Damien and Jen walked out the doors together and turned toward the stables. He couldn’t stop grinning about the way Dirk and Donk had run off. That made his visit home even sweeter.
“What would have happened if you’d hit one of those idiots with that thing you made?”
Damien had been pretty confident the cousins would run at the sight of his construct, so he hadn’t given it much thought. “It probably would have blasted them into a fine red mist. Don’t worry, if they hadn’t run I would have pulled the power back enough to only break a few bones.”
“You scared me half to death when you let them hit you. I guess you don’t need me to protect you anymore.”
Damien reached out and squeezed her hand. “I’ll always need you to protect me. That’s what big sisters are for.”
She squeezed back. “Thanks.”
Damien winced when the familiar stink of the stables reached them. The Citadel kept fifty horses on site for the masters and students to use in their training and on missions. The stable itself was a long narrow building with an exit on either end. Four men stood beside five horses near the door. They had the horses saddled and ready to go. When they spotted Jen they snapped to attention. Good discipline, Dad would approve.
“Guys, this is my brother, Damien. Damien, this is my squad.” She named them one after another. The tall one with the maul on his shoulder was Edward Mark. He had come to fetch Jen the night before. Next came Talon Wrath. He wore a pair of swords belted at his waist and had a fit, but not bulky build. Talon regarded Damien with cool, appraising eyes. Standing beside Talon was a grizzled, scarred veteran who looked older than Dad, named Rhys. He carried a mace in a loop on his belt and wore a shield on his back. Last was a whip-thin kid Damien’s age with a staff, named Alec Wright. The way he looked at Jen told Damien everything he needed to know about Mr. Wright. He’d fallen head over heels for his lovely sister.
“Why’d you bring the kid?” Talon asked.
“Damien just finished his training at Sorcery. He’s going to help us find the goblins.”
“More likely he’ll slow us down,” Edward said.
Damien hadn’t expected a warm welcome, but he figured at least they’d give him a chance. “If you guys think you can find the goblins on your own that’s fine, but so far all you’ve done is make my sister look bad.”
Edward’s hand tightened on his maul and soul force coursed through his body. Damien sighed. None of them had enough power to concern him. He could lay them all out without breaking a sweat, but that wouldn’t help Jen deal with the goblins.
“Kid’s got a point,” Rhys said. “I don’t fancy spending another day thrashing through the woods with my thumb up my ass. If he can find them I’m glad to have him along.”
Jen grabbed Edward’s leather shirt and yanked his head down so his eyes were level with hers. “Damien’s coming. We’re not having a debate or a vote, clear?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Damien forced himself not to smile. She had a way of getting her point across.
“I’ll saddle another horse,” Alec said.
“No need.” Damien concentrated and a golden horse appeared beside him. He spent another moment turning it black to match his sister’s then leapt up into the saddle. “Ready when you are.”
The others mounted up and Jen led the way through The Citadel’s main gate. She guided them north along a well-worn dirt road. The horses went at an easy canter and Damien matched their pace. His construct’s hooves never touched the ground, instead he glided along just above the road. It made for a smooth ride, certainly better than bouncing along on a living horse.
He eased up beside his sister. “Where are we going?”
“The thicket where we lost the trail.”
“It’ll be better if we go to the site of the attack so I can track them from the beginning. If they are using sorcery they might have led you down a false trail.”
She looked over at him. “Can you do that?”
He nodded. “Easily. Make some fake goblins the way I did my horse, send them off through the nastiest patch of forest around, and laugh while you guys got shredded by thorns.”
“You think that’s what happened?”
“Maybe. Best not to take chances.”
They reached the still-smoldering farmhouse an hour later. Blackened timbers stuck out of the basement and three shrouded bodies lay on the ground a few feet away awaiting burial. It was a mess. Damien studied the ground. Small tracks covered the soft dirt. A strange black energy swirled around the bodies; not much, more like the remnants of a casting.
Damien had never seen the soul force of a goblin and had no idea if that’s what the energy was. He circled the ruins and soon found wisps of the same power leading toward the distant woods. He guided his mount in that direction, following the wisps. When he reached the edge of the trees, thicker blobs of dark energy went left while fainter flecks went straight ahead.
He turned to his sister. “Which way did you guys go?”
She pointed left and Damien nodded. “They laid a false trail for you. The real path goes straight ahead, deeper into the woods.”
“There’re no tracks that way,” Edward said. It looked like he was going to play the part of second guesser.
“Look under my horse’s hooves. Do you see any tracks? If the goblins have a sorcerer, which it’s clear they do, then hiding their path is simple. I’m tracking the remnants of the sorcerer’s casting and it goes straight ahead.”
“The forest is too thick for horses.” Jen swung down off her mount. “We’ll leave them and continue on foot.”
Damien dismounted and reabsorbed the construct. While the others hobbled their horses Damien concentrated on the trail. The sorcerer must have surrounded the goblins with a shield that brushed the branches aside and let them snap back into place without breaking. That was tricky work, making a path through the thick evergreens and breaking no branches. The enemy sorcerer had skill, no doubt.
When they’d finished tending the horses Jen said, “Lead on.”
Damien expanded his shield so it was outside his clothes and started forward. The prickly spruce limbs made no more impression on his shield than Dirk’s punch. The little group tromped through the forest until well past noon, following the twisting trail of dark energy.
“Look here.” Talon bent down to examine the ground. “Tracks.”
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Sure enough, as though out of nowhere, the tracks of a group of goblins appeared in the soft dirt of the forest floor. “They must have figured they were far enough away that we wouldn’t stumble over their trail.” Jen patted Talon’s shoulder.
Talon assumed the lead, his eyes focused on the now-obvious trail. Damien made no complaint about the warlord taking over the tracking duties. He focused on the dark energy, making sure it continued to follow the tracks and they didn’t veer off on another false path.
They continued on for another hour, the residual energy getting thicker with each step deeper into the forest. Around them the scrubby evergreens had given way to towering, mature pines. If they got the goblins cleaned out, some loggers would drool over the tall, straight trees.
“Damien.” Jen walked by herself a little ways from the rest of her squad.
He went over to join her. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to thank you. We’d have never found their trail this deep into the forest.”
Damien grinned. “No problem. This is the sort of thing we’re trained for. Maybe you can write me a little recommendation for whichever sorcerer I end up serving with.”
“Of course, I—”
He held up a hand to stop her. Up ahead a pillar of dark energy rose out of the forest. No goblin sorcerer put out that much energy. Whatever they were approaching it was powerful, and evil. “We’re getting close, sis. Whatever’s out there, it isn’t just goblins.”
“What do you see?”
Damien described it to her. “We need to be real careful.”
She nodded. “Talon! Don’t get too far ahead. Weapons out and eyes focused. Alec, you’re on rear guard. Damien, stay with me in the center.”
The squad drew their weapons, formed up, and made their cautious way onward. The closer they got the thicker the miasma appeared. Damien’s stomach clenched. He’d never seen anything so wrong. Around them the trees reflected the corruption; bark peeled and drooped from drying trunks, the limbs twisted like arthritic hands. The grass and shrubs had withered and curled up. He tapped a dry bush with his toe and it disintegrated.
They climbed up a little rise and stopped. Ahead of them, in a clearing, sat a jumbled up pile of trees, branches, and mud. Easily forty yards in diameter and twenty feet tall, the goblin lair resembled a giant beaver lodge. Like a lodge, the inside would be hollow with chambers and passages. A large opening about eight feet in diameter faced them and to Damien’s enhanced sight it looked like a chimney belching corruption.
“Let’s go get ’em.” Talon started down the far side of the bank.
“Wait.” All Damien’s senses screamed that danger waited in the lair. “At least let me scout it so we have some idea what we’re walking into.”
Edward looked at him, a dubious frown twisting his lips. “You think you can sneak in there?”
“Not me.” Damien held out his hand and a golden wasp appeared above it. He concentrated and the color shifted so it looked like a black wasp. “A scout bug. They’ll never notice it and we can see what’s in there.”
“Good idea.” Jen motioned them back down the bank. “Send it in.”
“It’s nothing but a bunch of stinking goblins. Just because they set up in this nasty stretch of woods doesn’t mean anything. We go in and carve them up, like we were trained.” Talon stood a little below the top of the bank, his swords clenched in his fists. He looked tempted to ignore Jen. Heaven help him if he did.
Jen glared at him. “Get down here and keep quiet. They’ve got at least one sorcerer and who knows what else. A little scouting seems like just the thing to me. It’s not like the ugly monsters are going anywhere. Go on, Damien.”
He nodded and conjured a flat rectangle of soul force and connected it to the wasp with a hair-thick strand of energy. An image of the surrounding forest appeared on the viewer. Satisfied with the connection, Damien made the thread invisible and sent the wasp toward the mouth of the lair. The image shifted as the wasp flew, showing whatever the little construct looked at.
Jen stood beside him and studied the image. “That’s amazing. I didn’t know sorcerers could do something like this.”
“It’s a handy trick.”
The wasp entered and the image went dark. Damien frowned and adjusted the wasp’s eyes through the link, making them bigger and reflective to increase the light they collected. The image brightened. The inside of the mound looked just like you’d expect a hollowed-out pile of wood to look like. Branches jutted into the tunnel and a rough, worn path led deeper into the lair.
Damien had expected the tunnel to narrow soon after the entrance. Given the goblins’ small stature a narrow tunnel would give them an advantage in a fight, instead it maintained its size the whole way.
Ten feet in, the bug reached the first branch in the tunnel. Damien guided it down the side tunnel. A couple feet further on it widened into a round room filled with trash, animal skins, and half-eaten gobbets of meat. Damien shuddered, glad he couldn’t connect a thread to transmit smell.
No other paths led out of the chamber so he guided the bug back to the main tunnel. Over the next five minutes they passed two more branches leading to living chambers like the first, but still no goblins. The main tunnel led to another round chamber three times the size of the smaller ones.
Ten goblins gathered around a giant creature seated on a crude wooden throne. It had curved tusks and long six-fingered hands ending in black talons. Rolls of fat under coarse black fur covered its body. Through the link Damien saw the corruption rolling off the monster. The goblins’ eyes resembled black pits as they stared, enraptured, by the horror on the throne. They’d absorbed the monster’s corruption.
“What the hell is that?” Jen asked. She stared at the monstrosity on the projection, her mouth partway open as though she wanted to say more but couldn’t find the words.
“It’s a demon. That’s the source of the corruption.” Damien shuddered. Demons were an abomination that had no place in the mortal world. Over time, just by being here, they twisted everything and everyone around them, turning their surroundings into a little slice of hell on earth.
Only rarely could a demon overcome its innate corruption and transform into something purer, a risen demon, like Lizzy. “Looks like it’s taken control of the tribe. See the especially wrinkled one closest to it?”
“Yeah. Man, that’s one ugly goblin.”
The withered goblin beside the demon’s throne had bones driven through its earlobes, lips and nose. Sharp fangs protruded from its upper lip. Withered, sagging breasts argued it was female, but Damien had no intention of getting close enough to make sure.
“That’s their sorcerer. There’s a connection between her and the demon. She’s not a full warlock, but her power’s been enhanced by the demon’s corruption. The regular goblins have absorbed it as well. They’ll be much more dangerous than anything you’re used to.”
“They’re nothing but shit-stinkin’ little goblins.” Talon’s knuckles were white, he was gripping his swords so tight. “Let’s go get them.”
Jen ignored Talon and pointed at a pair of dark arches at the rear of the throne room, for lack of a better word. “What are those?”
Damien guided the wasp along the ceiling, hoping neither the sorcerer nor the demon would notice it. It reached the closest arch and flew through. A long, narrow, twisting tunnel led to a small opening to the surface. Looked like a back door. He searched beyond the second arch and found another exit. It was too small for the demon, but the goblins could escape through them easily enough.
“That’s it.” Damien let the wasp dissolve. “A demon, a sorcerer, and nine corrupted goblins. We should get out of here and collect some reinforcements. I can fly to The Tower, get some more sorcerers, and be back in a day.”
“What if they attack another farm tonight?” Edward said. “While you’re collecting reinforcements people might die. We’re here now. Let’s deal with them before they do any more harm.”
“I agree,” Talon said.
“I don’t know.” Alec chewed his lip. “If there’s a demon…”
Rhys remained silent, his gaze on Jen. Whatever the others thought, it was her call. Damien watched the muscles of her jaw work as she thought. “Edward’s right,” she said at last. “We need to deal with them before anyone else gets hurt. We can’t fight them in their lair. Damien, can you flush them out so we can fight in the open?”
“Sure, I can blast them out easy enough. What are you going to do about those other exits?”
She turned to Edward. “Take Alec and cover the left side. Talon, you and Rhys take the right. We’ll cover the main entrance. Kill anything that comes out then fall back here to reinforce us.”
“How are we supposed to find them?” Talon asked.
Damien conjured two glowing spheres. “Follow the lights. When you’re in position crush them and I’ll sense it. My blast will follow a minute later. Be careful. Their aura of corruption will make your iron skin vulnerable. Don’t count on it to protect you.”
“How about you let us worry about the fighting?” Talon said.
Damien sent the orbs out toward the small tunnels. It would take a couple minutes for them to get in place. He wished Jen had let him get help. During his studies he’d read a lot about demons. Even a weak one would be a huge challenge. If he had to fight the sorcerer at the same time he didn’t know what might happen.
“We can do this, right?” Jen sounded like she needed some encouragement. In truth he didn’t know if they could do it and he didn’t want to lie to his sister.
“It’s not too late. You can call them back, we can retreat, and return with more help. There’s no guarantee they’ll attack again tonight.”
“But there’s no guarantee they won’t. Edward was right about that much. We’ve been hunting these monsters for a week. The people rely on us to protect them and we’ve done a poor job of it. We’ll take them down together. I can count on you, right?”
“Do you even need to ask?”
They shared a smile. A few seconds later the first then the second orb shattered. The others were in place.
Damien conjured a ball of energy and hurled it at the entrance.