Lisa Shearin - The Trouble With Demons

Sarad Nukpana was waiting for me.

The goblin made a show of looking around. There was no one but the two of us and he knew it. “Apparently your father is unavailable.” His eyes glittered brightly. “So much more intimate this way, don’t you think? Though it is unfortunate that your bed is missing.”

“I’m not here to see my father. I’m here to talk to you.”

“Why, little seeker, this keeps getting more delicious.”

“Don’t excite yourself, goblin. I’m not your midnight snack-and neither is Piaras.”

Nukpana shrugged elaborately. “You didn’t believe me. What happened to Piaras tonight was entirely your fault. You forced me to stage a demonstration of my control. Though I would think you would be more grateful. Without my influence, your songbird would have never survived. Only my skill with a blade kept him alive.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” I said. “Either way, your little show bought us time to stop Piaras from killing that Guardian, traitor though he is.”

Nukpana negligently waved an elegant hand. “My point was made; I needed to do nothing more. So I released the boy. Have you come to submit to my request? Or do you require further demonstrations?”

I smiled and didn’t say a word. My smile was genuine and I could virtually feel the evil twinkle in my eyes. I trusted Justinius’s work; better yet, I trusted the old man’s viciousness. If he said he had a nasty surprise in store for Sarad Nukpana, I believed him. Hell, I wanted to watch it happen.

“I’m not submitting to anything, but I am going to find the Scythe of Nen.”

Nukpana was utterly still. “And release me.”

I shrugged. “That’s what you want, but it’s not my first order of business.”

“I dislike your games, seeker.”

My voice dropped, low and angry. “I dislike you, and I don’t play games. So let’s save us both time and aggravation and just cut the crap. I don’t know what the Scythe of Nen is. You say you don’t. The demons do-and your fellow inmates include at least one demon. Either ask him or get close enough to find out.”

“We all want something. Ask him yourself, seeker.”

“See, here’s the thing. I can’t. You’re in the Saghred; I’m not. You want out of the Saghred; I couldn’t care less if you rot. But if you don’t want to do business with me…” I shrugged. “Your continued imprisonment would be, in your own words, entirely your fault.”

The goblin’s narrow-eyed silence told me I had him by the short hairs, he knew it, and he did not like it. Tough. None of this was my idea of a good time, either.

“You gamble with your nightingale’s life.”

“I only bet on sure things.”

Nukpana’s gaze went distant. I knew what he was doing-or what he was trying to do.

“Having a little trouble finding him?” I asked innocently.

The goblin’s lips were a thin, angry line. “His mind is warded.”

“It seemed like an obvious solution.”

“A solution that needs reinforcing to maintain its effectiveness. Or did the archmagus fail to mention that?”

He didn’t. And I didn’t respond. Nukpana had lied before and he could be lying now.

Or not.

“I’ll take that as a no,” the goblin said. “Perhaps he was too weakened from his initial effort. Reinforcing such a ward would drain a healthy man. For one in such a fragile condition as Justinius Valerian… No doubt he hopes I will abandon my efforts when I spring the trap he has laid for me in Piaras’s mind. Your archmagus did not take into account my motivation. I am a desperate man. Pain lasts mere moments-existence in the Saghred is an eternity. Piaras’s mind cannot remain warded forever, but forever is all I have.” Sarad Nukpana’s gracious veneer had cracked, reminding me that not only was he a sadistic monster, he was now a desperate sadistic monster. “Rethink your impertinence, seeker.”

“Rethink your cooperation. Do you want the Scythe in my hands or demon claws? I need that information.”

“From the demon king.”

I nodded once. “That’s him. If the demons get this Scythe of Nen first, you know you’re going to get left behind. So you have to ask yourself who do you trust more-me or the demon queen?”

Nukpana sneered. “You or a queen of demons. You present me with a most difficult choice.”

“I never said it’d be easy.”

“I do not know what the Scythe of Nen is. I did not lie when I told you that. But even if I did, you will never find it without my help. You need me, seeker.”

“And that would be because…”

“You lack, shall we say, a certain necessary quality. You could be in the very room with the Scythe of Nen and you would not recognize it for what it is.”

“If you don’t think I have what it takes, why don’t you get someone else to run your errand?”

“Because I believe you to be one of the few individuals on this forsaken island who could survive long enough to get what I require. It is quite simple: I have the knowledge you need; you have the freedom I want. Mychael said it himself: the Saghred cannot be contained. That means that I cannot be contained. Piaras isn’t the only desirable target. I can plant suspicions and questions in the minds of certain highly placed mages, questions that Mychael, Tamnais, and yourself do not want asked. Or I could confirm that which Carnades Silvanus already knows-that you and Tamnais are in what he would call an unholy alliance. And the knowledge that your paladin has joined you both in your bond would make Carnades, quite possibly, the happiest mage on Mid.”

“You’re lying. You can only communicate with me because of my link to the Saghred.” I said it, but I didn’t know it for a fact.

“Communicating with those outside of your realm of influence would be difficult, but not impossible. It will require substantial effort on my part, but the reward will more than compensate for any discomfort I may suffer. And if you doubt that what I say is true, ask your father. He spent hundreds of years with the stone. Ask him if he ever heard whispered voices in the still, secret hours of the night.” Sarad Nukpana was finished playing. “Find a way to release me, or prepare to spend the rest of your life imprisoned-or walking to the executioner’s block to join Tamnais and Mychael.”

“Tell me why I can’t find the Scythe myself.”

“I will share my knowledge, but only because it benefits me. The Scythe of Nen is of demon make. They made it; they can find it.” His smile turned sly. “But as with any demon-crafted object, it will react to that which it is not. When it reacts, you will recognize it for what it is.”

“Is it too much to ask that just once a goblin would give me a straight answer?”

“Anything a demon crafts or uses absorbs their corruption, their evil, their impurity. To counter that, and to find the Scythe of Nen, you will need the help of someone pure.” His eyes glittered wickedly. “And as untouched as freshly fallen snow.”

I knew what he meant. “You have got to be kidding.”

He smiled. “Would I lie, seeker?”

In a heartbeat. But I knew in my gut that he wasn’t lying, at least not this time. To find the Scythe of Nen, I first had to find possibly the most elusive quarry I’d ever had to locate in my entire seeking career: a virgin on an island full of college students.

“But know this, seeker-I do not make idle threats. Fail me in this and I will destroy you, but first I will destroy those you love.” His voice dropped to a low purr. “Yes, seeker. I know whom you love-and who loves you. You would protect them at any cost, even if you will not admit it to yourself except in your most private thoughts. Tamnais. You find him seductive, yet vulnerable, wounded by his past, wounds you want to heal, a past you secretly yearn to help him forget. He cannot forget his past.” Nukpana laughed softly. “And believe me, his past has not forgotten him. It’s coming for him; they are coming for him. And Mychael, the gallant knight, the noble protector of the people-and of you. He protects you for reasons you know, and for reasons he has only begun to acknowledge. I will twist his strength into his undoing.” The goblin’s eyes were the flat black of a shark. “I will destroy them first, then the nightingale; and after all of them are gone, and your pain and loss has become too much for you to bear, only then will I come for you.”