Devil Ash Disarray (Devil Ash Saga Book 3) (11 page)

Approximately fifteen minutes ago
…

Ash and Aura had just set Shiva down on the living room couch when the front door opened and Goddard stepped inside. Typical; he never knocked.

“Did she finally overwork herself and faint?” Goddard asked, staring at the girl on the couch. The boys nodded. Goddard sighed. “First we’ll have to get her armor off.”

Aura shrugged, concealing a smile. “Well, if we’ve
got to
…” He stepped forward.

Goddard crossed the room and stood over Shiva. “I can handle it on my own, thank you. Ash, please take Aura into the kitchen and bring me some water.”

Back to the Present
…

“… And that’s basically everything that happened,” said Goddard. Shiva calmed down and rolled onto her side. She was still very timid about showing off her bare flesh, especially around the boys. “You’ve still got underwear on, so don’t panic.”

“What’s going on, Goddard?” Ash asked. “What’s causing this heat?”

The Royal Advisor guided Ash to the window and opened the blinds. “Look there,” he said, pointing to the sky. “That’s the Helio Star.”

Hanging in the sky at the end of Goddard’s finger was a white dot the size of a one-skorch coin. Ash might have mistaken it for the moon, which was often visible during their artificial daylight hours.

“Named so by one
Professor Helio
, one of Hell’s early great scholars. This star is the closest thing our lonely planet experiences to natural sunlight. It’s a shame we only cross paths with it for just a few short weeks every one hundred years. Our planet will pass right by the star. On the hottest day of summer, the midpoint of our planet’s little cosmic adventure, we’ll be close enough to see the Sidus Asteroid Belt.”

“As in
Professor Sidus
?” Ash asked.

“No, no,” Goddard replied. “Sidus was Professor Helio’s cat.”

“I see…” Ash said. “So it’s summertime in Hell, eh.”

“Exactly.”

“Skirt season!” Aura said excitedly.

“You guys live here,” said Ash, looking at Aura and then Shiva. “How come you didn’t know about this ahead of time?”

“That’s right,” Goddard said to himself. “You are too young to remember the last time this happened, a hundred years ago.”

“
Yeah
,” said Aura. “I’m too
young
. Only forty-something.”

“I remember a tutor going on about it when I was younger,” Shiva replied, still turned to face the wall. “But it didn’t really apply to me at the time, and I forgot all about it till now.”

“Shiva’s poor study habits aside, the Helio Star is important for another reason,” said Goddard. “With the rising temperatures, we also acquire a level of
security
we don’t often see. Studies have shown that the appearance of the star greatly reduces demonic activity. The star appears to have a calming effect on lesser demons, meaning a time of great peace and calm is starting.”

“
Pft
,” said Aura. “Tell that to the greater demon we thwomped just yesterday.”

“
Greater
demon?” said Goddard, alarmed. “You don’t mean the greater demon that showed up at that children’s card game tournament and possessed some foolish Noble, do you?”

Shiva grinded her teeth.

“That’s the one!” Aura said proudly. “
We
took care of it!”

Goddard did not look happy. For a moment, Ash wondered if Shiva had reported to Goddard about the incident. But he knew she wouldn’t, since she’d want to keep her secret.

“And you were all there, engaging with the greater demon?” Goddard asked.

“
I wasn’t
,” Shiva said. “I was… at home.”

“Still, I can’t believe I didn’t hear about it,” Goddard said. “There was nothing mentioned in Stryd’s report.” A light clicked on inside Goddard’s mind and his brow furled. “Stryd! Of course! He’s put an information freeze on any of your victories. Clearly he doesn’t want you becoming any more popular than you already have since your last adventure.”

The Commander of the Royal Guard, a man named Sepultura Stryd was no friend of Ash’s. Ever since Ash’s first victory in Hell against the berserk Apsat Glumb, Commander Stryd had been trying to cover up any and all of Ash’s acts of heroism. He didn’t want the people of Hell depending on Goddard’s three-man-team instead of their own Royal Guard army.

“Makes sense,” said Ash. “Stryd’s had it out for me since day one.”

“It’s not just him,” Goddard said, his hand on his forehead. “There was no mention of any of you in the morning paper, either.” Goddard motioned to the dining table near the entryway where the morning newspaper sat undisturbed.

“The
nobles
,” Aura muttered, gritting his teeth.

Sure enough, when Ash flipped open the newspaper the big headline inside read:
Greater Demon Cut Down By Royal Guard – No Casualties
. The article, which had no mention of Ash or Aura even being there, was penned by a familiar name.

“
Glebeck
Lowdly
,” Ash said with a scowl. He crumpled up the paper and tossed it. “It figures. Those people never liked us.”

“Greater demon attacks are rare, but in the future please let me know immediately if there’s another,” Goddard said. “So what happened?” he said, turning to Ash.

“Shi-” he said before stopping himself. “Vashi Tansa, that
foolish Noble
, was possessed by some kind of plant demon. We fought a little, and Aura managed to separate the demon soul from Vashi Tansa’s body. It was pretty impressive, actually.”

Aura played overly bashful, waving away Ash’s compliment with a huge smile on his face. “Oh come on, it was nothing!” he said.

“
I agree
,” came Shiva’s distant voice.

“That is quite an accomplishment, Mr. Draxler,” Goddard said with an interested smile. “Am I to understand your powers are developing in new ways?”

“It’s possible,” said Aura. “I have come a long way with my soul sight technique. Who knows what I’ll come up with next.”

“And what about you, Ash?” asked Goddard. “How did you fare in the fight against the greater demon?”

“Well, actually, I got caught pretty quickly,” Ash said with an embarrassed look on his face. “I didn’t think it really hurt me all that badly, but I felt pretty terrible after the fight was over. For a second there I felt like I was
dying
.”

“What do you mean?” Goddard asked, more concerned now.

“Well, after Aura killed the demon and we left the gambling parlor I felt so bad I almost passed out in the street. It hit me hard for like, a minute, then I was fine again. Maybe that plant demon was actually a poison ivy?”

“
Hmmm
…” Goddard said, stroking his chin in contemplation. “You look fine now, but let me know if anything else like that happens again.”

“Right,” said Ash. “I will. Did you come all the way here just to tell us about the Helio Star?”

Ash’s subtle way of asking if they had another job order.

“No, there’s more,” said Goddard. “The alignment of the Helio Star also signals the beginning of the summer soulstice. It’s our summer festival. There’s going to be events and games played all over the kingdom, every day. For some reason,
I’m
the one in charge of planning it all,” he said, not the least bit pleased looking about it.

You could have let us in on all this a little sooner
, Ash thought.

“The festival will run until the weather changes back, or when we get through all of the games, whichever happens to come first. The summer soulstice is a huge deal to the Kingdom. It gives the citizens a shared event to come together where anyone can take part, young or old. We have games for every age bracket. It’s no easy task coordinating where everything will take place, let me assure you.”

“Cool,” said Ash. “So are we on guard duty or something?”

“No,” said Goddard, turning to Ash. “I encourage you all to start a team and take part in the festival events.”

“
Whoa
,” said Aura in amazement. “You mean no more work orders for a while?”

Goddard sighed. “You’ve all done such excellent work. You’ve truly come a long way since the team’s formation. You deserve a break from all the torments of living in this world, just like everyone else here. So enjoy the games and the nice weather,
while you still can
.”

“I’ll pass,” said Shiva. She sat up, clutching a throw pillow to cover her chest. “Games aren’t my thing.”

Ash couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. It was enough to make Shiva cast her icy stare at him.

“Something funny?”

“Not at all,
your highness
,” Ash replied. Shiva shut up after that, a troubled look coming over her face.

“You
will
take part in the games Lady Shiva,” Goddard said. “Let’s not forget how easily these boys find themselves in trouble when you’re not around. As their leader, it is your duty to watch over them at all times.”

“Fine,” said Shiva, standing up. “But if any wayward demons show up I’m slicing them into tiny bits.” With that she scurried out of the living room, moving the pillow to cover her behind.

“Naturally,” Goddard nodded as she went away.

Something Goddard said was weighing on Ash’s mind. “You mentioned we should enjoy the games and weather
while we still can
,” Ash said. “That sounded a little ominous. What did you mean by that?”

“Oh yes, that’s perhaps the most important piece of information I have for you,” said Goddard. “When the Helio Star passes our planet, it’ll be at its furthest point away from us in the cycle, meaning it’s going to get
cold
.”

“But Hell is already cold,” said Ash.

“Think
colder
,” said Goddard. “That’s why it’s important to enjoy the warmth while we have it. Because when it’s gone, it’s going to be a
long
one hundred years of winter.”

“So Hell is about to freeze over, huh,” Ash said. “And here I thought it was already as cold as a planet without a sun could get.”

Shiva reemerged from her bedroom wearing a tanktop and some spandex-like pants. She joined the group in the living room as Goddard made his way to the exit.

“I have information and registration booths set up around the kingdom that will be opening tomorrow morning,” he said as he stepped up to the front door. He picked up a folded black umbrella that was leaning against the wall. “I would suggest you start there. They’ll have a complete itinerary of all the games and a sign up sheet.”

“Fun in the sun with babes in scantly-clad outfits? I’m totally in!” Aura said with the biggest smile Ash had seen on his face in a long time.

“This sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun,” said Ash. He was starting to get worried. “There’s not a catch, is there?” It was unusual for Goddard to be so nice to the team. The only reason he rewarded them with the cozy West Hell condo was because Shiva had to trick him into it. Acts of charity were rare for Goddard, and Ash couldn’t imagine he’d let them go so easily.

“No catch,” Goddard said. “I know I’ve been working you all to the bone lately. You’ve been through some dreadful jobs in the last few months. I should know, I assigned them all to you. And I made sure I got all the worst ones out of the way as soon as possible. Remember clean-up duty after the Satan’s Day parade?”

“
I never knew demons could produce so much manure
,” Aura said, experiencing a traumatic flashback.

“Case in point; you deserve a break.” Goddard opened the front door and unfolded his umbrella to block the heat rays. “If anything else comes up and I need your assistance, I’ll send for you.”

Goddard left the team and went about his business, probably to make more arrangements for the Devil Games Festival. As Ash watched him go, he couldn’t help but wonder if Goddard could be trusted. He was a demanding boss that worked the team tirelessly every day, but sometimes he surprised Ash in a pleasant way. He did save the boy’s life back on Earth once, after all. For that Ash was grateful.