Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan) (34 page)

Tom stared down at the fainted priest.  These people were really unbelievable.  The only people who didn't seem faint were egotistical psychotic wizards like Lenamare and small children like Rupert.  He wasn't sure he'd ever understand them.

"So where are we?"  Jenn asked, she was looking around at the chapel.

"Astlan!"  Tizzy said, "and under no duress."  Tizzy made a beeline for a barred door at the opposite end of the room.  He lifted the bars and opened the door before Tom could halt him.  It was dark behind the door, but it apparently led to the outside.  Tom could hear crickets, he could also smell something unpleasant.  Apparently they were in some sort of city. 

Tizzy poked his head out the door, looked around, then ducked back in.  He looked to Tom, "Thanks for the gateway Tom.  Got some unfinished business to take care of.  Later!" and with that he darted out the door and off into the sky.  Tom ran to the door, four steps away for him, nearly hitting his head on a ceiling beam and stared out.  There was no sign of the little demon.

Tom feared this didn't bode well.  He hadn't counted on Tizzy coming too.  Now the little demon was probably off to messily kill his master.  That would be another death on Tom's shoulders.  He just prayed that Tizzy wouldn't kill anyone else on the way or cause too many other problems.  Schizophrenic demons were not a good thing to turn loose on unsuspecting people. 

He shut the door.  It apparently led into some form of alley, but nonetheless, he didn't want anyone wandering by to see a large demon standing in the doorway of some church.  He didn't know much about Astlanians and their religions, but he suspected that a demon running around in a church could be taken by some as a bad omen.

"Where did he go?"  Jenn asked.

"I think to kill his master."  Tom answered her.

~

"Oh."  Jenn turned rather pale, Gastropé was already pale.  Jenn happened to look over to Rupert, only to find the boy with his hand down his pants, groping for something.  "Rupert!"  Jenn exclaimed in shock.  The boy looked up, and as he did, he pulled a book out of his pants.

"Here, I rescued this for you, from the major's tent."  Rupert handed her the magical book that her diary had been mistaken for.  She blushed, slightly ashamed of herself for her thoughts.  That naked demon there, flaunting itself, just kept bringing her mind back to the gutter.   She'd forgotten completely about the book in all the confusion.  Too bad Rupert couldn't have gotten her spell components
; those would have been more useful at the moment.

She looked down at the priest.  He was still out cold.  She sympathized with him
; it had probably been a pretty big shock.  Nonetheless, they'd probably better tie him up and gag him before he alerted the local populace to the presence of demons.  She looked around for something to tie him up with.  All she found was a wardrobe with some clothes in it.  She went over and found a robe that she started ripping into strips.  She asked Gastropé to help her, and pretty soon they had the priest bound and gagged in case he came to.

~

While Jenn was doing this, Tom went exploring.  He had to duck a lot, due to the wooden ceiling beams.  Besides the exit, there was only one other door in the room.  This led into what appeared to be a small kitchen.  Or at least a room with a large fireplace with a spit, a table and chairs and some cupboards.  No running water or sink apparently.  There were some large bowls though, that could presumably be used as wash basins.  Rather weird for a church Tom thought, but who was he to judge.  These days he seemed to be a member of the opposition as far as religions went.

He looked through the cupboards, but found nothing of interest.  He went back into the main room.  Jenn and
Gastropé had finished tying up the unconscious priest.  They'd also gagged him.  Tom hoped the man's screaming hadn't alerted anyone.  He really didn't see how it could have failed to do so.  Of course, if this had been New York, he'd have nothing to worry about.  From the looks of the outside though, they appeared to be in an ally in some sort of decrepit ghetto in a large Dark-Age city, probably crawling with thieves, assassins and other lowlifes.  He thus had no reason not to expect the people in this place to be as indifferent to screams in the night as those back home.

"I think we should get some sleep," Jenn suggested.  She and
Gastropé were certainly looking beat.  "We can figure out what to do in the morning.  We can also figure out where we are."  Hearing no disagreement, she cleaned a spot on the floor and laid down.  She glanced at Tom, apparently deciding whether or not she needed to admonish him not to kill them in their sleep.

Gastropé
apparently was still not so convinced.  While he too cleared a spot and laid down, he couldn't keep his eyes off Tom.  Tom noticed his stare, and figured out the reason.  While Gastropé seemed pretty useless, he figured the guy would be even more useless if he didn't get any sleep.  So Tom decided to go back into the kitchen.  He really didn't need any sleep, but he could at least sit and rest in there.

He went in and hunched down by the fire place.  It still wasn't easy, given his form, but he was getting more adept at sitting on the floor.  About ten minutes went by, Tom just squatting there thinking, when Rupert came in and sat down beside him.  Tom smiled at the kid, it was kind of nice to have some company.  He didn't feel quite so alone in this world when he had Rupert around.

"Thanks for taking us to the Abyss, Tom,"  Rupert said quietly.  "I really enjoyed seeing it and meeting Tizzy.  Will you take me back sometime and introduce me to more of your friends?"

Kid!
Tom thought,
what is wrong with you?
"Yeah, well, first we gotta figure out where we are and what we're going to do to get you guys to Freehold."  Tom also spoke softly, so the others could sleep.

"Yeah, that will be a bit of a problem," Rupert admitted.  "We're obviously in a city.  Getting out with you is going to prove difficult.  Further, if it is a city, then even if we get out, we may be in an area more populated, and with fewer wizards running around.  You're going to attract a lot of attention."

"I know," Tom admitted.  "I was thinking about that as Tizzy ran out the door.  I'm not exactly easy to hide.  On the other hand, I don't dare leave you guys alone if Exador is still after you."

"Uh huh."  Rupert was silent after that.  They both sat there in silence thinking.  After what seemed like another ten minutes Rupert said
,  "Tom?"

"Yes," Tom answered, breaking out of his reverie.

"If you don't mind my asking...why don't you just shape change into a human form?"

Tom thought about this for a moment.  Boggy had said some demons could do it, but only the most powerful.  He had no idea how to go about it.  "To be honest, Rupert, I don't know if I can.  I've never done it.  Not all demons can."

Rupert was surprised.  "Never?  How can that be?" 

To Tom, Rupert sounded
genuinely shocked.  "I just haven't had the need."  He really didn't feel like admitting to this kid who practically worshipped the ground he walked on, that he'd only been a demon for maybe two weeks at most.

"Well...well, I'm sure you can.  You've just got to try.  You can open Demonic Gateways, that's a lot harder than
shape changing.  Or at least, as hard."  Rupert amended.

"I suppose.  But how do I start?  Just will it?"

"Sort of," Rupert said softly, but with authority, as if he really knew what he was talking about.  "You just kind of relax all your muscles and imagine yourself as you'd like to be.  Get an image of what you should look like in your head and superimpose it on your current image.  Then you just sort of force the one on top of the other.  It's real hard at first, but it just takes effort.  It helps if the form is something or someone you're really familiar with."

How this kid could know this was a mystery
;
must be a wizard thing
, Tom thought.  "Hmm," Tom said,  "Why don't you get some sleep?  I'll think about it."

"Come on Tom,"  Rupert sounded disappointed.

"You need some sleep, I'll see what I can do.  I promise."

"Ok."  Rupert relaxed, but didn't seem overly thrilled.  No kid liked to go to bed.  He closed his eyes. 

Tom leaned back and thought about what the boy said.  Would it really be that different from what he'd done to open this latest gateway?  There he'd really imagined himself the flame, completely merged himself with the flame.  If he did the same with an image of his old self would that work?  Boggy had said it took a lot of energy, and the perceptions and demands of the wizards usually forced demons to return to their 'true, demonic, form.'  Actually, Boggy had been talking about doing it in the Abyss, not in Astlan.  Would it even be possible for a demon to alter his form here? 

It seemed to Tom that a lot of this stuff about a demon's form, which was intrinsically magical was wrapped somehow in people's perceptions of him.  As Tizzy and Boggy had said, they expect you to look like a demon, so you do.  If he could change people's perceptions, could he also change his form?  If that were true, then
Gastropé and Jenn would need to think of him as a human.  New people he met, would never know any difference.  Just exactly how much did the beliefs of the Astlanians influence reality?  That was the question.

There was, Tom decided, only one way to find out.  Taking a deep breath, which of course, being a demon he didn't need, he began to relax.  Just as he'd done with the gateway, he put himself in a trance.  He began to call up an image of his old self.  He built a complete image of himself as he remembered from the mirror.  He figured it was important to get the whole thing correct.  That wasn't too hard, like many adolescents, he'd worried a lot about his growing body throughout puberty.  He knew each little imperfection well.  Soon he had the image in his mind.  Then he created an image of himself, as he felt himself now.  He hadn't really seen much of his current form, except during that first summons, but he knew what it felt like.

He also knew what his old body felt like.  He superimposed the images in his mind and the feelings of the two bodies.  He willed, believed, imagined the sensations and appearance of his old body on top of his new one.  Imagined himself shrinking to the smaller size.  Imagined that he could actually feel hair growing on his scalp, his tail receding.  His hooves turning into the balls of his feet.  His lower joint becoming his heel, forming the entire foot.  His claws retracting, becoming the fingers he remembered.  He imagined, he believed, he knew.  He opened his eyes.

He felt like he was holding his breath.  He felt like he was about to explode.  He felt like he was wearing clothes fourteen sizes too small.  His breathing was ragged.  His eyes almost seemed to be watering with the effort to keep from exploding.  It was almost all he could do to keep from bursting apart.

Tom looked down at his legs.  All he saw were these puny pink things with small wisps of hair on them.  As he bent his head down to see the pinkish white flesh that was trying to contain the explosion, a lock of curly black hair fell over his eyes.  He was himself!  "Aaah, aah" Tom gasped. 

~

Rupert woke, hearing a strange noise. He'd just dozed off thinking about Tom.  He looked over to the demon.  The demon was gone!  In its place was a teenage boy!  A naked one at that.  Squatting  down in the corner was a boy about six or seven years older than himself.  He had long, very curly black hair and some faint freckles on his cheeks.  His body was thin, but not skinny, and dusted with some dark hair on his legs and forearms.  The boy was breathing hard, as if he had been exerting himself a lot.  "Tom?"  Rupert asked incredulously.

The boy smiled at him and nodded.  Suddenly though, the boy gasped and bent over double.  He began moaning in pain.  Almost immediately his skin turned beet red and seemed to blister.  The boy's hair fell out, as he raised his head as if to howl in pain.  His nose began pulling upward, his jaw coming forward to form a short snout.  Horns began poking through the skin on his forehead.  His whole body was bloating.  Literally, his muscles were swelling like melons.   His feet stretching, becoming lower legs.  A short tail was thrashing its way up from his rear, growing longer and longer.  Finger nails
thickened and grew black and long.

Within only a few moments, the boy was gone and the demon was back.

Tom ached all over.  The pain of turning back into his demon form was almost as bad as the first time.  Not quite, but at least similar.  For once, since coming to Astlan, Tom actually felt relieved to be a demon.  This form, hooves and all, felt more comfortable.  He didn't feel like he was about to explode anymore.   It just felt, 'right.'  What a strange thought.

He felt like he could really relax.  In the short time he'd been human again, his whole body had felt under deep stress.  As if forcing itself into some unnatural position.  It was altogether unpleasant.  "Aaagghhh," Tom sobbed.  Talk about your Chalker-esk nightmare.  Somehow he seemed to be mentally conditioned to prefer this form.  Conditioned so that his old body was the unnatural one.  Tom wanted to cry.  He was a boy! not a demon!  Naturally though, demons had no tear ducts so he couldn't.  What was he going to do?  Even if he could somehow shape change into his old form, he knew he wouldn't be comfortable.  He'd always be fighting the urge to be a demon.  There seemed like there was no going back!

"That was fantastic Tom!"  Rupert's voice brought Tom's thoughts back into the kitchen.  "I know it was hard, but for a first try that was great.  It gets easier the more you do it."

Tom hoped so.  He couldn't keep it up if it didn't.  "Yeah?"

"Yes, now try again.  It's the only way."

Tom really didn't feel he had the energy.  Oh, sure physically he was recuperating fine now that he was back in his demon form, but mentally he just didn't feel up to it.  "I don't know.  Maybe I should wait awhile."

Rupert was impatient, "And when the priest wakes up, and morning comes?  How long do you think we can stay here.  We'll have to leave soon, you gotta practice.  What happens if you pop back into demon from in the middle of the market."

"A lot of people start fainting."  Tom answered testily.  He knew the boy was right, he just couldn't bring himself to want to try again.  It was, Tom was sure, like the damn bicycle/horse etc. analogy, if you fall off, try again immediately.  "Very well,"  he couldn't stand Rupert's stare.

Tom relaxed, it wasn't any easier this time.  In fact it took longer because Tom had trouble concentrating and going into a trance state.  Eventually however, he managed to superimpose the images, the feelings.  Eyes closed Tom felt himself shrinking, contracting into the repellent puny pink and white form.  From the inside, his skin felt feverish, again he felt like a bomb waiting to go off.  He opened his eyes.  Rupert was grinning at him.

"Can you manage to talk?"  Rupert asked.

"Yess..."  Tom answered hesitantly.  His voice sounded weak, whiny.  "I think so."  Tom had to concentrate to keep from exploding while he talked.  He decided to gingerly test things.  He stood up.  He swayed and almost fell over.  God, this damn form had no balance.  He swayed gently, balancing as best he could he took a few steps forward.  The floor felt really weird under his bare feet.  He looked
down, it was just a smooth wood floor.  It must just be his feet, they seemed awfully tender compared to his hooves. 

As he turned, he was trying to come up with a story in his mind about what to tell Jenn and the others.  Given this belief thing, he didn't want them to know he was the demon.  But what could he tell them?  Concentrating too much on what to tell people and not enough on his lack of balance, Tom began to fall over.  He reached out and his hand rammed into the stone of the fire place.  The shock of pain in scraping his hand along the rough stone jolted him.  Agony ripped through his body as he lost control and his muscles started ballooning to gargantuan proportion again.

~

Jenn woke, she didn't know how much later it was.  Probably some time, considering how rested she felt.  It was hard to tell though as there were no windows in the chapel.  She glanced around
; Gastropé was still asleep.  The bound priest was wide-awake and staring at her fearfully.  What was she going to do about him?   The candles had burned out but light was coming under the door to the outside.

She got up and stretched.  She was also hungry.  She decided she'd explore the other room, the demon had gone in there, but hadn't said what it was.  She walked over to the doorway and looked through.  It was a bit lighter in
the kitchen as some filtered light was coming down the wide chimney.  Sure enough, it was a kitchen.  Actually rather strange for a temple, but then not many temple's she'd been in looked like this place.  The kitchen, however, proved to be rather bare upon closer inspection.  No food was on the shelves.  Actually, she suddenly realized, there was no demon or Rupert in the kitchen either!  Where were they?  She ran back out into the main room.  They weren't there either!

"Aaaaaggghhhhh!" Jenn said in frustration.  What had that damned demon done?  Had it kidnapped Rupert back to the Abyss?  If so, the poor kid was gone.  How could she ever get him back?  The sound of her voice woke
Gastropé.

"What's the matter," he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"The demon! That's the matter!"

Gastropé
immediately jumped to his feet looking around wildly.  "Where?"

"He's not
here, nor is Rupert!  That's the problem, I don't know where they went!"  Even as she said this, the door to the outside opened.  Goddess! they'd forgot to bar it again.  How stupid could they have been?  Light, albeit not incredibly bright due to the overhang in the ally way, poured into the room.  Rupert stepped into the room.  Jenn sighed a sigh of relief. 

"Rupert, where have you been, you don't know how..." her voice trailed off as a young man followed Rupert into the room.  She had no idea who he was.  He was roughly her own age, but a bit taller, with rather long curly black hair. He was wearing breeches tightly belted at the waist and a shirt that didn't fit too well.  Actually, he was rather cute, she thought in the back of her mind.  As he carefully shut the door behind them however, Jenn noticed that he seemed
extremely tense.  Like he was trying to keep something bottled up.  He was almost gritting his teeth.  She imagined he'd be turning red in a moment from the stress he seemed to be under.

"Who are you?"  Gastrope' asked the young man.

"His name is Edwyrd," Rupert said quickly.  "He's my cousin."

"Your what?"  Jenn asked.  She didn't know Rupert had any cousins.  Certainly it was unlikely he'd just pop out and find one immediately after entering a strange city.

"His cousin,"  the young man said tensely.  "Amazing really.  I'd just entered town, passing through, and I stopped in the market to get an apple when who should appear out of nowhere but Rupert."  The fellow seemed to be forcing himself to seem casual.

Gastropé
and Jenn looked at each other.  It sounded just a little too strange.  Coincidences like that just didn't happen.  Jenn stopped suddenly, where was the demon?  "Rupert where'd the...." she paused, thinking of the priest, and this unknown Edwyrd fellow, "Tom, go?"

Rupert looked up at Edwyrd and said, "uhm, he had to return home suddenly.  Something about some conclave of ...uhm," he looked at the priest, knowing what Jenn actually meant, "...animages, meeting."  He didn't care so much about letting the priest know anything about the demon, it was just that it was probably better to play along with Jenn so she wouldn't suspect Edwyrd.

Gastropé was looking back and forth between Rupert and Jenn, totally lost.  "Who's Tom? and what about the d...."

"You know," Jenn said cutting him off suddenly, "Tom was the fellow who got upset with you when we first met." She gestured with her head to the priest and the hand by her side to Edwyrd. 
Gastropé caught on, sort of. 

"Oh.  Yeah."

What was Rupert talking about?  Conclave of animages? demons, she supposed he meant.  Why would the demon all of the sudden leave them for a meeting of demons?  What did that portend?  A meeting of demons, could it have something to do with this book?   The whole thing didn't make much sense, but she couldn't exactly question Rupert more closely in the presence of the priest and Edwyrd.  She really didn't want to freak people out any more than necessary.

Actually, Rupert had looked at Edwyrd before answering.  Ah, maybe that explained his tense look.  Maybe Rupert had told him about the demon.  Any sane person would certainly get tense and look like that if they had to worry about a demon popping up at any moment.  Goddess knew the demon made her feel that way.  Of course, he could also be kind of tense because he'd just walked into a temple in which three ragged individuals were holding a priest hostage.  He might be leery of the company his cousin was keeping.  She couldn't blame him for that either.  Not that she exactly trusted Edwyrd for that matter.  It was just too strange for Rupert to just wander out and find his cousin like that.

"Fine, well, ok.  So you went out.  You really should not have gone alone, that was really stupid, Rupert.  What's the name of the city then?"

"
Gizzor Del," Rupert answered.

"
Gizzor Del? where's that?"

"I don't know," Rupert said. 
Gastropé also gave her a blank look.  "It is however, ruled by a guy named Duke Swery."

That didn't help much.  She looked at Edwyrd.  He came in through the gates, he should know.  "Where is
Gizzor Del?" she asked him.  "I would think you would know, since you were passing through."

He looked at her in surprise, it took him a moment to say anything.  "Why don't you know?  You had to come in the same way, didn't you?"  That shut her up.  The priest knew how they came in, but she wasn't sure she wanted to explain it to this Edwyrd fellow.  It was really just a bit much to try and explain to a complete stranger.  Ok, this wasn't going to get her any further.  She turned to look down at the priest.

She walked over to him.  His eyes were lit up in fear.  She bent down to remove his gag.  He whimpered softly. 

"How far is it to Freehold from here?" Jenn asked him.

"Lord Tiernon protect me from evil.  I repent my sins fully.  Lord save me from these forces of..." She gagged him again.  She shook her head.  Why did everything always have to be so difficult?