The Demon King

Chapter 1

A Far Shore

I’m Darin Bales, and I might’ve just made a big mistake.

Crazy enough I picked a fight with the da of all demons. Crazier still, I almost won. But when he up and rabbited, I did the craziest thing yet and chased him like a hound all the way across the rippin’ sea with no idea or plan on how to get back. Worse, I took Olive Paper, Duch Regent of Hollow, with me.

Gonna be questions with us disappeared, but I reckon folk’ll be all right now that we done our part. Thanks to Olive, her da is around to take care of her army at the Spear of Ala, and now that I sprung Olive’s mam, reckon she’s already on her way back to Hollow. They’ll put things right.

Of the three parents Alagai Ka took, I was the only one to lose. Mam died the same way Da did, fifteen years later almost to the day. Gave her own life to destroy Safehold, same as I meant to do for the hive.

We were linked when she done it. Beings of pure energy wrapped together like one of Uncle Gared’s giant hugs. I felt what she felt, up until she cast me back. Felt her make the decision to leave me. To die for me. To give her life to keep everyone in the world—­but most of all me—­safe.

Wouldn’t have to deal with that pain if I’d up and died, too. Might be I’d’ve found her and Da on the other side, though I ent ever held much faith in that. Either way, I’d be at peace.

But I din’t die, so now I got to live with it. Mam’s gone. Not just missin’ this time. She’s gone for good, and I got her dying emotions rattlin’ around inside me like Succor dice.

I’m so tired. Been holding it in for months, all the little discordances I had to endure to get us to New Krasia, then across the desert, then the hunt for Safehold. And what did it get me? Pain, loss, and a frantic journey to warn Olive what was coming.

Now I’m on my hands and knees in wet sand, shivering in the cold night air. My clothes are soaked, the waves still lapping at my legs.

It’s all I can do not to just lie down and die. Might have, but Olive Paper ent the sort to give up. She hauls me out of the water, spitting the salt from her mouth as she sets me upright with one arm. “Where are we?”

It’s all I can do to offer a weak shrug of my shoulders. “Across the sea.”

“That isn’t terribly helpful,” Olive says, looking around. Her brother Asome’s helm has a circlet not dissimilar to a crown. The electrum headpiece is bright with magic, no doubt with a demonbone core. With it on, I expect her night eyes see as much as mine.

Still, I scan the area, trying to Read something she’s missed on the currents of magic, or with my other senses. To our backs, the vast sea appears nearly magic-­dead. Water is a poor conductor, and salt water is worse yet. The flows are weak on the beach, where water saturates the sand beneath the surface. Even drained as he is, Alagai Ka would be a bonfire to our eyes.

“I don’t see the demon,” Olive says.

“Me either.” I inhale deeply through my nose, catching a hint of his scent, back the way we came.

I shiver again, then turn slippery, letting all the water slide off me. When I suck back in, my clothes are line-­dry. Already I feel warmer, but I can see body heat, and Olive is turning blue.

I reach out a hand, but Olive shies from taking it, smelling scared. Can’t blame her, after I dragged her all this way. Used to hate it when Mam did that to me. Still ent used to it. Olive’s smart to be worried.

More, when we link auras, it gets us inside each other’s heads and hearts same as it was for me and Mam right up until she died. I’m to give honest word, I don’t want that any more than Olive does.

“Won’t link us or skate without your permission,” I say, keeping the hand extended. “Can’t, unless my will’s stronger’n yours, and that ent a bet I’d take.”

She seems mollified at that, taking my hand as I use just a touch of magic, inviting her body to turn slippery, letting all the sand and wet slide right off everything from her hair to the scales of her armor.

She looks warmer immediately and glances at her armor in appreciation. “Thanks, Dar.”

I let go. “Those scales are good against claws, but I reckon it’s hard work getting sand out.”

“I have people for that . . .” Olive trails off. Neither of us got people now.

I tap my nose. “Got the spoor.” Olive lifts her spear, following as I sniff my way back beneath a great overhang of stone and down into the half-­submerged grottoes. Doesn’t take long for the demon’s stink to lead me to the spot where he emerged from the water, probably just moments before us. The ground is still marked by his claws, and I can see an impression of his big knobby head in the sand.

Sight makes me angry and ashamed. I was ready to give up a moment ago, but I ent done. If I got to go, I’m taking that son of the Core with me. Owe it to Mam and Da.

“He’s gone,” Olive says.

“Ay, but he’s been here,” I say. “He’s weak, wounded, and can’t travel much farther until he gets his strength back. Came here because he sensed a queen. We find her, we find him.”

“You make it sound simple,” Olive says.

“Is,” I say. “Demon thought he’s been huntin’ us all this time. Now we’re huntin’ him.”

I sound confident. Even to myself. It’s what both of us need to hear. I can smell Olive’s renewed determination, and feel braver for it. One last fight, and then—­one way or another—­I’ll never have to fight again.

I open up my senses, trying to sort out the strange currents of magic. The sea explains some of it, but not all. The flows ent natural, venting up through the shallow water like morning fog over Fishing Hole and immediately drifting like they’ve caught a breeze down into the caves.

No vents on the shallow patches of dry land, but if Olive and I had materialized farther out to sea, we’d have drowned.

Olive sees it, too. “There’s a greatward nearby.”

I nod, comforted. Normally I’m the one has to explain these things. Always makes me feel safe to have Olive Paper around.

It’s cold here. Ent just the wind and wet. It was summer in Thesa, but we’ve come a long way. Even the seasons are different. Still new moon, though, or close enough for Alagai Ka. Common knowledge is mind demons don’t come to the surface when the moon is showin’. Ent sure if it’s a fatal allergy or just somethin’ they don’t like the taste of.

“Could he have gone back to Thesa?” Olive asks. Don’t need to know why she’s worried. Both of us got folk in danger if he does.

I shake my head. “That jump took a lot out of me, and I was stronger’n him at the end. Reckon he’s close and lookin’ to feed.”

“And when he does?” Olive asks. “When he’s eaten some poor souls’ brains and found a vent to pull magic from? What will he do then?”

I shrug, noticing something in the air. Something I didn’t sense before.

“Hear that?” I ask Olive.

Olive tilts her head. “I don’t hear anything but the waves.”

“Hear ent exactly right,” I say. “Feel, maybe. There’s a vibration in the magic currents. Too steady to be natural.”

Olive frowns, closing her eyes and letting her other senses expand. After a moment, she nods. “What do you think it is?”

“Alarm, I reckon. Maybe that’s what sent the demon running.”

“What kind of alarm?” Olive has her shield on her arm now.

As if on cue, a low growl sounds from the deep caves of the grotto. Olive tenses, following my gaze as my attention turns.

“Darin.” Olive’s voice is patient, her scent anything but. “Did we just skate out of one hive and into another?”

More growling coming from other tunnels as the glow of approaching demons begins to illuminate the caves. I take a step back. “That would explain the greatward.”

“Can you skate us back home?” Olive asks, matching me step for step as I begin to retreat from the grotto.

I shake my head. “That was a leap in the dark. Lucky we didn’t materialize in a volcano or at the bottom of the sea. Ent lookin’ to play with fire again without practice.”

“So we fight,” Olive says, lifting her spear.

“Not yet.” I take my pipes off my belt. I’m pretty good with them, if I’m to give honest word. “We ent helpless, but that don’t mean we got to pick a fight we ent ready for.”

Olive doesn’t like it. Picking a fight is her solution to most everything, and why not? She can heft a milk cow and throw it a country mile. Fights tend to go Olive Paper’s way more often than not.