Page 59 of Demon Bound

Several cultists appeared at the end of the hall. “Acolyte,” said one of them, addressing her. “You and the demon are to come to the main hall immediately. The High Priestess has had another vision.”

Raiya held back a sigh. They owed the cultists a debt for harboring them these past few days, but their visions and their refusal to address Azreth directly, as if she were his handler, were tiring. As was his custom, Azreth said nothing and waited for Raiya to deal with the intrusion. She suspected he would have completely ignored the cultists if left to his own devices.

She was too impatient for indirectness. “What does that have to do with us?”

“It’s a message from the dark goddess herself, regarding the demon.”

“Is the priestess quite certain it wasn’t just a dream?” Or made up entirely.

The cultist scowled. “The priestess has requested your presence specifically. Come.” He waited until Raiya headed toward the main hall. Azreth was a looming shadow on her heels.

Raiya stopped short in the doorway of the main hall. It was more crowded than she’d ever seen it, packed with cultists in dark robes and alarming black and white makeup. Dozens of eerie faces all turned to look back at them in unison as they sensed Azreth’s presence. In front of the altar at the other end of the room was Priestess Gereg.

“Ah!” she said, smiling grimly. “Our guests of honor have arrived. Please, approach the altar.”

Everyone in the room stared at them expectantly. Raiya felt a prickling of foreboding.

“My apologies, Priestess,” she said, giving a slight bow. “Something urgent has come up. I’m afraid we have to be going. Please accept our most sincere thanks for your hospitality. You have been very kind.”

“I’m certain you can spare a few moments more before you leave. It is a matter of greatest unholy importance. Come. Approach the altar.”

She glanced up at Azreth, who was looking back at her for guidance. Reluctantly, she started down the aisle. She stopped a few steps from the altar when Gereg brandished a jagged knife.

“Take this,” Gereg said, offering the knife to Azreth. “And make an offering to Moratha.” She motioned to the basin on the altar, which was currently empty.

“What kind of offering?” Raiya asked.

Gereg gave her a heavy-lidded glance. “Blood. Life, drained and corrupted by death. The only kind of sacrifice the dark goddess accepts.”

Raiya’s blood pounded in her ears. Azreth glanced over at her as her fear spiked. Did Gereg mean for Azreth to kill her as an offering?

Her hand dropped to the handle of her baton. She hadn’t reached for it since they’d first come to the temple, but she’d been careful to keep it always within reach. What would the cultists do if Azreth refused to do as they asked?

Azreth took the knife, but raised it to his own arm. He dug savagely into his flesh, bending the metal in the process of carving a small cut in his wrist. Raiya’s stomach lurched, but Azreth never flinched. He held his forearm over the altar, and inky blood dripped into the basin. Gereg seemed satisfied.

“Last night, I had a vision,” Gereg said. Her voice was not loud, but the other cultists were so still and silent that it filled the room anyway. “In it, I saw the demon before us. He spoke with the dark goddess’s voice and proclaimed that he had come to fulfill Moratha’s plans for Heilune. He is to be a reaper, come to bring her wrath upon our plane. He is her instrument of death, a weapon of unknowable destruction. The dark goddess’s glory will follow him as he bathes the land in blood.” Her voice hadgrown in volume gradually, and as she spoke these last words, she raised her hands skyward. “Praise Moratha!”

The room had been utterly, obediently silent up until now, but when the acolytes replied, it was with thunderous excitement that may as well have been cheering and applause.“Praise her!”

Azreth was frowning. None of them seemed to notice his displeasure.

“It begins tonight,” Gereg went on. “There will be a massacre of epic proportions, starting right here in Ontag-ul. All will die. Humans and elves, children and animals alike. Death will rule the land, blood will flow like water, and Moratha will be pleased.”

The room went even more quiet, as if the other cultists were as stunned as Raiya was. Many of the faces around the hall were grinning gleefully, but some looked perplexed or concerned. The priestess couldn’t be serious, could she? This veneration of death was all a farce, wasn’t it? They couldn’t really want everyone to die.

“So, demon,” Gereg said. “Thus begins the Goddess’s reign. You are commanded to kill indiscriminately, whenever and wherever you desire, so long as it is often. You will rend flesh with your monstrous hands, tear bloody gashes with your terrible teeth, crush bones beneath your giant’s feet. Go now and destroy; spare none. We will follow in your footsteps with our blades high.” She bowed low, extending her hands toward him in a dramatic gesture.

“No,” Azreth corrected her.

Gereg stopped, looking up at him. He arched an eyebrow at her.

“You are refusing her call?” Gereg asked tensely.

“I am.”

Gereg raised her chin. “You were designed by the dark goddess to serve her will. You will obey her. It is your purpose.”

Azreth gave her a withering look. “What do you know of my purpose?”

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