Darren Shan - Hell's Heroes

Shark, Timas, Kirilli, and Moe have clustered around me. They’re all staring with disbelief at the aqueous, mobile tower. I call Kernel to our ranks, then prepare a ball of energy, taking power from Kernel and the others. I unleash it at the sheet of liquid. The ball punches a hole through the sheet and sizzles angrily as it shoots out the other side. But then the liquid oozes shut over the rip, and the pool sways on, undaunted.

“Bloody Beranabus!” I howl. “He told us the master of this realm had left or been killed. He was wrong. The pool is the master. It’s been dormant, lacking the power to move, but now that it’s been fed enough demons…”

I try a freezing spell, but although part of the pool half-frosts over for a couple of seconds, it doesn’t take hold and the killer sheet presses on, destroying more of the demons, which I now realize were sent here for the sole purpose of empowering the slumbering behemoth.

“We can’t defeat it,” I huff, backpedaling.

“Perhaps an evaporation spell?” Kernel suggests.

“Nothing will work. It’s a demon master and this is its realm.”

“Surely we can outrun it,” Kirilli says.

I laugh. “You can always rely on Kovacs to opt for a hasty retreat. But this time he’s right. Let’s make like sprinters and…”

I draw to a halt. The trees around the perimeter of the oasis are snapping together, bones and flesh linking, forming an unbroken ring. Demons screech and hurl themselves at the bony, fleshy fence, or try to scale it, but are swiftly speared by some of the longer, sharper bones.

“So much for running away,” Shark sniffs. “What now, oh wise and noble leader?”

“We could offer Kirilli as a sacrifice and hope it leaves the rest of us alone,” I murmur, drawing a satisfactory yelp from the terrified stage magician. “Kernel—any luck with those eyes?”

“It’ll be a while,” he says.

“What’s taking you so long?” I growl.

“Bite me,” he retorts.

The pool breaks over another group of demons. This time when it rises, it splits into two sheets, which glide apart—double trouble.

“A multiplying demon,” Timas says. “Fascinating. Based on those it had to devour in order to divide once, and on those who remain… assuming it can split again…” He does a quick head count of the remaining demons. “We might have to face as many as eight clones within the next six minutes.”

“We could do with a plan,” Shark barks.

“I’m working on it.” I look around, weighing up my options. Trying to punch a hole through the wall of bones and flesh is probably our best option. Maybe we could explode a demon against it. But I’m not convinced that will work. Demon masters make many of the rules in their own realms.

If we link, Kernel and I might get the better of it in a fight to the death, but again I’m dubious. Even Beranabus avoided direct confrontation with the stronger Demonata on their home turf. We’ll be taking an awful risk if we pit ourselves against it.

There’s one other option. The words “frying pan” and “fire” leap to mind as soon as I consider it. But if it’s a choice between facing a firing squad and jumping off a cliff, I’ll always opt for the jump because you might get lucky on the way down.

“Follow me!” I shout, grabbing Kernel’s hand and darting forward. I narrowly dodge the pillars of liquid, racing past them as they crash to the ground less than a yard to my left. I head for the spot where the pool used to rest, and where the window that the demons crossed through is still hanging in the air.

“You’ve got to be joking!” Shark roars. “That leads to Lord Loss’s realm!”

“That’s where we were heading anyway, wasn’t it?” I yell back.

“But the plan was to take him by surprise. If we jump through a window that he made…”

“Hell,” I chuckle, “if I was in his shoes, and some nutcase jumped through my window and straight into my arms, it’d sure take me by surprise!”

Before Shark can argue, I hit the window of light and throw myself at it, bursting through, bellowing wildly, relishing the insane buzz of my suicidal lunge.

Nothing but cobwebs. I whirl wildly as the others crash through after me, sure Lord Loss and his minions are hiding in the shadows. But we’re alone in a large, bare room. No time to wonder at that. I don’t know if the mobile pool can cross after us, but taking no chances, I cast a spell over the window, establishing a shield to block anything else from following.

“Where is he?” Shark growls, casting an uneasy eye around the room.

“I don’t know.” I try sensing the demon master’s presence, but I’ve never been good at that type of magic.

“Let’s get out of here,” Kirilli moans.

“Don’t be stupid,” I snap. “This is where we wanted to get to.”

“But it’s different now,” Kernel says, taking Kirilli’s side. “Lord Loss herded us here. It’s obviously part of a plan. We’d be crazy to go on.”

“That’s the way it always is,” I shrug. “Lord Loss sets a trap—I blunder into it and hope for the best. So far I’ve got the better of him. My luck’s bound to run out eventually, but there’s nothing else I can do. I don’t have the brains to outwit him, just the brawn and guts to fight back.”

“So you want to walk into his den and take things from there?” Kernel asks.

“Yeah,” I grin.

“That’s madness.”

“Maybe. But in my experience, the cleverer you are, the more ways you find to shoot yourself in the foot. Juni, Davida Haym, and Antoine Horwitzer were way smarter than me, and each set me up for an elaborate fall. But I’m here and they’re dead. Sometimes it pays to be simple.”

Kernel frowns. “In a strange way, that almost makes sense.”

“Stop talking!” Kirilli shrieks. “Get us out of here!”

“We’re not leaving,” I growl. “Kernel, how are those eyes coming along?”

“I reckon another ten minutes if we aren’t distracted.”

“Coolio.” I crack my knuckles. “We could wait here, but I think we’re better off taking the fight to them.”

“Knowing you as well as they do, that’s probably what Lord Loss and Bec are counting on,” Kernel warns me.

“Good. I’d hate to disappoint them. But there’s a personal matter I want to settle first.”

“What are you talking about?” Shark scowls.

“You’ll see,” I mutter, then head out of the room and set off through the castle that I’ve explored a few dozen times in my dreams.

Timas is intrigued by the webby mechanisms of the castle. If he had his way, we wouldn’t move on until he’d made a full study of each room. But I ignore his pleas to slow down and instead plow on until I find a corridor that I remember from my nightmarish meanderings with Bec and Lord Loss.

Once I’ve got my bearings, I pick up speed, leading the others through a series of corridors and rooms, down into the dungeon. We encounter none of Lord Loss’s familiars. That’s weird—this place should be packed with nasty little demons—but I’ve no time to worry about it. If I don’t do anything else right, there’s at least one wrong I’m determined to fix. It’s a minor matter in the grand scheme of things, but it’s important to me.

I’m nearing the door when Kernel stops and says, “Peekaboo!”

I face the bald teenager with the caramel-colored skin. His bright blue eyes are back in place, little flickers of light dancing across his pupils. He stares at the air around me, smiling widely.

“You can still see the lights?” I ask.

“Oh yes,” he breathes, extending a hand to caress an invisible patch. He parts his fingers and stares at me through the cracks. “This is where I say goodbye.” He says it warily, expecting me to argue.