Page 84 of The Time Of Queens

“Chiyou’s brothers set the fire, for they are obviously here for the seal,” Lucius answered this time, giving me little insight as to what they were talking about.

“Ragnar and our men are currently fighting them on the East side,” Vincent added, making me gasp, as clearly, trouble had found us.

“I must go and retrieve the seal,” Draven said, but Lucius had obviously beaten him to it, as he pulled a leather bag from his back.

“Already done, my friend, for the second the flames erupted, I alerted the household staff and made my way to your office, for I knew it was too important to leave to chance,” Lucius replied, handing Draven the satchel. The relief was easy to see, as Draven placed a hand on his shoulder and told him,

“Well done, for your quick actions might have saved far more than these mortal lives.”

Lucius nodded at this praise but said no more.

“And what of the small army of Demons about to descend on us?” Adam asked, now looking down at his wife, prompting her to say,

“I am ready for a brawl!”

Adam grinned, patting her shoulder before telling her, “Easy there, my little warrior.”

“Well, whatever it is, we need to decide quickly, as look, here they come,” Zagan said, pointing towards the stable yard, and thankfully away from where most of the staff were gathered at the other side of the house.

“They must have broken through Ragnar’s defences,” Vincent surmised, making me suck in a quick breath. My worry grew by the second as to what that could mean.

“Pip, Adam, get to the servants, encourage them to make for the woodland wishing well. There, they should be at a safeenough distance from the fight,” Draven said, giving his orders. “Sophia, go with them and take Keira to the fountain. It is the seal they want, which they know will be with me. Keep Keira safe until I can get her out of here. You three, you’re with me, we have some friends that need sending back to Hell,” Draven added, indicating to Lucius, Zagan, and his brother. I quickly gripped his arm and told him,

“Please be careful.”

He wrapped an arm around me, pulled me close, and told me,

“When I have you to get back to…always.”Then after a swift kiss, he nodded to his sister, who replied,

“With my life, brother.”

This told me that they had silently communicated about my safety. I then watched in horror as he ran towards the fight, his two swords traveling down past his hands and flaming purple in the night. His wings also erupted, so that when an enemy got close, they aided him attacking it. I watched as he flew up before dropping on the creature, impaling his weapons into its chest.

An army of humanoid Demons with terrifying features all charged towards us. Their faces looked like pale grey clay that had been baked in the sun. The multiple spikes on their faces, cracked and pitted. Their eyes were an unnerving, milky white with tiny black dots at the centres. Each without eyelids and therefore permanently wide open.

Their distant, creepy stare was a contrast to the fixed Demonic grin each had, with their lips peeled back until near non-existent. Their mouths held exaggerated, human teeth, with two sets doubled up in rows that made it look like too many to fit their gums. Long fangs hung from the top but were thicker and bigger on the bottom row, making its lower jaw protrude outwards. They each had large flat noses, that were wrinkled at the top, giving them fixed snarling expressions. The wrinklesmatched the many lines around their eyes and heavy brow line. One that held a flare of spikes that tapered up to the four, thick, black horns at the side of each of their heads.

As for their bodies, these were formed with sinewy barbed muscles poking through the torn remains of red kimonos, that Draven once told me in China were called hanfu. These robes hung tattered from their pale bodies, with ribbons of black material snaking around them like living serpents. Long black hair matched their Demonic attire, as it too floated behind them. Doing so as if under water, swaying with their movements from the leather ties at the back of their heads. This despite being void of anything else but spikes and horns. Each of them carried a double-edged, curved sword, that looked forged from the pits of Hell in which they had come from.

“Come on!” Sophia urged, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the fountain as we followed Pip and Adam that way. Then once we made it, Adam and Pip stopped.

“Winnie and I will go ahead and urge the servants to make their way to the wishing well,” Adam told Sophia, before man and wife went off running.

“What’s happening, Sophia? Who are they?” I asked, my voice strained and panicked.

“I don’t have much time to explain, only that my brother was charged with finding an ancient artifact and returning it to its rightful owner in another realm of Hell. But something must have happened to alert Chiyou to its presence.”

“Chiyou?” I questioned.

“A Chinses entity, a Demon god of chaos and war who is seeking the seal my brother was charged with obtaining,” she told me, making me nod to the army of Chinese demons that seemed to have grown exponentially.

“And these guys?” I asked, making her tense.

“These are Chiyou’s brothers, who are also charged with finding it and bringing it back to him.”

I hated to ask, as I could very well guess the answer but, still, I found myself asking all the same…

“And that’s bad, right?”

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