Free Devdan Manor by Auden D. Johnson Page B

the light’s reach.
    “How could we not know this was here?” Ozais said shaking his head.
    Uryl stepped through the door. “The house is good at hiding.”
    They descended.
    “That’s what bothers me,” Nuall said. “There aren’t even stories of this place. No rumors about a house that eats demons. I’ve been trying to think of any myths that match this place. I can’t come up with anything.”
    Uryl nodded. “I agree. It is strange. How can a house like this hide itself so thoroughly for so many years? Demons go missing often enough. I can understand why no one would suspect something nefarious behind the disappearances. How is it that no one has even seen or sensed this place whenever it appeared to capture something?”
    “Maybe this place doesn’t exist in our world,” Cyl said remembering that black void outside that prevented them from simply destroying this mansion.
    Everyone stopped and turned to him.
    “But, it has to appear in our world to capture demons,” Nuall said.
    Cyl shrugged. “Does it?”
    “That is a good question.” Uryl continued walking. Everyone followed.
    An object moved in Uryl’s light. It retreated to the darkness.
    “Uryl stop,” Cyl ordered. “Step back”
    His brother actually followed his commend.
    Uryl’s light fell on a red hand with reptile scales. The jerking fingers didn’t disturb the rest of the hand or the portion of the arm sticking out of the wall. The finger moved like spider legs. They were longer than they needed to be- like the demon had spent its life getting its fingers pulled until they stretched to painful lengths. The thin appendages wanted to crawl across the floor. The dead arm wouldn’t let it.
    Nuall flinched and jumped to the right.
    A brown skin arm stuck out of the wall. The fingers reached for her.
    Nuall gasped. She lifted her hand. It were black. The texture like dried meat. It was spreading. She hit the ground on one knee.
    Uryl swept Ryse into his arms.
    “Run. Don’t let them touch you.”
    Cyl ducked under Nuall’s good arm, threw it around his neck and ran. Nuall tried. The strange poison seemed to be eating her power. Her legs wouldn’t stay under her.
    Hands emerged from the walls. They dropped from the ceiling like hanging bodies. Cyl had to remember to dodge for two people. He couldn’t sense the demons behind the hands. He couldn’t sense them before they showed themselves. He tried finding a pattern in the fingers’ appearances. He couldn’t. Sometimes they were at his feet. Other times, high enough to touch his head.
    Ozais was adequate at dodging. But, he hadn’t used his body in centuries. He fell away from a hand. One emerged at his ear. He crawled forward. His hand slipped. He rolled down the steps. Ozais threw out his arm. He stopped himself before he rolled through Uryl and Ryse. It had been just in time. He had been a breath away from running into five reaching fingers.
    Cyl was slower. He didn’t like being slower. He had to protect Nuall. How could he keep them both from being poisoned? He never practiced evading attacks while carrying a limp body. Nuall’s dead weight kept throwing him to the left. Her struggling legs made him off balance. She was too tall and too heavy to carry on his back.
    The hands stretched farther from the wall. Some blocked their path. Cyl duck low. Nuall’s weight pulled him face down. He pulled them upright. Fingers were so close he could feel them. He backed away.
    Nuall’s body dragged him in the opposite direction. He had almost shoved her into a hand.
    His leg wouldn’t move. Fingers gripped it. Cyl called his blade and slashed it at the wrist. He didn’t want to use his power for this.
    He ran. Why didn’t he feel poisoned? He didn’t feel weak?
    Nuall groaned.
    Uryl’s light had stopped. The end was near. He recalled his blade and rushed forward. Almost there.
    The hands were more determined now. They packed the staircase. At first, they had emerged as though fighting