Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan) (14 page)

"How do you signal Hortwell, and can we wait that long?"

"To signal, I just change the color of the dome in the correct pattern.  As far as waiting, no we can't.  We shall have to do some shoring and minor rebalancing until the demons are called off."

Jehenna nodded, giving Lenamare the `we are going to talk later' look.  She then motioned the others into position.  She took the secondary position since Lenamare seemed to know what he wanted done.  Then they set to work.

"Master, master, your signal!"  the little demon yelled excitedly.

Master Hortwell roused himself from where he'd been reading a recently received scroll on new work done on fourth order perturbation theory of material substances, and their effect on the spiritual realm.  He'd summoned the little first order demon to keep watch on the school, in case Lenamare should signal him. 

It was one of the few occasions Hortwell summoned a demon for a trivial task.
There was no way he could keep the continual surveillance on the castle that a demon could, so it seemed like a valid exception to his own rules.  He stood and walked over to where the small demon was.

This demon was no bigger than a small child, and as ugly
as only a demon could be.  Despite its lack of power, and his familiarity with it, Hortwell had left it within the minor warding pentacle he'd summoned it in. He didn't trust demons further than he could throw them; which, since demons could fly, wasn't anywhere. 

True
, this one had never even tried to betray him, but one could never be too sure.  As he stood behind the gremlin-like creature, he looked to where it pointed excitedly.  Beyond the small grove of trees in which he stood and across the plain, about a mile away, he could discern the castle and its magical dome.  It had changed color.  Before it had been essentially clear, with only a little cloudiness, now it was purple.

As he watched the dome turned from purple to red and then to green.  It then oscillated between red and black for a few moments before returning to purple and starting over.  The dome continued to repeat its message for about three minutes, and then it returned to its normal form. 
It didn't take Hortwell anytime at all to decode the message, it was as he'd feared. 

He reached to his side and took out a small black box.  The box was about four inches on each side.  Two opposite ends of the box had holes in their center.  Placing his right eye to one hole, and pointing the opposite end toward the castle, he scanned the situation.

With the aid of the Sortielli's Cube of Observing Places Everywhere, he was easily able to see the forces lining up against the wards.  Apparently Exador was attacking the castle directly using demons and wizards.  Lenamare hadn't said so, but it was what  Hortwell had been expecting, and what his cube showed him. 

Lenamare's code had simply said, "aid, demon 4 and more."  It was in a code Lenamare had designed long ago, and had given to all the masters of the school.  His message
clear, " Summon the fourth order demon and as many others as possible for backup.”

Hortwell didn't like the idea of summoning that big thing. 
Actually, he didn't like summoning any demons unless there was good cause.  Of course, saving the school was definitely such a cause.  He had, however, been prepared for this.  He walked over to a nearby area that he'd cleared, and in which he'd inscribed a double pentacle for summoning demons.  Surrounding it were the necessary braziers, already ignited, needing only to have the correct ingredients added to summon a demon.  Naturally, there were also a subsidiary set of protection pentacles for himself.

True, the extra pentacles may not be necessary for a known demon whose name he knew, especially since he also had several amulets, including
a fourth order one, and he would use them; but Hortwell felt that when dealing with demons, it was always best to be doubly safe.  One could never take enough precautions.  He could easily summon and control the demon with less paraphernalia, but he preferred to leave nothing to chance.

In point of fact
, he would truly have liked to have the ring, but for some reason Lenamare had insisted it stay with Jehenna.  Hortwell, had to admit there was logic in her having it. As the school’s Master Demonologist, she had studied demonology more than anyone at the school except perhaps Lenamare, and at times he was pretty sure Lenamare didn't know as much as he thought he did.   Hortwell was a strong advocate of the traditional methods of demon binding, something he and Lenamare disagreed on, Lenamare felt that a good wizard should be able to command demons with essentially the strength of his own will and magic alone, Hortwell believed that a sane wizard used everything at his disposal to help himself in conjuring demons.  Thus it was that his method was slower, but, he felt, much safer. 

Moving as quickly as possible, Hortwell went around to each of the braziers, adding sulfur
along with the necessary rare woods that helped in controlling high order demons to the flames.  Standing back and focusing on the large ring on his left ring finger, he began to conjure the demon.

~

Tom felt his cave dissolve around him.  He sighed, expecting to see the stone conjuring room appear around him.  Instead, he was surprised to see that he was in the middle of a small clearing among some trees.  What's more, Lenamare wasn't the one conjuring him.  It was the old man he'd seen earlier.  He wasn't sure what this meant, but at least it was interesting, something to take his mind off the brooding he'd been doing the last few days.

"Demon
...knowst that I am Hortwell, and that I have summoned thee by the power of will and warding, and by the power of thy name which binds thy soul.  Knowst that thy spirit and body are mine to command.  Dost thou acknowledge my right to command thee?"

This guy was like all the rest, however, rather than fight it, Tom figured he'd just go along with it.  He didn't know for sure how far this man's power to command him went; but he didn't want to test it by ripping the guy's guts out as had been suggested to him as a test.  "Very well, mortal what do you want?"  This time he didn't use his Darth Vader voice, instead he answered simply impatiently.  To his surprise, his voice still came out extremely deep and sinister, not quite so booming, but impressive nonetheless.

"The school of Lenamare is under attack by the wizard Exador and his minions.  Currently, Exador has sent demons and wizards to try and break the wall of force around the castle.  You are to go and destroy all the demons attacking the school.  You will in no manner aid Exador, or cause him to be aided.  You will in no manner harm the force wall or those inside it.  Is this clear?"

"You want me to destroy the attacking demons?"  Tom was excited about dealing with other demons; but he wasn't thrilled with killing them.  They certainly didn't deserve to die, and he had no reason to want them dead.  Besides, remembering the dragon, he didn't know that he could kill the demons.  He knew what he was capable of, and how fast he recovered, and Hortwell had implied that there were more than one.  "That might be a bit difficult."

This caused Hortwell to pause and think for a moment.  "They are all weaker than you, and I will be summoning up lesser backup demons for you.  But you are right in suggesting that their actual destruction will be tricky.  Very well, simply see to it that they are damaged enough that they have to return to the Abyss, and can no longer harm the school, or myself."

"Very well, " Tom said
. This still wasn't going to be fun; but Tom remembered the other day when he'd been lax in following orders.  He had better do as much as he could rationally to get rid of the other demons before the compulsion made him act irrational. If he managed to stay rational he might be able to come up with a way of following these orders without anyone really getting hurt.

"Now, I am going to release you from the pentacle.  You shall not harm me in any manner, nor cause harm to come to me or mine.  You shall go directly to carry out your assignment, and when finished return here.  Is this understood?"

"Yes."  This fellow was getting annoying.  Tom had already said he would do as asked.  What more did the guy want? 

Hortwell stepped back and waved his hands in a few peculiar gestures down at the pentacle.  As he did this, he whispered some words that Tom did not catch.  Just as when Lenamare had done it in the tower room, Tom felt the invisible restraining walls part before him as he stepped from the pentacle.

"Now go."  Hortwell pointed to the castle.  Tom looked in that direction, and then took to the air, heading to battle.

This definitely
was not a good idea, thought Tom as he neared the battle.  Before him he could see Lenamare's castle.  It was enshrouded in a hemispherical white mist that was difficult to see through.  This, Tom realized, must be the barrier he'd ran into when he'd been trying desperately to complete his last mission.  He remembered the dome and he vaguely recalled seeing the army encamped outside of it.  At the time though, he had paid no attention to it, he'd been too out of his mind.

Now however, he was in full control and could observe the situation calmly.  The castle was protected by the dome of force.  Camped about the castle, surrounding it, was what Tom supposed was a typical medieval army.  It consisted of about two thousand men, mainly infantry with perhaps a few hundred cavalry. 
There were also seven wooden towers and five catapults.  Essentially it was just what one would expect from a besieging army, which this apparently was.  The only difference from the history books was the force wall, and from his own experience he would have to say it was a major difference.  Actually it seemed to Tom that it would be extremely difficult to break, but apparently Lenamare feared that that was exactly what might happen.

The major question
, of course, was, why were these people laying siege to the castle?  The only thing Tom could think of was Lenamare's great personality.  It was certainly enough to make Tom want to do violence to it.  The other major thought was where had it come from?  When he had left here only a week ago, there had been no army, but this camp seemed very well settled.  It had also been there when he'd gotten back.  It had basically come out of nowhere in about two days. 

Thinking back on it, Tom remembered all the building and work going on about the school when he'd left.  He'd simply assumed that it was the routine.  Obviously they had been preparing for the siege.  This siege also explained why Lenamare might risk a demon as a messenger, he was probably asking for some sort of help.  Hopefully, Tom thought, he wo
uldn't get it.  Especially since Tom would rather be down helping the besiegers than the besieged.

All of which brought him back to his dilemma.  How to get rid of the demons
?  He could see them now; they were placed at strategic locations around the dome, along with some humans.  All together there were about four demons and three wizards.  Both humans and demons seemed to be concentrating on the dome.  The wizards were periodically sending fire and lightning at the dome while the demons seemed to be alternating between pounding with their fists and sending out little beams of energy themselves.

These little energy blasts being shot by the demons were interesting.  Tom hadn't realized that demons could do that.  He vaguely recalled a lot of red light that seemed to surround him when he was pounding on the wall, but no real energy beams.  He assumed that he could do the same as these demons,
though he wasn't sure how.  He might have done it unconsciously when angered, maybe or maybe not, he didn't know; but regardless, it would be much more difficult to consciously do it.  All of which, again brought him back to his problem, how to get rid of these demons.

Of course
The easiest thing would be to walk up and ask them to leave; unfortunately, he doubted that even if they were so inclined (which was also doubtful) that they could.  They were probably being ordered to attack the dome by their accursed master.  So if they didn't leave, what would he do then?  He guessed he'd just have to see what happened, he'd probably be forced to mayhem.  He didn't like that idea, especially considering the previous results he'd attained. 

The only consolation this time however, was the fact that it was unlikely that he could actually kill them. 
Of course There was one other problem, Tom wasn't at all sure he could hurt them enough to make them leave.  He didn't know how much damage any one of them might need, let alone trying to get them all.  Things might get especially tight if they all ganged up on him.  Although the old man had promised reinforcements, he didn't see any behind him.  Tom sighed and shook his head, the time for speculation was gone, as he was rapidly approaching the demons.

~

In the woods, Hortwell turned from watching the demon dwindle in the sky.  As he turned around, he was brought up short.  Standing not two horse lengths from him was a soldier, and he wasn't one of Lenamare's.  The soldier grinned mercilessly at him, pointing a broadsword at his middle.  Hortwell, stopped cold; all thought of conjuring more demons died in his head.  He gazed coolly down his nose at the soldier and waited for the man to speak.  He needed time to think.

"So, old man, going to rain demons upon my buddies
, is you?  I think not."  The soldier said as he stepped forward bringing his sword closer to Hortwell's chest.  "I think I is going to have to put a stop to your black magic, gramps."

This was not good, reflected Hortwell, most any protection spell would require movement of his hands, which would surely cause the soldier to stab him.  "I think it
’s time that there be one less magic bagger in the world, don't you?"  As the man spoke, Hortwell noticed a movement out of the side of his eye, behind the soldier.

The soldier lunged.  Without thinking, Hortwell dove to his
own right and yelled "Zargoffelstan, kill him!"  The shout slightly distracted the soldier, so combined with Hortwell's dive to the soldier's left, the blade in the man's right hand and lunging forward, only stabbed Hortwell in the shoulder.  Hortwell fell, gasping in pain, his shoulder a bloody mess of cut muscle and tendons.