Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Lily, find a place to settle where you’re protected to conserve your strength. I’m going to try to take on the demons a different way.
They will kill you. Lily made it a declaration.
Have a little faith. I’ll call you the moment I need you again, but I want you to be fresh, not tired.
Lily was a fairly young dragon. She and Silke were the best of friends, and Silke knew that the wisdom of the other dragons who had come before her had been passed on to her, just as Silke’s ancestors had given her their knowledge. She worried about Lily’s inexperience, and it was clear that Lily was worried about whether or not she could handle the many demons trying to knock Silke from her back.
She leapt from Lily’s back as the dragon swooped low. Immediately the dragon hovered, her great wings flapping, sending waves of turbulence so strong, several demons running toward her with sharp weapons tumbled over backward. Her body blocked all sight of Silke as she ran low toward the beds of shrubs she knew would conceal her. Even from above, the demons wouldn’t be able to find her among the plants. The grounds had been laid out in anticipation of just such an attack.
Can you get the fireballs to stop? They’re distracting. Silke was certain the stone house would prevent any fire, as it always had, but a mage was directing the attack. He was feeding her anxiety, and she needed to stop anything that allowed him to prey on natural emotions.
No worries. I’ve got this, Tora assured.
She dismounted as well, just as determined to conserve Peony’s strength. As the fireballs continued to rain down, she threw her hands into the air and wove a reverse spell. In midair, the fiery round balls paused and then streaked toward the demons. The weapons hit the barriers surrounding the demons and bounced off, falling to the ground and fizzling out.
The demons howled with glee when the smoke cleared and the dragons were gone. They began to rush through the yard, searching for the slayer. One rushed right past Tora. She used a sword to try to take his head, but the shield around him shattered the metal.
You’re going to have to find a way to bring down their shields, Silke, Tora advised. This mage is powerful in one way yet is completely oblivious to the fact that I’m here.
Is it possible they can’t see you? They haven’t actually attacked you personally, have they? They saw your dragon, but maybe they can’t see you.
That makes no sense, Tora objected. How could that be? The mage seems pretty powerful to me. He’s managed to introduce anxiety into you when that has never happened.
Silke had been hoping Tora wouldn’t notice, but of course she had. They’d been together battling both vampires and demons and were in and out of each other’s minds.
He’s extremely powerful using his voice because ordinarily, a compulsion won’t work on me. I can’t even hear it, but he’s broadcasting loud enough or tuned specifically to me enough that anxiety is slipping in. I’m on it now. I’m actively hunting him.
How will you find him when there are so many? You’ll have to examine each one individually. That will take you hours. We can’t hold off that long.
His voice is projected toward me. He isn’t just commanding the demons and casting dark spells. He knew where I was, and that allowed him to push deep enough into my mind for me to be affected. That also left him open. He created a path between us. I just need to find that path and follow it back to him.
Her voice rang with confidence now. She had pushed the doubt from her mind and once more completely assumed the role of demon slayer. Blocking out the growling demons as they sniffed around the yard hunting her, she concentrated on recalling each word, each phrase that had been impressed on her mind. Once she was able to hook into the exact memory, she searched for the footprint. There was always one. Even a very experienced mage would not be able to completely obliterate his mark. The compulsion wouldn’t work if he did.
There it was. So faint, but she found that small, faint dark stain. Once found, she allowed her energy to expand slowly, to cover the smudge and begin to trace it back to its origin. She wouldn’t be able to identify precisely which demon was really a mage in disguise, not at first anyway. She would have to have a very delicate touch, enter his mind and bring down the shields covering the demons.
Three demons shrieked taunts and raced through the shrubs, nearly stepping on her. The flower bed reacted the way she knew it would, protecting her, striking at the demons with poisonous stalks. The toxic sap hit the demons’ armor, revealing what the shields looked like. They were thin, very thin, as if the mage had in haste sent out one dark spell to cover the many demons and the shields were imperfect. She could see cracks in one of the three demons’ armor.