‘I don’t know. Something -’
Before he could finish, the silence in the cave was shattered by a tremendous keening sound. Abruptly, the rift before them ripped open and Pug stood on the other side of a window between worlds, looking at them. Behind him a vision of horror reared up into view.
Miranda raised a mystic shield to protect herself, reflexively, but her father reacted by leaping forward, landing on the other side of the rift beside Pug. He unleashed a furious blast of mystic energy, which tore through the opened rift into the demons’ realm, striking the Demon King in the face. The horror that was Maarg reared back, shrieking in pain.
Miranda followed her father and shouted, ‘What is going on?’
Pug said, ‘They’ve moved the rift. We arrived just as Maarg was preparing to come across!’
Macros said, ‘You must close both rifts, now!’
Pug looked at Miranda’s father and said, ‘What are you going to do?’
‘Distract that thing,’ he said, and he leaped through the rift into the demon realm.
‘Father!’ shouted Miranda. ‘No!’
Pug spared a glance to the other struggle, and saw that Hanam had managed to sink his fangs into Tugor’s neck. Pug was no judge of such things, but it appeared to him the Loremaster might take his foe with him into death. The other demons in the room shrank back, for to them there would emerge a victor, Tugor whom they feared, or another who had destroyed Tugor, making him one to fear even more.
At the other side of the demon rift, Maarg fell back as Macros’s flames seared his face. Then he raised an arm, to shield his face, and screamed in pain. Macros kept the blast of blue flame directed at the Demon King’s head.
Pug quickly examined the rift. He said, ‘This one is much like that created by the Tsurani Great Ones, to reach Midkemia. It is vulnerable, from within.’
‘From within?’ said Miranda in astonishment. ‘How do we get inside a rift?’
Pug looked around it one last time, and said, ‘By attacking it from the void.’
They risked a glance at Macros as he continued to press his attack against the Demon King, who backed away. Perhaps it was that a relatively small creature dared to confront him, or that he had not been forced to face a challenger in years, but Maarg was on the defensive. He now used his great wings as a cloak, keeping Macros’s flames from his eyes.
Macros’s spell ended, and the flames vanished. Maarg regarded the intruder and reached forward, as if to seize Macros in his huge hand. Macros raised both arms above his head and brought them down in a quick gesture, and yellow flames seemed to explode from within his body. The Demon King seized him around the waist, and screamed in pain and fury as the sorcerer withstood his direct attack.
Miranda said, ‘Can we help him?’
Pug said, ‘No. We must close this rift.’
‘We can’t. Father will be stranded in the demon realm.’
Pug calmly said, ‘He knew that.’
Miranda stared at her lover a long moment, then nodded once.
Pug said, ‘We also may not survive this closure.’
Miranda said, ‘Tell me what to do.’
‘First, keep them off our backs.’ He pointed to two demons who had left the spectacle to investigate what was occurring between the two rifts.
Miranda said, ‘Gladly,’ and sent out a bolt of mystic energy, a blue light that engulfed the two demons and left them writhing in agony, while Pug finished his examination of the rift.
Pug turned his attention from the rift to the struggle beyond it, as the Demon King attempted to crush Macros with his bare hands. The sorcerer was held in the demon’s grip, but he had his hands free, and he cast another spell while the mystic yellow flames kept him from being crushed. Sparkling white lights appeared around the Demon King and started spinning. Each looked like a diamond, reflecting light off myriad facets, and as they spun, they took on a sinister aspect. As they moved, they swooped in and out in a weaving pattern, and when they touched Maarg, he shrieked in agony.
‘Kelton’s knives,’ said Pug.
Miranda said, ‘That’s a particularly nasty spell.’
The mystic blades continued to pick up speed, buzzing around the Demon King, but while he was being cut over most of his body, he still held fast to Macros. ‘Human!’ he shrieked. ‘You shall reside in a soul jar for eternity, to be tormented every instant for this!’
Macros managed to shout, ‘First you have to kill me.’
Pug said, ‘It’s time. Come with me.’
He took Miranda’s hand and they jumped into the rift, but rather than continue through, he halted their flight in the void.