The Demon's Deal

Chapter Nine

Chapter nine

*

Seamus could not control his grief. His tears flowed freely down his cheeks and dripped on the dark woollen dress of his mother while he sat on his knees on the cold floor. He shook with deep sobs as he cradled her lifeless body in his arms. He had no idea how long he had been sitting there. He distantly recalled Ivy and Exadus calling his name, then silence.

His world had come crashing down around him. Seamus' only thoughts were on his mother and her final moments. Scared and alone in a room, chained down and transformed into a horrible monstrosity, then attacked by a group of people, her long lost son one of them. The guilt was like a painful spike boring its way through his heart. The sense of loss threatened to overwhelm him.

After what seemed a long time, he straightened and looked at her face. With his left hand, he brushed a wayward strand of blonde hair out of the way. Then he leaned in and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry mom," he whispered. "I was too late."

The room suddenly trembled and shifted. The black walls made way for broken grey stones. Cracks, glowing red, formed in the smooth tiled floor, and rubble appeared out of nowhere around them. They were back inside the ruined church of Kiltermon. Faint moonlight shone through the room and mixed with the eerie light coming from the fissures in the floor.

"I told you that you would find your mother, boy," a rasping, feminine voice said from behind them. Seamus turned his head in that direction, blinking away tears. Near the broken altar stood the demon that had caused all of this. She held her black spear casually in both hands and bared her sharp fangs at him in a twisted grin. "I just never said what state you'd find her in."

Exadus shook his warhammer at the creature menacingly. "You made me kill an innocent woman!"

She chuckled and waved her hand at him dismissively. "I did not make you do anything, paladin of Talina. You attacked what you did not understand! Just as you did to my mother! Maybe now you will have learned not to do it again."

Seamus lowered his mother's body gently to the floor and stood up, feeling calmer than he expected. Ivy handed him his sword. His hand clenched tightly around the hilt and then he looked at the demon. When he spoke, he was surprised his voice did not tremble.

"So, this was all a lesson, was it? Kidnap a woman, force her son into an impossible situation, and make sure he learned his lesson?" Seamus lifted the sword and pointed it at her. "But you failed to consider one thing."

She arched an eyebrow at him, nervously shifting the spear in her hands. "Which is?" she spat back.

He gestured at his friends with his free hand. "You just pissed off the only people who could actually hurt you." Then he charged, sword held high, roaring as he let the rage inside him take control.

Xylrya barely lifted her spear in time to deflect his overhead strike. Seamus heard her grit her teeth and hiss as he pushed her back. He pulled back his sword and kicked at her, his heavy boot stomping her square in the chest. She hurtled backwards but quickly flapped her leathery wings to flip over and reposition herself. With a scream of fury, she pushed herself off against the wall and lunged at him, spear first. Seamus managed to duck back and swiftly raised his sword in front of him defensively.

A rush of air zipped past his left and right shoulder as two metal bolts flew at the demon. She deftly knocked one out of the air while the other deflected off the black armour over her chest.

Xylrya rushed towards Seamus, brandishing the black spear. Right before she got close, she glanced to his left and quickly flew up just as a ball of flame landed under her feet. A long, massive root suddenly shot out from under the stone floor where the fire had landed.