by C. L. Stone
“What would a demon want?” he asked. He pointed the tip of the blade at me. “This better not be a trick.”
“No,” I said. “Demons walk among our people. They make deals with humans. I made one of my own. Why do you think I’m so dirty and hide underneath this bearskin? I traded my cleanliness for a pile of gold.” I spat at the ground, looking away. “Not enough. The last of it was taken by Klaus and Wilhelm.”
“Stupid girl.” He lowered the blade. “I won’t be so stupid.”
“If you get enough gold, will you stop stealing from everyone?”
Before he answered me back, something behind him started to glow.
A firefly glow. The brightness of it too familiar to me.
Yet I didn’t see Shaytan. I wasn’t sure if he was here or not, but I suddenly knew he could hear me, at the least.
Captain turned but when he turned back to look at me, questioning me with what I was looking at, I shook my head. “Sorry,” I said. “I thought I saw something.”
He cocked a brow and backed up from me. “I’ll make you a deal, Adelina. Help me find a demon that will give us what we want, and we’ll go. You’ll never see us in the country again. We’ll even let you and Thorne go.”
“Understand if you break your oath, I’ll come after you,” I said. “And I’ll find you and will make sure you’ll suffer, even after this life.”
“You talk like a demon,” he said. He raised a brow. “Are you one?”
I thought I heard a chuckle coming from Thorne.
“Do we have a deal?” I asked. “You’ll let us free if we help you? You’ll need to find the demon on your own, of course. I’ve been locked away. I don’t know where he is any more.”
“Who are we after?” he asked.
“Make the deal and I’ll tell you.”
He groaned and then pressed his face to the cage and barked at me. “All right! I agree to the deal. Under threat of my life, I’ll let you both free once we’ve found your demon.”
I held my hand out to him. He shook.
The glow behind him brightened. Shaytan would make sure the deal was fulfilled, or he’d be the one to chase them down himself.
After the handshake, I released Captain. “I don’t know where to start looking, but I know his name.”
“Who is it?”
My lips curled into a smile. “His name is Benzo.”
In Search
I had a year left of my time in the cloak when the boat finally went to port again. I confirmed it with someone who brought us some proper food to our cages.
We were still locked away, but Throne had been let free of his bonds and the covering over his mouth. For weeks and weeks, he still couldn’t talk. His mouth was swollen and red. It’d be scarred for life.
His wrists and arms were indented from the long months he’d been bound.
“I can’t believe you told him that,” he said one night in a hoarse whisper once he was able to speak again.
“Why?” I asked. “Why not let him make a deal with a demon? Why not let him think he could best one?”
His brow lifted. “You send them to their dooms, you think? You don’t know what you’re doing. They’ll just trade a finger for some gold or something.”
“I know,” I said. “Trust me.”
Despite the one moment of glowing with Captain, I hadn’t seen or heard from Shaytan since. I didn’t know where he was, but I did realize he was still watching over me. His promise was kept. Despite the discomfort, I was mostly alive, but for some reason, he couldn’t get to me.
I was sure it was because he was keeping my promise. He was protecting Klaus or Wilhelm. I was safe as I could be in my cage, at least not dying. In my heart, I was glad I sent Shaytan on with them instead.
While in port, it took a few weeks for the men to unload the ship, to settle in, to spend time relaxing with drink and women.
Lazy.
I rested in the corner often, waiting for word they’d heard of Benzo and would be going after him. Captain came in to check with me several times about the name, and any other information I might have. But I knew nothing else, just assuring him that was the name.
“What does he look like?” Captain asked.
“He may not show his true form,” I said. “He may be invisible.”
“You send us on a goose chase!” Captain said. “To spare your own life!”
“You’ll just have to trust me. I made a promise to you. I’m fulfilling it. There is a Benzo out there. Find him.”
One night, I was almost asleep sitting up against the corner. Thorne reached out to me, touching my head.
His touch surprised me. Even when he was free, he kept to himself. His limbs were thinning, like mine. He’d rested for weeks to get his strength back. They’d fed us a little better once we were cooperative. We got potato skins and leftover gruel in addition to our apples.
I looked at Thorne’s hand as he reached out to me. He caught my chin, had me look at his face.
His eyes were clearer now than they’d been before. “You came after me.”
“I was probably lucky he didn’t lie about that,” I told him. “I trusted him…”
“Me, too,” he said. He swallowed thickly. “When I get my hands on him…”
“I had to agree we wouldn’t kill him if…”
“You agreed, I didn’t.”
“Don’t,” I said. I put my fingers to my lips. “Please. Trust me. It’ll work out.”
He nodded slowly and released me, but still pressed himself against the bars. “Ade-y-girl,” he said. “I don’t know what you’re doing. But…how did you know about Benzo?”
I cocked a brow. “Do you know him?”
He frowned, and leaned his head back, pointing his chin at me. “How do you think I lost my beard, girl?”
My eyes widened.
He wouldn’t tell me before.
He thought to protect me. So I wouldn’t seek Benzo out for myself. To make a trade.
“What did you trade it for?”
He pressed his lips tightly together and shook his head. “I don’t want to tell you.”
I didn’t want to press him. Perhaps it was gold or something else. Did it matter? “Why did you leave me?” I asked. “That last day of the war?”
“I didn’t know it was the end of the war,” he said. “But, after we talked, I left because…I wanted to find Benzo again. I wanted another deal.” He lowered his head.
“What deal?”
“I wanted to cancel the deal we made. I wanted my beard back in exchange…”
He stopped, looking at the ground, growling at it.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he sighed. “Demons are tricky. They’ll trade you for something you think you want, but then the result is never what you think it is.”
“What did he trade you? Why don’t you tell me?”
“It doesn’t matter. Never mind.” He looked up at me. “If I’d thought of a similar plan, perhaps they wouldn’t have locked me up. And they wouldn’t have bothered with you.”
“Why are you here?”
“I heard about what they were doing. I lied to them, telling them I had money. I tried to earn their trust so I could dismantle it.”
“They caught you?”
He lowered his eyes. “The night they captured you. Earlier that day, I heard you were in town. With that Klaus Roth. I knew you were here to do the same as me, to stop whoever was doing this. So, I bumped up my timeframe. Got on board the ship. But…I think they knew what I was going to do. They didn’t fully trust me. And then they tied me up when they found me trying to sink their ship.”
Who knew what would have happened if I hadn’t been looking for him. Captain and the others that worked for him, they were traitors. All of them.
It was still a couple of more weeks before Captain returned.
I was sitting in the corner, Thorne in his near mine. We were singing an old dwarf song he’d taught me.
When Captain came to the door of my cage, we ignored him, singing on.
He waited until the song was over before he spoke. “We found your demon, Adelina.”
I smirked. “Did you? I don’t see him.”
“We know he was last seen in a cave in the northernmost part of the country. At the base of a mountain.”
“You can’t sail there,” I said, the sarcasm dripping from my voice.
Captain smirked and tilted his head. “No. We can’t. Which is why we’re going to take you with us. You’ve dealt with the demon before.”
I didn’t correct his thoughts. He thought I’d dealt with Benzo, but I had my own need to find him as well.
I hoped Shaytan could now get to us before we got to the other demon. Now that we were on land, we’d be much easier to find.
We were let out of our cages, but our wrists were bound.
Finally allowed out to stretch and stand up right, we did so. My limbs were weak, it took ages for me to climb the steps.
Once out in the light, I was blinded. It was too much for my eyes, having been so long in the dark.
We were in a town I didn’t recognize, but it looked like our own country.
The men put us in another cage, in a carriage. This one was bigger, but they kept it covered, so no one would see us.
This time we were together. Our hands were bound but we were at least together.
When the cover went around the cage, it kept us warm, but it was stifling. The carriage wagon rocked back and forth on the road, and then tilted on occasion to go up or down a hill.
Thorne tested the bars. “We should look for a way out.”
“I think we can wait. I needed to see Benzo anyway. We’ll let them take us.”
“Why?” he asked. “You know they’re up to something. They won’t let us live through this.” He knelt near where I sat, pressing his hands to my face. “I’ll not have them best us. Not now.”
“Weren’t you looking for Benzo, too? To revoke your deal?”
“You don’t know who you’re dealing with,” he seethed.
“Tell me,” I said. “Tell me why Benzo frightens you.”
He recoiled from me and growled. “I’m not afraid.”
“Yet you don’t want to go see him. Why? You told me you went looking for him. Then you changed your mind? Why?”
He sat back on his heels, keeping his mouth shut.
Frustrated with him, I moved to the other side of the cage.
We were only allowed out of the cage two times a day while on the road, to eat, drink, and relieve ourselves.
I’d been in the bearskin for six years and counting. After so much time in the hull of the Faded, I’d not gotten a good look at myself.
It was only in those moments when we were allowed out, watched over by men with weapons drawn against us, which I was able to look into a bucket of water and see what had happened to me over time.
The braid I’d kept was matted, a solid mass on my head. My skin was raw and flakey.
My whole face was smudged. Some green moss was growing off of the cloak on the edge, and I wondered how far it had grown down the back.
So many years like this. I was creeping toward the end.
Thorne, when we were out, often washed at his face, around the areas where the muzzle had been for so long. Other than that, he ignored his own washing.
I didn’t mention it. Either he did it in protest to those who captured us, or out of empathy for me. It didn’t matter. It didn’t bother me.
A thick blanket of snow in early winter made progress slow through the country. When near towns, they’d spend a week or two enjoying the inns and women, while men took shifts to guard us in our cage at a camp just outside of town.
I got angrier the longer they took to get to the mountains.
“He’ll be gone before you get there,” I told Captain one day when we were getting food and water out of our cage.
Their camp surrounded our carriage. He was often nearby when we got out to refresh ourselves.
He laughed at me and waved me off. “You don’t know anything about being in charge of a group. You’ve got to give them something to enjoy themselves, or what’s the point? And don’t forget, they’re all on foot. You’re the one in the carriage.”
“No wonder you have to steal money,” I said. “You’re completely incompetent.”
Captain growled at me. He came at me with a raised hand to strike.
I readied myself, not even trying to defend. I wanted him to strike.
Before he reached me, Thorne launched himself head first into his stomach.
We were instantly wrestled to the ground by the other men, held at blade point to remain flat on the ground.
Captain got up and spit in our direction. “You’re lucky I bring you at all. We could kill you now.”
“You should try it,” I said.
He sniffed and then walked away. We’d made a deal after all. And he still might need me in a deal with Benzo.
We were sent back to our cage without food or water.
“Why do you provoke him?” Thorne asked me.
“I want him to get to Benzo,” I said. “Aren’t you tired of the cage?”
Thorne rolled his head back, resting it on the bars. “I’m not looking forward to seeing Benzo again.”
“What does he look like?”
He kept his voice low and whispered in my ear. “He collects human parts, and wears them all. At the same time. Arms. Eyeballs. He’s got three bellies last I saw him, different sizes. One I’m pretty sure belonged to a pregnant woman.”
I shivered at the idea. “Maybe the sight of him will scare them all off.”
How desperate were they for gold?
The Caves
It was a couple of months before my end in the bearskin when we got to the base of the mountains. The men made a long term camp, setting up tents and prepping the area to secure.
We were uncovered, and then unprotected from the cold winds coming down out of the mountain.
“In a couple of days, we’ll go in,” a guard told us. “We need to prepare for both of you to go on foot.” He chucked a bowl of food at us. “So eat up. We don’t need you lagging behind.”
We kept together and we ate. The mountain was high, we were on the edge of a cliffside that overlooked a valley of trees. We had a good view of the snow-capped, gray mass ahead of us.
Thorne and I waited for the men to eat and rest.
We waited as they prepared themselves to go into the large cave at the foot of the mountain.
I wasn’t sure how they knew which cave, but somehow Captain knew the way.
We followed them in.
And then for a few weeks, at least, we were mostly in the dark.
How much time passed, I’d never know. Without some sort of sign of the sun, I lost track of days, as did the men.
Only Thorne didn’t seem rattled to be in the cave. In fact, he seemed to breathe easier, and his strength seemed to return to him.
The men battled to fend off bats, large rodents, and one particularly ugly spider that was as big as a cow.
Soon, we came to large, iron wrought doors.
The men pushed at it, but unsuccessfully.
“Something’s barring it from the other side,” one of the men said.
“He probably doesn’t want visitors,” I said.
“Who knows if this is even his cave,” Thorne said. “There could be a dragon behind it.”
“Or a witch,” I said.
“Enough!” Captain bellowed, his voice echoing loudly into the cavern. “This is it. I know it is.”
After having dealt with Shaytan, I wasn’t sure. Would demons live in caves, too?
We rested just outside the door, with Captain looking at it, occasionally banging on it or checking out the edges to look for weaknesses.
After days of looking at the door, the men had gotten lazy and slept more in the darkness. Some had been sent o
ut to get more wood and torches. They hadn’t brought enough.
There were only two guards posted to make sure we didn’t escape and that no one else approached undetected.
Tired of waiting, I quietly crawled to the door. The iron had images etched into it. I studied them, the markings, trying to figuring out the meaning.
Thorne crawled toward me, just as quietly. He inspected the markings. He grunted. “It’s him,” he said.
“How do you know?”
“He’s been trapped inside,” he said. “By my kind.” He nodded to the lettering on the left. “It says don’t let him out. He’ll trick you. And some additional curses on anyone who would let him out.” He whispered to me. “I told you he was tricky. We’re probably lucky he’s behind the door and not let loose. We should go.”
“How do we open it?” I asked.
He snorted in a huff. “You want to let them in?”
I was tired. I was annoyed. “We’ve waited long enough. Capitan is stubborn and won’t leave until he gets in. He’d dig around the door if he thought to do so. So he’ll get in no matter what. Let’s do this and be done with whatever Fate or God may do to us. How do we open it?”
“What are you two doing over there?” Captain’s voice erupted behind us.
Suddenly, we were both tossed onto our backs by other men, who secured us.
Captain came over, looming close. “What did you two say?” He looked over at Thorne. “Do you know how to open it?”
Thorne cursed at him, but he got a boot at his chin, blooding his lip as well.
Captain came to me, snagged the clump of hair at the scalp and held a knife toward my face. “I swear, dwarf, I’ll cut her open.”
A firefly glow illuminated the doorway ahead of us, coming from the edges of the iron doors.
No one else seemed to notice except for me.
Thorne grumbled but then coughed once. “Fine. I’ll help you.”
The glow faded away.
Odd. Do all demons have the same glow?
Could Benzo hear us?
They released Thorne but I was held by Captain still, the knife still pointed in my direction.
