The Heavenly Host (Demons of Astlan Book 2) (34 page)

Two of the carpets were keeping the lich and dragon quite busy with swooping attacks of fire, lightning and what appeared to be very intense beams of light. The light beams seemed the most effective, as they were clearly putting dents in the ice dragon, and several more holes had appeared in the lich’s clothes after a few beam attacks.

The third carpet was sitting a short distance away and remaining stationary. A wizard was standing straight up on it and was casting something. It took a few minutes for Elrose to realize that the wizard was actually casting a Cloud of Disintegration.

“Time to pause and do long-range attacks,” Elrose muttered to himself. He had no desire to get near a COD. Given the results he had witnessed during the siege, the fellow on the carpet could probably go head-to-head with Lenamare for egomania. There was no way that could be a stable conjuring situation!

However, the COD was successfully formed and started moving towards the lich and dragon. The cloud did not get far before the lich noticed it and took direct aim at the wizard controlling the carpet. A giant bolt of lightning raced toward the carpet faster than Elrose could see what was going on.

There was a loud
crack
as the lightning bolt hit a wall—or rather, a shield of ice that had formed in the bolt’s path. Clearly, the other wizards on the carpet were prepared to deal with such attacks. This also gave the other two carpets a couple of free shots at the lich and dragon. They managed to score several good hits before being forced to pull back due to the approaching COD.

Elrose’s magically enhanced sight could see the concerned expression on the lich’s gruesome face. It shook its head and jerked on its dragon’s reins, kneeing it. The dragon dove down fast and hard, banking away from the carpets and the COD.

Elrose blinked. The lich was fleeing; the dragon had summoned a large burst of speed and was flying away as quickly as it could. They were also diving quickly. Elrose reflected that was probably a good idea. Given how high up they were, the lich had a lot of vertical distance where gravity would seriously assist its speed.

Clouds of Disintegration were notoriously unmoved by gravity, so it was limited to the same speed in all directions. The carpet with the COD caster started to follow, given that there was a range limit on how far the caster could be from the COD. However, they soon stopped, realizing they could not catch the lich.

The lich and dragon suddenly vanished in one of the auras, apparently plane shifting out of the border region and back into Nysegard. The three carpets cheered.

“We are going to keep the COD active and slowly move towards the fourth lich,” said a voice over the circlet. “You guys go ahead and join the other three carpets.”

Elrose looked to where the fourth lich and dragon were. Six carpets should be enough. He glanced towards the rear of the ship to see how the others were doing. He had to up the power on his enhanced sight to find the other battles. He blinked as he saw multiple carpets along with three slightly wobbly flying figures heading towards what appeared to be only two remaining lich-dragon pairs. Where had those wobbly red flying figures come from? He upped his sight again and then groaned. It was Gastropé’s demon and two other fiends.

It was bad enough that a Master Wizard might summon a COD from a flying carpet in the middle of battle, but a young wizard fresh out of school summoning and controlling three fiends from a fast-moving flying carpet? This day just kept getting more insane!

Elrose shook his head. Time for a line of sight teleport!

~

“Gotta hand it to you, Gastropé; I thought you were insane, but those demons of yours are kicking some lich butt!” Peter said, shaking his head as the three fiends headed towards their fourth lich and dragon.

“Amazing how joyous they seem even though they are taking a severe beating themselves,” Zed noted.

“In my experience, demons don’t look at things the same way we do,” Gastropé said, shaking his head. “They look at this as sort of a vacation. The Abyss is a really miserable place, trust me.”

“Trust you?” Penelope asked, looking at him oddly. “You sound like you have firsthand experience.”

Gastropé chuckled. “More than I want.”

“You’ve been there?” Peter had twisted on his cushion to look at him.

Gastropé nodded. “Multiple times. The first time was when I was working for Exador; he took his entire army through the Abyss as a shortcut to get to Lenamare’s school.”

“He sounds insane!” Zed said.

“Yes, well, it turns out he is most likely an archdemon who has been disguising himself as a human for several millennia,” Gastropé said. “So insane is really not the half of it.”

Everyone on the carpet stared openmouthed at Gastropé. “Are you saying you worked for an archdemon?” Penelope asked in shock.

“Well, I didn’t know he was an archdemon at the time; he was pretending to be a wizard. He fooled the entire Council of Wizardry including Trevin, who I am sure has had dinner with him.” Gastropé felt he needed to defend himself a bit. It was rather awkward to have to admit to having worked for the Forces of Evil.

“You are going to have to tell us all about this when we get back to the ship!” Zed exclaimed.

“Wait—you said there were more times?” Penelope asked.

Gastropé sighed; he should have kept his mouth shut. “Yeah, similar idea—Jenn and I, along with a few others, have passed through it a couple times to get to or from various locations in Astlan.”

“How?” Peter asked.

“Talk about a detour!” Zed exclaimed.

“Well, this is a bit awkward, but… you know that demon that kidnapped Talarius and stole mana from Tiernon?” Gastropé asked.

“Yes. We haven’t seen this crystal ball thing, but we’ve heard the stories. Actually, I think you told us some of those stories at the Bacchanalia?” Zed reminded him.

“Oh, yeah.” Gastropé frowned. “Well, we did it with that demon. He took us to a cave of his in the Abyss that was a bit cooler than most of the Abyss, and we used it as sort of a waiting room until he could make contact with someone else to help him open a gateway to Astlan.”

“You are telling us that you were the house guest of the demon that stole mana from a god?” Penelope asked.

“Well, to be fair, he had not yet done so at the time,” Gastropé said.

A cheer broke out as the three demons finished killing their fourth lich-and-dragon pair. A second cheer then broke out over the com circlets as the final pair were vanquished by the other carpets. They all looked over to where the final set of carpets were watching something fall to the ground.

Gastropé blinked; was that Elrose standing in the air between two of the carpets?

“Hey, that flying human stole our next entrée!” Tizzy yelled as the three demons flew up to the carpet.

Gastropé looked over at them. Wow, did they look bad. Tizzy’s two friends had holes in their wings; the craggy one even had a broken horn. They all had dark spots covering their bodies. It was much clearer on Tizzy, who was lighter skinned and not scaly, but the dark spots appeared to be bad frostbite and/or cold burns. How cold was a lich’s teat if they could freeze demons? Gastropé wondered.

“Sorry,” Peter said to Tizzy as the demon flew nearby.

Tizzy looked Peter up and down. “You’re a human on a Grove carpet?”

“Uhm, yeah. Sort of a long story,” Peter said.

Tizzy twisted his mouth back and forth a couple of times before saying, “Unusual.”

Zed stared at the demon. “You know about the Grove?”

Tizzy shrugged and pulled his pipe out of nowhere. “I’ve done some business there; been a long time though.”

“You have been to the Grove?” Penelope asked, looking horrified.

Tizzy gave her a wide grin and a completely terrifying leer. “I was indeed, my pretty! Perhaps next time I’m there, I should look you up?”

Penelope shook her head back and forth, not wanting to have anything to do with the octopodal demon.

“How can a demon get into the Grove?” Zed asked.

“Same way as a human!” Tizzy pointed to Peter. “You get invited!” The demon grinned.

~

Antefalken came up to Tom, wading in what he figured must be a molten iron bath. “So, you about ready to head home?”

Tom smiled. “Yeah. It’s been a good trip, but probably time to leave.”

Antefalken grinned. “Yeah, I haven’t been here for at least a decade. It’s been great to stretch out and relax.”

“Where are the rest?” Tom asked.

“Reggie is teaching Rupert and Talarius to play a card game called blackjack,” Antefalken said. “Last time I looked, the others were over in the main lava flow.”

Tom nodded. “You grab the card players and I’ll get the others. We’ll meet up on the ridge we came over from the Boom Tunnel.”

“Sounds good!” Antefalken took off.

Tom pulled himself out of the molten metal. He had to shake some metal droplets off his legs. He didn’t want any to harden between his scales. He then headed over to the main lava flow.

When he arrived it took him a moment to spot the guys, but he eventually spotted them out floating on their backs in a deep orange hot region. He took to the air and flew over to them. “You guys ready to go?” Tom asked.

Boggy opened one eye. “Already? We just got back not that long ago!”

“Argh!” Estrebrius moaned, keeping both eyes closed. “I ache all over and I’ve still got some bone-deep chills from where that second dragon bit my leg.”

“Whine, whine, whine!” Tizzy groused. “I don’t think my rear left toes have grown back yet! At least you two didn’t lose any appendages!”

“What are you three talking about?” Tom asked, puzzled. “You’ve been soaking in lava for hours now.”

Tizzy grinned. “We got a bloody call from my accursed master!”

“Bloody good bloody call, if I do say so myself!” Boggy added, keeping both eyes shut.

Tom shook his head. “Your accursed master? He summoned you while you were here? All three of you?” This didn’t make any sense.

Tizzy grinned and shook his head, somehow causing small lava ripples. “Well, he called. He was all up in the air over a bunch of liches on dragonback that were kicking his and his friend’s butts, so we all decided to go help out.”

“Best workout in a century!” Boggy sighed.

“Wait, I’m confused,” Tom said. “Your accursed master summoned you and had you bring friends? That makes absolutely no sense!”

“Well, he’s also a friend, so we said what the heck!” Tizzy said.

Tom shook his head. “Your accursed master is your friend? You are now back tracking on everything you and Boggy have told me about wizards and demons.”

“Yeah, Tizzy does that sort of thing,” Boggy said. “However, it’s really a case of him leaving out a lot of details, like who this so-called accursed master is.”

Tom sighed. “Okay, so who is your accursed master? I don’t think you’ve mentioned him before.”

Tizzy looked up and gave Tom a puzzled stare. “What are you talking about? Pretty sure it was your idea!”

Tom stared at the floating octopod and blinked. “What are
you
talking about?”

“When we entered Freehold, wasn’t it you that suggested that Gastropé be my accursed master?” Tizzy asked.

“Tom sold you into eternal slavery?” Estrebrius looked up and over at Tizzy. “That’s not very nice!”

“I don’t think he got paid, so not sure it was a ‘sale’ exactly,” Boggy said. “At least that’s what I heard.”

“Stop.” Tom raised a hand. “You are confusing me. Are you saying you are still pretending to be Gastropé’s slave?”

Estrebrius squinted at Tizzy. “I don’t know… That binding doesn’t look that pretend to me!”

Tom looked back and forth between the two. He then looked at Tizzy with his demon sight. Sure enough, there was some sort of wizard link or binding going up and off plane.

“Where did that come from?” Tom asked.

Tizzy shrugged and closed his eyes again, relaxing. “It just showed up at some point.”

“Links don’t just show—no. I am not going to do this. I already know I cannot win this discussion. I will just take things at face value.” Tom sighed. “So can we go? The others are ready to head home.”

Boggy sighed. “I suppose. I’m going to want to take a nap though.”

“Me too,” Estrebrius said, rotating to an upright position. Tom was not sure how it was possible for them to move in molten lava so easily. The iron had been extremely thick and hard to move in; lava had to be worse.

Tizzy sat up, grunting. “Spoilsports!”

~

“They went where?” Lilith asked Rosencrantz for the second time.

“Hellsprings Eternal,” the cringing demon messenger replied.

“Why in the Abyss would they go there?” Lilith asked Asmodeus, who was sitting in a large, winged armchair beside her sipping on a glass of blood wine.

“To celebrate, I would assume,” Asmodeus replied.

“They have half the Abyss as well as Tierhallon looking for them. This is hardly lying low,” Lilith pointed out. “Did no one notice who they were?”

“Not so much as I could tell, mistress.” Rosencrantz shrugged. “Most of these people are vacationers and may not have heard the news yet.”

“And no one noticed a Knight of Tiernon randomly wandering the Abyss?” Asmodeus asked.

“Well, it wasn’t like he was swinging his sword and looking to do battle or anything. A few people raised some questions, but once the greater demon told them the knight was with him, they sort of let it go,” the messenger said.

Lilith shook her head. “I really don’t see the point of this move. I would have assumed he’d have rendezvoused with his allies and minions to advance their scheme.”

“Who was with him again, Rosencrantz?” Asmodeus asked.

“Uhm, the bard Antefalken, the miniature fourth-order that looks like the big one, Tizzy and Bogsworth, plus an incubus and some fiend we had no identification for.”

“An incubus?” Lilith asked.

“Yes my queen, he was quite busy with the lady patrons of the springs. As one might imagine.”

“Why would he have an incubus working for him?” Lilith asked Asmodeus, who shrugged, having no idea. “Is he creating an army of these mini versions of himself?” Lilith shook her head.

“Under any normal circumstances, the fact that he’s got Tisdale with him would make me discount any true threat; however, circumstances have proven to be quite far from normal,” Asmodeus said.

“Exactly. Who takes a hostage to a spa?” Lilith took a large gulp of blood wine to punctuate her exasperation.

“So you say they relaxed at the spa for a good part of the day, so to speak, and then simply went back to that hole in the ground they are staying in?” Asmodeus asked.

“Exactly. About six or seven hours by Court Time, Your Lordship.” Rosencrantz nodded as he replied.

Asmodeus sighed. “None of this makes much sense to me. Do we really understand what precipitated all this? Yes, I know the city was under siege, overrun by a demon army, but do we know whose? I forget.”

“Well, it’s not completely clear; however, I do believe Ramses is involved and most likely Exador,” Lilith said.

“Exador?” Asmodeus asked.

Lilith shrugged. “An archdemon of shifting alliances. Rather aloof actually. Apparently he’s been masquerading as a human in Astlan for the last few thousand years.”

“Ugh,” Asmodeus said with distaste. “Why? The amenities there are sadly lacking.”

“Maybe he likes the cold?” Lilith shrugged, not particularly caring.

“Are either of them aligned with a prince?”

“Not currently that I am aware of. Ramses has been on good terms with Belphegor and occasionally Naamaha. I have seen him conversing at parties with Moloch and Azaziel, but nothing particularly suspicious.”

“Hmm, so perhaps nominally in Sammael’s camp?” Asmodeus asked.

Lilith made a face indicating uncertainty. “He’s not in mine, and as you know, my default assumption is that if you aren’t in my camp, you’re in his.” She set her glass down to pour some more blood wine. “However, that doesn’t prove anything.”

“Has Sammael mentioned anything to you about this demon?” Asmodeus asked tentatively.

“No, but then he wouldn’t.” She gave her head a slight shake. “He knows that any such mention of something this interesting would likely rouse my suspicions that he was somehow involved. So either way, he’ll remain silent.”

Lilith suddenly noticed that Rosencrantz was still in the room. She glared at him. “Return to your partner and remember nothing from this room,” Lilithshe commanded her servant.

~

DOF +3

Evening 15-20-440

“My dear lady, this was a most magnificent feast!” Trisfelt said as he leaned back in his chair, trying to surreptitiously adjust his robe’s belt.

“Thank you so much, but I fear I can claim no credit, save for hiring Chef Jerod and his team.” Hilda beamed to the hearthean as he entered the room to ensure his crew were clearing the table properly.

“Chef Jerod, you are a true genius!” Trisfelt complimented the chef. “Never have I had such a delicious preparation of jahiva fish. The citrus marmalade was an incredible touch that perfectly complemented the fish’s spiciness. And the soup, as I said after eating it, was heavenly.”

“Did you not enjoy the appetizers?” Chef Jerod asked worriedly.

“My dear man, of course I did. They were marvelous! I simply had to pause to gather air to continue. Before you ask, the salad was the best I’ve had outside of the Grove and it could give anything there a run for its money,” Trisfelt assured him.

“Excellent!” Chef Jerod said, beaming. “But I fear we only have three more courses to go!” He shook his head worriedly. “Perhaps I should get to work on another course? We are about to serve the entrée; I should have time.”

Trisfelt’s eyes popped open wider, “My dear sir, are you trying to explode me?”

Hilda grinned. She had to give silent thanks to Tiernon for her sainthood so that she could actually enjoy such meals without the fear of gaining weight, or even getting too full. Chef Jerod was the best chef in the city, and certainly the most expensive; however, her managers had greatly increased her budget, thanks to her excellent results.

“Ugh, I fear I shall never eat again,” Trisfelt moaned after finishing the final course of roasted and spiced nuts. They had literally gone from soup to nuts this evening. Hilda smiled; she too had enjoyed the meal, perhaps almost as much as Trisfelt appeared to have enjoyed it.

“Shall we adjourn to more comfortable seating?” She gestured towards the sofa and stuffed chairs in the main part of the parlor.

“I’m not sure I can move,” Danyel moaned. He looked quite sick, Hilda thought. The lad, being young and inexperienced, as well as mortal, did not have the gastronomical fortitude of a professional like Trisfelt or a saint like herself. He had left food on his plate at every serving, starting with the entrée. It was as if he had gotten full on the amuse, appetizer, soup, and fish alone. He had left a third of the venison and vegetables on his plate, ate half his slice of cake and only picked at the nuts. He had, however, finished the sorbet that had come after the venison and before the cake.

The lad had also stopped taking new wine with each course at about the same time. He had not even had a sip of the dessert wine accompanying the cake. The poor lad could not have known what he was missing. And the cognac with the nuts? He had not even touched it. Youth was clearly wasted on the young, Hilda reflected. However, she could not help but smile, knowing that Danyel had most likely never anticipated being able to enjoy such a meal in his life. Rod members typically did not get to eat such meals unless they were to advance to knighthood, and not many ever managed that.

It really felt good to be able to mentor young people and show them new experiences. Teaching and mentoring had been one of her favorite duties in the Sisterhood. It was not something she was able to do in her current job, or even her previous job. Maybe she could convince the powers that be to reassign her as sort Tierhalloc envoy, or more accurately, a spy, on a permanent basis. She had to chuckle. Would that not be true heaven!

“Ahh…” Trisfelt sighed as he sat down on the sofa. “I must say, tonight you have been an absolutely heavenly hostess!” He shook his head. “I fear I shall never dine or drink so well again in my life!”

“You flatter me, Master Trisfelt.” Hilda smiled brightly, not least at the unintended reference.

“So, My Lady, shall we all watch the balling now?” Trisfelt asked.

“Excellent idea!” Hilda exclaimed. “However, before we start, shouldn’t we open another bottle of wine?” Danyel made a gulping noise in his chair behind her, apparently not feeling the need for more wine.
Youth.

Trisfelt chuckled. “I swear, my dear Hilda, it is as if someone dropped you from heaven into my camp that night!”

Hilda laughed. “Oh, my. What a lovely and poetic, if slightly preposterous thought!” Hilda replied, while admitting to herself that technically it was a fairly accurate statement. “What variety shall we have?” She looked over to the wine chest. The chest had two compartments: one for reds, the other with ice in it to nestle the bottles of white wine. “If we don’t have it, then I can have Bowker, Chef Jerod’s wine steward, retrieve it for us.”

“No need for that, my dear. I must admit, I am so full and sufficiently tipsy that I think we should stick with something tasty, yet mundane. I am not prepared to savor something like we had with dinner.”

“Hmm, perhaps a drier white? A hint of citrus, perhaps?” Hilda asked while shuffling through the cold half of the chest.

“Excellent. I await your choice.”

Hilda selected a bottle and took it to the glass cart that the wait staff had brought in with dinner. She selected three appropriate glasses and then took screw to bottle. “Danyel, it was you who wanted to see this. Get your hind end over to a proper chair or the sofa!” she called to her servant good-naturedly. “On second thought, take a stuffed chair. Should you decide to relinquish your dinner, I don’t want you doing so on Master Trisfelt!” She poured the three glasses of wine as Danyel slowly made his way to one of the two stuffed chairs flanking the sofa.

Hilda brought a glass to Trisfelt and set it on the coffee table in front of him where he was setting up the crystal ball on its portable viewing stand. She set Danyel’s down on the end table beside him and went back for her own glass, along with the bottle, which she also sat on a coaster on the coffee table. Trisfelt finished his preparations and sat back to take a sip of the wine.

“Now, I’m not terribly familiar with using these in portable display mode,” Hilda said. “Should we turn the lights down?”

“I think that’s best; even when doing a single viewing in the ball, low lights are better. This will be projecting the image above the ball and coffee table,” Trisfelt said.

“Excellent, then.” Hilda swept her arm around the room; all of the lamps went out except for a small lamp that she left on to keep the room from being completely dark.

“If you have any questions, feel free to stop me. We can pause, freeze, go back, go slow, whatever is needed,” Trisfelt told the other two.

“Excellent!” Hilda said, taking a sip of her wine.

Trisfelt gestured and muttered something, and a three-dimensional scene of Talarius and a human-sized demon appeared in the air above the table.

Danyel sat up straighter. “That’s impressive!” He shook his head. “Other than the much-better angle and unobstructed view, it’s just like I remember! I can’t wait to see the part I missed.”

Hilda smiled, but not completely comfortably. She was slightly concerned about what might happen if the lad saw himself assisting the demon; that could be traumatic for him. Trisfelt was looking at Danyel oddly. Hilda suddenly realized Danyel’s slip. She hoped it would not mean too much to Trisfelt.

“And here we go,” Trisfelt said as he waved his hand, and the scene began to unfold.

The scene played out for a short time and then Hilda interrupted, “Could you pause, please?” In the light of the projected scene, Trisfelt could see that she was quite puzzled. “Did that big demon just say the smaller demon was a child?” she asked.

“Yes, the big one said it was a child, and that it has a human form—which it did. Everyone in the camp was talking about the child that had been found in the nearby forest that had turned into a demon. Apparently, its human form was that of a child. He called himself Rupert,” Danyel answered.

Trisfelt choked on his wine and started coughing. He took a second sip of wine to try and quell his throat.

Hilda turned to look at Trisfelt, who was looking extremely pale and seemed rather shaky. “What’s the matter? I have to admit to some surprise about this claim of a child demon; that’s why I stopped it.”

Trisfelt looked intently at Danyel. “You said the boy was named Rupert? How do you know this?”

“Well, many people heard him tell Talarius.” Hilda coughed slightly, gave Danyel a quick stare and then took a sip of wine. Danyel got a puzzled expression on his face and then suddenly remembered he was not supposed to be a Rod member. “When I was doing recon for my lady, shortly after the events, the camp was buzzing with talk about it. The story is fairly well known among the Rod members I talked to.”

Trisfelt was shaking his head as if in disbelief. “It can’t be coincidence. About what age was this boy?”

Danyel frowned, uncertain as to what to say. “Well, a boy—not a young man. Apparently, the story he told was that he had been abducted by a demon that had been flying over camp and was shot down by the Rod. They recovered the boy from the nearby woods and he spent the night, only to be recognized the next day by one of the high priests who said he was from the larger demon’s entourage. When unmasked, he turned into a demon and attacked Talarius and the priest. Talarius slew him.”