Damien watched as the Baroness Trasker took her turn drinking from the little well. Somehow the woman managed to make drinking out of her cupped hands look dignified. When she straightened he asked, “Everyone ready?”

They all indicated they were.

“Then gather around.”

The women and kids moved to join him. Some of the little ones had fallen asleep and their mothers carried them. He couldn’t remember ever seeing such a bedraggled collection of people in his life.

A chill went through him and Damien looked up. A dark figure was riding across the sky on the back of a horse so dark it appeared to absorb the light. He narrowed his eyes and focused on the imposing figure. The horse was a seething mass of demonic energy, but nothing compared to the armor. A black cable of dark energy connected the rider to his mount.

Damien had read about men like him. They were called Black Knights. One step removed from actual warlocks, a Black Knight was a warrior who had formed a contract with a demon. The demon provided power to the knight. In exchange, at the moment of his death, the demon would consume the knight’s soul thus increasing the demon’s own power. His demon was bound to the ornate armor, much as Lizzy was bound to his father’s sword.

Was this the same Black Knight the archmage mentioned in her account of Jen’s adventure in Port Valcane? He hoped so. One of the monsters was bad enough.

Some of the children started whimpering and their mothers tried to calm them. Success seemed unlikely. The kids were feeling the effects of the Black Knight’s corrupt aura.

“What is that thing?” the Baroness Trasker asked, disgust dripping from her voice. “That creature has been our captor these many weeks. Since the other one disappeared.”

“He’s trouble. Keep everyone together. It’ll be easier for me to protect you that way.”

“Won’t we make an easier target, gathered all in one place?”

Damien really didn’t want to argue with the woman, but the baroness wasn’t used to taking orders. “Together or spread out, without my shield he’ll kill you all in a second. Please, keep everyone together.”

She pressed her lips in a thin line.

Please don’t argue.

The Black Knight was getting closer by the second.

Please, please, don’t argue.

“Very well, young man.”

Thank heaven.

“I’ll keep everyone together while you deal with that, I hesitate to call him a man, that thing.”

The knight drew power from his armor and a ball of hellfire came screaming toward the oasis. Damien conjured a giant hand and swatted it aside.

The ball exploded a safe distance away. Wind mixed with corruption blew through the oasis. The children started crying and several of the women threw up. The Baroness Trasker never faltered. She guided the last two people into a tight group.

Damien conjured an invisible shield over them, investing a quarter of his power to be sure they’d stay safe. He hated going into battle with such a disadvantage, but anything less would leave the ladies and their little ones exposed.

He shot into the air and met the monstrous man a hundred yards from the oasis. Anxious to confirm his identity Damien asked, “Mikhail Santen?”

A hollow snarl came from inside the helm. “Don’t call me that. Mikhail died when he sacrificed his father to gain the power of a demon. Sir Darkness was born in that moment.”

“Sir Darkness? What a stupid name. Couldn’t you have come up with something a little less idiotic?”

Mikhail drew his sword and leveled it at Damien. He drew power from the demon and sent a stream of fire roaring toward Damien.

Damien dodged easily enough, but like Sloan’s attack earlier the fire twisted and pursued him.

This time Damien was ready. He spun away, conjured a golden sword, and severed the stream of fire from the demon’s power. The hellfire behind him flared and vanished.

It worked, excellent. He fired a pair of golden blasts at Mikhail’s chest.

The Black Knight didn’t bother trying to dodge or deflect. The blasts hit his breastplate and fizzled. “Is that the best you can do?”

Damien frowned. He hadn’t put much power into the blast, but he’d hoped to at least dent the armor.

Mikhail leveled the sword again. This time he drew a huge amount of demonic energy. “Burn away to nothing, worm.”

A river of hellfire poured from the tip of Mikhail’s sword. More power than the demon Damien killed had possessed in its whole body screamed toward him.

Damien drew deep from his core and raised a shield. He angled it to deflect the blast rather than take it full on.

Black fire hit golden shield. Cracks spread all over in his construct as the corrupt power ate away at it. Damien drew more power and repaired the damage.

Still the river of flames came on, no end in sight.

Damien poured more power into his shield, his vast reserve of soul force draining in a hurry. He had to hold on. If he failed, twenty-four women and children would stand defenseless before this monster of a man.

When only a small fraction of his power remained, the river dried up. Damien reabsorbed the meager energy remaining in his shield. Before him Mikhail’s sword trembled in his hand. He’d used the bulk of his power with that attack.

Maybe Damien had a chance.

“Impossible!” Mikhail screamed in nearly inarticulate rage. “That should have reduced a worm like you to nothing.”

Damien shrugged and began conjuring a pair of invisible swords behind Mikhail. If he could keep the idiot merchant distracted maybe he could take him by surprise. “It was an impressive attack from a halfwit greengrocer. I didn’t think you could manage it.”

“Greengrocer!” Mikhail shrieked.

That hit a nerve.

“I am Sir Darkness, right hand to the mightiest warlock in the land, Connor Blackman.”

Blackman! This fool worked for the missing sorcerer? That must be who opened the hell gate in Port Valcane and gave Mikhail his demon armor. He probably put the hellfire wards in the bandits’ heads too. No way this clown had the skill to do such fine conjuring.

Damien needed to end this and report back. The archmage had to know Connor Blackman had become a warlock and was behind the attack on the barons.

Damien’s invisible swords struck Mikhail in the back. Armor screamed in protest as the soul force blades cut it open.

Black fire burst from the rent in Mikhail’s armor, shattering Damien’s swords before they could pierce flesh.

The demon horse’s mouth hung open and with Damien’s enhanced sight it was clear the idiot had drained the beast almost dry. If Mikhail had possessed a fraction of Sloan’s skill combined with the demon’s raw power… Best not to think about it.

“You’ve proven a formidable opponent.” Mikhail turned his gaze to the former prisoners huddling under his shield. “I wonder if the other worms will prove as durable.”

Damien raced for the ground at full speed. Hellfire spewed from Mikhail’s sword. A stream of soul force shot from Damien’s hand, striking and reinforcing his barrier.

Black flames hit a moment later. Palm trees withered and turned to ash. The dirt blackened as the dark flames consumed every shred of life in them.

When the onslaught ended, his shield, cracked and wavering, still stood. The people inside remained unharmed.

Damien needed to end this. Now.

He absorbed and reshaped the shield into a focused blast, augmenting it with most of his remaining power. The golden lightning bolt streaked up at Mikhail.

It struck the side of the demon horse’s head, burning off an ear and exposing its skull. An instant later it struck Mikhail in the shoulder. His armor gave way before the assault.

Mikhail roared in pain.

An armor-covered left arm came crashing to earth.

Damien crafted the last of his power into a crackling javelin and held it ready to throw.

The Black Knight snarled at him. “This is your lucky day, worm. We’ll finish our battle another time.”

Mikhail kicked the demon horse in the ribs and flew north, back into the kingdom. Damien waited until he was well out of sight before he collapsed to his knees. The javelin vanished when he absorbed the energy to refill a tiny portion of his depleted core.

As first missions went this one was turning out to be a doozie.

A gentle hand settled on his shoulder. Damien looked up into the concerned eyes of the Baroness Trasker.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

Damien sighed. He needed to rest and burn away the corrupted arm and armor Mikhail left behind before he flew the baronesses and their children home. “Sure. Just give me a few minutes to catch my breath and I’ll get you people out of here.”