Hell's Ascendant (Mantles of Power Book 3) Read online

  “What choice might that be?” Rose asked, and Kitania found her gaze drifting from side to side suspiciously.

  The angel’s confidence was unnerving, especially considering everything that Kitania and the others had been through over the past couple of months, and that made her wonder what gave him his confidence. There weren’t any obvious spots on the sides of the road where other ambushers could lurk, and she also didn’t see any sign of where they might be invisible, though that was harder to determine in general.

  “You can kill the demon and surrender, or commit suicide yourselves, and I’ll leave everyone else unharmed. If you don’t, I’m going to go after all of you,” the man said coldly, still aiming at Maura. “I have a few compunctions where you’re concerned, but not many.”

  “Not a chance, you traitorous—” Isalla began, and at that moment Kitania’s gaze fell to the road and her eyes widened as she saw where several points under the horses had been excavated recently. The signs were subtle, but the dirt had obviously moved, and a chill ran down her spine as she reacted.

  As Kitania began snapping out the words of a spell, the angel switched targets to her, pulling the trigger to loose the bolt as everything happened so quickly it was almost imperceptible, his lips forming a word as well. Vinara flicked her fingers and a blast of wind roared to life around them like a whirlwind, raising dust and stray grass suddenly as the bolt left the crossbow. The wind deflected the bolt even as it continued to accelerate, though it came far closer than Kitania preferred as it raced past her shoulder. Even so, she didn’t stop casting her spell, channeling magic quickly into it as the shield began to take shape, but Kitania wasn’t quite fast enough.

  Fire and stone erupted from the ground in a hail of shrapnel just as Kitania’s spell began taking effect. It blocked some of the explosion, but nowhere near enough of it. The next thing Kitania knew she couldn’t see through her right eye and was flying through the air as cries of shock, the rumble of the explosion, and the screaming of horses filled her ears.

  The next instant Kitania hit the ground and felt multiple bones snap as the horse came down on her leg and hips, which caused almost enough pain to make her pass out. It still wasn’t enough, and a moment later she realized there were other aches across her body, likely where she’d been hit.

  “Then die, you damned—gah!” the man cried out in pain, cursing as he spoke. “You can all die!”

  “Not while I draw breath.” Eziel’s voice was cold, and Kitania turned her head to see that of their entire group, only her servant was standing, with numerous cuts along her face and arms, and with her bow in hand as she fired several arrows in rapid succession, each of them glittering with magic.

  Unable to see anything else, Kitania softly swore, trying to drag her mangled leg from under the twitching, writhing horse to try to help. She could hear some of the others as rubble pelted the ground around them, but it wasn’t all of them, not even close.

  The worst part of this was being unable to do anything.

  Eziel’s heart felt like it was about to freeze, she was so terrified of what had happened. She was the only person who’d been outside the immediate zone of destruction when the ground had exploded, and Kitania’s magic had shielded her from the worst of it. The blasts had caused her horse to bolt and she’d barely leapt free in time, and a couple of the others had as well, though all of them were down, injured. Rose had taken the brunt of the blast, and Eziel refused to look at her, instead focusing on the real threat, Sorm.

  She’d already landed an arrow in his shoulder, and he swore loudly as he dodged another shot, his reflexes slower than they should have been. Eziel’s arrows caused paralysis if enough of them hit, but she’s only hit him the once. She wanted to help Kitania, but if he was allowed to act freely, they’d all die.

  “Interfering mortal insect!” Sorm exclaimed, pulling out a glittering ruby stone with sigils burning across its surface, and Eziel’s blood chilled still more at the sight of the incineration stone. If he hit the others, everyone but Kitania would die, and she couldn’t allow that.

  The angel spoke the word to activate the stone and threw it, and at the same time Eziel took aim, mouthing a prayer to Estalia as she loosed the arrow. For an instant she was afraid she’d missed, but only for a moment, as the arrow hissed through the air and bounced the stone back in Sorm’s direction.

  Sorm only had a moment to curse and dodge to the side before the stone detonated furiously, igniting plants near the road as a smaller crater was blasted into it, and Sorm emerged from the fireball scorched and limping. Eziel drew another arrow to finish paralyzing him when she realized he’d reached for his neck, then he flashed brightly and vanished without a trace, leaving behind only his crossbow and the smoldering ruins of the road.

  Eziel hesitated a moment, then dropped the bow, turning her attention to Kitania and the others.

  “Kitania out from under the horse, then everyone else. She’ll recover, I know it,” Eziel muttered.

  The others were groaning and moving… all but Rose, so Eziel would go to her next. First she was helping Kitania, though.

  Chapter 24

  “Pardon me, Milady. I’m going to lift the horse, and I need you to drag yourself out from under it as far as you can,” Eziel said, her tone surprisingly polite as she crouched, reaching under the horse as she braced herself. “The others are injured as well, so I need to tend to them, but once you’re recovering I’ll be much more at ease.”

  “What happened to him?” Kitania asked, breathing quickly as she braced herself, pain rippling through her as the body of the horse shifted slightly. Even if Eziel’s strength was enhanced by years of training, she knew it was going to be difficult for her to lift the horse for long.

  “Gone. Sorm—ugh!” Eziel gasped, her muscles standing out as she strained hard, lifting the horse a few inches.

  Kitania bit back a scream as the pressure came off her leg and hips, allowing blood to rush through her lower body again in an incredibly unpleasant way. She didn’t hesitate, though, dragging herself out from under the horse painfully, refusing to look at the damage. It was temporary, after all. Eziel let the horse drop a moment later, then continued.

  “Sorm tried to finish the job, and I stopped him, but he teleported away, much like Haral did,” Eziel said, then glanced away as she added. “Sorry, I have to go. Rose looks like she’s in bad shape.”

  “Go, then! I’ll be fine,” Kitania told her, and Eziel nodded in relief, then darted away.

  Kitania made the mistake of looking down at herself as she heard others groaning, and winced as she murmured, “I’ll be fine eventually.”

  Isalla groaned as she dragged herself to her feet, her left arm hanging uselessly by her side. She was afraid to think about what had happened, since she could barely twitch her fingers, and as soon as the world stopped spinning she’d be much happier. After a moment of hesitation, she reached into her belt pouch and found one of her healing potions, thanking the heavens that none of them had broken. Pulling out the stopper with her teeth, Isalla quickly drank the glowing vial, and let out a sigh as the world stabilized and her arm stopped hurting quite as much.

  On the other hand, being able to see properly wasn’t exactly pleasant, either. The road was a series of five overlapping craters, now, with a shallower one ahead of them, and plants alongside the road were smoldering, though it didn’t look like the fire would last long. The first others she saw were Maura and Yain, with Yain trying to help Maura to her feet, even as she bled from a hole that’d been punched through her ear and several wounds across her upper body. Maura wasn’t in much better shape, and didn’t look like she was entirely focused, understandably from the way her hair was matted on one side of her head and blood slowly seeped through it.

  Eziel was the only one who looked relatively untouched, and her horse was some distance away from them, though Isalla thought it looked somewhat injured. Vinara mostly looked bruised, though she was favoring a
leg as she crouched next to Eziel. Kitania wasn’t in sight, which prompted the faintest hint of panic, but that was overwhelmed as Isalla suddenly realized who it was that Eziel and Vinara were crouching over.

  Rose’s armor was still disguised, but it’d been covered in dirt and blood from the remains of her horse, making it almost unrecognizable. Worse, one of her legs was clearly detached, and Eziel was rapidly applying a tourniquet. As for Rose herself… the only way Isalla could even recognize her was by her hair, and even that was bloody and tattered.

  “Rose!” Isalla exclaimed, almost tripping in her haste to approach. As she did so, Vinara quickly turned, her leg almost collapsing under her as she tried to rise. The succubus spoke bluntly, her eyes flickering with frustration.

  “Stop!” Vinara said, her voice taut. “If you touch her, you could make things far worse, Isalla!”

  “But… but…” Isalla gasped, almost hyperventilating as panic overwhelmed her. “I… is she going to be okay?”

  “I don’t know. It’s a miracle she’s still alive, and I’m not skilled enough with healing magic to be any help,” Vinara said grimly, turning back toward Rose, her worry obvious. “If it weren’t for the armor healing her, she’d be dead already, but I don’t know how long that’ll last, even if we all supply the enchantments with mana. The damage is so extensive that I just don’t know, and Kitania isn’t in a state to easily examine her.”

  “Heavens, where—” Isalla began, but her mouth snapped shut as she looked over to see Kitania laying on the ground near the back of the group and partly obscured by a dead horse, her leg at an unnatural angle and hips oddly flat. As Isalla watched, the demoness’s leg twitched as a bone moved back into place, and Isalla felt her stomach roil as she gasped. “O-oh.”

  “Her mount landed on her,” Eziel said, her voice grim as she straightened. “I helped her out from under it but helping everyone else was more important than Lady Kitania’s comfort. Unfortunately, while I’m not as versed in healing as she is, I don’t think we’ll be able to save Lady Rose with what we have available. Healing potions will only delay the inevitable, and she’ll expire the moment we run out of mana. If we were closer to Uthren, we might find a healer in time, but at this point… I don’t know that there’s anything we can do. She’s just taken too much damage.”

  “No, no no no! She can’t die like this, not after everything we’ve been through!” Isalla protested, taking quick steps forward as she grew unsteady, almost panicking again as her pulse raced and she grew dizzy. “There has to be something we can do!”

  “There is,” Vinara said flatly, and Isalla looked at the demoness as hope rose within her, hope that turned to worry at the grim look on Vinara’s face. Vinara moved Rose’s leg near the stump, and Isalla cringed as some of the flesh knitted together before her eyes.

  “What can we do?” Isalla asked, desperation rushing through her. She hated to ignore Kitania, but under the circumstances she didn’t see another real choice. Rose was the one in danger of death, not Kitania.

  “You need to charge the armor so it doesn’t run out of mana. If it does, everything we do will be useless,” Vinara replied, taking a deep breath as she looked around, then nodded unhappily. “This isn’t how I wanted to do this, but so be it. We need help now, not later.”

  “Vinara?” Isalla asked uncertainly, but she knelt next to Rose, her breathing coming in rapidly as she did so. The wounds across her beloved’s body were terrible, and even as she watched blood was trying to ooze out of her wounds.

  The succubus didn’t respond, instead pulling a folded sheet of paper out of her belt pouch and unfolding it. Isalla reached down and felt across Rose’s armor, trying to find the stone that held the mana beneath the illusion while she watched, seeing an incredibly intricate spell inked across the paper’s surface.

  “Here we go…” Vinara murmured, taking a deep breath, then began speaking quickly, and the letters across the surface of the scroll lit up as she did so. It took several seconds for the scroll to fully light up, and while Vinara invoked its magic Isalla found the gem at last, and teased mana out of her core and into the stone.

  The scroll suddenly burst into blue flames, prompting Isalla to flinch away as she almost lost control of the thread of mana, but Vinara didn’t seem either surprised or hurt by the fire. Instead, the fire took the shape of a songbird made of the fires, rippling in mid-air as it looked at Vinara patiently.

  “We’re nearly to Uthren’s Throne, but Rose is mortally injured and unable to survive until we find help. We need assistance, Your Majesty,” Vinara said simply. The bird paused for a moment, then flared and vanished.

  “Her Majesty?” Yain asked, her voice taut with pain as she looked at them.

  “My Lady, not yours,” Vinara explained, shaking her head unhappily as Isalla felt her mana seeping into the gem. It was so empty, she realized, her fear growing stronger. No wonder Eziel had said that Rose wouldn’t last until they reached the capital, not if the enchantments were barely keeping her alive after using this much mana. How bad had the injuries been to do that, she had to wonder, but still refused to look. That would just ruin her already shaky concentration.

  “I see, but how—” Yain began, helping Maura sit down, only to be interrupted by a flash of blue light as the bird reappeared in front of Vinara.

  “Activate the beacon, help will arrive as soon as possible.” The bird spoke in Estalia’s voice, and the queen didn’t sound happy. “Hold on for just a few minutes.”

  With the message sent, the flames slowly evaporated, and Vinara let out a sigh of relief, smiling as she murmured, “Well, I suppose that’s that.”

  She grabbed her bag where it was laying nearby, the leather remarkably intact after the explosion, and started going through it quickly.

  “I hope she hurries,” Isalla said worriedly, her eyebrows furrowing as her mana rushed into the gem. She thought she could fill it, but even so her mana was going to go fast.

  “I’m sure she will,” Vinara said, confidence in her voice as she pulled out a gold disk with silver runes across the top, then smiled. “Unlike what many people might think, Estalia doesn’t abandon her agents. She’ll act quickly, promise.”

  “Are you sure you want to do this? I have angels and mortals I could send instead,” Estalia asked, but she didn’t pause in handing over the satchel.

  “They might be able to save Rose, but they wouldn’t have the authority I have. Herbert is still a deity, and I’m pretty sure he’s not going to want to antagonize me,” Anna said, smiling thinly as she added, “Besides, I’m sure my return out of nowhere will cause waves in the heavens, and a good deal of consternation among our enemies. Beyond which, they won’t realize I was hiding here.”

  “Your Majesty, we have a lock on the beacon; it is active,” Veldoran called out, and a glittering web of crimson runes overlaid the teleportation platform as he quickly wove his spell, grunting as he added, “We have two minutes, no more!”

  They were in the teleportation chamber, and Anna was wearing her armor and armed, while the other angels in attendance were looking at her oddly. They had been since Anna had returned in her current shape, and Estalia knew they were wondering who she was, and why she radiated the power that she did, though none had dared ask yet.

  “Well, I guess time’s up. Go, my love. Make our enemies tremble before you,” Estalia said and went onto her tiptoes to give Anna a kiss, bittersweet regret rushing through her at the thought of Anna departing so soon. Every time they were together, it seemed like they were pulled apart too quickly.

  “I will. I’ll also give Kitania your love, once I can,” Anna said, smiling broadly, and she rested her cloudpiercer over one shoulder as she stepped into the middle of the teleportation platform.

  “Good. Veldoran? Send her to them,” Estalia said, nodding to the archmage as she breathed in deeply. The beacon Vinara had wasn’t as powerful as the one she’d given to Alserah, so it took a lot more work to prepare,
unfortunately. Of course, that was why she’d given a proper one to Anna.

  “Yes, Your Majesty! Brace yourself,” Veldoran warned Anna, who nodded as he quickly chanted the spell to activate the teleportation, and the angel vanished with a thunderclap and a flash of red light.

  The spells died down moments later, and Estalia looked at the spot where Anna had been standing moments before, ever so slightly forlorn. Then she sighed and murmured, “Well, it is done. Now the die is truly cast.”

  “Your Majesty? What do you mean by that?” Veldoran asked, the crimson-skinned demon wiping the sweat from his forehead as he nodded to his assistants, who looked far more bedraggled than him.

  Estalia looked at him, then at the others for a long moment, considering. Then she smiled, realizing that caution didn’t matter much at this point, and she asked, “Do you know who Anna is?”

  “No, I’m afraid not. I thought she was just an angel, but the aura she’s had the last few days makes me think she’s an archangel. But that’s ridiculous, as I’d think I’d have heard if you acquired the remains of an archangel,” Veldoran said, his voice a little uncertain. “How else would she have gained the mantle of one since the last time I saw her?”

  “Ah, but that is where you’re wrong. She’s an archangel, yes, but she’s always been an archangel. She simply suppressed the mantle until it was undetectable, with a little help,” Estalia said, her smile widening as she looked at the angels and added, “As to who she is… her proper name, not her nickname, is Anathiel. I do believe the realms will tremble at her coming.”