Harbingers: A Novel of Lasniniar

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

The Devil in the Details

Paige stared at the red-eyed woman standing between her and the only door in the small apartment that was the home of a woman who should have been dead. Her hand drifted to the ax hanging from her belt.

“What do you mean, you’re a demon?” she asked the woman in a wary voice. “Your skin is too dark for a drakhal.”

Paige had broken into the apartment to investigate what she had thought was a case of Unborn coercion, but nothing was going as it should.

The woman blinked, her eyes returning to their former beryl green. “You mean one of those creatures who feeds on blood?” She shook her head. “I am an agent of the Unnamed Lord.” She said the words as it they explained everything.

“Like that creature who claims to be saving everyone from the spirit hounds.” Paige fumbled for the name she had heard at the demonstration in Belierumar’s main square. “Focalor.”

“We are an advance army,” the woman said. “Focalor is our general. We come from a world beyond this one.”

“Advance army?” Paige swallowed. “Why have you come to Lasniniar?”

The woman shrugged. “To take over, of course. Our lord discovered the way into this realm was now open.”

Paige frowned. “I saw Focalor give a speech earlier. I didn’t particularly care for him, but he seemed pretty friendly for someone who was trying to take over.”

“Naturally. That is his way. This invasion is meant for souls, not a pile of dead bodies. The Unnamed Lord wishes Focalor to lure more followers into his grasp.”

Paige closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. What was going on? She pulled out her ax and settled into the chair the strange woman had been bound in only moments before, only to suddenly appear standing across the room. Paige settled her ax across her knees, her honey-blond braids dangling over her shoulders.

“If this is a dream, it’s the strangest one I’ve ever had,” she muttered. She took a deep breath and looked up at the woman who claimed to be a demon. “Let’s start at the beginning. My name is Paige. I’m a dwarf.”

The woman eyed her, but made no move. “Are there many dwarves in this world?” She c****d her head.

“An entire race of them, yes.”

“Where I come from, dwarves are rare creatures—stunted humans.”

“We are children of the First Father,” Paige said with some heat. “We were here long before even Greater Men were born.”

“I see. I have much to learn of this world.” The woman pushed some of her shining, black hair over her shoulder. “My name is Claire.”

Paige’s eyes narrowed. “What happened to Arya? I was told she was the one who lived here.”

“I’m wearing her body,” Claire said in a tone that made it sound like it should have been obvious. “I’m a Snatcher demon. I need a host to interact with my surroundings. Arya was very ill. When I found her, her soul was already leaving this body. I took it once she had left.”

“So all of you... ‘Snatcher demons’ need a dead body to walk around?”

A sad smile flickered across Claire’s features. “Oh, no. I was kind to Arya. Snatchers can take over any host they please while the victim’s soul is still trapped inside. They are forced to watch while we use their bodies to perform our will.”

Paige looked Claire up and down. The body she wore looked healthy for someone who had been deathly ill—not to mention for someone who had had her foot stepped on by a horse without flinching, according to the men she had overheard earlier.

“If Arya is gone, how is her body still...” Paige made a helpless gesture.

“My magic will sustain this host until I leave it. It cannot be harmed by illness or mortal weapons.”

Fantastic.

“And, ah, how many Snatchers are here in Lasniniar, exactly?” Paige asked in what she hoped was a casual tone.

Claire shrugged. “A few hundred. There are also Shifters and the spirit hounds. Focalor, you’ve already met.”

Paige swallowed. “Shifters?”

“They require no host body,” Claire said. “They can appear as whatever they wish. They are the next level of authority after Focalor.”

Paige put her head in her hands for a moment as she struggled to make sense of everything she was hearing. “Let me see if I have this straight. You and the rest of the demons have been sent by the Unnamed Lord from a world beyond the Void to take over the souls of this one.” Claire nodded. “And the spirit hounds Focalor claims he will protect everyone from are members of his own army.”

“Focalor is using the spirit hounds to create a problem only he can solve,” Claire said. “Only he can protect the people of Belierumar from them. Shifters and Snatchers have been planted among the people here to encourage the rest of the populace to put their faith in him, while he preaches the might and power of the Unnamed Lord.”

Paige suddenly remembered Barlo telling her about how the Unborn woman Felara gained power from her followers through their worship of her as a goddess.

“And as people come to believe Focalor and the Unnamed Lord are their saviors, the Unnamed Lord feeds off their worship,” she said.

“Exactly.”

“What kind of demon is Focalor? A Shifter?”

Claire shook her head. “He is a fallen angel.” She read the confusion on Paige’s face. “A former agent of heaven.”

Paige gave a helpless shrug. “Still don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Claire sighed. “Focalor abandoned his lord and creator to serve the Unnamed Lord instead. Angels are basically the opposite of demons.”

“With blazing light and feathered wings?” Paige asked, a sudden suspicion mounting inside her.

“Yes.”

“I saw Focalor give his speech,” Paige said. “He looked pretty enough, but for a moment, I could have sworn he had drake wings instead.”

“You saw a shadow of what he has become. He uses his former appearance to his advantage and put people off their guard.”

“Right. So demons have come to take over Lasniniar,” Paige said as she worked out her thoughts aloud. “The worship of the Unborn doesn’t suit them, so they’re riling people up against them. They don’t seem to like the elves, either.”

Claire shrugged. “The elves are an easy enough target. The humans here already mistrust them.”

“And the Light Elves control the Quenya.” Paige met Claire’s gaze. “I’m willing to bet your Unnamed Lord wouldn’t mind getting his hands on that kind of power. All he would have to do is possess the right elf.”

Claire’s lips twitched. “You’re not wrong.”

“So why are you telling me all this?” Paige threw up her hands. Her expression turned wary. “Do you plan to take my body now?” Her fingers found their way around the haft of her ax. “You won’t get it without a fight.”

Claire smirked. “Don’t be ridiculous. How would that body suit me better than this one?”

Paige raised her chin. “It’s a perfectly good body.”

“By dwarf standards, I’m certain it is.”

Paige’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Claire gave a wave of annoyance. “I don’t need your body. I already have one. I’m telling you all this because I want to help.”

Paige shot her a dubious look. “You want to betray your own kind.”

Claire held her gaze without flinching. “They are not my kind by choice.”

Paige snorted. “Well that explains everything. Care to elaborate?”

Claire turned her head to look at some point in the distance. “The world I was born into was very different from this place. There were only humans. My family lived in a city much more crowded than Belierumar. We were quite poor. A plague started to spread among our people when I was still a child. We tried to protect ourselves with herbs and prayers, but one day my little sister woke up with a fever and black tokens on her skin. Our mother kept praying, but I knew she didn’t have long to live.”

Claire swallowed. “My sister and I were very close. It had always been my job to take care of her. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her. And so I looked elsewhere for the help she needed.”

“Magic?” Paige asked in a soft voice.

Claire nodded. “Of the darkest kind. While my mother still prayed over my sister’s dying body, I convinced a local witch to tell me how to summon a demon.” Her lips twitched in a sad smile. “Demons love to make deals. I had no money, but it hardly mattered. The servants of the Unnamed Lord deal in a different currency.”

“Your soul.” Paige’s eyes widened. “You gave yourself over in exchange for your sister’s life?”

“It was the only way.” Claire raised her chin. “I lived long enough to see my sister recover before being taken to join the Unnamed Lord’s host. I have been his unwilling servant ever since. I have seen and done things...” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Terrible things. When I was assigned to Focalor’s mission here, I saw it as an opportunity. I have lived as a demon for longer than I can remember. But the Unnamed Lord’s reach isn’t quite as long as he thinks it is. If Focalor and his highest-ranking followers were to fall here... I would be free.” She opened her eyes to meet Page’s gaze. “I want to help destroy them.”

“You would turn against them?” Paige asked with a frown.

“I already have. There are too many of us for Focalor to track all our movements. He is trusting that we will all stick to our assignments. No one else knows where I am right now.” Claire took a step forward. “You must understand. We are only the first wave of invaders—a scouting mission. If no one from your world stops us, you will be overrun.”

Paige felt a chill go through her. She doubted anyone else in Lasniniar was even aware that demons existed, never mind had a plan to get rid of them.

What should I do? I’m only one dwarf. I can’t fight a demon army by myself...

Even if she decided to trust Claire enough to accept her help, it would still be just the two of them. They could try to get the word out about this new threat, but who would believe them? Besides, there was already the threat of the Unborn to deal with. She shook her head.

“Demons can be killed?” Her thoughts drifted to the broken starsilver necklace she had found on the floor of the apartment and the matching burn mark around Claire’s neck.

“I will tell you how,” Claire said in a solemn voice. “You say you have already killed a spirit hound. I will tell you everything.”

“You would trust me enough to do that?” Paige asked with an incredulous look. “Why?”

Claire shrugged. “I have to trust someone. You have already proven you are unafraid of my kind. It is a risk, but you seem like a... straightforward person.”

Paige smirked. “Blunt, you mean. It’s a dwarven trait. Just wait until you meet Barlo.”

Claire’s brow furrowed. “Barlo?”

“He’s a friend of mine—more like family,” Paige said. She realized she had come to a decision. “He’s got some good connections with people who might have the power to help us. He’ll know what to do about all this demon business.”

...And whether I’m right to trust you. I’m in way over my head here.

Barlo was a naturally suspicious dwarf, but his instincts were usually sound. On the one hand, Paige had spent the past several months trying to assert herself as an individual adventurer, but she knew it would be foolish to try to tackle something of this scale on her own.

“So you’ll trust me?” Claire asked with a weak smile.

Paige climbed out of the chair and forced herself to hold out her hand. Claire gripped it with her own.

“I’m trusting that our interests lie in the same direction,” Paige said with a nod.

...For now.

She left those two words unspoken. No matter what sad story Claire told her, or how helpful her offer seemed, Paige wasn’t about to forget those crimson eyes anytime soon.