Free Demon Games [4] by Steve Feasey Page A

shortage of the dead to resurrect.’
    Lucien waited for her to continue, but Hag seemed content to sit and let him work things through in his head. ‘But if the Globe is useless now, he has no means to raise his army.’
    Hag’s eyes bored into Lucien’s.
    ‘Your brother – he seeks to bring Helde back.’
    Lucien stared at the old woman, hoping for any signal that she might be joking again. ‘Helde? But she is long dead. She was destroyed.’
    ‘Ah, but so were you, Lucien. So were you. Twice.’
    Lucien considered what he’d just been told. If Caliban could somehow find a way to bring Helde back, it would be a great triumph for him. She was an ancient being, who had been around at the time of the demon wars. Reputed to have been the most powerful sorceress of her time, she had an appetite for anarchy and chaos, and was particularly renowned for her ability to resurrect the dead, which earned her the title of Queen of the Dead. Lucien knew his brother would do anything in his power to bring such a creature back. Especially now that his own sorceress was gone.
    He looked across at Hag. ‘She was reduced to ash. How can she possibly be restored to life?’
    The fire spat. A small piece of burning matter leaped from the flames on to the stone grate where it glowed for a second before dying out.
    ‘How much do you know about Helde?’ Hag asked.
    ‘I know the stories of her exploits during the Demon Wars. How she had her captured enemies impaled on stakes and displayed outside her fortress. And how she resurrected these creatures once they had died so that they could suffer the same agonies all over again.’
    ‘And what of her death? What do you know of that?’
    ‘Very little. I know that she was found guilty of plotting to kill the demon lord Skaleb, and that she was sentenced to death by burning.’
    ‘So that she could never be brought back,’ Hag said with a nod. ‘Nothing can be brought back from ashes. Not even the Queen of the Dead, eh?’ She turned to look into the fire. ‘There is another version of the story of her death,’ she said. ‘In this version, Skaleb himself steps forward to the stake moments before the pyre is lit. He is said to have reached out and torn the sorceress’s heart from her chest and taken a huge bite from it before throwing it back at her feet.’ She looked at Lucien, her eyes taking in his own. ‘It is also said that the demon responsible for lighting the pyre stole that heart and kept it.’
    ‘And you believe that Caliban has found this heart, and that he will be able to use it to resurrect Helde?’
    The old woman shrugged. ‘I hear rumours about many things,’ she said. ‘When you are as old as I am –’ she smiled at him mischievously – ‘as we are, Lucien, nothing really surprises you any more.’ She shifted in her seat, manoeuvring herself to get up. She hissed in pain, but slapped away Lucien’s hands when he leaned forward and tried to help her. ‘Your brother is fighting a war on two fronts. He is engaged in a campaign to take over the Netherworld and, thanks to the spineless capitulation of many of this realm’s so-called leaders, he has almost succeeded in that. Did you know that after defeating Orfus your brother simply disappeared? He did not press home his advantage and continue on into Molok’s fiefdom. Instead, he just upped and vanished, and nobody has seen him since. Now, I wonder what can be so important to him that he would do such a thing?’ She paused for a moment. ‘Caliban’s other war front is in the human realm. He still looks to subjugate the humans, and for that he needs a sorceress like Helde.’
    Lucien remained silent for a moment, taking in everything that the old woman had told him. ‘He must be stopped,’ he said eventually.
    On her feet now, Hag was at the fire, prodding it with a long, heavy-looking poker. ‘Yes, he must. And so must she. It would not do to have her regain power.’
    The old woman turned her back