Looking forward, Will saw a collection of oddly shaped humanoids. They were roughly human-sized, but they were both muscular and grotesque in their proportions. Many of them held strange black rods in their hands. “What are those things they’re holding?”
“A weapon, similar to a bow or crossbow,” answered the cat. “Each one can only fire once, but it hurls a nasty black bolt similar to a quarrel. They’re poisoned as well. One hit would probably kill you, so be careful.” The Cath Bawlg picked up speed, his paws tearing the stony ground as his claws emerged to provide extra traction.
“You’re heading straight at them!” yelled Will.
“Guard yourself and my flank,” said the cat, his voice becoming a roar at the end of the sentence.
Will still had one illumination spell prepared, but as they charged, he readied a wind-wall and a force-lance as well, but he didn’t keep a spell in hand. He wanted it free so he could use his shield as necessary, and the closer they got the more necessary it looked like it would be.
The demons scattered before their approach, moving to the sides and aiming their strange weapons. The Cath Bawlg picked a target, though, and focused on running directly at one of them despite the frightened creature’s attempts to evade.
Will tried to watch all of them, even though it was impossible. He could only block what he saw coming. At ten yards, the demons began firing, their weapons erupting with puffs of smoke and sending black rods flying toward them at speeds too quick to see. Will felt his point-defense shield activate a dozen times in the span of a second. It happened at a level just below conscious thought, which, though it should have been strange, felt oddly familiar to him.
Even so, several shafts got through, burying themselves into the goddamn cat’s thick coat of fur. If the weapons bothered the demigod, he gave no sign of it. With one last great leap, the cat flew through the air and landed on his chosen target. The result was almost instantly fatal for the hapless demon.
Will’s body whiplashed back and forth as the massive feline he rode turned and ripped into those enemies who were closest. He tried to keep his eyes open and block new attacks, even though the speed of the cat’s movements made it difficult to focus. After a few seconds he gave up and switched tactics. “Guard your eyes! It’s going to get bright!” he yelled, releasing his prepared Ethelgren’s Illumination.
If the sudden light bothered the goddamn cat, Will couldn’t tell. Of course, his own eyes were tightly shut, but the beast’s violent spins and leaps continued unabated, so he hoped all was well. As the light began to fade, he opened his eyes, only to find one of the creatures had latched onto the demigod’s tail.
The goddamn cat was protected by his own version of the demon-armor spell, but this demon seemed not to care for its own safety. It ignored the burning flames and crawled resolutely forward, stabbing claw-like fingers into the cat’s hindquarters. Will unleashed his force-lance, blowing the blighted demon’s head from its shoulders. The rest of the body fell away a second later.
A moment later, Will’s stomach rose into this throat as they suddenly took flight. The Cath Bawlg leapt an incredible distance, covering more than twenty yards as he headed for the tear that would take them back to the Shadowlands. The demons, most of them still alive, couldn’t hope to keep up with his speed, but those few who hadn’t fired already lifted their weapons to aim. Twisting to keep his eyes on them, Will felt his shield activate five times in quick succession. He couldn’t be entirely sure, but he thought he had blocked all the enemy’s shots.
The world shifted and twisted, becoming darker and more difficult to comprehend. They were back in the Shadowlands. This time Will gave up trying to understand and simply closed his eyes. It was better than getting a headache from the bizarre geometry of the goddamn cat’s home plane. “How much farther?” he asked.
“Not far,” said the cat, his voice sounding labored.
“Are you hurt?” asked Will, but the demigod didn’t respond. Will worried, but there was nothing he could do. The cat continued running, and he could only hope nothing serious was wrong.
Chapter 28
They emerged from the shadows of a tree deep in what Will presumed was the Glenwood. “How close are we?” he asked.
Panting, the Cath Bawlg replied, “Your old home is a mile to the south of us.” There was a sick, wet sound in his voice.
“How badly are you hurt?”
“More than I would like.” The cat stopped and sat on his haunches. Will took the opportunity to release the climbing spell and slide to the ground. He moved around to survey the massive beast from the front.
Three black metal shafts were buried in the goddamn cat’s chest. Will wasn’t sure how long they were, but only a short span of inches was still visible. “Those don’t look good,” he observed calmly, remembering his mother’s oft-repeated advice. Never panic in front of a patient. “Do you have some magic to remove them, or can you transform into your usual size?”
“No and no. The metal is imbued with a magic inimical to my being. I can’t heal until it is removed, neither can I shift my size.”
“But you can’t die, right?” asked Will. “You’re a demigod.”
“Human labels don’t mean much, wizardling. Demigod just means, ‘too powerful for us to understand but probably not a true god.’”
“But you can’t die,” insisted Will.
“I have no idea,” said the Cath Bawlg. “I am unique. I have lived through uncountable years by human standards. I have never died before, if that helps, though the demons never stop inventing new ways to attempt it.”
A surge of fear went through Will, but he suppressed it. “I can get them out, but it will hurt. If you were human, I might advise we wait until I had proper tools and medicines to make the process easier and safer.”
“Get them out,” declared the cat. “Whatever damage the process causes will be nothing compared to what their magic is doing inside my body.”
“It’s probably going to hurt a lot,” said Will. “If they’re barbed, I’ll have to cut into you to free them.” He was certain his feather trick wouldn’t work to extract barbed heads as large as these looked to be.
Will summoned a paring knife from the limnthal. He kept a variety of cooking knives in there, and he liked them to have a razor edge. He studied the wound, then dismissed the blade, choosing instead to summon a larger, general-purpose knife with a sharp point and a six-inch edge.
The entry point was tight around the shaft, which was half an inch in diameter. Looking at the metal, Will noticed it wasn’t entirely black; there was a shimmering blue almost invisible within the metal. Demon-steel, he realized. Or what did Arrogan call it, driktenspal? He thought he had the name right.