Demons End (Tremble Island) (5 page)

Lion had no wish to get involved with this dispute over the little one. Rane would do more than wring his balls of their seed if he chose wrongly. She had become overly fond of the child in the short time they had been at Tremble. Even Nord was watching the Sea Singer with suspicion as the woman stared at Wensel with hatred in her eyes. It appeared that she was correct and the woman had designs for taking the little one.

“You will take the offer or take your family away from Tremble. It is obvious to me and all present here that you have more than a passing interest in the child. Unless we are missing something, or you have not been completely honest about your intentions. The notion that you felt no need to inform my Betas of your presence does not set well with me, nor does your attitude. Tremble has always sheltered those deserving and willing to put their special abilities available for the good of all. You have made serious accusations, yet this woman has protected the child for two years on her own with no harm befalling the little one.

“I have made my decision. There will be visitation here at the castle in the park. There is a large pond, so any water skills may be practiced there. If Aria goes into the water with you at anytime, your son will remain on the shoreline. I will set a guard on these sessions to insure my orders are carried out. Any attempt to kidnap the child will be in direct opposition to my edict in this matter, and you will lose your son as punishment for your actions. You will be hunted and the girl will be returned to her guardian.”

Wensel knew the Siren Alura was not happy with the Lord’s decision. She was in complete agreement with him and was gratified with his words. She could relax now, Alura would not risk losing her son for the chance to play mother to someone else’s child. She nodded her head to the Lord and took Aria from the room. Aria was hungry and she needed to think on this visitation.

Chapter Four

Leroi paced in his quarters deep within his mountainous lair. Old Pudding Bottom could not even get the direct message he had been told correct. He tasked the man to find the one with the siren’s call. He was told to leave her alone, unmolested from his normal treatment of guests of honor during the yearly celebration. His vision had shown him a beautiful female. In his dreams they fought and tangled together in a lovers’ embrace. She was a fearsome woman, with the darkest of blue eyes until she allowed the banshee to come out to play with his Demon. He dreamt of her many times over the last months, and wanted her with a very powerful need. Part of his dream showed her with a golden siren. He had nothing against sirens, they had a few very fine qualities. How Borland could mistake his wish for a grown woman, believing the Prince of Demons End would request a child was a new low for the lord. For the past three years Borland and his minion vultures had tortured various people and shifters in the name of appeasing the demon, the truth was that Leroi never touched one of those unfortunates. They were in no way evil enough for him to want their souls, no matter the evil Borland heaped upon their deaths. Yeah, Borland and Flitch would be his by the end of the moon cycle.

He needed to take action of some sort. If he took the lord and even half of those that followed his example, it would leave the Hall of Care empty of an Overlord. He did not relish the idea of being trussed in golden chains and dropped into the bottom of a ship bound for who knew where, for ridding the island of a man that should have been replaced after he murdered his first spouse. His mind was made up.

He pulled one of the bats from his branch hanging from the stone cavern’s ceiling. The lazy bastard was not happy, but he knew better than to ignore Leroi. “I have a message for you to deliver to Lord Tremble at the Castle Tremble. You have three days to complete your journey and return to me with his response. Do you understand?” At the nod from the winged bloodsucker, he continued with the missive. Finishing with, “I will wait for his direction in the matter. For a short while.” The large nightwing nodded and took flight.

His hesitancy did not sit well within his being. He was not afraid of the Lord of Tremble, yet he did not wish to anger the man. Balance, that is what he was taught before his friend was placed aboard the ship bound for the mainland. Diplomacy and balance of species. Koler had forgotten the diplomacy ingredient of survival. In a cavern full of souls, he was still alone. He deserved companionship. If Koler had been here, they would have found one mate and shared her between them. One female could only birth one demon child in seventy-eight years. It had been so long since a demon child had been born on Tremble Island that he, Leroi, was the youngest demon amongst the six left on Tremble. Koler had promised to return. That was months ago, and he held little hope to see him again. He was truly alone and it weighed heavily upon his shoulders.

He shrugged the melancholy away. Perhaps he should visit his friend, Pudding Bottom, and rattle the living wreck of the man even more. The idea of tormenting the man made him grin. Within seconds, he was invading the lord’s chambers. He materialized by the wardrobe. The sight that met his eyes made him want to laugh.

Flitch was on his knees next to the bed, and Borland was on his knees on the bed with his fleshy milky white ass being tongued with Flitch’s mouth sealed to his rear hole. The captain of the guard had one hand fondling his lord’s small prick and balls. Flitch stood and began sliding his prick into Borland’s hole, as the coward begged him for more. It was too much for Leroi to watch without laughing aloud in the room. Borland straightened up abruptly as Flitch was bending over to gain ground inside of the wide bottomed hole. Borland’s head made contact with Flitch’s nose hard, and that sprouted a bloody mess over Lord Pudding’s bottom and back.

Demonic laughter echoed off the walls as the two men attempted to stem the blood and pull covering over their naked bodies. Leroi laughed so hard that he could not speak, this was much better than a simple picture of a soul being tortured in the Demon's pit. It took him moments to concentrate enough to leave the room. His merriment still echoed in his victims’ brains long after he was gone.

He rested, wishing for someone to share the story of this night with. He was bound to this small territory, or he would search for his companion on his own. There must be some way for him to gain access to the island so he could find her without relying on creatures such as Borland and his ilk. Depending on the answer he received from Tremble, he might put the question to the Lord himself.

*****

Preparations were made for the trip, and the men were deciding how many soldiers, and which ones that needed to be included in the skirmish that would surely take place. Mouse was going, as was Wolf. The lumbering Trundel would be accompanying them too. He was a newer find amongst the species of shifters that had been discovered on the island. He was purported to be the last of his kind, and one of the original animals on Tremble. Lion and Nord had discovered Trundel during one of their patrols. The mammoth grey creature had barely missed the brothers’ sleeping place as he stomped through the forest. If several of the soldiers with them had not yelled and warned them, there was every possibility that Rane would have been a widow, made so by them accidently being stomped into the ground. Trundle was not the smartest of men, but he was the strongest in either form. With the huge white tusks and his oddly shaped trunk, he was a force to be reckoned with. Soldiers had taken refuge in the long hair that draped over his tough grey hide during storms that would have frozen them to death without shelter. Spears bounced from the creature’s skin, and the only time anyone had seen him vulnerable was when a child was frightened by his trumpeting. The child’s screams made the big grey being cry large tears.

Four of Amazon Warriors from Hawk’s Nest were to meet them at the halfway point in their journey. Everytime he thought of Hawk, he felt pride in the man. He had taken an impossible situation and turned it into a surprising success. The males refused to defend the Hall, so when a handful of women showed up for the job, Hawk trained them and others like them. Now they were an elite band of soldiers and Lion could not wait to see them in action.

There was a blood-curdling scream and shouts of outrage coming from the main gathering room of the castle, and they dropped their list to run toward the commotion. They stopped inside the entryway when they saw a large brown figure collapsed on the floor of the room, dragging air into its winged body as if it had dropped exhausted from the sky. The description was apt. The creature gained its bearings and was heard to mutter, “Message for Lord of Tremble Castle.”

Nord stepped to the creature and asked if it needed help to rise. He bent and picked the flat faced nightwing up before turning back the way he and Lion came running from. He knew creatures like this. They inhabited the caves and dark places on the island. If he carried a message for Lion, it must be important for him to have flown in the bright sunlight. He sat the messenger in a chair and the brothers waited for the beady eyes and mouth filled with needle teeth to open to speak. Finally the creature gained enough strength to share his master’s words.

“Greetings to Lord Tremble from the Prince of Demons, Leroi. I am to request your assistance in a matter of the Lord of Morlien Hall. Leroi is tired of finding innocent souls dropped at his door after Lord Pudding, er, Lord Borland has visited great evil upon their bodies. The lord believes that his actions will reflect his evil and appease the demon.” He shook his pointed head and yawned. “Pardon, my Lord, I have flown from yester afternoon nonstop, and will be returning as soon as I finish giving you the information, and returning with your answer.” Nord nodded and the message continued.

“It has come to my master’s attention that the lord has been hunting a child for his latest bout of evil. Leroi says that if the man harms an innocent child, he will kill your Lord Borland, his minion, Flitch, any followers that are a party to such, and deal with your wrath after the fact.

“Let me add something to this at the risk of rising your ire. If you had not removed Koler from the island, my master would not be so overrun with blackened souls. The evil ones would meet the demon sooner than what is happening. The pit is full of those that are the worst offenders, but my master mourns his inability to deal with all of those that are still alive and waiting their turn at his mercy. The Prince has honor, you know, he will await your decision for my timely return. Lord Borland and his right hand must be stopped.” He bowed his head at each of the lords before him and closed his eyes, falling instantly asleep.

“I am being taken to task for removing a disagreeable demon, because he is needed to keep the balance of good and evil?” He looked to Nord and saw his brother’s frown. “If the bastard had defended himself, or given an explanation for his actions, we would not be discussing this. In all likelihood we would be finding a new lord to replace Borland and enjoy the fall months at home by a warm fire, instead of being forced to travel with an army and a mate that is plotting her next attack on our manly body parts.”

Nord could put one misery out of their hands, thankfully the ship that carried Koler was lying in the harbor at the foot of the cliff where Tremble Castle was built. It had dropped anchor this morning, and the captain told Nord that they had not been allowed to leave the ship at their port of call on the mainland, once the inspectors had discovered Koler lying in the hull of the ship. The demon was within reach. If they could get him to speak civilly, and come to an understanding, perhaps he could be released to assist Leroi in the gathering of blackened souls. The brothers tried so hard to maintain the balance of beings, that it sometimes escaped them when the lines between balance and need blurred.

He grinned at Lion. “Come, brother, let us take this problem one step at a time. A surprise awaits you at the shipyard, one I believe you will welcome.”

*****

Koler was not surprised to see the Lords of Tremble entering the hull of the ship. After the last two ports that had refused to allow him to be ported onto their land, he felt the odds of being returned to his home were good. All he needed was transport to the island, and he would resume his life. He wondered how Leroi had fared in his absence, but knew the boy had done as much as he could to maintain the balance of good and evil. After months at sea, he had learned a thing or two himself.

One thing was that he could not abide saltwater. The stuff burned and sizzled his skin. The second thing he learned was that he had been both stupid and arrogant in dealing with the Lords of Tremble. He considered them to be his equals and not his Liege Lords. He refused to state his reasons, believing they had no right to question his decisions. The knowledge that his arrogance was the reason for his incarceration was a tough stone to swallow. It would not have hurt to allow the Lords to believe that he bowed to authority, nor would it have hurt to explain his tactics when dealing with the black souled ones. Now it appeared that he would be given a second chance. He was determined not to blow this opportunity.

Lion looked at the demon, Koler. The voyage had not been as rough on the black soul eater as he might have wished. In his man form, he was still a handsome visage. His hair was longer, but his eyes maintained that brilliant color of purple gems. Although he still wore the golden chains binding his body, he did not appear to be helpless. In fact, his appearance was that of a well-fed pet. No one knowing the male would make the mistake of thinking there was anything of a pet’s nature about this creature.

He seemed surprised when Lion addressed him. He must have been expecting to be degraded into kneeling and begging for his freedom. Nord knew that any such display on the arrogant demon’s part would be pure lies. The male was not of the humble variety. His ego rivaled that of Lion’s.

“So, Koler, we meet again. I am told that each port discovered you and each port denied you sanctuary. I can only conclude that you presented them with your docile kind nature to have intimidated each of them so thoroughly. This leaves me with a dilemma. What to do with a demon that refuses to follow rules of the land where he resides. I had no wish to simply kill you as you know. The simple solution would be to toss your carcass over the side of the vessel once it has been taken back out to sea. I am aware the only way to effectively put an end to your life would be saltwater.