“They’re coming,” Marie-Bell said.

Jen scrambled up from where she’d been napping on the wall. “Where?”

“They’re not in sight yet, but I can sense a great mass of corruption getting close.”

Jen paced back and forth like a caged animal, eager for the fight to start. There was no reason for her to be eager considering how her last battle with a demon had gone, but she couldn’t help it. Waiting was the worst. Once the fight started she wouldn’t have to think, just react.

“How come you’re just sensing them now? Earlier you could feel them from miles away.”

Marie-Bell rubbed bloodshot eyes. “The punishment chamber suppresses your abilities by channeling all your power into your senses. It’s supposed to expand your awareness or something. Anyway, out here my senses are much more limited.”

Kat and Amanda flew up on the battlement from the fortress where they’d been resting. Amanda carried a satchel bulging with food.

“They’re coming,” Kat said.

Jen nodded toward Marie-Bell. “So she said. How many do you think?”

Kat shook her head. “No idea. I can’t pick out their individual soul forces.”

“Guess we’ll just have to count them when they get here.” Amanda grinned and set the supplies down. “More enemies means more targets. Targets I can blast.”

Kat groaned, but didn’t warn her off this time. Apparently demons were fair game when it came to target practice. Jen was glad to have the sorcerers with her, but she would have given anything to have Damien by her side. Not only because of his tremendous power, but because she’d know he was still alive.

Movement caught her attention. She sent soul force to her eyes then rubbed them. “What are those things?”

“I’ve never seen anything like them.” Marie-Bell was the only one capable of enhancing her sight the way Jen did.

“What do you see?” Kat asked.

“Yeah! I want to see them too.” Amanda leaned out over the wall as though getting a few feet closer would make any difference.

“They look like crystal statues brought to life,” Jen said. “Is that the demon army?”

“Yes.” Marie-Bell shaded her eyes as she stared at the approaching things. “Each one is filled with demonic energy. I didn’t realize a demon spirit could inhabit a stone statue.”

Jen shrugged. “If they can hold together a cloud of smoke why not a statue? Lizzy lives in a sword and she can make it fly. I guess this isn’t so different. I just wonder where they found so much crystal.”

“Perhaps there’s a mine in the haunted lands,” Kat said.

“Wow! Those are some wicked looking things,” Amanda said. The enemy force had moved close enough that the sorcerers could make them out.

Jen had been so distracted by the statues that she hadn’t even noticed the pale-skinned sorcerer flying at their head. She must be the replacement for Mikhail since Damien killed the black knight. She looked vaguely familiar, but Jen certainly wouldn’t have forgotten someone that looked like her.

The army stopped and the sorcerer flew up even with them. “Surrender and I’ll let you run away.”

What a stupid thing to say. Where could they run when she and her master wanted to destroy the kingdom? Jen spat over the wall. “March back wherever you came from and we’ll let you live.”

The sorcerer laughed and said something else but Jen wasn’t listening. She turned to Marie-Bell. “My sword will be useless against those things. Are there any more hammers like yours in the armory?”

“I doubt it. Mauls aren’t very popular, but you might find something blunt.”

“Here they come,” Amanda said.

“I’ll be right back.” Jen leapt off the wall and raced to the nearby armory at warlord speed. The trip took only seconds. She ripped the door off its hinges in her haste and tossed it aside. Inside she found every type of sword you could imagine, crossbows, shields, and a ha! A pair of iron-headed maces. She pulled them down from their place on the wall and rushed back just as fast as she arrived.

The crystal demons had only covered half the distance between where they’d stopped and the wall. A streak of golden lightning struck a demon in the front row.

“Ha! Take that.” Amanda pumped a fist.

The monster didn’t even break stride, its outer shell remaining undamaged. It seemed basic sorcery wouldn’t be enough to stop them. The first demon reached the wall, dug its talons into the stone, and began to climb. Soon ten then twenty of them were crawling up the wall like spiders. They weren’t fast, but they didn’t stop.

Kat conjured a pry bar of pure soul force and ripped one of them free. It crashed to the floor of the pass, got to its feet, and resumed climbing.

“How do we stop them?” Jen asked as she raised her borrowed maces. The first wave reached the top of the wall before anyone could answer her.

She ran at warlord speed, hammering their talons as they appeared on the lip of the wall. One after another they fell from the wall only to pop back up and start climbing again.

Marie-Bell charged her hammer with holy energy and brought it down on the head of a crystal demon when it appeared above the edge of the wall. A horrible crunch was followed by the statue exploding.

Marie-Bell staggered back. Jen darted in when a demon appeared and tried to take advantage of the opening. Her maces hammered the creature, forcing it back and eventually sending it over the wall. She hadn’t even been able to dent it.

“You okay?” Jen asked.

Marie-Bell nodded. “Destroying them releases the corrupt energy. It’s not pleasant. But I’m fine.”

“Good. You only have to do that a hundred and twelve more times.”

Marie-Bell offered a wan smile. “If I can do it five more times today I’ll be pleased. That took almost all my power.”

The next wave reached the top of the wall ending their conversation and sending Jen racing along, bashing hands and heads, and accomplishing next to nothing. It was tremendously frustrating, but she took some solace in the fact that the sorcerers weren’t having any better luck. The demons shrugged off their blasts as easily as they did Jen’s blows. At this rate it was going to be a long day.