Page 106 of Stardust Child

Every guard nearby shot Juste a look of such transparent panic, he jerked forward immediately.

“No. No cart,” he said. “If we take its head off, then we can crate the thing up and transport it after dawn, but we will not take the least chance of a live devil being brought into town.”

“It looks fairly deceased, sir knight,” Forgess began, and swore as Juste’s sword came down in a single stroke, severing the devil’s head from its neck.

There was a long, susurrus sigh that could have been the last air escaping the thing’s lungs. Or it could have been the wrathful hiss of a wicked, sorcerous creature, thwarted at the very last.

Juste looked at all four scholars, letting the lesson sink in.

“They are very good at looking dead,” he told them. “Please understand, we must take the danger seriously. We have endured four years of these creatures, and we have never seen them in such numbers as we saw this year. Imagine a dozen of these things coming over the wall at once, winding their long limbs about you, and those hands closing on your throat. Sometimes the hands do not come off even when they are severed from the rest of the body.”

Jerking his chin to the guards, he issued a silent order for them to crate the corpse and drew the scholars away.

“They are not curiosities to us. They have killed a great many of our friends and brothers, and we do not even know the numbers that may be dead in His Grace’s villages. More of our brothers travel there now, to bring back whoever survived. And based solely onourunderstanding of the creatures, His Grace has gone to find where they are coming from, in the hopes that he might destroy them forever.”

“We understand the peril they have posed to your people, sir knight,” Master Torigne began.

“And to the Tower, they are a new discovery,” Juste interrupted. “New animals for the Library of Beasts, and unnatural ones, to fascinate the Library of Alchemy. Well, you may have their hide and their bones to experiment upon, but I would be remiss if I did not deliver everything wealreadyknow about them to you with all speed, so that your understanding will enhance our own.”

That was some of his very best diplomacy, and the politest way he could think of to say,read the fucking treatise.

“Thank you, Sir Justenin,” Master Torigne said, once again placating. “We will make all possible haste.”

* * *

Ghouls offer the greatest range in their vocalization, from growls to snarls to higher-pitched yelps and squalls when they are injured or startled. Stranglers are noted for a few isolated calls, which most often occur at dusk and dawn, but may sometimes precede an attack. Theirs is a rasping noise similar to chuckling or laughter, and while some speculate it may indicate communication between devils, this is not yet conclusively proven.

Though a wolf demon’s howl is superficially similar to that of natural wolves, being a sustained note that may escalate and diminish in volume, there is no confusing the two. The howl of a wolf demon is deeper and hollower, with a metallic tone. This may be explained partially by anatomy: wolves are thicker in the neck and deeper in the chest, but beneath their smoky, flaking fur, their necks are very different, with ridges running lengthwise that emit black smoke and green light when the wolf howls or exerts itself. This may be explained by an anatomical flaring, similar to that of a frilled lizard…

Remin had read every word of Ophele’s treatise.

It was not so long that he couldn’t finish it in an evening, and so he had spent part of his last night at home with Ophele in his lap, teasing her gently about her handwriting and regretting that he hadn’t given her this project months ago.

“This is excellent work, wife,” he had said, tugging his favorite curl affectionately. “It’s a good question—if we have been killing devils all this time, and they don’t breed in any fashion we can observe, then why are theremoreof them? Valleth cannot be summoning them. Or they had better not be,” he added grimly.

Thatwas what they had needed. Someone to gather this information and think about the creatures in an organized way. Ophele had captured the experience and knowledge of his men as widely as possible, considered its implications, and then used precise words to compare one devil to another, defining the language that everyone would use to speak of them thereafter.

Not once in all those pages had she described a devil thatpurred.

“What is it?” Auber breathed beside him, hardly daring to speak aloud as they stood in the dark together, gripping their spears. No one was sleeping tonight. Suspended in the gloom of the ancient forest, each sleeping platform was like a distant star, swaying as the men upon it paced uneasily.

CouldValleth be summoning more devils?

Hnnngh, hnnngh, hnnngh,came the sound again, a growl rolling from a very deep throat, loud enough that even the howls of wolf demons could not drown it out. The thing was under them, pacing to Remin’s right, and he couldn’t help searching for it, straining his eyes into the pitch black below.

Ghouls squalled. The purring faded. He could almost have counted the other devils from the clusters of their noises; it sounded like there were two packs of ghouls, one ten yards to his left and another behind him, circling below Tounot’s platform. At least five wolf demons. And the stars only knew how many stranglers; he caught glimpses of those huge, shining eyes in the dark, crawling among the branches and even slinking above him on the ropes, just out of range of spears.

And then something struck against his tree with such force that the whole thing jerked, the platform swaying so wildly it knocked even Remin to his knees. Horses whinnied. Men shouted and swore. Remin’s heart was beating out his ears as he scrambled back to his feet, grabbing for the nearest rope.

“Hold on! Get down low!” he bellowed, bracing his legs far apart. Directly ahead of him was the nightmare vision of another platform tossed like a boat in a hurricane, the silhouettes of the men atop it scrabbling to hold on as the shape of a man went over the side.

His shriek ended with the howling of devils.

Remin couldn’t hear. The war-horn howl of wolf demons was so loud it almosthurt,and still he tried to out-shout it, as if he could save his men with the sheer power of his command.

“Hold on!Hold on! Hold—”

SLAM.The tree shook again, and the horses in their boxes screamed.

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