Incubus Inc. 3

by Randi Darren

  Aster clicked her tongue at that and folded her arms in front of herself. That wasn’t the answer she wanted, but it was at least the end result she’d want.

  Information.

  More than likely about who had her locked up.

  “I don’t like it,” Sam said, indicating the map with a hand. “But it’s the best plan we’ve got, I guess. We’ll see about making a deal with Balahtus and then come back here if we can’t.”

  A trio of agreements came back to him from Abrah, Aster, and Erv. Wren hadn’t said anything.

  In fact, she’d been staring at the dirt for a little while now.

  “How accurate is this map?” Wren asked suddenly, looking at Erv.

  “Not very. I mean, kind of? It’s all from memory and I have no idea about distances or anything like that,” admitted Erv.

  Wren turned to Sam and then held out her hand.

  “May I borrow a cane or anything of that nature?” she asked.

  Sam summoned forth a rapier and then held it out to Wren. It wasn’t what she asked for but it was the best he could do with his Essence and what he could call forth.

  Taking the weapon in hand, Wren pressed the point down to where the Undead Dragon had been stated as living. Then she slowly began drawing a line to another X in the dirt.

  “I think we’re underestimating Skipper,” Wren murmured as the rapier intersected the X. She then began pulling the tip of the sword up and away to another X. “It took a little bit for me to notice it but the more I stared at it, the less it made sense.”

  Slowly, Wren began to move the tip of the rapier from X to X.

  “It didn’t make sense until I discounted the eleventh point, honestly,” Wren said finally as the weapon tip came to a stop. “That and the map isn’t really to scale. But now that I’ve pointed it out, it’s hard not to see it, right?”

  Sam let out a slow breath as he looked at what Wren had done.

  She’d drawn a pentagram without a circle onto the dirt map. It was a very lopsided one that didn’t look quite right but that was due to the crudity of the sketch.

  “Ten points. Five outside,” said Wren, tapping the exterior points that were further from the rest. Then she tapped the five that were closer together “Then we have the five interior that line up.”

  It makes sense. It explains a great deal of what we’ve been seeing since coming here as well.

  Jena, Skipper, was draining Hell of Essence with a gigantic sigil diagram.

  One that would resonate in Hell due to association on the material planes.

  “And our eleventh point is the center,” she said and then tapped the X that’d been designated as Annulus stronghold. “The chasm isn’t just a point of no return, but either the start point or the end point for all the work she put into this.

  “Would it be dangerous to go to the start or end point and eradicate it? Would it backfire or cause us problems?”

  Holding his breath at the questions, Sam now truly understood the scope, the problem, and what was in front of him. If he went to Annulus stronghold and acted, there was the strong possibility of causing a massive chain reaction.

  One that could, quite literally, tear apart every square inch of the plane of Hell that fell within the pentagram Skipper had put down. It was as if the plane itself was a hostage.

  “Damn,” Sam whispered more to himself than anyone else.

  Except there was no other answer he could give. Trying to eliminate any part of the sigil-work elsewhere could just as easily cause a chain reaction. One that could be bigger than if he removed the endpoint, depending on what the point of the whole thing was.

  “Okay, got it,” Aster said and then clapped her hands together. “When we get to Annulus, I call first and last dips on Sam. I want to go out being well-fed and well-fucked.

  “Cause I’m betting this is going to literally blow up in our damn faces.”

  No one said anything else.

  There was nothing to be said.

  The plan wouldn’t change, but the reality of the situation certainly had.

  Abrah would move on the swamp and the dragon.

  Sam and the rest would go see Balahtus.

  And try not to blow up the plane when they finished the job, either through the swamp, or the Fields of Night.

  “We’ll leave in an hour. We’ll collect some gear and get going,” said Sam after a few seconds passed. “Abrah, thank you for handling the dragon swamp.”

  Nineteen - Enter Night -

  Sam could see a city in the distance. From everything Erv and Abrah had told him, it was at the edge of the Fields of Night territory. The entry point to the area held by Balahtus.

  “That’s it!” Erv shouted over the air rushing by them. Her hands were locked around Sam’s back, her head twisted around to look ahead. Her legs were wrapped around his hips, and her thighs and part of her posterior rode into Sam’s lap with every flap of his wings. His hands were comfortably locked together under her buttocks. “We can go into the territory through there! We can’t fly any further or we’ll be intercepted by their Winged Abominations!”

  That’s certainly something we should avoid. I could deal with them on my own in the sky. The problem is I’m not alone. I certainly couldn’t do it with Erv hanging on me.

  Not to mention, I don’t think Wren has quite figured out flying yet. She doesn’t seem to have the innate instincts for it like Jes and I.

  Glancing over, Sam saw Wren. Flying through the air just as he was, though with Aster wrapped around the front of her. In the end, it’d made more sense for Erv to go with him rather than Aster. The Water Elemental could better identify where they needed to stop than anyone else with them.

  I do regret not bringing Abrah but… no choice there. She needs to keep her troops and her territory in line.

  They wouldn’t go to the swamp without her, and as she herself said, she’d likely be invaded if she wasn’t there on top of everything else.

  Frustrating to not have a “local” with us. Erv’s knowledge is incredibly out of date.

  As if to highlight Erv’s concern about continuing on, a dark cloud rose up from a plain beyond the city. It ascended into the sky as if it were some type of dirigible.

  Not wanting to provoke them, Sam began angling down towards the city. Wren came closer to him and lined up partially to one side and behind him.

  Looking toward the closest gate of the city, Sam could see there were no guards there. People were flowing quite freely in and out without a disturbance.

  Pulling up short with a rapid set of flaps from his wings, Sam landed with a soft pat onto the dirt. Erv didn’t release him and just hung onto him, her face now pressed against his shoulder.

  Right now, she was wearing Elemental Water that she’d converted into a facsimile of clothes. There was no way she’d be able to move about in the courtier’s uniform without drawing attention.

  “We landed,” Sam said, his hands patting Erv’s rear end twice with one hand. He couldn’t deny that he really did enjoy the feel of the lovely Water Elemental. She reminded him of a cross between Irma and Jess.

  “I know,” Erv muttered, her thighs flexing against his waist. She still didn’t release him.

  With a much louder thump than he was expecting, Wren hit the ground next to him. Her hooves and elongated ankles took up a good portion of the impact.

  “Ugh, well, that wasn’t that bad for your first real flight, Wren,” Aster said, getting down from the other woman. She reached up and casually patted Wren’s cheek in a fond way.

  Since taking on Sam’s brand, Aster and Wren had often gotten into three- or four-ways with himself and Jes. They were quite comfortable with each other now.

  “Thanks, Aster. It’ll take some practice but it doesn’t seem so bad,” Wren said and then laughed, not moving away from Aster’s hand on her cheek. “It’s just weird. Doesn’t feel like me.”

  Giving herself a full-body shake, Wren’s horns, wings, and le
gs shifted. Her form reverted back to her normal Cambion state.

  “Well… considering I’m pretty sure you’re a descendant of the true King of Hell, that’s not surprising,” Aster said, still caressing Wren’s cheek. The Elemental let out a short huff of breath and then turned away from the Cambion, moving over to Sam. “Erv, stop being a cuddle-bug. Time to go.”

  Grunting, the Water Elemental finally began to disentangle herself from Sam. Finally, she got her booted feet on the ground.

  “I get it. I’m the same way,” Wren said, coming over to the others. “When you get your hands on him, you just don’t want to let go.”

  Erv only nodded her head, her left hand holding Sam’s forearm as she looked at the other two women.

  With the amount of attention Sam had been paying Erv, she was very quickly shifting mentally toward who she had once been. Before she’d taken on his brand the first time, centuries ago.

  “If it’s anything like it used to be, then we need to go pay for a pass,” Erv said, not addressing Wren’s statement. “That means visiting the city governor. But that was all how it was done a long time ago. It could have changed.”

  “A pity we couldn’t bring the Demon-Knight,” lamented Wren, moving around to Sam’s left side. They were all slowly walking toward the city now. “But that’s the job of a home guard. She’ll defend it all for us so we have a place to return to, should this fail.

  “Because we do need to secure a place to lay our head if we can’t return, Sam. There’s no guarantee we’ll escape from Hell any time soon.”

  There was a truth in that statement that Sam really didn’t want to address, yet Wren was right. They could end up trapped in Hell for the next fifteen or sixteen years.

  Only being able to leave when summoned.

  Wait, why haven’t they summoned me back to the prime plane? Shouldn’t I already be back on the material plane at least through a summons?

  “There’s a massive sigil laid out over each and every continent,” Erv mumbled, her fingers slowly clenching into Sam’s arm. “It’ll take at least two years to dissipate on its own. It’s not something that anyone could-could interrupt either. They’re all very heavily shielded. I learned from previous mistakes about not shielding sigils. The shielding won’t expire until the sigils themselves expire.

  “I laid it all out because I was afraid your wives would summon you back. It was expensive, took a lot of time, but in the end it seemed worth it. It was hard to not move until everything was ready, but I waited until you were thrown into the Void and then activated it.

  “I’m sorry, Sam. I was playing for keeps when I was acting as Jena. I really didn’t want to kill you, but I had to make sure you couldn’t come back. I had to.”

  Aster began to laugh, then wrapped an arm around Erv’s shoulders.

  “You know what? I like you, Erv. I really like you,” Aster said and then leaned in to kiss Erv’s cheek with a loud smacking noise. “Hell, I think I might fall in love with you. Think you’d mind letting me have a crack at you in a permanent way? Because you’re beautiful and intelligent. It’s impressive.

  “Do you know how hard it is to pin Sam down? To really get ahead of him and remove all his options? The Church of One and All tried for years and years.”

  “Uhm. I’m just a servant in the harem and—”

  “You’re wearing my brand, too, ya know,” Aster said, leaning into Erv’s side. “My brand is Sam’s brand. We’re wedded. I can speak on his behalf in some things. I’m telling you now, he won’t mind if you willingly start seeing me. He just won’t let me do anything with you without you inviting it.”

  Not incorrect. So long as she does it willingly. Otherwise, I’ll not share her with anyone.

  “Oh. Well. I… maybe? You’re very pretty and I certainly became far more attracted to women as Jena,” said Erv. Then she remembered what she’d just said and looked back at Sam. “But… you’re not mad at me for sealing you up, are you Sam?”

  “No. You were doing what you had to. I’m appreciative of the fact that you didn’t kill me outright,” said Sam with a laugh. “Seems I was very overconfident. I’ll have to amend that in the future.”

  “I-I’ll take care of it. In the future, that is,” Erv promised. “I’m good at planning for things like that. And against it. I had to get really good at it.”

  “There’s no guards,” Wren said, changing the subject. “Shouldn’t there be guards?”

  “I don’t know,” Sam admitted as they slowly joined the flow of people heading into the city. There were a number of people who looked like they were just traveling between locations with packs on their backs.

  No one seemed to have anything to trade or sell.

  It’s a strange mimicry of what had happened on the actual prime, but not at the same time. It’s as if everything was in extreme scarcity and everyone just accepts it as that.

  Then again, outside of Cambion, lesser or greater, most everyone depends on Essence.

  “There’s no Cambion,” Aster said as they passed through the gate and into the city itself. “Maybe you should grow your wings and horns back out, Wren.”

  “Yes. That would be wise. There really aren’t any Cambion at all,” Erv agreed, her eyes moving around their surroundings.

  Sam caught Wren shifting back into her Demonic form out of the corner of his eye. He couldn’t disagree with Aster and Erv. They were right.

  There really weren’t any Cambion anywhere in sight.

  A rather large, brutish Demon with horns and goat feet shoved a smaller lion-headed Demon into an alleyway. The smaller Demon had already been working at the belt around her hips.

  Several prostitutes were working on the sidewalk, their hips being slammed into the ground by their Johns.

  Not far away from that, in front of what seemed to be a small home, a Demon with a bored expression was casually skinning a dead woman with a boar’s head and six breasts. His knife slid along her side and peeled the flesh from the body.

  “I think I prefer Klesick,” muttered Aster. “It was brutal, sure, but this is… a bit much.”

  “Hell is Hell,” Sam said. “When a Demon dies, they just move on to the afterlife version of Hell. So that they can begin administering punishments to the vast hordes of the mortal dead. All waiting to be scoured of their evil.

  “Ask Decima about it sometime. She suffered quite a bit under the ministrations of Demons and Devils who’d passed on.”

  An aggressive-looking Demon with a face covered in scars and orange fur got down on top of a prostitute. The woman had just finished up with a client and was in the process of cleaning herself off.

  No sooner than the Demon had started thrusting into her, a massive pig-like woman slammed a booted foot into the Demon’s face. She sent him flying several feet away to land with a bounce on the other side of the street.

  “Essence first, not after,” shrieked the pimp.

  The prostitute seemed unbothered by what’d just happened and was already welcoming another John atop her. Doing nothing to this one, the pimp went back to the spot between several of the working girls.

  The scar-faced Demon had already been attacked with a sword by someone passing by, their pockets being emptied by a second, and a third had dropped down atop the Demon.

  This third party had pressed their mouth to the slash wound and was currently drinking their blood down quickly with loud gulps.

  “We should keep moving,” Erv said, gesturing down the boulevard. She seemed unconcerned about what was happening around them. It was fairly normal for Hell as far as Erv was apparently concerned. “In the past, the fortress at the center was where the governor lived.”

  “I miss home,” Wren murmured, her head on a swivel as she inspected those around them. “Maybe I’m not as much of a Cambion as I thought I was.”

  “Cambion live for battle and testing themselves, not for brutality,” Aster commented, staying close to Erv’s side, her arm still wrapped aroun
d the other Elemental. “That’s a critical difference.”

  As they walked down the boulevard in a group, they were thankfully left to themselves. Sam and Wren having wings set them apart from the common rank and rabble of the citizenry. Few races had wings, and those that did almost always stood far and away above in the social circles. Being able to fly created many opportunities for advancement.

  What they’d witnessed at the gate had only been the pre-show, it seemed. As they walked along, they saw more of the same. Sometimes worse, sometimes not.

  Everything that had occurred in Klesick and then more.

  “Ah, there it is,” Erv said as a slow turn in the street revealed a large, imposing stone fortress. “That’s where we need to go.”

  Keeping on their track, the group moved swiftly, reaching the front of the fortress without incident. Though, there was a surprise waiting for them there.

  Standing in front of the large wooden doors was a group of several guards. They were all wearing expensive-looking armor, given the scarcity of good steel.

  They were also all Demon-Knights.

  None of them addressed Sam or his group at their approach. They didn’t do much other than stare at them with weapons at the ready.

  “Good afternoon,” Sam said after taking a moment to consider what the ‘mortal time’ was. He assumed he’d be taking the lead given that he was the most likely to be the one to pay for everything. “We’d like to purchase travel passes.”

  The Demon-Knight who was closest to Sam stared back at him without saying anything. One and all, they simply gazed at Sam as if he were of passing interest but little more.

  “Ah… travel passes,” said Sam, trying a different line. “Do we need them? Can we freely roam about the Fields of Night?”

  Once again, the Demon-Knights said nothing.

  Sam suddenly realized what the problem was. He was treating them as if he were dealing with mortals on the prime. With people who wanted to be reasonable and be reasoned with.

  Hell is Hell.

  Summoning his weapon in hand, Sam stepped forward toward the nearest Demon-Knight and lifted his Essence blade. Positioning it, he readied himself to lunge straight at the guard.