Chapter 12: Ruled by Madness Chapter 14: Two Faces of Evil
Chapter 13: River of Regrets
We packed up and left early in the morning, travelling more directly east so as to come around the mountains and then straight north into Rausten. It would be a week’s journey.
The townsfolk had been busy; we’d received several donations of food and even gold during the night. I was touched, and for several days the thought of my upcoming responsibilities weighed heavily on me.
The monsters steered clear of us for many days. I think Jehanna was too hot for them, even though we were more in the cooler, scrubby northern part of it. The Grado Army, too, was in disarray and scattered through the land. I was certain that Ly- the Demon King still commanded an organized part of the army, perhaps several parts. But I didn’t know where they were. I would trust in the scouts.
We found them – or perhaps they found us – by the banks of Jehanna’s Narube River. I was with Eirika, talking about the route for the day, when Innes butted in. Well, I guess he didn’t butt in. Since I had turned command of the Frelian Army back over to him, he’d been part of our tactical council, Seth, Innes, Syrene, and me. It actually felt pretty good, having several sharp minds on the same problem.
Anyway, we’d just been going along, when Innes finally informed us: “I sent the Frelian Army ahead to clear a path for us.” I glanced at Seth and he nodded; he’d known. Why hadn’t I known? I needed to know these things…
Before I could get mad, Tana squeaked from in the sky. “Innes! They’ve been routed! I can only see Syrene’s regiments left! They’ve got civilians with them. Enemy forces are approaching!”
I sighed slightly. What good was having a foreguard or scouts if the pegasus knights in the main army were just as good?
“Calm down, little sister!” Innes ordered. “We’ll have to join with Syrene as soon as possible.” No kidding.
But before I could even open my mouth to get us moving, a hole appeared in the air in front of us, filled with darkness, and Lyon stepped out.
“Lyon!” Eirika cried, riding forward a pace. Her voice was eager, anxious. “Where have you been all this time? Are you well?”
“Wait, Eirika,” I said, scowling. Things had been said, terrible things. “Lyon, we met recently in Grado, remember? Do you remember what you told me then?” Both Eirika and Lyon flinched. Those two really had been two of a kind. But Lyon was just acting, surely. It wasn’t him in there. It was the Demon King.
But his eyes looked so mournful. “Ephraim… why are you angry?”
I stared at him.
His voice was soft, hurt. That was the sensitive kid I’d always known. “I’ve so wanted to see you both… It’s been so long since I have… I saw Eirika in Jehanna, but I don’t remember meeting you…”
I paused. If this wasn’t an act… and it was pretty convincing if it was one… then Lyon was still in there, prisoner of the Demon King, and not yet dead. Dare I have hope?
“Ephraim!” Eirika rounded on me furiously.
“Eirika,” I cut her off, apologizing frantically. “I’m sorry. I thought- I thought- remember, we thought something was controlling Lyon when he told me he killed…”
She wasn’t listening. As usual. “Ephraim, there must be something wrong with you! Lyon is one of our dearest friends! Right, Lyon?”
“Yes, Eirika… Please…” Eirika dismounted as he reached out his hand to her. “Thank you.” Thank you? What was going on?
Even as I thought that, Lyon’s face contorted in pain and his body followed suit.
“Lyon?” Eirika asked, clearly about to abandon everything to comfort her friend.
I leapt off Lila and interjected myself between them. “Eirika, wait!” I still didn’t trust him, not even when he was in pain. Why was he in pain? What was going on?
“…Eirika…” Lyon grunted. “Run… get away… quickly… If you don’t… I… will surely… destroy you…” He tugged his own long lavender hair, and stretched one hand out, warding Eirika away. Good idea.
“Lyon!” Eirika never gave two figs for her safety. “I need to help you!”
“Princess Eirika!” Seth cried, perhaps a trace of his true feelings hidden in that cry. I was closer, though. I grabbed my sister around the waist, and just in time – she had been about to dash forward. What she thought she could do, I didn’t know. Not that Lyon was very strong physically; she could break any hold he put on her. And he outclassed us all in magic; we’d just have to trust that he didn’t blast us all where we stood. It would be difficult to dodge in this state, though…
“GO!!!” Lyon shouted, and then an inhuman shriek tore from his lips. It shuddered and writhed in the air, and even I flinched at the despair and pain and hatred in it.
And then he stood up straight-ish again, as if nothing had happened. “Hi, Ephraim, Eirika. Long time no see.” I knew it.
Eirika gasped.
All my suspicions had been confirmed. Whoever Lyon had been, he was not there now. The Demon King was the one who had plotted the downfall of Renais; murdered my father; spoke to me in Grado Keep. Lyon was the one who befriended us in our early teens; helped me with my homework; spoke to Eirika in Jehanna.
Stupid schizophrenia.
“Who are you?” I growled, even now not wanting to believe it. “Because you’re not Lyon.”
“Heh, I’m not Lyon? That’s rich.”
“Lyon would never betray us!” And Eirika spoke with me as one. “Not in a million years.”
It grimaced. “Fine. I’ve had my fun pretending to be human, but now I can be normal.” It grinned, and my stomach revolted. It was so wrong, seeing my old friend’s face… evil. His… its eyes were black instead of violet, an unnatural black that sucked the humanity from his face.
“Who are you?” I shouted.
“Do you truly not know? What a poorly educated prince.” I gritted my teeth. Was that an aspersion on how Lyon helped me with my homework? Bastard. “Think on the name of terror…”
“No!” Agreeing murmurs rose in the army behind me; I’d almost forgotten they were there.
“I guessed,” Eirika whispered. “The Demon King…”
“Full points, Princess,” it said, and grinned. I got the feeling it would be making patronizing or lecherous moves on her soon. “Oh, Lyon, Lyon… prince of misery… come out. Be not shy. I will make all of your darkest dreams come true. This body is mine to do what I please with… it is lost to you. I will kill Prince Ephraim and take Princess Eirika for my own.” Oh, no, he wouldn’t. Not if I had anything to say about it. “Is this not what you desire?”
I blinked and in that space of time, Lyon was back. “No! No!”
And I blinked again, and it was the Demon King. “Yes… you want this… I will accomplish it…” He vanished, leaving a few wisps of black glow that rapidly evaporated.
I let go of Eirika and seized my new lance. “Come on!” I shouted, and brandished it towards the north, where Syrene had been. “We have to find the Demon King and destroy him! Free Lyon!” For there was no doubt in my mind now that Lyon and the Demon King were in the same body, but separate as could be.
I glanced at Eirika for a moment, in concern. The things he had said to me, I could take – lots of people wanted to kill me – but she was more fragile…
Or not. She was beautiful, and men desired that beauty. I wasn’t surprised that Lyon loved her, even if it made me feel rather protective of her, not like how I felt about Seth loving her. Seth was a knight and a soldier and her equal in every way. I knew that if Lyon loved her, he loved her in a gentle, poetic way, the way he did everything. But to the Demon King, the purity of love couldn’t exist, so he twisted the sense into the blackest, most base feeling known to humanity.
But Eirika was stronger emotionally as well as physically than I really gave her credit for, I mused as I glanced at her, charging impetuously into battle at the head of the army, on her white steed, with Seth close at her side. She knew as well as I did that Lyon didn’t lust after her the way the Demon King claimed.
No, if it was trying to make us hate our friend, it was failing miserably at that.
My brain wanted to go off on a grumbling digression on how typical it was for the Demon King to want to kill the man and rape the woman, but I soon got distracted. It had been a long time since I fought horseback with a lance. None of the chargers in our army had really appealed to me when I was separated from Lila, but now he was with me again, I had to remember how to do this…
There were the civilians Syrene was protecting. I grabbed one, a little girl, and directed soldiers to take out the nearby enemy druids giving Syrene’s knights a hard time. Eirika had picked up a little boy and was heading for the van to place him in safety. I followed her. I wouldn’t be gone long. Innes and Seth could deal with it for a few moments…
I wasn’t wrong in that, and as I looked around, I had to say I was pretty satisfied with the field. Our soldiers were clearly harder, stronger, faster than the weary Grado troops. I gave orders to prevent it from turning into a massacre. That would have been ungentlemanly.
Eirika fought with a strange single-minded fierceness that almost gave me pause, but then I remembered – she was worrying about Lyon. That was all that mattered to her. Show vulnerability to a girl and she’d be all over you…
There was a castle to the east. I wondered if Lyo- the Demon King would be there, and issued orders accordingly.
There he was, standing beneath the castle gate. The castle itself looked to be abandoned. Lyon and the Demon King had no tactical sense between them.
“Stay here,” I ordered the army. “I’ll go talk to him. Maybe fight him.”
“No!” Eirika cried. “You’re not going alone, Brother! He’s my friend, too!”
“And I must come,” Seth said. I heard more agreement from the army.
I sighed. “No. If you all come, he’ll rip you apart. Lyon never demonstrated any destructive magic in front of us, but this is the Demon King here now, and he probably knows lots of destructive magic. So stay. Back. No arguments! Not even from you, Eirika!”
“But…”
“No buts!” I cantered off before anyone could change their mind. Behind me I heard a feminine growl, and looked back to see Eirika with me. I glared at her. Seth had made a single step forwards, his duty to protect us warring with his duty to obey my commands.
“You’re so stupid,” I told Eirika, and she glared back at me.
“I’m not letting you fight him alone. Or even talk to him alone! I can try to bring him back, Ephraim! He loves me. He’ll try for my sake.”
I grumbled under my breath. “Fine. But if it comes to a fight… take care of yourself. And do try to stay alive. I want to see you pop out some little red-headed babies later in life.”
She flushed crimson, and for a moment I thought she was going to hit me. Oh, crap, wait, I suddenly hoped she wasn’t thinking of leaving Seth for Lyon. No, she wouldn’t do that to anyone. This was going to be the most awkward love triangle I’d ever witnessed, and I’d unwillingly witnessed some awkward things in peacetime.
There he was. I wondered if he’d heard any of that.
“Lyon!” Eirika called. “Please, come back to us! I don’t want to fight you!”
Seeing that creature there, wearing the face of our friend as a mask, kindled my own anger. “What have you done with our friend? Answer me!!”
It frowned. “Pitiful girl, wretched man, do you not realize? Lyon is dead. I ate his soul. Oh, it was tasty. I’m still saving the last bite.” It laughed, and Eirika shuddered, her face white.
“Oh, Eirika,” I said, trying to give her what support I could. But my rage got the better of me. “You filth!” I snapped at the Demon King. “Stealing our friend! I know you are using his body, but I’ll kill you anyway! Come on, Eirika. If Lyon’s not there, then…”
“No, I won’t kill him,” she said, her voice hoarse with unshed tears.
“Lyon, is this truly the girl you loved?” Its voice was taunting, and I didn’t know if it was possible to be more angry. “I shall tear her to pieces with my magic!”
That set her off. She charged forward, and I was a close second, and even as black ice began to assault us, her sword sliced cleanly through his shoulder. I got him in the gut, but even as Sigmund began to pierce him, he warped away.
There was a shriek from further back, at the edge of the army. We turned and galloped back.
There was the young blonde recruit, a child whose name I’d forgotten… Amelia. She had been thrown from her horse, which spooked because there was the Demon King, clawing his way from under a bush, blood soaking his robes at both stomach and shoulder. Amelia’s companion, Forde’s young brother Franz, was at her side, sword drawn. He was a brave kid, even though he couldn’t hope to match the Demon King.
The Demon King growled, cursed incoherently, and vanished.
“We’ll find you!” I shouted at the place he had been. “We won’t let you get away!” I turned to the army, waiting with bated breath. “Everyone, find a partner and search everywhere! I cannot allow him to desecrate my friend’s body any longer!”