Thaumatology 12: Vengeance (2 page)

‘No,’ Ceri replied. ‘Sorcery uses completely different “magical muscles” from the way you work magic. I’d imagine I could find someone who could teach you though. It’s basic levitation. You’d need to start out lifting small things and then go on to shifting people about.’

‘It might be worth it if we have to spend time here on a regular basis.’

Ceri eased them forward toward the gap in the balustrade, which was there specifically for people flying up the stairwell, and lowered them gently onto the black stone which made up more or less the entire castle. The doors to the throne room were open and through them Ceri could see Hiffy fussing over the throne. The blue-skinned girl had a lot more blue skin on display than she usually had. She had indulged herself on the way to the castle from her old home in Shilfaris and had bought herself a couple of outfits which she felt were more fitting to her new role as assistant housekeeper to the Overlord. Ceri had been happy to have the expense on her account since Hiffy had also seen to it that Ruffa, her grandfather, also had decent clothes to wear, and because the outfits Hiffy had picked for herself were very sexy.

‘What are you up to, Hiffy?’ Ceri asked as she led Lily into the vaulted, semi-circular audience chamber.

Hiffy straightened her back and the blue-white translucent fabric of her skirt made swishing sounds as it shifted around her legs and tail. ‘I got you a cushion for this thing, Mistress,’ she said, indicating the huge slab of carved, volcanic rock sitting beside her, ‘and with all that’s been going on I totally forgot to bring it up here, and now you’ll be using the throne I thought…’

Ceri smiled, interrupting the stream of slightly nervous chatter. ‘That’s very thoughtful of you. It’s difficult to look dignified, powerful, and regal when you have a cold, numb arse. Now, why are you acting like a skittish gilda?’ Ceri was pretty sure that a gilda was an animal roughly the size, shape, and personality of a deer. They also had pretty, iridescent, purple skin which gave off a musk known to drive almost any non-gilda insane with lust which made them skittish; they constantly had to look over their shoulder.

‘We have every Lord, greater and lesser, in the Realm here, Mistress!’ Hiffy replied in a tone which suggested that this was an obvious reason for nerves. ‘I’m not sure we’ve got enough food in, or enough wine, or enough Lorril. What if Inak makes a fool of himself and you have to kick us out of the castle, and…’

Stepping forward, Ceri put her finger over the girl’s lips. ‘Enough.’ Hiffy’s eyes widened. ‘I’ve been over this with Ruffa already. He seems to have done an excellent job, you both have. He’s sticking to the kitchens and backrooms most of the time and letting you be the visible head of staff. And I quote, “If I have t’ deal with them ignorant, arrogant tavika-sucking mud worms f’r longer’n thirty minutes, I’ll want to test how big a demon I c’n get on the kitchen spit.”’

Hiffy giggled at Ceri’s impression of her grandfather. ‘He has been acting a little less grumpy recently, but that sounded just like him.’

Ceri nodded, stepping around the blue det to prod at the cushion with her knuckles. ‘So there’s nothing to worry about, is there? I wouldn’t throw you out of the castle anyway. I’d have you chained in my private rooms to use for my pleasure.’ The black, rough silk fabric was well padded and not too smooth. The huge, gothic throne was made of a polished version of the rock the building had been formed from. Indeed, it seemed to have been grown from the stone as the castle had been grown from the mountain, and then someone had carved in the details. The details included a row of skulls up the front of both arms. Nothing too subtle; this was for a demon Overlord to sit on. Ceri sat on it.

‘You’d do that, Mistress?’ Hiffy said, far too eagerly. ‘You’d chain me up as a pleasure slave?’

The Overlord of All Demons shook her head. ‘Impossible, the pair of you. If you’re a very good girl, you can assist me in testing the new dungeon later. Now, the first of the Lords is on his way up, so you had better go check on your grandfather. Then make sure everyone is settled into their rooms, and try to stay off your back before I’ve chained you to the wall.’

‘Yes, Mistress,’ Hiffy replied, giggling, and headed for the door, hips swinging and tail twitching from side to side.

‘Sooner or later I’m going to die of sexual excess,’ Ceri muttered, and then raised her voice a little to add, ‘I think I’d like you lounging on the arm of the throne, Lil. Left side. According to rumour, I already use you as an assassin.’

‘Of course, Mistress,’ Lily purred, moving around to perch on the thick, black arm of the chair. Ceri crossed her legs, arranged her skirts, and assumed what she hoped was a decadent, lounging posture. ‘Mistress looks every bit the demon empress,’ Lily assured her just before Faran appeared outside the door, leading the way for an over-sized Devos Ceri did not immediately recognise.

‘Lady Ayasha,’ Faran said, stopping just inside the doorway, which seemed to irritate the Lord behind him, ‘I present Lord Graggil.’

And
now
she knew who he was. ‘Ah yes, Graggil. You hold the lands north of Shilfaris.’ Graggil and Molech had been in a slightly uneasy truce since Molech had taken the territory between the Mountains of Khedra and the city of Shilfaris. The region around the city provided about two hundred miles of buffer zone between the two fiefdoms. Ceri liked it that way.

Faran walked forward to take his place at the right side of the throne which allowed Graggil to move forward. He was not exactly the best-looking Devos Ceri had ever seen, though his lordly power could be seen in his abnormal height, around sixteen feet. Unfortunately, he had something of a paunch and almost no muscle tone, and his skin had a greyish tint to it rather than the iridescent purple which marked his species. One of the briefings Faran had provided over the last month had described Graggil as ‘a bloated incompetent ruling an inefficient hierarchy of brown-nosed sycophants.’

‘My Gracious Lady,’ Graggil said, sweeping into what he probably thought was an elegant bow. ‘It is concerning the region south of my lands that I wish to speak. I feel it would be most appropriate if I were to bring them under my wing. I am sure that the Overlord will find that I am able to service any requirements that she has far better than a common Devos and a Lorril.’ The demon had confirmed Faran’s assessment in under a minute; it was impressive really.

‘Graggil,’ Ceri said after a second of consideration, ‘do I look like an idiot?’

‘No, Lady!’ The response came out along with widening eyes. It was likely he had hoped she had not had time to understand the political situation in her new world and if he had held lands further from her castle, he might have been right. Unfortunately, while she had never walked through his lands, she was quite intimate with the people governing the regions he wanted to usurp.

‘So, would I have personally selected Torn and Jubilia for their positions if I wanted you to walk in and take over?’

‘Uh… no, Lady?’

Ceri gave him a smile. ‘Good, you’re learning. Let me make this quite clear, Graggil. I intend to be a hands-off sort of Overlord. I’m not going to stick my nose in your business, or anyone else’s, unless I really have to. However, if you try to move your border so much as a hand’s breadth south, you will spend the rest of your life as a statue in my front hall.’

‘Yes, Overlord,’ Graggil replied, bowing as he retreated toward the door. In fact, bowing all the way out of the room.

‘Are they all going to be like this?’ Ceri asked.

‘No,’ Faran replied, ‘some of them will be sneakier about it, and some of them will just ask you to go to bed with them.’

The Overlord of All Demons heaved a sigh. ‘All right, let’s get the next one in.’

~~~

‘You know that big machine down in the torture chamber?’ Ceri asked as she slumped into the hugely oversized chair in her private chambers. ‘The one with the big iron plate with the spikes and you get squashed and skewered at the same time?’

Lily settled onto a cushion on the floor beside her. ‘Yes, I remember it. Why?’

‘Could you put me in it and kill me?’

The half-succubus gave her a smirk. ‘No, of course not. I’m your bound demon. I can’t harm you, even if you order me to.’

‘Damn. When we did that, I never realised there would be such a huge downside. Seriously, three hours of listening to whining creatures capable of demolishing a small army acting like spoiled children. How did I get this job?!’

‘You put on your infinitely-great-grandfather’s hat.’

Rolling her eyes upward, Ceri could see the edge of the iron circlet sitting around her head. Gorefguhadget’s Iron Crown, though maybe they would be renaming it if she survived wearing it long enough. ‘Not my cleverest idea.’

‘We would both be Molech’s personal pleasure slaves and you would have no mind if you hadn’t put it on, Mistress.’

Ceri turned her head as Hiffy stepped into the room carrying a tray. ‘Somehow that’s starting to sound like a pleasant fate in comparison. You know, Hiffy, you don’t have to act like you’re my personal servant. You could have sent someone with that.’ Raising her hand, she gestured at a side table built for someone twice her height and it lifted slightly to float over to sit beside her chair. It was not actually a conspicuous overuse of magic; the furniture in the room weighed a ton.

Hiffy put the tray down on it. ‘Inak says that the Overlord should be waited upon by the head of staff or, preferably, his far more attractive assistant since she’s easier on the eye and the Overlord should not have to put up with looking at a grumpy old goat.’ It did sound like Ruffa. ‘I brought wine, cheese, sliced meats, and bread. You’ll need to keep your strength up.’

Ceri looked at the tray of food. ‘Do you think that knife is sharp enough to slit my wrists?’

‘I would be most grateful if the Mistress could avoid killing herself before she’s tried out some of the toys in the dungeon on me,’ Hiffy replied.

‘I suppose that’s something to look forward to. All right, I’ll keep the suicide for later. Oh, we need some new furniture for this room. Something a little more to scale.’

Hiffy nodded. ‘It is all rather large.’

‘Keep one of the big chairs in case I need to entertain one of the Lords in here, but a human-sized chair, and a loveseat. And… does “chaise longue” translate? Something for lounging on. Lilith gives exceptionally good lounge.’

Hiffy giggled. ‘I believe I understand what you’re after. What about the bed? We could replace that with something more your size if you wish.’

‘No, the bed is fine. More room for when there’s three or four in it.’

‘When are you going to get four in it?’ Lily asked, frowning. Ceri was certainly not shy of multiple partners, but she had been a little more… selective about who they were since the influence of the dragons had been removed; there were very few people in this world Lily expected her to select.

‘I was hoping we might persuade Michael to come over. I know he’s not fond of demons, but he’s got used to Faran and he’s mostly going to meet det here. I figure if he sees that they’re just like any normal human or werewolf he’ll get over it.’

‘He is very good at adapting to new circumstances, Mistress.’

‘And we really need to keep you on a low-demon diet.’

‘Oh. Yes, I hadn’t thought of that.’ Lily had spent several months in the Demon Realm as the prisoner of Matthew Barnes, thaumatologist turned demon, and had been forced to feed on a lot of demons to the point of killing them. As a result, the metaphysical nature of her body had changed: her demonic half had been strengthened, her body had been tied more closely to the demons’ universe, and her appetite for sex and feeding from it had become far more intense. Ceri had been trying to figure out how to put her back to normal, but so far the only method she had come up with was to have her feed exclusively on people from Earth. It was a slow process.

‘Pardon me, Mistress,’ Hiffy said, ‘but who is Michael?’

‘He’s a werewolf,’ Ceri responded without thinking, and then realised that werewolves were not something most det had ever heard of. ‘He’s a man who is able to transform into a sort of beast-man. I’m his mate, which is a bit like marriage over here. I’d like him to come over because… well, I like him being part of my life, all of it, but it also means that Lil isn’t just feeding off me.’ She gave the blue-skinned det a wicked grin. ‘And considering that demons tend to be a bit rougher about sex than humans, we can set him loose on you and I can sit back and enjoy the show.’

Hiffy’s eyes widened. ‘Oh… my.’

‘If I feed from him,’ Lily said, also smirking, ‘I can keep him going like a steam train for half an hour.’

A slightly darker blue flush crept over Hiffy’s throat and upper chest, and she licked her lips. ‘That sounds… I would, of course, be happy to entertain my Lady in any way she wishes. I do have one question, if I may?’

‘Of course,’ Ceri replied.

‘What’s a “steam train?”’

~~~

‘How are things going in Quatilan?’ Ceri asked from her throne. She was speaking to what appeared to be a tall but relatively human-sized woman with long, black hair and dark eyes: Jubilia, the new Lord of Quatilan and its environs.

‘Well, Lady,’ Jubilia replied, ‘as I suggested when you appointed me, some of the demons under my command were somewhat unwilling to treat me seriously. A Lorril as a Lord is relatively unheard of, but I was able to assert myself adequately and they’ve fallen into line.’