Dusk Gate (Soul Bound Book 1) Read online

He looked up and smiled broadly. “Ah, Xandy! Just the slave to make a boring shift better! Get over here and lean over like the sow you are!”

  “No,” Xandra replied bluntly, a heady rush of ecstasy rushing through her as she said a word she hadn’t been able to say to him in countless years. His eyes widened with confusion, especially as he saw people behind her, and she came to an abrupt decision, raising her left hand as she delved into the depths of her memory angrily. This would hurt.

  “How can you—” he began, a hand reaching for his sword, but it was too late for that.

  Mana surged out of Xandra in a torrent as she spoke the words of a spell, flicking her fingers through the gestures… and she knew the instant she made a mistake, because that was when the pain began. It was like holding her hand above a river of magma, as her skin sizzled and agony ripped through her, but the spell still went off… at least after a fashion.

  A bolt of purple fire lanced out from her hand like a meteor, slamming into Elgraxx’s chest before he could begin to dodge. He let out a momentary scream, but it ended almost as abruptly as it began. The demon fell to the ground with his chest almost entirely missing.

  Xandra hissed in pain, looking down at her hand, and wincing. She couldn’t feel much from it, which was good, since the fingers were now smoking and charred, looking more skeletal than anything else.

  “What… what sort of spell was that?” the mage behind her asked, sounding both impressed and horrified. “I thought demons are immune to fire!”

  “They’re resistant to fire, with a few notable exceptions. And that was a miscast spell, as it happens,” Xandra said, breathing slowly as she continued forward, compartmentalizing the pain. “I am very out of practice. Though it was worth it.”

  “Oh, goddess… what happened to your hand?” the young priestess gasped, stepping forward. “Here, let me—”

  “Don’t bother. You might need your mana, and I’ll heal. Eventually,” Xandra interrupted. She’d been doing a lot of that, she’d noticed. “One of the experiments they performed on me. Now to find out how Alora is doing.”

  She pulled the keys off Elgraxx’s belt, happy that her spell hadn’t damaged them. Or the sword, for that matter, but she quickly went through the keys, deciphering the markings easily. It only took a few seconds to find the one to the iron door, which she inserted and turned. It didn’t turn easily, and why quickly became obvious, as multiple locking mechanisms from all four sides of the door clicked open one after another. Then Xandra pushed the door open, and she heard choking sounds from the others.

  Alora had seen better days, Xandra knew, as she’d been there for a few of her Mistress’s sessions with the woman. Alora had been branded a couple of times, and multiple scars marred her skin as well. The woman had skin a little darker than Xandra’s own, and her hair had been chopped short during her captivity, instead of its former long, dark length that Xandra had admired when she’d been brought in. Rather than the athletic, muscular figure she’d sported when she’d gotten here, the woman had a voluptuous figure, but at least Xandra could still see muscle beneath the curves. She doubted that Alora was as strong as she’d originally been, but that was to be expected. Most important were her eyes, though, which were a bright hazel that glittered with defiance and confusion.

  The reason the others were horrified was obvious, though. Alora had a painful-looking gag in place that held her mouth wide open, her arms were manacled painfully behind her back, and her legs were in stocks that held them wide. Chains hooked to the wall to immobilize her further, three to a collar around her neck alone, and the entire room stank of sex. Alora was clean, but Xandra knew that was only because they had someone come clean her daily, to ensure that disease didn’t take the woman before the demons were done with her.

  “Hello, Alora. These people are making an escape attempt, and I’m going with them. Care to help?” Xandra asked, gesturing toward the intruders behind her.

  Alora looked at her for a moment, then nodded, though it looked faintly grudging to Xandra. It was good enough, though.

  “Good,” Xandra said, stepping forward and switching keys. She had to force herself not to use her left hand, as that would be a mistake.

  The gag was the first thing Xandra removed, and Alora snapped her mouth shut, working it for a few seconds, then spat before speaking, her voice raspy. “You’re the stuck-up bitch of a slave who belonged to the slavemaster. What’re you doing here? Another trick?”

  “As you say, I was her slave. They killed her, and I’m able to rebel now. I trust your skill more than theirs, and you’re the only person in this place I think deserves rescue,” Xandra said, pausing as she considered, then shrugged, unlocking the collar before moving on. Without her hand, she couldn’t really open it. “Including me, not including dozens of others over the years. You’re the only one unbroken and alive.”

  “Lucky me,” Alora said, looking past Xandra as her eyes narrowed. “What’re you doing here?”

  “We came to rescue Lady Alexis,” the knight said, nodding to the woman in the black cloak.

  “Huh. Fair enough. And you trust her?” Alora demanded, inclining her head toward Xandra, who laughed.

  “Good question. I wouldn’t,” she murmured, prompting them to look at her. It was the lady who spoke, though.

  “As I was still restrained and they were all incapacitated or dead when she arrived and helped… yes, under the circumstances I trust her,” the woman said quietly. “If nothing else, I trust that she truly wants to escape.”

  “Right. Well, since I don’t want to breed more of their monsters, I’m going to help. Better to die fighting than to live like this.” Alora growled as Xandra unlocked one of her wrists, and swiped at the keys. “Give me those! You’re slow!”

  Xandra barely managed to get them out of her reach in time, glowering as she spoke. “Not unless you want to lose limbs!”

  “What?” Alora demanded, and the others stopped muttering to one another, suddenly deathly still.

  “If the wrong key is used, the restraint severs the limb it’s around,” Xandra said, staring at the woman pointedly. “Can you tell which key goes to which lock?”

  Alora ground her teeth, then shook her head, a hint of fear in her eyes. “No. Are you serious?”

  “Perfectly. Almost every collar and manacle in the palace works the same way. Something of a trap for people trying to rescue others or escape,” Xandra said, going back to unlocking the woman again, now that she was sure that Alora wasn’t going to interfere. “You’re lucky I can read the keys.”

  The others had gone silent, and after a few seconds the half-elf asked softly, sounding incredibly nervous, “Were my restraints the same?”

  “Yes,” Xandra said bluntly, unlocking a fourth band. The demons really hadn’t left anything to chance where Alora was concerned, which amused her. What was she going to do from inside an iron-reinforced room?

  “Gods. That… that could have been bad,” the knight muttered.

  “I said you were incompetent. It’s not my fault that you were ignorant as well,” Xandra said flatly, and unlocked the last of the restraints. “There, done. There’s a sword on Elgraxx’s belt that you can grab.”

  Alora stood, rubbing her wrists as she grinned. “Oh, that bastard is outside? I don’t suppose I can get a little revenge?”

  “He’s already dead,” Xandra said, glancing at her charred hand as she admitted, “I probably should have let them kill him, but… some scores should be settled personally.”

  “Drat. Well, at least someone got him,” Alora said, looking surprisingly disappointed. “Let’s get going.”

  Xandra was amused that at least Alora had her priorities in order. Clothing was far less important than weapons and escape.

  Chapter 4

  Alora was impressive, Jasmine decided, flinching as the woman cut clean through a demon before the insectoid creature could more than open its mouth, spraying green ichor across the floor. The woman
was likely Algarian, based on her appearance, from one of the jungle tribes that Jasmine had heard of. If she was an example of them, Jasmine hoped she never upset one of the tribes.

  The woman was now wearing a makeshift loincloth and breast straps, but had refused anything more, with the explanation she didn’t want something that would slow her down, not as weak as she was. If this was her when she was weak, what she was like normally boggled Jasmine’s mind.

  What she’d said about Xandra troubled Jasmine, though. The woman wasn’t polite, and was rather scathing, but she hadn’t seemed like that bad of a person to Jasmine. Yet Alora didn’t let Xandra out of her sight, and certainly didn’t allow Xandra to touch her, not that the elf was trying.

  “Good,” Xandra said, stepping over the body of the demon without hesitation and reaching up to take a key ring from the wall. “These will get us out the doors and to the portal. Assuming there isn’t a small army of guards between here and there, we should make it.”

  “What are the chances of an army being in the way?” Vanreth asked, less suspicion in his voice than there had been before. The speed with which they’d moved surprised Jasmine, and the three who’d came to rescue her were visibly more relaxed, since apparently they’d seen this room before.

  “Not high, but possible. If a full invasion was planned, His Majesty would be overseeing it, but there’s always the possibility of someone going out or returning from patrol. I don’t believe any are scheduled, but I lose track of things like that,” Xandra said, paused, then grimaced as she added, “Beyond one day to the next, I have a fuzzy sense of time at best. At a certain point everything blurs together.”

  “I believe that. How long have you been here?” Alora asked, opening the door a crack so she could peer outside. “You were here when I got here.”

  “At least seven human lifetimes,” Xandra replied, turning to face the door, almost folding her hands in front of her before stopping. That was likely because of the mangled wreckage of her hand, Jasmine thought, wincing at the sight of the elf’s charred hand. Still, it looked slightly different…but the explanation distracted her and made Jasmine pale, especially as Xandra continued. “Bargaining for eternal youth was not my wisest decision. My Mistress took pains to keep me alive, so I would regard it as a curse instead. She mostly succeeded.”

  “That… sounds really unpleasant,” Naomi murmured, meeting Jasmine’s gaze in obvious horror.

  “Mother always said to be careful what you wish for. You should’ve thought about it first,” Alora said, nodding. “It’s clear, so let’s go. I want to get out of this hellscape.”

  “Good,” Xandra said, heading for the door at a brisk pace, and stepping out into the enormous hallway. Jasmine flinched as she looked up and saw that the hall was lit by flaming cages hanging from the ceiling, each of which had charred skeletons in them. It was enough to make her nauseous.

  The rest of the hallway wasn’t much better, and Jasmine did her best to ignore the horrific mosaics that covered the walls, instead focusing on the front doors, which were daunting in their own right. Much like the door which had trapped Alora, these were made of iron, but that was where the similarity ended. The doors, which she honestly should think of as gates, were forty feet tall and just as wide, with a huge bar locking them. She had no idea why someone would make the gates so enormous, or how a simple key was supposed to get them through them. At least, not until Xandra marched up to a section on the right side and pushed a key into a keyhole that Jasmine would have missed entirely.

  With a turn of the key, a section of the massive door shimmered and transformed into a pair of much smaller doors that were only slightly oversized compared to the ones Jasmine was used to. Xandra paused, her hand on the doors, then asked, “Is everyone ready? There’s almost certain to be someone in our way, so once we go out there we aren’t going to be able to prepare.”

  For a moment Jasmine was confused about why the woman didn’t look at them, but an instant later she flushed in embarrassment. Of course Xandra didn’t look at them, not when it would require turning around entirely. Instead she hesitated, then softly cast a spell. “My Lady in the heavens, please grace us with your blessing, that we may be able to conquer evil.”

  Light shimmered around her, then spilled outward in a wave that gently enveloped all the others in the area, wrapping them in a faint aura of light, and Jasmine let out a soft sigh… then stiffened as she heard Xandra hiss, looking over quickly. The woman didn’t make any other sound, and her posture hadn’t changed, which confused Jasmine… until she realized that the light wasn’t surrounding Xandra.

  “If you’re quite done?” Xandra asked waspishly.

  “Um, yes?” Jasmine said, glancing at the others in concern. They mostly looked confused, though she heard Alora laugh quietly. Vanreth’s sword was out, and Adrian had his wand in his hand. Alora hadn’t ever sheathed her sword, so she was obviously ready to go.

  “Good,” Xandra said, and pushed the doors open, revealing just where they really were to Jasmine.

  The first thing she noticed was the sky. It was almost oppressive, filled with roiling clouds of gray and black smoke, interspersed by waves of fire that rippled and seethed like living things. It provided illumination, but nowhere near as much as Jasmine would have preferred, and her gaze lowered as Alora and Vanreth charged through the doors.

  Below the sky was a huge courtyard, one that ended in a sheer cliff about a half-mile away, and she could see what looked like an immense canyon that looked like it’d been cut by a titanic blade beyond it, with the other side barely visible, while nothing but darkness filled its depths. In the courtyard were four demons, three of them variations on the one which Xandra had killed earlier, but one of them was quite different, prompting Jasmine to blanch. It was twenty feet tall, with two immense arms, and multiple, writhing… things protruding from its back, like millipedes with horrific maws. It also was tusked, and turned toward them with a snarl, prompting her to pale. Behind them was a stone arch even bigger than the gates they’d passed through, its entire length carved with runes.

  “Fuck.” Xandra’s voice was quiet but distinct as she stopped, allowing Adrian and Naomi to pass her.

  Jasmine quickly followed, glancing behind her to make sure no one had appeared behind them. Adrian unleashed a wave of icy shards from the ground beneath the demons, while Naomi cast a spell that surrounded Vanreth and Alora with glowing shields. She was just in time, as they engaged the smaller demons in close combat, and unfortunately, this time they hadn’t taken the demons completely unawares, which meant they didn’t manage to kill any of them instantly. Alora did manage to mangle one of their arms, though.

  “What?” Jasmine asked, glancing at Xandra, who was staring at the big demon.

  “I—” Xandra began, but at that moment the huge beast raised its head and opened its mouth.

  The howl that emerged from its throat was so loud it almost knocked Jasmine from her feet, rattling her teeth in her skull painfully. She staggered, barely able to think, then the sound came to an end. When she looked up, a pair of the centipede things had lashed out at Alora and Vanreth, knocking them backward and shattering the shields that’d surrounded them, causing Jasmine to pale, her ears still ringing.

  “That,” Xandra said, taking a deep breath and glancing at her right hand as she grimaced. “Hopefully this works. And doesn’t kill me. If it doesn’t, I’d ask that you don’t abandon me.”

  Jasmine looked at the elf, a little confused. She had a few attack spells of her own, so they should be able to deal with the demons with a little time, so she wasn’t sure what Xandra meant… until the bells began ringing throughout the palace, and she understood why the demon had howled.

  Xandra raised her hand, drawing her fingers across her face, and as she did so, Jasmine heard the woman speaking words softly and carefully. She could see magic beginning to form around her fingers. More importantly, Jasmine could feel the magic taking form, which indic
ated a powerful spell. A very powerful spell.

  The battle was progressing, but Jasmine flinched as a bolt of acid shot out from Adrian at the big demon, only to splash off it uselessly. A blast of light from Naomi at least scorched the creature, but the priestess barely avoided being backhanded by one of its huge claws. Jasmine snapped out the words of a spell as she saw Vanreth stagger back, bleeding, but he and Alora had killed one of the lesser demons in the process. Her spell flashed out into him, healing his wounds… and then Xandra’s voice rose, her hand extending at the same time.

  Jasmine didn’t recognize the spell, and unlike her prayers to her goddess, Xandra wasn’t using simple words. Instead, she was reaching out toward the immense demon as if to grab it, and Jasmine saw a few trickles of blood seeping out from the elf’s fingernails as she did so… and Xandra smiled grimly as she clenched her hand.

  Vivid blue magic ripped out of the elf’s hand, flashing across the courtyard like lightning, and wrapped around the immense demon. It dragged the horrid growths in close, pressing them against the demon as it struggled violently, and its head rose, looking toward Jasmine and Xandra, and began to speak in a horrific voice. “Xandr—”

  The magic crushed the demon like a person could crush an over-ripe tomato, and Jasmine flinched, her stomach churning at the sight, then recoiled as a sharp series of pops echoed next to her.

  When she looked, Jasmine’s eyes went wide, for Xandra’s spell hadn’t been without cost. Her arm twisted unnaturally as the elf grunted, new bends now present in the middle of her upper and lower arm. More blood was dripping from her now-limp hand, and Jasmine gasped.

  “What happened? What did you do to yourself?” Jasmine demanded, stepping closer to the elf and flinching. She spared a glance at the battlefield, but the sight of the demon’s destruction had distracted the other two defenders, allowing her allies to take the upper hand. That reassured her enough to focus on Xandra.

  “Broke… every bone in my arm,” Xandra said, her breathing heavy, but her words were surprisingly clear, considering the pain Jasmine could see on her face, and how pale she was. “Thought it might rip it off entirely, with the mistakes I made. No, broke them all in at least two places. It’s… unpleasant.”