She cocked her head and looked at him with a sad expression. “Yes, I am.” She kicked her horse into a gallop then, and the beast screamed as it sprang forward to meet the incoming charge.
As Kihrin scrambled back toward the Chasm, the sound of Janel’s laughter floated toward him. She impaled a demon on her spear, held forward like a knight’s lance, while she casually ripped the arm off another demon and used it as a mace. There was something about the way she reveled in that stark, horrible brutality that reminded him of Xaltorath. He saw the resemblance.
Still, there were so many demons. Far too many for even a demon queen’s daughter to fight.
Kihrin looked at her, then back at the bridge.
“What the hell. I’m already dead,” he muttered to himself as he ran into the fray.
* * *
“You were supposed to cross the bridge!” Janel screamed when she saw him again, sometime later.
“Not without you!” he screamed back.
“I cannot see the bridge. What part was unclear to you?” She pulled her spear out of a dead demon, not paying attention as it disintegrated.
“But I can! I can lead you.”
“Why would I want to go to the Land of Peace?” she yelled, clearly exasperated. “I’m not dead.” The surrounding dim ebbed as the demons fell back, regrouping for another onslaught.
“Are you sure?” The lull in the fighting made it quiet enough to talk in a normal tone of voice. “Shouldn’t you have woken by now?”
Janel paused, and a look of horrible realization came over her. She put her hand to her chest where the dragon’s teeth had bit deep.
“I’m pretty sure if you die here, you die in the real world too,” Kihrin said. “Just because I could heal you here doesn’t mean that what I did affected your living body.” He held out his hand to her as a mighty bellow seemed to shake the ground where they stood. “Come on. I’ll lead you across.”
“It will destroy me…” she protested.
“No. No it won’t. I’m sure of that!” Kihrin yelled.
She took his hand and slid off the side of her steed. “I would take it as a kindness if you did not kill me any more than I may already be.”
“I promise, my lady.”
As a gigantic demon crested the rise, the pair took off running for the slender rope bridge.
86: RETURNING
Kihrin sat up and gasped for breath.
Teraeth bent down next to him. “Took you long enough. What did you do, stop and pick flowers?”
Kihrin glared at him. “Some of us haven’t died before, thank you very much.” He shook his head. “I don’t remember what happened to me while I was dead. I remember dying though.”
“No one remembers what happens to them in the Afterlife,” Teraeth agreed.
“Really? You don’t remember?”
“All right,” Teraeth allowed. “Most people don’t remember. Don’t blame me. You didn’t want to join the Brotherhood.” He presented his hand to Kihrin. “Come on, we have work to do.”
“Wait!” Kihrin looked around the church, at the towering statue of Thaena and the dead and mourning clogging the aisles. “How did I end up here? What’s going on? Where is everyone?”
Teraeth ticked off points on his fingers. “You were sacrificed to Xaltorath, but since Xaltorath didn’t receive your entire soul, he’s not technically under anyone’s control. So Xaltorath is starting a Hellmarch,* summoning up every demon he can. High Lord Therin, Lady Miya, and General Milligreest have left to send him back to Hell. Galen went back to the Blue Palace to oversee the evacuation of your surviving family. Meanwhile, Gadrith was wearing the Stone of Shackles when Sandus killed him, so the Emperor is dead, and Gadrith is wearing his body like a fancy new cloak. Tyentso’s gone to stop him.”
Kihrin blinked. “Damn it, we had a plan.”
“Which worked beautifully right up until the point where it didn’t.” Teraeth sighed. “Such is the way of plans. Nobody could have predicted Gadrith would be capable of responding so quickly.”
Kihrin scowled. “Is Tyentso strong enough to kill him?”
A pained look crossed Teraeth’s face. “She’s counting on the fact that he won’t be able to cast spells while he’s adjusting to his new body.”
“Remember what Tyentso said about possessing my body? He’s been planning this for years, Teraeth. He knows how to cast spells in Sandus’s body.”
Teraeth made a face. “Doesn’t matter anyway. He won’t be alone.”
“Thurvishar,” Kihrin said, his chest growing tight. What were the odds that Jarith had been able to successfully arrest him? So poor even Kihrin wouldn’t take that bet.
“Plus, we have no idea what powers the Crown and Scepter themselves will give him.”
Kihrin nodded. “Okay. Let’s go back her up.” He took a step, stumbled, and sagged when he tried to catch himself.
Teraeth looked surprised and cursed under his breath. “You need to rest. You can barely walk.”
Kihrin shook his head. “Being dead was rest enough. Wait, I need a sword.” He cast his gaze around the room.
He stopped at Jarith’s body and looked sick.
“The High General brought him in,” Teraeth said as he saw Kihrin’s expression. “Soul dead. He was probably killed by a demon.”
“Damn it all.” Kihrin walked over to the body, bent down, and pulled out the sword that was in Jarith’s scabbard. The blade was Khorveshan, sharp along one edge and wickedly curved. It was nothing like a normal Quuros dueling blade, and four years before, Kihrin would have had no idea how to wield one. He did now.
His old weapons trainer, the Thriss lizard man Szzarus, would be so proud.
Kihrin leaned the dull end against one shoulder, holding the hilt with his other hand. “Okay, let’s go.”
Teraeth held out his hands. “Where? I don’t know where Tyentso went.” He didn’t sound happy about that.
“We’ll figure something out.” Kihrin stumbled through the halls, managing not to curse as he tripped over dead bodies.
Teraeth put an arm under his to steady him. “You couldn’t fight a leprous rabbit in this condition.”
“Just give me a minute to catch my second wind,” Kihrin said.
The two men paused on the steps of the cathedral. It seemed like most of the City was on fire, a hearth-like wind blowing ashes and smoke up into the sky. The noise as people screamed, fought, panicked, and died was an unintelligible roar.
There was a flash of purple light in the distance.
Kihrin pointed. “Did you see that? Magic … That came from the Culling Fields.”
“Are you sure…?” But as Teraeth asked, there was a flash of red, a flash of purple, and then lightning.
They looked at each other.
* * *
“Quite a trick you pulled there, brat,” Darzin said as he stood up from the twisted, withered tree he’d been leaning against. Behind him, flashes of multicolored light brightened the sky. “I’d heard someone sacrificed to a demon couldn’t be Returned.”