Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan) (26 page)

Damien leaned back in his chair perusing the missives recently delivered to him by couriers.  Except for a harvest report from his steward, the messages were all from his friends in the
border areas.  All of which concerned an apparent disagreement between the wizards Exador and Lenamare.  Which was precisely why Damien was so interested in the reports.  Exador and Lenamare were bringing mutual complaints against each other before the council in three days.  Damien, being an ever interested and attentive council member, was thus most interested in what was occurring between the two. 

Actually as a point of fact, while Damien was one of the more conscientious council members, he normally wouldn't have paid
this much attention to the matter; or would not have if not for the rather unusual reports coming from the confrontation between the two wizards. 

Apparently
, Exador had lain siege to Lenamare's castle on the premise of taking Lenamare's school.  A rather worthless thing to do, but given the egos of the two wizards involved, not outside the realm of possibility. 

Lenamare had responded as everyone knew he would by tossing up his super wards around
the castle.  The wards were worthy of respect, even if Lenamare, in his insatiable demand for fawning compliments, did make their secret just a little bit too well known.  When Exador tried to remove the wards, Lenamare apparently retaliated with a fourth order demon.  Having a fourth order demon on hand was quite a feat, in and of itself, stupid and dangerous to use, but quite a feat. 

Anyway, despite Lenamare's wards and big demon, Exador somehow managed to push Lenamare to the limit.  For some reason, apparently thinking his castle was a lost cause, Lenamare blew it up and took
the vast majority of Exador's army with it. 

Another piece of incredible wizardry from Lenamare, thought Damien. 
Lenamare might almost be as good as he thinks he is, if  he can pull stuff like that out of his hat
, mused Damien.  However, it still didn't make much sense. 
Why would Lenamare destroy the very thing he thought to save, apparently so casually
.  Further why would Exador go to so much trouble for a stupid little castle and some land.  It just didn't add up.

Damien relaxed in his chair thinking.  The music from Antefalken's harp slowly relaxing some of the tension from reading the messages.  Damien was in his quarters at Freehold, relaxing in his stuffed chair listening to his bard, Antefalken, play a collection of melodies from the Vargosite Empire, 600 years ago.  Damien sat gently stroking his light beard and mustache, now and then brushing a dark golden lock of hair from before his eyes. 

The melodies temporarily diverting him, he once again noted the advantages of having a bard that could play music that no one else had heard in 400 years.  Actually, his bard had other advantages.  Maybe Antefalken could find something out about Lenamare's fourth order demon.  No one had been aware that Lenamare had one.  Perhaps Antefalken with his special connections could find something out.

Damien looked over
to Antefalken.  Antefalken was perched with his small harp, sitting on the back of a sturdy chair, with his legs on the seat.  The lap harp balanced on his thighs as he played.  At first glance, Antefalken appeared to be a boy.  Certainly in size and proportion he was about the size of a thin boy of about seven years.  However his beard and moustache rather despoiled that image.  Well, upon further thought, Damien decided that maybe the cat-like eyes or the small bat-wings on Antefalken's back didn't help the image much either.

"Antefalken?"  asked Damien, interrupting the flow of music.

"Yes, m'lord?"  the bard replied, still strumming, but more softly now.

"You haven't by any chance, heard of any fourth order demons being enslaved
recently have you?"

"Fourth order?"  the bard said with a puzzled expression.  "No, I don't recall any such events.  Of course I'm normally here in Astlan most of the time, so I do miss the court gossip."

"Hmm.  Next time you're back, if you could perhaps enquire.  Lenamare has come up with a fourth order demon that he's been using in combat with Exador."

"Using a fourth order demon in combat?  My, my, isn't your friend Lenamare getting a little bit senile these days.  Or is the end of the world coming and he's pulling out
all the stops?" asked Antefalken.

"Hardly the end of the world, or at least if it is, Exador and Lenamare haven't bothered to tell the rest of us.  Not that they would mind you...but the thought would be nice.  Anyway, for whatever reason, Lenamare's up to something so big that he's willing to use fourth order demons and waste his own castle in a
rather incredible blast to try and take out Exador."

"Hmm, well, if you won't be needing me tonight, I could return to the Abyss, dig up what I can at the Courts of Chaos.  Anna Leri claims she's got to work all night to get a gown ready for Lady Beth, so she won't be able to make our usual rende
zvous…

“
Normally, I'd find another lucky lass to share my bed, but it seems Anna Leri's told the other maids that I've got crabs to keep them from sleeping with me.  Thus being out of luck, I'm free to do your bidding."

"Thank you, " Damien said with mock gratitude, "I feel so lucky to be served so faithfully by a demon in such high demand.
”  Antefalken nodded, with a slight smirk, accepting the gratitude in the spirit in which it was given.

Damien got a puzzled expression his face. 
"Crabs? They won't sleep with you over crabs?  I can't even think they'd be able to tell.  They haven't even noticed you're a demon yet!"

"I don't have crabs!"  Antefalken finally stopped playing, "Anna Leri just told them that.  And
, of course, they know I'm a demon.  That's why they want to sleep with me.  After all, being 753 years old gives me more experience than any other man they're likely to meet.  Plus you know how women always love an older man.  Further, where exactly do you think all those legends of 'demon lovers' came from?  I wrote half the book, and after one night, these maids know it! and they tell their friends."

"So why didn't you just tell them you'd gone to the Abyss and the crabs got burned off?"

"I tried, but apparently Anna Leri told them they were demon crabs and couldn't be gotten rid of short of a miracle from the gods."  Antefalken moaned.  Damien started laughing.

Tom followed Rupert down the trail.  Rupert was following the horses by several feet, and Jenn was on the first horse, as usual.  Tom had given up talking to the girl.  She was obviously as insane as any of the wizards.  The only sane person in Astlan seemed to be Rupert, and if Tom was completely objective, he'd have say that Rupert was crazy for not being afraid of something as deadly as a demon.

~

Jenn continued to puzzle out the book in her hands.  She'd tried several light probes but could figure nothing out about the spell that bound it.  Whatever it was, Jehenna had gone to great lengths to secure it from prying eyes.  Naturally this made Jenn even more curious.  She was becoming convinced that whatever it was, it was probably the reason two masters had been assigned to the wagon train.  Further, she was fairly certain it was what the demon was after.  Why the demon just didn't grab it, she didn't know.  Maybe it was waiting for her to figure out how to open it first, then steal it.

Jenn's thoughts were interrupted by a brilliant flash of what appeared to be fire in front of her.  Her horse reared and started screaming in terror.  Unprepared for the horse's action, Jenn went flying off backwards, onto the ground.  "Whooooof" went Jenn as she had the breath knocked out of her. 

"What the Abyss?" she tried to gasp, but lacked the air to do so.  In front of her horse were two third order demons!  Jenn would have screamed if she'd had the air.  She didn't, so instead she tucked the book in
to one of her large robe pockets and frantically began reaching for spell components.

~

As Tom noticed a flash of red light from in front of the horses, he suddenly felt his arms grabbed from behind.   Startled, Tom tried to duck and turn in midair, but found his wings and movement impeded by two demons hanging off the back of him.  Shit! thought Tom.  Just what I needed.  He reached awkwardly around, over his right shoulder with both hands and grabbed the demon on that side.  He grabbed the demon's head, poking himself on its horns.  Without thinking he began to squeeze.  The demon's head was tough.  The demon howled in pain, but didn't let go.

Tom lost altitude and hit ground with the two demons still clinging to him.  He heard Rupert shouting what sounded like obscenities, but didn't have time to pay much attention. He concentrated,
squash!
he thought, focusing all his concentration and strength on squeezing the demon's head.  A red glow surrounded his claws.  Suddenly there was a scream from the demon, and then a pop! as the demon's skull caved in.  The demon let go.  Its headless body sank to the ground and began to fade from sight.  Tom flicked his claws to let the fading pieces of skull fall from his hands.

With one of his attackers down, Tom had more room to move.  He swung around trying to grab the other demon clutching his left side.  It swung around with him.  Annoyed he reached over and grabbed the demon.

Wham! Crash!  A flash of light from behind him startled him momentarily.  Quickly he looked over his shoulder to see where two demons were attacking Jenn.  One of them was reeling and smoking.  It looked for all the world like it had been hit by a bolt of lightning.  It probably had been, he thought raggedly.  He ripped the demon off his side.  Its claws raked along him, causing him pain, but he didn't have time to think.

He'd promised to protect these guys and he wasn't doing too great a job at the moment.   The second demon got on its feet and charged Tom.  Angry, frustrated and in a hurry, Tom took a deep breath, concentrated all his ki in his right fist, as his instructor had taught him, and brought it back, preparing to strike.  As the demon charged in, Tom released his fist with all his strength and put his body behind it.  His mind was tightly
focused on the ki in his fist.  The demon came in, Tom's fist moved forward.  Tom imagined he could almost see the ki glowing in his fist. 

Neatly, as if in slow motion, Tom's fist came together with the onrushing demon's face.  As the two connected, Tom released the ki, with a loud "Kiya!"  As the ki was released with the punch, Tom felt his fist smash into the demon, even as the demon was enveloped in a cloud of red light growing from Tom's fist,  expanding as he felt his kiya expand from his lungs.  The demon screamed once, loudly.  The next thing Tom knew, there was a smoking corpse laying at his feet.  Even that faded before his very eyes.

As the demon faded, Tom heard another nearby demon scream in pain.  To his right, he quickly noticed that a fifth demon had grabbed Rupert and was holding him in the air, by Rupert's waist.  The problem however, appeared to be that the demon was now bending over in pain while holding the boy.  He was bending over in a way that Tom, as a male, fully understood.  Apparently, having been lifted to the correct height, Rupert was able to get a good kick in to a critical anatomical piece of the demon.  The kid must be a lot stronger than he looks to cause a demon that much pain, admired Tom.

As the demon was cringing over, Rupert, who's hands were free, pulled his hand back, and jammed two fingers into the demon's eyes.  Once again the demon howled in pain.  This time, however, in an attempt to cover its eyes, it dropped Rupert.  Bringing its hands up to its face.  At that moment, Tom heard a loud scream from Jenn.

He looked over to where she was.  She'd been grabbed by the two demons attacking her.  Apparently they were only trying to capture her, not kill her, because they seemed to be taking pains to hold onto her.  Knowing he had to get over to her, but also knowing that he couldn't leave Rupert alone, Tom decided that one good kick deserved another.  With a flying charge, Tom moved into the demon who's hands were covering its face. With another kiya, he kicked the demon with all his strength, in the same critical location Rupert had.  The hovering demon howled in agony and was propelled upward and over through the air for several hundred feet.

Tom moved toward Jenn, trying to make his way around the screaming horses.  The demons holding her looked up and saw him coming.  One of them seemed to smile.  As he did, the other spoke something and a burning ring of fire appeared in the air behind them.  Tom came around the horses as fast as he could, but even as he rounded them, the demons stepped back through the hole.  Tom reached out to grab them, but already the hole was closing around his fingers.  The hole popped shut, leaving Tom grasping nothing.

Tom heard shouting from behind him.  It was the demon he'd just wracked.  It was shouting obscenities at him and Rupert from a distance.  Something about eternal vengeance, blah, blah; Tom didn't care.  He was just ticked off.  He began flying towards the demon, intending on forcing it to tell him where the others had taken the girl.  As the demon saw him approach, it quickly shut up and closed its eyes.  Before Tom could reach it, it had faded from sight.

Tom sighed, and turned back down towards Rupert.  He flew down to where the boy had picked himself up.   Rupert seemed to have tears streaking his face, but the expres
sion on his face told Tom they were tears of frustration not fear.  "They got Jenn!  How could they do that?  I couldn't stop them!  Why couldn't you?"

Rupert danced around in frustration.  "Tom, what'll we do.  They'll probably rape and mutilate her! Oh goddess!  Where can they have taken her?  Where!"  He looked up angrily at Tom.

"I don't know."  replied Tom helplessly.