'Which is?'
'Well, according to Bynaar, for demons, mana is an eminentiy movable element, one which they can attract to themselves. Which is how they move it of course. Establish demons at both ends of a path, so to speak, and send the mana along it - and the more they have, the stronger they get. It's almost a commodity to them, hence their obsession with getting into Balaia. We are mana-rich.
'Now I've cross-referenced that with your young mage, Feiyn here, who was kind enough to read a passage from the demonology text into which Bynaar's work was inserted. Would you be so kind as to repeat it, young man?'
Feiyn glanced at Dystran who nodded and shrugged simultaneously.
'It said that demons are forced into their nomadic existence because they consume the dimensions they inhabit. It says that
when they have access to another dimension, that is when they destroy the last of what they have and move on. All of them.'
'And they send the mana they have accumulated on ahead, to their vanguard,' added Vuldaroq.
'So they aren't just passing through,' said Dystran. 'We aren't a territory.'
He'd known it all along when it came to it.
'No. I'm afraid we're home for them now,' confirmed Vuldaroq.
'And the mana build-up?'
'You'll have to take readings,' said Vuldaroq. 'But for what it's worth, I'd bet the little I have that when it is complete, they will be strong enough to breach the ColdRooms. Or else why be so happy to leave us as we are - the stronger colleges, I mean. We can all feel the cold that the mana seems to bring - this chill is unseasonal and it's getting worse.'
Dystran thought for a moment. Emotions clouded bis mind. His immediate reaction was to dismiss the Dordovan's inferences simply because of who he was. But that attitude had to be consigned to history now if they weren't all to go before it. Vuldaroq had put a time limit on their future but the deadline was unknown. The course, difficult though it might be, was clear.
'Two things,' he said. 'One, we need to know when the density of mana in this dimension will give the demons the strength to overwhelm our defences. Second, we need a four-college strategy to see they never get there. And we need it fast.'
Arabelle ducked a killing blow and backhanded her sword across the demon's chest. It howled and tumbled back. Four of her men closed in.
'Hold it, this time, hold it!'
Two were already dead, victims of the demon's soul-touch. Two others stood with her, one a mage, ready to cast if capture became an impossibility. They'd cornered the beast after days of surveillance from the upper windows of the tower, had identified a pattern in its behaviour. They knew what it was doing: searching for their tunnel entrances, but it had become obsessed with a blind alley close to the northern wall of the college. This night, they were waiting for it.
The plan had been simple but they'd miscalculated its strength. Their first volley of blows hadn't weakened it enough and it had
snatched its two victims too easily. Arabelle wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.
'Makkan, Terol, club it!'
The blows rained in on its body and head. The other two pounced on its arms, pinning them to the ground. The demon's fingers grasped and clutched, looking for a death touch, but it couldn't angle its wrist enough. It was a tall demon, better than six feet in height. Its hairless body was a livid sky blue and the veins and muscles writhed below its skin. Underneath its back, its gossamer, mana-based wings beat uselessly at the ground. It howled and screamed, its toothless mouth snapping. They would not be alone for long. -
Arabelle and her remaining two men closed in. They pinioned its legs, she moved to its head.
'Struggle all you like, you are coming with us. Now I can have my mage cast to subdue you or you can do it yourself.'
The demon's small black eyes regarded her from a heavy brow, tongue licked the edges of its lipless mouth. It relaxed and quietened, holding her gaze.
'Don't ease your grip even one degree,' she warned, not flinching from its stare. 'That is exactly what it's waiting for.'
The demon snarled. A sibilant hiss escaped its mouth. 'You will still all be ours,' it said.
'Maybe, but not yours, eh?' She turned to her team. 'Right, on the double. Let's get inside.'
The demon started to struggle again when they lifted it from the ground, contorting its body, shaking its limbs and arching its neck. But these were strong and determined men Arabelle had selected and they moved with purpose.
Pounding through the streets back towards the northern tunnel entrance they could hear the calls of demons to which their captive responded with a series of hoots and screeches. In the quiet of the night in Lystern, when the cries died to echoes, they were replaced by the swoosh of hundreds of wings. Arabelle was washed with a brief sense of futility. Here, they had captured one. Elsewhere in the city, there were thousands, and more arrived every day. She had to remind herself why it was she was out here.
Inside the tunnel, the passage was wide. Mages at its end laid trap wards before running after the kidnappers. They had to assume the
demons would find this tunnel now. It had served its purpose. At least the wards would take some more of the beasts down with them.
In the centre of the ColdRoom constructs was a clear area measuring around fifty feet on a side. It was where the mages came to rest and replenish their mana stamina. The demon gasped as it was dragged into the ColdRoom lattice, exhaling only when they reached the centre of the great hall where the mana coursed freely. Arabelle ordered her team to set the demon down. Others ran from all parts of the hall, relieving the kidnap party and pinning the creature to the ground so tight it could barely move.
There was a pause for breath. The demon rotated its head, trying to take in whatever it could. Arabelle looked down on it, a smile creeping across her face.
'Got you,' she said.
The demon hissed, its pointed tongue flicking out of its mouth. Abruptly, it settled, looking over her shoulder. Arabelle could hear footsteps. She turned round, her smile widening.
'Well done,' said Heryst. 'Well done indeed.'
'We lost two,' she said, deflating a little.
T know, I know.' Heryst squeezed her shoulder. 'It was always a risk.'
He turned his attention to the creature and knelt by its head. It tried to back away, sensing his aura, but only succeeded in writhing feebly under the weight of those pressing it down.
'You are aware who I am.'
'Heryst,' it said, almost spitting the name out.
'Good. Then you understand that whatever I say carries complete truth. You are caught and will answer our questions.'
'No answers,' it hissed.
'You will notice that at the moment, we are being very generous,' continued Heryst, ignoring the creature. 'You are lying in a place where the mana still flows. Do not mistake this as a sign of weakness. Where mana still flows, we can still cast and so we can hurt you very badly. Or, if we choose, we can take you into our ColdRooms to watch you die slowly. Do you believe me?'
The demon regarded him silently, breath rasping through its taut jaws. It nodded fractionally. 'Then also believe that if you answer our questions and we judge you to be truthful, we will let yon go.'
The demon sputtered its contempt at the statement. Heryst cocked his head.
'It remains the truth. To take your life would be pointless. How many thousands of others are there to take your place? Nevertheless, it is your choice. But you will answer us.'
'Nothing I tell you will help you, mage.'
'Then there can be no harm in telling us the truth, can there?'