The Beginnings Omnibus: Beginnings 1, 2, 3 & Legend of Ashenclaw novella (Realm of Ashenclaw Beginnings Saga) (97 page)

As they neared the base of the hill, Phaera landed to give her wings a respite. The journey had taken them several more hours than she’d anticipated, especially with having to pause and wait for the two slagfell with their stunted lengths and short strides.

“There,” declared Prishnack, pointing toward an entrance. It was well above the surface and up a sheer face of rock with nowhere to climb.

Phaera, still representing her demonic form, grasped Dainn by the collar of his robes and began to make her way toward the opening offered in the side of the hill face. “Thank you for the warning,” he said in a tone dripping with sarcasm, fumbling to maintain his grasp on the staff he carried.

“Yer durned hands are cold!” blurted Megnus as he was likewise lifted from the ground, held fast by the djinni. As they arrived at the entrance, Phaera peered inside, willing her eyes into the spectrum of dark vision and gathering in the scene. She stepped inside and witnessed the strange blackened surfaces of the rough walls, noticing that several gaps existed where the rock was picked clean. Someone was doing some mining, she decided.

“What exactly is this place?” asked Dainn as he wandered in and spoke a command word, releasing a dull light from atop his staff. He recoiled in fear as Phaera’s amber eyes and fanged mouth entered the radius of his light, signaling him to dim it even more.

“You wish us discovered so quickly?!” she asked him in a hushed, yet threatening tone. He appeased her unspoken directive by doing so.

 “Apologies,” Dainn said remorsefully with a slight dip of his head.

“I feel…the presence of a...other worldly creature,” Prishnack fumbled, hovering behind Megnus, who strapped a shield to his left arm and produced one of his deadly axes.

“Yes!” agreed Phaera, as she too not so much felt, but
heard
the voice of a demonic presence. She closed her eyes and reached out to the entity, speaking in the tongue native to the depths of Pandemonium.

“We are coming to take you back to Sadreth
,” she began, communicating with the demon, who revealed itself as Cyrza.

“Follow the sound of my voice and return me to my rightful host!”
shouted the demon inside her mind.

Phaera made her way with haste toward the voice as it guided her up one level after another.

“What in the realm be this thing?” Xorgram shrieked, producing the gemmed pendant. As he stared at it, the item was black and dull one moment, and then shone brightly as if it were polished diamond the next. Xorgram gazed around at his confidantes gathered within his private quarters. Fuddle, Kilkutt and Skilgo were all present and occupying far corners of the room.

“It is clearly something evil, or contains something malevolent,” stated Fuddle, echoing the sentiment of the warlock Helene, who had warned them of the deadly and very powerful presence within the gem. He sat on a chair and fidgeted with his goggles nervously.

“We don’t be knowin’ what lies within the durned thing, and I fer one don’t want it here no more! If I’m thinkin’ it be doin’ what they be sayin’ it be doin’, then we need ta get it gone!” cried an exasperated and wheezing Skilgo.

The slagfell miner sat resignedly after that boast, his rump finding the end of Xorgram’s own bed.

“I’m fer gettin’ the thing gone, too,” agreed the heavily muscled smithy. Killkutt moved toward the center of the room where Xorgram stood and stared hard at him and then the amulet. His gray eyes shone with contempt for the thing in Xorgram’s hand and his pupils seemed to shift from gray to a deep red for just a heartbeat.  Xorgram watched as Kilkutt balled up his fist and then rapped him on his jaw.

“What in—?!” Xorgram heard from the mouth of Fuddle through the ringing in his ears. He stared up at Kilkutt, still grasping the amulet, and glaring back hard at his cousin.

“Better be puttin’ that thing back in its box,” suggested Skilgo after a cough, not moving still from the edge of the bed.

Xorgram regained his footing without saying a word and did as Skilgo mentioned.  His cheek was throbbing and likely bruised from the impact of Kilkutt’s solid punch. He said nothing, truly believing that whatever demon resided within the amulet was beginning to have its way with his cousin’s will.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Kilkutt claimed after a moment had passed. “I don’t be knowin’ why I did that.”

“I’m thinkin’ I got a pretty good idea,” Xorgram acknowledged.

“I be havin’ visions…and I be hearin’ a voice,” Kilkutt said as he clenched and unclenched his fist. “It be whisperin’ things in me ears and makin’ me want to do things I ne’er thought meself capable of doin’.”

“I understand, cousin,” Xorgram nodded, looking down at the box that held the amulet.

“
You are leader of these people, but you could be so much more!”
Xorgram heard sounding inside his own head as a manipulative whisper.

“I be hearin’ it meself now,” Xorgram admitted, wiping a stray lock of raven colored hair from his face. “I be thinkin’ it’s time ta send this thing to the bottom of the lake!”

“That won’t be necessary,” called a sultry voice from the doorway, which now stood wide.

Suddenly a shadow filled the threshold of Xorgram’s room, followed by another demonic figure that now stood before him, though this one instilled a very different emotion from deep within him. Xorgram recognized it as what he knew to be a succubus. She was pale skinned, with hair to match and a pair of wings set upon her back. Her cold, amber eyes seemed to bore into him, and yet they were alluring and seductive, too, he realized. She wore leather boots to her thighs and gloves to match, horns adorned her head and a tail waggled back and forth from behind her. She was wickedly beautiful, Xorgram admitted, and felt a stirring from deep within his loins.

He took a step back from fright and then one forward in attraction, ending up where he’d been at the start.

The succubus was followed by two more slagfell, a warrior with markings upon his face and neck, indicating a certain status. He also bore an axe and wore dull, yet heavy armor. And the other slagfell was dressed in garish robes and appeared outwardly hairless, even his beard was missing. He came to stand silently beside the succubus, leaning upon an ornately carved staff.

The strangest thing, though, was the figure that floated in next, flickering in and out of sight, its red eyes flashing intermittently. This was no doubt one of the legendary djinn, Xorgram figured.

“How did ye get down here and where—”

“I will be the one asking the questions,” interrupted the succubus, with an authoritative tone to her voice. Xorgram felt an irrational compliance wash over him. It faded just as quickly.

“She’s toyin’ with me
,” he thought in recognition of her power.

He turned and watched both Skilgo and Kilkutt race forward to advance on this newfound threat. The two slagfell that accompanied the succubus also readied themselves and began to counter the move. Xorgram held out his hand to stop Skilgo and Kilkutt just as the succubus did the same.

“I only wish to talk,” said the succubus, “for now. You’d do well to listen to my offer.”

Phaera held both Dainn and Megnus at bay with a wave of her hand. She heard Megnus grumble something under his breath in the slagfell tongue and ignored him. Prishnack made no move and would not until she gave him the word to do so. Cyrza had made it very clear where he was situated and she had no intention of failing Zabalas.

She leaned into Dainn and slyly spoke to him.

“Make the tracings,” she whispered, “outside the room here. I am not about to walk back to Stonehill. And make it short-term.”

Dainn immediately removed himself from the room, moving to obey her.

“What are ye proposin’?” asked the dwarf. He was a charismatic and attractive one, save for the patch that covered his right eye and the hint of a scar that barely protruded from both the top and bottom beneath the eye patch.

“I am proposing that you hand over the amulet and that we let you all live,” Phaera said with utter confidence as she smiled cruelly, exposing fangs.

With that, a rather muscular and red-haired dwarf wearing an apron covered in soot and whose beard was clearly singed from fire, raced toward her with a hammer clenched threateningly in hand. She pushed out her pheromones before Megnus could intercept him and soothed him, making him stop in mid-charge and promptly fall to his backside quietly.

“Well, If I ain’t a halfling’s daughter,” said the dwarf, one blue eye wide in disbelief at seeing what had just happened. He glanced back at the slagfell dwarf behind him, who coughed and mumbled quietly to himself, and then back to the gnome, who shifted back and forth, as if his legs were not supporting him properly.

“I be more’n happy ta part with the durned thing if ye leave and ne’er come back,” he mentioned reluctantly.

“I think that is something that can be arranged, dwarf,” Phaera replied, moving closer to him.

“Xorgram,” he said matter-of-factly. “My name be Xorgram. Now take yer cursed demon trinket and get ta goin’,” he said in a bluster of unwarranted confidence. She was about to make note of it, then decided against it, looking over her shoulder to Dainn, who nodded that he was ready.

Phaera stretched her wings as she moved forward, accepting the iron box he held.

“
Yes
!” she heard Cyrza bustle gleefully from within the iron prison. “
Take me to him so that I might taste of his soul and give him back the power he so rightly deserves
!”

She ignored the demon’s elated words and opened the box, peering at the amulet inside. Phaera smiled and bared her fangs at the group within the room, holding up the amulet and spinning it round on the length of chain, the gem reflecting in the light of the torch lit room.