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“No, no,” Elric jerks away from Perl who has pulled the rope from his wrists, and grasps the cloak tight around his body. “You don’t understand. It’s his plan. He knew. He knew he was older than you. He knew Ur-Durik would take him. Bellator blood opens the vault. It was also used to seal it. He plans to use Atticul’s blood to open the vault before Ur-Durik takes full control of him at sunrise. And then use his own blood to seal it again, with him inside. He will die to destroy the demon.”

Damon’s face goes quite grey. “He cannot. He…” Damon stands up. “How does he know he can do this?”

“He has the demon inside him,” Perl says, soft and clear. “He knows all that the demon knows.”

“Can we prevent this? Do you have enough power to take down the mist?” Damon says to Perl.

Perl shakes his head. “I do not know.”

Kerik looks at Elric. “You got through the mist.”

Elric says. “He wanted me to.”

“You threw that ring away, didn’t you?” Kerik is smiling now

Elric nods.

Kerik waves his hand through the air, closes it into a fist, then uncurls his fingers. The ring lies in his palm. He looks at Perl.

Perl says, “You were wearing that magic ring when you stepped through the mist?”

“Yes, but I removed it. You told me the ring would keep Lukas away from me,” Elric says.

“That was my idea,” says Kerik. “But Perl was the one who knew you’d never use it. So we changed how it works. Perl put something inside this ring that would absorb any magic you had.” Kerik looks at Perl. His face is quite adoring. “Now this ring is able to move through the mist just as you were.”

“So we can use that to get through?” says Damon. “It will not burn our skin? We can get to Lukas?”

“Yes,” Perl says. “But it does seem Lukas has a plan that will work. If he opens the vault with Atticul’s blood and throws himself into it, using his own blood to seal it, Ur-Durik will be imprisoned in the vault with all his demon kin. If we stop him, it will be too late. Ur-Durik will possess him.”

“But you can’t let him. You have to stop him,” Elric says, “Capture him and do the ritual again.”

Damon shakes his head. “The ritual from the Books of Alios did not work. We cannot be sure it will not fail again. Perhaps this time it will find a way to break the wards and take another of us.” He slams his fist down on the table. Cups and plates of food jump. A flask of ale tips over and spills. His voice sounds broken as he says, “Lukas’s plan is the best we have unless we can find a way to kill this demon.”

Jemel steps forward, his mother beside him. “I have one,” he says, meekly in the face of Damon’s terrifying frustration. “From Princess Ferra, the daughter of Sarelik Darek. His favourite who founded the Order of the Immurite. Almost two hundred years ago, and she betrayed him.”

It seems as if everyone from the hall races to the zhilvar with them. Damon speaks to Jemel as they cross the courtyard. “You are sure of this?”

“I am,” says Jemel. Ferra Zain created the Immurites for this. She too read the works of Batreous. She knew it was coming. She knew her father Sarelik’s plan, the deal he made with that demon.”

They race on, pausing at the edge of the mist for Kerik and Perl to make a soft incantation. Perl steps through first, then Kerik, neither are burned.

The rest of the party follow, into the zhilvar, after a few paces the mist seems to melt away. Jemel looks back over his shoulder. The mist is still thick around the edge of the zhilvar, but does not fill it. It is simply a ring, preventing entry.

Damon starts to outpace Jemel, leaving him behind, urging the Immurite forward, but her steps are getting slower as she struggles on the uneven ground.

She has barely walked for a score of years, Jemel thinks. And she has not walked on ground like this since she was a girl.

Jemel can see Damon reaching the sacrifice stone. Lukas turns. He already has Atticul’s body propped against it. He has begun. His sharp hook is stuck into Atticul’s neck, blood drips down his body onto the earth at the foot of the stone. Purple smoke is rising, swirling in the air.

The earth is opening and inside, Jemel can see them. Bellator demons, glittering eyes, bodies and faces shaped like men mixed with beasts. They are snarling, all of them snarling, the sound growing louder and louder.

Lukas says, “Get back Damon, I know what I’m doing.”

“I know you do,” says Damon, stopping a few paces away.

Jemel feels the Immurite, her hand in his, stumble. She falls onto the ground. They are still yards away. He turns to her. “Please, we need to get you there. Your blood. We need your blood to touch the demon.”

The Immurite looks up at Jemel. She looks so frail. “Jemel, I cannot. I cannot get up. I’m sorry. It is too much. I am failing. I will fail you now.”