Demon Bound: A Fantasy Monster Romance, page 13
Raiya nodded to Azreth, and he reluctantly raised his palm to show Gereg the runes. They looked better than they had earlier, but they were still rather raw and red, like recent wounds.
Gereg raised an eyebrow. “A nasty bit of spellcraft.”
“Can you help us undo it?”
She looked uncertain, and Raiya’s hopes fell. But then Gereg nodded. “Many of our number are mages. We will help you find a way to fix it, with the Goddess’s blessing. Worry not.”
Raiya breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
Gereg bowed to Azreth. “Please make yourself at home, beloved spawn of the dark goddess. We are eternally grateful to her for this gift. Praise Moratha.”
“Praise her,” echoed some other cultists nearby.
Gereg bowed again as she left, and then they were finally alone—except for the dozen or so people still watching them from around the cavernous room.
Azreth was bemusedly studying the display at the front of the room: a stone altar, a basin, and a lot of decorative skulls that appeared to have come from real people. For a moment, Raiya was afraid the liquid in the basin might be blood, but upon closer inspection, it appeared to be mere water.
“Is Moratha really the mother of demons?” she asked Azreth, keeping her voice down.
He shrugged.
“What do your people believe?” she asked.
“Our eldresses say nothing of gods. They kneel to the universe itself, to the forces of chaos, creation, and destruction.”
“You worship the universe?”
“We don’t worship anything.”
“I see. Perhaps you should keep that to yourself for now. The acolytes will be sorely disappointed.”
“I agree.”
She was glad they had come to the same conclusion. It appeared that their welcome here was conditional upon their support of Moratha’s goals. If they wanted the cultists’ help, it would be best to play along for a while.
He rested a hand between her shoulder blades, grazing upward to the base of her neck. Her skin tingled at the touch.
“I am hungry,” he said quietly.
“So am I,” Raiya said, giving him a sly look. His eyebrows lifted slightly. She realized it was the first time she’d admitted she freely wanted him, and apparently he realized it, too. She cleared her throat. “Later. We should take care of some things first.”
Nirlan and his retinue of Paladins had the audacity to approach the temple and demand entrance, but were turned away by several cultist mages. Raiya watched the exchange from behind the curtains of a window upstairs. She didn’t relax until long after he’d left. It appeared they were safe, for now.
That evening, Azreth sat stiffly in a chair that was far too small for him while a few of the cultists studied his hand. To Raiya’s disappointment, even the mages seemed to know little more about the binding enchantment than she did.
“A pity Brother Eunaios isn’t here,” one of the cultists said. “He’s been missing for some time. He was the most knowledgeable about summoning and binding of us all”
Raiya carefully didn’t reply.
Predictably, Azreth drew a crowd of onlookers as he sat for the mages. The more people gathered around him, the more irritated he looked. Some of them began asking him questions about his purposes on the mortal plane and about the hells, which he answered mostly with noncommittal grunts.
Then people began making requests. Someone asked him to bless their ceremonial knife, a task which he surely wasn’t qualified for, but merely being a demon seemed to be qualification enough to satisfy the cultists. Another cultist asked him to relay a request to the dark goddess.
When it got to be too much, Azreth got up and stormed out of the room, knocking over several cultists in the process.
“I dislike these people,” he said to her later. “And this place is not safe. I can sense it. We should leave.”
“I know. But they might be our best chance at fixing this.”
He frowned, but didn’t argue.
By the next day, she was starting to lose hope that this endeavor would yield any fruit. But then she found the temple’s library.
It was not very large, but the selection of books was ideal. The shelves were filled with an array of unusual tomes, including Effective Methods of Murder, Sacrifice, and Embalming; The Nature of the Hells: A Noncomprehensive Study of Demonology; Confessions of a Blood Magician; and various runic dictionaries and spell books.
Finding someone willing to help Azreth would be good, but being able to do it herself was even better.
There were no desks in the library, which struck her as odd. Perhaps, like Nirlan, the cultists were more interested in the idea of forbidden knowledge than in the actual knowing of it. So she worked directly on the floor, bent over a dusty book of demonic runes as she carefully copied them into her notebook. A small candle served as her only light, as the space lacked windows. Occasionally, one of the cultists would stop by to ask what she was doing and offer advice, most of which was unhelpful.
“Are you a mage?” one of them asked, crossing her arms as she looked down at Raiya.
“No, not as such.”
“Too bad. You’d be a lot more useful if you were.”
“I can’t disagree.”
“Perhaps the demon should have come directly to us instead of you.” She smiled unkindly.
Raiya looked down at her work, though she was suddenly having a difficult time concentrating on it. “Yes, you’re probably right.”
After a few hours, she leaned back to stretch her shoulders, and she felt a presence at her side. She looked up, and Azreth was crouched beside her, watching her work. She had no idea how long he’d been there. He raised a hand over her candle, and the flame grew a little bigger and brighter, casting more light over her book.
She smiled and pointed to the book. “Look what I found. It was written by an Ysuran mage who lived in the fourth century. It’s a study of runes found on enchanted artifacts from the hells.”
Azreth looked at the page she’d pointed at, impassive.
She went on, too excited not to share her findings, whether he wanted them explained or not. “Look at these. They’re very similar to the ones on your hand. And here—” She flipped to another page in the book. “This section has theories about reversing bindings. Most of it isn’t relevant to you, but look at this set of runes. The runes on your hand appear to be a combination of several languages and spell types, but I think some of them use an old demonic language. We can use this as a basis for building a spell to reverse your binding. I’ve already made a few prototype enchantments for us to test.”
Azreth studied the runes in the book she’d been reading, then looked over the enchantments she’d sketched out, his luminous eyes carefully passing over every pen stroke. At last, he looked up at her.
“You can read all these runes? These spells?”
“Yes, most of them. I’ve studied runic languages for a long time. Maybe longer than I should have.”
“These languages can be merged?” he asked slowly. He looked at his hand, then back at the book. “What does this one mean?”
Raiya pointed out each rune on his hand as she explained their function in the spell while Azreth listened. When she’d finished, she sat back, waiting for him to react. He frowned. Raiya guessed he was going to point out how unlikely it was that her counter-enchantments would work, and she braced herself.
“You are very clever,” he said.
Raiya raised her eyebrows. “Oh. Thank you.”
“I thought you were a mere craftsman of enchantments, not an inventor of them. You have impressive skill.”
Flutters filled her stomach. “I don’t know about that. But I’m glad I can be of assistance.”
“You offer more than just assistance,” Azreth said. He lowered his voice, glancing up to look her in the eye. “If you were not with me, I would be trapped and without hope.”
Raiya was startled. She swallowed back a lump in her throat. Without thinking, she found herself reaching out to touch his hand. He looked down at where she touched him, quiet and still.
“I’m glad I can help,” she whispered. “No one should be trapped or hopeless.”
His fingers slowly folded around hers.
A sad thought occurred to her—that he might no longer need or want her after this was done. She realized, rather suddenly, that she didn’t want to leave him. Was it just because of the sense of safety that came from having a demon as a bodyguard? Or had she begun to appreciate his company?
“What will you do after you’re free?” she asked. “You said you will not return to the hells.”
“No. I will remain here with you.”
She blinked, surprised. It seemed he’d already been thinking about this, as well. “With me?”
His gaze sliced toward hers. His eyes narrowed. “Yes.”
Raiya watched him, and he watched her back. The warmth had gone from his aura. His expression was cool and unyielding.
Slowly, Raiya’s pleasure drained and was replaced by confusion. “What do you mean by that?”
“You will stay by my side while I remain on your plane. That is all.”
“That’s all?”
“Yes.”
She crossed her arms. “Perhaps you should ask me what I plan to do, instead of telling me.”
He scowled. “What do you plan to do?”
“I don’t know. I hadn’t decided yet, and I was considering my options.”
His lips twisted downward. He glanced away, and she could see the muscle in his jaw silently flexing before he returned his gaze to her. “You will remain with me, and I will feed from you.”
“Is that a command?”
“If it must be.”
It felt like a knife twisting in her chest. “You can’t do that. You can’t tell me what to do. You’re not my master.”
“There is nothing you can do to stop me. You are weak.”
Raiya gaped at him. She shut her book and stood up. “How dare you talk to me like this?”
He stood up too, towering over her, unapologetically intimidating. “You give me no choice. I must feed, or I will grow weak and die. There is no other option.”
“Perhaps I would have continued to help you if you had just asked me. Did you think of that?”
“You said you were considering leaving me.”
“So you’ve decided to force me to stay?”
He waved his arm in a rare outward display of frustration, baring his teeth. “If you refuse, you will force my hand!”
“So if I tried to leave you, you would keep me against my will? And how will you feed from me? Do you plan to hold me down and torture me?”
“I do not want to hurt you.”
That made her feel a little safer, but not much. “Then what is your plan, exactly? How will you feed from me if I’m unwilling?”
He had nothing to say to that, apparently. The silence was deafening.
“I thought you—I thought we were getting along.” It sounded stupid now that she said it aloud. This was his nature. What else had she expected? It was only just recently that she’d started to think of him as a companion instead of an enemy, anyway. “You can’t have it both ways. You can’t have my trust and friendship while also holding me hostage.”
“I apologize if I gave you the impression that you should trust me,” he said sarcastically.
“You’re right. That was my mistake.” She shoved her notebook under her arm and shelved the book she’d been referencing before stalking toward the door.
Azreth grabbed her arm to stop her, and she stiffened, looking back at him nervously. His expression was hard but wavering slightly, like he was wrestling with several emotions. “Where are you going?”
“To my bed.”
“It’s only midday. You will not require rest for hours.”
“And?”
“Aren’t you going to try to undo my binding?”
“When I’m not feeling so exhausted, maybe.” She glanced down at his hand on her. “Release me.”
He hesitated, then let go. She left without another word.
Chapter 16
When Raiya awoke very early the next morning, Azreth was not waiting outside the room for her like he usually was. She was relieved. She still wasn’t in the mood to see him.
She ventured into the main hall, where she was alone except for one other solitary figure. She was surprised to see an elf with indigo skin and raven hair kneeling before the altar, bending so low that his forehead touched the floor.
“Madira?” she asked.
He started, jerking his head up, and he scowled when he recognized her. “You again?”
“I didn’t know night elves worshiped Moratha,” Raiya said, coming to lean against a column near the altar.
He looked annoyed. “We do not worship Moratha.”
She glanced over at the altar, and at his position before it. “You’ll forgive me for assuming…”
“We worship the night goddess, Ravi. The spirit of our homeland.” He rolled his eyes, as if she was stupid for not knowing the difference. Or perhaps she wasn’t the first one who’d asked, and he was tired of explaining it. “The Moratha worshipers are one of the few groups who won’t attack my kind on sight. There are no places of worship for our goddess outside of Kuda Varai, so I come here instead. It is not Ravi’s temple, but it is a temple nonetheless, built on a ley line that eventually leads back to the homeland. My prayers will reach the Goddess’s ears, have no doubt.”
He seemed very confident. Or perhaps it was wishful thinking masquerading as confidence. Kuda Varai was a very long way from northern Uulantaava.
“I’m sure you’re right,” Raiya said hopefully.
He nodded approvingly.
“Is there a reason you and Jai don’t return to your homeland?”
He hesitated, a somber look crossing his face. “It’s complicated,” he said. “We can’t go back.”
“I understand the feeling.”
He got to his feet, looking toward the door to the main hall. “Where is your monster? Isn’t he with you?”
“Probably upstairs.”
He smirked unkindly. “Getting weary of him, are you? I can’t say that I’m surprised.”
She didn’t want to talk about it, so she just smiled blandly. “Where is your sister?”
“With the caravan. We arrived in town this morning.”
“Did you come to the temple by yourself? Is it safe for you to be out alone?” Perhaps more importantly, was it safe for the townspeople to be alone while a night elf was around?
He grinned as if he’d read her mind. “I’m not the one you need to worry for.”
Soft footsteps sounded from the doorway. They both turned to see Priestess Gereg entering, her hands folded into her black robe. She appeared to sleep in her makeup, because it was even more smeared and grotesque-looking than before. Perhaps that was the goal.
“I see you’ve met our other new acolyte,” Gereg said to Raiya. “How lovely for Moratha to deliver us even more of her faithful. May her darkness shroud all of us.”
Gereg seemed to think Madira did indeed follow Moratha, and he wasn’t correcting her. In fact, he was glancing nervously at Raiya, his lips pressed together.
Instead of pointing out the misunderstanding, Raiya bowed her head respectfully. “Praise her,” she said. Madira seemed to relax a fraction.
“Indeed,” Gereg said. “You didn’t tell me how long you’d been a follower of the dark goddess, Acolyte Raiya.”
Raiya fiddled with the end of her braid, glancing at Madira. He raised his eyebrows.
“Oh. Well, it was fairly recent,” Raiya said.
“Truly? When was your awakening?”
Raiya wasn’t particularly good at lying. She told as much of the truth as she could. “I had an awakening about a week ago. I suppose I had reached rock bottom. But now I’ve found a way out.”
Gereg nodded sagely. “The dark goddess often seeks us out when we are at our weakest, when we are most open to her wisdom. The assurance of death comforts you, does it not?”
Raiya stared at the old woman, trying to work out whether she expected an answer in the affirmative. Then again, this was the goddess of death they were talking about. “Oh, yes. Definitely.”
Gereg smiled wanly. She took a breath, moving on to a new topic. “I have received another message from the dark goddess.”
“Another dream?” Raiya asked, barely hiding her skepticism.
“Indeed.” Gereg raised her hands as if making a grand pronouncement. “In my dream, the demon announced his purpose on our plane.”
“His purpose?”
“Yes. He is here for a reason. Haven’t you guessed?”
“I guess not.”
“You will see.” With that cryptic statement, she folded her hands behind her and walked smugly out of the room.
Madira frowned after her, fidgeting with the pommel of his sword. “That woman is creepy as all hells.”
“On that, we can agree.”
He looked her up and down as if reassessing her. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said. “The cultists are not as harmless as they seem.”
“I appreciate the warning, but I can take care of myself.”
“Whatever you say.” He took a step back, and then his entire body faded until it was almost gone. He was still there in front of her, but he’d turned into a shadow, barely visible. It was the magical camouflaging all night elves were born with. She’d heard of it, but never seen it before now. “Give my regards to your monster.”
“He’s not a monster.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
When Raiya went to find Azreth later that day, she had a harder time locating him than she expected. None of the cultists seemed to know where he’d gone. It wasn’t until she went to the attic and craned her head out the window that her search came to an end.
Her demon was sitting on the roof in the shadows beneath the chimney, surveying the city. His knees were tucked up against his chest as if to make himself smaller. Somehow, it seemed to have worked. He’d avoided the attention of the townspeople below, and he observed them unnoticed. The sun was bright that day, and it was almost warm. If she’d been in a better mood, she’d have been tempted to join him. But when Azreth’s eyes slid in her direction, she felt a flicker of irritation and apprehension that made her want to turn around and leave.
