The Heavenly Host (Demons of Astlan Book 2) Read online

  “That’s not a common demon problem,” Boggy observed.

  Tizzy nodded emphatically up and down while chewing on the stem of his pipe.

  “Well, let’s see,” Antefalken mused. The bard had returned a few hours ago from the Courts and brought them up to speed on the reactions there. Tom had introduced him to Reggie as an old friend who had shown up when he had heard about the commotion in Astlan. Boggy then introduced Estrebrius to Antefalken and explained Vaselle’s request for a meeting.

  “We’ve got an invitation from Lilith to stay with her at the Courts, and you’ve got a business proposal from Estrebrius’s accursed master, but we don’t yet know what that proposal is. Further, as I said, I think half the Abyss is looking for you and your guest,” Antefalken said, pointing to Talarius.

  “I suspect a lot of people will be coming out of the woodwork to be your friend,” Boggy noted.

  “Or to kill him permanently,” Tizzy added. Tom glared at the octopodal demon.

  “Clearly, Lilith wants you to come to her, and she can protect you from other demons, but she’ll also have you all to herself at that point,” Antefalken said.

  “This Lilith, who exactly is she?” asked Tom. “From what you have said, and what I read in Freehold, she sounds like she’s pretty important. I know the name, but they cannot be the same person. Different mythologies.” He made a shrugging motion.

  Talarius seemed to shuffle in his armor over in the corner, where he was sitting and listening to them. Tom assumed the knight had also heard her name. Antefalken gave him a puzzled look, apparently wondering if Tom had been living in a cave, given that he did not know who Lilith was. Fortunately, Tom felt their current environment was sufficient evidence that he had, in fact, been living in a cave. Tom would just have to live with that lapse; he was not up to revealing his story to everyone today. Not with Rupert here, in particular.

  “Well, don’t be too sure of that.” Tizzy chuckled. “She’s multiversally famous. Nearly every religion features some version of her.”

  “Bad breakups will do that.” Boggy nodded.

  “Yeah, and this one was bad.” Tizzy puffed out some smoke. “Really an epic breakup.”

  “And of course, she came out looking bad,” Boggy said. “Women often do. Even if it’s the man’s fault, the ex-wife always ends up with the bad reputation.”

  “I will refrain from joining this discussion,” Antefalken said.

  “Are you still sleeping with her?” Boggy asked.

  Antefalken gave him a surly look. “I’m not joining this discussion, and not discussing my love life.”

  “Okay, I’m not that interested in her past. I am more concerned about the present. Who exactly is she today? If she’s so powerful that everyone knows who she is, is it safe to turn down her invitation?” Tom asked.

  Antefalken shrugged. “To be completely honest, I don’t know which is more dangerous: accepting her invitation or declining it.”

  “So who is she?” Reggie interrupted.

  Tizzy shook his head. “She’s the Empress of the Damned, of course.”

  “The Empress of the Damned?” Tom asked.

  “She is about as close to being a ruler as the Abyss gets.” Boggy shrugged.

  Antefalken continued, “She is one of the two Co-Factors, she and her consort, Sammael. They are the two most powerful demons in the Abyss, after the Concordenax.”

  Reggie asked, “The Concordenax?”

  “The Demon Father, the creator of all demons,” Estrebrius chimed in.

  Tizzy suddenly started coughing loudly, pulling the pipe from his mouth and billowing out clouds of smoke. He looked up, realizing everyone was staring at him. “Sorry, inhaled the wrong way!”

  “And where is he in all this?” Tom asked. “I read about him in a treatise, but it says he’s been missing for some time.”

  Antefalken shrugged. “No one knows. Other than Lilith and Sammael, I do not know anyone who has ever claimed to have met him, or so much as seen him. And Lilith has no idea where he went, but he’s been gone for an extremely long time, even by demon standards.”

  “This is all getting much more complicated than I’d expected.” Tom sighed.

  Tizzy made a harrumphing sound.

  “You think this is complicated, wait until Tiernon’s folks show up on your ledge with an arrest warrant!” Talarius chuckled, apparently with glee.

  “I don’t think they’re going to come down into the Abyss.” Antefalken shook his head.

  “That would be considered a broach of détente.” Boggy was nodding.

  “But it would be kinda interesting,” Tizzy whined.

  Estrebrius was shaking his head, clearly wanting no part of such an invasion.

  “Yes, but more important, I’m not sure if they’d have access to all their resources here,” Antefalken said.

  “What do you mean?” Tom asked.

  “Well, look at our friend over there.” He pointed to Talarius. “You can’t feel your deity right now, can you?” Antefalken asked.

  The knight simply glared at the bard. Antefalken continued after a moment of the knight’s silence. “I mentioned this earlier; clerics tend to get disconnected from their gods here, and no souls can escape without being intentionally released somehow. From what I have seen, and what Lilith has said, clerics can only do minor rituals here that draw on their own mana, or the mana from any followers in their immediate party. Those links they have to the higher planes don’t work here.”

  “So his agents would be cut off from him?” Tom asked.

  Antefalken shrugged. “That’s what I’m thinking.”

  “And that’s why it would be interesting!” Tizzy exclaimed, pounding one of his fists into its opposing palm. “We could capture them, torture them, eat them!” He got a slightly wild look in his eye. “All that super-sweet angel mana!” He closed his eyes. “I bet their souls are really tasty!”

  “You foul beast!” Talarius spat at Tizzy.

  Tizzy turned and grinned at him. “I bet they’re even tastier than Paladins!”

  The knight shrugged. “I’m not a Paladin, I’m a Knight Rampant, and so your ignorant point is wasted.”

  “Enough!” Tom said. “No one is eating anyone, and we aren’t going to worry yet about Tiernon’s people coming for a visit. We take this one day at a time!” Tom was really starting to stress out. He was definitely in over his head. He sighed. “I think we need to consider this Lilith thing a bit more. How about Estrebrius’s accursed master? Do I take this meeting?”

  Estrebrius grinned rather oddly and wrung his hands. “Great One, do as you please. I’m just so grateful you are considering it. I swear, my master is no threat to you. He does not have that much power, and as humans go, he is a good man. He’s never tried to screw me over; he’s really the best master I’ve ever had!”

  Tom nodded. “Boggy?”

  “Estrebrius has talked about this master with me before, and he sounds pretty reasonable. Moreover, I am pretty sure he can’t hurt you in any way. You’ve been dealing with far greater wizards than Vaselle.”

  “Antefalken?” Tom turned his head to the bard.

  Antefalken shrugged. “I don’t know the man, but my guess is that he’s an average wizard, certainly not on par with any of the Council members. Lenamare and his crew are far more dangerous and you have taken their measure. He’ll be stronger than Gastropé, I’d bet, but probably not that much stronger.”

  “And you don’t think it’s a trap?” Tom asked.

  Estrebrius shook his head from side to side, vehemently indicating it was not.

  Antefalken responded, “Not this soon. Given what everyone in Freehold has probably heard or seen, anyone thinking of setting a trap would want more time for preparation. Quite a bit more time.”

  “Did you hear something?” Reggie suddenly asked, turning around in circles as if looking for the source of something he had just heard.

  Tom glanced at him, but continued
, “Okay, so let’s agree to that, then. See what he wants; otherwise, such an insane request is probably going to bug me until I find out.” Estrebrius was looking very ecstatic. Or something—Tom couldn’t tell what, sort of pleased and terrified at the same time. Tom did not know, but everyone on both of these planes was simply too strange to understand.

  “There she is!” Reggie was pointing to a blank wall. Everyone else looked at him in puzzlement. Tom realized suddenly that he could see through Reggie, that he had become translucent and then quickly transparent, and then had vanished. Interesting, Tom thought to himself. He had wondered what his fading looked like to people around him.

  “Time to get to work!” Tizzy chuckled.

  “So, Estrebrius?” Tom asked, and the little demon turned back to him. “When did your master say he’d contact you again?”

  “Shortly after dawn in Freehold. He has to wait for the gates to open and then go a ways out into the woods away from the two armies.”

  “Anyone got a watch?” Tom asked.

  Antefalken laughed. “It gets hard to tell time between the realms, but it shouldn’t be that long; maybe a few hours by the time he gets out of the city. That’s the same time Damien would normally summon me.”

  “Have you heard anything more from him?” Tom asked.

  “No. My guess is that the city is still sealed off from extra-planar forces and communication. Well, actually, we know that from Estrebrius here.” Antefalken shrugged. “I have to admit to some curiosity in knowing how much the Council knows about what happened outside the wall. If they got reports, they are probably freaking out pretty badly at this point.”

  Tizzy and Boggy both laughed.

  “I wonder what Jenn is thinking?” Rupert asked.

  Tom shook his head. “I am sure she’s not worried about Edwyrd, but she will be a basket case about you.”

  “We have a good idea what the demonic response is; we can guess what the Rod and Tiernon’s church’s response might be; but we don’t have any idea about what the Council knows or what the next move will be for Oorstemoth.”

  “I am sure my master can give you a good report about what people in Freehold know,” Estrebrius chimed in. Antefalken nodded.

  Chapter 89

  DOF +2

  Still Predawn 15-19-440

  Gastropé woke to a knock on his door. “I’m up!” he yelled to the knocker. He wearily conjured a mage light to illuminate the dark little chamber; it was still quite some time before dawn. He had barely slept; he had tossed and turned all night worrying about how the binding had become attached to him. He had not even noticed it! He had run every scenario over in his head, and nothing made any sense.

  He used the chamber pot and then washed his hands and face with the cold water in the bowl on a stand in one corner. He had no mirror, and it was rather dark even with the mage light, so he decided not to try and shave—not that he had that much to shave. He shrugged and got dressed, then packed up what little he had taken out last night. Finally he seated his turban on his head. That was one nice advantage to prewound, sewn turbans; you did not have to worry about combing your hair. Traditional wrapped turbans made a mess of anything other than short hair; the prewound type, which his father insisted was an abomination, were more like a hat and not as bad.

  Gastropé had taken to wearing a prewound turban during wizard school, when a friend had introduced him to a turban winder who could sew small secret compartments into the bands of the turban, where one could then secretly store spell components, money or small tools. This convenience, plus the convenience of not having to wind it every day had driven him to the dark side, as his father called it. Gastropé had to chuckle. His father had no problem with his wanting to learn how to summon demons, but wearing a prewound turban—that was where he drew the line. Fortunately his father, while a traditionalist, was pretty soft hearted for a shopkeeper.

  Gastropé made his way down to the main hall where they were to meet. Jenn and Maelen were already there eating some meats, cheeses, fruits and bread that had been laid out by even earlier-rising servants for them to break their fast on.

  Jenn frowned as he approached. “Did you get attacked by a necromancer in your sleep? You look like a barely risen corpse!”

  Maelen chuckled as he popped a yellow piece of melon in his mouth.

  “I didn’t sleep very well.” Gastropé looked around the room. There was a servant over by the fireplace, tending it, but no one else was around yet. “Take a look at me with your wizard sight,” he said to them, “and whatever it is you do similarly. Do you notice anything odd? Say, around here?” He gestured to his chest.

  Jenn frowned again and shook her head, but muttered the incantation for her wizard sight and stared at him. Maelen simply looked at him intently. “I don’t know,” Jenn said slowly. “Is there some sort of string or cord coming off of you?”

  “It appears to be some form of link extending”—Maelen’s eyes traced a path up into the air—“somewhere off plane perhaps?”

  “Yeah, Trevin noticed it last night and complimented me on it,” Gastropé replied sourly.

  “What is it?” Jenn asked curiously.

  “It’s a demon binding going off to the Abyss,” Gastropé told them.

  “A demon binding? You mean like a conjuror would use to bind a demon?” Jenn looked at him, puzzled. “I didn’t know you had any bound demons; you’ve never mentioned it. You know that’s sort of a big deal, given what’s been going on.” She sounded like she was starting to get annoyed.

  “I didn’t! I have never actually cast a demon binding, ever! I’ve studied them and practiced them, but I’ve never actually bound a demon to myself before!” Gastropé waved his arms to emphasize his point. “I didn’t even know it was there until last night when Trevin pointed it out. That’s why I couldn’t sleep; I was trying to figure out how it got there!”

  “So what or who is on the other end?” Maelen asked.

  Gastropé frowned. “Well, it appears to be an older-style link for a second to third-order demon. Sort of like they used to do a hundred to two hundred years ago.”

  “And it goes to…” Jenn prompted.

  “I’ll give you one guess…it smells like funky pipe smoke!” Gastropé exclaimed.

  “Tizzy?” Jenn asked in shock. “How could that be? Demons cannot bind themselves to wizards, it’s the other way around, and even then, a fiend like Tizzy could not. He’s said he doesn’t have any magical abilities, unlike Tom.”

  “I know,” Gastropé gestured broadly. “That’s why I have no idea how it would have got there. I have never heard of a demon able to bind itself, and it is a traditional one way binding with me as the master, let alone one of that order. Have you?” Gastropé looked at Maelen.

  Maelen was still staring at the link, apparently. “No, never heard of that, but following it, I am pretty sure you are right and that Tizzy’s on the other end of it. When did it appear?”

  Gastropé shrugged. “I have no idea. I don’t usually go looking at myself with wizard sight. So it could have been there for quite some time.”

  “Do you suppose the demon Tom did it?” Jenn asked.

  “When? You’ve been with me whenever he’s been around.” That was a lie, of course; he and Edwyrd had spent a lot of time together, but neither Maelen nor Jenn knew that Tom and Edwyrd were the same person. However, Gastropé had never seen Edwyrd casting any spells. Besides, Edwyrd was an animage, and this was definitely a classic wizard spell in structure; not something an animage would do. At least, he did not think so.

  Further discussion was cut off as Elrose and Trevin entered the hall. “Good morning, everyone!” Trevin greeted them. She was wearing what appeared to be a leather and fur-lined version of her normal attire. Much warmer, more rustic but still way too revealing for her age, Gastropé noted. That was one thing he and Jenn could completely agree on. Particularly when the enchantress started running her eyes up and down his torso while looking at
him.

  The two wizards took some wooden plates and began filling them, and Gastropé decided to do the same.

  “Jenn and Maelen, I think your travel clothes for today are fine, but my dear Gastropé, as much as I love your outfit, I fear you may get a bit cold this morning,” Trevin said as she speared a large chunk of melon to put on her plate.

  “I’ve got a jacket in my backpack I can put on,” Gastropé said.

  “Good, you’ll want it. We are taking the lift up to the western landing, which is about a league straight up!” She smiled and looked at all of them. “We will then enter the western gate and take the tunnel through the mountain to the eastern front. From there, I will open the Fierdal Bridge at dawn, which will transport us into the Grove.”

  “The Fierdal Bridge?” Maelen asked.

  “Yes, it’s not dissimilar to a Prismatic Bridge, except that it only works when Fierd is at certain positions in the sky, and those positions determine where the bridge goes. At different points during the day, opening it will take you to different locations within the Grove.” She paused and smiled. “Some of those locations aren’t particularly pleasant, so you are all advised not to try to force the gate’s guardians to open it, or you may find yourself in a less than ideal spot.” She chuckled. “Like inside of Fierd herself!”

  Gastropé made a sour face at that thought. Jenn was not looking exactly comfortable either. They were definitely going to be at the mercy of the wizard.

  ~

  “What are we going to do?” Iskerus asked Barabus.

  “I don’t know about you, but I plan to try to get some sleep before Fierd rises. Perhaps an hour or two?” Barabus put his head in his hands, elbows on the table. They and the two knights had spent the night being debriefed by a sword. A sword, for Tiernon’s sake!

  Ruiden had gone out to personally inspect the battle scene and the site of the former hole through which Talarius had been dropped. Swords, logically enough, did not sleep. Ruiden had informed them that he would be working around the clock to find Talarius.