Demonstorm

'Shh,' said Dystran. He placed a calming hand on his shoulder and stroked his upper arm. 'Let it out. It's all right, you're safe now.'

Sharyr clutched Dystran's robes. 'They kept on coming and we were too frightened to cast. They clicked their jaws, they reached for us with those hands. They got so close. We just ran and he kept them away though they bit him and scratched his face. They wanted his

soul but he was so strong and they couldn't get round him to get to us. But they taunted us, they taunted us and they reached out for our souls.' He gripped harder. 'I looked deep in their eyes and there was nothing there. Nothing. It's what we face if they take us. Emptiness.'

Dystran gripped Sharyr's wrists and gently eased his hands away. 'But they won't take us, will they? Because in this room, three men of incredible covxrage have given us a chance. You Sharyr, and Suarav and Brynel.'

'They were so close,' moaned Sharyr.

'And that is as close as they'll ever get. Think on it, Sharyr, and remember you're safe now. They can't get you in here. I promise.'

At last, another smile from Sharyr. 'Thank you, my Lord.'

'No, my friend. It is Xetesk who should be thanking you. Rest. Rest, all of you.'

Dystran stood up and spread his arms, embracing them all with the gesture. 'Anything that you want that is within my current power, you may have. And consider yourselves stood down from any duties until further notice.'

None of them were looking at him. He wasn't even sure any of them even heard him. He snapped his fingers at Chandyr and strode out to the first landing.

'Laid that on a bit thick, didn't you?' said the commander as soon as the door had shut behind them.

'What would you rather I do? Rush them back to the front?' Dystran moved away to the top of the stairs. 'Did you stop to look at them?'

'Yeah, they look in some trouble.'

''Some trouble? Bloody hell, Chandyr, I'm no healer but I'd say they were all dying, wouldn't you? Suarav is in desperate straits. Now you're out here to take orders, not discuss whether I'm patronising our survivors or not. I don't know what to do with any of them. Get our best up here and get me an answer. If that means getting them into the control zone in the catacombs so we can cast, then do it. Your men love Suarav and I need Sharyr able to help examine our new texts.'

'And Brynel?'

'We need every mage, Commander.' He indicated Chandyr go ahead of him. 'I'm not prepared to lose any of those men in there. And that means you need to run faster than I do.'

Dystran paused at the top of the spiral stair and watched his commander go. Halfway down he heard a hurried 'Sir!' and then a second set of footsteps came closer as Chandyr's diminished. Dystran waited for the man to climb the stairs. It was a mage, Feiyn.

'My Lord,' he said, breathing hard. He was weak from poor food and confinement and, like them all, dying by degrees.

'I'm presuming you aren't running up here merely to tone your legs.'

'No, my Lord.'

'Well, I'm on my way down. If you have breath, walk with me and tell me what it is that couldn't wait.'

Dystran led the way down the stairs at a gentle pace.

'Vuldaroq has read one of the texts.'

Dystran had to check himself before he spoke. 'He could read our lore, could he?' he said instead.

'This is a general research paper. A theory based on a mapping of energies in inter-dimensional space.'

'Ah. Sounds like the work of dear old Bynaar to me. He was the first man to postulate that mana flow could be ordered and driven without . . .' Dystran trailed off even as he heard the sharply indrawn breath behind him. 'I don't recall asking for texts on that subject.'

'It was inside another on demonology,' explained Feiyn.

Dystran stopped. 'What does it say?'

'Vuldaroq can explain it better. He asked if I'd come and get you.'

'Right, let's hear what he has to say.'

They found Vuldaroq sitting in the dome complex, his back to Dystran's tower, much as he had been since his dramatic arrival. There was still no colour in his face but his eyes had regained a little sparkle. He managed a smile as he looked up from his study to see Dystran approach.

'My Lord Vuldaroq, I understand you've been busy.'

'Best that way,' he said. Like those in Dystran's chambers, exertion and fear had left a tremble in his body and voice. But at least the shock hadn't set in. Not yet anyway.

'Care to enlighten me?'

'Your man Bynaar was an astute researcher. Arteche speaks highly of him in works we treasure . . . well, treasured.'

Vuldaroq flourished the paper. It was a small but heavy-looking

set of parchments, torn about its edges. Dystran estimated a dozen pages, no more.

'Go on.'

'He was tracing shifts in mana density centuries ago. And in this paper he links it to the movement of demons from one space to another. I'm presuming the knowledge we have concerning your links with the demon dimension is sound.'

Dystran coughed. 'If our spies' assessments are accurate then, yes, you've done rather well.'

'Normally, I'd be flattered,' said Vuldaroq. 'Now it all seems just a waste of effort.' He cleared his throat. 'Bynaar was the first to theorise that demons were a nomadic race, using up one home, then moving on by conquest.'

'I am a scholar on the subject,' said Dystran before he could stop himself.

'Then you will know that Bynaar has tracked demon progress across inter-dimensional space by measuring mana density and movement. Particularly noting the disappearance of mana clouds which he concludes is caused by those clouds entering the fabric of another dimension.'

Dystran's smile was thin. 'One cannot hope to assimilate every piece of knowledge.'

'Assimilate this now. It's not a solution but it does answer the question of what the demons are doing.'

'Which is?'

'Well, according to Bynaar, for demons, mana is an eminentiy movable element, one which they can attract to themselves. Which is how they move it of course. Establish demons at both ends of a path, so to speak, and send the mana along it - and the more they have, the stronger they get. It's almost a commodity to them, hence their obsession with getting into Balaia. We are mana-rich.

'Now I've cross-referenced that with your young mage, Feiyn here, who was kind enough to read a passage from the demonology text into which Bynaar's work was inserted. Would you be so kind as to repeat it, young man?'

Feiyn glanced at Dystran who nodded and shrugged simultaneously.

'It said that demons are forced into their nomadic existence because they consume the dimensions they inhabit. It says that

when they have access to another dimension, that is when they destroy the last of what they have and move on. All of them.'

'And they send the mana they have accumulated on ahead, to their vanguard,' added Vuldaroq.

'So they aren't just passing through,' said Dystran. 'We aren't a territory.'

He'd known it all along when it came to it.

'No. I'm afraid we're home for them now,' confirmed Vuldaroq.

'And the mana build-up?'

'You'll have to take readings,' said Vuldaroq. 'But for what it's worth, I'd bet the little I have that when it is complete, they will be strong enough to breach the ColdRooms. Or else why be so happy to leave us as we are - the stronger colleges, I mean. We can all feel the cold that the mana seems to bring - this chill is unseasonal and it's getting worse.'

Dystran thought for a moment. Emotions clouded bis mind. His immediate reaction was to dismiss the Dordovan's inferences simply because of who he was. But that attitude had to be consigned to history now if they weren't all to go before it. Vuldaroq had put a time limit on their future but the deadline was unknown. The course, difficult though it might be, was clear.