Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan)

by Langland, J.

  Rupert stumbled into the tent, clumsily; he seemed to be walking kind of funny. His face was also rather red, as if he'd been crying. It took a lot to make Rupert cry. What had those bastards done to the poor kid? Jenn tried to move forward. Maybe it was the demon's betrayal; Rupert had placed all his trust in the demon and now he saw it for what it really was, it must hurt. "Rupert, what are you doing here?" Jenn asked as she tried to rock forward, the ropes on her ankles and wrists made it difficult in her current sitting position.

  Rupert shook his head in a short quick manner, and pursed his lips as if to say, "Shh shh." He glanced covertly behind him to make sure the flaps were closed again, which they were. He shuffled over to Jenn, as he did, he noticed Gastropé. "What's he doing here?" Rupert asked in a whisper.

  "He botched trying to take us, so now Exador is going to punish him." Jenn answered also in a whisper. She wasn't completely sure why she should whisper, neither she nor Gastropé had bothered earlier. "More importantly, what are you doing here?"

  Rupert moved around behind her, out of both her sight and Gastrope's. "I'm here to rescue you."

  "Rescue me!" Jenn exclaimed, a little too loudly.

  "Shhhh, be quiet!" Rupert hissed vehemently.

  "How are you going to rescue me?" Jenn asked, twisting around to try to see what Rupert was up to. He'd moved around behind Gastropé. Jenn's eye's bulged and she gasped slightly. Somehow, when Rupert went behind her, he'd managed to slip his bonds, and was now tearing a piece of his shirt off, very quietly. "What are you doing?" she asked. "How did you get free?"

  "I'm just a kid, they didn't tie me very tight," Rupert replied. "I'm ensuring we aren't given away."

  "Please," Gastropé broke in, unable to see what was going on; he was shifting around but was apparently tied to the tent pole. "Please, if you’re going to escape, take me with you!" Gastropé whispered urgently. "I won't give you away, I don't want to die! I won't give you away." He was sounding extremely desperate. Desperate enough that Rupert paused for a moment.

  "I don't believe you, you're the enemy." Rupert stated as he stuffed the strip of his shirt into Gastrope's mouth as a gag.

  "No, no, please, Exador is going to kill me or shape change me or do something hor...mmmmphh," Gastropé was cut off by the gag.

  Jenn was torn, true he was the enemy, but certainly, he was going to face an awful fate. Wait, Jenn thought as she stopped herself, this was ridiculous. She was thinking like they were actually going to escape. There was no need to feel like she was leaving Gastrope', because they weren't going anywhere. "Rupert you still haven't told me how you think we are going to get out of here. You've got to be crazy."

  "No," Rupert answered, smiling back at Jenn. "I'm not, but you're going to think I am." He moved behind Jenn. She couldn't see what he was doing, but he was messing with her bonds. "Jenn, lay on your stomach, please."

  "Why?"

  "Because I said so. Come on Jenn, we haven't got much time." Rupert responded. Jenn decided to play along, given the earnestness in his tone. She flopped over and placed her bound feet near Rupert. Rupert reached down and a few seconds later her feet were free. He had a knife! The little squirt had smuggled a knife in! That was how he broke free of his bonds!

  "Rupert, why didn't you tell me you had a ...." Rupert's hand went over her mouth.

  "Shh, we don't want the entire world to know," he told her. She felt him messing with her wrist ropes again, another few seconds and a bit of tugging later, her hands were free.

  "Great, thanks Rupert!" She whispered gratefully. Her wrists and ankles were so sore; she just sat up and rubbed them for a few moments.

  "Now comes the part where you'll think I'm crazy, and why I had to gag him." Rupert gestured over to Gastropé who'd been watching the whole thing with pleading eyes and tears dripping down his face. Jenn's heart went flip flop seeing him look so pathetic.

  Rupert went over and hunched down over the brazier as if trying warm his hands. What was he doing Jenn wondered? He seemed to be talking to himself. He'd obviously lost his mind. Rupert went on for almost a minute, getting almost feverish in his mumblings. Jenn's feet and wrists were just coming back to life from being a sleep. As soon as they felt a bit better, she'd go over and comfort the boy. He was obviously traumatized. Behind her, Gastropé gasped.

  Jenn turned to look at him. He was staring wide-eyed at the boy. It looked like some sort of fearful comprehension was illuminating his face. Like he knew what the boy was doing, and it terrified him. Jenn felt a chill race down her spine. Surely, surely, the kid couldn't be that addlepated could he? Even if he were, there was no way a nine year old boy could pull it off. Was there?

  As Jenn turned to stare fearfully back at Rupert. A sudden updraft in the room seemed to suck all the air right towards the fire. The fire roared up, towering above Rupert. Rupert stumbled back, surprised but excited and smiling in triumph. The flames shot up, lapping against the ceiling, roaring like a bonfire and producing even more heat. There was no way any normal brazier of that size could produce that much flame.

  Commotion started from outside the tent as the guards realized something was definitely wrong. Rupert stumbled over by Jenn as the flames widened, blocking Jenn's view of the tent flaps. The flames were starting to eat at the roof of the tent. Pretty soon the entire tent would burn down! What the hell had the kid done? They'd all burn to death if the demon he conjured didn't kill them first. The guards by this point, had opened the flaps and were screaming and yelling for help.

  As the first of the guards started through the flaps, or so it seemed from Jenn's obscured view, a hole seemed to appear in the middle of the fire. It was as if someone were literally ripping a hole in the fabric of space, directly in the middle of the fire. Giant demon claws emerged from the hole, widening it further. This was certainly not the traditional method for demons coming into Astlan, Jenn thought. Through the hole, Jenn could see what looked to be the fourth order demon, and as the hole got large enough, what appeared to be some sort of cave behind him.

  A guard came stumbling into the tent with a coat in hand, trying to get close enough to smother the flame. As he came around the fire, he saw the demon claws already through the hole, and then a giant hoof coming through the hole. He screamed at the top of his lungs and cowered back. Almost immediately three other guards came charging into the tent and around the fire. Apparently, they couldn't see the hole from the other side.

  By the time two more guards had come in, the demon had stepped completely through the hole. Its horns were ripping against the ceiling of the tent which was blackening with fire from the flame in the brazier. The demon's massive hooves were causing the very rug to smolder and start to smoke. "Good job, Rupert!" The demon thundered in a gravelly bass voice. Jenn was gasping, partly from the smoke, but mainly from the fact that Rupert had actually managed to summon the damn thing.

  Somehow or the other, despite the confusion, Jenn heard or noticed Gastropé over the yelling of the guards and the roar of the fire. She glanced over, he was squirming madly, trying to get free of his bonds and the tent pole he was tied to. She had a moment of panic; even if the demon somehow got them out of there, Gastropé would surely get burnt alive by the flames. The entire ceiling of the tent was now ablaze and bits of it were falling down. She had to duck as she got to her feet to avoid them. Seeing Gastropé's desperate attempts, she knew she couldn't leave him to die, enemy or not. She ran over to the tent pole and began fumbling with the knot in the rope binding him to the pole.

  As Jenn struggled with the knot, one of the soldiers stabbed at the demon with his sword. The sword bounced off the demon's hide. The towering demon turned its gaze away from Rupert and Jenn and directed it toward the offending guard. Almost faster than the human eye could follow, the demon's right hand shot over to his left side and grabbed the blade of the sword. Fire spewed down the blade of the sword from the demon's hand, washing over the guard and onto the soldier's hand and arm. The soldier screamed
in pain, releasing the sword and stumbling back against the tent wall.

  As the guard hit the tent wall, the center pole swayed dangerously. The tent was now sufficiently aflame as to weaken the overall structural integrity, and it almost went down. Almost, but not quite. Looking at the guard with eyes blazing with power and hatred, the demon shouted. "All of you soldiers! Run now, or I will slay you where you stand!"

  The soldiers ran outside the tent. One slashed a hole in the side of the tent and ran out that way. Through the large hole he cut, which began to rip upwards, towards the flaming roof, Jenn could see a ring of soldiers surrounding the tent. Finally, she gave a last tug and the rope holding Gastropé to the pole came free. At the same moment, the rip in the tent reached the remains of the ceiling, and the flames racing along the ceiling reached the top of the tent. The tent pole began to slowly fall over, taking the now blazing tent with it. They were all about to be roasted alive.

  The demon looked around hurriedly. Apparently, it recognized the danger of the flaming tent to the people inside, and further noted the ring of soldiers outside. It seemed to pause for a second, then looked back to the hole through which it came. The hole had been shrinking slowly since the demon's full emergence, but was not yet completely closed.

  The demon stepped over to the hole and stuck its hands in, pulling it wider. "All of you," it thundered at the three of them, "through the hole. Now!" It shouted as they hesitated. Rupert leapt through, between the demon's hands. Insane kid, Jenn thought, out of the fire, into the lava. Panic began to seize her.

  There was only one place that hole could go. The Abyss. To go into the Abyss was surely death for a human. No mortal could withstand its flames, nor the millions of terrors that existed there. The Abyss was the home of Evil. Only the damned were sent there, to be tortured and defiled by demon kind. Unfortunately, Jenn was seeing no other alternative. She could stay and be burned alive, or she could throw herself into the Abyss. Literally to damn herself to certain extinction, her soul to eternal damnation. Better to perish cleanly in the flames of the tent, she thought.

  Death by flame would have to be the choice. Except that Rupert had already thrown himself in. That sweet and innocent child had unknowingly thrown himself into damnation! She couldn't let his soul rot for all eternity in the Abyss! But what could she do? Jenn couldn't fool herself, she knew she had no power to bring them both back from the Abyss. No mortal being had that power. But it was her fault he'd gone. He'd come to rescue her, and now he was damned until the end of time. It was her fault, and she'd promised herself that she'd protect him. Jenn closed her eyes in pain, indecision and agony.

  "Come on you fools!" The demon shouted.

  No matter what the choice, the boy was in her care. If there were any shred of hope that he could be salvaged, Jenn had to take it. She'd argue with the demon herself to force at least Rupert's return. No matter the cost to herself, no matter the sacrifice. If she could in any way save him, she had to try. She opened her eyes, fearful resolution and determination giving them an edge.

  Steeling herself, she dragged the still tied-up Gastropé with her. Inch by inch she seemed to move. Parts of the flaming tent actually falling on her, and burning her slightly before she could shrug them aside and drag Gastropé the few feet to the hole.

  The demon fixed its gaze on Gastropé then looked at Jenn in annoyance as she came up next to him. "Well, he was a prisoner also. I can't let him die. We humans just aren't quite as ruthless as you demons!" With that she gave a last heave and shoved Gastropé through the hole. Even as she did it, cold irony flooded her as she wondered what right she had to take the choice of damnation from Gastropé. She didn't care though; she might need the wizard to help get Rupert out.

  Rather than get angry, the demon actually seemed to smile, horrific as that was. "No, but you'll gladly toss him into the Abyss!" It actually laughed as it ushered her through the hole. Jenn's spine went cold as she stepped through.

  Chapter 41

  Jenn's spine didn't stay cold for long. Out of the fire and into the lava may not have been a sufficiently strong of a metaphor for this situation. As she stepped through the hole she was hit by an unbelievable wave of heat. It was literally like walking into the hottest dry sauna she could possibly imagine. Her breath was nearly sucked from her lungs by the heat.

  To make matters worse, as the demon came through the hole behind her, it closed it. With the closing of the hole, the last breath of relatively cool air from the inferno that was the tent vanished, along with the light. With that, the cave, or so it appeared to be from what she had seen as she stepped through, descended into complete darkness. Gastropé was lying at her feet gasping for breath in the heat. The demon was doing something to the hole, she had no idea where Rupert was. "Rupert!" she managed to croak. Summoning up her will in the face of the heat, Jenn quickly brought forth a Were Light. It was a simple spell that all students learned early on, but a useful one. A small globe of green light appeared above and in front of her face.

  The light from the globe revealed that, indeed, they were in a cave. Actually a rather large cave. There was a single long passageway sloping upwards to her left and to her right was a crudely chiseled stone table, behind which was what could only be called a stone throne, with a large hole in the rear, near the bottom, and a groove in the seat, going out the back. Further, there were small rectangular holes, or niches in the walls. These could roughly be described as shelves, except that there was nothing on them. Other than this, there appeared to be nothing else in the cave, except for the people and the demon.

  It felt like the sweat was literally being sucked from her body. She felt like she was sweating profusely, but the water seemed to evaporate as fast as she sweated it out. Her lungs began to ache from the heat of the air. What was she going to do? There was no sign of Rupert. Was she too late already? The heat was keeping her from thinking clearly. She doubted she could take much more.

  "Cool spell..." croaked Gastropé.

  "What?" Jenn asked as she looked down at him.

  "Untie me, please, and then we can cast Cool spells on ourselves against the heat."

  "What are you talking about? That little cantrip is used to cool liquids for drinking and such."

  "Yes..." Gastrope' seemed out of breath. Jenn was sure the fiery air made it hard for him to speak, it certainly did for her. "But it can be adapted to cool a thin layer of air around your body. If you do it right and continue to maintain it, it will cool all the air coming through the layer and into your lungs also. If you untie me, so I can do it for myself; I'll show you how to do it."

  What a weird idea, thought Jenn in a strangely surrealistic manner, it might actually work. She found it hard to concentrate on anything. She bent down and began untying his hands, behind his back. When she finished, he said "Legs also please, things will be much easier if I can stand." Jenn supposed he was right, and in the current situation he couldn't do much harm. She untied his legs.

  Gastropé got to his feet, slowly. Every breath was painful. Despite this, as soon as he got to his feet, he cast the strange variant of the Cool spell, in a clear straight forward manner that Jenn was able to follow. As he completed the spell, he seemed to relax and breathe easier. Jenn quickly followed suit. Almost at once, she felt like collapsing. Her body was surrounded by cool air. Actually the air wasn't that incredibly cool, about like a hot summer day, but it was the best she could manage, given the outside heat. As it was, it felt incredible! She could breathe properly again. "Rupert!" she cried again. How would he survive this heat. She had to get the spell on him.

  As she rapidly sucked in now cool air, she had time to notice that Gastropé was once again extremely pale and was staring fixedly behind her. She turned around. Obviously by this point her senses were completely out of whack. The sight of the towering fourth order demon behind her hardly phased her. She'd gotten used to it, almost. It however, was searching all over the room with its eyes, as if trying to locate someth
ing.

  "Where the hell are we demon? What have you done with Rupert!" Jenn demanded.

  The demon stopped looking around, and turned its baleful gaze upon her. Her insides withered at her gall. However, it simply smiled its evil, vicious grin at her, and seemed to leer right into her eyes, if that were possible. "Close, my dear, damn close. But actually you see, we...are in the Abyss."

  "The Abyss." Jenn stated, "you've stolen my soul to the Abyss." There, she'd said it. Intellectually, she knew it when she stepped through. Thus her determination to save Rupert. The demon's saying it however, brought a new level of terror to her very being. Made it more terrifying real than she could have even imagined on the other side of the hole.

  "Not just your soul, but as far as I can determine, your entire body. Because as I understand things, if I had just taken your soul, you'd be naked at the moment." The demon answered almost mockingly it seemed.

  Thoughts overwhelmed her being. All her childhood memories and training told her that good girls, like her, never got sent to the Abyss. Here she'd gone and willingly thrown herself in. How would they ever get out, even if she could find poor Rupert before he suffocated. There were rumors and legends among the students of spells capable of transporting people to the Abyss bodily. Old wives’ tales of maidens being abducted by demons to the Abyss, ran suddenly through her mind; no one took those seriously. It seemed like she should have. She'd find a way though, she'd brought Gastropé along for help. Even if they had to bargain with their souls to free the boy, she would.

  Suddenly a thought struck her, demonstrating once again the incoherent nature of her thinking here. How did Gastropé so conveniently know about this application of the cool spell? Stop it! Jenn told herself suddenly, First things first. She looked around the cave, but Rupert was definitely gone. He was nowhere to be seen. "What did you do with Rupert?" she once again demanded of the demon.