Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan) (18 page)

As the wagons rolled out into the sunlight, Jenn glanced at the position of the sun.  It was three quarters of the way across the sky.  That meant they'd been in the tunnel for only about four hours.  Goddess
, how it had seemed longer.  Nevertheless, here they were.  They were in a thin area of the same forest she'd found the soldier in, only about a two and a half hours ride from the that spot.  According to the map she'd seen yesterday it was now only a six hour journey to the mountain pass that would take them eventually to Freehold.  As it was, they had a journey of about ten days through the mountains ahead of them.  A lot of riding, but as Rupert had said, better than Exador.

~

Back in the keep, Lenamare began to relax a little.  He'd shifted the wards back to their normal balance, and Exador hadn't noticed anything.  As was to be expected, his incredibly believable illusions of soldiers manning the wall completely fooled the army outside.  It had been a long two days, he needed a little relaxation.  He sat back in the padded chair in his office and poured himself a glass of wine.  The illusions needed only the barest fraction of his mighty intellect to maintain, and the wards were completely on automatic.

The wards had been the hardest part of the last two days.  Trying to design and build the mechanism that would allow Lenamare to adjust and maintain the wards all by himself.  With the masters and students who constructed it gone, only Lenamare's ingenious device in the warding chamber kept it going.  True it would only be able to support the wards for about thirty six hours without the people who constructed it; however, that should be more than sufficient time to give his people a head start.  True when he discovered the deception, Exador probably would track the people.  He'd probably even manage to find a good number of them. 

That, however, was unimportant, what was important was that it would appear to the Council that Lenamare had tried his best to save his entrusted vassals.  The only other thing that mattered was that Jehenna get away with the book, so they could rendezvous later.  Actually, only that last was truly crucial to his plans.  In any event, a day of peace and quiet would be nice for a change, no inferiors to bother him, and Exador firmly entrenched outside with no way in.  
Ah, the joy
, he thought as he slowly spun around in his chair.

Tom opened his eyes at the sound of the commotion coming from the tunnel leading into his cave.  He hadn't been asleep, he didn't seem to need
it unless he expended a large amount of energy.  After the battle with the demons, he'd felt rather tired, but not enough to really need sleep.  So he'd just rested for a few hours in his stone chair, waiting for another call.  Surprisingly, it hadn't come. 

He'd gone a few days at least, by his reckoning since the demon battle, it was hard to tell when there were no nights, and one didn't sleep; but still no calls.  With this free time he had amused himself by carving himself a table out of stone that could sit in front of his throne, like a desk, if he so desired.  Naturally
, the table literally weighed a ton, but with his strength it was no problem to move it around as if it were a folding table.

At the moment, he'd just been relaxing with his feet up on the table, leaning back in his chair--it had, incidentally
, taken quite a bit of work to get his new body in a position like this which was actually comfortable.  As he began to pay more attention to the noise, it sounded like a small party coming down the corridor.  Sure enough, Boggy and Tizzy were coming out of the tunnel even as he thought this.  They were laughing and carrying on, and each had what appeared to be a wine glass in their hands.  Tizzy also was carrying a bottle of wine in his lower left hand.  As they walked in, they saw Tom staring at them.  "Hey Tom, old boy...congratulate friend Boggy here!"  Tizzy shouted joyfully.

Tom smiled, as best he could with his snout, at their jubilation and asked "What's the occasion?"

"HE screwed up, so I got mine, that's what!"  Boggy shouted, a trifle drunkenly.

"He killed his accursed master! That's what!"  shouted Tizzy.

"You what?" asked Tom, shocked into sitting up straight in his chair.

"Actually, I redistributed his body parts," answered Boggy.

"True, oh, true," laughed Tizzy.

"Yes, you see, he was always so uppity and all, but concerned about his family and their future well being
...he even had this will and all in a lock box at a bank, in order to take care of his bratty grown kids."

"Who are obnoxious merchant types now," interjected Tizzy.

"Yes, well anyway, to make sure that the future generations were well provided for, I took the liberty of ensuring that the family jewels were placed in the lock box also."

"The family jewels
..." Tom said, at first not understanding, but then grimacing in sympathetic pain, when he realized what Boggy meant.

"
’Course, I do have to admit, he was a bit upset when I took them.  Screamed most horrendously at me.  It was then, of course, that I realized how much his wife would miss that screaming of his after I killed him, so I took his tongue and gave it to her.  Unfortunately, she was busy at the time so I just had to leave it...in the stew.  Naturally, by this time, he was a little bit mad at me and just hung there by his toenails glaring at me.  This, of course, kind of discomforted me to see him leering so.  Thus I plucked out his right eye and ate it, while his left eye watched.  The worst part was that I hadn't thought, and had ripped his tongue out too soon, so all he could do was gurgle at me."

"Enough, please!" Tom was getting sick to his stomach.

Boggy didn't seem to hear, obviously relishing his recounting of his triumph.  "I have to admit, by the time I'd plucked all the hair from his body and pulled his fingers and toes off, I was getting a bit bored.  So, apparently, was he, he started to nod off from time to time.   He probably thought that I'd think he was passing out from pain; but I knew, he was just bored and falling asleep.  So naturally I clubbed him over the head a couple times with his right arm.  I would have used a leg, since it makes a much better club, but by this point the legs were broken in so many places that they were just too limp to use effectively as clubs.  After all the beating I had to do to get him awake again, I realized he really didn't have the heart for this sort of thing...so I ripped his out. 

"Well by now I was about to leave, when who should enter, but the old man's fat pig son, who was a truly avaricious banker.  Strangely, he seemed to be a bit shocked by the state his father was in.  It was then when I remembered the conscientious and stingy nature of the master, in always wanting to keep everything in the family.  So thinking quick, I grabbed the son and sat him down.  I then
, of course, proceeded to make amends by serving him dinner.  The main course being the remains of his father.  Admittedly, he was a bit hesitant at eating this delectable meal...but when I pointed out that if he didn't eat everything on his plate...he might grow up to be just like his father...in about two minutes...he readily cleaned his plate."

At this point Tom was in the corner puking his lunch out . . which
, since he hadn't eaten anything in the last week or so, shouldn't have been much; however, from who knows where he was able to vomit some truly obnoxious green and orange bile.  Finally, Tom's puking seemed to come to Boggy's notice and he shut up and went over to where Tom was heaving.  "What's the matter, my boy?"  asked Boggy, concerned.

"How could you do such a thing?" Tom asked in disbelief.

"Well, I may not be as strong as you...but I'm still pretty damn strong, It really is no problem to rip a human apart, they are really quite fragile," answered Boggy in his apparently inebriated state.

"No, no you fool.  The boy means, why would you do such a thing," corrected Tizzy. 

"Oh," Boggy responded, understanding now.  "Why, for the best reason of all ...REVENGE!  I had served that S.O.B for eighty years and his master before him for ninety two.  Not to mention his master's father for seventy six years.  Not once in all that time did I ever get a single thank you!  All I ever got was abuse.  Never could I seem to please any of those jackasses, all I could do was screw up...and then they'd punish me.  During that period of two hundred and forty eight years, four months, two weeks, five days, thirteen hours, twenty seven minutes and four point oh-one-three-four-nine seconds, I received two hundred and seven Dalton's Demon Darts, three hundred and fifty two Wargol's Wracking Wrenches, one hundred and thirty six Sargum's Soul Slicer's, four hundred and seventy Spirit Wracks, three hundred and thirteen Davalon's Degradations, as well as six hundred and forty nine miscellaneous tortures.  Each of which hurt me as much as anything I did to him today.

"Now, you tell me if he didn't deserve everything he got and more!"  Boggy exclaimed passionately.

"I don't know...maybe...it's just so horrible all the things you did to him," Tom complained.

"Oh, and the tortures he put me through, were any better
...let me tell you, some of those things were visual and physical as well as spiritual.  Believe me, anything he got...HE DESERVED!

"However," Boggy finally said, calming down to normal level.  "I understand how you feel.  You are new, I suppose I would have felt just like you, when I was new.  It's just after so many centuries of pain and suffering, you just have to say
...enough is enough.  Thus when you get the chance to stop it for a while...you take it.  And although from a human point of view, maybe this vengeance is petty and morally wrong, regardless of what they did to me.  But nonetheless, it felt good.  And I really don't care what anyone else says, they haven't been in my position, so they can't know that they wouldn't act the exact same way in the same situation."

"I guess, I'm sorry
...it just...I don't know..."

"I do though
...you just feel rather squeamish about the whole thing."

"Yeah, well I mean I used to get a thrill out of watching that sort of thing in horror and slasher
-type movies, but now, your describing that sort of thing seems worse."

"That's because it's real.  Even though you didn't have to see it happen, this time you know it was real and not just theatrics.  Look,
it’s not like I enjoy going around and doing this sort of thing, I don't.  Except in certain well deserving cases, like this one.  Actually it's the first time I've ever done this. The first time I killed my master, I just beat him over the head with an ax and left him."

"I guess I'm really not much better; after all, I killed that soldier in the woods, the dragon, the third order demon on the field and lightning bolted another demon.  It's just that then it was a fight, I don't think I could kill someone in cold blood."

"Well, my lad, that may be, and that's probably for the best.  Remember this however; if you ever want your freedom, nine times out of ten you'll have to kill all those Astlanians who know your name.  Very seldom do they die on their own, at least not without passing on your slavery to some other master."

"Is that the way it always is?"

"Pretty much...oh, according to legend there might be other ways, but I've never actually heard of any."

"OOPS!" interrupted Tizzy.  "My doorbells ringing! Gotta go!" and with that the
octopodal demon faded out.

"Scum!" shouted Boggy. "You took the wine!"

~

The small shelter was finally complete, it had taken him some time to get it built, he wasn't used to doing such things.  Although building the little shelter
had been easier than trying to bandage his master.  Demon claws just weren't made for working gently with human flesh.  He'd gone slow, trying to be careful, every now and then stopping to inspect his patient everywhere to make sure he hadn't accidentally caused more harm. 

It had been centuries since he'd done first aid, but he still remembered most of it.  His main concern now was why Hortwell hadn't come to.  It had been a couple of days, long enough for Zargoffelstan to build a small hut of stone, and log ceiling, sealed with tar brought from a swamp, not too far away as a demon flies, the old man should have come to.  The cut was bad, but he didn't think it that bad.  Hopefully there wasn't any internal damage he'd missed.  All he could do for now was just wait by his master's side.

The sun was setting over the mountains, Jenn shifted her position a little to bring relief to her sore posterior
; they'd been riding all afternoon now.  Thank the Goddess that they hadn't encountered anyone on the way.  The going had been slow through the forest, trying to wind between trees with the cart.   Luckily that part of the forest was fairly thin, otherwise they never would have gotten carts through.  Jenn suspected, of course, that Lenamare would at least take credit for their easy trip though, if he were here he'd probably be telling everyone about his wise forethought in periodically thinning the forest for just such an emergency.  It really wouldn't have mattered if he actually had or not, since either way, he would probably take credit for it.

About an hour ago they had reached the edge of the forest and after a brief reconnaissance by the soldiers they were on their way across the plain, rising towards the mountain pass.  Jehenna was periodically ordering soldiers to speed everyone up, she wanted to reach the base of the pass before nightfall.  Other than that she didn't do much except look annoyed and preoccupied.  She'd refused to allow any cloaking spells on the grounds that Exador might have wizards or demons out looking for traces of magic.  Thus it was that everyone was continually on the
lookout for patrol parties, albeit unlikely any should be so far from the siege.

Jenn simply drove on, her hands were getting chapped from the reins
of the two horses pulling Jehenna's overloaded wagon, and her rear end was feeling worn thin.  Whenever Jehenna had ordered a turn to go around something or other, Jenn had tried to get a look back to see how the children were doing two wagons back.  However, she was never able to get a really good glimpse, they were apparently just laying low.  When they'd stopped about three hours ago at a stream to water the horses and to let everyone take care of personal functions, she'd gone back to check on them.

Chass and Gloria seemed to have lost some of their fear, and were willing to get up and move around when the wagon stopped,
Sydney had just complained about the rough ride and how he was getting splinters everywhere.  Rupert, as usual, was looking intently about him, apparently searching for any sign of pursuit, and not very happy with the stop.  She hadn't questioned him, just smiled and patted him on the head, to which he gave the expected shrug of annoyance for a boy his age.  She imagined that nothing much had changed since then except that Sydney's temper had probably gotten worse.  Master Trisfelt had been jovial as usual.  When she'd complained to him about her sore seat he'd just laughed and explained that it was precisely for such occasions as this that he maintained such a well-padded one.

As the wagons climbed higher toward the pass, the terrain gradually became more and more rugged, larger boulders began appearing and the grass was getting thinner and longer.  Trees were becoming scarcer, and when found
, were mainly scrub trees.  The brown soil here was fairly dry and dusty, this side of the mountain was shielded by the mountains, and not many storms made it this far up towards the mountains from the giant valley in which Hartwell and Lenamare's Tower were located. 

It was decidedly getting dark by now, they wouldn't be able to go too much further, not without using light spells, and considering Jehenna's objection to glamours and hiding spells, Jenn doubted she'd want to use any light spells that would make them detectable to magic sensing beings, not to mention anyone or thing with eyes.  A soldier pulled his horse alongside Jehenna's side of the wagon.

"Ma'am, are you about ready to set up camp for the night?  Pretty soon it will be too dark to see to collect fire wood or set things up properly."

"Sergeant," Jehenna replied, "I realize that, but this party is under my command.  We will stop when and where I give the word and not until then.  Is that understood?"

Appearing slightly annoyed, but not at all surprised, the man acquiesced, "Very well, ma'am."  He then fell back to join his men, who appeared as annoyed as he.  Jenn couldn't blame them at all.  They really needed to stop soon to set up camp, and she desperately wanted to stretch her legs and end this riding.  It was, however, completely expected of Jehenna to act this way. Give the bitch a finger's length of power and she'd stretch it to a day's journey.  Well, at least, thought Jenn, they'd eventually have to stop when the horses, who wouldn’t be seeing that well in the dark, pulled a wagon off a cliff.  That would serve her right.

Finally, after about another quarter of an hour, when the western sky was only a lighter shade of black
than the rest of the sky, Jehenna called a halt to the procession.  As she called the halt, there was almost a collective sigh of relief and suddenly people began speaking, where they had been silent for about the last hour or so of the journey.  The thought of stopping and resting was a relief for everyone.

As she halted the horses, Jenn gratefully stretched out her legs while still sitting on the seat.  She swore she'd beg
un to think the madwoman would never halt the party.  As she slowly climbed down from her wagon seat, she heard Sydney and Chass groaning to Master Trisfelt about his pronouncement that they should search around for kindling and fire wood to build a campfire or two with.  She simply smiled to herself, wishing she could get away so easily.   Slowly, working out her stiff joints, she began to unharness the horses and rub them down.

~

Jehenna stepped off the wagon and began looking around for a good spot for her tent.  She had no intention of sleeping outdoors under the stars when she could at least have the comfort of her plush tent.  Thinking quickly, she confiscated two of the soldiers, before they could think of something else to do instead of setting up her tent, and relegated them to the task. 

~

"Rupert," Master Trisfelt called to the boy, before he got too far away gathering fire wood, "let the others search for wood, you shall help me take care of our horses."

It was hard to tell in the dark, but Trisfelt could have sworn a look of fear crossed the boy
’s face at this.  Nonsense of course, all young boys were fascinated by horses, and any lad Rupert's age would be delighted to be assigned such an important adult task, rather than having to gather wood.

"Uhm, sir
...if you ah, don't mind, I'll just help Sydney and Chass, I'm really not very good with horses.  I...I've never done that before."

"Exactly!" proclaimed Master Trisfelt, "That's why I want you to help
; you were so helpful on the day's journey, I thought you deserved a better task then just gathering kindling.  It will be an excellent opportunity to learn.  Everyone should know how, and this is your best opportunity to learn.  Come along boy, over here now."

Rupert seemed to have the look of a trapped rabbit on his face, it was fairly obvious he didn't want to do it, but Master Trisfelt couldn't see why that should be.  "Please sir, Master Trisfelt
...I, uhm," mumbled Rupert  as he slowly inched forward toward Trisfelt and the horses.

"Now enough of this, boy." Trisfelt proclaimed, beginning to get a little annoyed at the boy's reticence.  "Get over here."

Rupert reluctantly came forward, staring at the horses.  "Now lad, there is nothing at all to be afraid of," said Trisfelt as the boy came next to him.  "Here's a good lad, just give ole Chestnut a pat here on the neck, for a start.  Let him get to know you."  Rupert grudgingly raised his hand toward the horses neck, all the while gazing fearfully at the horse's face.  Chestnut, sensing the activity at his side, turned his head around to face Trisfelt and Rupert, just as Rupert's hand began to touch the horse's neck. 

Without any warning, as the horse's head swung around, and the boy gently touched its neck, the horse reared up neighing and screaming .  The beast's eyes rolled in its head in fright as it reared on its hind legs and tried to dance away from Trisfelt and Rupert.  Unfortunately it was still harnessed to the wagon and the other horse.

Rupert, scared, fell back on the ground; Trisfelt stepped back in surprise.  The rearing horse, tangled itself in the harness and rammed into its partner.  The other horse, suitably annoyed began trying to bite at Chestnut.  Chestnut didn't seem to mind though, all it seemed to want was to get away; it just kept shoving into the other horse.  The wagon bounced around, knocking some of the items carried within out onto the ground.  Rupert, scurried away, with his back to the ground and all four hands and feet scrambling to make him move and avoid Chestnut's flying hooves.

Eventually, the wagon which had been bouncing up and down, was overturned as the second horse gave ground, allowing Chestnut to move over.  Thus the wagon was pulled sideways, and levered over on its left wheels.  The wagon hit the ground with a loud bang, its momentum, and the twisting of the harness and guide poles, caused the second horse to stumble to the ground, where the fleeing
Chestnut tried to get over it. By this point the screaming of the two horses and the commotion was beginning to get to the other horses as well, making them nervous. 

Quickly Jenn came running from her wagon.  "
Astriol sed makos, Centaurio sid falcom, destrius nericum.  Lo riestum sedion falcomon,
" she chanted as she stroked a lock of horse hair that she carried in her hands, "
Creatoris nos feltom, sin sarconum.
"  The two horses rapidly began to calm, Chestnut moved enough that Bitterwhite, the second horse, was able to get up.  Jenn came slowly and quietly up between the two nervous horses and tucking the horse hair she carried into her belt, she quickly began to stroke and calm the horses, muttering more words of peace into their ears.  The horses stood still, simply shaking in their fright, sweating and rocking slightly, but calming down nonetheless.

Shortly, the two horses were calm enough for Jenn to leave them to Master Trisfelt.  "And what did you do that for, you stupid girl?" Jehenna almost shouted behind her as she finished.

"Do what?"  Jenn asked in annoyance as she turned to face Jehenna.

"Use magic, now everyone in the multiverse probably knows where we are!  What an idiot! Didn't I tell everyone not to use magic, lest we be detected?"  Jehenna ranted.

Calm, from her own magic, but coldly, Jenn replied, "You said not to use glamours or hiding spells, or any major detectable magic.  What I did was nothing but a minor enchantment, simply a relaxation and calming spell.  Hardly detectable for its output of power, it won't call anyone's attention.  Not that screaming horses don't cause all sorts of more mundane individuals to take notice. 

“
I simply felt that between the damage that the horses were doing, the danger to the people nearby and the risk of having the horses cry out our position to everyone in a one mile radius, that it would be most expedient to do the spell."

"Well you felt wrong
...I gave an order and I expect my orders to be obeyed.  Regardless of what you feel.  I know what is best for this group, and I will decide what is expedient and what isn't."  Jehenna retorted, but this time a little less vehemently, since she really couldn't argue Jenn's reasoning, except that it violated her own order.  "If you do anything like this again, girl, there will be severe consequences for you."  With that, Jehenna stormed off to where her tent was being set up.  Jenn simply stared after her.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I agree with your decision," said Master Trisfelt behind her.  "Actually, if I'd been thinking," he went on, as he laid a hand on her shoulder, "I would have done the same.  Unfortunately, I was so taken aback by the horses reaction, that
..."

"I know
..." Jenn said as she turned to face Master Trisfelt.  "What caused it?"

"Abyssal Appoxia if I know, I
was simply trying to show the lad," he pointed over toward Rupert, who was huddled on the ground about twenty feet away, "how to care for a horse.  When the horse suddenly spooked.  Never seen a thing like it.  The lad just went to touch it, and it went wild."

"Well, maybe tomorrow we'd better put Chestnut on another wagon, so he won't be so close to Rupert and spook again."

"Good idea," agreed Master Trisfelt.  As Jenn went back to her own horses, Master Trisfelt looked over to where to boy huddled, and shook his head slightly.  Well at least the kid had a good reason to fear horses, the question was why?  Whatever the reason, Trisfelt wouldn't pressure the boy into helping with the horses again, for a while, at least.

~

On the ground, Rupert just sat and shook as he watched Master Trisfelt take care of the now horses.  His tear stained eyes just looked on in humiliation and shame.  He had known what was going to happen as soon as Master Trisfelt had ordered him to help, it had happened before, several times.  Why hadn't Master Trisfelt listened?  Now everyone in the caravan had seen what happened; not even horses liked him, soon they'd all know or suspect. 
Why?  Why me, goddess?  Why always me?
thought Rupert,
It's just not fair.