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“Enough with this.” Smoky closed his eyes and vanished. Within moments, he appeared on the inside of the cell. The woman looked up at him. “Is your name Violet?”
She nodded, speechless, and he broke the chain that tethered her to the wall, gathered her up, and vanished. Roz raced down to the cell next to hers and did the same, only he used one of his firebombs to blow the chain out of the wall. Since he had originally been Fae, he groaned when the iron shrapnel singed his arm. But ignoring the burn, he gathered up the woman in his arms and vanished.
That was all well and good, I thought, but we still had three prisoners, and now we were down two of our best fighters.
Delilah, Tanne, and Rodney took one side. I took the other, and Camille and Morio stood in the middle, preparing a spell. We had no clue what was going to answer the sound of those alarms, but no doubt, something would.
A moment later, we had our answer. Something swooped in on us. It wasn’t a daeflier—that much even I could tell. No, it was translucent and hard to see, except for the concentric circles rippling around it, like stones landing on water in a pond. Whatever it was made no noise, but the next moment, it soared up toward the ceiling and dove for Camille and Morio.
They raised their hands, joined together, and shouted, “Reflect!” and a thin shield of purple covered them, emanating out of their hands. Another second and the creature bounced off it, spun in the air, and came toward me.
I had no clue how to fight it, or whether its attack would even be physical. But that question was put to rest as it slammed into and through me. A rush of icy cold air curdled my veins, making it hard to move. I was fairly immune to the cold, so whatever this was must be damned chill because if it could affect me, I dreaded to think what it might do to the others.
It launched itself at me again, and this time, I tried to fight back—swiping at it as it came near, but my hand hit the rippling air and pain nearly knocked me senseless. I reeled back as it barreled through me again, and this time I could barely move; it felt like my body was frozen.
“What the fuck is this thing?”
Tanne ran to my side. “I think I know. I fought one of these in the Black Forest. I’m surprised to see it here!”
“W-w-what is it? H-h-how can we fight it?” I was stuttering, my lips barely able to form words. Every movement was a struggle, like I was sinking in quicksand or molasses.
At that moment, Smoky reappeared, along with Roz.
Tanne motioned to Roz. “A sichbarmon is attacking her! ‘Invisible ghost demon’ is the best translation I can give you. They are from the Netherworld and they use the power of cold to drain the life force from their enemies. We fight it with fire. The fiery explosives you have? Do you have more?”
“Will they work on a ghost?” Roz hunted through his pockets.
“If they are magical, they will.”
At that moment, the creature dove at me again and, once more, blasted a wave of snow and ice and bone-chilling cold through me. If I’d been alive, I’d now be a corpsesickle. I let out a croaking sound as Camille and Morio fired off a spell at the thing, but their magic bounced off.
The next moment, Roz shouted, “Close your eyes!” and I struggled to obey. I’d no sooner shut my eyes than a wave of warmth and heat spread over me, and a shockwave so loud I couldn’t hear a thing after that except for a nasty ringing in my ears.
But the paralysis began to lift and I was able to move a little. Tanne raced in, grabbing me and dragging me to the side, as the sichbarmon dove again. Roz tossed another bomb at it, and this time, the ripple in the air lit up in a brilliant flash, then vanished.
Tanne’s mouth moved and he said something but I couldn’t hear it. Then he turned to me. I watched his lips. “Are you all right?”
I nodded, slowly dragging myself up to my feet, using his shoulder to balance on. “I can’t hear. How long will this ringing last?”
Everybody stopped and turned to look at me. Great, I was the center of attention and so not for a helpful reason. Tanne turned me to face him and pointed to his lips. I nodded and watched as he mouthed, “It will wear off of you quickly, being vampire. But if you were human? Or Fae without the vampire? You’d be dead, as well as deaf.”
Smoky and Roz hurried to bring the other three prisoners out. I couldn’t make out any of the conversation, but Smoky grabbed two of them around the waist—a man and woman—and Roz took hold of the last woman, and they vanished again.
Delilah grabbed me by the arm and motioned to turn around. Torn, I resisted. We’d come this far—could we find out more? But then the realization of our current state hit me. We’d found Violet. We’d rescued the other four prisoners who were trapped there with her. I was running zero in the hearing category. And we were dreadfully undermanned for a mission of this sort. We’d managed to luck out with some nasty bruises and scars, but who knew what lay farther beyond in this complex. Reluctantly, I nodded, and we headed back the way we had come at a quick jog. The sooner we were out of here, the better.
By the time we reached the secret passage, I was relieved we’d turned around. I was also beginning to hear again. Lowestar would find out about this soon enough, and he’d probably bring an army with him. Morio, Camille, and Tanne’s magical signatures were probably all over the place, and no doubt they’d figure out who had rampaged through, killed the guards and hellhounds, and stolen their merchandise.
And tonight, I really didn’t want to find myself on the end of a pissed-off major daemon.
We made it out without incident, skirting the dead bodies. I stopped and picked up several of the bullwhips by the entrance to the secret passageway. They fascinated me and I thought it might be fun to have them around.
Morio confined Rodney to his coffin again and the bone golem went without so much as a peep.
“We don’t have far to go, but the longer we stay down here, the more nervous I get.” Camille glanced around. “I have the feeling something is looming and I don’t know what, so it’s making me antsy.”
We sped up, and by the time we reached the door with the alarm, Smoky and Roz were waiting on the other side.
“We figured that you would be on the move, so we decided to wait here for you rather than try to backtrack and find you. Come on—we’ve accomplished this mission and we better not hang around. Besides…” Smoky paused, then drew a long breath. “Trenyth called on the Whispering Mirror. News from the war front. Not good, he says. But he wouldn’t tell us till you get home and are there to hear.”
