The Heavenly Host (Demons of Astlan Book 2) (89 page)

Gastropé had to chuckle at himself. Ever since the storm lich battle, he had pretended to others on the ship that traveling through the Abyss was old hat for him. Apparently it was, because this just seemed so routine at this point.

“I have to run a small errand,” Gastropé told Jenn.

“What? Where?” Jenn asked, setting her iced tea down.

“Just have a small favor I have to return. I will meet you out at the investigation site by the wargtown.”

“Do you want me to go with you?” Jenn asked.

Gastropé forced a smile. “Nah, it’s no big deal, and if we both show up late, people will wonder where we are. You go and let them know I’ll be there in no more than half an hour.”

Jenn shrugged. “Okay. Have fun returning a favor or whatever.” She shook her head, apparently displeased by his rather vague answer. However, he was positive she would not want to know about this.

Gastropé got to the location he had staked out, figuratively. It was about a ten-minute walk from the north gate, over a hill and near a small copse of trees. You could not see the town gates from here. He quickly gathered some branches and cleared the ground for a small fire. He lit the fire and chanted the spell for summoning Tizzy, linking the spell through their binding.

“
Greetings, accursed master. What may I do for you?”
Tizzy asked in his head. The octopod was standing in what looked like a stable of some sort. Rather odd, Gastropé thought; he had not known there were stables in the Abyss. Previously he had been buried in lava and called it a spa treatment; now he was in a stable?

“You asked me to call you now,”
Gastropé replied; had the demon forgotten already?

“Oh, yeah. For Tom. That’s why I am here with these guys. Sorry, I just finished baking for two days straight and probably need to go take a nap!”

Gastropé blinked; the demon making even less sense than normal. Baking? Was that some sort of spa treatment in the Abyss? “Wait. I thought you said you never needed to sleep —that demons did not sleep?” Gastropé asked.

“That was before we were Doomed. Getting Doomed makes you sleepy!” Tizzy nodded to someone Gastropé could not see. “See, Rupert agrees!”

“Rupert is there? Is he coming through? Jenn will be thrilled!” Gastropé said. Tizzy peered off screen for a bit. “He says not today, but he and Fer-Rog want to come through soon.”

“Who is Fer-Rog?” Gastropé asked.

“They’re schoolmates, training together,” Tizzy said after a few seconds.

“Rupert is going to school? In the Abyss?” This really made no sense. “Do they have demon schools or something?”

“That would be interesting! I wonder what punishments would await those who tried to play hooky!” Tizzy grinned. “Nah, it’s combat training.”

“Combat training?” Now Gastropé was really confused.

“Anyway, Tom wants to open the gateway now, and I need to get some rest. Handing you over!” Tizzy shouted. Suddenly Tom was on the other end of the link.

“Hey, Gastropé, good to see you.” Tom came into focus and Gastropé suddenly realized he was looking at Edwyrd. “I’m coming in as Edwyrd, since Damien and I have some work to do.”

“Damien?” Gastropé shook his head. “What? Damien is there?”

“Yes, as is Vaselle and the rest. As soon as we come through, we will do introductions.”

“Uhm, okay… what do I need to do?”

“Not much, I can feel your summoning for Tizzy; let me work with that for a moment.” Edwyrd seemed to be concentrating on something and suddenly the flames leaped higher than one would have thought possible.

“Where are you, by the way?” Edwyrd asked.

“A place called Murgatroy.” Gastropé said. “It is south and east of—”

“What a weird coincidence!” Edwyrd interrupted. “That will be great for Tal Gor. It’s close to our allies there.”

“Wait, what?” Gastropé asked. “What are you talking about? You know where Murgatroy is?” He was suddenly quite nervous.

“Sure, Tal Gor was there shopping just the other day with the rest of his clan and some of my people!” Edwyrd said even as the hole in reality split the bonfire in two.

“You were here the other day?” Gastropé asked aloud, even as he felt a cold dread coming over him.

Edwyrd jumped through the hole in the flames, carrying a very large staff of some sort. That was new. He then reached through and helped a young wizard, maybe six or seven years older than himself, step through. Following him came Damien, and then Antefalken after the councilor.

“Actually, I was only out by the wargtown,” Edwyrd continued. “I just opened the portal to haul the supplies through.” He turned toward the fire and said, “Good news, Tal Gor! We are coming out in Murgatroy, so you will be within flying distance of your tribe’s campsite.”

“Excellent!” An orc suddenly stepped through the portal.

Gastropé felt like he was going into shock. He was sure the blood had drained from his face.

Suddenly there was a terrible hissing and spitting noise and someone cursed. “Then get your lazy hind end through the portal!”

Gastropé blinked as some sort of nightmare from the Abyss angrily stomped through the portal. He stepped back awkwardly, narrowly avoiding tripping on the long grass. This thing was huge! At first, it sort of looked like a cross between a wolf and a bear, a seriously ugly crossbreed. But it had wings!
What was this monster?

Edwyrd noticed his fear and said, “Don’t worry, Gastropé. This is Schwarzenfürze, Tal Gor’s D’Warg. She won’t hurt you.” Edwyrd grinned at him.

“D’Warg, as in Demon Warg? Like as in a D’Orc warg?” Gastropé asked.

It was now Edwyrd’s turn to blink in surprise. “Wow, I am impressed. Very few people remember anything about the D’Orcs or Mount Doom!” He was grinning from ear to ear and chuckling. “You continue to amaze me, Gastropé!”

“How…? What…?” Gastropé was having trouble thinking or speaking.

“Long story. We’ll have plenty of time to go over it. Short part is, I screwed up on making plans for returning my guests home after the party, and that’s why we needed your help!”

“Party?” Gastropé was not following this. Or was he? He was seriously terrified that he was following all of this way more than he wanted to.

Edwyrd nodded, even as another older, female orc in ornate clothing stepped through the portal. “Yeah, that’s why my people were here shopping. They were picking up supplies for the party after the swearing-in ceremony!”

Another orc, this one male, stepped through the portal; he too was dressed ornately, like the other two orcs.

“Ceremony?” Gastropé somehow managed to spit out.

“Yeah. I just took over this place called Mount Doom.” Edwyrd waved the large staff around. It appeared have a metal demon head at the top. “Came with a whole bunch of mighty warriors, D’Orcs. Anyway, we had a swearing-in ceremony for them to pledge their loyalty to me.”

“Ohh-kay,” was all Gastropé could manage before he felt the ground suddenly attack him.

~

Jenn was waiting in line to fill a bucket of water from the wargtown well when an orc behind her bellowed out, “Hilda! You have returned! It is my turn to buy you a drink!” Her first thought was that it was odd to hear an orc speak perfect trade tongue. All the orcs she had spoken to sounded very brutish and barbaric, so it was strange to hear one speak without an accent. The second thing was the name “Hilda,” particularly in the context of drinking.

The next voice left Jenn blinking furiously.

“Toothsetter!” Hilda—Trisfelt’s Hilda—said. “Good to see you again! I have an errand to run yet, but I will be back a bit later and we can drink!”

Jenn turned to see Hilda, the same Hilda from Freehold, standing not ten feet away from her. She was carrying a picnic basket and was with a group of humans. Or humans and a relatively good-looking, skinny orc. On third thought, humans, skinny orc and a metal something.

“Hilda? What are you doing here?” Jenn asked, startled.

Hilda glanced at her, and then glanced again. “Jenn? What are you doing here?” Hilda was clearly as startled to see her as Jenn was to see Hilda.

The metal creature with Hilda was behaving very strangely. “I can sense him. There is a portal!” Suddenly the metal man-thing took off running extremely fast towards the north.

“What the…?” Jenn asked, looking after the charging metal creature. Hilda and the rest of her party were also watching in shock as the metal creature ran off to the north.

~

Edwyrd helped Gastropé get back to his feet. Gastropé looked around to realize there were now four oddly dressed orcs in the copse along with Damien, Vaselle, Antefalken and the D’Warg.

Gastropé shook his head. “I am not sure if I heard what I thought I heard,” he mumbled.

Edwyrd chuckled. “What did you think you heard?”

“I swear you said that you just took over Mount Doom, the seat of the demon Orcus,” Gastropé said.

Edwyrd made an odd expression with his mouth and bobbed his head up and down a few times.

“Yes, that is what he said,” one of the orcs agreed. “Lord Tommus is the long-prophesied reincarnation of the Great Orcus!”

“You see, he carries the Rod of Tommus, formerly called the Wand of Orcus,” one of the female orcs said.

It was very odd how these orcs spoke perfect trade, was about all Gastropé could think.

As Gastropé tried to collect his wits for his next question, an odd noise came from the south and east and an even odder voice shouted, “Do not close that portal!”

A metal man or something—a golem?—ran into the copse, heading straight for the portal. The odd metal creature suddenly stopped and stared at Edwyrd. Edwyrd, for once, appeared to be in as much surprise as Gastropé.

“If you have harmed so much as a hair, you will pay for all eternity, demon!” the metal creature announced sternly in a very loud voice before it turned and jumped through the still-open portal into the Abyss.

“What the hell was that?” the large male orc asked.

“I have no idea.” Edwyrd shook his head and stared worriedly through the portal.

Talarius took a drink of water from his Flask of Holy Refreshment, washing down his cold roast ox sandwich. They really could use some condiments, or at least some cheese, the knight reflected. He, Boggy and Reggie were in the main dining hall, breaking their fast. Talarius had his helm sitting on the table beside him as he savored this simple return to old habits.

It was odd how much a few pints of beer and several glasses of wine after one’s first meal in a week could relax one. He had slept better last night than he had in a long time. The dining room was still being cooled, so it would have only been uncomfortably warm if he had not been in his armor. As it was, he was fine with his helmet off, as he’d been last night during the party.

Across the table, the incubus was shoveling leftovers into his maw at a prodigious rate. Talarius frowned. “For someone who does not need to eat, you seem to be starving,” Talarius remarked.

Reggie paused, looking up to grin at the knight. “Phaestus and I seriously over-cookied last night. I have a badass case of the munchies!”

“I see,” Talarius said, not really understanding the demon at all. He was beginning to suspect that demons could not help themselves in regards to speaking in riddles and convoluted language. Very similar to Oorstemothians in that respect.

“I’m surprised your new best mate isn’t down here noshing as well,” Boggy observed.

“He had to go roust Völund. The smith got pretty drunk last night,” Reggie said. “They should be here shortly.”

A loud clanging and clattering noise came from one of the entry corridors to their right. Suddenly a heavily armored individual came charging into the dining hall. “Talarius!” The armored man—no, a man made out of metal—shouted. Talarius sprang up, grabbing for his helm in shock, preparing for the metal creature’s attack.

“At last! I have found you!” the metal man shouted.

Talarius blinked. This creature was quite odd. As it came to a halt, he realized it was some form of exquisitely crafted metal golem with very sharp edges.

“Who are you?” Talarius asked in surprise. Boggy and Reggie were staring at it as well.

The metal golem looked puzzled, almost hurt. “It is I, Ruiden!”

It was Talarius’s turn to blink. “Ruiden? My sword?”

“Of course! Don’t you recognize me?” The golem held out a hand, palm forward.

Talarius gingerly reached out with his ungloved hand and put his palm on the golem’s hand. The knight blinked and shook his head, feeling the familiar link he’d had to Ruiden ever since he had first found the sword. He sat, or rather almost fell, back onto the bench in shock.

“But how…? What? What happened to you?” Talarius gestured up and down. This was impossible. How could his sword be running around as a metal golem?

The sword seemed to grin. “I got fed up with the Rod and their failure to relocate you, so I changed my form so that I could find you myself!”

“You changed your form?” Talarius shook his head. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

Ruiden shrugged. “Well, I didn’t know I could either, until I tried.”

“Abyssal dung bats, my head hurts!” someone harrumphed from a different corridor. It took Talarius a moment to realize it was Völund, the smith. He turned his head to see the two smiths come around a corner into an entrance way to the dining hall.

“That’s why you should have done cookies rather than booze!” Phaestus said, leading the smith into the dining hall. “We’ll put some food in your stomach and you’ll feel better.”

The two walked up to the table. As they approached, Phaestus blinked and stared at Ruiden, his eyes wandering over the sword’s form in obvious appreciation. Völund simply nodded at those gathered. “Boggy, incubus, knight, Ruiden,” the smith said, leaning against their table.

“Father?” Ruiden asked in shock.

“Ruiden?” Phaestus asked Völund, looking at him.

“ ‘Father’?” Talarius asked, looking back and forth between his sword and the smith.

“What are you doing here, father?” the sword asked, appearing to be in shock. If that was possible for a sword.

“Trying to recover from a hangover,” Völund said, grabbing a small loaf of bread. He licked his lips with his tongue. “We got any water?”

Talarius handed the smith his flask; the smith nodded thanks and took a huge swig of icy-cold water. His eyes widened in surprise at the flask. “Hmm, I need to get me one of these!”

“Father?” Ruiden prompted again.

“Why do you keep calling him ‘father’?” Talarius asked Ruiden.

The sword looked at him, still seemingly shocked. “Because he forged me!”

Talarius blinked and shook his head in surprise; he turned to the smith. “You forged Ruiden?”

Völund shrugged and said, “Yep.” He tore off a big chunk of bread with his teeth.

“But what are you doing here in the Abyss?” Ruiden asked, clearly disturbed to find his maker hanging out in the Abyss.

Völund looked at the sword in puzzlement. “I live here.”

“You live here? Since when?” Ruiden asked.

“Since before I made you,” Völund said. He took another long drink from the flask before holding it a bit away from his face to stare at it. “Really, I want to get one of these.”

“Before I was forged? But… but…” Ruiden was at a loss for what to say next.

“Are you saying you forged Ruiden in the Abyss?” Talarius asked the smith.

Völund shrugged. “Yep, in my smithy downstairs.”

“But… I was forged to kill demons!” Ruiden protested.

Völund tilted his head from side to side slightly. “Yep.”

“So why would you forge a demon-slaying sword in the Abyss?” Ruiden asked loudly, clearly disturbed.

Völund shrugged. “Where better? Sort of gets to the heart of the matter; fight fire with fire, all that sort of drivel.”

“But you live surrounded by demons!” Ruiden gestured to Boggy and Reggie.

Völund grimaced. “No, technically I live surrounded by D’Orcs. Present company and a few others excepted.” He gestured to Boggy and Reggie.

“Smith,” Talarius interrupted. “I think Ruiden’s point is this: D’Orcs or demons, why would you forge a demon-slaying sword?”

“Well, he can slay other things too. I didn’t actually start out planning to make a demon-slaying sword; it just sort of worked out that way.” The smith shrugged again and grabbed a cold spare rib to chew on.

“What do you mean ‘worked out that way’?” Ruiden asked.

Talarius was a bit worried; he had never seen his sword so distressed. If he did not know better, he would think it was having some sort of existential crisis.

“Well, I was really pissed with Lilith and her minions at the time. They’d just permanently killed a lot of close friends of mine, not to mention my host and benefactor.” Völund took another drink of water before continuing. “So I guess I sort of impressed my anger and fury towards her and the Courts into you as I made you.” The smith shrugged. “I guess in some ways I created you as an instrument of my vengeance.”

Phaestus nodded. “That makes a lot of sense.”

“But—” Ruiden began, but was interrupted.

Whirrrr-RRAAAARRRRR-
RAAAAHHHHRRRRR
came the gut-wrenching wail of the dreaded Klaxon of Doom. Talarius, Boggy and Reggie jumped up from the table, nearly upsetting it.

“What in the Abyss is that?” Talarius shouted over the roar.

Völund sighed and handed the knight his flask back. “Trouble.”

~

Tom was still grinning at Gastropé’s rather typical shocked reaction at their first attempts to explain what was going on when a horrible, gut-wrenching wailing came from the portal. Everyone stared into the hole as the painful noise droned on.

“Is someone torturing a Ban Sidhe in there?” Ragala-nargoloth asked, covering her ears.

Tom followed his link to the command center. Vargg Agnoth was on duty. Suddenly, unconsciously on Tom’s part, the gateway shifted to the command center. Those standing in Astlan were suddenly peering through the portal directly into the command center.

“What is going on?” Tom shouted through the portal.

“Radar has detected a large incoming force from Doom’s Redoubt!” Vargg yelled back. “A very large force, easily twice as big as what we believed they had available.”

Tom clenched his teeth. He had been worrying about this exact situation—everyone hung over and passed out—and now the enemy was attacking! “Crap!”  He looked to his shamans and wizards. “I have to return. You guys stay here; it will be far safer here.”

“Commander!” shouted some D’Orc that Tom did not immediately recognize. Darth Venstradt, he believed. “We are detecting signs of a Chaos Maelstrom!”

Vargg Agnoth cursed loudly, using some word that Tom did not recognize.

“What’s a Chaos Maelstrom?” Tom asked.

Vargg turned to stare at Tom, his face a very unusual pale shade of green. If Tom did not know that D’Orcs were incapable of fear, he would have sworn the commander was giving him a look of terror. “It means Lilith is sending in the Knights of Chaos!”

“Unholy flatulent monkeys of despair!” Antefalken moaned and rolled his head.

“What in the Abyss are Knights of Chaos?” Tom asked.

“They are enforcers, mercenaries, freelance knights. They are not demons, but something else, something worse, from the other end of the multiverse,” Antefalken said. “In legends they were occasionally employed by the Court to deal with rogue archdemons or rogue princes.” He shuddered. “I thought they were mere legend; they haven’t been deployed since the Great Demon Wars.”

“So, what? The extra troops are all Knights of Chaos?” Tom asked.

Vargg Agnoth made a very odd sound on the other side of the gateway.

Antefalken’s eyes popped open wide. “Concordenax forbid!” he exclaimed, his voice shaking slightly. “One Knight of Chaos is nearly a match for an archdemon!”

“Ouch! How many do we think she’ll send?” Tom asked.

“It takes at least thirteen to form a Maelstrom,” Vargg said. “And this looks like a big one.”

“Shit,” Tom sighed, feeling his stomach twist into knots.

~

Völund reached into a vest pocket and pulled out a small hand mirror. He tapped on it a couple of times, shouting “Command Center!” After a few seconds, someone apparently answered, as Völund shouted “What’s with the damn racket?” into the thing. He put the mirror to his ear to hear better, and then pulled it back to look in. “Then we’re going to need the heavy artillery. Phaestus and I will get on it!” he shouted and then put the mirror back in his pocket.

“What is it?” Phaestus yelled.

“Two thousand plus demons from Doom’s Redoubt and a Chaos Maelstrom,” Völund yelled back.

“A Chaos Maelstrom?” Phaestus shouted over the klaxons, looking at Völund in shock.

“A Chaos Maelstrom?” Talarius and Ruiden said in unison, looking at each other.

“Yes!” Talarius slammed his right fist into his left palm as the knight and his sword grinned like maniacs at each other.

“What’s a Chaos Maelstrom?” Reggie asked.

“It’s a dimensional rift, or disruption in reality that Knights of Chaos use to travel the planes,” Phaestus yelled over the klaxons.

“Knights of Chaos?” Boggy and Reggie yelled, both looking puzzled.

“A very bad thing!” Völund yelled.

Talarius turned to smile broadly at Reggie and Boggy. “Knights of Chaos are absolutely the most supremely EVIL creatures in the multiverse!” The knight shouted excitedly, shaking his fist before suddenly getting quite sober and grimacing apologetically as he realized whom he was speaking to. “Sorry! No offense intended…” He gestured towards the two demons. “I mean you two
are
extremely evil but…”

Boggy nodded. “No offense taken. I’m okay with being only moderately evil.”

Reggie nodded as well and said, “Yeah, we’re good—er, okay.”

Talarius nodded his thanks to the two demons for understanding that he had not intended to impugn their eviltude.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Talarius said, looking to Ruiden. “We must prepare! Are you stuck like that or can you change back?”

“I can change back, I think. I hope,” Ruiden said rather uncertainly; it was hard to hear the sword over the klaxons.

Phaestus jumped up and shouted to Völund, “You head to the tech armory to start getting the heavy artillery online. I’ll join you shortly.”

“Why not come now?” Völund asked.

“Knights of Chaos? Do you think my wife would ever forgive me if I did not tell her about this? Her reaction will be about the same as those two.” He gestured towards Talarius and Ruiden, shaking his head ruefully.

~

Not knowing what else to do and not wanting to be in the way in the command center, Reggie and Boggy followed Phaestus.

“So you’re going to contact your wife?” Reggie asked Phaestus over the roar of the klaxons.

Phaestus nodded and yelled back, “Yes. I’ll also open a gateway for her.”