Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan)

by Langland, J.

  It had been only two days since the major attempt on the shields. The wards were beginning to weaken fast without the proper support, so in that short time Lenamare directed the preparation for the escape of his people. Unselfishly, he Lenamare, would stay behind to hold Exador at bay and seal the tunnel behind the escapees. If necessary, as was very likely, he informed them, he would give up his own life for his people.

  Actually anyone that really knew Lenamare, such as the masters and the senior students, as well as the Captain of the Guard, knew he was not completely forthcoming. They knew full well he wouldn't be doing this if he didn't feel he could get out looking like a hero, with very little risk to himself. However, out of respect for, and perhaps, fear of, their Head Master, no one said anything

  The long tunnel wound its way through granite, and occasionally man, or rather, demon-made brick walled areas. Eventually the tunnel that Jehenna's group would take came. So without further ado, her wagon set off down their tunnel. Two guards on horses going ahead; behind her wagon trailed Lenamare's wagon, then a wagon loaded with food for her group, then Master Trisfelt and the four children, followed by two wagon loads of peasants and another food wagon. Riding along beside and interspersed with the wagons were mounted guards. In total they had ten soldiers, including the two leading the way. Jehenna really hadn't wanted to take the peasants in her group, but there had been no graceful way to back out of taking them, and still preserve Lenamare's selfless image.

  To Jenn it seemed as if they'd traveled an entire day underground with only the torches held by the guards and her and Master Trisfelt's Mage Light lighting the way. Eventually however, Jenn thought she could perceive some light that they weren't making themselves ahead.. Sure enough, within a few moments they reached a large granite doorway where a torch had been lit by an advance scout who had gone ahead to ensure the route was clear. The doorway was about twelve feet high and fifteen feet wide. There were double doors apparently made out of stone and placed at a sloping angle, so that the top was closer to Jenn than the bottom.

  The scout turned from the spy hole in the giant doors and nodded to Jehenna that all was ready. Slowly Jehenna traced a pattern in the air in front of the doors and chanted "Omiestes, Crim faltos, sig viernon et sofos...Open Sesame!"

  "Open Sesame?" Jenn asked as Jehenna finished to spell.

  "Don't ask me. Some silly code word Lenamare uses on these doors. I guess he got it from some demon one time. I really have no idea, nor do I care."

  With that there was nothing much more Jenn could say, and by this time the giant doors were raising upwards and outwards. Daylight came flooding into the tunnel, temporarily blinding everyone. Cautiously the mounted guards moved outside to inspect the vicinity of the doorway. After looking around for a few moments they motioned for the wagons to come forward.

  As the wagons rolled out into the sunlight, Jenn glanced at the position of the sun. It was three quarters of the way across the sky. That meant they'd been in the tunnel for only about four hours. Goddess, how it had seemed longer. Nevertheless, here they were. They were in a thin area of the same forest she'd found the soldier in, only about a two and a half hours ride from the that spot. According to the map she'd seen yesterday it was now only a six hour journey to the mountain pass that would take them eventually to Freehold. As it was, they had a journey of about ten days through the mountains ahead of them. A lot of riding, but as Rupert had said, better than Exador.

  ~

  Back in the keep, Lenamare began to relax a little. He'd shifted the wards back to their normal balance, and Exador hadn't noticed anything. As was to be expected, his incredibly believable illusions of soldiers manning the wall completely fooled the army outside. It had been a long two days, he needed a little relaxation. He sat back in the padded chair in his office and poured himself a glass of wine. The illusions needed only the barest fraction of his mighty intellect to maintain, and the wards were completely on automatic.

  The wards had been the hardest part of the last two days. Trying to design and build the mechanism that would allow Lenamare to adjust and maintain the wards all by himself. With the masters and students who constructed it gone, only Lenamare's ingenious device in the warding chamber kept it going. True it would only be able to support the wards for about thirty six hours without the people who constructed it; however, that should be more than sufficient time to give his people a head start. True when he discovered the deception, Exador probably would track the people. He'd probably even manage to find a good number of them.

  That, however, was unimportant, what was important was that it would appear to the Council that Lenamare had tried his best to save his entrusted vassals. The only other thing that mattered was that Jehenna get away with the book, so they could rendezvous later. Actually, only that last was truly crucial to his plans. In any event, a day of peace and quiet would be nice for a change, no inferiors to bother him, and Exador firmly entrenched outside with no way in. Ah, the joy, he thought as he slowly spun around in his chair.

  Chapter 26

  Tom opened his eyes at the sound of the commotion coming from the tunnel leading into his cave. He hadn't been asleep, he didn't seem to need it unless he expended a large amount of energy. After the battle with the demons, he'd felt rather tired, but not enough to really need sleep. So he'd just rested for a few hours in his stone chair, waiting for another call. Surprisingly, it hadn't come.

  He'd gone a few days at least, by his reckoning since the demon battle, it was hard to tell when there were no nights, and one didn't sleep; but still no calls. With this free time he had amused himself by carving himself a table out of stone that could sit in front of his throne, like a desk, if he so desired. Naturally, the table literally weighed a ton, but with his strength it was no problem to move it around as if it were a folding table.

  At the moment, he'd just been relaxing with his feet up on the table, leaning back in his chair--it had, incidentally, taken quite a bit of work to get his new body in a position like this which was actually comfortable. As he began to pay more attention to the noise, it sounded like a small party coming down the corridor. Sure enough, Boggy and Tizzy were coming out of the tunnel even as he thought this. They were laughing and carrying on, and each had what appeared to be a wine glass in their hands. Tizzy also was carrying a bottle of wine in his lower left hand. As they walked in, they saw Tom staring at them. "Hey Tom, old boy...congratulate friend Boggy here!" Tizzy shouted joyfully.

  Tom smiled, as best he could with his snout, at their jubilation and asked "What's the occasion?"

  "HE screwed up, so I got mine, that's what!" Boggy shouted, a trifle drunkenly.

  "He killed his accursed master! That's what!" shouted Tizzy.

  "You what?" asked Tom, shocked into sitting up straight in his chair.

  "Actually, I redistributed his body parts," answered Boggy.

  "True, oh, true," laughed Tizzy.

  "Yes, you see, he was always so uppity and all, but concerned about his family and their future well being...he even had this will and all in a lock box at a bank, in order to take care of his bratty grown kids."

  "Who are obnoxious merchant types now," interjected Tizzy.

  "Yes, well anyway, to make sure that the future generations were well provided for, I took the liberty of ensuring that the family jewels were placed in the lock box also."

  "The family jewels..." Tom said, at first not understanding, but then grimacing in sympathetic pain, when he realized what Boggy meant.

  "’Course, I do have to admit, he was a bit upset when I took them. Screamed most horrendously at me. It was then, of course, that I realized how much his wife would miss that screaming of his after I killed him, so I took his tongue and gave it to her. Unfortunately, she was busy at the time so I just had to leave it...in the stew. Naturally, by this time, he was a little bit mad at me and just hung there by his toenails glaring at me. This, of course, kind of discomforted me to see him leering so. Thus I p
lucked out his right eye and ate it, while his left eye watched. The worst part was that I hadn't thought, and had ripped his tongue out too soon, so all he could do was gurgle at me."

  "Enough, please!" Tom was getting sick to his stomach.

  Boggy didn't seem to hear, obviously relishing his recounting of his triumph. "I have to admit, by the time I'd plucked all the hair from his body and pulled his fingers and toes off, I was getting a bit bored. So, apparently, was he, he started to nod off from time to time. He probably thought that I'd think he was passing out from pain; but I knew, he was just bored and falling asleep. So naturally I clubbed him over the head a couple times with his right arm. I would have used a leg, since it makes a much better club, but by this point the legs were broken in so many places that they were just too limp to use effectively as clubs. After all the beating I had to do to get him awake again, I realized he really didn't have the heart for this sort of thing...so I ripped his out.

  "Well by now I was about to leave, when who should enter, but the old man's fat pig son, who was a truly avaricious banker. Strangely, he seemed to be a bit shocked by the state his father was in. It was then when I remembered the conscientious and stingy nature of the master, in always wanting to keep everything in the family. So thinking quick, I grabbed the son and sat him down. I then, of course, proceeded to make amends by serving him dinner. The main course being the remains of his father. Admittedly, he was a bit hesitant at eating this delectable meal...but when I pointed out that if he didn't eat everything on his plate...he might grow up to be just like his father...in about two minutes...he readily cleaned his plate."

  At this point Tom was in the corner puking his lunch out . . which, since he hadn't eaten anything in the last week or so, shouldn't have been much; however, from who knows where he was able to vomit some truly obnoxious green and orange bile. Finally, Tom's puking seemed to come to Boggy's notice and he shut up and went over to where Tom was heaving. "What's the matter, my boy?" asked Boggy, concerned.

  "How could you do such a thing?" Tom asked in disbelief.

  "Well, I may not be as strong as you...but I'm still pretty damn strong, It really is no problem to rip a human apart, they are really quite fragile," answered Boggy in his apparently inebriated state.

  "No, no you fool. The boy means, why would you do such a thing," corrected Tizzy.

  "Oh," Boggy responded, understanding now. "Why, for the best reason of all ...REVENGE! I had served that S.O.B for eighty years and his master before him for ninety two. Not to mention his master's father for seventy six years. Not once in all that time did I ever get a single thank you! All I ever got was abuse. Never could I seem to please any of those jackasses, all I could do was screw up...and then they'd punish me. During that period of two hundred and forty eight years, four months, two weeks, five days, thirteen hours, twenty seven minutes and four point oh-one-three-four-nine seconds, I received two hundred and seven Dalton's Demon Darts, three hundred and fifty two Wargol's Wracking Wrenches, one hundred and thirty six Sargum's Soul Slicer's, four hundred and seventy Spirit Wracks, three hundred and thirteen Davalon's Degradations, as well as six hundred and forty nine miscellaneous tortures. Each of which hurt me as much as anything I did to him today.

  "Now, you tell me if he didn't deserve everything he got and more!" Boggy exclaimed passionately.

  "I don't know...maybe...it's just so horrible all the things you did to him," Tom complained.

  "Oh, and the tortures he put me through, were any better...let me tell you, some of those things were visual and physical as well as spiritual. Believe me, anything he got...HE DESERVED!

  "However," Boggy finally said, calming down to normal level. "I understand how you feel. You are new, I suppose I would have felt just like you, when I was new. It's just after so many centuries of pain and suffering, you just have to say...enough is enough. Thus when you get the chance to stop it for a while...you take it. And although from a human point of view, maybe this vengeance is petty and morally wrong, regardless of what they did to me. But nonetheless, it felt good. And I really don't care what anyone else says, they haven't been in my position, so they can't know that they wouldn't act the exact same way in the same situation."

  "I guess, I'm sorry...it just...I don't know..."

  "I do though...you just feel rather squeamish about the whole thing."

  "Yeah, well I mean I used to get a thrill out of watching that sort of thing in horror and slasher-type movies, but now, your describing that sort of thing seems worse."

  "That's because it's real. Even though you didn't have to see it happen, this time you know it was real and not just theatrics. Look, it’s not like I enjoy going around and doing this sort of thing, I don't. Except in certain well deserving cases, like this one. Actually it's the first time I've ever done this. The first time I killed my master, I just beat him over the head with an ax and left him."

  "I guess I'm really not much better; after all, I killed that soldier in the woods, the dragon, the third order demon on the field and lightning bolted another demon. It's just that then it was a fight, I don't think I could kill someone in cold blood."

  "Well, my lad, that may be, and that's probably for the best. Remember this however; if you ever want your freedom, nine times out of ten you'll have to kill all those Astlanians who know your name. Very seldom do they die on their own, at least not without passing on your slavery to some other master."

  "Is that the way it always is?"

  "Pretty much...oh, according to legend there might be other ways, but I've never actually heard of any."

  "OOPS!" interrupted Tizzy. "My doorbells ringing! Gotta go!" and with that the octopodal demon faded out.

  "Scum!" shouted Boggy. "You took the wine!"

  ~

  The small shelter was finally complete, it had taken him some time to get it built, he wasn't used to doing such things. Although building the little shelter had been easier than trying to bandage his master. Demon claws just weren't made for working gently with human flesh. He'd gone slow, trying to be careful, every now and then stopping to inspect his patient everywhere to make sure he hadn't accidentally caused more harm.

  It had been centuries since he'd done first aid, but he still remembered most of it. His main concern now was why Hortwell hadn't come to. It had been a couple of days, long enough for Zargoffelstan to build a small hut of stone, and log ceiling, sealed with tar brought from a swamp, not too far away as a demon flies, the old man should have come to. The cut was bad, but he didn't think it that bad. Hopefully there wasn't any internal damage he'd missed. All he could do for now was just wait by his master's side.

  Chapter 27

  The sun was setting over the mountains, Jenn shifted her position a little to bring relief to her sore posterior; they'd been riding all afternoon now. Thank the Goddess that they hadn't encountered anyone on the way. The going had been slow through the forest, trying to wind between trees with the cart. Luckily that part of the forest was fairly thin, otherwise they never would have gotten carts through. Jenn suspected, of course, that Lenamare would at least take credit for their easy trip though, if he were here he'd probably be telling everyone about his wise forethought in periodically thinning the forest for just such an emergency. It really wouldn't have mattered if he actually had or not, since either way, he would probably take credit for it.

  About an hour ago they had reached the edge of the forest and after a brief reconnaissance by the soldiers they were on their way across the plain, rising towards the mountain pass. Jehenna was periodically ordering soldiers to speed everyone up, she wanted to reach the base of the pass before nightfall. Other than that she didn't do much except look annoyed and preoccupied. She'd refused to allow any cloaking spells on the grounds that Exador might have wizards or demons out looking for traces of magic. Thus it was that everyone was continually on the lookout for patrol parties, albeit unlikely any should be so far from the siege.

  Jenn simply drove on, h
er hands were getting chapped from the reins of the two horses pulling Jehenna's overloaded wagon, and her rear end was feeling worn thin. Whenever Jehenna had ordered a turn to go around something or other, Jenn had tried to get a look back to see how the children were doing two wagons back. However, she was never able to get a really good glimpse, they were apparently just laying low. When they'd stopped about three hours ago at a stream to water the horses and to let everyone take care of personal functions, she'd gone back to check on them.

  Chass and Gloria seemed to have lost some of their fear, and were willing to get up and move around when the wagon stopped, Sydney had just complained about the rough ride and how he was getting splinters everywhere. Rupert, as usual, was looking intently about him, apparently searching for any sign of pursuit, and not very happy with the stop. She hadn't questioned him, just smiled and patted him on the head, to which he gave the expected shrug of annoyance for a boy his age. She imagined that nothing much had changed since then except that Sydney's temper had probably gotten worse. Master Trisfelt had been jovial as usual. When she'd complained to him about her sore seat he'd just laughed and explained that it was precisely for such occasions as this that he maintained such a well-padded one.

  As the wagons climbed higher toward the pass, the terrain gradually became more and more rugged, larger boulders began appearing and the grass was getting thinner and longer. Trees were becoming scarcer, and when found, were mainly scrub trees. The brown soil here was fairly dry and dusty, this side of the mountain was shielded by the mountains, and not many storms made it this far up towards the mountains from the giant valley in which Hartwell and Lenamare's Tower were located.