The Demonata 6-10. Darren Shan

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СКАЧАТЬ try shouting a warning, but I don’t have the strength. Holding Artery at bay is all I can manage.

      “I’ll take you to the universe of the Demonata when this is over,” Juni promises Dervish. “You’ll have to be killed eventually, but there’s no rush. I’ll show you such wonders and treat you so sweetly, you won’t care about dying. In fact you’ll die gladly, to please me. Won’t you, my love?”

      Dervish stares at her blankly. Then Bill-E screams. “Dervish! I’m afraid!”

      Juni laughs. “Don’t worry, silly Billy, I haven’t forgotten about you. How could I? You’re the most important–”

      Dervish grabs Juni by the waist and picks her up as if she’s weightless. “No!” she screams, lashing out at him but unable to connect because of the angle he’s holding her at. Dervish lunges away from the pulsing rock, struggling against the wind. Juni’s hands stretch upwards, searching for magic. Her lips start on a new spell. Lord Loss shouts with alarm and springs away from Beranabus.

      But Dervish is too quick for both of them. He looks around. Takes a couple of steps to his right, holding Juni high above his head. Then slams her down with all his strength on top of a small stalagmite.

      The tip pierces Juni’s flesh and slices in through the skin of her back — then bursts through her chest a moment later. Dervish cries out and falls away, staring with wonder and disbelief at Juni as blood spurts and her legs and arms thrash, as if he doesn’t know how she got there.

      “My swan!” Lord Loss howls, flying to her side.

      “Master…” Juni groans, her mouth full of blood. “Help… me.”

      Lord Loss reaches out to her, then stops and studies the wound. He shakes his head softly, sorrowfully. “I cannot,” he says.

      Juni stares at him incredulously. Then her expression clears. “I understand. Thank you, master. For… everything you showed me… all that you did for me… I offer my everlasting gratitude… and love.”

      Lord Loss stretches out a single arm and touches Juni’s cheek with his clammy fingers. He’s smiling sadly, but it’s not his usual mocking smile — this one is almost human. “I will miss you,” he mutters.

      “And I…” Juni shudders and her eyes go wide. “Death!” she wheezes. “It’s here. I sense it. I… no! Don’t let it take me, master! I want to be free. Don’t…”

      She stops. Her mouth and eyes freeze. Lord Loss bends, kisses her forehead, then floats back a few paces. “Goodbye, sweet swan,” he murmurs, and that’s when I know for sure she’s dead, though it’s not until I hear Beranabus chuckling softly that I realise what that means.

      The key has been eliminated… The tunnel can’t be opened… We’ve won!

      … AND THE LOW

      → The sweetness of a hard-won victory lasts all of two seconds. Maybe three. Then it hits me — the rocks within and around the crack are still pulsing. The lights are flashing more vibrantly than at a disco. The wind is growing stronger.

      “Beranabus!” I yell. “Why isn’t it stopping?”

      “It is,” he mutters, staring at the crack doubtfully. “It must be. We killed her. But sometimes it can take a minute for a body to properly die, for all the senses to expire. When the last spark of life flickers out in her, this will end.”

      “But if the demons cross before that…”

      Beranabus shrugs, then winces and reaches back to try and heal the wounded flesh between his shoulder blades. His skin and eyes are normal now. He looks like a tired old man, not a mighty magician. “A few might squeeze through, but not many. We’ll just have to–”

      “Imbeciles,” Lord Loss snorts. He glares at Beranabus, then Dervish, who’s lying close by Juni. Her face has lost its glamour, changed back to its real appearance, scarred and bloody from the beating she took. Dervish is staring at her with a mix of horror and loss. “You think you have defeated us? You believe we fall that easily? You are arrogant and ignorant, Beranabus, the result of too many soft victories over lesser demons. Killing Juni won’t save your pitiful excuse of a world — or your lives. It only makes me more determined to see you and the grotesque Gradys suffer slowly and agonisingly.”

      “We were wrong!” I roar. “The key wasn’t Juni. It’s one of the demons.” I spin, trying to figure out whether it’s Artery or Spine.

      “It can’t be,” Beranabus pants, struggling to his feet. “It doesn’t work that way, and we saw them both in the future.”

      “Then I was right,” Lord Loss hisses. “You travelled back in time!” He stares at Beranabus, awestruck. “How did you do it? I thought that, of all things, was impossible. How–”

      “Beranabus,” I interrupt. “We have to kill them now, before the Demonata–”

      “But it’s not them,” he insists. “We saw them.”

      “Then somebody else!” I holler. “Another human assistant, invisible, hidden by magic. We have to find him… her… whatever!”

      Beranabus nods and stumbles away, feverishly scouring the cave with magic and his eyes. I start off in the opposite direction.

      “Grubbs,” Bill-E moans, crawling towards me, wind snapping at him, clothes and hair rippling, the crack threatening to suck him in.

      “Not now. Dervish.” My uncle doesn’t respond. “Dervish!” I yell. He blinks and looks up. “The key’s still alive. It wasn’t Juni. We have to find the person who made the sacrifice. If we don’t, the tunnel will–”

      “Grubbs,” Bill-E moans again.

      “Stop bugging me!” I scream, then stoop to look him in the eyes. “I’m sorry but there isn’t time. If we don’t find the person who made the sacrifice, they’ll merge with the rock and the demons will flood through and kill us all.”

      I stand. Bill-E clutches the sodden, straggly left leg of my makeshift trousers. I curse and kick his hand away. I’m turning to continue searching when he whispers something, too soft for me to decipher. I almost don’t pause, but there’s an urgency in the whisper that demands attention.

      “What did you say?” I shout without looking down, eyes piercing the shadows of the cave. It’s difficult to see. The lights inside the crack are throbbing more brightly, changing colour swiftly. Bill-E repeats himself, but again too softly for the words to carry. “Speak up, damn it. I don’t have time for–”

      “I think the key might be me,” Bill-E croaks.

      And for the second time within the space of an hour the world appears to stop.

      → Staring at Bill-E. Certain I heard him wrong. Praying that if I heard him right, I misunderstood. “What?” I wheeze.

      “I think… it wasn’t intentional… I’m not sure… but…”

      He wasn’t one of the dead, a voice inside my head murmurs. In the future, when you looked into the hole, СКАЧАТЬ