“I’m sorry,” Zuri said, her golden glowing face filled with sorrow and fear. “I can’t… I hope—”
“No! Hold on,” Tau screamed, wheeling out of the way of a third demon, which stood like a man but was covered in matted fur and had claws instead of hands. That one caught him, ripping into his upper right arm and tearing thumb-long gashes of flesh away. A fourth demon howled from the mists, snuffed the air, and careened on all fours toward Zuri.
Tau couldn’t do it. Hard as he fought, he could not keep the demons off them both. So, he made them want him more. He reached for Isihogo.
“Tau!” Zuri shouted in a panic.
Tau pulled as much energy as he could from Ananthi’s prison. He filled himself with it to bursting. He gorged until the power of it threatened to burn through him, until he shone brighter than a noonday sun.
The demons stopped in their tracks, no longer interested in Zuri. Tau heard the grunts, howls, roars, and hisses from a hundred others in the mists, and he stepped away from her, calling to them. “I am here for you, finally here in the flesh. Come, come if you dare!”
They came.
Tau lifted his swords and they blazed with the powers of the underworld, burning like they’d been dipped in tar and lit by torches, and with those fiery blades, he set upon Ukufa’s thralls.
He whirled and spun, thrust and swung, moving as fast as he was able, striking with as much power as he could muster. His blades burned the beasts and they shrank back from his blows.
Tau felt triumph. Tau felt power. Tau felt he could kill these demons with his gift-infused swords, and if that was what would save Zuri, then it was what he would do.
He sliced the arm from one demon, chopped the legs out from another. He laughed. This was what it was to be a god. He swung again, connecting; he danced back, then came forward, and a demon, one he did not see, lanced him through the back with several of its dozen spear-like protuberances.
The pain coursed through Tau like a tsunami. It owned him, and when the thing he had not seen ripped its jagged limb out of him, the pain stole his senses. Tau stumbled away, swinging wildly. Through the haze of pain he saw Zuri, still there, still glowing. The dragon had not released her.
He looked down at his wound. The demon had him open from belly to groin. He swung about himself, doing what he could to keep the monsters at bay. He tried to shout for Zuri but didn’t have the strength. His legs were going numb, his arms were heavy as boulders, and his breathing was labored. He was done, and a new demon had come from the mists.
It was twice Tau’s height and covered in spikes from head to toe. It had no eyes and its head was horned. It could not see, but it knew where Tau was. It tracked toward him. Tau forced his arms up, his swords blazing.
“Do you bleed?” he spat, words daring and voice weak. “Shall we see?”
Tau staggered toward the demon of spikes, going to his death. The demon roared. Tau roared back and there was a flash that lit up all of Isihogo, briefly banishing its mists and revealing horrors and monsters beyond Tau’s darkest nightmares. The demon hordes were endless, out there in the distance, endless, and then the light was gone and Tau was joined by a Gifted in the heaviest shroud he had ever seen.
“Tau Solarin,” said his queen. “You will die here.”
“Tsiora?” Tau spluttered, her honorific forgotten.
“The Omehi line has ever been Gifted.” She raised her hand and blasted him with something that felt like enervation twisted in on itself. It sucked his insides out and pulled him away from Isihogo.
“Zuri!” he screamed.
“We will try to save your friend,” Queen Tsiora said, as she increased the strength of the blast, ejecting him from the underworld.
LIMITS
Zuri!” Tau was on the ground. He didn’t know why. He sat up and was assaulted by pain. Nyah came to his aid, holding him still.
“Don’t move. You’re hurt,” she said.
Tau ran a quivering hand over his body. There was no wound to find.
“He went to spirit world! He was in nyumba ya mizimu, the Reflection,” said Kana.
“He drew energy and was injured by a demon,” Nyah said.
“How alive?” asked Kana. “Shaman? I think only your women have this power.”
“He has no gifts. He’s a fool who has put our queen in danger.”
Queen Tsiora was kneeling in front of Tau, her eyes open but sightless, her focus in Isihogo.
“So many lies,” said Kana. “You tell us your queens lost their power in the Reflection.”
Tau had no time. He had to protect Zuri. He made a second attempt to stand but collapsed.
“Stop it!” Nyah said. “You’ve a demon wound. You took in energy, didn’t you? The damage the demon did to you in Isihogo has come into our world.”
Tau felt at his abdomen again; nothing.
“It is psychic damage. It cannot be seen, but it can kill.”
“Help me,” Tau said, reaching for Nyah.
Nyah recoiled.
“Help him, witch,” Kana said, coming to Tau’s aid. The men gripped wrists; Nyah glared, but helped; and they dragged Tau, groaning, to his feet and to the edge of the battlements.
Behind Tau, Tsiora let out a deep sigh. Nyah left Tau’s side and he would have fallen if not for Kana.
“My queen!” the vizier said.
“We are well,” Tsiora said. “We must warn everyone away from the youngling. It is no longer Entreated. It has been freed.”
She was alive, Tau saw. She was on her hands and knees in the courtyard, tears of blood etched on her weary face, but Zuri was alive.
Not far from her, Kellan and what remained of Scale Jayyed were crossing the courtyard, making their way to Odili. They were careful to avoid coming too close to the youngling, which seemed confused. It snuffed the air and moved its head back and forth, as if searching for something that had vanished.
It was, Tau realized, still focused on Isihogo. It was searching for Zuri. It would not find her. Her soul was wholly in Uhmlaba.
Odili shared the youngling’s confusion. He was searching for a way out of the noose tightening around his treacherous neck, but with Kellan and Scale Jayyed coming for him, he was trapped. Tau didn’t care. Damn the man, he thought, as Zuri wobbled to her feet, looked up, and gave him a crooked smile. He had to get down to her.
Tau took a step toward the stairs, muffled a yelp of pain, and crumpled against the battlement’s crenellations.
“You are damaged,” said Kana at the same time that Odili began to yell orders to his men.
“What?” Tau asked, not willing to believe his own ears. “What did he say?”
Odili’s men were hesitant, but his orders were their only chance and they followed them.
“He… he tell them attack fire-demon,” Kana said as Odili’s Indlovu set upon the youngling with their swords.
The creature’s reaction was instant. It left Isihogo, returning its senses to the world, and lashed out, clawing one of Odili’s men to death. It reared and blew flame into the sky, and when it came back down, Odili’s men had retreated. They were running for the broken gates, Odili far in front.
Kellan and Scale Jayyed went to intercept. They would catch him. They were closer to the gates. The dragon roared and, seeing so many running men, it blew flame.