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And it was fucking glorious.

. . . right up until we discoverednothingwe’d done had hurt the Pandoral one little bit.

‘He’s not even bothering to fight back,’ Galass reported, slumped against Aradeus, exhausted from the effort of trying to bleed the swarm dry. What blood she’d been able to draw out of them was a thimbleful compared to the ocean that remained.

I heard a buzzing like the one the brothers had used to communicate, then Corrigan cried out, followed at once by Galass, Shame, Alice and Aradeus as their ears were assaulted by the insidious sound.

‘What is itdoing?’ Alice asked, hands pressed against the sides of her head.

I didn’t need to know whatever language the Pandorals spoke to work out what was going on. ‘I think he must be the advance scout,’ I shouted to the others. ‘He’s telling the others in his realm that it’s safe here– there’s nothing we can do to harm them.’

Sure enough, another insect crawled out from one of the brothers’ gaping mouths.

Corrigan and Alice tried turning their attacks on the brothers, but the barrier protecting them was too strong.

When all our attempts failed once again and we stopped for a breather, the Pandoral scout appeared to have reached a decision.

‘You are poorly made,’ he said, his voice the buzzing of insect wings. ‘You will be transformed to better serve us.’ His gaze fell upon Alice. ‘But not you,’ he said. An arm made of writhing bugs reached out and grabbed the demon girl’s throat, effortlessly lifting her up off the ground. ‘You are Infernal. You disgust us.’

I heard a sizzling sound and saw burns appearing around the leathery skin of her neck. Aradeus sliced into the Pandoral’s arm, but his rapier blade passed harmlessly through the skittering bugs. Alice’s tongue was lolling from her mouth as the creature tightened its grip, choking the life from her.

‘He’s killing Alice!’ Galass shouted redundantly. ‘Cade,dosomething!’

Calling on me to play the hero seemed like a poor choice, given I was probably the weakest of all of us. On the other hand, since none of our powers had had the slightest effect, I supposed strength had become a redundant concept anyway.

Besides, cowardly accommodation had always been more my thing.

‘Wise Master,’ I said, kneeling before the Pandoral, ‘why do you waste your time on an Infernal when you could be sampling the sweetness this land can provide?’ I gestured to the narrow window. ‘The fertile lands for which you have risked so much await you.’

The creature turned to me, and in his gaze, my justiciar’s training saw that the Pandoral knew this was a pathetic ploy on my part to get him away from Alice, that he felt no need to tell me so, that he was, indeed, hungry for what this realm had to offer, and was unconcerned with revealing this fact.

In essence, we didn’t matter to him at all.

He let go of Alice and she fell to the ground, gasping.

‘I suppose I should inspect the soil from which the crops will grow that will allow our numbers to swell.’

He turned and walked straight into the wall, breaking apart as he hit the stone. The insects making up his body flew up in a great buzzing cloud, then spread out and disappeared. Some found cracks in the walls to crawl through; others went flying out through the narrow window. A second later, they had reformed outside, and I watched him floating through the air down to the red ground below.

Chapter 50

The Gates Within

‘Thatwas your heroic stand?’ Alice demanded, coughing as she rose to her feet. ‘Better you had let me die than make me an accomplice to your cowardice, fallen one.’

Corrigan shoved her away. ‘Aw, did he offend your scruples? Because he mademehis fuckingslave, so if you’re hoping to get some righteous revenge on this prick, the line starts behindme.’

‘Thanks to him, I’m a blood mage,’ Galass pointed out.

Corrigan’s sneer came and went faster than a flash of lightning. ‘Fine. The line forms behind you. But I’m second.’

‘Well, this is going great,’ I muttered.

Fidick tapped on my arm. ‘More of the Pandorals are coming through,’ he said, and pointed to a bug crawling out of another brother’s mouth.

‘It’s starting again,’ Aradeus said unnecessarily. ‘Cade, we must close the gates!’

Why does everybody insist on stating the obvious? On the other hand, Aradeus hadn’t thus far blamed me for ruining his life, so he got priority.