The Heavenly Host (Demons of Astlan Book 2) (57 page)

~

Tom waited for his new shaman to disappear before turning to his commanders. “Well, that went strangely well.”

“Indeed. Would that shamans from other planes came so easily,” Darg-Krallnom said.

“I have, obviously, never witnessed a shamanic binding before,” Zelda said.

Tom shrugged. “To be honest, I have never done one before. I based it on what I’ve done before for binding warlocks and similar tasks.”

“It seemed pretty much identical to what your previous self did,” Arg-nargoloth said. “The words were different, but then, the ritual always varied according to the individual.”

Tom hoped so; he did not know for sure he was doing any of it right, warlock or shaman. He had spent considerable time analyzing what he had done with Vaselle, comparing it to his possession experiences, and had tried to refine it, make it less intrusive. He was not sure a warlock binding and a shaman binding would be the same, but he presumed they would be similar. Did not shamans channel spirits, sometimes being possessed? And presumably the shaman would want to call on his aid or power. Tom was not sure how such power sharing might work, although the
aid
part at least made some sense. He had a link to both Vaselle and Tal Gor and could roughly sense where they were. Presumably, he could send mana down that link the same way whoever had been upstream of the priests sent mana down to them.

“So that’s one down in Astlan. We should see about contacting some more shamans,” Tom said.

“I was thinking on the glargh,” Roth said, and Tom looked to the commander. “Neth Darthelm, Zog’s father, used to brag of how they ‘mass produced’ glargh in giant barrels on moving platforms in large breweries on planets that their tribe inhabited.”

Tom nodded. “A spacefaring tribe would probably have access to advanced manufacturing and mass production.” Except for Roth, the commanders looked at him as if he was speaking a foreign tongue. “Meaning I agree, that might be the best option,” he quickly added.

“For the hunting though, we want to do that the normal way. We have many warriors that would love to hunt the Planes of Orcs again,” Vargg said.

Zelda laughed. “Do you have any idea how many people have requested to be in a hunting party?”

Tom shrugged. “If we get enough shamans, perhaps we should do this more often. I think it would do a lot to sharpen skills and work off frustration.”

Darg nodded. “I like that idea, and I am sure the D’Wargs would like it as well.”

D’Wargs?
Tom wondered. Like demon wargs, giant demon wolves ridden by orcs in Tolkien’s and other fantasy books. “You have both D’Wargs and hydra hounds?” he asked.

Vargg nodded. “The hounds are a bit small for riding.”

“And they tend to roast the prey before we get a chance to kill it,” Darg-Krallnom added.

“The hydra hounds go sort of flame crazy when they get out of the Abyss. Everyone here is immune to fire so they never get to toast anyone,” Roth said, shaking his head in sorrow for the poor hydra hounds.

“I like my bison and ox on the bloody side; I’m not a fan of eating cinders and ash,” Vargg said.

“I’m hoping we can catch some wyvern,” Darg-Krallnom said. “You have any idea how long since I’ve had a wyvern steak?”

“About as long as it’s been since I’ve eaten anything,” Roth said.

“Or any
one
,” Arg-nargoloth finally chimed in, and the D’Orcs all laughed. Arg-nargoloth had been over examining various talismans and had finally wandered back to the group. “I’ve got a likely-looking one from Etterdam here,” he said, holding up a silver talisman. They had all noted that some of the talismans were shinier than others. He was not sure if that meant anything, but the Astlanian one that Tal Gor had appeared around had been shinier, and was even brighter now.

Tom shrugged. “Well, let’s give it a try and see if anyone is home.”

~

DOF +6

Sixth Period 16-03-440

Talarius sighed with pleasure. It was the first such sigh he had uttered in a very long time. The pleasure was coming from the gloriously wet washcloth he had dunked in the washbasin full of rainwater in his room. He had finally decided to let his guard down, a small amount. The demon Tom was out with the D’Orcs, probably planning a war to take over the multiverse, so Talarius had filled the large washbasin in his D’Orc-proportioned room off of Tom’s suite with rain water from the balcony and brought it back to his room.

He had then shut the door and barred it with the wardrobe. He knew it would not stop the demon entering, but perhaps he would have enough warning to get some of his armor back on. He had then cooled the room using the rune that the demon had shown him. Finally, for the first time in what felt like an eternity, he had peeled his armor off, along with the padding.

Tiernon almighty, did that feel good!
There was no soap, but he did not care; he scrubbed himself clean with the washcloth. It felt so sinfully pleasant. The water was quite warm, but still cooler than any place outside this bedroom. He savored the opportunity to wipe the dried blood, sweat and caked dirt from his skin and his healed wounds. To be outside his reeking armor! Yes, it was a sustainable environment under adverse conditions, but sustainable was not the same as comfortable. Not when the outside temperature was nearly the boiling point of water.

It felt so good to be clean. Talarius stared at his underclothes and padding. How he wished he had the time to wash them out and let them dry. However, he clearly did not. He had no idea how long the demon would be distracted with his machinations. The best he could hope for was to let the clothes dry out from his own sweat and stench.

Talarius glanced at the bed. It was quite large, yet not unnaturally so, and oddly comfortable, even in his armor. Why a demon—or more precisely, a D’Orc would need a bed was a bit strange. Demons notably did not sleep. True, the demon Tom did, but then he had been busy charging the fortress. Rupert and Reggie slept, but they had been doing so in the cave. As far as he could tell, Boggy, Antefalken and Estrebrius never slept, and Tiernon knew that damn multi-limbed menace never shut up. If it was not talking to someone, it was talking to itself. Talarius shook his head. The only time it was silent was when it was billowing foul-smelling smoke from its pipe.

Talarius glanced again at the bed. It was night, he was quite tired, and he was powering the cool rune, so he might want to conserve his energy. Maybe if he arranged his armor for quick dressing, he might be able to lie down for a few minutes. Of course, “quick” dressing took about a third to half an hour but he would at least get his breast plate on before he was overwhelmed by demons. He would keep the Rod of Smiting in his hand, just in case.

~

“So how did your beloved servant, Exador, take the news that he is an archdemon?” Crispin asked Randolf as the wizard entered his bedroom.

Randolf frowned and then sighed. “Far better than I’d have hoped, or for that matter, feared.” He shook his head. “I was fully prepared for him to take it very badly; in fact, I expected a rather destructive reaction,” he said as removed his dressing gown and hung it up.

“He wasn’t his normal destructive self?” Crispin asked, puzzled.

Randolf shook his head. “Quite the contrary; he laughed his head off. Never in my life have I seen him more amused. He acted like he’d just pulled off the greatest joke imaginable upon the Council.”

Crispin frowned. “That seems very odd.”

“Indeed,” Randolf said, sliding into bed. “He was so convincingly moved by the preposterousness of the very idea that he almost had me believing it was all some sort of hoax. If I didn’t know the man better than anyone else on the plane, I’d have been tempted to believe him.”

“So what, then?” Crispin asked. “Is he just going to brazenly go around and laugh his ass off at whomever is so ridiculous as to accuse him of being an archdemon?”

“Perhaps.” Randolf shrugged. “There are not a lot of good ways for him to salvage something like this. He’ll need to come up with some good excuses as to who his compatriots are and why they were out there on a carpet, as well as provide counter suggestions as to who the archdemons were, if not he and his compatriots.”

“That seems like a very tall order,” Crispin observed. “However, probably not as hard as convincing Ruiden that he is not responsible for the demon that kidnapped Talarius.”

Randolf chuckled. “Either way, I should hope so; I don’t want Exador wiggling out of this. He needs to be exposed once and for all,” he said. “I’m going to need the Council’s help to banish him from this plane for eternity.”

Crispin chuckled. “I am reasonably certain that, no matter what else, Lenamare will volunteer to help you!”

Randolf grinned back at the djinn as he moved in for a kiss.

~

Hilda sighed as she relaxed in her bubble bath. It had been a somewhat vexing day. She had spent a good deal of it doing what she called “deep snooping.” She had tried, unsuccessfully, to detect any signs of Lenamare being a warlock. Quite difficult, it turned out. They had all eaten lunch today and Hilda had noted that while Lenamare was famous for so many things, it was clear that his true forte was conjury. She had gently pleaded with him to recount how he had decided and then succeeded in becoming the preeminent expert on demonology in the world; unsurprisingly, it had not taken much effort.

The “interview” had taken another three hours. Poor Trisfelt had had it far worse, and the poor man was nodding off every few minutes after the first hour. However, it was amusing to watch Jehenna’s reactions to some of Lenamare’s accounts. Between Jehenna’s reactions and Hilda’s own truth readings, she felt like she was getting a fairly accurate accounting. That was what was so frustrating. There was not much there.

After that first hour, she decided to get a bit more technical; something she could do given her own knowledge of multiversal topology. Those classes in Tierhallon had finally been useful for something! She kept the admiration going, but peppered the dialog with observations and technical questions that she knew the answer to so as to get him to dig deeper and reveal information that a normal mortal would not, particularly when it came to bindings, links and similar magic. The large basket of wines she had brought as a lunch gift also helped Lenamare relax; but again, to no avail.

She eventually had to dial it back as Jehenna started to show signs of puzzlement at Hilda’s rather advanced knowledge. Lenamare was too wrapped up in his own story to notice, but Jehenna, having heard it all before, could pay more attention to Hilda. That was dangerous, so Hilda worked to assuage her concerns by emphasizing her general animage training. Jehenna would have no knowledge of that. Hilda also purposefully mentioned a few common misperceptions and mistakes people made, so as not to seem too much the expert.

During all of this she had also had her saint sight on; yet again, to no avail. For one thing, the man had a lot of links and bindings on him. Jehenna quite a few herself. All of them, however, seemed to be traditional one-way bindings or very simple link spells. She traced them all and saw nothing remotely similar to a clerical upstream link, which is what she supposed a warlock would have.

The long conversation had given her plenty of opportunity to examine him, and it was truly frustrating! The man seemed to be exactly what he said he was. Further, his ego was so clear in all of this, she was not sure he was even capable of collaborating with another wizard who was not subservient to him, let alone a greater demon or higher.

She took a sip of sparkling wine. She had needed to stay sober this afternoon while the others had gone through that exquisite collection of fine wines. So frustrating to not fully enjoy those luscious wines. Tonight, though, she would make amends. She plucked a chocolate-covered strawberry from the table beside her and bit into it, relishing the sweetness.

~

Ragala-nargoloth was roused from her slumber by a very odd sound. The shaman sat up on her cot and looked around her tent. It was a rattling noise and it seemed to be coming from a chest on the other side of the tent. The chest she actually used as a table because she had not needed anything in the chest for a decade or more.

“What in the dried-up tusk of Risk Athanon’s mug could that be?” Ragala-nargoloth climbed out of bed, made her way to the chest, and quickly began taking items off the lid so she could open it. After clearing the tabletop, she opened the lid.

Nothing was rattling on the top shelf, so she removed that. The lower layer was just a big open box filled with trinkets, totems, amulets, jewelry and talismans. She dug through them, moving in the direction of the vibration that was rattling all of the items. Her hand grasped something on the bottom; a lumpy round stone by the feel of it.

As she fully grasped it, what felt like electricity lanced through her body. It hurt, and this naturally ticked her off. She grunted in frustration and pulled the stupid rock out of the trunk, wanting to smash the thing. “
Ffargdar Quetusqare Fardus,
” Ragala-nargoloth muttered, causing the candles in her tent to light so she could more clearly see the offending object.

She squinted at it and snorted. It was the Talisman of Orcus! “What in the name of the Bloody Bilestone?” she asked herself aloud. “You’ve been dead for four thousand years! Not since the days of Tiss-Arog-Dal has anyone even talked about you!”