Disciple of War Disciple of War (Art of the Adept #4) - Michael G. Manning Page 0,232

to Muskeglun if he died. Will answered, “Selene.”

Lrmeg nodded and shouted orders to the others. They started leaving, but once again, the little troll failed to understand. He remained by Will’s side. Will had to call out to get Lrmeg’s attention. “Hey! Take Stupid with you!”

Gan came back and took the hapless troll by the hand and led him away. The trolls wasted no time, and once they broke into a run, it wasn’t long before Will lost sight of them. At last, he was alone.

It wasn’t Will’s first time to walk into a lion’s den alone, but he’d gotten used to having the trolls around. Their sudden absence left him feeling more vulnerable than he liked, but there was no help for it.

He cast a camouflage spell over himself, then smoothed his turyn in the way Darla had shown him and started making his way toward the central square again. He was disturbed to see that it was rapidly filling up with even more demons.

The void turyn was becoming an issue for him as well. Not for his health per se, but the vast and constant flow of power around him made it difficult to maintain the camouflage and iron-body transformation spells. He could absorb any void turyn that reached his skin, but the energy was polarized in an opposing fashion to the turyn that maintained his active spells. The interference between the two served to constantly erode his protections.

Will moved sideways around the edges of the square to get a feel for the area since it seemed that if he got any closer, he might lose his camouflage entirely. After he had gone a quarter of the way around, he finally saw the reason why more demons kept appearing. On the opposite side of the pile of stone that the emitter stood atop, there was a wide circle fifty feet in diameter. It looked similar to the gate that Aislinn had created to bring herself and the other fae to Madrok’s location.

There were three key differences, though. This gate was much larger, it showed no sign of vanishing, and the other side was quite obviously connected directly to hell. Demons marched through in countless numbers.

Fuck my luck, Will swore silently.

He stood still for several minutes, thinking hard and studying his surroundings. Time wasn’t on his side. Eventually, he would get tired and make a mistake or lose control of his camouflage spell. Using Darla’s technique to remain unnoticed was also becoming exceedingly difficult.

I’m not going to have time to find a hidden chamber. Shit, shit, shit. To come so far and fail at the end wasn’t acceptable, and in a flash, he knew what the solution was. Staring at the pile of rubble, he could see a complex braid of silver, gold, and iron wire that led from the giant cube before disappearing below the surface. That’s the linkage carrying the void turyn to the emitter.

If he followed that, it would lead to the spell-engine underground somewhere. But it appeared to have been buried to protect it. It would take ages to unearth it and figure out where it led.

Recasting his iron-body transformation and the camouflage spell, Will began walking directly for the rubble pile, but after only thirty feet, his spells fizzled out completely, and the demons that stood close by in virtually every direction stared at him in surprise.

“Screw it.” Snatching at the power that lay heavily in the air, Will pummeled the entire area with sound. He was careful to direct all the sonic energy away from himself, but the reflected sound was enough to deafen him and almost knock him from his feet. Frozen bits of demon covered the ground, and the wind that blew across his face was so cold it made his nose and cheeks burn.

But more demons were still pouring through the gate. Some were confused, but a few were quick enough to charge in his direction. Will ignored them and began scrambling up the rubble pile. He needed to get closer.

Despite the intense turyn wind, his force spells worked normally. Will rapidly blasted the demons that had the temerity to follow him up the broken slope. His attacks killed some, and those that survived were sent tumbling to the bottom. It wasn’t easy to climb the treacherous ground while staring behind himself, but he did it anyway. The only alternative was death.

A new spell caster emerged from the gate, and Will was forced to start using his point-defense shield to