Devil Ash Disarray (Devil Ash Saga Book 3) (17 page)

“You eating, Uverstarr?” Aralia asked.

“
Pft
,” said Uverstarr. “
I don’t want whatever slop the old man drags in
.”

“Suit yourself,” Aralia replied, and continued serving everyone. Uverstarr turned and faced the wall.

“After speaking to Aralia that day I knew what I had to do. I scoured the kingdom searching for any orphaned children. Believe me, there were
plenty
. I sold my home and all my possessions to buy the orphanage and fix it up. I traded in my sword for a donation cup,” he said with a light chuckle. “I’m flat broke now and I don’t exactly make money off this place. I get by on a few generous soul’s donations alone.”

Hence the routine with the cup
, Ash thought. “What about adoption fees?” he asked.

“I don’t charge potential parents any fees,” Kurdis replied. “To do so would only be another hurdle for the children in their mission to find a family. Instead I ask only for charitable donations, day in and day out. My greatest reward is seeing their smiling faces when they leave here with a new family, the looks are-
Roger
!
Dylan
!
Enough with the chair squeaking
! Totally worth it. I feel like I’ve made a real difference.”

Everyone jumped in surprise as Uverstarr threw his new cards across the room. He jumped to his feet and ran upstairs. Ash thought he saw tears in the boy’s eyes.

“What’s
his
problem?” Shiva asked.

“It was something I said,” Kurdis replied, not the least bit surprised. “Uverstarr is almost eighteen years old. If he isn’t adopted before he turns eighteen he’ll be automatically enlisted in the Royal Guard. That was the deal I made with the Royal Advisor a long time ago, in exchange for some much-needed support. Because of his rude behavior and mean pranks, Uverstarr will most likely not get adopted in time. He’s having a hard time accepting the fact that he’ll be joining the Royal Guard. He’s never been one for taking orders. It seems he’s acting out even more than usual lately. But I think it might be good for him to learn a little respect there. It turned
my
life around, after all.”

“He’s got a lot of talent,” said Ash. “He almost hurt me pretty badly with one of his flame attacks.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. That’s his only real passion,” said Kurdis. “When he’s not playing stupid tricks on people, he’s practicing his flame skills.”

“He’s like some kind of genius!” said Aralia. “I’ve never seen anyone move flames like Uverstarr does!”

“The technical term is a
flame savant
,” said Kurdis. “The boy’s just got natural talent and infinite time to practice. That’s why I think he’ll do alright in the Royal Guard. He’s definitely got some skills. Of course, the kid can’t even
read
since he skips my weekly lessons so frequently.”

“You school the kids, too?”

“I learned how to read and write from Kurdis!” Aralia said with a smile.

“It’s an upward battle trying to teach these kids,” said Kurdis. “But at least a few of them are getting the hang of it.”

All of the children now sat around the table sipping stew and lightly chatting with one another. Only one chair remained empty, and that was Uverstarr’s. Aralia kept stealing playful glances at Ash every couple of minutes, making the boy blush self-consciously. Kurdis cleared his throat and raised a glass of dingy yellow water.

“I propose a toast,” he said. “To Lady Shiva; and to the rest of the festival team. I hope you all play your best and no one gets hurt too badly!”

That last bit really caught Ash’s attention, but everyone was busy cheering and clanking glasses together for him to bring any attention to it. The meal was as enjoyable as the company that came with it. The children were extra silly in their attempts at making the team laugh. Some even went to extreme lengths to make Shiva crack a smile.

When the meal was over, the children split up. A team of older kids went about cleaning up the mess, while the younger children returned to the living room to play. “This is usually the time when Kurdis or I read a book to the children,” Aralia informed Ash.

The children were rather insistent that instead of one of the books they’d heard over a hundred times, they’d prefer to hear a story from the human. Ash tried to stammer his way out of it nervously but in the end they guilted him into it. At Aura’s suggestion, Ash told the children about his life back on Earth. He described a typical day from his past human life as a high school student. Even Uverstarr came downstairs to hear the tale. The more Ash remembered and described, the sadder he became.

He capped the story off when he could speak no more. By this time the artificial sun had been entirely extinguished and Shiva announced it was time to go. They’d already stayed several hours over the amount of time she wanted to spend there. Aura fought to unlatch the young Amalia from himself, as she’d been sitting in his lap the entire time Ash was giving his story. Kurdis sent her and all the other children off to bed and escorted the team out.

The orphanage headmaster thanked the team once again for taking on Aralia and Uverstarr, confident that they’d all have fun together. He bid them goodnight and disappeared back inside. Aura and Shiva began to walk through the fenced-in yard as Aralia called for Ash’s attention one last time.

“Thanks for having us over, it was a lot of fun,” Ash said to her as they slowly paced the length of the yard.

“We’re going to have so much fun during the Soulstice,” she said. Her arm brushed up against Ash’s, they were walking so closely. She looked into his eyes and smiled a bashful smile.

Ash’s cheeks reddened as well. “Uh, yeah,” he said nervously. “It should be a good time. Way better than fighting demons all the time.”

“Will you tell me more about your life?” she asked. “
Before
coming here, that is?”

“I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

Raley paused. “Got a girlfriend?” she inquired.

The pair shared one last smile, and Ash told her, “Nope. Why? You know someone who’s interested?”

“
Oh spare me the love scene,
” said Shiva, twisting her face in disgust as she observed the pair from the front gate.

Chapter Eleven: Otozek’s Opportunity

In a darkened hall somewhere beneath the royal castle, a lone guard paced the cramped stone tunnel going down. The man had a specific and tedious duty to carry out. He scanned the holding cells as he walked, ignoring the desperate and depressed faces of the criminals inside. No one spoke to him as he went, moving on down the spiral slope of the underground prison.

The guard reached his destination. He turned to get a look at the prisoner he came for, a man so wrecked they couldn't even be sure he was still alive. No one knew if his soul had departed yet from his body. In the corner of the tiny holding cell he laid, his stretched and ruined body resembled a puddle on the cold stone floor.

It was the ruined body of one Apsat Glumb, a man Ash had some involvement with during his first mission in Hell. The power of the ancient artifact God’s Blessing had granted Apsat a great deal of borrowed soul power from Ash, but in doing so had ruined his body beyond repair. He looked like a large, flattened, grey garbage bag now. No one had seen him move since his battle with Ash.

"
Yikes
," the guard whispered to himself as he gazed at the pile of stretched out flesh that was now Apsat. "About time we cleared
this one
out."

The guard pulled a piece of parchment out and drew a big X over the box where Apsat's name was written. He reached for his keys on his belt and started to open the cell door.

"Better luck in your next life, I suppose."

Along a stretch of the southern kingdom wall known affectionately as "stench alley", a highly aromatic delivery was being made. Two Royal Guards hauled a wheeled cart overflowing with the Kingdom's weekly garbage delivery, an unenviable but necessary duty. Among the many burlap sacks of foul smelling rotting rubbish was a long wooden box, mostly buried under all the junk.

The guards wore special clamps on their noses to keep the overpowering odors of stench alley out of their nostrils. It made them sound funny when they spoke, but that was a small price to pay to avoid keeling over and vomiting from the putrid stench. The men stopped pulling their cart and peered over the edge of the wall at the desolate smelly wasteland beyond.

"
This is as good a spot as any
," one of the men said in his funny, nose-clamped voice.

The men started to unload their delivery. The burlap sacks could be reused over and over until their waste-soaked fibers could carry no more, so instead of just chucking the bags over the side of the wall the man had to set them down on the ground and undo the drawstrings first. They dumped the bags over the side of the wall: spoiled meat, rotting vegetables, discarded soiled clothing, broken tools and unusable items tumbled down into the pile below.

The garbage dumping zone was set ablaze every week or so to keep the pile from growing tall enough to reach the top of the kingdom wall. It was bad enough already that certain types of demons could get into the kingdom rather easily; they didn’t need to make it any easier by creating a giant climbable garbage heap for them as well. On this day the pile was still low enough that another burning would not occur for a few more days. The men worked at dumping their loads over the wall until they had only empty sacks and a big wooden box.

“
What’s in this thing anyway
?” the man with the deeper nasally voice asked as he climbed up into the cart. He ran his hands over the top of the mystery box.

“
How should I know
?” the other man replied. “
It’s nailed shut. Probably minced demon parts or something. Come on now, push
!”

The guard in the cart helped push the box forward into his accomplice’s hands. Together the two hauled the box over to the edge of the wall. After three good swings, they released the container from their grip. It soared over the wall and collided with the garbage heap below but did not stop. The box tumbled and rolled down the hill of trash, moving further away from the wall and eventually coming to rest where the artificial sun could not reach.

Near stench alley on the opposite side of the kingdom wall, at the base of Devil Garbage Mountain a series of shadowy figures convened. The blue demon Otozek sat patiently waiting for his subordinate’s reports. After hours of sitting there the first greater demon to return to his master’s side could finally be heard coming.

Otozek recognized the lumbering footsteps of Gnusek the giant, still unable to remain quiet despite his master’s many warnings. He’d never been known as a very
delicate
creature. Otozek would have scolded him again, except that the towering hairy demon carried something large towards his master.

The long wooden box that was a challenge for two devil men to carry looked like a piece of carry-on luggage to Gnusek. The massive demon set the box down with a low grunt before Otozek. The greater demon prince sniffed the air and smiled.

“You’ve done well,” he said.

The wildebeest-like Gnusek bowed his enormous head in response to his master’s praise with a delighted grunt. His massive, curved horns emerging from the sides of his head had the strange habit of spinning around the creature’s head at seemingly random times. The horns made a grinding,
TKKTKKTKKTKK
sound as they rotated.

Without even bothering to stand, Otozek wedged the pointy tip of his black, tube-like tail into a narrow crack in the box. With speed and ease he pried the top up in several spots, then simply tossed the lid aside. His smile widened when he saw what was inside.

“Our lucky break,” he said, looking into the container. “
Devil remains
.”

Gnusek the giant grunted in confusion as he looked down at the strange pile of pale flesh inside. He sniffed at it extra hard, but never lost his expression of frustrated uncertainty. The horns rotated at a quicker pace.

“I know it doesn’t
look
devil anymore but I assure you it is one,” said Otozek. “I know the scent of devils. I am certain. This devil fool must have met with an unfortunate fate. I would like to know whatever it was that did
this
.”

There was an almost inaudible fluttering of wings, noticeable for just seconds to Otozek before his underling, the mosquito-like Moskazek appeared at his side. Gnusek did not hear him coming at all, and grunted in surprise when he saw his fellow demon, his horns grinding to a halt.

“Young Master, I have discovered something that I cannot explain,” said Moskazek. He held out a crumpled piece of paper for Otozek to take. “I need help identifying this scent.”

Prince Otozek snatched the paper and held it close to his nose slits. He took a deep breath inhaling sharply through his nose to examine the possibilities. The scent began as something unfamiliar, but the more he ingested the clearer it became. He had smelled this scent before. A long time ago, and only once in his life.

He recalled a stored memory from hundreds of years ago, shortly after his birth. The Demon King was more mobile back then, and Otozek used to enjoy crawling all over his father’s body. On this particular day, the Demon King Jirosek unearthed something he considered a treasure to show his son.

"
Smell this my son
," the demon king had said as he thrust a dingy scrap of human clothing into young Otozek's face. "
This is
human," he told him with a look of yearning in his eyes.

He'd never forget that smell. It was nothing like any of the odors his fellow demons put out. Different still from the delicacy that was the devils. The smell of human was like a powerful drug; one that had driven Jirosek mad to the point of obsession.

Otozek knew the smell on this paper could be nothing but human. But why was a human's scent plastered on this scrap of paper with devil writing on it? Could it have fallen through a random gate, like his father's beloved scrap of human clothing? He sniffed it again. The smell of human was still fresh. It had to have been less than a day old.

"It's
human
," Otozek said, trying to contain his excitement.

"What does this mean, my lord?" asked Moskazek. Gnusek added a confused grunt of his own.

"A scrap of devil garbage covered in human scent can only mean one thing," said Otozek. "The devils are keeping a human pet."

"What a most fortunate turn of events, my lord!"

Grunt.
TKKTKKTKK
. Grunt.

"According to this paper the devils are having a festival to
play more games
. This is a perfect opportunity for us to launch our invasion while they're distracted. We'll use this disposed vessel-" he pointed to the body of Apsat with his tail, "-and sneak over the wall. Then we'll seek out their most powerful warriors and eliminate them one by one."

"A brilliant plan my lord," Moskazek replied. "I'll go find the others at once!" The bug demon with the long spear-like nose flew off over the garbage heap to find the rest of their greater demon infiltration team.

"Tomorrow will mark the dawn of the devils demise," said Otozek. He flipped the paper around in his hands, a flier for the Soulstice Festival covered in human sweat. “And so begins their festival of
disarray
.”

And with any luck, I will finally find the human delicacy my father has craved for all these years
, Otozek thought with a menacing, hopeful grin.