Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan) (61 page)

"You see," Damien continued spreading his hands out over the table, "I am the council member charged with investigating the claims being made by Lenamare and Exador.  If I am to be able to get a complete idea of the situation, then I need to talk with all parties involved, as soon after the incident as possible."

"So," Jenn asked, "you're in charge of making the ruling as to who is in the wrong or right?"

"No," Damien shook his head, "I am simply in charge of finding out all the facts of the situation and presenting them to the council.  Obviously, Lenamare and Exador both have stories, but they do contain several contradictions.  Thus someone must determine where fiction ends, and reality begins."

"Exador has been here?  Explaining his side?"  Gastrop
é asked worriedly.

Damien looked over to him and smiled.  "Yes, in fact, he is still here."  Gastrop
é turned one of his more subtle shades of pale white.  "However, since Freehold is neutral ground, the palace in particular, neither Lenamare nor Exador are free to continue their struggles here."  Damien assured Gastropé.  "At least not directly or overtly, they can still plan and scheme and direct things elsewhere, of course."  Damien added with a sad frown.

At this point servants had arrived and begun pouring water and wine into glasses already set on the table.  Others brought out plates of some form of vegetable salad.  Edwyrd supposed it was the local version of a tossed salad.  Damien seemed to note that Gastrop
é was not appearing to relax despite his assurances.  "You are worried about Exador continuing his war on Lenamare?"

"No," Gastrop
é said nervously, "uhm, actually, you see, I am a former employee of Exador's and we didn't part on such good terms.  In fact, he's out to remove me from the painting all together."

"Really?"  Damien asked intrigued.  "Did you part some time ago?  Before the current situation began?"

"No, actually, afterwards.  It must have been just before Exador arrived here."  Gastrope' told him.

"Ahh, and now you work for Lenamare.  I can see why Exador would want you out of the way.  Did you by any chance work for Lenamare at the same time you were working for Exador?"

Gastropé appeared shocked.  "No!  No, nothing like that!  Although our falling out was over the handling of the whole situation."  Gastropé hedged.  "And really, I'm not so much working for Lenamare as I'm with Jenn and the others here."  Damien just nodded his head.

"Perhaps what would be best, is if you told me your version of what happened.  First up until the siege, then the siege and then what happened afterward."  Jenn nodded as she took a bite of the salad.  The others were doing likewise.  Edwyrd reluctantly ate his. 

It had been so long, it felt a little strange.  He'd tried eating again on the road from Hoggensforth.  He'd eaten an apple.  Everything had seemed to work fine.  Just as he'd remembered it.  The apple seemed to pass through in the normal manner.  Thus he guessed anything would.  Rupert certainly had no trouble.

Jenn began to tell the story leading up to the attack.  She avoided, however, any mention of Tom at this point.  Damien interrupted a few times with questions, but then urged her to continue.  When she got to the point where Exador's army arrived, the main course, some form of venison, Edwyrd guessed, Damien had Jenn break and began quizzing Gastrop
é.

Gastrop
é's story went back a bit further then Jenn's, essentially a month earlier.  Mainly it consisted of the standard things needed to get an army ready to move.  When he got to the part about Abyssal Switching, Damien hardly blinked an eye.  Edwyrd thought this was a little strange that the wizard was so familiar with the spell, but maybe it wasn't that uncommon.  After Gastropé reached the point of arrival at Lenamare's castle, Damien did go back and ask a few questions about the movement through the Abyss.  More it seemed, to verify the fact that it had been done and that Gastropé had been there, rather than to question the fact.

At this point Jenn and Gastrop
é took turns describing the siege of the castle, each giving their own perspective.  Damien seemed particularly interested in Tom's attack on the wards.  Edwyrd just sat there silent and uncomfortable during this part.  When Jenn described it as just spiteful action on the part of the demon, Edwyrd almost said something to defend himself.  He held his words though.  There was nothing he could say that wouldn't give him away.

Damien also probed quite a bit at Lenamare's escape plans and his explosive spell.  Unfortunately, Jenn could only tell him what she knew.  When Jenn got to the part about the ambush, Damien looked at Gastrop
é with a raised eyebrow.  The young wizard just shrugged, embarrassed. 

"So why," Damien asked Jenn, "do you think the demon stayed around?"

"I'm not sure.  It may have been some former instruction of Lenamare's or its own evil machinations."

"He stayed," Rupert interjected, "because we, or I, asked him too.  We needed protection from Exador's people, so I asked him to stay and he did."

"Really?"  Damien turned his attention to Rupert.  "You just asked it like you would some soldier or something?" 

Rupert shrugged, uncomfortable now.  "Yes, essentially."  Jenn was shaking her head.

"Yes, he asked, but that only gave the demon a pretext.  It obviously had hidden plans of its own.  I'm pretty sure it wanted the book.  It might even be in league with that archdemon Lenamare was talking about."  Damien sat up as Jenn said this.

"Book?  Archdemon?  I think you haven't mentioned this before."  Jenn looked embarrassed.  She'd said too much, now there wasn't much she could do but go on.  She explained the mix-up with her diary and Jehenna's book and how they'd finally brought it back to Lenamare and Jehenna. 

"OK, that's the book.  I don't know what it is, but what archdemon?"

"You mean you don't know?"  Gastrope' asked, surprised.

"No, this is the first time I've heard archdemon mentioned does that come later in your story?"  Damien asked.

"No," Jenn said, "It's what Lenamare told us this morning.  He told us an archdemon was after the book, in addition to Exador.  I would have thought you knew.  He said the archdemon and his horde were on their way to Freehold now to claim the book."

Damien smiled sickly, rubbing his head.  "No.  Curse them.  If that’s true, then no one has bothered to tell us.  Although it would explain why the Rod is marching on us."  The five travelers looked uncomfortably around at each other.  It didn't seem to be a good point to bring up the real reason the Rod was marching toward Freehold at this point.

"We'll have to investigate this and prepare accordingly.  I'll also have to ask Lenamare and Exador both, a few more questions.  Did Lenamare happen to mention which archdemon?"  Jenn just shook her head.  "Very well, continue with your story."  Damien told her as the servants began replacing the now empty dinner plates with desert bowls.  Ice cream, it appeared to Edwyrd.

Jenn continued from there.  Detailing her capture and subsequent rescue by Rupert and the demon.  She passed rather quickly over their trip through the Abyss, and essentially neglected to mention Verigas at all.  She simply told the wizard that the demon's gateway was a bit off and that they'd ended up in Gizzor Del.

Edwyrd was relieved when Damien didn't ask about the coincidence of just finding Rupert's cousin there by happenstance.  He did appear curious about where Tom went, but no one could provide him with any answers.  Jenn told the story of the pirates from her perspective, and neither Edwyrd nor Maelen contradicted her interpretation of events.  After she'd passed out, it was mainly the story that Edwyrd had told her.  When asked by Damien about these events,
Edwyrd basically reiterated the same story.  Maelen simply looking at him in his usual inscrutable fashion.  Jenn simply stated that from Hoggensforth they'd made their way directly to Freehold.

"You didn't encounter the Rod along the way?"  Damien asked.

"No," Gastropé told him, semi-truthfully. "They must have been behind us the entire time."

"You made remarkable progress then."  Damien said thoughtfully, apparently trying to add up days.

"Well we were in a hurry to get to Freehold.  We knew that Lenamare would be wanting his book back, even if we didn't know what was in it."  Edwyrd told Damien. 

Damien just nodded thoughtfully.  "This other demon, the little one, it is still waiting with you for the return of the big demon?"  Damien asked.

"Yes," Jenn said sourly.  "Whenever that is.  Apparently it claims it can't get back to the Abyss on its own."

Damien looked puzzled over this.  "But demons can always return to the Abyss on their own, if they aren't constrained from doing so."  While they can't make their way here without help, return is never a problem."

Jenn looked surprised.  Mainly surprised she hadn't thought of this.  Edwyrd hadn't thought of it because it was a non-issue to him.  He'd assumed Tizzy had wanted to stay around and would just leave when he felt like it. It really didn't seem fair for Edwyrd to insist on him returning.  It was, after all, a free world.  Free for those without masters, Edwyrd corrected himself. 

"You're right!"  Jenn told Damien, looking around at the others.  "Why didn't we think of this?"   Gastrop
é just shrugged, Maelen shrugged, apparently feeling like Edwyrd, that it wasn't his business what the demon did.  "It must be acting as an agent for the big demon!"

"Don't you think you're being just a little over
-paranoid here?"  Edwyrd asked her.  "Must everything have an ulterior motive?"  He was getting tired of being blamed for being more devious and evil than he was.

Before Jenn could angrily retort, Damien spoke up on her behalf.  'We don't know for sure what the little demon is doing.  While it may just be hanging around for its own enjoyment, we can't be sure.  We have to at least consider all possibilities.  Mortal politics can be complicated, demonic politics are often even more so.  If there is an archdemon after this book, this Tom demon could be working for that demon...or...nevermind that."  Damien had obviously been going to say more but changed his mind.  Now, Edwyrd was getting paranoid, and he was the point of
the paranoid discussion.

Eventually,
Damien ushered his guests out with a servant to lead them back to their rooms.  He had continued to question them for about another hour after desert.  He finally decided he had as much information as he was going to get from them. 

"What do you think?"  Antefalken asked as he shut the door.  The bard had been hiding in a nearby room listening to the entire conversation with his demonic hearing. 

"I don't know," Damien answered as he moved to sit on a couch.  "Their story of traveling through the Abyss to get to Gizzor Del certainly coincides with what you smelled in Tom's cave.  Most of the rest sounds more or less like what either Exador or Lenamare have said, without so much frosting."

"The trip from Gizzor Del seemed a bit strange."  Antefalken commented.

"Yes, they weren't telling us everything.   They certainly arrived amazingly fast.  However, since that's where the Rod is and presumably the archdemon, maybe they'd become hesitant.  I know they hadn't meant to give away the part about the archdemon.  They'd just assumed I'd known."

"Yes.  That's an interesting p
iece." Antefalken flew up to the back of a nearby chair to take his usual position.  "I wasn't aware of any archdemon's definitely involved.  However it fits in well with what we're starting to learn of this Tom."

"Even on the time part of it.  It may just be the way they learned of it, but I'm reasonably certain the involvement of this archdemon is pretty recent.  It could coincide with the disappearance of Tom in Gizzor Del.  He could have gone to report to his superior, or if he is the archdemon himself, to muster his forces."

"Well, since it was only last night I talked to Tom, we at least have some idea of what he's doing.  He's training and dealing with at least one other demon in the Abyss right now.  I don't know of any armies mustering though.  I'd have thought to hear something in the Courts."

"Things aren't getting any clearer.  That is certain.  What about this book?  Any ideas what book an archdemon and two powerful conjurers would want?"  Antefalken just shook his head, as puzzled as Damien.

Damien shifted on the couch.  "At any point did you get a good luck at our guests?" 

Antefalken shrugged, "somewhat."

"Anything?"

"Well," Antefalken mused for a moment, "Jenn and Gastrop
é seem to be what they claim.  Edwyrd and Maelen are both big time players though.  Maelen is probably what he modestly says he is a Seer and a Healer.  Probably pretty good at both.  Edwyrd didn't claim to be anything.  I would guess however, from looking at his aura and listening to him, he's a world class player.  What part he plays, I don't know.  The little kid is also probably what he says; kids are hard to read.  Whatever the case, he's got an awful big aura for what they claim.  He could just be a prodigy of some sort.  Further, his aura is in the same range as Edwyrd's.  Edwyrd's shares a few similarities to Maelen.  Knowing what Maelen does, I'd have to guess that Edwyrd is in a similar line of work.  At least in terms of how he handles mana."