Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan) (24 page)

As they pulled to a stop near him he said, "About time we got some reinforcements!"  Always best to bluff, he knew it wasn't worth lying about who he was.  If he wasn't one of Exador's people, then he was probably one of Lenamare's refugees and would be executed, thus best to be himself.  "That stupid demon wiped out the entire ambush party except for me!  I've been trying to follow them to see where they were going, I'm glad you've come to help."

The two men didn't look surprised, or interested.  "Name."

"I might ask the same."  Seeing no response, he replied "Gastropé Al-Ghayrani, sid Mierkan,  Tolan de Turelane con Exador."  He gave his full formal name, including his current lord, Exador, just so there could be no mistaking.  The men looked down a list they had, apparently looking for his name.

"Well," one said at last, "your name is here, but you certainly don't dress like one of our people."

"Naturally, as I just mentioned, our entire party was trashed by a fourth order demon.  There wasn't much left of my old clothes, so I simply got together the best that I could from the remains of the wagon train, before pursuing the enemy survivors." 

"Uh huh, and where are these enemy survivors?"

"A few hours ahead of me.  I gave them a bit of a head start, in case they should send their demon back reconnoitering and discover me."  These guys were not exactly the most sympathetic or trustworthy people in the world.

"Very well, your mission is temporarily suspended.  You shall board this carpet and return to give your full report to Lord Exador."

"On who's authority?"  This was not good.  He really didn't want to face Exador again.

"Lord Exador's himself.  He has ordered that anyone we found, whether our men or theirs, be returned to him at once for a full report
on the event of interception of refugees.  Which is apparently what happened."

"Yes, I see,"
damn
, "however, my mission is quite important, I must follow these people to see where they're going."

"On this trail there is only one place they are going of major consequence, and if necessary we can transport people fast enough to resume your mission in plenty of time. 

“Board."  They landed the carpet, the nonspeaking one had a small wand pointed at Gastropé.  Not good, he thought as he boarded the carpet.

~

It had been an hour since the demon's speech, and Jenn still wasn't sure what to say or think.  She'd certainly been puzzling over a few things that it had said; but really, how much truth could there be in demonic propaganda?  It was actually almost, well, she didn't know.  She supposed it would just be better if she didn't think too much about what the demon said.

In order to get her mind off it, she reached back in her saddle bag and took out her diary.  She hadn't written in it since they'd left the school.  She hadn't even looked at it.  Yesterday, she'd just grabbed it out from under the seat and stuck it in the saddle bag.  She took it out, and went to open it. 

“Now that is strange.”  It was magically sealed.  She hadn't sealed it, why would she have?  Carefully she examined the book; true, it looked like her diary at a glance, but on closer inspection she could see that this book, although of the same size and style was considerably older than her diary.  Now that she looked at it: it was obvious.  This book was much more worn than hers, and considerably more scuffed up.  It was also magically sealed by some spell she'd never seen before.

"What?"  The demon asked, coming forward again.  Apparently bored enough to be interested in anything.

"I just went to get in my diary," Jenn said not looking up, "and noticed that I'd grabbed the wrong book.  This isn't my diary; it’s something else.  It must belong to Jehenna since its magically sealed and in her wagon.  So where is mine?  This was the only book in the wagon."

"Magically sealed?" Tom said picking up on the word magical, "you mean like a spell book?"

"Yes, or any book that contained important or secret information."  Jenn looked up and suddenly realized who she'd been giving this information to.  She suddenly shut up, naturally the thing would be curious about it.  Anything like this would be of interest to a demon wanting to make mischief.  Perhaps this is why it was hanging around.  "Is this why you're here demon?" She asked forcefully, "trying to get your claws on this, maybe!"

"What the hell are you talking about
?  Do you have a one track mind or something?  I've already told you why I'm here.  I don't give a damn about any book.  You're the one who brought it to my attention.  I was just making polite conversation.  Something you apparently are incapable of."  Tom flew off angrily, back to his place at the end of the line.

That got rid of him,
thought Jenn.  It sounded sincere and innocent in its anger, but one could never tell.  Demons were the masters of deception.  It could have been looking for this; although, if it had been, wouldn't it have just taken it from her? "Yuck."  More questions, this demon seemed to cause a lot of them.  It would probably be best just to not think about him for a while.

The important thing was the book.  What could it be
?  She knew most of the standard book locking spells, even if she couldn't open most of them, since they required a special password, but this was different.  It was a spell unlike any she'd seen before.  Certainly the book was old, and apparently valuable.  If so, however, why had Jehenna left it.

A thought simply came to her then,
what if she hadn't?
  Jenn's diary hadn't been there.  Had Jehenna  taken Jenn's diary by mistake, thinking it was this book.  She had to laugh at that.  True, she didn't care to have Jehenna reading her diary; but Jehenna would be suitably upset, and if as was usually the case, Lenamare owned part of it, he would be madder than a Zierlien Hell Hound when he discovered it.  Actually, it served them right for abandoning her to a fourth order demon.

~

"How could this have happened?" shouted Lenamare.

"I don't know.  The stupid girl must have switched her diary with the book."

"So, she was in the pay of Exador all along!"

"Possibly, possibly not.  I think it highly unlikely that she would just happen to have placed her diary in the exact same place I put the book.  On the other hand, I don't think she would be dumb enough to leave something with her name on it for us to find if she were working for Exador. 

"The switch could have been made by someone else.  I simply don't know.  Whatever the case, we must get that book back.  If Exador gets his hands on it, we might as well give up."

"If  I find that girl!  I will personally see that she pays for this.  I'm sure it
’s her fault."  Lenamare  paced back and forth in the room.  The noonday sun shone in upon the white bearskin rug under his feet.  He was still dressed in his morning robe.  They'd slept late, then when Lenamare had gotten up to look at his prize possession, he'd found only a girl's diary.

Jehenna simply ignored his tirade.  "Well what do you want to do?  The fact is, by now, the girl is probably in Exador's hands, if the demon didn't kill her, which is a good bet."

"Well, we'll just summon the demon.  Have it tell us what happened to the girl, and then go find the book."  Lenamare began looking around, as if in search of equipment to summon the demon.

"Are you going to summon it dressed like that, and in my bedroom?"  Jehenna asked amused.  Lenamare glared at her.

"Of course not."  By the expression on his face when he first glanced back at her, she could tell he'd been ready to.

"Fine, then let's get dressed, break our fast, and then we'll check out a lab room to do the summoning in."

"Very well," Lenamare grumped.  Jehenna could see he didn't like the delays, but she just smiled.  She enjoyed seeing him riled; it made her feel good.

In all it took about three hours to get around and then prepare to summon the demon.  Lenamare seemed to be counting every second, but Jehenna was determined to take her time and do things properly.  It was hurrying in the first place that caused the loss of the book.  She didn't want to see any more mistakes made. 

Lenamare finished etching the last of the circles, and then Jehenna proceeded to light the appropriate braziers.  When she'd finished, she blew out her wick, and took her place in her own pentacle and sealed it.  She nodded her readiness to Lenamare.

Lenamare rose his hands to shoulder height.  "
Ziarostelan sid fiernon
, by the Laws of Rienon I summon thee Tomasedwardperkinje.  From the depths of the Abyss, I Lenamare, by the power of my will and the Laws of Binding conjure and abjure thee to appear before me.  Knowest thee that I, Lenamare, am thy true and only master.  
Riastelon ted corbeth.  Nos faltum y crenin
.  Come demon, come Tomasedwardperkinje, appearest now, humble vassel, before thy true and mightiest liege, lord and master, Lenamare."  Lenamare felt the conjuring go out, spiraling outward from Astlan to the Abyss, searching for the demon so conjured.  The special summoning runes inside the circles grew red hot from the power of the magic they contained.  Unfortunately, nothing appeared inside the principle pentagram.

Lenamare's brow twitched in frustration.  "By lord Hierel
en, Lord of Fire, Lord of Demons I conjure thee  Tomasedwardperkinje. 
Ekfeltos tral kiev, urbido Dominae.  Sig norium sed layum. 
Demon Tomasedwardperkinje thou art commanded by the covenant of Man and Demon as set forth by Varn and Hierelan in the first millennium.  Thy true name compels thy obedience, attend!  These are my words of command to thee.  Thou shalt appear in this room before me now. 
Kristem sid torium let fialtos sed miercoles.  Trist absum sed fierkum.  Nos kriegum sed vienton merienton torme.
" 

Smoke began to fill the air, the sigils and runes etched upon the floor
flashed pure white with intensity.  The braziers burned faster and hotter than ever.  Sweat trickled down both Lenamare's and Jehenna's brows.  The build-up of magic in the room was beginning to be felt physically as something similar to a build-up of static electricity.  Red mist began to form in the center of the pentagram, and vaguely large canyons with huge boulders could be seen.  Periodically, jets of flame seemed to burst across their vision.

Realizing that it was of no use, Lenamare quickly began to perform the release spell that would safely discharge the magical energy that had been built up.  The summons simply wasn't working, and Lenamare needed to dispel the summoning energies, lest they start interfering with the world around them.  It took him about a minute to get the energies down to a minimal level and when he did he looked to Jehenna.

"Well,"  Lenamare's face was about as red as the demon's.  Jehenna could tell he was on the verge of screaming.

"Apparently someone or thing is blocking our attempt to summon the demon."  She stated, trying to draw his attention off along safer lines.  She didn't want him raging about a demon that wouldn't obey him.  He was
likely to start causing random damage.

"Exador?"

"Possibly, although short of having taken control of the demon, I don't think he could do it."

"What then?  You surely don't suggest a Demon Prince is shielding it, preventing me from summoning it?"

"No, none that I know of are aware of what we're doing.  Of course, if they were, then they very well might."  That gave Lenamare pause, and he actually leaned back on a table to think.  "Actually, there are also two other explanations."

"Yes?"
Lenamar asked.

"Actually, I'm sure you realize them, but I'll just point them out.  First, the demon could be even more powerful then we believed.  True even a fifth order would have at least been forced to show its presence in the pentagram, even if it didn't obey you completely.  However a sixth order wouldn't have to have obeyed that particular summons."

"True.  But that's impossible.  We know the demon's fourth order, we bound it with a standard fourth order spell.  Second?"

"A minute
. What you've said is true; however, when I summoned it with the ring, as I said, I didn't feel in control.  It is possible that it simply allowed itself to be bound by the fourth order spell."  That made Lenamare's eye's light up in thought.  “Remember, it appeared as a low order, only revealing itself later on.  We didn’t understand what was going on.  Perhaps it is playing a longer game?”

"However, my best guess is possibility two."

"Which is?" Lenamare asked.

"He's still in Astlan."

Lenamare looked at her more seriously this time.  "That definitely would explain it.  The summoning spell could only draw it from the Abyss.  It would certainly be the easiest explanation.  Except for one thing."

Jehenna nodded, knowing the one thing.  "Why would it still be here?" she agreed.

"Exactly, there is no possible reason!" Lenamare exclaimed raising his right hand in frustration.

"True, it should have done the job assigned, possibly killed the girl and then left.  There would have been no reason for it to stay, in fact it should have automatically returned."

"Unless, remind me? You said it did say that it came of its own free will?”  Jehenna nodded.  “In which case it's here until it decides to leave.”