Chapter 15

Master cautiously looked out the door. The corridor was empty, with only the corpses of the earl's servants lying in a lurch. On the faces of the seemingly unharmed dead there was a grimace of horror - demons don't inflict physical wounds, they drink the very life of a man. The invisible, insensible "glue" that binds the soul to the body.

There was a muffled cry coming from somewhere behind the wall. It seemed that the creatures that had broken free had taken on the other inhabitants of the castle. Carlon shuddered, kneeling hastily beside Sir Roland's body. The old knight no longer needed help, but the mage still searched his neck for a pulse. When he couldn't find it, he leaned over the threshold. He chuckled when he saw the copper band with the magical insignia carved into the metal. So that's how it was. The protective circle was closed not by the doors of the Hall, but by the threshold. To close the magical barrier with the blown shutters would be easy and convenient, but not reliable. Someone had been very thorough in their preparations for the assassination attempt. Unfortunately for them, Sir Roland was clever - not being a mage, he knew what to do, and with his final blow he sliced through the brass band, breaking the barrier. But Carlon was a fool. He could, after all, have seen the line on the threshold when he entered the hall...

Lady Kaya walked past the wizard. She stopped in the middle of the corridor and glanced to the right and to the left, keeping her sword and her amulet at the ready. The mage turned around. A frowning Maria was examining the wound of the other twin. The duchess, accompanied by Lady Emilia and the mercenaries, was pacing toward him. She was clearly about to speak to Carlon, but at that moment something in the castle courtyard crackled and rattled deafeningly. The mage darted toward one of the windows that cut into the wall of the corridor.

- What is it? - Valria asked, standing beside him.

- The gateway is closed, the bars drawn down. - Mater pressed his lips together tightly. - They are raising the bridge.

- And the sentries? - Dallan inquired. She stood on the other side of the mage. It was impossible for the three of them to see through one narrow window, so the mage stepped aside to make room for the girls.

- The doors are locked, so are the entrances to the gatehouses, - the eagle-eyed elf answered for the mage. - Like a siege.

- So we got out of the trap into the trap, - Emilia wrapped the amulet chain around her palm and clenched fist. While Lady Kaya kept a watchful eye on one end of the corridor, the tiny girl watched the other. But no one was in any hurry to finish what they had begun. Creepy shouts came from all directions, which was unnerving, but suggested that the castle's servants were no longer concerned with guests. - Perhaps all of Sir Cyril's men were involved in the conspiracy. To get out of the castle we would have to break through the inner rooms, the courtyard, break into the towers, seize the lifting mechanism, open the gates, raise the bars, lower the bridge... I don't think we can do that. Even if the Earl has only a few servants capable of fighting, all they have to do is lock themselves in the towers. Master, can you use magic to break down the door?

- One or two, if they are not lined with iron. - The mage shook his head. - We have bigger problems now. The castle is surrounded by a moat of flowing water, and its walls are protected by fortress amulets. It's all designed to keep demons and ghosts from entering. But now...

- It won't let them out of here. - Valria whistled softly. - The demons are trapped in the castle, and so are we... Great. A jar full of flies and spiders.

- We'll get the mistress out of here. - The little brown-eyed lady said it as if she was stating a fact. - If we can't open the gate, we'll find a rope and let Christina down from the wall. The escort should be moving, they'll meet her on the other side and help her across... We need to find an unlocked tower or other way to the crest of the wall. The sooner the better.

- On the other hand, I would suggest we take our time, - Valria protested, turning to the Duchess. Carlon saw the violet lights in her eyes, and snorted:

- Thinking up something idiotic, are you?

- On the contrary, I want to be careful, - the girl pretended to take offense. - Carlon, you said demons are afraid of the sun's rays, right?

- Yes. It burns their etheric bodies.

- The donjon has an open area upstairs. - Without taking her eyes off Christine, the elfess pulled up her parade suede gloves, adorned with black embroidery. - The tower is tall; the sun will light up its peak before anything else. And there must be only one entrance to the platform. The assassins must be waiting for us downstairs and in the courtyard. And the demons are where more people are right now. Also downstairs. No one thinks we're going up.

For a few seconds everyone was silent, digesting what they'd heard. Lady Maria and Adela emerged from the trashed dining hall. Maria had stripped her wounded sister of her shoulder pads, removed the arrow, bandaged her pierced shoulder, and now the redheaded girl acted as if nothing had happened. Except for putting the sword in its scabbard and taking the chain of amulet in her healthy hand.

- We'll go up to the upper ground, fortify ourselves there, and wait until morning, - Lady Emilia finally understood the elf's thoughts. - Maybe we can make some sort of connection with the escort behind the wall. And in the daylight we'll go down to the courtyard and deal only with live enemies. Yes, I agree with that plan.

- We'll have to fortify ourselves against demons, too. - Carlon rubbed the bridge of his nose with force. It looked disrespectful in front of the Duchess of Elvart, but the master decided that the extraordinary circumstances excused him. - Your Highness, may I know what we all saw in the hall? The words you spoke there were not a spell, they were just words. But after them the ghost of Lady Jana appeared, in a very clear manifestation. She looked perfectly alive. And she acted... consciously. There are no ghosts in their senses, it is against their very nature. What was that, Your Highness?

- You saw the little secret of all the ruling houses of old Daert, Master. - The Duchess met the mage's gaze, and Carlon barely averted his eyes. - The traditions of the personal guard are very ancient, and the oath of the guard was written in the days when oaths had real power. In fact, the oath is a magical ritual. The guard mixes his blood with that of his suzerain and swears to serve him until his death. Until the death of his lord, not his own. The death of a Guardian does not release him from his oath.

- So... the souls of dead guardsmen cannot enter the Creator's gardens as long as their lord lives? - Carlon was dumbfounded. And apparently so was Valria - she opened her mouth to say something, but at the last moment she changed her mind.

- Of course they can. - Christina the Second suddenly smiled. - No magic can prevent the Creator from summoning a soul to his throne. The Guardian's oath is simply a... a request for reprieve. Usually this request is granted - if the guardian was a worthy man. Jana herself wants to be with me after she dies. And she has been allowed to do so. Any of her sisters would want the same. Doesn't it?

- Yes, - Lady Emilia replied. She didn't even turn around, continuing to watch her end of the corridor.

- Yes, - the other girls in blue and silver echoed her.

- Is she here now? - asked the master. - Jana, I mean.

- She'll be here if we need her.

- And she can protect us from the demons?

- No better than you could see. - Stopping smiling, the duchess sighed. - The oath doesn't grant any special powers in the afterlife. It only allows you to keep your identity and memory intact.

- Then we'll have to manage on our own. - Master put his hand on Valria's shoulder. - Captain, do you smell food?

- The smell from the refectory is overpowering. - The elven girl grinned, wiggling her pointy ears. - But if we step back a bit, I'll lead you to the kitchen, wherever it's hiding.

- Your Highness, captain Valria and I will search for salt to create a barrier on the roof of the donjon, - Carlon told the Duchess. - You and the guardsmen move to the wing passageway in the tower. I'm sure it's locked, but wait for us there anyway. If anything forces you to leave, leave some sign.

- Very well, master, - Christina nodded.

- And here's the other thing. I could use one of those amulets. I have demon countermeasures, but they're... one-time use, so to speak.

- Take mine. - The Lady Maria took a step toward Carlon and placed a silver chain in his palm. She squeezed his fingers lightly with hers before letting go of his hand. Girl smiled only with her eyes. The mage felt the urge to call the girl with him, but he held back. Instead he asked:

- And you yourself...?

- My sisters will not let me offend, - Maria answered seriously, without a smile.

The mage picked up Sir Roland's axe and weighed it in his hand. It was a bit heavy, and the blade had chipped while the knight was chopping at doors, but it was better than a sword. Carlon wasn't much of a swordsman, but he'd always wielded an axe in combat. Valria, too, examined the crossbows scattered across the floor, kicked one with her boot and grimaced. The crossbows were all wall-mounted or siege weapons - not something you could carry for long, especially if you were a delicate, graceful Elf. Fixing the sword's armband, the girl said to her sergeant:

- Dallan, keep an eye on them.

She waved a hand at Carlon to indicate she was ready to go.

The two of them jogged down the corridor, not changing to running. The old castle was not a hospitable place, and now it had become a trap, dangerous even for its owner. The mage glanced behind him with eyes closed, and through his drooping eyelids, he saw the greenish glimmer behind the keep's walls grow brighter. The defenses of the Earl's private quarters had been put on alert, but it didn't look particularly impressive. Carlon couldn't even vouch for the fact that the inner fail-safes were sufficiently strong to withstand the dawn.

- I hope that formal execution freed Dallan from her foolish oath, - Valria, striding first, said unexpectedly aloud. - I shudder to think of her going back to serving that bony moose after her death.

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- Only if Dallan wants too, - the master reminded her, ignoring her lèse-majesté. It wasn't the best moment to speak, but he could see that his golden-haired companion was trembling with anger - apparently she'd been trying very hard to contain herself for the past few minutes.

- And she will, - the elf girl snarled, twirling her sword. They'd reached the end of the gallery and turned left into the annexe wing. There were no more windows, all the light coming from the old-fashioned torches crackling in the wall brackets. - For years I've taught her to value herself, to think of herself, but she's... too much of a fairy knight.

Mater gave an indefinite chuckle. Valria, on the other hand, stopped abruptly, threw her head back, pulled her nose. She said:

- Blood, grease, oil... Not fresh... Right below us. Looking for stairs.

A side corridor led them to the stairs, where the bodies of two servants lay. No wounds on the dead men - meaning the demons had done their work. Carlon lowered the chain from his palm so that the silver weight dangled from his wrist. Only when he touched the amulet with his bare palm could he feel the movement of magical energy in it - so little was there. But Maria was right; something stronger would not have survived the steel of the guardsmen's armor.

- Wait. - When they made it up the two flights of stairs and onto the square landing on the second floor, Valria raised her hand in warning. She wiggled her long ears like a horse. - I hear footsteps...

- Mrrr-rya! - A black cat with a long woolly tail leaped out of the dark stone archway that led to the gallery. He slipped under the elfin's feet and galloped up the stairs. After the cat, a man appeared in the archway. A stout man in the simple clothes of a castle servant clumsily crossed the threshold, staggered. With difficulty maintaining his balance, he stared at Carlon and Valria with an empty, meaningless stare. He opened his mouth and let out something between a croak and a hiss. Valria shifted to cover the mage, raised her sword - but the maestro grabbed her by the shoulder:

- Possessed! His...

The man snapped from his seat so suddenly that Carlon, who had been expecting such a thing, barely had time to push the girl out of his way and recoil himself. Like a cannonball, the possessed man whizzed between the mage and the elf, striking the stone railing of the stairs, leaping off them and leaping toward Valria, his clumsiness vanishing without a trace. The Captain, however, was not slow either. With a swift stroke, she severed three fingers from the possessed man's outstretched hand, letting her foe pass her by.

- He feels no pain! - The master cautioned, gripping the shaft of the axe with both palms of his hands. Valria heard him. When the possessed man turned and lunged at the elfess again, she met him with a direct thrust. The sword blade halfway entered the man between the ribs, piercing his heart. The possessed man jerked forward, sliding onto the elfess's sword, continuing to pull his arms toward the girl. The man's fingers touched the captain's cheek... when Carlon, who came up behind him, sliced him with his axe heartily. The first blow failed to sever the man's neck, so the wizard yanked the point from his foe's flesh and struck again. The decapitated body tumbled sideways, tearing the hilt of the sword from Valria's hands. Master looked back at the opening, but no new guests awaited. The elven woman, on the other hand, pulled a blue and white handkerchief from her vest pocket and wiped a few drops of blood from her cheek. With a little gasp she inquired:

- Will there be more of these?

- Where there's one, there's ten, - the mage said sullenly. - The weakest demons are unable to create ethereal bodies, so they take possession of humans or animals whenever possible. It's a rare occurrence, since they want the bodies intact, but... left by the soul. This is why the little ones usually ride the tails of the stronger ones. That's exactly what they produce.

A gray smoke began to rise over the headless body. Master unwrapped the chain of his guardsman's amulet and dispersed the cloud like ordinary tobacco smoke. He stated:

- This one won't come back. But I can't vouch for how many more there are.

- Couldn't you have called it in ahead of time? - Kneeling down, Valria freed the blade of her sword from the possessed man's corpse. - If such a one were to show up at the duchess and the others while we're gone?

- Usually the weak demons only crawl out of natural gaps, and when they're summoned, the demonologists try to cut them off so they don't get in the way, - Carlon explained. - I just wasn't thinking... you're right, we should get back and tell the others as fast as we can.

They did not encounter any new threats in the second floor gallery and risked walking faster.

- How survivable are these things? - The elfess asked.

- No more than humans. Demons simply resuscitate the body, as if to substitute the soul. But they don't care about pain or injury. As long as the body can function, they will use it. And if you don't nail a demon on its way out of a corpse, it will find another one.

- Here! - The girl stopped in front of an inconspicuous boardwalk door. - It smells like food. And... there's someone in there. Ringing something, walking around...

Without waiting for the master's reaction, the captain kicked the flap open and dived in. All Carlon had to do was to follow her. Beyond the door was the castle kitchen - a long, rectangular room, lined with tables and cabinets, with three large fireplaces along the outer wall. Two women and a boy cook were lying dead in puddles of blood between the tables. And in the open kitchen cupboard a man was rummaging intently, the last person the master would have wished to see here and now. Peter, the assassin from the other world, turned around at the sound of the broken door and raised his eyebrows in surprise... But he had no time to do or say anything. Carlon threw back his axe, snatched from his pocket a thin silver disc, marked with magical signs, broke it, waved the resulting halves, shouting out a full voice activation formula. The cabinet the alien had been digging into snapped out of place and crashed into Peter himself, miraculously not knocking him to the ground. The killer managed to bounce back without letting himself be crushed by the falling cabinet - but two heavy tables flew into the air. One slammed into the alien's left shoulder, and the other would have taken his head off if Peter hadn't collapsed on the floor and rolled over. Unfortunately, that was the end of the amulet's charge, and Karlon shoved the now useless halves of the disk into his pocket - silver can always be melted down.

With an elbow thrust, the assassin rose to his feet, drew a long straight dagger from its sheath on his belt - not his miracle knife with a firing hilt, but an ordinary imperially forged blade. He threw the weapon from hand to hand and grinned viciously. But Valria stepped toward him. The elfess immediately went on the attack, unleashing a hail of swift lunges on her opponent. The long, heavy sword in the girl's hands flashed with incredible speed. Peter, who had seemed invincible in close combat, staggered backward, barely managing to parry the blows with his dagger. The alien's attempts to counterattack were pathetic - he too was agile and quick, but the Captain skillfully exploited her advantage in blade length. She neither allowed her opponent to approach her, nor rushed to the side to attack her. Twice the tip of the sword touched the assassin's chest, leaving slashes in his gray shirt, the fabric around which immediately darkened. Clearly sensing that he was about to be cornered, Peter leaped to break the distance, intercepted the dagger by the blade, and swung for the throw. Valria instantly switched to a defensive stance, but her opponent threw his weapon not at her, but over the girl's shoulder at Carlon. The elfess still intercepted the dagger in the air with the blade of her sword, knocking it back into the wall. Taking advantage of a second's respite, the alien slipped his hand into his pants pocket. It was Carlon's turn to leap forward and shield Valria. The wizard struck his hands, letting the silver rings on his fingers touch, and then spread his arms apart, stretching the translucent membrane of the magical shield before him. The black object that appeared in Peter's hand spit fire, a shot rang out... and the bullet rang through the saucepan on the floor. Not because it ricocheted off the master's shield - the assassin had shot himself sideways. He smirked again, and said, stifling his breath:

- This thing... is called a "pistol." It's called a "Glock 18," actually. It can fire many, many times before it needs to be reloaded.

- Wonderful thing, - Valria agreed. The girl now stood behind the wizard, with her free hand on his back. She tapped her middle finger lightly, letting him know that she was ready to switch places with the master at any moment.

- Anyway, don't move, okay? - The killer clicked something on his gun. - When I said I'd see you again, little elf, I didn't think you'd find me. But still, it's good to see you. Got your name, by the way. My employers helped me out.

- I'm flattered, - the girl replied. Carlon stood there, thinking intensely. The situation was stalemated. Peter could not open fire on them, but the master did not want to get close to the alien. Especially when he had both hands full, and his partner couldn't look out from behind the mage without risk. - Have you ever seen one of these things, with lots of arms and tentacles?

- I have, - the assassin hummed. Master had no doubt that he, too, was trying to find a way out at the moment. - They don't touch me for some reason. Probably because I'm not from around here. By the way, they're the reason I came here - somebody asked me to go get salt.

They were silent for half a minute. Then the alien grinned more widely than before:

- Elfie, do you want an idea? Come with me. I have a job to do - cover a man, and if he fails, I'll finish the job with your Duchess myself. Not a word about you. Back home, they think if you go to a parallel world, you get superpowers and a pretty girl to go with you. But I got some half-wit old man. Come with me and I'll help you get your friends out of here. I'd take those armored beauties out too, but they won't leave without their mistress, as I understand it. Pity, of course.

- I will consider your suggestion, thank you. - Valria stopped tapping her finger against the mage's back, and the man grew tense. It looked as if the elfess was ready to rush into attack without warning her partner.

- Think. - The alien stepped back without taking his eyes off the mage or the elf. - We'll decide when we meet again. If you do not agree, I'll kill you. I do not want to do this, but - it's work. The reward is too good.

With his shoulder blades against the second door, the one reserved for the servants, which led into the back of the building, Peter fumbled for the handle, opened the flap, and disappeared behind it. Carlon mentally counted to ten, then nodded:

- Let's go.

The mercenaries ran to the door. The girl swung it open, stepped aside, letting the first mage through, who still held the flickering rectangle of protective field in front of him. The doorway beyond the threshold was empty. The intruder was gone.

- The bastard's skill at escaping is astounding. - Valria commented grimly as the master curled the field with a sigh of relief and shook his withered fingers. - He must have special schools of combat escape at home.

- I hope he's wandering through some secret passageway in the walls and doesn't run into our friends, - Carlon said. - They'd have to wait by the doorway to the keep, and that would be where he'd come from. I'd wager his fellows are in the Earl's chambers.

He and Valria hastily searched the ruined kitchen and soon had five small sacks of salt. They made their way back the same way they'd come. They could not avoid trouble, however. Halfway up the stairs, an odd-looking creature, a square pebble with a dozen arms, some of which served as legs, crawled with some difficulty out of the gallery wall in front of Carlon. After that, another creature crawled out of the gray stones, looking more like a human - at least in number of limbs. The demons crackled, rustled, and whirred as they spotted the man and the elf, and launched themselves at them. The mage dropped his axe, drew a leather pouch from his belt, shook a handful of paper wrappers out of the pouch, blew on them, and threw them at the fiercest creature, the one that looked like a stone with arms. The wrappers flashed with blue fire as they touched the beast's skin. In a second the flames engulfed the entire demon and consumed it almost instantly, to the accompaniment of the dying creature's choking howl. The second monster froze, as if stunned by its comrade's death, and Carlon went for it, unwrapping the amulet chain. It was pure bluff, an attempt to scare him. And it, alas, did not work. With an angry snap, the demon moved toward the wizard.

A silver-burning, translucent blade struck the creature in the chest, leaving a glowing white wound that caused it to stagger backward. Lady Jana emerged between the master and the monster without any glaring effects, flashes, or sounds. She was nowhere to be seen, and there she was, blocking the demon's path. The girl, who had been created out of thin air, sprang forward with her whole body, ducked under the monster's outstretched paws, stabbed it in the chest again, this time driving the blade to the hilt, yanking the sword up. The demon lowered its long paws, sinking its huge, curved claws into Yana's back. Where the claws pierced the ghost's blue cloak and silver cuirass, the white flames flickered, but Jana reacted in no way. She lashed the sword upward once more and simply hacked the demon's torso apart. Then she lashed out from left to right, blowing its head off. The otherworldly predator crumbled into ashes. The black flakes also vanished before they touched the gallery floor-but the scratched slabs left a charcoal-colored stain, like soot. Lady Jana walked past the stain, sheathing her sword, glancing over her shoulder at the stunned mercenaries. And disappeared as she had appeared - just melted into thin air. There wasn't even a cloud of silver dust this time.

- Um... Thank you, lady, - Valria exhaled belatedly. Carlon had no doubt that Jana had heard her, though.