Death and Honor: Book 1 of 2 by James Wisher Page A

has a door with a lock, and that lock has a key.”
    “That’s what was in the chest, the key to this prison.”
    “A fragment of it, yes. After the door was sealed the key fell into four pieces. Each piece a fragment of one of the four paladins’ souls. When they died forming the prison, each paladin had a squire who took a key fragment and swore to protect it and eventually to train a successor. Over time three of the protectors have fallen and the key fragments taken by minions of the sorcerer, demons and their human servants. The fragment you recovered is the final piece of the key.”
    “How did you come by it?” Jeremiah couldn’t picture this slender young woman as a squire to a knight.
    “I reclaimed it from one of the demon’s servants, an alchemist that has been infused with demonic energy. That’s why I’m so far from home. The Oakfather sent me a vision of this man claiming the key. I had to get it from him before he turned it over to his master.”
    Jeremiah got up and paced. “So what you’re telling me is that a demon killed Alzado to keep him from translating the scroll, but what they really want is a piece of some magical key that’s in the chest I took from the leader of the bandits.”
    “Basically, yes, the guardian believes there are no more than three or four demons operating in the area of Lord’s Way, but they may have many times that many humans under their control. The Heavenly Host has no angels in Lord’s Way and only two infused humans to try to stop the demons.”
    “Infused humans,” Jeremiah sat back down. “You said something about that earlier. What exactly does it mean?”
    “Ordinary humans can’t do magic, the closest we’ve gotten is alchemy, but that just alters mundane substances. True magic is the realm of angels and demons. These beings can infuse a portion of their power into human allies allowing them to perform feats of magic.”
    “Two human’s serving the angles, that’s you and the guardian, right?”
    She nodded. “I was granted my powers by the Oakfather, and the guardian received his powers from the Bright Shield. We’ve both done what we could to slow the demons and their servants but neither of us received much in the way of offensive powers.”
    “What powers did you receive?”
    “As a servant of the Oakfather I can speak to animals and see through their eyes, I can also fade from sight, but only when I’m in a natural setting.”
    Jeremiah raised an eyebrow at that.
    She smiled and slowly disappearing. “Told you so,” her voice came from empty air.
    He shook his head. “That’s amazing.”
    She reappeared, still sitting on the block. “It’s a useful trick, nothing more.”
    “I thought you said angles granted these powers, the Oakfather is a god, isn’t he?”
    “That is a common misunderstanding. There are no gods as you think of them. The beings most refer to as gods are just the most powerful of the angels and demons. In truth most are so powerful it isn’t inappropriate to refer to them as gods.”
    “So how many of you are there?”
    She looked into the fire and shook her head. “Not nearly enough. Those fused with demonic power outnumber us four or more to one. We’re forced to use stealth and trickery to hold them at bay.”
    “Why don’t the angles infuse more people, even the odds?”
    “It’s not so simple. To gain demonic power all you need to do is be willing to sell your soul. An angel will only grant power to one it is convinced will use it for the good of humankind. That list is far too short.” She paused, head cocked. “Did you hear—” An explosion rocked the clearing. She lunged forward and shoved him away from the fire just as a ball of flame shot into the clearing. It detonated right where they’d been sitting, the heat searing Jeremiah lungs.
    “What the hell?” Jeremiah said
    Kiera grabbed his tunic and yanked him toward the trees. They backpedaled as fast as they could. Another fireball