“Who are you?” Ilmarec asked. “How did you get passed the Shaa Khyraa and the wards?”
Rik shrugged and lied, as he edged closer. “Give me that amulet. I will let you live.” He wanted to distract Ilmarec, to prevent him from drawing on his magic until it was too late.
“Who are you to threaten me in my place of power?”
“This is not your place. It belongs to the Serpent Men. It has always belonged to them. You are an interloper here.”
Ilmarec tipped his head to one side and gazed at Rik with narrowed eyes. “I see you have been touched by their power. That old monster down below was wilier than I gave it credit for being. Somehow it has betrayed me.”
“It said the same thing about you.”
“You look like a human but you are not. You look like a Terrarch but you are not. What are you?”
“I am a half-breed.” Rik took another step closer.
“You are more than that. You would not have been able to pass my wards. I think you are some creation of Asea’s.”
Almost there, Rik thought. “Will you do as I asked or must I kill you?”
“You are very confident to threaten me. I could slay you with a spell.”
“If you wish to try, now is the right time.” Rik raised the blade and pointed it at Ilmarec.
A sly smile of triumph crossed the wizard’s face. He raised his clenched fist. A ring glittered on one finger. Rik found his gaze drawn to the ring’s depths. For a moment his sanity tottered and he felt the urge to do whatever he was told by the Terrarch.
“You will obey me, half-breed,” said Ilmarec. Desperately, Rik resisted, putting all the force of his will into making his limbs obey him.
“I don’t think so,” said Rik lunging forward. The poisoned blade pierced the wizard’s belly and he howled like a tortured dog, writhing on the floor. Rik reached down and ripped the Serpent Man’s talisman from around his neck.
“You idiot,” said the wizard. “You have destroyed us all.”
His eyes closed. He looked dead. Rik stabbed him again a few times just to make sure.
Chapter Twenty-Four
What now, Rik thought? He had the talisman the Serpent Man required. The question was whether he could trust it. He did not see what else he could do. He was trapped on the Tower. The Tower raced through the sky uncontrolled. If the Serpent Man had told the truth it was only a matter of time before the god’s heart exploded killing them all. As ever, it seemed, he had very little choice in the matter. He glanced back over his shoulder. The Nerghul still fought with Ilmarec’s tame demon.
He caught a flicker of movement from the corner of his eye. He turned, raising the sword to protect himself. A tall Terrarch woman entered the chamber. Rik recognised her from Asea’s portrait as Queen Kathea. She had entered through another door.
Understanding flooded into Kathea’s eyes. She looked at Ilmarec’s dead body and then at Rik, and then she screamed in horror. Rik strode forward and put his free hand over her mouth. He did not want her screams to attract either of the two monsters.
He spoke slowly and softly, “Your majesty, I mean you no harm.”
A small muscle pulsed in her jaw, he could feel it. He kept speaking as quietly and persuasively as he could. “Nod if you understand what I am saying.”
She nodded.
“I have come here to free you, and to take you to Lord Azaar’s army. There are some problems. We need to get out of the Tower. You need to follow me.” He uncovered her mouth.
“We can’t get out of the Tower. It’s in flight and Ilmarec was the only one who could control it. We are all doomed.”
“There is another.”
“You lie.”
“Your majesty. You can stay here if you wish and you will certainly die, or you can come with me, and you may yet live. Which is it going to be?” Her response surprised Rik.
She walked over to Ilmarec’s corpse and started kicking it.
“Bastard,” she shouted. “Stupid, treacherous bastard. I knew it would all go wrong.”
“Your majesty, we don’t have very much time.”
The kicking ended and sobbing returned. “Are you ready to go, your majesty?”
“Let’s go,” she said. Her voice was calm, icy, in control. Her eyes were wet with tears, but her face was frozen into the formal mask of a Terrarch princess. “Lead the way.”
“It will be my pleasure.” He gestured at where the two demons fought. “Run past those two things as fast as you can go!”
The Nerghul felt the first faint stirrings of fear. Not for itself, but that it might not be able to complete its mission. The creature it fought was strong, quite the strongest thing it had ever encountered. The suckered tentacles sheared flesh from its bones. Worse than that, their icy touch seemed to be sucking all the animating energy from the Nerghul. It was weakened and depleted in a way it had never felt before. Nonetheless, it was not going to give up. It writhed and pushed against the demon’s embrace, sinking its own talons into the rubbery skin.
Just then, it sensed a death in the next chamber. The demon’s hold weakened slightly. The Nerghul twisted an arm free and reached forward grabbing a handful of its opponent’s eyestalks. Exerting all its might, it tugged them free. The demon’s struggles became weaker. The Nerghul bit and gouged at its flesh. Long minutes passed as its foe became weaker. The Nerghul sensed victory as the demon began to dissolve into slimy protoplasm.
It turned to pick up the scent once more.
Rik led Kathea down through the winding corridors. He ran as fast as he could and still maintain a sense of direction. He feared that every second would be his last. In his mind’s eye, he pictured a great sunburst explosion tearing the Tower apart. He pictured it ploughing into the ground with enough force to kill everybody on board. It was all he could do to keep his racing monkey fears under control and recall the path back to the Serpent Man’s vault. He prayed as he had not prayed since his youth that they would be in time, and that the creature had not been deceiving him.
The Nerghul pulled itself along. It was badly hurt. Chunks had been torn out of its leg, so it limped, supporting itself with its arms. It needed time to heal but it wanted so badly to kill its prey, to savour the taste of fulfilment that it could not stop. It forced itself to move on. Its target seemed to be heading back the way it came. It was only a matter of time before it overtook it.
The great loops of moving pathway carried Rik along the convoluted way into the heart of the Tower, past empty chambers full of strange moulded machines. Incomprehensible runes scrolled past on the floor beneath his feet. The light burned dim and green and the warm fusty atmosphere grew more intense. Kathea looked at him.
“What was that?”
Rik listened. He thought he heard the echo of something moving, coming from behind them.
“I think we are being followed. One of the demons must have survived.”
“I thought the thing that attacked the Shaa Khyraa was your ally.”
“I regret not.”
“Then you should be afraid. The Shaa Khyraa would not long survive Ilmarec’s death. His soul was what bound it to our plane of existence.”
Rik thought about the Nerghul. The creature seemed destined to dog his footsteps. There appeared to be no way to escape it. He smiled with grim humour. It was a race between the destruction of the Tower and the undead demon to see which would kill him. He thought for a moment that he had entered a place beyond fear then realised it was the effect of the combat drugs.
“Why are you smiling?”
“I wish to hell I knew.”