Devdan Manor Read online

  Dozens of whispered voiced hissed throughout the air.

  “A new one.”

  “It has gotten boring this past hundred years.”

  “They have two females with them.”

  “Do you think they can share my cell?”

  The voices laughed.

  They were coming from the jars.

  “How do you think they’ll be captured?”

  “They smell like an Ancient demon. I thought they had all gone into hiding.”

  “It seems like the house has some interesting prey.”

  “Maybe it’ll let us play too this time.”

  The hissing was sharp. They all talked at once. It was getting harder to understand the words. It was overpowering his sensitive earing. He felt the noise everywhere. It became blades diving in and out of his head.

  His shield fell. The voices attack became fierce. He couldn’t see anything past the noise.

  This was no good. He needed to leave.

  He crossed the threshold into the main kitchen area. The voices stopped. His ears rang. His blade vanished.

  Damn.

  He needed to go back in there. Those things were talking about himself, Ryse, Uryl and Nuall. What did they mean by “they smelled like an Ancient demon?” That was impossible. Uryl as the oldest was forty and Ryse eight. No Ancient demon had been spotted between the times of their births. This didn’t make any sense.

  Those demons in the jars seemed trapped. Could this mansion be a prison?

  Why did it open itself to them?

  Could he be an abomination the way everyone said he was? But, Nuall was treated like her blood was made of gold. She shouldn’t be in a prison. Was this his fault? No, the voices said “they.” Somehow, this had something to do with the four of them.

  Now what? He could grab one of the jars and bring it to the others or bring the others here. It would be faster to just carry the jar. Did the sealing spell work only if the jar was in place or were they safe as long as the jars weren’t broken. Better not risk it.

  How long had it been?

  They relied on their sense of smell to tell time. None of them thought about how they would know when three hours had passed if they couldn’t smell outside.

  Better head back and check on Ryse. She could take care of herself. Still, he’d feel better when he saw her.

  There was no way the three of them could secure this entire house.

  The pantry didn’t have a door. Could he create a strong enough barrier around it to stop anything from getting out? If that were possible, someone would have done it instead of wasting time carving symbols on everything.

  He needed to get back.

  A jar sat on the island counter. It hadn’t been there before. A thin coating of dust covered the counter. The glass jar shone as though recently polished. A spot in the pantry was empty. The dust circle on the shelf matched the shape of the jar.

  The jar appeared empty. He wouldn’t be fooled. He couldn’t see through it. A thin white fog filled it.

  He moved on. If the house wanted him to take this jar, he didn’t want it.

  The jar sat in the threshold of the door.

  Cyl couldn’t help it. He had to check. Nothing sat on the island counter.

  He recalled his light and walked out.

  Tink, tink, tink.

  It came from ahead of him. He still couldn’t see through the darkness.

  Tink, tink, tink.

  It was moving closer to him.

  He created a light. The jar sat on the floor in front of him. If he had taken one more step, he would’ve crushed or kicked it. He picked it up. It was warm like it had been held recently. The jar would follow him. It would be less irritating if he carried it. Hopefully, he wasn’t carrying a weapon powerful enough to destroy Nuall and his family.

  His body wouldn’t move forward. He wanted to burn the jar and the demon inside. He wanted to make it suffer. It could whisper. Could it scream? The sound would be music. It had put his family in danger. It had done something to deserve being trapped in a jar without a body. He wanted to destroy this house, grab his family and leave. The monsters outside were nothing compared to what was in here.

  His fingers hurt. He had been gripping the jar with all his strength. It didn’t break. He eased grip. The anger drained.

  Uryl told them to listen to their instinct. His screamed at him. This house wasn’t safe. They needed to leave. His body moved. Fast.

  Anger, from someone else, knocked him backwards. Stopping him before he reached the others.

  Ryse didn’t get angry. She showed disappointment, irritation but she was never so enraged her power lashed out. She was angry with him. What had he done? Did it have something to do with the jar?

  Ryse’s power dove into and out of his body like fiery blades. Pieces of the blades stayed inside. They took over his power— turning it against him. His insides turned cold. His power always matched his body temperature. Ryse turned it to ice.

  He couldn’t feel anything but pain.

  “That’s enough, Ryse,” Uryl said.

  The anger backed off. His power retreated to a place inside him he couldn’t reach. He didn’t have any strength left. He dropped to his knees.

  A shadow covered him. Ryse, Uryl and Nuall stood over him.

  “Where have you been? I said we would meet back here in three hour.”

  He needed a moment. They had no right to be angry with him for not knowing the time. He couldn’t think of a way tell them this.

  “What?” he managed to roll out.

  “We’ve been back for ages waiting for you,” Nuall said.

  “How am I supposed to tell time if I can’t see or smell outside? I can’t have been gone that long.”

  “Long enough to scare Ryse,” Uryl snapped. “She said there were a lot of strange noises, whispers and screaming from the direction you went. Where do you go? I went through that hallway and didn’t find you.”

  That couldn’t be right. The other end of the hall was the kitchen, which led to a pantry. He hadn’t gone that far. They should’ve found him.

  He struggled to his feet. He needed to see what was on the other side of that tunnel again. Only, Ryse would kill him if he left her.

  “Where did you search for me?”

  “The lounge. Then a series of, what looked like, guest bedrooms,” Nuall answered in a tart voice.

  That was wrong.

  “I followed that tunnel into the kitchen and a pantry.” He held up the jar. “This followed me out.”

  “What nonsense are you spewing?” Nuall asked. “The kitchen is that way.” She pointed to the left wing.

  The jar left his hand. Ryse had taken it.

  “There is a demon trapped in here.”

  She turned the jar over, examining it.

  “I thought so. Those symbols are wards to keep demons in. Probably, old powerful demons have been imprisoned in here,” Cyl said.

  She passed the jar from in hand to the other.

  “It’s warm,” she continued. “They aren’t evil.”

  His sister was amazing. He wished, though, she would spend more time with other demons and less time alone in the library listening to the books talk to her.

  “Let’s see this kitchen,” Uryl said.

  There was no kitchen. They had walked through the passageway. It opened to a lounge surrounded by floor to ceiling empty wooden bookcases and couches fit for only one person. A fireplace large enough to sleep in sat at the back of the room. A cornered off area that looked like a bar stood off to the side. The light fixtures were as lethal looking—like the previous owners were hoping guests would fall and impale themselves. He had never known a period of architecture were people enjoyed pointed and spiked fixtures.

  He knew this pl
ace. For some reason, he remembered everything in red.

  “This room is famous.” Nuall said as she walked to the fireplace. “You remember the story in our books. Humans have had the habit of summoning and ensnaring demons for centuries. Somehow, a group of humans managed to get the name of a high-ranking demon and ripped her from her home into a room in the human’s world. She wasn’t happy about it. She returned home but vanished two days later along with her entire household—nine siblings, two parents, a host of servants and some visiting relatives. According to the story, she wasn’t someone who could or would disappear. We still don’t know what happened to her. There are two versions of the story. This room was where the humans had summoned her. In another, this was the last place her family had gathered. ”

  School books taught Valent Devdan’s story as a way of making students practice warding against humans summoning them. The Antuns never had this problem because anti-summoning wards were built into the family mark. Nuall used to become incorporeal for no reason several times a week due to human summoning. She got tired of the interruptions and had a ward tattooed across her back. Wards were expensive. Most people, when they felt themselves being summoned, would start chanting- some used their hands to create protection symbols.

  The Devdan family disappearance was the reason demons started anti-summoning practices.

  Uryl took the jar from Ryse. “Everyone believed the Devdans had been trapped by a human. What if they are trapped here?”

  “Can we walk back to the fact that this is no longer a kitchen,” Cyl said.

  This room was interesting, but it had been a kitchen not that long ago.

  “Do not say I am making things up. I have that jar as proof,” Cyl continued.

  Uryl handed the jar back to Ryse.

  “This house is not our problem. We can either sit in one of Ryse’s circle until morning or we leave now and fight whatever demons come after us.”

  ‘What delightful choices,” Nuall mumbled.

  Uryl glared at her. “Not helping.”

  She wasn’t. Nuall had never been put in a situation where she had to choose from two unappealing options.

  “So far, nothing has happened to us,” Cyl said. “Ryse has been safe inside her circle.”

  “But, this house has made a living by eating demons,” Nuall countered.

  Fair point.

  “We had been walking well into the night before taking refuge in here. We should go outside to check how long until daylight. Then, we can make our decision.”

  Uryl, as always, came up with the most reasonable option. At least it got them moving.

  The tunnel led to another grand hallway. This was getting old.

  “I read about demons possessing house and playing with the arrangements of the rooms. I am not getting trapped here.” Nuall lifted her foot and threw it forward. She kicked through the wall.

  Darkness sat on the other side. He couldn’t smell anything. If that was outside, he should’ve been able to smell the forest, water, dirt, other demons. The darkness was empty.

  Nuall lifted her foot to step through. Uryl gripped her shoulder, pulling her back. He grabbed the jar from Ryse and dropped it out of the hole.

  Nothing happened.

  They waited.

  No sound of glass hitting ground.

  “Are we trapped in here?” Nuall said.

  Uryl stepped back. “Looks like it.”

  A figured moved in his side vision. Cyl whipped his head around.

  A male with dark brown skin and short deep red hair stretched his arms over his head then across his chest.

  “I missed having a body.”

  Uryl threw Ryse behind him.

  “You were in that jar.”

  The male didn’t answer. He walked in circles.

  “This prison is not as big as I expected. I guess everything seems big if you’re seeing it from the jar.”

  Nuall stepped forward. The male faced them. Only demons in human stories had deep all black eyes. They didn’t exist in their world. At least, Cyl had thought they didn’t.

  The demon’s eye had only one color. Black.

  He wore form fitting pants and shirt with a wavy silver design running across the fabric. His ankle-length coat was made of some material Cyl wasn’t familiar with. The gray fabric shone as though it had been polished. It made the light blue lining glow. It didn’t look heavy enough to be anything but decoration. No one wore their coats that long anymore. Demons avoided harsh outfits like these. This was the way humans portrayed them. The finger sized silver blade around his neck didn’t help. He looked like someone playing a demon.

  “I’ve had a few modern demons pass my jar. I never cared for the fashion. You look too human.”

  He vanished. A hand rested on Cyl’s shoulder. He jump forward. The male had appeared behind him.

  “Thank you for carrying me. It took me ages to learn how to move my jar.” He turned to Uryl. “And thank you for throwing me into the abyss. The power in the hole burned off the wards. It was supposed to kill me, but it only left a few scars.”

  “Will you answer our questions now?” Nuall asked.

  “I suggest you move away from the hole. The darkness isn’t as empty as it smells.”

  The darkness moved like oil as it poured into the house. Sometimes it dropped in a shapeless mass. Other times, it took the form of hands reaching for them.

  They backed up.

  It smelled terrible. Finally a scent. The darkness smelled like decaying bodies.

  The male walked down the hall. Uryl followed. Cyl, Nuall and Ryse had no choice but to step in line behind them.

  The male walked with his hands clasped behind his back. He moved as though everything was right with the world. He examined the house like an excited tourist.

  “Don’t like that room,” the demon mumbled.

  Cyl peered in as they passed. It was the plainest room he had ever seen.

  “What’s wrong with it?” Nuall asked.

  Lights flicked on as they passed and turned off behind them.

  “Interesting, I can still use my power without much effort,” the demon mumbled again.

  Cyl caught Uryl’s eye. The demon was talking to himself. Would he do this the entire time? That would be annoying.

  “I like this one. It suits them.”

  The demon led them into a bedroom. It wasn’t as extravagant as the rest of the house. The walls were white. The floor didn’t have any carpet. The small bed was the only piece of furniture. This room was for someone unloved. It didn’t have any windows. The male leaned on the wall. This suited them?

  “Why this room?” Nuall asked.

  The demons rubbed his chin. “Bed looks sturdy. Room enough to watch and be out of the way. A good place to stay if demons decided to take the females.”

  Cyl blinked. The beast hadn’t just said he picked this room because it was a perfect place for Nuall and Ryse to be assaulted in while he watched.

  Nuall growled. Uryl gripped the back of her shirt and hauled her back. Cyl grabbed Ryse’s hand and moved closer to the door.

  “How about we start with a name?” Uryl said. “Yours.”

  Leave it to Uryl to think ahead. They knew now they couldn’t trust this monster. Still, they needed him. Cyl would never let anything touch his sister. Nuall would gut any male who looked at her wrong.

  “Ozias Grey. Feels nice to say my name out loud.”

  “How long have you been trapped?”

  “King Nazar had just died.”

  Nuall stopped fighting Uryl’s grip. “King Nazar? That was over seven-hundred years ago.”

  Ozais cocked his head. “Only seven-hundred years. Felt longer. Your names.”

  Uryl eyed each of them and nodded.

  “Cyl Antun.”

/>   “Uryl and Ryse Antun”

  Uryl usually spoke for Ryse when strangers were involved.

  “Nuall Otav.”

  Ozais rubbed his chin. “They smell powerful. They will give us a good show.” He said under his breath. Ozais pointed to Uryl. “Roll up your sleeve,” he commanded in an unnecessarily loud voice.

  Uryl didn’t move. He was not someone to be ordered around.

  “Please.” Ozais said it as though it caused him pain.

  Uryl rolled up his sleeve.

  “Antun is an old family. Only famous for their mark. Yours is different than any I came across. You.” He pointed to Cyl. “Let me see your mark.”

  Cyl folded his arms.

  Ozais sighed. “I am tired of placating your pride. We’ll get nowhere if you make me show respect at every turn.”

  Uryl tipped his head. Cyl rolled up his sleeve.

  “Interesting. Otav is an old family too. I’d have thought they have died out by now. They were a prideful bunch who were known for marrying their siblings.”

  Nuall jabbed her finger at him. “Do not sully my family name.”

  “What reason would I have to lie?”

  Good point.

  “It is odd,” Ryse said. “You talk like we do.”

  Another valid point. Cyl had spent hours struggling through text written hundreds of years ago. He didn’t know how his ancestors understood each other.

  “The demons trapped here can talk to each other. I wanted to communicate with others who were imprisoned after I was, but we couldn’t understand each other. So, I listened and practiced. All the demons trapped here now talk in the same manner.”

  The door creaked. A doll with glowing white skin walked in. Its porcelain head was shaped like a skeleton. The eyes had been picked out. The mouth carved open. A golden light showed through the holes in its face. The brown hair piled high on top of its head was too neat for such a distasteful thing. The arms and legs were the same length. It fixed them with those eerie eyes. The legs jerked forward. It moved like the body was new and it still didn’t know how to control it. It dropped on all fours. The body was a table with eyes. The head rotated at a painfully slow pace. It walked as though each movement caused it considerable pain.