Page 77 of Demon Bound

There was a blast of heat and light, and all of them flinched. The vythian had released a jet of flame from its mouth, engulfing several tents in fire. Even from several dozen yards away, Raiya could feel the heat on her face. By the time it stopped, the tents and their contents were smoldering ash. Raiya reached for Azreth without thinking. He took her hand reassuringly.

“We must get to the city and behind something solid,” he said.

“And when it sets fire to the town?” Raiya asked as they ran. Azreth didn’t reply.

They were halfway to the city wall when there was a screech behind them, so close and loud that Raiya had to stop and cover her ears. Azreth’s arm wrapped around her and held her against him to shield her with his body. Powerful gusts of wind buffeted her as enormous wings flapped above them. Up close, she realized the creature was nearly the size of a small house.

The vythian swooped down on them and then glided away, seemingly for fun. It made a series of short screeches that sounded almost like laughter, and she had to wonder whether Azreth was certain that it wasn’t intelligent.

They ducked behind the stables outside the town gate, all of them breathing hard from the sprint. Raiya could hear the behelgi and horses inside the stable stomping nervously. As the vythian circled above them, its head turned toward the Roamers’behelgi, and its gaze lingered on the animals. Then it turned and started flying toward the herd.

Azreth straightened. Sparkling, magenta wings sprouted from his back.

Raiya raised her eyebrows. “Where are you going?”

He flapped twice and then leapt into the air. Raiya stared after him, gaping. He was heading toward the vythian.

She turned to the elves. “Into the stable. Stay out of sight.” They all crept inside. Jai patted the noses of nervous horses, whispering to soothe them. Raiya couldn’t keep her eyes off Azreth and the vythian. When the vythian arched its back and drew a deep breath, its mouth aglow with the promise of death for the herd, she stopped, frozen.

Before it could release its fire, Azreth slammed into it at high speed, grabbing it around the neck. The vythian screeched, tumbling through the air. With a powerful flex of its body, it shook Azreth off. There was black blood oozing from the vythian’s neck, and Raiya realized Azreth must have used his teeth.

He dove and righted himself, coming at the creature again. This time, he attacked its wing, ripping at it with his bare hands as he flew past. The vythian roared. Azreth had torn a hole in the webbing of its left wing, and now it was flapping erratically as it spiraled. As it fell, its heavy tail lashed out and hit Azreth across his middle. His wings disappeared, and he dropped like a stone. Both of them hit the ground, sending tremors through the earth.

The vythian scrambled onto its hands and feet, its posture hunched and inhuman. Azreth was still shakily trying to rise as the vythian galloped toward him with its jaws agape and razor teeth flashing.

Raiya jumped up, raising her baton. The runes glowed bright as she took aim at the vythian, and just as the monster’s teeth were nearing Azreth’s head, a bolt of magic energy explodedfrom the baton. It shot clear across the camp to blast the vythian in its side. The creature stumbled, giving a hoarse cry, and Azreth’s head jerked toward Raiya. Even from this distance, she could see his look of disapproval, but she’d just saved him from having his head bitten off, so she returned the look. The handle of the baton was hot and prickling with energy, and her hair felt like it was standing on end. The baton didn’t make her feel like a fearsome elven warrior princess the way her bow did, but it was certainly effective.

The vythian’s scales were blackened and cracked where the attack had hit, but it seemed to have done little real damage. The thing was even sturdier than Azreth was. She needed a stronger weapon.

She turned to Madira and Jai. “Iron. Find some iron. Quickly.”

“Like an iron knife?” Jai asked. “A spear?”

“I don’t know. Anything. Whatever you can find.”

The elves exchanged a skeptical glance, then began searching the stable.

In the distance, Azreth backed away from the vythian, teeth bared in a grimace, and the vythian followed, circling him. Azreth waved his hands around him. He was weaving magic into a spell.

From nothing, a bright light burst forth and shaped itself into an enormous, shining, magenta sword, big enough to match the vythian’s size. It hung in the air above him, as if wielded by an invisible hand. Azreth swung his arm, and the ghostly sword echoed the movement, swiping toward the vythian. The vythian screeched again as the sword struck it, but it wasn’t bleeding. It couldn’t have done more than bruise the thing.

Raiya kept one eye on them as she scanned the room for metal. There were hinges on the doors. Stirrups on the row of saddles hanging on the wall. Bits of something silver on thebridles and Madira’s armor and on her own shoes. Much of it did not look to be pure iron, but other metals or alloys. She grabbed anything that looked promising, prying up loose nails and grabbing horse shoes from hooks on the wall. Madira handed her a knife so she could cut the stirrups from the saddles.

A long-handled broom leaned against the wall. She grabbed it, then found a roll of twine. She dumped out her satchel and shoved all the clanking iron bits inside, then began winding twine around and around the bag to attach it to the end of the broom handle, her hands moving like a madwoman’s.

“What are you going to do with that?” Jai asked.

She knotted the twine over and over to be sure it was secure on the broom. Gods, she must have lost her mind. “Kill the vythian?” she asked.

“Is that a joke?” Madira asked.

Raiya chose not to answer as she hefted the broom in both hands. She looked across the fields to where Azreth still fought. Just as she looked up, the vythian cocked its head back and breathed a massive jet of fire. Azreth flung his arm in front of his face defensively, and the blaze of fire engulfed him completely. Raiya’s breath caught in her throat.

It was only then that she realized there was a crowd watching the fight from near the city gate, because all of them screamed and gasped as the flames overtook Azreth. The blaze seemed to last forever. Raiya wondered if the vythian would ever run out of breath.

But finally, it did. The jet shrank and then died, bits of flame and sparks spiraling away as it shut its jaws. And Azreth was still standing there, his arm over his eyes. His body steamed and smoked, his cloak was gone, burned to nothing, and only his demon-crafted sarong remained. But he was unharmed. He slowly lowered his arm to look defiantly at the vythian, and the vythian gave a screech that almost sounded irritated.

Azreth must have finally decided there was no more point in maintaining any pretense about what he was, because his glamour flickered away, baring his cobalt skin and horns to the world. There was another concerned murmur from the nearby crowd.

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