by Langland, J.
As the waiter, a rather lizard like demon of more width than height brought them their drinks, Rupert started plying Boggy with questions. Many of them were one's he'd already asked Boggy, about what it was Boggy did and this and that, so he didn't listen too closely. Instead, he took the time to look around the place.
Actually, with the exception of the habitual red light that seemed more omnipresent in this part of the Abyss than near his cave, the place seemed to be a cross between a western saloon and perhaps a small town cafe. Booths lined the wall to the left of the door, while a long bar that was almost like a lunch counter with round stools in front of it, ran the length of the right hand wall. Scattered round tables filled the space in between. The doors had been the short swinging type found in western movies and two large windows flanking the doors gave a view out onto the street. At this time of night, or at least he guessed it was night, the place was moderately busy but not packed.
When the waiter had set down the hot steaming mugs, he noted that Boggy placed a couple triangular coins on the table for the waiter who took them without comment. Tom nodded thanks to Boggy, who simply smiled, neither wanting to interrupt Rupert's steady stream of questions.
Tom took a small sip of the coffee substance and nearly gagged. Boggy simply noted his reaction and smiled. Talk about a vile brew that only a cabbie would like, Tom thought. The stuff was a cross between hot chocolate, coffee and maybe vodka or some other hard liquor. Whatever it was, it had to be the most bitter thing he'd ever tasted in his life. Given the burning sensation he quickly felt in his stomach, he decided that it would be something Edwyrd wouldn't like, and in fact would probably kill him. On the other hand, it was about the only thing he'd tried as a demon, that didn't require receiving grievous injuries, that seemed to have much effect on his demon body.
An odd thought crossed his mind. If the ambient temperature of the Abyss was about the boiling point of water, then how was this coffee simply steaming? In his mouth it felt like coffee or hot chocolate, it was hot. So exactly how hot was this stuff?
He shook his head after the second swallow as he began to feel the effects of a massive caffeine rush. Whoa, Tom thought. Shaking his head a bit, he continued to look around the room. He shifted his eyes into demon sight. Suddenly curious how much magic was present in the room. Actually, except for a slight glow from the surroundings there didn't seem to be a whole lot. He could see auras of various colors and intensities surrounding the patrons, but not much on any objects.
One thing he noted on a few of the other customers were what looked something like black umbilical cords. These cords seemed to extend from somewhere near the center of their bodies and extend out through their auras. After that they seemed to just taper off and fade into the air around them. He looked at his companions searching for such a cord. Rupert didn't have one, nor did Boggy. No, on second thought, Tom thought he could detect a faint black line inside Boggy's aura, but it didn't extend out. Further, unlike the others, which faded at one end, Boggy's was all fuzzed out and seemed to just abruptly terminate. He looked down at himself and was suddenly surprised to see he had one of the cords.
His extended from his sternum out into the air in front of him and then faded off. That was really strange, thought Tom. He had no idea what it could be. He'd really never noticed it before. Of course, he'd never really looked at himself with demon sight before either. Now that he knew what to look for, it was quite obvious. In fact the more he concentrated on it, the more clear it became. Was it some product of the Choco-Coffee that caused him to see it? Where did it go?
Carefully, so as not to appear too weird to Boggy and Rupert, who were busy lost in some tale of Boggy's, Tom reached out and tried to touch the cord. It was rather amorphous but he could almost touch it if he really concentrated on touching it. Thinking back to the things he'd tried with the link he sort of made to Tizzy and to the time he traced the summons from the priest, Tom tried to concentrate on following the umbilical cord to its other end.
It was hard, harder than the previous thing's he'd tried along this line, but suddenly he got an unmistakable impression of a tower room. A tower room and a presence in that room. A presence he recognized immediately. It startled him and caused him to break his concentration, bringing him back to reality. It was Lenamare on the other end! The black cord was some sort of link to Lenamare. Tom was stunned by this revelation. Was this what bound him? He was so startled by the thought that he missed the casual question Boggy asked of him. Quickly he cleared his mind and tried to concentrate on what his friend was saying. He'd sort this out later.
Chapter 74
Jenn wobbled down the dimly lit stone corridor, wondering if she was going to drop before she reached her room. The last several hours had been quite taxing to say the least. It had taken a while to find a large, empty, out of the way room in the underground complex with an extra doorway suitable for the gateway, and large enough to house a small army.
After finding it, she had spent the next couple hours playing lackey to Hortwell in setting up the runic gateway, while Lenamare kibitzed in the background. Then bringing all of Zilquar's people through, getting them set up and supplied, posting guards to ensure privacy, working out details like food, water and toilets. She was just glad it was over, for now.
It was probably about dawn, as far as Jenn could tell, when she made it back to her room. The corridors were silent as all rational people were long since asleep. Amazing, Jenn mused, that one could hide and entire army in a dungeon and have no one else even know. Rather frightening actually.
That dungeon was large; there could easily be a couple other armies down there as well. If he hadn't been staying with the guys, Jenn would have checked on Rupert. However, she doubted they'd appreciate her sneaking into their room in the middle of the night to kiss Rupert good night. She'd see him in the morning, whenever she got up.
~
Master Trisfelt slowly sank back to the ground. He'd floated above the edge of the trees to try and get a better glimpse of the situation. He and the children had arrived at the edge of the forest surrounding Freehold, shortly after sunset. Unfortunately, they'd found the city completely surrounded by the Rod. Surrounded by a lot more soldiers than had passed them on the road, a couple orders of magnitude more. While the gates of the city were closed for the night anyway, it appeared to Trisfelt that even if they were open, getting in wouldn't be easy. The Rod seemed to be guarding the entrances to the city, completely besieging it. Whether they were letting people in or out was unclear.
He'd settled the children down, fed them and gotten them to sleep, and gotten a few hours of sleep on his own. All inside the minor protection wards he'd set up around them. When he'd awoke shortly before dawn he'd decided to try and review the situation again from the air, while staying relatively close to the warded children. The situation hadn't changed much. It was not at all clear they'd be able to enter the city.
~
Exador strode into the sitting room of his apartments, his mind sorting through the implications of what his demon spies in the castle had told him. Apparently, late yesterday evening, Lenamare had smuggled an army into the cellars of the castle. He wasn't sure what army had been smuggled in, but in all likelihood it belonged to Zilquar. Overall, it was an annoying turn of events that could easily shift the control of power from his own forces, both his demons and the remains of his army, also hiding in a remote corner of the vast underground labyrinth under the Council's fortress.
His musings were suddenly put on hold when he realized that one of his second order demons was kneeling respectfully on the floor by his sofa. "What do you want?" he asked the demon.
"Lord, I have word on the greater demon you wanted found."
"What word? You've found Lenamare's demon?" Exador asked impatiently.
"Lord, they were spotted in the Courts and followed, as you ordered," the demon answered, not looking up.
"They?"
"Yes sir," the demo
n looked up hesitantly. "It seems he was with two or three other demons."
"Do you know who the other three were?" Exador was not in the mood for question and answer, "and what they were doing?"
"One demon was the bard, Antefalken..."
"Damien's lackey." Exador stated under his breath.
"Another was Bogsworth," Exador shook his head not recognizing the name, "and the third was unknown but looked identical to the greater demon except about half the size."
"What? You mean of similar form? Type?" Exador asked impatiently for clarification.
"No, sir, identical as in pretty much an exact duplicate only smaller."
Exador frowned, what was this other demon? As a rule, demons, especially the more powerful ones were all unique. One just didn't get duplicates. Not unless, perhaps, Lenamare's demon had cloned itself. But that wouldn't make much sense. "So where are they now?"
"Uhm, we don't know sir." The little demon cringed.
"What do you mean you don't know? They were followed weren't they?"
"Certainly lord, it’s just that the big one opened a gate to Astlan and they stepped through, except for Bogsworth, who went back to the Courts. The trackers couldn't follow them through the gate of course."
"This Bogsworth went back to the Courts? Where did they go in the meantime, between when they were found in the Courts and Bogsworth returned to the Courts?"
"Uhm, to the estate of Lord Ramses sir." The demon looked hastily down at the floor again.
"Ramses? What the hell?" First Lenamare's demon teamed up with Damien's pet and then they both pay a visit on his own erstwhile ally? Was Lenamare playing bigger games than he appeared to be? But what would Ramses and Lenamare have in common? Exador knew Lenamare too well. The man would never willingly consort with anyone he knew was a demon except in the traditional Master-Slave sense, and there was no question that Ramses would never be anyone's slave.
"So what did they do at Ramses' place?" Exador asked.
"Uhm, nothing sir, they just went to the edge of the grounds and stood there staring for a little bit. Then they walked around it part way, but never entered. After that is when they opened the gate."
That made Exador feel better, perhaps Lenamare wasn't dealing with Ramses behind his back. However, was Lenamare on to him? Did Lenamare finally begin to suspect exactly whom he was dealing with? The man was not completely stupid, and given the book, he'd have to plan on archdemons getting involved at some point. The question was, did Lenamare know just who the archdemons were?
"Interesting isn't it?" Bess asked from an archway across the room. Exador looked up in surprise, not knowing she'd been there.
"What are you doing here?" Exador snapped.
"Why, Exy," Bess purred in mock hurt tones, "you invited me to breakfast." She straightened slightly before continuing, "to discuss our ally."
Exador frowned; he'd forgotten. He glared down at the messenger demon. The damn thing had to have known she was there. It should have known better. "Get out of here. I'll deal with you later," Exador snapped at the messenger demon. The smaller demon cowered and sobbed, realizing it had made a mistake and vanished in a puff of flame.
"So, since you obviously heard. What do you make of it? And what will we do about Ramses? The man is going to give us away before we're ready. Obviously, Lenamare and Damien have already caught on to him." Exador asked Bess, gesturing for her to proceed him onto the dining patio.
"Perhaps," Bess purred. "It's not clear to me that Lenamare's demons will go right to him with this news." She looked at him archly as she sat down at the table. "After all, wizards and demons don't always get along, especially slaves and masters. Or didn't you realize that?"
Exador sneered slightly at her as he sat down. "I won't even bother to answer the last, but nonetheless, we can't assume they won't. What I do know from the past is that Antefalken is rather loyal to Damien, master-slave or not. We can assume that Damien knows something. Whether this other demon goes to Lenamare is another question."
"So, they know that you are consorting with an archdemon." She stated, rather than asked.
Exador shrugged, "Perhaps. If they've figured out who Ramses is, then they probably also know that Ramses and 'the family Exador’," Bess shook her head slightly, "go back a long way. They also know that there was bad blood between Ramses and my 'ancestors.' Or so any history book will tell them."
"Bad blood? You drove him off the plane." Bess stated.
"Politics, my dear, nothing personal. It was simply expedient at the time. Besides, that was 3,000 years ago."
"After he invaded your land and his people had your son killed, permanently."
"Misunderstanding, we've long since resolved that. I've fathered a few more since then." Exador waved his left hand dismissingly as he raised his glass to take a sip of orange juice.
"And 1,000 years ago, when he was driven off a second time?"
"Pure coincidence that I was involved in the revolution on the opposing side. Nothing more, we never even met in battle."
"Fine," Bess shrugged, "I'm happy to know there is nothing personal this time around either. And that you want to stick it to him again over the book for purely expedient reasons."
"My dear," Exador said mildly, "you're the one who brought it up. You were perfectly correct we don't need a third leg. You and I are more than capable of ruling over the Abyss as King and Queen by ourselves."
~
Edwyrd shut the door on their room as Rupert went to take a nap. He stopped by Maelen and Gastropé’s room to see if they’d gone to breakfast yet. At least officially that was the reason; unofficially it was to see if Gastropé was in freak out mode.
Gastropé was out, but Maelen was in, sorting through a fairly good sized stack of books of various sizes. “Where did all the books come from?” Edwyrd asked.
Maelen smiled, “I’ve ransacked the Council’s general library. It’s for the use of the Council of Wizards; I seem to be able to get in no problem.” He grinned knowingly at Edwyrd who smiled back. “It’s all general stuff, nothing too confidential or top secret: say like Lenamare’s book. However, I wanted to get a general idea on what they know and don’t know about various things. I want to better understand their perspective, thinking and get a sense of their background thought process. This is pretty much a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I want to take advantage of it.”
Edwyrd chuckled. “If you can figure out what wizards are thinking, please let me know. I cannot figure them out no matter how hard I try.”
“Have you ever read any of their books or introductions to Wizardry?” Maelen asked. “They have an interesting view of reality. A bit different than we do.”
“Hmm,” Edwyrd replied. “I can honestly say that I have never read anything about Wizardry, at least not from a wizard’s perspective.”
“You could be in for a treat then. Do you need any bedtime reading?” Maelen asked.
Edwyrd’s eyes lit up, “Yes, actually I do. I have some problems with insomnia lately. It’s almost as if I was stressed about something.” Edwyrd smiled at the Seer.
Maelen chuckled, “Let me prepare you a stack of books that I think you’ll find useful. Feel free to come in and borrow them at your leisure.”
“Thanks!” Edwyrd replied.
~
Maelen completed the stack for Edwyrd and headed to the storeroom he’d located last night. The Sorcerer Elrose had contacted him via Johen and they’d synced a mirror of Elrose’s with a scrying bowl of Maelen’s and had had a good conversation. Elrose was outside the walls of the city with his refugee train. They were being blocked by the Rod’s army.
Elrose wanted to group teleport his people into the city and palace. Such a large group teleportation would be quite tricky on multiple levels. He’d need a large, unoccupied region and a very good ‘feeling’ for it, both visually and other senses. A teleport anchor was the term that was most commonly used. Elrose felt that a Seer, such as Maelen w
ould be able to provide a better anchor than Lenamare, Jehenna or Hortwell.
Maelen had smiled at that. Elrose and he had never met in person, and yet Elrose still trusted him more than the three wizards with this delicate operation. Maelen found that a bit amusing. Jehenna, according to Jenn, was a Master Sorceress, and so should be able to provide a high quality anchor for the teleport; but clearly Elrose wasn’t that fond of her. Maelen couldn’t disagree with the assessment.
Chapter 75
Jenn finished the last chalk markings on the floor, the rose-colored light pouring through the tower window from the setting sun outside glinting off the bits of chalk dust still floating in the air. Jenn had slept most of the day through, and when she'd finally gotten up and went to get some food, she'd been promptly summoned to the workroom. Apparently, Lenamare and Jehenna were finally ready to make another attempt at opening the book.
She was still exhausted; she’d gotten at most a half hour for dinner before being summoned. She’d joined Gastropé who was eating with Maelen. She wished she could have said it had been good to catch up with them; unfortunately, that had not been the case.
As if the thought of multiple armies hiding in the basement wasn’t bad enough; apparently Tisdale had reported and Edwyrd, Gastropé and Maelen had all verified that the entire palace was infested with lower level invisible demons. They advised her to be circumspect when in public regions.
Seriously? Jenn just shook her head. She was getting sick and tired of demons. The entire world was literally going to hell. She wished she’d had more time to ask them the what and why of this, but admittedly they didn’t seem to have too many answers; so it would probably have just been gossiping. Still, some venting would have been nice.
At least she was going to be busy for the next few hours with the stupid book. That would take her mind off the demons. In particular, she was the lead student on this since the other students present and assisting had no real idea what it was they were trying to do.
