Thaumatology 10 - The Other Side of Hell

by Teasdale, Niall

  ~~~

  ‘You look like a Devim just ate your oochka,’ Hiffy commented as she placed a tankard of ale in front of Ceri. Ceri had yet to figure out what an oochka was, though she pictured it as something like a canary since she had heard the same phrase a number of times. Except that there were no actual, feathered, birds, just flying lizard-like creatures. So maybe a cute little, yellow lizard? ‘What’s troubling you, Ayasha? Can’t Hiffy cheer you up a little?’ The barmaid’s tail slid over to wrap itself around Ceri’s ankle and proceeded to stroke up and down; not that Ceri could really tell through the double layer of leather on her boot.

  ‘No, shekushka, I don’t think you can,’ Ceri said with a sigh. ‘Not unless you happen to have a full schematic of the warding runes on the castle and a map of the interior layout.’

  Hiffy pursed her lips and cocked her hip, looking thoughtfully at the ceiling. ‘No, I can’t say I have. Why do you want to go breaking into the castle anyway? Even for you that’s not a safe place to steal from.’

  ‘I’m not stealing. I’m rescuing.’

  ‘Oh that makes all the difference. You’re stealing someone instead of something. Is he handsome? This isn’t just work, is it?’

  ‘It’s personal.’ Ceri had found that she did actually trust Hiffy. The girl’s mind was written on her face half the time, and when she was trying to hide her feelings she almost broadcast her thoughts loud enough to be picked up by radio. ‘And she is beautiful, yes.’

  The demon’s eyes looked down at Ceri, lips still pursed with a finger tapping the upper one. Ceri could see the thought processes. So, Ayasha was into girls, which meant Hiffy stood a chance. There might be trouble if Ayasha was caught and they found out Hiffy had helped her. If Hiffy did not help and Ayasha got in anyway, there was every chance they would never meet again. The decision was made, the tapping finger stopped. ‘I can get you in past the inner walls. After that you’re on your own. I know some of the layout, so I might be able to point you the right way, but I can’t risk it past the guard quarters.’

  Ceri frowned at her. ‘The guard quarters?’

  Hiffy nodded enthusiastically. ‘The guards aren’t allowed out of the castle pretty much ever, so they ship girls in for them. Maybe twenty girls a day, just after sunset. They rotate the guards through so they get a girl once a ten-day, and they only get an hour. They normally count the girls in and out, but I can make sure you wouldn’t be missed going out again. Sometimes an officer asks a girl to stay all night, y’know?’ The crazy thing was that it sort of sounded like a plan. ‘You’d need to make yourself a little more… normal. You dye your hair though so could you dye your skin?’

  It really did sound like she knew what she was doing, but it was already past dusk. ‘We’ll have to wait until tomorrow night then?’ Ceri asked. Hiffy nodded. ‘I guess I could spend the time seeing if I can get any information on the inside of the place.’

  ‘I might be able to help with that too. If he’ll talk to you.’ Her pert little nose wrinkled. ‘My grandfather worked at the castle for years, until he got caught stealing the silverware from the kitchen. He knows the place pretty well and they cut his hand off so… let’s say there’s no love lost. But he’s a crotchety old bastard.’

  ‘All right,’ Ceri said, eyeing Hiffy with a grin on her face, ‘what do you want for this help? Offalip donated quite a substantial contribution to my funds earlier, so…’ Hiffy shook her head. ‘No? What then?’

  ‘I get off in about an hour. Then I want you to get me off at your place.’

  ‘You’re going to risk your life helping me get into that castle and all you want for it is sex?’

  Hiffy grinned brightly. ‘I can get money for going to the castle and letting some guard fuck me for a while. I can’t get you any other way and I think this is my last chance.’

  Ceri shrugged. ‘Okay, deal.’ What did she have to lose?

  ~~~

  ‘A lot of people have been wondering what you are, you know?’ Hiffy said, her voice soft. Her head was on Ceri’s shoulder and her fingers were playing with one of Ceri’s nipples, but it was her tail, currently sliding slowly in and out of Ceri, which was making it hard to breathe. ‘You’re not a det are you?’

  ‘You promise you’ll… tell no one?’ Ceri asked, with a little difficulty.

  ‘Let my tongue be pulled out with red hot pincers if I do.’

  ‘Not the… oh! image I want right now. I’m human.’

  The tail stopped moving and Hiffy pushed herself up onto an elbow to look down at Ceri’s face. Her mouth was hanging open and her eyes were wide. ‘A human? Here? A real one? I’m tail-fucking a real, live human?’

  Ceri giggled. ‘Actually, you stopped.’ Her eyes rolled back as Hiffy’s tail started moving again.

  ‘Are all humans like you? I mean, that little button that makes you moan when I rub it. I love that. I wish I had one. And your nipples are so sensitive.’

  ‘You’ve got… stuff to make up… it’s really hard to concentrate… with you doing that.’ Sex with Hiffy had been educational. The only demon Ceri had had much experience with was Faran, Lily’s father, and his form matched whatever his intended victim wished. Around humans, he was human, in every detail. Hiffy was a real, solid, full demon. As she had indicated, her nipples lacked the sensitivity of human ones, maybe because demons tended to have sharper teeth, even as babies. Her sex organs were more internalised; there was no clitoris, but the internal structure seemed to be both tougher and more sensitive. Ceri had formed the theory that demons were into rougher sex than typical humans; Hiffy certainly enjoyed treatment which Ceri would have considered painful. There was also a spot at the base of Hiffy’s skull which made her mewl like a kitten when you stroked it and Ceri had absolutely no idea how that had evolved.

  ‘Humans,’ Ceri said, ‘aren’t as, oh, diverse as demons.’ Hiffy twisted the end of her tail to fill Ceri more and began moving it faster. It was almost as if she wanted to know whether Ceri could keep talking while she did it. ‘E-even det have more d-differences between individuals. Humans all look… look pretty much… pretty… p…’ She gave up, her back arching as her orgasm began.

  Hiffy giggled softly. ‘I just made a human come.’ She sounded really proud of herself.

  Day 11

  Hiffy’s grandfather looked more or less like her, except that his nose was a lot longer, as was his chin, and his skin was a far paler blue. The wisps of hair still clinging to his head were a dull grey rather than silver, so Ceri suspected that his skin was becoming paler with age. As Hiffy had said, his right hand was missing, and his sour expression suggested her assertion that he was a grumpy sod was also not without merit.

  ‘So you’re this Ayasha I’ve been hearing about?’ the old man said. His voice had a grumbling tone. ‘And you’ve got Hiffy doing your dirty work for you?’

  ‘I’m the only one doing anything dirty, sir,’ Ceri replied. She could see Hiffy out of the corner of her eye, looking mortified. ‘Hiffy is just getting me started, then I’m on my own.’

  The “sir” caught him by surprise; he was clearly not used to being treated with any respect at all. ‘Don’t be sir-ing me, girl. Name’s Ruffa. I never heard of a demon as powerful as you who wouldn’t use a det and throw them away like a rag. Why should I help you?’

  Ceri watched him as he stroked over his stump with his other hand, waiting for an answer. She nodded at his abbreviated limb. ‘I can give you your hand back. It’d take… twenty days to regrow, but you’d have two hands.’

  Ruffa’s black eyes narrowed. ‘That kind of magic costs a fortune. You’d do that to get your information.’

  ‘You can trust her, Inak,’ Hiffy said. ‘She’s been helping a lot of people for far less than it normally costs.’

  ‘So I heard. All right, I’ll tell you what I know, you fix my hand.’

  Ceri nodded. ‘Give me your stump.’ He raised an eyebrow, but put his wrist into her hands. Ceri concentrated and light b
egan to flicker around her fingers, slowly growing in intensity. ‘The person I’m looking for is a sort of Lorril. She was delivered to the castle, maybe as a slave, maybe a prisoner.’

  Ruffa’s eyes were on his arm and Ceri’s hands, but he could clearly feel the tingling as the spell began to work. ‘Prisoners and general slaves are kept in the dungeons under the towers. They have a lot of guards down there. It wouldn’t be easy for me to get in, but you got plenty of magic to throw around.’

  ‘What about wards?’

  ‘Not down there. The walls are heavily enchanted, and so are the inner chambers, but they don’t figure they need them elsewhere. Now, if she’s a Lorril, then she’s probably been brought in as a pleasure slave. They’re housed in the eastern tower, six floors up. No wards there either, but the floors above that have them. That’s where the lord of the castle lives.’

  ‘What’s the lord?’ Ceri asked. ‘Devos?’ The light around her hands had grown to a bright, blue-white incandescence as the spell neared completion.

  ‘No one knows. It was a Devos when I was working there. He cut my hand off himself, the gashikagig.’

  ‘Inak!’ Hiffy squeaked. Ceri thought Lily might have mentioned “gashikagig” once with reference to one of the ruder terms Faran had taught her. She suspected it was a good thing it did not translate.

  The light died away and Ceri let go of Ruffa’s arm. ‘Don’t cover it up. It’ll regrow slowly, but you’ll see some results fairly soon.’

  Ruffa stroked the scarred skin. ‘The way it felt, I think I can trust you’ve done as you say.’

  ‘So this new lord… no one’s seen him? No one knows who he is?’

  Ruffa shrugged. ‘Someone does. He isn’t seen much. Hands down orders from his chambers and when he goes anywhere he’s in a cloak with a hood. Word was he was put in place by one of the really powerful Lords. Graggil or Molech according to the rumours.’

  Ceri frowned. Molech she knew. Molech had been paying a lot of attention to her whenever he got the chance of coming to Earth, but as far as she knew he had been exiled from demon society after falling from power. Asking would have just given away that she was not a demon, however.

  ‘I saw him arrive in the city,’ Hiffy said. ‘Well, I was down by Low Gate when his carriage came through. Huge thing, like a castle on wheels. He had ten Lorril in a cage at the back of the thing.’ Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Ceri. ‘You know, they looked kind of like you. They had shorter hair, but there was the same red streak. And they had the same bodies.’

  ‘Lorril that looked like me?’ Why would any demon want his sex slaves to look like her? What demon knew her well enough to actually do that? Molech, probably, but why would he do it? Besides which, if Molech had turned up personally in Shilfaris everyone would know about it.

  ‘You pissed off any Lords, girl?’ Ruffa asked, though his expression was leering.

  ‘You don’t honestly want to know the answer to that,’ Ceri replied, receiving a slight shrug in reply. ‘Okay, tell me everything you can about the layout inside the castle. Start at the guard quarters and work from there.’

  ‘Huh. That’s how you’re getting in. All right. The guards’ rooms are in a compound beside the main gate…’

  ~~~

  Hiffy had assured Ceri that there were always more guards wanting girls than girls wanting guards’ money so there would be no problem if a couple of extra ones turned up at the gate. There was no real prostitution in Shilfaris; the girls showing up at the castle were amateurs needing extra cash quickly, not professionals. If someone wanted sex, there was generally a Lorril available to “work for food,” but bringing them in to service the guards was considered too dangerous. No one really wanted to admit that Lorril were very powerful demons, but they still did not want a contingent of them marching in to the castle at night. So, the guards got down-on-their-luck det.

  ‘I did it a few times before I got the job at the Horns,’ Hiffy whispered as they waited outside the gate. ‘It’s a quick way to make a few silver, especially if you can get an officer or more than one soldier.’

  Ceri nodded and tried not to look too nervous. A few spells applied during the day had her looking significantly different and she was hoping that, if anyone in the castle was watching for her, she would pass unnoticed. Her hair had been grown several inches and dyed white, and her skin was now ebony black. The wards might notice an active disguise illusion, but these were actual, if temporary, physical changes. She had been going to change her eyes too, but Hiffy had stopped her. ‘The best thing for you would be to get an officer,’ she had said, ‘and if you flash those eyes at an officer you’ll get him.’

  So Ceri had left her eyes blue and gone out shopping to find a suitable outfit to wear for selling her body in. She had finally selected a bandeau top and a loincloth-like skirt, both in a thin, white, cotton-like material which was a little transparent. She was barefoot, and thankful her feet had toughened up from time spent with the Battersea pack. The looks she had got on the way over to the castle, and the ones she had got from Hiffy before leaving the house, suggested she had made the right selection. Now it was just a matter of finding out whether it was good enough to attract the kind of attention she needed.

  ‘You’re sure I look okay?’ Ceri asked.

  ‘You look fantastic,’ Hiffy replied, ‘total tavika bait. I don’t understand how someone as powerful as you can be so insecure.’

  ‘I… suffered a blow to my self-esteem recently. Besides, I wasn’t always as powerful, or as confident. Everyone has to start somewhere.’

  ‘Huh, I guess, but I could never rise like you have. I might manage to get into West Ward if I get lucky somehow, but I’m a det so I can’t ever be anything but a rich det.’ She looked up as movement started among the small crowd of girls. ‘Here we go. Just remember to look a little shy. Smile. The officers wear red spaulders.’

  ‘Spaulders?’

  ‘Shoulder armour,’ Hiffy hissed and then looked ahead as she led the way through the door in the huge, iron gates.

  Ceri felt the magic of the wards crawling over her skin as she followed. The skin on the back of her neck tightened and then relaxed. Even that slight contact gave her the impression of some very nasty enchantments. No guards rushed toward her and her head did not explode, so she guessed she had made it in without triggering anything. No one seemed concerned about the canvas bag over her shoulder either, but she was not the only one carrying something.

  Beyond the first set of gates was a tunnel perhaps ten yards in length, closed off at the far end by another set of gates. The only light came from runes at the apex of the vaulted ceiling. There were slots for a portcullis halfway down the tunnel and shadows up there in the ceiling suggested a substantial number of murder holes. Assaulting the gatehouse directly was probably suicide; if the wards did not get you, the soldiers would.

  They were marched through the inner gates, which put them on the outer courtyard. A hundred yards wide and cobbled, it was yet another kill zone between the outer and inner walls. Ruffa had been right though, Ceri’s sight showed no sign of enchantment on the inner walls. Of course, there were guards to get past, but there appeared to be only two at the large gate directly north of the gatehouse and she could see another, smaller, gate up on the eastern side of the circular wall with only a single guard. That would be her point of entry. Well, once she had got past the really difficult part.

  The girls filed through a wooden door in a thickened section of the outer wall, down a short corridor, and into what appeared to be a mess hall. There were long tables with benches beside them, and on the benches were around twenty-five demons in armour. There were only twelve girls; it was going to be a busy night.

  It looked like the majority of the guards were Devos, but Ceri could see a couple of other species she did not recognise. At least there were no Dakags; she was not sure they had genitals, but the idea of getting porked by one was scary. All the ones she could immediately see
had black plates over their shoulders, but as they waited, the men watching the girls and the girls smiling back in an attempt to attract work, a slightly taller Devos walked in through one of the inner doors. This one had red shoulders and still had a sword strapped around his waist. He also seemed to be in charge.

  ‘Huh… lousy turn out tonight. All right, you’ll have to take turns. You know the rules. Two silvers paid up front. Anyone gets hurt and I’ll personally rip your tavika off. No arguing over the girls. Pick the one you want and discuss who goes first. If you start fighting you’ll lose privilege for a month.’ He paused, his eyes scanning the row of women lined up at the end of the room. Ceri looked coyly up at him and put on her best timid smile. It worked. ‘You, the one with the blue eyes. You come with me.’

  Hiffy gave a little squeak, which sounded rather proud, and Ceri gave her a quick smile before padding across the room toward the officer. He did not wait for her, turning before she got to him and heading back through the door he had come through. Behind them, the conversation rose in volume as the guards picked over the remaining girls. Ceri hoped Hiffy was going to be okay, though she suspected that the blue girl was going to be better off than she was.

  The officers’ quarters were on the upper floor of the structure. If this was the only barracks the castle still had a pretty impressive garrison. If there was another one it was over-staffed. There appeared to be around twenty-five small suites allocated to officers. Say ten soldiers under each one for two-hundred and seventy-five or so in total. Just so long as she did not end up having to fight her way out through them.

  Distracted by her thoughts, she almost walked into the Devos as he stopped at a door to unlock it. He glanced at her and she stood waiting, hands behind her back, eyes cast down at his hooves. ‘You’re new at this?’ he asked and she nodded, trying to make it look uncertain. ‘Didn’t think I’d seen a blue eyed det here before.’ He pushed the door open and walked in, and she followed him through. She heard the key being turned in the lock behind her.