Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan) (71 page)

One other thing that Rupert noted was that there seemed to be an awful lot of new arrivals.  He couldn't see where they were coming from, but the Rod's encampment seemed to be growing.  New tents were being erected on the edges of the previous encampment.  Actually, if he wasn't mistaken the numbers were increasing fairly rapidly.

As Rupert put down his fork and wiped his mouth, the tent flap pulled aside partially.  Sir Talarius stuck his head in.  "Good day, lad.  May we have a word with you?"  the knight asked, polite as were all the Rod.

Rupert nodded shyly.  The knight smiled and
opened the flap further and stepped in.  Sir Talarius was still dressed in the same manner as the night before.  In the daylight however, Rupert could see that the knight's armor had both a goldish and a silverish tint to it at the same time.  It almost seemed to scintillate those two colors.  Obviously, it was made out of some nonstandard material.

As the knight stepped completely in, he held the flap for his compatriot.  This individual was wearing the white robes of a priest.  As the man straightened up, Rupert's stomach fell through the cot he was sitting on.  The priest looked up after dusting his robe slightly.  As he saw Rupert sitting on the cot, his eyes got extremely wide.  He raised one finger and pointed at the boy.  "You!"

Rupert grinned, a wide, but rather embarrassed and definitely fake, smile.  He weakly waved his right hand at the priest.  "Hi.  Long time no see."  Time seemed to freeze in place.  No one said anything.  Verigas just continued to point in shocked surprise; Rupert just sat there, grinning sickly.  Talarius darted his eyes from one to the other, not understanding what was going on.

"You two know each other?"  Talarius asked.  Rupert said nothing.

Verigas gasped air for a moment then shouted.  "It's him!  It's a Minion of Evil!  A Scion of the Concordenax!" 

Talarius blinked in surprise, looking at Rupert.  "What?  He's just a little boy.  What are you babbling about?"  Talarius looked at the priest.

"It's one of the Archaedemon's party!  One of the puppet wizardlings that came in its entourage."  Now it was Rupert's turn to blink.  Archdemon’s party? What was the man talking about?  Couldn't the priest tell the difference between an archdemon and a greater demon?  Well, actually, Rupert couldn't either, he'd never seen an archdemon, and he only knew Tom was a greater demon because Lenamare and Jenn said so.  "Slay it! Slay it before it wreaks more havoc upon the world."

Rupert cowered back on the cot.  Not that he was in the least bit terrified of the priest, but he felt it was probably the proper thing to do under the circumstances.  Talarius had his hand on the priest's shoulders, trying to calm the screaming priest down.  "Relax, relax, it can't be that bad.  He's just a boy."

"No! No! He is a creature of the Abyss!  A very pawn of the potentates of hell!"

"Stop it man!"  Talarius urged.  "He's not hurting anyone here."  By this point another priest had entered the room.  This one was older than Verigas and wearing
armor as well as a robe.

"What's going on here?" the man asked.

"Verigas here insists that this lad we found last night is one of the Archaedemon's wizardlings, Arch-Vicar General."  Talarius looked briefly over his shoulder at the newcomer.

"Really?"  The man called Arch-Vicar General examined Rupert as if he were some sort of curious art object.   "Verigas did report that there was a little boy with the archdemon.  Rupert, I believe was the name Verigas reported."  Rupert cursed to himself.  Verigas glared at the knight in vindication, calming down slightly at the same time.

Talarius turned and stared pointedly at Rupert.  Rupert decided it was time to sit up and be in a little better position to take action if need be.  "So, Rupert, what have you to say for yourself?  You've admitted to being with a demon last night. Verigas identifies you; in fact gave us your name in advance of your arrival.  I suggest you explain."  While not exactly menacing, the knight no longer looked particularly friendly.

"Please sir...I have no idea what the priest is talking about."  Rupert tried to be completely sincere this time.

"He's lying."  The Arch-Vicar General stated without batting an eye.  "Very convincing sincerity, but a lie nonetheless, I can see it in his aura." Talarius glanced at the Arch-Vicar General, then at Rupert.

"Look son, I don't know how you got involved in all of this.  But if you tell us the truth, you won't be hurt."  Talarius looked seriously down at Rupert.

"Hurt!" Verigas cried.  "He's a total puppet!  He's probably not even a little kid!  He's got to be killed.  Even if he is what he appears, he's probably so steeped in evil as to be irretrievably damned!"

Talarius glared at the priest.  "No living mortal is irretrievably damned
, priest.  I will ask you not to forget that."

Verigas ignored the reproof in the knight's voice.  "You can't trust him.  He's probably a
possessed spy of the archaedemon’s!" 

Talarius closed his eyes for a moment.  "There is one way to determine that.  If I prove that this is not the case, will you be quiet and let me question the boy?"  Verigas nodded.  Talarius walked over to a small chest in the tent.  Rupert and the Arch-Vicar General watched his every move.  Rupert was getting just a shade nervous, he was probably going to have to change and make a run for it.  The knight pulled a key from his belt and without taking his eyes from Rupert, unlocked the chest.  Apparently it was the knight's quarters in which he'd stayed.

From the chest, Talarius pulled out what appeared to be a jeweled hand mirror.  Without looking at it, he walked back over to Verigas.  "Now, gazing at the boy through this mirror will reveal any demonic influences."  He held the mirror up so Verigas and the Arch-Vicar General could also see as he moved the mirror between himself and Rupert. 

As the mirror came between Rupert and the knight, Rupert noticed a greenish light seeming to come from the other side of the mirror, illuminating the knight's face and those of the priests.  Rupert watched in fascination as the knight's face went from calm to shock, to pure incredulity.  He raised his eyes from the mirror to stare directly at Rupert. 

Rupert didn't need to be told what the knight saw in order to know he'd been revealed as a demon. 
Damn
, he thought.
No sense in staying here.
Even as the knight's eyes turned from surprise to grim determination, Rupert was changing.  His clothes bulging and ripping as he gained mass.  Rupert didn't waste time to complete the change, he scrambled up and backwards to the rear of the tent.  Intending to tear his way out of the tent.  His wings began to beat, trying to free themselves from his clothes.  As of yet they were still not fully formed for him to fly.

Almost faster than his eyes could travel, which was incredibly fast, given his incredibly quick demonic reflexes, Rupert watched the knight's sword fly free of its sheath.  So fast that it was only a blur as the knight lunged forward, faster than any man in that much
armor should ever be.  Rupert lunged out of the way. Rupert hadn't even had time to complete his transformation. It was useless, even though he couldn't see it, Rupert felt the sword.

Rupert felt the sword strike his still mainly human neck with a single mighty blow.  Golden light seemed to flash from the blade.  Strangely enough, Rupert felt almost no pain, only shock as his world began to tilt at a strange angle.  As if in some weird dream, he saw his half-demon half-human body folding in the middle, falling to the ground, as if to sit, headless.  A jarring sensation came next and the world tilted crazily again as his head bounced off the cot.  The last thing he saw was the priest Verigas cowering away as all within the tent were showered with blood from Rupert's decapitated body.  Then all went black.

Jehenna finished her inspection of Bromagni's work.  She was currently taking her turn at supervising the work of the students.  Lenamare had gone off to deal with other matters.  She shook her
head; these students had to be monitored continuously lest they make a mistake.  How nice it would be to have somewhat more competent help.  One did with what one had, though.  She walked over to the table in the corner to inspect her calculations.

She was pouring over them for the third time when the
workroom door opened and in walked Lenamare and Hortwell.  Jehenna blinked in surprise.  "I thought you were with Zilquar?"  She inquired of the newly arrived mage. 

"I was, but it looks like a contingency plan has to go into effect now." Hortwell answered her.

"It seems," Lenamare informed her, "that Exador's army has completely disappeared."  Jehenna simply raised an eyebrow. 

"No trace.  No tracks of leaving, no magical
paraphernalia to indicate magical departure."  Hortwell told her.  "Thus I teleported directly to Freehold so we could implement Lenamare's contingency plan."

"Contingency plan?"  Jehenna inquired.

"I will give you one guess as to where that madman's army went."  Lenamare told her.  She simply pointed to the floor, Lenamare nodded.  "Precisely, thus we need our army here as well."

"That will take a few days to arrange, even with flying carpets."  Jehenna noted. 

Lenamare simply shook his head.  "Not at all.  You see, Master Hortwell here," he put a hand on the man's shoulder, "has been making good use of his time.  He constructed a wall where Zilquar's army is camped."

"A wall?"  Jehenna was at a loss on this one.

"A wall with a gate."  Hortwell told her.

Comprehension dawned in Jehenna's eyes.  "A Runic Gateway?"

"Precisely!"  Lenamare beamed.  "Once again, good planning and foresight pays off in having a highly qualified Rune Wizard standing by in the right location."  He nodded to Hortwell.  "Now all we need to do is find a suitable door in the palace somewhere, and soon we can bring Zilquar's entire army into Freehold.  All in one night!"  Hortwell was nodding.  "Will you need some assistance?  A student or two?"

"One should do."  Hortwell looked over the students currently available.  "Jenn
, if you don't mind?"   Hortwell asked Jenn. 

"Good choice, she's not particularly useful here."  Jehenna stated.  Jenn just glared at her, and was ignored. 

"Master Hortwell?"  Jenn asked as she stood up.  "Do I understand that you're going to open a Runic Gateway between here and the school to transport everyone through?" 

"That's what we just said girl," Lenamare snapped impatiently.

"Well, I was just wondering why we didn't do that in the first place?  Why did we have to all split up and go over land?  Couldn't we have just done this?"

Lenamare snorted.  "Once again, you show the fault of not considering all the facts.  During the siege, we would have had to take the wards over to completely physical in order to open the gateway.  Further, it would have taken quite some time to file everyone through the gate.  Time Exador wouldn't have allowed us."

"But as it is, you had to take the wards to completely magical.  Isn't that the same?"

Lenamare was just shaking his head.  "No, you see, we had walls to protect us from the physical assault of troops while the wards were in full magical mode.  Further, due to the ingenious layout of the escape tunnels, the time needed to have the wards completely magical was a lot less than the reverse case with a gateway.  And finally," Lenamare concluded, "it would have been much easier for Exador to intercept and meddle with any magical method of departure, than a physical one.  If he'd cut the gateway while someone was traversing it...the poor soul would be literally ripped to shreds.  Do you think I would want to take that sort of chance with any of my people?"

Jenn just shrugged her head, unable to respond, as Lenamare intended whenever he lectured.  Willis, however, leaned over and whispered to Alvea, "Nice
speech.  If you ask me though, I'd just say the guy didn't think of it at the time."  Alvea giggled.  Jehenna, unable to hear the whisper, simply glared in her direction.

"Now, if we are finished with our lesson for the day?" Lenamare inquired of Jenn, who simply nodded, "
Then let us go find a suitable doorway for the gate."  With that, he ushered Jenn and Hortwell out the door.

~

It was just past the middle of the afternoon when Damien pounded on Edwyrd's door.  Edwyrd opened the door, curious to see who would be knocking so strongly.  "Good afternoon."  Damien said

"Good afternoon."  Edwyrd answered.

"Would you gather your friends and come with me?  We need to talk.  Some place I know is secure."  He looked at Edwyrd. 

"Well, Jenn is off with Lenamare and Tizzy is out roaming the city.  Maelen's on the roof of one of the towers, searching for Rupert.  Rupert is missing, so that just leaves Gastrop
é and me."

"Fine.  Rupert is missing
, is he?"

"Yes?  Have you seen him?" Edwyrd asked anxiously, Gastrop
é came up to the doorway behind Edwyrd.

"No, but I know some people who think they have. 
That is why we need to talk.  Please come with me, we'll go to my quarters."

Edwyrd glanced at Gastrop
é who shrugged.  The two left the room, following Damien, concerned about Rupert.  As Gastropé shut the door behind them, Damien told them, "For obvious reasons, I think we should wait until my quarters before we discuss anything."  Both young men agreed.

Damien ushered them into his main room, securely locking the door behind him.  "Now, we need to talk."  He gestured for them to sit.  "Antefalken, you get out here too."  A few moments later, Antefalken appeared, curious.  He hopped up to his normal perch on the back of a chair.  Gastrop
é and Edwyrd were already sitting on the long couch.  Damien sat in the stuffed chair.

"So? Which of our crises is this about?  You said someone knows where Rupert is?"  Gastrop
é asked, Edwyrd nodding in agreement.  Both looked expectantly at the wizard.

"We need to talk, because things are getting really serious at this point.  The castle is infested with demons
; two major wizards are preparing to battle it out; there is an ever growing army outside the walls of the city, and there are apparently archdemons wandering around as well."  Damien just looked at the two.

Edwyrd nodded, grimacing.  "Maelen and I think we might know who one of the archdemons is."   Damien did a double take.  This was obviously not the line of conversation he intended to pursue.

"You do?  Who?  And how do you know?"  Antefalken demanded excitedly, stretching forward on his seat back.

Edwyrd nodded to him.  "Ramses the Damned."

Damien coughed suddenly, shaking his head.  Gastropé looked clueless as to what Edwyrd meant, and Antefalken suddenly seemed lost in thought.  "Ramses the Damned?  As in the Anilord?"  Edwyrd nodded.  "I wasn't aware that he was listed among the lords of the Abyss?" He looked quickly to Antefalken.

Antefalken shrugged.  "It could be no one knows the names of all the demons in the Abyss.  While, relatively speaking there aren't that many archdemons, those that there are go by a lot of different names.  Especially the old ones, they change names every few hundred years.  Keeps it harder for someone to figure out their true name."  He seemed to be trying to recall something.  "I do believe, however, that there is an archdemon named Ramses. I'm trying to recall if there's ever been any mention of a connection between the two Ramses.  I can't recall any.  The demon one has an estate some distance outside of the Courts that
has a lot of nonstandard demonic servants.  That's the only reason I remember him.  Nothing in the Anilord motif though.  However, he would certainly be old enough.  As far as I know, all the archdemons are over a thousand, or more."

"Fine for now.  We will pursue
this; I will also want to find out how you came up with this."  He looked directly at Edwyrd.  Edwyrd nodded.  "However, what I meant was, that I'm beginning to get the suspicion that you people haven't told me everything you know." 

Gastrop
é looked puzzled.  Edwyrd did his best to look puzzled; there were a lot of things he wasn't telling people these days.  "What do you mean?"  Gastropé asked.

"I mean, we are allies.  We are in a really bad situation.  If this palace, this city and any of the people in it, including yourselves and your friends
, are going to survive, we have to work together.  We can't afford any secrets."

Edwyrd nodded.  Gastrop
é shrugged, "We agree, what do you think we haven't told you?"

Damien looked back and forth between the two.  Antefalken also seemed puzzled by Damien's comments.  "Simply this
:  A little bit ago, I went to talk again to the Rod; I came directly to your room from there. Having verified that the Rod was telling the truth about all the demons in the palace, and for lack of any decision by the council or any other plan, I decided to go and try and negotiate some more with the Rod.  I wanted to try and convince them we'd known nothing about the demons until last night."

Edwyrd and Gastrop
é both nodded, it seemed like something, at least.  "Unfortunately, my reception this time was even less enthusiastic than the first time."  He looked significantly at everyone in the room.  "Upon my arrival and being presented to Talarius and the Arch-Vicar General, I was ordered to stand put while the two men inspected me through a hand mirror."

"A hand mirror?"  Antefalken asked.

"A hand mirror.  Apparently it is capable of detecting demonic influences."  Antefalken made a gesture with his face, impressed apparently.  "It seems they are now in a hyper-paranoid state.  They now suspect that anyone coming near them could be a demon or a demon's agent.  They weren't particularly clear on that point.  However, what seems clear is that they now know that some demons can shape change."

Edwyrd started getting a sick feeling in his stomach.  "How would they have gotten that idea?"  Antefalken asked Damien. 

Gastropé interrupted. "Can they?"  He was starting to look a bit paranoid himself.  Damien ignored him, answering Antefalken instead.

"I'm coming to that.  Apparently, they claim to have captured a spy.  A demonic one."  Edwyrd was really getting nervous now.  "It happened last night.  One of their sentries spotted a demon hovering over the camp, spying on their actions.  Talarius apparently shot it out of the sky somehow."

Gastropé was looking completely lost.  "When soldiers went to hunt it down, all they found was a naked boy, approximately nine or ten years old."  Edwyrd had to hold himself from groaning out loud.  "The young boy apparently told Talarius that he'd been captured by a demon, and only released when the demon was wounded."

Gastrop
é started putting a few of the pieces together apparently, for he spoke up.  "You mentioned Rupert earlier?  Are you saying that Rupert was kidnapped by a demon?"  Gastropé looked almost in shock.  Edwyrd knew the man's feelings about demons, he was also sure Gastropé was thinking about the fact that the Rod was after Rupert, along with the rest of them.  "Gods above."  He rubbed his temple.

"Not.  Exactly." Damien replied.  Edwyrd's stomach went through the
floor; he dreaded what must be coming.  "It seems the next morning, Talarius brought a priest to verify the truth of the boy's story.  It seems the boy and the priest recognized each other."

"Shit."  Gastrope' said.  "The priest from Gizzor Del."  Damien just looked at him meaningfully.  Gastrop
é coughed slightly and said apologetically, "I guess we did kind of gloss over that part."

"Why don't you explain it now?  Since it seems appropriate at this point."  Damien said.

Gastropé smiled sickly, Edwyrd wanted to find out what had happened to Rupert, but he figured this was going to be the only way.  "Well," Gastropé said hesitantly, "I'm not up on all the details, Jenn or Rupert could probably tell you better."  Damien continued to stare.  "It seems that in order to leave the Abyss, the demon needed a link or something.  Needed someone to summon him.  I'm not sure what he did, but apparently he intercepted another conjuring.  An individual summoning another demon.  He sort of appropriated the summons I guess.  I'm not really sure if that's possible?"

"Extremely rare, but it can happen."  Antefalken assured him.  "One of the risks of demon conjuring."  Antefalken smiled evilly.  Gastrop
é gulped.

"Anyway, it turned out to be this priest Verigas, in Gizzor Del.  He sort of went hysterical.  Can't say I blame him.  Anyway, the demon forced open a rift and let us all step out.  Including the demon traveling with us now."  Damien was shaking his head, obviously imagining the situation.  "Needless to say, the big demon alone was enough to send the man off the deep end.  The rest of us didn't seem to help.  We were all looking rather disreputable at this point."

Gastropé shrugged.  "To make a long story short, we tied him up.  He'd seen us all, but we didn't plan on ever seeing him again.  After all, he'd been doing something taboo for his religion.  We just left him.  We arranged it so that he'd be able to get free after we'd left the city.  Apparently his conscience got the better of him, and he went to his superiors and they unleashed the Rod on us."