“Just… that there are some unmarked souls out there, causing trouble. I’ve heard about the canyon, in Death’s Grip; we felt the quake out here. Some demons say it was caused by the unmarked. I’ve heard about an unmarked working with Cainites, and–”
“David killed that one!” Lasca said, and she hopped up in front of the demon almost twice her height. “David killed Greg. Got him!”
Caera, Jes, Dao, and Acelina all shot Lasca a glare, but Lasca was impervious to social cues, and stood happy and proud of David as she gestured to him with a wing.
“You killed an unmarked?” the demon asked. “And, your name is David?”
“Yeah. It uh… yeah.” David put up his hands for a moment, the best peace gesture he could figure. “I’m not looking to go around doing anything. And I have no idea what the rider is doing, either. All I need to do is get to Timaeus, avoid the rider, get to Azailia, have a chat, and be on my way.”
The demon tilted his head, scanning the group, trying to get a read on them, but David didn’t need Mia to know he wouldn’t be able to. They were a strange bunch.
“I’m Vicus,” he said. “I work under… well, it doesn’t matter now. They’re all dead.” A gesture with his tail drew their eyes back to the mess in the fog. “The rider killed all of us.”
Daoka clicked a question.
“A hundred.”
“Fuck,” Jes said. “The rider got that many?”
“Easily.”
“Fuck,” Caera said. “And he’s between us and Timaeus?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck,” the four Las said, in tandem. Then they erupted into giggles for a whole second before Acelina hissed down at them, and they shut up like she’d struck their palms with a switch.
“How about,” David said, “we just… get moving. Get any sleep, Vicus?”
“No. My nest is far, and my group is dead.” Eyes down, Vicus hooked his sword to his back, a slow and lumbering motion. “I am exhausted.”
“Fuck.” David rubbed his eyes with his palms. “Well, let’s do the best we can to not die, and head toward Timaeus.”
Vicus raised a brow, glancing between all the demons before finally settling his gaze on David.
“You’re… giving orders?”
“What? No. No… Right?” He looked to Jes and Dao.
The two ladies shrugged, and Dao chirped a few chuckles as she joined him, abandoning their watch of the potential threat Vicus. He’d passed the test. Not a threat.
“Not giving orders then.” With a shrug to mirror theirs, Vicus took a deep breath and stood up straight for a half second, until weight pulled his shoulders, limbs, and his tail back down. Their guide was more than exhausted.
Rumbling, Caera prowled back toward the dead, and drifted around in the fog.
“Scout the bodies first, then we go.”
Scout they did. They found a few pieces of meera metal that fit their bodies better, slabs of bent metal chunks that wrapped their thighs or chests or forearms, and weapons that were sharper. Even David found a chest piece that was thinner than his current one, and fit him better. Shedding an extra five pounds of metal was wonderful.
By the time they were done, Jes had a sword, Dao had an axe, Lasca and Laara had small swords, Latia and Laria had small axes, Caera didn’t bother with weapons, and Acelina still had the giant axe she’d found earlier. David still had his hilariously heavy dagger, smallest of their weapons, and he groaned as he tried to wield it. His wrist did not appreciate.
“You struggle with that?” Vicus asked, gesturing to David with his tail. “I’ve seen Cainites wield bigger. And betrayers.”
“I’m not a Cainite, or a betrayer.”
“You’ve been eating demon hearts, right?”
David eyed him, squinting. “Why do you think that?”
“I have to guess you came from Death’s Grip, if you have a spire mother from there. There’s a good chance you’ve eaten demon hearts if that’s true, what with the anarchy going on there right now. The trip–”
“Leave the boy be,” Acelina said, hissing and clicking once at the smaller man as she walked by. “He may not be physically strong, but he has other uses. His life is worth more than yours, so be silent and take us to Timaeus.”
David blinked up at the spire mother as she walked by, big ass in full strut mode, her featureless black face pointed at the vrat. It almost sounded like she’d defended him. Almost.
Vicus was smart to put together that David wasn’t enslaved by the eight demons with him, to deduce from there that they’d been working together, and David had probably eaten demon hearts. And this Vicus demon had probably pieced a lot of this together before he’d made himself known. Yeah, smart guy, and someone to be careful with.
“I don’t know how it works,” David said. “I’m not marked, and demon hearts don’t give me the same kick they seem to give other souls.”
“Why not become a betrayer?”
“Because I don’t want to die hundreds and hundreds of times in this place?”
With a sinister little smile, Vicus nodded and pointed out into the fog.
“This way. If the rider is ahead of us and making his way toward Timaeus, we can slip closer to the river Styx, and if we move, we can get to the Border Stones quickly. Hopefully, some hellbeasts give the rider problems on the path he’s taking.”
“What kind of hellbeasts?” David asked. “And we won’t be running into any?”
“Cannams prowl that direction, sometimes by the dozens. I know a route with fewer problems.” No need to say it. Every demon gave Vicus a very suspicious look, but the vratorin just shrugged and started walking. “Follow me or not. I’m going.” Liar. He needed them.
Sighing, Caera followed the man, and everyone fell into their usual positions, wings drooping and tails dragging. Exhausted was not the best condition to be following some stranger in, but Vicus was exhausted, too. If he tried to betray them, he wouldn’t be able to fight them himself.
The more obvious problem was if he led them into an ambush. No need to say that, either. Jes glanced back and frowned at David, shifting her eyes Vicus’s way. Dao did the same thing, using her chin instead of her non-existent eyes. Even Caera, right behind Vicus, risked a peek back with her single eye, and everyone shared a quick nod with her, Las included. No one trusted this guy.
Demons trying to screw demons. Just another day in Hell.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The burning sky was hazy behind the mist, and everything disappeared under the darkening gray blur of the fog. If it weren’t for all the danger, climbing the giant tombstones for a peek at the world around them would have been easy, but the rider was near, and David and the crew weren’t exactly diplomatic allies of the province. Best to stay hidden.
Caera’s advice rang in David’s skull. The Grave Valley had sub groups, tribes, just like in Death’s Grip, except they were larger. The rider had run into a group, had killed them all, and only this Vicus survived. If they ran into another group, one that didn’t like Vicus and his old buddies, there’d be a fight, and despite how good Jes and Caera were at fighting, they wouldn’t be able to beat a hundred demons working together. Acelina might create a diplomatic solution, but demons were demons. There’d be a fight, and David was useless.
He needed to not be useless.
“Laria, can you take this? I need to… work.” He handed his dagger to the little gremla, and she took it without question.