The Heavenly Host (Demons of Astlan Book 2) Page 27

  “Propaganda will not work; I’ve been trained by the best,” Talarius said.

  Antefalken shook his head. “I think I’m going to head up to the gift shop. Maybe I can find us a game to while away the hours back in the cave.”

  Talarius harrumphed. “You expect to find a deck of cards and a whist marker, perhaps?”

  Antefalken looked thoughtful. “Do you play whist?”

  “Of course.”

  “Excellent. Then we shall look towards that as our principal objective. Come along,” Antefalken told the knight.

  “What? Are you saying that demons play whist?” Talarius asked, sounding shocked.

  “Of course. It’s a great way to pass the time, and demons often have a lot of time to pass. And it keeps one sharp,” the bard replied.

  “Yet it requires obeying the rules and detailed analysis, along with the application of logical principles,” Talarius said as he followed the demon bard towards one of the shanties.

  “Exactly why we like it. Demons have a thing for rules; we are bound by them and very fond of trying to exploit them, which makes us great game players!” Antefalken said.

  “I think you are playing a game with me now.”

  Tom could see Antefalken shaking his head. “Sometimes, Talarius, a cigar is just a cigar.”

  ~

  “Trisfelt!” Hilda exclaimed as he wandered through the infirmary, where she was tending to patients.

  “Excellent, I’d hoped you’d still be around!” Trisfelt exclaimed. “I was afraid Lenamare and Jehenna might have sent you fleeing the palace in terror, never to return!” He came up to her and gave her a brief, light hug.

  Hilda beamed at the familiarity; one did not get a lot of hugs in Tierhallon. “Nonsense. I’ve served on battlefields and seen horrors nearly as bad!” She laughed lightly.

  “Well, you were incredibly graceful and attentive to them, despite their typical patronizing attitudes,” the wizard congratulated her.

  “Again, nonsense. I’ve spent some time dealing with nobility and all sorts of high and mighty who really just don’t know any other way to interact with people.”

  Trisfelt smiled. “I suspect that is part of their problem. I have to admit, they did seem to enjoy your company far more than they do most people’s.” He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “At breakfast this morning, Jehenna actually said they enjoyed your company last night!” He raised his hands in amazement. “I have never heard her say anything like that before. It was practically a miracle!”

  Hilda beamed brightly and laughed. “I hardly think it a miracle. They are very talented people and quite fascinating; one just has to have a bit of patience and understanding.”

  “Patience and understanding? My dear, you have the patience and understanding of a saint!”

  Hilda laughed and patted Trisfelt on the shoulder. “You flatter me; I am hardly a saint! I have over-indulged on more than one occasion.” She paused and flashed him a grin. “As you may be aware.”

  They both laughed at that. “Say, you’ve been so generous with entertaining me, would you allow me to do the honor of returning your hospitality sometime? Perhaps tonight?”

  Trisfelt smiled, pleasantly surprised. “Why, I’d love that, most certainly!”

  “Excellent.” Hilda made a deprecating gesture with her hands. “Now, I have these contractors that are redoing my clinic, which is the main level of my house; they were supposed to be finished while I was at the wedding, but…”

  “A siege may have interfered?” Trisfelt suggested with some mirth.

  “Apparently, it’s hard to get wood and stone into a city when there is an army surrounding it.” Hilda shook her head in mock surprise. “Plus, I think they sort of underestimated the time, and are possibly using this as an added reason.” She gave a gentle sigh of exasperation.

  “Thus, I fear that I am staying in a hotel and treating my patients in my parlor, ugh.” Hilda made gestures with her hands as if calming her nerves a bit. “However, it is a decent inn; it’s the Havestan Gardens.”

  Trisfelt raised an eyebrow and smiled. “What a happy coincidence. By sheer chance, I am sure, they happen to have the best wine cellar in the city, outside of a few private cellars in the palace.”

  “Do they?” Hilda overtly pretended to be ignorant of this fact. Trisfelt chuckled.

  “My dear, your palate can no longer surprise me! I am sure you knew this full well when you checked in. Indeed, I am wondering exactly how upset you are by the delays to your reconstruction?”

  “Dear Trisfelt, I assure you it is a horrible inconvenience, and I have no choice but to console myself from the inn’s cellar each evening!” Hilda gave him look of feigned inconvenience, and they both laughed.

  “I would be honored, My Lady.” Trisfelt told her.

  “Excellent. Shall I see you around the same time as last night’s dinner?”

  Trisfelt nodded. “That is an excellent time.”

  “Splendid!” Hilda smiled and then got a slightly surprised look on her face, as if she suddenly remembered something. “You know, Danyel was with the servants last night and they were all talking about the balling of the fight outside. He was told that it was quite spectacular. You don’t by any chance have an idea of where a copy might be had? I myself have heard so much, but not actually seen it.”

  “Yes, yes, you should see it, it’s remarkable. I saw it later, after the Council, because I was outside, as you know. Apparently, there are numerous shoddy mirrorings of the event around; but you must see the balling. The Council has made copies for all the councilors; Lenamare and Jehenna each have a copy. I am sure I can borrow one of theirs; particularly when I tell them that it’s for you to see.”

  “Oh you are such a dear, and I’m sure Danyel will be as grateful as I!” Hilda exclaimed.

  ~

  “Well, hello there!” A voice called to Tom as he was walking past one of the shanties. He turned to look towards the open-faced shanty to see Sam lying on a padded table getting a massage from a rather large, homely demoness.

  “Hey, Sam!” Tom replied, walking over to the table.

  “Yesterday was quite the workout, so I thought I’d come by here and get a massage. My muscles are killing me. The problem with this form is that I have it memorized at a certain point in time, and that somehow never includes having muscles that are used to mountain climbing. You would think I could manage to memorize the form after climbing rather than before.” He shook his head. “Of course, if I did that, then I wouldn’t feel the need for a message from my favorite masseuse, Helgadavichanova here.” He nodded his head back towards the masseuse.

  “Nice!” Tom grinned. “Looks relaxing. Do you come here often?”

  “Mainly for the massages, although sometimes after a cold day skiing, it’s nice to relax in the lava,” Sam said.

  “Did you bring your company here for some fun?” Sam asked.

  “Yeah, we were feeling a bit cooped up, so thought we’d come and stretch a little, relax,” Tom said.

  “Excellent idea—this place is great for that,” Sam said.

  “Well, I better let you get back to your massage. It’s not very relaxing if you have to twist your neck to talk to me.” Tom laughed.

  Sam laughed as well. “Very true. As great as it is to see you again, you are correct. Take care!”

  “You too!” Tom said as he strolled off. Despite what Tizzy had said, Tom rather liked Sam. He was the most normal person Tom had met in the Abyss. And that included Talarius, whom he had brought to the Abyss with him. He shook his head. Finally, a normal person!

  ~

  Gastropé was enjoying iced tea in the starboard lounge and watching the clouds go by below them at the launch reception. Jenn, Maelen, Elrose, Trevin were there, as was Second Mate Trefalger and several crew members he had been introduced to but frankly could not remember the names of.

  They had just passed over the outer rim of the Grove’s mountain ranges and the
sky above and to some extent below was iridescent with various bands and streaks of color. Trefalger had explained that the streaks were auroras caused by the intersection of various planes with the Grove.

  Elrose and Maelen were both standing near the room’s viewing lens, practically pressed up against it, watching every sight go by. Gastropé would probably have been there too, but he wanted to try to seem a bit more cosmopolitan. It was difficult, however; this was the closest he had ever been to interdimensional travel.

  Well, except for his multiple trips to the Abyss. Okay, he supposed that more than counted. While there were numerous powerful wizards and Sidhe that travelled the Planes of Man to the localverse and beyond, very few ever travelled to the Abyss. At least not travelled and returned. That was something he and Jenn had on everyone else onboard the Nimbus—well, except for Maelen, who had done it once.

  Gastropé grinned despite himself. The crew of the Nimbus might travel the localverse and the Planes of Men with barely a thought, but he and Jenn (okay, and Maelen) had been to the Abyss and returned. Multiple times, in fact! Of course, the interesting thing now was that they were actually on several planes at once. He did have to admit that was pretty exciting.

  Gastropé tried to remember the names of the different worlds they were currently in: Astlan (obviously), Etterdam, Nysegard, Romdan, Avalon and Targella. Those were what they called the immediate localverse. Apparently, there some other worlds in the localverse, but the Grove was not connected directly to those. They key point of the localverse was that the rules of magic were the same in all of them. A wizard spell that worked in one of the worlds would work in any of the others. Typically, the exact same spells did not exist in each of the worlds, certainly not by the same name; however, there were analogues for many of them. Any spell Gastropé knew and had components for, he could cast on those worlds and get the same results.

  Gastropé was trying to think how this must work when suddenly the room—the entire ship, in fact—rocked violently. The ship seemed to tilt aftward and to port briefly before righting itself. A klaxon sounded loudly and the mirror on the back wall suddenly started flashing: “Defensive Configuration 1.”

  Trefalger ran over to the mirror and shouted at it, “Trefalger here, connect the bridge!” The image in the mirror suddenly shifted from the room to one of the mirrors on the bridge. There, several people were scrambling to clear the bridge through one door and others were running in through a second door.

  In the lounge, Trevin rushed to stand next to Trefalger. “Status?” she asked.

  A gnome that Gastropé did not recognize responded. “We’ve taken an aft hit from below off the port side. It appears to be an ice blast that momentarily destabilized that part of the cloud. We’ve gotten the temperatures back up above freezing now.”

  On the mirror, another crewmember shouted, “Bringing generators to full. Lightning batteries will be ready in thirty seconds.”

  Gastropé could hear a large humming sound; it seemed to permeate the ship. He suddenly realized that the walls of the room were getting very dark, like a storm cloud!

  “Elemental water portals online!” someone on the bridge shouted.

  “Elemental air portals also online, Captain!” a third person shouted.

  “What hit us?” Trevin demanded.

  Aêthêal appeared in the mirror, standing over the gnome. “Surveillance is detecting three storm liches on ice dragons aft and below port!” she said loudly.

  Another voice shouted, “We’ve spotted two more coming up from starboard!”

  “There!” Maelen shouted. Everyone in the lounge except for Trevin and Trefalger turned to look.

  “Illiana protect us!” Jenn said loudly enough for everyone to hear.

  Gastropé felt the blood draining from his face. Down and aftward on the giant viewing lens, he could see two bluish-white dragons with riders in great black cloaks. They were distant, but approaching rapidly.

  “Nysegard?” Trevin demanded of Aêthêal.

  “Has to be. But we’ve never seen five of them ready to hit us, and at this altitude!” Aêthêal said.

  “I thought this was too high to breathe?” Maelen asked.

  Trefalger replied, “They are storm liches—being undead, they don’t breathe. The ice dragons can hold their breath for a very long time. Or so it seems; maybe they don’t breathe either. Whatever the case, they can and have attacked us this high. But never with this many.” Trefalger was shaking his head.

  “Scramble carpets!” the captain shouted. “High altitude com circlets are a must!”

  “We have another sighting directly ahead. Four more liches on ice dragons!” someone on the bridge shouted.

  “Dungnation!” Trevin shouted. “This has to be a trap! They had to know we were coming out and the general vicinity!” She looked around.

  “Gastropé!” She stared right at him, and he jumped. “We need all available hands. You were in Exador’s army, yes?”

  Gastropé nodded, but he had no idea what he could do.

  “Get your combat magic components and follow Zed here”—she tapped a satyr on the shoulder—“to the flight deck.”

  “Uh…” Gastropé started to say as Zed came towards him. He felt the blood draining from his face. They wanted him, Gastropé, to fight liches mounted on dragons?

  “Jenn, you are a thaumaturge. Not a lot of green or ground up here, but you can heal, right?” Jenn nodded. “Good, go with Talinea to the catcher carpet bay!” She gestured at a two-foot-high Sidhe of some sort. Jenn started making similar noises to those Gastropé had made. “Catcher carpets fly below and catch aetós and others that get knocked out of the sky, and heal them —or try,” Trevin explained, seeing Jenn’s confusion.

  “Maelen, we’ll need you on the flight deck with a com-link to the bridge for Seeing. Be ready to heal our wounded that can’t be dealt with by the catcher carpet teams.”

  “Elrose…” Trevin turned to the wizard.

  Elrose nodded. “I’ll grab my stuff from my room and head to the flight deck. We are in my element up here!” Trevin smiled and nodded.

  Gastropé could hear no more, as Zed was physically dragging him from the room. The ship lurched as it took another hit. Gastropé was more than a bit concerned; they were presumably at full defense now. That must have been a nasty hit.

  ~

  “This way!” Zed instructed Gastropé. They had retrieved the bag he had prepared for combat magic back in the Grove, and now Zed led him quickly aftward along the cloudship. By this point, the walls of the cloud were darkly mottled black and gray with flashes of lightning coruscating through the walls and the parts of the floor not covered in carpet. The whine of the generators was now loud enough that they had to shout to be heard.

  “Storm liches are a real pain! They are the biggest pain we typically face,” Zed shouted as he led the way. “Being liches, they are quite resistant to lightning, which is the ship’s primary ranged weapon system. The ice dragons do take some damage from lightning, mostly impact related. At least it slows them down.”

  “What about fire?” Gastropé was trying to remember some of the more esoteric things he had learned. He had never in a million years expected to have to fight liches or dragons. That was not something normal people did! That was the stuff of bards’ tales and legends!

  Zed shook his head. “Ice dragons take some damage from fire—it can melt their armor—but it’s gotta be hot! The liches are so cold that they can typically shield the dragons. Really hot fire can in theory damage them, but their intense coldness acts like very good armor. So they might as well be immune to it.”

  “Crap!” Gastropé yelled as they headed up a spiral staircase to the top floor. His only real attack spells were fire and lightning based. So what was he going to do other than be dragon fodder? As they reached the top floor, he realized it was a different top floor than he had seen before. This was a good-sized room with people scrambling about readying carpets.

>   Zed led them to a gnome who was handing out various pieces of equipment. Zed gestured to the gnome with two raised fingers and was promptly handed two circlets. “Here, put this around your neck! Pull it apart in the back.”

  Gastropé took the circlet—really, a solid neckband that was open at the back, but which appeared to have some sort of clasping mechanism. It was made out of gold and silver-colored metal with various rings of different colored stones embedded in the band. It was a tight fit, but he got it around his neck.

  Zed had his on already. He came up to Gastropé and snapped the back into place so it was locked. He began twisting the colored gem bands on the circlet. “There, I’ve tuned it to the same linkage that we will use on our carpet.”

  “What is this?” Gastropé asked.

  “It serves two purposes: first, it’s a life support system. It will keep you warm and supplied with air on the carpet. We are way too high up to breathe otherwise, and it’s colder than a lich’s teat out there. Or almost.” Zed shrugged, realizing they would soon have to fight liches and discover how cold that might be. “It also has links to allow us to send and receive communications with others. I just set the default link to the one we’ll be using on Peter’s carpet.” He added, “There is also the general command frequency that we can all hear messages on. We try to not use it except for priority orders and instructions.”

  Zed was now leading them over towards a carpet where the human boy, Peter, was adjusting straps and talking to others about to board. Peter was the combat pilot they had met on the trip up to the carpet.

  “Understand,” said Zed, looking Gastropé in the eye, “this is going to be trial by fire for you—or rather, freezing in this case. Normally, we don’t fight at this altitude. Storm liches and ice dragons are about the only thing that can attack us this high. It is just below freezing out there, and the air is too thin for even the aetós to fly. Spell casting is going to be very tricky and dangerous. They appear to have sent almost all the storm liches against us; they had to know we were leaving about now and where we were going and therefore exiting.” He shook his head. “That’s why we are sending everyone, including new people, out to fight.”