Devil Ash Disarray (Devil Ash Saga Book 3) (31 page)

Shiva spotted Uverstarr almost right away. A torrent of boisterous expletives made it easy to locate the boy. He was sitting at a different table now, but still in the rear of the tent. He was incredibly animated, waving his arms and wiggling around in his seat. Shiva smiled, thinking he must be doing well. Since he was playing with her deck, a victory for him was
technically
a victory for her as well. Though she had little else to do with it, she still felt proud knowing that her deck would at least go on to find some victory in the boy’s hands.

After draining the small canteen she brought with her, Shiva went in search of a water faucet to refill it. She was met with good luck, as there was a groundwater pump right outside of the tent. The line for the pump was long enough that it wrapped almost all the way around the tent. People stood baking in the hot sun as they waited, like Shiva, to fill their water bottles, jugs, coolers, or just to take a drink straight from the faucet.

After almost a half hour of waiting, Shiva found herself still standing in the backed-up water line. She looked at the crowded Devil’s Duel tent beside her just in time to realize she was now within direct eyesight of Uverstarr. The boy was too absorbed in his game to notice the girl though. Shiva felt confident she wouldn’t be spotted watching him from her gradually shifting vantage point.

Despite the dire situation she, and the whole kingdom, were currently in, Shiva felt momentarily at peace. She’d begun to doubt the demons were even onto her yet. They did mention wanting to target Ash and Aura first, after all. But with all the festival calamity going on, Shiva became doubtful the demons would make an appearance here at all. Her mind turned to thoughts of leading a night patrol, which is when she betted the demons would prefer to show themselves.

Just as she was about to finally reach the water faucet, Shiva broke from her thoughts and checked in on Uverstarr again. The boy was on his feet now, throwing his arms in the air in celebration of another victory. Again, Shiva cracked a pleased smile knowing her deck was in good hands. She was vaguely aware of Captain Pace standing right behind the boy.

In a second the Captain moved like a red blur, whipping his leg and nailing Uverstarr in the chest. The child went soaring off his chair and fell to the ground on his back. The people nearby all shot up to their feet, their faces frozen in terror thinking they might be next. Nobody else seemed to notice the scene.

“
Uverstarr
!” Shiva abandoned her place in the water line and dashed under the tent again. She was at the boy’s side in seconds as he lay on the ground in pain.

“
Why
?” Shiva asked, looking at the boy’s injury. The skin below his neck was already turning a dark shade of purplish-black. She looked to the Captain who kicked him, barely able to hold back the anger she felt. “
What’d he do
?”

The Captain smirked defiantly. With a shrug he said, “cheating.”

The boy sat up and strained his eyes looking at Shiva. “
Prin-sis
?” he said, still feeling dazed from the kick.

“
Cheating
?” Shiva repeated. “No…”

“I
wasn’t
cheating, yo!” Uverstarr said. His voice was hoarse and devoid of amusement as he tried to pick himself up.

“That’s not what
I
saw,” the Captain replied. He and Shiva locked eyes. “Who are you going to believe? Me, or
the runt
?”

It was a tricky situation. Shiva didn’t know whether to apologize for the kid or stand up for him. She knew that given the boy’s general attitude and personality, he probably wasn’t above cheating. Heck, he was already a thief. Cheating kind of went hand-in-hand with thievery. On top of that, her feelings were dashed at the possibility that perhaps her deck
wasn’t
perfect, that maybe Uverstarr was only able to win because of his cheating.

“Maybe…” Shiva started but stopped, lost in thought. “Maybe you just don’t understand the game entirely and got confused,” she said to the Captain, hopeful that a mistake had occurred.

“I know what I saw,” the Captain replied. “He was cheating for sure. I’ll have to remove him from the game. Maybe take him to go see the Commander. He
loves
cheaters.”

Shiva’s expression changed. She avoided the Captain’s gaze and climbed to her feet. “Uverstarr,” she said, more calm now. “Tell me the truth. Were you cheating?”

“I didn’t cheat, yo!”

“I’m afraid I have to take the Captain’s word for it,” said Shiva. “There’s no way a Captain of the Royal Guard would lie about something like this, right Meeter?”

“Absolutely not,” the Captain replied, crossing his arms smugly. “We Captains don’t lie! We’re here to serve the people, so you can absolutely trust-”

A metal ball flew at the Captain, almost colliding with his face. He leapt back in time and kicked the attack aside. Shiva’s bolas recoiled, shook, and fell to the ground. The girl lifted her weapon and held it at the ready as Uverstarr leapt to his feet beside her, confused but overjoyed.

The Captain looked steely-eyed at first, but his stoic expression slipped into another baffling grin as his eyes narrowed.

“What gave me away?” he asked.

“The Captain of North Hell is named
Pace
,” said Shiva, lighting a flame inside one of the metal balls of her bolas. “You just answered to Meeter. It must be difficult keeping track of so many insignificant devil names.”

A devious smile spread across the face of Captain Pace.

“What’s going on?” asked Uverstarr.

The throng of people around them stared in confused disbelief. Why did Lady Shiva just attack a Captain of the Royal Guard? Had she finally flipped her lid?

“Am I still in trouble?” Uverstarr asked.

“You’re
all
in trouble, kid,” the thing in the Captain’s body said. Shiva moved to strike, but not fast enough. The Captain opened his mouth and something black shot out. The dark substance landed on the ground several feet behind Shiva and Uverstarr. The Captain’s body fell to the ground, limp.

As the dark figure grew and took shape, the spectators of the gaming tent fled screaming. Only Shiva stayed put, brandishing her flaming bolas with the unwavering Uverstarr by her side. The pair stared down the greater demon forming in front of them, growing to a tremendous size until the creature towered over the pair of devils.

“
W-what
…
what is it
?” Uverstarr stammered in bewildered fright.

“A pest,” Shiva replied, undeterred. “Time to exterminate.”

Chapter Twenty-Four: Ash’s Discovery

Though Ash had left the house that morning in top shape, his mosey through West Hell proved the boy still had some teeny tiny health concerns to ponder. Not ten minutes after the team split up Ash’s eyes started to leak like buckets, slowly overflowing. The half-human boy avoided staring directly at the artificial sun or the Helio Star and moved away from his dusty neighborhood-in-development.

The first event on his list was something called The Fire Arcade. Ash didn’t have a clue what that meant, but thought it sounded cool. His spirits lifted, despite the minor inconvenience of looking at the world through watery eyes. He stuck to the ground, since flying even
semi
-blind is a major pain, and trudged down the gravel walkway toward the festival grounds.

Though his own neighborhood was empty, Ash found the main streets of West Hell to be anything but.  People flooded the streets for the festival here just as they did everywhere else around the kingdom. Seeing other people out and about reminded the boy that his enemies could be
anyone
, and he’d have to be on guard constantly. The best strategy would be to try and avoid contact and lay low so as not to draw any extra attention.

There was one thing the boy was
not
taking into consideration though. He passed merchants preparing their various booths for the day. Most were too busy to even notice him. The first festival spectator he encountered, however, recognized the boy immediately. An older woman across the street, she gazed at Ash in disbelief. Then a smile covered her face and she waved at him.

Ash, feeling slightly awkward about his newfound fame, replied with a slight head nod and weak wave back. The lady moved on to join another woman. She must have mentioned the human boy to her friend, because they both stared at Ash again. The boy quickly looked away, hoping he wouldn’t have to wave to her friend too.

Ash passed an information kiosk and picked up a map. His to-do list of events had been the shortest, and now he saw why. In all of West Hell, there were only a handful of games and events to choose from. The Demon Rodeo took up most of the valuable space, and The Fire Arcade claimed the second largest chunk of West Hell real estate. Since he was closest to it, Ash headed for The Fire Arcade.

When he wasn’t staring at his map, Ash caught a lot of looks from the surrounding inhabitants of the kingdom. The crowds grew thicker the closer he got to the arcade. Every time he turned his head he caught another person staring at him. The looks on their faces were always of surprise, delight, or, less often, disgust. Apparently
some
devils disliked humans, for some reason.

One look, from a particularly elderly man, stopped Ash dead in his tracks. The boy’s heart turned to stone when he spotted the old man dressed in fine robes. A Noble, Ash figured. His face was wrinkled in loathing, his nose turned up at the half-human. For a brief moment Ash believed the old Noble to be harboring one of the greater demons, there to finish the job.

But as Ash and the old Noble locked eyes, the boy detected a distinct
absence
of the demon’s particular brand of malice. The man disliked Ash, sure, but it was not the same as his earlier encounters with Otozek. No way the boy would ever forget the look on the demon Prince’s faces then. Compared to him, the old Noble looked like an angry puppy. The old Noble quickly lost interest in the stare-off. With a heavy huff, he turned away and took a bite of something that looked like a giant prune on a stick and walked away. Ash could finally breathe again seeing him go.

More people’s eyes followed the boy as he came to an area many considered to be the ‘main drag’ of West Hell. The land stretched through a long, winding canyon. Hundreds of dwellings were carved straight into the canyon walls. Some units were multi tiered, like stacks of boxes along the orange and brown stone. The place always reminded Ash of an insect colony. Devils flew in and out of the units like bees coming and going from their hive.

When it occurred to Ash that he was entirely surrounded by people with no chance whatsoever of escape, his heart rate increased. He could feel the eyes on him. The day’s heat must have been getting to him, because he was sweating like a wet mop being wrung. He saw people whispering to their companions as he passed by, gaping and gawking and pointing at him. It didn’t take long for his headache to return, dull at first but growing steadily sharper as the chatter from the crowd increased.

Ash’s hand slid over the rectangular lump in his pocket. The tiny pillbox from Goddard had subconsciously become an item of comfort to Ash. He had to make sure it was still in his pocket
at all times
, since his odds of survival were pretty much reduced to
0%
without it. The slight comfort the pillbox brought him did nothing to abolish the growing paranoia he felt as the crowd’s drifting conversations caught his ears.

“…that’s him, right? The
human
?”

“…his name’s Ash Crumpland, you know?”

“…could have
sworn
he was older and better looking…”

“…he’s just some kid…”

“…I could take him in a fight…”

“…maybe that cute death toucher is somewhere around here…”

“…straight up thought the guy’s name was
Ass
for a while…”

Ash tried tuning the people out. He focused on the overall dull static of the collective instead of individual strands of conversation. Remembering that his health would most likely take a sudden dive in the presence of the demons, he found the courage to move on.

With his stomach churning Ash pressed on, approaching a busier section of the street where he could see the start of the arcade. Before him stretched a long curved hill that winded down and around several enormous rock formations. All along the pathway were booths of varying sizes. A nearby sign pointed toward the hill with an arrow, the text beside it read The Fire Arcade.

Before he could reach the hill and explore the arcade, Ash felt something dripping from his nose. He wiped it with his hand and was surprised to see blood. Frantically, the boy scoured the area for anything to plug his nose with. He spotted someone pulling paper from what looked like a napkin dispenser at a nearby shish kabob booth. With his head partially tilted back to stop the bleeding, Ash made for the shish kabob stand.

He had the napkin in hand when the sound of someone clearing their throat made him turn his head. The large hairy man behind the counter was staring straight at him, a sly grin on his face.

“Good morning, Mr. Kaplan,” the man said, eyeing the boy with great interest. “May I ask what you’re doing with that piece of tissue paper?”

“I got a nosebleed,” Ash said, wadding up the paper napkin. “So I’m using a tissue to plug it.”

The kabob stand owner said nothing, and Ash thought all was well. The boy stuck the rolled up wad of paper into his bleeding nostril and lowered his head slowly. Everything seemed plugged.

“
Five skorch
,” the kabob stand owner replied, holding out an open hand for the payment.

He’s gotta be scamming me
, thought Ash.
No one pays for napkins
!

“But that guy didn’t pay for one,” replied the boy, pointing his finger at the man that had grabbed a napkin in line just before him.

“Don’t worry about
that
guy,” the kabob stand owner replied. “He’s a thief. He’s
always
stealing from me. He’s a gall-darn criminal. You will be too if you don’t pay up for that tissue paper!”

The kabob stand owner thrust his hand at Ash and waited patiently. Customers in line to get a shish kabob were forced to wait on this stupid charade of a scam.

“Five skorch is insane!” said Ash. “No way it costs that much for a stupid napkin. I won’t pay that. You’re clearly trying to rip me off. Is it because I’m a human?”

Instead of answering Ash’s question, the kabob stand owner went quiet and averted his gaze. A moment passed where Ash thought the conflict might be over. He almost walked away then. But the defeated expression on the man’s face turned into a smile, and once again Ash heard him speak.

“Look there,” he said. Ash followed the man’s gaze to see a Royal Guard patrolman, not far away. “If I tell that Royal Guard you’re refusing to pay your tab, who do you think he’ll side with?”

“You’re joking…” Ash said, wide eyed. The man’s grim expression made it clear that he was not. “Probably
you
! They
hate
me.”

Ash dug in his pocket for a five skorch coin. “
Can’t believe I’m actually going to pay five skorch for a lousy napkin. Thanks a lot, bloody nose.
” There were several coins in his pocket and it was impossible to tell them apart from touch alone. Ash had to pull a random coin out first, and as luck would have it the coin was a
ten
skorch coin.

“
Ten skorch
,” the shish kabob man said after seeing the coin. At this point, Ash was so fed up with the situation he flipped the coin as rudely as he possibly could at the guy. The shish kabob man didn’t catch the coin, which went soaring over his head. He finally left the boy alone and rushed off to collect his precious scam money.

Ash walked away just feeling lucky that his nosebleed problem was under control. He wanted to move on and check out The Fire Arcade finally. He moved like a rocket to the top of the hill where the arcade could be seen, stretching out for what seemed like a miles down into a rocky valley. At the base of the trail was a small park with a stage where a band played old-timey music on bizarre instruments.

But the main attraction at The Fire Arcade was of course the games. As Ash headed down the slope, carefully dodging festivalgoers and foot traffic, he absorbed the sights and sounds of the various arcade games happening in the booths around him. The view from the top of the hill didn’t offer the best look at what exactly went on inside the box-like booths. Walking directly in front of them, Ash was finally able to see the games.

Each booth was decked out with its own stock of prizes near the front to lure in potential players. There were stuffed dolls of every size and color for the children. For the more mature player, most booths offered a wide selection of cheap knives, dull swords, and flimsy armor. The games didn’t have any names assigned to them, but as soon as Ash walked past a booth, the employee there would be sure to let him know the rules.

He passed a row of games that involved moving several colorful balls through a maze of pipe work. The catch was that you could only move the balls by using your own flames. Not only did you have to navigate five balls through a pipe maze, but each ball also had to end up in the correct colored cup in the end. It looked like a challenging little puzzle that he could learn a thing or two from.

Almost every game involved the use of the player’s own flames. Ash saw games where the players had to use their flames to push metal cutouts of some kind of demon shaped like a centaur across a racetrack. Another game had players trying to knock over a stack of heavy-looking metal cans with a fireball. He passed by a strength tester, similar to the ones he used to see at carnivals on Earth. A bell sat at the top of the tower, the objective of the test being to ring it. The Earth version of the game had contestants using a heavy hammer, but in Hell’s Fire Arcade the only way to ring that bell was with your own flames.

Ash was certain he could ring the bell if he tried. He was tempted to give it a go, except that a nagging feeling of paranoia still weighed on his mind. He couldn’t let his guard down even for a moment. The demons could be watching. He was fairly certain they wouldn’t jump him in the open street, but at the same time he couldn’t depend on that reasoning to hold up forever. Sooner or later they’d come for him.

It was only a matter of time.

Ash was scouring the crowd for suspicious activity, his eyes drifting between the people and another intriguing flame game. The game in question had up to four players competing to see who could boil a cauldron the fastest. The steam it caused would then melt a ball of wax that held together a spring-loaded arm. When the winner caused the wax to fully melt, the arm shot up and struck a loud bell, announcing them victorious. They’d then get to choose between taking home a giant stuffed demon-octopus or a decorative twelve-inch dagger.

The boy was distracted by the game when he heard a commotion on a side street. People were shouting, and not in a happy way. There was genuine fear in their cries. He could make out some words like “Watch out! It’s loose! Get back!”

Then he heard the words he most dreaded: “
Wild demon coming through
!”

Ash’s hand found the tiny pillbox in his pocket once again. It failed to provide him any comfort this time. The demon’s shrieking grew louder, and so did the shouts of warning coming from the men chasing it. The crowds divided in fear as a humongous demon galloped straight for Ash. It was only a block away but closing in fast. Four muscular legs that ended in hooves. Jet-black fur with a streak of white across its belly. Its extended snout ended in an elongated, fang-rimmed mouth. On its forehead, a long jagged trident of horns stuck out. The demons eyes were dark red, with even darker bloodshot veins running across them.