[Anita Blake Collection] - Strange Candy by Laurell K. Hamilton Page B

sparkled like a sorcerer. It was a good time of year to bluff.
    The gate opened, and he called after us, “May you run afoul of a black healer.”
    I answered back over my shoulder, “And may the next wizard you torment blow your head off.”
    Forest stretched on either side of the road. The birds and beasts didn’t know they had crossed a border. In truth, it looked much like the wild lands where we had spent the winter, except for the road.
    Farmland opened on either side of the road, fighting back the trees; the smell of fresh-plowed earth was strong and good. The soil was a rich black. I felt an urge to crumble the dirt in my hands and feel its growing power, but I resisted. Ulliam danced nervously under me.
    Forest returned, hugging each side of the road. But no blade of grass, no wildflower dared to encroach upon the black road. It was late in the day when we heard a loud cracking noise, like a cannonball striking wood. The horses pranced in fright, and even Ulliam shivered under me. There was a tearing sound, as if the earth itself were being pulled apart. We rode cautiously toward the sounds.
    A wide path had been freshly cleared from the forest. Trees withjagged trunks lay in heaps on their sides. Stumps lay in a second heap, earth-covered roots bare to the sky. Stooping to pull another great stump from the ground was a demon. His skin was night-black. Muscles bulged along his back and arms. His ribbed bat ears curled tight with his effort as he strained upward. The roots ripped free of the earth. He put the stump in the pile with the rest. He caught sight of us on the road, and we all stared at each other. A silver necklace glittered round his neck. The cold eye of a diamond the size of a hen’s egg winked out from it. From here it glowed with magic.
    Celandine looked at me. Was this our demon’s help, or was the token inside the demon? I hoped it wasn’t the latter. I didn’t see myself slitting the gullet of a greater demon.
    A man stepped out of the trees. He was thin, and a scraggly beard edged his pointed chin. He said, “Be on your way. You’re distracting him.”
    â€œI am sorry, good farmer, but I have never seen a greater demon before.”
    A look of incredulity passed over his face. “You swear by Loth’s bloody talons that you’ve never seen a greater demon?”
    â€œI swear.”
    He smiled then, friendly. “Well, you have started out with a greater demon named Krakus. He’s been ensorcelled to the farmers hereabout for over fifty years. He’s cleared most of the fields along this road.”
    I stared at the demon, and there was something in his smooth yellow eyes that said hatred. A hatred deeper than anything I could feel.
    â€œGood farmer, are you never afraid of him breaking free?”
    â€œNo, the enchantment on him is strong enough.”
    â€œWhat would happen if he ever was freed?”
    The farmer looked back at the demon, the smile gone. “Why, he’d kill me and everyone else he’d worked for.”
    â€œWhere do you keep the demon when he’s not working? Does he go back to the pits from which he came?”
    The man found the question very funny. “Why, you don’t know anything about demons. An ensorcelled demon can’t leave the place he’s been put, just can’t leave. We keep him chained at night near where he’s working.”
    I shivered under the gaze of those sullen yellow eyes. “I hope you keep a guard on him at night, farmer.”
    â€œOh we do, but nothing to worry about. He’ll still be pulling stumps fifty years from now.” The farmer walked back into the cleared area and slapped the demon lightly on the arm. “No, we couldn’t lose such a good worker. Get back to work, Krakus.” The demon turned without a word or a snarl and stood before a full-grown tree. With one gesture and a flash of sorcery he felled the tree, blasting it off