The dragon was a thing of beauty, looking exactly like the one the brothers had ridden upon with Tomas. It opened its maw and a scorching blast of searing fire rolled over the demons, scattering them. Pug felt the heat wash over him until he noticed that while the demons ran screaming, batting at the flames as their flesh blistered, there was no fire, no smoke or char on the ground. The moment he realized this, the heat stopped. He could still see the dragon, but it was now insubstantial and clearly an illusion.
Knowing the demons would soon come to the same understanding he sent out another blast of flame, which exploded in a tower of orange and yellow that inflicted real burns on the demons. ‘That will keep them confused a little longer,’ said Pug.
‘Confusion will only work for a while,’ said Gulamendis. ‘Their reserves from outside the walls are now joining in.’
Pug said, ‘They were probably given orders to return when the summoning started. I wonder what chance let these ones live while their companions lie at the bottom of that pit?’
‘That battle we saw on Telesan was not an illusion, Pug,’ said Gulamendis. ‘There’s a demon war taking place, and its our good fortune that the demons are now warring against one another. I’ve lived through losing two worlds to them. A third would be one too many. Look out!’
Pug saw the flyers attacking the dragon illusion and Pug responded with a lance of purple light, which caused one demon to burst into flames above the dragon. As the corpse fell, it passed completely through the dragon and several of the other demons realized something was amiss.
‘They’re stupid,’ said Gulamendis, ‘but not that stupid. They’ll turn on us in a minute.’
Pug shot out another great bolt of energy and said, ‘If we can hold out for another ten, fifteen minutes, the marines from Roldem should be the first here.’
As more demons swarmed into view, Gulamendis said, ‘I think they’re going to be overmatched unless we can help them.’
‘We’ll help,’ said Pug.
Gulamendis used his ward and reached out to take control of the largest demon he could see, then set it against its neighbour. It didn’t take much provocation for that conflict to escalate as several other demons were drawn in. ‘Something in their conditioning is breaking down, Pug. The battle demons are reverting to their old habits and starting to fight for domination.’
‘Why?’
‘I have no idea, but that whatever was controlling the creatures is losing command of them.’
As they watched the demons began to turn on one another, but enough continued to rush the small building that Pug was forced to use all his skills to knock them back with another pulse of energy. ‘I can’t keep doing this all day,’ he said, obviously fatigued. ‘There are so many of them.’
‘If they all turn on each other, we will only need to bar this door.’ The demon master selected another demon in the fray and turned it on its neighbour. Then the illusion of the dragon vanished.
‘That tears it,’ said Laromendis, coming out of his trance. ‘I’ve got little left to offer.’ He pulled out the wand he had harboured since they fled the battle of Hub and pointed it at a particularly nasty beast charging the door. It went down in convulsions as energy consumed it.
Pug said, ‘I wish I knew what was going on below.’ He pushed aside thoughts of his son and the others and returned his attention to the battle before him.
Amirantha waited in the shadows, uncertain of what was occurring before him. He saw Jim Dasher hugging the wall by the door; the only hint of the noble-turned-spy was an odd refraction of the light, which moved only slightly. If Amirantha stared at the spot, he could just make out the vague shape of a man between the door and the room beyond.
He watched the scene in the room for a moment, and his eyes widened. His brother, Belasco, lay motionless across a sacrificial altar, and Sandreena, Kaspar, and Magnus knelt before him. Amirantha assumed their bindings prevented the two magic casters from using their abilities, or this situation would have been resolved before either Jim and he had arrived.
A strange looking man, thin with ragged hair, and an impressive looking set of pointed teeth, appeared to be weeping piteously over Belasco, imploring his still form for instructions. Even more perplexing was the dialogue he could hear between two invisible entities. Amirantha stopped to ensure he wasn’t losing his mind, because even though his brother lay motionless on the altar, he could hear his voice, and then another, both demanding some sort of behaviour from the witless man.
Amirantha came up behind Jim and as the cloaked figure tensed, he said, ‘It’s me; what is happening?’
Jim gripped the Warlock by the arm, pulled him back into the tunnel and said, ‘I have no idea. That lunatic cannibal has been talking to your unconscious brother for five minutes. I have no idea who the other voice belongs to.’
Amirantha said, ‘I need to explain the subtleties of demonic possession to you, but now is not the time. Can you kill that man without giving him time to harm anyone else?’
‘Easily, but why?’
‘Because if he makes the wrong move, we’re all going to die.’
‘That’s a good enough reason,’ said Jim, and Amirantha saw him produce his dagger out of thin air.