Devil Ash Days (Devil Ash Saga) (7 page)

“It must take
a lot
of reading to wear down devil eyes.”

“Every day, for over
two hundred years,” said Goddard. “Most of which is done by dim candle light.” Ash was in awe. First at the sheer age of Goddard, and then at how intelligent he must be. The amount of knowledge he must have gained was more than Ash could hope to achieve in his lifetime. “I believe I’m the only devil to have ever done that,” Goddard added, as if what he had just said was no big deal. “Ah, your guide is approaching.”

“What? How can you tell?” Ash asked, stunned.

“Do not say anything stupid,” Goddard said, ignoring Ash’s question. He paused for a second thinking about it, and changed his mind: “Just don't speak at all.”

The
door swung open without warning and a girl in crimson armor walked in. Her hair, tied back in a ponytail, was the brightest shade of red Ash had ever seen. She glanced around the room from Goddard, to Ash, then back to Goddard.

“You
must
be kidding!” she said.

Goddard stood to greet her, and Ash followed his lead.

“Lady Shiva, welcome,” he said.

Lady Shiva wore armor similar to the guards that Ash
saw earlier, except hers was newer-looking. Polished, without a scratch. Maybe even unused. Her bright red hair made her dull, crimson armor look bland by comparison. Her boots and gloves were far more elegant-looking than the simple leather equipment of the guards though.

“
That’s the boy I saw sleeping in the holding cell,” Shiva said, motioning to Ash with her eyes. “I checked him out already. He looks pathetic.”

Ash
stood there in his torn clothes, a dopey look on his face wondering what exactly Shiva meant by
checked him out already
.

“I assure you, Lady Shiva, he is quite pathetic,”
said Goddard.

“Hey!” Ash said, feeling insulted.

“You can’t be serious!” Shiva said, still not wanting to believe whatever it was that she had been told. “I have better things to do with my time! What if I refuse?” she asked, staring stone-faced at Goddard.

“Your
father
would be very disappointed in you, wouldn’t he?” Goddard said with a hint of superiority in his voice. Ash could tell from the look on Shiva’s face that was something she didn’t want to happen.

“Right. I will carry out my orders.” She quickly changed her tone
as well. “So what exactly do you want from me?”

“I would like for you to take the boy out and show him the city. Why don’t you take him by Gio’s and fetch him some new clothes as well?” Ash was surprised and pleased to hear this part. He could really go for some new clothes, since his were torn, not to mention full of dirt and blood.

“I have an address for you, as well.” Goddard scribbled something down on another piece of paper, tore it off and then handed it to the girl. “Give that to Gio for the delivery,” he instructed her.

“Anything else?” s
he asked. “Do I need to hold his hand on the way so he doesn’t get lost or seperated?”

“After you take him to Gio’s, your next assignment is to assess his basic combat skills. I saw him perform against some lesser demons, but I’d like to see what he can do
against a competent opponent.”

Shiva smiled. “Right then! Let’s get going!” Suddenly she was all smiles and raring to go. Ash didn’t like her sudden mood change at the mention of
‘testing his combat abilities’. He got the feeling that would only mean more pain for him. Though he wondered,
how tough could this girl actually be?

Little was said as Ash followed behind Shiva. The hall was a winding labyrinth of dimly-lit hallways, but every so often they’d pass by a bright window with the sun shining through it.
Artificial
sun, Ash reminded himself. After enough twists and turns and staircases, they emerged in a large open hall that appeared to be the lobby of the castle. Before them was a giant set of wooden double-doors with a pair of guards standing at attention.

“I’m going out,” Shiva told them. Without another word, the guards pushed the doors open for the two. This was Ash’s first real look outside, besides the windows he’d looked through on their way. Immediately outside the gate was a large lush courtyard, and beyond that, a giant stone wall. There was a walkway on top of it and guards surrounding the perimeter, keeping watch. The sun shined brightly enough to light up the kingdom, but not enough to hurt Ash’s eyes if he stared directly into it (which he did). Another sight to behold in the sky was the presence of a full moon, idly hanging about in broad daylight. Hundreds of Devils peppered the sky as they flew about their daily business. If not for their wings, they would be indistinguishable from humans.

Without a real sun, it was cold in Hell. Ash wasn’t expecting that nor was he ready for it. Where he’d come from, it was summer with temperatures in the nineties every day. Shiva and the guards all seemed adapted to the cold, but Ash was wearing a torn tee shirt. With goosebumps on his arms and legs, he looked forward to getting that change of clothes even more.

“Can you fly?” This was the first thing Shiva had said directly to Ash
in the ten minutes they’d been together.

“I don’t know how…” Ash
replied.

Shiva groaned in disappointment. “It figures
,”
she muttered to herself. So without being able to fly, the two of them walked the brick path through the courtyard. If it weren’t so cold, Ash might have actually enjoyed it. He couldn’t see anything over the wall save for some building tops, but his first impression of Hell was that Goddard was right, oddly enough: it was quite nice. Not at all like the blazing inferno he imagined it would be.

At the end of the courtyard, two more guards stood in waiting. When they saw Shiva approach, they wasted no time in opening the smaller gate there. Ash and Shiva exited the courtyard into the city beyond the walls. And what a city it was! Ash had seen plenty of movies that took place in the past, but nothing could prepare him for actually stepping into a kingdom straight out of a fairy tale.

Amid ancient-looking buildings made of brick and wood, cobblestone streets paved their way through the town. All around them denizens of Hell scurried about on their business. Their fashions ranged from medieval to at least the early nineteen-hundreds. As the pair walked, they entered an open air market. Lined up all along each side of the street were various stands, booths, and carts filled with merchandise.

The merchants carried a lot of clothes, some weapons like swords and spears, furniture and toys,
and a whole lot of food. And it wasn’t hot dog and hamburger stands, either. It was mostly raw meat and vegetables. Every so often, he’d catch sight of a butcher chopping up some poor animal.

The livestock Hell had to offer was surprisingly similar to Earth’s. That is, with the exception that all of their livestock were demons. The demon chickens that Ash saw either in cages or being carved up looked almost exactly like earth chickens, but with more horns, bigger claws, and overall larger size
s. The boy saw a few varieties of livestock demons, including goats, swine, cows, and fish. They all looked pretty much the same as their Earthen counterparts, but with much larger and uglier features.

The demon counterpart of horses turned out to be unicorns. Except these weren’t the girly unicorns My Lit
tle Pony would have you believe. These demon horses varied in color, but most of the ones Ash saw were black and larger than a Clydesdale. They had red glaring eyes, feisty tempers, and many different types of horns sticking out from their foreheads. Some had the standard horn most people were familiar with, and others had what looked like blades growing out of their skulls. Not the kind of creature likely to crap out
rainbows
and
sunshine
.

Ash had hoped for a little narration from Shiva as they walked, but she continued her silent treatment. While he could barely keep his jaw closed, Shiva just looked annoyed. She’d rather have just flown to the tailor and be done already. As non-informative as she was, Ash still had an amazing time sightseeing. He threw out his old mental image of Hell as a
fiery inferno, and replaced it with this tranquil scene of civilization. He found it strangely comforting since he’d apparently be spending the rest of his life here.

Every so often, Ash would spot an enormous wall beyond the rooftops, far off in the distance. He wasn’t very good at measuring, but he guessed that the wall was taller than the length of a football field. As enormous as it was, he realized he wasn’t even close to it. If he were to stand right next to it, it’d probably be even bigger. He wanted to ask Shiva about it, but her cold disposition made Ash think twice about doing so. In the end, he pulled out his guide to Hell and flipped through it till he found a section on the wall.

There wasn’t a whole lot of information about the wall, but that was probably because it was common sense to everyone. Obviously, the wall was to keep dangerous demons out of the kingdom. It wrapped around the Northern and Eastern sections of the Kingdom, but from the look of his map, the Southern and Western sections of the wall appeared to be incomplete. It did not bring comfort to Ash knowing that parts of the kingdom were still unprotected from demons. Maybe that was why Goddard wanted him so badly.

Their walk eventually led them to the tailor’s shop. As they arrived, the tailor, a man named Gio, stood outside his store painting a mural on the wall. His eyes lit up as Shiva approached. 

“Afternoon, Gio,” Shiva
said.

“Good afternoon, Lady Shiva!”
The man set his painting palate down and removed the apron he was wearing. “What can I do for you?”

“As you can tell, this boy needs some clothes.”

“My my, he most certainly does!” the tailor said, giving Ash a look-over. “Lady Shiva, you’ve come to the right place. My name is Gio St. James. Pleace, come inside.” They followed him into his shop. “My clothing is the cutting-edge of fashion in Hell,” Gio proclaimed, grabbing a purple suit coat off a nearby coat rack and putting it on. When a man in a purple suit claims he’s on the cutting edge of fashion, there is not much you can do but smile and nod. Ash did just that.

Gio took Ash’s measurements and then dashed around the store searching for something Ash could wear in the meantime.
The boy looked around the shop expecting to see more battle armor, but found that most of the clothing looked like it was from Earth, albeit not from anytime after the 1950s. In the rear of the shop, safely hidden behind a protective barrier of velvet ropes, stood a bland wooden mannequin. It was what the mannequin was wearing that caught Ash’s attention: a black, warm-looking pea coat. Ash fancied that coat very much.

He had to smirk a little at Gio’s star-shaped earrings dangling from his ears, and his short, spiky blonde hair. He wondered if he based his look around Sir Elton John (or if he even knew who he was). Gio settled on a simple brown shirt and some dark pants. He handed them to Ash and made him put them on, right then and there. Shiva stared without so much as batting an eye when Ash removed his tattered shirt and pants and quickly tossed on the new clothes. 

“How do those feel? Warm enough?” Gio asked him.

“Well, a coat would be nice…” Ash said, his eyes wandering towards the pea coat. Gio caught his wanderi
ng stare and intercepted. He grabbed a nearby grey suit coat and tossed it to him. Dust filled the air, as the coat had apparently been sitting there for quite some time. What Ash was unaware of was that Gio was particularly protective of that pea coat. He had designed it long ago and won a fashion contest with it (never mind the fact that
he
was the one hosting the contest).

“Okay,” the tailor
said, “I’ll throw a few outfits together and have them delivered right away. Where shall I have them delivered to?” Shiva then pulled the piece of paper Goddard gave her and handed it over. “Thank you,” Gio said. “Might this possibly be the newcomer everyone is whispering about?”

“You mean the human? Yep, this is
it.” Shiva practically yawned.

“Ah!” The tailor exclaimed. “I was hoping I’d get to see him up close.”

“Who is whispering about me?”

“Oh its only rumors I’ve heard, but I’m surprised to see they’re true!” the tailor
said with glee.

“Probably some of the Royal Guards that got a look at you,” Shiva
said. “They have
big mouths
and love talking.”

“How very interesting indeed,” Gio
said. “Very well then, what is your name?”

“Ash Kaplan.”

“Ash, I will have your clothes prepared and delivered tonight. I expect great things from you,” he said.

“Um, thank you?” Ash replied.

“I hope you find your stay here pleasant.”

Shiva and Ash left the store and headed back the way they came. It was a slightly warmer return trip, wearing that dusty suit coat.

As they made their way back towards the castle, several shadows flew across the cobblestone street, momentarily blocking out the sun. Ash and Shiva both cast curious glances upward. What they saw
excited Shiva, and terrified Ash. High above the kingdom of Hell, floating on the breeze with feathery wings were colossal, bird-like demons.  They looked like Earth vultures, but were the size of a Cessna airplane.