Darren Shan - Demon Thief

The next world is a giant, needle-shaped chunk of rock. The top is flat and lumpy, sixty or seventy feet in diameter. A hot wind howls round it, biting at us, threatening to rip us loose and cast us over the edge.

Beranabus curses and crouches. We copy him. “I’ve been here before,” he says, speaking as quietly as he can, yet loud enough to be heard over the howling wind. “It wasn’t somewhere I ever wanted to return to.”

The anxiety in his tone affects us all, even Nadia, who starts murmuring the words of a spell—I think it’s meant to protect us, or at least her.

“I’ll keep the window to the other world open as long as possible,” Beranabus says. “That way, if we come under attack, we can…” He stops. The yellow window of light has blinked out of existence. Beranabus growls and a look of disgust crosses his face.

“What’s happening, master?” Raz asks nervously.

“We’ve been ensnared,” Beranabus says, rolling up the sleeves of his jacket and shirt. “Cadaver’s led us into a trap.”

“Is he here?” Sharmila asks, looking round uneasily.

“No. He’s not welcome in this place. But he must have tipped off the Kallin. They were waiting for us. They destroyed the window.”

“Who are the Kallin?” Raz yells.

“Crawl to the edge,” Beranabus says, turning away from us and sitting cross-legged. “Have a look. Nadia,” he adds, “marshal them. Help them fight. Buy me time. I don’t think I’ll be able to open a new window fast enough, but let’s not die cheaply.”

He starts muttering spells, lips moving at a tremendous speed. Around him, patches of light pulse and blink, then move together, a bit faster than before, but not greatly so.

We look at each other then crawl towards the edge of the needle. The wind increases as we get closer. We lie flat on our stomachs, inching forward. I feel sick. I don’t want to look over the edge. But I must.

I don’t suffer from vertigo, which is good because it’s a long drop. And I mean L-O-N-G! I can’t see the base of the needle. It seems to be suspended in mid-air, and for all I know, it is. We’re in a universe of demonic magic. Who says giant needles of rock need to be rooted to the ground?

But the stomach-churning drop isn’t the worst thing. Slithering up the face of the rock are… things. Hundreds and thousands of small, long, black, hairy, spider-like creatures. Except they can’t be spiders because they have no legs. They move more like worms. Slithering towards us, an army of them. The Kallin.

One of the monsters leans back and raises its face to us. I see dozens of tiny eyes and a wide mouth. As I watch, the mouth stretches like a snake’s, the thing opening its jaws far wider than its body. There are fangs inside the mouth. More than I can count.

Something taps my shoulder. I scream, whipping round. But it’s only Nadia. She grabs me before I roll off the top of the needle, drags me away from the edge to where Sharmila and Raz are waiting.

“We’re in trouble,” she says simply. “There are thousands, so we can’t fight them. Our best hope is to block them. That means a barrier of energy, to keep them back.”

“Will that work?” Raz asks.

“We’ll soon find out. Now, we have a few minutes, so let’s see what we have to work with. I want each of you to create a personal barrier. Imagine yourself at the centre of a bubble of energy. Let your magic flow into it. Once I have an idea of your power, I can coordinate a spell and unite our magic forces.”

Sharmila and Raz close their eyes and focus. I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, but I follow their lead. I concentrate, trying not to think about the Kallin, willing a barrier into place, praying I have more success than with the sandcastle.

A few seconds later Nadia says, “Let’s see what we have.”

I open my eyes and spot her throwing a punch at Raz. Her fist stops several inches short of his face. She tries again—same result. She grunts with satisfaction. Jabs at Sharmila. Her fist slows but doesn’t stop. Lightly smacks into Sharmila’s chin, not harming her but getting through the barrier. “Try to strengthen it,” Nadia says. Jabs a second time. Again, she penetrates Sharmila’s barrier, but with more difficulty. Pulls a so-so face.

“Now you,” she says to me. Makes a fist, starts to throw a punch… then stops. Sticks out her right index finger. Pokes at me softly. Prods my nose. Smiles. “Guess you’re out of this one.

“It’s not my fault,” I grumble. “I’m not used to magic. I don’t know how to make it work.”

“It’s OK.” She tweaks my nose. “You can be our second line of defence. Watch for any demons getting through. If one penetrates the barrier, do your best to kill it while we plug up the hole it creates.”

“How do I kill them?” I ask.

“With magic. You can stamp on them, choke them, firebolts of energy—whatever comes most naturally to you. But there has to be magic as well. You can’t kill a demon by physical force alone.”

“What if I can’t make it work? What if—”

“Kernel!” she snaps. “We don’t have time for hysterics. Just do your best, like when you escaped from the demon tree.”

She draws Sharmila and Raz aside to prepare them. While they’re discussing magical barriers, I creep to the edge of the needle to monitor the advance of the Kallin. They’re a lot closer than a couple of minutes ago. Not so small now that I have a better view of them. Two or three feet long. Making soft squeaking noises, barely audible over the roar of the wind.

I think about throwing myself off, taking the easy way out, not waiting for them to clamber over me and rip at me with their fangs. One short step or leap… a few seconds or minutes of freefall… then no more worries. Unless there’s nothing to freefall to. Maybe there’s no ground in this part of the Demonata’s universe. I might bob back up or fall forever, a lifetime of falling… screaming… thrashing.

“They’re almost to the top!” I shout, putting the dark thoughts behind me. “Half a minute and they’ll be all over us!”

“Get back here,” Sharmila calls. They’ve gathered close to Beranabus, who’s concentrating on the slowly forming window. I crouch next to Raz, feeling safer beside him than Sharmila, since he was able to construct a stronger barrier.

“Here we go,” Nadia says shakily. She half closes her eyes. So do Sharmila and Raz. There’s a shimmer in the air a couple of feet in front of us. Then nothing. I wonder if the spell has worked, if we’re protected or not. Then the first of the Kallin wriggles over the edge of the needle and launches itself at us, mouth wide, fangs bared, screeching with hunger and hate.

The demon flies straight at me, like an arrow fired from a bow. A scream builds at the back of my throat, but before it can burst out of my mouth, the Kallin hits an invisible barrier and is deflected. It crashes into a group of other long, hairy demons. Irritated, their fangs flash and they rip the first Kallin to shreds. Bloody bits of it fly everywhere.

I press myself hard against Raz as the demons surround us, gnashing at the barrier, wriggling around and over it, searching for weak points. Within seconds, they cover the barrier entirely, blocking our view of the sky, plunging us into almost total darkness. I can see by the light of the pulsing patches, but the others must be nearly blind.

Nadia clicks her fingers and a ball of flame appears overhead. I preferred the darkness. We can see the Kallin in more detail now, their long, hairy bodies, the stiff, spiky hairs on which they move, their abnormally large mouths and fangs. They drool and slobber as they snake across the face of the barrier. Soon it’s like looking at them through a window streaked with spit and vile juices.