Blood of the Earth Read online

  Finally, he focused on Shivini.

  His fear spiked when his awareness coalesced within Blackstone Keep.

  A possessed Ranger stood over the broken and mutilated corpse of another maidservant, savagely beaten to death.

  The shade turned from his victim toward Alexander.

  “Master has sent me to undo your alliance,” Shivini said. “It was so good of you to summon all of your allies to one place. But there’ll be plenty of time for that. At the moment, I’m very focused on the more important work of beating innocent young women to death. The taste of their fear when they realize they’re going to die is exquisite.”

  Alexander was repulsed and infuriated. He drew his awareness up through the Keep to get an idea where Shivini was, then slammed back into his body and bolted to his feet.

  “Little One, go find Kelvin and guide him to me,” he said to Chloe without speaking.

  She buzzed up and kissed him on the cheek before spinning into a ball of light and disappearing into the aether.

  “Be safe, My Love,” she said in his mind.

  He came out of the meditation chamber at a run, racing through the sitting room as Anatoly, Jack, and Boaberous scrambled to their feet.

  Alexander reached into the Keep Master’s ring as he ran, searching for the location where he’d found Shivini and then looking for the quickest route there. The shade was in one of the areas designated as quarters. Alexander searched for any shields nearby and found three, one at each of the access points to that particular section of the Keep. He raised the magical barriers to prevent his enemy from escaping.

  He heard Anatoly bark an order to the Ranger standing sentry outside his quarters. The man ran in the opposite direction to get reinforcements.

  Alexander wasn’t sure what he was going to do once he found Shivini, but he wasn’t about to let the shade roam the halls of Blackstone Keep killing people at his whim. He was confident that he could kill Shivini’s host, but he also knew that wouldn’t stop the shade from taking another. Still, he had to do something.

  He raced through the halls until he reached the area where Shivini had been. He slowed his pace, stretching out with his all around sight into the rooms on either side of the hall, searching for the shade.

  He rounded the corner and saw the Ranger possessed by Shivini savagely backhand Wren.

  Chapter 8

  She was caught by surprise and fell hard.

  Shivini laughed.

  Wren recovered her wits quickly, scrambling away from her attacker.

  He didn’t seem to be in a hurry as he sauntered toward the terrified young woman.

  Alexander dropped the shields around the section of quarters, so Kelvin and his reinforcements could get through. Then he pulled his throwing knife from the sheath on the back of his belt. Just as Alexander threw the knife, Shivini turned toward him. The knife hit the shade in the shoulder and buried to the hilt.

  Shivini laughed.

  “This body isn’t mine, you fool. You can’t kill me.”

  He pulled the knife out and licked the blood coating the blade with a malicious smile.

  “I do so love that taste,” he said.

  Alexander closed the distance quickly, drawing Mindbender as he ran.

  Shivini stood his ground and spread his arms wide.

  “Kill me,” he said tauntingly. “I’ve always relished the fear of a dying host.”

  Alexander stopped just outside of striking range, leveling his sword at the enemy. He was at a loss. The Ranger possessed by the shade was innocent. He didn’t deserve to die, yet Alexander couldn’t let his body be used to commit murder. He decided to stall.

  “Have you found Kelvin?” Alexander asked Chloe silently.

  “Yes, My Love. We’re nearly there,” she replied.

  “I just spoke to Rankosi a moment ago,” Alexander said to the shade. “How is it that you’re serving a master and he’s free to do as he pleases?”

  Anger contorted Shivini’s face. “Phane discovered my presence and bound me to his will. In the end, it won’t matter,” he said with a shrug. “Once we open the Nether Gate, Phane and everyone else will be at our mercy … and we have very little.”

  “That’s never going to happen,” Alexander said.

  “You still don’t understand, mortal. We will live forever. Even if we can’t dominate this world during your lifetime, we will eventually. It’s only a matter of time.”

  “Not if I destroy the Nether Gate,” Alexander said.

  “Such limited thinking,” Shivini said, shaking his head. “Now that we know such a device is possible, we can always build another. All it takes is the right host, one with the proper foundation of experience and knowledge for us to build on.” He smiled at Alexander’s growing realization.

  “You’ve doomed the world, Alexander. And the part that I find the most delicious is that you did it all for love.” Shivini started laughing maniacally just as a squad of Rangers approached from the other end of the hall.

  Anatoly motioned to Wren, and two Rangers cautiously approached with weapons drawn, guiding the young woman back down the hall and away from the shade. The squad lined up across the hallway, blocking Shivini’s retreat.

  The shade looked over his shoulder and shrugged. “Perhaps it’s better this way. Once her story spreads through the Keep, all of the young women will be even more terrified of me. It’s always more satisfying when their fear rises into unbridled panic.”

  Kelvin approached from behind with Chloe.

  “Alas, I’m afraid I still have a few tasks to carry out for my temporary master,” Shivini said. “I’ve enjoyed our conversation. Trust that we will have other opportunities to chat in the future.”

  Shivini sliced his host’s throat with Alexander’s throwing knife. Alexander saw the shade leave the man’s dying body, the Ranger’s expression changing from malevolent glee to stark terror as his consciousness reasserted itself.

  The shade floated toward the squad of Rangers. They held their ground, but Alexander could see the fear in their colors. Shivini passed into one. There was a struggle between the shade and the Ranger, then Shivini passed out of him and into another. After a momentary struggle within the second man, Alexander watched the Ranger’s colors change as Shivini possessed him.

  The shade stabbed the Ranger who had resisted him with a gleeful giggle, then turned and ran down the hall.

  “Do you have the collar?” he asked Kelvin.

  “Of course,” Kelvin said, handing it to him. Alexander raced after the shade, with his friends right behind him.

  The shade led him through the Keep, always staying ahead but not too far. It seemed as if he was deliberately drawing Alexander after him. When Shivini passed people in the halls, he stabbed or slashed at them gleefully, leaving a trail of injured people in his wake. Alexander raced past the fallen, trusting that Anatoly would assign Rangers to tend to them.

  Shivini took the most direct route to the Hall of Magic. When Alexander recognized where the shade was going, he erected the shields surrounding the long hallway.

  They reached the first shield and Shivini transitioned his host into the aether for just a moment, just long enough to pass through the shield. He looked back at Alexander with a grin and raced on down the hall.

  Wizard Hax came out of a room just ahead of the shade.

  “Shade!” Kelvin bellowed in warning.

  Hax muttered a quick string of words and Alexander saw his colors swell momentarily. When Shivini passed, slashing with his sword, the blade met a magic shield that saved Hax from injury. Shivini ran on.

  Alexander dropped the shields around the Hall of Magic and continued the chase. He was getting tired, his lungs burned and his heart pounded, but he raced on. When he saw Shivini turn down the corridor lined with summoning chambers, his blood ran cold.

  Again the shade shifted into the aether just long enough to pass through the shield Alexander kept in place across the entrance to that hal
lway. There were still a few demons trapped inside magic circles within that section of the Keep. It was one of the things on Alexander’s very long to-do list. He never felt comfortable having those demons trapped in there, but he also didn’t want to fight them if he could help it. Now he might not have a choice.

  He dropped the shield to the hall and raced after Shivini. The shade passed a door leading to a chamber that Alexander knew housed a very unpleasant-looking demon and continued to the next door, which led to another imprisoned netherworld beast. Shivini stopped just long enough to giggle with maniacal glee before he entered the room. Alexander was out of breath, but he’d managed to close the gap somewhat. He was only thirty feet behind Shivini when the shade entered the room.

  He stopped and drew the Thinblade in his right hand and Mindbender, blade down, in his left.

  “Demon!” he called out over his shoulder to his friends as they caught up to him.

  Boaberous stepped up on one side and Anatoly took a position on the other. Jack tossed up the hood of his cloak and faded out of sight. Kelvin produced a blue glass orb about an inch in diameter and whispered an incantation over it. Three Rangers were still behind Alexander, the rest had stopped to help the wounded. They drew weapons and stood ready behind Kelvin.

  Alexander raised the shield at the entrance of the corridor to keep anything from getting out.

  “The darkness is free, My Love,” Chloe said in his mind. “It comes.” He could feel her fear.

  “Stay away from it, Little One,” he said without speaking as he braced himself for the battle that was about to unfold.

  The creature that came into the hallway was a walking nightmare. It stood nine feet tall and had black, leathery skin stretched tight over powerful-looking muscles. It walked like a man and had two arms ending in long taloned fingers. Its head was similar to that of a goat, except its jaw unhinged, opening impossibly wide as it roared. Its horns swept back from its temples, spreading wide behind its head. Its eyes were smoldering red, the color of hot coals, and they radiated hate and malice. From the back of its shoulders sprouted two tentacles, easily twelve feet long, ending in barbed bone spikes that flailed about over its head.

  Shivini stepped out behind it and smiled at Alexander, then once again cut his own throat. The Ranger fell to the floor gurgling blood as Shivini slipped free of the body and slid through the air toward Alexander and his companions. As the shade slipped past him, Alexander maintained his focus on the monstrous demon before him, but watched Shivini with his all around sight as the shade possessed one of the three remaining Rangers.

  Shivini turned and ran for the Hall of Magic, leaving Alexander to contend with the demon. He was torn. He couldn’t abandon his companions to face this beast on their own, but he dared not lose Shivini if he could help it. There was no telling what the shade intended and he could easily have more information about Blackstone Keep than Alexander did.

  The demon in front of him roared and settled the debate within his mind when it started forward. Alexander knew better than to use Mindbender to touch the demon’s mind. As powerful as the sword was against men, it was just a blade when facing a creature from the netherworld.

  Boaberous raised his war hammer high and charged toward the demon. It snapped both tentacles forward with terrifying speed. The first wrapped around the haft of the hammer and ripped it out of the giant’s grasp, sending it skittering down the hall behind the demon. The second jabbed into the giant’s shoulder and jerked him forward. Boaberous set his weight against the strength of the demon, crying out in fury and pain from the wound.

  Alexander raced forward, slashing at the tentacle with the Thinblade, cleaving it cleanly with one stroke. The demon roared and sent its other tentacle at Alexander, striking him in the chest and sending him sprawling backward. Anatoly pulled him to his feet.

  “Get clear of it!” Kelvin bellowed.

  Boaberous retreated a few steps out of the tentacle’s range and Kelvin pronounced the command word that activated the magic of his glass sphere. A shimmering blue orb of magical force about twelve feet in diameter enveloped the demon, imprisoning it within.

  It roared in rage, flailing against the magic sphere, but the barrier held.

  “How long will that hold it?” Alexander asked, rubbing his chest. His armor shirt had saved him again but the force of the blow left him sore and bruised.

  “Indefinitely, as long as I remain in proximity,” Kelvin said.

  “Good. Stay with it,” Alexander said. “I’ll send a Ranger to get help.” Then he turned and ran toward the Hall of Magic, dropping the shield at the entrance to the summoning corridor along the way. Shivini had shifted through the aether past the shield and fled down the Hall of Magic toward the sentinel and the central tower. Alexander didn’t know what the shade intended but he was certain it wouldn’t be good.

  He raced toward the central tower with Jack and Anatoly trailing behind him. As he approached the archway sealed with stone, the sentinel was facing the blocked doorway as if it was confused.

  “Stand down,” Alexander commanded the sentinel, before dismissing the stone wall blocking the archway. Then he slipped into the large circular room that formed the foundation of the wizard’s tower rising high over Blackstone Keep.

  “Can you tell which way he went, Little One?” Alexander asked as he stopped to catch his breath.

  Chloe buzzed into a ball of light and vanished, reappearing a few moments later.

  “He went down the stairs, My Love.”

  Alexander didn’t hesitate. He bounded down the circular staircase, stopping at the secret passage leading to the Bloodvault.

  “Wait here,” he said to Anatoly and Jack, as he dismissed the stone wall sealing the chamber and entered carefully, his night-wisp light held high and his all around sight extended to the limits of its range. The chamber was cold and lifeless, just as he’d left it.

  He sealed the entrance and motioned for his companions to follow him as he continued spiraling deeper into the dark and unexplored bowels of the fortress. The air was cold and heavy, but it was also thrumming with power, as if some ancient magic was at work in the dark.

  They reached the base of the spiral staircase, breathless and exhausted, slick with sweat in spite of the chill air. The stairs ended on a landing that extended ten feet farther and abruptly stopped at a smooth wall. Alexander reached into the Keep Master’s ring with his mind and found the place where they stood. It was deep within the center of the stone mountain that made up the foundation of the ancient fortress, but the map in his mind’s eye ended with the landing. No rooms lay beyond.

  He placed his hand on the wall and sent his all around sight through to the other side. His vision passed through the heavy stone wall and entered a dark chamber. He could only tell that there was a space beyond from the quality of the colors that the stone of the Keep itself generated.

  “Can you pass through this wall and see what’s on the other side, Little One?”

  “Of course, My Love,” Chloe said before she spun into a ball of light and vanished into the aether. A moment later he heard her voice in his mind. “It’s a square room with three doors leading out, two are normal oak-bound doors, but the third is spelled with a shield.”

  “Thank you, Little One,” he thought back to her. “Don’t go any farther until we get through.”

  Alexander held up his night-wisp light and inspected the wall and surrounding area until he found what he was looking for. Along the right side of the stone wall was an indentation that looked like a perfect fit for his ring.

  He took a deep breath and pressed the black stone set into the Keep Master’s ring into the receptacle. A moment passed. Then another.

  Abruptly, the wall vanished, revealing a simple stone room twenty feet square. There were large oak doors at the center of the left and right walls. Directly across from the entrance was an open passageway barred by a magical shield of a quality that Alexander hadn’t encountered before
. Where most shields had a slightly blue aura, this one was the color of blood and it glowed, even to his normal vision.

  “That looks dangerous,” Jack said.

  Alexander nodded as he sent his mind into the Keep Master’s ring, searching for the barrier but he still found nothing past the threshold of the room where he stood.

  “Little One, can you tell which way Shivini went?”

  “There is darkness beyond the shielded passage, My Love.”

  With a frown, he started to reach for the shield but Anatoly caught his hand.

  “Are you sure that’s wise? Maybe start with something you don’t need quite so much … like a knife,” Anatoly said, handing him a throwing knife.

  Alexander grinned at his old instructor as he took the blade. Carefully, he brought it into contact with the magical field. As it passed the plane of magic, it vaporized, leaving nothing but half a blade and a wisp of noxious smoke.

  “I wish I’d spent more time studying that book Mage Cedric left me,” Alexander said. “There’s no telling how to deactivate this shield or if I even need to. I may be able to pass right through it because of the ring, or it could do to me what it did to that blade.”

  “For my part, I’d rather you didn’t risk it,” Jack said.

  “I tend to agree,” Anatoly said.

  “Shivini is in there … and he’s up to something,” Alexander said.

  “Yeah, and you won’t be able to do a thing about it if that shield kills you,” Anatoly said.

  “There has to be a way through,” Alexander said. “If not with the Keep Master’s ring, then how?”

  Anatoly shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you, but the only way you’re going to find out is by risking at least a finger.”

  “You’re right,” Alexander said, facing the shield and carefully extending his left little finger toward the red plane of magic. He braced himself for the pain but felt only a warm tingling sensation as his finger moved through the field. He pushed through to the other side and turned back to his friends.