Page 84 of Demon Bound

She hurried closer. “What are you doing here? Are you all right?”

He climbed down from the wagon, his limbs struggling a little. He looked a decade older than she remembered. Perhaps it was just nerves from the attack. “We all thought you were dead,” he said.

Raiya blinked at him. “What?”

“Lord Han-gal said…” He waved a hand. “Well, who cares what he says? Apologies, lady, but your husband is mad.”

Nirlan was surprisingly well liked in town. She’d never heard anyone talk that way about him. “What’s happened?”

The woman driving the cart, the baker’s daughter, spoke up, still cradling her bleeding shoulder. “You don’t know?”

She looked behind Raiya suddenly, stiffening. Raiya looked up to see Azreth approaching, wearing his human glamour.

“Your wound needs to be sealed,” he said pragmatically. Healing magic swirled across his palm. He knew they had already seen his true form, so Raiya knew he wasn’t trying to deceive them. He must have decided that this form would frighten them less when he approached.

The woman paled, but said nothing when Azreth moved closer to her. Raiya wasn’t sure if her silence was consent or justfear, but when Azreth had finished and the wound had closed, she looked cautiously relieved. “The lord has gotten involved with dark magic,” she said. “Involved with the cult. He and that priestess have done something awful up at the castle.”

Raiya exchanged a dark look with Azreth. The priestess had to be Gereg. “How many other monsters have you seen?” Raiya asked.

The baker shook his head. “Dozens?”

“They’ve been pouring out of the castle gate and into the streets,” the woman said. “There are those flying ones, and tiny, angry, ratlike ones with too many legs, and pale, eyeless creatures that almost look like humans, but they crawl around on all fours at night…” She shuddered.

“What about others like me?” Azreth asked.

“None like you,” the baker said. He seemed hesitant to actually say the worddemonaloud, as if by not saying it, they could pretend that wasn’t what he was. “We’re heading for Ontag-ul. Lord Han-gal has doomed Frosthaven.” He glanced at Raiya nervously. “No disrespect intended, lady. There’s no point in staying. The town is done for. Everyone with a good head on their shoulders is leaving now, while they still can.”

Raiya was in disbelief. This was the worst thing Nirlan had ever done, and he’d done a lot.

But in a way, she wasn’t surprised. Nirlan’s father had lived in Frosthaven for much of his life, but Nirlan had hardly stepped foot in the town until just before his father’s death. He’d grown up in boarding schools in the big cities to the south and abroad. His heart wasn’t in Frosthaven. He didn’t care if the place she’d lived her whole life was destroyed. He didn’t care if the tiny temple and the lively market and the cheery lamps that lit the streets during the long, dark winter all turned to dust.

She took personal offense to it. It angered her more than when he raised a hand to her alone.

Azreth put a hand on her shoulder. She realized her anger had been steadily building. She took a breath.

“No offense taken,” Raiya assured the baker. “Thank you for warning us. You should get to Ontag-ul. Astra keep you.”

“And you, lady.” He gave them an appreciative nod as the caravan parted to let him go by.

The caravan erupted into chatter.

“Azreth.” Fu-lon, who was driving a wagon at the front of the caravan, beckoned him. “What do you know about this?”

“The birds are of the hells,” he said.

“Color me surprised.”

“There will be more like them. They are fierce, but they are not invulnerable, as you have seen. You should keep your weapons in hand. Keep your eyes open, especially at night. But if you see one that looks like me, run.”

The chatter quieted to nervous murmurs as he spoke. Many of them were already stringing bows and drawing swords.

The road they traveled headed north before it curved east, where the caravan was going, meaning that they would have to move closer to Frosthaven before they could move away from it.

Azreth turned to Raiya, his expression grim. “I will not have such an easy time fighting off another of my own kind.”

“Then Nirlan needs to be stopped before he summons another demon.”

Azreth said nothing, waiting for her direction.

---