The Rogue Queen (The Hundredth Queen #3)(81)

The demon third in line comes ashore chomping on a snow trout. Her razor teeth rip through the fish’s flesh and bone. She bears resemblance to her aquatic prey: glassy, circular eyes, gills down her neck, finlike hands and feet, and iridescent scales. She swallows the trout’s head whole in one bite.

Good gods, the lake is the gate to the Void.

Udug floats over the broken ice to shore and points at the rock man. “Meet Asag.” Then the crocodile snake. “Edimmu.” Lastly, fish eyes. “Lilu.”

I push my powers into my hand, illuminating my quivering fingers, and carefully backtrack to the shadowed woods. Coming alone was a noble thought when I was up against a solitary demon. Confronting four demons by myself is lunacy.

Udug’s siblings glare at the night sky.

“The moon issss too bright,” Edimmu hisses, flicking her multiforked tongue.

“The celestial powers are failing,” Udug assures her.

Out of spite, Asag heaves a stone the size of my head at the moon, as though to knock it from its velvet curtain. His throw falls short, and he grumbles. I am less than ten paces from the cover of the forest when Edimmu tastes the air with her tongues.

“What’sss thisssss?” she asks.

Lilu sniffs, her neck gills flaring like nostrils. Her fish eyes roam to me. “It smells like . . . like us. Only is rotten.”

“She’s an offspring of Enlil,” Udug explains. “Kur wants her preserved.”

Asag answers, his voice a cavernous rumble. “You were supposed to bleed the light out of her before master arrives.”

Blue flames ignite in Udug’s hands. “We have time.”

Asag picks up a hefty rock along the shore and hurls it at me. I leap out of its way and blast a heatwave at him. It feels good to have my abilities back. My fire strikes his chest and disperses. He sustains a small scorch mark.

I rise from my crouch. Uh-oh.

Edimmu unrolls her long tongues and flicks the air between us like a whip. A powerful gust throws me backward into the trees. I hit a log hard. When I look up, unblinking fish eyes stare down at me. Lilu grabs me with slimy hands. My veins lurch, tangling and knotting painfully.

“I’ll leech the rotten light out of you,” Lilu says, her voice a watery gurgle.

I buck in agony as she coaxes out my blood. Droplets bead from my pores, draining my strength. I suffered this once. Never again.

I scorch my fire at her, through her scaly skin. Lilu shrieks and scuffles away. I lob another heatwave after her, but Asag blocks it with a huge rock.

Udug flies into me, slamming me into the ground. I try to burn the demon with my hands, but my fire does not harm him. “I will cleanse you of your conscience, dear sister.”

He starts to pour his cold-fire powers into me, but mighty gusts rip him off. Lying on my back, I clutch at the pain ebbing from my chest. Two Lestarian Navy vessels hover above, their multiplied ivory sails brimming in the high winds. I urge my mind to comprehend what I am seeing. The sea ship is flying.

Udug and his demon siblings retreat to the lakeshore. The vessels land near the road, and armed sailors shimmy down rope ladders. Several run to meet me. Deven and Ashwin lead the charge, Natesa and Yatin after them. Brac and Gemi take up the rear.

What in the skies . . . ? Captain Loc is a passenger of one of the vessels lowering itself to the ground. His crew of raiders, Opal, and Lestarian sailors navigates the navy ship, suspending it on their winds.

Udug and his demon siblings guard the lake, surveying the array of forces. They will not surrender their post unless we compel them.

“You brought the raiders?” I ask my friends, watching the ships land.

Deven looks me over with a troubled frown. I have stopped bleeding from every pore, but I must look a mess. He, however, is imposing in the strict lines of his navy-blue general’s jacket. “We needed Galers, so His Majesty bought their loyalty.”

“Temporarily,” Ashwin adds.

Admiral Rimba joins us, leading his trident-wielding men. Captain Loc and his raiders, a mishmash of rogue bhutas, also boost our ranks.

“Kalinda, what are those hideous things?” Natesa asks, as though the demons’ unsightliness were the worst side effect of their release.

“They’re Udug’s kin, here to guard the gate—the lake,” I emphasize and then explain what they are, in haste. “We have to vanquish them before the celestial lights go out.”

Deven eyes the failing moon. “Take your positions!” And then to Ashwin: “Your Majesty, stay at my right.”

Ashwin grips his sword too low on the hilt. He has little practice or skill with a khanda. The world has never been drearier, but my loved ones remind me the gods are on our side.

Deven raises his sword. “All forward!”

We have marched halfway to the lakeshore when visibility reduces to graininess and our enemies wane to murky shadows. The ground shakes, an ongoing quake that rattles my knees, and the center of the lake boils.

Udug and his siblings howl gleefully at the darkening sky. The lake simmers faster, sending rippling waves that spill onto the shore. I grip the sleeve of Deven’s wool jacket, fastening us together, as the moon and stars go under, drowned by the evernight.





32

DEVEN

My breath snags on nettles of terror. Every soldier experiences setbacks in battle, but never have I felt more vulnerable. Surrounded by my family, I have more to lose than my life. I could lose the people who make my life worth living.