Page 59 of Winter Queen
I extend my magic, looking for disturbances in the air. Someone is breathing not far from us, maybe fifty feet away. Only one though. Carefully, I wrap a wind lasso around them, and with a strong yank, pull them towards me. A demon flies through the air, landing heavily on the ground in front of me. It’s a higher demon with four arms and a gaping maw. Surprisingly, it’s not making a sound. Good for us, it means it won’t alert any of its fellow demons.
Darkness swirls around him, its tendrils reaching out for us.
Before his magic can touch us, Frost slams a spear of ice into the demon’s chest. He sinks back to the ground, twitching, before his body goes limp.
“That was too easy,” Frost whispers, echoing my thoughts. Either the demons here have grown complacent, or this is a trap. I hope for the first. Maybe the Morrigan isn’t here to keep them doing her bidding. She’s enslaved them, so there’s always the hope that they’re fighting for her unwillingly. That would give us an advantage.
A trap is unlikely. Nobody knew we were coming here, except for Wyn, Gwain and Flora. I trust Gwain with my life, Flora has nothing to gain by betraying us, and Wyn… well, she’s our Wyn. Enough said.
We make our way through the tunnel, with me checking for air disturbances every few minutes. There are no signs of life.
The tunnel never seems to end. It’s too narrow for us to extend our wings, so we have to walk. Most demons can fly, so why wouldn’t they have a better access route to the Gate? Maybe it was never intended as a Gate to be used for anything but an escape route. Maybe only the Morrigan uses it, who can teleport there in a flash.
We’ve been monitoring the other demon Gates, but we don’t stop the demons from leaving or entering. That would be too much of a waste of resources. All we do is watch to see if larger groups of demons leave that might mean trouble. And more recently, our scouts have been looking out for the Morrigan and her allies. Not that they ever saw her – of course not, she has her own Gate in the middle of nowhere.
It takes us half an hour to reach the end of the tunnel.
“Finally,” Arc whispers as a shimmer of light beckons in the distance. We increase our pace, glad to get out of this endless tunnel.
Just before we reach the end, I make them stop and extend my senses once again.
“Twenty demons up ahead,” I say quietly. “Two of them are very large.”
Arc cracks his knuckles and takes a large sword from his back.
“Let’s have some fun,” he roars before jumping out in the open, ready to hack at the demons waiting for us.
Frost grins and me and runs out as well, icicles flying from his hands, right into the chests of several demons. I join the fray, wrapping ropes of wind around the waists of two demons and ramming them into each other.
Blood paints the ground red as we kill the demons as quickly as possible. It only takes a minute to dispatch all of the demons, even the two big ones that are about twice my height.
We’re good at killing; it’s what we were made for.
“Where the fuck are we?” my brother asks, and I finally take in our surroundings. We’re in another cavern, but this one is so large that I can’t see where it ends. It could be several miles long, for all I know. The ceiling is so high that you could easily fit in some of the tallest towers of the Royal Palace.
More of the strange glowing moss is covering the walls, giving enough light to illuminate the massive fortress up ahead.
While the Palace in the Winter Realm is imposing and beautiful, this fortress feels threatening. The black stone shimmers unnaturally in the darkness and its jagged turrets seem to almost scratch the ceiling of the cavern. There are almost no windows, instead, small arrow slits are dotted around the walls. Two large ones above the main gate look like eyes staring into the distance, watching for intruders.
Basically, it's how most people would imagine a demon castle to look like.
"What are we going ta do, walk in through the front entrance?" Arc asks, looking at the fortress in disgust.
"Let's have a look around", Frost says, but I stop him.
"I have the darkest wings, let me."
His turquoise and Arc's copper wings would stand out too much, even in this darkness. My own are a dark blue, but in this light, they look black.
I jump into the air and fly towards the fortress, keeping close to the shadows. The closer I get, the more demons are down below. It seems like there are settlements at the foot of the castle, housing hundreds of demons. That definitely won't be the route we'll take.
Luckily, nobody spots me as I circle above them, looking for a way into the fortress. The back of the castle is built into the rock of the cavern, leaving three walls to search for an entrance.
Once, I get too close to a demon and he's about to cry out, but a quick burst of wind through his mouth and into his lungs stops him. He collapses, his lungs exploded.
I fly higher, hoping that there won't be barriers preventing us from flying into the fortress from above - but sadly, there are. Damn it. The bloody demons actually prepared for intruders. Maybe it's back from the times demons fought each other. I don't suppose they still do, now that they're all ruled by the Morrigan.
The wall closest to the tunnel we came through hasn't got a single door, neither does the one with the large gate. I'm starting to lose hope that we'll find an easy entrance, but then I spot a small crack in the third wall. I fly closer, curious.
