Devil Ash Disarray (Devil Ash Saga Book 3)

by Mitchell Olson

  “Uh oh,” Goddard uttered.

  Shiva ran to the window. The Royal Guard superiors all stood to see what the commotion was about as well. Even Aura cast a curious glance from his seat. Everyone seemed wide-eyed and upset, and by the time Ash arrived to view the scene the indistinguishable voices formed into a single, repeated phrase that echoed through the streets of Hell and beyond the castle walls.

  “Show us King Sa-tan!” the mob chanted in a singsong style, “or give us the hu-man!”

  Chapter Thirty-Four: Despair

  What should have been another fun festival day instead turned into a day of protest. From the fifth floor conference room the citizens in the streets below looked like an angry swarm of colorful insects invading the castle. Their unified chanting filled the air, riling the people to action with a simple rhyme.

  “Show us King Sa-tan or give us the hu-man!”

  The crowd gathered outside the castle gates was already more than double what it had been last night, with more and more people arriving every minute. The streets of the kingdom looked like wild rivers with people for water, all rapidly flowing toward the castle.

  The waters parted slightly as a heavy-set man drifted through the throng with great ease, his three most trusted accomplices surrounding him like a bubble of protection. A skeletal-looking woman carried a three-step ladder for him. When the small group reached the blockade of Royal Guards, the woman placed the stool on the ground.

  Glebeck, leader of the Noble’s daily news network in Hell, climbed the three rungs of the stepladder with a cautious gasp until his fat head bobbed above the crowd. His fellow business partners, Bliley, Rumbaugh, and Machmann stood around with their angriest faces on in support.

  “Attention, attention!” Glebeck said, raising a conical megaphone to his mouth. The people closest to him and his goon squad lowered their voices, and like a virus the mute spread its way back through the streets. “We’re starting now, everyone!” The rowdy Noble turned to face the castle, his pudgy mug visible to Ash and everyone from their window view.

  “Attention castle staff superiors! I, Glebeck Lowdly, representative to the people, come to you today with a simple demand! We wish to see the King! As you’ve no doubt read in my most recent current events pages, we have witnesses, reliable people, informing us of the King’s unbelievable abduction at the hands of a demon Prince in the late hours of the evening! I, Glebeck Lowdly, and we the people demand you disprove those witnesses by allowing King Satan to explain the situation himself firsthand!

  “If you fail to meet this simple demand within the next hour, then I, Glebeck Lowdly, along with we the people will have a new demand! The release of the human, Ash Kraplan, into the custody of the Nobility! As an illicit immigrant to Hell, the human’s presence in our Kingdom has put us all in great danger by drawing the attention of the Demon King and his subjects! It is because of Ash Kraplan that our King, the lovable Alfred Satan, was possessed by demons and taken in the night! And so it shall be he who pays for that crime!”

  The crowd roared with enthusiasm.

  “It is with a heavy heart that I, Glebeck Lowdly, must say that I don’t believe you will be able to meet our simple first demand! If our good King Satan has indeed truly been kidnapped by demons, then that makes the human our only bargaining chip! Exchanging the human’s life for the safety of our King is a necessity! The people demand it!”

  The majority of the crowd shouted in approval. The loudmouthed Noble continued to stir the people, ranting on about past failures in the Satan family lineage while his lackeys pushed their papers. None of that mattered to Ash, his knees trembling, as he sank to the cold, hard floor of the conference room.

  “How can they even say that…?” Tears swelled in his eyes like a dam full of cracks, doomed to overflow. “After everything I’ve done for them… How could they all turn on me so quickly?”

  Not since that fateful morning when he first awoke in a jail cell in Hell had Ash felt such a gripping sense of despair. The despair enveloped his whole body like an unwanted hug, suffocating, paralyzing. He’d spent nearly a year living in Hell, helping the devils each and every day. He risked his life for them so many times he lost count. Now at the first sign of trouble, they were ready to be done with him? To cast him out, a mere bargaining chip to the demons?

  “I thought I was finally starting to fit in here…” And that’s when the dam broke.

  Aura slid off his seat and crouched next to his weeping friend. He put his left hand, his normal hand, on Ash’s shoulder. Even Shiva somehow drifted closer to the boy. She appeared at his side and dispensed some much needed advice.

  “Don’t take anything those imbeciles say serious,” she said. “They represent a very small minority of the people. The rest of the citizens out there are just feeding off the crowd’s energy. Those idiotic Nobles are just getting everyone riled up.”

  “That’s right,” Aura said. “It’s not like everyone hates you. Only the stupid people.”

  Shiva continued, “More importantly, there are people out there who know you. People who like you. They know you’re not a threat. They’ll have your back. I’d bet on it.”

  Ash wasn’t listening anymore. The distraught boy kept his eyes on the floor and succumbed to his most foreboding thoughts. It was impossible to imagine staying positive under such circumstances, where a trip to the demon kingdom was the best case scenario. Maybe if he was in perfect health with no more complications. Goddard’s medicine might keep him alive a little longer, but would it save him in the long run? Would it give Ash the power he needed to stand up against Prince Otozek? Or would he meet his fate sometime before then, at the hands of some lesser demon? Or worse, some lesser devil?

  “I’m not surprised the human is cowering.” Stryd’s voice cut through the room, stirring Ash from his thoughts. “They’re going to end up getting their way, after all. The kid’s getting traded to the demons no matter what.”

  Goddard stepped in to clear the air. “Not traded as such,” he said, turning to Ash. “You’ll certainly have to go with, but I’d encourage you to do everything in your power to not end up eaten by any demons.”

  Goddard paced in circles around the room, his habit while thinking.

  “We shouldn’t assume Prince Otozek really intends to uphold that agreement. If they were actually willing to do a trade, they would have done so before leaving our kingdom. They wanted us to follow them back to their own turf. It’s obvious they’re luring us into a trap with no intention of letting anyone out alive. Our only option is to meet their challenge head on.”

  “That’s where my men and I come in!” Stryd spoke with passion on behalf of his silent Captains. “We’ll mount a full assault on those filthy demons! With my army and Prince Killian’s strength, we’ll have those demons begging for mercy!”

  “An entire army’s not necessary,” Prince Killian said, his voice stuffed with confidence as he laid on the tabletop. The Commander deflated a little.

  “In this case, I have to agree with Killian,” said Goddard. “It will be a long and difficult journey to reach the demon kingdom. Marching an entire army across such an unforgiving landscape won’t work. It would be too large a target for the demons and too chaotic to manage. We’d be lucky to arrive with even half the men alive and actually ready for the ensuing battle.”

  “But our numbers!” Stryd argued with passion, believing his way to be the best. “Surely we outnumber them! There must be a way to use that to our advantage!”

  Goddard shot the Commander a mean look. “As soon as they saw us coming, what’s to stop them from simply killing King Satan? No, this battle won’t be won with numbers. If that were the case, we should have struck while they were here, and we had the advantage. But we missed that chance, and now we must beat them at their own game.”

  “A small group works better anyway,” said Shiva, her arms crossed knowingly. “It’ll be easier for us to sneak in unnoticed.”

  “Just
like they did to us,” said Aura with a smirk. “It’s payback time!” he said as he slammed a gloved fist into his left palm.

  The sullen Commander tried to convince the room that he would at least be going on the trip, army or not, no matter what. He would not be denied his revenge on the demon that took over his body, and he told them so as he slammed his fists on the conference table. Goddard had to step in to calm him down.

  “You can trust Prince Killian to realize your revenge, Sepultura,” the Royal Advisor said. He crept up beside the shaky man and put a sturdy hand on his shoulder. “We need you here. No one can control the entirety of the Kingdom’s military like you. We’ll need your leadership here if the demons decide to attack us while the retrieval team is away.”

  The Commander looked around at the smiling faces of his supportive subordinates as the Royal Advisor sold him on staying behind. It was the first time any of his men had smiled since… the incident. Once again, Stryd felt needed, and that, as it turns out, is all he wanted.

  The heads in the room turned to look at the door as it slowly creaked open. The only two who did not look were Prince Killian, who could not look, and Ash, who just didn’t care to look.

  “It’s good to see you all made it out of that awful incident alive.”

  Neither Ash, nor Killian, even had to turn their heads. They knew whom the voice belonged to. Though Killian didn’t really care in the slightest at his grandfather’s arrival, Ash was now at full attention, his eyeballs wide, dry, red.

  “Wilhelm?” he gasped.

  “Ash, my boy,” the old Satan said, approaching the boy with a forlorn expression. “You must know that we have absolutely no intention of trading you to the demons. Just the opposite.” His wrinkled face curved into a weak smile. “We’re counting on you to help conquer the so-called demon royalty and bring my son home alive.”

  Ash said nothing, lost in contemplation. His expression blanked. From the tabletop, the Prince made a sound of disagreement.

  “You still think the human will be of any help to us?” he said with a scoff. “In case you hadn’t heard, the boy is deathly ill. The only reason he’s alive and sulking now is because of our advisor’s special medicine.”

  “Ash is sick?” Wilhelm said, his fingers instinctively reaching for the tips of his white mustache. “I have been working for quite some time, so I hadn’t heard. Devils don’t get sick though, so I take it this affliction is something human? Whatever the cause, I do hope that Goddard is accommodating your every need. What’s this about a special medicine now?”

  “Just a specially designed mix of substances that have proven effective at treating the boy’s unexplained illness,” Goddard said, reassuringly. “My medicine is what’s keeping him alive.”

  “All of this…”

  Everyone looked at the trembling human. Ash raised his head, and his eyes glazed over like a corpse. His teeth bit down on his bottom lip to hold his words back. Then, in an instant, the boy stopped caring.

  “All of this could have been avoided if you were there! You’re never around when anyone needs you! Always working on West Hell, even though you retired! Who retires just to go back to work, anyway? Don’t want to be around your own family anymore? I don’t blame you!” There was an awkward, uncomfortable silence in the room to accompany the boy’s rant. “The truth is, you stopped caring a long time ago. And now, your dream’s come true, and your son has been taken by demons.”

  Shiva took one step and decked Ash. It was a slow, loose-fisted punch that struck him in the side of his head, just light enough to knock him over, hard enough to shut him up.

  No one said anything. Not until Ash flopped over onto his side, wiped a little blood from his mouth and put his hand in his pocket. He carried on like nothing had happened, but now he knew some things were taboo.

  “The irony is…” he said as he pulled out the pillbox. “After all their bitching, I have to go out there and risk my life for all of them. I could die, and no one would really care. In fact, the King is probably dead right now, and we’d never even know. We’re probably all wasting our lives by walking into a death trap, but sadly that’s my best option!”

  Now his craving peaked, and as he popped a black pill into his mouth and put the pillbox back in his pocket, the old Satan observed the boy’s process. Wilhelm made a mental note, but said nothing. His fingers twirled the white mustache tips some more as he listened to what else the boy had to say.

  “The hardest part is seeing everyone else so optimistic. Like we’re not all about to die horribly. It’s bizarre how commonplace this all seems now. I guess none of you could really know how I feel. I feel weaker than I’ve ever felt in my life, even weaker than when I was fully human, right when I need to be at my strongest! This sucks so much I don’t even think there’s a term to properly describe it! Forced to travel to the enemy base with a crippling disease? What do you really think my odds are!?”

  “He’s babbling.” Shiva cracked her knuckles. “Should I hit him again?”

  “Leave him be.” Wilhelm removed his fingers from his facial hair. His pale face looked rock hard in a faint sunbeam. “In the throes of despair, one should be permitted to speak his mind.”

  “It’s crazy! Going to the demon kingdom! Do we even have any information about it?” Ash, and everyone else, looked to Goddard and Wilhelm for answers.

  “We have very limited information, but enough to get you there and back,” said Goddard.

  “Great,” Ash replied. “The four of us against a whole world of demons.” He looked liked something hit him suddenly. “Five of us. You’re coming too, right Wilhelm?”

  The old Satan didn’t have to answer. The boy could read his face easy enough.

  “You’re not coming.”

  “Ash, you must understand-”

  “Oh! I understand! You’re okay with sending your family and friends to their deaths as long as you get to stay behind to work on your own little side quest!”

  Ash was flustered, panting and red in the face. He turned to Aura, his only friend at the moment, but he didn’t like the disapproving look the death toucher gave him. Again, Goddard felt he needed to step in to ease the mounting tension.

  “Lord Wilhelm is staying behind because he has to,” said the Royal Advisor. “There must always be a ruling member of the Satan bloodline on the throne. Ancient custom, but we like to stick to it.”

  Wilhelm turned back to Ash. He did not look the least bit angry at the boy. “You see, I can not go, though I wish for nothing more than to be by my grandchildren’s side at this difficult time. I must stay, because without a Satan around and in charge, all would be lost.

  “But I have faith in my kin, and I don’t believe in curses. I believe in Shiva and Killian, and even the popular mister Draxler. And I believe in you, Ash. I know you’re hurting right now, but we’re all hurt. Some more than others, it’s true, but don’t give up hope just yet. We still have a counter-attack to launch. It’s not over yet!

  “Stryd, Goddard, and I will keep things running smoothly here. We’ll have to be extremely careful with what we tell the citizens, but that’s our concern. It will be up to you youngins to bring Alfred home. That’s all we expect of you. That, and survive. And please be careful not to conflict too much with Killian.”

  “Everything’s a conflict with Killian,” Ash muttered miserably.

  “Oh my god,” said Aura, the first thing he’d said in a while. He was the only one currently staring at the conference table. “Where did he go?”

  In all the commotion caused by Ash and Wilhelm, no one had been paying attention to the injured Prince of Hell. They’d moved away from the table in their actions, across the wide meeting room and spread around. No one bothered to look back at the table. Not until Aura just did.

  Now they were all looking, staring in perplexment just as the death toucher had been. The long conference table where Prince Killian was placed now appeared to be bare. That is, Prince Killian’
s stretcher was still on the tabletop where they’d left it, but the bandaged Prince was nowhere to be found.

  Chapter Thirty-Five: Declaration of Complication

  Madness ruled the streets as the citizens of the Devil Kingdom flooded the castle perimeter, scores of tired Royal Guards doing their best to hold everyone at bay. There weren’t any collisions of violence just yet, but the day was only half over. If something didn’t change soon, the people might get carried away with their protests and do something drastic.

  Prince Killian watched the unruly populace from his perch on the castle roof. He snuck out of the conference room window when no one was looking, a miraculous action considering the worn-out state of his body. He wasn’t in any shape for such an act, but by cranking his residual soul power to the max the daring young man found the strength to will his body to move once more. The strength was only temporary; the climb took up most of his energy.

  The Prince sat watching, resting for a moment while he calculated his next move. Those he left behind in the conference room panicked as they searched for the missing Prince, but it would not be long before they knew exactly where Killian went.

  Willing his soul power to his legs, Prince Killian stood up. The dingy bandages wrapped around his body flapped freely in the wind, unraveling slightly. It didn’t take long for someone down below to spot the strange sight. The citizens raised alarm immediately, screaming and pointing in his direction, thinking another demonic possession to be in progress.

  Killian raised a hand shimmering with a thick cloud of soul power. “People of Hell,” he said, and his voice traveled much further than it should have, amplified by his soul. “It is I, your Prince Killian. Listen to me!”

  Silence fell over the crowd. All heads pointed at the Prince.

  After a dramatic pause to rest, Killian continued, “It is true, last night my father was abducted by greater demons. These demons are more powerful than anything we’ve faced in quite some time. It pains me to say they even got the best of me.”