“I—I remember hearing his voice. I remember I was in darkness. All I wanted to do was sleep…but his voice…I had to follow it! I wanted so much to see him again…” Wiping away a lingering tear, the dark-haired woman surveyed the chamber. “But where is he, then? Achilios!” She started to rise. “Achilios! Don’t hide from me!”
She teetered. Uldyssian quickly supported her. Serenthia put an arm around his waist, her eyes yet seeking the man she loved.
“Why won’t he answer me? Why’s he hiding?”
“He’s not. He ran off when others entered. Serry, I think he’s afraid that you’ll be repulsed by what he’s become.”
Serenthia gave him an incredulous look. “Why? He’s Achilios!”
“And he should be dead. Dead. We buried him, remember?” Before she could suggest the obvious, Uldyssian continued, “There was no mistake! The shaft went through his throat! He should be dead!”
He felt her shiver, but realized that it was not out of fear. “How horrible,” Serenthia murmured, eyeing empty air. “How horrible for him…”
As she said it, Uldyssian had to admit that a part of him felt the same for his childhood friend. Achilios had obviously been tracking them for some time, perhaps even within days of his killing. Had he meant them any harm, he could have struck several times over. Thus far, Achilios had only acted like the Achilios of old, ever protective of those for whom he cared.
Especially Serenthia.
“I’ve got to find him,” she abruptly declared. “I’ve got to find Achilios! He’s all alone out there, fearful to be even with me!”
“Serry, he may have good reason—”
Her voice grew sharp. “That’s ridiculous! There’s no good reason for us to be apart. I won’t be deterred. I’m going to find him.”
Her determination in the face of such drastic events touched Uldyssian deeply. “I’ll stand with you, then, Serry. You have the right of it; Achilios has always been there for us…even now. Whatever he must overcome, we should be there for him, too.”
That made her finally smile. “Thank you…”
With his continued assistance, she was finally able to leave the sinister building. Outside, they were immediately surrounded by others, Saron among them. Behind the Torajian stood a group of edyrem who were apparently acting as guards to a small, surly group.
Their prisoners were the last remnants of those turned by Lilith. They were but a handful, the rest having been sacrificed to the demoness’s madness. Uldyssian recognized all but two and assumed those to be Hashiri. In addition to having the bodies removed, Uldyssian had through his powers secretly passed word to those he felt certain he could trust to locate the guards Lilith had left at the edge of the encampment. From his count, his followers had managed to round up all of them.
“What shall we do with them, master?” asked Saron. His dark expression gave easy indication of what he would have liked. To the mind of most of the edyrem present, the turned were the foulest of traitors…even if their fall from grace was due to Lilith’s seductions.
Uldyssian had been unable to save Romus or any of those inside, but he still hoped to salvage these souls. He was already sick of the rising number of dead.
Then, he recalled Serenthia. However, before he could speak, she whispered, “Go ahead. This must not wait, not even for me…”
With that, she pulled away so as to give him room. Uldyssian signaled two of his followers to bring the first of the turned to him. As they approached, he sensed the other edyrem managing to keep the power of the prisoner in check. He was impressed by their action, something that they had not been taught by him.
The man, a Torajian, scowled as Uldyssian leaned into him. He looked ready to spit into his former leader’s face, but evidently thought better of it.
For what he planned, Uldyssian knew that he would have to touch the prisoner. That would mean more direct contact with Lilith’s taint, but there was nothing that he could do to avoid that if he hoped to save the Torajian.
With a deep breath, he brought his hands up to each side of the prisoner’s head. The Torajian tried to shake loose, then settled down, glaring.
Meeting that evil gaze, Uldyssian delved within. He sensed the core of what was the Torajian and how it tied to his power.
It took him no time at all to find the blackness that the demoness had stirred to raging life. It was so evil that a stunned Uldyssian nearly retreated out of repulsion. Yet, to do so would be to abandon all hope for the man before him.
After brief consideration, Uldyssian determined that his best chance lay in trying to smother or even remove the darkness. He imagined it like a solid object and used his mind to try to encase it. If it could be forced out—
Without warning, the blackness erupted into pure, monstrous fury. Uldyssian barely had a chance to withdraw his mind—
—and no opportunity at all to prevent the prisoner from tearing free from his guards as if they were nothing and clamping his hands around Uldyssian’s throat.
Sharp agony filled Uldyssian as the Torajian squeezed. Intense heat wracked his throat, the escaped prisoner using his own edyrem powers in addition to his brute strength. If not for the son of Diomedes having already had some protections up, he would have been dead already.
“I will rip out your throat and drink your blood!” snarled the Torajian madly. His face distorted, his eyes bulging as if about to pop out and his mouth stretching wide. His teeth grew sharper and his tongue—now forked—darted in and out like a wild snake. “I will—”
He screamed, his hands releasing Uldyssian’s throat at the same time. The Torajian took a step back, his body blazing. He attempted once to douse the mysterious but voracious flames…and then burned away into a pile of black ash.
From behind him, Uldyssian heard Serenthia’s weary voice. “I had—to—do it. There was nothing—nothing left to save, Uldyssian.”
He nodded wordlessly, then, rubbing his throat, surveyed the rest of the prisoners. They did not look at all fearful, but rather full of malice. Uldyssian contemplated searching deeper in the hope of finding some chance for their redemption, but recalled too well what had just happened. Lilith had taken into account that someone, perhaps even him, might seek to save those she had turned. The demoness had made that impossible.
Which left Uldyssian with only one bitter choice.
“Stand away from them,” he commanded their guards.
Saron quickly protested. “Master, it might not be safe to do—”
“Stand away from them.”
They obeyed, but still used their combined might to keep the prisoners at bay. Unfortunately, Uldyssian could not permit them to continue to do that, either, for fear that they might be harmed by what he planned.
“Release them,” he ordered. Before Saron could speak anew, Uldyssian added, “I’ll deal with the problem. Do as I say.”
He sensed the moment that they obeyed and then the one when the prisoners realized that their power was theirs again. Yet, before any of them could become a threat, Uldyssian concentrated.
The turned edyrem froze. Even then, though, he could feel their evil struggles.
“Away with you,” Uldyssian grimly uttered.
A wind picked up around the turned, a fierce wind that touched only them.
As if made of sand, Lilith’s creatures literally blew away. The wind ripped up the particles and flung them high, high into the night. Uldyssian did not let his concentration falter as he made that gust throw what had once been men far from his followers. If any trace of the demoness’s taint remained, he did not want it to affect anyone else.
Finally, after what he felt a safe interval and distance, he dismissed the wind. Somewhere to the west, far from where any of the edyrem would have reason to go, he let the dust finally scatter.