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.Isabelle screamed as the poison struck her, but her whip shot out with blinding speed, slicing the demon in half.It thudded to the deck in two pieces, then vanished.Jace darted toward Isabelle just as she slumped forward.Her whip slipped from her hand as he caught her, cradling her awkwardly against him.He could see how much of the poison had gotten on her: It had splashed mostly onto her jacket, but some of it spattered her throat, and where it touched, the skin burned and sizzled.Barely audibly, she whimpered—Isabelle, who never showed pain."Give her to me." It was Alec, dropping his weapon as he hurried to help his sister.He took Isabelle from Jace's arms and lowered her gently to the deck.Kneeling beside her, stele in hand, he looked up at Jace."Hold off whatever comes while I heal her."Jace couldn't drag his eyes away from Isabelle.Blood streamed from her neck down onto her jacket, soaking her hair."We have to get her off this boat," he said roughly."If she stays here—""She'll die?" Alec was tracing the tip of his stele as gently as he could over his sister's throat."We're all going to die.There are too many of them.We're being slaughtered.The Inquisitor deserved to die for this—this is all her fault.""A Scorpios demon tried to kill me," Jace said, wondering why he was saying it, why he was defending someone he hated."The Inquisitor got in its way.Saved my life.""She did?" Astonishment was clear in Alec's tone."Why?""I guess she decided I was worth saving.""But she always—" Alec broke off, his expression changing to one of alarm."Jace, behind you—two of them—"Jace whirled.Two demons were approaching: a Ravener, with its alligator-like body and serrated teeth, its scorpion tail curling forward over its back, and a Drevak, its pale white maggot-flesh gleaming in the moonlight.Jace heard Alec, behind him, suck in an alarmed breath; then Samandiriel left his hand, cutting a silvery path through the air.It sliced through the Ravener's tail, just below the pendulous poison sac at the end of its long stinger.The Ravener howled.The Drevak turned, confused—and got the poison sac full in the face.The sac broke open, drenching the Drevak in venom.It emitted a single garbled scream and crumpled, its head eaten away to the bone.Blood and poison splattered the deck as the Drevak vanished.The Ravener, blood gushing from its tail stump, dragged itself a few more paces forward before it, too, disappeared.Jace bent and picked up Samandiriel gingerly.The metal deck was still sizzling where the Ravener's poison had spilled on it, pocking it with tiny spreading holes like cheesecloth."Jace." Alec was on his feet, holding a pale but upright Isabelle by the arm."We need to get Isabelle out of here.""Fine," Jace said."You get her out of here.I'm going to deal with that.""With what?" Alec said, bewildered."With that," Jace said again, and pointed.Something was coming toward them through the smoke and flames, something huge, humped, and massive.Easily five times the size of any other demon on the ship, it had an armored body, many-limbed, each appendage ending in a spiked chitinous talon.Its feet were elephant feet, huge and splayed.It had the head of a giant mosquito, Jace saw as it came closer, complete with insectile eyes and a dangling blood-red feeding tube.Alec sucked in his breath."What the hell is it?"Jace thought for a moment."Big," he said finally."Very.""Jace—"Jace turned and looked at Alec, and then at Isabelle.Something inside him told him that this might very well be the last time he ever saw them, and yet he still wasn't afraid, not for himself.He wanted to say something to them, maybe that he loved them, that either one of them was worth more to him than a thousand Mortal Instruments and the power they could bring.But the words wouldn't come."Alec," he heard himself say."Get Isabelle to the ladder, now, or we'll all die."Alec met his gaze and held it for a moment.Then he nodded and pushed Isabelle, still protesting, toward the railing.He helped her up onto it and then over, and with immense relief Jace saw her dark head disappearing as she began to descend the ladder.And now you, Alec, he thought.Go.But Alec wasn't going.Isabelle, now out of view, cried out sharply as her brother jumped back down from the railing, onto the deck of the ship.His guisarme lay on the deck where he'd dropped it; he seized it now and moved to stand next to Jace and face the demon as it came.He never got that far.The demon, bearing down on Jace, made a sudden swerve and rushed toward Alec, its bloody feeding tube whipping back and forth hungrily.Jace spun to block Alec, but the metal deck he was standing on, rotted with poison, crumbled underneath him.His foot plunged through and he fell hard against the deck.Alec had time to shout Jace's name, and then the demon was on him.He stabbed at it with his guisarme, plunging the sharp end of it deep into the demon's flesh.The creature reared back, screaming a weirdly human scream, black blood spraying from the wound.Alec retreated, reaching for another weapon, just as the demon's talon whipped around, knocking him to the deck.Then its feeding tube wrapped around him.Somewhere, Isabelle was screaming.Jace struggled desperately to pull his leg from the deck; sharp edges of metal stabbed into him as he jerked himself free and staggered to his feet.He raised Samandiriel.Light blazed forth from the seraph blade, bright as a falling star.The demon flinched back, making a low hissing sound.It relaxed its grip on Alec and for a moment Jace thought it might be going to let him go.Then it whipped its head back with a sudden, startling speed and flung Alec with immense force.Alec hit the blood-slippery deck hard, skidded across it—and fell, with a single hoarse cry, over the side of the ship.Isabelle was screaming Alec's name; her screams were like spikes being driven into Jace's ears.Samandiriel was still blazing in his hand.Its light illuminated the demon stalking toward him, its insectile gaze bright and predatory, but all he could see was Alec; Alec falling over the side of the ship, Alec drowning in the black water far below.He thought he tasted seawater in his own mouth, or it might have been blood.The demon was almost on him; he raised Samandiriel in his hand and flung it—the demon squealed, a high, agonized sound—and then the deck gave way beneath Jace with a screech of crumbling metal and he fell into darkness.19Dies Irae"You're wrong," Clary said, but her voice held no conviction [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]