Demon of Lorr
While Raxe leads an unlikely expedition on a quest to find the Hell Key, Ethan Sureblade and Quick the Changeling search for Joel. They question whether he’s dead or being used by the demon Dierglyorr, knowing that their ultimate success or failure depends on the answer.
The Head Mage works hard to find a cure for the demonic plague unleashed on his kingdom. When he witnesses firsthand the carnage wrought by the demon’s pawns, his determination to defeat the demon grows exponentially.
On the other side of the WorldGate, Dan and Lisa continue their struggle to elude both the organization and the demonic forces set upon them. Despite their efforts, their pursuers come closer and closer to running them to ground.
Ambush!
Lieutenant Colonel Caleb Godson was the first to spot the return of the Echelon One mage. Gilder Raynard streaked high through the air atop a thick cloud of mist, which not only puzzled but also worried the Lieutenant Colonel. He reached over to grasp the shoulder of his superior officer, who was engaged in a discussion of strategy with one of his captains. Colonel Strong looked up at the Lieutenant Colonel and then looked to where Godson was pointing. Strong’s steel-gray eyes narrowed to watch the mage approach at great speed, as if he were an arrow shot from the golden bow of the Old One Lorr Himself.
“Why is he returning on a myst and not his gryphon?” Strong asked.
“His myst is much faster,” the Lieutenant Colonel noted grimly.
Less than two seconds later the thick white mist swirling around the wizard’s legs and feet settled him gently to the ground and then dissolved into nothingness. The grim set of the wizard’s thin lips and narrow jaw, along with the cold dread in his dark blue eyes, worried Colonel Strong. Before he could ask what was wrong, the Echelon One mage began shouting commands.
“Shields to the front, Strong! Quickly! Bring both the front and rear in to me as tightly as they can manage! And prepare to ride north!”
“North?” Strong asked. Even as he spoke, the wizard gestured as if scooping air into the palms of his hands, drawing ribbons of his myst around his feet. “There’s nothing north of here but Lake Onyx!” He had to call out the last part because the wizard was already being swept toward the great lake on his myst.
The Colonel turned to his Lieutenant Colonel, who looked just as confused as Strong felt. He paused for only the briefest moment.
“You heard the man!” Strong barked. “Shields to the front!” The Colonel looked north at the quickly shrinking form of the wizard as his men scrambled and orders were shouted.
A shadow fell over the already hazy sky. Strong turned quickly, his back to the lake, and looked left to see the eastern skies blocked from view by a thick hail of sharpened black bolts flying at them in a high, horribly slow-moving arc.
His eyes widened as he quickly looked to his right. To his horror, against the faint glow of the two suns through overcast skies above the peaks of the Northern Hells, another hail of deadly bolts sailed skyward and in their direction in the same inexorable arc.
A Threat Most Dire
Head Mage Rionn Lorr’s loose brown cloak and long, dark blonde hair billowed out behind him as his thoroughbred steed, Ebony, carried him at a full gallop across the grassy plains. Cavalry horses carrying a small squad of elite cavalrymen trailed Ebony by fifty yards or more.
The message Rionn Lorr received had been dire, but as the damage had been done by the time word reached him, he saw no need to expend the energy it would take to fly to Port Lorrian upon his myst. That did not mean he would dally, however. Ordinarily he would have sent his highest-ranking wizard within the Conjurer’s Alliance, Master Mage Delthar, or another master mage to investigate this occurrence. But the he wanted to see this for himself.
A haze of dark smoke hovered over Port Lorrian like the shadow of a crouching titan. The scent of scorched wood wrinkled Rionn’s nose as he entered the city limits along Port Lorrian’s main road. The further in he rode the stronger the scent became, accompanied by slowly blossoming fear and anger deep in his gut. Within minutes the scent grew so strong that he could taste it on the back of his tongue.
Within minutes he came upon the first visible signs of destruction. The main thoroughfare was lined with scorched buildings, homes and small business establishments. Many of them were still smoldering. When Rionn looked down the intersecting roads he saw slaughtered livestock and pack animals littering the cobblestone streets.
And then he saw the people.Head Mage Rionn Lorr’s loose brown cloak and long, dark blonde hair billowed out behind him as his thoroughbred steed, Ebony, carried him at a full gallop across the grassy plains. Cavalry horses carrying a small squad of elite cavalrymen trailed Ebony by fifty yards or more.
The message Rionn Lorr received had been dire, but as the damage had been done by the time word reached him, he saw no need to expend the energy it would take to fly to Port Lorrian upon his myst. That did not mean he would dally, however. Ordinarily he would have sent his highest-ranking wizard within the Conjurer’s Alliance, Master Mage Delthar, or another master mage to investigate this occurrence. But the he wanted to see this for himself.
A haze of dark smoke hovered over Port Lorrian like the shadow of a crouching titan. The scent of scorched wood wrinkled Rionn’s nose as he entered the city limits along Port Lorrian’s main road. The further in he rode the stronger the scent became, accompanied by slowly blossoming fear and anger deep in his gut. Within minutes the scent grew so strong that he could taste it on the back of his tongue.
Within minutes he came upon the first visible signs of destruction. The main thoroughfare was lined with scorched buildings, homes and small business establishments. Many of them were still smoldering. When Rionn looked down the intersecting roads he saw slaughtered livestock and pack animals littering the cobblestone streets.
And then he saw the people.
First he saw the men. Most of the first wave of corpses wore the badges and sashes of the town’s law enforcement personnel. Rionn knew Port Lorrian’s militia boasted a total of over five hundred officers. They were well trained and well armed, and apparently, completely routed. He estimated there were well over two hundred bodies along the main road and its first two intersections. Only a half dozen of those bodies were Ken d’Zanir. It was a certainty that the nearby parallel roads that he could not see contained more of the same.
By the time he reached the center of town, Rionn Lorr was filled with violent anger and deep sorrow, all of which only increased when he reached the town square. The town square was a large courtyard roughly one hundred yards long on each side. On the east side of the square was Center Market. On the north adjacent side of the Center Market was City Hall. On the south adjacent side of Center Market, the remnants of the open-air theater lay in smoldering ruins.
The town church faced Center Market from across the quadrangle. And now only one wall remained completely intact. And it was obvious that the only reason it had been spared was because of the message written on the wall in blood:
The Old One S’Zan became the One True God when the Lord Ascendant forsook this world. Believe, blasphemers, or suffer the same fate as this city of sinners.
On the Run
The four sedans screeched to a stop and two men dashed out of each one. They immediately positioned themselves around the construction site in places that provided clear lines of fire. In a moment they had joined the chopper in firing on the targets.
Dan and Lisa ran shoulder to shoulder towards the unfinished building with Dan holding his magical shield like an umbrella. He had to tilt it just a bit so that the angle of the shield’s dome-like barrier protected them from the airborne and earthbound shooters. The smaller caliber weapons caused barely noticeable undulations of energy in the otherwise invisible shield, but each powerful blast from the chopper sent shockwaves down Dan’s forearm that caused his arm, and therefore the shield, to tremor madly. Lisa marveled at the fact that he was able to keep hold of the enchanted shield.
They made it to the front wall of the building and pressed their backs to it. Dan released Lisa’s shoulder and held the shield out with both hands. Concentric circles of white light rippled in front them, just beyond their feet, and on either side of them as the multi-caliber ammunition was stopped short by the magic of the shield. The continuously rolling waves of light, spreading like malevolent ripples of water in a pond, revealed a dome of protective energy that was roughly eight feet in diameter radiating out and around them from the edges of the small round shield.
But the sight of the shells exploding against the shimmering magic of the shield just inches in front of them, as well as the large chunks of wall bursting all around them just outside of the protective shield were too much for Lisa to take. She sunk to her knees and closed her eyes to pray, tears streaming down her face.
Dan looked down at her and knitted his eyebrows in frustration. “No time for that, girl!” he yelled over the deafening hail of gunfire. “You’ve got some shooting to do! Take the shotgun. You know how it works!”
Lisa’s eyes popped open wide. “What?”
“What the hell do you mean, ‘What’? I can’t hold this shield forever! They’re flanking us. We don’t have much time!”
“I can’t kill them!” Lisa screamed. “I’ll hold the shield!”
“C’mon, then!” Dan snarled. He would take what he could get.
Lisa rose shakily to her feet and stepped to Dan’s side. Flinching at each explosion and fighting down her panic, she took a deep breath and silently swore that she was not going to get them killed. She braced herself and reached out for the shield.
“Hold tight,” Dan said. “Knees bent, feet spread. Put your shoulder into it.”
Lisa followed his directions and replaced one of his hands in the straps of the shield with one hand and then the other. When she nodded vigorously, her face a mask of angry and fearful determination, Dan let her go. She flinched but held firm, bending at the knee a little deeper and leaning slightly forward against the onslaught. Her body jerked in response to the constant gunfire, especially from the chopper, but she grimaced and held on.
“Hit the chopper!” Lisa yelled. “My arms are breaking!”
“I can’t,” Dan said. “We need it.”
“How the hell are you going to get that uhhnn!” Lisa’s question was cut short by a grunt as she was rocked by another round of fire from the chopper's big guns.
Dan sank to his knees, letting the shotgun hang at his side from its shoulder strap, and closed his eyes. Lisa was about to bark something at him but stopped when she noticed his mouth and hands moving.
The chopper had stopped firing for a few seconds. But the shooters on the ground noticed Dan on his knees and opened fire again. Their fire did not bother Lisa but her heart went cold when she saw the chopper swing up and over them, heading behind the wall just like Dan said it eventually would. She knew that a volley from those guns would tear easily through the wall and through them.
She looked down at Dan to scream a warning and saw that he was already looking at her. Before she could say anything, Dan calmly but gravely said:
“Close your eyes. Now.”