Citadel of Demons Read online

  “You think you might have woken something here when you took the sarcophagus,” Rhiana asked Anders?

  The mercenary considered his answer. “Ask the Guardian. This is more his field than mine.”

  All eyes swung to look at Kormak. “I’ve seen something like this before,” he said. “In Umbrea. In the Graveyard of Angels.”

  “You’re right,” said Zamara, who had been stationed in Siderea’s vassal state when he was younger. “Much smaller but that look—you never forget it. None of those Umbrean Citadels looked as well preserved as this. They were all ruined. Some of them had melted or been shattered, as if they had been struck by weapons wielded by demons.”

  “This place is in the middle of a null,” said Kormak. “Surrounded by a ring of wraithstone. The Eldrim would not have come here willingly. No sorcerer would.”

  “Balthazar has,” said Rhiana. “And his friend Nexali. We must assume they have a good reason to.”

  “Those are elder signs,” said Zamara, something like awe in his voice. “This place was not built by moondogs or demon worshippers.”

  “Such would be my guess,” said Kormak. “It was not built by human beings either.”

  “So much of this reminds me of the Graveyard of Angels,” said the Admiral. “The buildings are the same metal. The runes look the same. Do you think this place could have been a fortress of the angels?”

  “It is possible,” said Kormak. Zamara’s guess seemed as good as any other explanation. This place looked like it could have been a citadel for beings like the Angel Zhamriel.

  “Then this is a holy site,” the Admiral said.

  “To you,” said Rhiana. Zamara glared at her, but Ahexotl, who had been listening, nodded agreement when she translated. “Our lore says this was a haunt of demons.”

  “Your people would think that,” said Zamara. He moderated his tone, knowing that here the sun worshippers were outnumbered. “They have no love for the Holy Sun’s chosen.”

  “They might be right,” said Kormak. “Vorkhul’s sarcophagus came from here.”

  “What would that abomination be doing buried here?”

  “He was not buried,” said Anders. “We know that now. He was still alive.”

  “It comes to the same thing in the end,” said Zamara. “It’s the same question. What was a Lunar Warlord, a follower of Shadow, doing out here, in this wasteland, in a fortress built by angels?”

  “He could have been a prisoner,” said Rhiana. “If you wanted to build a prison for Old Ones you could do a lot worse.”

  Kormak looked at her sharply. “You’re right. It is isolated. It is in the middle of a null where magic cannot work. I am not sure that an Old One would even be able to change shape out there. They could not communicate with their followers or each other by mindspeech or sorcery. They could be held in isolation, but why? The struggle between the angels and the Old Ones was a war unto the death. They did not take prisoners. There were no ransoms. Total annihilation of their enemies was what both sides sought.”

  Rhiana looked back towards the bleak wastelands and raised an eyebrow. “It looks like that was what they got back there. Or something very close to it.”

  Kormak studied the giant structure below them. It had been built in the shape of an elder sign. Those could be used for keeping supernatural menaces imprisoned as well as excluded. He thought of the massive runes he had seen inscribed in the Templar kingdoms.

  “This is holy ground,” Zamara said, sounding like a man trying to convince himself. “This must have stood here since the Elder Ages.”

  “It looks that way,” said Kormak. “We’ll find out for sure when we look inside. Balthazar is down there. If there are more like Vorkhul here, he will want to free them.”

  Zamara’s mouth opened but he did not say anything. Rhiana stared at Kormak hard. “Vorkhul killed scores in the Imperial Palace. He would have destroyed the place if he had not been stopped. He almost killed you.”

  The words hung in the air. They had all known the possibility before. They had discussed it. Now the reality of it stared them in the face, made concrete by the prospect of the enormous glowing structure that lay below them.

  “The citadel down there was well-defended,” said Anders. “Balthazar might have been killed like my companions were.”

  “Were you attacked when you first entered the city?” Kormak asked.

  Anders shook his head. “Only as we made our departure.”

  “It’s possible you might not have been attacked if you had not taken the sarcophagus.”

  “You think that Balthazar will be all right if he does not disturb anything down there? You think we might be?”

  “I don’t know, but there’s only one way to find out.”

  As they made their way down the long path towards the distant alien fortress, Kormak felt as if he was being watched.

  It took an hour to walk from the entrance to the outskirts of the alien structure. With every step, it became more clear to Kormak how overpoweringly large the citadel was. As they closed the distance, he could see its walls were metal cliffs only slightly less huge than the faces of the surrounding mountains. They bristled with spikes and turrets that suggested huge weapons.

  Buildings that from the heights looked to be the size of peasant huts turned out to be as large as fortresses. Massive metal domes blistered the earth. Each had an aura of power about it, as if some slumbering god had come back to life. Kormak did not doubt for a moment that something had woken here.

  “It’s different,” Anders said, as they got closer to the citadel. “These domes were broken when last I passed this way. The stonework was overgrown. There was rubble and ruins.”

  He frowned. “And yet there’s new damage as well. I don’t like this at all.”

  Kormak understood that. He felt as if he was walking into the maw of some monstrous beast. At any moment, the jaws might close and he would be swallowed.

  “It’s like swimming close to Leviathan,” said Rhiana.

  “You feel something.”

  She nodded. “Yes. The null does not exist here. The sandfolk are using mindspeech again.”

  “We don’t know nearly enough about our surroundings.”

  “And what we don’t know might kill us?”

  “In this place, at this time, it seems possible, doesn’t it?”

  “Those openings in the walls weren’t there before,” Anders said. “I am certain of it. There was only one way in the last time I was here. Now there are at least half a dozen.”

  “If whatever built this citadel is awake, we have a problem,” said Zamara.

  “You think the angels won’t welcome you,” Rhiana asked. There was a mocking note in her voice.

  “I have no idea,” Zamara said. “Looking at this place, I get a sense of huge power. It might squash us like a man squashes an insect without even being aware of our presence.”

  That sounded like a heresy, but it was easy enough to understand where the feeling came from. The citadel was not built on a human scale. It had been raised by beings whose knowledge of sorcery dwarfed even that of the First Empire.

  Why here? Kormak wondered. Why build something like this here? What purpose did it serve? It might have been a prison. It might have been something else. He had no idea. In this age of the world, this area seemed remote and barren. Perhaps it had not always been. The area known as the Graveyard of Angels was a desert now, but it had once been the centre of an alien civilisation. It had been blasted when beings of light and demons of darkness made war. Perhaps this land was the same.

  “I am frightened,” Anders said.

  “I confess that I am too,” said Zamara.

  “I am curious,” said Kormak rather than admitting to sharing their sentiments. “I want to see more of this.”

  “Let’s hope it does not prove the death of us.” Rhiana said.

  The sand people said nothing. They had not since they had left the null behind. Their cowls we
re over their faces. They looked as alien as the place through which they walked.

  * * *

  As the evening faded, they entered a massive archway in the side of the citadel.

  Anders said, “This is where we came in. There should be bodies here. We lost a score of men in this arch. Something has dragged them away.” He looked at the spot as if he could not quite believe it.

  “Maybe they have been given a funeral pyre,” said Zamara.

  “Maybe Balthazar and his allies did something to them,” Rhiana said. She carefully did not specify what that something might have been. Kormak thought about the bodies they had seen on the way in. They had been left out there to lie. The bodies that should have been here were gone. It was as if the ones outside had been too far away to be bothered with but something wanted the inside of the citadel cleansed.

  The sandfolk spread out as they came through the doorway. They moved cautiously, stalking forward, keeping in patches of shadow as if they did not want to be seen. Instinctively Kormak had been doing the same although experience told him it would not make much difference. Whatever creatures might be found here, they probably did not have senses like human beings.

  The arch led into a massive courtyard dominated by a gigantic structure of softly glowing crystal. Around it lay what appeared to be armoured corpses. Kormak moved close to one and saw that it resembled a Solari war-golem. This orichalcum armour had never held flesh. Inside was a mass of crystal and wires of the same material of as the armour.

  In places the metal had run. In other places, it had fused. Some of the joints at knee and elbow looked as if they would no longer be able to move. Kormak knelt beside it and looked closely at the armour. Upright it would have been a head taller than he was, the chest much broader, the arms and legs longer in proportion to a human's and thicker.

  A severed head lay nearby. It resembled a full-face helm but the eyepiece was a single slot of white crystal. Kormak grunted as he raised the helmet. It was heavier than it looked. He inverted it so he could see inside. It was packed with the same mixture of crystal and metal wires. The wires looked frayed at the edges, as if they had been severed from a connection. He looked back at the decapitated golem. Wires emerged from its neck-guard, a match for those in the helmet he held.

  At least a score of such bodies lay strewn about the courtyard. All of them were covered in the same mixture of smooth intricate runes. The script looked to be in the same language written on the Beacon. Could he be looking at the language of the angels? He thought back to the sarcophagus from which Vorkhul had emerged. This was of the same type of workmanship.

  “There was a battle here,” said Rhiana.

  “My comrades did not do this,” said Anders. “Although these resemble the monsters that attacked us.”

  “You were attacked by angels,” said Zamara. He looked as if he did not know whether to be awed or outraged.

  “They did not look like angels when they smashed upon men’s heads and were covered in blood. They glowed in the dark. The runes on that armour were written in fire.”

  “Well, they are not now,” said Kormak.

  “A battle took place here,” Rhiana repeated. “These golems were torn apart by something of immense strength, melted by magic of great power.”

  Kormak saw the point she was making. “What could have done this? And where is it? Did the attackers take no casualties?”

  “Perhaps they carried their dead away,” said Zamara.

  “Or perhaps they did not have any,” said Rhiana.

  They looked around the courtyard. The sandfolk cast misshapen shadows as the sun began to sink in the west.

  “What could have done that?” asked Anders, looking directly at Kormak.

  “We’d better pray it was not something Balthazar summoned,” said Zamara. “Otherwise he’ll be sending it after us next.”

  “Look there, in that alcove,” said Ahexotl. He pointed at what appeared to be a golem. Kormak moved towards it. Up close, it looked exactly like the golems strewn about the courtyard, except that it was standing upright and in one piece.

  He was close enough to touch it. Keeping out of the line of sight of the eyeslit, he reached up and tapped it on the face with his gauntleted knuckles. There was a metallic ringing sound.

  “It’s not glowing,” said Anders. There was relief in his voice. “It looks just like an ordinary statue.”

  “Maybe it is,” Zamara said.

  “Would you care to bet your life on that?” Kormak asked.

  “No,” said the Admiral. “I would not.”

  “It doesn’t seem to be alive now,” said Zamara.

  “It is almost dark,” said Rhiana. “We’d better think of making camp.”

  “This is a good place to rest,” said Anders. We can explore the buildings in the morning. I can find my way from here.”

  They made camp near the entrance tunnel. Anders’ tale of the golem’s burning gaze was clearly on everyone’s mind. Ahexotl left his people on the edge of the courtyard. They stood their silent and immobile as statues.

  Kormak put his back to the wall and made sure his blade was close at hand. Rhiana lay beside him, wrapped in her cloak. “I feel as if I am being watched,” she said and shivered.

  Kormak wanted to reassure her that it was her imagination. He did not, because he felt the same way and he had learned long ago to trust his instincts on such things.

  “At least we are out of the desert,” Kormak said.

  Rhiana gave a soft controlled laugh. “I know that should make me feel better but it does not. I would rather be out there than here.”

  Anders strode over. There was a confused look on his face. He kept glancing into shadows as if he expected to find some threat there. He saw Kormak looking at him and said, “I feel like those metal monsters are going to attack us.”

  “They’ve not done so yet.”

  “Yet is the operative word. I don’t mind admitting I am frightened. I came here with a company of mercenaries and lost most of them. The force we expected to bring has been left behind and instead…”

  He glanced meaningfully towards the members of the Emerald Swarm. It was clear that he did not quite trust them. Hearing them speak Zamara strode over and joined them.

  “We’re here,” he said, and sounded as if he wished they weren’t.

  “That we are,” said Kormak.

  “Where did you find the sarcophagus?” Zamara asked. He looked around to make sure they were not being overheard. It did not look like any of the Emerald Swarm spoke the language of the Kingdoms of the Sun, but he was not taking any chances.

  “Not too far from here,” said Anders. “If I remember rightly it was in chamber in that direction.”

  He nodded almost imperceptibly towards an archway. “It’s hard to say though, things look so different.”

  “You said that before,” Zamara said. “I do not find it reassuring.”

  “We could push on,” said Kormak.

  “I don’t know about you, but I could use some rest before exploring this haunted place,” said Zamara. Kormak heard the reluctance in his voice. He could see the others nodding agreement. They were frightened and it was dark. He could not blame them.

  Ahexotl strode over to them. “My people are uneasy,” he said in the tongue of the Eldrim. “They do not like it here, and they do not wish to proceed further. It might be best to let them rest.”

  Kormak felt that time was running out, but he did not want to split from the expedition. He had brought them here and he felt responsible for their safety.

  “Very well,” he said, hoping he was not making a terrible mistake.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Balthazar looked down from the balcony. The glow of the great crystal provided more light than the moon. Nexali’s scouts had been correct. The Emerald Swarm were within the citadel. His symb’s enhanced sight let him recognise at least two of the newcomers. One of them was the Guardian, Kormak. The other was the me
rwoman who accompanied him everywhere.

  He had become used to their showing up where he least wanted them. Nothing seemed to erode the Guardian’s determination to find Balthazar and interfere with his plans.

  The Emerald Swarm would sense his presence even in the darkness, unless he was careful. They far outnumbered his Blighted Ones. It would not do to be spotted by them. He gestured for Nexali and her people to remain where they were. The more who observed, the greater their chance of being discovered.

  The mercenary Anders moved to the edge of the courtyard to take a piss. The man was clearly nervous. Balthazar fought down the urge to blast him with a spell. Anders had deliberately misled Balthazar about the nature of the citadel. Nothing had been as he described it, except the general look of the place. There had been more ways in, more of the strange statues and more signs of battle than he had led Balthazar to believe.

  They had wasted hours since they got here. Balthazar had searched the area near the entrance arch and not found anything like the coffin Vorkhul had come in. Perhaps he should grab Anders and force him to reveal where the coffins were. Or he could wait and see where the interlopers went. A chance might arise for him to grab their plunder. That seemed like the best plan.

  It had all seemed so easy on the way here. Just enter Xanadar and find the Old Ones’ resting place. He had not counted on the scale of the alien city. He had imagined something like the keep at Helgard. This citadel made even the great capitals of the Sunlands seem small.

  At least, Nexali and her people had shown no diminution of their faith in him and his mission. It was just as well. He was going to need their help to eliminate his enemies. He considered summoning an Umbral but for that he would need a sacrifice, and he was not sure it was worthwhile. Kormak had already proven more than capable of dealing with such a supernatural threat. Not even Xothak had been able to slay him. And there was something about this place that told Balthazar that such a summoning would be a mistake.