Demon Lord VI - Son of Chaos Read online

  “Report.”

  “Nothing to report, Commander. We’re holding position, awaiting orders.”

  “Good. Carry on.” Nikira re-entered the lift and selected the third floor, where her quarters were, deciding to remove herself from public scrutiny before her crew thought she was mad. Flopping down on her bed, she stared at the dappled plastic ceiling. She was mad. Completely, madly in love… with a god. How weird was that?

  In a way, she wished Drontar was right. It would be okay if Bane was just a man. Yet her desire for him was far stronger than she had ever experienced before, and there was no chance that what she was experiencing was worship. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to indulge in a pleasant fantasy.

  ***

  Drontar turned to his fellow scientists as soon as Donavan left the lab. “Did he get it all?”

  A xenobiologist named Frayne nodded. “And most of our equipment.”

  “We have to get new samples.”

  “How?”

  Drontar considered. “We could put anaesthetic gas into the ventilation system of that room where they stay.”

  Frayne, a short, balding man with a plump freckled face, pursed his lips. “That’s a big room. It’ll need a lot of gas.”

  “So get a lot. This ship must have a good supply in storage.”

  “Stealing stuff isn’t my strong suit.”

  “Could you do it?” Drontar asked the pathologist, Kerm.

  Kerm shrugged. “Sure.”

  The second xenobiologist, Atrill, looked concerned. “How do we know it’ll affect the other one?”

  “It stands to reason, doesn’t it? They look the same, so they’re probably the same kind, and he must be mortal too, or he wouldn’t have stopped the bullets in the containment room. So the gas should work.”

  “Not necessarily. He uses the white power, which might negate drugs.”

  “Then we’ll just have to find out, won’t we?”

  Atrill frowned. “If we’re caught, we’ll be thrown in the brig.”

  “Only until we reach base, then the government will give us medals, just for trying. I don’t have to tell you how important this is, do I? That genetic material will bring vast benefits for our people and our government. It probably holds the secret of eternal youth, too. I think he’s a lot older than he looks, and I mean a lot. We could have the key to immortality within our grasp. How much is that worth to you?”

  Kerm glanced at Frayne and nodded. “We’re in.”

  Atrill rolled his eyes. “Fine, so am I.”

  “Good. We’d better do it while he’s asleep. We’ve all got gold-level clearance to the medical stores; we just need to sneak a few canisters past the guards. Switch the labels with Freon or something.”

  “The names are painted on.”

  “Then find some labels and stick them on.”

  “What do we do if the other one stays awake?” Atrill asked. “We’ll have to knock him out somehow, or he’ll try to stop us.”

  Drontar paced in a circle, then stopped in front of them again. “Then we’ll have to knock him out the old fashioned way, with a club. He’s not dangerous, only the tar’merin is, so we just have to gas him and those people who hang around in there.”

  Atrill nodded. “I’ll find some gas masks.”

  ***

  Kayos sat up and scanned the room, wondering what had woken him. A strange scent stung his nose, and he rubbed it. Artan was sprawled on the floor beside the table where he had been sitting earlier, and the others were slumped over it. They appeared to be asleep, but Artan’s awkward posture aroused Kayos’ suspicions, and he looked at Drevarin and Bane. They also seemed to be asleep, yet Kayos sensed that something was amiss.

  The door opened, and four men clad in white clothes and strange masks entered, heading for Bane and Drevarin. They carried bags, which they set down beside the cloud couches and opened, taking out odd equipment. One man pressed a vial to Bane’s arm and pushed a needle into his vein. Kayos frowned and rose to his feet, approaching them. The man removed a vial full of blood and fitted an empty one into the instrument in Bane’s arm. He glanced at his comrades, who hovered around Drevarin, looking uncertain.

  Drevarin woke with a snort, and the men recoiled. The one who stood over him brought a shiny metal object down on his head, and the light god slumped. Kayos’ blood burnt with anger, and he walked closer.

  The man with the club muttered, “Gods, my arse.”

  Kayos became visible, and two of the men leapt away with shocked looks, the other two gaped at him. The one who knelt beside Bane pulled the needle from his flesh and hid the vials of blood in his bag.

  “What are you doing?” Kayos enquired.

  The blood thief stood up. He was the tallest and oldest of the group, with white hair and a short grey beard visible below his mask, which muffled his voice. “We... There’s been a gas leak. We’re just making sure they’re all right.”

  “I have been watching you since you came in. Do you really expect me to believe that?”

  “We have to check their blood, and if they wake up under the influence of the gas, they’ll be confused. They might hurt themselves.”

  Kayos eyed the man. “You are a good liar. A dark god would welcome such a follower as you, clever and cold-hearted, with a soul so corrupt it is almost red.”

  “I’m not lying,” the man said. He turned to his comrades. “Come on, let’s go. We’ve done what we can here.”

  The other three men headed for the door, almost trotting.

  Kayos tilted his head, frowning. “Sleep.”

  All four collapsed like puppets whose strings had been cut. Kayos went over to Bane and sat on the couch beside him. He patted the Demon Lord’s cheek, then shook him. Kayos rose and strode to the door, becoming invisible as he left the room.

  Nikira woke as someone touched her shoulder, sat up with a gasp and slid off her bed. Falling to her knees, she pressed her brow to the carpet at the feet of the silver-haired man who stood beside her bed.

  “Lord Kayos.”

  “Get up.”

  She obeyed, her legs shaking so much that she had to sit on the bed, not daring to meet his steely eyes.

  “Go to Bane.”

  Nikira glanced up at him in surprise, but he had vanished. Picking up her white dress, she pulled it on over her sleep suit and sprinted along the passage to the lift. As soon as she entered the dining room, the stench of anaesthetic assaulted her nose. She clamped a hand over it and stared at the four white-clad men lying on the floor. Staggering back into the corridor, she went to the nearest comscreen in a data room just down the corridor. Activating it, she selected the environment control centre. An envirotech appeared on the screen.

  “Yes, Commander?”

  “I want a complete flush and scrub of all the air in number three dining room. How long will that take?”

  He looked down at his board. “About five minutes.”

  “Do it now.”

  “Right away, Commander.”

  Nikira called the barracks and ordered a squad of soldiers to meet her outside the dining room, then summoned Jovan before going back to the door to wait. The soldiers arrived after two minutes, followed by Jovan a minute later, and she explained the situation. When five minutes had passed, she led them into the room, where the faint scent of anaesthetic still hung in the air. Jovan went to check on Sarrin, and Nikira pulled the gas mask off one of the men on the floor as the soldiers rolled him onto his back.

  “Drontar.” The soldiers unmasked the other three, and she frowned at them. “And his cronies.”

  Drevarin sat up, rubbing his head.

  “Are you all right, Lord?” Nikira asked.

  “Someone hit me on the head, but I am unhurt.”

  “You were knocked out?”

  He nodded. “It is possible to render one of my kind unconscious, even if we cannot be injured, as such.”

  “The gas didn’t work on you then?”

  “
Gas?” He sniffed. “Ah. No, such things have no effect.”

  Nikira knelt beside Bane’s couch. “Jovan.”

  The medtech joined her and felt for a pulse in Bane’s wrist. “He’s okay, just out cold.”

  “And the others?”

  “Like him, they’ll be fine.”

  “At least Drontar isn’t a murderer.”

  Jovan glanced at the four men. “What the hell was he doing?”

  She went over to the bag. “I think I can guess.” Digging in it, she found three vials of blood and held them up. “This is what he wanted, the bastard.”

  Jovan checked Drontar. “This is strange. They were wearing masks, so they haven’t been exposed to the gas, yet they’re all asleep.”

  Nikira smiled. “We had help of the celestial kind.”

  Drevarin shook his head and raised his hands when Jovan looked at him. “It was not I.”

  “It was Lord Kayos,” Nikira said. “He came to my quarters and woke me up, told me to come here.”

  “So he could be here now?”

  “Probably.”

  Jovan glanced around. “Well, perhaps you could ask him how we can wake them up.”

  The scientists opened their eyes and gazed at the soldiers with dazed expressions, groaned and rubbed their elbows, knees and heads.

  “Take them to the brig,” Nikira ordered. “They’re charged with assault, theft and disobeying orders.”

  “Vengeance is Bane’s,” Drevarin murmured.

  “Then he’ll have it, when he wakes up.”

  The scientists were removed, and Nikira put the vials of blood on the couch beside Bane. Drevarin smiled, and she ordered Jovan to have the members of Sarrin’s group taken to their cabins before she left.

  In her quarters, she sat on her bed and stared into space, wishing she could have stayed with Bane. Drevarin was with him, however, and she did not want anyone to know. She longed to find out if there was any chance at all that he could return her feelings, but now he would be unconscious for at least eight hours. Of course, there was still the problem of Mirra, whom he clearly doted on, but it was possible for a man to love two women; she had had a few married lovers in the past.

  Chapter Ten

  Vengeance

  Nikira entered the lift and selected the fourth floor. After twelve hours overseeing the repair work on the burnt-out engine, she had received a message that Bane was awake and on his way to see the prisoners. The doors opened, and she trotted down the corridor, nodding at the two soldiers who saluted her as she entered the brig. Bane stood in front of the row of ten glass-fronted cells, and her heart leapt. It had been pounding since she had received the message, and she was sure everyone could hear it. He glanced at her, then returned his attention to the man in the cell. Drontar sat on the bench at the back of it, scowling.

  Bane addressed the guard who hovered nearby. “Open the door.”

  The soldier tapped in the code that unlocked the door, and it swung open. Bane walked into the cell, whereupon Drontar stood up and glared at him.

  “You have no right to do anything to me.”

  “But I do. You stole from me.”

  Drontar addressed Nikira. “Commander, are you going to allow this – this dra’voren to beat me up?”

  “He’s not a dra’voren,” she said, “and do you really think I could stop him?”

  “I am not going to hurt you,” Bane murmured. “You will not feel anything.”

  Drontar backed away until he encountered the wall. “What are you going to do?”

  “Just give you something to remember me by, and a little geas.”

  “A geas? What the hell is a geas?”

  “It is a command that I will place in your mind, which you cannot disobey.”

  Drontar shook his head. “No, you can’t do that. It’s illegal!”

  “So is stealing my blood. But I do not really care about your laws.”

  “No one is above the law!”

  Bane smiled. “Then I would like to meet the man who can make me obey them.”

  “If you have power and refuse to obey the laws, you’re a tyrant!”

  “You really should not annoy me by insulting me. I tire of your babbling, and if you persist, I will silence you.”

  Drontar opened his mouth, then closed it.

  Bane nodded. “That is better. First the geas, I think.”

  Raising his hand, he drew a dark rune in the air with the shadows that trickled from his fingers. Drontar followed his movement with white-ringed eyes, and gasped when Bane flicked the shadow rune into his chest.

  “I curse you with the rune of Averakon,” Bane intoned. “From this day forth, you will be unable to contemplate any form of crime.”

  Drontar clutched his chest, staring at the arcane symbol burnt into his shirt, shaped like an upside down Y with a circle between its angled lines. Bane spread his hand towards Drontar’s head, and the scientist cowered back, raising his arms. A pair of black horns sprouted from his brow just below his hairline and curved upwards.

  Bane tilted his head, admiring his handiwork. “Did that hurt?”

  “What did you do?”

  “You are now the proud owner of a lovely set of horns, to go with your nasty character. They suit you.”

  Drontar clasped his brow, his face going slack with horror as his fingers encountered the sleek new horns. “You bastard!”

  Bane chuckled, and Drontar stepped towards him and raised his fists, then his face went blank. He looked puzzled, lowered his hands and gazed at them. Bane exited the cell, leaving Drontar to finger his horns and wonder what he had been about to do when his mind had gone blank.

  The soldier locked the cell door as Bane moved to the next one, where a short, balding man cowered. This time he did not bother to enter the cell, but placed the same curse upon each of the inmates, forgoing the horns. When he finished, he looked tired and fed up, and brushed past Nikira, leaving the brig. She hurried after him, and he turned to her halfway along the corridor.

  “I am going to banish the demon hounds now, then you will take us back to your city. Can you find your way back there?”

  “Yes, Lord.”

  “Good.”

  Bane vanished through the wall. She made her way to the bridge, where she switched on the main viewing screen. The Demon Lord strode across the blasted land and halted a short distance from the ship. One demon hound came to him, and he spoke a single word. The shadow beast froze and dispersed, its form oozing away into the darkness amongst the rocks, thinning and dwindling until it was no more than a shrinking patch of gloom.

  Bane went in search of the second beast, which tried to elude him, but evidently could not leave the area, and he banished it too. When he returned to the ship, she ordered the pilot to set a course for base, then went down to the dining room. Sarrin and Ethra looked up when she walked in, but the two cloud couches were empty.

  ***

  Nikira sat in her office and stared at the report on the recorder, her heart heavy. After Bane had banished the dark beasts, he, Mirra and Drevarin had vanished. She had been unable to locate them on any of the internal cameras that monitored every room in the ship. For the last four days, Retribution had been travelling back towards base, and she had begun to fear that they had left.

  They had been aboard two days ago, for a shield had enveloped the ship as it passed through the wild region, but since then there had been no sign of them. Bane’s group of friends was also unhappy with his absence, and Ethra blamed Nikira for it, using wild gesticulations to communicate her meaning, since Nikira could no longer understand them. Nikira blamed herself for it too, and wondered if Bane did as well. Had she thought for one moment that Drontar would try such an insane plan, she would have posted soldiers at the dining room door.

  Sighing, she picked up the recorder to continue her report on Bane’s confrontation with Drontar, which she would need for the courts when they arrived at base. If Bane and Drevarin did not testify be
fore the court, she feared that it would go badly for her. Drontar was a senior and highly respected scientist. He would claim that she had colluded with a potential enemy to destroy valuable samples, and then to inflict the disfiguration upon him. Drontar would accuse her of treason, a crime punishable by death.

  Nikira looked up when the door opened, and the recorder slipped from her hand as Bane entered. His pale skin glowed with health, and the shadows of exhaustion were gone from his eyes. For what seemed like an eternity she gaped at him, stunned, then she jumped up and stepped towards him with a grin.

  “Bane!” His brows rose, and she realised her mistake and fell to her knees, bowing her head. “Lord.”

  “Get up. I no longer require that you kneel. Do not do it again.”

  Nikira rose to her feet and leant on her desk. She fought to keep her delighted grin to a more acceptable smile. Even so, he tilted his head, looking intrigued.

  “You seem pleased to see me.”

  “I... Why wouldn’t I be?”

  He shrugged, his eyes raking her dress. “Why do you still wear that gown?”

  She looked down, smoothing it. “I thought you liked it.”

  “Why would my likes or dislikes mean anything to you?”

  “I... I like it too.”

  “Indeed? How odd. No matter.” He glanced around her office. “How long before we reach your city?”

  “Only another two days, Lord.”

  “Good. When we get there, you are to tell your leaders that Kayos has decided to awaken your god, so he or she may bring order to your domain and put an end to your destructive practices.”