James West - Shadow and Steel

The Faceless One’s reliance upon them and other humans had always troubled Adu’lin. He understood the reasoning behind his master’s strategy of using humans to rule over humankind, but did not agree with it. Of late, the making of kings and courts made less sense than ever, for even if they desired it, there were not enough humankind left in the world to mount a resistance against the Faceless One. Better to destroy the last of them, and be done with the age of men .

Of course, that could not come about either, for the Faceless One had chosen to keep the race alive, at least for a time. Some few of them, like the Yatoans, carried within their bloodlines the ability to resist Mahk’lar. And where humans could never hope to rise against the Faceless One, there were those of the Fallen who had turned against their rightful master, and were using humans and other creatures in the building of secret armies, all across the face of the world. To counter those forces, the Faceless One sought the blood of those humans imbued with the Powers of Creation, in order to make stones of protection for his own armies. Since the Upheaval, Adu’lin concluded, the tiny remnant of humankind had become more of a problem than they ever were before.

A smug grin touched his lips, though, as he counted the few remaining Yatoans and Brothers of the Crimson Shield. At least some of them would face his judgment. They had crushed his Alon’mahk’lar, true, but they had paid a dear cost to do so. Now they faced a wholly different foe, and their chances had markedly declined.

“What are you waiting for?” the shipmaster demanded again, his fingers throttling the short haft of a double-bladed axe. “Are you afraid?”

Adu’lin’s lips pressed into a bloodless line and he closed his eyes, struggling not to rip away the slaver’s life. Had he that option with the Yatoans, that of harvesting the energies of life from the spawn of his own ancestors-Adu’lin shied from this thought, not relishing the idea that he too, at one time, had been human-he would not have been forced to tolerate the sea-wolf and his lice-ridden crew. But there was nothing for it. For now, circumstances required that he rely on these base creatures-

The shipmaster caught his arm. “Damn your skin, answer me!”

Adu’lin shuddered, as he fought for control … and failed.

He turned sharply, reaching as if to close his hand over the man’s face. He stopped short, with only a bare inch separating them. The shipmaster tried to flinch back, but invisible bonds held him fast. Adu’lin’s fingers curled and flexed, as he began to collect the threads of life spreading from the man in a gossamer shroud. The ability was unique to him among the Fauthians, a rare and precious gift bestowed upon him by the Faceless One, long ago.

As living power filled him, the vibrancy of the world’s colors vanished to his sight, becoming shades of black and gray, overlaid with webs of glowing silver. He embraced that radiance, drew it into himself. The sea-wolves staggered with sudden weakness, their bodies robbed of strength that poured into Adu’lin.

“Demand nothing of me,” Adu’lin said.

“I … I.… Forgive me, I beg,” the Kelren stammered, choking on his tongue.

Expressionless, Adu’lin curled his fingers. By fractions, the shipmaster’s skull began cracking. By the time Adu’lin’s hand became a fist, the bloodied sea-wolf was no longer recognizable. A few shattered teeth dribbled over his quivering lips. Still he tried to plead … until he made no more sounds at all.

Adu’lin unclenched his fingers and took a precise step back, allowing the shipmaster to fall on his mutilated face. Enlivened as he was by the flood of life filling his veins, Adu’lin dispersed it back into the sea-wolves.

To a man, they gasped in relief, and knelt before him. None looked to their fallen leader. They did not look anywhere, save at their bent knees.

“You march at my command,” Adu’lin told them. “Not before, and not at your choosing. Are we in agreement?”

The sea-wolves nodded in answer, but as with the shipmaster, it was their hands Adu’lin watched, the way their knuckles grew white as they gripped their weapons. At the first chance, they would seek to destroy him. He had always known the Kelrens were untrustworthy, loyal only to themselves. That had never been so true as now. That made his abrupt decision all the easier.

Adu’lin glanced at the gathering darkness behind the men, summoned by his commanding thought. His next silent order to the coalescing Mahk’lar left no room for misunderstanding. Take them.

As the wall of darkness separated into unspeakable shapes, Adu’lin turned back to the low wall encircling the rooftop. He heard the sea-wolves shifting in preparation to assault him, like the cowardly rats that they were.

“Very good,” he announced, as if he had no inkling of their intentions.

The sounds of possession came swiftly. A few startled shouts, grunts of surprise, and the ineffectual whooshes of swords hacking through demonic spirits. Next came fearful whimpers, shrieks, screams, and the running of feet, before the spectral host slipped into living flesh and gained control.

Then silence.

“Join me,” Adu’lin invited, after the flurry of resistance ended.

His smile widened when the youngest of the Valara line suddenly cried his defiance in the distance. The Fauthian leader laughed aloud when Leitos ran to face the foes from which he should have fled. Men were not only fickle, they were stupid.

Ulmek dragged Leitos to a stop before he could rush past. “This is not a fight for steel,” he said, voice pitched low.

At their backs, the few remaining Yatoans had taken up Leitos’s battle cry, and the sound of their running feet told that they would pass by in heartbeats.

“Hold!” Ulmek shouted over his shoulder, his command slowing but not halting the Yatoans.

Unsure what to expect, Leitos watched Halan and Ke’uld stride closer. Neither mercy nor fear nor doubt shone in their dead eyes.

Leitos’s sword and dagger wavered. “How do we defeat them?”

In answer, Ulmek drew off his haversack and hurled it at those who had once been men. The sheer unexpectedness of his actions drew the Yatoans up short, and gave pause to Ke’uld, Halan, and the rest of the Brothers. In the sudden relative quiet, the muffled crunch of pottery breaking within the haversack was loud. The demon-wrought Brothers jerked at that sound, the memories of the men they had possessed as real to them as their own. Understanding dawned and Leitos cringed back, shielding his face.

Silence held.

Halan glanced warily at the rumpled haversack, and a mocking sneer flitted over Ke’uld’s face. “It seems the God of All has at long last chosen to favor the firstborn of this world-”

Faster than thought, the haversack swelled into a bloated sphere, shafts of cruel purple-black light lancing from rupturing seams. The radiance expanded, disintegrating the haversack, becoming a blinding indigo flash of tremendous heat and pressure that knocked Leitos off his feet. Roiling fire engulfed the possessed Brothers. The agonized screams that followed came not from the throats of men, but from demons made flesh … flesh that perished as all flesh did, when steeped in the purifying heat of the Nectar of Judgment.

Ke’uld alone burst through the flames, scattering everyone. Charred meat rained down from his body, but still the Nectar of Judgment burned, freeing a horror that had made itself into a being of living flesh while locked inside Ke’uld. In three strides, it had grown twice the height of a man.

A Yatoan ring formed around the whirling demon, intent on not letting it escape, but wary of the creature’s dozen lashing arms. One of those limbs flashed near Leitos, and he met it with his dagger, hacking off a trio of bony fingers tipped with scythe-like claws. Intense heat stiffened those ghastly fingers, blackened them. The demon fared no better. It faltered and collapsed with a breathless howl, its body of interlocking plates shattering like crystal upon the paving stones.