A Darker Shade of Sorcery, - [top ten ebook reader txt] 📗

good.”

Sintian smirked and disappeared through the archway.

“Empty words,” Jed muttered, but as he turned back to Evan they distinctly heard Sintian's soft laugh.

They stood still, silent, tense. Just when Evan thought Sintian hadn’t done anything after all, he heard a huge grating of stone.

They looked up; astounded to see the two statues come to life. The gargoyle and the golem leaped from their perches and charged.

151

PART TWO

DEMON HUNT

“What you Venators do is the truly hopeless endeavour. Demons are

the most common being in all the realms. You cannot stop them, just

like you cannot stop war, disease, suffering, hate and most of all,

death.”

-Quote from Mar Farla, a Master of Velkarath.

152

Chapter 8- Girls and Gargoyles

“Aaaaaah!” Jed cried as they both leapt to either side.

Evan threw out his hands as he landed on the floor, his breath coming sharp as he pushed himself back to his feet.

He whirled to see the gargoyle make a beeline for Jed, whilst the golem staggered towards him, its mechanical mouth gaping.

Fire burst from Evan’s hands, consuming the monster. A few seconds later the fire flickered out and the golem still stood, scorched, but otherwise unhurt. His fire spell wasn’t strong enough to melt metal, Evan realised with a pang of horror.

The golem slugged at his head, but Evan ducked at the last second, feeling the displaced air where the golem almost smashed his brain to goo.

The monster’s arm slogged downwards next, forcing Evan to roll frantically. The robotic hand smashed into the courtyard, denting the paving slab amidst a shower of shards.

Evan seized one of the clumps of stone and threw it at the golem’s square head.

The rock bounced off harmlessly. Filled with panic, he ripped Ruaden free from his belt.

“C’mon then, steel face,” he said stupidly.

153

The golem appeared to laugh at him, raising its arms again. This time the robot made a loud clicking noise and its hands whirred electronically. The golem had activated its guns.

The rifle fired off a green laser-bolt that snaked across the ground and would’ve vaporised Evan’s feet if he hadn’t flung himself to the side.

The Spellzooka arm roared and what looked like a blue cannonball of magic shot forwards, smashing into the ground a metre from Evan’s head. The bang deafened him as he stumbled to his feet, only to face a second cannonball.

Evan swung wildly, shocked when his sword cut the ball clean in half. He surged forwards again; narrowly avoiding another laser blast that singed his hair.

The golem charged again but Evan evaded, slashing the robot’s nose clean off as he danced away. He tried to behead the golem next, but his sword snagged in the monster’s metallic neck.

Evan wrenched his weapon free, but the golem took aim and let loose. The cannonball hit his stomach with incredible impact, driving the oxygen out of him and sending him skidding across the ground.

Evan gasped for air, simultaneously recoiling from the electric shock the cannonball emitted.

The golem came on, firing yet again. Rage, fear and desperation filled Evan and he found himself rapidly weaving air magic. He stopped the newest cannonball mid-flight and sent it zooming back to the source.

The golem reeled back and Evan used this chance to lurch forwards and slash at the other side of the golem’s neck, this time cutting the head loose. As the head toppled off, the golem’s body froze, returning to just a statue.

154

Gasping for breath, Evan had no time to rest as Jed was still fighting the gargoyle.

Jed crawled backwards as the giant bore down on him, preparing to crush him to paste.

Evan lumbered over, swinging his sword like a baseball bat. Ruaden scraped across the gargoyle’s back, gouging a line through the stone.

The gargoyle turned faster than Evan expected, its fist clunking against his temple.

Black spots consumed his vision and he found himself back on the ground without realising he’d fallen.

A moment before the gargoyle crushed Evan into a red stain, its fists froze an inch from his face.

Just in time, Sintian had used water magic to freeze the statue into a rather large, ugly icicle.

He’d reappeared, sitting on the ledge of a castle window, watching the whole thing. “You see, if I wanted to seriously wound or even kill you, it would be that easy.”

Sintian flashed one last smirk before disappearing back into the castle.

Evan scrambled back to his feet, staring incredulously.

“Is he mad? I’m gonna kill him,” Jed swore.

Evan was in shock. Did Sintian do all this just because I hit him? It occurred to Evan then, demons and sorcery weren’t the only things he had to get used too, it was other Venators as well.

“We should tell someone,” Evan found his voice at last. “Gettelung, or Tarensen?”

“No, we should get the idiot ourselves,” Jed shook with rage.

*

155

An opportunity to get back at Sintian proved hard to find.

The next time they spotted him it was in the Archives a day later. To Evan’s surprise, Sintian sat alone, stacks of books piled up in front of him as he pored over an ancient scroll.

Master Gettelung was nearby, so they couldn’t do anything. Sintian looked up from his scrolls to stare at them for a moment. He didn’t smirk, or say anything. He merely gazed at each of them before returning to his work, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Evan was finding him increasingly weird. Sintian didn’t act like he'd enchanted statues to attack them at all.

Something happened in the next few days however, which drove Sintian from his mind. He saw her for the first time.

He and Izekiel were sparring in weapon training when he caught his first glimpse of Cera over Zeke’s shoulder.

She was exquisite, with glossy black hair; dark brown skin, and startling sea-green eyes. As he watched, unable to tear his gaze away, she looked in his direction. They made eye contact and she smiled shyly. Evan’s stomach lurched and his cheeks grew hot.

“Who’s that?” Evan asked Izekiel, nodding in her direction.

Zeke spared her a cursory glance. “Her name’s Cera, Cera Sangel.”

Throughout the rest of the day Evan found himself thinking about Cera, whether he meant to or not. He just couldn't get her out of his mind.

Evan was enthralled.

*

156

Brooke was enamoured.

Arantay stood before her in the middle of a dark glade. His blood-red eyes pierced her own, agleam with a curious fire. Brooke’s breath came out in gasps and she couldn’t move an inch. She was utterly paralysed, as if under a spell.

He was topless; his lithe torso resembled the snowy white stone of Veneseron Fortress. He was like a grand artist’s statue, expertly sculpted from marble, each slender muscle carved with the utmost precision and skill, with lips, eyes and hair painted a luxurious red.

The angel with the scarlet mane approached her, extending a hand. His fingertips brushed tenderly against her cheek, a pleasant tingling sensation followed. Brooke’s breathing ceased as he bowed his head towards her, his glistening lips brushing hers…

pain, utter agony.

Two holes were gouged into the flesh of her neck and she realised Arantay was biting her. She struggled futilely, her fists beating against his naked chest and shoulders. He bore her to the ground, mouth clamped tightly at her throat and sucking her blood into his mouth.

She screamed again and again…

… She burst awake still screaming.

Brooke lurched upright in bed, panting hard. It was only a dream, it didn’t mean anything, she kept telling herself as she attempted, and failed to get back to sleep.

Had it meant anything?

*

157

Evan jerked awake, fear nipping at his spine.

What had awoken him? He looked around feverishly.

He'd awoken from the recurring nightmare he'd had ever since he could remember.

There was always a shadow leering over him, terrible to behold, with purple fires for eyes. Somehow, Evan knew it was a woman staring down at him. He instinctively knew the woman was at once the most beautiful and yet most frightening thing he'd ever seen. In every nightmare, the only clear feature was the glowing violet eyes.

Stranger still was that something inside of Evan always told him that these weren’t dreams, they were memories.

But he was awake now. His room was pitch-black; the middle of the night.

As Evan peered into the gloom, two yellow lamps flickered into being. A second later he realised they weren’t lamps at all.

A hideous squelching filled his room, and then a fast scuttling as the thing hurtled towards him.

158

Chapter 9- There's A Demon In My Bedroom

Evan cried out desperately, throwing himself off his bed just as the creature landed on it. Ruaden lay at the other end of the room, he wouldn’t reach it in time.

Barely thinking, Evan used what he'd been taught in Anatomy training, using sorcery to transform his own arm into a sword. He stabbed at the repugnant creature frantically, causing an eruption of viscous black fluid.

The monster screamed and wheeled around. Evan glimpsed bug-like eyes, two antennae and a foul sucker that passed for a mouth, before crashing to the floor as an antenna thrashed at him like a whip.

He yelled as the demon’s sucker leeched onto his leg. Evan kicked wildly, his other leg smashing into the minion’s head, but to no effect. Crying out in agony, he tried slashing at it with his sword-arm again. This time the creature let go and Evan scrambled to his feet, limping towards his door and escape.

The demon rushed him just as he turned the handle. Both of them bounced off the door before colliding into his desk with sickening impact. The wood splintered and snapped beneath their weight as Evan heard the demon’s diabolical squelching in his ear.

Desperate rage consumed him and he felt his whole body burn as the demon grabbed him. Suddenly the monster screeched, scorched by Evan’s skin.

159

Evan scrambled to his feet and leapt for the door. His normal hand closed around the handle and this time wrenched it open. As he stepped into the corridor beyond, the monster pounced on him again. All the wind rushed out of him and his head bounced against the stone floor. Evan’s skin ceased burning, his arm changed back to its original state and all the magic left him. The last thing he saw before spiralling into unconsciousness was a strange black mist slithering across the floor.

*

Brooke’s thoughts were wrenched from her nightmare as terrified screaming rang out from the room next door. Brooke didn’t know the identity of her neighbour, but she knew he was in terrible danger.

As she scrambled out of bed there was a deafening bang and the crack of wood breaking. She ran to her door and as she yanked it open, two forms flew into the corridor beside her.

She froze, paralysed with fear by the creature before her. It was an abomination no sane mind could imagine, a cross between a gigantic bug and