Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan) (23 page)

Once they'd finished eating, Jenn began saddling her horse and preparing for the day's journey, Tom had flown up to see if anyone was following them, so Rupert had a few minutes to himself.  He felt better today than he had in a long time.  He was still a little nervous, but happier than he could remember being in the last several years.

After all the walking yesterday his feet ached a bit, so did his back for some reason.  He reached up to scratch his head which had been itching him all morning, and felt a slight swelling above his temple.  He was slightly surprised, apparently he'd relaxed more last night than he'd thought.   He'd have to be careful.  He still wasn't completely confident.  True, Tom had given him a part of his name, but he hadn't said anything to him.  He'd really been scared, when it had looked like Tom might leave.  He didn't know what he'd have done then.

When you want something all your life, which in his case was only
about a decade, and then to almost have it in your grasp and lose it.  Scary, he still hadn't figured out exactly what Tom was doing, maybe testing him.  Last night, though...maybe, Tom seemed to care about him.  He gave a hasty prayer to whoever managed such things, then turned as Tom descended. 

"No one in sight, I didn't look very far, but it seems clear for a while." 

"Fine, shall we go then.  Rupert, have you changed your mind about riding?"  Jenn asked hopefully.

"No, I'll walk,"  Rupert said to both of them.

"Are you sure, we'll be going all day, not just for a few hours?"

"I'm sure," Rupert said as Tom simply looked on without saying anything.  Jenn gave up
in despair and pointed her horses toward the trail.  Today she'd switched and was riding Timber Leaf.  She'd still saddled Bitterwhite though, since she'd hoped Rupert would ride, and she didn't have anything else to do with the gear.  At this rate it would take a long time to reach Freehold.

~

Gastropé searched through what was left of the wagon train.  Unfortunately, not much useful was left.  True some rather nice things in and around the front wagon, such as live horses, but nothing very useful.  The horses were paralyzed, and after a half hour of fiddling, he was sure he couldn't remove the spell.  He was mainly thankful that they had left a little food.  Not a lot, but enough to last him a few days.  He also managed to dig up some new clothes; he'd had to mix and match, so much had been burned.  His old clothes, though, were simply ruined.  The fine clothes he'd been wearing just couldn't stand the roughing they'd had, especially his soiling them.  He also had no way of cleaning them, the only stream he'd found was too small, and he also needed drinking water.

When the demon tossed him, he
had run as far as he could.  He'd finally collapsed in exhaustion.  When he woke up, he'd realized that he'd need a few things if he were to survive.  He'd snuck back to the wagon train just before dark.  He hadn't seen anyone or thing, but he waited till morning nonetheless, just to make sure the demon was gone.  He didn't know where the survivors, if there were any, went; but since all the bodies were gone, he assumed there had been some.  He actually didn't care, as long as that demon was gone.

He still couldn't believe his luck.  To actually have been so close to an enemy demon of such power and live
...through no fault of his own.  He had no idea why the demon didn't kill him, normally its master would surely have ordered it to kill all of the enemy.  Still, it was best not to question good fortune.

He'd gone around the valley and seen the handiwork of the demon.  Goddess that thing was nasty.  There really wasn't much left anywhere.  Martel's was the only body recognizable, and that probably only because he'd interrupted the demon's rampage with his own foolish summons.  It was one thing to see the little first order demons in lessons, and even conjure one.  This thing though, had been unimaginable.  The biggest thing he'd ever seen was a second order his master had summoned, it was nasty enough.  Naturally
, he'd heard about third order demons, and even the higher ones; but whoever expected to meet one?

The thing that made him perhaps the
maddest was that Exador was sending out men to confront people who controlled fourth order demons.  It was like sending a flea to kill a lion.  There was no way Exador could not have known what he was doing.  Exador was a damn good wizard; he didn't make that kind of mistakes. No, it must have been a setup.  Which was why he was not going back to Exador.

It was that which presented him with his problem.  Where
could he go?  If he went east, he'd surely run into Exador.  Not only was that where his army was, but, since these people were fleeing the army, Exador would be pursuing them.  If on the other hand, he went west, he'd run into the people with the demon.  It wasn't a good choice.  He couldn't go over the mountains, so he had to follow the trail, which mean east or west. Which way did he want to go?

If only he could do a teleport spell, but he wasn't anywhere near good enough.  He might manage to cast it, but he'd just as likely end up in a solid object or twenty stories up, or somewhere random, as his destination.  The other problem was what to do when he got some place.  He'd used the last of his money to buy those fancy clothes to get hired by Exador, and Exador wasn't going to pay until the job was done, which didn't seem to be soon, if ever, especially considering that
Gastropé had no intention of seeing Exador again.

~

Jenn was upset with herself; she'd fallen asleep almost immediately last night.  She hadn't intended to sleep at all, and then she was out like a light.  How could she be so incompetent?  The demon could have worked any mischief it chose on them during the night.  For some strange reason it hadn't, as far as she could discern, but that was probably just because it hadn't found the right time.  It was surely just waiting for the perfect opportunity to cause the maximum possible damage.  She had to find out what its game was.

"Demon," Jenn called.  T
he demon flew over the yawning chasm on their right and up beside her slowly walking horse, trying not to get within its view.  Unfortunately, he came within the view of the following horse, and it started having fits.  "Would you mind?" Jenn asked, annoyed.

"What?"

"Casting a glamour to keep the horse from spooking."

"Me
? Sorry.  I don't know how."

"Sure.  Be that way then, I'll do it."  Quickly she cast a spell, hiding the demon from Bitterwhite's senses.  In short order the horse calmed down, unable to see Tom.

"Neat trick," commented Tom, honestly.

"Yeah, you'll do anything to cause trouble."

"Look, you're the one who called me up here to talk," Tom pointed out.

"I suppose," Jenn grudgingly agreed.  "Why are you wasting your time?"

"What do you mean?" Tom asked, puzzled by the tone in her voice.

"I mean, why are you doing this
?  Surely, you have better things to do than follow us around and guard us.  After all, I'm sure someone of your power has important things to take care of in the Abyss."  Jenn was trying a slightly different tack to get information out of the demon.  She hoped that by being less confrontational, the demon might give a clue for its reasons.

"No, not really."

"What do you mean not really?  I'm sure you'd like to be off destroying something somewhere, wouldn't you.  Rather than baby-sitting?"

"No."  Tom wasn't sure he understood exactly what she was getting at, other than trying to give him a hint to get lost.  "What makes you think I like to destroy things?"  Tom asked a question of his own.

"Why," Jenn was rather surprised by that question, "that's what demons do."
Aside from lying,
thought Jenn, but she decided it might not be tactful to say that.

"Well, I'm afraid I don't."  Tom defended himself.  "Well, actually I do;" he had to amend that thinking back on what he'd done yesterday, "but, I don't enjoy it.  I generally don't have much choice in the matter."

"Sure," obviously the thing still insisted on playing games.  "So, anyway, why are you here.  Don't you find this boring?"

"Well," Tom admitted, "I can't claim it to be incredibly exciting; but then I'm sure you're not having the time of your life either."

"Yes, but we're fleeing.  You don't have to.  You can go back to your home and no one will bother you."

"Oh really," Tom
said,.  "I don't think so.  You and your friends have seen to that.  As long as Lenamare's around, I can be summoned at any time.  And he's insured that no matter what, I'll never return home."

Jenn was puzzled, the demon actually sounded bitter.  Human emotions coming from a demon?  "Well, you could go back to where you go when you're not here, I'm sure you'd at least prefer that wouldn't you?"

~

Rupert was listening intently, he didn't like the sound of this conversation.  He wished Jenn would shut up.  Fortunately, Tom relieved him with his next words.  "No, and besides which, I promised Rupert I would see him to safety.  I don't go back on my word."

Rupert saw Jenn’s shoulders and back tighten in frustration.  Tom had told her something she couldn’t deny.  Demons didn’t go back on their word.  They twisted the living hell out of them, but they didn’t renege.  "Ugh, I guess my question is," Jenn’s frustration showed in her voice, "why should you want to?  What is Rupert to you?"

Rupert's ears pricked up at this, this was something he definitely wanted to hear, he strained to catch every word, even though Tom was generally incapable of talking softly.  "Because he is my friend.  I like him and I want to."  Tom's voice was starting to get louder as he said this, obviously becoming slightly annoyed too.

"Like! Hah!"  Jenn laughed at what she apparently saw as a blatant lie.  "What would a creature of evil know of things like friendship, kindness or fondness.  Lust, hatred, vengeance, yes.  Love and friendship no.'

"WHAT THE HELL IS IT WITH YOU PEOPLE!"  Tom shouted.  He then calmed down a bit, when Jenn jumped in her seat.  "Every damn one of you, except for Rupert here," and he pointed, "keeps telling me what a rotten evil person I am.  None of you even know me!  I never did one damn thing to any of you.  You people, on the other hand, captured me like some animal and then bound and enslaved me to be your frickin
g servant. 

"If anyone around here is evil, it's you wizards!  You grab people you don't even know and force them into slavery.  You never even ask us if we want it!  You expect us to bow and scrape and do your every whim and then you rant and rave over how evil and destructive we are; but don't you think we have a right to be upset?  Besides, as far as I could see back there yesterday.   You stupid Astlanians are as nasty to each other as we demons sometimes are to you!

"Do you think I like this situation.  Do you think I like being forced to serve some egotistical moron, to be cut off from my family and friends?  You bitch and moan about how I plan to destroy you and how you fear me and all this other garbage, but it’s your own damn fault I'm here.  If you, and I mean you, because, I remember now where I've seen you before, you were there and helped Lenamare enslave me; don't like my presence, then blame yourself.  I'm the way I am because of you.  If you don't like it then just shove it."  With that, Tom flew back to the end of the small procession, and crossed his arms on his chest and just fumed.

~

Jenn was shocked, speechless.  She had never, ever, heard of, read of, or even considered possible, such a tirade from a demon.  What it said didn't even make sense.  It seemed to contradict every known fact about demons.  Oh, to be sure they didn't like be forced to serve, but then demons didn't like anything.  To imagine a demon having feelings like a human being--it was just too much.

~

Rupert too was shocked.  Not at the words, he could understand them, had even experienced some of it for himself.  It was just that--well, to have them expressed, it just brought home to him the whole situation.  It also confirmed a lot of what he secretly hoped and felt.  To actually have some of his own thoughts and feelings expressed by a demon of such tremendous power and might, was almost too much to be believed. 

He looked over his shoulder at Tom in awe and happiness, maybe this was the sort of thing he'd been looking for.  True, he hadn't directly come out and said what Rupert had wanted said, but things were getting closer, maybe soon he'd have his confirmation.  Tom said he did like Rupert, that was definitely a start.

~

"You!  Halt in the name of the Exador, General of Turelane.  Halt o
r be vaporized!"  Not wishing to be vaporized, Gastropé naturally stopped.  This was not good.  He'd chosen to go west after the survivors of the wagon train, hoping they'd returned their demon, and were now sufficiently far ahead.  He had figured that that would be better than risking a run in with Exador after failing.  Unfortunately, it didn't seem to have made a difference.

He stopped and turned around, trying to appear pleased to see whoever called him.  Coming up the mountain trail after him were two people on a Ponto's Firebird Flying Carpet.  He had to admit, it was a beautiful red carpet, and the flaming exhaust was a rather awe inspiring sight.  He crossed his arms on his chest, and tried to look impassionate.