," he said.

I would have growled if not for the dire need to keep quiet. "Fine. How do we kill it?"

Nightliss took my arm. "You have to cut off the head, otherwise it will regrow into two crawlers."

"Are you saying if I slice it up, every body part will regrow into more crawlers?" I asked, imagining a swarm of tiny demon spawn nipping at my skin.

She shook her head. "It can only split into two, but one is deadly enough."

"Lovely." I magnified my sight on the creature, looking for the head. With all the damned legs, finding the head in the mess was a real pain.

Something else moved in the tree. I looked up and spotted a squirrel climbing down the pine tree, dislodging bits of bark. It stopped, nose twitching, a few feet above the crawler, and resumed its descent. The squirrel touched the crawler. I expected a flash of action and a mess of blood and guts, but the crawler didn't so much as twitch.

A snakelike protuberance emerged from the crawler, hovering over the squirrel. In a flash, it struck like a snake. The squirrel's body twitched and fell to the ground, feet running in place for several seconds before growing still.

"It didn't eat it?" I whispered.

"Crawlers don't eat flesh," Jeremiah said. "They eat souls."

"Remember the ambush at Thunder Rock?" Elyssa said.

I nodded. "The Templars and other Daemos were massacred by crawlers."

"All their souls devoured." She shuddered.

My body went cold. Just then, I saw the crawler's legs shift. Its body turned to face our way. A horrific face, part human, part animal, and framed with gleaming pincers looked directly at us. Before I could shout a warning, the creature leapt from the tree. A horrific shriek shattered the night air as it blurred toward us.

Time seemed to slow as my supernatural reflexes took over. Even so, the crawler looked like a blur to my enhanced sight. Elyssa's hands reached for her swords. Jeremiah was slowly bringing his wand out. Nightliss cupped both hands before her and blasted the area in front of the crawler with a beam of ultraviolet Murk.

The crawler dodged the shot. It leapt straight for Elyssa. My first instinct was to send a sizzling ray of Brilliance at the creature, but doing so would light up the woods and possibly give away our location, not to mention creating another horror.

It's just a big nasty bug.

So I did what I usually did with roaches, spiders, and anything else I didn't want to touch. I slammed a cup over it. In this case, I actually caught the thing in mid-air with a bubble of Murk. The crawler shrieked again. Its legs stuck to the sides of the large bubble like any normal spider, and it literally ran in circles around the inside.

My perception of time dropped back to normal speed.

Jeremiah gave me a surprised look. "What now, boy?"

I tried not to bristle at his tone. "Phase two," I replied.

He raised an eyebrow.

I grinned. "I'm gonna squish it." With that, I willed the bubble to collapse. The crawler hissed and bit at the bubble, screaming in an almost human voice until the screams turned to gurgling as my compactor turned it into a ball of brown mush. A thin, glowing blue line split the air and flashed closed. During practice sessions, I'd banished enough hellhounds back to Haedaemos—the demon realm—to know what had happened even if the others with me couldn't have seen it. I released my spell and the bubble of Murk vanished. A perfect ball of crawler jelly hit the ground and splatted into gelatinous ooze, some of it landing on Jeremiah's boots.

I suppressed a smug smile.

Elyssa jumped back, swords flashing. "Is it dead?"

I nodded. "I saw its spirit go back to Haedaemos."

"You can see that?" Jeremiah asked.

I sighed. "I'm part Daemos, remember?"

He didn't look convinced. "That thing's cries probably alerted any guards."

"We can't turn back now," Elyssa said. "Let's push forward."

Jeremiah pressed his lips together, but didn't disagree.

Keeping my nose alert to any other demonic surprises, I led the way forward while Jeremiah probed for hidden wards. A few minutes later, we reached the prison wall. Made of granite, it stretched a hundred yards in both directions and rose at least twenty feet high. Vines and moss claimed much of the gray surface, but it still looked solid even after decades of neglect.

"The front gate is to our left," Jeremiah said. "There is an old sewer entrance that will provide us safer ingress, however."

I wrinkled my nose. "Can't we just jump the wall?"

"Jumping this wall, while more direct," he said, "would likely result in our being discovered."

"I can give you a boost."

His eyes narrowed. "This is no time for jokes, boy."

I returned an innocent look. "Who's joking? Just give the word and I'll launch you like a midget in a slingshot."

"Justin." Elyssa gave me a stern look. "Let's go to the sewer."

I zipped my mouth and followed my girlfriend. We reached a pond reeking of stagnant water and walked around it until we arrived at a ditch overgrown with cattails. Jeremiah held out his staff, and the reeds bent to either side, granting us clear passage through the water and to the sewer grate.

"It's not the Red Sea, but I guess it'll do," I said.

Even in the moonlight, I could see Jeremiah's face darken.

I knew now was not the time to deal with my anger toward this man, but as usual, the smartass in me wasn't good at holding his tongue. Forgetting the bad blood between us was harder than I wanted to admit.

We reached a thick metal grate. Despite the rust, it still looked as solid as the granite wall. Focusing my will, I aimed a finger and channeled a needle of Brilliance at the grate, slicing it open. Nightliss channeled Murk and caught the chunk of grating before it fell and clanged on the stone waterway surface.

Elyssa stepped through first, Jeremiah following close behind, waving his staff around in search of wards. The tunnel through the rock was flat on the bottom and curved near the top. It looked as though it had been chiseled with common tools. Only a small stream of water indicated it was seeing any kind of use. We made our way along it for a few hundred yards before arriving at large round chamber with a tank in the center. Rusty metal pipes large enough to accommodate mustachioed Italian plumbers terminated just above the tank. Green and brown stains on the wall gave ample evidence of the delights they'd once carried to this holding room. Water dripped from moss on the ceiling. The sound echoed, giving an eerie quality to the environment.

Elyssa tested the oxidized rungs of a steel ladder with a foot before climbing to a grated metal platform above. I followed her and stood on the platform. Despite squeaking every time I took a step, it felt solid enough. We stepped through an open doorway and into a room filled with more metal pipes and gauges. The next door led to a long, dusty corridor lined with prison cells. We paused, listening for signs of life, but heard no sound of footsteps.

"Where are the guards?" Elyssa's eyes narrowed as if trying to see something that wasn't there.

Jeremiah didn't look surprised. "The battle mages are powerful, but also arrogant. They probably see little value in patrolling unused portions of the prison and believe they can handle any surprises that come their way."

Elyssa wrinkled her nose. "This kind of lax security is inexcusable."

"I'm not complaining," I chimed in.

"The perimeter is well-guarded." Jeremiah flicked his wand back and forth as if measuring for radiation with a Geiger counter. "Daelissa will assume no one can break through the outer defenses."

"She must not know about this sewer entrance," Elyssa said.

Jeremiah continued to wave his wand about. "I made certain it was left undiscovered." He grunted and put away his wand. "I sense no hidden wards. Let us proceed."

"This way?" Elyssa pointed down the corridor.

He nodded. "The aether pods are ahead."

We continued onward, the Nightingale armor silencing our approach. A thrum grew audible in the distance, becoming louder as we approached a set of wide double doors at the end of the hall. Light flickered beneath the doors and through the filthy windows, casting strange shadows in the gloom.

When we reached the doors, Jeremiah manipulated the lock on the right until it clicked open. We entered what looked like some kind of observation room where a guard might watch inmates through a one-way window. The room on the other side had probably once been a cafeteria, judging from the size. Now it resembled something out of a mad scientist's wet dream.

At least a dozen devices lined the floor, each comprised of two spinning circles of silver that seemed to levitate above the ground. One silver band spun horizontally around a slightly smaller partner with a vertical spin. To either side of the hoops, massive Tesla coils hissed and crackled with aether. Brilliant light flashed at the center of each device. I could barely make out the shadow of something inside each aether inferno, but already knew they were cherubs.

Judging from the number of devices present, Daelissa would have her Seraphim army up and running in no time.

Chapter 7

We've got to wipe this place off the map.

Taking my eyes from the aether pods, I noticed a figure in the form-fitting robes of the Black Robe Brotherhood sitting before a console. Several more dark-robed mages hovered around a wall filled with glowing runes.

"How do we shut them down?" I asked.

"The runes on the wall focus energy from the ley lines beneath the prison and into the Tesla coils," Jeremiah said. "The console at the front of the room can shut down individual aether pods."

"Even if we destroy these devices, how long would it take for Daelissa's people to rebuild them?" Nightliss asked.

Jeremiah gave her a grim look. "Not long."

"We need to take out their brainpower," I said. "Did the battles mages build these things?"

Jeremiah nodded. "They're experts in weaponizing magic. Since the ley lines beneath this prison are the same conduits powering Thunder Rock, it didn't take them long to build the magical equivalent of nuclear reactors."

"These people used to work for you," I said. "Maybe you can get them to ally with us."

His lips twisted. "They're mercenaries. Their loyalties lie with power and riches."

Nightliss's forehead pinched. "I do not like the thought of killing so many people."

"Me either," Elyssa said. "But they made a choice. If we don't kill off the brains behind the aether pods, we're wasting our time and losing the element of surprise."

I counted about twenty battle mages. If they were ordinary Arcanes, untrained in advanced magical combat, I might have suggested we take them out right then and there. After fighting Maulin Kassus and his band of merry mages, I knew better. These people were the special forces of the arcane world. If Gandalf and Rambo had kids, these mages would be the result.

"We need to find out if Daelissa is present," Jeremiah said. "She often stayed here."

"In this god-forsaken place?" I said. "She's crazier than I thought."

"It's close enough to the Thunder Rock interdiction zone to keep people away," Jeremiah said. "After we drained the quarry lake and excavated the control room, we reactivated the arch room. She has everything she needs close at hand, including a Gloom arch."

A figure in a hoodie entered the aether pod room through a door on the opposite side from the control console. Judging from the long, braided hair extending from under the hood and the curves beneath her clothes, the figure was a woman. People in loose robes followed close behind her, eager expressions on their faces.

I immediately knew their organizational affiliation, thanks to the old-school sackcloth robes and holier-than-thou attitude, and it wasn't with the Catholic Church.

"Exorcists," I said. "What are they doing here?"

The hooded woman tapped on an arctablet in her hand, apparently showing the others how to use it. "Are you sure they're Exorcists?" Elyssa squinted through the observation window at the device as if confirming it was truly an arctablet. "It's like a community tech college class in there and I didn't think they used technology."

"They didn't." I watched as a wrinkled, old Exorcist clapped his hands with joy after flicking his fingers across the tablet screen. "Maybe they've decided it's time to change."

"The Church of the Divinity was their home before we took it," Nightliss said. "This must be where they live now."

"I wouldn't be surprised if Daelissa is staging most of her forces at Thunder Rock." Elyssa folded her arms.

Jeremiah shrugged. "As I said before, she has a functional control room full of arches, an Alabaster Arch, and the Gloom arch."

I thought back to my experiences at Thunder Rock. Kassallandra, Elyssa, and I had been trying to escape the place, but a husked Flark had snagged me from the water and cast me into tunnels full of cherubs. I remembered what the red-headed Daemas had told me about what lay at the bottom of the quarry lake. "Thunder Rock doesn't have an Obsidian Arch."

"It does now." Jeremiah's hard gaze swiveled to me. "Apparently, the complex was never fully finished. The builders left all those prepackaged arch cubes behind, each one capable of being deployed as a particular kind of arch. Installing an Obsidian Arch was a simple matter."

"Atlanta is her hub," Elyssa said. "We have to assume she has at least some omniarches in the Thunder Rock control room working."

I shook my head. "Unless she figured out how to repair them, those omniarches are so broken they might toss you into a black hole. I was probably lucky to end up in El Dorado instead of caught in the void between dimensions."

A mixed group of male and female Exorcists entered the room, hoods down, and arctablets in hand. They joined the first group, walking around the aether pods while the hooded woman seemed to lecture them.