The Trouble With Demons

Chapter 24

Housebreaking wasn’t just about breaking into a house. Any street thief could break a window and crawl in. The trick was to get in, get what you came for, and get out without breaking anything-all without getting caught.

And without setting off the house wards of one of the most powerful mages in the seven kingdoms.

Normally I loved a challenge, but this was one that I could do without. So I brought in a professional. While I felt perfectly capable of handling it myself, I was a firm believer in qualified backup.

Phaelan was waiting for us two blocks from Carnades’s town house. Naturally he was in the shadows, and of course he had two of his crew with him. They could keep watch outside, but they were not going in. I was going to burgle a house, and burgling was best done either alone, or with one or two other people at the most-professional people. Any more than that and it wasn’t burglary; it was crowd control.

When Talon’s dark mage bodyguards had caught sight of Rudra Muralin, Talon’s school day was officially over. He was going home, under full guard, and one of the mages assured me that the kid was going to stay put. From the look on his face, sitting on Talon had not been ruled out as an option. And I knew when they got back to Sirens, the first thing they’d tell Tam was not only was Rudra Muralin on the surface, he was having lunch at the faculty club. Yes, there were Khrynsani with him; and yes, it was broad daylight, but I had a feeling that these boys lived for challenges like that. I knew Tam did. Muralin had to leave that faculty club sometime, and when he did, he’d better watch his back-and his front and his sides. I hated I was going to miss it.

Carnades wanted me to find the Hellgate, but he’d have to get in line. I smiled. I had a house to rob first. His house. I knew Carnades had no intention of discussing my continued freedom; so I had no intention of hunting for a Hellgate. In my mind, Carnades had just joined Sarad Nukpana on my list of people to double-cross. There were others much more qualified to find and slam a Hellgate; besides, there was a demon queen at that Hellgate and she was pissed at yours truly. I wasn’t going demon hunting.

Though at the moment, demons and daggers weren’t my biggest problem. My biggest problem was standing right next to me with four behemoth Guardians. I’d decided that Piaras wasn’t going with me.

“Okay, last chance, Piaras,” I told him. “Leave this to me.”

The kid shot an uncomfortable glance back at his Guardians. “You said you needed a you-know-what to find this thing. Magus Silvanus collects daggers. That means he’s got a lot of them. You know what it looks like, but what if he has more than one dagger with cavorting demons on it?”

“Then I’ll take them all.”

“And what if it’s hidden, not in a display case in plain sight? How will you find it then? Do you want to risk that?”

“I don’t want to risk you.”

“You’re doing this because of me and Talon.” His eyes were dark and intent-and looking down at me. Damn, when had he gotten so tall? “I won’t stand by and let you put yourself in danger-again-for me. Raine, I’m not being stubborn about this, you need me and you know it. Yes, I’m in danger; we both are. And that danger’s not going to go away without risk. I won’t let you take my risks for me anymore.”

“You’ll be breaking the law. If we’re caught we-”

“Then we won’t get caught.” He sounded confident about that; I’d like to have shared his optimism.

“I know what will happen if the demons get that dagger,” Piaras continued. “If they reach the Saghred, they’ll let the demon king out, and people who might be even worse.” He paused. “I’m sure Sarad Nukpana will be second in line. There’s no question of what I have to do.”

I stood there, looking at him. Then I hugged him. Guardians and pirates be damned; I didn’t care who saw it. Piaras hugged me back; it looked like he didn’t care, either.

Then came the fun of negotiating terms with Piaras’s Guardians. When the dust settled, three of them had agreed to wait outside, wait close to the house, but definitely outside. If any nosy neighbors were looking out their windows, Guardians on duty outside the acting archmagus’s town house wouldn’t be suspicious in the least. If Piaras was going inside, he’d need protection from outside as well. And if we needed help, we’d yell. Phaelan and I were good at that.

One of Piaras’s Guardians was going in with us. Mychael had told Herrick to stick to his future little brother like glue, and stick he would. The huge Guardian wasn’t going to let a little thing like treason to an acting archmagus keep him from doing his guard duty. The chance of capture and being charged with treason didn’t faze Vegard, either. His response when I told him I wanted him to stay outside was, “No, ma’am, and no arguments.” Truth was I wanted him with me, and I think he knew that without me saying a word.

Phaelan sauntered over. “We’ve scoped it out.” He paused. “No one on guard.”

Warning bells went off in my head. “What?”

“Not one highborn elven goon in fancy livery. The place looks deserted.”

Come right on in, said the spider to the fly.

I swore. “Maybe Carnades took them all to the faculty club.” I said it but I didn’t believe it, not for one minute. They could be waiting inside. Or worse, Carnades had such kick-ass wards that he didn’t need any guards.

“Is the kid going with us?” Phaelan asked me.

“The kid is,” Piaras told him.

My cousin looked at me with no expression whatsoever.

“He is,” I said.

Phaelan solemnly put out his hand and Piaras took it. Right now, Phaelan wasn’t my cousin. He was Captain Benares, scourge of the seven kingdoms, and we were about to break a double armload of laws. “Welcome to the family, Piaras.”

Three of Piaras’s Guardians staying outside left only Justinius’s wards and Herrick to keep Sarad Nukpana out of Piaras’s mind. Nukpana had told me what he thought of the old man’s efforts. If those wards failed, Herrick was the only barrier keeping the goblin from taking over Piaras-the only barrier except for Piaras himself. I looked over at him. While Phaelan and Vegard took one last look at the back of the house to locate the best way in, Piaras hadn’t moved. He was completely silent and still, ready and waiting-the perfect future Guardian. Herrick loomed like a protective shadow behind him. If Sarad Nukpana was smart, he’d keep his manipulations to himself.

I didn’t think Nukpana would try anything; he needed for me to find the Scythe of Nen. The demons sure as hell weren’t going to let him out, at least not intentionally. Problem was, I was pretty sure Nukpana trusted the demons more than he did me. I had to hand it to the goblin; he was a good judge of character.

Phaelan and Vegard came back to where Piaras and I were waiting.

“There’s a door by the kitchen, probably for deliveries,” Vegard said. “The wards aren’t quite as sophisticated there, probably so the kitchen staff can let delivery people in and out.”

Vegard didn’t have to spell it out for me; I could read between the lines. If Carnades had wards on the kitchen door, and kitchen staff talented enough to use them, that didn’t bode well for what we’d run into in the rest of the house. It went without saying that Carnades valued his dagger collection and the rest of his worldly goods. I bet those wards packed a punch. Maybe we’d get lucky and he left the Scythe on his bedroom dresser from when he wore it yesterday. You’d think that Luck had to start speaking to me again sometime. The pessimist inside my head told me not to hold my breath on that one.

“No kitchen staff?” I asked Vegard.

“No signs of anyone being in the house, period.”

“It’s spooky,” Phaelan added.

It was worse than that, but I didn’t need to say out loud what all of us knew-it sounded like a trap with our names on it. Nothing that I had done since I had arrived on the island warranted arrest, regardless of what Carnades said. However, if I got caught in his house, Carnades would have every right to toss me in prison along with my accomplices.

“We’re not going to get caught,” I said to no one in particular.

Phaelan’s grin was crooked. “Damn straight we’re not. Our family pride is at stake.”

And our heads.

Phaelan’s preferred method of theft usually involved a ship, forty cannons, and an overenthusiastic crew. As Guardians, Vegard and Herrick hadn’t been trained in the more subtle points of building entry. If a door or gate was in their way, Guardians would simply get rid it. As a seeker, I’ve had to retrieve objects or people from behind locked and warded doors or cells. I had been taught lock picking by a retired cat burglar. She was retired because she never got caught; as a result, she retired very comfortably.

The locks and wards on the delivery entrance weren’t easy to disable, but they didn’t make me break a sweat, either. That bothered me, a lot. Before turning the latch, I carefully reached out with a searching spell. No alarms, magical or otherwise, had warned anyone of our arrival. Maybe since Carnades was an arrogant jerk, he thought his reputation and position on the Seat of Twelve would protect him and his valuables. Or maybe I wasn’t good enough to sense what he had in place. Only one way to find out. I turned the latch and slowly opened the door. Nothing.

Except a stomach-turning and familiar stench.

Oh no.

Phaelan was wrong, there were people in the house. Dead people. Not just dead, butchered. There were plenty of knives in Carnades’s kitchen, but the staff had been the only ones who had tried to use them. The things that had sliced them to ribbons, eviscerated them, or both, didn’t need knives. Demons had claws, horns, and teeth. I went in, Vegard and Phaelan on my heels, then Herrick with Piaras. I forced myself not to look too closely at what was left of a cook slumped over a chopping block.

The blood was still fresh; these people had been dead an hour, probably less. I looked at Vegard, and the Guardian nodded. I felt him reaching out, careful and silent, searching for signs of life, demonic or otherwise. I did the same in the opposite direction.

Not one breath. Whatever had been here had come, killed, and gone. I got a sick feeling that had nothing to do with dead bodies. If the demons were gone, chances were good that the dagger was gone right along with them. The smart thing would be to get out of here. Now. I was smart, but I was also desperate. Vegard was looking at me, his question unspoken but obvious.

“We have to search.” I said it on an exhaled breath, audible only to those around me. If there was any chance at all that the demons didn’t find the Scythe of Nen, we had to look. We all put our weapons in our hands where they belonged.

I turned to Piaras. He was staring steadfastly ahead and breathing through his mouth. He looked down at me and nodded once, tightly.

Vegard gave Piaras the box that had held the Scythe of Nen. Piaras opened it and laid his hand flat against the velvet lining inside. Unlike myself, he didn’t get kicked across the room. Piaras looked at the lining, concentrating. Normally, closed eyes worked best for this kind of thing. I didn’t blame Piaras; I wouldn’t close my eyes in this slaughterhouse, either. After half a minute, he closed the box and gave it back to Vegard. His brown eyes were distant and focused, though not on anything the rest of us could see.

Piaras indicated an open door on the other side of the kitchen. Even though neither Vegard nor I had sensed anything still among the living in the house, none of us wanted to say anything out loud. The things in Sirens hadn’t been alive, and they’d caused plenty of trouble.

Vegard and Phaelan went to check the door, and more important, what was on the other side. When they’d finished, Vegard looked back at us and nodded.

Beyond that door was a hallway in the back of the house. There were several doors leading off of it and one staircase, leading up, presumably into the main part of the house. Everything was plain and practical; it had to be the servants’ section. I’d expected Piaras to make a beeline for those stairs and Carnades’s study or bedroom. He indicated a door that led to what must have been a common room for the servants. Thankfully, there were no bodies in there. Lamps were lit, but light didn’t make it any better. There was something on the floor that I’d seen before and didn’t want to see again.

Black goo. Undead horde black goo. Along with it was a yellowish, green slime that shone in a thin trail across the room and ended at a closed door. None of us wanted to open that door, but at least one of us had to. I took one step toward it, but Vegard was there first. One hand held his battle-ax, its blade glowing blue in the dim light. His other hand reached for the doorknob. I felt a brush of cold air coming from beneath that door. I swallowed, braced myself, and nodded to Vegard.

There weren’t any demons or undead warriors on the other side of the door, though what was there was just as bad.

Stairs leading down into pitch darkness.

“Why is the spooky shit always in the basement?” Phaelan muttered.

“Piaras, are you sure?” I asked.

He nodded. “What was in this box went down those stairs.”

And it didn’t get there by itself. The demons found it, the demons had it, and now the demons had gone into the basement. And we had to follow them. No choice, no option.

“Let’s get some lights,” I said. “I want it bright as noon down there.”

Down there was packed dirt walls and nothing else. Leave it to Carnades not to have a basement full of junk. The only thing that was there was a fresh hole dug into the wall, about four feet tall. The hole was fresh; the stench was not. Vegard took a whiff and scowled.

I smelled brimstone. I felt something else.

I stood motionless and let the residuals flow over me.

It was black magic, thick and vile. It had been done here, and recently. Raising an undead horde would definitely qualify. It was fetid and dripping with raw hatred. Evil. I felt it through my clothes, crawling on my skin, slick and cloying. I immediately started breathing through my mouth to keep myself from gagging.

The glow increased on Vegard’s ax. “What is it?”

“You can’t smell it?”

“Brimstone?”

I shook my head. “Black magic.”

“You can smell it, ma’am?”

“More like sense, probably through the Saghred. I guess evil calls to evil.”

“You’re not evil.”

“Thank you, Vegard. Tell that to Carnades. Or better yet, save it for my trial.”

“There won’t be a trial.”

“You’re right,” I said, staring down into the darkness where I had to go. “If the demons don’t get me, Carnades will skip the trial and go straight to the execution.”

Vegard opened his mouth to protest and I held up a hand. “That’s his plan-that’s not what he’s going to get.”

“That’s my girl, ma’am.”

I looked at him. “Vegard, when are you going to stop calling me ‘ma’am’?”

He grinned. “When I don’t respect and admire you anymore.”

My throat went tight. “That hasn’t happened yet?”

His eyes shone with unabashed pride. “Not even close.”

I shone my lightglobe into the hole. I wasn’t worried about anything jumping out at me. Whatever had been here had gotten what they came for and was running back to the Hellgate that spawned them.

“Phaelan, you and Piaras are leaving,” I said. “Herrick, take-”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Phaelan’s dark eyes flashed in anger.

“Yes, you are and you’re taking Piaras with you.”

“I’m not going.” Piaras stepped up beside me and looked into the dark. “You need me to-”

I turned on him. “You say the Scythe went down there. It didn’t go by itself. The demons have it, and they’re taking it back to the Hellgate. If I can’t catch the little sons of bitches first, I can at least track them far enough to locate the Hellgate and report back to Mychael.”

Piaras went to the hole and leaned inside before I could stop him. “I can feel the Scythe from here. Can you?”

I squatted down beside him; the only thing I felt was stinking air. “You’re not just saying that so you can go?”

Piaras sighed. “Raine, none of us want to go down there; but yes, I can feel the Scythe. It’s like something tugging at me, like there’s a cord attached.” He pointed to the center of his chest. “Right here.”

Dammit. That was exactly what he should feel; it was a classic seeking response. I needed the kid and the determined look in his eyes told me he knew it. That Guardian nobility crap must be rubbing off on him. If we lived until the end of the day, I was going after the kid with a scrub brush.

“You’re still leaving,” I told him.

“I’m staying.”

“You’re-”

An explosion from upstairs shook the ground beneath our feet.

“That wasn’t gunpowder,” Phaelan said.

“It was magic.” Herrick was halfway to the stairs.

Enraged shouts in elven and the pounding of booted feet came from upstairs. Carnades’s guards. Lunch must be over, and guess who was home. Oh shit.

“They’re still in the front of the house,” Herrick said. Unspoken communication passed between him and Vegard. Herrick nodded grimly and bounded up the stairs.

“In the hole!” Vegard ordered. “Now! Herrick will keep them off us.”

In the hole with the brimstone, black magic, and demons.

I’d told Carnades that I’d rather go to Hell.

Me and my big mouth.