Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan) (54 page)

"Yessssss..." she purred, somewhat annoyed by the sudden call.

"Exador's here.  He says we've got unexpected players in the game." Bess' eyes widened slightly, then narrowed, catlike.  Suddenly she was no longer in the mirror, but rather in the room with them.  She looked directly at Exador.

"Who?"

"I don't know."  Exador said, pacing.  "What I do know, is that the Rod of Tiernon is marching on Freehold."  Both of his allies shook their heads in surprise.  They were more than familiar with the Rod. 

"Talarius?"  Bess asked.  A slow purr coming from her throat.

"Probably, I didn't get the whole message, but at least one knight on a flying horse."

"Who else would it be?"  Ramses asked rhetorically. 

"Further," Exador continued, "they are marching on Freehold because they believe some archdemon and his entourage is going to Freehold.  Apparently, planning some sort of assault."

"But you don't know which archdemon?"  Ramses asked.  Exador shook his head negatively, in agreement.

"Then," Bess purred, "we can't be sure it's not just rumor.  You know how the Rod always overreacts to demonic threats."

Exador bent his head in concession.  "However, Lenamare and Jehenna are planning strategies for both
contingencies; I suggest we do the same."  Ramses grimaced, unable to disagree with logic.  Bess stroked her chin, thinking, Exador guessed, about getting her paws on Talarius.

~

Maelen settled down beside the fire.  He decided that maybe he was getting to old for the adventuring life.  He would be ninety-two next quarter month, certainly time to start thinking about retiring.  Slimemold! Most people his age were thinking about dying.  He wasn't quite ready to start thinking if that for a couple decades yet, but a gentler life-style might not be uncalled for.  Traveling with wizards, demons and fellow animages who pretended to be something other than they were, was just asking too much. 
Ah well
, he thought, that is the price of his vision.

Thinking of his vision, Maelen decided he'd better perform his nightly chore.  For the last few decades, any time he camped in the wilderness, before settling down for the night, he'd scan the terrain for any possibly hostile
activity.  Maelen relaxed into a near trance state and opened his senses to the world.  Nothing in the immediate ground vicinity.  Up he projected his viewpoint, raising his viewpoint a few hundred feet off the ground, he looked in all directions.

Curious, there seem to be an abnormal amount of light a few miles back along the trail.  Extending his senses this way wouldn't allow him to see what was going on there, his Sight would.  Strange, actually, he didn't recall anything in that region when they passed through it.  Maelen stared into the fire, remembering the area in his mind's eye.

~

Damien put down the most recent message he'd just received via winged courier from Hoggensforth.  He stared thoughtfully out at the night sky.  "The Rod of Tiernon sailed into Hoggensforth last night."  Antefalken's strumming ceased.

"This morning, an individual on a winged horse was seen to land in the Rod's encampment.  Shortly thereafter, they broke camp and departed.  Headed for Yorkton."  Damien told his bard.

"Unless I miss my guess."  Antefalken replied thoughtfully, "
Yorkton lies on the road between Hoggensforth and here.  Correct?"

"Correct."

"Now," Antefalken continued, "unless I miss my guess, Yorkton is not a particularly interesting place."   Damien simply nodded and turned to look at Antefalken.  His back to the cool night air coming in through the window, he crossed his arms on his chest.  "Thus they're most likely coming here."

Damien twisted his head in acknowledgement.  "The question," Damien remarked, "is why?"

Antefalken shrugged, "Why do they march anywhere.  There's an evil that needs dispatching.  Or at least what they think is an evil.  And if Talarius is with them, then they think there's a pretty bad evil needing to be dispatched."

"But what's here that's more evil than usual, by Rod standards?"  Damien asked, more to himself than
to the bard. 

"Lenamare and Exador are two pri
ncipal thoughts that come to mind."  Antefalken mentioned.  Damien waved his hand.  "I've never met Exador, but I'm not particularly fond of Lenamare."

"Two of kind, you haven't missed much."  Damien told the demon.  "I don't think either is quite evil enough to raise the Rod.  On their own.  On the other hand, if as I suspect, there is more to this feud between them than meets the eye...maybe that's what's got the Rod out sniffing the trail of evil.

"We need more information."  Damien paced a few steps, and then sat down in a canvas chair. He put his feet up on a small table strewn with papers. 

"If they knew that Lenamare was tossing a greater demon around the playing field, that might raise their interest."  Antefalken suggested.

"Perhaps, but there have been other instantiations of greater demons that the Rod didn't deal with so quickly.  Prolonged use, yes, that got their attention.  But to draw out both the Rod and Talarius?  Usually, either one is more than enough."

"Unless..." Antefalken got to thinking again.

"Yes?"

"Well, you know how I thought this Tom fellow might be more than he seemed?  What if he is?  What if he's really an extremely old greater demon slumming?  Or an archdemon?"  Antefalken clicked his fingernails on the frame of his harp.

"Yes, but Lenamare brought him into play.  Do you think Lenamare would try and use an archdemon?   Or even one of the truly powerful greater demons?  He's got an ego, but he's not stupid.  You don't control archdemons.  You get roasted by them."

"True, but the archdemon, or whatever this Tom is, could be using Lenamare.  Or it could be a game.  An elaborate hoax, perhaps they're really allies?"

"Allies?  Lenamare and any demon?  I'd seriously doubt that.  He's always got to be in charge, as, I suspect, do most archdemons.  No, that's simply too unstable a relationship."  Antefalken just shrugged.  "Still no luck in locating Tom?"

"No," the small demon shook his head.  "I've gone back a couple times but to no avail.  In fact it doesn't appear he's been back since before my first visit."

"It would be nice if you could at least talk to him.  Find out if he really is what he's supposed to be, or something more."  Antefalken shrugged, there wasn't much he could do, he'd try, but if he couldn't locate the guy that was the limit.

~

Maelen looked up from his trance.  He looked around the fire at the others.  Gastropé was doing some wood carving; Jenn was examining some book.  Edwyrd and Rupert were talking about something.  For some reason, after Rupert's rather near-death experience, it seemed to Maelen that the two were much closer.  He himself didn't have much to go on, since he didn't know them for long before that, but judging other's reactions and the whole situation het got him that feeling. 

Tizzy was wandering around the edges of the clearing, periodically eviscerating plants and insects.  Maelen shook his head.  "By any chance," he apparently startled the others, "have you folks had any run
-ins with the followers of Tiernon?"

Jenn and Gastrop
é looked puzzled, Edwyrd and Rupert rather blank.  "Who's Tiernon?"  Edwyrd asked. 

"A god. I'm specifically thinking of any of his priests or knights."  Jenn suddenly looked worried when he said the word priest.  She looked to Gastrop
é.

"Who did the priest we tied up worship?"

"I don't recall."  Gastropé said honestly.  "One deity’s pretty much the same as any other."

"You know," Edwyrd spoke up, "I think that may be the god he kept calling on.  It was certainly Tier something.  He told me he was the high priest for his god in Gizzor Del."  Maelen frowned,
and then quickly described Verigas, the high priest of Tiernon.  "Yes, that sounds like the guy."

"Why, if I might ask, did you have him tied up?" asked Maelen.  He was really going to have to think about retiring.  Soon.

"Well," Jenn answered, "it seems that when we arrived in Gizzor Del, we kind of interrupted his spell casting.  He rather went crazy, and so we tied him up so he wouldn't cause problems."

"How exactly did you interrupt his spell casting?
And why did this cause him to go crazy?"  Maelen inquired politely.  Jenn gave him an abridged version of the story.  "Maybe you should tell me more."  Maelen suggested after hearing this.  Jenn, as quickly as she could, gave him the run down on Exador and Lenamare, the fourth order demon rescuing them and taking them through the Abyss to Gizzor Del.

Maelen had to shake his head.  "So let me get this straight. Lenamare sends a fourth order demon out to play messenger boy.  While
it’s gone this Exador fellow lays siege to your school.  Your headmaster sets up some fancy pentacles, the demon returns, nearly breaks the wards, forcing Lenamare to temporarily lower them.  In the process, one of the ward setters is killed by Exador's people, making the barrier unstable.  You flee the castle through secret escape tunnels, while Lenamare stays behind to single handedly take out Exador's entire army.

"You
were riding through the mountains when a group of Exador's men, including him," Maelen points to Gastropé, "ambushes you and kills most of your party.  This Jehenna person summons a fourth order demon on the spur of the moment, gets it wrong but the demon comes of its own free will anyway.  The demon slays all the enemy except him," again he pointed to Gastropé.  "It then for some unknown reason agrees to escort you to Freehold."  Maelen was sounding more and more skeptical about this.

"Along the way you're ambushed by
Exador’s demons.  They cart you off to Exador's camp, where Exador is not.  You are tossed into a tent with him." He nods to Gastropé again.  "In the meantime, this young fellow," nodding to Rupert, "plots with a demon to free you."  Maelen licked his lips before continuing.

"He and the demon fly back to the school
; the demon returns to the Abyss; Rupert allows himself to be caught.  Upon being placed in the tent with you, this nine-year-old boy summons a greater demon.  The demon burns down the tent and half the camp, meanwhile dragging the three of you off to the Abyss, where Rupert meets him."  Maelen points to Tizzy, who by this point had come over to listen to the story.  "All of you decide to leave the Abyss, with the help of the greater demon.  In the process of doing so you use a channel opened by a priest doing things forbidden by his religion and scare the crap out of him.  Upon immediate arrival, this demon,” he pointed to Tizzy, “departs immediately and the fourth order mysteriously disappears in the middle of the night to go to some sort of demon convention."  Maelen simply shook his head.

"In the morning after, Rupert goes a wandering and randomly runs into his cousin, an entire continent away from home."  Jenn looked a little puzzled by this even. Maelen points to Edwyrd, "
Said cousin is more than happy to join forces with a group playing games with demons and tying up respected members of the community.  You all jump on a ship, where I have the pleasure of meeting you all," Maelen smiles facetiously.  "And I know the rest from there."  Maelen sighed, "Is that everything? Have I summed it all up?"

"Pretty much."  Rupert said matter
-of-factly, as if there was absolutely nothing strange about the story.  "Why do you ask?"

Maelen sigh
ed again and rubbed his eyes.  "Well...it seems that Verigas was more scared than you thought.  The Rod of Tiernon is now following us or someone so close in description to us as to make little difference."

"The what?" Gastrop
é asked.

"The Rod of Tiernon.  Tiernon's elite cadre of holy soldiers and knights.  They're principally used to battle evil, destroy the wicked, send the damned off to their infernal torments, that sort of thing.  They're about five miles behind us on this road.  From what I was able to pick up, they're searching for a party of wizards and
demons on their way to Freehold.  Led by some individual calling himself, Lord Edwyrd."

All the rest did a double take at Maelen's words.  They all looked to Edwyrd, who looked as confused as
anyone did.  "Lord Edwyrd?  Unless I got a promotion, they must be after someone else."

Maelen smiled grimly.  "And how many parties of wizards and demons recently came across the sea from Gizzor Del, on their way to Freehold, with someone name Edwyrd in them do you think there are?"

"But I've never called myself that; you've been in this group almost as long as I."  Edwyrd complained.

Again Maelen smiled again, still grim.  "I don't care what they call you or I or any of us.  The point is, we have some of the
best-trained religious fanatics in the world five miles down the road, all looking for us.  I suggest it is time for a plan."

~

"What we need," Archimage Tureledor stated, "is a plan."

"What we need," councilor Davron retorted, "is to know why the Rod of Tiernon is marching up the path to our door."

"Given their normal reticence to discuss anything with the Council," Councilor Trevin D'Vils stated, "all we can do is formulate a plan.  Since they're not likely to bother informing us why they're attacking."  She looked around trying to get people to agree with her.